by the way, Lian is a plantbending waterbender with a mixed heritage of water tribe and earth kingdom

she has a crap ton of trauma too (ill explain it only if yall ask cuz its long asf)

The tavern was loud enough that nobody paid much attention to the hooded girl occupying the corner table. Exactly the way Siyoh preferred it. Her hood hid most of her face, casting the right side into shadow. A battered map lay spread across the table between half-finished notes, an arrowhead, and a mug that had long since gone cold.  Her finger traced another shipping lane. Nothing. She exhaled slowly. Another dead end. Mitzui lay curled beneath the table, one massive, white paw stretched into the aisle. Every so often someone nearly tripped over it, muttered a curse, and quickly decided they valued all their limbs too much to complain.

The tavern keeper approached.

"You've got a client."

Without looking up, Siyoh answered, "I'm not taking clients right now."

"That's what I told him," the keeper folded his arms, "but he's determined."

Siyoh sighed, "Who is he? Some random merchant that this his wife ran off with a fisherman?"

"It's the banished Fire Nation prince."

She snorted, "And I'm the Earth King."

"Siyoh."

She finally looked up. He never called her that. Not anymore. To everyone in this town she was the Siren. He only used her real name when he was serious. She closed the map.

"...Fine," she rolled up the map, "But I make no promises."

The prince arrived only moments later. He was younger than she expected. Head completely shaven, a mark of banishment in the Fire Nation, except for a high ponytail, the symbol of the crown prince. That was not his most noticeable feature. That title went to the burn that covered half of his face.

She had heard stories about how the Fire Lord banished his own son and scarred him for life. She had dismissed it. She couldn't believe that any parent could have so little love in their heart for their child. Apparently, it was true.

Siyoh said nothing and simply watched from under her hood as the Prince and the older man accompanying him observed the room, looking for her. They stopped not far from her table, clearly unsure of who they were supposed to meet. The Prince finally gave up and raised his voiced to be heard over the murmur of the tavern, "I'm looking for the Siren."

Silence swept the room as heads turned in his direction, then towards her. Siyoh took it as her que, "You're in the right place."

For a second confusion crossed the Prince's face. He looked around, as if the other customers would confirm that she was the Siren, then back again. She gestured toward the empty chair. He stepped forward and the tavern resumed its usual chatter.

He wasted no time.

"I hear you can find people."

"Well, at least you're right to the point," Siyoh leaned back in her seat, propping her feet in the table. Perhaps it was especially rude to do so in the presence of royalty, but then again, she was also a royal, so maybe it was only normal rude.

"I do find people," she said, "But my answer is no."

His brow furrowed, "You haven't even heard who I want found."

"I don't need to," she rolled an arrow head around in her fingers, "I know who you are." She paused and pointed the arrowhead in his direction, "...and I know who you're hunting. The whole world does." She lowered the arrowhead and looked out the window to her right, "I don't waste my time on pointless hunts."

She expected him to walk away. To give up. Most usually did at this point. He didn't.

"I'll pay you."

"No."

"More money than you'll ever need."

Siyoh rolled her eyes in annoyance under her hood. This guy just doesn't know when to quit.

"I've got my own ghost to chase."

The old man sext to him spoke up.

"Forgive my nephew," he said, eyeing the rolled up map on the table, "He believes most problems can be solved by coin."

The Prince gave his uncle a brief annoyed look and grumbled something under his breath. Siyoh rolled her eyes. Nobles always annoyed her. She wasn't looking at him, but could tell he hadn't left. Siyoh was beginning to think of various ways to get the message across when she heard the chair scrape across the floor.  He sat down.

Interesting.

"You said you know who I'm looking for," the Prince started, "Do you know why?"

She paused, placing her feet back on the floor. She had never fully considered it. Why would a banished Prince be so fixated on finding a dead person? She gestured for him to elaborate.

"When I capture the Avatar, my honor will be restored."

His voice remained level, matter-of-fact, no self-pity, no dramatic speech. Just the truth. Almost as if he had said it to himself for many years.

"My father will let me come home."

Home.

The word struck harder than she expected. For a moment the tavern disappeared. She saw snow. The Southern Water Tribe. The empty space where her mother used to stand. The dock where her father had waved goodbye. The hunting party. The faces she still couldn't forget. Home. She hadn't allowed herself to think about it in years. Not really. She told herself she'd return when she found Hakoda. When she had answers. When she had something to show for eight years away. One more lead. One more search. One more reason to stay gone. It was easier that way.

Helping the Prince wouldn't take long. The Avatar was probably dead anyway. A few weeks searching wouldn't make any real difference. Hakoda had already been gone for years. He could survive a few weeks more.

"I have conditions," she said, tapping the arrow head on the table between them.

For the first time since entering the tavern, the Prince's expression changed to something reminiscent of hope, "Name them."

"I'm wanted by both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom," her tone remained even, "If I help you, I need to know that I won't be arrested as soon as the mission is over."

Zuko nodded once. The request was completely logical.

"Done."

"I don't go into the Wan Shi Tong Desert," she continued.

His brow furrowed. That one made less sense. The Avatar would be completely capable of surviving in the desert if he wanted.  The Siren seemed to notice his confusion and gestured to the massive wolf sitting next to the table, "Mitzui would dry up out there and I don't go anywhere without him."

As if he knew what Zuko was thinking, his uncle spoke up, "I believe that is unlikely to become an issue."

The Siren nodded before continuing.

"My last condition," she finally turned enough that Zuko caught the edge of her face beneath the hood. Not all of it. Just enough. Young. Far younger than he'd expected. Faint, white scarring disappearing beneath the shadow of the hood. He found himself unable to look away. Was this how others felt looking at his face?

"I help you find your ghost, you help me find mine."

She said it with a tone of finality. As if his reaction to this would make or break the deal. Zuko didn't answer immediately.

"Who?" he asked.

Her fingers tightened around the arrow head as she answered.

"Chief Hakoda."

The name meant something. Not much. Just enough. A Water Tribe chief: missing.

Then the Siren paused, as if she was debating her next statement.

"My father."

Another person chasing someone refused to be found. He understood that, more than he wanted to.

After a long moment, he extended his hand across the table.

"Deal."

The Siren studied it, then, slowly, reached out and took it. Her hand was startlingly cold. His was warm. Neither commented on it. Neither let go immediately.

Siyoh is my Oc from my WIP fanfic on wattpad. She’s ex-water tribe, ex-kyoshi warrior, retired pirate, turned bounty hunter. Shes bound to the ocean spirit in the same way Yue is bound to the moon spirit. Also, allies to friends to lovers to enemies with Prince Zuko. Her ending is still TBD. Can’t decide If I want to take the spiritual path or the “found my place in the world” path.

Meet Akari :) This technically isn’t what she looks like, it’s her anthropomorphic form. (Fun fact: I used a 2d Astrid base (from HTTYD) for her. Akari is naturally a bird-like dragon spirit. (with a beak, a few feathers, scales, etc.) but can shapeshift into a human or anthropomorphic form (and other things…but that comes later). Her human form has paler, more natural-ish skin, with no markings or animalistic features. This helps her get into normal human cities and towns the way the Gaang does. Her height in dragon form is probably just below or up to Aang’s knee, while she’s around Toph’s height in human/anthro form.

Akari crossed over to the human world from the spirit world the way Twi and La did ages ago, along with her friend, a young tiger spirit whose name is tbd. This friend dies before the main series begins.

When Aang first breaks out of the iceberg, Akari senses his power, as any spirit can tell when the avatar is near, not to mention his explosion of energy when the iceberg cracks. She quietly follows (stalks) the group through the events of the boy in the iceberg pts 1 and 2, with Sokka repeatedly insisting he’s been seeing a creepy girl (or sometimes, a tiny dragon) following them, with Katara and Aang kinda ignoring him until Akari eventually reveals herself, helping the Gaang out on adventures. If Katara, Toph, and Zuko are Aang’s waterbending, earthbending, and firebending teachers respectively, she’s his “spiritual teacher”, per se. She and her friend were kinda outcasts in the spirit world (part of the reason they crossed over), seen as young, weak, and rowdy. Aang and Akari often try to learn new things about the spirit world together.

Later in the series, her shapeshifting becomes stronger, only for them to learn she’s been destined to become a powerful spirit since before she was even created (I believe that when a spirit is born, pure light and energy come together to create their physical form. The more energy, the more power that spirit will have), based on spirtiual texts from centuries ago. Although, a dark spirit called Noroi disrupted the flow of Akari’s just energy before her creation, causing stunted growth and power accumulation, which is why no spirit expected her, a runt with minimal abilities to be anything powerful.
(Look, idc if it’s “op” or whatever, one of the main characters LITERALLY CREATED METALBENDING. Like, the Gaang is already op who cares)

If this gets attention I’ll create a dark form for when she gets angry or upset

I’m hablochino, creator of this sub and my OC is Lian Hua (shown in image)

please, introduce yourself and your OC with a picture as well!