Landsailor (feat. Glen Phillips) by Vienna Teng
Landsailor
Landsailor, sail on time
Rain or shine, I know you can
Cloudraker
Cloudraker, share your finds
All your wonders at my demand
Lightbringer
Tamer of night
Blossom of hours unleashed
Make me a lawbender
All equalized
Saved from the chill and heat
Your power flows through me transformed
Here’s where I was born
Landsailor
Deepwinter strawberry
Endless summer, ever spring
A vast preserve
Aisle after aisle in reach
Every commoner made a king
Earthbreaker
Noble and prized
Feed me beyond my means
Hello worldmaker
Never denied
Build all my wildest dreams
But there’s a storm outside your door
And I’m a child no more
Headless and faceless
Tireless and seamless behind these walls
This is my progress
When you don’t notice my lines at all
I split the world open
Delve ever deeper in my alchemic arts
I crack the ciphers to free up your mind, your life, your heart
Oh landsailor I’m your landsailor
In the bed that we’ve made in the bed that we’ve made
May every nail be shown may every nail be shown
Great lifebringer great lifebringer
The price that we pay the price that we pay
Time that you made it known time that you made it known
I want to be your bride in full oh be my bride in full
Shield my eyes no more shield your eyes no more
Oh I am altered now for good altered now for good
Shield these eyes no more shield these eyes no more
@to-someplace-else: listen to “Landsailor” by Vienna Teng, A:tLA verse.
~
Hm… this one is difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I love Vienna Teng and this song, but as a prompt this seems kind of… too on the nose. Like. This seems like it would be more suited to a… what’s it called when artists do a soundboard-y kind of music video? Almost like an anime opening sequence but not really? Well, whatever that is called. And then it’s just a matter of assigning different “titles” to each of the Gaang and doing little vignettes on them as related to their little bit of verse.
And while I love sticking Tetsuki into pretty much anything, I don’t think even an abstract of this would work so well for an Iron Will ficlet. Like, she doesn’t know she’s out of place and she’s way too anti-social to be working behind the scenes for the Gaang in the way that this song expresses during bridge. Maybe a different SI!OC–one who knows what’s at stake and is keeping an eye on the Gaang to make sure they succeed?
I’d say this is an Uncle Iroh song, but that seems almost too unbalanced. Is it a Mai who can see the future and knows that her friend will fail–must fail, for the good of the world–but wants to make sure she’s not so utterly destroyed in the process? Is this a Lu Ten lives but must pretend to be dead in order to ensure his father isn’t assassinated by his uncle and the Gaang succeed!AU?
Actually, that last one sounds pretty fun. And, like, can you imagine Lu Ten partnering up with June who is initially annoyed by him and then it turns into reluctantly fond? And how cool would that be in the Iron Will ‘verse, too? An entire B-sides to that series… which would make it the C-sides of the Gaang’s adventures? I dunno.
And while he is also a (self-)exiled Fire Nation prince, Lu Ten’s story would be different. He doesn’t have Iroh to guide him, no ship and navy crew to ferry him where he wants to go. But maybe he’s not entirely alone after the attempted assassination cover up (because headcanon that Ozai had Lu Ten killed and had it covered up because he was in battle and thus plausibly deniable as KIA):
Maybe one or two of his squad mates also go MIA because even though Lu Ten’s a poncy prince, he’s still their friend. And maybe an enemy earth bender who sees the Fire Nation crown prince and thinks this is a premium opportunity to take him hostage and ransom back except then Lu Ten’s “death” is made official even though “what the hell, there’s no body” and earth bender realizes that Fire Nation internal politics is ~awful~. And then they stumble into June who’s originally on the weirdly well-paying hunt for “unnamed Fire Nation army defectors” and she’s just like, “you’re incompetent and obvious, I guess I’ll stick around because if you’re really the prince then you can pay me more and if you can’t then at least I’ll be on hand to collect the bounty instead of some other hunter.” Do they eventually get a swamp bender? Maybe.
Basically, Lu Ten builds his own crew of outsiders to help fight against FIre Nation tyranny.
And in the end, even if he does get reunited with his father, he decides not to officially “come back to life” because he enjoys traveling around and having adventures with his friends than staying at home and being Fire Lord. Maybe he and his friends are the first officers of the United Forces?
Sorry, to-someplace-else, I think I’ve managed to turn this beautiful, uplifting song into “Lu Ten and Friends’ Adventures”
(Also, Ask Box Advent Calendar is on!)
JackSGreyson Says 