Raven's Yaoru-class frigate stank like fish and tar, and the lingering grace of vomit that just barely won out against the sorts of odors that wafted from a very upset and frightened sky bison. Lo Pei and crew at least pretended not to notice, Raven had gotten largely used to both, Aang kept blasting it away from himself as a side effect of showing off for the sailors, Sokka honestly benefited emotionally from having something blatant to complain about, and Katara shamelessly used her girl card to unlock Raven's cabin and hide amongst the tirelessly sharp and strong aromas of the noble lady's many spicy snacks.
"It usually just smells a bit like sweat, on my ship I mean," Raven calmly said with only the provocation of Katara's nose hanging over her strongest batch of clear-and-crispy, gossamer thin, fried-and-dried spicy saltbloom strips. But suddenly she barked, "how do you put this on?!" as she awkwardly folded some kind of silken belt this way and that.
It was from a very fine Earth Kingdom noblewoman's dress her father's soldiers definitely stole at some point, and Katara glanced it up and down, shrugged, and offered, "you could cinch it with a pin, you have like five-hundred of them." As she reached for a decorative glossy black and gold accessory, and tossed it to Raven's bed beside her, then took another deep and satisfying breath of the strong spices—enough to make the thin little shavings flutter.
Raven stared down at it, narrow and accusatory. "Not that one," she scoffed, tossing it back on the counter, where Katara finally actually looked at it and saw the decorative Arzayan spearhead, so she wasn't going to fight in its corner. Like it made her feel a bit bad, Raven switched back to, "anyway, we haven't properly stopped at a port in forever, might... also be why my crew is getting crazier than usual." But she suddenly perked up again to sharply accuse of no one, "won't people notice? The pin? This isn't how they wear it."
"Don't look at me," Katara tried to excuse herself immediately, but didn't even delay a breath to say anyway, "Just put the pin on the inside, it'll seem like you know what you're doing."
Raven didn't quite glare at Katara for that, which was appreciated, but didn't say thanks either as she turned the pearly pink cloth around, and chose the flattest, least intrusive ivory handled hairpin to brutally stab it with, hoping it wouldn't stab her back on the tummy once it was nestled deep in the full regalia. She breathed out with obvious annoyance even though it fit fine, probably looked fine too, and flatly suggested, "those Earth Kingdom girls are as sharp as teapots. Maybe you have to be stupid enough to get how to wear it their way."
"Yeah," Katara rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that's it." And ignoring Raven's baleful aura, she sidled over to pop the tiny decorative latch on another small box, containing more saltbloom strips with a fully new bouquet of smells that would, for a time, take up all of her olfactory space. "Ohh... I wish I could smell this forever..." she airily stated to the universe.
After a moment of nonplussed scrunching the corner of her mouth, Raven hated even the slight poke of that fancy ivory pin, and yanked it out to put it on the outside again, rubbing her thumb on the detailed head of the winged little critter carved out of it. She abruptly shared, "you know, you're very pretty."
"Uh... thanks!" Katara awkwardly replied, genuinely appreciating it, just not really sure where it came from.
Raven kept that odd look about her, and waited just long enough for it to be stressful before putting her hands on her hips and stating, "you'd be very believable as an exotic handmaiden, if you want to help sell the act."
Katara bunched up and furrowed something fierce at that, before finally muttering, "you were doing so well in the first half."
"Hmm?" was all Raven had.
Not even bothering with the weird description, Katara spoke rather deliberately as she stated, "I like you, Raven, really. But I refuse to even pretend I serve a Fire Nation noble."
Raven gave her a look like Katara was an idiot as she held up her arms to display her flowing robes.
Katara caught her breath. "Ah—I mean, 'I' know you're from the Fire Nation..." she went on with less conviction.
Stepping away to lean towards a mirror and make sure she hadn't smeared her makeup again, Raven grumbled, "but I'm Arzayan?"
Katara did nothing, yet still it clearly communicated that it also meant nothing to her.
It even got Raven to turn back and speak to Katara face-to-face, as she insisted, "we're not the Fire Lord's biggest fans." And she scoffed as she threw up her hands again, "spirits! Even Arzaya herself didn't retaliate against Sokka mocking her, and she revived you—which she didn't do to be nice, that's for sure."
"Oh?" Katara quietly said, not really wanting to think too hard about what happened in the Fire Temple. "Why did she, do you think?"
There was a thunk, and a groan of the hull, followed by no less than several sputtering engine noises echoing in from the hall. Raven didn't even have to motion, Katara was neck-and-neck with her to escape the truly 'greater than the sum of its parts' stench that Appa and drunken vomitous sailors had managed to craft.
There was certainty in her tone despite her rambling as Raven blinked at the bright sun on deck, and said, "it might sound kinda nuts, but she still respects some ancient treaty from when she was young, with like... I don't know what else to call her but a 'Pirate Queen'—the old stories get very creative about making her sound... not like a pirate. Anyway, she was a waterbender. Her tomb's in the *Northern* Water Tribe, pretty sure, but my family always applied it to your people too, and left you alone."
"Arzaya knew KOANI?!" Katara shrieked, wide-eyed and drawing all attention on the ramp. "My Gran-Gran told me about her, is that who you mean?!"
Raven held up her hands like 'giiiiirl' and Katara noticed everybody staring, especially dire since half of them were random passersby from the Earth Kingdom coastal river town they just stopped at. "Y-yeah..."
"Sorry!" Katara peeped. "But I'd love to ask you about her! She just always sounded really cool, but Gran-Gran only knew like two things, that she was a queen of pirates, but she surprised everyone and died a hero slaying a rampaging dragon."
"Nagi," Raven nodded, like it was simple.
"Nagi."
"Mmm-hmm."
They stepped aside as Bong-Li gleefully rolled like a boulder past them to kiss the ground like a waiting fair maiden.
"Like Arzaya-'Nagi'..." Katara gritted her teeth.
And there was an obvious tension this time around with Raven's, "Mmm-hmm..."
Katara was remarkably less eager to ask follow-up questions. But she couldn't just leave it, saying, "that was... really, really ancient history, Raven. How... is Arzaya THAT old?"
Raven shrugged. "I have a whole book on that in my cabin. My family has history we, uh... don't really share with most Arzayans. Warning though, she does some seriously fucked shit." And seeing the mildly mortified stiffness of her new friend, she quietly went on, "that's why I didn't trust her!" which, at least, didn't seem hard for Katara to accept.
Sokka interjected, "hey, gossip girls, did you settle on a name for, uh—" They instantly whipped around to face him.
"Shh!" they both went, like they hadn't been yapping like fools all over the pier.
"You will address me as Lady Jade Rockingham-Clayborne, of the Omashu Rockingham-Claybornes, of course," she insisted, completely seriously.
Sokka nodded, impressed. "That does sound very noble, nice one. Can I be your butler 'Pebblesworth'?"
Raven slowly nodded. "I don't see why not, but prepare to act like you're very used to me berating you."
"THAT won't be a problem at all, my Lady Jade," he loudly and cartoonishly bowed as he gestured for her to go ahead of him.
Lady Jade Rockingham-Clayborne took precisely one delicate step, directly into a wall of gawking Earth Kingdom soldiers, surviving only precious seconds before one burst in joyous surprise: "Lady Jade Beifong!?"
Even Sokka noticed the soldiers all staring at her awkwardly prominently placed ivory pin, with an honestly rather sizable winged boar involved. Raven and Katara just stared in shock, though, trying to look any other way.
"We received the news you were lost at sea!" A local guard captain of some kind declared with relief. "Did these kind water tribe children rescue you?!"
Sokka instantly nodded along. "Absolutely. She was up a creek without a paddle, let me tell you, except the creek was the ocean and she ALSO didn't have a boat."
Raven almost decided to just firebend and kill Sokka right then and there. She settled for imagining it.
"Praise the Southern Water Tribe!"
None-the-wiser as he strolled off the gangplank too, Aang gave a little wave of his glider to the men standing there. "Hi! I'm the Avatar!"
Only one noticed, and out of the corner of his mouth, grumbled. "Yeah right, kid."
"We saved him too, actually, he really is the Avatar. We're pretty awesome, I know," Sokka completely confidently declared, arms crossed, head nodding vigorously. "Aang, quick, do Avatar stuff."
"Uhhh... yeah, why not?" Aang tilted his head aside in thought, then with a click his glider was out, and before the soldiers could utter another mote of doubt, he was looping into the sky with a "wooooooo!" The soldiers were still suffering a complete lack of jaw control when he skidded to a halt in front of them again, having traveled several hundred feet in a breath or two, and Aang quite honestly confirmed, "it's true, you need to get un-lost at sea? Ask for the Southern Water Tribe. They're very nice, and the girls? Wow. Well, there's just the one but she's my dream girl."
"Uhh... Aang?" Katara instantly blushed.
Aang stared over at Katara, totally unperturbed smile, and then with the biggest stupid grin he said, "don't tell Lady Buzzkill, but that Bao guy still had just a little milkroot left. The clouds are eating each other. And one of them's a lion turtle now! Just like old times." Even in his altered state of mind, Aang couldn't miss the demented look on Raven's dolled up face. She didn't even look mad, really, just unbelievably uncomfortable. "Oh..." he uttered. "Wait, YOU'RE Lady Buzzkill? Guess that makes sense. Man, that was really dumb of me to say in front of you, wasn't it."
"Lady Jade found the Avatar...?" A very lost Earth Kingdom soldier quietly muttered to himself.
"No, that was us! Pay attention!" Sokka frantically pointed at himself and Katara. "Water Tribe!"
"Aang, we really, REALLY need to talk..." Katara hunched over in defeat.
Impossibly, Raven didn't make any death threats as Bao trundled past, obviously high out of his mind. She barely even glanced at him, and his stupid absolutely certain look like he thought nobody could tell.
"Well, ah, we'll stay out of your way, unless you need something?" the leader of the soldiers respectfully offered. "Just be careful, we're having a hard time locking down crime here, with men going to the war effort, especially after that loss against the damned Arzayans. At least they didn't get you!"
Raven's smile was so intense and her eyes so wide that her completely calm, "that will be all, you are dismissed," only came across as even more batshit crazy. She could breath properly again once they were out of earshot, and gave a terse, "come, Katara. Avatar. You too, Pebblesworth."
Katara sighed like she didn't love the tone, but played along.
"Of course, my lady," Sokka cartoonishly bowed as he strutted along to step aside, all huddling near her frigate again.
Raven just had this incredibly weird look, and Katara dropped the annoyance the instant she saw something dire that certainly wasn't part of the act, and cautiously asked just, "my... lady?" like it hurt to force herself.
Aang was swaying a bit.
Sokka was practicing a more illustrious and gentlemanly bow.
Raven took a moment, throat tight, and she nervously patted her atypically continental hairstyle, then uttered, "just keeping to the act," like it was absolutely not what she wanted to actually bring up. "So... we're clear? I'm Lady Jade Beifong while we're here?"
Aang was swaying a bit.
Sokka licked his teeth for a moment, looking Raven up and down overly long, and at her look like 'the fuck you want, water boy?' he grimly accused, "pretty crazy coincidence. How'd you pick the name Jade?"
Raven looked like she really, really wished he hadn't asked that, and then Katara betrayed her utterly with a wary tilt of her head and said, "seemed like they recognized that as belonging to this Beifong lady? Whose name really is Jade? That IS pretty weird."
After a serious case of deflation, Raven hoisted herself back up, and turned a layer of her flowing noble green, white and pink robes out, showing embroidery indeed of the name "Jade" next to a detailed stitched image of a flying boar. "I thought it was some fancy atelier's signature, not the owner of all this..."
There was no delay before Sokka aggressively insisted, "Raven, why do you have the real lost-at-sea apparently Lady Jade's stuff? Won't they stop looking for her or something?"
"That... won't matter," Raven tensely said, like she was about to be yelled at.
Katara, genuinely little soul she was, sadly wondered, "oh no, you're sure she died? Poor girl..."
"Nope, not dead," Raven shook her head rapidly, nearly loosing part of her up-do. After daring to lean and peak out at all the townsfolk wandering around, she muttered, "I don't wanna talk about it..."
"Oh." Sokka reeled back in realization, tense well beyond his normal limits for an instant.
Aang was swaying a bit.
Katara couldn't figure out why that simple utterance was making Raven look like she'd just been sentenced to life in prison, looking between Sokka and Raven, with Raven giving a look to Sokka like she was willing to pass off the burden, and Sokka knowingly nodded, letting out a long sigh as he rubbed his chin.
"It's so weird... wearing this, eeugh, but I have to," and she held up her hand like she was in class asking a question, but just flatly stated, "help."
"That is... very awkward," Sokka breathed out through his teeth.
"What?!" Katara hissed.
Like it was obvious, but also like it was awful, Sokka tilted his head at Raven, beckoning gesture, and deduced, "her dad kidnapped her. The real Lady Jade. Probably for... ransom? I hope?" Raven's silence and stillness made confirmation unnecessary, but also made it apparent Raven was not confident about Lady Jade's well-being. Katara looked very much like she wanted Raven to deny that accusation, but Sokka went on, "like, she said all her piles of expensive stuff were looted by her dad, before she looted it from him, so like... I guess he, uh... took it right off her...?"
"Uh... oh..." Katara fumbled. "That's awful..." and she flickered her gaze to Raven, looking genuinely like a sad little puppy with her head stuck in a noblewoman's attire, losing all heat at the very notion, and simply repeated, "that IS... very awkward."