A Youtube/College/Soulmate AU Without A Cool Acronym

Soulmates/Soulbonds can see writing on each others arms. Grocery lists, meeting reminders, and love notes are often seen across more than one arm. Some people have many, some people have none. A Soul Bond can be a lover, a sibling, a friend, or a mentor but their paths will cross with them in a meaningful way.
This Story follows a 6 person soulbound group through the chaos of realizing that one of their many is not dead, and is also not who they say they are. They juggle their relationships with each other, as well as with the public eye.

Notes:

Inspired by Petition to Get the Gaang A Brain Cell by avatays, thelostcolony

Okay so I have this whole story done and edited and ready to be pushed out. We're doing a chapter a day for the next twenty-two days (hopefully.) If I miss a day, or two, or several, then I'll just do the next day. I'm hoping that this will make sure that I actually finish the story this time. After this I might go finish uploading my other stories, but we'll see. Thanks for Reading!!!!!!!!! I'm really excited to share this with people. I've been working on it for months!
Word Count for Chapter 1: 2856 words
Trigger Warning for the whole story:
Discussions of the burn Zuko has and the effects it has had on their life.
Occasionally mentions of the abuse Zuko faced as a child might be mentioned that I forgot to tag for the individual chapter. If it's a graphic or long discussion I tried to tag it chapter by chapter!

Chapter 1: Twitch, Soulbonds, and Surprises

Chapter Text

THURSDAY

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Transcript:

The Gaang’s all here

Twitch.tv/SokkaStream

1.5k Viewers

Sokka is the only one on screen in front of an apartment wall.

Sokka: Hello Gaang members and viewers of my content and such. I’ve talked a lot about soulbonds and relationships surrounding soulbonds on my content but as most of you are aware I’ve never actually said who I’m bound to. This is that video. It’s that video for me and all my soulbonds. The internet will correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I’ve said before that it’s more than just one other person. I think I’ve pluralized it before or something because twitter went crazy that day.

Sokka: The way this stream will work is we’re going to all do introductions, and then I’m going to look in the chat for questions so don’t get mad at me for not noticing you when we’re still doing introductions. Also we have someone moderating comments for anything particularly heinous so our normal rules apply.

Sokka: Uhm, oh, you guys like to know who I’m making moderate comments. I’ll tell you after we introduce everyone because I know after I tweeted people started guessing so I want it to be a bit of a surprise until we’re done.

Sokka: So, before you guys start asking a ton of weird questions in the chat about orgys I’m going to introduce the first person I knew I was soul bonded to because she’s my actual sister Katara.

Katara sits in a seat next to him and the camera pans to show her.

Katara: Hi She waves at camera

Sokka: This is Katara’s first time actively being on one of my live streams, so no being mean to her.

Katara: Actively?

Sokka: Yeah, I’m not counting when you yell at me from the other room while I’m streaming. Uhm, anything you want to quick say about soulbonds before we get through introductions?

Katara: You can keep going

Sokka: He smiles at his sister before looking back at the camera. Sounds good, as many tweeters suspected, we’re also soul bonded with my girlfriend Suki who you all know and love from Ba Sing State Soccer and her political involvement on twitter and knocking doors for candidates.

Suki: She sits down on Sokka’s other side, camera pans out to show her. Hi everyone

Sokka: So when I announced this video I also let you know that I was soulbound to a couple of people in the Gaang. A lot of you guessed Suki, and it was really fun to scroll through last night because the person moderating comments got more guesses than our actual bond.

Toph offscreen: That’s because I’m not in as many videos

Sokka: Exactly! Anyways, I only saw a few people get it right so hopefully this one will be a little more surprising than Suki who just about half the internet had guessed. Toph Beifong is also our soul bond.

Toph: She was already sitting in the chair next to Katara. The camera reveals her as she raises her hands. Hey everyone. Before the comments go nuts about how I can read and write with my bonds, if you feel where people write it leaves little ridges and I’m really good at reading it like that. We don’t use braille because I don’t need them to.

Katara: We would if you wanted us to Toph

Toph: I know

Kuzon: offscreen Comments want to know if it’s question time yet.

Sokka: He is looking at the laptop in his lap So here’s the kind of crazy thing, it isn’t. Another person that twitter did a good job of guessing correctly is behind the camera right now!

The camera pans back to reveal a fifth chair, then is set down on a stand before Aang walks over to sit in the chair

Aang: Hey guys! Hope you’re all having a good day

Sokka: And that’s all of us, what questions do you have!

Everyone gives Sokka a bit of a look.

Katara: She leans in and whispers something unhearable.

Sokka: Oh, uhm, are we talking about that?

Suki: I think we can, maybe don’t give any details though in case their family or friends only know parts of it.

Sokka: He nods at Suki’s suggestion. Yeah, uhm, okay, so there’s actually six of us. Uh do we want to do colors real quick because people are going to ask?

Aang: Gold

Toph: I’m Brown right?

Katara: You are, I’m purple

Sokka: Blue

Suki: Green

Sokka: And we have a sixth bond who was red. Uhm, none of us have met him in person. He talked a bit when we were kids. He’s only said one thing since I was nine and that was a few years ago. Uhm, I’m not going to share what he asked for because I think that might be personal.

Katara: I agree, and I don’t think we should answer questions about him. We haven’t talked with Red since we were kids, so we don’t have anything to share.

Aang: What questions do people have, Kuzon?

Kuzon Offscreen : People want to know if you know who Red is?

Suki: None of us do and I think we’re not going to do questions about him. He didn’t agree to be in this live stream. The only reason we were comfortable mentioning him is because we weren’t able to accidentally dox him because we don’t know him well enough.

Katara: Also, just as a note to hopefully calm twitter down, not all soulbonds leave a mark when they pass away. If his family didn’t leave a final message then we won’t get one, so we aren’t sure as to his state. It’s not a fun topic to think about since we know we were all children at the same time so he stopped talking when he was young. So maybe ease up on the theories that it’s a famous person or a serial killer and stuff like that.

Sokka: Yeah, I- yeah I think that’s a good answer. Kuzon?

Kuzon: Offscreen Someone wants to know if you met by chance or by choice.

Katara: Without spending the time saying how everyone met everyone, for most of us it was a choice. We grew up in different towns and when we realized we were all going to the same college we figured out how to live together

Suki: Katara and I were roommates freshman year, and now we share an apartment with Sokka

Aang: And Toph and I live across the hall from each other now.

Kuzon: Offscreen Next question, a lot of people want to know how platonic or romantic or familial everything is?

Sokka: Katara and I are siblings, and Suki and I have been pretty public about our relationship since she posted that picture of us after her game last year.

Toph: Everyone who listens to my podcasts knows I’m happily single. These bonds are like siblings to me

Aang: Thanks Toph, you’re like a sister to me too

Toph: She rolls her eyes but can’t hide the smile.

Aang: He looks at Katara Uhm, so we agreed before we started to let the internet know, uh we started dating a few months ago.

Katara: We were waiting until we were both in college for a few months before we made anything official

Toph: They’re so cute together it’s disgusting.

Aang: He smiles brightly at this idea

Sokka: Alright, enough discussion about that before they ruin my livestream by calling eachother sweetie. Kuzon, what’s another question.

Kuzon: People want to see Toph do her message thing, if she’s comfortable with it.

Toph: Sure, someone write a message

Sokka reaches for a pen as he’s the only other person who’s arm wasn’t covered by sleeves or gloves. Before he can grab the pen, the whole room goes still. Everyone glances or looks at their own arm or each others.

Toph: Who’s writing?

Suki: Pause the stream now.

Sokka: He hides his arm and hits a button on his computer

Transcription Paused 3:05 minutes

Everyone is sitting in the same places but Toph and Sokka are covering their forearms now.

Sokka: Hi, I know there’s a lot of questions but we’re not going to address that right now. I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to plug their twitters and channels before we signed off but first, since you all waited so patiently, we’ll answer one more question that’s not related to what just happened.

Katara: We could do plugging first?

Sokka: Yeah, I’m okay with that, Uh, Aang you’re at the end do you want to go first?

Aang: Yeah, I’m on most social media with @AvatarAang. I have a youtube channel where I go on nature walks and talk about dogs and sometimes just things I do.

Toph: I have a podcast called MelonKing where I talk about my life as a blind person and I try to get other people to go with me to complain about ableist bullshit that they have to deal with as well.

Suki: I’m stream video games on Sokka’s channel sometimes and I have a lot of social media under the name @KyoshiSoccer

Katara: I have a meditation and wellness youtube channel, I’m not on twitter but my handle there is @Katara1997. You can follow my instagram @KatarasMeditation

Sokka: Alright, and I’m Sokka, obviously, I’ve got my stuff as well as links to all of these guys in the description of the stream. They’re all super cool so check them out. Aang and I frequent a lot of each other's content as well as a few other youtubers in the area including the wonderful Kuzon who’s running comments behind the camera. We go by the hashtag #theGaang with two a’s. Kuzon what’s the last question?

Kuzon: How many people knew who you were soulbound to each other?

Aang: My mentor growing up knew a lot of it

Suki: I think all of our parents knew, Sokka’s freshman roommate knew.

Sokka: He did, uhm, I think Serlok from the Gaang knows because they saw Aang and I looking at our wrists the one day when Toph wrote something.

Katara: I told a friend or two in high school before we all met, Suki you did that too, right?

Suki: Yeah, I think there’s a good number of people out there who knew a lot of us had soulbonds. Only a handful knew everyone who was involved though.

Kuzon: I found out like, three days ago when I was asked if I was free to run comments for a livestream. I think Poatok found out a few minutes after me.

A pause where no one says anything

Sokka: Alright, thank you everyone for watching, thanks again to Kuzon, sorry about that cut in the middle there. Go check these guys out, and we’ll see you next time.

End Transcription

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TEXT TRANSCRIPTION

Hakoda - Bato - Katara - Sokka

Sokka: Daaaaaaaaaaads

Hakoda: Did the livestream go ok?

Sokka:Uuuuuuuuhm

Katara: Red talked

Bato: What?

Katara: Red, the sixth bond. He said something in the middle of the stream. We had to pause it to collectively freak out

Hakoda: What did he say?

Katara: “Hi all, sorry it’s been so long. I’m sorry if this hurt you.”

Katara: We sent a bunch of questions about whether or not he’s okay and he sounded like he’s safe.

Hakoda: I’m glad to hear he’s okay

Bato: You guys last heard from him was when you were nine, right?

Sokka: I was nine, except when I was thirteen and he asked us to leave our left arms alone.

Bato: Shit

Bato: Well I’m glad he’s alive.

Katara: Me too

Sokka: HE’S WRITING

Sokka: image description: Sokka’s right arm with writing scrawled down it reading

RED: Hi all, sorry it’s been so long. I’m sorry if this hurt you.

GREEN(Suki): Hi Red! So glad you’re okay!

GOLD(Aang): Good to hear from you

BROWN(Toph): Welcome back!

Pen (Sokka): Are you safe?

RED: I’m safe.

PURPLE(Katara): We missed you! Glad you’re okay!

GREEN: What did you mean by ‘this’

RED: Not talking for over a decade

PURPLE: Is your arm doing better?

RED: Yes and no

GREEN: We’re not mad or anything, promise! I’m so happy you’re okay!

BROWN: Aang’s crying he’s so happy

GOLD: I was really worried, I’m glad you’re not dead!

RED: Sorry!! I really didn’t mean to do that to you! I hope you didn’t assume I was dead

Pen: You stopped talking for over a decade except one really ominous message. Not mad, we just didn’t know what to think

RED: I’m awkward so I didn’t think about that. Sorry

PURPLE: How are you doing?

Pen: Okay before you answer, we’re all together doing something that will take us about five minutes to finish so we’ll be right back.

PURPLE: We’re done. How are you doing?

RED: I’m on my way to work.

RED: They don’t know so I’ll write afterwards probably

RED: Also if you could use they/them pronouns for me that would be awesome

PURPLE: Of course, whatever makes you comfortable!

GREEN: Happy to make the switch Red!

GOLD: Full support! Are you okay if we call you red unt...

Sokka: THEY MIGHT WRITE AGAIN!!

Katara: I hope so, I want to know them so bad!

Bato: How’s the rest of the group holding up?

Sokka: Suki’s pissed she has soccer practice in twenty minutes.

Katara: Aang’s really shaken. I think he had given up hope a few years ago because it was hard for him to think Red would just stop talking

Katara: Toph’s in shock and keeps giggling about it.

Hakoda: How are you two doing?

Sokka: I’m so curious but I don’t want to scare them back away.

Katara: I’m also terrified of asking so many questions that we never hear from them again

Hakoda: Fate will find a way to keep you together.

Katara: I hope so

End Transcription

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Gaaaaang Life @LizGriffin45

I have so many questions about that livestream