cyclicality | December Newspaper

Transcript:

◄ Cold City
Republic City has grown cold, but it's not just the weather that has filled the city with ice. The eleventh of November served as a reminder of how cruel some people can be when a group of triads lashed out at the city. With the help of our very own police detective Mako, among others such as a masked vigilante, the triads responsible for the fires, floods and collapsing buildings on the 11th were brought to justice. It seems that a seed has been planted and is blossoming even in this cold weather. Many business owners have begun denying service to anyone who can't prove they have lived in the city for at least one year; other businesses are afraid to allow any foreigners into their shops in fear that triads might target their businesses like before. In response to the events on the eleventh, any businesses are implementing a rule in which customers must show an ID and proof of residence dating back at least one year. There's an outcry from some individuals who demand foreigners "go back where they came from," but that might not work. There have been reports that some foreigners who left Republic City were dragged right back by some kind of spirit vine. Republic City seems to be at a loss, so what will her people do?

◄ A PSA
There is supposedly a time-displaced younger Lord Zuko now installed as interim Fire Lord following Fire Lord Izumi's disappearance. Whether or not the 'young' Zuko is actually Lord Zuko's past self or a very convincing child actor, this means that Lord Zuko now has direct control of two nations. Is it possible our 'interim' President plans on having his rule be not so temporary? It is awfully convenient that his own daughter has disappeared in the same manner of President Raiko - and as we've now learned, the other world leaders of the nations and prominent cities within them - and this has allowed him to not only be voted in as the interim President of the United Republic, but to set a hand-picked puppet where his daughter used to sit.

Or perhaps Lord Zuko is the 'puppet' and we should be casting our eyes toward this supposed 'time-displaced' younger Zuko. Lord Zuko is in his 80's and it's fully possible he's going just senile enough to believe a skilled con-artist taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Spirit World Shenanigans.

Whatever the case, what we do know for sure is that everyone should keep a careful eye on the actions taken by both Lord Zukos.

◄ Spirits
For generations, perhaps thousands of years, our world has always had an Avatar – a bridge between the world of the spirits and our own. The Avatar’s duty is to maintain balance between the worlds.

Then Avatar Korra, for reasons unknown, decided that the tenuous, often troubled relationship between our world and the Spirit World must be exacerbated. During a time known as Harmonic Convergence, the Avatar flung open the gate between the worlds . . . and left it open.

The result has been chaos. Vines swallowing our residences, displacing our citizens, causing hundreds of millions of yuan in irreplaceable property damage, all in the name of a home for spirits. Spirits caused the recent barrier around Republic City that disrupted communications, transportation, and supplies for a number of weeks earlier this Fall. They also saw fit to flit through a number of ordinary citizens, mutating them with scales, fins, feathers . . . afflictions that could not be healed without the dedicated administrations of our healers.

And then, most recently, as the barrier dropped, spirits robbed many citizens of their bending or gave them forms of bending that they could not control. More homes and businesses were damaged as powers ranged out of control, or as newly-gifted and deranged individuals used their new-found gifts upon the populace.

Having the spirits among us has not brought harmony, but strife, and when the Avatar was needed to resolve these issues? Apparently she saw fit to disappear.

The spirits have their own world. We do not live in theirs, yet they insist upon invading ours. What good is an Avatar who so obviously values the spirits’ needs above those of her own kind?

Lost: Platypus bear. Answers to the name of Poopsie. Missed horribly by her family. Reward offered for safe return – includes any eggs Poopsie may lay! Contact Three-Fingered Zhao in the Dragonflats to claim.