Nico Tshomo

Art by eonofre12

> *"One of the staple parts of my culture is that we travel. We see the world, we help the people, we guide those that need guidance and... well, I can’t speak for all of them, but some of us journey to bring down injustice where we see it. You don’t have to believe me when I say it but... I’m just here to see every corner of this world for myself."*
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**Nico** is an Air Nomad hailing from the Southern Air Temple and is the current Airbending teacher and best friend of Avatar Genji. Born from a mix of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation roots, Nico was constantly treated poorly by his father Raalhaan, formerly one of the acting elders of the temple who built pressure on his son to learn unaided flight, which suppressed any talent Nico had for Airbending. It was not until Nico finally ran away from the temple to explore the world that his skills truly began to shine. He was a catalyst for Genji discovering his identity as the Avatar, and was the one to encourage Genji to flee from Mao Zheng after the town fell into Earth Kingdom hands.

After going on many adventures with the Avatar, as well as the rest of Team Avatar, Nico finally gained his mastery tattoos at the age of 20 - still a very commendable feat. However, his traumatic experiences have disillusioned him from his pacifistic principles.

## History

### Early Life

Nico was born around the year 229 AG as the only child to Mephi and Raalhaan. His mother came from the United Republic but had Fire Nation roots, whilst his father was from Air Nomad culture but has bloodline from the Earth Kingdom due to being a descendant of one affected by the Harmonic Convergence and gained Airbending abilities. Despite being extremely young when Nico first demonstrated Airbending abilities (after falling from a tree and cushioning his landing), Nico showed very little aptitude for Airbending. Raalhaan - and, by cause and effect, Nico himself - blamed it on his Fire Nation personality traits that caused him to be too hot-headed and impatient to properly master his powers.

At some point during his childhood, Raalhaan began taking charge of Nico's training which was strict and often gruelling. Around the same time, Nico's mother Mephi expressed interest about leaving the Southern Air Temple and returning to her family's hometown in Gaoling. Eventually, her wish was fulfilled - both Raalhaan and Mephi left the Southern Air Temple, leaving an extremely upset Nico in the hands of the monks to raise and train him. Their depature was a blessing in disguise: under the nuture of his mentor and true father figure, Monk Batso, Nico's skills began to show real improvement that was enough to surpass the other students.

It was not to last as Raalhaan soon returned to the Southern Air Temple when Nico was a teenager and picked up their private lessons once again. Raalhaan infomed Nico that his true goal was to mastered unaided flight, an extremely difficult and rare Airbending ability obtained by letting go of earthly tethers. Nico furiously rebelled against this notion, and their relationship soured. Nico would deal with extremely gruelling and intense training, enough for even the other elders to seriously disaprove.

At some point in his teenage years, Nico would visit the Eastern Air Temple and spot a stray spirit that nobody else would see - the first sign of his future spiritual abilities.

During his late teenaged years, his father's presence around the Southern Air Temple began to drastically reduce, allowing Nico to flourish in training once again. Around the same time, he also visited his mother Mephi in Gaoling, but their meeting would also turn sour after an argument. It would be the last time he would see his mother before his journeys with the Avatar.

At around aged 20, Nico and Raalhaan would have an argument in the Southern Air Temple concerning the manners of training methods and their relationship. It concluded with Nico packing this things and secretly leaving the Southern Air Temple, likely not telling anybody at all, with only his pet flying lemur Taka and his flying bison Mushroom for company. Finally believing he was free, Nico decided to take a long route through the Earth Kingdom to explore and would eventually arrive in Mao Zheng.

## Personality

A clash of a Fire Nation and Air Nomad personality, Nico is a fine mix between hot-headed and impatient as well as fun-loving and highly spiritual. His teachings by the Air Nomads and his mentor Monk Batso ingrained most of the teachings of Air Nomads into his moral compass. Nico is a pacifist at heart, often seeking solutions that might not involve fighting, as well as often being staple for traditions such as being a vegetarian - however, notably, he has rejected other typical Air Nomad traditions such as having a shaved head. Like many other Air Nomads, Nico is extremely fun-loving and enjoys to relax and find fun in every aspect of his life. His excitability is endearing but occassionally annoying - even the Avatar himself was annoyed at his excitement which was often expressed through rapid conversation.

But much like one from the Fire Nation, Nico also is remarked to be extremely hot-headed and impatient. Often showing a disregard for authority he does not respect, his emotions are turbulent and has extreme difficulty suppressing or controlling them. Additionally, he has shown a stubborn nature by rarely backing down from his ideals and morals that were deeply ingrained by Air Nomads. After being controlled and harshly treated by his father, Nico has often lost his temper concerning Raalhaan and has even fought people who have attempted to take him back to the Air Nation.

Nico has also shown some anxious traits and is often overly cautious, which clashes with the troublemaking Avatar. Situations that seem the slightest bit out of his control would often turn him nervous. Unfortunately, this trait culminated into a sense of control that is reflected from his own father's personality. Peaking within the Water Tribe civil war, Nico would often attempt to influence and control other people's actions based on his own ideals without regarding others. However, he has since been able to cut this out of his attitude.

As his journey with the Avatar continued and tragic events befell him, such as his capture by the Red Lotus and believing in the loss of one of his closest friends, Nico began to show a much more sadder side to his personality. He began to express extremely deep self-loathing and low self-esteem, believing himself to be a failure as an Air Nomad and teacher to the Avatar. His depression would sometimes drop him into cataonic states or leave his emotions extremely unstable and uncontrollable, as well as sometimes even expressing suicidal remarks.

After his capture by the Fire Nation and imprisonment in the Boiling Rock, Nico began to display a much darker side. A culmination of frustration to his helplessness at being repeatedly captured and tortured caused him to break some Air Nomad ideals; Nico began showing much more violent and aggressive actions and decisions, leaning into the idea of vengeance against those who have opposed him.

## Abilities

### Airbending

Nico's skill as an Airbending is shown to be extremely proficent and talented, with many (including himself) remarking that he is extremely close to becoming an Airbending master. However, his talents has often been suppressed by the controlling force of his father Raalhaan which often led him to fall behind in classes. However, whilst travelling with Team Avatar and not needing to suffer from the pressure of his father, Nico has displayed extreme aptitude for Airbending with both accurate and powerful moves.

He has even shown talent at performing master-level Airbending moves, further proving how close he is to truly being an Airbending master.

### Assisted Flight

Whilst rejecting the notion of attaining unaided flight as so pressured by his father, Nico has begun showing some interest (as encouraged by Kaizen) to learn assisted flight. He has already shown extreme talent using his glider, with aptitude enough to even be able to surf on it. Nico appears to have a preference for using his glider, but has occassionally used a wingsuit for equal enough aptitude.

As well as using a glider, he has begun learning an old-age assisted flight technique that dates back to the first era of Raavaa, in the form of cloud surfing. By generating and controlling air to form a cloud-like board under one's feet, one would be able to simulate flight by surfing on this air. Nico first performed this trick during the breakout of the Fire Nation, although arguably his prior Awakening maybe have contributed to it. It was also the ability that ended up providing his acceptance as a master.

### Spiritual Abilities

After some journeys with the Avatar, Nico has been able to exhibit some rare talents for spiritual connection within the Spirit World. By practicing in deeply spiritually attuned locations, Nico was able to project himself into the Spirit World which led to forming deep spiritual connections with the physical world - such as the knowledge of where to find a lost Air Temple and forming a spiritual connection with Avatar Genji.

After training with former Red Lotus member Aster Sage, he was finally able to project his spirit into the Spirit World at will.

### Empath

As well as his spiritual abilities, Nico was also able to unlock a rare Airbending ability of becoming an Empath. A sub-type of spiritual projection, Empaths are able to sense the spirits of those around them and sense others emotions. This allows an Empath insight into someone's emotions, as well as being able to discern truth and lies and even detect inner motives and intentions.

It took an Awakening for Nico to truly be able to tap into this abilities after waking up from an injury sustained in the Boiling Rock. He struggled with actually 'switching off' this ability at first, but after time is able to control this power.

## Relationships

### **Genji Yamada**

> *"You mean Genji? He won't be here. He can hardly meditate for five minutes, there's no chance he'll be here unless he trekked out to a Spirit Portal. And I know he wouldn't go that far for someone like me."* ― Nico to Aster Sage
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Nico acts not only as Genji's chosen Airbending teacher but also as his closest friend and occassionally Nico's (unrequited) love interest. Their relationship did not start off excellently: Nico found Genji in Mao Zheng after the former caught Genji selling illegally mined gems, but seemed more interested in meeting the first bender he'd seen outside of his family and the Air Nomads. Genji found Nico's presence irritating and seemed more interested in shaking Nico off, but an insistent Yun encouraged Nico to stay at Genji's home for dinner.

However, the makings of their relationship truly began to shine after Nico - paralleling how a young Katara would calm Avatar Aang - managed to calm the emotions of a grieving Genji after he exploded into the Avatar State for the first time. Since them, Nico has nearly always been the one to calm Genji from his outbursts into the Avatar State prior to Genji's opening of his chakras, which truly showed the deep respect and care they each have for each other.

Their uneasy start persisted further into their early friendship with each other, with Nico's cautious and pacifistic nature clashing with Genji's more aggressive and troublemaking tendencies. They would often clash over routes and decisions, with Genji worshipping an idea of committing regicide as his idol Avatar Kyoshi would have preached whilst Nico would insist at a more pacifistic route by simply dethroning the Emperor of the Earth Kingdom. However, the clashes would end up having a profound effect on both of them: whilst Genji would begin adopting some more peaceful means of justice, Nico started to become a little less cautious and have more faith in Genji's actions.

Their relationship continued to blossom till even Genji began to find Nico's exciteable nature - that he previously found annoying - now adorable and endearing, going as far as flirting with Nico and calling him 'cute' whenever he was blushing or excited.

A flaw in the relationship is Nico's lack of faith in Genji reciprocating any personal attatchment. As a feature of his low self-esteem, Nico has repeatedly expressed frustration and sadness at the idea that Genji does not harbour the same personal attatchment that Nico has for Genji, even as far as being disbelieving that Genji would save Nico from his imprisonment in the Boiling Rock.

Both Nico and Genji have given some romantic chemistry between them, although the actual feelings seem to be one-sided. Nico has repeatedly shown some romantic feelings for Genji, going as far as blushing at compliments and ideas of being romantically involved with Genji. Many rumours report Nico as the 'Avatar's Boyfriend', often encouraged by Kaizen, and Nico has repeatedly denied them.

### Kue

> "I... mostly grew up around boys, so I never really knew what it was like to have a sister... but, well, I guess I would also say that you're like a sister to me." — Nico to Kue
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Nico and Kue began with a friendly relationship when they met in Gaoling, welcoming her into the group as best as possible, and their relationship that would soon become like a brother-sister bond would form from there. Even from the beginning, they valued each other deeply enough to be able to risk their lives to save one another, with Kue saving Nico from drowning in the harbour in the Southern Water Tribe after he was thrown in by Zorok.

Their friendship truly came into the spotlight after Nico took Kue to the Fire Nation in order to recover Kaizen, who they believed was dead at the time. Donning disguises to elude from the recently overtaken Fire Nation, the two protected and defended each other whenever danger arose and comforted each other in dark moments.

The two share a deep, unbreakable bond of looking out for each other due to their shared trauma. Both Nico and Kue were taken by the Red Lotus and the Dai Li in order to act as hostages against Avatar Genji. Although the trauma would deeply affect them both, both of them protected each other from various threats that occurred there.

### Eri Tomao

> “And Eri - well, she might be headstrong and likes danger, but she keeps us out of *real* trouble. The kind of trouble that could actually get us killed."
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— Nico describing Eri.

Nico and Eri, despite both being a part of Team Avatar, have had less time to develop a friendship, but both display a love and trust for one another. They seem to regard each other in a sibling-esque relationship, with Eri treating him like a big sister. She often listens to his woes and troubles, and is quick to defend him. Equally, Nico's child-like antics causes her great joy.

### Kaizen

> "He's coming for my Mastery Ceremony. I told him when I was a kid, that he'll be there. He'll bend the incense with Genji and Hano and Narraa and everybody else."
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— Nico's denial of Kaizen's (supposed) death.

Nico views Kaizen akin to a brother, harbouring an extremely deep love and trust for him. He was extremely distraught upon hearing Kaizen's death and driven enough to even smuggle himself into the Fire Nation to recover his body. Nico has an extremely deep respect for Kaizen and was extremely excited when Kaizen provided him with the source material to rediscover an ancient Airbending move.

### Mephi Tshomo

> "My mother's a Firebender. Only Firebender my Dad actually can stand. So I got her brain, her temper, her positive jing."
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— Nico describing his Firebender heritage from his mother.

Mephi and Nico have had little interaction within the story, and is shown to have a less than favourable relationship with her. It's implied that Nico had cut off most contact with her after an argument during his previous visit to Gaoling. Since Mephi was part of the reason of Nico's childhood abandonment, he likely harbours some resent towards her. Regardless, Nico views her much more favourably than his father.

### Raalhaan

> "Have you *not* considered that maybe the reason why I haven't got my mastery rank yet is not that I'm a shit Airbender but because *you're* holding me back!"
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— Nico to Raalhaan

Nico and Raalhaan have an extremely poor relationship, as caused by Raalhaan's poor treatment of Nico as a boy. Gruelling training, social isolation and abandonment has caused Nico to deeply resent his father. After Nico ran away from the temple, Raalhaan sent dangerous mercenaries to track him down at any cost - even going as far as exposing the Avatar's true identity, or almost injuring or killing Nico's friends. When Raalhaan finally confronted Nico at a Fire Nation festival, Raalhaan physically abused his son and chastisted him for his poor choices.

Their relationship changed after Nico's capture with the Fire Nation, with Raalhaan finally experiencing intense guilt for his treatment of his only son. After Nico finally got his tattoos, Raalhaan broke down admitted that *he* was not the problem, not Nico, had he was a failure of a father and an Airbender. Although forgiveness was not dealt, Nico did not oppose the idea of trying to mend their family.

### Batso

> "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I-I thought I failed you... I thought I failed everybody..."
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— Nico's apology to Batso.

Abandoned by his father, Nico found a father-figure in Monk Batso, one of the Elders of the Southern Air Temple. Under Batso's teaching, Nico actually thrived as an Airbender. Nico repeatedly has come to Batso for advice and spiritual guidance.

### Hano

> "I remember you. You're, er... Hans... no, Hano. Right? You trained in the temple around the same time as me.. But you became a Master *way* before I have."
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— Nico's first greeting to Hano.

Nico and Hano were classmates in the Southern Air Temple, and were implied to have been friends at the time but not too close. This was likely because Hano had graduated much before Nico did. As the two Airbenders of Team Avatar, the pair have become firm friends.

### Katajina Long

> "Stand, Katajina, let me support you! We're getting out of here!"
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— Nico to Katajina

Although their interactions are minimal, Nico and Katajina have shown to care about each other a lot. They both have comforted each other in bad times, and defended each other in fights.

### Lira Beifong

> "Lira, don't be sad. I'm okay. I'm alive, aren't I?"
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— Nico revealing his Empath abilities to Lira.

Nico and Lira did not get on at first, due to opposing conflicts - further shown when Lira killed a Fire Nation soldier during the palace siege, causing Nico great anger.

However, their capture and time together in the Boiling Rock changed their relationship. The two grew very close, with Lira taking on a surrogate mother-like role for Nico as he struggled in the intense climate and environment of the prison. Lira went as far as defending Nico in a fight against the prison's warden.

Lira would be present at Nico's tattoo ceremony. Their farewell was awkward, but showed that they both cared about each other a lot.

### Shiro

> “He’s part of the Dai Li and the one who took me and Kue. So much for trust!"
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— Nico's frustration about trusting Shiro.

Shiro met Nico on the Ember Island beach, and the two connected very quickly. It was implied that Nico had a crush on Shiro. Shiro appeared to show great care for Nico, going as far as rescuing him after Nico and Kue escaped from the Red Lotus. However, Shiro eventually revealed himself to be a Dai Li agent in disguise, greatly shaking Nico's faith.

### Ero

> "But I swear to you... when the time comes, I will rain down hellfire on you and everything you've ever worked for. And when the smoke clears, and everything is over... *nobody will ever remember you."*
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— Nico's threat to Ero.

As Nico's torturer in the Boiling Rock, Nico has a deep and intense hatred against him. This went as far to the point of Nico breaking his pacifistic principles and swearing revenge against Ero. When the time came to their escape, Nico continued to show deep hatred of the man to the point of almost considering murder. In the end, he instead stole tapes of Nico, Kue, Lira and other prisoners torturers and vowed to give them up to the Fire Nation government, once it was restored.

### Aster Sage

> "Freedom isn't chaos. Freedom is choices. To move through the world and not let anyone else stop you. They're blinding you, Aster."
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— Nico to Aster

Nico and Aster first met in the Spirit World by pure chance, neither of them recognising each other for their true identites at first. Aster was the first of them both to recognise Nico as a member of Team Avatar and would end up using this fact to capture him and Kue in the Fire Nation.

Nico viewed Aster first as an enemy, but eventually learned of his mercy and deep, philopsphical interpretations of life and spirituality. Despite the distrust between them, Nico would end up respecting Aster and even going as far as enlisting in Aster's help in learning how to get into the Spirit World at will.

There could have been potential for friendship to even blossom, but Aster would end up breaking out of the Boiling Rock on his own - thus leaving the fate of their relationship murky and unknown, but Nico would eventually consider Aster as a enemy turned tentative ally.

## Quotes

*"Heard you got a nice haul. You're an Earthbender, right? I've never met one before. Soo... where did you get those pretty gems?"* - Nico's first words to Genji.

*"I had a dream. I was climbing a tree with Kaizen, with my friends. And I fell. But I caught myself with Airbending. And then my Dad came to me, he was grinning and he looked like he could die of joy. And he picked me up and said he was so proud of me, and that I was a real Airbender now, and I was gonna do great things."*

*"Don't do this. We can take down the Earth King but murder isn't the way. Find it in yourself to bring justice instead and to love, not hate. Don't betray me too. You're my brother, Genji, I love you."* - Nico's plea to Genji.

*"Freedom isn't chaos. Freedom is choices. To move through the world and not let anyone else stop you."* - Nico's plea to Aster.

*"Someone needs to hold the fort. But* I'm *going. It's* my *nation under the most threat, the Peacekeepers are my brothers and sisters, I am not going to stay here and put my feet up!"* - Nico to Genji.

*"I said to you a long time ago that I'd let you make the choices, but you're not making mine. I am free. And freedom means making my decisions. I'm going with you and that's final. You get no say in this!"* -Nico to Genji.

*“I should eat this more often, although I think dumplings will forever remain my number one true love."* - Nico to Kue about their meal.

## Trivia

* Nico was the second main character to appear in the main contiunuity of the roleplay.
* He is the first known Airbender teacher of the Avatar to not be an Airbending master.
* He is the second known teacher who isn't of direct Air Nomad ethnicity to teach Airbending to the Avatar (the first being Rangi, who briefly taught Avatar Kyoshi).
* Despite conforming to the majority of Air Nomad teachings, Nico has not shaved his head like most monks will.
* Nico was born on the 12th of Sun's Height.
* The name 'Nico' means "victory of the people". The surname 'Tshomo' has no known meaning, but originates from Bhutan and Tibet.
	+ Nico's name was inspired from Nico di Angelo from the Percy Jackson series - another originally bright and naive character who matures into a much more sullen outlook, who also has a crush on the titular character of the series.
* Nico has two known scars: one on right arm stretching to his shoulder, caused by a burn; the other on his chest below his collarbone, caused by a lightning bolt.
* Due to his upbringing, Nico has very little exposure to the real world. He had no idea how to operate a phone and has never eaten pizza before.
* Nico was nearly made a pescatarian (someone who eats no meat except fish) as another form of rebelling against Air Nomad traditions, but was scrapped in favour of remaining to his culture's principles.
* His favourite food is vegetable dumplings.
* He has a family name inherited from his mother, which was revealed to be Tshomo.
* His Airbending powers were discovered when he fell out of a tree he was climbing and was able to cushion his fall with a blast of air.
* Nico has two pets: a winged lemur named Taka, and a sky bison named Mushroom.
* His alias in the Fire Nation, Taro, was based off the song 'Taro' by Alt-J, a song about a war photographer Gerda Taro and her professional companion Robert Capa.
* It's possible that Nico could be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, caused by the traumantic events whilst travelling.
* Nico is the first known Air Nomad to make modifications to their air glider - although only minor, as he added a leather strap so he could comfortably wear it when not in use.
* Nico's conception was born of the idea of giving an Air Nomad an opposite personality to what is required of an Air Nomad - rather than being calm and patient, instead stubborn with a quick temper and rebellious nature.
* An idea was pitched as a 'what if?' scenario of Nico going on a 'reverse-Zuko' story arc, in which he turns from a trusted Avatar ally into an antagonist. This eventually formed the idea of Nico temporarily going rogue on a quest for revenge by joining the Red Lotus.