Element AU: Air

Tyson is most naturally aligned with Earth, but how would Tyson manage with the other four elements?

Elemental AU: Book 3 (Air)

With fire in second and water in third, air is the element that Tyson would struggle with the most, and a simple exercise proves it:

Hold open your arms in a welcoming gesture, then throw your arms wide open, like an Airbender.

Now try and imagine Tyson completely exposing his front that way. Even welcoming back his brother after years away, Tyson’s arms would be closer to his body and no where near as open as a normal ‘welcoming gesture’.

Whilst Tyson would appreciate the move defensive and evasive nature of air, Tyson is ill-suited to its open positioning. He has the flexibility, in his tactics and physicality, to work with air, and yet it simply wouldn’t work for him. ‘And yet’ is a common theme when describing Tyson’s connection to air.

When it’s said that Tyson is Icarus that means he is made to try and fly, to reach for the sky, but to always fall back down to the ground. Broken, but not beaten. To climb in through your window, stay long enough to lick his wounds, then jumping out again. A constant cycle of falling and trying, and not ever flying.

Much like water, air is something that Tyson can admire and understand, but it’s not an element that Tyson could comfortably wield. He can understand the roaring rage in untamed winds and the delicate dancing of the breeze, he can feel the pang of longing in his chest for those things, but that simply isn’t who Tyson is at the end of the day.

Air is the element of freedom and spirituality, of endless horizons and lungs full of life. New begins and new hope. Tyson is perseverance and structure, of planting his feet and refusing to say die. Keeping to the status quo, and repeating the same mistakes over and over again with grim resolve.