"Are you going to pay for that melon or are you just going to stare at it all day?" Someone snapped at her.

The girl blinked as the world refocused around her like a camera lens, going from a big blurry mess to sharply defined visuals.

The first thing she noticed was the giant melon she was holding in her hands. It was difficult not to consider she was holding it so close to her face that her nose was practically touching it. Her arms were getting strained just by trying to hold the thing up.

Slowly, she lowered the melon only to reveal a clearly annoyed middle aged woman wearing a dark green… tunic? Dress? Kimono? Standing behind a farmers market-esque vegetable stand.

"Well?" The woman asked, impatience bleeding into her voice.

The girl blinked again. And again. And again. But the scene remained exactly the same no matter how much she willed it to change.

She flicked her eyes to the right, and then to the left. A bustling marketplace flooded her vision, and she felt panic rising in her chest.

Men, women, and children all wearing color coordinated outfits walked down the street, shopping, talking, and going about their daily lives. Food carts, stalls, and stands littered the sides of the dirt road where all different kinds of vendors displayed their goods.

But what struck the girl the most was that no one was keeping six feet apart. No one was wearing a mask, and speaking of which, she couldn't feel the familiar warmth and weight of her own handmade mask on her face either.

This.

This was not her kitchen.

This was not home.

Oh god she was going to get sick.

"Hey! Are you listening to me? If you don't have the money, then get lost." The sound of the vendor's voice pierced through the girl's daze, and the girl shook her head to try and center herself. She was still holding the melon. Why? She didn't know. She couldn't remember ever even picking it up in the first place.

Almost mechanically, the girl lowered the giant fruit into the large wooden crate filled with melons. "Um. I'm sorry?" Her voice rang at a higher pitch than normal as hysteria began creeping in, "Actually, I don't think I know what's going on right now, I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Do you by any chance have a mask? Hand sanitizer? Gloves? I'm-"

She cut herself off, as a pedestrian brushed past her back and she nearly jumped in the air from the unexpected contact, and for a few moments the only thing on her mind was the image of germs spreading all over her back from that one spot. "-nope nope nope, I need disinfectants. I need disinfectants right now." And tea. She very much needed a cup of soothing chamomile tea, because she didn't think her heart could take much more of this stress.

The vendor let out a very audible, bone-deep sigh of disgust, "Great. Another crazy." Then she leaned over the counter and stared down at the girl, "Listen kid, move out of the way so that the paying customers can have their space, and then go back to whatever hospital you escaped from or I'll call the Dai Li to escort you. Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." The vendor punctuated her threat by cracking her knuckles.

A mousy squeak escaped the girl's throat "I'm sorry! Sorry to bother you!" she said as she held her hands up in the universal sign of surrender, and began to back away "I'll, um. Just be on my way, I'm sorry."

The girl whirled around and booked it.

To much, to much, to much to much tomuchtomuchtomuchtomuch-

The girl's hand shot out to the side to steady, but then she immediately retracted her hand before she could lay a hand on the side of the building. She belatedly realized that she probably shouldn't touch anything outside without her gloves on.

On shaky legs, she sunk down to the ground into a crouch. Rocking back and forth from her toes to her heels, she wrapped her arms around her knees and lowered her forehead until it touched the rough fabric of the dress she didn't remember ever owning.

Breath

One Mississippi

Release

Two Mississippi

Breath

Three Mississippi

Release

Four Mississippi

Breath

Five Mississippi

Release

Six Mississippi

Breath

Seven Mississippi

Release

Eight Mississippi

Breath

Nine Mississippi

Release

Ten Mississippi

Breath

The girl lifted her head.

Release

She could definitely still use a mug of hot tea right now, but at least she felt calmer than before.

Almost as if she was trapped in a dreamlike state, the girl's head drifted to the right. Then to the left. There was no one around. She was all alone in a tiny abandoned alleyway.

What happened?

What had happened to her? Where was she? Why was she there? Was she kidnapped? Who changed her clothes? Did she pass out at some point? Was she dreaming?

And why the hell wasn't anyone socially distancing? Do they not care about the spread of the virus?

She quickly lifted the collar of her shirt to cover her mouth and nose. It wasn't much, but it would have to do for now.

The last thing she remembered was being at home like she was supposed to. Scrolling through social media, rearranging her room out of boredom, and making the occasional trip to the kitchen with a blanket draped over her shoulders like a cape on her way to replenish her snack pile.

But she stepped over the threshold between the hallway and the kitchen and then- and then- and then-

She was holding a melon. Outside in the middle of a freaking city.

Echoes of a child's laughter bounced against trash cans around her. The girl glanced over in the direction that the noise came from. She couldn't see the kid but she could see the plenty of adults walking past the entrance of the alleyway she was hiding in.

This definitely wasn't home. This wasn't even her town. So where was she? What happened?

There was a pause.

What was her name?

The question caused the girl's heart to leap into her throat.

How could she forget her own name?

Her name was Jin.

Only, that wasn't her name. It was just that popped into her head when she passed by a reflective surface and saw a stranger's face staring back at her. It was not her face, she knew that much for certain.

But by the end of the day, she didn't didn't care. She had to have a name to give to people if they asked, and Jin seemed like the one that came most naturally to her. Besides, she had far more pressing issues to worry about.

Like the fact that she was in a fictional universe.

Jin had memories of this place. Of the winding paths with old fashioned buildings that looked to be inspired by Asian architecture lining them. Of the green color schemes of pretty much everyone and everything that Jin laid her eyes on. Even of the nervous chatter she overheard from time to time about an ongoing war raging just beyond the walls.

And of course she couldn't forget the ridiculous amount of police officers around the city who could each individually cause earthquakes with just a punch.

The earth-based magic was a dead-giveaway.

The first time Jin witnessed someone move the dirt beneath her feet, she was trying to find a more sanitary location to hide out in, and she backed up so fast that she tripped over her own feet and knocked into a cart full of plush toys. She didn't stick around long enough to fully register that someone had inconspicuously broken the known laws of physics in front of her. Jin was far more worried about the fact that she suddenly had an unexpected faceful of merchandise that she knew for a fact had been touched by many unwashed hands.

The complete disregard of pandemic etiquette was enough to make the girl want to cry and hurl herself off the side of a giant, Niagara Falls sized waterfall.

It wasn't until Jin was far enough away from all of the commotion that she felt safe enough to slow down and take a breather, did Jin fully process what she saw.

With a wave of their hand, someone had raised a column of dirt up out of the ground to lift a wooden table up to the second floor of a building.

That should not have been able to happen. That should not have been possible. It was like magic, something out of a comic book, it was…

...Earthbending

There was a pause.

And a massive unabating grin spread across Jin's face, lighting up her features.

Earthbending.

Jin had witnessed someone bend actual dirt to their will.

Suddenly, all of those mishmashed memories, all of her feelings of deja vu, and strange feelings of familiarity aligned in her brain. It all clicked together.

This was the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

She was in Ba Sing Se, a city Jin had only seen on a computer screen years before when she first discovered the existence of a cartoon that became her middle school obsession.

Ordinarily, the idea of teaming with the Gaang, learning cool bending moves, and saving the day would have been the absolute highlights of a hypothetical situation like this. But that had become an added bonus in comparison to one single little detail between Jin's home world and the Avatar-verse.

"There is no coronavirus here." Jin muttered in what almost could pass as disbelief. "Covid-19 doesn't exist here," she said a little louder, letting the statement hang in the air as she fully processed what that meant. Then she let the collar of her shirt that she had been pressing up to her face as a makeshift mask fall away. "THERE IS NO VIRUS!" she yelled in unadulterated joy.

Giggles bubbled up from her chest as she sprinted out of the alleyway she had been hiding in. Then out of nowhere, she hugged the nearest person and immediately burst out crying because this was her first physical contact in months.

The poor pedestrian was so confused over why this strange girl tackled them out of nowhere and started bawling, but Jin couldn't find it in herself to care. She detached herself from that random person, briefly apologized through her tears of happiness for invading their personal space, and she turned and bound away. Jin took to the streets with new eyes.

She drank in the scenes of people walking close together, chatting, sitting in restaurants, picking up random trinkets that catch their eyes at each stall, and honest to god interacting with one another. Children were running around playing tag, or hide-and-seek, or capture-the-flag. People were brushing past each other, shaking hands, holding hands, and crowding around each other without a care in the world.

It was an absolute dream, a reality she had so very much missed. Jin didn't have to be alone anymore.

And she was in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe! One of the greatest cartoons of her childhood! How amazing was that?

Her pace quickened with excitement, going faster and faster with each step until Jin was running at a full blown sprint. Then she started to wave her arms around clumsily, her running turned into skipping, and she twirled around in the air every few steps in a whirlwind to the beat of her own continuous laughter.

At first it was all just random flailing, limbs shooting out this way and that. But slowly her movements began falling into a sloppy, and highly-butchered mismash of bending forms that Jin half remembered from the show she watched so long ago.

"Water," she said with a maddening grin, moving her hands in a push-pull motion. "Earth," she stomped her foot down hard and delivered a powerful kick to the air with the other. "Fire," She brought her foot down in a quick and concise motion, striking the ground with her heel. "Air," She finished by flicking her wrists around each other as if she were rolling a ball between them.

Nothing came out of those motions. No signs that Jin could potentially be a bender in this universe, but they were sure as hell fun to do.

"Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony," Jin recited the introduction that she had memorized by heart, "Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished."

At some point in her frolicking, Jin ran out of energy. She slowed down and stopped next to a lone tree on a hill. She collapsed down into a sitting position with her arms stretched out behind her to support her weight as she relaxed herself into a reclining position.

"A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world."

A puff of air escaped her lips as her eyes settled on the winding, if rather flat, skyline of Ba Sing Se. With an endless expanse of luxuriant clouds morphing between different shades of whites and greys and even purples as a backdrop, the view of the city was quite possibly the most gorgeous sight Jin had ever seen. For a long, serene moment, Jin sat there admiring the world around her. Just breathing, not thinking.

A breeze picked up and ruffled Jin's hair in the same way it ruffled the grass below her and the leaves above her.

Jin wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to do from here. If she was supposed to figure out the exact mechanics of how she got to this universe in the first place, if she was or wasn't supposed to meddle in the plot, or even if any of this was actually real.

It felt real, though. That had to count for something, right?

If all of this was just a dream, then this was probably the greatest form of escapism from her isolated existence Jin could think of. If this was real, then holy crap she was living out some of her wildest, wishful-thinking dreams right now.

Either way, this was her opportunity to actually be part of a story that held so many fond childhood memories for her. She could join Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Iroh, and all of the others on an adventure of a lifetime! She could work out the details as she went, but Jin would be an absolute fool to let a chance like this go to waste.

With that resolution made, Jin let herself lay down fully in the grass, spreading out her limbs like a starfish. Her fingers started tapping against the earth to an unheard beat, and she nodded her head rhythmically. She beamed at the sky.

And Jin began to sing.

Tell everybody I'm on my way

New friends and new places to see

With blue skies ahead, yes I'm on my way

And there's nowhere else that I'd rather be

Tell everybody I'm on my way

And I'm loving every step I take

With the sun beatin' down, yes I'm on my way

And I can't keep this smile off my face

Author's Note:

So who else needs a happy little escape from reality right now? I know I do. A lot of people have been talking about Avatar again since they released the show on American Netflix and I just really wanted to write a little self-insert as Jin (yes, the very same girl that asked Zuko out on a date, but OC!Jin hasn't quite put two and two together on that front), and this takes place just before Zuko and Iroh arrive at Ba Sing Se. I am still working on my other stories but I've been struck by inspiration for this one and the words are just flowing for me right now.

Obligatory I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I don't make money off of any of the fanfics I write. The song used in this chapter is On My Way by Phil Collins, which I also don't own.

Thank you for reading and feel free to drop me a comment about what you think of this fic!

Until next time!

~Lost-In-The-Muse