This page takes place in 2009, so it’s still a flashback relative to the main storyline (which begins in 2010). Just a really recent one.
Also: screw it, I’m doing a major retcon here. (“Major” in the sense that it’s a big change on the page, not that it effects anything down the line.)
I came up with a whole modern look for the Dove’s present-day appearance, even designed them a Master…but I did not actually have plot-related plans for them. Which you can tell by the fact that they Never Showed Up Again. (The human Master didn’t even show up once!)
And though, admittedly, the Dove’s whole “monastery in Tibet with the supposedly-reincarnating Master and the thousand years of memories” backstory doesn’t come up in any detail either…I like it. I don’t want the Dove to have been lost, or kidnapped, or otherwise separated from its history. I don’t want readers to be afraid that the monks were all killed when the Fire Nation attacked.
So, you know what, the white-haired guy on this page is not the Dove anymore. He’s just a regular human archaeologist, talking in the human font, doing normal human research, not having any silver eyes or wings at all.
The Dove is still hanging out with the monks. Their Master is the person formally recognized as the latest incarnation of the Master they’ve had for 3000+ years. They’re all safe, and together, and content.