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#also sokka seems like he has interesting stories and he genuinely does have good ideas for jokes (and hes reallg pretty)
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Has standup comedian Sokka been done already? Cause I’m just imagining him having an invasion plan style nervous bomb on his first night and he’s absolutely mortified stepping off the stage thinking that this is the first and last time he tries doing comedy. UNTIL! the very hot and mysterious host of Tuesday comedy night comes up to him at the bar afterwards and offers to buy him a drink and reassures him that he did surprisingly well for his first show (“trust me I’ve seen so much worse. We had this one guy Hahn come up and make the most blatantly insulting jokes about his girlfriend for 10 minutes. They may have landed in the 80’s but that night they only got him booed off the stage and soaking wet after an audience member threw a drink in his face. You actually have good material, you just have to work on the delivery”). Cue Zuko offering to give Sokka some tips before his next show (gayness ensues)
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atlabeth · 3 years
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neighborly things - sokka x fem!reader
summary: reader can’t make things for shit. thankfully, she has a cute and crafty neighbor willing to help her. 
a/n: im so sorry lmao. i have requests and i have 2 series that havent been updated in like a month but sometimes i just need to write a stupid little oneshot to get back in the writing mood. i did this in an hour 
im not a screwdriver expert so dont come at me if some of this info is wrong lmao 
wc: 1.6k 
warning(s): some cursing but otherwise pure fluff. also i didnt proofread im SORRY im pretty sure they laugh grin and smile like 200 times 
-
“Dammit!” 
 Anyone unfortunate enough to have a place near you during this time would have heard the phrase on more than twenty occasions, and it wasn’t even noon yet. You had gotten the parts in the mail to put together a new dresser a couple days ago, and had finally decided to take on the task. You didn’t know if it was because you were inexperienced with furniture or just lacked basic comprehension skills, but it was proving to be no less than Herculean. 
 You threw the screwdriver at the wall and fell back to the floor as you let your arms sprawl out above you. You had been trying to screw in a part for no less than thirty minutes, and if a miracle didn’t happen right about now, you were going to lose your mind. 
Your head snapped towards the door when she heard a knock, and your brows creased. “God?” You muttered as you got up, wondering if you had actually thought a miracle into existence. 
 You weren’t greeted by a deity when you opened the door, but the man standing in front of you was pretty damn close. With ocean blue eyes, hair pulled back in a ponytail with shaved sides, and toned arms, he was a sight to behold. But you had no idea why he was in front of your door. 
 “Hey, are you okay?” He questioned, genuine concern in his tone. 
 “Um, yeah, why?” You were trying to rack your brain for any memory of this guy — because you knew you would remember him if you had seen him before — but to no avail. “Also, who are you and why are you here?”
 “Right,” he chuckled. “My name’s Sokka. I’m your neighbor; I live—” he gestured at the door just next to your place, “—over there. Moved in a couple weeks ago, so that’s probably why you don’t know me. I’ve just been hearing a lot of cursing and loud noises coming from your place, so I figured I would stop in and see what was going on.” 
 “Oh. That’s.. very considerate of you, Sokka. I’m just…” you sighed and chuckled at the ridiculousness of it all. “I’m just trying to put together a dresser, and it’s not going well at all. That latest sound you heard was the culmination of my rage. I threw a screwdriver at the wall.” 
 “Yeah, that’ll do it,” he laughed. “Listen. I don’t wanna intrude on you or anything, but I happen to be pretty good at putting things together. I had to do a lot of furniture construction when I first moved in, plus I’m the one all my friends call when they need help with putting anything together. I could probably help you with whatever’s troubling you.”  
 “Are you serious?” 
 “Oh, no. I just go door to door joking around with people, asking if they need help with their furniture, sometimes I ask if their refrigerator is running? It really gets a kick out of them.” 
 You rolled your eyes goodnaturedly and stepped aside so he could enter your apartment. “Thank you so much, Sokka. I’ve read the instructions a million times, I seriously don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” 
 He crouched down and picked up the manual, turning to a dog-eared page and skimming over the instructions. He pointed at the screwdriver you had thrown against the wall and glanced back at you. “Is that the one you’ve been using?” 
 You closed and locked the door behind him then walked over to the wall, picking up the unfortunate victim of your anger and spinning it in your hands. “Yeah, why?” 
 “Do you know what kind it is?” 
 “Um.. maybe? God, I don’t know. I think it’s a Phillip’s head?” 
 Sokka laughed and shook his head, holding up the manual so you could see it. “That’s where you’re going wrong. You need a Pozidriv for these screws — they’re similar enough that anyone can make a mistake.”
 You stared at Sokka in complete amazement — apparently, your savior lived next door, and he came in the form of a handsome guy with basic knowledge on putting furniture together. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” you said as you walked over and took the booklet from himl. You flipped through it a couple times and read over the part, shaking your head in disbelief. 
 “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” you repeated, louder this time. “Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get that thing to- to work, to screw, to— whatever you call it?” 
 “It’s actually to—”
 “Thirty minutes!” You interrupted, earning a small chuckle from Sokka. “Thirty damn minutes that I have been trying to get that screw in, and it’s all because I was using the wrong screwdriver. Why would they make screwdrivers that are so similar but aren’t interchangeable?!” 
 He shrugged and held up his hands. “Don’t ask me — I don’t make the rules, I just follow them. But like I said; this dresser might fall apart if you keep using this thing. I actually have a Pozidriv back at my place, I can go get it and we can finish this up together.” 
 “God, that would be the biggest help,” you admitted. “But I don’t wanna take up your time — I don’t know how I would even repay you.” 
 “I’m doing this because I want to help you,” he said. “You don’t have to repay me. Think of it as… as a neighborly thing.” 
 “A neighborly thing?” you repeated with a laugh. “Well, if you’re offering, I’m definitely not going to refuse.” 
 “I am offering,” Sokka winked. “And unless you want to be at this for another three days, I think you should take that offer.” 
 You pretended to deliberate over it before letting out an exaggerated sigh. “I guess I’ll let you help me. I mean, really you should be thanking me for this brilliant opportunity to, um.. hone your skills.” 
 He laughed, a brilliant sound that made your heart sing, and nodded as he went back to the door. “Thank you so much for letting me put together this dresser. Truly, it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
 “Then I’m happy to be of assistance.” 
 Sokka grinned then unlocked and opened the door. “I’ll be right back, then we can get started.”
 -
 Once he got back, the two of you got to work. The next three hours passed so quickly as you and Sokka talked about everything from the work you did to people in your lives (no girlfriend, thankfully), to exchanging stories — even the silence, though rare, was comfortable. 
 Sokka pushed the last drawer into its place then clapped his hands as he stood up, admiring the fruits of your labor. “And that’s it! We’re done.”
 “Wait, we’re done? Already?” You set down the instruction manual and stood up as well, backing up to Sokka’s position to see what he saw. “Wow, that looks.. that looks just like the picture. We are good at this! Well, you’re really good at this, I’m good at keeping you entertained. But still!” 
 You held your hand up for a high five and he laughed, but not without meeting it with a satisfying clap. 
 “It does look pretty good,” he admitted. “And not only do you have a brand new, fully functioning dresser, you also had the priceless experience of spending three hours with the neighbor you know nothing about.” 
 “That’s not true,” you countered. “I know that you’re really good at putting things together, you’re a genius when it comes to anything math or science, and you hate blueberries.” 
 Sokka snickered and brushed his hands off on his jeans. “That’s everything there is to know.” 
 “I dunno, Sokka. You seem like a pretty interesting guy.”
 “Really?”
 “Yeah. It’s not every day that someone offers to put together a whole dresser just because they feel bad.”
 “Well—” he tore off a blank part of the instruction manual and picked up a spare pen from the counter, then put it up against the wall as he scribbled something on it. Sokka put the pen down and handed the slip of paper to you with a smile. “If you ever need any more help with furniture, then call me.” 
 You could feel your cheeks heat up as you took the paper. Your fingers brushed ever so slightly as you took the slip of paper, and you decided to just go for it. You bit back a grin and tried to sound as innocuous as possible. “And if I want to get to know you beyond the blueberries?” 
 Sokka laughed and leaned against the doorframe. “Definitely call me.”  
 “Great.” 
 The two of you smiled at each other like idiots for way too long before a notification from his phone broke the silence. He jumped from the sudden noise and dug his phone out of his pocket, giving you an apologetic look. “Sorry, my sister just texted me and I gotta get over to her place.” Sokka started towards the door then paused and turned around. “I actually had a lot of fun doing this, though. I’ll see you around, yeah?” 
 “Yeah.” You knew you had that same smile on your face, but it just wouldn’t go away. His energy was contagious. “Definitely.” 
 “Great.” He winked at you one last time then left, closing the door behind him, and finally snapping you out of your spell. 
 You leaned against the dresser and stared at the slip of paper in your hands, committing the number to memory. 
 You were definitely going to take him up on that offer. 
-
perm tag list: @dv0412 @siriuslyslyslytherin​
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rolandtowen · 3 years
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three times Zuko comes into the Jasmine Dragon coffee shop, and one time Sokka leaves with him. Set in the Neurodiverse Zukka AU, but can read as a standalone.
*banging pots and pans together* "Come over here and get yall Neurodiverse Zukka!"
Read it on Ao3 or under the cut!
TW: discussions of skin picking and implied child abuse
i.
When Sokka pulls into the parking lot of the Jasmine Dragon, he is unsurprisingly the first car there. Being a freshman in town means getting the worst pick of shifts at local businesses. Sokka was hired on to work the opening shift, which means he wakes up at the ungodly hour of 5am to open the shop before the first round of sleep-deprived college students comes in. The pay isn't bad, Mr. Iroh is an incredibly fair man,
The bell on the door jingles on his way in, and he flips several light switches on, watching as the coffee shop slowly comes to life. He busies himself with getting the beans for the day grinding, pulling his first shot and dialing in the expresso. When he takes a sip, the espresso is spot on for the day, which is a relief. Having to make adjustments as customers start filing in is a nightmare.
Today's brew is floral and citrusy, so he decides to make himself and iced lavender latte - with oat milk, of course, because he's gotta do it for the gays - and he spends the next 20 minutes setting out pastries and fiddling with the display cases, making everything look perfect.
At 6am sharp, Sokka unlocks the front door and flips their sign to open, before retreating behind the bar to nurse his latte. Not even five minutes later, the door bell jingles, and Sokka sees a flash of dark hair, face obscured by a pile of textbooks and binders. The figure runs into one table, and then another, and Sokka is rushing out from behind the counter. He gets there just before textbooks go toppling everywhere, his hands taking a firm hold of the top bundle. As he pulls the books into his arms, he sees the face behind them.
Breathtaking golden eyes.
And.. a massive burn scar.
"Hi!" Sokka says, "I'm the barista on shift today - my name's Sokka." He would reach his hand for the other man to shake, but for the stack of textbooks in them.
Golden Eyes smiles.
"I'm Zuko, Zuko Sozin," he says, setting his remaining textbooks on the table by his side. Sokka follows suit.
"Hey, I think I've seen you before - are you taking Piandao's Intro to Biology class?"
"Uh, yeah - yeah! You sit a few rows in front of me." Zuko laughs. "Your doodles are uh, something alright."
Sokka knocks him good-naturedly on the shoulder. "I gotta keep my hands busy for my brain to focus." He looks down at the stack of books on the table. "What on earth are you studying, to have that many books?"
"Uh, Biology and Chemistry double-major, Pre-Med track." Sokka's eyes widen. "It's really not that much! I got a bunch of stuff out of the way with AP credits."
Sokka raises an eyebrow.
"Okay, it is a lot - but I'm really passionate about it. I want to be a doctor."
"Well, Dr. Sozin, what can I get started for you today?"
"Can I get a iced matcha, with a lot of honey?"
Sokka raises his other eyebrow. "A doctor with a sweet tooth?"
"Kind of?"
"Don't worry, I won't rat you out to your dentist. An iced matcha with extra honey?" Zuko nods and Sokka smiles. "You got it, doc."
ii.
Sokka falls into a routine at the Jasmine Dragon. He opens the shop every morning, and every morning of the fall semester so far, Zuko Sozin comes in at precisely 6:05am. Zuko will order an iced matcha with honey, and sits at a table by the window with his laptop and at least two textbooks open at all times. Then, at 11:50am - Sokka guess he has a class that starts at noon - Zuko leaves the shop, always making sure to throw his spare change into Sokka's tip jar.
He's so beautiful.
On a slow day, Sokka comes out from behind the safety of the counter and works up the courage to ask Zuko if he can study with him. Zuko looks shocked at first, but his lips quirk up in a smile as he gestures for Sokka to sit in the chair across from him, moving his textbooks to make room for Sokka's one book and laptop.
"What are you studying, Sokka?" Zuko appears to be genuinely interested.
"Oh, uh, social work, with a concentration in mental health." Sokka waits for Zuko to laugh at him. It never comes. He looks up at him over their laptops.
"That's really cool."
"You think so?"
"Yeah! I mean, some pre-med majors can be really pretentious, really dismissive of mental illness, but um - not me. I don't really have that luxury." Zuko laughs, as though at a joke with himself. "What's the Intro to Biology for, then?"
"Not all of us got our common core out of the way with AP credits, like some nerd I know." Zuko smiles at that, and looks back down at his laptop screen.
Sokka pulls his keys from his pocket and starts fidgeting with the stim toy he keeps on his keychain as he reads through his latest assignment for his Mental Illness and Society class. He bought it on Etsy, relieved to find a neurodivergent-owned shop after scrolling through a lot of stores that just seemed to be hopping on the 'trend' of selling fidget toys. He flips to the next page in his textbook, popping the buttons back and forth in a steady rhythm. He remembers Zuko's sitting across from him and stops abruptly.
"Is this annoying? Do you want me to stop?"
Zuko just cocks his head. "Why would I get a say in what you do? It's kind of your shop, right?"
"Um, to be polite?" Sokka laughs. "And you would be surprised how many customers I get who think they get to tell me what to do." His eyes settle on the half drunk latte in front of him. "It's not really my shop either, I just work the early morning shifts so Mr. Iroh can sleep in. If you ever get to stay past noon sometime, you'll see him come in. You can't miss him, short guy, talks in riddles. He's older, a war vet I think - I just get that impression from some of the stories he tells me. But anyway, did you want me to stop fidgeting?" Sokka looks back up to meet those golden eyes.
Zuko glitches for a second. "Oh! No, no, go for it - if it helps you to study, I'm all for it."
Sokka smiles, and looking at the way Zuko keeps picking at his cuticles gives him an idea. He digs into his backpack and pulls out another stim toy, an acupressure ring. ""Do you want to try this instead of maiming your hands?"
Zuko hesitantly holds out a hand and Sokka drops it into his palm. "You don't have to."
Sokka scoffs. "I know I don't have to - I want to. Come on, I wear it on my thumb sometimes -" and suddenly he's taking Zuko's hands into his and getting very close to Zuko's face. Zuko can smell espresso on his clothes and Sokka's hands are so warm against his. Calloused, sure, but warm. He holds Zuko's right hand gently, pressing the spiky ring onto his thumb. "And you can rub it back and forth with your pointer finger and it gives you that kind of prickly sensation that you get from skin picking, just without the skin picking." Sokka pulls his hands away and Zuko immediately misses them. "Give it a shot, tell me what you think."
Zuko tentatively rolls the ring over his thumb. Huh. The cute barista's right, the acupressure gives him that same prickly, scratchy feeling that picking at his nails and cuticles does. "Wow," he says, "I think you've converted me."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Then keep it, I've got a thousand more where that came from, ADHD perks."
Zuko instinctively opens his mouth to protest but the words die in his throat.
"You, you have ADHD?" He stops rolling the ring across his thumb.
"Yup." Sokka's lips popped on the 'p', and he turned to the next page in his textbook. "And I'm pretty sure you've got some spicy stuff happening your brain, too. But you don't have to tell me."
"How are you so open about it?"
Sokka's hand stills around the fidget. "My parents never treated me like I was deficient in any way - my brain just works differently, which means I have trouble with some 'normal' stuff. But I also strengths in areas that others don't have naturally. Accommodations aren't anything to be ashamed of."
"Sounds nice." All of the levity drops out of Zuko's voice.
Sokka levels a look at Zuko. He lets his eyes flit to the right side of Zuko's face and the scar there. He's seen it so many times, and the burns look so concentrated, almost... intentional. His stomach churns at the thought. The scar's old... and Zuko's at college now, he has to be safe - he has to be.
"Like I said, you don't have to tell me." Sokka's hand starts to fidget with the buttons again. "But I have it on good authority that I am a good listener."
"I'll... I'll keep that in mind." Zuko looks down at his hands, fingers rolling the ring back and forth against his thumb. "Thank you."
"Anytime, doc."
iii.
Somehow, fumbling through their collective social awkwardness, they manage to swap numbers.
At the end of the fall semester, Sokka texts Zuko for the first time.
S: hey, im gonna be a few minutes later. don't worry, im still coming.
Z: okay. thank you.
When Sokka finally pulls into the parking lot fifteen minutes late, he sees Zuko waiting outside the door, sitting on a bench, head buried in one of his chemistry textbooks.
"Hey," he puts his keys in the door. "You can just come in while I open, it won't take too long."
Zuko follows him inside, and he closes the door against the chill.
"You didn't have to text me," Zuko says, like it's a question.
"I wanted to," Sokka starts flipping on light switches. "I know you've got your routine, and I didn't want to stress you out when it got messed up."
"Why would that matter to you?"
"Um, I don't want you to be stressed? I kind of care about you."
"You... you care about me?" Zuko stands in the middle of the coffee shop, unmoving.
Sokka smiles. "Yeah, I think I do."
"Why?"
"I think we could be friends?"
"Oh." Zuko's face falls for a second - what Sokka has come to understand is his 'processing' face - and he looks back up a second later. "I think we could be friends too."
"Friendship with a barista has great perks, you know." Sokka laughs as he starts up the grinder. "Although the perks of a social worker friend aren't too bad either."
"How's that going? With your first semester ending?" Zuko sits on a stool at the bar and watches Sokka putter around behind it.
"Well, I'm going to pass Intro to Biology, not for lack of trying on Piandao's part - I swear he's trying to weed out all the humanities kids. It isn't even a weed out course!" He polishes an espresso glass furiously. "How are you doing?"
Zuko chokes. "Oh, I'm - I'm fine, you know it's a hard class and all -"
"You're getting an A, aren't you?" Sokka squints at him from behind a bag of coffee beans. "Curve breaker," he scoffs.
"Hey, it's not my fault that I'm, what did you call it? A 'burnt-out gifted kid with people pleasing tendencies'." Zuko crosses his arms and huffs at the memory of that conversation. Sokka had read him like a picture book. And it was not fair for one person to be that good at emotions.
"You are correct, I did indeed call you that." Sokka pulls the first shot of the morning. "And it looks like I was right."
"You know what you said the other week, about being a good listener?"
"Sure do," Sokka takes a sip of the espresso, swishing it around in his mouth before spitting it out. "What's on your mind?"
"Well, if we're going to be... friends, I just think you'd want to know that - I'm autistic." Zuko stares at Sokka searching his face for any cues about what the next words out of his mouth will be, waiting for the facade of friendship to drop. He furiously rolls the acupressure ring up and down his thumb.
"Okay, that's great!"
"...what."
Zuko's hands freeze and he squeezes the ring against his skin, feeling the pressure increase.
"That's great, I'm glad you felt safe enough to tell me that. I kind of guessed your parents weren't as accommodating as mine?"
Zuko laughs something sour. "No, no they were not." He looks up in surprise as Sokka puts an iced matcha, extra honey, in front of him. "You're right though, I do feel safe here. I feel safe with you." Zuko looks down at the acupressure ring on his thumb, softening his grip. "You could have totally ignored me, but you didn't. Or you could've been mean about my quirks - but you weren't. Why?"
"Well, for starters, you tip well." Sokka smiles and leans across the counter, bracketing Zuko's elbows in with his own. "But you're also a really great guy - you're passionate, you want to make people's lives better, and you're also like, really beautiful."
Zuko feels his cheeks flush. "You really think that?" His fingers still against the fidget again, but he doesn't feel the need to press it into his skin. He's captivated by Sokka's words. Surely, Sokka couldn't actually mean -
"Oh, yeah. Every bit." Sokka brushes his hand against one of Zuko's, the one with the fidget ring. "Can I hold your hand?"
"Yes, please, yes." After weeks, Sokka's hand is back in his, and Zuko thinks he's going to implode. "Can, can you hold both of my hands? With both of your hands?"
"Of course," Sokka's positively beaming, grabbing Zuko's hands and running his thumbs across his knuckles. "Now you're absolutely allowed to say no to my next question, and there are no hard feelings."
"Yes?"
"Can I kiss you?"
"Fuck yes."
The iced matcha is forgotten.
+ i
Sokka's feet hurt like hell. Mr. Iroh had called in him to work a double on Friday, and since he doesn't have any classes on Fridays, he foolishly agreed.
It won't seem so foolish once you see the paycheck, he reminds himself. He and Zuko have a deal. Zuko pays for his medical school with his job shelving books at the University library, and Sokka pays for their tiny apartment by caffeinating all of the other broke college kids in town. By some miracle, they seem to be able to make it work. Zuko graduated into the medical college a year early, which helps with tuition costs, and of course his brilliant boyfriend got all kinds of scholarships.
Sokka is indescribably proud of him.
The door bell jangles just as Sokka is wiping the crumbs off the last cafe table. "Hey, we're starting to close up for the night, so it'd better be a to-go order," he calls over his shoulder.
"Even for me?"
"Zuko!" Sokka drops his cloth immediately and spins around, pulling Zuko into a hug. Zuko taps the small of his back when he's ready to let go, and Sokka lets him go, beaming. "You came to visit me at work?"
"More like I picked up your favorite soup dumplings from Haru's across the street and thought we could walk home together?" Zuko shrugs, gesturing to the brown paper bag in his arms. "How's that sound to you?"
"Baby, that's just what I needed today." Sokka picks up his cleaning supplies. "Okay, I just need to put all of this away and then we can lock up and go home, how's that?"
"Great," Zuko smiles at him. "I may have also picked up some more Doctor Who DVDs from the library," he smirks.
"Oh, you trickster!" Sokka yells from the kitchen, before appearing again. "You used my one weakness, pork soup dumplings, against me in order to get your nerdy way."
"Oh, big talk coming from the guy who watches astronomy documentaries for fun," Zuko laughs as Sokka leads him out of the shop, switching off the lights and locking the door behind him. "If it were up to you, we'd be watching Cosmos all weekend, and I can only take so much of Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining the peculiarities of the moon."
"Hey, the moon is cool!"
"You are correct, the moon is very cool. It's freezing, because it's a rock. In space. With no atmosphere. Or life." Zuko deadpans, earning a light punch on the shoulder from Sokka.
"Fine, you get Doctor Who tonight, but Saturday is going to be all PBS Nova, baby. Brace yourself." Sokka takes Zuko's free hand into his as they start the walk home.
"Well, as long as you're there, I'm happy."
Notes:
fidgets in this work were inspired by those from shop StimBox
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soopersara · 2 years
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Hey, A Tale of Ice and Smoke is fantastic so far, but I wanted to ask something. Why is Aang constantly being treated like an idiot or punching bag by Sokka and occasionally Katara? Yeah, he's a kid, but they're still supposed to be friends with him and not just tolerate his presence.
I have to say that I'm confused about where you've seen Aang being treated like a punching bag in the fic. That certainly hasn't ever been my intention, and thinking back over everything I've written, I can't remember a single time when he could be considered a 'punching bag' for another character.
That's not to say that I'm not treating him differently than he is treated in canon, though—I absolutely am. I made a conscious choice to hold onto his naivete from early (canon) Book 1 a bit farther into the story, largely because in this universe, he's not the only Avatar, and as a result, he doesn't feel the weight of his responsibilities nearly as strongly as he did in canon. As a result of that, he's still holding onto a lot of his more childish interests, which don't hold a lot of appeal for the older kids (and which they don't always have time for), and he makes a lot of the same mistakes he did in canon (flying off to try to handle things on his own, not recognizing the source of Katara's frustrations when he picks up her waterbending forms faster than she did, trying to keep Sokka and Katara away from their family, etc.), but unlike in canon, the other characters have significantly less hero worship going on (again, he's not the only Avatar), and they're more willing to hold him accountable for those mistakes. Which probably seems comparatively harsh, but this fic isn't episodic. Conflicts don't have to be resolved in the same chapter that they crop up, and when it's something as serious as, for example, Aang hiding the map to Hakoda's fleet, which indirectly leads to Katara's capture, it's entirely fair for the anger to linger for several days or longer. But the serious conflicts do, by and large, get resolved within a few chapters, and while it's probably rough on Aang, it's not unreasonable for the others' to hold him to account like that.
Beyond that... I genuinely have no idea what you mean about Aang being treated badly. Sokka snarks at him (and is deliberately portrayed as ridiculous in the process) because Sokka snarks at almost everyone. Katara gets frustrated with him because sometimes twelve year old boys (especially ones who take their responsibilities less than seriously) are frustrating. But Sokka has also decided to make Aang his primary partner in crime, where they both act as grounding forces for one another (albeit in opposite directions), Katara does her best to make time for and encourage Aang (which is difficult when she's literally twice as busy as the others), and Aang mostly does his best to have a good time when the others aren't around and to get involved in whatever is happening when they are. I do have plans for Aang to continue maturing throughout the series, but he's not my focus, never has been, and right now, he's just at a very different point in his growth than the others.
If you're not a fan of that, then it's your prerogative, I guess. I just don't see how Aang could possibly be the focal point of the group the way he was in canon, or have his faults and missteps overlooked/immediately forgiven the way they were in canon, when he's not the only Avatar, and therefore not being treated as the world's one true savior. Sometimes growth hurts, and that's the path he's headed down in Ice & Smoke.
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emletish-fish · 2 years
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7. what is you favorite sentence/paragraph? read it to us! (asker can choose what fic) (x)
I chose three! One from each of my 'big fics'. No Zombies, Worst Prisoners and Good Boys under the cut:
NO ZOMBIES:
No Zombies was a delight to write. I had pretty much the whole idea from the get-go, (of a returned style AU with Hector coming to spend time with the family in the modern world). I finished it quick - and it's not too long (side-eyeing Good Boy and Worst Prisoner). It was the first fic where I felt like I really "stuck" the landing. I was quite flexible with my original outline, but I still knew where the journey ended. It ended exactly how I wanted it too - happily but with a bitter-sweet note.
The emotional core of this story is how Elena, family matriach, who is so gruff and no-nonsense, who despises Hector in the films, and who has such a warm heart under such a grumpy exterior would slowly soften and come to love Hector, (and how she grows as a person because of this and becomes more comfortable showing love/emotions to her family). It was like a platonic slow-burn as she learns to understand Hector better - which is why this bit is my favourite because it's where she starts to really feel fond of him for the first time:
“Well, I'm just glad I'm a better teacher for him than watching old Ernesto De La Cruz movies.” Héctor had replied with a wry smile. “It's probably because I'm so much more handsome than that butt-chinned, over-the-top ham.”
“Because you're a pointy-chinned, over-the-top ham?” Elena replied, feeling surprising witty. She never made teasing jokes like this normally, but it was so easy with Héctor.
He looked mock-offended. “I'll have you know, my chin is wonderful and I've given it to several of your grandchildren, so there.”
If Elena was a different person, she probably would have pulled Héctor into a warm, laughing hug then. She might have told him seriously that Miguel had always been difficult for her. He felt things so strongly and got so upset and emotional – she'd always struggled with how to help him, how to calm him. Miguel was so happy now. She knew that was because of Héctor.
She might have told Héctor that he was at least six thousand times the musician, eight thousand times the teacher, and ten thousand times the man that Ernesto De La Cruz was.
But Elena was who she was.
Instead she said “Idiot,” and ruffled his stupidly messy hair rather fondly.
She told herself she wasn't warming to the fool musician, but she knew it was a lie.
GOOD BOY:
My current work. It's another platonic slow-burn, but this time set in the Cobra Kai universe with son and father pair - Robby Keene and Johnny Lawrence. In the show, these two characters have such a dysfunctional relationship that is so full of miscommunications and missed chances, and they genuinely want a better relationship (and it would be so healing for both of them! Do not get me started!) I lean much more into the magical realism in this story, as I turned Robby into a dog (Animal transformation - PIXAR's Brave style), so that he could immediately get the cuddles and easy affection he so clearly needs.... because I have never seen a more touch/affection-starved character aside from Zuko in ATLA.
This also gave Robby a chance to really understand, not only his father, but the other people in his cicrcle. He discovered he had a support network. He got to know he was loved by many. he got to witness the actions people would take as they searched for human-him (not knowing that he'd been turned into a dog). And it gave Johnny a chance to learn how to take care of something, feel needed, and express his love for his son without the weight of their complicated history/his own trauma hanging over him. It was hard to pick a favourite, but I will say the Johnny-stream-of-conciousness chapters are definitely the easiest/most fun to write. One of my favourite bits is in the first one, The queen of ice-cream runaway when Johnny tells Robby about when Laura (his grandmother) found out Shannon was pregnant and she was going to be a grandmother.
It's the first inkling Robby gets that while his father wasn't there for him and he was neglected a lot, Johnny did his best to keep the bad shit from his own childhood away from Robby as his own way of showing care. It hints at the deep and damaging abuse Johnny endured. When he finally had a say with his own kid, he would have done anything to protect Robby from feeling the same. I'd say here is where Robby really begins to warm to his Dad;
Then I told her our chosen name and she said I was a dumbass and Swayze was a terrible middle name, and we had to change it to some shit like Alastair or something. She thought he should have a rich sounding middle name. And I say Mom, Alastair sounds like some lame-ass insurance broker who upskirts his secretary and then cries as he jerks off to the pictures, what else you got? She thought Sebastian, and that was worse! What a pussy name.  Sebastian is going to be sitting in the little french patisserie cafe drinking the tiny-ass coffee for dolls and eating the éclair with his prissy finger tips. I already want to kick Sebastian's ass. Who wouldn’t? I’m not going to give my kid a name that is going to get his ass kicked.
And she couldn't talk, cause she named me after Johnny Cash, just cause she liked his music. And she couldn't think of a middle name at the time, so I didn't get one. Thank goodness. I could have ended up Johnny Alastair and had to kick my own ass.
So Swayze stayed.
Then she mentions how she and Sid can help out, so I didn't need to do the two jobs, stupidly long hours thing. And we need the money. I know we need the money. But my whole body froze and I just went No. None of that for little Robby Swayze. ...
... She’s going on about spending Sid’s money on Robby and I just...I can’t. I can't allow it. Cause I knew how he would be, and the way he would treat that kid. So I tell her, no thank you. Not a fucking cent mom.  Sid’s not getting to feel like he owns a hair on Robby’s head. That motherfucker can go jump. You thought we needed Sid’s money when I was a kid. You decided it was better for me, and that was your choice. I did not get a vote in that. But this is my kid, and this time it is my call, and I am choosing no. I’m not going to have Sid make my kid feel like he has to apologise for existing every day. I'm not going to have Sid treat my kid the way he treated me. I will never need money that badly. I will never put my kid through that. I'll work myself to the bone doing 20 hour days before that. I'll work on the 40th floor without a harness before that.  I will sell my fucking organs before it comes to that. Not a cent mom.
WORST PRISONER:
My 'what if Zuko made friends with the Gaang early on?" AU that then turned into a three-book long saga (and I will return to it, Worst Prisoner readers - Thank you for you patience). It does have evenutal Zutara, but the focus is really on the Gaang + Zuko as a whole, and all the interpersonal relationships. I'd say there is more gen-shipping around Zuko as a central character, as Iroh & Zuko, and Sokka & Zuko are both given equal prominence. in fact, all the friendships and familial relationships were equally important to me. (the book 3 Zuko & Azula stuff is so interesting, but it is ...less funny I guess.)
This fic is such a joy to write, and I really try and balance the humour with the bittersweet/sad parts, and one of the main sources of humor was the Sokka-Aang-Zuko -Katara qudrangle of dumbassery. I love the four of them together in book 1, and so many of their interactions were a hoot to write. But if I'd have to pick a favourite moment, it would be the moment in the deserter chapter in book 1, where they all decide to 'officially' be friends:
“Well, you can figure that out and find someone while I'm up in the Northern Water Tribe. Then when we finish up there, we'll come find you,” Aang offered.
“Really?” Zuko’s eyes were shining optimistically. It was a strange expression for him. Aang was so used to seeing him with a grumpy face.
“Really, I promise,” Aang said, feeling so glad that he could help Zuko go home.
“Yeah, I second that. If this means we won’t have to put up with you chasing us, I am in!” Sokka said. “Sheesh, you could have just asked ages ago!”
“You know, this means I was right,” Aang started to say, feeling very vindicated. The others looked at him curiously. “If we had just talked about friendship in the forest, we could have sorted this out weeks ago!”
“Boo, forest friendship!” Sokka said.
“Don't boo him,” Katara admonished, elbowing her brother.
“I agree with Sokka. There's no way I would have appreciated that speech weeks ago, Aang,” Zuko said.
Sokka smiled at Zuko for saying he agreed with him. It actually wasn't that rare of an occurrence, but it still seemed to surprise Sokka every time.
“See, Aang, forest friendship is bullshit,” Sokka said.
“I didn't say that!” Zuko cut in. “I just meant, maybe … I had to be dragged all over the Earth Kingdom by you guys ... and shot ... and taken to nonsense fortune tellers ... and I had to be forced to eat Sokka's truly terrible and disgusting cooking—”
“Oi!”
“—and I had listen to Aang lecture me about friendship and vegetarianism in the forest just so I could come here.” He looked around at the deserters’ camp site. “I dunno, maybe it was meant to be this way.”
“What are you saying? You want to be forest friends with Aang now?” Sokka asked accusingly.
“I mean, sure. If Aang will have me, we can be friends,” Zuko said, and looked uncertain.
“Yay! I knew you'd want to be my friend,” Aang said, feeling delighted.
He was so happy he had a Fire Nation friend again. Kuzon had been an amazing friend, even though he'd gotten Aang into so many sticky situations. He had already thought Zuko was his friend, but it was nice to make it official. Aang always knew the Fire Nation had good people in it too, and now he had been proven right. He jumped up and gave Zuko a huge hug.
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sokkagatekeeper · 3 years
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ty lee for the character asks :)
first impression: azula friend ... ? oh she’s lying to azula. fun (somebody tell me why my eight-year-old self could tell ty lee was faking it but not the bunch of 20yo in this entire fandom pls)
impression now: a whole genius!!! invented lying pink and gymnastics. the way her body and femininity is a weapon rather than a part of her identity is so interesting to me because she knows how to read zuko and mai and azula so well without them even realizing and i get the feeling that she doesn’t know that much about herself. the way she purposefully makes herself underestimated not only by her enemies but by azula herself by giving her fake compliments to stay on her good side — she uses the misogynistic beliefs of the fire nation on femininity to make herself seem stupid and shallow and palatable and harmless, she molds herself into the person she’s playing a role for, but she’s clever, she’s adaptable, she’s perceptive and she’s able to switch directions at any given moment if u get my drift
favorite moment: when she betrays azula for mai of course!! it tells so much about her character and her respective relationships with both mai and azula. that was genuinely the last thing i expected to happen but afterwards i was just like “yeah tho.....” because with ty lee it’s a matter of looking for it. all the clues are there, and when you realize she’s always teasing mai and listening to her contrasted with the way she plays azula like a fiddle with compliments and seemingly unwavering loyalty it comes off as natural that when it’s time to make a choice she doesn’t even hesitate (and she does not lmfaooo if u just look at her face in that scene she’s like “oopsie... u had it coming bestie......” god bless i adore her)
idea for a story: this thing i apparently will never finish, and i would also like a sort-of ty lee redemption once she’s with the kyoshi warriors and actively seeing the damage the fn did. # fun times. i would also like to explore her perspective of the beach but that’s more of a concept i have around my head than a story
unpopular opinion: i think she’s bi 😭 and i think none of you understand ty lee!! she has a complex relationship with azula and she must care about her in a certain way but ultimately she doesn’t love azula or actually believes azula is “the most perfect girl in the world”. it’s all lies!! there are few moments of ty lee lowering her mask and those are 1) most of her conversations with mai 2) when zuko says ty lee doesn’t understand and ty lee says that she does understand 3) the betrayal at the boiling rock 4) when she tells azula how to flirt (manipulate) because the instructions she gives azula are exactly. how she treats azula lol like every time i see ty lee being characterized as dumb or clueless or pining after azula i lose a year of my life </3
favorite relationship: i literally don’t have a favorite mai zuko and azula are all on top of the list. it’s the way mai and ty lee are the only ones who see each other as they are rather than a flawed perception of society (mai) or a role they play in order to survive (ty lee). but also the way azula cares for ty lee a great deal and how ty lee probably knows this but ultimately azula treats her rlly badly lmao and therefore ty lee uses the means she has to protect herself which happens to be manipulate azula right back and it’s sososo interesting 2 me. and with zuko i feel like. ty lee is one of the only ppl who truly understands zuko as he is and as he was raised to be (better than iroh perhaps??? up to debate) and i feel like with zuko being unable to be anything but himself and ty lee hiding her own personhood so much (sokkacore????) they could benefit from a shared friendship. i feel zuko specifically could learn a lot from ty lee. the last one i enjoy more the idea of a friendship between them rather than their actual dynamic in the show but the canon stages of their dynamic are also compelling. see i literally cannot choose!!!!!!!!!!!!!
favorite headcanon: i guess ty lee being bi can be a headcanon as much as an interpretation of the text 🤔 she literally had no reason to lie to mai about how sokka was cute. what was the reason ty lee what! was! the! reason!!!!!!!!!! other than that i think she could beat iroh at pai sho
ask game
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camlann · 4 years
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Aurora (May 19)
He shouldn’t look as good under the night sky and it’s starlight as he does. 
It’s strange, there is a vindictive part of her that wanted him to feel uncomfortable here in the South Pole. While she no longer thinks it's fair to pin the entirety of his nation’s history to Zuko’s robes for him to drag around like a lodestone, the first time she met him was not a fond memory. Now that he is Fire Lord, they have once more been put into a position that requires she see a giant ship come into the bay and sit there, smoking and ominous. Her people have every right to be wary, but it seems he has prepared for this. The ship, while large and metal, is not a warship and there is no weaponry in sight. He does not sail his ship any closer than it has to for safe harbor, and then he takes a canoe up to their ice shelf, gear tailored for the cold and no red in sight except for the single sash around his waist with the Fire Nation emblem on it. He has even left his crown behind, but there is no mistaking this man rules a nation from the way he walks, the way he holds himself, the way she maybe sort of feels weak in the knees when his gaze passes over her with a confident spark. 
Traditions are not exactly regal here, but he does what is expected of him, and Katara is a bit put out that she doesn’t get to see the awkward stuttering, the blush upon his cheeks -- she liked those bits, when she teased him when they were younger, and she finds she misses those sights when they are gone. They have been gone for some time now, they have not seen each other for awhile, but this man before her where a boy once stood is still Zuko and she walks at his side all the same. What she has learned in her time away, however, is that she does not have to quickly escort him into one of the longhouses and can linger in his presence. An interesting conversation with Sokka about Boiling Rock and an ice box enlightened her to the ways of breaking a firebender, but he seems to have prepared for that too. His coat is thinner than her own, for spirit’s sake, all while his crew’s teeth chatter when they are not hidden in their hoods. 
A shared meal is the next step, the Fire Lord taking on the duty of helping with any task that will have him, to show he is willing to work for what he will be asking for tomorrow in their trade deals. Sea prunes seem to be quite the hit, and Zuko compliments Gran-Gran’s cooking with quiet words, not wanting to seem too enthusiastic about something he has never tried, but seems to genuinely enjoy. It’s a bit sour for his crew, but she’s also seen him eat jellied things that may or may not have gone off in their travels, and she briefly wonders if his stomach is made of the same metal as his people’s ships. He sits beside her all night, a knee constantly brushing by her own with his every move, but there is so much going on that they cannot focus on one another. It’s not long before good conversation turns to before bed chores, and the elders telling stories around the dying fires. 
Of course, that has led her here. Katara can recognize that Zuko has only retired because everyone else was, despite him being wide awake. Back home, it’s hardly supper time for him, but he removes himself from conversation with a grace that has become necessary with his position. Herself? Well, the moon wasn’t entirely bright out tonight, but she had thought perhaps if she sneaked out, she could throw ice at his window until he came to spar with her, a rare treat that they do not get to share that often anymore. 
He’s beat her outside though, so Katara stops to admire the view. 
Clothing made of thick fur and hide coats the Fire Lord from head to toe, swords gripped in gloved hands as they slice through the frozen air. Shifting stances don’t seem to be affected by the snow that gathers round him, an aura of warmth emitting from him so that he has a place to practice, his flames absent so that he does not bore a hole through the ice beneath him. His pale skin reflects the dancing lights above him, darkening his eyes and making him seem to glow an unearthly green. It’s beautiful and awful, seeing him like this, so used to seeing him in the warmth of an orange fire or of the yellow sun. When they are in the Fire Nation, he has always been more akin to a firebird when he practices, coated in gold sweat and skin reflective of the setting sun. Here, he is a different type of creature, almost a spirit outside her comprehension. 
Were there green dragons, Katara wonders as she steps forward, pulling her own parka tighter around her. If there are, then perhaps that’s what he has become here, something out of legend and miraculous to behold, hidden away from prying eyes and just for her. For some reason that makes sense, in the dark of night and under the crystalline sky, both bathed in green and blue. If anyone was going to change drastically after the war, after only a handful of years too, it would be him. He always adapted faster than the rest of them, mostly through necessity, but still. 
“You’re looking at me like you did under Ba Sing Se,” he interrupts her thoughts, pausing in his movements to glance at her before he sheaths his swords at whatever he sees on her face. Arms cross over his chest and she wonders when he got so tall, when she began to notice things like his height and the width of his chest. She could fit under his chin and she pushes down the idea that if he just leaned down a little -- well, never mind. “Did you come to find me or am I in the way?” 
“You’ve come all this way and we’ve hardly seen each other. We spoke a bit in a group, but that doesn’t count,” Katara murmurs back, carefully stepping closer and closer, as she would approach a wild animal. His expression doesn’t seem any different than before, but the way his eyes reflect the aurora overhead, she wonders if she might as well be and just never noticed. “Of course I’ve come to find you.” 
A bench materializes out of the ice, Katara crafting a simple seat for them to rest on, and she tries not to seem overly eager to get Zuko alone. The last time she saw him a few years ago, he had been at a distance, an overseer to an Earth Kingdom project with the Avatar. Aang had encouraged her to seek him out after that, but his airship had already left, his Uncle tucked away in it for a quick vacation before the holiday season of their own nation. His schedule did not allow for regular letters, either, at least not very personal ones that he wrote and did not dictate to someone else while walking from one meeting to the next. 
If this was her one chance, she’d take this dragon and hold on tight, starting with tucking into his side. 
He lets her, for whatever reason, but then he doesn’t tend to argue when she invades his personal space like this -- she’s held onto him from behind while he talks with councilors in hallways, she’s fallen asleep on his shoulder at the theater, and those are just the times she can remember off the top of her head. Never has he responded like this before, though. Leaning back, he graces her shoulders with the weight of his arm, lets his head hang over the back of the seat, lets his eyes close despite the colors swirling above them. Throat bobbing as his lips form words he could be saying just before he swallows them, he has relaxed in a single instance, and Katara pulls his arm tighter around her as if that could make this moment last. Zuko takes initiative at the tug and soon, she is wrapped up in his arms, chest to chest, as they balance longways on their seat, her head resting on his shoulder, his outside knee keeping them from rolling off into the hard packed snow. Limbs tangled now, she can almost imagine scales beneath her mitten as she runs it over his arm. 
He’s always run a little warmer than the rest of them, but the heat he inspires in her this time is different, has been different for a while if she’s willing to admit to that. The shiver that she feels running over her is a living thing, crawling from where Zuko’s fingers have started to play with the hair near her ear and settling in her stomach. Only able to blink out across the smooth, white canvas of snow that the lights are painting around them, she tugs off her gloves and curls them right into the Fire Lord’s clothes, suddenly desperate for attention instead of this quiet contemplation. She is not made for quiet, and neither is a dragon. 
Kissing is nice, but that’s not what either of them needs right now. They fight for dominance, they try to untangle to gain the upper hand, and they end up on the ground where he growls at her when she giggles at how good he looks pinned underneath her. Staring up at her, his eyes hold that same green glow as when she first came out to this frozen expanse outside her home, but this time it’s mixed with enough gold and black to make her wonder what he sees when he looks up at her -- makes her wonder if she might look like a creature too. 
“We should talk about this,” he murmurs, running a warm hand under the collar of her parka, yanking her down to crash their lips together again. She hardly resists, nuzzling their noses together and enjoying that he’s melted the snow around them a bit in his enthusiasm. “Later.” 
“We will,” Katara assures against his mouth, drinking him in and letting herself be guided. She ends up in the divot he’s created, cradled by her homeland as she wraps her arms around his neck. “We’ll find time like we always do.” 
“What if we didn’t have to?” he whispers, slowly making his way across her nose and cheeks, watching her expression from the corner of his eye as he scrapes his teeth across her jawline. She tilts her head in question, though it does give him more room to work. “Find time. What if we had all the time in the world?” 
“What are you really asking?” 
“Will you come back with me?” 
It can’t be that easy. It has to be more difficult than just saying yes and getting swept off her feet. It’s taken them years to get this comfortable with each other and now, now they haven’t even really discussed what this means, what they’re going to do tomorrow when the marks upon their necks remind them of promises in the dark. Both have duties they cannot change, tasks they cannot leave behind undone, and yet there is something in her that flies at the thought of warm waters and red earth, of coaxing out this dragon above her into the light of the sun on golden sands. He is powerful here, in the darkness, in this green and blue world that is entirely her own, but he is more than this and so is she. What kind of dragon does she want to be, if she’s a dragon at all, and can she find it here underneath the moonlight of her home or must she travel far away to feel like she belongs?
It feels right to nod, it feels right to get caught up in Zuko’s arms and drown in the light of the aurora overhead. What strength of will they lost when they first touched each other has returned, however, and Katara moves to brush the wet from her clothes. Warm hands help and soon they are back to where they started, standing at a distance with the cold air between them. This time, Katara does not feel as if she is approaching a wild animal. This time, when she approaches Zuko, his hand is offered to her. All night, they watch the colors flickering in the sky, silent and caught in their own heads. It’ll take Sokka finding them in the morning to get them to move from their bench on the edge of the village, his keen eyes rolling when he sees their linked fingers.
Katara doesn’t care if her brother guesses what’s happened or not. The more important thing is that it has. She’ll figure out the rest later, when she touches down on land where the air is heavy and the sky's the palest blue. Oh, it won’t be the dark colors of her homeland but, looking over at Zuko as he pins his hair up with his crown to attend to official duties, as his eyes dance in the morning light, she swears she sees a bit of that green and blue hidden deep in there, calling her home. 
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wiseabsol · 5 years
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WA Reviews “Dominion” by Aurelia le, Chapter 6: Timing
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6383825/6/Dominion
Summary: For the Fire Nation royal siblings, love has always warred with hate. But neither the outward accomplishment of peace nor Azula’s defeat have brought the respite Zuko expected. Will his sister’s plans answer this, or only destroy them both?
Content Warnings: This story contains discussions and depictions of child abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and incest. This story also explores the idea that Zuko’s redemption arc (and his unlearning of abuse) is not as complete as the show suggested, and that Azula is not a sociopath (with the story having a lot of sympathy for her). If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, I would strongly recommend steering clear of this story and my reviews of it.  
Note: Because these were originally posted as chapter reviews/commentaries, I will often be talking to the author in them (though sometimes I will also snarkily address the characters). While I’ve also tried not to spoil later events in the story in these reviews, I would strongly recommend reading through chapter 25 before reading these, just to be safe.
Now on to chapter 6!
CHAPTER 6: TIMING
Alright, let’s see if I can review chapter six before the day is out. I’ve got five hours. I can totally do this! So Zuko, Mai, and Lu Ten are vacationing on Ember Island, which is also where the asylum is. This is already not a great combination. I think it’s pretty funny that Mai’s palanquin has more black on it than the other two, although that defeats the purpose of it being ambiguous who is in which palanquin if someone chooses to attack their procession. Yes, they are less likely to all be wiped out in a single strike this way, but someone could still target any one of them and still achieve a devastating amount of damage. Mai is heavily implied later to have fertility issues, so taking out Lu Ten might mean there would be no heir to inherit later. Mai is the spymaster, so taking her out would cripple Zuko’s administration. And taking out Zuko would throw the precarious peace the Fire Nation now has with the rest of the world into the refuse bin. So the consequences would be nasty any way that that attack could go. Related to this, the royal family being this small means it’s very vulnerable. Sure, there’s Iroh to fall back on in case something happens to Zuko, Mai, and Lu Ten, but Iroh no longer has his own heir. He could potentially legitimize one of his bastards to solve that problem, but he doesn’t know any of them like he knew Lu Ten. Ozai and Azula are non-options as well, as far as most of the world is concerned. And there are no uncles, aunts, cousins, or other blood relations for the throne to pass to outside of these people. If another noble family wanted to overthrow the royal family, they wouldn’t have to go through that many people to get what they wanted. Sure, the people they would have to get through are powerful, but they could feasibly accomplish it if there was, say, a rebellion of the magnitude of Robert’s Rebellion against Targaryens in ASOIAF. It could be done if they had the right candidate to rally around. But back to the chapter. There’s an interesting political undercurrent going on where Ember Island is concerned, and Zuko’s initiative in dealing with it pleasantly surprised me. Mai deciding to use this opportunity to take a vacation and look for more “knives and stilettos” for her collection made me chuckle, and the mention of Sokka’s space sword was great. I’m imagining Mai presenting it to Sokka with just a hint of smugness now. Gosh, Zuko and Mai are cute before shit hits the fan in chapter seven. Him holding up a parasol for her and her exasperation about him “roughing it up in exile” made me smile. Also, Lu Ten is cute with his “white gold” eyes. I do have some doubts about him being a firebender, though. For one, it seems like him not being one would throw a serious wrench into Zuko and Mai’s dynastic plans, which could be interesting to explore in “Thrones.” Second, given that Mai isn’t a bender and Ursa wasn’t one either, there’s around a 50/50 shot that Lu Ten isn’t. So it’s both a reasonable possibility genetically and intriguing plot-wise, so I’m leaning towards him not being one at present. I also have a theory that a certain other child will be legitimized by Zuko later on, adding another wrench into the already complicated works. But I’ll get to that in later chapters. “‘Love you, bye’ [ . . . ] Was that really how Lu Ten would remember his father? As someone who was always leaving about some official business?”—This is actually really sad, because I imagine that while Zuko worried about whether he would be a good father or not, he does genuinely love his son and want to have a connection with him. “Once he convinced his people that an honorable peace was worth sacrificing a century of ill-gotten gains.”—Very nice symmetry in this line here. “He still wanted more.”—I have an AMV you should watch in regards to that, Zuko: (slash)watch?vS6fNJ79evn8. Also, that song is very appropriate for the conflict in “Dominion” in general. “He didn’t look forward to the prospect of wearing so much clothing in this heat, but if that succeeded in getting his opponents to take him more seriously, he supposed it was worth the imposition.”—Or you could strip to get your opponents to take you seriously. Oh wait. “Mai could almost understand why Lu Ten never tired of playing with [Zuko’s crown]. Beyond the fact that Zuko didn’t often allow him to.”—This makes me remember how Azula allows a certain child to play with her crown later, so this is a nice bit of (probably) unintended contrast. “/Wake the baby, and you die/”—Lol, Mai. Okay, so basically none of the loyalists want to meet up with Zuko to discuss how the Fire Nation should be run. And while he and Mai are discussing it, she says, “Not everyone’s as honest as you” and I want to laugh myself sick. Mai goes over some of the reasons why the loyalists are refusing to meet with him, then volunteers to help him with the negotiations. We also get this cute line, “She had thought there must be something wrong with him, when Zuko told her [her grimace] was her most endearing mannerism.” They have such a wholesome relationship here. It would be such a shame if something happened to it. “‘I know,’ Mai sighed dramatically, ‘sometimes I doubt my own judgement’”—I’m both laughing at that and pitying her, given later events. Okay, so Zuko expresses that he sometimes feels as if Azula wouldn’t have these kinds of problems ruling like he does. Technically, he’s right—the loyalists would much rather have Azula as their ruler than Zuko (if they couldn’t have Ozai, that is). But rather than continuing to reassure Zuko, Mai shuts this conversation down with snide remarks about the other problems Azula would have, namely being crazy. Which is unfair to both Zuko and Azula, even though I get why mentioning Azula set Mai off like that. In response, Zuko asks her, “‘Will you honestly pretend you never had /any/ regard for her at all? [ . . . ] That you /hated/ every minute of it?’” After which Mai actually admits that she was fond of Azula—the line “‘And she actually had a sense of humor.’ /Unlike someone else I could mention/” was especially painful to me. It seems like progress coming from her, but then: “That now that she consented to share her feelings, they could cry together over Azula’s sad, sad fate. Or some similar nonsense. Agni, he was worse than Ty Lee sometimes.”—The expectation the readers were building to is averted. “‘She crossed a line, when she left you to die. And subsequent events showed her for what she really was. [ . . . ] Something barely human, let alone deserving of respect.”—I maintain that Mai is wrong about Azula’s capacity to kill Zuko. First, let’s look at what happened when Azula “tried to kill” Zuko. When the ropes for the cable car were being cut in the Boiling Rock, Ty Lee, interestingly, did not express any concern about that. That would be strange if Zuko’s life was in danger, since we know she cares for Zuko as a friend. As such, while I don’t know exactly what would have happened if the cable car had hit the boiling lake, it seems as if there’s a possibility that it would have floated instead of sinking. Instead of everyone inside of it being killed, they would have been left stranded on the lake, where they could have been retrieved and taken into custody. Or it could have killed them, but again, I can’t see Ty Lee being okay with that, given her defense of Mai in that same episode. Then there was the attack on the Western Air Temple, during which Zuko seemingly falls to his death twice. The first time this happens, he lands on another Fire Nation airship—which Azula had to know was there. The second time it happens, Azula is falling along with him, until she manages to save herself. Now the question is, would she have managed to find a way to save him as well? Would she have grabbed him as she launched herself towards the cliff? Ultimately, we don’t know the answer to this, because the Gaang caught Zuko before she got her bearings back. She didn’t have to save him, so we will never know if she would have chosen to do so. As such, it’s ambiguous how serious her attempts to murder him were. It’s possible that despite her claims and her father’s orders, she might have been trying to capture Zuko instead. We can’t know for sure one way or the other. Zuko, on the other hand, would have let Azula fall to her death. No matter how any readers might feel about his characterization in “Dominion,” they can’t deny that that was something that he did in canon—and given the emphasis on being merciful to one’s enemies in ATLA, that was a decidedly unheroic thing for him to do, especially after he had been “redeemed.” Anyway, back to the chapter. Zuko thinks he should go visit Azula, since they’re on Ember Island. Not because he wants to, but because he thinks he should. “letting the fabric fall from his hands and onto their bed like a sinuous river of blood”—Great description to convey the tone of the moment. “‘You don’t owe her anything [ . . . ] And the sooner you realize that, the better off we’ll /all/ be.”—Mai’s not wrong, but we know Zuko doesn’t feel the same way. “‘You don’t know what it’s like [ . . . ] to have someone you whole life, and then they’re just gone.”—Ouch. Ouch ouch ouch. But has it occurred to Zuko that Azula probably felt the same way when he was exiled? I’m sure it hasn’t. "Mai considered in that moment just going with him, but dismissed it almost as quickly. She had never been to see Azula, and there was no telling how the mad princess would react to her, whatever improvements Ty Lee claimed in her mental state."—Honestly, Mai? Maybe you should have gone with him. I think it's clear that you're still hurting over what happened at the Boiling Rock, even if you deny it and claim that your denial is closure. Talking with her might have helped you, and it might have helped Zuko too. In addition, I suspect that the events of this story would have gone down a dramatically different path if you had been with Zuko during chapter seven. But you chose to stay with Lu Ten, which is, admittedly, a reasonable choice to make, especially given your justifications for it (namely, that if Azula got the upper hand in a fight, she could use you against Zuko). But it also meant that you missed an opportunity to head off some of this story's conflict before it began. So Zuko goes to visit Azula, while Mai practices with her knives. The "but [she] like to think it was something more, that maybe he inherited not just her eyes and thick black hair, but her enduring love of pointy things" is super cute and makes me want him to be a nonbender even more. After a while, though, Mai gets the news that Azula has escaped. Yes! Except she's not as enthused about the prospect as I am. "'Answer your Fire Lady!' Mai said stridently, taking a quick step closer to compel him and eliciting a frightened squeak from Lu Ten, who was unused to hearing his mother express herself so loudly."—Nice characterization here. "Another /cursed/ letter"—Ah, so does this mean Mai is fully aware of Azula's letters and Zuko's fixation on them? "'Dada?' he chirped hopefully up at her, with that same uncertain smile she had seen on Zuko's face too many times to count."—Awww! "while Mai removed the flame headpieces and pin from her hair, letting it fall freely down her back"—Have we ever seen Mai with her hair down? I don't think we have. I'm curious about how that looks. "And Mai reflected on the fitness of the metaphor"—While I reflect on the cleverness of the writing.
We move on to Zuko who, like us, is skeptical that the breakout at the asylum had nothing to do with Azula. Also, "cold therapy" sounds like the Fire Nation's equivalent of electroshock therapy. Apparently, it "helps" mental ill firebenders, which both Zuko and I think is nonsense. In any case, Azula got thrown into a cooler at one point, with Iroh's consent. Apparently it did not go well, because Azula flashed back to being frozen by Katara in the finale, even assuming the position she was in then, with her hands behind her back. Eventually, though, she acclimated to the cells. "'We think her fire simply burns too hot. As you are aware, she is the first bender in several generations to wield blue flames, and the first ever recorded in the royal family.'"—This is so cool. I wonder what the stories of the other blue flame benders are? "'You're used to blaming her when things go wrong, aren't you? [ . . . ] It gives you a measure of comfort."—Dr. Kwan's got your measure, Zuko. Oooohhh, so Zuko wanted Azula to be guarded by eight imperial firebenders at all times. It's no wonder she needed to set up an escape for some of the other patients in the asylum—how else to pull the guards away from her? Also, the "No joke" comment made me laugh. "Didn't these people know what she /was/?"—Stop saying "what" instead of "who" Lord Weirdo. It's contributing to your dehumanization of Azula. "This one opened outward, to prevent Azula from hiding behind it when anyone entered her cell."—That is surprisingly savvy of them to have designed the door that way. "'Her hair is /brown/! /Dark/ brown, like my /mother's/!"—Ugh from the future. "'And she's /shorter,/ that isn't /her/!"—So is it canon that Azula has a short stature, or is that more of your preference, Aurelia? Because as a short woman, I don't mind, but I also don't know the answer to that question, XD. Zuko briefly panics, thinking that Azula is pretending to be one of the imperial firebenders, which is a nice nod to her pretending to be a Kyoshi Warrior in canon. But of course Azula didn't stick around like that. "But it still hurt"—The way this is led into makes me think that this is meant to be read as, "But it still hurt that she'd betrayed him," even though this isn't a betrayal, because it's not about him at all. This is also a nice echo to Azula's speech on the beach. "The guard smiled shyly, odd as that was to see in a man at least five years his senior, 'It'd be hard to forget….'"—Is it weird that I find that cute? Because I do. Azula's plan is brilliant, which of course it would be. Though Zuko thinks, "This just proved how little they knew her. Azula didn't identify with anyone, Zuko recalled. She was just good at pretending." Which is not true. Azula is capable of empathy; she just doesn't express it in obvious ways. Being raised by a sociopath who equated warm emotions with weakness no doubt influenced her in that respect. "The one part that did /not/ make an awful sort of sense to him, was how she had subdued a guard and left the cell under her own power. Kwan and the guards both confirmed that she had been sedated, and the effect should have lasted several more hours."—This primes us to both the fact that Azula has been building up an immunity to the sedatives they're been giving her, but also that she might still be effected by the drugs when we see her. This is important in light of what happens in the next chapter. Zuko's means of trying to find Azula are actually very well thought out. Then he remembers that it's Azula's birthday, which makes him remember his conversation with Ty Lee, which makes him remember when he was last on the beach with Ty Lee, Mai, and Azula. This leads him to the realization that Azula has gone to the royal family's abandoned summer home. "He knew how much she hated it there."—Is there a specific reason for that, or is it just that it reminds her of her mother and thus is poisoned by her resentment towards Ursa? "His footfalls sounded despite the dust, the faded wood floors unaccustomed to his weight, and a sudden idea struck him. Zuko removed his boots and left them sitting beside the doors"—Well that is one way to make sure you don't have to worry about the logistics of him removing them in a certain scene in the next chapter. "Not a /single/ pair of /pants/ in her entire wardrobe?' Azula grumbled to herself. 'Why am I not sur—'"—I may have laughed really hard at this, because of course Ursa wouldn't have owned any pants! That would have been so unladylike of her! Though it is also very concerning that Azula decided to look through her mother's clothes for something first. I get the rationale behind her decision, but it's also unsettling once you know she uses the same makeup as her mother too. "He did not remember deciding to look inside. That fact alone was troubling."—Brace yourself, Zuko, it's about to get 1000x more troubling. "And he had never been one to hide pointlessly. Or to run from a fight."—Pssht, who thinks that way about themselves and expects us to take them seriously? "'You came back.'"—Oh Azula, honey. I wish he had come back for you, but he came back for the idea of you more than anything else. And that cliffhanger is where you chose to end the chapter. I'm very fortunate that I started reading this when there was—gosh, I want to say sixteen chapters up already? I distinctly remember getting the notification in my inbox when "A Kindness" came out. So I didn't have to wait for chapter seven like some readers did, which I imagine would have killed me. I know waiting for "Line of Fire" almost did, and that was for Ursa rather than Azula. Though to be fair, Ursa is a fascinating character, so she was worth the wait. In any case, I'm looking forward to tackling chapter seven and heading into the meat of this story, but I might need a few days to prepare myself for it. As always, thank you for the read! Sincerely, WiseAbsol
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seyaryminamoto · 4 years
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(1/2) What if the reason Bryke left was because Netflix wanted to give Azula a redemption arc? Or maybe somebody wanted to change the first scene of the show so that Katara wasn't with Sokka when he went fishing and so Aang wasn't unfrozen until years later... *whistles innocently* And they realized this route would allow them to make a longer series, meaning more content, meaning more profit. Jokes aside, I realize both of these options are 99% not the reason Bryke left, but imagine if...
(2/2) they were? Like, how funny would that be? Well, the latter possibility would be sort of funny, while the former would be somewhat depressing actually. Anyway, I'm surprised how many people are complaining about Bryke's departure. From what I've seen, people primarily shit on them and any praise in regards to ATLA goes to other writers/artists. I already didn't have any high expectations out of the live-action version, but this latest development didn't really worsen them much.
x’D not wrong about the second option being hilarious, though I’d hope I’d have heard something about it, if just out of sheer decency by Netflix to contact the cruel mind behind not sending Sokka fishing with Katara... (?)
Anyways, Bryke’s involvement in ATLA’s writing is often up-played by casual viewers, and downplayed by hardcore fans. There’s no sure way to know how much work they did on ATLA’s writing, seeing as there’s a fair amount of reports that suggest Aaron Ehasz, imposed on Bryke by Nickelodeon, reeled the story into what it became. I’ve even seen people claiming Bryke’s original ending would have featured Aang leaving Katara and Sokka behind while flying off to find more airbenders after the show ended. Not half as feel-good an ending as the show’s, right? Then there’s also reports that male!Toph was going to be in a love triangle with Katara and Aang... adding Zuko to the mix, as he often was added by extra ATLA content, Katara was likely to have three possible love interests, if Bryke had gone forward with this? Considering how Korra outright had three different love interests in ALL the members of her gang, this doesn’t sound like that outlandish a claim, whether there’s real sources for it or not. If they were willing to do it with Korra, I’d believe they’d have done it with Katara.
Ehasz is indeed credited for female!Toph and Azula, in the art book (I think) Bryke are outright featured saying Ehasz is the main artificer behind Azula being who she was, rather than Zuko’s older brother (Bryke’s original concept for her character). With this in mind, when Ehasz comes out and claims that, in a hypothetical book 4, he would have redeemed Azula to also finish Zuko’s personal character arc, and then Bryke show up claiming there NEVER was a book 4 possibility, you get a clearer understanding of where Bryke are likely standing in regards of Azula’s redemption :’) if that’s what Netflix wanted (... though I question they’d have pitched it since the get-go), it’d be no surprise that Bryke wouldn’t hear of it.
There’s no denying Bryke had interesting ideas, and that they worked to build a pretty complex world, but we cannot know how much of that world was solely their doing, and how much of it was also created by the input of the larger team of writers involved in ATLA’s original show. LOK, on the other hand, features a clusterfuck of worldbuilding that doesn’t always make sense, including no shortage of retcons (not only of pre-existing lore, LOK even retcons itself up to three times regarding explaining why and who decided to keep Korra in a compound for most her formative years), terribly written romance (whenever it’s written), poor storytelling decisions that outright derrailed their show and even turned their protagonist into the B-plot for the bulk of the final season... and what a coincidence that this time Bryke had no one breathing down their necks telling them what to do: they had a lot more creative freedom in LOK than in ATLA. There was no Nickelodeon imposed Head Writer, and they didn’t bring Ehasz back of their own volition. Whether because Ehasz isn’t that great to work with or because Bryke simply didn’t want anyone else to poke their noses into THEIR story, Bryke didn’t want any supervision over LOK. And as many loud fans as LOK may have, LOK’s storytelling quality simply doesn’t measure up to ATLA’s, and I refuse to blame Nickelodeon for that when all evidence indicates Bryke had no idea what they wanted for Korra in the first place.
What I’m saying is... Bryke do seem to benefit from having someone else reeling in their ideas, probably providing genuine structure, making them seriously reason with WHERE they’re taking the story. This, going by ATLA’s much clearer structure, is something I’m willing to believe Ehasz offered, and something Bryke lacked, by their own volition, in LOK. It’s also something they lack in the comics, seeing as, up to date, they haven’t done anything in them that really lives up to their potential, as far as I know. “The comics don’t have any direction and aren’t advancing their world’s story” has become a far more frequent complaint with each newly announced and released comic volume, whether by supportive or antagonistic fans. Why might that be...?
It’s possible, of course, that Netflix’s team simply isn’t the kind of team Bryke can work with positively. Maybe they’re too stiff, maybe they’re not that creative, maybe they’re unable to compromise and it’s not all on Bryke?
But with the precedent Bryke has set (ATLA, with supervision, manages quality storytelling, despite its many flaws, whereas LOK, without it, is a storytelling failure), I wouldn’t be surprised that they were outright unwililng to compromise their own ideas after experiencing the full freedom of working on LOK without anyone telling them what to do, and that upon finding they wouldn’t have that same freedom this time, they quit. 
Does this mean the show will automatically be better or worse? Eh... beats me, frankly. There’s no denying Bryke did endeavor to develop a large, unique world with the Avatarverse, but as much as the fandom believes otherwise, what made the Avatar world unique wasn’t merely that it wasn’t “white”. This particular qualm by the fandom feels really narrowminded to me, and I’m not saying this because I believe there should be white people in Avatar, hell no: what I do mean is that ATLA had an Asian setting, but the narrative frequently imposed western values on it. They recreated many elements of Asian cultures, but morally? ATLA couldn’t be more western. Is that a good or a bad thing? Beats me. But there’s a lot of occidental influence in ATLA’s narrative, even more of it in LOK, and that somehow doesn’t bother people nearly as much as it bothers them that the liveaction cast isn’t western in the least. Yes, it’s true, the cast shouldn’t be western: but there are many regards in which the original ATLA could pioneer a better understanding of many Asian cultures, and it doesn’t. Even something as complex as the Fire Nation’s cultural practices (no, I don’t mean the genocide and supermacy, I mean everything else) is outright blasted by the show’s western moralism from the get-go rather than seen as what a different culture values (already offered a few thoughts about this on this other ask).
Therefore, in terms of casting, which seems the main concern of the bulk of the fandom, I highly doubt Netflix will be willing to repeat the same mistake M. Night’s fiasco committed. They can’t be that stupid. They’ve done a lot of big diversity efforts in the past, whether insincere or not, in many regards, so I seriously doubt they need Bryke sitting in the casting booth repeating “NO WHITE ACTORS! NO WHITE ACTORS!” to the top of their lungs to remind Netflix's executives that this just can’t happen. Seriously, if that’s what their input for the show was supposed to be about, Netflix was better off saving up the money of hiring those two as main consultants or executives and using that coin to pay the likely lousy salaries of the non-white actors they’ll surely hire :’) I doubt, seriously, that Bryke’s problem had anything to do with white casting. If Netflix entered this deal and didn’t do their homework first, then they’re basically dooming themselves since day one and the show would suck with or without Bryke’s involvement. This is not impossible, but really stupid, and an absolutely failed business venture to jump into.
In the end, I don’t know what that liveaction will shape up into. I don’t exactly care much either, which is why I didn’t really debate this subject before answering this ask... I’m pretty detached from canon these days, as things stand. I can’t even bring myself up to reading the plot of the Kyoshi novels, no matter if people keep telling me they’re ~actually good!~, let alone will I want to rewatch ATLA in liveaction when I’ve become increasingly infuriated by liveaction remakes with each new one Disney releases :’) from the moment it was announced, I knew this remake wouldn’t be for me. It’s not likely they’ll do anything with it that I’ll really want to see, or that they’ll change things in a way that resolves my frequent complaints about the show’s storytelling mishaps. Therefore, I’d always meant to leave it be and let everyone else enjoy it...
... And Bryke’s absence from the project doesn’t really change my mind on that front. At this point, crediting them for the entire success of ATLA is incredibly naïve, especially seeing how none of their later projects have even come close to ATLA’s level of storytelling quality. Likewise, it’d be naïve to assume Netflix is guaranteed to do better without Bryke’s “meddling”. If anything, without Bryke’s likely persistence that the show be kept close to its roots, Netflix is bound to fall into its frequent, known tendencies of pandering to certain crowds at the cost of quality storytelling because Hollywood overused and bad tropes are where success is at! They’ll likely flatten characters, turn them into edgy, non-humorous versions of themselves, not unlike in M. Night’s film, and then everyone will hate the show anyways for offering such dull and simplistic characterization compared to the original :’)
In short... there’s no winning scenario. There really isn’t. I assumed there wouldn’t be one anyhow, from the get-go, at least for myself? But now that Bryke are out, the fandom is divided in about four factions: 
The ones who will watch and support the liveaction no matter what.
The ones who think it will suck balls because Bryke aren’t in it.
The ones who think it will be an improvement because Bryke aren’t in it.
The ones who won’t watch it no matter what.
Me... I’ve been in camp #4 from the start. Bryke being part of this project didn’t reassure me, neither does their absence... and I’m still as convinced this show won’t be my thing today as I was when it was first announced. So... *shrug* we live and let die. I mean, first of all we have to wait and see if the show’s production will even survive the pandemic first, so we can worry about how bad or good it will be if Bryke’s departure + COVID-19 didn’t destroy it altogether already :’D
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