#it's pretty close to salvage by muffinlance

[aboutiroh]

You know how Zuko and Azula were overhearing Ozai asking Azulon for Iroh's birthright and Zuko ran away before he could hear the rest of it? Well, what if didn't but stayed to hear Ozai's punishment and as a result ran away in fear. Basically it would like how Aang reacted when he overheard the monks planning to send him away except that Zuko would be even more scared. Anyway what do you think could happen? Like it would be a dark story of survival, hiding and secrecy for Zuko as he would probably have to stow away on ship to the Earth kingdom and be on the run from the fire nation. Maybe he could meet the gang while there and join them and Azulon might still alive at the time and Ursa and Iroh would probably do everything they can to find Zuko.

All I can think about is a 9 year-old Toph finding 13 year-old Zuko hiding in a cave and the unusual friendship that ensues. 

[emkini]

heyy I read towards the sun the other day bc I saw you mention it and it fucked. so ty!!!! if you feel like it, do you have other atla recs? 👀

Ohohoh do I

Notes:

I tend to be primarily a zuko-centric gen fic enjoyer in the atla fandom so that's what most of these are gonna be!

Pretty much every author on this list has a bunch of stellar works and I'd recommend checking out all of their ao3 profiles, but these are just some of my personal favorites!

I've been having a Rough Time™ lately, so most of my faves fall on the soft and squishy side– if you're looking for heavy angst I do not have much of it 😔

-----------

Salvage (complete) by @muffinlance is by the same author as Towards The Sun and a fandom classic at this point; I cannot recommend it enough. Summary: Mid-Season-One Zuko is held for ransom by Chief Hakoda. Ozai's replies to the Water Tribe's demands are A+ Parenting. Hakoda is… deeply concerned, for this son that isn't his, and who might be safer among enemies than with his own father.

The Fire Nation Yacht Club series (reads as complete) by @sword-and-stars gives me all the emotions. Summary: Sokka knows three (3) things: 1. The caldera is on fire. 2. Ozai’s really, really dead (and so is his daughter). 3. The only one having a worse day is probably Zuko. / Everyone has their breaking point. This is what happens after you’ve broken. In which healing is a process and also it kind of sucks.

For Hearth and Home (complete) is another classic fic by the same author (honestly just check out all of their work, it's all stellar) that I absolutely adore. Summary: There’s a child underneath Fire Lord Zuko’s desk. He doesn’t realize this until he sits down and tiny hands wrap themselves around his ankles, and Fire Lord Zuko definitely does not shriek and backpedal away at the unexpected touch. He definitely does do that but Gou, the single guard he’s agreed to let shadow him, is kind enough not to mention it.

Mountains and Badgermolehills (complete) by Glass_Onion is an incredibly fun and well-written romp of a read. Summary: After the Blue Spirit frees the Avatar from the Pohuai Stronghold, Admiral Zhao captures Prince Zuko under suspicion of treason. Isolated from his Uncle and his crew, Zuko has only one ally: the chatty prisoner one cell over.

The Art of Burning (incomplete, ongoing) by @hella1975 is superb- lots of angst, lots of emotions, and lots of memes. Summary (excerpt): In a warring land, the Water Tribe forgave the enemy in an act of defiance. For this, he was torn from them, and this time, his wounds won't heal so easily.

Embers (complete) by Vathara is another fandom classic– one I have not yet been able to finish because dear god is it long. like holy shit. Very dense and plot-heavy and an incredible read if you're a lover of worldbuilding and fantasy politics. Summary: Dragon's fire is not so easily extinguished; when Zuko rediscovers a lost firebending technique, shifting flames can shift the world...

where the stars do not take sides (complete) by WitchofEndor is a very sweet and interesting canon divergence fic, and of course as always I am a SUCKER for the fire siblings being close. Such a sucker. Summary: When Azula is nine, she becomes an only child. She hears the Fire Lord call for Zuko's life, and in the morning, her mother and brother are gone. Azula may be young, but she isn't naive. She knows what happened to them. Which makes it all the more surprising when Azula tracks the Avatar down and fights his group of peasant friends, only to find herself staring into an eerily familiar face.

Honor & Vengeance on the High Seas (complete) by @paramouradrift is a very fun read– I haven't finished it yet but if you love boats, pirate Zuko, and angry teenagers being gay and doing crime, I guarantee you'll have a good time. Summary: Zuko was banished, but instead of devoting his life to finding the Avatar to regain his honor he gave in to his spite and became a pirate against Ozai.

And the world, still so wild, called to me (I was lost, I’d been kept on my knees) (complete) by delightfullydiscordant– An Aang-centric fic that hurts my HEART Summary (excerpt): A study in grief and loss, in anger and hate.

a viper-lizard's tales (incomplete, ongoing) by Yumi_Take is really sweet and very fun; it has a simple but unique and interesting prose style that I really like. Summary: The desert sun burns and Zuko probably shouldn't touch the moving cloth, but he does anyway.

[purrincesskittens]

Dadkoda soulmate au based on my post here

finally a non salvage gift fic for @muffinlance

chapter 2

..............................................................................................................................

Chapter 1

It hurt. The loss of a soulmate hurt. It felt like a hole had been torn in his heart and soul. The loss of his beloved wife, the loss of a soulmate, did this to Hakoda. He still had Bato something he was grateful for, he wasn't sure what would have happened to him if he had lost Bato as well.

He loved his family, his kids and mother but the loss of Kya right then was too much. Some part of him hated seeing his kids torn up and upset over the loss of her and scared because of how he was acting but at the same time there was a fog of hurt, pain loss and emptiness that covered everything else he felt. He wanted to be strong for his kids to hold them tight and not let go but the thought of doing so without Kya there beside him ached.

He had completed some of his duties as chief for the day already not everything he normally would have but other men in the village were stepping up to help take over and Bato was taking over some of his duties splitting them with him never straying from his side. The loss of Kya hurt him as well even though they weren't soulmates but he was pushing through it to help Hakoda.

Sokka and Katara had been fed and dressed by his mother and Hakoda had given them each a hug and kiss on the head before sending them out to play. He knew it wasn't enough but it would have to do for now until he could bring himself to do more. He lay sprawled on his bed eyes closed arm thrown over his eyes his other arm stretched out over qhere Kya would have lay beside him. The arm her soul writing usually covered but was now empty. Not even Bato dared write on that arm afraid of how it might break him further but sometimes he forgot and started to write something before quickly whipping it away and switching arms.

Bato was currently cooking something his back turned to Hakoda as he prepared dinner for the family while Kanna kept the kids occupied. A tingling sensation ran through the arm stretched out beside him making him huff slightly with faint amusement. "Are you seriously writing something to me when I'm right here and you could simply turn around and tell me directly?" He calls to his other soulmate not bothering to lift his arm and look at what was being written. He figured Bato would stop having been caught or realize it was kind of stupid to write to him when he voted just speak directly to him.

"I'm not writing anything what are you talking about?" Bato asks turning towards Hakoda. He couldn't help worrying over him. He wasn't writing to Hakoda at that moment and Kya was gone. Could Hakoda be imagining it? Had the grief of losing Kya driven him to start imagining things and not realizing it. It would be the first time grief had done that to someone who lost a soulmate.

Hakoda frowned at that. He didn't think he was imagining the sensation didn't think he was so far gone from grief to imagine Kya was still alive, still writing to him. He sat up as Bato moved to his side peering blurrily down at his arm. His arm where golden letters in shaky common was appearing. Hakoda sucked in a breath at the sight of the golden writing. The writing was small but the letters big and carefully individually written like someone unused to writing in common.

Like how Sokka wrote. How a child might write something in a language not their native one. Once children got the hang of writing in their own language their writing tended to be messy and fast but this was painstakingly slow and careful with a bit of wobble to the letter as if written with a shaky hand. Hakoda stared at the writing his mouth hanging open he turned to look at Bato who was just as startled as him. Bato met his gaze eyes wide. "I have another soulmate." Hakoda breathed out softly looking back at the pretty gold "Are you okay?"

[muffinlance]

State of the Muffin Report 2019-20

Friends, readers, sworn enemies; 

Welcome to the first annual State of the Muffin Report. Lo it was that on this day, March the Third, exactly one year ago, the first chapter of Little Zuko was published.

And it has been friggin' wild since then. So. Just a little chart, 'cause I'm a math person and we Do That:

[id: A screenshot of a spreadsheet showing all stories and word counts. The most relevant info is the summary statistics.

Total words written this year: 296,693

Words per month average: 24,724

Words per day average: 811

End id.]

For the record, my last previous yearly record was around 100k. And that was a few years ago. So. I'm feelin' pretty good. 

Serious Face Writing Status:

1 short story published (Analog, woo!)

Another written and ready to sub and I should really get on that

Novel-wise, only idle writing of new stuff and idle subbing of old stuff. ...Whoops.

Other Projects:

“Li's Friends” charity coloring book: artist sign up now closed, 44 wonderful friends submitted, art deadline April 2, 2020. And then the writing begins. <3

Goals for 2020-21:

Fanfiction: Finish Salvage, Towards the Sun Book 1, and Little Zuko Book 2. All three of those together is almost certainly a stretch goal but pssh. What's the point of an easy goal?

Serious Face Writing: Sub that already-ready short. Balance time between fanfic and serious face writing better. Finish "Forest in the Mirror" (MG supernatural horror novel, estimated word count: 40-50k, which after this last year feels SHORT and ACHIEVABLE, I just need to butt-in-chair it.)

Other Projects: Self-pub Li's Friends, and hopefully do a raining money gif on the charities we pick, but at least it'll be coloring fun time. <3 

Special thanks this year goes to Boogum, my very first commenter ever and boy was that encouraging to get Noticed by Senpai; @captainkirkk​ and @wherethebuttercupsgrow​ who know what they did; and all the amazing fanartists and writers who take the stupid and not-so-stupid things I say and run with them. 

Also, the ridiculous number of commenters and kudosers and question askers and general people-who-give-me-life and make this feel like some kind of incredible little community that feeds on its own energy and poops out CREATIVITY. 

In conclusion, ya'll are amazing. <3

Cheers!

MuffinLance

[mumblesplash]

5 works tag game

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

tagged by @ogaferoga and @kneworder, thanks guys! 

5. tua s2 moments that were totally all in the show i swear

this was pretty fun to draw, and i’m happy with how recognizable everyone is (especially vanya). also fun fact: aside from a couple duplications of letters i’d already done, i freehanded all the text for some reason. none of those are real fonts, which i’m sure any actual typographers following me will be relieved to know

4. salvage zuko

i didn’t even finish this and i’m still giving it a spot on the list, even over one of the comics i made, just because it makes me so happy :) salvage might be my favorite fanfic ever (honestly all of @muffinlance‘s works are worth reading and i will continue to shill for her at every reasonable opportunity) and i’m just generally very pleased how this turned out

3. a dawning revelation

to this day i still don’t quite know what possessed me to make this comic. it was as close to an impulse decision as something that takes 50+ hours of work can even be, i’d never done anything like it before, and i had no reason to believe it would get any engagement, as i had literally two followers at time of posting. it’s still my post popular post, and i still smile every time someone leaves a comment on it. whatever drove me to make this, i’m really glad i did, because this disaster of a year was made just that much better by the chance to actually show people the art i make for the first time in my life. relatedly, i want to take a moment to say to everyone who leaves comments on anything creators make: thank you so much, seriously. not just on behalf of the artists and writers but also on behalf of the other people who like the things they make, you’re a big part of why they keep making things.

2. constellation map theatrics

you know what, i don’t even have much to say about this one. i just get an inexpressible amount of joy from looking at stars and based on the responses i’ve gotten to this comic this may be the first time i’ve successfully conveyed that feeling to other people

1. they couldn’t sleep

this one might hold the record for the closest i’ve ever gotten to creating exactly the image i had in my head. it might have something to do with how much more symbolism there is in this one than i usually include in my drawings, or how vividly i could picture the emotion i wanted to get across. it could also be because i’d just learned about ambient occlusion and finally put some actual thought into how lighting works. who’s to say, really

i have absolutely no idea who has and hasn’t been tagged already, but @deuynndoodles @wastefulreverie @wintermoth @actualdannyfenton @anthropwashere @prince-liest @isono-s-den

[muffinlance]

You're fabulous! I've loved reading all of your works, and how much care you take in consistent characterization. You're works feel tangible, so tangible I start to forget what's show canon and what's muffinlance canon. It all just starts to blur together, because when I read your writing I feel like it has the same spark as the show. Thank you! I was curious as to how you plan when you post new chapters, or completely new works? Is it as they get finished, or do you rotate through fics?

D'awww, thank you!

Writing-wise, I'm done a very rough rotation, heavily weighted by A) whatever I'm in the mood for, and B) whether things are in a good stopping place.

EX: Right now Little Zuko is just at the end of a book, and Towards the Sun is just starting one, so I'm more likely to update Towards the Sun. And Salvage is so damn close to being done-done that it's pretty much taken highest priority. Unless something else gets my attention--

(And Scaled Over is in a terrible stopping point, I can't even make jokes on the blog about the most basic first arc plot reveals, so it bothers me on a fundamental level that I haven't touched it in so long. But I'm also completely redoing that outline to make it a short-ish story rather than another friggin' three-book epic, so.)