#wanna bet zuko doesn’t even know her name?
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i think i will still put some more
but i think those just scream yk
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3fnanbdxaIYvwwbkscTln9?si=yIpduOVaR1K0KHbYmC1avg&pi=e-W196KIq4TDuz
AHHHHHH ARA!!! THE GIRL!!!! I love her so much!! (I can’t copy and paste links in the ask but I did write it down to type it in but it didn’t work? Maybe I am dumb:…. But it says no playlist :///)
#I LOVE THAT YOU DREW HEERRRR#I love the before & after hair haha#she very girl#she is also girl destroyer of worlds#mortal enemy of the one and only sokka#wanna bet zuko doesn’t even know her name?#or if he did he forgot haha#I want to see the playlist!!! merrrhhhh#maybe you can comment with the link again#?? idk & wtf tumblr why can’t I copy links out of asks#stupid stupid stupiiiddddd#I love this thank you!!#jet-apologistmybadhomies#liab#ITF#ask#music recommendations
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The Dragon Prince Thoughts 6x05 - Moonless Night
Previous Episode // Masterlist // Next Episode
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Spoilers under the cut
“Oh, don’t worry about Viren, everything will be fine.”
Did you notice the way Soren hesitated when addressing Viren by his name? gahhh this poor man deserves happiness why can’t he get a breakkkk—
I wonder if they’re gonna pull some “Father-Lord” shit like Zuko and reference atla
THE WAY HIS FACE FALLS THE MOMENT HE LEAVES THE ROOM 😭😭😭😭
*crying noises*
“Oh, Soren, my son. Is that you?”
Woah Viren’s been in that cell for a while
There’s gonna be so much to unpack here watch
The way Soren absolutely refuses to look at Viren speaks volumes he’s so done taking Viren’s shit
And it’s the one time Viren isn’t giving Soren shit but he’s burned their bridge so badly Soren’s lost all faith and respect
Not to mention Viren took Claudia away from him too in a way
Lmao why was stella trying to steal callum’s book—
I wonder if Rayla learned that lullaby she’s singing from her parents
OOH or even runaan or Ethari—
Nah my bet is her parents
“Maybe I just want to see you suffering.”
Okay the repetition of the scene is totally intentional what are they trying to convey
Why does Soren keep going down there to see Viren when he knows all Viren has done is hurt him? What does he want?
“But with my eyes open, I also see… you.”
NO CUZ it’s the way Soren IMMEDIATELY starts crying when Viren says “you”
Like all he ever wanted was some form of acknowledgement from Viren his WHOLE LIFE but now that he’s got it it’s too late
Soren desperately wants to believe Viren but he’s been hurt so many times he doesn’t allow himself to
“Everything you’re telling me is… is some kind of lie!”
SEE THIS IS WHAT I MEAN
Viren has given Soren some serious trauma and self-worth issues, and even after two years of virtual peace, he’s still keeping it in
Everyone he trusted either didn’t care or isn’t even present in his life (lissa), so he always kept it in, using his “class clown himbo” facade as a coping mechanism
But now that his entire childhood trauma is literally sitting there staring at him he can’t take the idea of working through it all and that’s why he blew up
SEE NOW HE DOESN’T WANNA TALK ANYMORE
I wanna say he’s just not ready to face Viren but at the same time I don’t think he’s ever gonna be ready he just has to take the plunge
Wait is that Fen—
I thought he was with amaya in xadia
Did he get demoted lmao—
Wait does the standing battalion outrank the crownguard or the other way around
“On moonless nights you miss her the most.”
That is so sad omg—
Luna Tenebris disappeared centuries ago too so Esmeray’s been hurting for a really long time
Imagine that i could never 😭
“It’s the Corona of the Heavens.”
WAIT I THOUGHT VIREN’S STAFF HAD A QUASAR DIAMOND—
If all 3 are in the crown wtf is the stone in his staff
OH THE BLINDFOLD DESIGNS ARE LITTLE EYES I SEE IT NOW
OH WOW KOSMO’S CONNECTING TO THE STARS
Just like that huh
WOAH KOSMO PREDICTING FUTURES HERE
“But your path is… darkness.”
Does that mean callum is still on the dark path aaravos was talking about in s4? Or is kosmo just reflecting callum’s soul from his past usage of dark magic like how sol regem sensed it
Oh? Soren’s back
I wonder why he went back
“If you do not accept my words now, Soren, I want you to have them in the future… when you might need them.”
Okay nah this has got to be foreshadowing or something wtf is going to happen to soren—
Omg this was essentially a soren character study sorry lmaooo. I’m not too learned in trauma and all that stuff this is just my take on what’s going on with him I’m just really invested cuz he’s my bbg princess and i need him to be okay 💀
ANYWAYS considering that Rayla really connected with Esmeray in this season i wonder if she’s gonna have some plot relevance later on (i hope so esmeray is fuckin cool) especially cuz even kosmo commented on it and he can see the future. Soren BETTER BE OKAY by the end of this season i can’t take his pain 😭. And also i am SO EXCITED for rayla to see her parents again and for runaan to FINALLY go back to ethari like he DESERVES GAHH—
But yeah good episode good episode 👍
#the dragon prince#tdp#tdp 6x05#tdp spoilers#fandom#tv review#lei's laments#watch a thon#discussion#thoughts
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CONCEPT!! okay okay look but i wanna see a modern day zukka fic where zuko is a tattoo artist!! his uncle is a renowned tattoo artist, owns a parlor called the Jasmine Dragon, and zuko works for him there. his designs are absolutely killer, he studies a bunch of different styles (that i do not know the names of because i know nothing of tattoos and i’m too excited to do research), like the cool samoan ones and cartoon styles and he’s really good at photo realism, but his favorite is to just treat tattooing as any other art form and use his personal style.
zuko’s a growing name in the industry, and his uncle’s competitor shop is the Flying Bison (cause why not). the Flying Bison is just a couple streets over, and in it you can find aang (tattoo artist), katara (piercing person), suki (works the desk and manages everything for the owner, kyoshi), sokka (hangs out to bother katara when he isn’t in class at the law school), and toph (likes to hang out and make recommendations until people realize she’s blind and get really awkward. she works at the flower shop next door because we like tropes and flowers and tattoos just go together, okay??)
one day, suki is complaining about losing another customer to the Jasmine Dragon and katara is agreeing, and sokka is like “ehh they can’t be that great, the owner is some old guy!! i bet if i went and got a tattoo i could cause a big ol stink about it being awful and lose them some customers” and katara is like great idea you go do that and when it sucks aang can fix it!
sokka, who was joking in the first place, somehow ends up walking into the Jasmine Dragon and stopping just inside the door cause w o w that boy is hot. what the fuck why is he hiding in here when he should be a walking poster boy, those tattoos are nice.
(zuko has the burn on his face, long shaggy hair that he ties up in a bun when he’s working, a tattooed dragon that curls around his neck, a sleeve on his left arm that’s got some flames, some symbols, another dragon curled around his wrist, and on his right forearm he’s got a white lotus pai sho tile with writing around it)
(not relevant at the moment, but sokka has the moon between his shoulder blades, a boomerang on the side of his left wrist, the pattern from his mom’s betrothal necklace on his left shoulder, katara’s handwriting that says “hey loser” going up his right side, aang’s air symbol on his right shoulder, and appa on his lower back)
zuko catches sokka staring and blushes, obviously checking him out, before asking him if he needs any help. sokka’s like “yeah actually i’m here kinda as a representative of the Flying Bison, ya know, your rival. i’ve come to get a tattoo so that we can know that we’re better than you, but now that i’m here i’m kinda seeing that nothing could ever be better than you, oh fuck i just said that out loud”
...needless to say they’re both blushing now. that is, until zuko’s like “wait? you what?? what kind of guy wants to get a tattoo just to prove that you’re better than someone else???”
sokka’s like “uhhh actually i was joking when i suggested it but then my sister said i should do it and i can’t legally deny her anything so... here i am” and then they just kinda stand there in awkward silence. for a long while. somewhere between a minute and a century.
then zuko just kinda clears his throat and is like “so um where do you want it? what do you want?”
and sokka is like “???? i JUST told you i’m here to make you make me look bad and you’re just fine with it?”
and zuko just quirks his eyebrow and smirks and scoffs a bit and is like “i couldn’t make you look bad if i wanted to. and i wouldn’t let you make me look bad.”
which, the first part is CLEARLY flirting except the second part is so condescending and sokka has never been more attracted to someone since yue tattooed the moon on his back. sokka has never been known for his exceptional decision making skills. which might be why he decides to say “so about that tattoo. does me being attracted to you create a conflict of interest?”
and zuko blushes but the smirk turns into a grin and he goes “not unless you have an issue with me being interested in you too.” and sokka cannot believe he is LIVING THIS LIFE!!!!
they hammer out the details, set up an appointment for the next day. sokka goes home and refuses to tell katara anything except he’ll be getting a new tattoo tomorrow. zuko goes home and rants to his uncle about the boy from the Flying Bison that he definitely flirted the crap out of, is that a conflict and can i please tattoo this boy even tho he’s from our competitor shop? (iroh says yes of course, though he plans to send ty lee to check out the Flying Bison in retribution)
(unseen future: ty lee and suki start dating. iroh finds this hilarious)
sokka comes in the next day for his tattoo, asks zuko to do something like his dragons cause he thinks those look cool, but gives him free reign to do whatever else he wants. it takes forever, but when they’re done sokka has officially developed an actual crush on zuko beyond just his appearance. they’ve talked about their moms, hakoda and iroh, katara and the rest of the gaang, zuko’s development as a tattoo artist, and they’ve developed a comfortable silence as music plays lowly in the backround.
when sokka looks at the tattoo for the first time, he’s absolutely speechless. zuko’s added in koi fish around the moon, in a yin yang pattern, and between the moon and appa, he’s put the sun with a dragon curled around it, head resting on its tail at the bottom.
zuko’s watching him anxiously, terrified that he’ll hate it even though he’s tried to match the style that the moon was done in as much as possible. already he’s sputtering stuff like “it’s kind of too late if you don’t like it, you did tell me i could do whatever, did i overstep with the koi fish, oh my gosh here i’ll go get your money back—“ and sokka cuts him off by turning to look at him with affection just evident on his face and wtf who gave him permission to be that cute—
and then sokka is asking “hey, can i like kiss you or is that too much for the health guidelines?” and sokka’s honestly surprised that he could even ask that much, he loves these tattoos and if he doesn’t get to kiss this amazing boy soon—
and zuko is in shock apparently, but he snaps out of it with “okay let me get you wrapped up, oh god that sounds so bad, let me treat your tattoo and ring everything up and say all the precautionary health stuff that you already know so i can take my break and then we’ll see” and that’s what they do!!!
when zuko’s break is up, iroh exits into the back alley to find sokka has pushed zuko up against the wall and they’re making out, didn’t even notice iroh coming outside. of course, iroh is an embarrassing uncle and goes “ah zuko, i assume this is the competition?”
to which zuko draws back and thumps his head into sokka’s shoulder, not letting sokka back up more than an inch. “uncle go away i’m busy” “ah yes, i can see that. is this a new method of exchanging trade secrets?” “uncle.”
sokkas chuckling breathlessly as iroh hums and goes back inside. “trade secrets huh?”
(katara is infuriated that sokka loves his new tattoo, especially since it clearly shows that zuko’s an amazing tattoo artist. aang wants to meet him and learn from him like NOW, suki wants to recruit him, and toph thinks they’re dating. she isn’t wrong, but sokka bribes her to shut up so katara doesn’t find out)
#ellie writes#atla#avatar the last airbender#atla fanfic#avatar the last airbender fanfic#zukka#zukka fanfic#concept#zuko#sokka#zuko and sokka#ik this isnt great but oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#i enjoy it#tattoo artist zuko!!#is it obvious that i dont do relationships in real life hahaha#i cant write flirting at all its a mess#oh well#enjoy hopefully!!#atla fanfic idea
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Through the Moon Instagram Live
Partial transcript of the Instagram Live with Justin Richmond and Aaron Ehasz. It was only posted for 24 hours and a lot of stuff was talked about. I tried to copy the answers as close to what was actually said, but I won’t guarantee I didn’t mishear or miss stuff. I just focused on the stuff about tDP.
No S4 announcement today.
Do you have a favorite character? Are you allowed to play favorites? JR: Yeah. I definitely have characters that I like more than other characters, but I’ll never admit who they are. [laughs]
Fine, how about hints about S5 then?
AE: Justin and I were working on a scene this morning, a scene in which someone makes a sacred promise to Bait. Hope that’s not to big a spoiler.
[Explaining about Through the Moon which is out today (Oct 6th) Shout out to Xanthe Bouma & Peter Wartman, who will be there for the AMA on Friday. And shout out to the team at Scholastic.]
[Technical issues made the audio break up while JR was relocating. I couldn’t catch what the actually questions were for this little bit, but I caught some of the answers.]
Question about Zuko’s VA Dante Basco
AE: He’s amazing to work with. I’d definitely be happy to work with him.
Question about Callum’s Mage Wings
AE: I’d just get mage wing out even just to go to the bathroom at night if I were Callum.
Question about Runaan
AE: I don’t know. That’s a mystery. Runaan is certainly in the magical cursed coin in some form. But I don’t know what he’ll do or if he can survive it. But that’s a story we’ll be certain to tell.
[JR relocated & AE had to log out and rejoin, which fixed the issue.]
Are there other graphic novels coming? Is Through the Moon part of a series with an over arching plot?
JR: Hopefully yes. Hopefully we get to do some more with Scholastic. This is a standalone. It is part of the core story of the Dragon Prince. It counts as canon. But there’s not a sequel to Though the Moon.
AE: We would love to do more graphic novels. We are actively talking about and planning it. Definitely in the cards. But not necessarily an over arching story.
Asking about Janai’s brother?
AE: We’re going to find out about Janai’s brother for sure. He’s a really cool character, a lot of fun.
What do Moonshadow elves do during a full moon? Do they just become invisible.
AE: It’s not just invisibility. It is a stealth mode. I think we talk about it as like they’re almost partially slipping into a “Moon dimension” that partially obscures how visible they are. But also their physically is maybe changed at bit so they can partially materialize for a split instant to do damage, then they’re phasing out. I think they’re phasing in and out of some kind of Moon dimension. So it’s partially invisibility, but there’s also some defense and fighting stuff that happens.
What does Moonberry juice taste like?
AE: In my mind the things that are conjured are some kind of juice blend. Mulberry juice, pomegranate. Justin talked about a bit of cran involved? But I always think mulberries.
JR: Try mulberry juice. Mulberries have like the weirdest, coolest taste. If you haven’t tried it you should do it.
AE: Not ignoring S4 questions, but we just don’t have a good answer. We are working on it. But we don’t have a S4 date. We getting things moving in a good way and we’re excited but we won’t have the information on a date for S4. We really appreciate you being patient for that. Don’t have any age criteria that we can reveal right now.
Will there be outfit changes for the dragon squad?
JR: There’s already some in the graphic novel. Rayla gets some pretty great pyjamas.
AE: They’re just going to rotate outfits. They’re just gonna trade clothes. You should see how great Soren gonna looks wearing Claudia’s clothes. How Callum’s going to look squeezed into some of Ezran’s outfits. Everybody’s just gonna try on each other’s stuff.
JR: I like it. Too bad that actually 3D doesn’t work like that, where you just trade outfits. Because it’d be hilarious. Yeah, of course, people are going to change outfits. There’s going to be some cool new stuff to see. Absolutely going forward.
Is Callum close to obtaining any other arcanum / going to learn any other arcanum in the future?
JR: No spoilers, but there’s little bit of a hint of some of the answer to this in this graphic novel, so you should check it out. I don’t want to spoil anything. I think Callum fascinated by all the arcanum. He’s not just limiting his interest to Sky.
AE: If you’re a betting person, isn’t Callum’s going to be the first human archmage. A little bit trolling, but yeah, he loves magic. He’s fascinated. But he’s groundbreaking. He’s doing things humans haven’t done before and his potential is limitless. May not be S4, may be S17 at that point.
Will there there be more Sarai? I really want Callum and Ezran to visit her memorial statue.
JR: That would be a beautiful moment. That’d be great, that’d be pretty cool to see. There will be some more Sarai, we’ll find out more about their family. I’m not sure how much we’re aware, but Sarai is certainly not gone from the series. You’ll see Sarai again.
Is the Key of Aaravos actually the key of where he was imprisoned?
AE & JR: We can’t tell you.
JR: We don’t even know. We haven’t even discovered the answer yet.
AE: We know! Actually, that was one of the first things we knew at the very beginning. We’ll get to it.
Is the Sun arcanum the only one that can heal? Or maybe the Ocean arcanum can heal as well/or to?
AE: Great question. Yes. I suspect there are healing abilities possible through different primals. Ocean is a perfect example. I think it’s likely different kinds of healers that call on different energy to restore life and health to those who are injured or sick.
Could original characters introduced in the graphic novels potentially make it into the show?
JR: Absolutely. It’s a huge universe, so we won’t hold back if we think somebody from a graphic novel or the game will fit into the show in the right way, of course we would do that. One of the cool things about working with all the same team is that stuff like that can happen, because we can control all of it. Which is amazing. It’s a great feeling.
AE: There’s a character we’ve talked about for a while from the video game and recently that character finally had their moment in the show. We wanna see different ways to access the world and characters.
JR: Also we’re working with Fandom on a tabletop RPG so that can go another way. You can see characters coming into the show.
Do we have to read the graphic novel before we watch S4?
AE: I don’t think we should say too much. You don’t have too, but everything that happened in the graphic novel happened before S4, it really happened. So can probably infer some of it, but best experience will be read the graphic novel. Get yourself up to date.
How will Zym progress throughout the seasons? Will he grow up and learn to talk and how to manage his powers?
JR: I don’t want to say too much. Zym is going to grow along with the other characters. He’s not static. He’s a puppy, he’s a little baby, and he’s growing up.
AE: We’ll see Zym growing up more for sure.
Will there be more Gren content?
AE & JR: Yeah! [Laughing] AE: Of course. JR: How could there not be? AE: Didn’t we announce already that season 5’s Book 5: Gren? JR: Books 5 through 14 is all Gren. Then we’ll come back around to the other arcanum.
Will we ever get to see Ellis and Ava again?
AE & JR: Maybe? Probably. JR: Not 100%
How did the idea of making the graphic novel come about?
JR: Couple of things. We were talking to Scholastic and they were saying “what if we did this thing together” and we were fascinated by that idea. We’ve always been interested in comics. It sorta came up very naturally with them. And then we started talking about the story, Aaron and I, that could fit in here with the writers and stuff. I felt like a natural thing. That’s how I remember it - Aaron may have other memories of it.
AE: I think that the whole dream of this partnership with Scholastic has been to serve the community by being able to continue tell stories in the wider world of Xadia, through graphic novels, and novels and other books. That part of why we’re so excited about this partnership. It’s so much more depth and insight into different characters parts of the world that we may not have time for in the 22 minutes on Netflix. So the partnership with Scholastic is perfect for deepening and expanding those stories. That’s what it comes down to.
JR: They introduced us to Xanthe and Peter, who just absolutely crushed it.
AE: Yes. [Name?] is still at Wonderstorm if someone asks. It’s still happening. JR: Yes, I talked to him yesterday. He absolutely still here. Xanthe and Peter, we got introduced to them through Scholastic and they just absolutely knocked this out the park. It was a joy to work with both of them and what an amazing job they both did on this. We’re super excited to have gotten to work with them on a graphic novel.
AE: More shout outs to Xanthe Bouma and Peter Wartman.
What did Aaravos say to Khessa?
JR: We can’t say. AE: We can’t, but Janai is wondering that too. And we’re excited about it. It’s weird - I’m not being helpful, but it’s a good question. I may not be giving a satisfying answer, but it’s a good question.
How does Janai know Aaravos spoke to Khessa?
AE: She might not have seen it, but she’s going to find out about it.
Someone asked about the Orphan Queen.
AE: We love the Orphan Queen and there are more references coming seasons 4 and onward. It’s a story I’ve always wanted to tell. We think it will be a great movie someday, maybe. The story of the Orphan Queen is certainly relevant to the story and the saga as it’s unfolding now. It’s a cool story we wanna tell.
We know only some Skywing elves have wings, and not all Sunfire have fire-mode, but what about Moonshadow elves. As they can only use their powers once a month, rather than at any given moment, is it an ability all (or at least most) of them have or is it just some of them?
AE: I think it’s one of those things where Moonshadow elves are in tune with the Moon primal, and one of the very powerful skills that a Moonshadow elf being in tune with that arcanum can master is moonshadow mode, that makes you an excellent assassin, so they evolved this culture that does some of this stealthy, assassin work. It’s certainly possible that there are other powers and abilities that come from connecting to that arcanum that can be directly realized - that a Moonshadow elf might be able to manifest. So you may see some of that in the future. Maybe you have some ideas for your fanfiction or your cool art to show some of those powers, but the powers and abilities really come from them being attuned to these primals and some of it comes naturally and some it comes with training and bringing out the ability to do the special thing. I don’t see why it’s limited. In learning, for example, that Sunfire elves have at least two abilities that can connect to the arcanum is part of what may help understand that.
Do we read fanfictions?
AE: Yes and no - not so much. We highly encourage it and we love people do it. Every once in a while we get someone saying “you gotta look at this, it’s so charming” or “oh, this is so cool.” Or someone will bring something to our attention. There is some really amazing work out there and there’s some writers who are terrific. But as a rule I don’t think we do it regularly when someone says “check this out”.
Will there be more dark mages?
JR: Yes. You will see more dark mages, 100%. But I don’t want to say any more than that. AE: It’s interesting too. This is one of the great things about Scholastic partnership again, that there’s this sort of interplay about things you find out in the show and I think at least one of the dark mages is very significant. The first time people will hear about that person will be in Book 2: Sky the core novel. That’s someone who plays him in the story, in the saga, once the series comes back. But yeah, there’s a very important dark mage who will come up in that book.
Did Aaravos create dark magic?
AE: No, it was discovered not created. Did Aaravos turn them onto it or help them discover it? That’s very possible. Whether Aaravos played a role in developing their ability to do dark magic. Exploring the possibilities of dark magic.
Will we meet other types of dragon and/or archdragons?
JR: 100% yes. Dragon’s in the name. We’re bound by oath! AE: There will be dragons.
Is it possible the dragon king will unfreeze?
AE: Should we not answer that? I feel like it’s possible, but I don’t want to encourage or get anyone too excited. I think being turned to stone is a pretty dismal fate.
Can elves do dark magic?
AE: Can we just say yes? JR: Absolutely. Elves can do dark magic. Totally possible.
How do you go about populating Xadia with cities and landmarks? Do you have the landmarks and find places that fit or did you have the shape and find things to fill it? Or mixture of both? JR: A bit of both. There were some places we’d talked about and generally knew where it is or what this place is going to be. But some of it, when we saw the first version of that map, and the details, we were like “oh my goodness,” there were some obvious things we wanted to put in there. Then there’s some easter eggy stuff that just fun.
Do we think Claudia deserves a redemption arc?
AE: Why does she need a redemption arc. Why are you judging her? What has see done that requires redemption? She’s pretty much in the clear. JR: I’m insulted for her. (laughs)
Is Corvus’ middle name Dennis?
AE: Do you want it to be Dennis? JR: It can absolutely be Dennis. No reason it can’t be. I think I know where this comes from. There was a running gag in the writers between Devon and myself where we call Corvus “Dennis Trackerman.” There was a whole thing. It went on way too long. AE: We hadn’t named him yet. JR: We were talking about if there were a whole family of Trackerman, cousins and it went on way too long. I think his middle name could absolutely be Dennis. AE: Seems right to me. JR: So it’s official - Corvus Dennis Trackerman.
Is there a certain reason Rayla is scared of water and if there is will we find out more about it in the show?
AE: I think there may be. We may find out more about it. Part of it is because of the way she’s wired. I think she’s great at running through the trees and balancing and doing the things she does, is she senses the stability of the earth beneath her, the amount of stability or flexibility of a tree limb or side of a cliff. She’s very sensitive and in tuned. I think when you take someone like that and put them in the water, I think it - whoosh - overwhelms them. It alarming. Some of it’s a little physical, but I suspect there may have been something that happened. She certainly brings a sense of emotion around it, feels like it’s beyond discomfort. JR: I feel like there was a tra-
[There was a bit of a pause so they ending up talking over each other. AE starts asking the next question while JR gets cut off].
Someone asked if we can learn the backstory on Ethari?
AE: I know that there’s a beautiful story about Ethari’s birthday on our website that can give you a glimmer. But I think that’s something I would love to hear. I’m sure it’s something that Devon and Ian - perhaps Neil has thought about.
Do you think you’ll explore Callum’s dad or is he not important to the story?
AE: I think it’s possible we’ll learn more about Callum’s dad in the sense of the role he played in Sarai’s life and Callum’s own life. Hopefully in one of the books that comes out. JR: Yes, he is important. He’s foundational to how Callum became Callum.
Will the Dragon Queen in more involved in Season 4?
AE & JR: Yes. Dragons.
Is Rayla the main character of the story of Through the Moon?
JR: It’s Rayla focused, but it’s like the show, there’s various non-Rayla bits. But if I had to pick a main I’d say yeah, Rayla. AE: Probably ask Xanthe what she thought about that question.
Do we see more Crow Master?
JR: We can never get enough Crow Master as far as I’m concerned. If the show was just the Gren and Crow Master show I feel like we can make some stuff happen. We’ll definitely see more of him.
AE: Yesterday we were working on a Crow Master scene, and the writers were like, do we need it, and like, It’s a Crow Master scene!
Is it canon elves have 6 toes?
JR: I think they have 4 toes, right? AE: I’m not sure what happened there. I think that’s an oops someone made. I suspect they have 4 digits per hand or foot.
[Side note: I think Jack DeSena was talking about 6 toes on Zoom into Xadia]
“Gren” is that the main spinoff?
AE: We were gonna a have a spinoff that was just Gren, like the character’s life. Even if it was just mainly Gren enjoying the morning and getting ready for work and winding down at the end of the day and possibly waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about things and going back to sleep. Cause, things will be fine.
Will the history of Xadia’s splitting be important in the future?
JR: Yes, absolutely. That event is crazy important in terms of the history of the continent. You may not see more of the actually event of it, the getting split, but it’s a huge deal that matters a lot.
Soulfang serpents feed on the souls of their prey, does that make them a Moon primal creature?
AE & JR: I think that’s right. JR: And they’re terrifying.
Does Bait have a middle name or a glowtoad tribal name? They’d love to see how Ezran found or got Bait?
JR: I think we’ve said Ezran got Bait from Harrow. Harrow gave him Bait. Glowtoad tribal name is some sort of grunt noise that’s specific, it’s pretty funny to think about. Also, how would you know which is the tribal name and which is the middle? I guess they’d know. It’s only for glowtoads.
Will we see how people react to Rayllum or elf/human relationships in general?
JR: Yes. It could be a huge thing in the show. Human and elf relationships are a big deal, absolutely we will see that stuff going forward. Yes, you will definitely see that stuff.
How long did it take from conception to production for Through the Moon?
JR: I think it was about a year / nine months. To go from story idea all the way to finished. AE: If we’re talking story idea it’s almost a year and a half. It’s a lot of work. We worked with Peter on a number of drafts and outlines and scripts. Then with Xanthe for quite some time.
What is the time gap between the comic and season 3?
AE: Couple of weeks? JR: It’s pretty short. It’s almost immediately following season 3.
Is Opeli actually Soren and Claudia mom, but they don’t remember her?
JR: No, she’s not. But that would be kinda funny. AE: Do you maybe ship Opeli & Viren a little bit. JR: That would be a pretty funny relationship.
The time gap between Through the Moon and Season 4?
AE: Can’t say. JR: You’ll find out in season 4. Lots of weeks.
How long does it usually take to animate a scene?
JR: That’s a pretty variable answer. The way it works is; we write a script, it gets recorded, there’s a bunch of 2D passes where we do storyboards and animatics and those are all hand drawn, and that takes weeks and weeks of time. At some point that’s approved and it gets handed off to the animators. In our show we do 3D animation with a sort of 2D sheet or look to it. So 3D animators would get that animatic, and they’d be handed a shot. Sometimes, depending on how complex the shot is, there’s sometime multiple animators will work on a single sequence. If there’s a lots of stuff going on with multiple characters you’ll get more than one person working on a shot. But it totally depends how much facial animation there is, how much action, how much running around, if they’re standing or talking. It totally depends. There’s a sort of variable number of seconds the animator can do a week. There’s not like a hard or fast answer here. Sometimes if it’s simple they can animate maybe 20 seconds a week, if it’s crazy complicated they may be doing half that. On average, it on the 20 seconds a week range. But wildly variable depending on the shot and what happening.
Is there a bigger world out there or is Xadia all there is?
AE: There’s some stuff on the periphery of the map that is part of a bigger world. But the main focus is this continent. It’s where the key action is. I think there are things on the periphery. We sometimes do jokes the Avatar world is on the other side. JR: If you flip the world over.
Are the elven face marking henna tattoo or are they permanent? JR: They’re more like henna tattoo. AE: Depends on the culture. There are probably some elven cultures where they more permanently tattoo some of the marking and they’re some where they’re more temporary makeup. But I think we’ve said for the Moonshadow elves it’s more like henna. Semi-permanent tattoos.
Will there be more Queen Aanya?
JR: Yeah. AE: I hope so too. JR: I love Queen Aanya. She’s awesome and a very exciting character. Also she has the coolest bow ever and I want to see more of that not matter what.
Aanya/Ezran friendship?
AE: I want to see that. We talked about that. JR: We can’t talk about that yet, but yes.
Who is the best fighter in the show?
JR: I don’t know if there’s a best fighter. There’s a lot of awesome fighters in the show. AE: Rayla and Soren both have different fighting skills. Corvus has different set of fighting skill. They’re all great fighters. Amaya’s incredible. Actually, the answer might be Amaya. If I had to put an answer on it. Just fundamentals. That be my answer. JR: That makes sense. I agree. I bet Soren would disagree.
Do you guys ever play D&D after work?
JR: Yes, we have a whole D&D crew after work. We love Dungeons & Dragons. We love Tabletop RPG We play all kinds of board games, not just Dungeons & Dragons. We had a whole series of board game nights - when we can be at the office - that were really fun. Continue that when we can all get back together. Played some virtual version too since Covid.
Will we ever see Villads again? JR: I don’t know if we should answer that one? AE: I think so, yeah. JR: Also, Villads is the name of a person who worked on the show - he’s an amazing director. AE: Not just a person, the supervising director of the show. Wonderful leader. Inspirational. JR: And a big sailor.
Then they wrapped up. Thanks, shout outs, reminder of AMA etc.
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Day 2 of Zutara Week - Counterpart
So now this work has an official name!
Seal My Heart and Break My Pride <-- That’s the AO3 link
Here’s day 2- I’ll link the days together at the bottom.
***
“It’s- It’s Zuko.” A hesitant hand shot out.
For a moment, he watched her study his hand, and he felt his stomach plummet. There had been a hope that maybe his stupidity from earlier had been forgiven, but her hesitance seemed to prove otherwise. Seemingly making up her mind, she met his hand with her own.
“Nice to put a name to a face. Now you can easily tell what’s my equipment.”
A hand rubbed at the base of his neck.
“Listen, I’m sorry--”
“Stop apologizing. I was messing with you.”
Despite knowing that it would have no effect on the youngest woman, he still rose a brow after his old friend across the table from him.
“Well, I see that Toph found the right kind of people to be around, then.”
Sokka snorted. “Now if only we could get her to stop with the nicknames, it’d be great.”
“Just cause you hate yours, Snoozles, doesn't mean the rest do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think it’s an adorable nickname, Sokka.” Suki tried to placate.
“You’re just saying that!”
“I don’t know, ‘Sugar Queen’ feels a little more degrading.” Zuko’s fellow gym-goer seemed to lament.
“Don’t forget ‘Sweetness’.” A voice rounded them and a slight young man moved to join them, his characteristic orange hoodie pulled up. “But they’re all better than mine.”
“Aang, buddy!” Sokka cried and rounded the table to envelope him in a brotherly hug. “You made it!”
“Yeah, I managed to get out of my last shift at the office. Boss took pity on me.”
Katara felt a soft smile grace her face. “I’m glad you were able to come.”
“Katara! It’s been so long!” He moved to wrap her into a friendly hug, his grin growing. “I’m so glad you’re back.”
“Me too.”
Zuko’s curiosity was still peaked, so he asked the blind woman quietly. “What is his nickname?”
A wicked grin split her face. “Twinkletoes.”
Zuko snorted. Knowing Toph, there was a glorious story behind each of the nicknames. He knew that his did.
Katara seemed to think similarly, and turned a raised brow towards him. "Wait- you're one of her old friends. Do you have a nickname?"
"Yeah."
"Sparky." Toph smirked.
Zuko leveled a finger at her threateningly. "Not a word, Toph. Not. A. Word."
Toph’s snicker turned the rest of the group’s curious gazes towards him. Before she could say anything, however, he shook his head. “Don’t you dare, Toph. You torment me enough.”
“There’s a story here, I can feel it.” The brother of Katara leaned forward conspiratorially. “I will find it out eventually.”
Zuko raised a brow. “We’ll see.”
The newcomer turned to the most recent addition to the group, extending a hand. “Name’s Zuko. You?”
An enthusiastic grin lit up the younger man’s face. “Aang. Toph and I went to high school together.”
“Excuse me for saying it, but you don’t look like you're from the Earth Kingdom.”
Aang laughed, something that seemed to come easily to him. “I’m not. Transfer student.”
“Ah.”
“Nice try at evasion, music boy.” Sokka narrowed his eyes at Zuko. “But you’re not getting out of a story that quickly.”
With a raised hand, Katara dismissed her brother. “You’re impossible, Sokka.”
“I wanna hear it!”
“Ugh, and I just want a drink.”
Zuko interrupted, an eager look in his eye. “Yes, please. Listen, I owe you still.”
He turned an amber eye to the young woman, as it caught the dim light of the club, and Katara found her heart rate starting to rise.
“Drink’s on me?” A soft lilt to his voice tugged at her, and she bit the corner of her lip.
“Sounds like a deal to me.”
“Perfect!” Suki suddenly jumped in. “We have bets to make!”
Rounding, Katara turned exasperated eyes to her friends. “No, c’mon guys!”
Suki raised a finger to stop her. “You know this is the deal.”
“I thought we all grew out of this - when we graduated! You know, became adults.”
Sokka scoffed. “Speak for yourself.”
“Guys…”
“Do I want to know?” Zuko found himself lost in the storm of familiar old friends.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Katara and Suki spoke spontaneously. The former sighed.
“Let’s just go get that drink before I strangle my friends.”
“Yes, go!” Toph yelled after them. “Otherwise you might throw the bet!”
Blue eyes rolled hard.
***
“So how long do you think it’ll take for her to connect that he’s the singer for the band that was just playing some of her favorite music?”
“Not long enough.”
“End of his next set? I put 5 down.”
“End of her drink. I’ll match you.”
***
Leaving the crew to their own devices, the two fellow gym-goers made their way to the bar. As much as Zuko enjoyed playing, this crowd was not his scene. Maybe during his college years, a tight pack of skin, liquor and innuendo would have been thrilling to him, but the past few years had been filled with a milder crowd, with less press of flesh and more healthful imbibing. However, that drink sounded amazing, and the company… well, it wasn’t something to scoff at either. His mind wandered back to her, as she trailed in the wake he left through the crowd.
There was a definite difference between the stormy-eyed woman at the gym and the pleasant woman with a gentle laugh at the corner of her lips, that Toph introduced him to. He wondered what would be closer to the truth about her. While he would have been willing to talk with her as they made their way through, the loud bass of the music and the press of people drowned out any conversation on the path towards the bar. It would have to wait till they arrived.
But as soon as Katara stepped up to the bar, the bartender made his way over, a massive smile lighting up his face.
“Katara!” he exclaimed.
“Teo! I didn’t realize you were still here!” Leaning off of his crutches, the young man pulled her into a familiar hug. “Don’t tell me Jin is here still, too?”
“Sure is! If we left, I think the whole place would fall apart.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. How have you been?”
The two began to chat amicably, and Zuko leaned back, feeling no desire to invade. Instead, he took the moment to consider the young woman before him. Dressed practically, there was a flow about her - she moved like the sea, in and out, never really stopping. Her laugh, as it reached his ears, was clear and bright, like the sun off the water at midday. There was an edge though-- he could see it in the unpredictable moments, like the eddies of currents under the waves. Curiosity whispered in his ear- how was she in a storm? He had a sensation he knew. Slowly, he returned to the conversation as Teo threw an apologetic look her way.
“... seems to like terrorizing our Thursday nights only, so far.”
“I’m amazed he’s out.”
“He swears he’s changed, but I don’t know, man.”
“Well, if you see him, please let me know so I can leave immediately.”
Teo put two fingers to his forehead in mock salute.
“So what can I get you two?”
Katara turned, her brow raising in question. A smirk pulled at his own lips.
“Whiskey for me, and whatever she’s having. Put it on my tab.”
“Same as always?” Teo asked after Zuko. He nodded, but Teo was stopped short by a gesture by Katara.
She leaned towards Zuko. “Ya know, you can find out a lot about a person by the whiskey they drink.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” Her brow rose, seemingly curious to see if he would take the bait. He did.
“Mind if I take a guess about you?”
She shrugged, turning away from him to stare out into the crowd. He thought there was a flash of a smile at the corner of her lips. “Why not.”
***
Molten eyes caught in the dim light, and Katara caught herself getting lost in them. Taking a deep breath, she turned away, eyes trying to focus on nothing and everything that wasn’t him. Spirits, she thought, I haven’t even had a drink yet… the words that slipped out were forcibly casual.
“Why not.”
What was it about this borderline narcissist that attracted her? Musician- Toph had mentioned that he was a musician. Vaguely, she wondered if his set was coming up soon. She was curious to hear what he played. But, no. That wasn’t what it was. Her eyes slowly rebelled so that, when he moved to give their order quietly to Teo, they tracked his motion. Giving herself the rebellion, she sunk into it willingly for the moment. Handsome? Of course. It had almost excused his assumption back at the gym hours prior, but not quite. The scar had added a level of mysteriousness to his features, but again, it didn’t ring true.
Maybe- maybe it had to do with his reaction. She had jumped, getting angry, tempestuous, but instead of getting roped in like a boat on the sea, he had… taken the hit. Waited for the storm to pass, like the sun behind storm clouds. Apologized, tried to make the wrong right. She couldn’t help but remember the small smile he had offered her when she invited him to continue using her equipment. It was such a small thing, those little moments, but she had a sneaking sensation that was merely an indication of his overall personality. Had it been Jet…
Katara shook away the meanderings of her mind and eyes, in time to feel him bump gently at her elbow. He had appeared with two caramel colored glasses in his hands. With a determined look, he handed her the darker of the two.
***
“When is the first kiss?”
“Fiver on tonight.”
“Fiver on first real date.”
“You think it’ll get that far?”
“You think it won’t?”
***
“So you think you know me?” she pried playfully, holding the rich caramel liquid up to the light.
“We’ll see, won’t we?”
A glint in her eye, and she offered the side of her glass, and he tapped it with his own. He watched her with his periphery, gauging her response as he raised his own glass to his lips. As the liquid reached her tongue, she drew her lips into a tight line, but her eyes fluttered close. She exhaled as soon as the swallow slid past her tongue.
He had chosen a rye whiskey- it’s profile more peppery, a bit more biting. It was an older year, so the cloying bitterness was mostly gone, leaving a pleasurable warmth, he knew. His was not; he'd chosen a bourbon for the night - a much smoother, sweeter profile. He had enough fiery things in his life, his whiskey didn’t need to be another one. The thought paused him for a moment. Maybe she was right about whiskey being a good read on personality.
A bated breath sat at his lips, curiosity getting the better of him.
“Well?”
Finally, a bright eye turned to him. “This is the good stuff. You know your whiskey. Rye?”
The dark headed man nodded, his lips pulling gently up.
“What do you have-- no wait,” she stopped herself, putting her free hand on his elbow, “let me guess.”
Her eyes roamed him freely, and it took all of his willpower not to blush furiously at her methodical and intense observation of him.
“Something with a sweeter profile. Bourbon?”
“Got it in one.” His eyes sparkled mischievously as he leaned in towards her. “So what does that tell you?”
“Well, bourbon is sweeter, smoother. A good drink for soothing the soul. I’m sure this seems like a pot-shot, but…” her hand gestured obscurely towards his face, “I think somebody who’s drinking bourbon by choice has had some pretty recent excitement in their lives. Bourbon is good for smoothing the rough edges.”
He couldn’t prevent the twist at his lips. If only she knew just how true that was…
“What do you think of me, to get me a rye?”
A small buzz started behind his lips. While this drink might have been her first of the night, he had been slowly imbibing as he had played. Putting down the bourbon, he swallowed hard, trying to clear the fog trying to settle over his brain- there was still at least one more set to be done. But in that moment, as sea-blue eyes sat too close in the dun of the bar lights. His thoughts were scattered and it took some time to gather them. Her gaze didn’t waiver as she waited for his response.
“Feisty. You are willing to stand up for what you want or what you think is right. You’ve got spirit- you take up a stranger on an offer just to try something different.”
“You got all that from our short interaction at the gym?”
“And how you respond to people- you’re- well, you’re interesting to watch.”
Her laugh bounced in his mind. “Phrasing, Zuko!”
A blush started to rise at his throat and he forcibly swallowed it down.
“That’s not what I meant!”
The laugh only grew stronger. A hand pinched at the bridge of his nose.
“I’m not that- I’m- That’s not-” He stammered and for the second time in 24 hours, he found himself at a loss to respond. Ironically enough, he didn’t dislike it when Katara was involved.
“You need to stop taking things so seriously, Zuko!” Her words were laced with a laugh. Eyes glinting mischievously, she nudged him with her elbow. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you never pulled a ‘that’s what she said’ joke.”
“Erm…”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Well…”
“Where did you grow up? With Toph’s parents?” She paused for a moment, her head cocked and the overhead lights caught her lines in a pleasing way. It allowed his mind to wander to other, less than wholesome things, and Zuko glared at the glass of bourbon that now sat half-empty. When did that happen? “No, If you were anywhere with Toph, you’d curse like a sailor.”
“Truth.” A smile pulled at his lips, and he opened them to begin, even as he was interrupted.
A goateed young man had stepped up to him, a hand on his shoulder.
“Set’s about to start.”
“Right.” Zuko nodded to the darker skinned woman. “Listen, I’ve got to go. But, uh…after?”
Her smile was troublesome, and he knew it. But it was the kind of trouble that he found himself being drawn to, like a sailor to a siren.
“I’d like that.”
**
@zutaraweek
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
#zutara#zutara week#zutara week 2020#zutara is my new hell#atla#atla is my new hell#zuko x katara#katara x zuko#zuko#katara
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Loved reading your comments on that Izuru post, especially about how people write teasing. You gave some great examples of things to definitely avoid; do you have any tips or general thoughts on writing good teasing?
I have never wanted to talk about anything more in my life.
Teasing is a form of dysfunctional communication that reveals a lot about all the parties involved. It can be layered and complicated, and it can both establish a lot about the relationships of your characters, and provide jumping off points for both bonding and miscommunication.
The most important things to think about when writing teasing are:
What is the teasing character trying to evoke? (this may be conscious or subconscious)
What are the sore points/not sore points of the character being teased?
What am I, the writer, trying to accomplish here?
Let’s start with a very easy example:
Draco Malfoy wants to make Harry Potter mad, so he teases him about his dead mom. J. K. Rowling’s goal as a writer is to convince you that Draco is a dick. It’s super-effective.
It’s a low-blow. It’s deeply mean. There’s no subtlety. This is just bullying. We have all experienced this, we know it when we see it. I don’t think this is the kind of teasing you were asking about, but it’s important to establish this as a baseline, because this is what teasing can turn into, if done wrong.
We can tweak this a little to a very different effect:
Draco wants to make Hermione upset, so he calls her a mudblood.
Harry doesn’t know what this word means, is confused.
Herminione knows this is an insult, but most plays it off. It’s not culturally significant to her and also, she DNGAF about Draco.
Ron goes spare. This is a huge insult to him, he loves his friends, and he has no chill.
Draco is still a dick, but he’s also kind dumb and focuses on insults that would be insulting to him because he doesn’t know his enemy very well and also is not good at thinking outside of his own head.
Now we have fit in exposition and a ton of character-building. Neat!
Let’s move on to friendly teasing. Here are some positive roles teasing can play:
Replacing uncomfortable tension in a group. Often you may have one character in the group who is an outsider for some reason. Perhaps they were a former antagonist, or someone who has some fundamental difference between the characters. Teasing, particularly over something incredibly low stakes and stupid, gives a reason for the outside character to be mildly irritated with the others, which makes it easier for them to relax the actual tension they feel by being in a group where they don’t belong. Think Aang shouting “Flameo, Hotman!” at Zuko or everyone making fun of Uryuu’s cape.
Finding comfort in being marginalized. This is closely related to self-deprecating humor, and a character shouldn’t say something about someone else if they wouldn’t say about themself. Also, characters are going to have different comfort levels with this. I will make jokes about how bisexually I dress and the way that I sit, but I don’t go around shouting “Oh my God, that’s super gay!” although I certainly have gay friends that do. This is a way you can establish how comfortable a character is in that identity, but it can be fraught, and if you don’t have some personal experience with the identity you’re writing about, I would avoid going too hard. In Bleach, I will often have characters from Rukongai bond a little more easily, and make fun of some of the more formal aspects of life in the Seireitei when there are no nobles around. Further, Rukia and Renji super low-class, even among the Rukongai crowd (only Zaraki and Yachiru are lower, and I have never once read a fanfic of Kenpachi and Renji bonding over this, and I’m mad about it), and so when I have them calling each other trashbags and lowlifes, it’s a case of “I can make fun of you because we come from the same mudpit, but I will cut anyone else who says this about you.”
Allowing characters to present in a way that they choose. We sometimes invent roles for ourselves that we want others to see. I do this a lot with Renji-- when he comes to the big city, he’s a big, rough, scary dude. I am 100% sure he broke peoples’ limbs in Inuzuri. But he wants to be liked and he wants to be approachable, especially now that he’s a vice-captain, so he puts on kind of a big dumb oaf routine, and all his friends support him in this by making jokes about skipping leg day and calling him a dope and a goob. These are not hurtful insults, because this is how he chooses to present himself.
Leveling group dynamics. Related to the previous item, a lot of times, friend groups require people to fulfill different roles in order to keep everything running smoothly. Take for example, the Renji - Momo - Izuru - Shuuhei friendship. They come from a lot of different backgrounds, they’ve each had a lot of different personal challenges, and the friendship has lasted a loooooong time. Izuru has a lot more money and class than the rest of them. Shuuhei is the oldest. I bet Momo got extremely full of herself when she became Aizen’s vice-captain. Renji lagged the rest of them in becoming vice-captain, but then, he came out of the Aizen debacle in better shape than everyone else. We can’t all confront all these complex interpersonal dynamics all the time, sometimes you just wanna hang out at the bar and drag each other a little, and it’s comfortable and relaxing to just fall back on personas. Everyone teases Renji for being dumb and strong, Shuuhei for being hot and dramatic, Izuru for being pasty and poetic, Momo for being organized and congenitally unable to break a rule. A great place to insert drama is when you have a character who has outgrown these dynamics, who is sick of playing a role within a friend group-- old jokes that used to gloss over uncomfortable matters are suddenly causing the discomfort.
Play. A lot of teasing is honestly just for fun. Scoring points on your friends. In this case, the teasing can be as harsh or soft as you like, although the harsher you go, the more you risk actually hurting someone’s feelings (again, story hook!) I love this as an example:
Ichigo tries to tease Orihime over old bread of all things. Orihime is fireproof, she knows Ichigo loves her old bread and also is incapable of delivering a sick burn, but then Ishida and Chad just pile on, suck it, Ichigo, we all know who runs this group of nakama.
As a writer, this is your chance to show off your humor chops! The purposes of these scenes is not just to show your friendships, but to have fun and be funny! Having characters just call each other names is not really funny. In this example, Ichigo is trying to be cool, and his crew, none of whom are remotely cool, all hit the OBJECTION button hard at the same time and it’s hilarious.
Giving friendships age. People you have been friends with for ages know things about you. Have characters bring up embarrassing stories. Tease each other about the way they used to be, but no longer are. This is also a powerful way to distinguish between an old friendship that is still going strong, and one that has gone stale, but persists, perhaps for nostalgia reasons, where the teasing rankles. Maybe your story wants to resurrect this friendship, or maybe you want to show a character moving on. This is also a way to add exposition: Say Character A, who is usually very casual, dresses up for a fancy event. You can have Character B rib them about how they have never seen them looking so good. Then you can have Character A react in a number of ways: self-conscious or defensive, perhaps, or they could be flirty and brag about how nice they clean up, it’s up to you!
Giving friendships depth. Best friends can say things that other friends and casual acquaintances can’t, in part because they have a keen understanding of how to hurt each other (and how not to). A key in portraying different levels of friendships is boundaries, and a great dramatic tool is bumping up against those boundaries. In general, I have Renji let Rukia tease him about nearly everything, but occasionally, she’ll bring up what a glory-hound he was in their school days, and he freezes up every time. She can’t really figure this out, because he’s usually game for letting her pick on his dumbass teen boy behavior and she can’t figure out how this is any different. The thing is, he’s never told her that the reason he was busting his ass was to impress her and to be able to get a good job and provide for her, and it blew up in his face, and he can’t very well admit that now, without having to admit a lot of other stuff, too. ::holds fist in the air:: This is the good stuff.
A corollary, tired jokes. Rukia is 4’9” tall and she must be sick to death of hearing about it. It’s so obvious and so lame. It sucks being short, it’s a huge inconvenience on a daily basis, especially when your job involves trying to be tough and intimidating. It’s not like she chose this for herself. This is the lowest possible hanging fruit of teasing. But that doesn’t mean we need to ignore it completely. I have characters like Ikkaku, who doesn’t know her all that well, and is also an ass, throw it at her a lot, and mostly she either sighs and rolls her eyes, or she insults him back. Now, if Renji never mentioned it, it would feel like he was tiptoeing around it, which Rukia would be offended by. She’s not humorless, just tired. So, instead, I will only have him make short jokes if a) they are actually funny, or b) it’s a situation where the joke is really obvious and they’ll usually follow up with something like “I had to.” The idea is that, as best friend and chief trash talker, he’s contractually obligated to make the joke, but he finds it almost as tired as she does. Also, I turn it around a lot by having her make fun of him for being tall, as though being 6’2” is some sort of embarrassment and that he did it on purpose, and he just takes it.
This is real. My husband and I were in a very similar professional field, and he makes more than me, even though I have more education and work harder, and he lets me make fun of what a useless white dude he is, but if he sees it coming, he will definitely make a “you can’t do math because you’re a woman” joke, which he obviously doesn’t think is true. Only he is allowed to do this. It is very cathartic. We also make jokes about how he will never truly be successful because he is short.
I don’t write Ichigo as much, but I approach this a little differently with him, a) because he hasn’t been friends with Rukia for as long, or on such a day-to-day basis that he knows how much this irritates her, and b) he’s a teen. Instead, I try to have him actually put some effort into his jokes, like calling her Shorty McCaptainface. “Shortstack” and fun-sized/travel-sized/adventure-sized (for your convenience) are much more gentler and playful.
Please, please, I beg you, do not use “midget.” It’s not a nice word and it’s so, so tired.
All of this goes generally for other types of characters with the kind of physical characteristics that tactless people feel free to comment (being fat, wearing glasses, having prominent teeth, etc), or experience structural discrimination. Just think about how you would like your best friend to handle it.
Arright, it’s time to hit the elephant in the room: Teasing that leads into romance. This was such a huge trope when I was a kid, I grew up steeped in this idea of “a boy teases you because he likes you,” and I’m honestly glad we’re starting to move past this as a culture. You can still have a fun and teasing relationship without being mean, which I will get to, but let’s start with the OG couple of teasing because they like each other: Ranma and Akane. Now, as it happens, I have been re-watching Ranma ½ with my husband, who had never seen it, and on one hand, this show is a pioneer, it is amazing in terms of comedic beats, but on the other hand, it’s aged quite a bit and smacks of “I hate my wife” Boomer humor with a heavy helping of “no homo!” slathered on top. So, here’s how it works:
Ranma and Akane have been forced into an engagement by their fathers. Despite the fact that they have pretty similar and compatible personalities, they get off on the wrong foot, compounded by the fact that they are each deeply insecure about their gender presentations. They are each also profoundly stubborn. So, what happens, every single episode, is that one or the other will do something kind or heroic for the other, and the other’s heart will go “oh SHIT I like them but to reveal so would be to present vulnerability” so they insult each other instead. The insults that Ranma and Akane fling at each other are deeply hurtful and they are super-effective. Now, the one who has taken the risk of going out on a limb for the other has now been lambasted for their efforts, and responds with more insults. This is the fundamental tension of the show: they like each other and are terrified to admit it, so they force the other apart.
Now, as the show progresses, my memory is (and forgive me if I get this wrong, we’re still pretty close to the beginning, and as far as the long game goes, I am sure my memory is contaminated by too much fanfic), far, far down the road, when they eventually come to understand each other better, when Ranma tells Akane she’s an uncute, tomboy, she’s able to parse that as “I like you so much and I want to say so, but seriously, you know how ridiculous my upbringing was,” and when she responds with “You pervert!”, Ranma knows she is really saying “I know that, and also, you do not need to feel self-conscious about your girl form, I’m kinda into that.”
This is essentially a slow burn tactic. You need a tremendous amount of time to build out this kind of relationship. A lot of people try to skip straight from “characters insult each other!” to “characters are in love, they just couldn’t admit it!” and it does not work, especially if you reader is a person who has ever been in a shitty relationship. I would not want to be with someone who called me hurtful names. The fact that they were trying to cover up the fact that they did it because they liked me is not romantic. It says to me, “this person does not treat the people they love well.” Writers, we can do better.
Teasing creates tension, as I said, and it is often that case that we use it to trade a feeling we can’t handle for one that we can. For Ranma and Akane, they are trading attraction for combativeness. They can’t admit they like each other because they are deeply stubborn and also because they are very, very immature.
Conversely, characters may tease to deflect their feelings because of outside forces that they have no control of.
Rukia is fundamentally uncomfortable expressing her feelings. She had no parents. She has no experience with unconditional love, which is pretty essential for healthy childhood development. I’ve talked before about my Rukongai headcanon that it was taboo to openly express affection, because it is a brutal and dangerous town and to love is to show weakness. In this case, teasing can play a fundamental role. As children, if she started to express something that strays too close to an earnest emotion or attachment, Renji might respond with “Aaah, shut up, you sap.”
This is not mean-spirited. Renji is acknowledging that he hears her, he recognizes her feeling and prevents her from breaking the taboo. The teasing helps Rukia to save face. This creates a blind spot in their friendship, however. They know each other extremely well, they have a thorough read on each other’s moods and motivations and body language, but because they’ve never, ever been able to talk frankly about their emotions, they are both stuck in this place where they can’t tell if they like each other romantically and they don’t know how to bridge that gap. They don’t need to be mean to each other, but they are unable to progress because they keep blowing off the difficult conversations they ought to be having.
Keep in mind, I am keeping the teasing at low to medium stakes. It’s also difficult, because they’ve been apart for so long, that there are some topics that aren’t safe anymore, and sometimes they don’t realize that until after they’ve accidentally hurt each other’s feelings, again, an opportunity for some mild plot drama that’s based on misunderstanding, rather than these people are assholes.
Rukia’s relationship with Ichigo is very similar. Ichigo is also terrible at expressing feelings, partly because of his mom’s death, his dad is his dad, and he is a teen. I have read a lot of arguments that he’s neurodiverse, and frankly, I’m for that, too. I tend to characterize their friendship as very intense. They haven’t known each other very long, but they just have a lot of feelings, OKAY?! They have saved each other’s lives in very dramatic ways, they feel that they owe the other in ways they can never repay, and they just friggin’ like the heck out of each other, but their lives are also fundamentally incompatible, starting with the fact that Rukia is dead and Ichigo is alive.
So, when I am writing them bantering, one of my go-tos is to have them make fun of each other’s chosen planes of existence. “Why do you keep juice in boxes?” Rukia demands, as if it’s somehow Ichigo’s fault. “You can’t even ride a bike, you idiot,” Ichigo might rib her, as if she even knows what a bike is. What they are really doing here, is pushing against the fact that they have chosen to live separate existences and they’re honestly a little upset about that. “It’s dumb that we can’t hang out all the time,” is what they are saying. “I understand your decision, but I’m still gonna make fun of you.” This is incredibly low-stakes dragging, and also it’s a good place to be funny. I’m sure you have had someone make fun of your school or your job or your town in a way that you feel the need to defend it, and then you’re like “why am I defending this, it really is dumb, actually?”
One last thing, which is to think a lot about the word choices you use in your teasing, and try to organize them by intensity. My go-tos are “dummy” and “dumbass” because they get the point across, but they aren’t particularly mean and they are very generic. I also like slightly silly ones like “dunderhead” or “lunk” or “goob” or “doofus.” Paired insults are fun-- have one character greet another as “What’s up, nerd?” and have the first respond with “How’s it hanging, jock?” “Stupid” is slightly meaner, but I will often use it if one character is being self-deprecating, I will have the other respond “don’t be stupid,” or something like that, where it’s reassurance disguised as trash-talk. You can temper harder insults with tone: e.g., “You moron,” Rukia said affectionately.
Some people call their friends “bitch” humorously, and that’s a kind of friendship you can certainly choose to portray, but think hard about if that fits your characters and your writing style first. I try to avoid gendered insults; sometimes I’ll have villians use them, but even so, do we need to? Maybe not. Don’t use hurtful words unless your teaser actually intends to hurt (whether or not it’s effective).
And remember, you don’t even need to use insults to tease (or to hurt, for that matter)! Think about how your character would react to be called “fancy.” Or “cute.” Or “rustic.” Tease them about the apron they wear for cooking, or the fact that they don’t know how to use a cell phone, or their terribly out-of-style footwear. Also, it can be just as fun to have your character respond to teasing by leaning into it, or laughing back, or riffing, they don’t have to just get pissed off.
This post is so long. I am so sorry. Go write some teasing. Have fun. I can’t wait to read it.
#long post is long#god i hope the cut works correctly on this post#asks#on writing#thank you for this ask#i love pretending like i know anything about writing#i am just a kind housewife#i came in 2nd place in a one-act playwriting contest once
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hello hello! @queenspinoodle and i started working on a...well, on what started as a crack piece. it may or may not still be crack. if u like circuses, crime fighting, and zuko and sokka being named zucchini and sock THIS IS FOR YOU! first chapter below, with art from my cowriter! comments appreciated :)
enjoi~
Chapter 1
Zucchini is still thinking about his performance last night. He’d wanted to try something new, but every time he’d attempted to nail the trick in rehearsal, it’d just...fallen flat. So, he hadn’t attempted it last night, which left a bitter taste in his mouth. He’s still swirling it around, trying to spit it out, but no luck. It’s his routine, but he still feels like he failed. His thoughts are interrupted, however, when his foot collides with something hard and he trips. Spectacularly. He looks up, embarrassed and angry in equal measures, to see Sock sitting nearby. He gets angrier when he sees Sock is clearly trying to hold back laughter.
“Sock! Is this your--” Zucchini looks down, “--sandbag that just tripped me?!”
Sock gives him an innocent look. “I think the correct way to say it is, 'is that my sandbag that you just tripped over'? Because yes, it is, and yes, you did. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone’s arms flail like that, Zucchini.”
Zucchini narrows his eyes. “I only tripped over it because someone is incredibly disorganized. Sandbags don’t belong in the middle of the floor!”
Sock narrows his eyes, no longer laughing. “Well, maybe you should look where you’re going! If you were more aware of your surroundings, Mr. Jerk, then maybe you would’ve seen it. It’s a big bag, Zucchini.”
“Yeah, well! Well, you’re--you--ugh, you’re an idiot! Move the stupid bag, Sock!” Zucchini turns away quickly, trying not to dwell on how ridiculous he just sounded. He’s made two strides to the tent’s opening when something collides with the back of his head. He whips back around to see Sock with a smirk on his face.
“Can I help you?” Sock says innocently.
Zucchini looks at him, dumbfounded, then looks at the ground to see a balled up piece of paper. He picks it up. “Seriously? What are you, eight?”
Sock shrugs. “I know you are but what am I.”
Zucchini’s eyes get wide, his anger inadvertently burning the paper in his hands. “Seriously? You’re such a child!”
“Oh, yeah? Well at least I don’t throw my pillow around my tent when I’m mad, and then apologize to it!” Sock’s look of triumph at that statement makes Zucchini grit his teeth.
“I don’t--! How do you know about that?? It was one time, maybe twice at most!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever."
“UGH, you’re impossible to work with! I don’t know why Piandao keeps you around. My little cousin could do better tricks than you.”
"At least I actually have a talent!"
“Oh yeah?” Zucchini takes a menacing step forward. “You wanna try walking the tightrope, then? You think you could handle it?”
"Only if you do flips off the trapeze!"
“Done! I could do that in my sleep!”
“Fine! I bet the moment you get on, you'll fall off immediately. You’ll go running to Piandao like a baby!”
“Don’t you dare call me a baby!”
Sock and Zucchini’s argument brings them right into each other’s faces, snarling like animals. Both of them have their fists balled tight, ready to throw, when the sound of the tent flap opening gets their attention.
“Boys! Boys, what is going on here?” Their boss, Master Piandao, enters the tent, a frown marring his face. “Honestly, you two can’t be civil for five minutes? The show’s about to start, and I will not have either of you knocked out of commission over a petty fight!”
On cue, the announcer’s voice cuts through the tent, his voice amplified by his megaphone. “COME ONE, COME ALL! THE SHOW WILL BE STARTING IN TEN MINUTES! GET YOUR POPCORN AND DRINKS AND JOIN US IN THE MAIN TENT FOR A WONDROUS EVENING!”
Sock and Zucchini pull back from one another, still glaring. Sock turns away first, finishing up his preparations for his act, grumbling. Zucchini leaves the tent for his own, having not started his own prep work. When he gets there, he realizes he’s still very pissed off, thank you very much, and knows he can’t work like this. The last time he tried to work angry, well…. It’s better not to think about it. So, to calm down, he tries to meditate. He sits on a cushion in the middle of the floor, crosses his legs, and breathes. In, out. In, out. Not, thinking. About, Sock. And, his. Stupid, FACE.
It wasn’t going very well.
In a tent nearby, Sock is pulling on his costume, trying to push Zucchini’s attitude from his mind. Honestly, if the guy just looked down from his pedestal every now and then he wouldn’t trip over stuff. A no brainer. But, of course, Sock doesn’t expect Zucchini to understand that. He was so full of himself, just because he could walk on some string. So what? Who cared about that, when Sock worked his butt off doing flips! Ugh.
He walks out still pretty mad, but when he runs into his co-stars his mood picks up. Zucchini may be a dick, but Katt and Baaang weren’t. They were awesome, and together they’d put on a great show. He gives his sister and her boyfriend a hug, trying to keep the anger off his face. He thinks about it for a moment but ultimately decides not to tell them about the stupid fight he had with Zucchini. It’s just not worth it, in the end. His sister would just worry, and Baaang would tell him he should try to work it out. Neither of these are favorable outcomes. Instead, he grabs their hands and they go out on stage to raucous applause. As soon as the whoops and cheers hit his ears, Sock is grinning. Yes, he thinks. This is what it’s all about. As they go through their routine, Sock loses himself in the moves. He loses himself in the trust he has in his team, in the ooohs and aaaahs of the crowd. Nothing else matters.
Zucchini, upon giving up meditation as an impossibility, paces in his tent. Sock’s performance is about to start and, though he mocked his work before, he realizes he’s never...actually seen Sock and his team perform. He’s passed through the practice tent while they were rehearsing, sure, but he never stopped to look, always too busy with something else. He starts feeling bad about insulting Sock without evidence. Maybe, I could check it out...just for a moment.
He goes backstage, opening the flap leading to the main room a bit. Sock, Katt, and Baaang are just coming out to the delight of the crowd. Zucchini scoffs, not knowing what the fuss is all about. The moment they get on the trapeze, he gets it. Boy, does he get it. The three of them work as if they were one, dropping through the air and catching each other with such trust it brings a tear to Zucchini’s eye. And the way they move. It’s like they’re not made of flesh and bone, but cloud. Pure vapor, floating from one rung to the next. Zucchini can’t believe his eyes. He’s especially surprised by Sock.
He’d thought Sock was completely disorganized and never thought he’d be capable of performing something so beautiful. Zucchini’s anger completely leaves him watching the performance, captivated beyond his control. When they finish and the crowd claps them off the stage, Zucchini finds himself clapping too. And then running, because there’s no way he could let Sock find him watching. He’d rather die, he thinks.
Sock leaves the stage feeling like he could take on the world. Katt and Baaang are laughing on either side of him, recapping their favorite parts of their performance to keep the energy going. Sock joins in, making jokes and ruffling his sister’s hair. Zucchini is the furthest thing from his mind. Or, he would be, if his act weren’t up next. Somehow he had forgotten in the rush of his own performance, but the announcer makes sure to remind him in a booming voice. Baaang and Katt are going back to their tents to change into their daywear, but Sock hangs back. Sure, he’d told the guy that he didn’t need talent to do his act, but it’s not as if he’d ever actually seen it. He knew what it was, though. He stood on a rope and juggled some things, right? Might as well pop back over and check it out, so he’d have more material to mock him with next time.
Zucchini stands at the performer entrance of the big tent, his usual pre-show nerves surprisingly absent. He feels more calm than he has all day, if he’s being honest. When the announcer shouts his cue, he steps inside, standing tall and walking with confidence to the ladder leading up to the tightrope. Pepper is already up there, the bag of props by his feet. He gives Zucchini a big grin and a thumbs up, which Zucchini returns. The clown looks taken aback, but pleased. Zucchini then moves to the rope, his music being played by a band on the ground. A deep breath, two and then he steps out.
He hears someone in the crowd scream. His grin grows; there’s always one. He steps out further, footfalls soft and measured, until he’s in the middle of the rope. Arm out to his sides, he bends his knees. Deep breath and….up! He jumps into the air, causing more screams from below. Energized, he does another jump, this time turning in the air so he’s facing his assistant. Pepper claps his hands before reaching into the bag of props, tossing a jar of salt to Zucchini. Zucchini outstretches his hand to grab it and, right before it lands in his palm, he calls his fire.
Sock will admit it. He was one of the people who screamed when Zucchini jumped. He has half a mind to run over to their boss and frantically ask if that’s safe, or even legal! Even thinking about jumping on a thin rope that far up makes Sock queasy, let alone turning around while doing it. And now the clown is throwing things at him? Really?? Sock is unwittingly watching from the same place Zucchini observed him, gripping the cloth tight. What else could Zucchini possibly be up to? He’s not sure why, but he didn’t see the fire coming.
Zucchini feels the runes on the back of his hand crackling. As he calls the fire, it almost feels like it’s happy to come to him, basking in the joy of performing as he does. The jar, coated in flammable oil, lights immediately, bright and hot. Pepper tosses him another object, this time an umbrella, which Zucchini catches with his other hand. The third object Pepper throws is a bowling pin; Zucchini lifts one foot and catches it on the tip of his toe. Now the fun can begin.
Zucchini’s always loved juggling, though it was frowned upon in the house he grew up in. Too many broken dishes, too many dropped heirlooms. He tried his best but he wasn’t very good as a kid. Not anymore. Now, he flips his flaming objects in the air with ease. His control over the fire is superb; the audience doesn’t know this but not a single object is actually burned. That reveal has to be his favorite. Items high in the air, Pepper throws more at him and Zucchini flips them faster. Feeling confident, he tosses a few behind his back as well. The crowd loses their mind and Zucchini loses himself in the sound.
Sock is losing his mind. How is any of this possible? He’s sure those things are on fire, but it doesn’t make sense! How is that umbrella not ash? How is the glass on fire? How has Zucchini not dropped a single object?! He must have six by now! Oh, wait, seven now because that sadistic clown just tossed him another. Sock thinks, maybe, he should just sit back and watch rather than overthinking the specifics. He leans back against one of the tent poles and contents himself with enjoying the show.
When Zucchini finishes by stacking all of the objects in one hand with none of them even scorched, Sock thinks he, maybe, possibly owes the guy an apology. Eventually. He sneaks away, not wanting to be caught watching, and starts heading back to his tent. On the way there, he thinks about whether this changes anything. Like, sure, maybe Zucchini isn’t all hot air (hah!), but he’s still not a nice person. Not even remotely.
Sock is still pondering this when he hears voices around the corner. Usually Sock isn’t the nosy type, regardless of what his sister has to say about it, but something in their tone sounds...off. He doesn’t recognize the voices, either. Sure, they could be patrons taking a smoke or something, but Sock’s gut is telling him it’s something else. He crouches down and peeks around the corner of the tent serving as his hiding spot.
“Should be any moment now, Groff. Master P. will be alone as soon as the show’s over, and that’s when we get him. You got it?”
“Yeah, Lunk, I got it the first million times you told me. Are you sure we should be doing this, though? Like, I get why but...Master P.’s always seemed pretty nice the way I see it.”
A thump. “Ow! Lunk! What was that for, huh?”
“For thinking too hard! We get orders, we carry them out, we get paid. That’s. It. Don’t go getting sentimental on me now, Groff.”
Sock is very glad he hid, now. They couldn’t possibly be talking about what he thinks they are, right? Only one way to find out…
Zucchini, riding the high of his performance, has a spring in his step as he heads back to his tent. Some of the things he’d tried had gone horribly in rehearsal, but somehow he’d landed them! And the crowd loved it! He doesn’t know what did it but something clicked for him up there. He’d be holding onto these feelings for a while. Or, so he thought, before he saw Sock crouched beside a tent looking incredibly shady. Not wanting to startle him, Zucchini carefully walks up behind him and gives his shoulder a tap. Unfortunately, this has the exact opposite effect, causing Sock to jump a mile. Sock turns, looking terrified. Upon seeing Zucchini his expression morphs to annoyed.
“Sorry. What are you--?” The rest of Zucchini’s sentence is muffled by Sock’s hand over his mouth.
“Shh.”
“Oh. Sorry,” Zucchini says in a whisper, once his mouth is free. “What are you doing?”
Sock puts a finger over his lips, then indicates with his head around the corner. Zucchini peeks, seeing two burly men in suits. He frowns until he starts to catch what they’re saying. It sounds like a plot to murder Master Piandao, but...it couldn’t be. Could it?
The two men start walking in their direction. Zucchini’s eyes go wide and he looks to Sock, but Sock has already stood up and is opening the flap to the tent they’re hiding behind. He grabs Zucchini’s arm and drags him in behind him. Once the footsteps fade away, Zucchini turns to Sock.
“Oh my god. Sock...What the hell did we just hear?” he whispers, dragging a hand through his hair.
“Pretty sure it was a murder plot." Sock replies.
Oh. So, it was actually exactly what he thought. Great. “Right. Right. Murder. Of our boss.” Zucchini can feel himself unraveling. “They can’t just kill Piandao! He’s like a father to me, they can’t--we can’t let them--” Zucchini starts pacing the tent, at a loss.
Sock, in contrast, is standing absolutely still, hand on his chin as he stares at the wall of the tent. "I have a plan."
Zucchini perks up, then looks wary. “What kind of plan?”
“They’re planning to use a tent nail as their weapon, right? Those are in the storage tent. That tent also has netting and rope, which we can use to trap them.” Sock’s eyes light up as he describes his plan, his hands moving as he talks. “We’ll use the trapeze mechanics to set the trap, and once they’re in range, BAM!” Sock slams his fist into his palm. “We got em.”
Zucchini isn’t entirely clear on how the trapeze artists do their thing, but he can’t help but trust Sock. The way he explains it is so passionate. So, Zucchini nods. “Okay. That...that could work. Let’s do this.”
Sock is surprised Zucchini agreed to the plan so readily but is not about to complain about it. They’ve got murderers to catch. Sock does a cautious check outside the tent before sneaking out, looking over his shoulder to make sure Zucchini is following. Zucchini is right behind him, looking around to make sure the coast is clear. When they get to the storage tent they both do one more look around before ducking inside.
"Grab that net and bring it here." Sock picks up a rope attached to a sandbag, dragging it towards himself. Zucchini grabs the net and tosses it to Sock, then awaits further instructions while keeping an ear out for company. Sock ties the netting to multiple ropes, then hooks up the ropes and adds a few extra sandbags until the net is pulled up. He crouches beside one of the ropes with a knife, ready to cut it.
Zucchini can’t pretend that he followed any of that, so instead he says, “So, now we wait?”
Sock nods. "Cut that rope when they come in,” he says, indicating a rope on the other side of the room.
“Can do.” Zucchini waits, finding a hiding spot and listening for the sound of the would-be murderers voices or footsteps. Eventually, he sees a shadow cross the tent. He hears those voices again, and then the men from before enter. Zucchini makes eye contact with Sock and then, when the perps are in the right position, cuts his rope while Sock does the same to his own. The criminals scream as the net comes down on them. Zucchini pumps his fist in the air, holding back an exhilarated whoop.
Sock, realizing they could get in trouble for trapping people without hard evidence, grabs Zucchini and flees. Zucchini goes with him, still too excited to really question it. Sock slows down and tries to look casual once they're a bit away from the tent, but makes sure to stop somewhere with the storage tent still in sight.
Once they’ve stopped Zucchini turns to Sock, a confused look on his face. “Why did we run away? We did something good!”
"We're circus workers who just trapped two people, and nobody else knows what they were doing there. It doesn't reflect very well on us."
Zucchini thinks about it, deflating a bit. “Well...I guess that’s true. What now? They might get out, and no one will know what they were going to do. Should we, I dunno, lead someone with some authority towards the tent?"
"I don't think we'll have to worry about that.” A crowd is starting to form around the tent, likely because of the screams. They watch Piandao make his way through the crowd, opening the tent flap wide. "Groff and Lunk! What are you two doing here?" Sock and Zucchini watch as Master Piandao drags the two men out of the tent, still wrapped up in netting. “I told you! You two don’t work for me anymore. I thought I made it perfectly clear I didn’t want to see your faces again.”
The two men talk over each other, the exact words hard to make out over the distance, but Sock thinks he makes out “not over yet!” and Zucchini thinks he hears “our real boss!” and both register the vehemence in the men's tones. Sock and Zucchini look at each other, eyes wide. Probably a good thing those two were tied up. Pretty soon, Pepper comes out to disperse the crowd and the conversation between Groff, Lunk, and Master Piandao grows hushed.
“I see. That certainly does look taken care of.” Zucchini stares at the three men for another moment, before it seems to hit him. That was something big, they stopped a murder. He starts laughing. Giddy, slightly manic laughs. “We really just did that, didn’t we?”
Sock gives Zucchini a strange look when he starts laughing. He isn’t sure what’s funny at first, then it dawns on him too. "Oh my God, we did just do that…"
“Yep! Yeah, wow, we’re...huh. Guess that makes us heroes, doesn’t it?” Zucchini seems floored by this realization. “I don’t think I’ve ever been a hero before.”
Sock watches guards drag the two people away from the tent. They just did that… He has always wanted to be a hero, specifically a warrior. Is this really his chance? They could take responsibility now that it was clear those two were murderers. He could finally have his dream…but, something holds him back. He can’t do it. It wouldn't do him any good, anyway. Better to move on.
“Hey, Sock?” Zucchini is also watching the people be taken away. He’s thinking about how his life so far has been one failure after another, how he’s always run away when the going has gotten tough, but somehow, with the weird trapeze man beside him, he managed to save someone. Really save someone. “Do you think we could do this again?”
"Huh? Which part? Saving people? Building traps? Not killing each other?"
Zucchini breathes out a laugh. “How about all three?” He turns to Sock, looking him in the eye. “I think we could really make a difference.”
Sock looks at Zucchini, really looks at him. Is he really asking to fight crime together? Sock had always thought Zucchini was stuck up and moody. He'd never really liked his aggressiveness before. But maybe there’s more to him. Maybe they can get along and use their talents to help people. He smiles. "I'd like that."
#jdsagjksf#crack#kind of? there's a lot of heart in here okay#zuko#sokka#fanfic#zukka#eventually idk rn theyre just trying to be friends lmao#atla#atla au#prince zuko#sokka of the southern water tribe#the circus au#the title we have right now is#the boys crack open a cold one and it's an underground crime organization#fix talks#fix writes with friends
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Kissing Dead Pearls (Part 15)
Warning for blood and death in this chapter.
She had been there when her mother died. She had been there when their sunny day turned so abruptly sour. When the clouds unleashed a big one without warning. It was just like the most recent storm, the news anchors had failed to adequately report the incoming storm and so they, alongside, several other families had gotten caught in it.
The day had been so kind and promising. Ursa packed their lunch, three grilled hot dogs that Ozai had left for them before heading off to help out at the marina, a bag of hotdog buns, a bowl of watermelon, and several water bottles. Zuko, newly sixteen, insisted that they bring some of the leftover cake too.
Ursa had caved and they were on their way out for a day of shell hunting and tubing. Azula couldn’t have been more pumped, she knew that she would come out bruised and sore, she always did in her successful efforts to outlast Zuko. In doing so, she had taken some rather hard falls. She very vividly remembers a summer ago when they’re competition got particularly heated. Both she and Zuko were clinging on for the sake of their pride. Typically they could last a good ten minutes of Ursa speeding over the waves before a good bump would dislodge one of them. They were on minute twelve. Her hands were cramped and achy from clenching the tube’s nylon handles for so long. But Zuzu had still been clinging and she would too. He let go first. She found out why soon enough. He informed her later that she had been tossed several feet into the air and did several backflips both before and after hitting the water. It had knocked the wind out of her and her entire body ached for days. But she had won.
The sky was so blue. The clouds were fluffy and white and the seagulls circled and squabbled over dropped french fries. Nobody seemed to have noticed when they suddenly disappeared. Maybe if they had, they would have known something in the air was amiss.
But everyone remained, a group of college kids at a volleyball net, a family building sandcastles, a different family departing with fishing poles at the ready, and a couple and their dog throwing a frisbee.
Ursa arranged their lunch and as they ate, she inquired about how Azula was enjoying her first year of high school so far. She had said that she was only a month in and needed more time to decide, but that she loved her new surf team so far. It was much more serious and competition driven. And then Zuko got to talk about how well his cooking was improving.
She remembers the smell of sea and barbeque in the air as she helped Ursa load the rest of their shells into the back of the car. She remembers the smell of the sunscreen that Ursa sprayed on her when she refused to do it herself. She remembers how her mother too smelled of sunscreen but also faintly of strawberry perfume.
Strawberry sunscreen, still lingers in her mind. Strawberry sunscreen is what she remembers most about her mother.
She tries to focus on strawberry sunscreen instead of strawberry colored blood mixing with seafoam.
They had just secured the innertube, a bright orange and blue thing with a company logo and name plastered in bright red on the front. The air seemed electrified, and in retrospect, maybe Azula should have said something. But she hadn’t and they were well into the ocean a crackle of lightning upset the waves.
It happened so unprocessablely fast. One minute there was sun and in an instant there was an impenetrable curtain of rain. How quickly fluffy and white had turned to wispy and concrete.
They abandoned their tube and hurried into the boat. Her heart had never raced faster and she thanked every higher power there was that she had Zuko had been so furiously competitive. They probably wouldn’t have had the ability to cling on for so long otherwise. Even still she was shaking by the time Ursa managed to reel them in.
There was no time for relief, she helped her mother navigate while Zuko helped hold her steady. Azula could see the shore. She could also see a boat turn over, spilling several fishing poles. She hadn’t known it then, but she would later find out that a girl in her class named Yue and her family had perished.
She zeroed in on the shore and guided her mother around rocks and debris. They were going to make it, they were going to…
She hadn’t spotted the reef on time. She underestimated the tides.
The tides pulled them right into the reef and shredded the bottom of their boat. They were going down and fast. Lifejackets were no match for such ruthless tides. She saw Zuko go overboard first. The same wave took her mother. She had room in her arms for one of them.
She emerged from the water with her legs and arms shredded. Blades of coral proved to be just as merciless as the tides. The sensation was searing and blood trickled down her arms and legs. She felt so dizzy and weak. She couldn’t tell how much of the blood was hers and how much was Zuzu’s.
She dragged him to the shore and scanned the water for her mother. The woman was fighting the waves, and for a moment, Azula thought that she would make it. Maybe she would have if their boat hadn’t…
Azula’s memory goes blank there, she just remembers seeing blood on the seafoam. Blood like strawberries and foam like sunscreen.
She never did tell Zuzu that she had to choose between he and their mother. She never told father.
.oOo.
He writes the letter out, it is sloppy with haste, but he thinks that it is to the point. It will probably speak for him better than he can. He bunches it up in his hand and shoves it into his pocket, alongside his first AA chip.
He tries the beach first. He finds Zuko and Katara, he hears them calling out for Azula but the girl is nowhere in sight. Nor does he spot Jet. It occurs to him that they are looking in the wrong place. Of course she won’t be on the beach, not as furious and upset as she is. His second guess is the cliffside, but he would have seen her already. Those are her two usual spots. There is one other.
Ozai considers taking the car, it would be alot faster but he thinks that walking is the way to go. He isn’t one to place his bets on gut instincts, that is what Iroh does. This time he does though, he walks for several miles. Walks until his already spent and exhausted body threatens to give. What a horrid way to spend his birthday. It is his own fault, he reminds himself.
He takes a deep breath and resumes his walk until he comes upon a rickety old park. It had been a dilapidated wooden accident waiting to happen when Azula was just a child, now it is completely crumbled. The only thing left standing is a rusty old merry-go-round, the only metal structure at the park. The shoreline that it is built on is a cluttered mess of driftwood, broken shells, and pollution; glass bottles, both broken and intact, deflated beach balls, discarded plastic shovels, forgotten goggles now fogged with algae, and empty beer cans.
It smells potently of dead fish and runoff. Ozai isn’t sure why she still wanders over here, but he does find her. She is perched upon a structurally unsound picnic table. Jet stands next to her, likely aware that any more weight will collapse the rotting table. He has a hand on her back and is rubbing ever so tentatively while she rather openly vents.
Jet notices him first. “She doesn’t wanna talk to you, old man!” He brazenly declares.
Ozai opens his mouth to berate the boy for his brash disrespect. Instead he says, “no talking involved, just give this to her.” He leaves no opening for the boy to decline. He isn’t sure if he should stand here and wait as she reads it or if he should begin making his way back to the lighthouse and hope for the best.
He stands with his arms folded while he waits for Jet to hand his daughter the note. He never drops his glare as he passes it off. Azula looks briefly at him before unfolding the note.
He tries to read her expression as her eyes follow the lines. She sets the note aside and presses her lips together. Her brows crease and her eyes narrow, she fixes them straight on the crashing waves in front of her.
Ozai waits. She is drawing the minute out.
.oOo.
Azula isn’t quiet sure how to take it. She can’t recall a time when her father has ever apologized to her--or anyone for that matter--vocally or otherwise. She fidgets with the note for a moment. It is very short and concise, a little lacking, but it is an apology no less. An apology and a thank you. She rubs her lips against one another and squeezes Jet’s hand harder. “Why?” She asks at last.
“Because,” he answers. “I don’t want to lose you too.”
“No.” She says. “If you appreciate what I tried to do for you then why? Why did you get angry with me? Why were you angry with me before.”
“Before?”
“You wouldn’t let me visit you. It’s because I tried to leave, isn’t it?”
The statement seems to take ten years off of his life. Suddenly he looks so tired. “I wouldn’t let you visit me because there are some things that you don’t need to see. You already saw your mother…” he trails off.
Her stomach knots all over again.
“I wasn’t angry with you.” He says again. “I’m not angry with you.”
“Then why did you…”
He rubs his hands over his face. “I just wasn’t expecting company, Azula. You don’t like to be seen before you’ve had a chance to fix your hair and makeup.” He tries.
It is a fair point. Even still… “I thought that it would be a nice surprise. You know Katara and I thought that you would want to meet…” She trails off, unsure if this is a good time.
“Your boyfriend?” Ozai guesses. She opens her mouth but he answers before she can ask, “I can’t imagine that he would be so bold if you were just a friend.”
Jet gives a slight chuckle.
Azula crosses her arms.
“Come home with me. We will gather your brother and Katara and have that cake. It would be a shame if you wasted all of that time cooking for nothing, yes?”
.oOo.
Azula nods. That slight pout doesn’t leave her face. She has grown so much, in the last two years. But there are still moments, still small flashes when he can see that she is only a child. “You are getting the smallest piece though.”
He rolls his eyes but he will let her have this one, it is fair enough all things considered.
She continues. “Cake is for grateful fathers.” This gets another chuckle out of Jet.
But he is grateful, and not just for the cake. He is thankful that she won’t walk the same path that he has. She is resilient--he can’t help but stare at the scars on her legs, she has too many of them for a girl so young. She is strong, maybe stronger than he is. And she is moving on, just as she had done with her mother.
“Your brother is going to be a bit harder to convince.”
Azula shakes her head, “he just doesn’t think that you’re trying. I think that he’ll come around when I tell him that you walked all of this way just to hand me a note.” She holds up her cellphone. “It was on the whole time.”
Ozai sighs, he always lets his temper drive out clear thinking. For once that is probably better. “Would that have been as effective?”
Azula thinks for a moment before shaking her head again. “You walked all that way just for me.” She flashes him a smug smile.
“That or he really wants some cake.” Jet comments with a shrug.
“He wants the cake because I made it.”
“We made it.”
“It was my idea!”
At least he can take comfort in that he hadn’t irreparably broken her mood. He can take comfort in that he hasn’t lost his girl.
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MHA - Post Season 1 Wrap Up
Season one covered a lot of ground and introduced a huge number of characters. It’s, ah, pretty ambitious tbh. That’s a big cast to keep track of and keep everyone interested in. And while it looks like they aren’t staying restricted to 13 episode seasons (thank goodness) there is still really limited screentime to work with when you consider we’ve got... Baku, Deku, Momo, Todoroki, ... ... Ochaco, that’s her name. And also... Kirishima, Mina, All Might, Aizawa...Jiru... I could go on and on, at this point.
Most characters are a name, a power, and a big question mark. I’m not going to even try to cover the whole cast, just going to pull a few I have something to say about, but below are a few characters and my current thoughts/theories. I do a more general wrap up at the end as well with what I’m thinking as we go forward.
I’m 13 episodes in, with more than 60 total. I’ve got some work to go yet.
This is the part where I mention (possibly reiterate) that I really don’t mind spoilers (because I am of the mind that it’s not necessarily the bit of information but how we get to it/learn about it/etc that makes the story what it is) and because of that I am somewhat steeped in information about MHA that was not necessarily available when season one was originally released. This is not a blind watching of the anime, and so some of my theorizing is based on information that I know comes into play, but don’t know how. I don’t really go seeking spoilers and I have been slightly more cautious since I started watching, but yeah, some things are inevitable.
Bakugo
I still think he’s compensating for something. He is settling into class better, after the combat practice episode. But there’s something... hm. He’s not got a good base, and I’m still suspecting some sort of rough place in his history with his quirk bringing positive attention that he craved. ... Or negative attention, even. Anything is better than being ignored right? This is speculation, but that’s where I am with him right now. I was very proud of his actions during the Villain attack, but... his personality remains all sharp edges. Still not sure I like him exactly, but here we are. He’s not a bad character, just a complicated one.
... I really which I knew why Deku keeps calling him -chan tho bc that’s generally a term of endearment and hell if they don’t seem to really not like each other. Like were they actually friendly once? Because all the flashbacks have the friendliness as very... very one sided. On the other hand, it may just be that he calls him -chan because that’s the sort of person Deku is. Hrm.
Ahhhhhh. I’m actually excited to see where the rivalry drives them, I didn’t expect to say that. But the two of them are in a position to push each other very... very far. I still want to see him develop more as a friend of Kirishima tho. He could use actual friends it seems.
Kirishima
It took me a second to remember his quirk, right, hardening. Okay. So! He’s had a combined total of like 5 minutes of screentime, curse of a cast this large. He is intriguing to me. He has a very hero-like attitude, is the best way I can describe it. And by that I mean his general outlook on ... for example, he and Bakugo going after warpgate, he recognized that they got in the way, and it may have been partially their fault that Thirteen wasn’t able to stop things before they were all scattered. He wanted to fix that.
He works really well with Bakugo in a way I’m not sure how to describe. I do hope to see them becoming friends, to an extent because I get the sense that maybe both of them could use a friend. I have a slight guess that he may feel drawn to Bakugo because they’re similar in some ways - but I haven’t quite figured out how because they have very different outlooks, externally.
I kind of ship Kiribaku, despite aforementioned combined total of maybe 5 minutes. Don’t judge me too harshly.
I really wanna know more about this guy, I think that’s all.
Todoroki
Literally a name a power and a question mark. We know he got in on recommendation - of course we don’t know who’s, but I’m not sure it’s important. What’s interesting though, and Midoriya brought it up in the monologue during um, Hero Notebook, I think, and I realized he’s right. We’ve never seen him use the heat portion of his quirk except to release his classmates that he froze in the combat practice episode. He relies almost solely on the ice portion. Now, this could be because freezing people in place is super effective and he hasn’t needed anything more but it’s still... interesting.
Especially when coupled with the burn on the side of his face, around his eye. That scar reminds me of Zuko, ofc (seriously look at that picture. I’m not convinced the imagery was accidental). Don’t know how he got it yet, but I literally cannot imagine that that burn isn’t extremely important - it’s very prominent and honestly I’d be surprised they bothered with something like that on a character that’s already extremely identifiable by his hair alone if it wasn’t important to his character somehow. And I also suspect it’s highly likely that it relates to why he doesn’t use the heat portion of his powers.
This is partially helped along by listening to ‘Sparks Rise’ and ‘Burn’. Neither of which give any particular details but *shrug*. I’ll leave anyone who hasn’t heard them to consider their additions to what little we see in season 1, because he has more than Kirishima’s screen time but not by much.
So, with that in mind. Ice Zuko Todoroki here, due to comparisons in my own head with Zuko, I’m predicting some kind of family issues. Indeterminate type. And I’m hedging a bet on, he’s either becoming a hero bc his family is pushing him to, or because he wants to get back at a family member for something. Perhaps the burn?
I’m looking forward to seeing if we get to see him use his fire seriously at some point. And, of course, learning more about what made him the way he is.
Midoriya
Okay so our main protagonist, and to be honest the one we know the most about. ... I have questions, of course, like where is his father and do we ever find out? But for the most part, we know he grew up watching heroes and that’s why he’s doing what he’s doing. His ultimate idol All Might is grooming him as a successor and that’s... I mean awesome for him. Dreams come true and all.
Easily arguable as one of the weaker combatants because he can’t use his quirk without half killing himself. But he’s got that, um, ... I think i’m going to go with inspiring personality (one of my friends @that-one-gundam-guy called him a Labrador in human form at one point and tbh that is so accurate). He’s very we can do it, happy go lucky, but he’s also very determined and he is taking this seriously. Even if he is extremely nervous outside of serious situations.
Anyway, he’s got a really good head in a fight. Probably second only to ... Momo and Todoroki, he is extremely good at analyzing a situation and the strengths/potential weaknesses of an enemy. His habit of collecting and analyzing everything about Heroes he can find will definitely serve him well in the field because he can recognize how a quirk can be used and how best to get around it. .... Mind he generally won’t have the tools to get around it himself. Currently, at least.
Aside from the fact that he’s not yet mastered his quirk there’s the fact that he tends to freeze up in certain situations. But there’s time to get around that yet. ... Though I hope at some point he starts to get a style that’s... his instead of just him copying All Might. Like, given the way One For All works, it’s gotta be possible to do... other stuff with it? Stuff that might suit his... much... smaller form better? I mean, yes it’s a close range quirk and he’s going to have to get into close combat, but punches can’t possibly be the only option. Some variation would be good.
All in all...
There’s still a lot of ground to cover and I’ve got a lot of hope for the series. Lots of room for everyone to grow and maybe for some reveals that will expand on some of our characters so they’re more than a power and a name. But there are... like 20 episodes in next season, so there should be more screen time to do all of that in.
Somewhere out there we have Kurogiri and Tomura (see I do know Warpgate and Hands’ names... lol)... and whoever is actually commanding them. But they’re still out there, and that means that they are going to pull their forces together and try to come after All Might again at some point. ... And Tomura certainly took notice of Deku. That’s not going to end well.
Or no, it will. But not before it hurts like heck all, I’m sure. Not sure it’ll be this next season though? Depends on how far they want to drag that plotpoint out for, I suppose. ... And how many times Tomura and Kurogiri strike before they hit gold, so to speak.
I was thinking though, the person they were speaking to when they first got back to their hideout took some serious interest when Tomura mentioned ‘the kid’. Does one of our bad guys know about One for All’s ability to be transferred between holders? Because that could spell trouble for Izuku “I’m-still-breaking-bones-constantly" Midoriya.
Anyway, season one was good, and I’m looking forward to season 2!
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