The Avatar_500 Jump Start Posting And Comments Meme

[attackfish]

Alright, I'm unwilling to let avatar_500 go without a fight, so I am going to incentivize participation.  Write and post a fic for Round 65 - Air, and I'll fill a drabble request of yours.  Comment on all of the fics in the round (everybody said they wanted more comments), and at the end of the round, link me to all of the comments and I'll fill a request for you.  Do both, and I will fulfill three requests for commentfic.

The rules for posting to avatar_500 can be found here.

You don't have to belong to avatar_500 or have ever participated in it before to earn a request for commenting, and if you do want to join to post a fic for the round, all you have to do is click the "join the community" button, and you're in, easy.

About which I will not write (so don't request):

Ty Zula
NC-17
Incest
Ships where one party is much older or younger than the other(s)
Rape
Other people's OCs

Other than that, everything is fair game.

The deadline to post fic is Saturday December 1st at 11:00 PM EST.  The deadline to post comments is  Saturday December 8th at 11:00 PM EST.

Fics in The Round So Far:

Marking Boundaries by attackfish
The Need to be Seen by lalunatique
Playtime at Air Temple Island by wolfs_lament 
What Are the Odds? by c3childs
Wrong by chordatesrock
Four Element - Air- Third Stanza byclockwerkchaos
How Tenzin Met Pema by lavanyasix


Fills:

Forwolfs_lament:
   For a story: Hufflepuff Zuko, Secret Tunnel

For chordatesrock:
   For a story: Holding This Breath: the Aftermath of Kidnapping Aang
   For commenting on everyone's fics: Quiet Shadowed Places: the Cooler
   Bonus: Zuko/Toph, all grown up and surviving state dinners

For lalunatique:
   For commenting on everyone's fics: Ty Lee and Suki - Sake

For somariel:
   For commenting on everyone's fics: The Grand Lotus puts out a call

For: c3childs:
   For a story: Hama - Katara wasn't her first pupil  *Warning for violence and death*
   For commenting on everyone's fics: Amon - the vigilante of Republic City
   Bonus:  Yakone - he owns Republic City

For lavanyasix:
   For a story: Lin Realizes Toph is a dirty cop
   For commenting on everyone's fics: Pre-series - Korra encounters prejudice due to being half Northern and half Southern
   Bonus:  Ozai marries his son off into an insultingly low-ranked colonial noble family. Zuko/Kori

Comments

Ozai marries his son off into an insultingly low-ranked colonial noble family. Zuko/Kori Pt 1/2

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Yu Dao gleamed like a gold coin that had been polished until the markings had started to wear away, but Zuko barely noticed it. The bandage on his face stuck to the burn underneath, rubbing painfully against it with every move he made. He could barely feel it. He could barely feel the ship's gangway underneath his feet, or his own nails biting into the flesh of his palms.

In the breeze, the banners waved, and ribbons and garlands hung from windows and doors. The soldiers his father had sent with him to escort him, or guard him, or confine him and make sure he went where his father wanted him to, or look impressive behind him as he walked into this colonial backwater, filed out of the ship behind him, shattering his momentary impulse to run back into the ship and somehow force the helmsman away from the wheel and sail them all away from here. The town mayor stood with his wife in front of the small crowd, a hand on his daughter's shoulder. Zuko swallowed and marched up to her.

The mayor, his soon to be father in law, bowed to him as his wife and daughter watched Zuko speculatively. "You honor us with your presence, Prince Zuko."

Don't make fun of me, Zuko wanted to say, not that saying that had ever worked. His father wasn't honoring them. He was disgracing Zuko. And everybody knew it. "Thank you," he said awkwardly, instead.

The mayor's daughter, Zuko's bride, looked at him like she was trying to decide just how stupid he was. Zuko turned back to her, glowering a challenge at her out of his good eye. Her hands balled into fists.

She was an earthbender. His father was making him marry an earthbender.

Instead of Mai. Zuko's foul temper deepened.

The crowd, the whole town probably, he thought, with a horrified jolt, stilled. The mayor's wife pasted on a smile. "Come, Prince Zuko, you must be tired from your long journey." She put a hand on his shoulder, and Zuko went rigid with the effort of not shaking it off.

"Yes, um, thank you," He mumbled, trying to remember if anybody had told him these people's names, except for the girl he was supposed to marry, Kori Morishita. He was going to need to learn their names, Zuko realized with dread, if he was going to marry their daughter. "Yeah, I'm... I guess I'm tired."

He would be married, the morning after tomorrow, at dawn. His father had decreed it, and as late as the ship that brought him was, he was lucky it wasn't later. He would be married to a gawky earthbending girl with a hard mouth and angry eyes in a little colony town. There was going to be a ceremony. It wasn't going to be any more than a peasant festival.

He should probably wonder what his bride-to-be felt about him, but he couldn't make himself care.

"I'm very tired," he whispered.

~*~

Ozai marries his son off into an insultingly low-ranked colonial noble family. Zuko/Kori Pt 2/2

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Yu Dao gleamed like a gold coin that had been polished until the markings had started to wear away, but Zuko barely noticed it. Azula, he knew, was noticing it, and noticing the newly scrubbed windows and fresh coats of paint on all of the buildings, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she was calculating exactly how long it would take for the shine to wear off.

Wearing his best clothes and the gold flame hairpiece he was still entitled to as a Fire Nation prince, and standing next to his wife, in front of the town, he felt just a little...

A small, cold smirk played on her lips as she stepped off the boat. "Hello, Brother."

"Hello, Azula," he replied dully, dutifully.

"And Princess Kori." Azula turned to her, and Kori tensed. "Sister. It's wonderful to meet you."

Kori bowed. "Princess Azula. Welcome. We're so honored you came." And as quickly as Kori had caught Azula's interest, she lost it. Zuko envied her.

"You look good, Zuko," Azula appraised him, eyes lidded, and Zuko waited for her to finish. "Marriage and fatherhood must agree with you. Or maybe it's being out here in a more natural environment for you."

Zuko gritted his teeth. "Yeah, it's great. You should try it some time. It would do you so much good."

"Princess Azula," Mayor Morishita anxiously cut in with a bow. "I know you must be tired from travelling. We have dinner waiting for you inside my home, if you will follow me."

Azula glanced at him. "Alright, if you insist." She walked confidently at the crowd, and it parted for her, as she must have known it would, the men, women and children of Yu Dao forming a corridor of bowed heads. And Azula passed through, and Zuko, Kori, and her parents had to scramble to catch up. "You know, Zuko, I'm surprised you didn't start building your little family sooner," she said as he fell in behind her. "It had been what? Almost three years before you had Hyo? We were starting to get worried."

Zuko flinched, stupidly, and Kori grabbed his arm to pat it. It wasn't even a good taunt. If he was old enough to sit on a War Council, and challenge someone to an Agni Kai (to show shameful cowardice in combat) their father had said, he was old enough to marry. The Firelord had decreed it. But nobody was really worried that a thirteen year old boy hadn't gotten a fourteen year old girl pregnant. Kori had been Azula's age back then. "What are you doing here, Azula?"

He could feel Kori, next to him, waiting, wondering when Azula turn into the terrifying creature he had told her about, but Zuko could already feel her laying traps.

"I thought I'd catch the circus when it comes to town tomorrow." Azula didn't bother to look back at him. "And then I'm going to Omashu to see Mai. You remember Mai, don't you?"

Re: Ozai marries his son off into an insultingly low-ranked colonial noble family. Zuko/Kori Pt 2/2

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

Agghhh... that first part! "The feels," as they say. Poor broken Zuko. And I wonder what's going on in Kori's head. Probably something about however could the Fire Lord punish her loyalist family like this.

The second part was interesting for what it didn't say: namely, about Zuko and Kori's relationship. They seem to know each other's tells, and they do have a kid now, but beyond that it's hard to tell whether theirs is a "going along to get along" sort of marriage or something with real affection. Azula clearly thinks its the latter, given how she goes straight for Zuko's Mai button.

Re: Ozai marries his son off into an insultingly low-ranked colonial noble family. Zuko/Kori Pt 2/2

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Azula's mostly just throwing things at the wall and hoping something will stick.

Kori and Zuko actually bonded over their mutual unhappiness at being married. They get along well enough, and they're starting to build more... If Azula doesn't manage to manipulate Zuko into going Avatar hunting with her and the Dangerous Ladies.