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

Ty Lee and Suki - Sake

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

So, I checked through, and you had commented on everything, and I've been sitting on this for days, so here you go. I tried, but it didn't turn out all that slashy.

~*~

Suki's head sank lower on Ty Lee's shoulder and her breath came warm and rasping, and heavy with the scent of alcohol. She stumbled on the empty floor, and Ty Lee caught her and kept her from falling. "Come on," she murmured. "We're almost there."

"Thanks, Ty Lee," Suki said slowly, carefully enunciating each word. "I'm sorry."

No, Ty Lee restrained herself from saying. You are not going to start crying again. But She wouldn't have stopped Suki if she did, not really. "It's okay. Let's just get you in bed, and..."

"You're really nice about this, I mean reeeeeally nice. I don't think the oth-" her feet tangled, and she dropped, and Ty Lee scrambled to catch her before she sagged to the floor.

"Maybe you shouldn't talk right now." Ty Lee propped her back up. "Maybe you should just concentrate on walking." She pushed the sliding door out of the way and half dragged her leader into the room.

Suki just grunted, and when Ty Lee layed her out on her futon, she patted Ty Lee's cheek. "I mean it." Her hand slid down to Ty Lee's throat, and stayed there, as if she were unaware of it, still there at the end of her arm. "You're soooo nice about this. The other girls would laugh."

Ty Lee cupped the hand on her neck in her own and peered down at her leader through the darkness. Her leader. She had never seen Azula so vulnerable. She had never seen Mai or Zuko so vulnerable either. She couldn't remember letting anyone ever se her so vulnerable, reliant on a friend to carry her to bed and tuck her in. "I wouldn't laugh at you," she said seriously.

"See?" Suki said, closing her eyes and smiling. "Nice."

Kneeling beside her in the dark, Ty Lee saw Azula's face for a moment, instead of Suki, saw her her as she had let Ty Lee see her, without weaknesses or imperfections, so, so perfect that she never could quite believe it wasn't real until after Azula was gone again. "I guess."

Ty Lee was nice because she wouldn't laugh. Right then, she wanted to. She wanted to laugh, and laugh, until she started crying, and then she wanted to disappear. This woman was her friend, and she was so sure, so completely confident the worst her friends would ever do to her was laugh.

Somehow, she felt touched.

Somehow, she felt lost.

Maybe she should have stayed in the Fire Nation, with Mai and Zuko, with people who at least, above all else shared with her the bone deep hard taught knowledge that moments of weakness were just tools for others to use against them.

"Stay?" Suki whispered in the dark.

"Of course," Ty Lee answered her. Suki trusted her. This was what trust felt like. And she wished with everything she had that she could trust back. "Of course."

Re: Ty Lee and Suki - Sake

[lalunatique.livejournal.com]

Aww that is so cute, and the underlying darker message about vulnerability and trust is poignant. It's like biting through sugary soft cream into the bittersweet dark chocolate at the core. Ty Lee is fascinating to me because of the way she crosses boundaries, those of cultures, nationalities, and enemy lines, but in a way this story shows her to be an eternal wanderer, too wounded to stay at home but too wary to be comfortable anywhere else.

Re: Ty Lee and Suki - Sake

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think of Ty Lee as a girl who has worn a shell of normalcy so long she doesn't know how to take it off. She's very damaged, more than she shows, but she's also very resilient, and I have a feeling she'll be able to trust again someday. I don't think she'll be a Kyoshi Warrior for long though, maybe a few years. I'm pretty sure that as you said, she's a wanderer and has a hard time settling.