attackfish (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
attackfish) wrote2011-08-03 11:24 am
attackfish) wrote2011-08-03 11:24 am
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Fics from round four of AtLALand
These are the fics I wrote for round four of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
atlaland. Every fic is between 200 and 1000 words, or, depending on how you count, between 200 and 600 words.
TLA Song Titles Flow Like Water
To and Fro
The sap that rises in the spring, when the snow is still on the ground flows like water out of the wooden spigots stuck into the birch-maple trees, dripping into wooden buckets below. And it calls Sokka south. Suki can see it. She can see it as they carry the buckets full of sap down to the vats to boil (At the pole they would be dye pots, with the shells of ocean creatures in with their clothes.)
When the sap rises, she can see all the things they have both let drift away. He could have been chief. She was the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. But they can't have that when they each spend half the year in the other's home. They can't have it and be together. It's worth it, every day except the day they leave, but the sap always rises again. (At the pole, the ice sheet is shrinking.)
The syrup festival is only a few days away, and they'll leave the day after it's over. They'll smile, play, and try to take as much of her island in as they can, to last the polar summer. (It'll be good to see his people again.)
What's on the other side of the mirror?
The story which follows takes place in the same universe as my previous mirror stories, the one in which the Avatar is an Eldritch Abomination. Other stories in this verse can be found at the following links: Meetings, What are Zuko and Iroh Up To, Aang's Little Crush, In This Verse, Azula Totes Rescues Puppies
Fight and Flight
Yue held the sack high above her head. Her nails bit into the leather. Her fist clenched tight in on itself. "I will kill it."
She watched their eyes widen, watched them watch her, their smooth, pretty princess, their harmless little doll stand there and threaten to kill the power and hope of her own people. She wasn't supposed to ever be the one with the schemes, the one who could hurt.
And she had her schemes, be her father's doll until he married her off, then Hahn's until he became chief. Hahn was an idiot. It wouldn't take much to get the power safely in her hands.
But this, this was so much easier, so much faster. It was as if when the Avatar had come, when she had seen his face, the fog of her own schemes fell away, and she could cut through them all, her own schemes, her people's objections, all the time she had to wait. It was so easy.
And cruel, and unnecessary, whispered the voice of her old plans, and she pushed it aside. That voice was so soft, and almost incoherent. Why had she ever listened to it when this ran so clear in her head? The voice sometimes murmured that she had to rule because Hahn had been too stupid, not because she wanted it, not because the mere idea of ruling now sang in her blood so powerfully she thought she was going to shake apart.
But it didn't matter how she got into power, so long as she was ruling, and she had so many good ideas, if she could just get them to listen.
The sack hung in her hand. She could feel the fish flopping against it.
Everyone was shouting. Everyone. And the fish flopping in the bag stilled. Yue's throat constricted and she threw the sack down into the water. The koi floated out, weak, and it's partner curled against it.
And there was... She leapt, the water closed over her head.
They stood there and watched her body, bobbing in the water, befouling the shrine.
One Hundred Years of War:
Light the Light
They stood on the Earth Kingdom shore while the ship sailed away behind them, and already Kitae felt a prickling desire to turn around and go home. The captain had given them a grand speech as they had come onboard the ship, about how they each had the true courage of the Fire Nation within them, and how their strength would bring civilization and light to the benighted Earth Kingdom.
But he didn't feel strong or courageous, just a sharp pang of regret that he couldn't be normal and go into the army like his older sister. The army didn't want boys who couldn't walk without a cane, but the settlement service would take anybody.
And waiting for them was a village, with barricades in front of the houses and soldiers guarding the doorways. They wore their best clothes. Their trunks were full of all the things that would make the world a civilized place. The air was hot and wet like home, and the boats in the harbor looked enough like the fishing boats back home that he could pretend for a few minutes that they were on one of the islands, that the trees behind the village were all that was hiding the ocean on the other side from view.
He dragged his trunk behind him, digging his cane into the wood of the dock and pulling himself forward. One of the Earth Kingdom servants, tight-lipped in their brown clothes, darted forward and snatched the trunk out of his hands. She hauled it up onto a little cart and wheeled it inside one of the houses. He followed, and as one of the soldiers shoved the barricade out of the way, he swallowed and swore he didn't see faces amongst the leaves of the trees outside the village.
~*~
Buyuan propped the trunk onto the handcart and looked back at the Fire Nation man behind her with his shriveled leg and his cane. This was what they sent to keep her land subdued.
The handcart rolled behind her over the threshold of the man's stolen house. She set the trunk against the wall and unlatched the lid. Gray wisps of hair escaped her bun. It had been almost wholly black before they took the town. The soldier outside the house door watched her as she unpacked the man's tools and ridiculous clothes. "If I didn't know better," she rasped, "I'd think you didn't trust me."
The soldier didn't smile, but Buyuan did. Back to him, she worked diligently, the tamed, peaceful Earth Kingdom woman until the sun sank below the horizon, and the house around her grew dark. The Fire Nation man had tucked himself away, and there was nothing to stop her from tucking herself into her own bedroll, on the kitchen floor of the home she had once shared with her husband.
The branches of the fruit trees scraped against the open shutter. She listened to them, watching the sky darken overhead. She thought about the Fire Nation man now sleeping in her room and thought about him dead, broken and bleeding, and floating on the tide that would take him back where he belonged. She thought about her dead husband, and the way the Fire Nation thieves talked around her like she wasn't listening.
In the shadows of the forest outside the window, she could see the outlines of faces and the gleam of eyes, her son's eyes, the eyes of the villagers who had gotten away. They waited in the woods with bows and arrows, knives, and Fire Nation bombs to take their homes back.
Avatars Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, and Yangchen:
Everything Old is New Again
Yangchen
Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world.
Hanfeng walked into the grass in the middle of the circle of tents and sat down in the darkness outside the light of the fire. Lenguang nudged him. "You're late. You almost missed it."
He didn't look at her. "Hush up or I will miss it."
Firelight flickered and danced, reflected off the helmet of the woman standing at the center of the circle. She wore no coat, even in the freezing winds of late fall, and her arms were thick with muscle and covered with scars. "And what do the temples do for us?" Her eyes swept the crowd, and Hanfeng swore he felt her meet his eyes. He shivered and pulled his own wool coat closer around himself. "We feed them, we clothe them, we make their incense and their bells, they take our bending children... What do they ever do for us?"
It felt like she wasn't just asking, but demanding an answer from the entire world, and his mouth opened with the need to give her what she wanted, even though there was no way for him to answer. The gap between himself and Lenguang, that they had been so careful to maintain with tucked elbows and hugged knees became wide and aching with the absence of the brother born between them who had gone to the temple and never returned.
"The world is ours, my friends, but if we want it, we must bring down the temples!"
When they cheered her, it pounded inside Hanfeng.
Kuruk
When I was young, I was always a “go with the flow” kind of Avatar. People seemed to work out their own problems...
"I know those pirates sailed from your island." Headman Leibao thundered, jabbing his finger hard into the air in front of Headwoman Hiko. "And I know the captain was your brother!"
Hiko turned to the head of the Fire Sages. "My Lord, you hear what he's saying about my family?"
The Firelord rubbed his head and didn't bother to disguise his frustration. "Quiet, both of you."
Hiko narrowed her eyes. "My Lord, he has a fleet of ships ready to invade-"
"I said be quiet!" His voice ripped through hers, and her mouth slammed shut like a door. "It never ends with the two of you. Nothing I do makes you happy. Every time I think there might be peace between you, you're already preparing for another war. I think it's time I spoke with the Avatar about you."
Leibao and Hiko glanced at each other unwillingly. "Oh no," Leibao smiled oily, clasping his hands. "We would never presume to trouble Avatar Kuruk."
Kuruk, who spent more time in the Spirit World than in theirs, who resented every single moment torn away from hunting the monster who had stolen his beloved's face, who would craft a settlement that would make everyone as miserable as possible, knowing they would be stuck with it, because he was the Avatar.
"Now," the head of the Fire Sages, lord of fire said with a tight smile, "If you want to settle it with an Agni Kai right now instead, I will not stop you."
Kyoshi
Only justice will bring peace.
Ting swept his arm down, gathering the pebbles on the ground onto his hand. The courtyard was empty, and the dust rose in clouds around his feet when he moved. He brought his arm up, and the pebble glove flew for the wall. He slammed his foot down, and the glove broke back into pebbles and fell down to the ground. He gritted his teeth and let his head fall. It was supposed to come back to him. He pulled his hand back and the pebbles jumped out of the dust and back to his hand to try again.
If he didn't start getting it right, they were going to kick him out. The Dai Li were the instruments of the Avatar's justice, the greatest Earthbenders she could gather from all over the Kingdom, and he was one, but if he didn't start getting it right...
At least the courtyard was empty, so there was no one there to watch him fail.
The gate rattled. Ting twisted his head around to watch it open. The woman who passed through was the tallest he had ever seen. She was wearing the kind of ragged, stained robe no one wore outside their own homes, and her hair was short and gray. He felt sorry for her, and wondered if her mind had started going. "Ma'am, you can't come in here, I'm sorry, are you-"
She turned, and the air caught in his mouth. Her facepaint was gone, but she was... She frowned.
Roku
In my life, I tried to be disciplined and show restraint.
Dan spread her arms and the water rose to part the hanging vines. The sluggish, muddy water rolled her boat along, closer and closer, and the sunlight that filtered through the trees was stained dark green and glinting off the wet tree roots, and she felt...
"What on earth are you wearing?" The voice came faint through the leaves and vines.
Dan looked down at her sleeve. "I'd love to see you walk into Ba Sing Se, Hef."
The other boat floated up alongside her, and the man inside tipped his leaf hat back. "You look like an Earth boy, dontcha."
"Oh shut up." She picked up the coil of rope from the stern and tossed it to him. "So how y'all been doing?"
Hef chattered about the village and the family while he lashed the two boats together, and Dan let it wash over her. He leapt between the two boats like a squirrel-monkey, and when he had tied the knots, he walked across the ropes.
~*~
Hef pulled a wasp-fly off the stick and passed it to his sister. Dan took it, forcing down the clinical voice of her anthropology professor, and the way the man had pulled her in her leaves up to the front of the class like a display.
"So how're things goin' in the great big world?" he asked.
Her mind drifted to the army coming into their classes begging for volunteers, and the Fire Nation ships landing on the continent. "Not much to say."
atlaland. Every fic is between 200 and 1000 words, or, depending on how you count, between 200 and 600 words.TLA Song Titles Flow Like Water
To and Fro
The sap that rises in the spring, when the snow is still on the ground flows like water out of the wooden spigots stuck into the birch-maple trees, dripping into wooden buckets below. And it calls Sokka south. Suki can see it. She can see it as they carry the buckets full of sap down to the vats to boil (At the pole they would be dye pots, with the shells of ocean creatures in with their clothes.)
When the sap rises, she can see all the things they have both let drift away. He could have been chief. She was the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. But they can't have that when they each spend half the year in the other's home. They can't have it and be together. It's worth it, every day except the day they leave, but the sap always rises again. (At the pole, the ice sheet is shrinking.)
The syrup festival is only a few days away, and they'll leave the day after it's over. They'll smile, play, and try to take as much of her island in as they can, to last the polar summer. (It'll be good to see his people again.)
What's on the other side of the mirror?
The story which follows takes place in the same universe as my previous mirror stories, the one in which the Avatar is an Eldritch Abomination. Other stories in this verse can be found at the following links: Meetings, What are Zuko and Iroh Up To, Aang's Little Crush, In This Verse, Azula Totes Rescues Puppies
Fight and Flight
Yue held the sack high above her head. Her nails bit into the leather. Her fist clenched tight in on itself. "I will kill it."
She watched their eyes widen, watched them watch her, their smooth, pretty princess, their harmless little doll stand there and threaten to kill the power and hope of her own people. She wasn't supposed to ever be the one with the schemes, the one who could hurt.
And she had her schemes, be her father's doll until he married her off, then Hahn's until he became chief. Hahn was an idiot. It wouldn't take much to get the power safely in her hands.
But this, this was so much easier, so much faster. It was as if when the Avatar had come, when she had seen his face, the fog of her own schemes fell away, and she could cut through them all, her own schemes, her people's objections, all the time she had to wait. It was so easy.
And cruel, and unnecessary, whispered the voice of her old plans, and she pushed it aside. That voice was so soft, and almost incoherent. Why had she ever listened to it when this ran so clear in her head? The voice sometimes murmured that she had to rule because Hahn had been too stupid, not because she wanted it, not because the mere idea of ruling now sang in her blood so powerfully she thought she was going to shake apart.
But it didn't matter how she got into power, so long as she was ruling, and she had so many good ideas, if she could just get them to listen.
The sack hung in her hand. She could feel the fish flopping against it.
Everyone was shouting. Everyone. And the fish flopping in the bag stilled. Yue's throat constricted and she threw the sack down into the water. The koi floated out, weak, and it's partner curled against it.
And there was... She leapt, the water closed over her head.
They stood there and watched her body, bobbing in the water, befouling the shrine.
One Hundred Years of War:
Light the Light
They stood on the Earth Kingdom shore while the ship sailed away behind them, and already Kitae felt a prickling desire to turn around and go home. The captain had given them a grand speech as they had come onboard the ship, about how they each had the true courage of the Fire Nation within them, and how their strength would bring civilization and light to the benighted Earth Kingdom.
But he didn't feel strong or courageous, just a sharp pang of regret that he couldn't be normal and go into the army like his older sister. The army didn't want boys who couldn't walk without a cane, but the settlement service would take anybody.
And waiting for them was a village, with barricades in front of the houses and soldiers guarding the doorways. They wore their best clothes. Their trunks were full of all the things that would make the world a civilized place. The air was hot and wet like home, and the boats in the harbor looked enough like the fishing boats back home that he could pretend for a few minutes that they were on one of the islands, that the trees behind the village were all that was hiding the ocean on the other side from view.
He dragged his trunk behind him, digging his cane into the wood of the dock and pulling himself forward. One of the Earth Kingdom servants, tight-lipped in their brown clothes, darted forward and snatched the trunk out of his hands. She hauled it up onto a little cart and wheeled it inside one of the houses. He followed, and as one of the soldiers shoved the barricade out of the way, he swallowed and swore he didn't see faces amongst the leaves of the trees outside the village.
~*~
Buyuan propped the trunk onto the handcart and looked back at the Fire Nation man behind her with his shriveled leg and his cane. This was what they sent to keep her land subdued.
The handcart rolled behind her over the threshold of the man's stolen house. She set the trunk against the wall and unlatched the lid. Gray wisps of hair escaped her bun. It had been almost wholly black before they took the town. The soldier outside the house door watched her as she unpacked the man's tools and ridiculous clothes. "If I didn't know better," she rasped, "I'd think you didn't trust me."
The soldier didn't smile, but Buyuan did. Back to him, she worked diligently, the tamed, peaceful Earth Kingdom woman until the sun sank below the horizon, and the house around her grew dark. The Fire Nation man had tucked himself away, and there was nothing to stop her from tucking herself into her own bedroll, on the kitchen floor of the home she had once shared with her husband.
The branches of the fruit trees scraped against the open shutter. She listened to them, watching the sky darken overhead. She thought about the Fire Nation man now sleeping in her room and thought about him dead, broken and bleeding, and floating on the tide that would take him back where he belonged. She thought about her dead husband, and the way the Fire Nation thieves talked around her like she wasn't listening.
In the shadows of the forest outside the window, she could see the outlines of faces and the gleam of eyes, her son's eyes, the eyes of the villagers who had gotten away. They waited in the woods with bows and arrows, knives, and Fire Nation bombs to take their homes back.
Avatars Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, and Yangchen:
Everything Old is New Again
Yangchen
Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world.
Hanfeng walked into the grass in the middle of the circle of tents and sat down in the darkness outside the light of the fire. Lenguang nudged him. "You're late. You almost missed it."
He didn't look at her. "Hush up or I will miss it."
Firelight flickered and danced, reflected off the helmet of the woman standing at the center of the circle. She wore no coat, even in the freezing winds of late fall, and her arms were thick with muscle and covered with scars. "And what do the temples do for us?" Her eyes swept the crowd, and Hanfeng swore he felt her meet his eyes. He shivered and pulled his own wool coat closer around himself. "We feed them, we clothe them, we make their incense and their bells, they take our bending children... What do they ever do for us?"
It felt like she wasn't just asking, but demanding an answer from the entire world, and his mouth opened with the need to give her what she wanted, even though there was no way for him to answer. The gap between himself and Lenguang, that they had been so careful to maintain with tucked elbows and hugged knees became wide and aching with the absence of the brother born between them who had gone to the temple and never returned.
"The world is ours, my friends, but if we want it, we must bring down the temples!"
When they cheered her, it pounded inside Hanfeng.
Kuruk
When I was young, I was always a “go with the flow” kind of Avatar. People seemed to work out their own problems...
"I know those pirates sailed from your island." Headman Leibao thundered, jabbing his finger hard into the air in front of Headwoman Hiko. "And I know the captain was your brother!"
Hiko turned to the head of the Fire Sages. "My Lord, you hear what he's saying about my family?"
The Firelord rubbed his head and didn't bother to disguise his frustration. "Quiet, both of you."
Hiko narrowed her eyes. "My Lord, he has a fleet of ships ready to invade-"
"I said be quiet!" His voice ripped through hers, and her mouth slammed shut like a door. "It never ends with the two of you. Nothing I do makes you happy. Every time I think there might be peace between you, you're already preparing for another war. I think it's time I spoke with the Avatar about you."
Leibao and Hiko glanced at each other unwillingly. "Oh no," Leibao smiled oily, clasping his hands. "We would never presume to trouble Avatar Kuruk."
Kuruk, who spent more time in the Spirit World than in theirs, who resented every single moment torn away from hunting the monster who had stolen his beloved's face, who would craft a settlement that would make everyone as miserable as possible, knowing they would be stuck with it, because he was the Avatar.
"Now," the head of the Fire Sages, lord of fire said with a tight smile, "If you want to settle it with an Agni Kai right now instead, I will not stop you."
Kyoshi
Only justice will bring peace.
Ting swept his arm down, gathering the pebbles on the ground onto his hand. The courtyard was empty, and the dust rose in clouds around his feet when he moved. He brought his arm up, and the pebble glove flew for the wall. He slammed his foot down, and the glove broke back into pebbles and fell down to the ground. He gritted his teeth and let his head fall. It was supposed to come back to him. He pulled his hand back and the pebbles jumped out of the dust and back to his hand to try again.
If he didn't start getting it right, they were going to kick him out. The Dai Li were the instruments of the Avatar's justice, the greatest Earthbenders she could gather from all over the Kingdom, and he was one, but if he didn't start getting it right...
At least the courtyard was empty, so there was no one there to watch him fail.
The gate rattled. Ting twisted his head around to watch it open. The woman who passed through was the tallest he had ever seen. She was wearing the kind of ragged, stained robe no one wore outside their own homes, and her hair was short and gray. He felt sorry for her, and wondered if her mind had started going. "Ma'am, you can't come in here, I'm sorry, are you-"
She turned, and the air caught in his mouth. Her facepaint was gone, but she was... She frowned.
Roku
In my life, I tried to be disciplined and show restraint.
Dan spread her arms and the water rose to part the hanging vines. The sluggish, muddy water rolled her boat along, closer and closer, and the sunlight that filtered through the trees was stained dark green and glinting off the wet tree roots, and she felt...
"What on earth are you wearing?" The voice came faint through the leaves and vines.
Dan looked down at her sleeve. "I'd love to see you walk into Ba Sing Se, Hef."
The other boat floated up alongside her, and the man inside tipped his leaf hat back. "You look like an Earth boy, dontcha."
"Oh shut up." She picked up the coil of rope from the stern and tossed it to him. "So how y'all been doing?"
Hef chattered about the village and the family while he lashed the two boats together, and Dan let it wash over her. He leapt between the two boats like a squirrel-monkey, and when he had tied the knots, he walked across the ropes.
~*~
Hef pulled a wasp-fly off the stick and passed it to his sister. Dan took it, forcing down the clinical voice of her anthropology professor, and the way the man had pulled her in her leaves up to the front of the class like a display.
"So how're things goin' in the great big world?" he asked.
Her mind drifted to the army coming into their classes begging for volunteers, and the Fire Nation ships landing on the continent. "Not much to say."