attackfish | Kindle the Wind (The Avatar! Zuko 'verse) commentfic meme

That's it, folks, I can't take it. In the hopes that maybe writing some of what I want to write will get me unblocked on the fic I'm trying to write, I'm giving in and running a commentfic meme for my Avatar!Zuko verse. Comment with up to five requests, and I’ll guarantee you at least one commentfic. I’ll probably answer with more, knowing me.

weirdlet ,

fanficforensics,

beboots, and

floranna get seven requests and a guarantee of two fics, because

beboots and

floranna are the best betas ever, and

weirdlet and

fanficforensics just because.

Also, the 'verse has a title now, Kindle the Wind!

Air, Water, Earth, Fire.

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.

A hundred years passed and the new Avatar crashed into the ice sheet that borders our village. Although he is the Fire Nation prince, and it's his family and his nation that have brought this war to the world, I have hope that inside Zuko lies the spark of greatness. In the end, he has to save the world.

Front Cover Illustration

Timeline:

The Turtle-Crab and the Hawk
The first time Zuko struck a Fire Nation soldier in anger
Banner
Meeting Sokka and Katara
The joys of new bending
Zuko surprising himself by being spiritual and philosophical
Gran-Gran criticizing Uncle's parenting skills
Uncle Iroh finds out
Iroh has a talk with his nephew
Agni Kai against Zhao
Laying Aang to rest at the Southern Air Temple
Momo joins the Party
Sokka finds out the women on the ship aren't there to cook (and learns something, maybe)
Act of Providence
The Spinning Gates

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This was better than I could have hoped for!

1. I really enjoyed the fact that Zuko does, indeed, know his crew. Adding this detail really adds to his character, since it shows the mixture of contempt and pain Zuko feels towards his men. It's a great detail.

2. Laying Aang to rest with Gyatso is heart-wrenching, but beautiful. Such a sad, but fitting resting place.

3. Zuko and Aangs interactions are a great mixture of Season 1 Zuko's anger and Season 3 Aang's enthusiasm. Their banter reminds me a little of their side-trip in The Firebending Masters.

4. Thank you for explaining how in the cycle Zuko came to be the Avatar. I was wondering if two Avatars had come to pass in your world, or if the cycle was somehow flipped. This explains a lot and ties your fic into canon. Also, I really enjoyed that Lu was from the Foggy Swamp Tribe.

Kudos!

Zuko's interactions with his crew, along with Katara and Sokka's interactions with them are about to show up more in the next few installments, and I hope it continues to work.

It also does the double duty of hinting at Zuko's unconcious memories of his past lives.

I love that episode! Zuko needs a more upbeat attitude! One of the sad parts of this AU is that Aang is dead, which makes it hard as an author to milk all the lovely comedy he brings when he and angstboy are in the same scene.

I've been waiting for somebody to give me a prompt that I could use to tell their story. I've had them knocking around in my head since almost as far back as "Bannner". When I first started poking at this, I knew I wanted one of the Avatars to have died young and unknown, but that left a lot of time for the other Avatar to be doing nothing about the war. Lu is a slacking slacker who slacks.

On a side note, Foggy Swamp Avatars show up repeatedly in my drabbles. I wish we got to see one.

(I was inspired to write a little Foggy Swamp Avatar ficlet about the Water Avatar after Korra's cycle.)

Bao pressed his palm to the cold metal surface of the ship’s wall, listening for any sign of its spirit. A dull mechanical hum answered him, devoid of any life. He sighed heavily, green eyes shifting listlessly to stare at the sterile, crisp lines of his cabin. The room was completely devoid of life, an empty metal shell floating in the cold vacuum of space. “Ah wish ah were home,” he murmured.

A sharp hiss of air startled Bao, his head twisting around to watch as the door to his room slid open. The bright light of the hallway silhouetted the figure of Mission Specialist Chang, her trim form hidden beneath her bulky uniform jumpsuit. “Hey kid,” she called, voice full of gentle sympathy. “Enjoying it way up here?”

“Ah hate it,” Bao scowled. “Space is dead.”

A soft chuckle escaped Chang, her boots thudding softly against the metal floor as she walked towards the teenage boy. “It’s the truth,” she admitted with a shrug. “But when was the last time a kid from the Foggy Swamps got to see a view like this?” Striding over to the control panel embedded in one wall of the cabin, Chang pointed to the opposite side of the room. “Just watch,” she instructed. As her fingers deftly pressing a few keys, a soft mechanical whir filled the room. The metal wall began to retract, revealing a large window.

Bao gasped rushing towards the glass and pressing his palms and face against the transparent surface. His eyes immediately fixated on the swirling ball of green, blue, and white that seemed to float effortlessly before the window. “It’s beautiful...” he breathed. “Ah ain’t never seen nothin’ like it!”

Chang laughed softly. “There’s not a view in the ship that can beat this one.” Watching the boy, her expression sobered as she added, “We thought it would be fitting for the Avatar.”

Turning to look at the mission specialist, Bao smiled and bowed his head polietly. “Thank you, Miss.”

“No need to thank me,” Chang admitted. “After all, I didn’t come here to show-off the view.” She tapped her watch. “It’s time for training.”

Bao’s smile instantly vanished, his lips pulling into a deep frown. “Ah still don’t see no point to all this. Can’t even learn Earthebendin’ up here where there ain’t no earth to bend...”

Sighing heavily, Chang beckoned the boy towards her, returning his frown as he stubbornly refused to follow. “You know the point,” she replied in an exasperated tone. “We need to study the Avatar’s potential within a controlled environment. The data is important to unlocking...”

“The nature of bendin’ an’ the way it’s affected by the energy found on the planet.” Bao scowled. “Ah know. Y’all told me before. Still don’t make it make sense.”

“It’s hard to explain...” Chang trailed off for a moment before she quickly added, “To someone who’s never had a formal education in the biology, physics, and chemistry of the bending arts.”

“You mean to a stupid kid from the hick swamp?” Bao cast an accusatory glare at the women, frown deepening.

“To anyone who’s not read and versed in our research,” Chang corrected. “And that includes plenty of people from the Capitol.” She beckoned to the young Avatar again. “Now come on. The sooner we get to training, the sooner it’s over. And the sooner it’s over, the sooner you can return to this view.”

Bao looked longingly out the window one final time before heaving another sigh. With a muttered curse, he strode slowly towards the mission specialist, still scowling. “Bein’ the Avatar was different back in the day,” he informed her. “Used to be people looked to the Avatar for spiritual guidance. Didn’t treat ‘im like no science experiment.”

With a nod, Chang held her arms out before her, bowing her head with theatric flourish. “Well then, Mister Avatar. Guide us to training.”

The pair’s footfalls echoed hollowly down the metal hallway as they moved through the ship.

(Note: If the Avatar world's technology can progress so quickly between Aang and Korra, I only assume four Avatar's after Korra will be Avatar in Space.)

Oh, I like this. Bao isn't too sure he likes this new way of doing things at all!

Two notes: I don't actually think technology is progressing that quickly. It's a complaint fandom makes a lot, but in AtLA, the Fire Nation had steam ships, tanks, hydraulics, insulation and refrigeration systems, machinery factories, a lot of the hallmarks of the early industrial age, and beyond. We didn't have tanks here until we had cars, for example. I think what happened after the war is that the Fire Nation started sharing, and all of a sudden, there was a democratization of technology. Sometime after that, they made the jump to using electric and having radios, bringing them from the early Victorians to the Interbellum period in 70 years, roughly what it took in the real world. Second, if technology goes at the same pace as it has in our world, Korra could easily live to see the space age, at least the 1960s orbiting the earth/going to the moon variety. Avatar Jinora in this verse definitely has a cell phone.

I think it's actually possible. Avatars do live a long time after all. Kyoshi lived to be over 200 and if you count the time frozen in an iceberg, Aang was 166 years old when he passed away. It could be a good few centuries before the next Water Avatar is born. Enough time for space travel to be common ;).

I agree. See what I said about Korra getting to see space travel? (Can't you just see sixty year old Korra demanding to go to the moon?)

Kindle the Wind (The Avatar! Zuko 'verse) commentfic meme

Re: Laying Aang to rest at the Southern Air Temple, Part 7/7

Re: Laying Aang to rest at the Southern Air Temple, Part 7/7

Re: Laying Aang to rest at the Southern Air Temple, Part 7/7

Re: Laying Aang to rest at the Southern Air Temple, Part 7/7

Re: Laying Aang to rest at the Southern Air Temple, Part 7/7

Re: Laying Aang to rest at the Southern Air Temple, Part 7/7