weirdlet | Hm.

Now here's a thoughtful predicament. I'm loving writing out bits for the Sun Child AU, but I'm getting into bits where I'm not quite sure what to do, what changes and what doesn't, or why things come out the same as they do. As I'm the writer, it's my duty to make that stuff up- but I still get to points where I'd love to pick someone else's brains on what they think, or at least get a second opinion. Spoilery bits throughout, beware.

Things that I need to figure-

How to play Azulon and Zura's dynamic. There's only so much Stockholm can explain away, and I'm trying to figure a balance between 'so desperate to go home I'll go anywhere near a ship my brother's captaining,' and 'I know better than to trust you and let the actual plot happen'.

The thing with Jet and the gang- where to go with that? I could have Jet choking down his crazed principals for sake of the kid his Freedom Fighters keep babysitting and the chick he likes, or seeing the firebending and being his usual crazy-fucker self and feeling betrayed- and if he does so, how evil/jerky do I let him get?

Things with Katara in the Air Temple.

Things with Katara beneath Ba Sing Se.

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Azulon might have to do more explaining, but Zuko in canon's remarkably delusional when it comes to his family, and that can carry over. Azulon can play the part of a sulky errand boy and say that Ozai's brush with the made up assassin has left him feeling vulnerable. Alternately, he could pretend that suddenly Zura has a renewed importance in the marriage game now that the false assassination attempt has Ozai feeling politically vulnerable?

I can mostly see Jet being able to tolerate the thoroughly cute kid, who after all can't do anything yet for the sake of his mom, but feeling horribly betrayed when he realizes the girl he has a crush on is one of the enemy. You could have him see Iroh, or maybe Zura use a firebending shortcut that he sees later than in canon and then have the ensuing fight?

Hmmm. Katara, Sokka, Aang, and Toph would end up doing some babysitting, wouldn't they, with Zuko's tendency to take everyone on field trips. Since Lan Min is at the WAT before Zura, she won't even get a chance to make an awkward (reeeeeeeeally awkward) speech before she goes mama bear. Good luck convincing them you're not there to fight them when the first thing you do is attack to get your kid back. I can see it now. Screaming kid, harried mom begging for forgiveness, Toph saying it's all screwing with her vibration sense, and Katara threatening murder. Zura ends up being taken captive for a while until she proves her ~~worth~~ loyalty?

Beneath Ba Sing Se doesn't have to be all that different. Admittedly, it was massive ship tease for the Zutarans, but Azulon is offering redemption and a future for Lan Min. Katara would still ask her to go against her country. There'd be less romantic tension, but more girl bonding and possibly Katara being team mom and Zura being a mom without a clue adding another layer to their discussions of losing their moms?

*nod* All very good suggestions- as for the Western Air Temple, I'm still working on figuring out the different tags so scroll down, don't highlight, for the spoiler.

"I don't think you're stupid at all. I think you're smart enough- to realize what you have. In the old days," Zura said slowly, still kneeling. "Before the Firelords consolidated their power- noble families would exchange family members, keep them as guests, to ensure their alliances would stay true."

"We don't have an alliance."

"Not yet- but you have my daughter. I gave her to you."

"How could you do that-"

"If you were the sort of people to hurt her, then you're not the people to save the world- and I've just made the biggest mistake of my life."

ooo awesome snippet is awesome.

Oooh Snippit! I love how Zura "gambles" and knows the outcome. Like Mai and Tom Tom.

How to play Azulon and Zura's dynamic. There's only so much Stockholm can explain away, and I'm trying to figure a balance between 'so desperate to go home I'll go anywhere near a ship my brother's captaining,' and 'I know better than to trust you and let the actual plot happen'.

I immediately thought of that one line Azula said, "I'm a people person."

Which, for one thing D=, but for another, I really think she understands people and their motivations, but doesn't "get" them in the way that sociopaths are. She can lie to Toph via body-language and she really really understands what drives people.

Which is all lead up to this possible fact, that I don't think Zura could ignore if faced with it: Azulon is AWESOME with La Min. And where I think normally a todder/baby's natural instincts with people might give them the "oh scary person!" vibe, Azulon's an awesome lier and toddler's wants/desires are fairly easy to figure out, and he'll probably know to be on his best behavior around La Min because the way to Zura is through La Min (esp. considering Azulon has no real way of pulling Iroh).

Therefor you potentially have Katara and Zura coming upon La Min, happily in Azulon's arms.

In regards to Jet, I kinda mentally have him as representative of the Earth Arc; ie. "I'll rape/mindrape you for your own good" combined with a healthy dose of "all is not black and white" and "revenge does not actually work". Which is why I'm not surprised that he went away/died at the end of it and found it satisfying that karma came and bit him in the ass. Though everything around him makes Jet awesome for dark-fic imo.

It might be interesting if you could wrangle it somehow that Jet starts seeing shades of grey with the conflict of "this is a mother and child" v. "omg firebender", but it will be tricky to pull of in-character, especially since in canon he was fine with killing off an entire town. Though frankly I don't know how much it registered to him that there were probably children/elderly in the town.

(If crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?)

Basically I'm all for the darkfic...though I kinda see great potential for hilarity with babysitting duties, with or without smellerbee or longshot. Then again, if you put the hilarity NEXT to the dark that'll make it even more dark. ^_^V

...I have no clue how Katara might react under Ba Sing Se, which is why I gave the prompt. XD

Thanks, this is really helpful^^

np! =D glad to feed the bunnies.

embers updated! with katara smackdown!

^^ And at last, I can see where both are coming from. It's still painful to watch, but in a good way.

Hm.

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