weirdlet | Small Update from the Unproductive

Okay, so art-responsibility is failing left, right and sideways, but I managed to get myself out of the house, get my sewing machine in for repairs, and am working on cleaning the recovering-from-hoarder-tendencies abyss that is my house.

Am really wanting to bull through this next chapter of Sun Child- there's a lot of fun things I keep thinking of and wanting to touch on, but the problem is- they're all disparate bits. Over here is a festival, over there's Yet Another Moment of Zura Bawling Out Jet, way over there in the corner is the Blue Spirit wanting to come out to play, and all the while Lan Min's gone from crawling to running and Jin's telling Jet exactly why you don't want to get involved with the guys who hang out at the Black Shirshu, even if you do want to help people. That last bit leads to the closest thing I've got to a unifying, overarching plot, but I keep wondering if and how I should let the Blue Spirit out to play so Zura can actually have something to do aside from kick Jet around when he's being a twit.

And of course, the Epic Freakout-

A look of utter betrayal spreads across Jet’s face, a rising horror that speaks of tasting poison in a lover’s meal, of blades nestled just next to the vulnerable flesh of a beating heart.

“It wasn’t just the baby. It was you- all of you. You’re all Fire Nation.”

Zura reaches out, then holds back. “Jet-“

“No! It can’t be- you-!” he’s rising now, pacing, weaving back and forth like this is some blundering opponent he can dodge. “-NO!”

Zura knows she could take him down with one blow if he looked like he was about to run or to shout or to attack. She stands- ready, but without intent. Her arms are at her sides. She looks at him with hurt, not with anger.

This can change at any moment.

“Mushi’s in on it- he’s the leader, isn’t he? Or- is he the fath-“ He’s scrambling, trying to save this situation for himself, for her, to come out of it without the need to destroy what he’s come to hope for.

“No,” she says firmly, looking at him dead on. She cannot let him have that illusion, not even as a saving grace. “No. My uncle- is my uncle. He always has been.”

Jet’s looking at her like he’s begging her to recant, like he wants to tear his hair out. She turns her face away, and suddenly he reaches out, turns her toward him so that her scar is where he can see it.

“What about this? The exile- I thought-“ She bats off his grip, leveling a glower at him that fades in the wake of his devastation. “-thought they’d held you down, or afterward- for colluding-“ Still trying to save her honor to himself. It would be sweet if it didn’t make her so angry.

“I was branded as a coward, shaved as an adulteress, and exiled,” Zura says in a dead voice. “For my sins against my family’s honor and my country’s.”

“Were you a renegade?” A month ago, he wouldn’t have even thought about that possibility. He wouldn’t have needed to ask it.

“…not the way you’re thinking,” she says quietly. I just wanted to keep my daughter safe, that’s all I ever wanted; I wouldn’t dream of conquering the Earth Kingdom, the thought never crossed my mind; I spoke out against an untenable policy, I’m good Fire Nation; a thousand mitigating half-truths come to mind, but the thing about half-truths is that they’re half lies. I want my honor back, I want my glory, my destiny, to be worthy of my father and never fall out of line again. I want my daughter and I safe high above this muck.

She hates lying, not least because she’s so bad at it.

You’re not supposed to lie to people you like.

She’s not supposed to like him.

“I told you you didn’t want me in your gang.”

“You lied to me.” He’s backing up, letting his hands drop away from her. The revulsion in his face is frightening.

More, it’s pissing her off.

“I never lied to you- and you were the one who kept pushing! I told you to go away, and you wouldn’t leave me alone!”

darn yoooooou, writing gods! I needs must finish this chapter/series of chapters before I move on to other things, and yet it escapes me!

You know, I'm wondering if some small art-prompts might help me finish the actual big things I owe (non-fandom) people.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

attackfish.livejournal.com

Man, if I could help you find a unifying narrative thread, I would, bu I'm currently banging my head into the wall over the same thing... with a story about Jet and Zuko in Ba Sing Se. Oh the misery.

Onto the snippet!

I love the way you use the external conflict with Jet to highlight Zura's inner conflict and confusion, as well as her lingering class based feelings of superiority. Very well done. And Jet's wild assumptions, I can just see Zura's face at the one about her uncle. Zura: "Um... Ick?"

And he wants to tear her hair out. Powerful image.

“I told you you didn’t want me in your gang.” *Grins* Oh Zura, this is what passes for humor with you, isn't it. At least you only drive the knife in deeper when you're being clumsy.

One small thing, and I've noticed this before. Zura's not an adulteress. You have to be married or sleeping with a married person to be committing adultery. She committed fornication.

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

*nod* That is a good point about the adultery- I was using it in the sense of 'making a mockery of the solemn rites that are regarded as necessary before reproduction is permitted'. She's the Firelord's daughter, she's regarded as 'assumed to be taken or promised to someone' even if there's nothing arranged. Her particular crimes were- upgraded, and attention was not particularly paid to her getting her fair trial or punishment- this was also why no one ever quietly offered her the option of a draft of pennyroyal. It was a convenient disaster on which to hang a banishment.

Re: snippet- Yeah, Zura's kind of stuck in this thing of 'I'm grinding myself down to fit in this box and be happy here and no no NO I don't want to be a tea-serving moll to this obnoxious boy for the rest of my life! Even if he is cute and no one's chasing me!'

Re: narrative thread- heh^^ Ba Sing Se has such great potential for- I think of it as 'urban storytelling', there's just something about stories that very much use a city or a neighborhood as a stage that intrigues me. Th'only problem is, once you separate from the original tightly-woven episode plot, you have to come up with your own.

My basic things- We start out with Jet and Zura both getting used to the city. We end with a big blow-up, Jet gets taken by the Dai Li, and things proceed mostly as canon from there. In between- things get sticky. Jet's irritating Zura as a form of courtship while he and the Freedom Fighters look for jobs. He starts looking into the local gang, which Jin describes as the people you go to when you can't take things to the legit authorities.

"What's wrong with that?" says Jet.

"Lemme tell you exactly why," says Jin, who explains about methods of cultivating the refugees, how having no money is different from owing money, and on being asked how she knows so much about it, says that once upon a time, she had a brother. It's a trap getting involved with them, thinking they can make you a big man in the neighborhood, and it seems benevolent, but the risk is that once you take your problems to them, you're no longer a Good Citizen. And that status is bad news.

Jet, being the fellow smarting from 'you became the traitor when you stopped protecting the innocent', gets real interesting in seeing just how this works. Best way to do it? Get inside and get inside info.

He's not going to be reeled in right away, of course- he's got too blustery a presence, and Big Yan who runs things is looking to see if he'll settle down enough to be of use. Thus, the string of odd jobs that three ragged country bumpkins can do without too much trouble.

Meanwhile, he's not making much headway with Li, whose secrets he just wants to pry into and eat up with a spoon. (Jet is a curious monkey) I'm halfway thinking he sees her itching against her mundane disguise and provides temptation for (though he doesn't know it) the Blue Spirit to come out and play by trailing out clues of things he's going to be doing, observing, disrupting, seeing if he can tempt Miss Trying To Be A Good Girl into some covert Freedom Fighter work.

So- struggling immigrants by day, junior-auxiliary gang-member Freedom Fighter mole and occasionally helpful masked swordswoman by night. Things settle into a routine that way, and eventually Jet starts investigating the 'proper' way courtship takes place among civilized people, saves a little money, starts trying to treat Zura like a normal pretty girl- which is really flustering for her. Jin and Uncle take this as a good sign and encourage it. And while she's all like 'where do you think this can possibly go?' there's been enough cute moments that she kind of likes the thought of letting go and being, just for a little while, a girl with a boy.

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

Cue disaster on the horizon. There's eventually a huge blow-up where Jet's telling her she should help him, he's just about to blow this thing wide open with the gangs and the Dai Li and how the one helps spread the message of 'can't talk about the war here' at the lowest levels in exchange for permission to work from the other. Zura says like hell, you're going to bring them down on us and I can't afford to be linked to you if you're going to do that.

"Where's all that noble's pride, that big talk about being a warrior and protecting your people being your purpose for existing?"

"I failed my people a long time ago."

Jet, being the sweet-talker that he is, puts his foot in it shortly thereafter and leads to the snippet above. Cue screaming in the streets, that boy has managed to get that girl to actually attack him. One way or another, it's broken up and Jet has to leave while his girlfriend is crying, only to encounter his erstwhile bosses.

"You just couldn't stay quiet, could you, kid?"

The Dai Li very shortly get a bruised sacrificial goat to play with.

From:

attackfish.livejournal.com

I feel very stupid. I spent the last half hour trying to find out what a draft of pennyroyal was under the impression that it was a document, because I'd only ever seen the British spelling of draft in that context. *headdesk* That makes sense. If Ozai wasn't all that concerned with being fair, he also probably wasn't all that concerned with terminology.

*Is mostly too busy digesting the rest of the information to reply to it* I love the idea of Jet learning about real organized crime the hard way. I always thought it was hilarious that he thought he was hot shit. I wish though that he'd survive, but I know you can't have that happening and stay close to canon. And you're giving Jin a real, plot important role! I need to buy you a ring.

And Jet still wants to involve Zura in trouble. Yay, tenacious bastard.

Also matchmaking Iroh is one of the best things in the fandom.

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

Sorry about the mix-up^^;

As much as I appreciate Mike and Bryan having the guts to kill off a character- I subscribe to the Schroedinger's Cat theory of head-canon^^ Zura doesn't see him again and goes on thinking he's left and good (*sniffle*) riddance. The asshole. But we don't (and won't) see him die onscreen.

Jet- is hot shit, for where he was. And he's amazing in that he's managed to keep it together from eight to fifteen- but if the Fire Nation were really interested in him? They'd have had him and his boys squashed flat so fast... He's very much gone from being the big fish in a small pond to being a moderately well-fanged pike in an ocean of anglers, sharks and giant squid. And whales that don't even want to eat you, just swim past like an earthquake.

Zura: *to Iroh* "You. Don't. Get. It."

Iroh: "You don't have to give me grand-children, just go have fun!"

Zura: "HIS KIND OF FUN IS NOT CONDUCIVE TO LAYING LOW AND BEING DISCREET!" She's all about being in it to last, and she doesn't think Jet's going anywhere she wants to go.

From:

attackfish.livejournal.com

Yes, but he won't show up again, whaaaa!

I know, all I mean is he's nothing next to a big city crime syndicate and the Dai Li, and he's got a puffed up ego.

Zura: I want him to go awaaaaay!

Iroh: Do you just hate fun?

Zura: FUN?!?!?

From:

weirdlet.livejournal.com

In some far-flung future, he might^^

I know, and I agree, he does^^

Zura: "FUN does not involve living irresponsibly! FUN does not involve getting involved with loony boys who have a thing for prickly objects! FUN does not involve running around in the middle of the night busting up crime and dancing on rooftops and getting almost caught by police because you were busy trying to figure out how to kiss through a mask!!"

Iroh: "Well *now* you're just being contrary... wait, what was that?"

Zura: "I, uh, er- ...nothing?"

Also- can I ask what's going on with your story? Maybe we can help each other.