weirdlet

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.