*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.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-02-12 06:43 pm (UTC)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.