#ashlei stop talking about what you want to write and just write it challenge 2021

[maipreciation]

a comprehensive list of my WIPs hopefully to be worked on in 2021, sorted by priority.  had to add a read more because the list is embarrassingly long.  any snippets I’ve posted of these stories/ asks I’ve answered about them are also linked below!

fics that should’ve been finished, like, yesterday

watching you watching me ch 5: the final chapter of the zukka fic I started over the summer during what was probably the peak of the atla renaissance.  have I lost interest in this?  yeah, a little.  am I still gonna finish it?  absolutely.  x

the world laid out before you: second person pov highlighting some of the ladies of atla and impactful moments in their lives (including more detailed backstories I’ve made up for characters like song, jin, and smellerbee).  katara and azula’s sections are just about done, but I still have eight more people to write.  x

with every breath: an exploration of aang’s grief throughout the series in five parts (with maybe a bonus part 6 somewhere down the road).  one of those fics where I have such a strong idea of the vibe I want to convey that I’ve procrastinated actually writing it out of fear that I won’t be able to measure up to my own expectations. x x

fics I’m excited for (and will definitely work on) but not entirely sure where they’re going

the first five years: a series of moments from zuko’s early reign as firelord.  fifteen chapters planned and counting, probably won’t start posting until at least a few sections are done.  x

swallow this valley whole: exploration of azula, mai, and ty lee’s relationships with food, femininity, ambition, and power.  x

treacherous (i like it): mailee moments we did and didn’t see throughout the series from first meeting/ friendship to end of the war/ beginnings of a relationship.  x x

hanging in the balance: a bunch of unrelated potential aus about how the night of azulon’s death/ ursa’s disappearance/ ozai’s ascension to the throne could have gone.  x

vignettes: tiny moments in mai and zuko’s lives from the fountain incident when they were kids through adulthood/ old age

uncle: the impact uncles can have on their nieces and nephews- mai and the warden and zuko and iroh.  x x

three people: three people mai kisses, three she does not, and one she kisses again.  eventual maiko but with some diversions along the way.  x

mutually generative elements: zuko’s understanding of the elements grows far beyond anything iroh could’ve taught him.  begins at the western air temple and continues through the ember island players, though doesn’t rehash each episode- it’s more like moments that could’ve happened between zuko and members of the gaang as they slowly warm up to each other

like a sparrowhawk singing: season 2-ish timeframe?  early on their hunt for the avatar, mai and ty lee get separated from azula and run into the freedom fighters.  not knowing that these two formidable young women are fire nation, jet tries to recruit them.  mai and ty lee discuss loyalty, honor, obligation, and what freedom means to them.  eventual mailee?

love like a brother: ursa’s second pregnancy is a difficult one.  azula is born frighteningly premature- her lungs aren’t fully developed and ozai writes off her potential for firebending as nonexistent (he’s wrong ofc, he’s wrong about most things lmao).  greatly weakened from the birth, ursa falls ill and dies after months of struggle.  meanwhile azula survives against the odds and is mainly raised by her brother- resulting in an unshakable loyalty between them.  basically zuko still gets banished but this time has azula on his side- not with him physically but back in the fire nation playing the ‘perfect daughter’ to ozai’s face while working behind the scenes with mai and ty lee to help zuko (and eventually, once zuko switches sides, the avatar)

the last eight years: the story of zuko and mai’s relationship, told in the style of the musical ‘the last five years.’  (alternating povs, mai tells the story backwards- beginning with them breaking up after the war, zuko tells the story in order- beginning with them meeting for the first time as kids, with one scene in the middle where they overlap)

fics I already know I’m not gonna work on (but they’re going on the list anyway for the sake of completeness)

all night i’ll riot with you: just read this post.  I may actually end up writing this, who knows.

cardigan: modern au zukka, a coming of age/ rekindling of friendship type fic that just barely turns towards romance later on.  x

the tea shop: modern university au where iroh franchised the jasmine dragon and zuko, mai, and ty lee work at the location on their campus, make friends, struggle through their degrees, and also develop crushes on some of their frequent customers along the way lmao.  featuring zukka, tysuki and jetmai; past sukka, maiko, and (non-toxic) jetko.  takes place in what’s basically my fictionalized version of nanyang tech in singapore

roommates: modern au zukka where sokka has been in love with his oblivious roommate for years, only to realize in the end that he’s been the oblivious one this whole time.  cheesy and cliché, I wrote one funny scene where zuko says the phrase ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ and then got bored with the whole fic

being neighborly: yet another modern au zukka fic, this time with sokka and zuko living across the hall from each other at university.  sokka is a mechanical engineering major with a drawing minor, zuko is polisci with a dramatic arts minor.  nothing much happens

miscalculation: starts beginning of season 3 when azula and zuko return to the fire nation.  ozai somehow learns the avatar is still alive after azula claims zuko killed him in ba sing se, and this revelation causes him to re-evaluate his daughter’s loyalties.  ozai reveals his knowledge on the day of the eclipse and confronts his daughter; zuko saves azula from their father’s wrath and takes her with him when he leaves

in a strange land: tales of ba sing se- azula, mai, and ty lee edition.  featuring azula vs one very stubborn joo dee, mai’s solo adventure in the lower ring in which she chases a certain person in a blue spirit mask, and ty lee visiting ba sing se university’s libraries/ allusions to her great grandmother being an air nomad

lu ten lives/ vigilante cousins au: exactly what the title says- lu ten is secretly alive and goes with zuko on his banishment.  a lot of stuff happens but I’m pretty sure I’m never gonna actually write it out in full