#first time writing yueki

[hello-yue-here]

i <3 oneshots oml

also may i please request some yueki??? :)

can be any sort of like banter/domesticity type of thing, maybe them cooking together? I feel like they would be barely functional and there is so much room for mayhem haha

ive never written yueki before but i absolutely LOVE them AND domesticity so I’m excited for it lol.

~~~

After 3 years of marriage to a professional chef and 4 years of dating before that, you would think Suki would have learned to cook something by now.

But alas, that was not the case.

Yue had just opened her second restaurant and Suki decided that she wanted to do something nice for Yue to celebrate. She saw how stressed out her wife had been lately with all of the financials and permits, not to mention the fact that Yue nearly worked herself to death in the kitchens while the hiring process was still going on.

After binging every Rachel Ray video she could find on youtube, researching cookbooks and recipes, and purchasing a matching set of koi fish aprons for her and Yue, Suki felt like she was goddamn Gordon Ramsey.

She was going to cook her gorgeous wife the most delicious meal she had every tasted in her entire life.

Suki had decided to whip up her wife's favorite meal. A fusion meal of caribous suasaat from her home in Greenland with a side of kiritanpo from Suki's home in Japan. The recipes she looked up online seemed simple enough and Suki was confident that she would be able to impress Yue with the meal.

Yue was going to be sooooo surprised. Suki could already imagine how Yue would react. She'd get all excited and shake her fists in front of her face, which would be all scrunched up and smiley in the adorable way she always did when she was happy. She'd kiss Suki and call her darling and they'd eat together and be mushy gushy and happy.

But before any of that could happen, Suki actually had to start cooking.

~~~

The scene that awaited Yue when she returned home from work was not at all what she had been expecting.

What Yue expected to see was her wife napping on the couch like she usually did after coming home from work, with Hoarders playing in the background.

What she actually got was her wife standing in the kitchen. Wearing an apron that was covered in god knows what. Throwing water at the microwave. Which had somehow caught on fire.

"What did you do!?" Yue shrieked, before running into the hallway of their apartment complex to grab the fire extinguisher.

She came back in and doused the microwave with foam.

Once the fire was out and the kitchen effectively the biggest mess Yue had ever seen, she turned to her wife who was standing sheepishly on the other side of their kitchen island.

"Suki, sweetheart, what on earth have we said about the kitchen?" Yue sighed, rubbing her temples.

"...that I'm not allowed to use it without supervision," her wife muttered.

"And what were you doing?"

"...using the kitchen without supervison," Suki sighed, "but I swear I had a really good reason!"

"Oh? And what would that reason be? And why did it involve a fire in the microwave?"

"I was trying to surprise you! I know how stressed you've been with the new restaurant and I wanted to cook you your favorite meal to celebrate it's grand opening and you were gonna say 'wow this is amazing Suki! I love you so much Suki! Would you wanna be a chef at my new restaurant because this is the best meal i've ever had Suki!' but then the kiritanpo got cold even though I put tinfoil over it like Rachel Ray said to do to keep things from getting cold, so I put it in the microwave and it caught on fire! How was I suppose to know that you can't microwave tinfoil! I thought it would make it heat up faster!" Suki rambled.

Suddenly, looking at the pout that was working it's way onto Suki's face and how upset she looked over her plan not going the way she wanted, Yue wasn't mad anymore. She was touched that her wife wanted to do something so thoughtful just for her, and it was making her upset to see her wife upset. So dammit, Yue was going to make sure that her wife would get to have her special night.

Yue walked over to where Suki was standing and wrapped her in a warm embrace, "I do love you Suki," she said as she placed a kiss on the shorter woman's forehead, "and that was the most thoughtful thing anyone's ever done for me. So here's what we are going to do: We're gonna clean up this mess and I am going to teach you how to cook and we are going to have the dinner you planned for us and it's going to be great and we're going to have a wonderful evening darling, sound good?"

Suki squeezed Yue tighter and replied, "sounds perfect."

~~~

Suki gave Yue her apron (to which Yue responded with her adorable excited face and fist shaking) and they got to work. If anything, it was even better than Suki originally planned, because having Yue stand behind her and guide her hands through the motions of cooking like they were in a cheesy romance film (with all the adorable neck kisses included) made the night even more special.

But yeah, Suki was never going to try cooking unsupervised again. She preferred her wife's help anyways.

~~~

I hope you enjoyed this!! Caribou Suasaat is a stew from Greenland where there is a decent sized Inuit population and I felt that this fit Yue's character, and Kiritanpo is toasted rice sticks made by wrapping mashed rice around skewers with other ingredients ranging from miso to green onions and more from Japan where I think Suki would be from!

[army-of-mai-lovers]

in which I get progressively angrier at the various tropes of atla fandom misogyny

tbh I think it would serve all of us to have a larger conversation about the specific ways misogyny manifests in this fandom, because I’ve seen a lot of people who characterize themselves as feminists, many of whom are women themselves, discuss the female characters of atla/lok in misogynistic ways, and people don’t talk about it enough. 

disclaimer before I start: I’m not a woman, I’m an afab nonbinary person who is semi-closeted and thus often read as a woman. I’m speaking to things that I’ve seen that have made me uncomfy, but if any women (esp women existing along other axes of oppression, e.g. trans women, women of color, disabled women, etc) want to add onto this post, please do!

“This female character is a total badass but I’m not even a little bit interested in exploring her as a human being.” 

I’ve seen a lot of people say of various female characters in atla/lok, “I love her! She’s such a badass!” now, this statement on its own isn’t misogynistic, but it represents a pretty pervasive form of misogyny that I’ve seen leveled in large part toward the canon female love interests of one or both of the members of a popular gay ship (*cough* zukka *cough*) I’m going to use Suki as an example of this because I see it with her most often, but it can honestly be applied to nearly every female character in atla/lok. Basically, people will say that they stan Suki, but when it comes time to engage with her as an actual character, they refuse to do it. I’ve seen meta after meta about Zuko’s redemption arc, but I so rarely see people engage with Suki on any level beyond “look at this cool fight scene!” and yeah, I love a cool Suki fight scene as much as anybody else, but I’m also interested in meta and headcanons and fics about who she is as a person, when she isn’t an accessory to Sokka’s development or doing something cool. of course, the material for this kind of engagement with Suki is scant considering she doesn’t have a canon backstory (yet) (don’t let me down Faith Erin Hicks counting on you girl) but with the way I’ve seen people in this fandom expand upon canon to flesh out male characters, I know y’all have it in you to do more with Suki, and with all the female characters, than you currently do. frankly, the most engagement I’ve seen with Suki in mainstream fandom is justifying either zukki (which again, is characterizing her in relation to male characters, one of whom she barely interacts with in canon) or one of the Suki wlw pairings. which brings me to--

“I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!” 

now, I will admit, two of my favorite atla ships are yueki and mailee, and so I totally understand being interested in these characters’ dynamics, even if, as is the case with yueki, they’ve never interacted canonically. however, it becomes a problem for me when these ships are always in the background of a zukka fic. at some point, it becomes obvious that you like this ship because it gets either Zuko or Sokka’s female love interests out of the way, not because you actually think the characters would mesh well together. It’s bad form to dislike a female character because she gets in the way of your gay ship, so instead, you find another girl to pair her off with and call it a day. to be clear, I’m not saying that everybody who ships either mailee or yueki (or tysuki or maisuki or yumai or whatever other wlw rarepair involving Zuko or Sokka’s canon love interests) is nefariously trying to sideline a female character while acting publicly as if she’s is one of their faves--far from it--but it is noteworthy to me how difficult it is to find content that centers wlw ships, while it’s incredibly easy to find content that centers zukka in which mailee and/or yueki plays a background role. 

also, notice how little traction wlw Katara ships gain in this fandom. when’s the last time you saw yuetara on your dash? there’s no reason for wlw Katara ships to gain traction in a fandom that is so focused on Zuko and Sokka getting together, bc she doesn’t present an immediate obstacle to that goal (at least, not an obstacle that can be overcome by pairing her up with a woman). if you are primarily interested in Zuko and Sokka’s relationship, and your queer readings of other female characters are motivated by a desire to get them out of the way for zukka, then Katara’s canon m/f relationship isn’t a threat to you, and thus, there’s no reason to read her as potentially queer. Or even, really, to think about her at all. 

“Katara’s here but she’s not actually going to do anything, because deep down, I’m not interested in her as a person.” 

the show has an enormous amount of textual evidence to support the claim that Sokka and Katara are integral parts of each other’s lives. so, she typically makes some kind of appearance in zukka content. sometimes, her presence in the story is as an actual character with layers and nuance, someone whom Sokka cares about and who cares about Sokka in return, but also has her own life and goals outside of her brother (or other male characters, for that matter.) sometimes, however, she’s just there because halfway through writing the author remembered that Sokka actually has a sister who’s a huge part of the show they’re writing fanfiction for, and then they proceed to show her having a meetcute with Aang or helping Sokka through an emotional problem, without expressing wants or desires outside of those characters. I’m honestly really surprised that I haven’t seen more people calling out the fact that so much of Katara’s personality in fanon revolves around her connections to men? she’s Aang’s girlfriend, she’s Sokka’s sister, she’s Zuko’s bestie. never mind that in canon she spends an enormous amount of time fighting against (anachronistic, Westernized) sexism to establish herself as a person in her own right, outside of these connections. and that in canon she has such interesting complex relationships with other female characters (e.g. Toph, Kanna, Hama, Korra if you want to write lok content) or that there are a plethora of characters with whom she could have interesting relationships with in fanon (Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, Yue, Smellerbee, and if you want to write lok content, Kya II, Lin, Asami, Senna, etc). to me, the lack of fandom material exploring Katara’s relationships with other women or with herself speak to a profound indifference to Katara as a character. I’m not saying you have to like Katara or include her in everything you write, but I am asking you to consider why you don’t find her interesting outside of her relationships with men.

“I hate Katara because she talks about her mother dying too often.” 

this is something I’ve seen addressed by people far more qualified than I to address it, but I want to mention it here in part because when I asked people which fandom tropes they wanted me to talk about, this came up often, but also because I find it really disgusting that this is a thing that needs to be addressed at all. Y’all see a little girl who watched her mother be killed by the forces of an imperialist nation and say that she talks about it too much??? That is a formational, foundational event in a child’s life. Of course she’s going to talk about it. I’ve seen people say that she doesn’t talk about it that often, or that she only talks about it to connect with other victims of fn imperialism e.g. Jet and Haru, but frankly, she could speak about it every episode for no plot-significant reason whatsoever and I would still be angry to see people say she talks about it too much. And before you even bring up the Sokka comparison, people deal with grief in different ways. Sokka  repressed a lot of his grief/channeled it into being the “man” of his village because he knew that they would come for Katara next if he gave them the opportunity. he probably would talk about his mother more if a) he didn’t feel massive guilt at not being able to remember what she looked like, and b) he was allowed to be a child processing the loss of his mother instead of having to become a tiny adult when Hakoda had to leave to help fight the fn. And this gets into an intersection with fandom racism, in that white fans (esp white American fans) are incapable of relating to the structural trauma that both Sokka and Katara experience and thus can’t see the ways in which structural trauma colors every single aspect of both of their characters, leading them to flatten nuance and to have some really bad takes. And you know what, speaking of bad fandom takes--   

“Shitting on Mai because she gets in the way of my favorite Zuko ship is actually totally okay because she’s ~abusive~” 

y’all WHAT. 

ok listen, I get not liking maiko. I didn’t like it when I first got into fandom, and later I realized that while bryke cannot write romance to save their lives, fans who like maiko sure can, so I changed my tune. but if you still don’t like it, that’s fine. no skin off my back. 

what IS skin off my back is taking instances in which Mai had justified anger toward Zuko, and turning it into “Mai abused Zuko.” do you not realize how ridiculous you sound? this is another thing where I get so angry about it that I don’t know how useful my analysis is actually going to be, but I’ll do my best. numerous people have noted how analysis of Mai and Zuko’s breakup in “The Beach” or Mai being justifiably angry with him at Boiling Rock or her asking for FUCKING FRUIT in “Nightmares and Daydreams” that says that all of these events were her trying to gain control over him is....ahhh...lacking in reading comprehension, but I’d like to go a step further and talk about why y’all are so intent on taking down a girl who doesn’t show emotion in normative ways. obviously, there’s a “Zuko can do no wrong” aspect to Mai criticism (which is super weird considering how his whole arc is about how he can do lots of wrong and he has to atone for the wrong that he’s done--but that’s a separate post.) But I also see slandering Mai for not expressing her emotions normatively and not putting up with Zuko’s shit and slandering Katara for “talking about her mother too often” as two sides of the same coin. In both cases, a female character expresses emotions that make you, the viewer, uncomfortable, and so instead of attempting to understand where those emotions may have come from and why they might be manifesting the way they are, y’all just throw the whole character away. this is another instance of people in the fandom being fundamentally disinterested in engaging with the female characters of atla in a real way, except instead of shallowly “stanning” Mai, y’all hate her. so we get to this point where female characters are flattened into one of two things: perfect queens who can do no wrong, or bitches. and that’s not who they are. that’s not who anyone is. but while we as a fandom are pretty good at understanding b1 Zuko’s actions as layered and multifaceted even though he’s essentially an asshole then, few are willing to lend the same grace to any female character, least of all Mai. 

and what’s funny is sometimes this trope will intersect with “I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”, so you’ll have someone actively calling Mai toxic/problematic/abusive, and at the same time ship her with Ty Lee? make it make sense! but then again, maybe that’s happening because y’all are fundamentally disinterested in Ty Lee as a character too. 

“I love Ty Lee so much that I’m going to treat her like an infantilized hypersexual airhead!” 

there are so many things happening in y’alls characterization of Ty Lee that I struggled to synthesize it into one quippy section header. on one hand, you have the hypersexualization, and on the other hand, you have the infantilization, which just makes the hypersexualization that much worse. 

(of course, sexualizing or hypersexualizing ANY atla character is really not the move, considering that these are child characters in a children’s show, but then again, that’s a separate post.) 

now, I understand how, from a very, very surface reading of the text, you could come to the conclusion that Ty Lee is an uncomplicated bimbo. if you grew up on Western media the way I did, you’ll know that Ty Lee has a lot of the character traits we associate with bimbos: the form-fitting pink crop top, the general conventional attractiveness, the ditzy dialogue. but if you think about it for more than three seconds, you’ll understand that Ty Lee has spent her whole life walking a tightrope, trying to please Azula and the rest of the royal family while also staying true to herself. Ty Lee and Azula’s relationship is a really complex and interesting topic that I don’t really have time to explore at the moment given how long this post is, but I’d argue that Ty Lee’s constant, vocal  adulation is at least partially a product of learning to survive at court at an early age. Like Mai, she has been forced to regulate her emotions as a member of fn nobility, but unlike Mai, she also has six sisters who look exactly like her, so she has a motivation to be more peppy and more affectionate to stand out. 

fandom does not do the work to understand Ty Lee. as is a theme with this post, fandom is actively disinterested in investigating female characters beyond a very surface level reading of them. Thus, fandom takes Ty Lee’s surface level qualities--her love of the color pink, her revealing standard outfit, and the fact that once she found a boy attractive and also once a lot of boys found her attractive--and they stretch this into “Ty Lee is basically Karen Smith from Mean Girls.” thus, Ty Lee is painted as a bimbo, or more specifically, as not smart, uncritically adoring of Azula (did y’all forget all the non-zukka bits of Boiling Rock?), and attractive to the point of hypersexualization. I saw somebody make a post that was like “I wish mailee was more popular but I’m also glad it isn’t because otherwise people would write it as Mai having to put up with her dumb gf” and honestly I have to agree!! this is one instance in which I’m glad that fandom doesn’t discuss one of my favorite characters that often because I hate the fanon interpretation of Ty Lee, I think it’s rooted in misogyny (particularly misogyny against East Asian women, which often takes the form of fetishizing them and viewing them only through a Western white male gaze)  

(side note: here at army-of-mai-lovers, we stan bimbos. bimbos are fucking awesome. I personally don’t read Ty Lee as a bimbo, but if that’s you, that’s fucking awesome. keep doing what you’re doing, queen <3 or king or monarch, it’s 2021, anyone can be a bimbo, bitches <3)

“Toph can and will destroy everyone here with her bare hands because she’s a meathead who likes to murder people and that’s it!”  

Toph is, and always has been, one of my favorite ATLA characters. My very first fic in fandom was about her, and she appears prominently in a lot of my other work as well. One thing that I am always struck by with Toph is how big a heart she has. She’s independent, yes, snarky, yes, but she cares about people--even the family that forced her to make herself smaller because they didn’t believe that their blind daughter could be powerful and strong. Her storyline is powerful and emotionally resonant, her bending is cool precisely because it’s based in a “wait and listen” approach instead of just smashing things indiscriminately, she’s great disabled rep, and overall one of the best characters in the show. 

And in fandom, she gets flattened into “snarky murder child.” 

So where does this come from? Well, as we all know, Toph was originally conceived of as a male character, and retained a lot of androgyny (or as the kids call it, Gender) when she was rewritten as a female character. There are a lot of cultural ideas about androgynous/butch women being violent, and people in fandom seem to connect that larger cultural narrative with some of Toph’s more violent moments in the show to create the meathead murder child trope, erasing her canon emotionality, softness, heart, and femininity in the process. 

This is not to say that you shouldn’t write or characterize Toph as being violent or snarky at all ever, because yeah, Toph definitely did do Earth Rumbles a lot before joining the gaang, and yeah, Toph is definitely a sarcastic person who makes fun of her friends a lot. What I am saying is that people take these traits, sans the emotional logic, marry them to their conception of androgynous/butch women as violent/unemotional/uncaring, and thus create a caricature of Toph that is not at all up to snuff. When I see Toph as a side character in a fic (because yeah, Toph never gets to be a main character, because why would a fandom obsessed with one male character in particular ever make Toph a protagonist in her own right?) she’s making fun of people, killing people, pranking people, etc, etc. She’s never talking to people about her emotions, or palling around with her found family, or showing that she cares about her friends. Everything about her relationship with her parents, her disability, her relationship to Gender, and her love of her friends is shoved aside to focus on a version of Toph that is mean and uncaring because people have gotten it into their heads that androgynous/butch women are mean and uncaring. 

again, we see a female character who does not emote normatively or in a way that makes you, the viewer, comfortable, and so you warp her character until she’s completely unrecognizable and flat. and for what? 

Azula

no, I didn’t come up with a snappy name for this section, mainly because fanon interpretations of Azula and my own feelings toward the character are...complicated. I know there were some people who wanted me to write about Azula and the intersection of misogyny and ableism in fanon interpretations of her character, but I don’t think I can deliver on that because I personally am in a period of transition with how I see Azula. that is to say, while I still like her and believe that she can be redeemed, there is a lot of merit to disliking her. the whole point of this post is that the female characters of ATLA are complex people whom the fandom flattens into stereotypes that don’t hold up to scrutiny, or dislike for reasons that don’t make sense. Azula, however, is a different case. the rise of Azula defenders and Azula stans has led to this sentiment that Azula is a 14 y/o abuse victim who shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions. it seems to me that people are reacting to a long, horrible legacy of male ATLA fans armchair diagnosing Azula with various personality disorders (and suggesting that people with those personality disorders are inherently monstrous and unlovable which ahhhh....yikes) and then saying that those personality disorders make her unlovable, which is quite obviously bad. and hey, I get loving a character that everyone else hates and maybe getting so swept up in that love that you forget that your fave is complicated and has made some unsavory choices. it sucks that fanon takes these well-written, complex villains/antiheroes and turns them into monsters with no critical thought whatsoever. but the attitude among Azula stans that her redemption shouldn’t be hard, that her being a child excuses all of the bad things that she’s done, that she is owed redemption....all of that rubs me the wrong way. I might make another post about this in the future that discusses this in more depth, but as it stands now: while I understand that there is a legacy of misogynistic, ableist, unnuanced takes on Azula, the backlash to that does not take into account the people she hurt or the fact that in ATLA she does not make the choice to pursue redemption. and yes, Zuko had help in making that choice that Azula didn’t, and yes, Azula is a victim of abuse, but in a show about children who have gone through untold horrors and still work to better the lives of the people around them, that is not enough for me to uncritically stan her. 

Conclusion    

misogyny in this fandom runs rampant. while there are some tropes of fandom misogyny that are well-documented and have been debunked numerous times, there are other, subtler forms of misogyny that as far as I know have gone completely unchecked. 

what I find so interesting about misogyny in atla fandom is that it’s clear that it’s perpetrated by people who are aware of fandom misogyny who are actively trying not to be misogynistic. when I first joined atla fandom last summer, memes about how zukka fandom was better than every other fandom because they didn’t hate the female characters who got in the way of their gay ship were extremely prevalent, and there was this sense that *this* fandom was going to model respectful, fun, feminist online fandom. not all of the topes I’ve outlined are exclusive to or even largely utilized in zukka fandom, but a lot of them are. I’ve been in and out of fandom since I was eleven years old, and most of the fandom spaces I’ve been in have been majority-female, and all of them have been incredibly misogynistic. and I always want to know why. why, in these communities created in large part by women, in large part for women, does misogyny run wild? what I realize now is that there’s never going to be a one-size fits all answer to that question. what’s true for 1D fandom on Wattpad in 2012 is absolutely not true for atla fandom on tumblr in 2021. the answers that I’ve cobbled together for previous fandoms don’t work here. 

so, why is atla fandom like this? why did the dream of a feminist fandom almost entirely focused on the romantic relationship between two male characters fall apart? honestly, I think the notion that zukka fandom ever was this way was horrifically ignorant to begin with. from my very first moment in the fandom, I was seeing racism, widespread sexualization of minors, and yes, misogyny. these aspects of the fandom weren’t talked about as much as the crocverse or other, much more fun aspects. further, atla (specifically zukka) fandom misogyny often doesn’t look like the fandom misogyny we’ve become familiar with from like, Sherlock fandom or what have you. for the most part, people don’t actively hate Suki, they just “stan” without actually caring about her. they hate Mai because they believe in treating male victims of abuse equally. they’re not characterizing Toph poorly, they’re writing her as a “strong woman.” in short, people are misogynistic, and then invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of feminist theory to shield themselves from accusations of misogyny. it’s not unlike the way some people will invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of critical race theory to shield themselves from accusations of racism, or how they’ll talk about “freedom of speech” and “the suppression of women’s sexuality” to justify sexualizing minors. the performance of feminism and antiracism is what’s important, not the actual practice. 

if you’ve made it this far, first off, hi, thanks so much for reading, I know this was a lot. second, I would seriously encourage you to be aware of these fandom tropes and to call them out when you see them. elevate the voices of fans who do the work of bringing the female characters of atla to life. invest in the wlw ships in this fandom. drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic (please, drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic). read some yuetara. let’s all be honest about where we are now, and try to do better in the future. I believe in us. 

[milf-harrington]

I don't know if you're still taking any drabble requests (if you aren't just delete this, sorry) but if you are, yueki for any of the angst ones?

have a good day!

“Please don’t leave.” + “Don’t cry. Everything’s going to be okay.”

-

It was very warm, the air pressing heavier than it did in the north, dense and damp, and leaving her skin feeling sticky with the barest traces of sweat.

That was strangely all Yue could focus on: the way her shirt was sticking to her shoulders, her skirts hanging too heavy around her legs. The way her hair felt too warm on the back of her neck.

I should tie it up. She thought absently, not making any move to do so, and instead staring out at the gently lapping waves. It was warm, and sticky, the smell of salt and copper heavy on the air.

A breeze rolled off the ocean, shaking free a stray piece of parchment that someone must have left behind.

She watched the parchment twist in the wind, slapping into sand before floating further down the beach. I’ll have to write to Sokka. She realised with a jolt, something sharp burning through her and tearing at her chest.

I have to write to Sokka- but how am I supposed to tell him- Tears blurred her vision, her eyes burning as she pulled her knees tighter to her chest and buried her hands in her hair. Reality came crashing around her, burrowing it’s way through her until she was hollow and aching, because she had to tell Sokka that his best friend-

Horrified, Yue ripped her hands out of her hair, the white strands falling around her face, stained red. Her hands shook, wet blood stuck beneath her nails, caught in the grooves of her fingers. Just hours ago those fingers had been running through auburn hair, tracing over old scars and battle wounds. Proof of what she’d been through, everything she’d survived.

It didn’t make sense. Kyoshi Island was neutral ground - there wasn’t even a war anymore for goodness sake.

A freak accident. A skirmish gone wrong. One of the strongest warriors of their time taken down by bad luck.

“Don’t cry,” Suki soothed, bringing a hand up to cup Yue’s cheek. Her hand was warm and slick with blood, mixing with the tears that Yue couldn’t control. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

Yue shook her head, resisting the urge to look to the moon for comfort as she pressed harder against the wound in Suki’s thigh. The makeup on her face was thick and waxy, smudging uncomfortably against her hand when she brushed her hair out of her face with the back of her hand. A streak of red coated her skin, and Yue wasn’t sure if it was paint or blood and part of her wasn’t sure if she was ready to know the answer.

“Please love, please don’t cry.” Suki murmured, her own eyes going glassy. The fierce warrior who had thrown herself out of bed at the call of danger was crumbling before her, showing the gentle woman who’d held Yue to her chest and told her stories of her first training sessions just the night before.

“I’m trying.” Yue sniffled, her ribs collapsing in her chest as more blood pulsed around her fingers. “Why won’t it stop-” She sobbed, leaning more of her weight on it and trying to ignore the prickle of alarm when Suki gasped.

Gasping was good. Gasping meant she could still feel it.

“My love- Yue.” Suki’s voice was weak but still commanding. Yue snapped her gaze up to meet Suki’s blue-green eyes, the paint on her face smeared on one side from a hit she’d taken to the face. Her lip was split, the blood hidden beneath her already red lipstick. She was smiling, but it was the worst expression Yue had seen in her life.

A fresh wave of tears rolled down her cheeks, droplets of white and red falling to her bare knuckles. She couldn’t remember when she’d taken her gloves off, but when she moved her hands she felt them beneath her palms, a makeshift bandage that had done nothing but delay the inevitable.

“Please don’t leave.” She whispered, uselessly.

Yue curled into herself tighter, sobbing into the still bloody skirt of her kyoshi armour, her lungs struggling to pull in air and her torso aching. The ocean sighed as it retreated, gurgling forward before falling away again. It seemed to be reaching forward, almost like a comforting hand as she fell apart on a beach, barely 10 minutes from where her world had ended.

She had to tell Sokka.

She had to tie her hair up.

[badgerfrogs]

i don’t have many followers on this blog to answer but if i wrote a zukka au featuring the following, how interested would people be?

- autistic zuko/adhd sokka (i’m on the spectrum and i’d have to do some more research about writing adhd characters but i think there should be more fics with neurodivergent zukka)

- trans zuko (i’m not trans but i’d be sure to research & read about trans experiences & write about zuko being trans respectfully)

- zuko abolishes the fire nation monarchy and moves to the south pole as an ambassador and to be with his friends and with sokka, who’s working as an engineer and co-chief-in-training in the southern water tribe

- !!!!chief-in-training katara!!!! she and sokka split the role so that sokka can do his engineering work & train in the arts and katara can dedicate some of her time to traveling with aang (this co-chief thing also results in plenty of sibling snipery and banter)

- homoerotic sparring practice

- nerd4nerd zukka

- sokka with chronic pain from his leg injury

- plenty of southern water tribe worldbuilding

- it would contain very little conflict/no actually dangerous stakes for characters & relationships because i like writing fluff, if anything it’d be low-stakes drama

- it would probably be mostly one-shots too but in a series, i’m not much one for longfics since im a writing major which takes most of my creative energy and i write fics mostly for fun

- zukka pranks and fun

- white lotus member and cultural liaison to the southern water tribe sokka

- plenty of vacations and the gaang healing from cptsd/the effects of growing up in war

- writer/poet zuko

- katara and zuko sleepovers (they’re like “me and the bestie<3” but they actually are just besties)

- katara loving zuko and sokka but kind of hating zukka at first because she doesn’t want to think about her brother and her best friend kissing (among other things)

- perhaps some love letters?

- reparations and decolonization from the fire nation with the help of zuko

- zuko righting his nation’s wrongs while also not shouldering the burden all alone and getting to heal as well

- zukka sneaking around like teenagers in love

- bakoda (ft. trans bato), mailee, and possibly pianjeong and maybe yueki (i’d have to figure out how to fit it into the canon universe) would certainly make appearances as well, along with the rest of the gaang

- sokka and katara’s family loving zuko and considering him family too

- disgustingly in love zukka

- zuko’s complete and utter inability to lie

- sokka and aang’s brotherhood

- sailing trips and campfires and life in the southern water tribe

- zuko’s little sister kiyi visiting!!

- sokka’s grandpa energy and pai sho mastery

- druk... but in the southern water tribe

- hawky

- jin’s return ft. song

- human heat pack zuko

- southern water tribe kids and communal family!

- sokka’s eternal battle against the spirits

- zuko crying out of happiness when the fire nation trade ships come and he can eat fire flakes again

- zuko and aang competing to be the best sons-in-law

- zuko and sokka’s debilitatingly intense baby fever

- baby izumi in the southern water tribe later on!!! baby izumi & southern water tribe culture!!!

- healthy, supportive relationships and friendships filled with compassion and kindness

- and more!

[avatraang]

happy ffwf!! have you ever written a fic for/inspired by someone else (e.g. as a gift, using their headcanons, etc.)? how was that experience different from writing fics for yourself, if it differed at all? make sure to promo the story! (- thinkingisadangerouspastime)

Hello YES! I’ve written multiple! Honestly, the experience is most difficult in that now you are actively writing for someone else. Fanfiction is, for me, 100% for me. I write what I want written and I publish what I want to read. Fics for other folk, even if they’re my rad friends, means I’m writing something they specifically want. This means it might not be something I’m super passionate about! But it’s pretty surprising how even things you think you won’t be super into, leads to a new love. I’ve written fics for ships I normally would have never or rarely ever, and because of that it awoke a love for said ships or characters! The challenges of writing a gift fic is well worth it to me, because of the growth I undergo while doing so.

The following are all gift fics for my friends or followers:

a better companion. for @praetorqueenreyna.

The thing about soju –the thing anyone who’s experienced it will tell you– is that it doesn’t hit you til you start moving. And so it should come as no surprise that the couple doesn’t make it all the way to the bedroom. Mai’s dining table, however, proves to be the perfect place for her to begin making good on her word of having Aang for every meal.

[Or, Aang and Mai are shy idiots. They manage to work things out anyway. Intimately. Maiaang. Oneshot. Explicit.]

define divinity. for @meliorismmint.

In between kisses that define divinity and with the moon watching them, they begin to fall in love.

[Yue and Suki meet under the most memorable of circumstances: jail. Life happens from there. Yueki. Oneshot. Uni AU.]

infinite and always. for @justoceanmyth.

Aang comes and goes, and that is the hardest part.

[On one of Aang’s returns home, Zuko confesses a grievance of his. Aang comforts him and admits some thoughts of his own. Zukaang. Oneshot. Established relationship.]

lazy sunday. for @cats-and-metersticks.

Had he dreamed her all this time? No, Sokka concludes. No one could dream up this much beauty, this much power. She must have been hand-crafted by the Spirits themselves.

[Tokka. While enjoying their time together, Toph and Sokka get to know each other. Intimately. Oneshot. Explicit.]

when the sun goes down. for @irresistible-revolution.

He tosses her the tile and smiles, a charming thing that could give birth to a million stars. Azula stares. “It’s that easy for you?” “Of course.” Aang says. "How?" It’s strange to feel so connected to someone he was once morally and mortally opposed to, but destiny is a funny thing, and Aang has always walked hand in hand with it.

[Azulaang. Post war, post redemption arc. Oneshot.]

we’ll keep on growing like ivy. for @praetorqueenreyna.

Looking back, they were always at least a little bit inevitable.

[Mai/Aang. Maiaang. Oneshot. University AU, where nothing is different but also everything is different, all at once.]

as simple as breathing. for @cats-and-metersticks.

Their composition is an easy one; as simple as breathing. Toph falls asleep with that knowledge, that their constitution is as set in stone as nature. In the morning, Sokka is still holding her, and it isn’t until he wakes up, complaining about a headache, that Toph detangles herself from his arms. They don’t mention how they wake up; they don’t need to. It’s another constitution that came as naturally as the first.

[Oneshot. Written for Tokka Week 2020, Day 2. A short story on Tokka through the years, and all the times they serve as the other's constitution.]

thank u sm for the ask, amy! and thanks for letting me plug my fics <3

[zukkaoru]

time to shine tag

i was tagged by @sheimagineddragons tysm kit!! <3

Only rule: Be as thirsty for attention as you want to be! Link one of your old fics/art pieces or one that didn’t get enough attention, link a work you loved to create or share a draft from your newest WIP. Or do all of these. Be greedy. Show your art. Crave attention. Be proud. And don’t forget to give your friends an excuse to show off theirs!

Additional note: Please consider dropping one of your favorite hidden gems by an other author along with your own work so others can enjoy it as well and so that it doesn’t stay buried any longer!

a little bit of you & a little bit of me okay i'm starting with this fic i wrote for atla gen week about jinora & her relationship with being an eldest sister. when i started writing, i was well aware it wouldn't get a lot of attention between being a gen fic, being a tlok fic, being centered on a non-main character, and the fact that it is. um. 19k words,, but i'm still really proud of how it turned out and it's a fic that's very personal to me bc it's a lot of self projection + lowkey it was my way of coming to terms with being nonbinary lol

never been in love (and it's all good) next is yet another fic i wrote for gen week, this time centered on aro bumi ii. it's a 5+1 fic and has a lot of bumi ii & family moments

only if you want to this is yet another tlok fic, this one centered on kya ii and her dealing with sleep-related issues. it's got a lot of kya & bumi and kya & lin in it!!

of all the stars, the fairest finally i am going to promote the fic i wrote for the atla 18+ big bang, which is a mailee fake dating fic, simply bc wlw fics never get as many reads and oatstf is my baby

okay as for other people's fics, i have. so many i could rec but i will try to keep it (semi) short

a friend is still a friend by @that-was-anticlimactic is a fic about jet & sokka being frenemies and it's just. literally so perfect. it made me feel such a wide range of emotions and i absolutely adore it. (also if you liked the jet & sokka dynamic in my enby sokka fic, you will love their dynamic in this as well)

the tell me what you want me to say series by @zukoisgayforsokka it's vv cute and has zukka, yueki, and background mailee & jinzula and i love it so much!!

a brutally soft woman by @rolandtowen which is about nonbinary suki and i love love love it!!

i like my girls just like i like my honey by clumsycrow is a yueki meet cute one shot with best friends yue & sokka and suki running a booth at a local farmer's market and it is very adorable

strawberry gay time by beifongbltch & snowandfire is a maisuki modern au oneshot and tbh that ship deserves more love. anyway there's lots of sapphic pining and i love this fic

tells me she's mine by crashing_meteors yuetara surfing au. need i say more?

maybe this is how i first met you by sirensokka mai and ty lee in prison post-boiling rock with homoerotic chi blocking and pining <3

okay uhh idk who all has been tagged and who hasn't so i tag anyone who wants to do this <3

[jaanii]

momo for the ask game (and more seriously, suki)

momo:

sexuality headcanon: diversity win! your flying lemur is aromantic!

otp: nobody <3 appa’s too good for him

brotp: him and sokka !! they give off a dad being like ‘i don’t want a dog’ and then hanging out with the dog all the time (both of them are the dad)

notp: momo x appa 😔 appa deserves better than that

first headcanon that pops into my head: have you read that book where the cockroach is really good at writing/drawing? yeah that

one way in which i relate to this character: a menace. we are both menaces

things that give me second hand embarrassment about this character: smh attention whore

cinnamon roll or problematic fave: problematic fave </3

suki:

sexuality headcanon: bisexual !!

otp: yueki <333 or sukka :)

brotp: her and aang !!! they’re best friends your honour

notp: her and toph… idk i’m not a big fan of it

first headcanon that pops into my head: she’s very good at origami !

one way in which i relate to this character: uh. we both appreciate sokka so so much

things that give me second hand embarrassment about this character: nothing 🙄 she can’t be embarassing

cinnamon roll or problematic fave: cinnamon roll? i suppose so

[justoceanmyth]

This is the hc i’ve been going feral over since I first came up with it this morning: Suki as a songwriter in her spare time. We know she's interested in music, she canonically knows all of the songs by the travelling nomads from the Cave of Two Lovers. The possibilities for literally any Suki ship are too powerful:

- Sukka: Sokka becoming Suki's lyricist. She can't write poetry for the life of her, though it's something she's working on, and Sokka wants to support and participate in her hobby, and he's completely tone-deaf so writing lyrics it is.

- Zuki: When Zuko's sleep gets restless Suki hums the songs she's working on to help him sleep peacefully again. He wakes up the next day humming the tune himself, and he has no idea why.

- Sukaang: Aang teaching Suki how to play traditional Air Nomad instruments. The serenading goes both ways here.

- Sukitara: Suki impatiently waiting outside Katara's waterbending lessons to play a new song for her. Katara eventually getting fed up with becoming a flustered mess from the serenading and learning to play to get back at her. Eventually they wind up in a sort-of competition about it.

- Tysuki: Suki serenades her awake in the morning, since they both wake up at dawn. I can also imagine that Ty Lee gets songs stuck in her head very easily, so Suki will catch her singing the tune to herself for the rest of the day.

- Yueki: Mournful ballads sung to the moon that have been known to make the stars weep. Also you can't convince me that Yue would absolutely *melt* if someone wrote a song for her.

- Sukitaraang: Aang and Katara slow dancing to Suki's songs (possibly on the radio while they pine for their girlfriend/mutual crush.) It works for all of them! I am feral!

[that-was-anticlimactic]

hey! i just saw your ask to bisexualsokka and i saw that you mentioned "frozen au"? is it atla related? it sounds really interesting.

hello, friend:)

first, imma promote now that i see you by @bisexuallsokka which the ask i sent was about and everyone should go read it because the disney zukka brain rot is real oof i have been thinking about them all day... like… uGH i was picturing the second to last chapter / the beginning of the last chapter in my head ALL day today and I have no regrets

okay bUT about what you sent... i am in the process of writing a zukka frozen au and i am uhh very invested hehe

so, i was showering one day and frozen broadway came on and i was like "yeah zukka" and then i went "... yEAH ZUKKA" and wrote this post and then forgot about it and then remembered in december and it was all i thought about in december and it consumed my mind

but for anyone who doesn't want to look at the link (which valid it's long lol), imma summarize:

katara is elsa and sokka is anna (although sokka is still the oldest. katara is literally the last southern water tribe bender so like,,, yeah she's elsa) and sokka does become chief, not katara.

and azula is hans (but she is being manipulated by oz*i v heavily so if i ever write the sequel i've been pondering about... major azula redemption... also mai and ty lee anyways). then zuko is kristoff and druk is sven (look me in the face and tell me that zuko wouldn't sing a song called dragons are better than people ijuhgvhjihu)

then aang is technically olaf in this but like... just in the companion sense. like, when katara reveals she's a bender and there's a storm, the storm cracks the ice berg and zuko and sokka find aang and he travels with them to find katara

iroh is pabbie and the white lotus are the trolls (except pakku still sucks and he's a nonbender in this because plot lol and he moved to the swt to be with kanna) and the rest of the trolls are the freedom fighters, the kyoshi warriors, toph, and just people who want to stop the war. so while toph, suki, jet, and haru aren't main characters, they're still there (and also yueki and jetru... yeah... oh but yue is still dead which sad but i also am in the process of writing a yueki prequel and a jet-centric prequel as to how he joined the "trolls")

(most importantly, the cabbage man is oaken—)

and yeah :) the plot is kind of the same but also different??? like the journey to find katara is a lot longer and that's how zukka falls in love and azula was instructed to try and take down the swt from the inside and like flirt with sokka (poor girl doesn't know she's a lesbian yet://) and they move so fast because a) sokka falls hard and he falls fast and b) azula was like "wow this child is so starved for affection and attention that i could ask him to marry me and he'd probably say yes father this is so easy w h a t kind of mission is this?" (spoiler alert: she is correct lol)

and katara and sokka fight and oh no she's a water bender and sokka is like "she's my sister, i'm not leaving her" and then frozen but in atla verse and with some additions by me :)

oh and also the war is kind of different? like it's not a full out war but the fire nation slowly trying to take everywhere down from the inside / sneakily and they don't have the resources or ability to attack the heavily armed nwt or the huge earth kingdom yet but the swt is doable

(and it's still small, but the nwt sent them some nonbenders... you know, after they killed *all* of the benders, the north was like 'mmm maybe not benders', so sokka's "coronation" is a big deal for them histroically)

and the swt still doesn't really like the fire nation at all (understandably) so azula pretends she's a refugee and zuko is so used to pretending to be earth kingdom that he lies and tells sokka that his name is li lol

but anyways, to sum it up, this is a story that i really want to explore the relationship between sokka and katara first and foremost and then zukka immediately after that and the let it go scene with katara... yeah i have plans for that that will stay hidden iuhgvhuji

well um

you did not ask for this much but i've been genuinely craving to talk about this because i think about it constantly and will be dedicating my life to this after my bb fic is completely posted :)

thank you very much for *unintentionally* indulging me and allowing me to scream about how much i love my zukka frozen au

(and under the cut is the frozen and tangled boards i drew for the menu board at camp today hehe--ignore the nightmare fuel that is olaf—i cannot draw)

olaf really looks ready to murder me tho,,,

and kom nu frem is quite literally always playing in my head… but the tangled one,,, I spent way too much time on it but it was sO worth it. that’s supposed to be sokka instead of flynn and zuko instead of rapunzel but I doubt I would’ve been able to get away with that lol

but yeah !!! i did the frozen one because kom nu frem and then decided tangled because frozen makes me think of my au and then when I was trying to figure out what the lunch board should be, my kind went to zukka soooo nOW THAT I SEE YOU

[kawaiichibiart]

Princess and the Pauper AU for ATLA. With Yueki, Zukka and Kataang.

Annaliese is Yue (who has brown hair and a crescent moon birthmark to represent her connection to the moon spirit)

Erika is Katara

Julian is Suki

King Dominick is Zuko

Preminger is Zhao

Madam Carpe is Hama

I'll figure out the other roles later, and I'm basing this off the Barbie movie because that's the version I know best.

But the idea goes as follow:

Yue and Katara look strikingly similar. Yue is a princess, while Katara has no royal status and works for Master Hama at her inn.

Yue is supposed to marry Prince Zuko, the Crown Heir of the Fire Nation. Unlike the movie, they have met, however, Zuko already has a partner in one of her personal guards, Sokka. And Yue is inlove with her other personal guard, Suki.

Suki takes Yue out to get her mind off the arranged marriage that was unwanted by both parties. It's there she sees Katara waterbending and creating beautiful ice sculptures. She's trying to both gain a bit more money and see if anyone would notice she was a capable bender who could be taught to fight.

Of course, Hama sees this and doesn't like it, she's been trying to teach Katara to bloodbend on a regular basis every full moon, but Katara has used it to ensure she didn't have to continue doing it. So, she just takes the money and thanks Katara for helping the inn, knowing she was trying to get it for herself so she could leave.

Yue and Katara realize that they look so much a like and have some fun together, leaving as best friends.

Later on, when Yue is kidnapped by Zhao, Suki goes to Katara so she can take over as Yue temporarily. And Katara has to learn so much about being royalty in less than a day. She does her best and Suki promises to help her.

So, the day comes that Zuko arrives and meets "Yue." He tells her how happy he is to see his bride to be. How he missed her. And Katara returns the sentiments. But she doesn't know he and Sokka are together, so when they're in the Oasis, alone, and she goes in for a kiss, he stops her and asks if she was okay, if she forgot he and Sokka were dating. She didn't, but Yue did, so she tells him that with their marriage, she was nervous about letting others see that she didn't want it. About how she didn't want them to think she wasn't doing her duty.

Katara and Zuko spend a lot of time together. And who shows up with Sokka a few days later? Aang.

Katara had never met the Avatar, but he was one of the nicest benders she had ever met. He let her have fun, told her her bending was incredible and how he would like to learn bending with her. He was still learning and improving his bending, so having someone he could call a friend with him would be better. After all, he did go to the Fire Nation to learn with Zuko, who was his friend apparently. And to the Earth Kingdom to learn from his friend King Bumi and to have sparring sessions with another friend of his, a blind girl named Toph Beifong.

So, then comes the day that Zuko is supposed to present Yue with her bethrotel necklace. But as he's about to put it on her, Zhao storms in and orders her arrest. To prove his claims, he has someone check her shoulders for the crescent moon birthmark. It wasn't there, and upon closer look, Sokka recognizes his younger sister and is shocked about everything. He wants to say something. Anything. But he can't. He's rooted where he stands as his sister is taken away to be locked in prison.

Meanwhile, back with Yue, she had escaped and was on her way back, only to be captured by Master Hama, who took her back to her inn, so she could continue working. Yue wasn't sure about it, until another person in the inn called her Katara. Yue had to then explain to this person who she actually was. And thus, her second imprisonment.

Things seems to go better though, when someone comes for her, having received a message from someone that the princess was at the inn. However, he quickly leads her into a different prison, one where Suki is at, trapping them both in. They escape and had confessed their feelings while doing so. And they head back to the Yue's home, hopefully to stop the wedding and to clear the airs and give Katara her freedom (which they didn't know was an added detail to their list of things to do).

I'm very tempted to have Hahn as a second Preminger. Like, the Chief of the NWT has chosen him as the next in line, and since Yue isn't there and the wedding has to take off (the whole point, which I haven't mentioned, was for the watertribes and fire nation to have a union between two heirs as a way to show they were coming to peace after the Hundred Year War), Zuko has to marry Hahn instead, which was worse, because at least Yue was his friend and that would make the marriage somewhat bearable. But Hahn? Hahn was a bitch in his eyes. And as Zuko is about to say no, he would wait for Yue, Zhao opens his mouth and says the sooner the two were married, the better.

Sokka and Aang sneak into the prison cells and run into Katara, who managed to use her own sweat to break out. Sokka wants to yell at her. For risking her own life, for not telling him. But that could wait. They had a wedding to stop.

And as they make their way there, they hear someone yell "STOP!" and everyone turns to see Princess Yue and Suki. Zuko lights up upon seeing them. And Zhao tries to claim that Katara had escaped, only for Yue to reveal her birthmark, and telling her father that Zhao was the one behind everything. Zhao tries to escape but Sokka, Aang and Zuko manage to catch him. He isn't arrested though, as the ocean spirit ends up taking him.

Yue's father is happy to have her back, safe and sound, and Yue takes the time to tell him she doesn't want to marry Prince Zuko. She gestures towards him and Sokka, the two happy to be have a moment together, not knowing what Yue is doing. And she tells her father that if the watertribe and fire nation were to have a wedding that day, it might as well be for the couple.

The Chief is unsure about this, but Yue keeps on insisting, telling him how she had already fell inlove with Suki. The Chief relents and agrees, calling for everyone to take their seats. They had a wedding to continue. Hahn is taken away from the altar, and Zuko stays there, waiting for Yue to take her place. Sokka sticks by Katara, Aang and Suki. All of them waiting.

And Sokka is surprised, when Yue walks over to him and pulls him over to Zuko, shocking not only the couple but everyone in attendance. Princess Yue wasn't marrying Prince Zuko. Her guard, Sokka of the SWT was.

It's not the way the two thought they'd get married, and honestly, they wouldn't be surprised if they planned a second, more personal, wedding for just friends and family. But the two get married.

After the wedding, Katara walks onto a Fire Nation ship that was heading to the SWT, she wanted some time back home. Her family, aside from Sokka, was waiting there. Aang finds her and asks her to stay with him, to continue their waterbending lessons together. But she misses her home. And Aang understands. And he gives her a necklace. So she can remember him.

And she keeps it on her at all times.

The next time she's at the NWT is for Yue's and Suki's wedding. A lot had changed since her last visit. She sees her brother and his husband and waves to them, they're still happy. She sees Toph, who she had met when she visited Sokka at the Fire Nation, and smiles despite knowing the earthbender can't see it. And then she sees Aang, who waves to her and she waves back. She sits next to him, and his smile gets bigger when he notices she's wearing the necklace he made her rather than her mother's, which was still on her person. She rarely changed the necklace, and she wasn't sure why she chose today of all days to do so, but maybe it was okay.

Eventually, she and Aang get together. The two would practice bending together and would travel to different nations in order to help them. They get married a lot later, but Katara is happy to help Sokka and Zuko with their second wedding, which was simpler than the extravagant one that was their first wedding.

.

.

.

.

I'm still going to refine this a bit. I want to work on the characters some more. Like, I want to expand on Hama's role, I'm still not sure about Hahn, like, do I make him a second Preminger, wanting to become Chief to gain power even if it means he has to marry Zuko, or do I make him and Zhao partners in crime. Zhao would get rid of Zuko and Hahn would gain power. I want to include Toph some more. Like, there's a lot I wanna do with this. Will I write it? No. Will I draw it? Very tempted to, so maybe some illustrations???

[hello-yue-here]

i tried to make a carrd but i got confused so heres p much everything you need to know ab me and my blog because my bio got way too long:

about me

name: liv

age: 18

white

bi

she/they

i really like elephants. thats not rlly important but it is to me

feel free to disagree with any headcanons i may have, theyre just my silly lil opinions

call me out for anything i post that may be offensive, i try my hardest to do my research but i am not perfect

i dont post NSFW content, but i do curse so if you are a minor just know that my blog is SFW but there is cursing sooo yeah.

yue is the best

AO3: hello_yue_here

dni

racists

homophobes/biphobes/panphobe/etc. (you get the gist. this is an LGBTQ+ friendly blog.)

transphobes and terfs

exclusionists

sexists/misogynists

antisemites and neo nazis

islamophobes

pro shippers

anti antis

if you ship pedophilic or incestuous content

ableists

white supremacists

basically anyone who is a bigot and hates another group of people for something they have no control over and actively wishes harm and spews hates towards them

fandoms

primarily avatar the last airbender

(if you would like to message me about any of the following feel free! i may not post too much about them but i love them so if you wanna chit chat, im down)

LOK

haikyu!!

PJO/HOO

broadway (my fav shows are hadestown, les mis, falsettos, and great comet, but i know so much more than just those ones lol)

MCU

RWRB

ships

ATLA & LOK

zukka (main ship)

yuekka

sukka

mailee

maiko

kataang

jetko

zutara

sokkla

yueki

tyzula

tysuki

jetru

yuetara

harutara

zukki

yuekki

azutara

tokka

bakoda

bato/hakoda/kya

kya/hakoda

sokkateo

jinjet

korrasami

masami

bopal

kyazumi

bumizumi

kainora

makorra

wuko

haikyu!!

asanoya (main ship)

bokuaka

daisuga

kagehina

tanakiyo

iwaoi

kuroken

pjo/hoo

percabeth (main ship)

jasper

solangelo

frazel

reynabeth

pipabeth

jercy

caleo

liper

jeyna

ruegard

mcu

sambucky (main ship)

romanogers

RWRB

first prince (main ship)

nora x june x pez

fanfics and wips

ATLA

Heart Don’t Stand A Chance (Zukka) | WIP; 37k rated T for swearing, no smut

i love you (and that’s all i really know) (Zukka) | WIP; 16k rated T for swearing, no smut

Where’d All the Time Go? (Yuekka) | WIP; 10k rated T for swearing, no smut

Yours (Mailee) | WIP; 2k rated T for swearing, no smut

fic requests

my inbox is always open for gen fics and ship fics alike. it will typically be a one shot posted to tumblr but who knows if someone sends a prompt i really like it could end up on ao3;

all i ask is that you do not request the following things:

smut. i will not write smut.

incest or pedophilia

racist, homophobic, transphobic, or any other problematic prompts

any prompt that makes me personally uncomfortable even if it is not inherently problematic. please respect that sometimes i may just not be comfortable with writing certain things.

def gonna end up making edits and changes to this as my blog evolves but hey this is p much everything important ab me so yeah here you go <3

[army-of-mai-lovers]

ATLA Fic Recs :))))))

Ok no one asked for this but I’m doing it anyway. In honor of me reaching 100 kudos on a fic for the first time, I’m doing fic recs! 

1. Spirits Help Us, There’s Two of Them by hopepunk on ao3 (not sure if they have a tumblr) ngl if I had to pick a favorite zukka oneshot at gunpoint this is probably the one I’d pick. Sokka and Zuko being weird together is just so amazingly satisfying and I love it so so much. I can barely understand what they’re talking about most of the fic but also somehow I can?? It’s weird. I love being let into their little world like this. 

2. The Family You Choose by TunaFishChris on ao3 (again, not sure if they have a tumblr) While I do love a good romantic soulmate au, let’s be honest, platonic found family ones are a million times better. I legit think about this fic all the time. Platonic gaang bonding? check. The gaang finds out about Zuko’s scar? check. A BACKSTORY FOR SUKI OUTSIDE OF HER RELATIONSHIP WITH SOKKA???? CHECK. CHECK. ALL THE WAY CHECK. I also just really love how the author develops the soulmate stuff? It’s really original (as far as I know anyway) and just really compelling. I could literally go on forever about this fic I’m OBSESSED with it. 

3. spark from a flame: courtyard rights and other tales by @pianjeong this would be a woefully incomplete list if it did not include a killer rarepair fic and this one is the literal best. I’m not going to lie, of the three rarepairs I ship (bakoda, yueki, jetko-kinda, and pianjeong), pianjeong was the one that took the longest for me to really fully ship. I liked it fine, but I didn’t really *see* it until I read this fic. It’s so soft??? Like so soft???? Jeong Jeong is also a shy icon we stan for life. The writing in this is so so pretty, and ugh the chemistry,,,,, the tension,,,,, also Jeong Jeong knowing everybody’s names and being super polite to everyone? I love him. Piandao not being impressed by someone’s celebrity? I love him. this is truly beautiful, top-tier content. 

4. paint it red, they’ll cover it up anyway by @bluberry-spicehead this fic is the reason I ship jetko-kinda. the whole kindergarten au is simply top-tier, but the jetko angle--really exploring the dynamics of it and dedicating time to watching both of them grow better--is really amazing. Plus the first chapter was from Smellerbee’s perspective and like any self-respecting ATLA Jet not-quite-apologist-but-I-do-believe-he-deserved-better I ADORE SMELLERBEE. The writing style is also super interesting and dynamic and I really just love it a lot. 

5. where we go for each other, we go together by @herglowinggirl the way I SOBBED reading this fic. the way I felt ALL THE EMOTIONS. Oh my goodness. Rangi is such a good character????? Kyoshi is such a good character???? Them???? Parenting???? You know how when you watched Lady Bird it reminded you so precisely of your exact relationship with your mother even though you’re not a cishet white girl living in Sacramento? This is that. I’m never going to be the Avatar’s Firebending master/lover/co-parent to a little girl we found on the streets but I felt this fic so deep inside my soul. It was BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN and deserves ALL THE KUDOS. 

edit: I just read the most INCREDIBLE Azula redemption arc fic and I’ve decided to add it to the list, it’s called where the stars do not take sides by WitchofEndor on ao3 (couldn’t find a tumblr). I’m not going to lie, it’s really hard for me to get into multichap fics (ironic considering I write mostly multichap), but the first chapter was so incredibly written I was like all right I have to read the second chapter and I ended up reading like eighty percent of it in one sitting and the only reason I didn’t read 100% of it in one sitting is because it was 3 am and I had class the next day. This is the first canonverse fic that I’ve read that shows Azula’s whole redemption arc (and honestly it’s only the second fic I’ve read, modern, canon-compliant, or canon-divergent, that gives Azula a redemption arc period) and it’s done so remarkably well. Seeing Azula and Zuko’s bond grow throughout was just so beautiful (the way Zuko said he didn’t want to be anywhere without Azula? I’m crying. CRYING.) Azula was just so so so well-written in this I believed every second of it (and I have HIGH STANDARDS for fics with Azula). Also obsessed with the idea that Zuko didn’t want the throne so they plan to give it to Azula, a fourteen year-old girl like wow iconic. There’s also a zukka subplot in this that’s incredibly sweet and UGH they both need to learn how to communicate my goodness.  

[milf-harrington]

Hi Theo,

I just wanna apologize for that Yueki + supernatural creature request I sent whenever you were doing ships + a word or maybe it was a prompt, I can't remember. I just think supernatural creatures are cool, I'm not into the whole alpha, beta, omega thing, I don't even know if I typed it right. Every time I see that in the teen wolf tags on ao3 I just steer clear of the fics. That's not my cup of tea. I'm not bashing anyone who is, it's just not my thing.

I apologize if I weirded you out at all.

hi kit! don't be sorry, i actually really loved that prompt!!

i am still writing it, actually, it's just sitting in my drafts right now because i'm very easily distracted from my projects ):

i love supernatural creatures and themes a fucking lot so i was really excited to get one asking for a werecat/werewolf pairing! to be honest alpha/beta/omega dynamics never even registered in my mind, my first thought was "hm how am i going to incorporate feline and canine behaviour into this, and who would be what?" (im a sucker for realistic-styled shifters).

i read a lot of sterek fics (i've been steadily making my way through the ao3 tag and im on, like, page 400 dfjksh) and i have the alpha/beta/omega tag blacklisted because it also makes me kinda uncomfy so i get what you mean lmao

but please, i promise you didn't weird me out, and im sorry that my lack of response made you think that!!

[boomerang109]

oK SO I’VE HAD THIS AU IN MY HEAD FOR TWO FKN DAYS AND I HAVE COME TO EVER SO GRACIOUSLY INJECT IT INTO YOUR MIND- THE GAANG PLUS YUE AND THE FIRE NATION GALS IN BANDS. a battle of the bands au. tHINK OF THE aRt. THE ARt wOuLd bE ePiC. n i’m thinking zukka and yueki, but zuko+suki are with mai, azula, and ty lee, and the rest of the gaang+yue in another band, and they meet at battle of the bands but yk...we got 2 sets of pining idiots yk yk. i thought this up 2 days ago and i cant stopppp(cont.)

I WAS SO EXCITED TO ANSWER THIS THAT I SAVED IT FOR WHEN MY BRAIN WOULD BE FUNCTIONING BETTER

unfortunately my brain never functions better so what ended up happening is that i maybe forgot this was in here. but i’m gonna answer now and im still very excited

i actually ended up having many thoughts based on your SPECTACULAR idea and you can def tell i know nothing about rock music or battle of the bands. but i’ve got the spirit

wait you could also make this such a pining mess cause you could have the two cross-band romances (yueki and zukka) and then you could have each in-band relationship (mailee and kataang) and then azula and toph can bond over being surrounded by lovesick idiots

wait suki with nation girls (azula especially) is so powerful i actually 😍

suki as electric guitarist? and backup singer while azula is lead singer?? zuko on the drums? ty lee on keyboard? mai on another instrument—maybe she’s on drum and zuko is also a guitarist? or an instrument im forgetting (ty lee and mai are also backup singers with suki. there’s at least one song where suki is lead singer/duets with azula). zuko writes most of the songs, but mai helps a surprising amount. suki likes to edit more than write her own lyrics

im calling fire nation + suki fan the fire (get it?) and i feel like it’d be kind of an angrier rock vibe cause these are tough kids. deep lyrics for sure. but also lots of girl power (especially cause Zuko barely ever sings so it’s all female viewpoint). moments where true fans can see emotion but overall this could be the band an angsty 13 year old would blast

no creative title for this rock group. maybe aang’s gaang? aang’s the lead singer. katara’s on a normal guitar and lead female singer. sokkas on electric guitar. yue on keyboard. toph on the drums. although aang and katara are technically the band’s lead singers theyre really big on group vocals which is what sets them apart. (yue especially provides a gorgeous harmony, it’s soft but without it the songs wouldn’t be the same).

they still have a rock vibe, but i gave katara a regular guitar cause you know she’s an indie bitch and as the main writer she does get that in there. aang and yue do the music writing, katara and sokka (usually separately) do most of the lyrics, toph helps both but usually just when they’re stuck

the kind of rock that actually has encouraging lyrics and family vibes cause katara is wholesome. some of sokka’s depresso bits sneak in there too tho

okay battle of the bands. sokka hates zuko from day one cause he looks so good-looking and full of himself and even ignored sokka when he tried to introduce himself. (spoiler alert, zuko’s hearing loss + playing the drums = one oblivious boy

zuko sees sokka day one and says pretty boy—no, no. competition. gotta stay focused and crush the competition

at some point (i kinda like the idea of suki and yue kinda knowing each other and just being friendly/competitors. and then one day....) yue realizes that suki is way too damn pretty. and suki wants to hear more of a certain soft voice

when zuko and sokka get together, yue threatens to tell katara if sokka doesn’t use his new boyfriend to get yue and suki together

lucky for yue, zuko and suki were having pining sessions together and are more than happy to start going on double dates

actually kataang is established and cute. i think mailee isn’t and they should take longer than zukka/yueki cause they’re idiots (loving). but the night of some big show, zuko and sokka both dont show up cause they were locked in a closet. everyone’s pissed, fraticide likely on both sides

after the reveal of zukka, reporters are looking for more dirt on both bands. yueki gets exposed and yue tries to deny it

suki is upset, but yue eventually admits it’s just the internalized homophobia but she loves suki and does want to be with her

neither half of the couples want to compete with the others, and the rest of the bands are getting conflicted cause friendships

they become one Super Band (is this possible??? seems super cliche but whatever)

on their debut show, ty lee and mai kiss for the first time (unplanned) and if this was a movie instead of a tumblr post, it would end with azula and toph’s shared look of aro pain at being surrounded by so many damn couples

i want art of this (hey egg you art good, if you wanna?? haha jk.....unless👉👈)

[maipreciation]

happy ffwf!! what fic of yours got way more response than you expected? why do you think that is? feel free to drop some self promo! (- thinkingisadangerouspastime)

@thinkingisadangerouspastime ok no actual fics come to mind but definitely some of the hcs/ snippets I’ve posted on here have gotten some very fun and unexpected responses, especially the ones I posted way back when I had just started this blog and felt a bit like I was shouting into the void

the warden watches (some thoughts on mai and her uncle)

zuko and toph field trip (this was one of the very first things i posted i think and completely forgot about until i went through my own writing tag wow)

cute fluffy yueki (aka me projecting the fact that I miss hanging out with my friends)

accountant mako (aka me trying to make myself feel better about my own choice in career)

yueki competitive swimmer/ diving au (there was such a fun discussion/ expansion of this idea in the notes and i just realized half of it’s gone and it looks like I’m talking to myself cuz the people I was responding to have all deactivated oop) 

random careers for atla and lok characters 

suki runs a gym, and other fun stuff happens along the way (the one I titled after a dua lipa song for no real reason other than the fact that it was stuck in my head at the time)

[queeranesearch]

 @harutheestallion Thank you so much for the tag, Arthur!! I kith you, mwah!

(This ended up being way longer than I thought it’d be bc I got so caught up in talking about OTHER people’s writing lmfao, so I’m putting a ‘keep reading’)

Prompt - share your:

First fic: Uuugh god..When I was 11/12 I was really into Attack on Titan, and in my Year 8 English Lit class we had lessons where we did creative writing so of course I wrote an Armin-centric high-school AU. It haunts me to this day but it was so funny to read again later on. But the first fic I actually posted online was a Moomin one, back in 2019. Moomins was (and still is thb) a big comfort media for me, and it always helped me feel better when I was going through some really bad anxiety. I was also very insecure about my writing and hadn’t written anything in years, but I was very attached to the characters and there wasn’t that much content of them so I thought “Fuck it. This is gonna be very self-indulgent. If other people like it then great, but really this is for me.” I did end up getting way more kudos and comments than I thought I would and loads of lovely comments. I read it again a little while ago and the writing is a but rusty, and my paragraphing isn’t great, but it’s really sweet and I had a lot of fun writing it and I think that shines through.

Favourite fic: Dude, I cannot pick one favourite fic, so I’m gonna list a few that came to mind: Hooked by @listless-brainrot - aka THE jetru fic. I will forever scream about List’s writing. The way he’s able to take such a character with one episode, and see the potential pour so much life into him is amazing. He writes Haru with so much nuanced realness, and seeing things though his perspective makes for such an immersive read and gives beautiful insight into his thoughts and wants. I cannot recommend it enough.

Sing a little louder, laugh a little softer by @chief-yue - Such lovely fic exploring the music of cultures ATLA was inspired by. I had the biggest smile on my face reading this; Katrina really captures the dynamic of the Gaang wonderfully, and her descriptions are vivid and heartwarming. 

Two Sturdy Oaks by @rileyblxu - A Dead Poets Society fic and one of my comfort fics ajklasd. The author writes Neil and Todd perfectly; Like if you told me this fic was actually deleted scenes from the movie I would believe you 100%. The dialogue between all the characters is spot on, and the trusting relationship both Neil and Todd have with Mr Keating is so heart-warming to read, and the descriptions were so tender and full of so much love and pining,,dude I actually cried a little. PLUS the use of poems at the beginning of the chapters?? Absolutely iconic for setting the tone. Love it.

Not Ready To Make Nice by @harutheestallion - Tagging you twice hehe. Arthur’s characterization of Jet kills me DEAD. They have so many little nuanced details about Jet, but also how he sees other people and the world around him. They have such a strong grasp on his character; every action he makes in this fic is written cleverly wand with such clear thought put behind it, and Jet’s perseverance and bitterness but also his kindness and desire to protect others really shines through. And HAMA. She’s written perfectly too; so similar to Jet in many ways but also more ‘jaded’ and less hopeful. Their dynamic is so interesting to read and watching them become gradually closer is so lovely.

Henna by @miannmian - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Simran is the QUEEN of fluff. This is one of their shorter works, but it’s packed of such tender characterization. The descriptions are written with so much care and warmth, you can practically feel the love these Jet and Haru have for each other. It’s sweet, it’s domestic, and it makes my heart swell each time I read it.

Can’t Make An Omelette by @citron-ella - A Good Omens fic, but focused on The Them! GO fics that aren’t primarily about Aziraphale and Crowley are hard to come by, so I was delighted when I came across this one, particularly as The Them are my personal faves from the book/show. This fic is so sweet and funny in little nuanced ways. Children are hard to write, especially slightly older ones, but this author wrote them wonderfully; they really captured the lovely curious and mischievous nature of The Them, and each one of the kids was written perfectly in character. The descriptions set the scenes well, and they have a sweet, nostalgic sort of tone to them; it reminds me of what kid’s books used to be like years ago, there’s an Enid Blyton(and I’d even say a Terry Pratchet) like charm to it. And I adore the little detail of Brian being curious about Pollution being non-binary, and recognizing something similar in himself; it was so heart-warming. I also loved the bit at the end where Pepper knowingly acknowledges Brian’s interest in being non-binary; it’s a nice subtle way of showing their friendship and how they pay attention to each other.

Most Recent fic: A jetru oneshot, “Kiss Me?”. It’s pretty simple and fluffy; the lads having their first kiss. To be honest, it’s one of those fics I have a love-hate relationship with; looking back at it there are so many ways I’d rewrite it and make it better, but there are some nice bits there too. 

Fic with most notes: My moomin one I mentioned earlier. It’s called “To Have a Family is an Awfully Complicated Thing”. A VERY wordy title, and again, there a loads of things I wish I could change and do better( I have actually been contemplating rewriting it) but it’s very close to my heart, and I’m glad other people liked it too.

A line or two from a wip: Man, I have SO many wips it’s embarrassing. Here’s a modern Yueki thing I was doing: They didn't know how Yue spent lunchtimes at school in the library, hidden behind the back shelves, reading poetry books held together with thick brown tape; Shakespeare, Dickinson, Keats, Wordsworth, their words lovely yet so disconnected from her; how within the whole breadth of the romantics she could not find one to attach to; how with no great authors to turn to, she put her own pen to paper, spilling thoughts of brown hair and dark eyes, of a face that freckled in the sun, of a laugh that filled her stomach flip with a delightful queasiness, of how her heart ached for the girl that cleaned her grazed knee for her when she was six. ‘Oh dear.’ Yue fiddled with the bag in her lap, zipping it up, zipping it down. ‘There’s no going back now, is there?’

Favourite character to write for (and why): Hmm, I think Yue and Jet, both from ATLA. Something about them just clicks with me; I love Yue to bits and wish we could’ve had more of her in the show, so I love exploring her character beyond being the Moon Princess. I also adore Jet and will forever be angry about how he dirty they did him in the show. Writing him is actually quite challenging, but in a way I enjoy, and I enjoying pushing myself to explore the nuance and depth he had in the show. 

Character(s) you find hard to write: Hm.. I’d say Toph. I love Toph so much but I find it difficult to really capture her strength and rowdiness, but also her compassion and her softer side. 

I’ve tagged a few people in this already, so if they wanna do this feel free to! Also you. Reading this. Consider yourself tagged; I wanna hear about your writing.