#tai lung does soul searching

[bubblewater]

I remember watching a video of a snow leopard couple cuddling each other while they sleep and now I can’t stop thinking about Tai Lung leaving the spirit realm to do some soul searching to get a grip on his rage and struggles with perfectionism

To his surprise, he meets another snow leopard on his journey. And she’s just as recluse as he is, if not more so (snow leopards are pretty solitary creatures). She’s a cautious cat, a hermit, but has a deep kindness towards others.

Shenanigans ensue, and they begin to bond through their adventures together. And he sees how difficult it can be to be kind instead of being angry. Anger towards others, and himself. The anger that comes from needing to prove his worth.

And during their time together, he sees subtle displays of empathy, of kindness from her. A kindness that he can’t help but try to emulate, because she seems so certain of herself, with nothing to prove. She lives life for the joy of living, and it baffles him that he never thought that was an option. So he takes a page from her book, and tries to live for the sake of living. They part ways, and his heart pangs at the thought that he might not see her again.

Although Kung Fu is an art in its own right, it never felt quite cathartic for Tai Lung. There was always the push to be better, to stay the best. Getting to the point that ‘never enough’ was engrained in his brain. The anger grew from there, and the martial arts became an avenue for his rage.

He begins to try something different. He pursues another art form: painting. The limitless colors and shapes that he can make with his own paws, or with a paintbrush. The rush of joy that surges through him through creation, rather than the destruction that used to come from his (mal)practice of the martial arts.

It’s not something he’s a natural at, but it’s something that brings a smile to his face. Eventually, he gets better at it. The glee towards his painting progress feels much more rewarding than when he’d master multiple Kung Fu techniques. The snow leopard with a penchant for painting.

His artwork brings in the eye of a few potential customers. He sets up shop in a small town, doing a few commissions that earn him a name that isn’t spoken with fear: Tai Lung, the painter. The artist whose paintings feel alive.

Word travels, and the peaceful painter meets the kind hermit again. The hermit who happened to inspire him to live for himself.

She notices that he seems different, lighter. Content. He’s still grumpy, but the rough edges don’t cut. She smiles, telling him that painting suits him. The question that arises is: what happened?. Tai Lung has a simple answer for that. He wanted to be strong, like her.

That prompts a distinct eyebrow raise. Bewildered, she tells him that he was always strong, just scared. There was a fear to his anger.

She says, ”You don’t seem as scared anymore,” gently placing his hand in hers.

Tai Lung gives her a gentle smile. “Still sharp as ever, I see.”

That prompts a loud laugh out of her, and his smile grows in the little art shop.

[seas-storyarchive]

(Working title) Becoming My Father

-post AU ending of Kung Fu Panda

(Shifu is dead, Tai Lung is dead)

-Po leaves the Valley to soul search

(comes back to the Valley months later

officially quits Kung Fu)

-Po throws his action figures away to focus on noddle making; "[I can't] stop [feeling] the pain of letting Shifu die!"

-some months later he goes to the village, smiling numbly as he sees all of those happy families

-he decides to adopt, but doesn't know where to start

-he picks up the delivered vegetables and comes across a very young snow leopard in the process of taking some of them

-decides to take the snow leopard in as his own and names him Peng (retconning Peng's backstory because Tai Lung was left outside the palace doors as an infant so how the FLIP does Peng know that Tai Lung is his uncle?!?!?! I hate characters like that- if that wasnt the case he would be my favorite character because he looks so cute)

-Po tries his best, and if it wasn't for his father, Peng would have gotten caught on fire multiple times

-Po is new and niave to being a father, but will stand by his choice

-("none of you get to tell me how to raise MY kid! None of you have a say in who I take in and decide to give a chance to!")

-Mr. Ping is hesitant to watch Peng alone, but finds him adorable. And discovers he likes to sleep in boxes.

-Po keeps Peng close to him when they go out into the village, and even during his work at the shop, enduring the whispers and coarse words directed at his- HIS son

[power-of-ages-writeblr]

11/11/11 Tag (22/11/11? Tag?)

Another one of these! This time, I was tagged TWICE by the wonderful @sassypandacandy (go read her books,, i love them). I’ve gotta answer the questions, come up with my OWN questions, and then tag 11 people to answer, only I’m not going to tag eleven people because I still don’t think I quite KNOW eleven people yet. Also, because I got tagged twice with two different sets of questions, I’m going to answer both sets in one post, and then just come up with eleven questions of my own, because it takes me yonks to come up with questions and I’m lazy. Eso si que es, y’know?

What’s the first thing you remember writing?

A four-page story about a Diplodocus when I was… definitely before I was ten years old. Maybe like five or six. I was very proud of it.

What’s the last thing you wrote purely for yourself?

Actually, I pretty much always write for myself, so the last thing that I wrote/started to write… ooh-er. That’d be the Warrior Cats fanfiction I’ve been working on. :P

Are you a WIP playlist person or a WIP aesthetics person?

Playlist, probably. I tend not to make playlists specifically for WIPs – instead, I’ll assign songs and soundtracks to specific characters and scenes – but I’m still better at throwing together playlists then making aesthetics LMAO

What’s a book you wish you’d written?

Uuuuh… maybe it’s just because I’m young (barely an adult), but I don’t have anything where it’s like “ah I wish I’d used that idea” or “wish I’d written this book”. I still have a lot of writing ahead of me, hopefully, so all my ideas I hope to actually get out some day. (Assuming that’s,,, what the question is asking me)

What’s your favourite book adaptation?

Ironic because it doesn’t follow the books that closely, but I love the How To Train Your Dragon films very much.

Which of your characters would you like to have a conversation with? What would you like to talk about?

The downside to Pandemonium’s Bane being filled with eccentric personalities and cooky characters means that there’s actually few of them I’d LIKE to have a conversation with, because most would be too dickish or too annoying for my tastes xDD That being said, I think me and Plue are on very similar wavelengths, and we have a lot in common (such as both of us wanting to write), so I wouldn’t mind chatting with her for a bit if I had to.

Which of your WIP worlds would you most like to live in?

The Power of Ages stories are mostly set in one universe (the Nimbus System) so I guess I’d have to go with that one by default. There’s Neil’s dimension, I guess, but it’s destroyed, so…

Have you ever written anything inspired purely by a song? If so, what song was it?

I haven’t written anything inspired just by a single song, but I HAVE got certain scenes or character backstories based off of songs, or even the concepts they’re based around. I have a whole battle between brothers planned out to the soundtrack that plays when Shifu fights Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, and listening to the Iron Man soundtracks helped me with both the conception of a new character and her placement in my roster (and yes, she does invent things and fly around, although there are also some major differences)

Have you ever written poetry? Do you still? Why or why not?

I… haven’t written poetry. And the reason for that is… I mean, I guess it doesn’t really jibe with me? Granted I haven’t considered it heavily, but it was always my least favourite aspect of learning English at school, and I just never fell in love with it the same way I fell in love with writing conventional narratives.

Who would direct an adaptation of your writing?

I ain’t big on directors, so IDEK. I guess in terms of the rewrite of Maelstrom (my current main WIP) I’d pick Sam Raimi, who proved with his Spider-Man films that he can blend fun superhero narratives with slightly darker elements pretty well.

How do you motivate yourself when you don’t feel like writing?

Mainly by having multiple projects to work on! That way, if I ain’t feeling what I’m working on, I can switch over to another one, and bingo bango, I can keep writing. (Hypothetically. Sometimes it ain’t that simple, obviously.) I also use music, and I also take advantage of being in situations where it’s like, I’d rather write then do the alternative. Do you know how much writing I got done in lessons? So much. :P

What scenes are the worst to write?

The ones that I haven’t planned out – sometimes I have very specific ideas for how I want scenes to happen, and I’m excited to get to them, but other times they’re just obligatory because there’s certain information I have to convey. That makes it a challenge to write it in a compelling way, because why should the reader care if I don’t?

What can you say is a thing you love most about your writing?

I’d say I like the dialogue/character interplay/narrative description-y sort of stuff. I think I’m good at giving everything levity, and keeping it breezy and entertaining even if I myself find the writing process to be a bit of a slog. Plus, it’s funny to read back over, and it’s also funny to watch my discord quote a line and then keysmash at it. :P

What is writing advice that you take to heart?

It’s from Aaron Sorkin’s writing masterclass – the idea that a story is defined by the main character’s INTENTION, the OBSTACLE facing them, and the TACTICS they use to overcome it.

How do you keep yourself from quitting writing together?

Honestly, it’s not like I have to try that hard! By this point I’m desperate to tell these stories that I have in mind, so I have a sort of innate compulsion to write because I wanna get it all out there. I’ll get back to you if that compulsion runs out, but for now, I see myself writing long into the future.

What is the strangest thing you’ve searched up on the internet for writing purposes?

Probably the capabilities of medieval-era people to recognise nuclear technology. (And for the record, the answer is “pretty low”.)

Not a question, but shoutout a writeblr (or multiple) that you think needs to hear that they are awesome and doing a great job (by the way everyone, you all are awesome and doing a great job. Keep it up.)

Well obviously I’m gonna shout out the person who tagged me in the first place – Kels. I await the final(?) book in the DOOT series with great anticipation.

Your OCs are trapped on a deserted island, what would they be doing?

I WANNA say they’d try and work as a team, but, uh. It may not go so well. Dante and Plue would probably be the most practical. Gaia would be good at grunt work but not focus on the task at hand, Rose would be functionally useless but good at moral support, Jacen would try to organise things but Gaia would just push him in the sea for jokes… I reckon they’d escape eventually, I suppose, but it wouldn’t exactly be a clean-cut affair, you know? xD

What is your biggest inspiration for your WIPs?

I actually have various inspirations – I think collectively my biggest inspiration is the MCU, in that it’s a bunch of interconnected stories set in the same universe about different characters and also there are superpowers. xDD

A habit you have when it comes to writing?

Not doing it (thank you writer’s block)

A fact about your world and/or characters?

I have debated killing of MANY of my characters, but have only actually come to concrete decisions one way or the other with a few.

If your WIP/s got turned into a movie or series, what would be the quote on the promotional poster or trailer?

Oh, I’m gonna do this for ALL the WIPs, this seems fun!

Of Encounters and Trysts – Two Hearts, One Soul (or something equally cheesy)

Hit and Run – Even the indomitable aren’t invincible

Maelstrom – Destiny Begins

The Destroyer of Worlds – One Case, One Team, One Superpower

Survivor – It’s every man for themselves

Savants – Not so different

Omnia Vincit Amor – Good things come to those who get traumatised

Cometh the Hour – Six thousand years from home

  Alright, now it’s (finally!) time for my eleven questiones:

1 – Does music help you write, or does it just distract you?

2 – What’s your favourite writing tool? A laptop? Notepad and pens? Quills and inkpot?

3 – Do you have to physically go to places to get a feel for them and feel as though you can set writing in them?

4 – What got you into writeblr?

5 – How well can your OCs dance, do you think?

6 – Do you have a favourite writing snack? If so, what is it?

7 – Bionicle. Thoughts?

8 – Is there a specific piece of media (movie, show, book, w/e) that you could say has been more of an inspiration to you than anything else?

9 – What’s the best soundtrack you know for getting pumped and hyped up?

10 – If you could only write one genre for the rest of your writing career, what would you go with?

11 – What’s your favourite music-based meme? (Examples include “LET’S GO”, “CREEPER/AWW MAN” and “We Are Number One But ___”)

 Tagging… @thelimeonade, and @dawnuchiha!