Cold Beboots was cold

[beboots]

The final evening at Christmas Reflections at Fort Edmonton! It ended up being like -27C in the river valley... The poor draft horses had frost all over their coats, and were brought into the stables (switched out for tractors AKA "mechanical horses" ;) ) halfway through the evening. I took a shower right before I left for work, and I put my hair in braids while wet. So after I lit the bonfires, and I realized about an hour into my shift that my braids had frozen. SOLID. Like, icicle cores. D: 

CHECK IT OUT



PIPI LONGSTOCKING COSPLAYS = NOW RIDICULOUSLY EASY. 

And for comparison purposes, here is what it looks like defrosted. SO FLOPPY



Here is a shot of the glorious bonfire I made yesterday, to warm you up wherever you are. :)

Comments

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"(for some reason, "New Yorker" never applies to the state, it means the city)" Is that because New York seems to be the only city that matters in that state? ;) I don't think that I could name a single other place in New York State aside from its titular city except "Seneca Falls" because of the 1848 women's rights conference, and I'm not even sure if that town/city/whatever still exists. :P

Ooh... the shopping district sounds cool too! :D Also, Moaning Myrtle haunting bathrooms. What was it like? Just voice overs and strange sounds, or was there an actual apparition?

That fic sounds really good! I love stories like that, where something/someone plays against your expectations... :3

"He gets the disproportionate share of it because he's being honorable when most sensible people would go "maybe later," so it's very in-character for him. And I have "Toph is in a bad, bad mood" and "Iroh says get your hands off my nephew" for the rescue crew." GLEE GLEE GLEE! :D Also, if you need a beta-reader... I offer myself. ;)

Downhill skiing is super fun. Seriously. I'd practice on some smaller hills first before you go to super-awesome hills like Marmot Basin in Jasper or Whistler-Blackcomb out by Vancouver. I've only been to the latter once, and seriously, three days was not nearly enough. I could explore it for over a week...

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

I worked with an unlucky crowd of international employees that had never heard of Michigan before showing up in the middle of nowhere. The camp we worked at was between a corn field, a cow pasture, and a trailer park. Most of them had heard of New York City, California, and maybe Washington D.C. Since I barely knew the capitals of the countries they were from, and can maybe place six Canadian provinces in the rough area where they belong, I called it even.

With Moaning Myrtle, I only heard her voice, and she was too far away from the stalls I always ended up with to hear very well. I realized after I'd already left the (quite crowded) bathroom that I could have checked the sinks to see if any had any snake etchings in them, but then I decided it was better to leave well enough alone. I love snakes, I'm not so sure about basilisks.

I'm having a blast with the setup for that fic, honestly. I've thrown hints all across the pages that feel like they LOOK LIKE THIS BUT WITH TWINKLY LIGHTS AND UNNECESSARY BOLDING, but nobody's commented on them. They started rather subtle (I "killed off" somebody in a series with a prominent faked execution, then introduced a "random OC" that appeared at the same time from the same place with a connection to his eventual canon wife), but progressed to "hm, maybe the main character is going to carry a bird home with her" when the 'doomed'/'assumed to be evil' man can change into birds. Canon again. I'm just waiting for nobody to figure out that I'm mimicking the entire fake execution scene, again. So far my readers haven't commented on anything.

Toph-and-Iroh-save-Zuko is going to be cool if I do it halfway right. I already have an aftermath scene, with Toph and Sokka and lots of complicated emotional drama. Sokka's so awesome that all the ladies like him--which creates problems when he's involved with Suki, but fussing over Toph. Toph gets pissed and ends up yelling things, then winds up curling up with Aang after, and I wrote all of that scene even though it won't come out for ages. Sokka was a little upset that he didn't get to go with Toph on the badass secret mission, either time. First she went with Suki, for the diplomatic little junket where they walked out with Katara. Toph used that to get the full layout of the place, and to set up a decent assurance that Zuko would still be alive the next afternoon. Then she sneaks in that night with Iroh to break Zuko out and steal Katara's ransom money back with interest.

I don't know if you've ever seen Firefly, but the series is going to end up understandable with Avatar background only. Zhao is playing Niska, and Niska is a bloodthirsty sadistic sonofabitch that tried to play the "choose just one of these two hostages" game with an Amazon. She said "him" before the baddie could finish the dramatic "you can only save one, Spiderman" speech and walked off with her husband--who is a sweetheart and wouldn't have lasted.

I'm not painting Katara as a weakling by making Toph insist that the waterbender is coming with her. Katara's had a couple years being able to heal whatever life throws at her, and she doesn't have Zuko's single-minded "I am going to spite you even though it hurts" nature. The really-nasty-whumping part comes in when Zuko knows that, too, so he spends most of their joint captivity pissing Zhao off so that Katara gets off easier.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Oh man... I have to wonder if one of the sinks DID have snake etchings on them... Super-cool.

Hey, I haven't commented on them because I haven't seen them...? :D

"Toph-and-Iroh-save-Zuko is going to be cool if I do it halfway right. I already have an aftermath scene, with Toph and Sokka and lots of complicated emotional drama." I'm really, really looking forward to reading this scene. :3

"Katara's had a couple years being able to heal whatever life throws at her, and she doesn't have Zuko's single-minded "I am going to spite you even though it hurts" nature." I can definitely see that playing a role. ;) I'm also DEFINITELY looking forward to Zuko trying to help Katara in the only way he knows how to in captivity.

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

I've already written out Sokka and Toph's little scene. She ends up blowing her top because she's had a long day. Sokka was a little hurt that he wasn't her partner in badassery, but Toph needed Suki for the first half (look at the pretty, harmless little girls that are buying a hostage off of you), and Iroh had dibs on the nighttime rescue. It's not that she was leaving Sokka behind, she only had room for one rescue-buddy and Gramps would have done it alone otherwise. Sokka is involved with Suki, but kind of likes Toph, and he's hyper-protective. Toph ends up snapping and yelling about Yue and storming off, and then Katara's still out cold and Gramps is staying with Sparky and she ends up curling up with Aang on Appa's tail.

Zuko is a sweetheart, and I'm actually really happy about this plotline. It's Boiling Rock, Southern Raiders, AND a hint of Black Sun because Iroh drops his pretense of being a harmless old monk. It's also using the straight plotline from the Firefly source material, but Zuko and Katara's characters change roles around a little. Katara goes into the fight very unhappy to have Zuko at her side, because she doesn't trust him and he's a spoiled Alliance brat, but then life happens. Zuko's really the (ex) crown prince, his sister the nutball would have been the best firebender in the world, and the whole time he protects her. She hates him, and he knows that she'd dump him off Appa if she could find a reason, but he protects her anyway.

Katara can't handle pain anymore, not after so much time of healing all scraped knees right away, and Zuko doesn't want anybody noticing that she's a very, very pretty girl that just had her bending blocked from her. So, Zuko falls back on his other talent--pissing people off. He keeps Zhao in a state of unthinking rage for nearly the full time that Katara and Zuko are locked up together. Zhao's already made the creepy-as-hell threats that all he needs to keep is Zuko's head, so Zuko knows he's not going to gain a single thing by NOT making the world angry. (Then Toph and Iroh save him, and in the morning Katara heals him with spirit-oasis water, and all life is good. Katara isn't stubborn enough that she can watch a guy go through that on her behalf and still be suspicious. She's nearly that bad, but not quite.)

All that Zuko needs to know: Katara gets ransomed out, and Azula's still safe. (Azula is quite seriously batshit insane, and too puzzled and dazed to quite remember that she can firebend. I'm basing her plot arc on Firefly, so at the tail end of things, she is a badass that makes everybody else look like a rookie.)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"It's Boiling Rock, Southern Raiders, AND a hint of Black Sun because Iroh drops his pretense of being a harmless old monk." <3 Some of my favourite, most badass story lines all in one? <3 I really do <3 badass Iroh, too. :)

"Katara can't handle pain anymore, not after so much time of healing all scraped knees right away, and Zuko doesn't want anybody noticing that she's a very, very pretty girl that just had her bending blocked from her." Very good point! I hadn't thought about the consequences of healing waterbending... that makes a lot of sense! Also, good second point. D:

"So, Zuko falls back on his other talent--pissing people off." It is an awesome talent, to be true.

"Zhao's already made the creepy-as-hell threats that all he needs to keep is Zuko's head" D: D: D:

I presume, though, that even after Zuko is physically healed he won't be completely free of mental scarring from the experience...?

I'm definitely looking forward to Azula's arc from dazed & confused to epically badass... :3

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

The Badass!Iroh bit is even better because it segues right into Zuko and Iroh finally being close again. Zuko spends the story before that keeping his distance (he hasn't quite forgiven Iroh for thinking that Zuko should keep his head down and stop looking for conspiracies, Azula's fine), Iroh feels too guilty to push... it all works out while everybody else (barring Toph and Mai and probably Suki) is still stunned that they have most of the living Fire Nation royalty on their bison.

"Very good point! I hadn't thought about the consequences of healing waterbending... that makes a lot of sense! Also, good second point. D:"

I think a really low pain tolerance would be the only option for Katara. I actually saw it done with Wolverine, once. He and Cyclops were in a hell of a situation, and Wolvie's healing factor was pushed to the limit. He had a bullet stuck in his hip, and he really didn't know how to deal with pain that lasted for more than a minute. Acute pain, fine, but he's not used to chronic things anymore.

Yeah. It's okay, though, because Zuko would quite literally light the room on fire before letting that happen. I'm working with the assumption that firebenders don't usually burn people. Aang was completely out of control when he hurt Katara, but how many firebenders have scars? Look around at all of the soldiers and generals. They work with fire, all day, and don't have burn scars. Zuko's the only one, and that was no accident. I take that to mean that they only burn people intentionally when they've had the basic training, so Zuko probably could destroy everybody but Katara if he was pushed. That just brings on a second wave, but they're too angry with Zuko to think about her too fast.

"I presume, though, that even after Zuko is physically healed he won't be completely free of mental scarring from the experience...?"

Zuko comes out better than people would think. He's in there for one day, and that's not enough time to break him. The only way they could shatter his mind that fast would be to hurt somebody in front of him. Katara quite obviously doesn't like him, so the baddies assume that hurting her to get to him wouldn't work. Even then, Zuko is single-minded like nobody's business. Instead of "find the Avatar," his brain has settled on "get Azula out of there," and then "protect Azula."

"I'm definitely looking forward to Azula's arc from dazed & confused to epically badass... :3"

That's the best way to sum up her arc. She starts out very quiet, immensely dependent on Zuko staying close to keep the nightmares back/keep her grounded, but eventually... well, in time people are going to find out just what the mindbenders were doing when they wanted to change Azula into a weapon.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"...everybody else (barring Toph and Mai and probably Suki) is still stunned that they have most of the living Fire Nation royalty on their bison." XD Oh yeah! I guess that the only other surviving member of the royal family is Ozai, right? XD

Interesting point with Wolverine! I guess he's just used to enduring, animalistically, and having it heal up right sharpish.

I agree with you in that I think that trained firebenders hardly ever burn each other. I think that I remember, in canon, that when Iroh explains Zuko's backstory to Lt. Jee, Jee's all like "oh, I thought that he got that scar in a training accident", which would make sense, considering Zuko's age and apparent firebending ability. In my personal headcanon, Zuko's scar is an even bigger deal amongst Fire Nation people simply BECAUSE they hardly ever actually burn each other, and that the scar looks just shy of a killing blow. I mean, he clearly wasn't resisting when he got that scar, right (it's too clearly outlined), so he must be weak to be defeated like that...? Yeah, where Earth Kingdom people just assume "Fire Nation attack upon non-bender", the Fire Nation would see something else entirely in Zuko's scar.

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

Luckily, by the time the non-Toph portion of the crew realizes, Katara has gotten the memo that not everybody from the Fire Nation is the same. Zuko was protecting her from firebenders, Iroh's "harmless," and Azula's at the stage where she needs to be protected still.

Ozai meant for that scar to be a mark of shame. The kid was too "weak" to fight (too damn surprised that his father was really going to hurt him), and any firebender should have blocked it/fought better/done anything but freeze and think it's a nightmare. The Earth Kingdom (and Jet) can see it as "the Fire Nation is all the same, bloodthirsty and brutal fighters." It makes a lot more sense to just think it's a training accident. Nobody would have gone and burned a thirteen-year-old prince in the face, right?

Nobody else from the Fire Nation has burn scars, and Zuko has a gigantic dark mark that could easily have left no eye in the middle of it.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

In my headcanon, Zuko can see almost nothing out of that eye. I mean, such a nasty injury is bound to have affected his vision, and at the very lease when it was all covered up in bandages, wouldn't his undamaged eye have picked up the slack?

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

I think he can see out of it. If he'd lost the tear glands and ducts, then he wouldn't have an eye full stop. Various disgusting things would happen, and it'd be gone. The optic nerve/retinas are way at the back of the eye, and since the damage was in the skin/muscles I think he kept vision.

Peripheral vision/full range is another matter. The eye is permanently half-shut, there's too much scar tissue for him to see much at all to his left side, and if he wasn't right-eye dominant already, he is now.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I guess that he does have tear ducts still... I remember him crying out of both eyes when he found his uncle again...

I agree with you on the peripheral vision thing as well. I mean, on the few shots we have of him where he's surprised and has a "both eyebrows raised" moment, his burnt eye moves very little, like he can't move it out of the squint.

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that Zuko had a fourth-degree burn. Third-degree burns involve the hypodermis, but fourth involve muscle tissue. With how deep that burn goes, I can start naming off muscles that were affected. I would really think that smiling would be affected, too. The main muscle involved in smiling attaches at the cheekbone, and the area for that attachment was burned. Most of the other muscles that move the mouth should be fine, but that could be another explanation for not smiling nearly so often. It would end up lopsided unless he could compensate.

Fifth-degree burns, if I have my numbering right, are where you end up with charred bone.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"Most of the other muscles that move the mouth should be fine, but that could be another explanation for not smiling nearly so often. It would end up lopsided unless he could compensate." That's a very interesting theory! I suppose that he would feel self-conscious about it, even if he DID have something to smile about. ;)

In your opinion, how long do you think his healing process was? When would he have become, well, not insensible from the pain? How long would he have had to have had that eye covered for? If you don't know it's all right, I just thought I'd ask because I've been wondering about his recovery process and you seem like you may know. ;)

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

I actually did a lot of fast research on burns for a scene in another story. Ozai burned him there, too, because it tied everything together-- I can end up tracing nearly all events in the main story back to Ozai burning Zuko, Ozai killing Gyatso, and Yue's death (from Ozai's company ignoring safety regulations). It's a modern story where bending is added in through science, and so far it's getting cricket chirps on ff.net. It's fun, though.

Anyway-- they estimate burns with the palm and fingers of a hand, so about one percent of Zuko's total body surface area is burned. It's fourth-degree at the center (with third and then second and then probably first degree radiating out from the center). It's on one of the four bad areas for healing (hands, toes, face, genitals-- all of them have end arteries. That means that there isn't a separate blood supply to take over if one artery was burned out). It's over an eye and the cheek, so there are a scary amount of paths for a tiny bit of infection to hop on a freeway to the brain. Possible complications (excluding death from infection) are mostly the chance losing the eye, sensation/motor control to the forehead (half of it), sensation to the upper half of the nose. All of the nerves for that come out over the eye.

I have no idea how long it would take him to heal. Modern medicine isn't even applicable to his situation. I know the tear ducts weren't hurt (the eye is there, and he does cry later), and that the muscles all around the eye appear to be fixed in place, along with the permanent wrinkles and the part of his forehead, all the way back to the hear (which probably didn't suffer damage, but it was possible for a rush of super-heated air to rupture the ear drum and leave Zuko deaf on that side). He still has the eye covered when he visited the Western Air Temple the first time, and I would guess that he'd need at least a few weeks. The bandages would need to be changed twice a day, probably, and that would hurt like hell. There doesn't seem to be a designated healer in the crew, so Iroh probably did it.

Zuko doesn't pay attention, or maybe he doesn't let himself pay attention, but I think he's going to be very insecure about his appearance. Giant scar, smiling looks weird, teenager.

It drives me crazy that people seem to think that doesn't explain anything in his personality--or in his sister's.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the details! This was just what I was curious about.

I seriously think that this scar HAS to explain some of his attitude/actions. I mean, from what we see of the young and naive Zuko.... He must be terribly self-conscious about his car... and that's indicated a few times in the series, like in the crystal catacombs when Katara's comments about the face of evil makes him immediately assume she's talking about his scar. It's also not going to help his relationships with girls, one of the reasons I think he was so confused about Jin.

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

The scar also happened right around the age when boys start to notice that girls are kinda cool. Before, they were weird, but then they work out that they might eventually think about kissing them.

His dad scars a quarter of his face and banishes him on a snipe hunt. (The best phrasing I've seen was that Zuko was sent on a snipe hunt "and found the goddamn snipe.") He doesn't see anybody his age until Sokka makes his batshit-crazy charge with a spear, the Avatar is a little boy, Zuko has various zany adventures...

And right. When Katara mentions that she pictured his face, he's immediately thinking that it's because of the scar. He doesn't seem to think that anybody would be interested, he seems confused that his uncle cares even after three years... They needed five more minutes, and Azula wouldn't have been able to touch him no matter what she promised (and then actually gave, no further conditions) him.

In the end, though, I don't think he would have let Katara heal the scar. It would have been a huge moment for him (she offered to heal something that's caused way deeper scars), but I think he would have told her to save it for something more important. It's been three years, and that's long enough. I realistically think that he could have an epiphany right there and realize that maybe he doesn't want to go home. He wasn't happy there after his mom left, except when it was Iroh or Mai, his father's a monster... he can tell Katara that he's done chasing the Avatar, whatever else happens. If that was when Aang burst in, it's a very different scene. Azula needed Zuko to win that fight, and then canon twists around and Zuko and Katara might just end up together (because she never, ever struck me as enthusiastic about Aang).

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I think it's quite telling, too, that the only people Zuko's age that you ever actually see him hang around with are his sister and her friends. Did he ever even play with boys his own age? Unlikely. Lu Ten was so much older, too. A lot of his social awkwardness probably has to do with a lack of peer companionship as a child, too. :P

Oh man... I would love to read a fic with that scenario: five minutes longer in the crystal catacombs. ;) Awesome.

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

He was the older boy playing with his little sister's friends. That's all kinds of unhappy, there, and Lu Ten was probably the absolutely awesome older cousin that wasn't around much. He only really interacted with Ty Lee, Mai, and Azula-- and as much as I like them, none of them are guides for interacting with the rest of the world.

Ugh. I think I'm writing it. I already had the absolutely-no-writing-it-bad-bad-story thing where Zuko goes with Katara, he faces down Azula, and she kills him three minutes after Zuko's epiphany after lots of romantic (in the classic sense, not hearts and flowers and attraction) descriptions and hope and then he's dead. I have no idea why that happened in my head, but I still won't write the story.

In the ACTUAL "Katara had five more minutes," she's about four seconds from healing the scar when he pushes her wrist away and tells her to save it for something more important. He manage a (very awkward, but earnest/cute) joke that Aang always finds trouble, she smiles, and he has his big epiphany about honor. Ozai isn't honorable, and actually capturing a child and handing him into Fire Nation custody isn't honorable, the war isn't honorable... big, big long chain that boils down to "Katara is honorable, and Ozai is not." Most of that is in his head (luckily, or he'd sound completely crazy), but it would end with "I'm not going to chase Aang anymore."

Sokka is the suspicious one, Aang's jealous but reluctantly happy, Iroh's thrilled, and four days later Iroh vanishes on (White Lotus) errands because "two cooks spoil the soup" and Zuko is suddenly Aang's firebending master. (And when Katara decides to claim herself a firebending prince, it takes her weeks, but it's worth it. He has no idea that he IS being claimed, but that's okay. When he does find out he doesn't mind. Really, the phrasing only ends up that way because Katara is territorial and saw him too many times with the shirt off)

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

That scene especially might need a beta. I'm probably going to give my muse free rein on that one, and write it whenever the mood strikes. I yawn at gore unless it's medically accurate, so this is going to be messy.

The worst part is that I can do nearly anything I want, and I can have Katara in the wings with Spirit Oasis water to save the day. That means that Zhao can get creative, and that I get to have hyper-sadistic-bloodlusting Zhao in my head. It might be a bit darker than the series, but imagine that canon-Zhao had Zuko in custody, and discovers that Zuko=Blue Spirit. Ozai has progressed to "you know what? I don't care if you bring me his head or bring him to me in chains, but if you give me his head I won't have to execute him," so there's no aftermath/accountability. Zhao can do whatever he wants, maybe with the caveat that he should leave the face clean except for the scar that's already there.

This is also when Katara finds out that Zuko = Fire Lord's son / prince / exile, just for added dramatic tension (and some plot that doesn't revolve around blood and fleshy bits). As a bonus, the random crazy chick they picked up that's intimidated by some clouds is the Fire Lord's daughter. (The mindbenders tried to use her for a project of theirs, and Azula is on nearly-permanent crazytime. Just like in Firefly, she's at her sanest when telling her big brother that he's an idiot.)

I get a little leeway in "I completely and totally didn't make this nasty stuff up" because I'm mirroring a television series. I finally finished casting (it only took weeks), I have most of my plotline figured out, and I finally figured out just what I need to do with Azula.

Most of the skiing hills around my area are little commercial things where the big hill is maybe three times the size of the bunny hill. I'm in mid-Michigan, where you can get better action sledding sometimes. (We sled like crazy fuckers, if you go with the right people. You haven't gone sledding until you're trying to run up the hill with people sledding down at you-- we had nearly all of my biology class there trying to murder each other, essentially, but somehow it was amazingly fun. We all were so hyped about it the next morning that we spent the first half-hour of class talking about it. We were sledding until at least 1:30 and our class started at 6:55.)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"That means that Zhao can get creative, and that I get to have hyper-sadistic-bloodlusting Zhao in my head. It might be a bit darker than the series, but imagine that canon-Zhao had Zuko in custody, and discovers that Zuko=Blue Spirit. Ozai has progressed to "you know what? I don't care if you bring me his head or bring him to me in chains, but if you give me his head I won't have to execute him," so there's no aftermath/accountability." THIS. THIS I can definitely see happening. D: (And I still second my motion to be a beta-reader.)

"This is also when Katara finds out that Zuko = Fire Lord's son / prince / exile, just for added dramatic tension" Also YES! :D

I'm also quite intrigued by them picking up Azula... and I'm interested to see how you'll portray her relationship with her brother. I have a soft spot for fics in which she shows some modicum of affection for Zuzu, even if it's in a "hey, only I'M allowed to hurt him" kind of way. ;)

Also, I totally just watched the first episode of Firefly last night at a friend's party. Must... watch... more...

The ski hills near the city are the same way... Edmonton has a rather steep river valley, but again, it's not that tall: not compared to the mountains, at least. Also, sledding is awesome! I haven't been since I was much younger, but we used to own several crazy carpets and, of course, those old GT Racers... (These things: http://www.bobandandrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sno-racer.jpg )

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

"I'm also quite intrigued by them picking up Azula... and I'm interested to see how you'll portray her relationship with her brother. I have a soft spot for fics in which she shows some modicum of affection for Zuzu, even if it's in a "hey, only I'M allowed to hurt him" kind of way. ;)"

SO much yes. Azula never acts affectionate (except the one time when he's unconscious and still bloody and she curls up next to him to reduce any further threats to ashes), or if she does it's with some cutting comment after so nobody starts having thoughts, but she spends most of her time insulting him. Zuko starts out worrying that she's going to leave the instant she's sane enough to realize what's been going on, but then the two of them grow into something approaching a good relationship.

When Azula grows into her badassery, she's extremely protective of him. She whomps on him in sparring matches (and the same goes for Iroh and Toph--I have my reasons for why that happens), but in actual fights nobody goes near him. "Only I get to hurt him" is probably very accurate.

Mai is around, but not love interest-ing. I think it'll be Zuko and Katara, since they keep stealing the main points of the plot and turning them into interaction. Katara gets the epic plot arc of "I hate him" to "I don't trust him" to "Okay, fine, I guess all that torture proves I like him" to "OMG he takes his shirt off to practice?!?!?" to borrowing lines from Kaylee. Zuko's is very simple. "She hates me." "She doesn't hate me anymore, she just likes it when I'm not there." "She doesn't actively dislike me" "She's actually really pretty when she doesn't want to bash my head in" "I like her"

He's not so much of a masochist that "I like her" comes when she is looking for a reason to beat him up. He just acts like it on TV.

Zuko saves her from the mindbenders, after Ozai sent her there. Zuko gave up his crown and his honor and a whole lot of status, he got his face all burned up, and he alienated Uncle while he was insisting that he had to get Azula out of there. He's too much of an idiot to hold all that against her properly, so it's not like she owes him anything, but she needs to look after him so he doesn't repeat any boneheaded stunts. She only has one brother, and doesn't trust Ozai to make any other good ones.

Yay a convert!!! Seriously, Firefly is like that. My friends dragged me to a couch and made me watch the first ep (I very, very rarely watch television), and I was instantly ready for the next episode. (Point of interest, the first ep was never aired, and the second ep was written in about twenty-four hours. Train Job is still awesome).

The series was more famous when it was off the air, and I think all new fans set out to convert other people to watch the show. It's like a cult, but you can find the series for about $20 if you shop at the right place, and instead of brainwashing you get excited conversations where you end up repeating nearly everything that Jayne says, or imitating a very, VERY epic conversation between Zoe and Mal during War Stories.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"Azula never acts affectionate (except the one time when he's unconscious and still bloody and she curls up next to him to reduce any further threats to ashes), or if she does it's with some cutting comment after so nobody starts having thoughts, but she spends most of her time insulting him. Zuko starts out worrying that she's going to leave the instant she's sane enough to realize what's been going on, but then the two of them grow into something approaching a good relationship." YES YES YES PLZ. Awesome.

"Katara gets the epic plot arc of "I hate him" to "I don't trust him" to "Okay, fine, I guess all that torture proves I like him" to "OMG he takes his shirt off to practice?!?!?"" XD LOVE IT. I also love Zuko's character arc. ;)

"He's too much of an idiot to hold all that against her properly, so it's not like she owes him anything, but she needs to look after him so he doesn't repeat any boneheaded stunts. She only has one brother, and doesn't trust Ozai to make any other good ones." <3 SO TRUE. I'm also intrigued by the detail of alienating Uncle Iroh. When/how will he realize that Zuko was right?

... $20 in the right place? I will definitely keep an eye out! :DD

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

Azula is going to be different from the show. I'm keeping the core parts of her personality (damn smart, she can understand what people are going to do and how she can manipulate them to do what she wants, driven, needs to be the best at what she does--and under all that, she's afraid of what will happen if somebody else is better). The surface actions and thoughts, though, are going to be very different. Azula's father sent her to hell. Her mother thought she was a monster (or so Azula believes, so that's all that matters), Iroh didn't care about her, and her father was the one that sent her to the mindbenders. She starts sending Zuko letters, even if he'd be better off if he ignored them, and he comes for her.

Zuko breaks her out of that place, and gave up everything for her, and their dad hurt him, too. That last part might actually be why she decides to trust him, because her mental processes are extremely sporadic.

Azula and Katara are actually very similar, personality-wise. Azula has the sadistic streak, maybe, but they're both confident prodigy benders that were spoiled and always called special for what they could do with their element. They're used to being right, they don't like being questioned, they don't really want to be the younger sibling...

"<3 SO TRUE. I'm also intrigued by the detail of alienating Uncle Iroh. When/how will he realize that Zuko was right?"

Iroh realizes in the first chapter of the Avatar/Firefly mashup. I have the rest of the casting listed out, finally, but Iroh and Zuko meet up almost right away. Iroh still doesn't understand quite what happened at first, so he ignores him at first, but then he sees crazy!Azula and realizes that Zuko was right from the start. Iroh had turned away earlier, so Zuko shuts him out. He doesn't need anybody, he'll just go live out in the middle of nowhere and find a job so that he can take care of Azula.

Then Katara's crew adopts him and he's a criminal for a living. Kind of. But they're stealing from people that steal from people, so maybe it's better?

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"Zuko breaks her out of that place, and gave up everything for her, and their dad hurt him, too. That last part might actually be why she decides to trust him, because her mental processes are extremely sporadic." So Zuko is literally the only family member she can trust? ;_; Also, I have to wonder, then, how she reacts to seeing Iroh on Appa...?

[feral-shrew.livejournal.com]

Zuko is the only person from her family she wants anything to do with. She ignores Iroh, generally. He's not a threat, and never was outright dismissive of her, but he didn't help her and he didn't spend time with her when she was a kid. Ursa is gone somewhere, and she vanished to protect Zuko, and Ozai has an uphill fight if he wants to make Azula stay in the same building.

She eventually starts to get her mind back to herself, and then she and Iroh can have a little bit of a bond. It gets a lot better when Iroh is the first person to figure out what the mindbenders were trying to do. Zuko knew fragments, Iroh knows the history.