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uselessbard1031 · 3 years

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All Current Fics Update (March 29 2021)

Hey! Just wanted to pop on here and give ya’ll a little update on where each fic stands currently chapter wise and when I anticipate finishing each one (as well as some future fic ideas I have in progress).

The end dates may or may not change just depending on if I feel like writing that fic or not one day, as I’m trying to write for fun; Trying to write to write. So, without further ado, here is my tentative fic updates list.

LOK X Reader Oneshots:

Current chapters: 47 / infinity

Estimate End Date: These will not end. I will be writing these until the end of my fanfiction career. :)

I Bought A War Criminal:

Current Chapters: 20 / 26

Estimated End Date: August 2021

Notes: I’ve fallen out of love with Kuvira as I’ve fallen deeper in love with MILFS lol. I still love her character and will be writing more fics with her in the oneshots and on her own, but it’s because I don’t simp for her anymore that finishing this fic will take time. I have it planned but I don’t want to rush it and thus have the writing quality suffer.

Kya’s Wife:

Chapters: 2 / 6 (Working on the third after I finish this post)

Estimated End Date: May 2021

Notes: I am in love with this idea of Kya having a wife that for some unknown reason wasn’t in the show. I mean, the woman has a betrothal necklace and GAY! Lol. I’m actually working on some fanart of the scene from the first chapter right now because I love it so much (though I’m no artist so don’t get excited).

Dear Copper:

Chapters: 16 / 18

Estimated End Date: March / April 2021

Notes: This was my first two author fic and I really enjoyed it. I made a good friend during the process and currently am waiting on their chapter before we write the final one. I definitely recommend writing as part of a team sometime because it has been quite the experience.

So Close, Yet So Far Away:

Chapters: 6 / ???

Estimated End Date: July/August 2021

Notes: I have a few ideas for this fic but no set plans. It could run anywhere from three more chapters to thirty more, depending on where the story takes me. It’s not my main focus right now, as I’m trying to clear out some other longer fics first. However, it will still get updates, don’t worry. ;)

Dearly Departed:

Chapters: 6 / 13

Estimated End Date: May/June 2021

Notes: I have so much steam for this project and am beyond excited for what I have planned. I will honestly probably finish it before most of the others on this list just because I get so excited to write it. 😅

The Future.....

Currently I have two ideas for longer length future fics that won’t get put out until I at least halve my current fanfic workload. Then again...doesn’t mean I can’t tease you ;)

Burnout - A Lin X Reader Fic

A promising young firebender who chose to give up the opportunities her parents always wanted her to have comes to work along side Lin starting up a K-9 unit for the RCPD. Lin was promised a gifted and mature firebender with years of experience; Instead, she gets a fun loving sarcastic girl who everyone thinks has lost her way. Can this free spirit break through Lin’s armor to her heart and teach her how to live in the moment?

Avatar: The Balance of Raava and Vaatu

Set in the avatar world about forty four years after LOK (putting us approximately in the 1960s) this fic will be something new for me: a non X-reader.

The water tribes feel threatened at a corporation’s plans to put a man on the moon, but the tribe leaders take only peaceful and political action. Will it be enough? Or will they need to fight?

On top of it all, Shova, the girl trained to be the avatar after Korra’s death may have a dark secret that even she is unaware of.

This fic will follow the story of the avatar after Korra, a boy named Len, and his friends as they traverse a world caught up in a cold war over the space race. They’ll fight villains as they go, but also be forced address the possibility that perhaps good and evil isn’t black and white. Maybe, we are all a part of the grey.

Thank you all for your support over this past, what, not even a year of writing fanfiction? I love reading your comments and the fact that I have people willing to follow me here just blows me away.

I hope you will continue to support me through all kinds of fics I write. But that being said, don’t worry the X readers aren’t going anywhere. ;)

Also, to whoever put ‘Neopets’ in the google form when I asked what social media you all wanted to see? We’re married now. No take backs. Lol. XD

#legend of korra #xreader #fanfic #fanfiction #lin beifong #kuvira #kya #one shot #ao3 #fic planning #legend of korra fanfic #lok #korra #avatar #avatar after korra #kya's wife #headcanon

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threehoursfromtroy · 7 years

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March of Process - Pt 8

Part 7

This vacation flashback at the beginning of chapter 17 was memorable enough to earn me some lovely fanart—thanks again, @zelegendarydork ! Let’s wrap up the first a-bit-more-than-half of the story, shall we? Watch out--my rambling intensifies.

The aftermath of the Bopal proposal is a shining moment of exuberance , but is quickly brought back down to Earth by the serious situation. Asami checks in with her business and some negative immediate repercussions for her and Korra's flashy coming out, but I kinda dropped the ball on this minor plotline. (oh well). Tenni takes a little more charge of Asami's schedule—for a character that's generally on the sidelines, people seem to like her a lot. Competence and loyalty are attractive traits! On the way to Kuodan, Kya and Korra have a moment, and I'm again super happy I brought Kya into this story. Another perspective on Aang, and another sapphic voice to offer guidance. Plus, she's a giant sass monster, who doesn't love that? Particularly when you can mortify her in front of her father! Finally, though... the shoe drops, and Korra finds out about the rifles. Only seventeen chapters in, and not from Asami.

Whooooops. Clearly, this timing is gonna work out badly in regards to our main couple. But that was also the point of this story in the first place, so... Meanwhile, while Kuodan is fast rushing to a resolution, Mako and co (the Makrew?) finally make it to Ba Sing Se, quite a bit later than I'd first thought they might but hey, the fic was going long anyway, what the heck? Torru wouldn't have gotten there earlier enough to have the city frothing yet, so I was already aiming this plotline to a minor crescendo along with the Zaofu and Kuodan arcs, but an incomplete one, so the final climax could be in Ba Sing Se. Because book 2 of AtLA and book 3 of LoK taught me that this setting is at it's most excellent when Ba Sing Se is involved. At this point, Mako and Tsu Ying are a bit past friends, circling each other with teasing and coupleish bickering. Wu's noticed this, and while he's not fully accepting his own feelings, Wing has figured ALL this shit out already, and knows what to do.

“Hey, that's right!” Wu said. “I need somewhere soft to lie down after all this driving. Oh, Mako, you're rooming with me, right? it'll be just like old times! Falling asleep together, snuggled up in my suite.”

Tsu Ying choked. Wing laughed.

“What?” Wu asked, blinking between them. Mako also looked baffled.

She backed herself up. What had she just heard? Oh, 'my suite' not 'my sweet.'

I'm not sure if this came over perfectly, but I made this same mistake watching the show, when Mako and Bolin argued outside Wu's room, and Bolin had harsh words for Mako and the room both, to which Wu replied 'nobody insults my suite!' and I thought he'd literally dropped an affectionate pet name for Mako for a second. I tried a little tooooo hard to recapture it here, so I felt the need to explain the slight clunk to this dialogue, hah.

Jinora is scouting Kuodan, and provides our first connection between that plot and the main cast, rushing en route. This section perhaps could've been more desperate and emotional (though my Kainora shippers tell me their moments were well appreciated!), I think I may have focused too much on auguring this plot home. To be frank, the whole worker revolt plot was not hugely interesting to me, and I think that shows through a little in the shallowness of the local characters and lack of exploration of the conflict. Plus, it suffers from the awkward transit problem I had earlier, which boils mostly down to how much trouble it is to simply GET the characters where you need them to be.

(Also of note, my computer had a save glitch and I had to rewrite the last third of chapter 17. That's incredibly frustrating!!!!!!)

The meat of the chapter, though, comes when the PoV returns to Caluqtiq, as she and her son bore the brunt of this plot, and they're our anchors to it. Her fear for Nuktik and their resolve to do the right thing in spite of all this insanity around them really made them easy to like. Zuko's rasping support of Nuktik, unhealthy but enough to create hope, as well as a nice cinematic sort of father-son relationship that you see form over a short period of high stress (though I'm not sure to what extent this is a realistic phenomenon, or just a trope). Tenzin's lack of regained consciousness is meant to be the real concern for readers, and hopefully that fear is resolved by Korra's totally badass superhero landing/taking control of the situation.

But the chapter doesn't end.

So, probably the most controversial decision in this story, other than including the guns themselves, was the death of Zuko, but the two are inextricably intertwined. To me, it would have been the height of irresponsibility to introduce firearms into the setting, to make them a major part of the plot, and not demonstrate the consequences of that.

As I've said before, as is true in all my writing, and as in true in life: actions have consequences. They must.

Simply wounding somebody would've been partially effective, but cheap. Killing new characters, or dozens of extras, would have carried little narrative weight.

Guns, at the end of the day, are designed to cause grievous harm to their target. Whatever someone's opinion or attitude about them may be, that fact cannot be escaped. That's what they DO. And the best way, the only real way to demonstrate that, would be to have it happen to a character I know readers already care about. And here, we have a fan favorite character, one who had retired from world politics, more or less, and could be (to be a callous puzzlemaster for just a moment) removed from the plot without any repercussions to the story. It was a perfect fit for my needs, and hopefully, as shocking as I could've made it. Though going out using his body to shield a waterbender from an unexpected attack? An appropriate way for Zuko to go, I think. Most gratifying, though were the readers who were equally or even more concerned that Caluqtiq was dead too. If I didn't know I'd done a good job with my original characters, I knew now! Chapter 18, another fluffy flashback scene as they competitively compliment each other. Fluff is always appreciated, but meanwhile, the reader knows that Korra has just found out about the guns, and Zuko's death... Then, a scene I never intended to write, and wound up presenting the thesis of the whole damned story: Lin and Zaheer.

This came from me realizing that Zaheer, in his cell, could still meditate into the Spirit World, and thus could still be impacting world affairs. This is canon. I did not make this up. This is in the show. This is a problem that needs to be solved.

Regardless, it creates a motivation-based plot hole that needed to at least be addressed. I didn't want to bring Zaheer into this story. Often, he's brought into Book 5 fics in a prominent role, as Korra's most potent (and honestly, compelling) adversary, but I don't particularly like this tact. It's off theme with the show, to fully revisit previous villains; the past seasons should have an impact, cast a shadow, but those characters shouldn't play prominent roles in shaping the story itself, I don't think. And thus, this scene, where good-ol' Lin Beifong, the Perfect Character To Put In A Conversation With Anyone, goes to chat with him. The conversation is short and no-bullshit, and even though Zaheer doesn't factor into the overall plot, he's still creepy as hell and disturbingly well-informed.

“Every step of 'progress' Miss Sato makes is another step toward chaos, and true freedom. The Avatar could never fight that, much less while she's in love with the person pushing so much of it forward.”

Korra's greatest living enemy nicely summed up March of Progress for me. Thanks, you anarchist jerk! Also, having Lin Beifong be the foil in this scene gave extra bite to his final words:

“The world is changing. Societies crumble. Stifling traditions fail, leaving freedom in their place. Why, two women are even free to fall in love, now. Tell me that is wrong.”

Snap! What you gotta say to that, Lin? Again, ALMOST like I planned this shit ahead of time!

Zooming to Ba Sing Se, we get a scene where Mako and Tsu Ying's relationship is directly broached. Shu wants to make sure his friend isn't gonna get hurt, and Mako, at least, show's he's not a TOTAL idiot and knows he and Tsu Ying have been circling closer and closer and she wants to stop the dance and get down to the sexy times. The pretend-family situation only makes it better/worse. Still, Mako shows how much he's matured emotionally, and Tsu Ying surely appreciates the attention. Her feet do, at least. I think this was the point where I decided for sure about their eloping offscreen, only to reveal it in the eventual Krew reunion. I thought that would be at a finale afterparty, but the way that scene played out... well I'll talk about it when I get there!

Kuvira's plot wrinkle serves to complicate the situation, but also to set her up for her... redemption isn't the right word. She's trying to rehabilitate herself as best she can, do what good she can with the resources she has available, but that doesn't mean much when her idea of what's 'good' or not is skewed.

Finally, Raiko shows what an irredeemable jackass he is by treading informing Iroh of his grandfather's death in about the worst way possible.

Korra's not in the chapter to build up the sense of dread in her reaction—a card I perhaps played too liberally, given she's the protagonist. Asami's not in the chapter because I managed to actually move somebody between locations without explicitly showing it.

I know. I'm shocked too.

Chapter 19, Come Apart, hearkens back to Come Together, when Korra and Asami reunited, Mako comforted Tsu Ying in her hometown, and Kyalin hooked up. Couples were being supportive and caring. Here... Asami and Korra are literally on different continents, and couldn't be further apart emotionally.

Korra is in the chapter only from Kya's point of view, and she's hard and distant. Kya and Tonraq are concerned, and the way she silently leaves Boss Taka out for the spirits to deal with is even more chilling. The moment at the end of the scene, that I don't think anybody noticed at the time...

A few sure-footed thrusts, and stone rose up to hold Taka's feet. His eyes were wide and shaking. Korra looked past him, above him, as if staring down somebody who wasn't there. Yeah, she's looking at Dark!Asami, that we see later on, but I honestly hadn't come up with that particular incarnation yet. I knew she'd be seeing something, but I hadn't quite made the leap to Asami yet. I don't know if anybody even noticed this, but I feel like any more blatant would have been hard to do from an outside point of view. Again, I'd made the decision to withhold Korra's perspective to increase the sense of unease in the reader, but I think I took this strategy too far, to be honest. Before I forget, though, the flashback. I was realizing at this point that, honestly, I was running out of things for them to do and/or say in their vacation. The story had gone longer than expected, and I wouldn't be able to continue the flashbacks to the end, as I'd planned. So given what I knew was coming up, it seemed like a strong narrative statement to end them. As to what to replace them with, if anything... I hadn't the slightest idea! And I didn't know what that was gonna be for quite a while, either!

As for this flashback itself... they're heading home, they're apprehensive but looking forward to this relationship, to trying it out. Hopeful, ever so optimistic. “If you can't fix it, I can,” makes a reappearance, and it's maybe a little hokey, but it's an easy enough line to call back to, reminding each other (and the readers) of this happier, more hopeful time. Back in the present, Jinora has a scene. It is nice but I'd forgotten about it. This plot line also went nowhere. The scene is nice enough, with Jinora being reminded that she doesn't have to pantomime adults all the time, that real strength comes in admitting our weaknesses. It fits with the theme of the chapter at least, of unravelling, but Jinora is underutilized in this fic, I think. There's a ton going on though, so that's gonna happen to a few characters.

Wu's jumping back into politics, and we see a moment of character growth, when he stops himself from backsliding into flippancy. He's always gonna have a certain innate... Wu-ness to him, but he grew a lot in Republic City, and given what Ba Sing Se is gonna be going through, he'll need to grow some more. Raiko continues to be a dummy who thinks he's smarter than everyone else for being a self-serving jerkbutt. There's no hope for sympathy for him at this point, and the reader is mostly supposed to go 'Ugh, this idiot. He's just awful. What's he doing now and how's it gonna blow up?' Of course, I wrote this somewhere prior to November 2016, so my bar for awful presidents wasn't exactly where it is now. :/

Finally, the Zaofu plotline has been building up toward a big battle, and Korra said she wanted Asami in charge of defending Zaofu, so damned if Asami doesn't take charge. It's about time to get that party started!

Next chapter! (Hey, gotta end with a hook, ya know?)

What does the next chapter bring us? Well, a vacation flashback where the two of them fight. It's a short one, some poorly chosen words hitting on a sensitive spot, but enough to illustrate how forgiving they can be, and how much they want to make this work. And we still haven't really heard from Korra on all this.

The siege of Zaofu is the setpiece for this chapter, of course, and General Sato the main star. Besides giving her some good thinky work to do, and some damned sexy marksmanship, this is also supposed to showcase Asami's rifles as she intended them to be used—a balancing element against benders and other hostile forces. Over the course of the chapter, it almost works, limited only by logistical problems. Most of the battle is move-countermove, which can be VERY fun to write. Get deep in the psychology of both 'players,' make sure both of them have tricks up their sleeve. The other general is more experienced, but Asami has a strong defensive position and she's clever as all getout. She's determined to do what Korra tasked her, and prove the use of her invention in one fell swoop—not knowing that Korra has seen her guns already, and definitely not knowing Kuvira is out there and what her intentions are.

The rest of the chapter—for one, I officially, overtly introduce Nuktik's transgender status. I think a few readers had caught the hints I'd been laying down, but I also know quite a few hadn't. And that's important, because readers have already come to know and appreciate him before learning this aspect of his character, so even for those who might not be fully appraised of how gender identity works, now it gets to just be... an aspect of his character. Not the whole of it, not the first and only thing they think of when they think about him. But looking back, it informs his character the whole way. How does it color his veneration of Katara? How does his mother's concern and their being shunned by the tribe look now? How petty does that shunning seem, given how there's so much more to Nuktik than this single thing he's been judged on?

Tsu Ying gets to do some espionage work, getting some exposition in on the side. Her character made the scene a bit less boring, particularly the daring escape where she beaned the guy with an apple and 'earthbending death strike!'ed her pursuers to get a few precious seconds. She and Asami should compare notes as non-benders fighting in a bending world.

Pema and Senna, the two main moms in the show, share a moment, left behind as they normally are. Both extremely strong and empathetic ladies, and though this scene doesn't further anything, they deserve the appreciation. Were I editing this for publication, scenes like this would be cut, for time, for space, for pacing... but that is exactly how these sort of characters wind up underappreciated, too. The other option is put some important information in this section--like Lin’s talk with Zaheer gave the thesis statement. You do get a little of that, with the importance conveyed of emotional support and leaning on people who are about you, that is a bit of a recurring theme throughout this work and the series overall. Finally, Chapter 21, finishing off act...2? Probably act 2. There's a distinct act 3 in this story, but 1 and 2 kinda run together. Probably, they break about the time Kuodan first blows up, and that plotline goes silent for a while? All the introductions are done at that point... Anyway. The final vacation note, I decided to go a little experimental. No dialogue, not really any events—just entirely thoughts within Korra's head. Showing how good Asami made her feel, when things had been good—to create the starkest counterpoint possible when we finally get back into her point of view. We see, too, more of Korra's putting Asami on a pedestal, thinking of her as perfect, and again, in context, it seems a natural, even sweet thing to be thinking.

What do we round out this section with? Especially as it was the last chapter I completed in summer, 2016; grad school began as I was partway through writing the next chapter, and I was not able to make appreciable progress on this story during the semester (though I was able to start the constellation of shorts that morphed into Comes Marching Home). I realized at some point that there'd likely have to be a gap in posting, and this was as clear and organic a place to do that as exists in the story. I even contemplated making this the 'final' chapter, and having what came after be a sequel work, though I didn't consider that very long. This didn't have a complete plot arc, after all. Anyway, I asked myself a question. What did I decide to include in this... mid-season finale? Some drama in the Fire Lord's family—with Izumi as the even-stuffier foil for Tenzin in earlier chapters, she'd been in the story enough I felt like I had to show the repercussions of her father's death on her and her son. Turns out... she's not very good with emotions, either in having or expressing them. She's left in a pretty desolate place, misspeaking to Iroh to sound like she's unaffected. Desolation is the appropriate outcome for a lot in this chapter. But not for everything! Nuktik and Eska talk, and besides explicitly dealing with his gender identity and it's impact on his place in Northern culture, we get the full force of Eska's character growth. As well as giving me the opportunity to think, ya know who hasn't been in this story yet? Desna. You know what would be really fucking awesome, and a way to give Nuktik an 'in' to the plot in the back part of this story? If Desna was trans too. I'd kinda headcanoned previously that Eska was transgender, having already transitioned, but hadn't used that; tweaking that headcanon was, at that point, simple. I contemplated a while whether adding another trans character would seem like me pushing an agenda, but I realized this is my goddamned story and there needs to be more positive trans representation anyway, so get bent, haters that I made up! Who invited you, anyway? Bumi and Lin, another cute scene, where Lin gets to be made fun of a little. Bumi's still the troublemaker he always was, but he's also becoming more insightful. Or maybe I just tend to gravitate characters in that direction? Regardless, he's right—how often do you get to antagonize AND encourage somebody you care about? Gotta relish those opportunities! Mako and Tsu Ying's adventure across Ba Sing Se, and intentional arrest to prevent a riot, while growing to realize this attraction between them... can't just go unanswered. They have their big kiss in the middle of a near-revolt, and to be honest... this kinda climaxes their plot? There's some residual espionage in the third act, but their relationship arc crescendoed wonderfully here, and all I have left afterwards is... settling into couplehood, and some self-doubt on Tsu Ying's part. This isn't a complaint, per-se; the focus of act 3 is the angst between our two leads. Putting everyone else on stable footing gives useful counterpoints and chances for relief from all that tension. But still, it's a realization that I had, that they'd gotten close enough that they could, particularly if Tsu Ying got the idea in her head, justifiably elope. Then THAT idea was too fun not to use! :D A glorious, sneaky trick to play at the end, when readers realize that Mako doesn't know about Korrasami yet, and I lay a secret on them in return. This one was a fun trick to pull, not gonna lie. The end of the battle of Zaofu, I'd planned for Kuvira to charge in and save the day, and basically complicate everyone's lives by continuing to exist. But while building that plotline, Asami's 'shot the guy what killed my mom' thing happened, and that brought me this delicious opportunity here. It's not even two months since Hiroshi died, and there Kuvira is, charging in to do who-knew-what? Asami had the power to remove her from the world, and would have no one to answer to but herself for doing it.

It's a tense moment, and I prolong it as much as I can, even using 'squeezed' for her eyelids, as I'd been using that verb to refer to the trigger each time she fired. And the decision itself, that exhausts her, in a way that hours of leading a fight and running around hadn't. In that moment, she had to wrestle, with the decision she'd made during the sting operation, with the person she wanted to be, with the person she wanted to be for Korra. It's a hard choice, much like Katara not taking revenge for the death of her mother in The Southern Raiders, and culminates a lot of what she's been through, growing her further still. Korra should be proud.

But we finally, finally get back to Korra's PoV, just a little. Just a glimpse. This is the Avatar, enraged. Betrayed. She's taking out all the people responsible, just like Asami asked her, but does she consider Asami one of those people, too? I had quite a while to contemplate this. I knew the story would have a happy ending, but I hadn't figured out precisely what that would be yet. I continued to post chapters on schedule, only having enough time during the semester to finish chapter 22 (well, that and write a bunch of shorts, but there's a lot less cognitive load to writing a short than there is to writing a chapter of a larger work and making sure everything fits in). In particular, though, I thought of all the directions my plots could take me—what plot Nuktik and Caluqtiq could have, that would involve them in the overall plot of the story and not feel tangential, what structural element I could replace the vacation flashbacks with, how Korra and Asami's fight and eventual reconciliation would go down. But somehow, my thoughts kept circling back to a moment in Korra alone, where a small dog barked at something. And that proved to be the key to everything.

Part 9

#korrasami #fanfic #march of progress #writing #legend of korra

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