Tons of Feels

So excited to finally be sharing my @zukkabigbang2024 fic, betaed by the amazing @kartoonkrazy and with wonderful art from @lizardlicks (link incoming)!

Featuring culture sharing, culture confusion, gossip, a very sassy Kanna, a very over-it-already Katara, meeting the parents when you and the parent are both world leaders and also you have issues with parents, and Sokka's daddy issues.

[“Right,” Hakoda manages. “An honor.” “Once we will endeavor to meet with equal honor in return,” the Fire Lord says so quickly he starts almost before Hakoda gets out the last syllable. “Sure.” Hakoda has to forcibly unclench his teeth to grind out, “We’re happy to welcome the delegation.” As if they had any choice in it. Fuck, but it would have been a lot easier to say no if the Fire Lord weren’t dating his son.] Or, Zuko is nervous about making a good impression on his first visit South as Fire Lord, which certainly has nothing to do with meeting Sokka’s father. Sokka is excited to see his boyfriend after months apart, and is absolutely totally fine with not being involved in the week’s political negotiations. Totally. Hakoda already has a headache just thinking about how exactly he’s supposed to interact with a fellow world leader who is also a teenager, and also dating his son, and wait--Sokka’s old enough for dating now? When did that happen?

When I was a kid, Power Rangers got banned at school because we all thought it was incredibly cool and kept trying to kick each other in the head. No-one bothered explaining "Those are trained actors and it's all practiced, they don't *actually* hurt each other, and you're not good at that yet", they just banned it.

So we went to the park after school and read Kim's smuggled copy of the Power Rangers magazine and kicked each other in the head there instead.

(This is a metaphor, but it's also literally true. So much kicking in the head.)

the concept of star-eating microbes causing a crisis and the solution being the introduction of space wolves to space yellowstone to control the space elk population. i love a good trophic cascade

dr ryland grace immediately pitching "turn the spaceship into a giant centrifuge to generate gravity" and then not balancing his actual centrifuge later on

the entire "life is reason" scene really

grace forgetting to open the mystery alien container in a fume hood AND immediately sticking his nose in it. if we did this in chemistry lab we were executed on the spot

academia drama being one of the cornerstones of grace's character

grace switching through every spectrum setting on the microscope to try to see into the astrophages and not being able to (relatable)

also: the astrophage dying and grace going "ohhh it died..." (very relatable)

grace having his not-scientist buddy Carl to give him frank solutions when he's overthinking. yes, often the solution is just to put the box in another box

copious duct tape usage

just sticking a filter into the path of the petrova line to collect astrophage goop

eva going "so it's alive" when grace tells them the astrophage are moving, and him being like "WELL ok that could be for a lot of reasons" in the tone of someone who doesn't even know where to start explaining why that's a hasty assumption

grace referring to the first new astrophage as his and carl's baby multiple times (HIGHLY relatable)

(ID in ALT text)

previously

just wanted to clean up and shade quickly the remaining one. but uhm... the project gained a mind of its own and now i guess... its sort of a comic? way to detailed story board? what ever it turns out to be while i keep on drawing on it till its over which is gonna take me years and i hope i don't run out of time?

i hope future me will be more chill about future updates.

also screw consistency when i just make up panels on a whim.

artwork to this AU 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 4(2) . 5 . 6 . 7

In partnership with @sebere-art , we are working to bring the Jetko comic "Avatar Academy" back to life with a brand new set of paint. (By that I mean a much better scanner, better image quality, and a better editing software. The story and art are the same lol.)

Between scanning the images in, translating, and editing photos, it does take work on both our ends, so please be patient. I will be releasing one full short story at a time. As soon as I'm done, I will release them. I won't hold it hostage, I promise lol. I know a few people who have been wanting it.

I tried to edit it so as to leave as much of the beautiful original art intact and visible, as well as making the translated text look natural and seamless, and I'm loving how it is turning out.

Again, big thanks to Sebere for making this possible. Couldn't do it without you friend.

Without further ado, you can start reading it below ⬇️