talk shop tuesday!! can you share any behind-the-scenes facts about your siren!mai fic 👀 the concept has not left my mind since i read it!! (- thinkingisadangerouspastime)
Ahhh thank you thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed the Siren!Mai fic :D
So I first came up with this back in early May, for the YOTP series. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d make it fit any of the prompts for that month (for context, I’ve been catching up on 2025 YOTP, and the prompts weren’t quite aligned with my vision 😅), but it was Mermay, I had to write a Siren!Mai fic (there was no better opportunity!), so I decided the prompt issue was a problem for future me. And I did eventually figure it out…sorta 😅
Then I grappled with different angles for the Siren!Mai fic. I debated writing a fic in canon-verse where everything is the same but Mai was born a siren and has to grapple with that throughout the series. But that would be a multichap, and I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to write that given how busy May was going to be. So I had to scrap that idea.
Then I decided on the siren trio (Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula) luring Zuko from his boat was the perfect angle, and perfect for a oneshot. But then I realized that making Azula not related to Zuko (or even just making her a siren at all) breaks canon in too many ways…so it had to be just Mai and Ty Lee. Then I debated having them be their canon selves who were turned into Sirens at some point during the years of Zuko’s banishment—you can kinda see hints of this in Ty Lee and Mai’s familiarity with Zuko.
But ultimately, I decided that I’d probably have to get into the how and why of them turning into sirens, so I decided to just make them sirens from the get-go—their familiarity with Zuko is through legends, stories, that they’ve picked up from traveling sailors or fellow sirens (word travels fast, even underwater). This idea ends up working really well as a Different First Meeting thing for Maiko too, which was super appealing :D and writing that was so, so fun.
The turning point was a bit more difficult to figure out—how could I turn Mai from “I’m going to kill you” to “I’m going to let you go”? Well, it’s a combination of two things: his loyalty to his crew moves her—he’s the first human she’s met to staunchly refuse to give up his crew, even under threat of death—and she’s slowly developing feelings for him. Has she acknowledged the latter? Definitely not lol it’s too early for that…but those feelings have sparked, and his loyalty moves her enough that she shows a little bit of that fondness for him in her blessing
This blessing btw is something I completely invented, and which I imagine is rare for a siren to bestow on anyone—for those lucky enough to receive it, they carry a piece of the siren’s power within them. Not their voice or charm, but their ability to swim fast and without fatigue. Perhaps their ability to breathe underwater too 👀 Zuko has no gills, but hey, it’s magic—who says he needs them? And as I said in the endnote…in this AU, Mai’s blessing is the reason Zuko is able to swim in the NWT without breathing for so long lol and maybe it’s when he discovers his newfound ability to breathe underwater
I also really loved the idea of having Mai and Ty Lee have very different siren voices, but Mai’s is the one that enchants him. As he says in canon, “you’re so beautiful when you hate the world”…I think a melancholic, haunting melody would be exactly what ensnares him, not the sweet, dulcet melody of Ty Lee. Maiko’s relationship defies expectations, and I loved getting to show that here :D
Also, one person caught the Princess Mononoke reference! It was originally a lot more clear, but I figured “I’ll cut your throat, that’ll shut you up!” was a bit much even for Mai lol so I cut that part out. But here it is:
“Your voice is lovely.”
She froze. “What did you say?”
Shit. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. But there was no use taking it back now. “Your voice,” he repeated, “is what drew me here. It’s beautiful.”
She scowled, holding him down tighter. “You think your flattery will keep you safe?”
But he could only gaze at her in awe and murmur, “You’re beautiful.”
As my irl bestie said…Zuko falling for a girl whose MO is to kill him is very on-brand for him 💞 I couldn’t resist the chance to drop in that reference (especially since it made me think of this art!).
Still…he glanced towards the sea, a wistful longing drifting over him.
It was foolish to fall for sirensong, and even moreso to wish for it. And yet…
And yet, he couldn’t help but want to hear Mai’s voice one more time.
Classic Zuko lol he’d walk into the jaws of death if it meant hearing his beloved again 💞 very Orpheus of him.
Thanks for the chance to ramble about this fic!
