#chigai

Picrew is my life now

One of my two protagonists, Chigai, in a summer outfit!

Chigai, written by shinjishazaki, is essentially the fic that got me back into writing.  Its success is somewhat amazing, given that it has its own cast of OCs and changes the original events from Avatar: The Last Airbender tremendously.  The original idea, I think, went something along the lines of “What would happen if the Avatar woke up a decade later?”

I just wanted to share it with everyone.  I’m a really huge fan of this fic, as well as everything this person writes.

Cool things of note:

Beautiful prose

Happy lesbian couple that I will ship until I die

Well thought-out cast of original characters

Interesting premise

I’ve read it about three times, which is more than I ever read anything.  I’m reading it a fourth time so I can get a better grasp of the characters and (hopefully) do some fanart.

Check it out!  You won’t regret it!

Chigai

This is a soundtrack for the A:TLA fanfic Chigai by ShinjiShazaki, which she’s recently begun revisiting after originally finishing it in 2009. I promised I would make a fanmix so here it is. The songs are in no particular order, and I’ll let you figure out their relevance for yourself.

i. Again - Flyleaf // ii. Feels Like Tonight - Daughtry // iii. Break In - Halestorm // iv. Here Comes the Reign - Les Friction // v. Forever - Red // vi. Weight of the World - Saliva // vii. Dance with the Devil - Breaking Benjamin // viii. Waking up the Ghost - 10 Years // ix. Eric’s Song - Vienna Teng // x. Secrets from the Underground - The Offspring // xi. White Balloons - Sick Puppies // xii. So Far Away - Staind // xiii. Laughter Lines - Bastille

longshotlink submitted:

Kailas brought the satchel around from behind her back, opening it and taking from within it a box, painted blue on the carved whorls and spirals on its sides and the sliding cover. Hova started, her face going white. Kailas held it out to Aang, her eyes narrow. “This is yours. Take it.”

“This is—Gyatso’s,” Aang said. His eyes were wide under his lowered brows, and he snatched the case from her hands. “Monk Gyatso made this box and kept all the writing he liked best in it!” He looked up at her, his neck growing taut. “The temples were all burned! Why do you have this? How can you have this?”

“I told you,” Kailas said, voice so soft it was difficult to hear. “Mongoose-dragons are able to bring soldiers up to where the temples were. I met the lemur and found that box before the temples were burned.”

“Kailas, wait,” Hova said quickly, reaching out a hand as if to touch the woman’s arm.

Kailas swallowed visibly, head dropping. “Before…before I razed the Southern Air Temple.”

Katara’s eyes went wide. “You—what?”

Slowly, Kailas dropped down on her knees in front of Aang. She put her hands on the ground and bowed her head to them. “I know you’ve wondered who destroyed your home. The other temples were burned by other firebenders when Sozin’s Comet came—but I was the one who razed the Southern Air Temple, and I alone.”

“Kailas—stop!” Hova said.

“You destroyed the temple by yourself?” Sokka asked, shouting as he spoke. “You?”

Kailas did not move, her head against her fingers. “I did. I may have been ordered to, but I was the one who razed it. All I could do beside that was hide these writings and make Momo hide away from the temple. But that means nothing…compared to what I took from you.” Her voice grew strained, her fingers curling in the dust. “And I know that whatever apology I give you can mean nothing—but I can’t tell you how sorry I am for what I’ve done. I’m not asking you to forgive me, Aang. I’m just so sorry.”

The box slipped from his limp fingers and clattered against the ground. He fell to his knees, and none could see his eyes for how his hair fell over them. The only thing that broke the silence was his ragged breathing. For many long moments, it was the only sound anyone heard. The crack that rang out next was so sudden, so loud, and so piercing that no one, not even Kailas, noticed that she was thrown onto her back with her nose broken and pouring blood.

A pillar of rock had risen from the ground, spattered red at its peak. Aang’s fist was against the ground, and bright light came from his hand where the sleeve had slid up to uncover the tattoo there. His eyes were closed, but the glow bled through cloth over hands and forehead alike. Kailas stared, breathing through her mouth and tasting blood when it ran over her lips.

Ah, chapter four of Chigai, how easily I can recognize you.

This was around the time I was contemplating making Kailas drink heavily.  Yes, I seriously considered that, given how much shit she'd gone through in her life up until that point.

This scene was interesting to work on, just because it was all about how Kailas was, essentially, desperate to be punished for what she had done during Sozin's Comet.  Kailas is always on the border of self-loathing, and destroying the temple was permanently seared into her mind as one of the worst possible things she could've done.

From the minute she figured out Aang was the Avatar, she was building herself up to admitting what she'd done.  Think of it as a well-meaning but guilt-stricken Catholic child going to their first confession, except eight million times worse.  I felt really sorry for Kailas, but then again I generally feel awful for the stuff I put her through.  She is very much my hangdog character, and this remains true for the novel.