#kuchee

24. favorite fic you read this year

a thousand little faces by @irresistible-revolution - especially because it’s the first time in years i’ve been following a incomplete longfic and now i feel like i’m finally enjoying fanfic like i did when i was 14 again :D (been struggling to read fic in recent years bc attention/processing issue which is one of the reasons i have annoyingly high standards for what i do try and read... and it’s awesome to feel in safe enough hands to just let an interesting story take you on its ride)

25. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read

i would recommend @kuchee and @jaystrifes‘ pre-poly zutaraang fic crossing oceans even to anyone who’s not interested in the ship, just because of its perceptive portrayal of all three characters and all three individual dynamics within the trio!! the characters feel authentic, it’s a really believable extrapolation of their relationships a few years down the line without a hint of the sense of excess/exploitation that the breakup trope can sometimes imply and idk it just simmers. the nuance that these characters deserve

What I like about them: he is so oblivious to the world around him 99.9% of the time because he’s purely living his life with complete anxious virve and authenticity and this makes him very funny. but then he’s also offhand like why don’t we dismantle the monarchy, despite benefitting massively from it, and allow states to be independent and have elected leaders. dare i say we were on the road to comrade wu!

What I dislike about them: he is soooooooooooooooo fucking annoying and spoilt and bratty ALL THE TIME. also women should not have to be near him

Favourite moment: good old mako, my big tough guy

Least favourite moment: coronation scene or when he talks for longer than 15 seconds straight or  when he tries to hit on asami/korra/any female character i may have forgotten

A situation with this character that I want to see explored more: i dont know or care to know what comics did with the delicious post-canon potential so! wu maturing into a bearable person some 5yrs later than his peers, abdicating and introducing democracy, having a failed singing career then a radio show. topless, sex on a waterbed, kissed a woman.gif. etc etc. the press goes haywire!

An interesting AU for this character: au where he’s allowed to wear colours other than earth kingdom colours :(

A crossover: crossover with our reality where the technology to print tshirts falls into avatar universe and wu makes 50000 of this shirt

OTP (or OT3+ etc…. just… favourite ship): fundamentally wuko but

Other ships?: wu/character development

BROTP: listen............... i think wu + asami is hilarious and has stunning potential i will not take constructive criticism at this time

NOTP: it would require bolin to unpack what i feel is a deepseated tedency to lash out where the question(ing) of masculinity is concerned, which of course stems from his goofy nature creating a belief within himself that he can never live up to societal expectations of masculinity, resulting in turn in an oversensitivity to anything that might undermine his tenuous grip on dominant forms of ‘being a man’, such as the gender nonconformity of embracing homo/bisexuality. but if we take that unpacking as a given for the sake of hypotheticals: wu/bolin. can you even imagine.

I never knew I needed so much more of them in my life

In chapter 3, Hala asked them to have a battle to test the pokemon battle arena for the upcoming tournament, and like his anime counterpart did with Ash, Nanu’s strategy was all about teasing the opponent

HE PULLED THE ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR CARD AND HIT HER SOFT SPOT WITH A CRITICAL HIT LMAO

He is having a little too much fun with this, huh? XD

And more teasing XD

Spe Olivia has such a temper, hahaha! I love that Nanu of all people goes to keep her away from Guzma. Back then I thought that this was the first sign that he cares about her - enough to avoid her to get involved in a fight with some rowdy guy for being called a something she is really not, lol

And this is my favorite bit. In the latest chapter, ch.21, we get more of them legit caring for eachother. I liked that their conversation suddenly got deep and then Nanu didn’t feel like sharing more about his past, and Olivia totally respected it. Also the “don’t do anything rash”, awwww...

I hope we get to see more of them together soon, and maybe he opening up more to her. Their interactions are priceless XD

9. Favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics?

Where to BEGIN, it feels cosmic. my favourite thing, even though it’s a meta one, is that they’re the three cornerstones of such an incredible story and foil each other in very thematically resonant, crucial and satisfying ways. the individual dynamics are so rich that it’s easy to extrapolate from them, and shipping the ot3 just feels... correct. if i had to pick one of the many dimensions you can draw out from the ship, it might be the idea that katara and zuko’s lives are touched by aang in such a way that theyre able to find commonality with each other through him, not just because they both care about him, but by his example of levity, forgiveness etc. zutara is the constituent ship that i have the most difficulty buying, i guess, and adding aang to the equation just solves the mental roadbumps i have trying to get with what i feel would be an otherwise turbulent dynamic

13. How hard is it write/draw your pairing? Scale of 1-10.

maybe like 5? the fact that it’s an ot3 is genuinely what bumps it up because it’s a lot of #dynamics to keep track of compared to non-poly ships

but really this depends a lot on the pov character and primary dynamic. zuko is interesting because he’s possibly the easiest to inhabit, but also the easiest to fall into cliches with bc of his character type (/ prevailing interpretation in fandom). aang should be harder to write but i guess is on par with him because i personally find him more interesting/relatable at this point. i seem to be drawn to them more than katara pov, maybe because my gateway to the ot3 was zukaang

also for @jaystrifes who sent this exact prompt once and I never got around to it

The last time they had tried this, years ago, making camp in some Fire Nation countryside, it had been kind of a mood killer.

“An arctic hippo with a lamp?” Zuko had protested, propping himself on his elbow on the bedroll in his indignation, much to Katara’s ire. “That makes no sense - why would an arctic hippo have -” 

“It doesn’t exactly look like a phoenix either! I mean, where are the wings? Is it plucked clean?”

Aang had been pretty sure that the constellation in question was the tail and hind leg of the Great Sky Bison in the Sky, but it didn’t seem like the moment to stick himself into the fray.

This time around, he changed tack a little. “The Air nomads did have their own ideas about the star shapes, too, but I’ll tell you what I think, eh?” he said, Zuko tucked on one shoulder, Katara’s head resting against his leg on his other side with her hair strewn over their laps. They were very amenable to this idea, lulled into cool attention by the gentle night breeze swilling the grassy plains below the Southern Air Temple this evening.

“See that cluster? That kind of looks like this dragonfly bunny spirit I met in the Spirit World once. Those three are its ear. Yeah, very floppy, I know! And that over there? That’s definitely Toph’s head… I knew you would see it...”

It’s an act of chivalry.

She had gasped, on perfect cue, as she let the umbrella roll to the floor. Then he had obliged, duly, stooping to snatch it up off the gleaming gravel. But looking back up, weight on a shining shoe, he found that the feeling he felt was striking and new, and so did she. This wasn’t planned, of course, so it did not show, but if no one else knew it, they both did and rued that they couldn’t pretend not to. Her hand closed around the handle to the last knuckle before she pulled the umbrella out of his. Mustang cleared his throat.

It had been unexpected only because he would never have the chance to expect something like that at all, before all this undercover business. It would have been out of keeping to get on his knees for his subordinate. But a charming new lady? It’s nothing short of imperative.

Chivalry is the name of the game, after all, when the game is that of a man with next to no shame. He makes sure, quite the overbearing gallant, that she never has to stress overmuch in her nice skirts and heels. Not on the rainy street. Not in the dingy bar, or the cab, or the dark hallway afterwards with the smothered heat of a tense night.

It’s not the kind of thing Lieutenant Hawkeye would ever permit, but Elizabeth doesn’t mind.

💡 Rec a fic that has become part of your headcanon

Ictus by athoroughlybakedpotato (YoI) - about ice skating and head injuries! i looooove the tone/energy, tbh I don’t usually have a very solid/consistent headcanon for things but this was formative

📚 Rec your top 3 favourite one-shots you read recently

at the end of the war (what’s mine is yours) by notcaycepollard (MCU) - a sam/bucky from civil war to endgame. profoundly needed as an easing back into (or beginning of!) the sam/bucky feelings.

Someone Else’s Child by wangler (Teen Wolf) - i Know it’s teen wolf fic and it’s stiles and his dad focus but i read this fic years and years ago then hunted it down again recently because i still think about ‘“Like 32 tiny paws!”’ so often

Love Looks Better in Color by mardia (RoL) - i never know for sure in my own head/heart if i Really ship peter/nightingale or not, but the fic is always sooo good and this is no exception. a soul bond au w no spoilers past the first book !!

🎶  Rec a playlist/ fan mix you adore

truly i don’t really listen to fanmixes so the playlist for the blue that lasts by guileheroine. im just a simple sea loving gay also the marika hackman version of i follow rivers followed by movement followed by my tears are becoming a sea??? good god.

❤️ Simply rec your most beloved fic(s) and fanwork(s) and describe why - for Dark Matter

:///////// you already KNOW it’s The Stranger which i read through in a fevered, awed dream state & then ascended the second i finished. it is so immensely in character and so DARK and unsettling and i feel SO awful and weirdly conflicted about gus and uhghghg jack is so JACK throughout? i ACHE FOR HIM!!!!!!!!!

just realised there are 5 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) new dark matter fics i havent read which is AMAZING, so from those that i have i’d say atm:

winter, passing by Damkianna - fix it fic! the unparalleled level of closure i felt reading is ridiculous

Ishavet kaller by MildredMost - also fix it!! with bonus sooooo good spooky de-haunting before that

1: Is writing cathartic or stressful for you?

both, like all good hobbies (probably more stressful than other hobbies though bc it’s more cerebral and brain hurt)

6: What are some topics you will never write about?

off the top off my head: a/b/o, soulmate au, pregnancy focused stuff, character bashing, cheating and noncon involving main characters, religious trauma and christian-flavour homophobia, teacher/student stuff, self insert, high school au’s for canonically older characters