#learning to fly

Azula sniffed, lifting her chin in a disdain that would make Ozai proud. “If you’re going to give us stupid names, TenTen, then they should at least be right. Call me Firefly!” “Well, I suppose she does have a point, what do you think, Zuko?” Lu Ten asked lightly, as if unbothered by the children’s animosity. He ignored Azula’s scrunched expression and answered Zuko’s confused frown with a laugh. “I was calling Azula Butterbee, but I don’t think that fits her at all. She doesn’t have a stinger! When I talk about you with my friends, the names should be right. So I’ll let you choose, Zuko, since you can firebend and use swords. Which do you think suits you better? Firefly or Butterbee? Or maybe a totally different little bug!” -Learning to Fly: Dragon's Wings

It's Lu Ten and his little bugs: Firefly and Butterbee! Once they resolved the nickname debate, they definitely continued treating Lu Ten like a jungle gym. From my series Learning to Fly <3

I haven't done a WIP Wednesday in *forever*, and so today I want to share an excerpt from a 5+1 fic I've been fiddling with for a while. It focuses on a moment from Skyfall that lives rent-free in my head: the bit where Moneypenny says that Q is afraid of flying, and Bond says, "Of course he is."

I have...a lot of thoughts...about this moment, more of which I may share later on. I've also seen lots of fics tackle this piece of canon well, from leaning into reasons Q may be afraid of air travel, to explaining why this was all a pretext in the first place. So for now, suffice it to say that I was ready to dive in with a fic of my own, featuring five times Q lied to Bond about why he didn't fly to Macau--and one time he told him the truth.

This is one of my favorite flavors of fic to write: two parts crack fic to one part deep emotion that comes at you once your guard is down. 😁 Teaser below the cut!

Learning to fly - windsurfing perfect style

Specifically, the way they have painted a picture in my head of the ATLA world before the war.

I don't remember which part/chapter it specifically is, but one of Zuko's crew helps him decipher an Air Nomad recipe, and she remembers her grandmother sadly telling stories about a nomadic people that were heartily welcomed whenever they came through, livening up life, even if just a short time. And then, a recent chapter showed us King Bumi's view as he talked about before the war and the airbenders to Definitely Not Prince Zuko, and part of his work as head of the White Lotus.

See, Iroh inducted one (two) (technically one, but they're a package deal, so two) of Zuko's first crew (Zhao keeps reassigning them to dick with Zuko) into the White Lotus, and she is Not Impressed by this Bunch of Old Farts doing nothing, while her partner keeps proposing new initiatives to start turning the people of the Fire Nation against the war. They are both mixed-heritage, from the Fire Colonies. Bumi loves it.

(There is so much to this amazing series I have to contextualize for any of this to make sense, go read it, that is an order!)

In LFT, Zuko pretty clearly has Air in his soul. Not like the fandom idea the Ty Lee would/should be an airbender, but a firebender with air mixed in. Early in his banishment, he learned of the love of Fire Princess Akari and Avatar Yangchen, and as he's learned about them, and the airbenders, he has flourished. And his crews have flourished under him, to the point that those two crewmembers mentioned before basically had enormous neon signs to Ty Lee's aura-vision compared to anyone else in the capital.

So now I have a vivid idea burned into my mind of what, however unspecific it is, of before the war, where the airbenders, deliberately or not, stoked the Fire Nation's passions which led the world in development, and the Fire Nation was a beacon to the other nations, and the earth kingdom was the grounding (heh) influence to keep everything from running away from everyone. And it's beautiful to me, that vision of a balanced world where every nation supported the others. It's also so, so tragic that the Fire Nation didn't and doesn't seem to realize what they lost with the death of the Air Nomads, and how much they've dimmed compared to before.

I don't know if @fanboyzuko planned this all out, if they've developed it as they've gone, or if I'm reading into the background of LFT way harder than I should be, but I love the series and needed to share.