i'm a hungry little clout goblin but in the way that i jump in excitement when i get an ao3 comment because it is validation that other people have seen into my obsessed fandom brain and enjoyed what it produces
Jack was somewhat preoccupied with glaring daggers at Elsie Hannaway, who he had barely been able to look away from since the moment she had walked in on those teetering tall heels, strung between the arms of Olive and another girl Jack didn’t recognize. He had been in the middle of a conversation when the three had walked in, and Jack had immediately gone to tease Adam upon seeing that he had accidentally matched costumes with Olive, only for the words to die on his tongue the moment that his gaze drifted to the girl on her right.
Elsie. With tall heels, and long legs, and a tiny little short black shift dress, and cat ears. Elsie. With drawn-on sleek, feline features on one side and drawn-on neon bubbles on the other. Elsie. With a softly blooming smile on her face that died and withered and darkened as her gaze passed over him.
Dressed as Schrödinger's Cat, famously both dead and alive, all at once.. How fitting. She was, after all, simultaneously the most agreeable girl in the entire Physics department and the bane of Jack’s entire existence.
This party was meant to be an escape, a refuge from Elsie, and yet, she found him even here. Jack took another long sip of ice water, eying the shot Adam held in his hand and wishing desperately that his own drink was made of pure vodka.
“Yes?” Adam asked distractedly, and only then did Jack recall that he had just addressed him moments before. The taller man lifted a bulky black glove to his Kylo mask, adjusting it as if his matching Rey across the room could see right through him.
“ Talk to her.” His words were blunt, but Jack’s tone was nothing but sympathetic. He owed at least that much to Adam, considering that Holden Rodrigez, the one who would usually talk some sense into the two of them, was off in a corner making out with who knows who. “Even if she doesn’t remember you.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Adam’s tone was nervous, uncharacteristically unsure for the man who had one of the most formidable academic records in the school’s recent history.
“Then you start fresh.” Jack’s gaze drifted over Elsie, yet again , against his own free will. “Trust me, history is a hell of a lot harder to deal with than the lack of one.”
Across the room, as if she’d heard him, Elsie leaned over to the friend Jack didn’t know, whispering something before stalking across the room, straight for him. And yes, Jack meant stalking . Something about the way her strappy heels cut through the crowd made him feel the heat of her focus more than he ever had. Beside him, Jack was vaguely aware of Adam throwing back a shot and clapping him on the back in an uncharacteristically frat-boy-ish manner as he strode past him, his own path mirroring that of Elsie’s.
Jack stayed rooted in place. He wasn’t sure he could have moved even if he wanted to. Elsie’s gaze had him pinned. Still, her gait seemed increasingly off as she got closer and closer. Her last few steps seemed to jumble together, and all at once, she was in his arms. Warm, and real. A bit too drunk, the scent of sickly sugary fruity cocktails mixed with the sweet honey and old-paper scent that had haunted him over the last handful of months.
Jack wrinkled his nose at the syrupy scent as it assaulted his senses.
“Were the cocktails good enough to justify the hyperglycemia, at least?” He watched as Elsie’s glare only grew at his casual mention of her diabetes. It had been her best kept secret up until she had passed out late at night a handful of weeks before in the library. Jack had only found her in time because she’d intentionally taken his typical study spot just to get under his skin, a particularly evil habit of hers that he was suddenly grateful for as he helped her adjust her insulin levels until she had recovered enough to hate him for it.
“For your information, as an adult, and a very capable scientist, I am more than capable of adjusting my insulin accordingly.” She turned up her whisker-painted nose haughtily.
“But not capable or adult enough to keep your friends informed on your health?” From the way Elsie flushed red in irritation, Jack knew that his barb had hit the mark- he clearly remained the only person within the radius of their university who was aware of her diagnosis. Her lips parted, itching to retort, but he only raised a finger, tired of fighting her after years of doing nothing but bickering. “Please, Elsie. You’re drunk, and I’m well aware that you hate me. You don’t need to remind me.” His gaze fixed on a point behind her, and Elsie turned to watch alongside him as Adam and Olive danced, the latter looking up with a smile on her face that lit up the entire room.
Jack could only assume that underneath his mask, Adam wore a corresponding tiny half-grin.
“You’re the one who made it my mission to dislike you,” Elsie huffed, bringing his attention right back to her, “seeing as you hate what I hold dearest in this entire world.”
Jack couldn’t bite back his tongue quickly enough to soften his rebuttal. “What, hiding your feelings from everyone around them and subjecting me to every last one?”
Elsie refused to dignify his words with a direct response. “Besides, you’re as drunk as everyone else here. You must be, considering that you usually never bother saying more than one or two words to me at once.”
“Hate to burst your bubble, but I’m just as sober as I am every day in the classroom.” He tipped his class of water against her long-stemmed glass, grinning widely at the chance to be right. “So no, I’m not drunk.”
“Are too,” Elsie scowled.
“Now who’s the adult?” Jack crowed, throwing back another sip of water before lightly easing Elsie’s sugar-rimmed margarita out of her hands and setting it on the table behind them. He expected her to fight back, to snatch at the table and run back to her friends so that she could spend the rest of the night cursing his name, but she did none of that.
Instead, Elsie tipped back her head and laughed, the sound like the clinking glass of beakers settling into a wooden storage frame, and Jack was hit by the thought that perhaps she was slightly more drunk than he had accounted for.
⊹ ࣪ ⚛︎ ˖ ⌬ ⋆ ༘ ⚛︎ ⊹ ࣪ ⚛︎ ˖
-quantum entanglement, quillthrills on ao3
has anyone ever wondered just how different aang and zuko's first battle would be if aang had been frozen at age 16...?
the following is an excerpt from my draft of ch2 of my new fanfic, "the teenager in the iceberg" on ao3. happy reading!!!
---
Because before she could speak, before Aang could speak, horns blared through the crisp air outside. Horns the entire village knew, horns that prompted screams from children.
Another Fire Nation raid.
Aang didn’t pause, didn’t let himself hesitate. Katara didn’t blame him. She was sure that if he thought about it for more than a few moments, he’d crumble entirely, and considering the situation they were now in, they couldn’t afford for Aang to sort through everything.
Katara didn’t realise how dire a situation it was until the three of them had reached the gates to the village, and Katara watched as the hull broke through centuries old ice as if it were butter. Sokka ran ahead as the bow of the ship split open in a rush of steam and machinery. Katara felt the blood drain from her face as she saw who stepped out. The Fire Nation prince. The one who had been scarred by his own father. He was here, in her village. Terror began to set in.
Prince Zuko wrinkled his nose at Sokka as though he was nothing more than an inanimate obstacle in his way, and shoved him aside, his soldiers following suit.
“I have come here for the Avatar. For my honour,” Zuko snarled, his words a sharp, lethal weapon. “I know he’s here. I saw his beacon. He should be an older man? Master of all four elements?” His eyes swept through the crowd, passing right over Aang as his gaze narrowed on Gran and the other village elders. Katara felt Aang tense beside her.
With no warning, Zuko and his soldiers blasted a wave of fire straight for the grandmothers and grandfathers who had huddled together.
And their fire was met by a gust of wind so powerful that it sucked the very oxygen out of the air, extinguishing their flame before it got anywhere near their targets.
Zuko whirled around, his voice contorting in anger at the sight of Aang, standing tall and proud with his staff in one hand and a constantly spinning sphere of wind in the other.
“You?” Zuko spat, seething. “I’ve trained for years to face the Avatar. You’re just a teenager.”
Aang, somewhat caught off guard, leaned back, raising an eyebrow in confusion, a teasing grin on his face once he’d realised that he’d managed to bother the Fire Prince himself.
“...S- so are you...?"
Zuko straightened, fire flaring in his eyes, his fists tightening as the air around them began to sizzle and steam. “A child. A child managed to outmanoeuvre me. A mere boy was running circles around the entire crew I command for years.”
“No, a teenager. C’mon, give me my credit, I had a whole growth spurt and everything, do I really still look like a child to you?” Aang put on a falsely sincere tone, venom behind his words as he bent his knees and tensed his body into a defensive stance. “You hurt this village, or its people, and you’ll see just how much more than ‘just a teenager’ I am.”
Zuko scoffed, fire again lighting up his palm. “Big talk for a pacifist monk.”
“Sure, as a monk, I won’t start a fight.” Aang grinned. “But I can finish them.”
---
hey. sorry dude but to know what the fuck is going on you need to have more than 3 years of some type of experience :/
hey. does anyone know what the fuck is going on
ahh hi!!!! oh my goodness @dukeofdelirium i'm so flattered for the mention/ that you've read my works!!:)<3
very very happy u enjoyed my flipping the zutara trope fic because i totally agree, after all the times i've seen katara having to escape some evil version of aang i felt like it was about time that we as a ship fandom reclaimed the trope hehe <3
thank u again!!!! so glad you've enjoyed some of my works!!!<3
you're my fav kataang blogger so i need to give u a fanfic rec i've been OBSESSED with.
their user on tumblr is @quillthrillswriting i think and their ao3 is @/quillthrills but like,,,,, their kataang dynamics are PERFECT they have one abt teen aang and another one where aang is the good dad he should be and like..... its just so so good you need to read them and give ur review PLSSS <3 🫶
I actually read a few of their fics last night! I love the portrayal of kataang that they have, and I especially love any kataang being parents content. I also thought it was funny that they took the whole zvtara trope of Katara having to escape Aang (🤢) and then flipped it on its head bc yknow what? We as a ship fandom deserve it after all we deal with lmao.
I have yet to read the Teenage!Aang fic that’s multi chapter and I haven’t read their one shot titled I’m No Longer A Kid, but I will when I get the time! Maybe tonight 💛
There’s truly so many amazing kataang fics to be found on ao3 and fanfiction.net (that’s the site I wrote my first ever fanfics on and yes they WERE kataang fics). We have some truly amazing artists and writers for this pairing <3
If you’d like recs of my own for kataang, I read a couple last night in addition to the author’s you mentioned. Exchange of Wrath by ArmageddonGeneration was incredible (3 chapters) and a one shot From the Moon to the Ocean by the same author. I also recommend literally any kataang content from chocomd on ao3 and they have some zukaang fics too if you ship that. Highly rec Without Water, Midnight Meditations, and Drag You Down, all are kataang fics!
Hopefully I’ll have the time eventually to write a kataang fic myself! I haven’t gotten around to writing anything for them on my ao3 account, but one day I will 🫶🏻 only gotten to post my twilight fics on there and have tons of WIPs and working on original novel too so just gotta find the time to devote to kataang
the love of my life ❤️ (a literal fan-fiction site) has left for the warfront 🏃 (is down for scheduled maintenance), with no word of when they are to return ☹️ (again, scheduled maintenance, with a set end time)
AO3 MY BELOVED COME BACKKKKK
pov: all of aang's friends, past lives, and the entirety of the citizens of every single nation trying to convince him to just straight up murder the fire lord
chappell roan winning artist of the year is such a big deal for the freak weirdo musicians of the world who’ve always been scared to be a bit different in this industry
"you're in the wind, i'm in the water," is my first voyage into regency-era kataang, and if the idea piques your interest, feel free to check out some of the excerpts below!
it's got a scene like "the headband"...cmon. need i say more 🤭🤭🤭
♔ ♕ 🜲 - ♔ ♕ 🜲
All at once, suddenly broken from the spell that was dancing with Aang, she realised that every other pairing in the room had cleared themselves from the ballroom floor, shuffled off to the side. Instead of dancing alongside her and Aang, as she had assumed they’d been doing, they all stood perched at the edge of the painted tile, their gaze as hungry as that of a lion, their lips buzzing with intrigue and gossip. Katara paled at the sight, suddenly all too aware of the curls that had sprung free from her hair and the uneven positioning of her tiara. She felt a light touch at her chin, and Aang was there, gently tugging at her to face him.
“ Hey ,” He said, and she already felt her heart rate slowing, her breathing calming. He looked so earnest, and yet, so entirely in control, so sure of himself, in a way that Katara found inexplicably intoxicating and magnetic. “Don’t pay any mind to any of them. They are only marvelling that someone as plain as me could manage a dance with a girl who looks as ethereal as a spirit come to earth.” His teasing tone ceased for a minute, the playful grin fading into one that looked almost genuine.
“It’s just you and me right now, Katara.”
Her eyes widened slightly as he took her hand once more, matching her own fluid movement perfectly. “Okay,” she breathed. Internally, she cursed herself for losing all sense of her noble vocabulary, in the presence of a king , no less, but Aang… There was something about him that eluded every regal, noble wall she had spent so much time meticulously constructing to hide any sense of a personality from the world of the Ton.
♔ ♕ 🜲 - ♔ ♕ 🜲
“You know, I’m almost certain that teasing your king could be considered treason.”
She shook her head slowly, mockingly, as she smiled innocently back up at him. “Do you always accuse those who attempt to flirt with you as being treasonous?” She knew she was being overly daring, much more than she should be around the newly-appointed young king, but she didn’t care. Aang was a breath of fresh air among the stuffy suits and pig-minded noblemen that seemed to frequent the Ton.
His eyes sparkled in response to her playful tone, the way she met his eyes unblinking. “ Are you attempting to flirt with me, Princess Katara?”
♔ ♕ 🜲 - ♔ ♕ 🜲
“These look familiar, somehow,” Aang mused, his tone contemplative.
“Ah,” Katara nodded softly as she fixed her gaze to where Aang’s fingertips caressed stone. “These carvings are traditional, in my tribe. There are similar runes carved in-” Her words caught in her throat for a moment, and she coughed once, quietly, before continuing. “In my mother’s necklace.”
“The one you wore during the ceremony? With the pale blue stone?”
“Y-Yes.” Katara looked up, caught off guard. “I hadn’t... I hadn't realized that you’d paid that much attention to what I was wearing.”
As much as he tried not to, his eyes drifted to her lips, her neck, her gown. “How could I not?”
Katara flushed pink, hurriedly breaking their eye contact as she felt sparks of chemistry sizzle in the look Aang had fixed her with.
♔ ♕ 🜲 - ♔ ♕ 🜲
get to know me:
hii lovelies!!! my pronouns are she/her, and i'm a writer who's only started writing on ao3 as of somewhat recently (i.e. this year).
if you want to say hi or chat about a shared interest, i'm always happy to answer asks & dms, so just send me a lil message:)<3
navigation:
#quillthrillsatlafic = atla-related fanfic!!
#quillthrillsatlatalk = me ranting abt atla hehe:)
#quillthrillsart= my art posts!!
#quillthrillsyapping = me yapping hehe
and #quillthrillsgenfic = any assorted fics for fandoms i don't write super consistently in!
exhibit b:
love when academic articles are a little silly and goofy. like yes that IS a bee. dumb fuck. lets label him so everybody can point and laugh.
hi!!! i'm quill 🕯an a03 writer trying to figure out an entirely new platform!!she/her
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