Atla Zuko - Blog Posts
the gaang...as an indie rock band....? kataang, where aang's only way of confessing his feelings is by writing katara a love song....? 😏
💳💥💳💥💳💥💳💥
i present to you, excerpts from my new one-shot: Well, My (Not-Yet) Boyfriend's In A Band
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Aang winced, shielding himself with his drumsticks as he walked into Sokka and Katara’s garage almost a full half-hour later than their agreed-upon rehearsal time, as if the two thin pieces of wood could protect him from the combined side-eye of his friends. Even Toph, who regularly rolled in ages after rehearsal had started with a tea in her hand from Uncle Iroh’s, was shooting him a glare, which is how Aang knew he’d really messed up. He ducked his head into the entranceway, silently cursing himself for being just a bit too tall for the garage doorway.
Katara shifted from her position against the opposing doorframe, where she had been judgmentally leaning as she echoed the look in Toph’s eyes. “Aang…”
He threw up his hands in preemptive defence, words tumbling one after the other from his mouth. “I know! I know, I know I’m late,” he tugged his high-top converse off awkwardly, stashing his skateboard in the usual crevice he leaned it against. “But I swear, it’s for a good reason.”
“It better be,” Toph scoffed. “I blew off homework to come here.”
“Toph, you wouldn't have done the homework either way.”
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“I can feel you glaring at me, Zuko.” Toph smirked, then turned back to Aang. “You’ve been rustling around in your pockets for a while now, you sure you’re not stalling for a good reason on why you were late?”
“It is a good reason. Look!” Aang finally managed to tug out the crumpled piece of paper from his cargo pocket, unfurling it for Toph to see.
Silence filled the room, and then, in a tone laced so much with sarcasm that it was hard to tell when the tone stopped and the sarcasm began, Toph said flatly. “Well, it sounds like a piece of paper, but I assume you’re referring to what’s on the paper. Way to taunt a blind girl, Aang.”
“I-I didn’t mean, I-” Aang stuttered awkwardly, his cheeks flushing an embarrassed shade of pink.
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“The only problem,” Aang added, “Is that the songs can’t be covers. We have to write something original. The idea of the music festival is to spotlight new young voices in indie rock.”
The others exchanged sidelong glances. “I’m sure that we can write something.” Sokka said with finality. “How hard can it be?”
Hours later, Sokka was sprawled on the couch, head stuffed between the dove grey cushions as he groaned at their utter lack of progress. Katara was perched on the arm of the couch, biting her lip as she tried to run through lyric ideas in her mind. Toph was (very un-subtly) preparing for a nap, curled up in the room’s vintage armchair, while Zuko paced with a hand on his chin, lost in thought.
Unsurprisingly, the five of them had discovered that writing original music does, in fact, require both skill and inspiration, something none of them felt they had at the moment.
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“What about a love song?” Zuko suggested.
“Ick, oogies!” Sokka yelped from his position next to the mini fridge as he pulled out a pair of sodas. He moved as though he was going to throw one to Toph, then thought better of it and just gently placed it next to her as he sat.
“You have a girlfriend, Sokka.” Zuko pointed out as Sokka settled next to him.
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“Aang, this is, this is great!”
“I like it.” Zuko nodded.
“Would someone please put text-to-speech on?”
“Let me read it out loud.” Sokka said, apologetically. “My bad, Toph."
♥ check out the (completed) fic & my ao3 here! ->
it's that time again...next ch of "the teenager in the iceberg" sneak peak!!!!!
kinda CW??: discussions of the air nomad genocide, loss of loved ones
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
When he opened them again, all Katara could see were glowing eyes, blazing bright. Blazing with anger.
She barely had time to think before the wind began to whip around her and Sokka, sending leaves swirling. Sokka ducked under a couple larger branches that had broken off of the nearby fruit trees, dead and unused. Trees that had probably supplied the fruit for the Air Nomad’s traditional pies over a century ago. Aang’s tattoos and eyes were blazing blue now, glowing so brightly that it hurt to look over at him. Sokka ducked behind a stone, hoping it would provide cover as he beckoned to Katara to do the same.
But Katara refused.
Aang needs my help, she told herself as she pushed against the winds Aang sent in every direction. Aang needs my help. She repeated the mantra over and over, until she’d finally pushed past the grassy, bone lined field and gotten within what she hoped was Aang’s hearing distance.
“AANG!” She shouted up at him as he began to levitate, a sphere of air and rock encircling him. She barely even recognized him this way, anger distorting his features, his muscle defined by the light emulating from him. All she could see was that rage and anger and pain, and all she wanted was to get close enough to pull him out of it. With the winds picking up the way they were, Katara struggled to stay on the ground. Still, she had to. Aang needs my help. She felt a hand at her back, and Sokka was there, trying to help get through to Aang.
She cleared her throat, calling out to him again. “AANG! Please, I know that you must be feeling grief, and guilt, right now beyond anything anyone could imagine." She coughed, the winds stirring up dust that caught in her throat. "You may be the last Airbender, but your people, their love and teachings, live on through you. They wouldn’t want this for you!”
Sokka joined her. “They wouldn’t want you to succumb to grief and rage!” He shouted. “Believe me, I get why that would be tempting, but… they would want you to work with those who care about you make sure no one has to experience this again.”
Katara nodded frantically, looking back to Aang. “Please, Aang, come back to us. We care about you!” She exhaled shakily, looking away for a moment before looking back. “Please, come back to me.”
For a second longer, Aang stayed there, hovering in the air, until the light coursing through him abruptly shut off, and he began to fall to the Earth like a shooting star.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
not sure if you want to check it out? check out the lovely reader's comments!! (i love all of u comment ppl<3) 🤭
sooo.... anyone else ever wondered how different ATLA would have been if aang had been frozen at age 16 instead of age 12?
yeah... me too 😌 my new fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" follows the events of the show, but with only aang aged up, while everyone else remains their canon age.
also...cmon....how funny is it to switch zuko and aang's iconic dialogue to "you're just a teenager!" "...so are you?"
this idea was originally inspired by the talented @allgremlinart's aged up aang drawings, so please go show them some love!!:)<3
enjoy the excerpts from chapters one and two!
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Aang chuckled, pushing himself up with his hands on his knees. He was… taller than Katara had realised, taller than Sokka. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, turning to look over his shoulder at the remains of the boulder-sized chunk of ice he had just been blasted out of. “Aang. My name’s Aang.” He hesitated, momentarily seeming to puzzle something over. “And honestly? No clue. Don’t remember how me and…Appa!” He yelped, suddenly scrambling back over the hill of ice and snow. Katara followed him without thinking, and Sokka, grumbling under his breath, followed moments later.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
“So, you’ve brought a monster to invade the village, then? You’re some incognito Fire Nation soldier sent in as an undercover scout? Well, I’ll have you know that I’m the village’s strongest warrior, a-”
“The only warrior,” Katara chimed in, lightly elbowing Sokka’s side, earning herself a responding glare.
“The strongest warrior.” Sokka reiterated. “And I don’t much like firebenders.” He added the words pointedly.
“Ah.” Aang titled his head. “That’s a shame. Some of my closest friends are Fire Nation.”
“Of course they are,” Sokka glared, hunching over into a defensive position and adjusting his fishing spear until it pointed directly at Aang.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Katara still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Aang. The Water Tribe boys had always been all flashy muscles, seal-jerky breath, and overconfidence, so Katara had never seen someone move, carry themself, the way Aang did.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Katara had admittedly forgotten how much fun penguin sledding was. “Spirits, I haven’t done this since I was a kid!” she called to Aang as he raced past her, surprisingly skilled considering that he’d never even seen a penguin until half an hour before.
“You still are a kid!” He called back over his shoulder. “A kid who’s losing this race, badly !”
Katara’s competitive streak reared its head, her eyes narrowing as Aang stuck out his tongue. She sat up slightly, no longer gripping the penguin’s fur as tightly. “You wish!” She shouted back the words as she raised her hands, breathing deeply. Her hands moved through the positions she had practised from the few bending scrolls the tribe still held on to, and before Aang knew it, the snow in front of Katara turned to ice, and she shot past him as his own ice trail suddenly became dry snow with too much friction to slide on.
She made it to the bottom of the hill, beaming, breathing heavily. The wind had whipped her hair out of her bun, and she knew without checking that her hair must have looked like a lion-turtle’s mane. She watched as Aang made a show of drying himself off with a gust of wind that he then redirected at her, messing up her curls even more.
“You’re a cheater !” Aang gasped, mockingly clutching imaginary pearls at his throat. “I demand a rematch.”
Katara strode past him, only turning her head to cast him a smug smirk. “Maybe you’re just not as good of a penguin sledder as you thought .”
“Oh, not so fast!” Aang grabbed her wrist, tugging her back towards him, and she internally questioned why the momentary brush of their skin made her heart flip. He tried to trip her, she tried to flip him, and they both ended up on their backs in the snow, giggling, cheeks and noses bright pink from the cold.
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
“Trouble sleeping too, huh?” Aang cocked a grin, tilting his head to Katara. She kept her eyes fixed upwards, trained on the moon and the stars, worried that if she looked away, she’d end up staring into his eyes like a weirdo.
“I always feel so awake with the moon’s light on me. Sleeping under the stars has never really been a thing that works. It’s too energising, too… too much. It’s hard to explain.”
“No, no… I get it. I feel the same way in a windstorm, all those breezes and gusts of wind, it feels… exhilarating.” She watched through her peripheral vision as he looked up at the moon. “In times of war, I think we all tend to forget how spiritual bending is at its core. I’d say it’s a good thing that you’re in touch enough with the origins of your abilities to feel the moon’s pull tug at you just as much as it does on the ocean.”
⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩
Aang smiled back. “Now is our time to try to make up for that. I can’t bring back everyone who was hurt in this war, and you can’t bring back your mother, but together, the two-, three of us can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
“I’d like that,” Katara exhaled, her breath calming down and tears dissipating. The two spent hours talking back and forth, exchanging the stories of their respective childhoods. Katara learned that Aang had invented several new bending moves and had been a big fan of fruit pies, while Aang learned that Katara had always been the bossier one between her and Sokka and that she had almost chipped a tooth on seal jerky when she was six. They continued talking back and forth in increasingly hushed tones until the world faded away under the cover of clouds and sleep.
Katara awoke to the loud shout of her brother.
“Wakey wakey, lovebirds!” he yelped, chucking a rock-hard stick of seal jerky at both of them.
“Ouch, Sokka !” Katara snapped at him, rubbing her head at the spot where she had been hit, before realising that she was leaning against Aang and immediately jumping away, blushing furiously.
♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->
wow, i am on a writing spree today! new chapter of my aged up aang au fanfic should be coming at all of you weekly on wednesdays or thursdays, and the following is an excerpt from my draft of ch2 of "the teenager in the iceberg"
without further ado, enjoy water tribe sibling chaos
for context, this immediately follows aang being hauled off by zuko and the rest of his ship.
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Katara felt a little piece of something inside her break with the click of the ship’s hull closing.
There was something so unsettling about being given so much hope and having it all ripped away from her only over the course of one day. She watched the ship push off from the ice and turn away, moving toward the imprisonment of the boy Katara had just realised could save the world. Her gloved hand stayed clasped over her mouth, her body frozen in shock, as she watched the ship fade. After a few minutes, she became aware that Sokka was tugging at her coat. She blinked, shook her head, and turned to him.
“Katara,” Sokka said urgently, and Katara knew what he was going to tell her before he said a word.
“I know. We have to go after him, somehow.” Katara bit her lip, absent-mindedly playing with Aang's bracelet, still woven around her wrist.
Sokka nodded sharply. “He’s our responsibility, no matter how much I berated him when we met earlier. We need to find that sky monster of his, it’s the only way we’ll be able to catch up with the ship.”
“Aang called it a sky bison.”
“He also didn’t tell us that he was the Avatar, so I’m not sure if we can take everything he says at face value,” Sokka pointed out as Katara rolled her eyes. He cocked a grin. “C’mon, let's go get the little guy.”
“Aang’s taller than you!” Katara called after him, rushing to keep up with Sokka’s longer strides.
“Sure, in his dreams!” The decidedly-shorter-than-Aang boy called back.
When they did manage to find Appa, he was sitting at the rear entrance to the village, peacefully napping and ignoring the flood of small children poking at his fur. When he raised his head to look up at Katara and Sokka as their footsteps approached, the sky bison looked less than amused.
“Here’s the deal, bucko.” Sokka said matter of factly, accompanying his words with sharp gestures and exaggerated syllables, as if Appa was deaf. “Your friend needs your help, and WE need YOUR help to get to him. You get the picture?” Without waiting for any kind of affirmation, Sokka nodded briskly then scrambled up to Appa’s back, settling into what appeared to be the driver's seat.
Appa did not move, didn’t even blink.
Sokka blinked, utterly bewildered. “How do we get him to, y’know, go?”
Katara scoffed, stepping closer and resting a hand on the creature’s nose. Appa huffed and leaned into her touch, then sniffed, making a sad rumbling noise. Katara’s brow furrowed in confusion until she followed Appa’s line of sight to Aang’s wood and linen bracelet, clasped loosely around her wrist. She clumsily reached for it, sliding it off awkwardly to hold out to Appa.
“He needs you.” Katara breathed, “Aang needs you.” “He’s not gonna-” Sokka started, but as Katara slid onto Appa’s back, they felt him begin to levitate. Sokka huffed, crossing his arms dramatically. “Spirits, I hate when you’re right and I’m wrong.”
♥ check out the first chapter of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->
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!!!
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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.”
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♥ check out the first chapter of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->
OKAY SO. I just finished watching Avatar :the last airbender. And it's been a rollercoaster to say the least.
First of all, Zuko is the best and my favorite character here (sorry sokka I love your humor too but you don't have the tragic backstory). Also, from what I gathered from the fandom (really juste the ship names for now), I'm part Kataraang, part Kataruko. Also Zukka and Sokki. Why do all the ships are so good ???
Second of all, I NEED AN EPILOGUE. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. WHAT DOES EVERYONE DO !?!!!
Inktober - Day 21
I’m rewatching Avatar TLA with a friend rn and I was hit with the nostalgia of my very first ship: Zutara :p
i got a perfect match with azula on the mbti chemistry thing and bitch!!??? if that doesn't say anything about my mental health idk what will
Idk I love Zuko in this era sm
He was so lil bean 😭
⇢ 𝙕𝙪𝙠𝙤 𝙞𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨 ⇠
𝙍𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮: insigthblue
𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚/𝙧𝙚𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙜 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙨𝙚/𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 (✿◠‿◠)
⇢ 𝙕𝙪𝙠𝙤 & 𝙎𝙤𝙠𝙠𝙖 𝙞𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨 ⇠
𝙍𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮: @hajiii
𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚/𝙧𝙚𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙜 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙨𝙚/𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 (✿◠‿◠)