Just Not My Cup Of Tea - Blog Posts
Why does tumblr think I want kinky explicit furry bear (adj) content in my life like you do you but I’m not here for gifs of jiggly big bellies and bare bear(noun) butts
“Based in your likes”
Dafuq does that mean?!?!
Is it the sonic stuff? It’s the sonic stuff isn’t it. Fucking autism got me on furry tumblr
i love writing sokka, so i've thrown some of my favourite lines of his from my fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" together, so that they can be properly appreciated <3 >:)
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Sokka continued, his voice both indignant and commanding.“We don’t even know your name, Mr. Walking Ice Cube! What were you doing in there? Were you trying to mimic a snow-man and you got too carried away?”
---
“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.
---
“Appa can give us a lift?” Sokka said incredulously. He gestured at the sky bison, sprawled across the ice and looking as though he could sleep for weeks longer. “If anything, he looks like he needs us to lift him up off the ground.”
---
Naturally, Sokka was still a skeptic. “A pulley system! Hot air from a hidden firebender! Secret underwater sea-vents! Or maybe we all ate something funny and all of this is all in our heads… ” He finished off his sentence by wiggling his fingers as if he was ready to cast a spell.
---
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.
---
“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 ?”
---
“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.” Too concerned to snap a retort back at Sokka, Katara just settled down into her seat, anxiously picking at the leather of her coat.
---
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.
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he's so sassy and funny i love sokka so much
♥ find the rest of the fic here!! ->
i think the idea that everyone else knew aang was in love with katara far before she did is such a funny and under-explored trope.
‿︵‿︵‿୨ ୧‿︵‿︵‿
“Aang? In love with you?” Sokka pondered it for a moment. “I mean, it checks out.”
“I-” Katara frowned, flustered by the second confirmation that day. “I didn’t say love .”
“I know.” Sokka shrugged. “But I did. C’mon, Katara, did you not see the way he looked at you when he got out of that iceberg?”
“Yeah, and I saw the way he looked at all those girls on Kyoshi, and that fire nation girl he danced with, and-”
Sokka cut her off with a single hand to the face. “Jet. Haru.”
“Touché.”
“To be honest, I always assumed he did and you knew, but just chose to skip around it to protect your friendship.” Sokka shrugged.
“I just- it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. He’d just gotten out of an iceberg, he was so busy with everything. And he can just be so confusing. I feel like we never got the timing right. I mean, I thought that maybe something would happen after he got back from defeating the fire lord- I thought that once it was out of the way, we could be something, but…” She let out a soft sigh. “I guess not.”
“Katara.” Sokka awkwardly patted her back. “There, there.”
She shot him a glare.
♥ the rest of the fic can be found here ->
do any other fanfic writers ever look back at something they've written and just wanna cry because you want what they have 😭 bcos same 😭😭 this exerpt is from my fic where i take the common zutara trope of zuko saving katara from a loveless relationship with aang and flip it on its head until it becomes kataang hehhee :) also new aang au fic coming soon!!!
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Once she closed it, she turned to leave, but… hesitated. The wind, it seemed, had blown one of Aang’s cupboard doors wide open. But that wasn’t what gave her pause. No, what confused her was the glint of ice blue stone that seemed to shimmer inside. She stepped closer, then, silently apologizing to Aang for definitely invading his privacy, she reached in.
And drew out what looked like a traditional Southern water tribe proposal necklace.
For a moment, she was sure that her mind was playing tricks on her, that she was somehow misinterpreting something, but as she turned the necklace over, back and forth in her hands, she knew that this was unmistakably a proposal necklace. One she’d never seen before. The pendant itself, in style, shape, and material, mirrored her mother’s necklace, but the combination of carvings on it was different- two that were water tribe, that in fact matched her mother’s necklace perfectly, and two that looked distinctly air tribe.
Before she could puzzle it over for much longer, she heard the clearing of someone’s throat and a gentle knock on the doorframe. She whirled around, feeling as though she’d been caught red-handed, only to see that it was Aang. He grinned at her, opening his mouth to ask her what she was doing snooping around his office, only for him to feel the words dry up in his throat when he saw what she was holding.
She panicked, interpreting his expression as disappointment. “I found it by accident, I swear, I-”
“It’s okay, Katara,” Aang assured her, and he meant it. Maybe it was better that she’d found it this way. Spirits knew that it would’ve taken him much longer to work up the nerve to broach the subject with her.
“Who-who’s it… for?” Katara asked, trying not to make the tremble in her voice too obvious. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to keep it together if he told her that he’d found a lovely water tribe girl who wasn’t her to settle down with.
“She’s beautiful,” Aang smiled softly, shaking his head lightly. “She’s stubborn, opinionated, with a short temper at times, and I love how passionate she is about what she believes in. About helping people. She’s an incredibly talented and exceedingly humble bender, and she’s so, so kind, and, did I already mention how beautiful she is? Because spirits, she is. And I’m so in love with her. I have been since I was twelve.” He took a deep breath, his hands shaking now.
“I’m so, so, so in love with you , Katara.”
Katara suddenly could no longer form sentences.
“Do you want to know when I made that necklace?”
She nodded, staring up at his eyes, her own welling with happy tears.
“The moment we arrived in the Northern Water tribe, years ago, I found a carver to teach me the significance of the symbols. Later on, I had Toph help me find an earthbender who specialized in teaching the skill required for etching tiny symbols in rock. I’ve carried it with me every day since.”
Katara’s tears were flowing freely now.
“I don’t want to rush you, don’t want to pressure you, and if you don’t want me the way I want you, then just say the word, and I’ll never mention it again, but Katara, I need you to know that I am head over heels for you. I meant what I said in my letters.
I am forever yours, always, if you’ll have me.”
---
♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->
this one's for all the kataang shippers that got a little sad every time they saw absolute husband aang slander in a zutara fanfic.
OR: the common zutara trope of "zuko helps katara escape an unhealthy relationship with aang" is flipped entirely and completely on its head.
...
The liveliness of this mountaintop temple was nothing like the cold quiet that she had felt in Zuko’s castle these last few years. After she and her friends had saved the world, ending the Fire Lord’s reign, Katara had found herself at a crossroads. Although it made the most sense, she couldn’t bring herself to return back home, to the Southern Water Tribe. The memories were… too much.
Sokka had extended an offer for her to join him at the Northern Water Tribe, where he planned to find a teacher to aid him in mastering the traditional non-bending fighting styles of their people, but Katara just couldn’t bring herself to go back there, either. Toph and Aang were both headed to reconstruct important cultural monuments destroyed during the war, including the Air temples. She had considered coming with them, she really had, but ultimately… she made a different choice.
...
So she had stayed with Zuko.
Through his breakup with Mai, she had been the one he came to.
Through his first year as the Fire Lord, she was at his side. Attended every meeting, talked through his ideas, dragged him out to social events when he felt so in over his head that he would sit paralyzed in his room. That closeness had turned into something else the first night that he had kissed her.
...
And after what felt like years of quiet complacency and mild agreement, Katara felt her temper awaken, flicker. She calmed herself, reasoned that she didn’t know what he was doing with them. He could be checking for threats on her life, for poison sealed into an envelope. She held fast onto that tiny scrap of belief that he was still the man she had married, trusted, loved and been loved by.
Until that last thread of hope and trust was pulled taunt and then snapped entirely when Katara slipped into his office and found them.
There were entire drawers of letters with her name on them.
...
Her attention drifted to the bottom of the bag. To Aang's scrolls. The ones she still hadn’t let herself read.
...
Katara,
How’s the fire palace? Started any underground dance clubs yet? I guess they’d be pretty tricky to start right under the nose of the new Fire Lord. Is Zuko adjusting well? I’m a bit worried about the burden of dismantling an entire empire falling squarely on his shoulders. Do you think I should head back, stick around for some peacekeeping? Give me any reason to come to be with you help, and I will.
Yours, Aang.
...
(Fire Lady) Katara,
I heard by word of mouth from a few Fire Nation travellers that passed through the Western Air Temple that you and Zuko had gotten married. Congratulations are in order, of course, but… Sokka, Toph, your dad and I never got our invitations. Was it a Fire-Nation-only event, or something? Your dad is pretty broken up about it. Sokka and I tried to console him, but he’s fairly upset, and honestly? I’m worried about you, Katara. This doesn't seem like you. You don’t sound like yourself.
Yours, always, Aang
...
She selected a third scroll, dated only a month before.
Katara,
I can’t deny that I’m concerned about how you’re doing. Especially considering that the Katara I know would never shut down every single opportunity to see her friends. We don’t mean to be overbearing, but we love you. So much. If all the new duties that come with being wife to the Fire Lord are too much, please, please, talk to any of us. Talk to me. I care about you, Katara, I always have, and I miss my best friend.
Forever yours, Aang.
Katara slid the scroll closed before her tears could drop onto it, and she quietly packed the papers away. She reached up, rubbing those tears away furiously the way she did as a child whenever Sokka called her a crybaby. The attempt to hold the tsunami of emotion back was fruitless. She doubled over, shoulders shaking with sobs.
She knew where she would go once the cargo ship reached the land.
♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->
i think that by far, the most common zutara trope i've seen is zuko freeing katara from her unhappy marriage with the clingy, unappreciative aang.
i've always felt that that aang would genuinely worship the ground katara walked on and be exceedingly kind and respectful, and so i've always thought that this trope would make a lot more sense flipped, with aang in the position of being katara's safe space after zukko reverts back to his angry, sullen, lashing out persona that he was before uncle iroh & the gaang's involvement.
this fic is the result of me having the thought "might f around and write a kataang fic that flips the usual zutara trope of "zuko helps katara escape a failing relationship with aang" 😳"
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Zuko was all alone, heading an entire empire and facilitating the transition of his nation from a war-bringer to a force for peace. At first, she told herself that it was only because he had needed help that she chose to stay with him, but that wasn’t being entirely honest. After that play on Ember Island, all of the scenes where the two of them were in love had opened Katara’s eyes to the possibility, and try as she might, she couldn’t shut them again. And Zuko, after all that he’d sacrificed to help them, after redeeming himself in her eyes, even fighting alongside her, he had seemed like her best chance at home.
So she had stayed with him.
---
Zuko proposed, after just six months, but Katara thought little of the brief timeline. When you know, you know, right? He had given her his mother’s ring, and had her dress in Fire Nation colours for the ceremony. She had been under the impression that the wedding would be a welding of cultures, and so she had spent weeks painstakingly carving a traditional water tribe proposal necklace.
When she had presented it to him, Zuko had only said that a Fire Lord couldn’t be seen wearing another nation’s trinkets . She had quietly dabbed away her tears when he wasn’t looking.
---
The moon rose and set six more nights before Katara rose with it, slipping outside of the castle during the changing of the guard, draped in traditional water tribe colours for the first night in years. Before anyone had seen her, she had made it, slipping between Fire Nation homes almost silently. She only paused to pull clothes and a cloth head covering from a clothesline, silently apologizing to whatever family she had just stolen from. She tucked a couple of coins and a piece of gold jewellery into one of the pockets of the pants still on the clothesline, an attempt at making amends for her crime, then blended into the night again.
She hadn’t stopped moving until she’d finally found a small forest, then she’d made herself a bed of moss and curled up as if she was a child back on the tundra, pretending to be a sleeping snow fox alongside Sokka.
She missed her brother. She missed her home.
---
She knew where she would go once the cargo ship reached the land. The last location Aang had been in was the Western Air temple. So that was where she would go. If she needed to, to find Aang, she’d scour every inch of the mainland. She knew he would do the same for her. Which begged the question- why hadn’t he come to her when he began to feel that something was off?
It was that question that Katara started with, as she settled into a comfortable position on Aang’s woven rug, a cup of hot tea curling steam around her body that she absent-mindedly bent into shapes around her.
---
Aang sighed, looking away. “Katara, I hate to give you more reasons to feel distressed, but in case you hadn’t remembered, you told me to stay away. Told me my “juvenile crush” was ridiculous and made you uncomfortable. I felt awful, and so, I backed off. I kept sending letters every couple months, trying to make sure you were okay, but you told me you were too busy, and I respected that.”
Katara’s tone was unsettlingly neutral when she responded. “...What?”
Aang titled his head, confused. “You said, in your letters, that-”
She responded in that same tone. “What letters , Aang?”
♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->
might f around and write a kataang fic that flips the usual zutara trope of "zuko helps katara escape a failing relationship with aang" would anybody be interested? 😳
--- can you see me using everything to hold back? ---
She strode up to the imposing wooden double doors, trying to psych herself up for the conversation she had ahead. Katara inhaled sharply, exhaling with a slow hand moment in an attempt at self- soothing. Before she had managed to work up the nerve to reach for the iron knocker, the door swung open of its own accord, accompanied by a sharp burst of air that admittedly caught her off guard.
“Katara!”
And there he was.
“Aang,” she said, and the word felt like such a relief.
“I haven’t seen you in, well, ages.” He tipped his head slightly to the side, looking her up and down, concern painted all over his face. “You want to come inside? I just put on a pot of Uncle Iroh’s tea.”
She smiled again, but it felt weak, unconvincing. “That’d be lovely.” She followed his retreating figure into the temple. After the war had ended, Toph and Aang had both temporarily moved between temples, trying to restore them so that they could become livable once more. Even if there were no more air nomads any more, Aang had reasoned that the monks would have wanted their temples to be used as a sanctuary for those in need, and so they had become ways to house those who were displaced by the war or simply had too many bad memories to return home.
Katara only knew this from word-of-mouth. She had never before seen the air temples restored to their former glory firsthand, and the sight had knocked the wind out of her when she had finished her long and arduous climb up the mountain. Spires shot up through the clouds, with smaller buildings clustered all around them. Bridges extended across to neighbouring mountain peaks, and the entirety of the village was painted in shades of blue and gold. Although there weren’t air nomads flying overhead, as she imagined there would have been over a century ago, she noted that the village was surprisingly energized, with people coming in and out of their homes, a bustling street market and winged lemurs catching breezes overhead.
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