[Avatar] Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

[aithris]

Just for the record, I'm sorry I haven't updated in... well, ages. I've written stuff, but haven't completed anything and I don't think putting WiP /oneshots/ that will never be completed on here is the best of ideas. This is the first thing I've completed in a while.

I've also updated my f-list, sorry for the delay.

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Comments

[kazaera]

I just figured it was a good example of "on the other hand, sometimes you probably should decry all responsibility and duck". Especially if you don't usually write crack pairings; I don't want anyone to think I actually seriously support this or think it happened in canon. Plus, I had something of an idea that it was good judging by the reaction of the one person I showed it to (although I wasn't sure there either, given that she was the one who encouraged me.)

Ty Lee is tough. I'm currently using this recipe:

- Bubbliness. And optimism. Ty Lee Does Not Angst. If the fic is supposed to be dark and emo, you're going to have to blindside the reader somehow, or imply it. Ty Lee should not be thinking about how horrible her life is - both for this reason, and because

- No introspection. Ty Lee's somewhat dim and shallow at times, and definitely not very reflective. She's not going to sit and ponder why she did what she did for paragraphs and paragraphs, both for this reason and because

- No attention span. Aka, the Flying Subject Leap. There need be no obvious logical connection between subjects. It's also fun to do the flying subject leap as a kind of hidden introspection or expansion on subjects; for instance I was considering implying that Ty Lee wasn't resisting because she thought he'd go to Mai otherwise, and if I wanted to write that I'd probably write something about how she's not resisting and then start a new paragraph and say something like "Mai returned home from her family's summer house yesterday." or the like.

- No whitewashing. Ty Lee is a fighter, and one of Azula's subordinates. (Speaking of which, she is not going to be speaking up against Azula either. She knows Azula's dangerous, even to her, but she's not going to rebel. It's an interesting dichotomy) She's probably killed before, and certainly has no obvious problem with it. As a result, she'll think very frankly about stuff like what pressure points to hit to make someone die.

Now add auras, five sisters, chi-blocking, human pretzel abilities, pink sparkles, then stir and bake well at 36.8 degrees C for fourteen years.

Those are kind of the things I was trying to keep in mind while writing that; I had a lot of fun looking at a really fucked-up situation through Ty Lee's perpetual bubbliness, and very carefully implying that she's not exactly happy with the situation without outright saying it. I like how it worked for this piece, so I may try and write more like this. :) I'm even considering adding some more to the beginning (like the Mai thing) so that it's not so "BAM oh btw Ty Lee's just had sex with Ozai", although I suppose it is a very Ty Lee way to begin a story.