Fic: "Substitute" Chapter 5
As of today, this fic is over 100 pages in Word! Posting chapter 5 early to celebrate and to hog some comments to cheer me up after the stress and angst that was writing chapter 7.
Title: "Substitute" chapter 5: Keeping up the Fight
Word Count: 6,186
Rating: R
Warnings: Swearing, some violence, sexual undertones
Characters/Pairings: Lt. Jee/Zuko, one- ( Read more... )
Title: "Substitute" chapter 5: Keeping up the Fight
Word Count: 6,186
Rating: R
Warnings: Swearing, some violence, sexual undertones
Characters/Pairings: Lt. Jee/Zuko, one- ( Read more... )
I love that Jee is canonically musical and an established expert in stirring love songs:
We'll def. be seeing more of that. It's fun imagining what his tastes in music would be in a modern setting (his and Zuko's, for that matter - I plan to make this a source of potential conflict/bickering between them :D) So glad you liked the teacher part. I wanted to show how Jee's trying to integrate and make a place for himself in this environment, which clashes with Zuko's rebellious attitude. So happy it's visible!
"Silver lining" was there deliberately :] Oh Zuko, the universe shall forever make fun of you for this.
You know, I've been debating whether or not to insert another interlude from Zuko's POV, but I'm not sure if this wouldn't disrupt the story. On the one hand, I feel I need to present his motivations and conflicts re: Jee so as to make his weird behaviour more understandable, but on the other hand, I'm not sure if I shouldn't wait and try to make it self-explanatory at some point, or maybe make him open up to Jee once they feel more comfortable around each other. Still mulling it over and what you said about Zuko's mysterious air as seen from the lieutenant's POV makes me seriously reconsider. So thanks for that, and I'm incredibly relieved you liked how I presented him here.
And I'm so, so happy to read you felt this way about their conversation - the scene was relatively easy to write once I got going as the guys basically took over, but I still reworked it a lot to make it tick so I was grinning from ear to ear reading your reactions to it. Shyly, I hoped it would have an impact, but I didn't dare hope for that. So now I feel I can do anything and want to write, write, write even more. Thank you for being so awesome and such a responsive reader!
And, you know. For boosting my ego and self-esteem by about 100%. *hug*
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