Avatar: 31 Days: Stay in the Shade

[artemisrae]

Title: Stay in the Shade
Day/Theme: December 3rd: I appeal to your scratches and your tattered fur
Series: Avatar, the Last Airbender
Character/Pairing: Earth King, Bosco, Ursa.
Rating: K

A/N:  For

Comments

[moon_destiny]

Can I just say how much I love this? Because I really, really, really do. I love Ursa's character (even though she spends more than half the show being a mystery) and I can really imagine that this would happen. Now, if it were only canon....

Awesomely awesome. ^^

[artemisrae]

Thank you! I thought that since we've really been given no clue where Ursa is, that pitching her over into some tiny backwater Earth Kingdom village wouldn't be too outrageous. Not to mention we weren't given resolution regarding either her OR the Earth King, so I sorta like the idea of them stumbling around together for a little while.

[bane_6]

That is completely sweet! Maybe they can make part of the trip back together.

[artemisrae]

Thank you! I kind of wonder what sort of positions the Earth King and Ursa will both find themselves in at the end of the war. I kinda like the idea of them bumming their way around the Earth Kingdom for a little while.

[nebroadwe]

Hey, you wrote it! It's quite cute -- some of the gestures are a little large, maybe (e.g. Ursa dropping her teapot; she's comfortable enough to reference Iroh quite cheerfully a line or so up, so why does the mere mention of Ba Sing Se set her off?), but I particularly like the "I like your bear"/"He's a good judge of character" exchange. :-)

And, dagnabit, it's prodded my wandering Earth King 'fic up to the top of my brain, demanding attention needed by other things. (Except it would give me a chance to write Bumi. No, no -- must finish other things first!)

[artemisrae]

I did write it! In the end, it was the prompt from 31_days that forced me to reopen it and try to retool an ending. I just can't help feel that Ursa and the Earth King have some fundamental similarities that... capture my interest. The fact that we get no real closure on either one of them in the series helps too.

*prods in direction of Earth King fic* Does it help if I mention, EXTREMELY CASUALLY, that Bumi is my all time favorite of all the secondary characters in the ENTIRE series? (I mean like, other than the Kyoshi Warriors, or Kyoshi herself. And Bosco, Bosco is pretty cool. But Bumi... MAN.)

[nebroadwe]

I just can't help feel that Ursa and the Earth King have some fundamental similarities that... capture my interest. The fact that we get no real closure on either one of them in the series helps too.

I'd be interested to hear more from you on this head. Plenty of scope for imagination where we've been denied closure. And she certainly understands what it means to be tossed from a relatively sheltered life into the cold, cruel world (though she had a different set of choices than he does -- he could have stayed with the resistance, instead of going on a journey, which always makes me wonder what his motives were and whether he'd thought through what he was undertaking ... [fic fic fic]).

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I also like the bit about the Earth King's having to stop himself from saying "What war?" all the time. That's very him.

*prods in direction of Earth King fic* Does it help if I mention, EXTREMELY CASUALLY, that Bumi is my all time favorite of all the secondary characters in the ENTIRE series? (I mean like, other

[artemisrae]

which always makes me wonder what his motives were and whether he'd thought through what he was undertaking

I sort of lean towards the fact that everything happened so quickly, his whole world being shaken up by, you know, the AVATAR, and then they LOSE and get kicked out of Ba Sing Se, and this kid king is sorta like "Well... hey, hehe, I'm no use to you as king anymore right?" and then hightails it to see what the REAL world is like. I feel like more than anything, an unconscious Aang is a reality check and why haven't I written this yet?

As for Ursa, I'm pretty sure she's still in the Fire Nation, but I kinda like her bumming it with the EK refugees. I imagine her and Iroh could run a helluva tea shop in downtown Ba Sing Se, if they could track her down.

By the way I think you might enjoy this, after our recent discussion re: the Fire Nation and its progressive military.

And Iroh finally up and delivered his drabble yesterday evening, which leaves Zuko, Azula, two pieces of framing narration, and touch-ups to go. *Cheers on

[anima_mecanique]

Awesome.

This isn't a pair of characters I'd ever imagined meeting, but I absolutely love the result.

[artemisrae]

Thank you! I was honestly struck by some of the similarities in their condition, especially once it was revealed that the Earth King was just off on his own and not hanging around the Gaang. I still wonder where he ended up...