#and anyhow for as lackluster as the story writing is | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nehswritesstuffs · 1 year

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Lackluster

My brain: write this niche ship

Me (in an Uncle Stan voice): I don’t know how to respond to this.

Also me: *writes it anyhow*

3980 words; someone said it was rarepair month, which meant this has been haunting me and idk what’s going on but now everyone else gets to suffer as well; I guess we’re talking a post-Wano AU? Maybe shoving it into what we know? You know idk; moral of the story is that these two would look good together and there’s nothing anyone can do about it; please don’t ask me about the prevailing implications of this ship bc wtf no one has time to dissect that; I feel like this ship has the potential for something really neat, but they’d have to get over a lot of other shit first in order to get it past a series of one-night stands like this

Lackluster; The Polar Tang makes a proper stop in Dressrosa after the insanity that was Wano, leading to a bit of unexpected shore leave for her captain. [Law/Viola, mature rating]

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Okay, so, he lied.

Although Law wanted to push forward and see what was beyond Wano, he also really, really wanted to put distance between himself and the Straw Hats. Kidd as well, for that matter, but definitely the Straw Hats. Instead of going off towards the Pose’s locked reading, he had Bepo save it for later, instead going back along their prior route. There had to be somewhere for them to lay low for a while Strawhat-ya wreaked havoc, because as soon as they started again, they were liable to create an even bigger mess than before. Did Trafalgar D. Water Law wish to endanger his crew by bringing them within a Log Pose’s distance of those lunatics again? Not really.

Hence, going backwards. Just for a little bit. Strategically, as it were.

“Dressrosa? Really?” He stared at the port for a bit, then looked over at Bepo, who cowered at being caught. “You do know that I just came from here.”

“Sorry, but we all wanted to see!” the bear defended sheepishly. “It’s supposed to be a beautiful country…”

“…with beautiful women!” Shachi added. Law could feel the twitch in his lower right eyelid returning. Shachi and Penguin both appeared, ready to disembark based on the fact they were wearing clothes that were definitely not their boiler suits. “Come on—you can’t just decide that you get to have all the fun!”

“You were at Onigashima.”

“You know what the man meant,” Penguin said. In a tone—no less—as though there was no room for argument! “The guys and I all took a vote…”

“…I’m still sane, Cap…!” Ikkaku shouted from the back of the crew. Penguin closed his eyes and winced.

“…the guys, Ikkaku, and I all took a vote and, aside from the lone dissenter, we decided it’d be good to hang around Dressrosa for a few days. You said we should figure it out.”

“Yeah, but…”

“…and we figured it out,” Shachi finished. “C’mon—it’s not even like they’re worried about anything now that they’re cleaning up and it’s after the Levely. Live a little.”

“I hate you.”

“Heh—no you don’t.”

At that, most of the crew went and disembarked onto dry land, leaving only Law and the ones who already seemed to have drawn first lots. How long had they been planning this? He stood there for a moment feeling rather defeated before heading down below, because if he was going to be wandering around Dressrosa, at least he was going to be doing so in something other than the coat he saved her in.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Sitting down at a cafe, Law sipped at his coffee and honestly enjoyed the sights around him. With sunglasses on and leaving his hat in the Tang, he felt comfortably different enough to where few people would stop and bother him. In fact, no one seemed to take notice of him at all, which was a relief. He never liked being the center of attention, all things considered, and he was glad that he could simply give off the air of someone passing through.

Trying to ignore the sight of Clione and Uni on the other side of the square attempting to chat up some ladies, Law decided to dive directly into one of the newspapers he had acquired. Plenty of things had happened since they had disappeared into Wano, and it seemed as though the surprises were almost limitless.

“Are you sure you want to trust what’s printed in that fire-starter?” Law glanced over the top of the paper and saw he was no longer alone at the table. Viola, wearing her own set of sunglasses and a surprisingly tasteful skirt-and-polka-dot-blouse outfit as her hair sat pinned elegantly in a bun. He suspected it had been hiding in the back of her wardrobe.

“There’s some actual journalism, if you know how to look.”

“The comics page?”

“Mostly in the language being used, as well as corrections,” he shrugged. “Normal, accurate, fully-respectable journalists can get things wrong, which is why such a page exists to begin with. We’re fallible that way. However…” He laid the paper down and tapped the page full of small, barely-legible text. “…and for this to be a normal amount? A full double-spread on a bad day? It’s like they put out two completely different newspapers at once.”

“Hmm… you’re not entirely wrong,” she conceded. She played with the rim of her own cup and he could feel her eyes boring into him, hidden by the tinted lenses. “Word travels fast anyhow—what are you doing back here after causing that ruckus in Wano? Here I thought you’d want to chase a certain trouble-making carnivore down.”

“As strong and chaos-inducing as he is, he’s just a kid, and I got enough annoying kids on my crew to worry about some teenager who refuses to follow a plan.”

Her eyebrows shot up at that. “So you think of him as a child?”

“An insanely powerful and charismatic one liable to stress me into going grey by thirty, yeah.”

“Hmm.”

Viola sipped at her coffee and hummed. It was a surprisingly quiet moment for a bustling street in the middle of a rebuilding country, and yet there was something about it that sent the hairs on the back of Law’s neck in shivers.

“Maybe I did underestimate you,” she chuckled, putting down her cup and placing it and the saucer aside. “Then again, much of what I heard was myth and legend over the years.”

“Much of it was unfounded, I can assure you.”

“Possibly. I’ve had a bit of time to assess you for myself as well.”

“…and…? Do I pass muster?”

“You pass… something alright.” A smile tugged at her lips, twitching the corners up coyly. “Doffy might have mourned your loss, but I see no reason to wail and shed tears.”

“Not that way, anyhow,” he quipped. He immediately regretted his word choice—the idiots in his crew (and Strawhat-ya’s, let’s be honest) were really rubbing off on him—as her smile widened.

“Is this you saying you could… satisfy my curiosity? That you’re… up to the task?”

“Your last paramour, from what I understand, still thinks he’s twenty years younger than he really is—I’m surprised he could get anything going at all, let alone sustain it.”

She let out an undignified snort and laughed—warm and genuine. “I admit it wasn’t anything aside from practical maneuvering on my end, but sometimes it’s not entirely bad doing what one must when in the correct mindset.” He shuddered, which made her laugh again. “What? Too much for your delicate sensibilities?”

“Not delicate per say; just… he’s the last person I want to think about doing that right about now.”

“Fair.” Viola stood and gazed down at him, still smirking. “Want to not think about it for a while?”

“I’d like to think of it never.”

“Then maybe I can… help your memory replace that information with something else.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned down. Her voice went low and she was so close that Law could smell her perfume—Alabastian, if he remembered a prior crew pitstop correctly. “You still remember your way around?”

“Of course.”

“Then don’t disappoint me, Trafalgar Law.”

Viola let her hand linger as she walked away, passing into the crowd behind where Law was sitting. He looked and she was gone—vanished just as discreetly as she appeared.

“Hey, Captain!” Law’s attention was pulled away from Viola’s disappearing trick, Clione and Uni suddenly appearing next to his table. “What’cha doing?”

“Never you mind,” Law grumbled. He downed the rest of his coffee and gathered up the newspaper, shoving it under his arm. “I’m just going somewhere quiet.”

“You know that’s pretty impossible, right?” Uni replied.

“Yeah, I mean, why would you?” Clione asked. Law stared in deadpan silence before he cast a Room and disappeared in silence.

Fucking hell… hopefully they saw nothing.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

After quickly depositing the newspapers inside his office in the Tang and dodging more of his crew, Law used his Op-Op ability to pop around Dressrosa, doing his best to figure out where Viola went. It was his Haki that eventually found her, walking calmly on her way to the edge of the townscape. He placed himself alongside her and locked their arms together.

“What took you?” she asked idly.

“Crew—they’re a rowdy bunch at times.” He heard her chuckle and he felt the tips of his ears grow hot. “What…?!”

“At first I found it difficult to believe that your crew is so full of mirth, but it does suit you,” she replied. They were now meandering down an unpaved dirt road, fields on either side of them and trees soon approaching. “They must be what keeps you from becoming Doffy’s true Corazón material.”

“Not entirely, but it does, yes, keep things lighter in mood,” he admitted. Law returned a nod to what appeared to be a passing farmer and then tried not to scowl. “Are you sure about this?”

“I have always been able to wander amongst the people—before, during, and after Doffy’s reign,” she stated. “The overbearing threat of him has ruined your sense of trust.”

“I can’t see into people’s minds and hearts.”

“There are some things I don’t need my Devil Fruit ability for, and that is often one of them.” He glanced at her—nearly his height in those heels—and saw the wistful expression on her face. “My father’s rule has been a good one, and the people are well-aware of the sacrifices I made to subvert Doffy. They will not give us away. If anything…” She trailed off in thought, not finishing her sentence. Law waited for her to complete the thought, giving up once they were under the shade of trees.

“If anything…?”

“Oh, sorry. If anything, I think they would be glad to see me acting normal for once. You know: administering law, representing the nation amongst other heads of state, meeting people…”

“The question remains as to whether or not I’m the sort of person they want you to be meeting with.”

“I’ll take my chances.” She went off the road and onto a footpath, where she took him through the grey-barked, virgin cork trees until they came across a small house hidden from the road. He raised an eyebrow at her and she winked at him. “What? My sister and I used to come here as children. The past ten years, it’s where I came to be alone.”

“No one else knows?”

“My family, but they are all at Kyros’s today.” She unlocked the door and began to flit about the house, opening windows and letting the fresh air in. It had only one floor, with a kitchen and sitting area taking up most of the space, while two doors let off to the side—presumably a bedroom and bathroom. Viola slipped into one of the rooms for a moment and Law could peek inside, confirming his suspicions.

“This is all fairly elaborate for what I imagine is a one-time thing,” he mentioned as she exited the bedroom. She shrugged at that.

“We both deserve a bit more than an alley, and Doflamingo was never in this place.”

Ah. That explained… quite a bit, actually.

“Forget that though,” she continued. She placed her hands on either side of his jaw, thumbs brushing against his cheeks and her remaining fingers pressed against his neck, pristine fingernails gently scraping over his skin. “I want you to do precisely what you followed me here for.”

Taking that as permission, Law leaned down the small amount it took until he was pressing his lips against Viola’s. They were soft against his own and he able to taste the lip balm she used. One of her hands moved to his hair and held him firmly, allowing his own hands to wander towards her waist to settle right above her hips. She slipped her tongue into his mouth to press against his, teasing and daring for more. He complied, deepening the kiss. A moan escaped her and he grinned as he continued.

“It’s been that long?” he smirked. She pinched his shoulder.

“Shut up.”

“I think I remember you invoking a horrible image in my brain, which implied that you had been getting enough to avoid such a response.”

“I said: shut up.”

At that, Viola maneuvered Law a few steps backwards and pushed him down into a chair. He landed hard on the worn lacquered wood, hissing in irritation before he realized that she was leaning over him, hands braced on the table as she caged him in, their noses nearly touching.

“Do I make myself clear?” The irritation and surprise left his face, leaving only cockiness in their place.

“Crystal, princess.”

Finding that acceptable for the time being, Viola sat down, straddling Law’s lap as she began to kiss him again. She worked at unbuttoning his shirt as he held her hips this time, his thin fingers caressing from her upper thighs all the way to the hipbone. Once she had his shirt open and shoved off his frame, she placed her hands on his chest, feeling the tight muscle under skin and ink. He pulled her closer, bringing her chest flush with his and hiking up her skirt at the same time. As she gasped, he moved to begin kissing along her jaw, her throat, her pulse point, gently biting down before she twisted one of his nipples and made him recoil.

“Fuck!”

“No marks,” she ordered. “I can’t show up to court with love bites where just anyone can see.”

“Cover them with makeup.”

“That’s annoying, and less-than-foolproof.”

“I thought you said your people want you to… you know…”

“…the people, yes. The same cannot be said about my father and brother-in-law.”

Law cast a Room in response and snapped his fingers, making Viola’s blouse and bra relocate to another chair. Once she was rid of the garment he leaned her back and plunged his face between her breasts in order to bite the underside of her left one. She sucked in a breath through her open mouth, her entire body beginning to tremble.

Oh, he was good.

The Room still up, Law transported them both onto the bed in the other room, placing them on the edge of the mattress instead. Viola took the pin out of her hair and placed it on the sidetable, letting her hair fall down past her shoulders in dark waves. It framed her face as she brought him back up to meet her lips, shielding them both as they continued to kiss fervently. They ground their hips together as they leaned back onto the bed, with her feeling the rough trouser fabric tight around his erection, while he could smell how wet she was.

A few more moments of kissing and Viola decided to break the action, concentrating instead on slipping out of her shoes, skirt, and panties. Law did the same with the rest of his clothes, pausing as he caught sight of her entire body. It had been a long time since he had seen a naked woman outside of a clinical setting, and it wasn’t until right then and there did he realize how long it had truly been. She caught him staring and it was her turn to laugh.

“…and you were giving me a hard time,” she snorted. “You look like you might not even last five minutes.”

“I wasn’t the one bragging.”

“By teasing me…” She sat down on the bed and pulled him close to her. “…that was insinuating that you’d had better in the meantime.”

“Mmmhmm… sure…” He bent down onto his knees and began to message her thighs. “Any requests?”

“Just make it good, Trafalgar, and I trust you can use that ability of yours to clean us up properly afterwards.”

“Of course.”

He pressed a kiss against her inner thigh, then another, and another, moving up her leg until his nose was buried in soft curls as he kissed and licked at her folds, fingers helping along the way. He slid two digits into her and flexed, making the leg resting on his shoulder tremble.

“Tease me later,” she chided between breaths. He grinned again before leaning back and letting his tongue dart over his lips, taking in her salty taste. Instead he slowly kissed his way up her body, taking note of each curve as he lavished attention onto her. By the time he made it back up to her neck and jaw, her breathing had become erratic, if slightly, and he was at least slightly proud of himself for getting her so worked up so easily. With the taste of her still on his tongue, he kissed her deeply as her legs settled on either side of his hips and he eased into her in earnest.

Law’s vision went white for a moment as the hot, slick walls around him clenched. It was obvious that Viola knew exactly what she was doing from the start, but… fuck, he hadn’t been expecting that. He started up a rhythm, thrusting slowly as he coaxed little noises out of her. She felt so fucking good that he wasn’t entire certain how long he was going to last, given the distance since his prior liaison. Her back arched and her legs shook as she suddenly crashed into… something… turning her attention to him as he stopped.

“What…?” she frowned.

“Are… are you alright?”

“Yeah. I’m just…” She avoided eye contact. “…I guess I really did get by on subpar standards, didn’t I?” She gasped as he rocked his hips into hers again, punctuating the silence.

“Don’t force yourself to do what I’m here for,” he said. He picked the rhythm back up and laced his fingers with hers, holding their hands on either side of her head. Before long, both of them were riding their orgasms. Law rolled off Viola and laid on his back, gulping down air as he stared at the ceiling. “Better?”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “We’re not very good at this, are we?”

“Give me five minutes and we can practice being adults our age,” he offered. “By the end of the day, we might even be good at it.”

Something about the chuckle that escaped her suggested to him that she was amenable to that.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Exhaling heavily, Law found himself swimming back to consciousness feeling more relaxed than he had in weeks. Wait, months? It was at least months, bordering well on years, and he was glad for it. A reach with Observation Haki let him know that the woman in his arms was also awake, though also definitely enjoying the moment. He hugged Viola a big tighter, rubbing his face between her breasts.

“You are a bit of a pervert, aren’t you?” she chuckled. She began to play idly with his hair, running her fingers through it.

“I keep it well-hidden and in-check, unlike some people we know,” he replied. He looked at the bruise that was forming around where he bit and smiled inwardly. “We could shed tears and induce trauma with this.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Fine.” He disengaged himself from her torso and sat up, scratching his neck while stretching. “Did you still need me to…?”

“Yes—take care of it,” she huffed. He first popped Kikoku into his hands—how in the heck did it land on the kitchen table; he did not remember putting it on the kitchen table—and partially drew it from the sheath. Running a scan over Viola, he found where all his genetic variables were and plucked them from her reproductive tract, disposing of it all on a nearby dustcloth.

“I’d still take a tonic and watch yourself for a bit, but at least now aftercare is not such an emergency,” he said. Sheathing Kikoku and putting her bits back together, Law looked at Viola with a wan smile. “You’re right—maybe, in another world, things could have been different between us.”

“Pity it’s not this one, because I could stand to keep someone like you around,” she agreed. She eased him back down so that they could share one final kiss before departing the nest of blankets. “If you’re ever in the neighborhood again…”

“I’m no longer a Shichibukai, remember? You really should be turning me into the Marines right now, not fucking my brains out.”

“You are a national hero of Dressrosa—that negates the bounty within her territory.”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“Sure it does. I said so.”

“Ah… how convincing…” he snarked. “I’m sure an Admiral would love to hear that reasoning.” He gathered his clothes and began to put them back on, feeling her gaze as he dressed. She lounged in bed as she watched him, not wanting to look away. “Enjoying the view?”

“While it lasts.”

He paused at that, considering their options. “Maybe not another world, but possibly just another time frame…”

“Let’s see what that charismatic kid does to the world first, then see what cards we have to play,” she said. “Maybe, if there is a next time, I can stock the kitchen prior and we can eat literally as well.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Once he had everything but his shirt on, he leaned over Viola and proceeded to engage in a long, tender kiss. Their lips eventually separated and he exhaled heavily. “See you around?”

“In some way, yeah.”

“Good.”

After finding his shirt in the other room, Law put the garment on and left the house, sword resting on his shoulder as he made the long trek back to the port.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was well into evening by the time Law made it back on the Polar Tang, slipping inside without being noticed by his crew still there lounging on the deck. He made himself some coffee and grabbed some old fried rice as a snack and went back to his cabin, not wanting to be bothered as he settled in for the night. Much of the crew was likely to spend the night on land, which meant that there was going to be a peaceful, quiet few hours ahead of him.

“Oh, Captain!” He twitched as he heard Bepo call out to him, just before he was able to slip into the solitude of his quarters. The bear came up to him with some papers in-hand—of course he was going to hide in the Tang as she was cooling off and empty. “I’ve got the course plotted for the next leg of the trip. We should be able to get to where our needle set within a week of sailing, if the winds are right.”

“Sounds good, Bepo,” he nodded. Law then raised an eyebrow as he saw a puzzled look come over his navigator’s face. “Yes…?”

“You smell different,” Bepo noted. “Were you just visiting someone from when you were here before?”

“You can say that,” Law replied. All the years of practicing his mask of stoicism were coming into use as he was panicking on the inside. “Just some negotiations involving further port visits, that’s all.”

“She smells very pretty,” Bepo said. Fuck—busted. “I almost couldn’t smell it under all your sweat—it is really hot in Dressrosa, isn’t it?”

“It is very hot, yes,” Law agreed. “Let me know if something happens that needs my attention; there’s a Sora collection with my name on it in there.”

“Got it, Captain!” Bepo saluted and lumbered off, letting Law slip into his cabin and hurriedly lock the door behind him.

Too damn close… and yet… he sat down at his desk and opened the newspaper back up, seeing a photo of Viola at the Levely. Yeah… it was worth it.

#Trafalgar Law #Riku Viola #Law x Viola #Viola x Law #One Piece #fan fiction #Heart Pirates #trading in for a model fifteen years newer isn't always an upgrade #but it DEFINITELY is in this case #then again I'm pretty sure most choices are an upgrade from Doffy #I mean he's literally a Bad Touch Uncle so yeah no they deserve better #they go through 2k of buildup only for lackluster results but hey they did that I just write this stuff #Trafalgar D. Water Law

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louwhose · 2 years

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Wind of the Desolate

This was my BOTW2 speculation fic that I spent too much effort on to let it die. But in an effort not to clog up everything with a long post, I'll put it all under the cut. Warning: this is basically just a rant.

So we're going to start this story back in March. I had just finished playing Breath of the Wild, and wasn't... really in the fandom too much yet, but rather just enough to know that there was a sequel coming out. So I went and looked up the trailers, and of course went crazy over them, quite naturally.

At some point in April, after the delay announcement, I somehow started thinking about BOTW 2 incredibly too much, and theorizing and everything, and decided to just do a speculation fic.

So the first thing I did was comb through the trailers, getting as many relevant screenshots as I could, literally going frame-by-frame in places. I literally have over 100 screenshots from that. And then I printed some out and went and made a conspiracy board before plotting.

...and it was more or less at this point that I started getting ridiculously inconsistent about working on it but I did work on it some? It was July/August that I really started working on plotting it in any consistency again

And I did finish the plotting it out bit. It was a lot of struggling but I did sometime in August. And somebody remind me never to extensively plot like that again because as soon as I finished I had basically no motivation left to actually write it on top of feeling pretty lackluster about some of the later parts on account of finding it extremely difficult to try to world build at all in a fanfic.

And so here's where I'll say that in some ways I'm sad that the Tears of the Kingdom trailer totally ruined my plans for this, in some ways it's a relief. And so here's an abbreviated version of the story based on my outline with an emphasis on I CANNOT WORLDBUILD NON-AU FANFICS

First we'll start with the Prologue that I actually posted (you can read it either on tumblr or AO3) because it kinda works on its own. I was trying to go for something like the irony of them being glad and thinking that their adventure is over and they will never have to face Ganon again... only to have the rest of the story start and ultimately find that to not be true.

And so we get to the first chapter that I actually started writing and has a few things I enjoy but is ultimately... not nearly there. And also a good portion of why I was losing motivation, because I was having trouble convincing Link and Zelda to explore the cavern or whatever deeply enough to get to Ganondorf and therefore the story.

And now that I've got the entirety of ranting out of me, I'll basically just give a rundown of my favorite things about the story because I already tried just slowly doing each bit summarized and it was NOT working for me:

After Zelda falls away, Link stupidly tries to fight Dehydrated Ganondorf and like,,, ends up getting his arm and the sword consumed by malice... so they're both actually in really impressive condition considering that.

Zelda is down in deep underground caverns where she gets an axolotl friend. Once I had the idea I tried doing research to confirm that they lived underground but I guess they don't, but I decided to disregard that fact and do it anyhow.

Link just being so dramatic and angsty in this. It probably actually more about me than about him.

Zelda has the Sheikah Slate, but it's too far underground and away from any signal to actually teleport out of there, and it's uncharted underground caverns so of course there's no maps. But she ultimately figures out a way to like,,, program it and stuff so that she can create a new map or whatever and slowly works on getting out. That sounded really dumb but it seems cooler in my head, I swear. I'm just bad at explaining things.

Link meets giant... weird robot lizard thing in the sky? idk how to say it, but he fren :)

Link goes to see the Gerudo to see if he can find out more about Ganondorf. Right before this, Zelda is chilling and looking through all of Link's clothes on the Sheikah Slate and sees the Gerudo outfit and is like, "hope he doesn't need this." Cut to Link needing it. And then going around to the back of the town to pester Riju until she gets him some new outfit so that they can talk.

That climax in the middle where Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf were all at Hyrule Castle and there was a boss fight and Zelda and Link got to be happy together for a little bit until Ganondorf somehow made the castle go into the sky

Mopey Link and Zelda that are apart once again.

Zelda going, okay, well I'm stuck in the castle again, might as well do some... espionage

And okay basically that summarizes what I'm happy with in the last half of the fic until the ending

Zelink marriage (naturally)

Also Link letting the arm go because in this story it was the Previous Hero from 10,000 years ago that held back Ganondorf for that long and it was like, He deserves a rest, too.

Anyhow that is a gross simplification of what it was but I needed to post something to get it out. If you read this far... good for you, I guess? You know about a fic that will never be written.

#lou writes #but honestly more like lou rants

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seyaryminamoto · 4 years

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Been thinking for a while that I’d like to do a light behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the themes in the newest Gladiator story arc. While it’s not the very core element of the arc, the source of Azula’s current struggle in the story came from... an unexpected place.

Unexpected as in, it came from LOK.

Okay, in all fairness, it’s not quiiiiiiiite something that came from LOK itself, but it’s a take on an idea I had while pondering the various reasons why Asami’s character wouldn’t really take off for me in the show. Well, beyond the obvious reasons why it wouldn’t *cough* Book 2 *cough*...

I’ve always said I’m more than a little confused by how a character like Asami, with just 20-something years of age at the time of LOK Book 4, has enough talent and know-how to not only be a top-of-the-line engineer (which, yes, is believable enough on its own), but to also be a CEO in her own company (I gueeeess since the company falls into her hands and she mismanages it plenty in Book 2, it’s not that impossible to feature this in conjunction with the first thing?), a clothing designer, an architect AND a urbanist, capable of driving every machine known to man, an outstanding hand-to-hand fighter...!

... If you really think about it in cold blood, it feels like a little too much.

BUT. Instead of boringly accusing Asami of being a Mary Sue (which I’m sure some people might) for having a thousand talents that we don’t really see her work for, that she just developed offscreen, I thought the show would have benefited greatly from actually focusing on how Asami is handling the constant, desperate need of so many authorities in Republic City to have HER resolving all their problems.

Therefore, instead of a Reunion episode with a conflict focused on rescuing a kidnapped Wu (whom I profoundly dislike as a character, not for his role, but his personality is simply barf-worthy for me and the amount of focus Book 4 gave him was, as a lot of things, detrimental to the show as a whole, in my opinion), I thought LOK’s Book 4 could have instead featured a Reunion episode focused on Asami... which, of course, would also be a nice way to fix some of the lackluster onscreen development of Korrasami. So... let’s go onwards with my episode pitch:

Picture that Korra is about to reunite with Mako and Asami for the first time in all those years, same as in canon. Asami arrives! Yay, Korra is happy, Asami compliments her hair, just like in canon... aaaand then Asami says she can’t really stay, she just dropped by quickly because this REALLY matters to her, but there’s this pressing issue going on at the company and she has to deal with it RIGHT NOW, because no one else can. So, woops.

Korra is completely disappointed (and probably doesn’t even understand WHY she’s so disappointed, hinting at deeper feelings for Asami that Korra hasn’t even stopped to reason with yet), but she sees Asami off while pretending this doesn’t bug her (for Asami’s benefit), and ends up spending the evening with Mako but clearly she’s not enjoying it as much as she hoped to. Which could result in Mako being pretty surprised by whatever closeness and bond those two seem to have now, noticing that he seems to have fallen to second place in Korra’s eyes somehow.

So! Skipping ahead, perhaps to the next day, Korra tries to check on Asami again! :D Oh, but she’s got to work on the airbenders’ outfits, some have been having trouble with the aerodynamics of it, and it’s just not working as Asami intended, so more calculations are needed! She takes to studying on the subject frantically, has to figure out what formula she’s missing or messing up, and while Korra offers to help, she knows there’s not really anything she can do to give Asami a hand since this stuff is well out of Korra’s area of expertise.

Then, when Asami is finally finished, OH NO! An emergency in the train she inaugurated at the start of the season! Asami has to go deal with that too! And of course, Korra goes too, while wondering how TF does this damn city even run without Asami...

... And then realizing it actually doesn’t. There’s a president who basically dumps all the difficult issues on Asami because she has the know-how and the resources to deal with all the city’s problems, there’s an airbending master who requested for that same girl to help with the designs of his people’s combat outfits instead of dealing with it himself or finding someone else to help, there’s an entire vehicle company (ranging from cars to AIRPLANES) that depends on HER. And it’s just SO. MUCH. SHIT. For a girl who’s like... 20? 21? How old is Asami at this point? xD I don’t even remember. But the point I’m trying to get to...

Is that Asami should be overwhelmed. She hasn’t had anyone helping her, she deals with everything alone, and it doesn’t matter how hard she tries to work through this, there’s always one more problem, one more obstacle, one more bothersome thing she has to tackle, and nobody seems to stop and think that maybe she could use a break. That maybe she needs a nap because she hasn’t had one in 20 months. That maybe things in this damn city would be in a better place if people didn’t rely on her, and her alone, to resolve the bulk of their problems.

Korra, though, with her latest character growth (... that I’m not really fond of anyhow, but still...), has become a lot better at understanding people’s emotions. And her job as an Avatar is, amongst many things, to help people: someone she cares about deeply, her best friend future girlfriend, is currently going through so much crap and the truth is, Asami needs help. Whether Asami realizes it or not, she needs it. And so, whether it’s Korra’s job or not to help her, that’s all Korra wants to do right now.

So Korra enlists Mako and then all three deal with whatever that train emergency might be! Asami probably rejects their help at first, out of force of habit of doing everything alone lately, until Korra tells her she doesn’t have to do that anymore. And then Asami’s mind is blown because yeah, maybe there’s a bunch of older people in charge who are happy to dump all responsibilities on her! But that doesn’t mean she has to accept it meekly and save all their asses time after time... and it also doesn’t mean she has to deal with everything alone.

After the train problem is resolved, Korra and Asami (maybe Mako too? But for Korrasami’s purposes, it can just be those two) get to have a small chat about what life has been like for Asami since Korra vanished. The conversation doesn’t merely focus on Hiroshi, which... *cringes* let’s not get into that. It focuses on Asami and the hardships she’s dealing with, seeing as the city is basically using her as a non-bender Avatar, in the sense of leaving all the problem-solving to Asami alone. Korra probably apologizes, Asami probably tells her not to feel guilty, because she has had it rough, and Asami understands that better than anyone, especially after what she’s been through lately.

It’s a cute, heartfelt moment, not necessarily romantic yet, but featuring a strong, meaningful bonding scene between these two! Asami wants to go back to work on some pending stuff, and Korra respects that, though she warns Asami not to overdo it. Asami promises she won’t... and the next time Korra checks on her, Asami is asleep on her desk or something like that. Korra smiles and puts a blanket on her shoulders, and when someone else arrives to say something REALLY BAD is going on, Korra shushes them and decides to deal with it herself (as long as she can), and, if she can’t, she’ll find someone else to do it in Asami’s stead so the girl can sleep safe and sound for the first time in ages.

Episode pitch over! :’D

*siiiiiiiiiigh* alright, so yeah, this was something I originally thought of as a replacement episode, to further explore and establish a bond between Korra and Asami that wouldn’t really resolve all of the rushed-Korrasami problems... but it would make it so much clearer that those two share a different bond, and a very special understanding of each other, that the other two Krew members simply don’t have with either of them. It’d deepen their relationship, but the most important element about this for me was that it’d be an Asami-focused episode and plotline. However brief it would have been, my idea was to feature Asami facing her own problems, not problems based on her relationship with other people (be it family or romance). It was also a way to show that she’s not indestructible or just the go-to problem solver with neverending resources and talents that the plot can exploit at leisure whenever it feels like it. And, most importantly, that Asami can’t and SHOULDN’T be the answer to every problem in Republic City, especially when she’s only delivering those answers off-screen, offering the viewers next to no chance to see her in action, kicking ass at all the things she apparently has insane expertise on.

As far as I know, the two LOK comic trilogies haven’t really done much for Asami either. I haven’t read them so I could be wrong, but from what I can gather from comments of people who have read them and the books’ summaries, she’s still Korra’s girlfriend first and foremost, gets kidnapped so she can be used as a hostage to manipulate Korra, and then gets brainwashed into fighting against Korra...? If this is truly how it is, again, Asami just gets reduced to a satellite character, in the sense that she just revolves around other people as though that’s all there is to her character, canon-wise. Which... makes me sad. She had potential, plenty of potential worth exploring, if only the show’s writing had been more paused and allowed their characters to breathe and grow organically, as a consequence of their own actions and decisions rather than by being forced into hellish situations persistently until they broke out of desperation.

So... LOK really had the chance to explore a much more human side of Asami that they’ve neglected to acknowledge so far (from what I know), a chance to deepen her character by displaying that no one of such young age should have so many difficult responsibilities dumped on her shoulders... which, again, could be expanded into a metaphor for the Avatar’s role, showing both Korra and Asami as two highly capable women who could achieve great things... but who need a chance to be normal too, once in a while. From the looks of it, neither of them have had that chance in canon (yes, Korra was stuck in a compound all her life but Asami must have been stuck in constant lessons at every discipline she has mastered? If she can deal with all those jobs of hers as flawlessly as she has, I don’t think she had much of a life before LOK started), and it would have been really nice of the deeper, darker show LOK wanted to be to acknowledge that a bunch of grown-ups, who had relatively smooth lives in their youth, dumping so much heavy work on a pair of girls who are just becoming young adults and barely had childhoods of their own, is just damn nasty :’D just as it was nasty in a show featuring a much younger cast... *innocent whistling*

Alas, this was just one idea that won’t ever go anywhere in canon, as is obvious. I’m sure I mentioned it at least once before, not as thoroughly as I did just now, but this is more or less what I had in mind. If you dump a thousand things on a character, it would only be fair to let them suffer for it, to a fault. Maybe don’t feature them whining because they have soooo much work to do... but turn them into workaholics! Show that they’re struggling to make everything pay off, that this kind of burden isn’t child’s play because in real life, it simply wouldn’t be.

But, as there’s next to no chance Asami will ever get this sort of development, I merely stashed this idea on my back burner, in case it might come in handy in the future...

... And then I returned to it once Gladiator’s Enforcers became a solid reality. Azula has been dealing with challenges that are rather different from those Asami dealt with... but ultimately, the responsibilities both girls have taken up, Asami in canon and Azula in my story, were just insanely big. Azula, in Gladiator, has had very little time to spare for “secondary” pursuits since the previous arc, and in the current one that has become a problem because she simply CAN’T stop working. She goes home and instead of going to bed, keeps on working. She’s constantly on edge, assuming that any time not spent working is wasted time, time she should take advantage of to further improve her projects and endeavors... to the point where people are starting to notice she’s slightly overwhelmed, extremely stressed out, and needs to calm down :’D

I really had wanted to explore these themes in overachieving characters, who take up far too many responsibilities, more than are reasonable. While I’ll always consider it a really big waste of potential that LOK never gave Asami this particular dimension, despite her character 100% warranted it, at least I had the chance to explore this with Azula instead, and I’m honestly really pleased with the result, because it suits her really well too. The outcome won’t be at all like what I just outlined for the LOK episode that never was, and the current story arc will take a vastly different direction... which is why I thought it would be fun to explain where this particular, new dimension of Azula’s character had come from.

Aaaanyways... the bottomline is, Return to Shu Jing is here. And I reeeeeally love this arc. I hope that those of you reading and staying up to date with the story will love it too!

#gladiator #me talking about LOK?#who'd have thought (?)#but it's something I've had running circles in my brain for ages so #it feels good to release it into the wild at last (?)#I really think this is the only genuine link between Gladiator and LOK #... and it's not even 100% a link #but the idea is one I thought of for LOK #and that I now repurposed altogether for my big bulky story #so... indirect link I guess #but boy I really wish they'd done this in canon #would've been wonderful for Asami's character... *sigh*

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