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mystic-kitten-writer · 5 years

Text

Limerence [M] ︳11

Pairing: Zuko x OC

Genre: Romance, mainly fluff with future smut, and if you squint hard enough - you’ll find some angst.

Rating: SFW

Words: 4100+

Notes: So this chapter doesn’t focus too much on Zuko and Yue as much as it focuses on someone else’s perspective - I wonder if you guys guessed right as to who this ‘secret woman’ was throughout the chapters - the next big mystery is figuring out who the male is. Enjoys <3

Masterlist ︳10 ︳ 12

❤ Buy me a coffee? ❤

Limerence: (English/n.) the state of being infatuated with another person.

The moment their eyes locked they knew - the flames within him twisted while the water within her turned. It was a connection, a connection that would lead to love, adventure, and drama.

Tacenda

(Latin/n.) Things better left unsaid; not to be mentioned to the public.

~ Unknown ~

“What do you mean by ‘sent two messenger hawks back-to-back?’” She hissed with narrowed eyes towards the skittish man in front of her. He was already cowering away, fearful of who she might unleash her wrath upon. With a large gulp, he managed to find his voice again, “The-the maids! They said the first letter was a notice that Fire Lord would be arriving in a week from today, with a woman, some consort or something. But the next day he sent another letter that said the Earth King would be arriving here, so expect his arrival for tomorrow.”

The man quickly looked down at his feet, knowing that this was how he was going to die. But when a few moments passed, and she didn’t unleash her anger, he looked upwards to see her standing still in thought. ‘This’ was not what she expected when she arrived here. She already had her plan ready, and all she had to do was make sure that everything was ready for implementation for the arrival of her ‘friend.’ Clearly, that plan went to shits.

Yet another curious thought ran through her mind as she observed the sky, for the past few hours, since the moment they arrived yesterday, messenger hawks have been flying back and forth to the sea, most likely to his ship. But why? What could be so important that he feels the need to pass along documents in such a risky manner? Why was the Earth King showing face to the Fire Nation? There was an overwhelming amount of questions that seemed to be unanswerable.

“Continue blending in and get as much information as you can, all of you.” She said quickly, before turning on her heels and blending in with the greenery around her. She knew what she had to do, and with a tremendous and overwhelming hesitance, she made hast. It has been almost four, maybe five, years since she had last step foot in the Fire Nation after they finally found their mother. The very thought of seeing her mother again made her blood boil. She hated them, hated them all with a passion that just made her flames grow bluer by the second.

Mother never loved her, not like how she loved him. She always favoured him over her. ‘I was a monster in her eyes’ she thought as she found the secret path that led behind the palace. But that was the purpose of this whole plan, to make everyone realize that he was not any different from the rest of the family. That he was just as messed up and as monstrous as her. The thought of him losing everything, his position, family, friends, sent a euphoric rush to her that no amount of liquor, bloodshed, or drugs could do. It was never about killing him; it was always about seeing him fail.

So caught up in her thoughts she failed to realize that she was already at the edge of the palace walls, and with much ease, found the next hidden entrance inside. To her dismay, most of the entries were sealed off or left to collapse on its own, so she would be lying if she wasn’t a tad bit surprised to find such a route still in relatively decent condition. With ease she slipped through and in moments found herself back in the palace hallways, adorned with precious gems and artworks. Despite the same coat of paint and rugs, everything felt different.

Carefully she hid behind a statue, as she observed a few maids and servants waltzing along the hallway, laughing and smiling, enjoying life. “So I found out her name; Ying Yue Jiang!” squealed a maid as she tightly snuggled onto another girl’s arm. They all looked at her in disbelief, “H-how did you find out her name already!?” The group said in unison. She simply shrugged her arms before continuing, “I have my ways, but I can’t wait till we meet her, rumours say she is a sweetheart.” She gushed, while the other two women giggled in unity. The man amongst them smiled and nodded along, “Anyone is better than Mai; she is such a grump.” The maids gasped and slapped the male’s shoulders, “It’s Countess Mai and don’t say stuff like that out loud! What if Fire Lord Zuko was here and heard?”

“Not like he would care, I think he hates her the most.”

They all looked at each and tried their hardest to wipe away the smiles on their faces as they chuckled to themselves. “I'll see you guys later, I have to drop this off at Fire Lord Zuko’s study, or else Iroh will bite my ear off.” Said the male before they all turned the corner.

She frowned listening in onto their conversation and at the mannerism of the servants. Never during her stay did the servants have such a privilege to just gossip. If they had so much free time on their hands they should either find more work or be dismissed. Yet, she knew that wasn’t the real thing that was bothering her; it was Mai.

Sure, her and Ty Lee betrayed her trust to protect him and the Avatar. As angry as she was, that didn’t hinder the secret soft-spot she had for them. To think, that after all this time, he had the nerve to date her former best friend and now he leaves her to the dust for some other woman, some woman named Ying Yue Jiang, what an ass. She hissed under her breath before following the gaudy group; they were going to be her ticket of information; especially if they were going to lead her to Zuko’s study.

Skillfully, she trailed behind the group, before finally stopping at a study, the same study their father used during his reign. She was grateful; she knew how to sneak in. Within minutes, and much patience, she unhinged the back window and with a gentle thud, slid right into the study. It was dim, no lights lit, but it was clear under the blanket of darkness that everything was neatly stacked or locked away.

With a flick of her fingers, she let one lone blue flame balance on her fingertip, as she scanned around for anything unusual. It was those neat and organized tendencies that made it easy for her to spot the pile of documents resting on the extensive study in the middle of the room, and without hesitation, she quickly began rummaging. She smiled to herself at the ease of finding the information; it was like taking candy from a baby. As she promptly searched through the documents, she couldn’t help but let her eyebrows pinch together as she studied the reports.

Why would he need so much documentation about the Fire Nation colonies at the Earth Kingdom? All the information was scattered; information about Earth Nation boundaries, currency exchange policies and even agreement forms about funding and dual ethnic passports. “What in the world is my lovely brother up to?” She muttered under her breath as she kept scanning through the papers; he was too much of a baby to engage in a war, that she knew for sure. But finally, her eyes drifted upon the uppermost corner of the folder ‘United Republic of Nations.’

Rumours were circulating about the possibility of a new Nation being built, but to think that he had the power to go through with it, something not even their father had the ability to do; the creation of a new Nation. ‘You’re full of surprises brother’ she thought amused. But her eyes slowly began drifting to another document, well hidden underneath the pile of paperwork. ‘General Axe,’ she let her free hand slowly trace the words. There was a giant ‘x’ inked on top of his name in red, and a small doodle of a skull.

The ‘x’ was the sign of a traitor, and the skull; the symbol of assassination. Curiously, she opened the thin folder. It was bizarre for such documents to be up here. Any employee paperwork was usually neatly stashed away in the library, but for any records of a traitor, there were hidden underneath the palace. As she looked through it, she couldn’t help but wonder why would he want these papers.

‘General Axe

traitor due to leakage of private information.

Assassinated; 100 AG – body not retrieved.

Potential threats/targets – Wife: Kasa Jiang, Northern Waterbender, body located and discarded 100 AG.

Daughter – name unknown, unconfirmed Waterbender, not located during the attack, assumed dead.’

She scanned through the papers, looking for any more information, but it bore nothing of interest besides his family history and his other occupations and ranks. Carefully she started putting the documents back, but she was still in her thoughts. The Earth Nation documents made sense, but this, this was random. Why would he need such paperwork, unless...

Her eyes widen at the thought, starting to put the puzzle pieces together;

Jiang…

Ying Yue Jiang. Kasa Jiang.

He wouldn’t, would he? Marrying a non-bender was scandalous enough, but someone of another Nation, a Waterbender, and on top of that, the daughter of a traitor; that was just treason on a whole other level. But the last name Jiang wasn’t the only thing that triggered a memory: Kasa. It was so familiar to her as if she heard someone say it before.

It was light footsteps outside of the study that caught her attention, and she stood still, taken off guard — so preoccupied with the new found information she let her guard down.

“A-Azula? Wh-what are you doing here?” A lady said in disbelief, as she stared at someone whom she thought was gone, gone forever. But Azula just stood there with a large grin on her face, as she pushed back her long black hair behind her shoulder, “The real question is; what are you doing here, Mai.”

~ Ying Yue Jiang ~

Magnificent, divine, gorgeous; all words that failed to capture the beauty of the Fire Nation. No longer representing a war-based Nation, the land was covered with vast flowers and vertical architect, but more importantly, the enormous mountain that towered above all; Royal Caldera City, the Capital of the Fire Nation.

“Beautiful isn’t it? Wave, they are excited to see you.”

I looked upwards to see Zuko baring a soft smile, still tightly gripping my arm, as he waved at the masses that crowded at the Royal Plaza. Nervously I began waving at the people, Zuko was right, they seemed delighted to see me, especially when I started waving. I flushed, and I could feel my palms getting clammy, I was overwhelmed, I thought the Southern Water Tribe was crazy, this is just insane!

“What the hell Yue, you're taking the spotlight away from me!” I could hear Sokka grumble behind me. I could hear Aang laugh while Zuko scoffed, “Weren’t you the one who said that you underdressed on purpose?” Zuko said sarcastically, all the while maintaining his perfect smile. I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh hearing the way Sokka said ‘awe man’ as we began walking down the ramp. I could start seeing figures standing in the center of the pathway that lined the plaza, guards controlling the growing crowds at bay. I could see Zuko’s smile grow into a broad grin, that must be his family up ahead!

An older man began eagerly walking forward, he wore flaming red robes, almost equal match to Zuko’s. His hands rested on his ample belly as he bore such a wide smile that only accentuated the happy lines on his face, I think I know who this is… “Fire Lord Zuko, my son, you're back!” The man cried out happily. Zuko smiled and nodded his head, “Uncle Iroh, the Nation seems to be in one piece.” Iroh sheepishly grinned as he rubbed his long beard before he finally turned to me, “More importantly, who is this beautiful lady you have on your arm?” Iroh said with a curious smile, although I could tell he was also teasing.

I blushed and politely bowed, “Pleasure to meet you Iroh, I'm Ying Yue Jiang.” I said a bit softer than I attended. Iroh smiled sweetly before bowing back, “The pleasure is mine, it's an honour to meet my nephew's partner. So do tell me, what was it? His smile?” Iroh said with raised brows. I could feel Zuko tense up, and his face gave away the fact that he was embarrassed, although he hid it well. “Uncle-” I could hear Zuko scowl lightly under his breath.

I giggled and shook my head, “His smile was what caught my eye, but what made it official was the golden twinkle he gets in his eyes when he gets excited about something.” I said.

Zuko looked down at me, a bit surprised at my blunt honesty, but based on his warm smile; he seemed happy. “I like her already! I always told Zuko since he was little that the spark he gets in his eyes is what I love the most,” a woman’s voice said. My ears perked up, only to see a mid-aged woman walking up from behind Iroh. To say she was beautiful was an understatement; her long black hair was neatly pulled back, highlighting the tender smile that painted her face and reached her eyes. “Pleasure to meet you, Ying Yue, I'm Ursa, Fire Lord Zuko’s mother.” She said her voice like honey. So this is were Zuko get’s his good looks.

I smiled and bowed once again, but she quickly dismissed the bow, “Don’t worry dear, I'm not too fussy on customs-” She started, that was until a loud squeal cut her off mid-sentence and was instead replaced with a high-pitch yell, “ZUZU~!” My eyes widen and before I could even process what was happening a petit girl dashed towards Zuko, crashing into him with such impact that even Zuko stumbled backward, knocking the air out of him.

“Kiyi! We talked about this!” Ursa said before rushing to Zuko’s aid. Although the laugh that erupted from Zuko was music to my ears, he quickly embraced the girl, holding her so tightly in his arms. I thought he was going to squish her. I believe this is the first time I’ve seen Zuko with a kid before.

“I’ve missed you so much Zuzu~! Did you bring gifts? Oh, I have to show you the turtle ducks, I took care of them, and they had their babies. And I made Mommy mad, remember how I hid the toads in my rooms, well- she found them. Hey, is this Yue? I like your name Yue, wait. Zuzu, does this mean that you're going to have babies like the turtle ducks?”

Kiyi said everything so fast I struggled to keep track of what she was spewing out of her mouth. Zuko was right, Kiyi was indeed a hyperactive child with a love of animals. But my eyes widen at the mention of having babies, how could a child bring forth more embarrassment than what I have experienced for the past weeks? I flushed a dark red, and Iroh seemed to notice because he chuckled. Zuko, on the other hand, looked posed entirely as if he didn’t hear anything about babies.

Zuko gently patted her head, still crouched down on one knee, as he lovingly brushed her short brown hair back behind her ears, “I missed you too, and yes, Ying Yue and I brought you gifts, she picked them out just for you. And you can show me after dinner the turtle ducks, and I warned you that Mom was going to get mad if you kept the toads in your bedroom-”

“You knew?!” Ursa said in disbelief as she crossed her arms and left out a huff. Zuko grinned and shrugged his shoulders, “And no, I'll not be having any turtle duck babies of my own. At least not anytime soon.” Ursa sighed heavily before gently grabbing Kiyi by her shoulders, “Kiyi, your brother just arrived here, give him a break?” She insisted. Kiyi pouted but nodded, before giving me a giant smile, “Yue, do you want to see the babies too? They are super cute, and we can feed them together. A friend of Zuzu’s is my friend too.” She said gleefully.

I smiled before nodding, “I would love to join you and Zuzu.” I said although I would be lying if I said I wasn’t laughing saying Zuko’s nickname. Zuko grumbled under his breath, and I swear his cheeks got a bit pinkish the moment I referred to him by his nickname. Iroh grinned, knowing very well I said Zuzu to annoy Zuko, and I smiled back, I had a feeling me and Iroh were going to get along quite well.

A guard walked up to us and with a quick nod began speaking, “Fire Lord Zuko, the palanquins are ready for departure to the Royal Palace.” Zuko straightened up and nodded before the guard left. Ursa grabbed Kiyi’s hand and began tugging her away to sit on the palanquins that were being set up a bit farther down. Iroh nodded, before walking off as well. It was after they left I noticed there was still a small group of people off the side, waiting patiently.

I gazed over the people, curious. They were obviously of noble status, dressed nicely with lots of layers and beautiful shades of red and gold. “Zuko…who are those people?” I asked quietly. Zuko looked at where I was looking at, “Those are some other nobles, here to greet us. Although the rest of the council will be waiting at the Royal Palace.” I nodded my head, but I couldn’t help but notice that Zuko seemed abnormally tense. As my eyes wandered amongst the crowd, I couldn’t help but feel drawn to one person in particular.

Her hair was placed into two well-kept buns, as she stood tall amongst the nobles, her face stone cold. She held a different type of beautiful, while Zuko’s mother had a warm radiance about her, a sweet beauty, this lady had a spark that commanded attention, much like Zuko’s presence. To be honest, it was like looking at Zuko, but just in a female form. Her body was not curvy at all, but slightly lean that complimented her sharp features. When her cat shaped eyes finally landed on me, it was like a bolt of electricity ran through me.

“We should go,” Zuko said sternly, his grip on my hand suddenly tighten. I looked up at him confused, that was until the same lady I was staring at began walking forward. Zuko’s eyes narrowed in annoyance, and for the first time, he seemed genuinely upset. Could she be who I think she is? When she finally stopped in front of us, she inhospitably glared at Zuko with such venom, “Seems like you proved me wrong Fire Lord Zuko, you did find someone else who would put up with your family soap opera.” She hissed out.

From someone else’s perspective, one would have thought they were having some traditional conversation, but my eyes widen hearing her sharp words, and I could see Zuko’s jaw clench. “What’s wrong, jealous Countess Mai?” Zuko growled back. Oh my god. This is Mai? Mai’s eyes were livid, as I could see her hands start shaping into fists. Before she could say anything else I knew I had to intervene, or else they were really going to duel it out. Ever so gently I placed my hand on Zuko’s chest, a bold move, especially out in public, but I had to catch his attention somehow.

Zuko’s eyes widen, taken aback by my sudden gesture. I smiled largely and batted my eyelashes innocently, “Sorry for interrupting Countess Mai, but Fire Lord Zuko, our palanquins are waiting for us.” I said gently, but right away the fire in Zuko’s eyes relaxed, and he smiled, although I could tell it was forced. “You’re right. We should get going.” He said flatly. I nodded my head before gazing over at Mai with a smile, even if she didn’t return such, “It was a pleasure meeting you. Hopefully, we can get to know each other better, I heard amazing things about you. See you in the palace.” I said swiftly, proud that I managed to diffuse the situation.

Mai just lifted her chin before scoffing, “You’ve made a mistake. Both of you.” But I couldn’t shake off the eeriness that was laced with her words. It was easy to miss, especially with the given hostility between these two ex-lovers. But I couldn’t help but notice a slight waver in her voice as she said mistake. It was as if it was a warning, indeed, a mistake. Before I could even think beyond, Mai turned on her heel and disappeared.

I let out a sigh of relief, realizing that I was holding my breath in for a large chunk of that time. Tightly gripping Zuko’s arm, we began walking to the palanquins. It was evident Zuko was pissed, given how tense his arm was and the way he clenched and unclenched his fists in thought. Gosh, how did such a relationship get this sour?

“Well, …that’s Mai. Nice, isn’t she?” Zuko said sarcastically as he helped me sit on the palanquin. I let out a dry laugh as I watched Zuko settle down beside me. “A real steal. I think she likes me; I could see us being best friends.” Zuko looked up at me, and finally, he broke into a large smile as he laughed at my lame attempt of a joke. He let an arm wrap around my waist and pulled me close beside him, “Oh really? I think she likes me too.”

I giggled but found myself gripping on Zuko’s hand as the palanquins began moving, signalling we were now on route to the Royal Palace. “I should have probably given you a heads up about her,” Zuko said apologetically. I rolled my eyes before I finally realized something, “Where did Aang and Sokka go?” I asked. Zuko shook his head before finally pointing up the pathway, “They left a while ago, some sister you are.” Zuko teased. I raised my hand to slap Zuko’s arm and Zuko already flinched, but before I could slap him, I brought my hand down, “You're lucky we are in public or else I would have hit you.” I grumbled underneath my breath.

Zuko laughed, “A rain check for a slap, wouldn’t ask for anything different.”

I gave a look that meant that I just added another slap to that rain check. Zuko just knows how to push my buttons. Although my mind was once again distracted when I began noticing the greenery around us. No amount of stories that Dad told me about could prepare me for the beauty of the Fire Nation. Without thinking twice, I began pointing aimlessly around our surroundings, “What is that over there? Or that, is that a city?” I said as I gazed around. Zuko chuckled before describing everything I would point out, who would have thought that Zuko would be a fantastic tour guide?

Disclaimer: I do not own any Avatar characters portrayed in this story besides Ying Yue Jiang, Lia, Kima, and any future creations.

❤ Buy me a coffee? ❤

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daaberlicious · 7 years

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The “Because We Need One” Problem

I'm probably not nearly popular enough online for people to start caring about my opinion, yet I've felt the urge before to give it and hear what people have to say about it anyway.

I've been stewing with this topic for a while now, so I've got a lot to say. In the interest of not cluttering your dashboard, you can go ahead and click “Keep reading” when you feel like you have the time instead of being immediately confronted with a wall of text.

Now what is the “because we need one” problem, anyway? It's a little awkward to say, and you have no idea whether I'm referring to reality or fiction.

In this case, I'm referring to fiction, but while this could also apply to the modern USA in many organizations, that's another entire topic I do not feel comfortable with approaching.

To put it simply, the “because we need one” problem is the tendency for authors and creators to insert a minority of some sort, be they racial, sexual, gendered or demographic for the vague reasoning of “because good works must have them”. Now, I do not claim to know of exact dates in which psychological trends start, but I do notice how psychological trends work, so you probably would know what I'm talking about-

“This film's too white. Let's add someone African American into the main cast to make it better.”

“This TV series is too masculine. Let's put a woman into the main cast.”

“This webcomic is too straight. I'm going to put an LGBT character into it to make it better.”

This is a problem because this kind of thought relies on a completely false premise:

If my cast is more racially/ethnically/orientationally/sexually/demographically diverse, then they will be better, more interesting characters.

Personally, I first noticed this was a problem in my somewhat younger teenage years when I had first discovered webcomics. People were telling very deep stories with sprawling arcs, unusual settings and premises and diverse casts... Specifically, there was always at least one LGBT character in it.

Going on a bit of a relevant tangent:

Being a Christian having grown up around other Christians, the sudden exposure to this as a thing that exists and that people were obsessed about was very jarring. I struggled with the morality of such behaviors as displayed in these characters only, to my dismay with Christian doctrine and utter offense towards others who either did not agree with how I interpreted it or reject me for holding such beliefs in the first place, to find that the biblical text was awfully clear.

It does not get much clearer than 1st Corinthians 6:9-10.

Still, I will admit that I was making a big mistake with my attitude towards these truths. Nothing visible to others, but plainly visible to me. If I was following something for a while and they suddenly introduced or even hinted at until introducing an LGBT character, I found myself not following that thing anymore, not realizing my hypocrisy: If a character were to have sexual relations outside of marriage, something that is equally rejected Biblically as with all forms of sin, I would not give it the same discredit and call it “not worth my time”, even though the idea earns no more points in my favor than various LGBT behavior.

Going back to 1st Corinthians 6:9-10, there are a wide variety of sins listed in that passage that claim those who do them will not inherit The Kingdom of God (without, as the rest of The Bible says, a complete transformation of heart and sincere, honest attempt to totally cease such sinful acts).

But now that I'm older and wiser, though I can see my attitude was not a good one to have- That of discrediting a story solely because of what I viewed as the bad behavior of its main characters- I can see why I was really so offended by this: Every single one of these works of fiction that I rejected did not include an LGBT character because it was an incidental, not very important part of their character, as would be the case with the titular protagonist of Poppy O'Possum or as I suspect would be the case with certain characters in Tamberlane, but all because the author decided that they required one to make the story better.

The “because we need one” problem.

So get on with it, Daab. Why is it a problem?

Let me illustrate why it is by giving you some examples of stories that didn't harbor the “because we need one” attitude:

First off is The Lord of The Rings.

Think about it. Do you see a single person of African American decent in Middle Earth? I don't know for certain about the books, as while I am somewhat well read, I have not attempted to conquer the behemoth that is J R R Tolkien's original works, but I can say with enough certainty that I did not see a single African American among the entire medieval setting. They may have been present in the movies, but I did not notice them.

And you know what? That wasn't a problem. For one thing, a traditional medieval setting wouldn't have such people not because they were necessarily ostracized if they were even heard of, but because it wasn't the right part of the world to have them.

In the medieval times, African Americans were just Africans. Plain and simple. They lived out their lives in the African countries and Europeans lived out their lives in the European countries. In designing a setting, one must consider the kinds of people within it and have a good reason for why, not worry about diversity-

If you have a good enough reason, even something as simple as “I don't know how to write for/draw them”, or “It doesn't fit the tone of the story”, or heaven forbid, “I simply don't need this group of people in my setting to make it work”, nobody of sound mind is going to complain... And I see very few people complaining in seriousness about The Lord of The Rings not including African Americans.

For another, skin color doesn't matter when there are such gems of character such as these. If you write your characters well, you will come up with moments in your story and lines of dialogue that people don't just relate to or sympathize with, but empathize with and really feel.

Contrast that point about demographics with Dreamworks' Home.

Home prominently features an African American as one of the main characters, so one would think that I'd be saying it's an instance of “because we need one”, but it's actually not.

I don't think of Tip as African American first. She's a young, perhaps tween-age lonely girl that got separated from her family due to an extraterrestrial misunderstanding and harbors a resentment towards these same aliens. Then she's African American. It's incidental and not at all significant to her character.

She was not inserted into the story as African American because it would be a more diverse cast. Heck, she's pretty much one of only two significant human characters in the story, the other being her mother, who would obviously be the same race as her if she were not adopted.

She was inserted into the story as African American as only an incidental design choice, and it's only an incidental part of her appearance to the audience.

Yet people praise it for having an African American main character and saying how much it helps the cause of diversity in media when it shouldn't even be noteworthy! Praise the story instead for it's thoughtful commentary on loss, anger, sadness and love! Praise it for it's understanding of the tragedy of misunderstanding and on how both sides suffer when they fail to understand the other!

See where I'm going here?

Finally, let's take a look at one of my favorite webcomics, Freefall.

Freefall is a playful yet insightful distant future science-fiction webcomic featuring a cast that is not just racially diverse, but also includes robots, some organic artificial intelligences, and even a singular alien, as well as its own culture and plenty of references to other cultures including our current cultural trends.

Yet George Peterson has made it clear through his writing that Freefall doesn't give a crap what race, gender, or even species its characters are. Yes, some of those things are addressed though pretty much always as a thought experiment, and a major arc is dedicated to AI rights on the small colony of Jean, but nowhere does it shout to the heavens “LOOK AT THIS STORY! IT'S SO DIVERSE IT'S EVEN GOT AN INTERSEX ROBOT!”

Instead, it looks at all these various components of diversity through the lens of what it means to be an intelligent creature (or robot, as the case may be), and never once switches out of this lens.

Freefall is all the better for it. It playfully acknowledges people's quirks, vices and virtues, explores the happy, sad, and strange components of the thinking brain, and when the story gets serious, it can even make you empathize with and root for its character Florence as though she were just another person, despite the fact that she's a wolf given human capabilities and a human level of thought.

This is because every character is what they are incidentally, and anything arising from that, either dialogue, story elements or entire arcs, also feels incidental despite its importance to the story.

Ultimately, the “because we need one” problem is a problem because it fails to make diversity or lack thereof incidental. It puts way more importance on skin-color, gender, sexuality and demographic than any American/European/Swede/whatever or any child of God should. And by putting the “diverse” genders, races, sexual orientations, demographics and citizens of other countries on such a pedestal, you are letting all else of those same characters just die.

If you make your character's most important trait be that he is gay, then that is the only thing he will be. It won't matter to me if he goes to Starbucks every day after work because it's the one place he can relax after working under a boss that's mean to everyone because of how much you want to tell me he's gay.

If you make their most important trait be that they are black, Hispanic, Jewish, or Asian, that is all they will be. It won't matter how loyal they are to their best friend, the protagonist, because all you're showing me is that they are black.

If her most important trait is that she is french, she's only going to be french in the eyes of your reader. I won't care about the tragedy she experienced when she was three if all you're showing me is she's french.

Religious diversity isn't off the hook either. If they are first Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Celtic or Atheist, your reader will only see those things. I won't care what they do for fun because you're throwing their Scientology in my face and expecting me to complement you for your deep writing.

Deep writing does not require diversity, nor does it punish it's presence. Diversity, or lack thereof, should sit at the bottom of the character you're building as a foundation that is firm.

Nobody looks at what the ground is composed of unless they're actually doing something with it.

Seriously, do you expect an architect to make such grand emphasis on how his ground is composed of hardened earth? What about soft sand? Rocky soil?

Absolutely not! He wants you to look at what he's put there, and like any building, its supports , groundings and foundation all the way up to its roof will will be influenced by the soil he chooses to build on, but in the case of the greatest architects, it's never made of that soil! It's made of wood or stone, steel or concrete, glass or ice.

Likewise, when you write a character, what you will love the most about them is what makes them cry or laugh, get angry or give up, strengthens them or gives them hope. You will pour your love into what kind of things they do for fun and what kind of things they do to get by, their history and their future, their life and sometimes even their death. You will want your readers to like their quirks, pity their vices and applaud their virtues.

You must never expect your readers to look at the earth you build on and love that your character is gender-fluid, or demi-girl or demi-boy, or Arab or Native American, or Christian or Jewish or Muslim, or even that they're alien, or animal, or mythical creature or species.

This is very hard to accept, as we are creatures that recognize what is superficial first. It is what initially draws us in or pushes us away. But just like we can't expect a long relationship with someone just because they're handicapped, we can't expect someone to stay with our creation just because our characters are twins.

When you compose a story, or make a movie, or write a novel, put people where you need people, not demographics.

After all, the stories that really matter are about people.

#Daaberlicious #writing #stories #essay #commentary

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