my art for @faux-fires (ao3 Link) fic
"something stranger and more wonderful"
beta red by @ranilla-bean (ao3 Link)
for this years @zukkabigbang2024 event.
its truly a beautiful fic. Keeping you on your toes while reading. making you worry about sokka exposed to the whims of nature and zuko, all alone.
big thank you to reikah and rana for all the handholding during this project! And stoping me form overthinking details.
A cyanometer is a device used to measure the intensity of blue in the sky, often used in meteorology and atmospheric studies. It typically consists of a series of blue color patches or a color gradient, allowing the user to compare the sky’s color to these reference colors.
the sense of horror when you finish a book that was Ass Bad and you go to see what fellow haters are saying but all the reviews say it is the best thing they've ever read. feel like i just saw my reflection in the mirror move all by itself or something
weeelllll it's been a long wait but chapter 5 of the mercy of magpies from me & @ash-and-starlight isn't far off now! exclusive sneak peek below just for you 🫰
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“Come. Let’s share some tea before we retire for the night.”
“You,” said Sokka, “have a mission tomorrow.”
Zuko shrugged. “The anticipation will keep me up. A cup of tea and some company, though…”
“One cup. One.”
It had become something of a ritual between them while they had plotted over these months; unspoken. Sokka sipped the tea, which had grown on him. “Nervous for tomorrow?”
“Nervous? When I have the greatest general of his generation on my side?”
“Flatterer,” said Sokka.
Zuko leaned back against the cushions of his seating platform. The fire between them made the air shimmer; his image wavered. The teacup dangled from his fingers. “I’m returning to my roots,” he said, wry. “Blue Spirit days. A spontaneous attack here, a skirmish there.”
“You haven’t done anything like this in twenty-five spans.”
“No.” Zuko’s eyes glittered in the firelight. “But we have prepared. Quite thoroughly. You drilled the soldiers. You drew the battle plans. You saw the account books.”
“Licitly, too.”
Zuko sipped, smiling.
“You are awfully sanguine about your first conflict in two and a half decades,” Sokka said.
“I trust you.”
“We should go over battle plans. What would you do if—”
Zuko laughed. “We’ve gone over them ten thousand times.”
“What if something goes wr—”
“It won’t.”
Sokka pursed his lips, then leaned back against his own set of cushions. Zuko refilled their cups and toasted Sokka with his. “Tell me who you are, Mr Mystery. Who am I fighting for?”
“You’ve known me for three of your months.”
“I could stand to know more.”
Like this, the hair escaping from his stern topknot, the frog loosened at his collar to expose the cleft of his throat, he looked like something Sokka should not be looking at. He cleared his throat and looked harder, in defiance, or something. “Like what?”
catch up on the last chapter and its incredible art here!
hate it when pets learn words, my dog flips out when he hears "greenie" so we had to start saying "G word" but now he knows G word so we have to say shit like "are we out of emerald indulgences"
we have passed through "can you feed the dog?" and are nearly out of "canst thou nutriate the hound" and are going to have to come up with something else soon
Sokka splashed a line of water through his path. The fire fizzled. Zuko’s eyebrow raised, then he forged on. The path zigzagged out of the constellation, hopped eastwards through the galaxy’s north. Hiss. Hiss. Sokka met him each time with a streak of water. Zuko pressed on, building rhythm with each star he joined up.
The Mercy of Magpies Chapter 4 out now!!
as always written by thee @ranilla-bean and betaed by @faux-fires
Chapter Post || Cover || Map and Characters || Ch2 || Ch 3.1 || Ch. 3.2