AU Meme

[beckyh2112]

Give me an AU prompt, and I'll write you something of at least a hundred words. All AUs I've done before, except LaS, Assimilation, Flint, and DotM, can be requested. I might deny some prompts if they involve something plot-centric to the last part of "Bedrock".

Give a character name, then AU prompt. More details make me happy, though I can't promise I'll touch on everything in the prompt.

Three slots for everybody, five slots for dark_puck, spyridona, suzukiblu, and neldluva. Bonus slots are available if you request Zhao, Pakku, or Jeong Jeong.

I promise to answer at least one request.

MEME IS CLOSED.

Comments

[floranna.livejournal.com]

Zuko, firebenders are cannibalists.

Iroh, and/or the Gaang. Ozai executed Zuko after he arrived to Fire Nation at the beginning of third season.

Zuko, I post this prompt to Avatar_bigbang and no one has atleast admitted doing something with it. Iroh followed his son soon after to the death, so Zuko didn't have a other father figure. Ozai pretty much ignored him until one of his advisors commented on Zuko's skill at stealth (Blue Spirit!). Ozai got interested about this and called the master of the Guild and made Zuko his apprentice. The Guild is all about spying and assasination. Zuko is trained by them and he has definitive talents on that area. And Avatar arrives and Zuko with a group of other Guild members are in Earth Kingdom spying. Sometime during the second season preferably, but it's up to you!

(Ignore this if you want, I am not sure if this is a right kind of a prompt but woman!Pakku has to deal with very stubborn boys at the Northern Water Tribe)

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Iroh, and/or the Gaang. Ozai executed Zuko after he arrived to Fire Nation at the beginning of third season.

I'm not going to write this one. You can choose another prompt for that slot.

[hedgehog39.livejournal.com]

Evil Zuko AU: Jeong-Jeong is obliged to decline a "request" from the new firelord to return to active service.

Vampatar AU: Azula cleans out a nest of bipedal nocturnal mosquitos, ponders on whether or not they can be used to her advantage

Evil Zuko AU: Suki vs Azula. "Stay away from my man!"

Thunder God: Jeong Jeong is obliged to decline a "request" from the new Firelord to return to duty

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Jeong Jeong remembered when Iroh came to him after his escape from prison. He remembered how much the old dragon had assured himself that Zuko would come to his senses, Zuko would be there to help bring down his father.

It had been Azula who had come, and Iroh had gone cold and hard.

Iroh's boy fell that day, Ozai's son was imprisoned. Ozai's daughter ascended to the throne of the Fire Nation, beloved by her people, supported by the Avatar.

It took six years for all of that to fall apart, and Jeong Jeong hadn't been surprised at all. Not after Iroh rejected Azula, not after the Avatar and his friends shared tales and nervous laughter of their clashes with Azula before her change of heart.

The summons did surprise him.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" He rasped as he stood on the polished wooden floor of the throneroom. Red flames rose before the Firelord and his Lady, the Bronze Throne redesigned for the first time since Sozin's day. To signify a new era, Firelord Zuko had said.

Perhaps, Jeong Jeong thought guardedly. Perhaps Ozai's son meant it.

"I have a daughter," the Firelord said, the flames stirring with his words.

"Congratulations."

"The servants cannot light candles around her, Master Jeong Jeong. The flames whisk to her, and she cries when they burn her skin."

A thrill of fear ran through him for the first time in many, many years. ('You were such a darling babe,' his mother said as she fussed over him before he went off to the training camp. 'You'll be a fine firebender, a fine officer. You've power enough - I couldn't ever keep candleflames on the candles around you as a child.')

"You will teach her to firebend when the time comes," the Firelord commanded.

"I do not teach," Jeong Jeong denied. "I have broken too many students."

"You taught my father, and my uncle respected your skill. You will teach Zola." The flames did not rise with the Firelord's ire. That, more than anything, made Jeong Jeong realize the Avatar could not oust Zuko as Firelord.

He met Iroh's boy's eyes. "I am not a young man, Zuko. There's an even chance I'll be dead by the time she's old enough to learn. Find another teacher."

The scarred Firelord looked down upon him. "If you die," he said evenly, "I'll drag you back from Hell. Try not to die, Master Jeong Jeong."

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Tortall crossover/fusion? Ozai would make a great Orzone, the Carthaki Emperor- or perhaps the Fire Nation dovetails with the Yamani Isles, and Zuko's been sent as part of the marriage treaty with the Tortallan royalty.

Zuko wished his sister away to the goblins- now he quests to get her back, but is she just as dangerous as the trials he faces?

Shall think of others later.

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

More drow!AU, anything you want within the Forgotten Realms fusion, but points if there's dwarf!Toph, however he fits!Jet, or anything where Zuko's trying to pass on the surface and it's not a matter of disguise that's tripping him up but culture/mannerisms/Zuko being Zuko that's getting him into trouble.

[amentje.livejournal.com]

Rose by another name Sokka flirting with Zuko

[amentje.livejournal.com]

and Zuko joins the freedom fighters bonus points if his freedom fighter name is prince

[dark-puck.livejournal.com]

Star Wars: Imperial Lieutenant Zhao approves of the TIE Interceptor.

Selkie: Katara meets Lt. Jee again after Siege of the North.

Vampatar: Haru wakes up one morning with Katara-woof on his bed.

I will add on when I am more awake. DX Awake now!


Pakka and Illiivat's father. :D

Star Wars/Transformers: Imperial Lieutenant Dave deals with the autonomous Interceptors.


EDIT: Because you clarified the Bonus Slots thing...

Long Feng and the Dai Li; Ancient Rome.

Pakka and Iliivat's father

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

The water is warm on Pakka's skin as she slips into it. Saltwater stings her cracked lips, and she licks them, savoring the taste. It's been too long since she could let the ocean hold her. Too long on that iron prison Jeong Jeong loves.

Now, though, there is nothing between her and the embrace of her element.

She sighs in pleasure and dives.

***

Later, after the sun sets and the moon rises, Pakka swims back to shore. She walks out of the surf, and the man on the beach raises his face from the fire.

The fire blazes high, turning his eyes molten gold.

She lifts her chin, looks down imperiously at her younger lover. The moon dresses her in silvery finery, but the clothes he wears prevent the fire from doing the same to him in gold.

It's a pity, and she draws up the surf to slice him out of those clothes.

He sucks in a breath, sparks flickering at the edges of his mouth. Reaches for her, pulls her down on top of him. She slides easily onto him, slick already, and she rocks against him like a ship in the sea.

Maybe it's a sin to sleep with one of the conquerors, to join with him as she never has with a man of her own tribe. But it's more of a sin that the men of her own tribe cannot see her as an equal; this man of the Fire Nation values her power and skill, her self, in a way the Northern Water Tribe never has.

Pakka tangles her hands in Jeong Jeong's hair and kisses him.

[avocado-love.livejournal.com]

I would like to see your version of evil!airbenders.

The adventures of the Blind Bandit (or her equivalent) in the Codex Avatar universe.

If Aang were, say, a girl, would she have a crush on Sokka instead? Would anything be different?

Evil Airbenders

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

This.... isn't actually AU. It's just history that's become legend, legend that's faded to myth, and myth that's been long forgotten.


In ages past, the world fell to ruins. Towers were cast down from the sky, islands fell into the sea, the earth split and swallowed cities, and fire ravaged markets.

The world saw the Avatar do nothing.

Arigh, before he was known as the Black, watched it all. The youth, the youngest airbending master in generations, flew to the highest tower of his city and wove an airbending like the telescopes the Water Federation turned to the stars.

He saw Avatar Amrita help. He saw her dance up the earthquakes, saffron robes whirling. He saw her fires join with her twisters to maim and kill. He saw the hungry waves rise at her behest.

He saw death. He saw no sign of the spirits his mentors had taught him to revere, only their force in the world destroying it.

Arigh, who would become the Black, climbed down the tower and turned his attention to the remnants of the WorldNet. He researched, he made print-outs. He gathered friends and family.

He left Marrow the Golden, the last great city still in the world, and he went out to help.

He was a youth. He did not see as Avatar Amrita did. He did not see the way the Earth Empire poisoned the world, the way the Water Federation was so close to leaving it and destroying the balance, the way the Fire States would ever be a mass of seething tension and turmoil and violence, the way the Air Nation was being erased generation after generation.

He was a youth. He grew into a man in a world in ruins, where too many were poisoned by the world as it had been. The poison seeped into him, until the reason he had left was lost and the sacred tattoos of his people were covered over with black patterns.

Arigh the Black rode wild and terrible, and the world might have died from his winds if Avatar Amrita had not confronted him in the fading glory of Marrow the Golden.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

I am so stealing this. :D

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Give prompts, too! You'll note my lack of fandom restrictions. ;-)

[gigabomb.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling my first one might be rejected on the basis of spoiling something for the last part of Bedrock, but might as well give it a try. I am also not sure what DotM stands for, so sorry if I request something from that 'verse by accident.

Ozai, what he was doing during the Day of Black Sun/Sozin's Comet in Bedrock.

Pakku, meeting the new Fire Avatar (Fire Avatar Ozai-verse)

Zhao, not quitting Jeong Jeong's training due to stubornness and/or more complicated reasons

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

I really like these prompts, but the first two hit on some major plot points that I'd rather handle in fic when I have time to do things that come before.

You can choose another two prompts for those slots.

[flowerflute.livejournal.com]

Zei, steampunk AU. He is a shiny archeologist/anthropologist/studier of anything and anyone he can find in the Dust Wastes. Him nerding over something in the middle of a storm, ignoring his own well being for the chance to research would be AWESOME.

I might take another promt later.

[flowerflute.livejournal.com]

I cannot spell prompt correctly, so clearly I do not deserve any more slots.

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

1)You’ve recently been studying ancient mideastern culture, correct? Then allow me to present an AU challenge for you. Avatar has a culture background/inspiration from the far east. I ask for an AU with the equivalent background for mideastern culture. Like canon avatar, I don’t want direct correlations, but general thoughts (Earth kingdom doesn’t always follow China, Fire Nation has inspirations from both India and Japan).

Oh and character….. Aang?

2)Aang- People grumble that the avatar is not harsh enough. They are fools, imagine a world where the Avatar was wrathful.

And I think I’ll keep the third till I think of something.

Aang, AtLA based on the Middle East

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Me and my brothers against my cousins, me and my cousins against the world.


Aang grins, listening to Uncle Gyatso talk to the men in red. He's watching the pony-goats right now, but the pony-goats are pretty well sacked out in this heat. So it's all right if he saunters close enough to snatch the breeze of their conversation.

"Our caliph claims kinship to the Prophet," the leader of the red men says. "He is a pious, righteous man. Why does your tribe deny his rule?"

"Kin through an uncle who never converted," Gyatso says. "There's descendants of the Prophet's son still out in the world - we fought to put them on the caliph's seat."

Heat rises from the red man's shoulders. He is ifrit-kin, like many of the people who rose to enthrone Caliph Sozin. He is not a wind-son, not like Aang and Gyatso's tribe or any of the other tribes of the desert.

But at least an ifrit-kin is better than being a child of the dust, like those men from far, far away who follow the White Christ and deny the Prophet.

Gyatso slants a look at him. "Aang! Tend the herd, boy."

Aang grins and waves, turning back to the pony-goats. The red men of the caliphate are pressing the tribes for allegiance, but the tribes won't swear to this Sozin. He knows it. He knows, too, that if the red men keep pressing, the tribes will get annoyed.

He swings his slingshot idly. He and his cousins have raided Uncle Gyatso's cousins before, but last night, Uncle Gyatso's cousin Vachir came to talk about a raid on the red men's town.

Uncle Gyatso had said no this time, but Aang didn't think he'd say no again if the red men kept harassing him.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I am sad that I can't request more Lightening at Sea Toph-Zuko interaction (because I think the idea of Zuko having a protective Toph for a wife both hilarious and AWESOME).

So instead... I would love to see some of Aang's lessons with Avatar Ozai. :) I have a feeling that their personalities clash in an epic way... especially if, for instance, Aang were to teach Ozai airbender games as a way to practice airbending (not that Ozai would understand the practical side of this teaching technique, I think, or at least not at first).

A Rose By Any Other Name (because this au needs more love) - Zuko at the Western Air temple, trying to sort out his gender identity. The members of the GAang are either supremely helpful or unhelpful, depending. Really, I would just like Sokka and others to express shock at finding out the fact that their arch-nemesis was an unwillingly female man... and is kind of messed up in the head. Really, the GAang dealing with the psychological ramifications of all of this.

(Man, I'm not being coherent today. I used up all of my eloquence on the 7,000 word paper I handed in this morning. :P )

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Jeong Jeong never left the Firelord's service (reason's up to you... Maybe Iroh talked him into staying?) and now the only person in the way of Zhao's ambition is his former teacher.

Either Iroh, Piandao, or Jeong Jeong (or multiple members therein) is/are a woman/women. Pakku takes objection when they join the Order of the White Lotus.

Before he was banished, Zuko got Mai pregnant and she and her family are in disgrace because of it.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Before he was banished, Zuko got Mai pregnant and she and her family are in disgrace because of it.

... Mai was twelve. That'd almost certainly kill her at that tech level. Please choose another prompt for that slot.

[charles-rb.livejournal.com]

Sokka: AU, w/ Water Tribe heroes as WW2-style air aces

Scott Summers, mutants-are-vampires AU: accidentally made Black King of the Hellfire Club and its decadent empire

Matrix: mid-S3 ReBoot, as censored and lightened by BSnP

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Sokka: AU, w/ Water Tribe heroes as WW2-style air aces

I don't know anywhere near enough about WW2 air aces to pull this off in a way I would personally find acceptable. Please choose another prompt for that slot.

[spyridona.livejournal.com]

- 'Xi', whore!verse; Ambition and curiosity; a dangerous combination. Xi finds out who his mother is.

- Younger!Zuko; Azula is the elder sibling, destined for the Throne. What does Zuko have to fight for?

- Female!Pakku; The trip was hard and you invited Firebenders, Bumi? Pakka hates you, you big, stupid, old jerk. Pre-Old Masters. Platonic cuddling.

- Iroh'n'Ozai; The Dragon and Phoenix hatched from the same nest. Preening and brotherly affection.

- Zhao. Avatar and Hellfire/X-Men fusion. Checkmate; feel free to give Zhao powers that suit if plain ol’ ‘Fire’ doesn’t inspire.

- Song/Ozai !Fae. The fae of the White Jade has his new gift. However, she is not happy and if she isn’t happy, no one is. Treat the ‘/’ as how you see fit.

- Jeong Jeong, AU Rome, Legatus; how can one throw away a senatorial ranking?

- Hakozai, AU Rome, not all men are equal. Dark as you may wish.

- Star Wars Avatar Fusion: Aang Solo decides that Princess Azula Organa is much scarier to deal with than Intergalactic Mafia.

... I swear I will stop adding now.

I mean it, this time.

[floranna.livejournal.com]

Now I am dying to know but what is the whore!verse?

[lunatron.livejournal.com]

...well, you didn't say NOT Transformers AUs, and I really loved your Bowshock AU, so...

- Elita One, Alpha Trion, and Shockwave, Prompt: Alpha Trion chained to the wall again; Elita One demands an explanation for this jetslag
- Bowshock and Ultra Magnus, Prompt: chess (or space robot chess-analogue)
- Bowshock and Beta, Prompt: archery lessons

If these are not okay, let me know, and I'll think of something else.

[lunatron.livejournal.com]

Since you said I could ask for a bonus Rome AU prompt...

- Dresden Files, Rome AU, public bathing. Preferably Kincaid, maybe with Harry going >| and/or Murphy admiring or something, but I'll happily take whatever you want to do.

[neldluva.livejournal.com]

Oh right, this was the meme I was supposed to think up prompts for. I swear I have the memory of a hyperactive gerbil.

Pakka/JJ - their one (?) romantic night! Fireflies?

Remember that one Song/Ozai/Transformers one you wrote for me a long time ago, the one where they named their little girl after her godfather Transformer dude? I want to see that little girl's first day of preschool.

Arthurian legend-AU!Aang - who are his knights? Who is his queen? Any deep dark demons in his past (like an affair with Morgan le Fay?) Or feel free to shift the focus as you like, as long as Aang = Arthur. (I mean, if you want to send Sokka off to fight the Black Knight, that's your prerogative. :D)

I ... will ponder the rest. And probably give them to you later tonight.

[neldluva.livejournal.com]

I thought of more! As you already know.

Fire Nation!Sokka - maybe adopted by Piandao? I'm envisioning something like the standard trauma plot you were talking about, Sokka gets stolen away when he's still bitty and grows up to be FN. (Would also be interesting to see him adopted by Mai's parents - maybe they want a son?) Let's see him get recruited. :D

genderbent!Zhao - "These outfits really are ridiculous." Because I want to see lady!Zhao create herself a functional outfit that actually, y'know, covers important organs.

[moonylala.livejournal.com]

Can I ask for one where Lu Ten lived in Ba Sing Se, but Iroh didn't, and Lu Ten ended up as Fire Lord. How would Ozai have handled that? Would Azula and Zuko have turned out any different?

From the Vampatar AU-- Zuko finding Sokka can turn into a wolf

What if Pakku had run into Zuko during the invasion of the Northern Water Tribe? How would their interaction play out? ( I have this mental image of Pakku jut scolding Zuko for trying to sneak in:)

Lu Ten lived at Ba Sing Se, and Iroh didn't

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Lu Ten smashes Ba Sing Se to rubble. He slaughters soldiers, murders women and children, tortures men, levels the city. Every street is cracked by fire, every building put to the torch, every stone scorched. Nothing stands higher than a man's knee.

If he had time, he would have leveled even that.

He returns home to the Fire Nation with an earthbender clerk that he drags by the man's long braid. That man he casts to his steward with instructions to keep him on wood and away from knowledge.

Then he falls into his uncle's arms and weeps for the first time. He did not weep when Father gave him the letter announcing Mother's death midway through the Siege. He did not weep when they brought him Father's body and the corpse of his killer. He did not weep even when he set foot back in the Fire Nation.

Now he cries until he has no tears, until his eyes burn and his shoulders shake with dry sobs. Uncle holds him.

Uncle's arms around him, his body radiating warmth, eventually soothe Lu Ten to silence. His rage is exhausted, his grief even more so. All he can do is stand there and cling to Uncle, fists clenching in the red silk of his robes.

Then something else occurs to him, and he throws Uncle to the tatami floor. His teeth hit Uncle's mouth like hot ceramic, and he rips those silk robes open wide.

Later, when he is sated, he recognizes the only reason he got away with that is because Uncle allowed him.

It's acceptable.

For the next few weeks, Lu Ten lives with Uncle and his wife. He ignores their children, though they watch him with wide eyes. He ignores Grandfather's demands. He would ignore Uncle's wife if he could, but he can't.

He ignores and ignores until Uncle shoves him into the baths one day and tells the servants to get him ready for a royal audience. They leap to obey, ignoring Lu Ten's demands that they bloody well stop.

That rather sets the tone for things to come.

[lord-reluctant.livejournal.com]

If this is still open...

Mai and Zuko, in your Aleratar 'verse.

[littleseastar.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, how 'bout...

Toph, if her family had been poor.

Mai, modern-day, crushing on the boy in the tea shop.

Toph, if her family had been poor

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

"The child will be a strong earthbender," the midwife said. "You can feel jade-stone bones already."

Lao said nothing. He merely picked up his straw hat and went out into the fields. The plowing had to be done whether Poppy would have an earthbender or not, and the plow and oxen returned to the neighbors he had borrowed them from.

The earth shivered under his feet, and he clamped down on his earthbending to keep the crystals from growing in his footsteps.

("Useless little bitch!" His father roared and struck him, and that was how Lao learned that only women manipulated crystals and only boys who had let themselves be fucked could do womanly things.

That was how he learned it was better not to be a 'bender at all than to 'bend crystals.)

He hoped the midwife was right. A strong earthbender could be a real help on the farm.

***

It was almost time for harvest when Poppy had their baby. The midwife was pleased at such an easy first birth and praised Poppy's child-bearing hips. Poppy was exhausted but content as she passed the child to Lao.

He held his little daughter and something like tenderness uncurled in him. "Toph," he said. It sounded like 'tough', and she certainly would be.

Then Toph opened her eyes, and all the hope went out of Lao's spirit.

"She's blind," he said coldly, and Poppy wailed and the midwife shook. The girl was blind. It didn't matter if she was a strong earthbender, she was blind. What good was a blind earthbender?

He and Poppy had barely scraped through the last few winters. Harvests had been bad. This year might be better, but after the local headman took his share and Lao paid what was owed for his loans...

He'd planned to do without some in the winter. He'd planned to give Poppy and the baby a good fighting chance. But a blind girl-

"Give her back to me, Lao," Poppy begged. She'd always known his heart before he did.

"No," he said, and he picked up his hat and walked out with the little girl.

***

He walked for two days, feeding the child on milk stolen from piggeese and ostrich-horses. He hardly ate himself, and he swayed on his feet when he arrived at the convent.

The nuns took him in, fed him better than he had eaten in a long time. Their convent was not a great and rich one, but it had good lands given to it by previous lords. It had devout nuns. It had earthbenders and scholars.

He gave them Toph, because they could give his little blind girl a life actually worth living.

Then he went home.

Maybe the next child would be able to see.

[sharkflip.livejournal.com]

Mai, somehow in Louisiana and/or surrounds, any time any world any genre. I like locational stories where the author is describing how they interact with somewhere they love. [if you don't love Louisiana, place it somewhere you do love]

Katara and Zuko in Pacific Islands mythology ["real" or "made up" by you].

SUPERHERO ABSURDITY. Mai is a superhero like Batman or Ironman who has no "powers" but instead is just Bad. Ass. A boring rescue becomes interesting when some asshole wannabe called the Blue Spirit shows up and steals the glory.

[spyridona.livejournal.com]

Because you encouraged me...

Assimilation!Sokka/Mai, keeping quiet, pseudo-incest goodness. >_>

[neldluva.livejournal.com]

*squirms* I am so gleeful for this request you guys have no idea. And clearly I am excited to see it. Woot!

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Psst - I thought of another request involving Pakku, if that's okay.

AU with female!Aaang - how will Aang learn enough Waterbending to combat the Fire Lord when the only master at the North Pole who's willing to teach him is Yugoda the healer?

[invisiblemoose.livejournal.com]

Ozai is Megatron. Starscream is split between the trecherous and manipulative Azula and the abused and driven to prove himself as worthy Zuko. Turn anyone else into whoever else you want (Megatron's brother, Irohmus Prime? Or just have Zhao as Shockwave or whatever.) Make me laugh.

AU where the Avatar timeline diverges at the end of Book 2 when Zuko sides with Katara when she offers to heal his scar, instead of betraying her trust. Set it anywhere in the timeframe from right after he agrees to help, to the point where the series would have ended.

TF:Animated AU where Optimus loses Sentinel in the spider cave. Set it either as he deals with the Academy, how Elita handles this, or during the unexpected reunion between Optimus and his old friend where he learns what his time in the caves has done to Sentinel.

[spyridona.livejournal.com]

Oh, people responding to my posts so I can't slip things in. Because I could!

Oracle!Zuko crushes on Zhao. Slinking onto his lap is highly optional.

[floranna.livejournal.com]

I love you.

[neldluva.livejournal.com]

You said I could, so ... Pakku/Ilah, seduction. Though who's really seducing who?

(Or really whatever you want as long as Ilah's all, "Hey bb" and Pakku's like "O.o")

Pakku/Ilah, seduction

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

The northern waterbending master is a handsome man. Tall, but most men are taller than Ilah. She hadn't gotten their father's willowy grace, not like her little sister had.

But thinking about Oza just brings sorrow to her heart, and Ilah is rather more interested in thinking about other things tonight. Like the way the northern waterbending master moves.

Pakku, that's his name. He walks like he's at sea, a roll in his gait that draws the eyes. His anger is palpable, and she thinks he and Jeong Jeong will kill each other before Bumi and Pianda pull them apart.

It makes her cunt twinge just thinking about how close the two men came to a fight.

Ilah makes herself tea, focusing on the task in order to put thoughts of Pakku out of her head. The Comet is coming soon. They will be retaking Ba Sing Se. Now is definitely not the time to complicate matters.

Ginseng tea, usually marvelously soothing, fails to affect her for once in her life. She can't help being pleased by that.

There's a fire low in her belly that she hasn't felt in years, and the Dragon of the West prowls through the camp of the White Lotus.