lifeboat fic part 8
Nov. 23rd, 2005 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockFigured I should post this one to my own LJ, seeing as it's got a lot of author's notes.
Author's notes: I've already written out two major scenes: the kiss scene (which I swore I wasn't even going to have in my fic, honestly! but it just kind of forced itself in) and the climax. Now it's just a matter of filling out the middle bits and the falling action/resolution/epilogue. But I am happy because I *got* it. I've finally sorted out what the whole point of it all is, and the themes, and it all fits and I'm so excited because when I finish it'll be the first multi-part fic I've ever finished. I was listening to the cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckely last night and the idea for the emotional climax of the story HIT me and it was perfect and awesome and I sketched out the dialogue for it this morning. ::bounces in chair:: It's so...gah! It took me so long to realize that what I was really writing here is a redemptionista fic. And if that term scares you, best run away now. (No, wait! Come back! I didn't really want you to run away! I'll be good I promise!) That's what I'd originally planned to do with "Helios Becomes" but the plotline I had for that was so generic and then I lost my outline and, anyway, someone else did a cool version before me, and this is so much more me. This is my non-Zutara Zutara fic and my obligatory torture!Zuko angst fic and my mental song fic all rolled together. Not with any actual songs, though, just the ones playing in my head as I go.
Boat facts: Okay, I am playing really free and loose with facts here, because I know a lot about sailing boats but not that much about fishing boats. Nor, really about what powers the iron ships in Avatarverse, except that they're some sort of engine. But assume that this is a fishing boat, approxminately 30-40 feet long, with bunks underneath for crewmembers to sleep in, and a small kitchen area with a table, and a bathroom. And at the stern of the boat (beneath the stern deck) is an aft bedroom on one side and a large storage area for equipment on the other.
Think vaguely of the boat in The Perfect Storm... only not really because it's been years since I watched that movie so I don't remember what it looked like. Either way, this is a boat that is powered by an engine so it could be steered and guided by one person alone (though he'd need help docking it) as opposed to a sail boat which would require two people at that length, and he can set a course while he sleeps at night. There! I hope that was helpful, though I doubt it was.
Here's a few more middle scenes, one more fleshed out that the other, obviously:
--------------------------
He'd woken up (in the main cabin this time, not the aft bedroom) to the curious site of the water bending girl sitting on the floor beside his bunk, hunched over a book. Her profile was at the same height as his, so that when Zuko opened his eyes the first thing he saw was the place where her ear curved into her jaw and cheek.
He gritted his teeth, and cleared his throat. She turned to look at him with a smile. Good god, why was she smiling?
"He has books!" she whispered. Books. Zuko was thrilled.
"Why are you whispering?" he asked, deliberately loud. The smile dropped a little, and her eyebrows pulled together. Then the smile was back full-on again.
"You can't ruin this for me. He's got a tiny library in here! Actual books, not scrolls. I guess it makes sense because he's obviously been out on the ocean for a while, but he's got as many here as we have in our entire village!"
Zuko thought about the fact that his father's library was the size of her entire village. The memory did not make him happy. The last time he saw it he was a foot shorter and young enough to still imagine all the answers could be found there.
It probably wasn't even as big as he remembered. In fact he doubted he'd even be impressed if he saw it now.
She probably would though. Barbarian.
"It's a miracle you even know how to read," he spat.
Katara just grinned even wider. "You're jealous you didn't find it first."
Zuko flopped his head back down on the bunk and glared at the ceiling instead. "I really could not care less."
"Well," she continued, voice high and gratingly cheerful, "if you'd bothered to wake up earlier you could have had first choice of the books. But instead you thought it would be more rewarding to yell at everyone then faint. Very amusing display. Very mature."
"Yeah, I was sleeping," he grouched, refusing to repeat the word "faint" since such a word could never seriously be applicable to himself. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I carried you all the way to this stupid bunk, Mister."
"And?"
She glared at him. "And then I got distracted by a book so I've been sitting here reading! You're much better boat company when you've fainted."
"Passed out."
"Whatever."
***
---
[the first meal with conscious!Zuko]
The two teenagers and the fisherman sat around a small table in the cabin below deck. On the table was the first "meal" Zuko had had in two weeks. He was trying not to stare longingly at the dishes.
From across the table Katara watched the prince's eyes flicker back and forth, noticing the way he tried to keep his face still and his posture upright.
So you are human, she thought with snide satisfaction. You do get hungry and you do sit down for a meal with your companions. And somewhere deep in your childhood someone ordered you to keep your elbows off the table like every other kid.
Without bothering to make conversation the fisherman picked up a dish, scraped something brown and bean-like onto his plate, and passed it to Zuko.
"Thank you, Cerlo."
"What?" Katara said, looking at the two other diners.
"Your friend thinks he is being clever," the fisherman replied.
"Did you guess his name?" Katara demanded. "How did you figure it out?"
"He didn't," the fisherman said, mouth around a forkful of boiled carrot. Katara looked around to Zuko again, eyebrows raised. Zuko smirked.
"Cerlo is the name of character in Fire Nation legend. He was a man who tried to murder his own queen, and as punishment the gods cursed him to wander the seas forever, burdened with a map that never showed the truth and a compass that never pointed North."
He added, "He went completely mad, of course."
Cerlo munched evenly on his food, matching Zuko's stare.
Katara wondered if this queen would have been Zuko's ancestor. Even if she wasn't, the irony was heavy enough to make her head hurt. And worse, it was interupting her dinner.
"Was this Cerlo a prince?" she asked.
Zuko's head snapped around to give Katara one of the most ferocious glares she'd ever seen in her life.
"No."
"Pity," she replied, and took another helping of beans.
***
---
[Random conversation during the trip. Zuko cornered Katara in the cabin and has been drilling her for everything she knows about their rescuer/captor, who at the moment is above-deck steering the boat.]
"Is he Earth?"
"I don't know. I-- I don't know. He looks like Earth Kingdom but he's as comfortable with this boat as someone from a water tribe. He's let his accent slip twice in conversation-- two DIFFERENT accents. He could be from anywhere."
"Well he's got to be one of the two."
"Does it even matter? Besides, he's never going to give anything useful away. All I know is that he has children somewhere. He said we reminded him of them."
"Children? You mean someone actually bedded down with that ox?" Zuko asked snidely, then added, "Twice?"
"Yes!" Katara hissed. "And you could to do to be more grateful about it."
"Why should I be grateful to him? He's keeping us blind and deaf out here! We have no idea where he could be taking us or what he plans to do when he gets there."
"He saved your life! He pulled us out of the ocean, he's given us his food and his beds. What does it matter if he isn't polite to us because you're from the Fire Nation? He's probably got good reason to hate you. The least you could do is be a little more grateful for what he's done; we'd be dead otherwise."
"If he hates the way I look so much, why would he bother rescuing us, huh? There's more to this situation than that, and you're naive if you think it's just charity."
"Maybe it is charity, you selfish--spoiled---you BRAT! Just because you were brought up to expect the worst of others doesn't mean that people always--"
"I wasn't brought up to expect the worst of others!" Zuko growled, knocking Katara's index finger from where it was waving in his face. "I was brought up with honor!"
"Then why can't you accept that maybe this man just did the honorable thing by taking us in?"
"Because it's never that simple. If that were the case then there'd be no reason to hide information from us."
"His business is his own affairs."
"Not if we're his business."
"You think he's a slaver?"
"Why not? Here he sees two easy catches. He can fix us up, build our trust, then before we get to where we're going knock us out and sell us hog-tied to the nearest trade ship."
"Absurd. I refuse to believe it."
"That's because you're naive."
"No. I don't think he would. It would be too much trouble on his part to take on two potentially dangerous, unknown crewmates on the off-chance that he might be able to capture and sell them later in the journey. That would be a stupid risk and I don't think he's stupid."
***
---
And a snippet of the upcoming kiss scene (in like 5 parts from now):
If this were a novel he'd be kissing her for real by now. But he wasn't kissing her, he was just... standing...against her...and his lips were on hers but he wasn't moving and Katara was just very, very confused.
He smells like the ocean. There was no scent of engine charcoal in his hair, no fire and brimstone to the atmosphere around him. Just the ocean, just like her after weeks at sea. He carried the perfume of salt and wood and wind for a moment the familiarity and irony ached in her chest.
Firebenders aren't supposed to smell like the ocean. It's not meant for them.
***
-----------------------
I really wasn't planning on having a kiss scene at all (it was going to be all UST and friendship) but I had to write it last night. I guess I can only blame the fact that I watched Howl's Moving Castle which was beautiful and romantic and probably put me in a kiss-scene-writing mood. My writing temperament is so fickle like that.
Anyway, I know it's unkind of me to be offering constant updates of drafts of scenes and then to mock you with a snippet of a snippet way ahead of time, but, um, did I mention I just watched Howl's Moving Castle and I'm all romantic-y-feely right now? Blame my babbling on that. Really.
Oh, and I made a new icon last night! Crossover icons are my drug. Firefly x Avatar = icon OTP!
::blink:: ::stare:: OMG. I just realized... Zuko and Jayne would make the most fucked up and funny slash pairing ever.
Author's notes: I've already written out two major scenes: the kiss scene (which I swore I wasn't even going to have in my fic, honestly! but it just kind of forced itself in) and the climax. Now it's just a matter of filling out the middle bits and the falling action/resolution/epilogue. But I am happy because I *got* it. I've finally sorted out what the whole point of it all is, and the themes, and it all fits and I'm so excited because when I finish it'll be the first multi-part fic I've ever finished. I was listening to the cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckely last night and the idea for the emotional climax of the story HIT me and it was perfect and awesome and I sketched out the dialogue for it this morning. ::bounces in chair:: It's so...gah! It took me so long to realize that what I was really writing here is a redemptionista fic. And if that term scares you, best run away now. (No, wait! Come back! I didn't really want you to run away! I'll be good I promise!) That's what I'd originally planned to do with "Helios Becomes" but the plotline I had for that was so generic and then I lost my outline and, anyway, someone else did a cool version before me, and this is so much more me. This is my non-Zutara Zutara fic and my obligatory torture!Zuko angst fic and my mental song fic all rolled together. Not with any actual songs, though, just the ones playing in my head as I go.
Boat facts: Okay, I am playing really free and loose with facts here, because I know a lot about sailing boats but not that much about fishing boats. Nor, really about what powers the iron ships in Avatarverse, except that they're some sort of engine. But assume that this is a fishing boat, approxminately 30-40 feet long, with bunks underneath for crewmembers to sleep in, and a small kitchen area with a table, and a bathroom. And at the stern of the boat (beneath the stern deck) is an aft bedroom on one side and a large storage area for equipment on the other.
Think vaguely of the boat in The Perfect Storm... only not really because it's been years since I watched that movie so I don't remember what it looked like. Either way, this is a boat that is powered by an engine so it could be steered and guided by one person alone (though he'd need help docking it) as opposed to a sail boat which would require two people at that length, and he can set a course while he sleeps at night. There! I hope that was helpful, though I doubt it was.
Here's a few more middle scenes, one more fleshed out that the other, obviously:
--------------------------
He'd woken up (in the main cabin this time, not the aft bedroom) to the curious site of the water bending girl sitting on the floor beside his bunk, hunched over a book. Her profile was at the same height as his, so that when Zuko opened his eyes the first thing he saw was the place where her ear curved into her jaw and cheek.
He gritted his teeth, and cleared his throat. She turned to look at him with a smile. Good god, why was she smiling?
"He has books!" she whispered. Books. Zuko was thrilled.
"Why are you whispering?" he asked, deliberately loud. The smile dropped a little, and her eyebrows pulled together. Then the smile was back full-on again.
"You can't ruin this for me. He's got a tiny library in here! Actual books, not scrolls. I guess it makes sense because he's obviously been out on the ocean for a while, but he's got as many here as we have in our entire village!"
Zuko thought about the fact that his father's library was the size of her entire village. The memory did not make him happy. The last time he saw it he was a foot shorter and young enough to still imagine all the answers could be found there.
It probably wasn't even as big as he remembered. In fact he doubted he'd even be impressed if he saw it now.
She probably would though. Barbarian.
"It's a miracle you even know how to read," he spat.
Katara just grinned even wider. "You're jealous you didn't find it first."
Zuko flopped his head back down on the bunk and glared at the ceiling instead. "I really could not care less."
"Well," she continued, voice high and gratingly cheerful, "if you'd bothered to wake up earlier you could have had first choice of the books. But instead you thought it would be more rewarding to yell at everyone then faint. Very amusing display. Very mature."
"Yeah, I was sleeping," he grouched, refusing to repeat the word "faint" since such a word could never seriously be applicable to himself. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I carried you all the way to this stupid bunk, Mister."
"And?"
She glared at him. "And then I got distracted by a book so I've been sitting here reading! You're much better boat company when you've fainted."
"Passed out."
"Whatever."
---
[the first meal with conscious!Zuko]
The two teenagers and the fisherman sat around a small table in the cabin below deck. On the table was the first "meal" Zuko had had in two weeks. He was trying not to stare longingly at the dishes.
From across the table Katara watched the prince's eyes flicker back and forth, noticing the way he tried to keep his face still and his posture upright.
So you are human, she thought with snide satisfaction. You do get hungry and you do sit down for a meal with your companions. And somewhere deep in your childhood someone ordered you to keep your elbows off the table like every other kid.
Without bothering to make conversation the fisherman picked up a dish, scraped something brown and bean-like onto his plate, and passed it to Zuko.
"Thank you, Cerlo."
"What?" Katara said, looking at the two other diners.
"Your friend thinks he is being clever," the fisherman replied.
"Did you guess his name?" Katara demanded. "How did you figure it out?"
"He didn't," the fisherman said, mouth around a forkful of boiled carrot. Katara looked around to Zuko again, eyebrows raised. Zuko smirked.
"Cerlo is the name of character in Fire Nation legend. He was a man who tried to murder his own queen, and as punishment the gods cursed him to wander the seas forever, burdened with a map that never showed the truth and a compass that never pointed North."
He added, "He went completely mad, of course."
Cerlo munched evenly on his food, matching Zuko's stare.
Katara wondered if this queen would have been Zuko's ancestor. Even if she wasn't, the irony was heavy enough to make her head hurt. And worse, it was interupting her dinner.
"Was this Cerlo a prince?" she asked.
Zuko's head snapped around to give Katara one of the most ferocious glares she'd ever seen in her life.
"No."
"Pity," she replied, and took another helping of beans.
---
[Random conversation during the trip. Zuko cornered Katara in the cabin and has been drilling her for everything she knows about their rescuer/captor, who at the moment is above-deck steering the boat.]
"Is he Earth?"
"I don't know. I-- I don't know. He looks like Earth Kingdom but he's as comfortable with this boat as someone from a water tribe. He's let his accent slip twice in conversation-- two DIFFERENT accents. He could be from anywhere."
"Well he's got to be one of the two."
"Does it even matter? Besides, he's never going to give anything useful away. All I know is that he has children somewhere. He said we reminded him of them."
"Children? You mean someone actually bedded down with that ox?" Zuko asked snidely, then added, "Twice?"
"Yes!" Katara hissed. "And you could to do to be more grateful about it."
"Why should I be grateful to him? He's keeping us blind and deaf out here! We have no idea where he could be taking us or what he plans to do when he gets there."
"He saved your life! He pulled us out of the ocean, he's given us his food and his beds. What does it matter if he isn't polite to us because you're from the Fire Nation? He's probably got good reason to hate you. The least you could do is be a little more grateful for what he's done; we'd be dead otherwise."
"If he hates the way I look so much, why would he bother rescuing us, huh? There's more to this situation than that, and you're naive if you think it's just charity."
"Maybe it is charity, you selfish--spoiled---you BRAT! Just because you were brought up to expect the worst of others doesn't mean that people always--"
"I wasn't brought up to expect the worst of others!" Zuko growled, knocking Katara's index finger from where it was waving in his face. "I was brought up with honor!"
"Then why can't you accept that maybe this man just did the honorable thing by taking us in?"
"Because it's never that simple. If that were the case then there'd be no reason to hide information from us."
"His business is his own affairs."
"Not if we're his business."
"You think he's a slaver?"
"Why not? Here he sees two easy catches. He can fix us up, build our trust, then before we get to where we're going knock us out and sell us hog-tied to the nearest trade ship."
"Absurd. I refuse to believe it."
"That's because you're naive."
"No. I don't think he would. It would be too much trouble on his part to take on two potentially dangerous, unknown crewmates on the off-chance that he might be able to capture and sell them later in the journey. That would be a stupid risk and I don't think he's stupid."
---
And a snippet of the upcoming kiss scene (in like 5 parts from now):
If this were a novel he'd be kissing her for real by now. But he wasn't kissing her, he was just... standing...against her...and his lips were on hers but he wasn't moving and Katara was just very, very confused.
He smells like the ocean. There was no scent of engine charcoal in his hair, no fire and brimstone to the atmosphere around him. Just the ocean, just like her after weeks at sea. He carried the perfume of salt and wood and wind for a moment the familiarity and irony ached in her chest.
Firebenders aren't supposed to smell like the ocean. It's not meant for them.
-----------------------
I really wasn't planning on having a kiss scene at all (it was going to be all UST and friendship) but I had to write it last night. I guess I can only blame the fact that I watched Howl's Moving Castle which was beautiful and romantic and probably put me in a kiss-scene-writing mood. My writing temperament is so fickle like that.
Anyway, I know it's unkind of me to be offering constant updates of drafts of scenes and then to mock you with a snippet of a snippet way ahead of time, but, um, did I mention I just watched Howl's Moving Castle and I'm all romantic-y-feely right now? Blame my babbling on that. Really.
Oh, and I made a new icon last night! Crossover icons are my drug. Firefly x Avatar = icon OTP!
::blink:: ::stare:: OMG. I just realized... Zuko and Jayne would make the most fucked up and funny slash pairing ever.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 12:24 am (UTC)And I'm glad that this fic is working for you! I know how it feels when all the pieces finally fall into place. It's like a writer high or something. ^^;
no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 01:42 am (UTC)Your preview-snippet thing has me hooked.
I always have the most awkward time writing intimate scenes. And when I do, they're not even that successful. I have no problems reading kissing scenes, but I have big problems writing them. Kudos to you!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 07:00 am (UTC)I always have the most awkward time writing intimate scenes.
Oh me too. I've only written one serious intimate scene in a fic before, and even that descended into a lot of figurative language and euphemisms. I love reading intimate scenes and smutfic but I can't write it without feeling really shy. Kissing isn't that hard to write, but I get often disatisfied; I want it to sound impressive and new, because kisses in fic so often sound the same. Then again, how man ways can you describe two people touching mouths? Everyone runs out of metaphors sooner or later.