“The ball is in your court now.”

—

“Relaxation” – created in Avatar: The Last Airbender Scene Maker.

Inspired by Seyary’s Sokkla Week 2013 entry titled “Beach”. I believe that quote went something like that. Go check all seven entries on her blog. You might have to dig around for them.

“Honou High Madness – Oblivious” – created in Rinmaru Games School Days manga creator.

Another one, taking place shortly after the events of Seyary’s High School AU.

Again, the uniforms aren’t right. Hope it looks fine.

Fanwright: So I know this may be a touchy thing to bring up in regards to Azula, but ever since it was revealed that she was part of the Kemurikage, I’ve felt that one of my ideas for a possible Sokkla story are now sunk. It involved Azula essentially becoming a masked renegade of sorts, kind of what Zuko was when he took on the identity of the “Blue Spirit”. Sokka, Mai, and Ursa would team up to find her (for reasons to long to explain here) as Azula struggles to find a purpose.

Well, the storylines the comics might bring up shouldn’t make you feel limited, I think. You can simply place your story a few years into the future, if that would help you with the story you’d like to write.

All the same, Azula might not be the Kemurikage – a feeble and somewhat hopeless hope, but it can’t be helped – it could be someone else with lightning bending skills. Since Azula’s face isn’t shown outright, it might not be her. So I’d suggest that, for the time being, you write whichever story you want… and if the comics don’t comply with it, too bad. We’ve got quite a share of settings where we ignore even the show’s canon events, so skipping over the comics is fair game, if you ask me.

Fanwright: Esegrouchmaniac actually inspired me to dream up a plot out-line that I eventually scrapped in favor of “Flying Tiger, Crouching Dragon”. Set in 1930’s Depression Era America, Sokka would have been a farm-boy-turned-hobo looking for a job in Chicago, while Azula’s family restaurant in Chinatown would be forced to close down. They would meet there before it closes, where the two decide to turn the place into a “speak-easy” and break into the illegal alcohol business.

Heh, interesting. Sokkla in the middle of clandestine things is a popular idea, but you know, it seldom gets written… it’s sad xD

This would be rather interesting to watch unfold, honestly. Two desperate souls joining together to survive, doing what needs to be done. In all honesty it’s one of those fail-proof plots for these two. No better way to make them work together than by pushing them into a situation where they need one another to survive. So this is a very good idea, and it would be rather intriguing to watch unfold, if it were ever written.

Fanwright: So I had this odd plot bunny after reading a couple of “Modern AU” A:TLA stories. Bear with me. Imagine Azula (or her family) as the undisputed monarch (or royal family)… of an unrecognized micro-nation. Like, the size of Sealand or Seborga. Now imagine Sokka as a journalist for a news network that is sent to this micro-nation to interview said ruler and learn about the “country” she leads. Yeah, its very odd, but I was looking for a Modern AU outside the box of typical settings.

Hehe, it could be interesting. Sokka as a journalist is new for me, I have to say. I hadn’t considered that career path for him in a modern setting. Azula as a monarch of a small nation would be quite handy as well – though it’s making me think of Genovia from the Princess’ Diaries! xD

The two of them would obviously get into all sorts of arguments, it’s easy to imagine that. Born into a royal family from an unrecognized nation, she will be quite a stubborn girl, I presume… though also pressured to find a suitable match in hopes to help the family’s case in being acknowledged as a nation, perhaps? So her dear father wants to set her up to marry princes from bigger countries wherever there are still monarchies, but it all keeps falling apart on him.

And it falls apart for good, no doubt, when this strange journalist (who Ozai had brought here so he could inform on the wonders of their country, I bet), somehow suddenly got involved with the Princess… just imagine the look on Ozai’s face if that happens xDDDD

Fanwright: Sokka’s hairstyle, the “Wolf-tail”, would actually look right at home on my campus in San Jose, California. The name here is called a “Man-Bun”. You can get your sides shaven in the exact same style as Sokka’s. That one, I think, is called an “undercut” man-bun. I’ve only seen it on Filipino, Chinese, or even Vietnamese guys (again this is only from my campus) and I honestly don’t know where it came from, but some manage to pull of a modern Sokka cos-play without even knowing it.

Haha, that’s quite amusing! The undercut style has been pretty popular were I live too, but only one guy was actually wearing what could pass for a Wolf-tail. Really interesting that we can see so many modern Sokka cosplays without most people noticing.

Fanwright: Its been done before with Zutara and many other pairings, so why not add Sokkla into the mix? No War AUs. By that, I mean “No Hundred Year War” AU. There can still be wars of course, even if they’re weird. For me, a story that is very similar to the “Pig War”, but for A:TLA, can provide a writer with a humorous approach to writing Sokkla. A scuffle between farmers on some contested island is overly escalated because these two have too much to prove. Old!Aang comes in to make peace.

I actually thought about a potential No War AU long ago, but I never made it happen. It’s a possibility that can go in many directions, depending on what you’re aiming towards. My idea was was a classic “everyone meets in a multicultural school” type of thing, like what was shown in that particular ATLA Chibi Short. I really think that’s where I got the idea…

All the same, LordStone’s Opposite Elements is a No War AU, with a lot of smaller conflicts than the Hundred Year War sparkled here and there. I have to say the Pig War idea you suggested looks quite amusing, giving that one a try would be worth it, surely. Humor is one of Sokkla’s best qualities, hands down!

There are lots of ways to approach this sort of AU, all the other pairings’ ideas are evidence of it. You could even have arranged marriage stories like this, setting Sokka and Azula up for a political marriage of sorts. You could even toy with a certain idea I’ve barely seen for Sokka and Azula, which is having these two meeting at young age and befriending one another, resulting in a life-long relationship with an early start.

Really, there are no boundaries for the No War AUs. In itself that change provides a lot of potential, and since this ship has so much potential all on its own, put both things together and you’ll find practicaly no limitations to the stories that could come from a setting like this.

Fanwright: The horror genre seems to me a great, if not relatively untapped, place for Sokkla. If you think about it, the whole premise of “Sokka (or some other person) visiting Azula at the asylum” route can be uniquely revamped to accommodate this, making it seem fresh. The question is how can one turn it into a “horror at the asylum”, what would be Sokka’s motivation for going (perhaps assisting Zuko, for example), and how does this affect Azula’s mental health? Deranged doctor? Spirits?

There have been ideas for a deranged doctor recently, yes. I’d think we’ve actually had more horror stories than we realize, since we have Keith B. Real’s extraordinary saga, and there were also certain horror elements in the unfinished p a i n t. While of course it’s not the most frequented genre in Sokkla fics, I think we’ve seen quite a few quality fics featuring horror themes.

The thought of Sokka visiting Azula and discovering a world of terror in the asylum really could work. Whether because Zuko asked him to go, whether because Sokka decided to see her for curiosity’s sake, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that the practices on mentally ill patients may not be completely morally correct, so to speak. Seeing how there’s a history of hideous methods to deal with mental illness in our society, who is to say there wouldn’t be a similar history in the Avatarverse?

So having Sokka finding out that the place Azula has been locked in is far more dangerous than the Princess herself… it really could make for a compelling storyline. Helping Azula can come in many forms, and pulling her away from influences that only attempt to make her worse could just be one of them.

As for a spirit tormenting Azula, that’s another route to take. I guess I’d make it so the spirit somehow attached itself to her while she was out in the forest, perhaps, since it was such a spiritual place. It would have to be a corrupt spirit, though, attempting to take Azula down from within, feeding off her energy. Sokka may not realize what’s going on this time, at least not right away… I think it might take Aang’s intervention for the spirit to detach itself from Azula.

Great ideas, though. We just might need to add more horror to our Sokkla repertoire indeed!

Fanwright: Has there ever been a post-apocalyptic type setting in A:TLA? Not a zombie apocalypse though, I mean one that would fit into A:TLA’s world, one where its already happened. Although the idea is a bit far-fetched, I was thing along the lines of “Sozin’s Comet hits the Earth and the world is changed” type of survival setting. Enemies from the war must learn to put aside differences, struggling together in a hellish world or die failing at it. Sokka and Azula are there of course.

I can’t say there have been, at least I haven’t seen any without zombies. The idea isn’t quite far-fetched, it actually sounds like something very plausible (from my understanding, Sozin’s Comet could have struck the earth, considering it seemed to breach the atmosphere… it just didn’t because of plot reasons, I reckon).

It really would be an interesting change, that instead of Ozai succeeding at burning the world under his power, the comet is responsible for the near annihilation of everything. It would be quite sad, but a struggle for survival of this nature would be interesting, to say the least. Rebuilding the world in this new situation would be quite challenging for the featured characters.

Nice fic idea indeed! Sokka and Azula working together for survival would be a very good way to create a solid bond between those two.