It's not often that you see stories explicitly about friendships, let along ones that strike such an interesting tone. Most post-war fics focus on the big picture of that era, Aang and Zuko fighting civil wars and facing assassins, but, aside from Katara's off-hand comments in one paragraph about her recent activities in the Fire Nation, here it's a ground level POV on the new world order. Even the setting avoids the potential for the high-stakes geopolitics. Everything is far away from Kyoshi Island, news travels only as far as the fastest ship, and everyone is trying to undramatically muddling forward with life: Ty Lee is learning not to be tense during breaks in conversation, Katara is struggling with deep-seated if well-justified resentments, Toph is still working through her freedom issues, and Suki is... dealing, I guess. All the differing cultural nods towards style and cuisine were great too. The various points of view are well-handled, with each of the four girls having distinct voices and vocabularies for how they describe the world.
A heartwarming slice-of-life friendship fic.
It's not often that you see stories explicitly about friendships, let along ones that strike such an interesting tone. Most post-war fics focus on the big picture of that era, Aang and Zuko fighting civil wars and facing assassins, but, aside from Katara's off-hand comments in one paragraph about her recent activities in the Fire Nation, here it's a ground level POV on the new world order. Even the setting avoids the potential for the high-stakes geopolitics. Everything is far away from Kyoshi Island, news travels only as far as the fastest ship, and everyone is trying to undramatically muddling forward with life: Ty Lee is learning not to be tense during breaks in conversation, Katara is struggling with deep-seated if well-justified resentments, Toph is still working through her freedom issues, and Suki is... dealing, I guess. All the differing cultural nods towards style and cuisine were great too. The various points of view are well-handled, with each of the four girls having distinct voices and vocabularies for how they describe the world.