Katara stormed into the apartment in a sour mood. Her brother jerked in surprise at her sudden appearance, knocking over the bag of cheetos he had cradled on his lap. "Katara? What are you doing back? Is it 8:30 already?! Shiiiit! I had a deadline and I thought I still had…"

Katara held up her hands to stop Sokka's inevitable panic. "You're not late," 'yet' she added mentally, "I'm home early and my boss is a raging jackass."

Sokka shrugged, "What else is new? He was a jackass on Friday, he was a jackass the day before that, and the day before that. Odds are he'll even be a jackass tomorrow too!"

Katara pursed her lips and glared at her brother.

"Remember, you just work for the guy, you don't have to marry him. So he's an asshole, put up with him during the day then make a voodoo doll so you can stick pins in his ass at night, or we could put his picture up on a dartboard! I've always wanted a dart board…"

"No dartboards," Katara reminded him, "I'm not losing my deposit on this place just because you have terrible aim." Sokka opened his mouth to argue but Katara didn't give him the chance to interject, "I don't care how much you've been practicing, it's not going to mean a thing after a few beers or need I remind you of the 'cactus juice' incident?" Sokka quickly shifted strategies from debating to pouting. Katara groaned, "Speaking of beer, I could really use a cold one." She opened the fridge and stared mindlessly into it.

"Sorry, sis, you know the rules: you imbibe it, you supply it!" Sokka reminded her, gloating at his own wit. Katara groaned as he tried out different variations, trying to perfect the phrasing. "You shot it, you bought it? Nah, it was beer, not shots… You swill it, you fill it?"

'Witty' catchphrases aside, Sokka did have a point: she drank the beer, she didn't buy any replacements, and now there wasn't any beer left. Katara collapsed onto the couch with a groan and threw an arm over her eyes. Sokka hovered around her for a minute. "...So you're not going to make a beer run?"

"No, I am not going to run out and get you beer, Sokka. I had a shitty day at work and it's only Monday." Katara glared at him. "Don't you have a 'deadline'?" she accused as she watched him try to retrieve his fallen cheetos.

Sokka jerked up, spilling additional cheetos in the process. "Shit! You're right!" He abandoned his bag of snacks on the couch as he made a mad dash for his computer.

Her brother's panic drew Katara out of her funk a little bit. She trailed after him to see what was going on. "What's happening?"

"White Lotus is having open submissions! This is my chance to actually get my comics published!"

Katara eyed him skeptically. "Why would anyone want to publish Meat Man?"

"Because…" Sokka typed frantically, "he's one of the top superhero webcomics! White Lotus goes for the independent, offbeat stuff! Not like BSS and Omashu. Neither of them would look twice at me, but White Lotus? I'm right up their alley!"

Katara gave Sokka a bit of a skeptical look, but left him to his submission. He assured her that he would take her up on her offer to proofread, but there probably wasn't going to be time for that.


At 8:29 Sokka swaggered into the room. "Got my application in with…" he looked at his watch, "37 seconds to spare! I am the best!" Katara rolled her eyes. She had started looking into this open submission period and noticed that it had been over a month long.

"And what did you do with the other 29 days it was open?"

"Preparing myself! I had to put my best foot forward after all!" Katara wanted to snark about whether that included a hasty cover letter with no proofreading, but let it slide.

"And what exactly is your best foot?"

"Glad you asked!" Sokka bustled into his room and dragged out a large portfolio. Katara raised an eyebrow and opened the unfamiliar folder: inside were pages and pages of drawings. She flipped through the stack and there were easily 50 full comic pages in various states of completion.

"These are phenomenal!" She trailed her fingers over a more finished panel showing a bendy, stylized superhero fighting crime. "These… aren't Meat Man." Katara happily proofread the webcomic's dialogues and gave writing tips and this was all new.

"Nope, meet The Boomerang!" Sokka announced, posing dramatically. Katara looked up at him, not sure of what to make of the new character and name. "The Boomerang is the new comic I'm pitching! He's a badass superhero with a sense of humor! Think Batman meets Deadpool with a dash of Conan!" Katara nodded; she at least had some notion of what that meant. "Now add in an indie comic, stylized drawing style and you have The Boomerang!"

"So you didn't submit any Meat Man?"

"Of course not! Isn't it obvious?" Katara shook her head. "If they wanted Meat Man they would have gotten Meat Man. It's been online for almost ten years now. Someone, somewhere at White Lotus, had to know about it—probably a lot of them really—and none of them ever felt the need to contact me about it. Because they didn't want Meat Man I knew I had to make a new property and thus The Boomerang was born! He takes all the humor of Meat Man and meshes it with jaw-dropping, heart-racing action!" Sokka posed a few more times to emphasize just how exciting the comic was.

Katara shook her head and smiled, "Okay Sokka, you win. You are a genius!" She gave him a giant bear hug. For just a little while it helped to remember that even though she had had a rough day, her brother was out there making waves.

One celebratory beer run later, Sokka was slouched on the couch sucking down his third beer when he finally remembered Katara's earlier, foul mood. "So what happened with Zuko today? I'm assuming he's the cause of all this."

Katara sighed and put down her half-finished bottle (only one, she did have work in the morning). "He's still giving me grief over nothing! Over the way I write my settings and action! As if that even matters. We have set designers and actors for a reason, you know!" She gestured wildly before nursing her beer a little more. "It was never like this under Bumi: he was crazy, but he got things done! If Zuko had been head writer back when I was interning for Grimoire, I never would have stayed. I never would have even tried anything new because I would have been too afraid of getting even a hair out of line! It's terrible!"

Sokka shrugged, "Bosses are the worst. It's why I don't have one!" Katara was very tempted to point out that not having one was also the reason why she paid all the rent, but decided to let it slide for the evening. She didn't want to rag on him when he had just completed a month long project. "Anyway, I know what will make you feel better!" Katara cocked her head. "Draw him!"

"Sokka, I can't draw."

"Doesn't matter, draw him anyway!" Sokka insisted, handing her a pencil and paper.

Katara gave him an odd look, but began, "Well, let's see... tall, dark hair-"

Sokka frantically shook his head and waved his arms. "Not like that. Don't try to draw a portrait; you're not going to be good at it anyway." Katara glared at him. "Don't think about what he looks like, draw how you think of him."

This got a more critical look from Katara and a deep swig of beer. "Hmm… Well, he thinks he's better than everyone else, hypercritical. Aang and I call him 'Prince Zuko' sometimes because he's an annoying prick that needs to have everything his own way and god forbid you disagree."

"Good! Draw him leaning over or looking down at someone. Don't worry about making it look like him, just make it feel like him." Katara scribbled an ugly stick figure yelling pounding a fist on the table.

"How do I make him look more like a holier-than-thou asshole?"

"Easy! Raise the lip in a sneer like this…" Sokka sketched over her lines, "And make his shapes close together like he doesn't want to touch any of the riffraff."

"Better?"

"Yep! Now draw him looking off to the side, that'll make him look self-involved. Good!"

"But it doesn't look like Zuko yet," Katara complained.

Sokka shook his head. "Don't worry," he said, "Now that we have the basic attitude we'll add the features that make him look like the royal douchebag we all know and love!"

Katara scribbled on some dark messy hair and shaded in the left side of his face. Then she gave him a little more of a scowl and giggled. "Sokka, you are a genius!"


The next day was not as terrible as she had thought it would be. When she arrived that morning there as an email waiting for her:


Katara,

Although our meeting today did not go well, I stand by my previous notes. We'll meet again Wednesday afternoon. I'm looking forward to your rewrite with sufficient actions and settings. Have a good night.

Zuko Sozin


Katara rolled her eyes at the 'helpful' reminder. It was only then that she noticed Aang cautiously approaching her cubicle. He waved guiltily. "Feeling any better today?"

"Much," Katara said with a very grateful smile as she started to doodle on a sticky note.

"Well, I'm glad," Aang remarked. He twisted his foot around a little bit. "Just in case, I did get you something to perk you up." Katara looked up in surprise.

"Really? What?"

"Just a little something really," Aang said as he pulled out a little, bobble-headed creature from behind his back. "A little buddy to keep you company!"

Katara beamed. "Aang! He's adorable! Is he a bat?"

"Bat-lemur, but close enough. Tell me, Mr. Lemur, do you think Katara's script is as good as I do?" Aang asked the toy, then pushed the lemur's head down so he nodded his agreement. Katara giggled.

"Aang, I love him! Thank you. That was so sweet!" She put a hand on Aang's arm and his cheeks colored. Katara looked around conspiratorially, then whispered to him, "Come back later. My brother had a great way to deal with 'Prince Zuko.'" She grinned wickedly and snuck a quick peek at her doodle.

Aang chuckled nervously, a deeper tint to his cheeks. "Will do. Unfortunately, I have to go see his highness right now."

"I thought your script was approved!"

"It was," Aang sighed, "I don't know what he wants, but he sent me an email last night about meeting with him for a few hours this morning. Afterwards want to grab lunch with me?"

"Chipotle?" suggested Katara.

"Sounds perfect! See you before too long."

Katara smiled as she returned to Final Draft to work on her episode from last week: it was way better than the abomination she had forced out yesterday. Now she just had to go back and add all the unnecessary settings.


INT. VICTORIA'S ROOM - NIGHT

VICTORIA confronts a restrained AZAZEL in her room. The only light comes from her lamp.

She holds a flask of holy water.

VICTORIA

I'm ready for you. I know you

think you're hot shit, but you're

not.

AZAZEL

You think you're going to

achieve anything here? What

do you have to offer?

Nothing. Now be a good little

girl and do as you're told.

VICTORIA splashes AZAZEL with the holy water.

VICTORIA

What does it say about you?

You're the one who got

captured by a 'little girl.'

AZAZEL

I will make you regret this.

You should have listened to

me when you had the chance.

AZAZEL's eyes turn black as he attempts a spell. VICTORIA cuts him off with another splash of holy water.


It took several hours for Katara to get through the first few scenes. Zuko's notes detailed exactly what he wanted in terms of setting (along with everything else he could possibly think of), but Katara wasn't about to roll over that easily. Instead, she went to great care to convey what he had asked for, but not exactly in the way he wanted. She firmly believed in the creatives in studio and wanted to give them as much freedom as she could; the problem was getting Zuko to approve that. She rather suspected "Describe room: use it to tell Victoria's story and habits" meant "Describe every piece of junk Victoria owns in extreme detail." Well, if Zuko wanted everything that specific, that's what his notes should have said. She nearly cackled at the thought. 'Oh, Zuko! This isn't what you wanted? Perhaps you should have been more specific rather than letting me interpret everything the way I saw fit. Hahahaha!'

It was nearly two when Aang made his way back to her cubicle. "Sorry, Katara, my meeting ran later than expected," he said in way of explanation.

"Sure thing… Jeez! What did he do to you? You look terrible! Err, no offense."

Aang waved his hand. "Just an intense meeting. Because I finished my script early, Zuko wanted me to do some additional work for him…" Aang looked down as he straightened his shirt cuff a little, "You still up for some Chipotle?" He asked, tilting his head hopefully. "I was looking forward to it the whole time."

"You know it! I'm sure you need a break after three hours with 'Prince Zuko' anyway!" Katara tossed her bag over her shoulder.

Aang smiled and escorted her out of the office, relief radiating off of him.


After a leisurely lunch they headed back to work.

"You know, it's unfair of Zuko to assign you extra work just because you managed to finished your script early," Katara complained as they walked through the door. "You should really just be allowed to take the time to research exactly what you want to do next season or get some story editing credit or something!"

Aang shrugged, "I know, but it's not all bad. Besides, I have to listen to his highness, you know! I for one am glad to have full time work."

That's when Katara's eyes lit up. "Sokka! I never showed you what Sokka showed me!" She grabbed Aang's arm and dragged him over to her desk. "My brother was feeling bad for me for having such a terrible boss, so he taught me a… stress relieving technique?" she said, not entirely happy with the phrasing, "Anyway, watch this!"

Katara started sketching out the figure and within a few minutes she had drawn a cartoony monster on her post-it note pad. She giggled and scribbled in some messy hair and shaded in his left side. On further inspection Katara decided to give him a top hat and fangs in his open mouth. "I give you Pazuzu!"


I promise Zuko-Katara interaction in the next chapter, but I always enjoy having a good set-up.

We finally get the introduction of Pazuzu! I decided on Pazuzu because it's so much more fun to get "Zuzu" in the story somewhere! As you may have guessed from the summary, Pazuzu is not going anywhere, but we'll have to wait and see what happens next.

For the record: BSS and Omashu are this world's equivalents to DC and Marvel respectively. White Lotus is more or less Dark Horse. I'm hoping it was relatively clear from the context.

Lastly I hope everyone enjoyed Sokka. One of my favorite aspects of the show is that although Sokka is a non-bender he was equally respected and had his own skills. In this universe with no bending I had to figure out how to keep that aspect of Sokka being useful. It seemed perfect to me that Sokka would be an indie artist with good insight into the market. To put it another way: Katara, Aang, and Zuko are all working nice full time jobs on someone else's show, but Sokka is the only one of the three out there doing 100% his own thing. ...Sokka may be a bit of a mad genius too.

I hope you enjoyed! As always, I love hearing comments so let me know what you think! If I got anything wrong (even a typo) please let me know and I'll fix it asap! I can't tell you how much I wanted to name this chapter "Meat Man and Boomerang Boy," but I thought the Spongebob reference might be a little too silly.