NaNoWriMo Update

I'm up to 13,141 words in my NaNoWriMo fanfic novel, Praise Be to Nero's Neptune. Progress has been slowly picking up after the initial "creative frenzy" that follows me starting any project. I had a couple of ideas of what I wanted to do -- Lu Ten and King Kuei as fellow gilded cage birdies, Fire Lord Iroh's cultural imperialism, Toph's very different life, the new, evil Blue Spirit -- but it didn't really gel into an actual story until around the time I hit the 10k mark. Then I realized what Praise Be is really about: crack shipping. Yes, aside from some background Kataang, there will be crack ships galore: Foe Yay-tastic Blukka (Blue Spirit/Sokka), unsubtle Ku Tei (Lu Ten/Kuei), bittersweet Lu Yuen (Lu Ten/Yue), "doin' it for Mad Scienzzz" Liankka (Sokka/Lian), chaste Soaang (Song/Aang), and, heck, I'm even thinking about throwing in some Maizukla (Mai/Zuko/Azula) just for the hell of it. I'm sure sanity will prevail about including that last ship, however.

Here's an excerpt, below the cut.

( Sokka meets Guru Pathik )