Birthday AU Commentfic Meme!

[attackfish]

It’s my birth month, and to celebrate, I’m hosting a commentfic meme!  I’m in the mood to write some AU fics, so that’s the theme of the meme.  I’m open to both Avatar: the Last Airbender and Harry Potter requests, and I’m also taking requests in any of my existing AUs (Except Children of Mars), including the ones I established im my last commentfic meme, as well as new ones.  Comment with up to five requests, and I’ll guarantee you at least one commentfic.  I’ll probably answer with more, knowing me.  weirdlet , beboots , and floranna  get seven requests and a guarantee of two fics, because beboots  and floranna  are the best betas ever, and weirdlet  has a truly bizarre AU I inflicted on her rattling around in her head.  Also, anyone who wants me to write anything from my AU of Sun Child needs to ask weirdlet  and floranna , because it’s theirs.

*Closed and Finished*

Given that this meme has spawned a fair few universes, sorting the fics by requester would be clunky, so instead, I'm sorting them by universe this time.

One Shot Universes:

Another Wacky Day: Sokka3PO and KataraD2 (Star Wars/A:tLA fusion)  requested by avocado_love 
Oh Come On, Of Course Zuko’s a HufflePuff (Harry Potter/A:tLA crossover) requested by avocado_love 
Zuko muses on his fellow ruler, his sister, and the big universal questions of morality NOTE-not actually AU, requested by beboots
Dwarf!Toph (D&D fusion, sort of) requested by weirdlet 
Don’t even ask- I don’t even- What is wrong with you, woman? (Kyoshi Warrior Ozai) NOTE- Not AU, just crack, requested by weirdlet 
Suki's a Firebender requested by clockwerkchaos 
Toph is the one who finds Aang requested by panaili 
Ozai doesn’t allow the Dragon of the West to join Zuko in exile: Parts One, Two, and Three requested by lavanyasix 

Mirrorverse (The Avatar is an evil spirit):

Meetings requested by clockwerkchaos 
Aang's Little Crush requested by gamiel 
In This Verse, Azula Totes Rescues Puppies requested by avocado_love 

Lightning Strike (from this commentfic on a previous meme):

Sneaking out of Bed requested by lavanyasix 
Zuko and Kuei, chillin’ together requested by beboots 

AU of Ice Flows Through:

Mai, taking Azula's plan down from the inside: Parts One, Two, Three, and Four requested by beboots 

Quiet Shadowed Places verse (from this shortfic):

Zuko Finds Out He’s Blind requested by floranna 
Zuko Can’t Get Any Respect requested by beboots 
Fire Bending Masters requested by Hillary (anonymous user)
Agni Kai During Sozin’s Comet requested by Hillary
Toph and Zuko bonding NOTE- crack, and absolutely not universe canon, requested by beboots 

Iroh Dies in S2 (from these three commentfics in a previous meme):

Crossroads of Destiny Parts One, Two Three, Four, and Five requested by beboots 
The Throne Room requested by beboots 
Royalty Lessons requested by beboots 

Fail!Incubus Zuko:

Attempted Seduction *warning for sexual coercion and slavery* requested by weirdlet 
Courting Mai requested by gamiel 

Life Spirit:

Toph Bei Fong requested by clockwerkchaos 
Winter When He Goes requested by weirdlet 
Zuko and Iroh requested by clockwerkchaos 
Sokka and Katara requested by clockwerkchaos 

Koizilla Destroys the Fire Nation (from this commentfic from a previous meme):

Song requested by clockwerkchaos 

Modern Day:

Toph and Aang Meet requested by panaili 
Sleepover requested by panaili 

AU of Sun Child:

NOTE- Sun Child belongs to weirdlet and an index of fics in that verse can be found here.  This AU of the Sun Child AU began in these two commentfics from a previous meme *Warning for heavily implied Rape by Coercion and Sexually Abusive Dialogue*

Zhao and Zura's Child is Born requested by floranna 

Zuko Hurt His Leg on the Run and it Won’t Heal (from this commentfic on a previous meme):

Teo and Zuko Bonding Parts One and Two requested by Hillary
Assistive Technology is a Beautiful Thing requested by Hillary

Comments

[panaili.livejournal.com]

All righty, then. :D Happy birthday!

1) Sokka figures out that Toph has a crush on him. In series.

2) Modern day: how Toph first meets Aang.

3) The GAang at a sleepover. With alcohol. :)

Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Sometimes Aang saw the girl walking in the park with her parents, in stiff, handmade satin dresses. She never went on the swings or the slide, or left the sidewalk to run in the grass Even when the other kids pointed and laughed at her, she just walked with her parents, holding their hands.

He never saw her in school. He didn’t think she went to one.

Whenever she walked by him, he was too busy flying kites to say hi, but he didn’t laugh at her.

He didn’t even know what her voice sounded like.

“INCOMING!” The basketball flew through the air towards him, and he ducked. It hit the kite string and snapped it in two, and all that Aang was left with was the plastic kite spool. The girl who had shouted flung her arms around his middle and bore him to the ground, scrambling over him to chase after the ball again. Her pretty green satin dress was hiked up around her knees and covered with mud and grass, and his kite was floating away, its snapped string trailing behind.

“What are you doing!” he cried out, wiping the mud and pebbles off his cheek. “Are you crazy?”

She grinned, catching up with the ball and bouncing it off her knees. She flopped down on the grass beside him and curled around the basketball “I was playing soccer.”

“You knocked me over!” He sat down next to her, hand still wrapped around his kite string spool.

“Yeah, well if you were on my team, I wouldn’t have.”

“You’re not supposed to tackle anybody in soccer.” He glanced at her. “Besides, you don’t have a team.”

She leaned back against the grass and stared up at the sun. “So?”

“You’re not supposed to do that,” he whispered. “You could go blind.

She waved a hand in front of her face and blinked really fast. “Been there, done that.”

He stared, feeling awful. “You’re blind? How did you know where the ball was?”

“I knew where I kicked it, duh.”

“So,” he said lightly, feeling awful and stupid. “Where are your parents today?”

She picked at a clump of grass. “I snuck out.”

“Oh.” He watched his kite drifting further and further away. “I’ll be on your team if you want me to.”

“If you’re just saying that because I’m blind, I’ll kick your ass, Twinkletoes.”

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

Heehee. Toph, you are teh awesomes.

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Oh, she is, she is.

If I ever expand this universe beyond the two fics I wrote for this meme, I'll have to show that Aang's still bald. Because he's kicking his leukemia's ass.

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

...feckin' awesome. I do like that sort of ass-kicking.

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[water-soter.livejournal.com]

Love this! Then again I love everything you write. BTW, any modern day ALAB you can rec?

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

ALAB?

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[water-soter.livejournal.com]

Avatar Last Airbender :-P

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've only seen it abbreviated A:tLA. Most of the modern day AUs I know of are really really shippy.

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[water-soter.livejournal.com]

Ah, huh, I had only seen it like ALAB. I don't mind ship, slash/het just really good stories and since you're amazing, I know anything you recommend would be good.

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

It's really not my crack (I tend to prefer fantasy and scifi AUs of non-fantasy/scifi shows) so I don't have many, but transference by scuttlebutt inc (two author team) is good: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4555190/1/Transference (Zukka) as is Irrel's AU, which is a Zutara webcomic http://paolairene.com/irrelsau/?p=157 (though it has not blind!Toph which pisses me off) hmmm, really don't know many. I know a couple of modern technology but not our universe fics too, but it's really as I said, not my crack.

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[water-soter.livejournal.com]

Ah, no prob! Thank you so much for taking the time to give me these! I do love school AU, but any you can rec since I'm pretty new to this fandom . . .

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

So as you will be able to see, Alternate Timeline AUs are my special crack! That and Avatar!Zuko. Yeah, I know. My first bit of advice is to check out avocado_love's rec list. http://avocado-love.livejournal.com/23888.html and also, all her fics. They're gooooooood. And this is from someone who only shares a few favorite ships with her.

In no particular order:

Strike Me Down by suzukiblu: http://community.livejournal.com/white_knuckle/tag/%5Bstory%5D%20needz%20moar% Summary: Toph makes a mistake, Zuko makes it worse, and saving the world’s never been so hard as when it’s the bad guy who needs the saving. Notes: alternate season 2, timeline makes no sense. I dare you to care.

Without a Fight and Never Give Up by suzukiblu (anything by her, really) http://community.livejournal.com/white_knuckle/42561.html and http://community.livejournal.com/white_knuckle/58972.html Summary: An AU take on Zuko’s banishment. “Thirteen years old and alone in the Earth Kingdom, thrown out of his life and family and destiny with the burn on his face still raw and new, Zuko does not want to go on.”

Resistance is Futile by Jakia: http://jakia.livejournal.com/39726.html No author summary. Just read it, it's short. Has a sort of remix by beckyh2112 http://beckyh2112.livejournal.com/394757.html, and with these two fics, you can see the seeds of Ice Flows through.

Something to Hold on To by aliwildgoose: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5278686/1/Something_To_Hold_Onto Summary: Jet and his second command, a mysterious boy named Li, have spent the summer piecing together an army, hoping for a chance to take Ba Sing Se back for good. But Li is also Zuko, and the time for that secret is quickly running out. Jetko

The Madness of Dawn by stingmon: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5530042/1/The_Madness_of_dawn Summary: Your name is Li; you're not a bender. Your name is Li; you're not a bender. Your name's Li; you're not a bender. One-sided Jetko. warning, creepy.

Reluctant Hero by P.A.W. 07 http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5942075/1/ Summary: It had been an accident. That was what Zuko had said to his crew when he bended an element he hadn't been meant to. He wasn't the Avatar. The newest Avatar was in the Earth-kingdom hidden by its walls. Unless that Avatar had died long ago. So … how had he done it? AU

Life Began With Waking Up by Rawles: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3196414/1/Life_Began_with_Waking_Up Summary: It was a simple truth that Mai had never really thought about her children. MaiZuko. notes: This is my all time favorite fic of my all time favorite pairing. I may be a bit biased. Rawles's work in general is excellent, especially if you like Maiko.

Another Brother by avocado-love (well, everything she's written, really): http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4414541/1/Another_Brother Summary: It was a mission of revenge. There weren't supposed to be any survivors, but Chief Hakoda couldn't bring himself to kill the Fire Nation boy. Against his better judgment, he brought him home. A Zuko joins the Water Tribe story.

Lose Yourself and Find Yourself by avocado_love: http://avocado-love.livejournal.com/134328.html http://avocado-love.livejournal.com/138253.html , http://avocado-love.livejournal.com/147679.html , http://avocado-love.livejournal.com/153028.html , http://avocado-love.livejournal.com/159746.html

Enslaved by sharkflip: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5306755/1/Enslaved Summary: A triumphant war party returns with an exotic slave, a gift for the ruling house. Katara and Zuko AU Notes:I am not a Zutaran. Zutara fics tend to annoy me. Enslaved just rocks that hard.

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[panaili.livejournal.com]

omg, she's playing SOCCER with a BASKETBALL and I totally adore your modernday!Toph. and Aang. And the whole concept of this verse. :D

Re: Modern Day: Toph and Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't matter what kind of ball it is, all that matters is that I can kick it!"

Modern Day: Sleepover

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

“How does ‘Aang’s grandfather’s going to be out of town for the weekend, and he’s feeling a little lonely’ equal ‘Let’s go to Aang’s place and throw a huge party, with alcohol?’” Katara demanded, glowering at the snack table her brother had set up, and the one unfortunate guest who had shown up.

“How does it not mean that?” Sokka squawked.

“I dunno, but it’s a good thing no one showed up,” Toph said from the couch, feet in the air.

Katara looked at her, surprised. “Thank you, Toph!”

“Because Sokka didn’t manage to score nearly enough beer.”

Katara rolled her eyes.

“I must be really unpopular if I can’t even get anybody to come over to my house for free beer,” Aang muttered despondently.

Giving Sokka one last dirty look, Katara sat down next to her friend and put her arm around his shoulder. “That’s not true, Aang, You’ve got us, right?”

The lone party guest, some kid named Zuko from Sokka’s pre-calculus class that they barely knew, glanced at the door, and then at Katara and Aang, and back at the door. “I’ll... Just go, now...”

“Oh no you don’t!” Sokka threw his arm around Zuko’s shoulder and pulled him back towards the living room. “I worked hard to get that twelve-pack and a bottle of vodka, and we’re not letting them go to waste!”

“Wha-”

“SLEEPOVER!”

Re: Modern Day: Sleepover

[panaili.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, I think my favorite part is how Zuko is the lame kid who was the only one outside the group to show up to Aang's party. SO AWKWARD.

Also, AWESOME. \o/

Re: Modern Day: Sleepover

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

They totally get drunk and BOND!

One little thing, "lame"is a word of ableist connotations (ableism is the belief that people with disabilities are less valuable than people without them, or that people with disabilities act a certain way or any number of the insidious sorts of predudice people with disabilities face). "Lame" in this use is a word that tries to equate physical disability with dweebishness. As a woman with disabilities, I'd appreciate if you didn't use it. I KNOW YOU PROBABLY WEREN'T THINKING ABOUT IT'S MEANING IN CONJUNCTION WITH DISABILITY WHEN YOU WROTE IT. I just wanted you to know it's a hurtful word in this context.

Re: Modern Day: Sleepover

[panaili.livejournal.com]

I apologize for using hurtful language, though you're right, I wasn't intending to be insulting when I used it. In respect to the original meaning of the word "lame", though I was aware of the ableist connotations and original meaning of the word, the reason I didn't think of it was primarily due to the fact that I have never in my life referred to a disabled person as "lame". I do understand where you're coming from, however; I feel the same way about people using the word "gay" to mean something stupid. In retrospect, I should have been more considerate in my word choice.

...also, I was still kind of drunk when I replied. So there's also that. ;P

Re: Modern Day: Sleepover

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

For a while (as anyone who has read my earlier fanfic knows) "lame" was my go-to word for clumsy phrases and dweebishness. I've left it mostly intact for archival reasons, but someday, I'm going to go back and edit it out.

Re: Gay as a pejorative, anyone unfortunate enough to use it around me gets a free lecture about respect, heteronormativity, and bully culture from a weird, tiny college student.

Re: Modern Day: Sleepover

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

They totally get drunk and BOND!

By which I mean with Zuko. Zuko joins the gang after this!

By the wayk I thought I should remind you that you have two request slots open, in case you want to use them.

Re: Modern Day: Sleepover

[panaili.livejournal.com]

oh HEY you're right. OKAY THEN:

4) Series!AU: Toph is the one who wakes up Aang.

5) ModernDay!AU: Katara nominates Toph for homecoming queen as a joke. To everyone's surprise, she makes it into the top five and has to participate in all of the bullshit "Homecoming Week" activities. Toph is Not Pleased.

Toph is the one who finds Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I could not for the life of me figure out a way to get Toph to the south pole to find Aang’s iceberg. You almost got Toph the waterbender.

On a side note, I know absolutely nothing about homecoming courts, but three out of five requests isn’t half bad!



I could not for the life of me figure out a way to get Toph to the south pole to find Aang’s iceberg. You almost got Toph the waterbender.

On a side note, I know absolutely nothing about homecoming courts, but getting three out of five requests answered isn’t half bad!

The tunnels branched out in all directions under the Bei Fong estate. The earth moved with the girl as she wound her way through the passageways, steps certain in the absolute darkness. Dirt stuck to her bare feet, reluctant to leave her. She squished her toes in the solid rock, and the rock bent under them.

The tournament season was over. Even her covert fun was over for the year. All she had left were her tunnels and the earth itself. She punched the wall and tossed the boulder that flew out from hand to hand. This called for new tunnels, going further beyond the borders of her parents’ estate, out beyond Gaoling. This called for doing something her mother and father would never ever get to know about, even if she lived to be a hundred, and they lived until she was that old too.

She shoved the wall with both hands until the stone gave way. Dust puffed out from the crumbling stone and buried itself in her nightgown. She let it coat every bit of her, like a second skin, her real skin.

The earth yielded to her. It didn’t think she was helpless, and it always told her the truth.

She pounded the wall, just to feel the rock give way, and for a moment, she felt a strange sort of grief. If she ever needed to hit something solid, and know it wasn’t going to give way, to just feel the blow all the way up her arm, she had to hold her target in place.

And that didn’t seem fair.

She slammed her hands into the wall again and the rock split open, the embryonic tunnel slowly growing outwards. Hands met new wall in the soothing rhythm of her earthbending. The stone pushed back with her hands. Until she met something in the middle of the new wall that wouldn’t give. The rock around it fell away, and it dropped to the ground.

It was stone.

Toph poked it with her foot in bewilderment. Why hadn’t it given way? Stone always yielded to her. This stone wasn’t doing what it was supposed to!

The stone she couldn’t bend lay against the tunnel’s living rock and Toph knelt down next to it. It was so weird, lying there it felt almost like a small, heavy person.

But people were strange, blurry things when they weren’t made out of stone, shapes that she could only see because they touched the earth and affected it. But this person was earth. She traced her fingers over his nose and mouth, into the curve of his ear, down his arms, and over his fingernails. His clothing didn’t swing, but stayed stiff, frozen in folds and ripples. In frustration, she struck it with the heel of her hand and bent as hard as she knew how, furious at it for not acting like stone should.

It cracked. Toph ground her teeth. Great, she’d found some sort of weird mystery, and she’d broken it. Just-

Suddenly, inexplicably, a bit of it vanished. Left in its place was something lighter, something warmer. Something moving.

The tiny bit of it that had vanished was the hand. Only a thin layer of dust remained over the living hand, attached to the stone wrist.

Toph poked it’s palm. The fingers snapped closed just after she snatched her finger away. She heaved out a hard breath and pounded the heels of her hands up along the statue’s arms and chest, and into his legs and feet. The stone fell away. Slowly, and with each strike, a little more of the statue came to life, until she came to his face and he opened his eyes.

He blinked in drowsy, slow voice. "I need to ask you something.”

“Yeah?”

“Please... come closer.”

He was so small, like her, slight, and safe. She could fight him off. She could fight off anything. Toph leaned in. “Okay, ask.”

He grinned, and pulled himself up from the ground, voice suddenly fast and excited. “Will you ride the badger-moles with me?”

Toph stumbled back, into the tunnel wall. “Are you for real?”

Re: Toph is the one who finds Aang

[panaili.livejournal.com]

omg IN EVERY WAY YES

And after she got over the whole "okay, random boy in the middle of the ground" nonsense, he'd be like, "So, uh, back to my question -- wanna ride badger-moles?" And Toph would be all, "Sweet" and use her magic badger-mole language abilities to summon them up.

And they would have WACKY CRAZY FUN. I'm trying to imagine a plot line in which the whole "Aang is the Avatar and is Important and Needs to Save the World" bit comes up quickly, and I really can't. Like, he'd mention it in passing, and Toph would be all like, "Whatever, weirdo. Let's go throw rocks at people."

Eventually Aang would airbend too much at Zuko would find out. Like, four months down the road. Y'know, maybe.

Re: Toph is the one who finds Aang

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

The universe would totally make sure that Zuko found out about Aang earlier and so mess up all Toph and Aang's WACKY CRAZY FUN, though. Dang.

Actually, I kinda think Toph would be a bit possessive of the badger moles. She'd take a lot of coaxing. They would spark off each other, and it would be GLORIOUS!