#could also be a mailee au if you want

[newbie-i-guess]

Tyzula legally blonde au. Think about it

[sunbeamsoup]

4 for twfafy, 10, 19 for always you, 25, 30, 45, and 49!

Ah!!! :)

ask game here

4. What detail of twfafy are you really proud of?

Probably the fact that I wrote it all and am still striving to finish it! I haven't been as interested in engaging with atla beyond general appreciation for the show for a while now, and in some ways that had made pushing through twfafy challenging. But, I do have an affection for the story itself and the characters and the joy that comes with sharing it that absolutely keeps me dedicated to finishing the fic no matter how my interest in the source text wanes/changes. I wanted to add to the mailee tag because they're just wonderful and I'm really happy to have done so!

10. How do you decide what to write?

Spite!

Well, fanfiction usually comes about when a thematic interest of mine coincides with questions I have of the source material and whichever ones pull me in the most get written. Twfafy is in large part an effort to offer another mailee longfic where they are the sole pairing, but there are a lot of things working within it. I had questions abt how fandom treats the young fire nation characters, how the show itself engages with them, how a romantic relationship between the mai and ty lee would function in a close-to-canon context, how mai and ty lee's betrayal of azula could have been rooted in years of build up and what that might look like, how their perception of the war changes, etc. and thematically there's all the usual points about love, family, loss, absence, violence, and agency which paired with the questions i have. the draw is definitely the mailee relationship, but there's other stuff here lol. 'Always You' was in response to conversations fandom has had about wei wuxian in mo xuanyu's offered body in the present timeline, which either dissatisfied me, intrigued me, or plainly pissed me off. How to approach that in a fic was interesting to me, and I thought it could work as a smaller piece to give u for ur birthday. Thematically we're dealing with identity, recognition, love, the past as it shapes the present, physical appearance feeling contradictory, etc. which worked with my questions of the story that became 'Always You.' And now I'm working on a big au trying to marry some of the themes of hmc with the characters, setting, and story (almost not quite it's a whole thing) paired w my own need to write old man lan wangji. My sunshot canon divergence is mainly based on spite, while also considering several themes that i will be making everyone's problem soon enough :)

19. If you wrote a spin-off to 'Always You,' what would it involve?

There's a few things left unsaid that could be fun to play with. maybe we would check-in on lan xichen we all seemed to love the super fun time lan xichen was having of things. maybe another scenario could push the unanswered questions to firmer resolution, but idk I really love where the fic ended. I'm not sure an expansion would service it, no matter how fun it would be. But who knows, I may have a better idea to expand it by the time ur birthday comes again.

25. What other website or resources do you use most often when you write?

What, am I supposed to reveal all my secrets???

While I've gone on many a Wikipedia binge while writing I rarely use it as a source, especially given how complex some questions can become. Mainly, I have the original text beside me and marked off to relevant sections so I can refer to it (or reaffirm that I am not making shit up when pulling on canonical specifics). For twfafy I have a tab open to watch the atla episodes relevant to what the given chapter is covering (and I still manage to fuck up the timeline, go figure). Mdzs fics are written with three/four different translations open to check quick details I somehow forgot in the 600k+ words of text or to look over descriptions of places, characters, and so on.

When it comes to research I don't fuck around. At least, I try not to, I think it's important (I'm not biased not at all ignore the history major behind the curtain). But I'm also privileged with my university email which gets me access to academic sources that are often indispensable, informative and interesting. Researching for fic is a whole other topic that I won't get into here ask separately if you want an overly invested reply lmao. Even if none of the stories I engage with are strictly historical I do think there's value, even responsibility at a certain threshold of ignorance/inexperience, in like. At least tossing an inquiry into ur search bar instead of copy-pasting the usual responsibility-waving disclaimer in the fic's notes.

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

In original fiction, all the fucking time, often for a grade, lol.

I don't know if I've written enough fanfiction to make this claim, but I think so? The zu/kka longfic that I was writing years ago was far from my comfort zone, but that experience was actually quite detrimental to shaping my confidence as a writer and reliance on external validation (no 17 year old should know that thousands of ppl like the fic they aren't sure they can ever finish, it will make them believe they've peaked while they form an unhealthy, warped view of what amnt of feedback signifies that you've written something "good." ahem.) But from that point, I've only ever written fic that I was invested in and cared about outside of the response it garnered from others. I am the proud writer of two fics that could be considered certified flops in some circles and I love 'em!

Content-wise I suppose this new sunshot canon divergence is out of my comfort zone in that it has no plot but is being written quicker than I've ever written anything in my life. We'll have to see how that goes!

45. What's something you've improved on since you started writing fic?

I hope my prose has gotten a bit better. I know it can get a bit clunky and arrhythmic, but I imagine fixing that will just be a matter of time. I do think my descriptions have improved, though I'm sure there's much room to refine them. Sometimes I even use the right "its/'s," so there's that.

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you're up for it!

Certainly! From all three of my wips because it's my answer I do what I want:

TWFAFY CH.8

Ty Lee leaned in and forced the book open, right on the page where that account lay, calling out to Mai’s shame with dark ink that seemed to grow bolder the longer she tried to avoid looking directly at it. 

“‘Lover,’” Ty Lee whispered. “It’s always ‘lover.’”

“Always?” 

She released her grip on the book gladly when Ty Lee tugged for it, feeling cool air upon her palms when once more they touched nothing. 

“This is a good story,” Ty Lee said, as if Mai hadn’t spoken aloud. “You should read it.”

HMC AU CH.1

 “Jin-gongzi, do not misunderstand. Whatever right you may have to these grounds on the basis of your clan’s prominence does not negate the hazard these nets pose. When we talk of fairness we mean it to extend to conduct, as well. These nets violate the principle of fairness in every conceivable way, isn’t that so?”

Though the boy’s point had been lengthier than strictly necessary, Lan Wangji couldn’t help but approve. 

Jin Ling’s petulant gaze froze over. 

“How is it fair to me that they’ve stepped in my nets? Did I set them with the intention to catch anything but prey? What principle is followed by that stupid girl being too dull to see the clear trap I laid? Is it so hard? These nets are made of gold!” He pointed an accusatory finger towards the round-faced girl, who stood a pace off from them. “It is not my fault if you're too simple to recognize the sheen of a golden net! You wandering cultivators always make such a mess!” He switched his ire back to the sweet-faced boy and stepped forward, shaking a bit. “You wait until I’ve settled the matter here on Dafan mountain, then see if you still have such an issue with me!”

(we don't know wen yuan's name just yet but we should all know here and now that's who the 'sweet-faced boy' is hehehe)

SUNSHOT THING CH. IDK

Excerpt One:

No body in that pit could be found but his own, digging in, splitting through his nails as he tore through root and rock and soil. 

Toiling down into its depth.

When water began to pool he could have mistaken it for the pit’s own bleeding, weeping as it did from beneath his raking fingers. If you go further…

Excerpt Two:

Several steps ahead, caught in the sun's fading warmth, there seemed to be a hollow of golden light just beside the glow already bathing Lan Wangji. No matter how he tried to follow, Wei Wuxian could not catch up to it, could not stand within, for Lan Wangji walked too quick and didn't know to look behind. Eventually, all light became shadows, and only in their veil was Wei Wuxian able to take the extra step forward, walking beside Lan Wangji once again.

Excerpt Three:

He’d dragged Lan Wangji an inch, mud caking on the heels of those plain white boots.

A serving boy, no more than fifteen, came upon them. His robes were splattered here and there with dried, cracking blood.

“Hanguang-jun is, is he…?”

Wei Wuxian continued to struggle, walking backwards, his feet threatening to slip on the ground beneath him.

“He’s fine,” he said, fully aware of how their position looked to an outsider.

The boy hesitated, debating his next course of action, before he stiffened and tilted his head chin-up, defiant.

“Wei Wuxian, I must defend the corpse of this gentleman. You will absolutely not be allowed to use Hanguang-jun’s body for your purposes on the battlefield.”

Bold.

“I’ll use whoever’s body I-,” he sighed.

Adjusting his hold on Lan Wangji he shot the serving boy a look.

“Go find your superiors and acquire a task better than berating me for no reason.”

“But-”

“Lan er-gongzi is not dead,” he gained another inch backwards and stopped, taking a deep, indulgent breath. “He’s drunk.”

[kyoshi-lesbians]

Gen and Sapphic ATLA Fic Recs

I’ve been meaning for some time to put together a list of fics focused on under-appreciated characters, relationships, and pairings, and here it finally is! Split into gen and sapphic pairs, including some rarepairs, rangshi, mailee, yueki. I’ve mentioned just one story from each author for brevity's sake, but plenty of these writers have many awesome atla fics to check out

general, character studies, and worldbuilding

The Hand of Kyoshi by TehRaincoat, 23,000+ words 

MY FAVORITE SUKI FIC. You want in-depth, culturally appropriate worldbuilding of Kyoshi Island? Suki’s fleshed out backstory? Maybe a look into her relationship with her mother and how she became the leader of the Kyoshi warriors at such a young age? This is it. This is IT. 

you were never supposed to leave by windupclock, 2500+ words  

Exploration of Sokka and Kya’s relationship and Sokka’s grief. This fic makes me want to punch a wall. I love it. I hate it. It’s incredible and you should read it.

you are any way the wind blows by suzukiblu, 1000+ words

Beautifully written fic about secret airbender ty lee. I think about this story all the time. 

to hold the breeze by purplecresent, 4000+ words

“tiny vignettes about aang's tattoos, his culture, and those who love him”. This story is beautiful, and heartbreaking, and so loving. My favorite Aang fic.

(many more below the cut)

Encounters of a Swampy Kind by meetmeatthecottage, 1000+

Aang meets Ikki in the Swamp. Pretty sure I cried reading this. As ya do :’)

Long Long Time Ago by Lisse,  2000+ words

One of my absolute fave fics. The story features great OCs, worldbuilding, and Haru. It is part of a series called “Swampverse” that features an alt-universe where the war went differently (badly). Short series, worth reading all of it. I’m always in awe that this was published waaaay back in 2006. Cw for heavy subject matter, including some mentions of violence. 

Sands of Time by starsofgems, 64,000+ words

OH MAN. THIS STORY. IS. INCREDIBLE. Features amazing worldbuilding focused on the sandbenders, Toph and Zuko friendship, and the story of Avatar Yangchen and her girlfriend! Many moving parts, yet it all works together perfectly. Part of a larger series but I did jump into this without reading the previous parts and could follow the plot without trouble.

a tale I know well by undergrounddash, 6500+ words

My favorite ‘Zuko making amends and getting to know the gaang’ fic! Set at the Western Air Temple, Zuko reads a story to Toph, which becomes Zuko reading a story to everyone. 

rarepairs 

Tide Locked by ambyr, 9000+ words

One of my all time favorites. A beautifully written story about Kanna and Hama, and how war changes people.  If you’re at all interested in either of their characters, it is a must read.

The Eyeliner Incident by spacemagic, 14,000+ words

I can’t say I’m a Katazula fan, but this breaks the mold for me! Canon-divergent modern AU set in Ba Sing Se, wonderfully written, delves into serious themes, and all the characters are wonderfully written!    

Rangshi!!! 

all i ever wanted was a life in your shape by axsun, +3000 words

It’s sweet but not just sweet, ya know? Kyoshi and Rangi are so true to character. Somehow the author manages to pack in excellent modern worldbuilding in a little over 3000 words. Incredible, must read. (It is part 2 of a previous story which is also wonderful.) 

come back with gravity by frutescence, 7500+ words

THEE Rangi fic of all time. Her relationship with her father is fleshed out beautifully and heartbreakingly −  all Rangi’s relationships are explored so well. So so good!!!!!

Steel, Moon, and Fire by rivensilk, 3000+ words

A tag for this fic is “rangi is an assassin but still harps on about her honor”, what more can i say? What’s not to love???

where we go for each other, we go together by city_of_suns, 2000+ words

GOD. I think it was one of the first rangshi fics i ever read and it cuts me deep every time. Fic summary is “In which Koko grows up idealizing one mother and being raised by the other”. Yeah. YEAH. 

Mailee time! 

to the moon and to saturn by wearealltalesintheend, 10,000+ words  

Mai centric mailee story!! Love love love the exploration of Mai, it has a cool plot, great structuring, and JUNE makes an appearance <3 

bad girls by airnomadenthusiast, 11,500+ words 

So this is mailee but it’s also just the atla girls all together having a good time! They start a band! It’s hilarious and heartwarming, a great feel good story along with the cute mailee.

the language of flowers (aka- how you get the girl) by i_love_your_light, 3000+ words  

I am not immune to flowershop fics and if you aren’t either, this is for you! It’s inspired by the tumblr post about saying 'fuck you' in flower, and if that doesn’t scream mailee idk what does

second star to the right and straight on 'til morning by whattheelizabeth, 11,500+ words

MAILEE ROAD TRIP FIC. It’s cute, it’s fun, it’s sweet, and at times it’s hilarious. LOTS of pinning but they figure themselves out eventually :) 

hello yueki nation

A Tale of Love Letters and International Incidents by theknightlybisexual, 4000+ words

Another favorite! Chief Yue and Captain of the Kyoshi Warriors Suki become friends while exchanging letters. It's a great take on their leadership roles post-canon, and its SUCH a fun read; I laughed out loud so many times.

moonstruck by zeitgeistofnow, 1000+  

Also explores Yue and Suki's leadership roles post-canon. It's beautiful! And it kinda hurts! And I love it!

[tragedykery]

mailee fic recs

in honour of mailee week starting tomorrow here are some modern au mailee fic recs!!

starry eyes sparkin' up my darkest night by GallifreyanFairytale

Mai uses one hand to rub the sleep from her eyes while the other blindly feels around for Ty Lee. The other side of the bed stays empty, though, meaning Ty Lee is, in fact, gone. Mai frowns, pushing herself up into a sitting position and looking around the bedroom, drenched in orange light from Ty Lee’s salt lamp. She supposes it’s possible Ty Lee just went to the bathroom, but…

But Mai’s gut instincts are telling her that’s not the case.

or: ty lee has a nightmare, mai comforts her, and they dance around the kitchen in the refrigerator light

cherry by hello_yue_here

“Of course, silly,” the petal stayed stuck in her hair even as her head shook with bubbly laughter, “and if you’d like to, I wanna go out with you again sometime.”

Mai took a step closer to the shorter woman. Ty Lee didn’t step back, instead welcoming the closeness and bringing them even furthur together by placing her arms around Mai’s waist. Mai could feel every inch of her skin where Ty Lee was touching her; it was exhilarating.

“I’d like that too,” Mai said as she plucked the petal from Ty Lee’s far too soft hair.

“I’d also like to do this,” Ty Lee said.

Before Mai could even drop the petal from her hand, a pair of soft lips pressed against her own. Her eyes fell shut instinctively, and her hands found their own way to cup the soft sides of the other woman’s cheeks as their lips continued their dance.

or: Mai steals Sokka's lesbian.

the language of flowers (aka- how you get the girl) by i_love_your_light

It's a slow shift at Li & Lo's Flower Emporium when a customer walks in with an unusual request.

And to top it off, the customer is the most beautiful girl that Ty Lee has ever seen.

At the Rink by seraluci

Mai is somehow stuck spending a summer volunteering in the concession stand of an ice rink, and she fully expects it to be terrible. Ty Lee is a figure skater who comes in every day to practice in the hopes of getting a scholarship for university.

Slowly, Mai's summer becomes not so terrible anymore.

raining more than ever (stand under my umbrella) by wolfwalkerspirit

““I want to get away.”

There are moths gathering around the light outside her apartment door. Summer insects buzz off in the distance, and a lonely car streaks by the road out front, coughing up a stream of exhaust in its wake. The headlights cast a spinning halo around Mai as the car approaches, then passes by. And for a couple moments, Ty Lee can’t focus on anything but the way the light catches on Mai’s face, moth wings casting the occasional, fluttering shadow.

Then she takes a deep breath, lets it go, and brings a smile to her face, even if she can’t smooth the crinkle of worry from her brows. “Where do you want to go?””

or

A Mailee roadtrip AU

[koheletgirl]

Oh you mean combo AUs? (Cause I love those too dw) How about… mailee tangled au?

oohh oh it has a name! oh ty exciting

tangled mailee is interesting! i hadnt actually thought about it before (was too busy thinking about tangled yueki). okok let's do thissss

so listen i could totally see this go either way re the casting. it feels obvious for ty lee to be rapunzel - just bc i can see her singing when will my life begin and ive got a dream etc. she has the vibe, you know? at least more than mai does.

but then again there's a certain magic to ty lee as flynn rider. and mai as a gloomy rapunzel? like i need that. i feel like that would be the superior version. which is why im going with the other one

if ty lee is rapunzel, idk who her kidnapper would be. i also dont really care. it does have to be a mother figure tho

what if zuko and azula cameo as Those Two Guys? not really doing justice to their characters but it would be so funny no redemption for you zuko

mai works with them to steal the crown (or whatever we want that item to be) and then betrays them and ends up in the tower

ty lee hits mai with a pan (or chi blocks her. whichever) and makes her promise to take her to see the floating lights (we're going with floating lights here it's pretty). also ty lee has momo

does mai have appa? who knows

we're at the snuggly duckling. i want chit sang to be there. toph should be there too. the boulder.

HAVENT ANY OF YOU EVER HAD A DREAM ??

ok so this is where im a little lost bc i dont have a villain. so we'll have to skip some plot for now

🏮🎆💖🛶����‍❤️‍👩

[antchurch]

Hey can you please rec me your fave avatar fanfics?

i would be Honoured to

this is going to be a heavily zukka themed list as they recently became my top tagged ship on ao3 (im there @ jiminie if u want to see any more of my bookmarks) but i will endeavour to be more inclusive don't u worry !! these are all mostly pg - if there is sex it isn't the focus, mainly cause id feel weird rec’ing smut to a potential minor and also cause i don't need the judgement of my taste in porn but if u do want an 18+ rec lmk  the art of burning - zukka (eventually), canon divergence, ongoing - this might be one of my favourite fics ever, its a hadoka+ the watertribe come across zuko fic and i cannot recommend it enough have done some quality crying 2 this one xo what is living is burning - zukka, canon divergence, complete - BRO the canon divergence on this bad boy? so good - it had such a Mood, the tone is exquisite - - i cant say much without spoilers but trust me it goes Hard blue - zukka, canon divergence, complete - i may as well be recommending the bible here but i mean it when i say this has some of the best zuko character exploration that i’ve ever experienced it deserves all the love it gets!! the spirit stone - zukka, canon divergence, ongoing - zuko imprisoned by the fire nation? very cool ideas going on here, can’t wait to see where it goes!!! what you’re meant for - zukka, post-canon, complete - ambassador sokka saved the world! jk but like this is a really interestingly written fic, i love the epistolary style and its really satisfying to see a political system become unfucked. i wish i could be more articulate cause this fic rlly deserves that but im clow n

more below the cut cause it got long ;)

boy problems - zukka, post-canon, complete - this boy can fit so much angst in him!! this also has some excellent mailee content s/o to my lesbians xoxo swords of fate, pride of heart - zukka, alternate universe complete - zukka zoom uni au! did this fic hit entirely too hard for me as a uni student on zoom? why yes. do i also want to fall in love with a boy over zoom because of swords? also yes say you like your shirt soggy - zukka, alternate universe, complete - this is just good vibes aman falling in love n doing dishes its all we want - excellent hakoda content here !! very good if u desire better parental figures!! Flow Like Fire - canon divergence, ongoing - zuko is an airbender au that slaPs - also our first none zukka one look at me having range! but very very good its so clever in how zuko figures shit out i really enjoy the world building on this one blue's clues - zukka, alternate universe, complete - modern au where the blue spirit is a vigilante - its so fun to read and has sexy spiderman vibes big love 2 this one tell me a story - zukka, post-canon, complete - this will rip ur heart out!! izumi likes being read stories! tw major character death xox goodbye to fathers - canon compliant, complete - hakoda and zuko have a talk and ozai just sucks - good hakoda dad vibes and adults being responsible love it lighthouse beam - zukka, alternate universe, complete - uni au again!! very cute and disabled zuko rep!! love 2 see it  - so much pining my dude when the sun sets, and the moon follows - zukka, post canon, complete - this is an elderly gaang fic, so if ur constantly thinking abt grief like i am this is Right up ur street - tw major character death but so worth it.  Baby Hotline, please hold (me close to you) - zukka, alternate universe, complete - this shit is hilarious boys, fbi agent zuko and engineer sokka its a great time  Mass Times Acceleration - zukka, alternate universe, complete - this is a masterpiece, zukka roast trip au just very good painful feelings big fucking fan here man i would die 4 this fic survival will not be the hardest part - azula-centric, canon compliant, complete - beautiful azula character piece really rich and painful also lowkey sapphic Look How Far We've Come - zukka, alternate universe, complete - this whole series is insane!! daemons au!!! such good worldbuilding amazing character work fucking phenomenal man rain dance - aang-centric, canon compliant, complete - beautiful, beautiful aang piece about airbender culture and loss if u read any of these pls make it this one Intimate Counselors - zukka, post canon, complete - fucking hilarious zuko buys shit for sokka plot very good very fun honestly a joy 2 read might read it right now when im done with this list studying the blade - zukka, alternate universe, complete - social media au!! great gang dynamics n super fun!!!! kintsugi - toph+zuko bros 4 eva, canon divergence, complete? but only sorta cause the whole series isn't complete but its So good such a good reworking of the plot aaa it just goes hard man its the toph n zuko content u deserve spring comes to caldera - zukka, post canon, complete - ambassador sokka is back baybe and its so fucking good - great azula stuff here, really well developed pining, the full works figures 1-5: killing gods - zukka, canon divergence but only a lil, complete - a really lyrical and althetic exploration of zuko. feels like catharsis (do you take this jerk to be) your one and only - zukka, canon divergence, complete - hehehe proposal related hijinks love 2 see it yue is here n its great the art of charting the stars - zukka, post canon, complete - beautiful star gazing theme and gorgeous pining this is iconic i love it  speak ill - zukka, alternate universe, complete - sometimes u just need to call ozai a bastard. immaculate wow long list - sorry abt that!! but it really could have been easily twice as long aha

i hope i’ve managed to rec u something new and that u enjoy any of these and thank u so much for the ask~~~

[maipreciation]

tagged by @maijou thank you so much this was so fun!! (and clearly I got really into it...).  tagging @multishipping-goodness @axolotl-druk @thinkingisadangerouspastime​ and anyone who wants to do this! (i have no idea who’s active anymore and who isn’t oops)

green/yes: kataang, sukka, yukka, maiko. what can i say i’m a fan of canon

blue/yes but...: aka the fun category, with pairings i only like in very specific aus or scenarios

katara with zuko or jet but solely as a past relationship (spiteful exes in the case of jet, amicable divorcees with zuko)

jet and mai but only during that time at the end of season 2 when everyone’s in ba sing se before jet gets brainwashed like some au where they both happen to be spying on zuko maybe? jet is intrigued by this silent skilled girl who clearly doesn’t belong skulking around the lower ring after dark so he tries to recruit her to the freedom fighters and mai is just like. along for the ride and doing anything in her power to not be bored (and also dealing with major inner conflict over whether she reports any of this back to azula/ somehow knowing she’ll find out one way or another)

jet and zuko as modern au exes who hate each other and no one really knows why they broke up they just know it was dramatic and everyone assumes it was jet who was the asshole in the relationship but turns out it was zuko lol oops

sokka and azula but only in an au where they’re like academic rivals or something and are both super smart but also have incredibly different ways of thinking and end up competing over the smallest of things (zuko and katara initially hate each other too as an extension of their sibling’s rivalry but end up bonding in the background over their respective brother/sister doing The Absolute Most)

ty lee and azula but only in the toxic messed up ‘theres something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls’ kind of way where they’re both manipulating each other and each one thinks they have the upper hand (think like dare me/ sharp objects, obsessively close and mutually destructive female relationships)

purple/sure i guess: yueki, mailee, zukka. three ships i have been in and out of love with over the past year or so, and at this point could kinda take or leave

orange/platonic: basically how i see the core initial members of the gaang (really just threw this one in there cuz toph needed some lines oops)

gray/partners in crime: a continuation of platonic but also including some fire nation people. also i firmly believe that once katara and mai work through some stuff they’d be a terrifyingly effective duo. and of course i want toph wreaking havoc around the fire nation palace when she goes to visit zuko

[ofherlionheart]

hi :3

I was wondering do you think a Rapunzel au would work with either zukka or mailee??

oh wait!! enchanted mailee au and a tangled zukka au, thoughts?

I can kinda see it but I'm not particularly good at characterization

oh my god i love this question because yes!! the answer to "would X au work for Y couple?" is almost always yes!!

i think the joy of an AU/crossover like this is that you get to decide what to pull from each source. no one's gonna tell you you have to include this part from one source and this part from the other source in order for it to be a "proper" au. no!! fuck that shit!! cherry-pick the shit you wanna steal and have fun with it!

e.g. the hsm2 au i did—if i was trying to be some crossover purist, the dramatic staff talent show showdown should have been the climax and also about katara and yue reuniting after yue dumped katara by the pool yada yada yada, BUT that didn't make sense for what i wanted of the story. i didn't want katara and yue breaking up, and i was more interested in s and z's arc, so i made the talent show more of a blip on sokka's radar and spent more time after the show, in the treehouse, in the dugout, at the diner.

so yes to any of the above—enchanted mailee, enchanted zukka, tangled zukka, tangled mailee, whatever you want to play with can work! remember: at the end of the day, you're the writer, and you should be writing for you. what will make the story fun for you?

(and, if my thoughts are of any interest to you, since you've got me going, now …)

the Q i kind of asked myself when writing the hsm2 au was what's at the core of hsm2's narrative? the answer: chlorine. lmao jk but also, like, what it means to be a teenager in the summer having your first summer job but also getting to know a new side of a classmate who in the first installment of the trilogy was shown as little more than a henchman to his piece-of-work sister.

so what's at the core of the stories you mentioned? ngl i know too many variations on rapunzel to try to condense that, so imma ignore that one. but for the others, pick any lil nugget:

tangled: a person forced to live in seclusion "for their own safety" is broken out by someone else. a person with unique powers is manipulated by a parent (who isn't actually their parent). a brash and roguish bandit acts the way they do b/c they're actually a very sensitive and vulnerable person. a person learns to see their entire life from a brand new, illuminated perspective. love isn't when someone covets a particular trait you have, but when they admire you for your being. can love that's stifling and possessive still be called love? does true love always mean freedom? can love overcome hostile architecture?

enchanted: widowed single parent has been corporate for too long and needs the whimsy of another world to see brightness again. absolute himbo with a square jaw promises you more adventure in his world than your 9-5 desk job does in this world. sometimes the dramatic makeover reveal IS worse (coughcough purple dress amy adams coughcough). there's strength in persevering in seeing the good and bright in all things. sometimes a woman only has 2 braincells and that can be the sexiest thing in the world. if the freeloader that your daughter dragged into your life suddenly eats a raw fish, don't question it.

from there, i think about character's canon arcs, and what could possibly map onto these themes. zuko's arc matches up well with the whole rapunzel seeing her world anew thing. ty lee's character matches well with the incredible strength from brightness and optimism thing.

and then, sometimes, i like to challenge myself a step further and invert the obvious. like, if zuko's the obvious rapunzel, what would it look like if sokka was rapunzel? how did he get there? was sokka blessed by the moon and, idk, general zhao caught whiff of his powers and stole sokka way from hakoda and kya? if zuko is eugene, which version of zuko is he — angry ponytail believes in ozai zuko, blue spirit teenage and state rebellion zuko, or enlightened s3 zuko who's technically fire lord but iroh's letting him have an actual young adulthood?

isn't is fucking magical, all the diff directions in which an AU can spin out?

[mellowdreamer]

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO VERSE.

this is a modern bending vigilante/hero au featuring zukka, mailee, yueki and a lot of hijinks!

the gaang are all 16-19 here, because while bruce wayne apparently has no problem with it, i’m not comfortable with having vigilantes who haven’t yet gone through puberty.

the avatar world is just one big city, and each of the nations/cities are different suburbs of the city.

kyoshi island, ember island, and boiling rock are small islands off of the city, similar to singapore’s sentosa island.

the city (republic city? i dunno, get back to me on this one) is full of heroes, vigilantes and villains alike. the fire nation is a criminal empire intent on taking over the city. the avatar is a hero who works to keep the balance of heroes and villains in the city, and stop the entire city from becoming a war zone. 

however, the avatar disappeared 100 years ago, and no one was chosen to take up the mantle since. in the avatar’s absence, the fire nation was able to begin its quest to take over the city.

the heroes of the southern water tribe that were left after the various raids have left the southern water suburb on a mission to defeat the fire nation or die.

hakoda, alias chief, left his two young children in charge of their territory, despite them being a) children and b) relatively untrained.

katara, alias painted lady, is the only waterbender left in the southern water tribe. sokka, alias captain boomerang, is the only trained combat hero left in the southern water tribe. all those remaining are either children or incapable of fighting.

side tangent: when sokka does well, he calls himself “grand marshal boomerang” and when he does badly, he calls himself “private boomerang”. thank you to the crimily for coming up with this one!!

one night, when katara and sokka are out on patrol, they get chased by fire nation goons into the ice off of the southern harbour. there, they get into a fight over sokka’s sexist remarks and katara’s yelling having attracted the fire nation goons, and katara’s waterbending gets out of control. she breaks open an iceberg, only to find someone in there.

the two siblings approach the iceberg and break the person out. they are shocked to find a young boy in the unmistakable uniform of the avatar, resting next to a creature they’ve never seen before.

they wake the boy up, to find that his name is aang and he’s the next avatar. and that he has no idea of the fire nation’s quest to conquer the entire city, or the fact that the air nomads – heroes that didn’t resign to just one area of the city – hadn’t been seen for the same hundred years that he must’ve spent in the iceberg.

katara and a reluctant sokka take aang back to the apartment building where the remaining southern water suburb residents have been living and introduce him to everyone.

later that night, the three go out on patrol together. it’s a quiet night, and sokka thinks they might actually get through it without any incidents, until they find a woman being mugged.

sokka and katara are about to intervene, but aang takes down both thugs in a matter of seconds. aang, ignoring the slack jawed shock of his friends, asks if they could go penguin sledding. katara goes to agree, but is cut off by the shout of “MY HONOUR” from a nearby rooftop.

zuko, alias dragon prince, runs from the rooftop before they could find him. his father ozai, alias firelord, had sent him and his uncle iroh – formerly dragon of the west, now retired – to find the avatar. zuko had been banished from the fire nation territory years ago, after speaking up about a plan that would’ve cost them a whole division of goons and refusing to fight his father in an agni kai.

the kyoshi warriors are similar to the birds of prey or the amazons; they’re an all-female crime-fighting unit not directly associated with any of the kingdoms or nations. suki is their leader, and they don’t have secret identities like the other heroes.

iroh, bumi, piandao, jeong-jeong and p*kku are all retired heroes and a part of the order of the white lotus.

toph is the blind bandit and a hero, albeit a less morally structured and ‘good’ hero than the avatar, the painted lady, and captain boomerang. she was a part of the underground fighting ring ‘earth rumble’ when the gaang infiltrated the ring looking for intel and convinced her that her powers could be used for something better than beating bitches blue and making bank while doing it.

azula is firebolt, and she is as brilliant as she is terrifying. she’s arguably more feared than the firelord, mainly because she’s the one who frequents other areas and actually goes on missions. ozai just sits on his stupid throne and yells at people and manipulates his children like the little bitch he is.

mai and ty lee are azula’s sidekicks, and are known as blade and tightrope respectively. also: they’re lesbians, harold.

yue is a part of the northern water tribe’s group of heroes, alongside her family. they tried to marry her off to hahn and have her trained in healing instead of fighting, but she rebelled and threatened to go out on her own, so they relented. yue’s hero alias is tui, but she will be called sailor moon at least three times.

jet and his freedom fighters are a group of anti-heroes who aren’t afraid to hurt innocent people in their pursue of ‘justice’.

zhao is a villain who works for the firelord, under the alias admiral, and he’s an asshole. using the yuyan archers, he manages to capture aang and takes him to a fire nation stronghold. zuko finds out about this, and not wanting admiral asshole to get the upper hand, dresses as the blue spirit for the first time to rescue aang.

during the siege of the north, zhao “kills” yue. she fakes her own death and disappears into hiding until the final battle, in which she kills zhao because it’s what she deserves.

the gaang know that yue is alive, because she’s nice enough to not do them like that, but they have to keep up appearances. because of this, sokka amps up the heartbreak and clings to suki a lot. that’s why a lot of outsiders begin to think that sokka dated yue and is dating suki, though in reality yue and suki are dating each other.

zuko and iroh, after the siege of the north and a trap set by azula, disappear into hiding and decide to take refuge in ba sing se, knowing that the fire nation wouldn’t think to look for them there.

ba sing se is a section of the city that has been fenced off in order to prevent an influx of heroes and villains. the dai li, who keep a tight grip on the suburb and ensure that the residents don’t know of the war raging outside the walls, are a group of “heroes”.

of course, the fence does nothing to prevent zuko and iroh, the gaang, and later azula, mai and ty lee from entering ba sing se and turning it into their own warzone.

iroh fulfils his dream of finally owning a tea shop and zuko, when not working in the tea shop, spends his nights lingering in the shadows of ba sing se as the blue spirit.

sokka, desperate for a warm drink and something to do while the others do their bending training, wanders into the jasmine dragon one afternoon and is served by “lee”.

neither know the other’s civilian identity, so there’s no shady business, just pining over the cute customer/server. sokka strikes a conversion and the two begin flirting chatting. it’s going really well, and you can almost see the romance blooming.

and then in walks azula, flanked by mai and ty lee, all in costume.

sokka and zuko both leap up from their seats and into fighting stances. both are confused as to why the other jumped up, and then azula calls zuko brother and it clicks in sokka’s mind.

he starts yelling at zuko for a lot of things, including yue’s “death” which is how zuko realises who he is. zuko starts yelling back because he’s only once met a fight he didn’t like. in the background of this argument, iroh is trying to fight azula, mai and ty lee to varying degrees of success.

it’s funny that i say degrees, because this is when azula sets fire to the jasmine dragon. iroh grabs the two dumbass arguing teens and shoves them outside as he too runs, telling zuko to meet at their rendezvous point at sunrise.

azula, mai and ty lee chase after zuko and sokka (who are still arguing as they run from the three girls). mai and ty lee don’t want to chase them, because zuko has always been better to them than azula, but defying azula would be a death sentence.

sokka pulls zuko into a building for coverage, and because azula is azula, she summons the dai li and has them surround the building. there would be no leaving without confronting the dai li, and thus zuko and sokka are trapped.

sokka confronts zuko and basically asks how he could justify the fire nation’s villainy, how he could support a monster who’s killing hundreds of people. zuko defends his father blindly because he’s been raised to believe that his father is right, that his father has to be right, and this southern water scum is wrong. but zuko’s losing his grip on the argument and is becoming more and more hysterical but sokka is so calm, so sure of himself, and the dam finally breaks.

zuko crumples to the ground in tears, and now sokka’s gotta deal with this because ozai is a shitface and has been brainwashing his son for years and wow fuck the fire nation.

mai and ty lee, having taken down the dai li, burst in to find zuko crying his eyes out in sokka’s arms. they teasingly ask if they’re interrupting something and laugh as zuko next to sprints out of the building, sokka hot on his heels.

this is the last straw for zuko, who defects from the fire nation, hangs up his dragon prince uniform and fully becomes the blue spirit, a hero who works with the gaang to eventually take down the fire nation.

also, at some stage zuko rescues a turtleduck that got stuck up a tree. don’t ask me how this happens.

[hello-yue-here]

thank you @chiptrillino for tagging me in a wip game!

not quite sure what the rules are but based off of your AMAZING POST OF ART WIPS (check it out here yall chip is so talented) ive decided to just share some parts of my writing wips that i rlly like because i cannot draw whatsoever lmao

enjoy some lil snippets hehe

from heart don't stand a chance:

"Zuko couldn’t get over her eyes. She was looking past the camera towards the man who took it. Zuko could see clear as day the love she held for Sokka in her gaze.

It was a perfect moment that Sokka had captured. No wonder held it with him at all times. If someone had looked at Zuko like that, he’d never want to see anything again.

As he took in the photograph, Sokka sat next to him in silence. His hand was clutching the ring around his neck again in his fist, pressing it close to his mouth as he peered over Zuko’s shoulder to look. Zuko turned to him to compliment the picture and saw a sad fondness lingering in his eyes."

this is a scene i wrote a while ago thats gonna appear in a much later chapter. but yeah. more yue angst for you guys im so sorry.

from i love you (and that's all i really know):

"Mister Sokka," a little voice wishpered in his ear as he felt tiny pokes on his cheek, "Wake up Mister Sokka."

"Good morning to you too Izumi," Sokka responded wearily as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He looked towards the little girl who was standing on her tippy toes to see over the edge of the bed and poke his face until he rose.

She smiled at him once she realized he was awake.

"Can we have pancakes?" She asked shyly, hiding her mouth just below the edge of the bed as she looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

That look was going to be dangerous for him later on, he could aready tell.

"Sure thing, Izumi, just let me sleep for five more minutes, mkay?" He asked as he shut his eyes again. He was exhausted from last nights events, and the sun had barely risen. How did Zuko do this?"

this is a scene from the next chapter of this fic. so much sokka and izumi bonding you guys are gonna explode hehehe.

from cherry (the mailee fic i wont shut up about that is now a whopping 19 pages):

"Mai never had to guess with Ty Lee. She always knew when Ty Lee was happy about something because she would use an obnoxious amount of exclamation points. She would send gifs of people or cartoons making outlandish expressions whenever she wanted to react to Mai’s text with a specific facial expression. Sometimes Ty Lee would even send voice memos whenever her thoughts became too long, or she got too excited about a story that her fingers couldn’t type as fast as she could speak."

hehe i love mailee.

from yours (the mailee sorority fic that i promise i did not forget about):

"Mai lifted her head off the pillow again and met Zuko’s eyes. She studied his impassive expression, trying to figure out if he was joking or not. He did seem like he missed Mai and Azula, so maybe he did really just want to catch up with them.

But Mai wasn’t going to give up a golden opportunity like this.

“Tell us everything about the boy toy as well and you’ve got yourself a deal,” Mai said.

Zuko rolled his eyes and sighed, “Ugh, fine. And his name is Sokka by the way.”

“Nuance. You also have to wake up Azula.”

“No chance in hell,” Zuko scoffed, “You’re the roommate and her fellow ‘pong princess,’ wake-up duty is all yours.”

“If she murders me, it’s your fault. She’s a bitch when she’s hungover.”

“Whatever you say, Mai,” Zuko grinned before returning back to his phone."

i have decided that zuko is a little shit for this fic and no one can stop me.

from Where'd All the Time Go? (the yuekka fic that i have severe writers block with that i also promis i have not forgotten about):

"“Sokka I really think you need to take a moment and-”

“I am fine Aang, I don’t have time for a feelings talk right now. Right now I need to find the fucking chief of this damn place.” His words came out harsher than he meant, but he didn’t have the time to dwell on that.

Before Sokka could run off again to continue his search, a hand grabbed his arm. One of Arnook’s advisors, Malina, had started dragging him towards the podium.

“Do you not realize how late you are for this Sokka? The ceremony was supposed to begin with your speech nearly an hour ago-” she hissed at him as she pulled him along through the crowd.

“Malina I’m sorry but I really need to speak with Arnook it is urgent-”

“This damn speech of yours is what’s urgent right now Sokka, you can speak with Arnook later but the guests are getting antsy so you need to give your speech right. Now.”

“But-”

“Now.”

Maline shoved Sokka towards the podium and suddenly all eyes were on him. Every guest in attendance had their focus solely on Sokka."

homeboy is stressed in this scene. things are slowly going to shit in this chapter. i promise i will update this before the end of the year. i swear. im so sorry.

from a currently untitled jetko/sukka boiling rock fic:

"“Oh good, you survived after all,” She said in a mocking tone.

Jet didn’t answer. He knew anything he said would be used against him. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know what was happening. But he would be damned if he showed that weakness in front of the fire nation.

“I was told you were more talkative than this,” the girl mused. There was something familiar about her, “my informants were very detailed when discussing your little teashop romance.”

I knew it. Jet snarled in his mind, That bastard betrayed me."

i want this fic to be a little darker but idk how good i am at writing darker fics because i love fluff and humor too much. this could be good angst practice for me.

from a toph and sokka fic that i wrote a while back to help me cope w some shit that i dont know if ill ever post:

"“Sokka? Are you still there?” Toph asked, the slightest hint of concern began to slip into their voice

“Tell me a story,” he was trembling. Despite all of his efforts to sound calm, he knew his voice came out trembling and scratchy and pathetic-

“Is everything okay? You don’t sound too hot,” Toph said through the phone.

Breathe, Sokka, breathe. You don’t want them to be worried, you just need to calm down.

“Please, Toph, I just,” he said through shaky breaths that weren’t nearly deep enough for him to be getting enough oxygen, “I just need a distraction. I just need to hear your voice okay?”"

nonbinary toph anyone?

from a 10 things i hate about you kataang and zukka au:

"“What? Something on my face?” the guy asked deadpanned. He rubbed at his scar as if he were wiping off a smudge of mustard, and Aang’s face went pale.

“Stop scaring the sophomores Zuko, this one’s new. He won’t get your… humor… just yet,” Ms. Wu said as she waved Aang off again.

“I’m hurt that you’d imply I’m not funny, Wu. I’m hilarious,” the senior, Zuko, said as he walked past Aang.

Aang let out a sigh of relief knowing that this Zuko guy didn’t seem all that offended by his awkwardness, and darted out of the room."

zuko is a little shit part 2. the amount of sarcasm i have dripping off of heath ledger zuko is glorious. let zuko be a little shit. i havent added to this in months but when i finish some of my other wips i cant wait to get back to this.

i have more wips and drafts saved but none of them have anything juicy or funny or interesting yet because all of them are like less than three pages so far

but yeah, heres a good chunk of sneaky peakys from my wips!

I hope you liked them!

anyone who wants to do this can totally go for it. imma tag @ambykinns @lumities and @flowers-inthepieshop (only if you all want too!!) because this was fun :)

[zukkaoru]

time to shine tag

i was tagged by @sheimagineddragons tysm kit!! <3

Only rule: Be as thirsty for attention as you want to be! Link one of your old fics/art pieces or one that didn’t get enough attention, link a work you loved to create or share a draft from your newest WIP. Or do all of these. Be greedy. Show your art. Crave attention. Be proud. And don’t forget to give your friends an excuse to show off theirs!

Additional note: Please consider dropping one of your favorite hidden gems by an other author along with your own work so others can enjoy it as well and so that it doesn’t stay buried any longer!

a little bit of you & a little bit of me okay i'm starting with this fic i wrote for atla gen week about jinora & her relationship with being an eldest sister. when i started writing, i was well aware it wouldn't get a lot of attention between being a gen fic, being a tlok fic, being centered on a non-main character, and the fact that it is. um. 19k words,, but i'm still really proud of how it turned out and it's a fic that's very personal to me bc it's a lot of self projection + lowkey it was my way of coming to terms with being nonbinary lol

never been in love (and it's all good) next is yet another fic i wrote for gen week, this time centered on aro bumi ii. it's a 5+1 fic and has a lot of bumi ii & family moments

only if you want to this is yet another tlok fic, this one centered on kya ii and her dealing with sleep-related issues. it's got a lot of kya & bumi and kya & lin in it!!

of all the stars, the fairest finally i am going to promote the fic i wrote for the atla 18+ big bang, which is a mailee fake dating fic, simply bc wlw fics never get as many reads and oatstf is my baby

okay as for other people's fics, i have. so many i could rec but i will try to keep it (semi) short

a friend is still a friend by @that-was-anticlimactic is a fic about jet & sokka being frenemies and it's just. literally so perfect. it made me feel such a wide range of emotions and i absolutely adore it. (also if you liked the jet & sokka dynamic in my enby sokka fic, you will love their dynamic in this as well)

the tell me what you want me to say series by @zukoisgayforsokka it's vv cute and has zukka, yueki, and background mailee & jinzula and i love it so much!!

a brutally soft woman by @rolandtowen which is about nonbinary suki and i love love love it!!

i like my girls just like i like my honey by clumsycrow is a yueki meet cute one shot with best friends yue & sokka and suki running a booth at a local farmer's market and it is very adorable

strawberry gay time by beifongbltch & snowandfire is a maisuki modern au oneshot and tbh that ship deserves more love. anyway there's lots of sapphic pining and i love this fic

tells me she's mine by crashing_meteors yuetara surfing au. need i say more?

maybe this is how i first met you by sirensokka mai and ty lee in prison post-boiling rock with homoerotic chi blocking and pining <3

okay uhh idk who all has been tagged and who hasn't so i tag anyone who wants to do this <3

[army-of-mai-lovers]

ATLA Fic Recs part 2!

part 1 (consider this link a re-rec of everything I recced in part 1, bc those fics are still amazing and at this point many of them that weren’t complete are finished now which is cool!) 

So I’m structuring this fic recs list a little differently than I did the first one. First one was just “fics I like” with no regard to how popular the fics were and a little bit of thought as to balancing gen fics with ship fics and trying to have a diversity of ships listed. This time, I am paying attention to how popular the fics are, and while I’m probably still going to rec popular fics/fic authors, I’m hoping to also expose people to some new authors with this list (as well as exposing people to work from their favorite authors that they may not have read)! Expanding your horizons is a really good thing, it’s how I’ve found basically every fic I love, and I hope y’all will love each of the fics I’m reccing as much as I do! In no particular order: 

1.  her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you by @aangsblush I said that I was going to rec this a couple days ago and here I am doing it because HOW ON EARTH IS THIS FIC AS BRILLIANT AS IT IS AND NOT LIGHTING THE FANDOM ON FIRE RIGHT NOW. I’ve genuinely never read a fic like this before. Never in my life. It’s a collection of vignettes, mostly dealing with Hakoda and Sokka’s various experiences of grief with Kya and Yue (and there’s a little bit of cute bakoda and sukka sprinkled in there as well). Like I said, the chapters were vignettes, some of them as short as two or three sentences, and yet somehow I was crying after every single chapter???? The author uses language so sparingly and so impactfully and I truly cannot get over how brilliant this is like bruh. who gave you the right. Who. Who. Tbh I could make a whole post about this fic (and I have!) but instead, I’m going to direct you to the fic, bc really, it speaks for itself. 

2. laughter lines by @bi-suki To be completely real, I tend not to read sad fics, or seek out sad media in general, but I read this fic and I’m so glad I did. It’s a modern au about Sokka and his family moving to Anchorage, separating him from his childhood best friend, Yue. Make sure you read the tags before you read this fic, please. It’s really sad. I started tearing up while writing out just that quick summary. Keep a box of tissues handy. I’ve read a lot of this author’s fics and they all have a habit of sticking in my head long after I’ve read them, but this one really packs a punch. Sokka’s grief and his friendship with Yue is written in such an intimate and beautiful way, and yes, I literally am crying right now thinking about it. I do think it’s hard to pull off writing yukka, especially in a modern au, while giving appropriate depth to both Sokka and Yue, but this fic really managed it so well. Even though this fic made me sad, I don’t regret reading it one bit.

3. call it fate by @bluberry-spicehead y’all are really converting me into a maiko shipper and honestly I’m so here for it. Mai’s one of my favorite characters in ATLA, and the care that the fic takes in portraying her perspective as well as her relationships with Zuko, Azula, and Ty Lee (despite the fact that Zuko isn’t even there when the fic takes place)--I mean, it’s honestly just incredible work. I’ve seen a lot of joke-y posts about “oh what if x happened with Aunt Wu instead of what happened in canon?” but never with Maiko and never quite the way this fic describes it. It’s really original and really carefully done, with all the complexity and nuance of their relationship infused into the details of the fic. And the way that Mai is written is both in character for her and expands on existing canon in a way that I really believe works for her. The writing is so immediate and really roots you in the world and in Mai’s head and I love it I love it I love it! 

4. i am your savior, your last serving daughter by @gays4korra *sokka voice* SUKI! Bruh. BRUH. The amount that I love both Suki and Kyoshi cannot be overstated, they’re both such fascinating and complex characters, and yet some people (*cough* the fandom *cough*) don’t want to see them in their full and complete brilliance. Enter this fic, which shows Suki and Kyoshi meeting, like someone saw my wildest dreams and was like “hey that’s a cool fic idea!” The TEARS I cried reading this fic (yes, I am aware that this is the fourth time I’ve mentioned crying over a fic in just this one post, these fic authors are incredibly talented and I have three planets in Cancer, fight me) Suki and Kyoshi, icons themselves, conversing across time???? iconic. simply iconic. And then the fact that Sokka orchestrated the whole thing because he wanted to make Suki happy? I love them, your honor. And Kyoshi being happy that Suki looks up to her because really Kyoshi’s a fluffy dork with self-esteem issues.... I’m crying again it’s so beautiful I’ve looked at it for five hours now. Gosh. read this fic. 

5. Balance My Heart in The Palm of Your Hands by @spookysukki ok while looking for this person’s tumblr I found out that this was their first work in the fandom and can I just say pal you POPPED OFF with this one fic and I hope that you write more because this was. This was awesome. Mailee is def in my top 5 (possibly top 2) ATLA ships but unfortunately I have a hard time finding content for it. Fortunately, every time I do find content for it it’s incredibly cute and this was absolutely no exception. It’s also the rare Mai & Sokka friendship fic which is not something I knew I needed in my life but is a concept that I am completely obsessed with having read this. Basically, Mai’s jealous of Sokka because Ty Lee keeps talking about Sokka being attractive, and shenanigans ensue. And you know me, I love shenanigans. This is also a Mai perspective fic which is awesome because as I said earlier, I love love LOVE Mai, and she’s so sweet and broody in this lsfjskdfjk I love her so much what an icon. 

5. earth system history by @pianjeong I have read this fic. So many times. I could honestly probably recite it from memory (jfdksjflsd ok that’s not true but at this rate I probably will be able to soon). It is an absolutely stunning fic. It’s like all my favorite parts of college condensed into one story (running around buildings you probably shouldn’t be in in the middle of the night with the person you have a crush on, coming out to your professor who is also gay, all iconic college moods). I’m simply obsessed with the way each character is written, and it’s so clear that the author knows what she’s talking about when it comes to geology, and that in general this fic was written with a lot of love for the characters of ATLA and also for rocks. It’s that love that keeps me coming back to this one. Cannot recommend it enough. 

6. the end is barely beginning by @katarahairloopies  gosh I don’t even know where to start with this one other than I cannot believe that it almost wasn’t posted and I’m so glad that it was because you truly can never have enough father/son moments between Hakoda and Sokka and I care them. I care them so much. Also can I just say Hakoda not remembering all of Sokka and Katara’s friends’ names and having to really think about it is such a dad mood. I can’t remember a single time in my life where my dad could remember all of my friends’ names (and there were points in my life where he would have only had to remember one name and yet. and yet.) I really love ATLA fics that are character studies because they tend to really retain the complexity of the characters as they’re depicted in the show (or make them more complex) and this one is no exception. There were so many lines of this that were just really poignant and beautiful. Again, cannot recommend it enough. 

[babydotcom]

hiiii tay i hope you’re having a fabulous day 💕 how about ty lee for the character ask game??

beck u3u thank u for the ask!! cutting this in half bc it's so long, the rest is under the cut :)

First impression: okay we love a girl gang! this one is kind of annoying though i wonder what she brings to the table that azula wants her so bad. her aesthetic isn't my cup of tea either but good for her!!

Impression now: i want her so bad. she is so COOL??? i'm in love with her but also fucking terrified of her. i love how she's always scheming i love how smart and perceptive and powerful she is and how even though her bubblegum exterior certainly helps her maintain her innocent plaything image it also seems to be in line with her personality!! we love a feminine master manipulator. she's a femme fatale in the sneakiest way and i love it so fucking much oh my GOD. she <3

Favorite moment: is this even a question? the betrayal at boiling rock. or her fight with suki (because i'm gay)

Idea for a story: I've had my mailee "betty" wip sitting dormant for months but i'd also like to maybe get into ty lee's relationship with femininity and how she uses it to her advantage. being so manipulative and emotionally in tune as she is is actually really hard to deal with mentally, and i think once she has true friends among the kyoshi warriors, people that she doesn't have to trick or pretend around, she might start to kind of reckon with her talents and start to wonder how much of her is real and how much of her is an act. it could be fun to explore her relationship to gender and her relationship to herself and how that impacts her interpersonal relationships. give me ty lee interacting with a butch on kyoshi give me ty lee cutting her hair give me ty lee trying to break away from her femininity as a means of soothing her liar's guilt only to find she actually does like pink and frilly dresses and she doesn't have to not express herself that way just because other people underestimate her for it.

Unpopular opinion: the potential sokka&ty lee dynamic is so underrated?? they're a total dream team- they're both strategic geniuses, with ty lee covering emotional manipulation and mind games and engineering prodigy sokka coming in with battle plans and creative maneuvers out of tough situations. they could have tag-teamed to kill ozai and it woulda been over in 5 seconds flat, but they also beat azula so bad at pai sho that she has to be committed again (her psychiatrist is very upset). also you have got to stop reducing her to Barbie Doll she's so much more than that lol

Favorite relationship: in canon my favorite platonic relationship is her and azula. there's just so much to think about when it comes to their power dynamic and a lot of ty lee's complexity is shown through this one relationship. it shows how ty lee is a snake in the grass posing as a flower in azula's garden, and azula has complete faith in her and her intellect to the last. so much fun!! as for romantic we obviously gotta go with mailee, but for almost the exact opposite reasons. ty lee is 100% genuine 100% of the time with exactly one person, and that's mai. she can be mean to mai and tease her and let down her guard and mai does the same!! it's just all very sweet to me. outside of canon i love sokka&ty lee and aang&ty lee :) and i think katara being afraid of ty lee is beautiful and i want to see more of them interacting.

Favorite headcanon: AIR NOMAD TY LEE. AIR NOMAD TY LEE!!!!!! this is the obvious answer but that's for a reason!! i love love love the idea that ty lee is an airbender and she started developing her talent for lying as a means of protecting herself from suspicion as a fire nation noble. i don't know the mechanics of how her family could have risen through the ranks-- perhaps an ally took in her nomad ancestors and they married up??-- but her character design could not have been an accident. maybe she joined the circus because it was also easier to hide as an airbender! i could go on abt this for years and years but other people have said it better lol. also modern au ty lee tops and she is insanely popular on OF.

game here!

[theotherace]

Hey Der! I know you have a big extended family for Taang (maybe even Sukka and Zutara too!), but are there any facts or HCs about grandkids of the Gaang that you can share?

Hm. Enabling me, I see. Well. This is gonna get long, lmao.

The kids in these two drawings are only half canon to my main AU, by which I mean they might be changed and switched out at my convenience. I might have to replace some boys with girls, because there's always too many boys. The only one's I'm actually attached to (already) are these two:

and him:

The first two boys are Wan and Jin, the sons of Bumi and Kya II. So Taang and Zutara's grandsons. Wan (on the left) is the older one, which obviously isn't very visible here. He's an airbender. Jin is a non-bender. There are a lot of rumours flying around about their paternity, because their parents are neither, and that's despite the fact that Wan is basically Bumi with blue eyes and that Jin definitely has his dad's eyes. It gets to them, Jin especially, because with Wan it's like: Well, our grandpa's an airbender, it just skipped a generation. But I feel like there's a certain stigma to being born a non-bender to two benders, especially when you come form Fire Lords and Avatars. And then there's people saying his dad's not his dad because he can't make fire. It's sucks.

I'm attached to them because I used to think about them going out, being vigilantes together:

(Yes, there's art. Obviously. Their looks changed quite a bit.)

I'm getting back into comics, so who knows, maybe I will one day resurrect this niche, self-indulgent superhero AU. I do kinda like the thought of them hearing stories about the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady and sneaking out for Earth Rumbles from their grandparents and going: Well, we can do that! And of they went, two princes of the Fire Nation called Beifong, off to safe their city. I mean, really what else would one expect when combing Zuko, Katara, Aang, and Toph's genes? Dramatic-ass superhero wannabes, that's what. Jin's less excited about it than Wan, lol, but he follows along anyway, because somebody has to make sure his big brother doesn't get himself killed. And then he also gets into it.

Aguta is the only child of Norbu (and Miki, who barely even exists yet). I guess I'm less attached to really him and more to how he happened? I dunno. Norbu's ace (hello, projection), and he has a lot of fears and anxieties around relationships and intimacy, because sex seems important, and really, he's not interested in that at all, but at the same time, he's acutely aware of how few airbenders there are in the world, and that he kinda ... needs to have a child or two if he wants them to not die out. When he meets Miki, he's in his thirties and this eats away at him. Most people he tells about his troubles are understanding but not necessarily willing to deal with it in a long-term relationship. She is, though, because she gets it. Not the airbender part, of course, she's a non-bender from the South Pole, but the sex part. She's not that into it, either. They eventually have Aguta, obviously, who I don't know much about other than he is indeed an airbender and that that isn't the only reason his parents had him. He looks a bit like Sokka up there, because of the hair, but they're not related. He's a gentle guy with a lot of Grandpa Aang in him.

Otherwise! I know that Metok takes a lot after his dad. He's the oldest grandkid and takes that role quite seriously. His younger siblings take more after their mom, who is very carefree, at least compared to Tenzin. They live in the Fire Nation, close to Grandmas Mai and Ty Lee, and travel on occasion because they are still Air Nomads. Metok's a non-bender like Dawa. I think I wrote down somewhere what the rest of them bend or don't bend, too, but I'm too lazy to search for it now. Also, I do kind of love Metok, because he's the first grandchild I made up and the first I drew. I don't think I could ever change him much, either.

Kavi has three kids. He's only biologically related to two of them. Probably. They bend air, so there's a high chance. Not that it matters, really. These kids grow up on the road like Kavi did, and they grow up with a very loose, fluid definition of family. There's rumours about their parentage, too, and tons of judgemental people, but they've been taught very early on, before that gossip could even reach their ears, that blood isn't what matters. That Nuka's Kavi's kid even if he didn't help make her and that Mattaq loves Mida and Kipu even if they don't look like him, and that family is who they decide to make it, and that there's nothing wrong with the way they live and love and all that stuff as long as everybody involved is happy.

Li Wei receives similar talks, because he's adopted, and he was adopted at four or five, so there's a lot of reassuring that things are alright and that his moms love him and that he belongs, because while I'm not entirely certain what happened before he was adopted (yet), I do know he didn't have it easy. He's a goofy kid, usually. Not always the brightest but definitely one of the kindest people around. He is a very recent addition, actually, because Asha doesn't have any kids in my document, but I kinda like him now.

I mean, I kinda like all of them. If I ever get to a point in "the most important mark" where a NextNextGen actually comes into play, we'll see if I use all of them or none of them.

And ... that's the Taang grandkids. Also two for Zutara and four for MaiLee. Gotta admit that the NextGen kids not related to Taang are not nearly as fleshed out as the Dunebabies are (especially Ursa, Koji and the Bladebabies), but ... all in due time, I guess. These are already too many OCs, anyway, lol.

Thank you for the ask! I'm not sure if I acutally answered it properly.

[r0x4]

hi here's a modern mailee au

i'm in my third week as a first year Zoom University Student go easy on me

mai's in her first year as a Computer Science major

god i could totally see her falling in love with programming languages,,, also computers are easier to deal with than Real People

she's definitely one of those badass Women in STEM and will kick anyone's ass if they say shit about it

she needs to fill up another unit or two so she said Fuck It and decides to take a Race Racism and Critical Thinking class

insert Ty Lee, a first year Political Science/Asian-American Studies/Ethnic Studies???? major ??? idk but basically Humanities

because i really like STEM x Humanities stories

all of her sisters did dance performance or business or Both and she decided she wanted to pursue something where she could Directly Help People

mai initially wasnt very interested in making more friends outside of Sokka (also a CS major), Zuko, and Azula

but then she gets put into a Breakout Room with Ty Lee who's actually leading the discussion and participating

and then she's like ......alright she knows what she's talking about i like it..........

now mai's not really into social media, she only follows her friends and then some of their friends, but she goes to Instagram to stalk Ty Lee and BOY she's so happy she did

ty lee's one of those people who constantly has her story filled with Political Instagram Posts and her story Highlights are filled to the Brim with Politics (and some friend posts in between)

her instagram is a cute mixture of selfies and informational posts and mai is hooked because cute and educated?

meanwhile mai's own instagram is basically run by azula, with pictures of mai and zuko or zuko and azula. she's mostly a Posts on Story and Lurks type of instagrammer

but anyway she immediately follows ty lee and !!! ty lee !!! follows !!!! back !!!! and if mai cracks a little smile in the middle of the breakout room then No She Didn't

they don't really talk for a while until ty lee pops up in her DMs like "hey you code right???? does that mean you can create a website????"

and mai's like "yea why"

ty lee: well i have an assignment for one of my classes where we need to create a political campaign!!!! i was wondering if you could help me put something together!!!! i'll pay you!!! or buy you dinner!!!!

and mai panics because What the Fuck. does That Mean what she Thinks it means..........

but anyway she agrees and they meet up to discuss Website Stuff

and basically now they text All the Time and eventually the last meeting before the assignment is due ty lee's like "hey i don't know if i'm reading this wrong but something tells me that we'd be good together...... do you maybe wanna be my girlfriend?"

and mai looks at her for a Long Time, enough for ty lee to wanna backtrack and then suddenly mai takes her hand and breathes out "yes" and yea now they r dating (:

if you wanna make this more interesting: there never was any Campaign Assignment. ty lee knows sokka through suki and knows that he shares classes with mai, so she asked for his help on how to get with mai because she's so cool

and basically sokka comes up with an assignment rubric pdf and everything to cover all his bases and tells ty lee to pretend to have this Important Assignment that Requires Mai's help

and now that she's dating mai he asks ty lee if she can maybe get mai to set him up with that cute boy he sees on on her instagram all the time

[boomerang109]

oK SO I’VE HAD THIS AU IN MY HEAD FOR TWO FKN DAYS AND I HAVE COME TO EVER SO GRACIOUSLY INJECT IT INTO YOUR MIND- THE GAANG PLUS YUE AND THE FIRE NATION GALS IN BANDS. a battle of the bands au. tHINK OF THE aRt. THE ARt wOuLd bE ePiC. n i’m thinking zukka and yueki, but zuko+suki are with mai, azula, and ty lee, and the rest of the gaang+yue in another band, and they meet at battle of the bands but yk...we got 2 sets of pining idiots yk yk. i thought this up 2 days ago and i cant stopppp(cont.)

I WAS SO EXCITED TO ANSWER THIS THAT I SAVED IT FOR WHEN MY BRAIN WOULD BE FUNCTIONING BETTER

unfortunately my brain never functions better so what ended up happening is that i maybe forgot this was in here. but i’m gonna answer now and im still very excited

i actually ended up having many thoughts based on your SPECTACULAR idea and you can def tell i know nothing about rock music or battle of the bands. but i’ve got the spirit

wait you could also make this such a pining mess cause you could have the two cross-band romances (yueki and zukka) and then you could have each in-band relationship (mailee and kataang) and then azula and toph can bond over being surrounded by lovesick idiots

wait suki with nation girls (azula especially) is so powerful i actually 😍

suki as electric guitarist? and backup singer while azula is lead singer?? zuko on the drums? ty lee on keyboard? mai on another instrument—maybe she’s on drum and zuko is also a guitarist? or an instrument im forgetting (ty lee and mai are also backup singers with suki. there’s at least one song where suki is lead singer/duets with azula). zuko writes most of the songs, but mai helps a surprising amount. suki likes to edit more than write her own lyrics

im calling fire nation + suki fan the fire (get it?) and i feel like it’d be kind of an angrier rock vibe cause these are tough kids. deep lyrics for sure. but also lots of girl power (especially cause Zuko barely ever sings so it’s all female viewpoint). moments where true fans can see emotion but overall this could be the band an angsty 13 year old would blast

no creative title for this rock group. maybe aang’s gaang? aang’s the lead singer. katara’s on a normal guitar and lead female singer. sokkas on electric guitar. yue on keyboard. toph on the drums. although aang and katara are technically the band’s lead singers theyre really big on group vocals which is what sets them apart. (yue especially provides a gorgeous harmony, it’s soft but without it the songs wouldn’t be the same).

they still have a rock vibe, but i gave katara a regular guitar cause you know she’s an indie bitch and as the main writer she does get that in there. aang and yue do the music writing, katara and sokka (usually separately) do most of the lyrics, toph helps both but usually just when they’re stuck

the kind of rock that actually has encouraging lyrics and family vibes cause katara is wholesome. some of sokka’s depresso bits sneak in there too tho

okay battle of the bands. sokka hates zuko from day one cause he looks so good-looking and full of himself and even ignored sokka when he tried to introduce himself. (spoiler alert, zuko’s hearing loss + playing the drums = one oblivious boy

zuko sees sokka day one and says pretty boy—no, no. competition. gotta stay focused and crush the competition

at some point (i kinda like the idea of suki and yue kinda knowing each other and just being friendly/competitors. and then one day....) yue realizes that suki is way too damn pretty. and suki wants to hear more of a certain soft voice

when zuko and sokka get together, yue threatens to tell katara if sokka doesn’t use his new boyfriend to get yue and suki together

lucky for yue, zuko and suki were having pining sessions together and are more than happy to start going on double dates

actually kataang is established and cute. i think mailee isn’t and they should take longer than zukka/yueki cause they’re idiots (loving). but the night of some big show, zuko and sokka both dont show up cause they were locked in a closet. everyone’s pissed, fraticide likely on both sides

after the reveal of zukka, reporters are looking for more dirt on both bands. yueki gets exposed and yue tries to deny it

suki is upset, but yue eventually admits it’s just the internalized homophobia but she loves suki and does want to be with her

neither half of the couples want to compete with the others, and the rest of the bands are getting conflicted cause friendships

they become one Super Band (is this possible??? seems super cliche but whatever)

on their debut show, ty lee and mai kiss for the first time (unplanned) and if this was a movie instead of a tumblr post, it would end with azula and toph’s shared look of aro pain at being surrounded by so many damn couples

i want art of this (hey egg you art good, if you wanna?? haha jk.....unless👉👈)