crossovers I am trying VERY HARD not to write (...without noticeable success *sigh*)

[edenfalling]

You know how I know that I am crazy? In my free moments at work this evening, and during the last couple hours at home, I plotted almost 90% of an epic Avatar: the Last Airbender/Enchanted Forest Chronicles fusion-style crossover. (The idea being that all the Avatar characters are part of the Enchanted Forest world, and always have been.) It's notably fluffier than Avatar canon -- it kind of has to be; the Enchanted Forest world isn't built for angst -- but it keeps a surprising amount of the general story the same, and I think the changes are organic.

About the only thing I have not figured out is exactly how, when, and why Zuko got his scar. He has to have the scar -- I am not sure why, but he doesn't seem properly Zuko without it -- but the way the backstory is arranged, I am not sure what he would have done to provoke his father, or what exactly he got punished with instead of being sent on a wild goose chase to 'find the Avatar.' Because in this world, he's still in contact with his family at the start of the story, and is, in fact, actively working for them... albeit in a very non-central role.

*ponders*

Comments

[theodosia21]

Yay! ^_^

[Fic] The Two Secretive Princesses

[edenfalling]

There was something weird about Princess May of Veritand. (Aside from the way she prefered to spell her name Mai, ostensibly as "a sign of solidarity with our Cathayan immigrant population," but really just because her friends thought it looked cooler.)

There was something weird about all the visitors from Veritand, actually, but Toph had figured the other three out within two days. Lady Ty Lee was not really a noble at all, but the daughter of Veritand's court jester. She was also a witch of some sort, since so far as Toph knew, only witches and magicians could see magical auras. Lord Zuko and Lady Azula were definitely fire witches, though they were trying to hide it -- and at least in Zuko's case, failing spectacularly. (On the other foot, nobody but Toph and the overly-territorial goose had been in the garden at the time, so she should probably cut Zuko a little slack.) Azula was also prone to nasty laughter and Zuko was a dork, but anybody could figure that out, so Toph didn't count those as secrets.

Mai though, she couldn't figure out at all. Toph knew in her feet and her bones that the other princess had some kind of secret. She heard it in Mai's voice, felt it in her footsteps, sensed it in her careful silences. But Mai hid whatever it was as closely and carefully as Toph hid her own secrets -- not even her own parents knew she could turn to stone, after all, though they'd figured out pretty early on that being blind didn't mean she couldn't see -- and not knowing was driving Toph mad.

She sulked through the formal dinner that marked the first week of Princess Mai's state visit, occasionally flicking drops of soup across the table into Zuko's face and feeling him grit his teeth and count to ten over and over and over. (Another day or two of that, and she might get him angry enough to burst into flames in the middle of court. That would be the best joke ever.)

Afterward, Toph cornered Mai in one of the back staircases. "What's your secret?" she asked. "I know you have one."

"If it's a secret, what makes you think I'd tell anyone who didn't already know?" Mai asked, her voice even dryer than usual. Her heart didn't speed up so much as half a second. Not fair! Toph had thought she was the best secret-keeper ever, but she still got nervous when people realized she was hiding things.

Toph scowled and kicked her heel against the banister. "But I want to know! I know Ty Lee's not a lady, and Azula and Zuko are fire witches, and I think their dad is running Veritand even though your dad's the king, but I can't figure you out. Tell me!"

Mai laughed.

"...You're a guest in Toure-on-Marsh," Toph said, switching tactics. "You're supposed to be polite to me."

"And you're supposed to be polite in return," Mai pointed out. "Stop asking nosy questions." She began walking up the stairs, her long skirts swishing around her ankles and against the stones.

Toph considered asking the banister posts to uproot themselves and block Mai's path, but that would give away one of her own secrets. "It's not fair," she grumbled.

On the second-floor landing, Mai turned. "Life isn't fair. But you're not boring, so I'll make a deal: if, on your sixteenth birthday, you still don't know my secrets, you can ask and I'll tell you. But the offer's only good on that day, and you'll have to ask in person. What do you say?"

"Oh, whatever," Toph said, and stomped off to the gardens. Maybe she could hide in a bush and throw things at Zuko until he set his hair on fire again.

Six years later, of course, she didn't have to ask. She knew perfectly well Mai was a ninja.

Re: [Fic] The Two Secretive Princesses

[theodosia21]

AWESOME. I don't even know were to start- I love the explanation about Mai's name, Toph's curiosity, Zuko and the goose, bwahaha! And of course Mai is a ninja!

Thank you so much for writing this ficlet- I love it! I don't mean to be pushy, but I hope you'll write more. ^_^

Re: [Fic] The Two Secretive Princesses

[edenfalling]

Re: the goose. There were no turtleducks available, so I had to improvise. *grin*

(There will probably be more. This scenario is eating my brain.)

Re: [Fic] The Two Secretive Princesses

[theodosia21]

^_^

*stares hard at the screen for about 45 seconds*

[lynati-1.livejournal.com]

Um...well, since you're going for moderately less angsty....how abouts, his father was trying out a spell on him/using him somehow and it rather literally blew up in Zuko's face? And, I dunno, his father blames him for somehow screwing up what would have been this great offensive weapon/summon? And they need, uh, the "breath of the avatar" to make it work, (because blood is too easy to acquire and too cliched anyhow) and Zuko is all caught up in setting right what he "screwed up" by not being a good enough test subject/focal point rather than getting pissed at Daddy for using him as a guinea pig for something crazy dangerous?

Oh wait, you said he *wasn't* chasing the Avatar. *shrugs* Well, maybe you can still get anything out of the previous anyway.

Re: *stares hard at the screen for about 45 seconds*

[edenfalling]

Oh, hey, that could work with a few modifications. See, there is a plot point with an evil spell Ozai is trying to create, and which becomes relevant in the final showdown when Azula tries to use it and it goes very, very wrong, but maybe Ozai was going to test it on, I dunno, a random palace servant or something (because he is officially the advisor to the king of Veritand, but really he rules the country because the king is Mai's dad and therefore massively ineffective *grin*), and Zuko is like, "But you can't do that; it's wrong!" and gets in the way and it blows up in his face. And Ozai is all, "Rrargh! You ruined my experiment and also destroyed all my research notes and specialized rare ingredients and now I will have to start over again, damn you!" and banishes him, but with a mission that is actually of some use to Ozai rather than a mission that is designed solely to get Zuko out of the way.

*considers* Yeah. I like that.

(Also, there is no Avatar in this world. Aang is just a very precocious magician with a love for wind spells, whose mentor has been studying the grey areas between inborn magic -- like fire witches and dragons and stuff -- and borrowed magic, which is what magicians and regular witches use. This becomes relevant later on.)

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

Shrieks, that would be so cool!

[edenfalling]

But I do not have time to write it! *wails in despair*

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

But it's already plotted out!

[edenfalling]

Story ideas are easy. (So easy they happen to me in my sleep sometimes, with up to 85% actual usable earth logic in some cases.) Writing, on the other hand, is hard. *mopes* (Plus, you know, I have other things I really need to finish, and a couple of them have hard deadlines I cannot slide out of.)