Animation, live Action & the real world

Okay! enough time has passed that I can talk about the AUs

1) During the scene where Ursa tries to take Azula and Zuko in the middle of the night but is then taken away. The first AU would be them escaping. I do think this is a fairly common AU trope for ATLA but I’m curious as to how this could be put into a darker ATLA world. But another AU for this (1.5) entails Azula blaming herself for them getting caught cause she yelled that she wanted Ozai. Azula knows she’s the reason they got caught and the reason her mom is gone which she internalized for years and carries with her into the war and Ba Sing Se. (She didn’t know Ozai would do this and she didn’t know her mother would pay the price so now her guilt is stopping her from conquering the city).

2) What if, when Aang is in the Avatar State and about to kill Azula, some of the rocks fired before he could put them all down and Azula got hurt? What if she needed medical assistant and they just so happen to have a healer right there with them? Zuko goes to Azula to try and help her but they need Katara or Aang or someone.

3) Ty Lee’s chi blocking in this season has the ability to stop someone from talking if she chooses. Post war or even during the war, Ty Lee turns on Azula and uses this technique on her, cutting off Azula’s ability to speak. However, because Azula is dealing with so much internal conflict she can’t regain the ability to speak even after the paralysis wears off so (insert character you ship Azula with) offers to be her voice until she gets her voice back.

And it cares for its hunters the same way a mechanic cares for the engine of a beloved car -- the engine itself is beautiful; a belt, worn down and used up, is discarded without a second thought.

- @theofficeghey

I never thought of this but the idea of the honmoon constantly stitching Celine back together hunt after hunt is so terrifying. She doesn’t want to do this anymore. She doesn’t want to be a hunter or fight demons or sing or anything but the Honmoon just puts her back together to the point that the next day she feels fine.

if we were to push this to an extreme, it could even become a cult(ish) thing. from initiation rituals to blood oaths, altars that shine with sweat and pendants around hunters' neck that resemble a cursed connection more than a divine bond with the honmoon.

on another note, this presents a good question. sentient!honmoon, i assume, chooses its hunters consciously, so... why rumi? to make sure gwi ma doesn't use her? is this against the honmoon's will? is it because she can serve it in a deeper way even though it slowly kills her?

and on that note—rumi. would rumi hear the honmoon's threatening thrums in her skull the same way demons would hear gwi ma's? would she have chronic headaches from this? would she go insane? would mira and zoey be privy to the information that she is a half demon? would they react in a much much much worse way than they did in canon?

also imagine this: you're zoey and you want to escape from the hell that is the american high school experience and your parents who are mid-divorce. you are mira and you want to escape from the hell that is your family and the constraints they keep you in. and you both escape! and you are happy and joyful and glad to dedicate your life to something so honourable.

and then you realise what that actually means. and there are days when zoey thinks, shit, i'd pay to go back to my grouchy parents and the awful gut punches from my bullies every day, and there are days when mira thinks, fuck, i'd rather suffer under my parents' roof than under these conditions.

I love the addition of the honmoon now whispering into their ears. A sentient honmoon looks upon the hunters like, as @fakelawyerbug mentioned, tools. Tools that it needs to keep itself intact and the best way to keep them motivated and working is to use fears and doubts to push them forward. If they fail, the world is screwed and so are they so there really is no room for error.

And it cares for its hunters the same way a mechanic cares for the engine of a beloved car -- the engine itself is beautiful; a belt, worn down and used up, is discarded without a second thought.

Mira can’t master this one difficult move?

Zoey’s struggling to think up lyrics?

if we were to push this to an extreme, it could even become a cult(ish) thing. from initiation rituals to blood oaths, altars that shine with sweat and pendants around hunters' neck that resemble a cursed connection more than a divine bond with the honmoon.

on another note, this presents a good question. sentient!honmoon, i assume, chooses its hunters consciously, so... why rumi? to make sure gwi ma doesn't use her? is this against the honmoon's will? is it because she can serve it in a deeper way even though it slowly kills her?

and on that note—rumi. would rumi hear the honmoon's threatening thrums in her skull the same way demons would hear gwi ma's? would she have chronic headaches from this? would she go insane? would mira and zoey be privy to the information that she is a half demon? would they react in a much much much worse way than they did in canon?

also imagine this: you're zoey and you want to escape from the hell that is the american high school experience and your parents who are mid-divorce. you are mira and you want to escape from the hell that is your family and the constraints they keep you in. and you both escape! and you are happy and joyful and glad to dedicate your life to something so honourable.

and then you realise what that actually means. and there are days when zoey thinks, shit, i'd pay to go back to my grouchy parents and the awful gut punches from my bullies every day, and there are days when mira thinks, fuck, i'd rather suffer under my parents' roof than under these conditions.

I love the addition of the honmoon now whispering into their ears. A sentient honmoon looks upon the hunters like, as @fakelawyerbug mentioned, tools. Tools that it needs to keep itself intact and the best way to keep them motivated and working is to use fears and doubts to push them forward. If they fail, the world is screwed and so are they so there really is no room for error.

Former show dog!Mira who’s experienced mostly the downs of being in competitive shows and is ready for a change of pace.

A sheltie like this expect…pink

Former show dog!Mira who’s experienced mostly the downs of being in competitive shows and is ready for a change of pace.

A sheltie like this expect…pink

And a rough collie is a good choice for her because they’re beautiful dogs, and known to be loyal, empathetic, intelligent, and protective. But Mira was so embedded in abusive show dog practices she has a hard time adjusting once she’s out which causes aggressive behaviour, something these dogs aren’t typically known for. Which only makes it worse because now she’s not acting how she’s “supposed” to be, and what does that make her if she can’t even behave how everyone wants her to?

Mira grew up in the show business world. She’s lived in it for so long that when she does try to express herself and be her own dog she’s instantly told that she’s basically there for one purpose and she’s useless if she can’t do that. I like giving Mira long fur cause I imagine that (somehow) it could get cut and knotted up when she meets Celine. She doesn’t look like a show dog anymore. She’s growling, hungry, and her fur is a mess so she knows Celine obviously won’t want her for anything.

She’s so shocked when Celine does.

That’s actually a sheltie! (Though I really did mainly pick the breed by asking myself if the fur was long and if it was a show dog so a collie also 100% works). For Mira, it also doesn’t help that her whole family is known for being show dogs. It’s not even just that she’s supposed to be a show dog because she’s beautiful and born for it but because her family does it too and going against shows means going against her family.

@whitebeltwriter-fics also mentioned how Zoey would work good as a mix and I’m starting to agree. From the movie, Zoey does have a tiny question of not knowing where she belongs: America or Korea? Is she more American or more Korean? I think this could translate if dog!Zoey is a mix in the sense that one part of her is a therapy dog usually (I’m not giving up on that) and the other part is something else entirely maybe a husky, leaving her unsure of which side she’s supposed to pick and where she’s supposed to go. Like you said, she is happy and full of energy but because she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do she also struggles with listening.

And Mira being a Sheltie instead is kinda hilarious, especially if Zoey is a husky/bernese (or something similar) mix because that makes Mira the smallest by a lot. Especially compared to Rumi. And her basically getting a lion cut when she's first found because her fur is so matted. Poor thing.

I like to think Rumi would frequently forget how big she actually is. When she was a puppy she'd snuggle up close to Celine and she still wanted to do that once she's grown but she's now way bigger and heavier than her guardian. Celine mostly bears it but as she gets older some of the ailments that tend to befall German Shepherds start to creep up on her and she's snapped at Rumi if the wolfdog plops down too hard on Celine's hips. (Which leads to panicked and distressed whimpers, Rumi believing Celine doesn't love her etc. Until Celine can explain that she's in physical pain and Rumi can't be so rough anymore. Which goes about as well as you'd think.)

I agree with this 100%! Celine loves Rumi, she really does, but she’s gotta realize she’s not a puppy anymore and Celine is getting old. Adding onto this by saying that Celine’s pain keeps her from hunting some days and without medicine or people—both cause Celine doesn’t want to get spotted by people and because she doesn’t want Rumi to get spotted by people—Celine doesn’t know how she’s going to really survive until Rumi starts bringing her food on days when she can’t travel. Rumi acts as a hunter and protector until Celine feels well enough to stand up and move.

I also love the idea that Celine really isn’t looking to expand her and Rumi’s little pack. It’s them and she’s happy about that until she meets Mira and decides “fine. One more can join” and then they save Zoey and it’s like “fine. A second one can join but I draw the line!” As it turns out, Rumi really needed friends who could match her energy.

Former show dog!Mira who’s experienced mostly the downs of being in competitive shows and is ready for a change of pace.

A sheltie like this expect…pink

And a rough collie is a good choice for her because they’re beautiful dogs, and known to be loyal, empathetic, intelligent, and protective. But Mira was so embedded in abusive show dog practices she has a hard time adjusting once she’s out which causes aggressive behaviour, something these dogs aren’t typically known for. Which only makes it worse because now she’s not acting how she’s “supposed” to be, and what does that make her if she can’t even behave how everyone wants her to?

Mira grew up in the show business world. She’s lived in it for so long that when she does try to express herself and be her own dog she’s instantly told that she’s basically there for one purpose and she’s useless if she can’t do that. I like giving Mira long fur cause I imagine that (somehow) it could get cut and knotted up when she meets Celine. She doesn’t look like a show dog anymore. She’s growling, hungry, and her fur is a mess so she knows Celine obviously won’t want her for anything.

She’s so shocked when Celine does.

That’s actually a sheltie! (Though I really did mainly pick the breed by asking myself if the fur was long and if it was a show dog so a collie also 100% works). For Mira, it also doesn’t help that her whole family is known for being show dogs. It’s not even just that she’s supposed to be a show dog because she’s beautiful and born for it but because her family does it too and going against shows means going against her family.

@whitebeltwriter-fics also mentioned how Zoey would work good as a mix and I’m starting to agree. From the movie, Zoey does have a tiny question of not knowing where she belongs: America or Korea? Is she more American or more Korean? I think this could translate if dog!Zoey is a mix in the sense that one part of her is a therapy dog usually (I’m not giving up on that) and the other part is something else entirely maybe a husky, leaving her unsure of which side she’s supposed to pick and where she’s supposed to go. Like you said, she is happy and full of energy but because she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do she also struggles with listening.

Hi anon!!!

Ohhhhh!!! I like this idea!!!

I'm assuming that, if they have to guide her, they were demons for a while before Celine found them. I'm gonna steal from my kid!demon Huntrix AU and say Mira is a gumiho demon as well, Zoey is a Dokkaebi demon (the same kind of demons from the plane scene in the movie) and Rumi is a mul gwishin demon (a water demon from the movie (someone correct me if I'm wrong)). Please, please, send another ask if I change this AU too much or you want to go in a different direction, this is just how I'm thinking of this. I was having trouble thinking of some angst moments at the end and I didn't want this post to get too long, so just send another ask if you want more of something.

Miyeong and the Third Sunlight Sister pass away from a demon attack in the early 2000s. Celine continues to hunt and sing but she's clearly more depressed and not doing so well so a lot of companies have trouble really trusting her as a consistent performer. Also, Celine's starting to hit her mid/late 20s and the Kpop Industry is turning to new talent (Celine does have her reputation which is why she's still pulling in concerts with amazing numbers but she knows it can't last forever) but this point which is just adding to Celine's worsening mental state.

During a hunt, Celine finds a group of demons kicking out a younger water demon, calling her useless and weak. Celine attacks the group but when she goes to the water demon, she's shocked to see the girl is just that: a girl. If she were human, she couldn't have been older than 6 or so. Celine also notices how dry her skin is and tells the demon to follow her. There's a small lake near Celine's hanok where Celine allows her to swim and instantly she takes to it, swimming around for hours before coming inside where Celine wraps her in a towel and asks her why the other demons treated her that way. She reveals that she doesn't want to steal souls and hates Gwi Ma and the other demons got mad at her and were going to leave her as bait for the demon hunter. Celine offers her a deal (mostly because she's incredibly lonely and has kind of just said 'screw it' to hunter rules after Miyeong and the Third Sister died): she can stay here and swim in the lake all she wants but she can't eat any souls and she has to wear a human disguise. Celine's never seen a water demon look so excited before.

Less than a week later, Rumi gets her name from a tv character.

A few years later, Rumi and Celine stumble across an orphaned pink gumiho trapped in a hunting net. Celine helps her down and extends the same offer to her and she agrees, confirming her name is Mira. A year after that, during a bad storm, a Dokkaebi demon arrives on Celine's doorstep and hands her her child, asking her to take care of her. Celine agrees to take in the girl just before her mom dies. That's how Zoey joins their group.

You might be asking: why doesn't Gwi Ma just force them to return like all the other demons? I think there are two reasons here: the first is that....they're kids. He has really nothing to gain from bringing them back to the underworld even if he could which gets to my second reason. That being that they didn't make a deal with him. They were born demons and, in the same way Gwi Ma has no control over Rumi in canon, I think he has no control over these kids here. He can hurt them if they get into the demon realm but otherwise he can do nothing and since Celine doesn't plan on letting any demons take them, he's out of luck.

Okay, that took way too long to get to the half-gumiho Celine part but I got here! Anyways, Rumi, Mira and Zoey had time as demons, they know about what they are and they know about what it means to be demons in the human realm. I imagine the reveal of Celine's gumiho side would come post Idol Awards so the girls are in Seoul and have already been selected by the honmoon and trained under it by Celine as well. Their relationship would probably be better with Celine but she still keeps a distance, so much so that Rumi is shocked to get a call from her one random morning almost begging them to come down to Jeju Island.

Days later, Celine still hasn’t left her house and suddenly hears banging on her steps. She assumes it’s just an animal or the wind but she still decides to go check and opens the door to the same little demon from before staring at her with a giant grin and basket of fish. Celine is determined to go back into her house and collapse onto her couch but the young demon is determined to thank Celine somehow for saving her life.

(Rumi’s reaction to Celine rejecting her gift)