Gratuitous AU costume shenanigans
Oct. 31st, 2010 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gryphonseggFandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Setting: modernish college AU don'tjudgeme!
Pairings: Teo and Haru, Katara and Aang, Sokka and Suki, and . . . that's about it, which is a surprisingly low ship count for collegeverse
Note: Kansan Entrails/Surrealist Dreamer made a holiday request for ATLA characters living in an AU where they attend university and celebrate Halloween. More specifically, the request included Teru,a Halloween party, and last minute costumes.
Warnings: glitter and fake blood
Word count: 1,660
Haru’s attendance at the costume party was as much as a surprise to him as it was to anyone. It was practically an accident. He’d spent a long weekend at his parents’ house, or rather, sleeping at his parents’ house and working on an add-on to his aunt’s house (He was able to escape on the fourth day because they hadn’t told the aunt the beak lasted an entire week). He’d spent the whole day driving, except for short breaks to eat and to call Katara and listen to her freak out about whether she was going to be able to alter the dreaded silver dress in time for Ty Lee’s party. Haru was surprised at how much effort she was putting into her costume, considering that she’d been busier than anybody the last couple of weeks. And that was saying something, since everybody had been dealing with classes, exams, getting Suki and Sokka moved into their new house, the zoo break-out, and the lawsuit brought by a cabbage vendor. Ty Lee had invited Haru too, but he planned to skip it. He’d told her that he wouldn’t get back from visiting his parents until later in the week, although his intention had been to return as early as possible and spend the rest of the break at Teo’s house.
Haru made it back in record time. However, he soon discovered that Teo had not, as previously assumed, declined an invitation. No, Teo had simply forgotten.
“I can’t believe I forgot about the party. Look at the time! We’re going to be late if we put any effort into costume at all.”
“I thought we were going to stay in tonight,” Haru said hopefully.
“But we have to go! Ty Lee’s expecting everyone. Wait, you’re not fighting with any of her other friends right now, are you?”
“No, it’s not that. I just thought it would be nice to stay home with you.”
“You’ll be with me at the party.”
“Yeah, but almost everyone we know will be there too. I was hoping we’d have some time to ourselves.”
“Oh.” Teo caught on. “Well . . . actually, I was thinking . . . maybe youcouldbemydatefortheparty.”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
Teo seemed uncharacteristically nervous and fidgety now. “I was just thinking maybe if we went to the party, you could be my date. You know, like proper date with a costume that needs two people to work. I don’t think we’ve had one of those yet.”
Hearing it put that way, Haru felt kind of selfish for not thinking about the greater context sooner. “I’d like that. I don’t know if we can do the costume fast enough, though.”
“Well, that’s no problem. We can throw something together.”
Haru was about to express his doubts, but then he looked—really, really looked-- around Teo’s room for the first time. The walls were lined with shelves, and those in turn were covered with an amazing variety of objects. Every other time Haru had been in here, the crowded shelves, the teetering piles of stuff on the little tables, and the overflowing bags handing on the closet door just made him want to clean everything and organize it in a sensible way. This time, he saw the potential. The makings of several half-way good costumes were already laid out. With a little digging and a little imagination, they could outfit a whole party on the spot.
Haru reached into a box of plastic frogs and old costume props and picked out one of the pairs of cat ears Teo had made at last spring’s cat party. The matching tail was probably buried under a pile of tee shirts or astronomy magazines. “We could both be cats.”
“No, too easy. There are probably going to be lots of cats anyway.” Teo’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh, I know, I know!”
“You have that look again.”
Teo held out a hand. “Goggles.”
Haru took the goggles off a winged pig and handed them to Teo. “Goggles.”
“White coat.”
Haru found that draped over the rail Teo used to get into and out of his chair. “White coat.”
“Bunny ears.”
“Not the bunny ears,” Haru protested. “They make you look younger than you really are.”
“We need either bunny ears or cat ears, and we can’t do cat ears because a bunch of other people will be doing cat ears.”
“I’m just not comfortable with the bunny ears.”
“Why not?”
“Because they make you look shota.”
“Oh, that’s okay, then. I’m not going to wear them. You are.”
A few minutes later, Haru was almost ready to appear in public. Teo had made him lie down and attached all the parts of the costume himself. Painting the scales on the feet took the longest (and turned out to be oddly pleasant, although Haru was unable to help because of monster claw gloves on his hands). While the paint dried, Teo changed Haru into a thicker, long-sleeved shirt (“so the power source won’t burn your skin”), then wrapped him in a string of lights, taped a battery pack for the lights on outside the shirt, and added another, thinner shirt over the lights so they would show through (“to hint at cybernetic components”). The wings went on over the extra shirt. They didn’t really match the outer shirt, but they were largest set of wings Teo owned. Finally, Teo equipped his creation with fangs, horns, and bunny ears. He admired his work briefly, then shouted, “IT’S ALIVE! IT’S ALIIIIIIVE!” and laughed maniacally.
“Haru! You made it to the party!” Katara scurried over with little tiny steps, careful not to trip or break the seams of her fin. She was wearing the dreaded silver dress, which technically belonged to Mai, being a gift from her grandmother. Mai couldn’t get rid of it fast enough—it wasn’t dark enough for her taste, and it had been cut for someone with a fuller figure and wouldn’t fit her right without padding. Katara had been planning to take up the hem and wear it in the spring, but when the party was announced, she decided to use the extra fabric at the bottom to create a mermaid tail. It was a bit of a rush job, but Katara accessorized with sea shells and water-smoothed stones and made it work.
Haru smiled and gave Teo’s hand a little squeeze. “I guess I wasn’t as tired as I thought.”
“I have discovered the secret of life!” Teo proclaimed. “Nine cups of phlebotinum, a single bolt of lightning, and it’s alive!”
“He’s been like this ever since he put the ears on me,” said Haru.
“At least he’s not singing about a science fiction double feature,” said Katara.
“Please don’t give him ideas . . .” Haru trailed off as he noticed what the people behind Katara were wearing. Specifically, Aang was wearing his regular clothing and a whole lot of water. “Why is Aang soaking wet?”
“I’m drowning!” Aang said cheerfully. “Katara is saving me.”
“So . . . your costume is water?”
“I like it,” said Teo. “Simple and clever.”
Suki was wrapped in lots of floral print fabric that looked an awful lot like her old sheets, and she had flowers in her hair. “I’m a goddess of spring,” she explained.
“And I’m a random costume generator,” Sokka added. He was wearing a tiara, an eye-patch, and a boxy cardboard robot body exactly the same size as the box for the new bedroom set Suki had ordered. He opened the front and pulled out a fuzzy Water Tribe hat. “Here, have a hat.”
“Thanks, but I think I have as much headgear as I can stand.” Haru smoothed down his hair in front of the bunny ears and patted his plastic horns to make sure they were still in place.
“Light saber, then?”
“Teo already has enough of those.”
“What are you supposed to be anyway?” Sokka asked
“That should be obvious,” said Teo, his accent getting broader with every word. “I am a mad scientist and Haru is a creature I made!”
Ty Lee appeared from the hallway in a cloud of glitter. “Yay! Everyone’s here now! I’m so happy you could make it!”
“Cute costume,” Haru commented as he admired her sparkly dress, sparkly shoes, sparkly wings, and sparkly antennae.
“You think so?” said Ty Lee. “I couldn’t find anything good in the stores this year, so I had to throw this together from stuff in my closet. I thought about being a cat, but I’m glad I decided not to because there are lots of other people in cat-related costumes tonight.”
“Let me guess,” said Haru, “Mai’s a black cat, just like last year?”
“Oh, no,” Ty Lee replied, “she’s a shadow puppet. Zuko said he wasn’t doing a costume this year, if you can believe that! Well, no worries, we fixed everything.” She pushed open the door to the kitchen, where several people were standing around eating candy from a giant bowl. The group included Mai dressed all in black with black cat ears, Toph in a cloak that looked like Suki’s old curtains, and Zuko in cat ears. Someone had taken pieces of the old ceiling paneling they’d all helped remove from Suki and Sokka’s house and duct taped them to Zuko.
“Zuko is Ceiling Cat,” Aang said proudly. “It was my idea.”
“I see. And Toph is . . .” Haru contemplated her deep red curtain-turned-cloak, her basket with a furry gray tail hanging out of it, and her staff with a hideous wolf-man mask mounted on it like a fresh trophy head on a pike, dripping (he hoped) fake blood.
“Little Red Riding Hood,” said Katara.
“What’s she using for blood?” asked Teo. “Does it wash out? I thought about adding blood to my coat, but I didn’t want to stain it because I’ll want to wear it for real later.”
Setting: modernish college AU don'tjudgeme!
Pairings: Teo and Haru, Katara and Aang, Sokka and Suki, and . . . that's about it, which is a surprisingly low ship count for collegeverse
Note: Kansan Entrails/Surrealist Dreamer made a holiday request for ATLA characters living in an AU where they attend university and celebrate Halloween. More specifically, the request included Teru,a Halloween party, and last minute costumes.
Warnings: glitter and fake blood
Word count: 1,660
Haru’s attendance at the costume party was as much as a surprise to him as it was to anyone. It was practically an accident. He’d spent a long weekend at his parents’ house, or rather, sleeping at his parents’ house and working on an add-on to his aunt’s house (He was able to escape on the fourth day because they hadn’t told the aunt the beak lasted an entire week). He’d spent the whole day driving, except for short breaks to eat and to call Katara and listen to her freak out about whether she was going to be able to alter the dreaded silver dress in time for Ty Lee’s party. Haru was surprised at how much effort she was putting into her costume, considering that she’d been busier than anybody the last couple of weeks. And that was saying something, since everybody had been dealing with classes, exams, getting Suki and Sokka moved into their new house, the zoo break-out, and the lawsuit brought by a cabbage vendor. Ty Lee had invited Haru too, but he planned to skip it. He’d told her that he wouldn’t get back from visiting his parents until later in the week, although his intention had been to return as early as possible and spend the rest of the break at Teo’s house.
Haru made it back in record time. However, he soon discovered that Teo had not, as previously assumed, declined an invitation. No, Teo had simply forgotten.
“I can’t believe I forgot about the party. Look at the time! We’re going to be late if we put any effort into costume at all.”
“I thought we were going to stay in tonight,” Haru said hopefully.
“But we have to go! Ty Lee’s expecting everyone. Wait, you’re not fighting with any of her other friends right now, are you?”
“No, it’s not that. I just thought it would be nice to stay home with you.”
“You’ll be with me at the party.”
“Yeah, but almost everyone we know will be there too. I was hoping we’d have some time to ourselves.”
“Oh.” Teo caught on. “Well . . . actually, I was thinking . . . maybe youcouldbemydatefortheparty.”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
Teo seemed uncharacteristically nervous and fidgety now. “I was just thinking maybe if we went to the party, you could be my date. You know, like proper date with a costume that needs two people to work. I don’t think we’ve had one of those yet.”
Hearing it put that way, Haru felt kind of selfish for not thinking about the greater context sooner. “I’d like that. I don’t know if we can do the costume fast enough, though.”
“Well, that’s no problem. We can throw something together.”
Haru was about to express his doubts, but then he looked—really, really looked-- around Teo’s room for the first time. The walls were lined with shelves, and those in turn were covered with an amazing variety of objects. Every other time Haru had been in here, the crowded shelves, the teetering piles of stuff on the little tables, and the overflowing bags handing on the closet door just made him want to clean everything and organize it in a sensible way. This time, he saw the potential. The makings of several half-way good costumes were already laid out. With a little digging and a little imagination, they could outfit a whole party on the spot.
Haru reached into a box of plastic frogs and old costume props and picked out one of the pairs of cat ears Teo had made at last spring’s cat party. The matching tail was probably buried under a pile of tee shirts or astronomy magazines. “We could both be cats.”
“No, too easy. There are probably going to be lots of cats anyway.” Teo’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh, I know, I know!”
“You have that look again.”
Teo held out a hand. “Goggles.”
Haru took the goggles off a winged pig and handed them to Teo. “Goggles.”
“White coat.”
Haru found that draped over the rail Teo used to get into and out of his chair. “White coat.”
“Bunny ears.”
“Not the bunny ears,” Haru protested. “They make you look younger than you really are.”
“We need either bunny ears or cat ears, and we can’t do cat ears because a bunch of other people will be doing cat ears.”
“I’m just not comfortable with the bunny ears.”
“Why not?”
“Because they make you look shota.”
“Oh, that’s okay, then. I’m not going to wear them. You are.”
A few minutes later, Haru was almost ready to appear in public. Teo had made him lie down and attached all the parts of the costume himself. Painting the scales on the feet took the longest (and turned out to be oddly pleasant, although Haru was unable to help because of monster claw gloves on his hands). While the paint dried, Teo changed Haru into a thicker, long-sleeved shirt (“so the power source won’t burn your skin”), then wrapped him in a string of lights, taped a battery pack for the lights on outside the shirt, and added another, thinner shirt over the lights so they would show through (“to hint at cybernetic components”). The wings went on over the extra shirt. They didn’t really match the outer shirt, but they were largest set of wings Teo owned. Finally, Teo equipped his creation with fangs, horns, and bunny ears. He admired his work briefly, then shouted, “IT’S ALIVE! IT’S ALIIIIIIVE!” and laughed maniacally.
“Haru! You made it to the party!” Katara scurried over with little tiny steps, careful not to trip or break the seams of her fin. She was wearing the dreaded silver dress, which technically belonged to Mai, being a gift from her grandmother. Mai couldn’t get rid of it fast enough—it wasn’t dark enough for her taste, and it had been cut for someone with a fuller figure and wouldn’t fit her right without padding. Katara had been planning to take up the hem and wear it in the spring, but when the party was announced, she decided to use the extra fabric at the bottom to create a mermaid tail. It was a bit of a rush job, but Katara accessorized with sea shells and water-smoothed stones and made it work.
Haru smiled and gave Teo’s hand a little squeeze. “I guess I wasn’t as tired as I thought.”
“I have discovered the secret of life!” Teo proclaimed. “Nine cups of phlebotinum, a single bolt of lightning, and it’s alive!”
“He’s been like this ever since he put the ears on me,” said Haru.
“At least he’s not singing about a science fiction double feature,” said Katara.
“Please don’t give him ideas . . .” Haru trailed off as he noticed what the people behind Katara were wearing. Specifically, Aang was wearing his regular clothing and a whole lot of water. “Why is Aang soaking wet?”
“I’m drowning!” Aang said cheerfully. “Katara is saving me.”
“So . . . your costume is water?”
“I like it,” said Teo. “Simple and clever.”
Suki was wrapped in lots of floral print fabric that looked an awful lot like her old sheets, and she had flowers in her hair. “I’m a goddess of spring,” she explained.
“And I’m a random costume generator,” Sokka added. He was wearing a tiara, an eye-patch, and a boxy cardboard robot body exactly the same size as the box for the new bedroom set Suki had ordered. He opened the front and pulled out a fuzzy Water Tribe hat. “Here, have a hat.”
“Thanks, but I think I have as much headgear as I can stand.” Haru smoothed down his hair in front of the bunny ears and patted his plastic horns to make sure they were still in place.
“Light saber, then?”
“Teo already has enough of those.”
“What are you supposed to be anyway?” Sokka asked
“That should be obvious,” said Teo, his accent getting broader with every word. “I am a mad scientist and Haru is a creature I made!”
Ty Lee appeared from the hallway in a cloud of glitter. “Yay! Everyone’s here now! I’m so happy you could make it!”
“Cute costume,” Haru commented as he admired her sparkly dress, sparkly shoes, sparkly wings, and sparkly antennae.
“You think so?” said Ty Lee. “I couldn’t find anything good in the stores this year, so I had to throw this together from stuff in my closet. I thought about being a cat, but I’m glad I decided not to because there are lots of other people in cat-related costumes tonight.”
“Let me guess,” said Haru, “Mai’s a black cat, just like last year?”
“Oh, no,” Ty Lee replied, “she’s a shadow puppet. Zuko said he wasn’t doing a costume this year, if you can believe that! Well, no worries, we fixed everything.” She pushed open the door to the kitchen, where several people were standing around eating candy from a giant bowl. The group included Mai dressed all in black with black cat ears, Toph in a cloak that looked like Suki’s old curtains, and Zuko in cat ears. Someone had taken pieces of the old ceiling paneling they’d all helped remove from Suki and Sokka’s house and duct taped them to Zuko.
“Zuko is Ceiling Cat,” Aang said proudly. “It was my idea.”
“I see. And Toph is . . .” Haru contemplated her deep red curtain-turned-cloak, her basket with a furry gray tail hanging out of it, and her staff with a hideous wolf-man mask mounted on it like a fresh trophy head on a pike, dripping (he hoped) fake blood.
“Little Red Riding Hood,” said Katara.
“What’s she using for blood?” asked Teo. “Does it wash out? I thought about adding blood to my coat, but I didn’t want to stain it because I’ll want to wear it for real later.”
