AU Mini-Meme
I am nothing if not open to peer pressure. At least as long as it's telling me to do something I already wanted to do anyway.
Stealing a mini-meme idea from the lovely suzukiblu: AU mini-meme! Pick a character or characters, an accompanying mood or lyric, and an alternate setting/genre, and I'll scribble you something. Pharoahs, Green Lanterns, high school ( Read more... )
Stealing a mini-meme idea from the lovely suzukiblu: AU mini-meme! Pick a character or characters, an accompanying mood or lyric, and an alternate setting/genre, and I'll scribble you something. Pharoahs, Green Lanterns, high school ( Read more... )
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Zuko was the firstborn child of Matron Ursa, a worthless son. His sister never let him forget that he was a sign of Lolth's displeasure with their mother, a permanent reminder of her insult in taking Ozai to bed when she should have fed his heart to the goddess.
He didn't know how his mother made up for that insult, because his father still lived and served as House Patron. He didn't know how Matron Ursa gained enough favor with Lolth to have a daughter from Ozai.
He didn't want to know. He didn't want to know why his father's mouth was sewn shut, or where the other scars had come from. They gave him nightmares, the pale runes on ebony skin, and the ragged, ugly circle around his heart.
Zuko concentrated on mastering his dao swords, because the House weaponmaster would displease his mother someday, and he wanted the safety of that position. Better to be Weaponmaster than just Matron Ursa's son.
Weaponmasters were easier to come by than sons but much more useful. They didn't get their hearts cut out half so often.
He went to Melee Magthere at the same time Azula went to Arach-Tinilith, but he graduated earlier. Fighters only needed ten years in the Academy, after all.
The night he returned, his father attacked him. Fire and acid bolts to the face, and Zuko almost died. It was only through his mother's healing magic, agonizing as it was, that he survived.
But he came out of it with a massive scar across the left side of his face. The remarkable handsomeness he had possessed in the Academy was ruined forever.
After that, it was forty years of tedium, training and sharpening his skills and pleasing his mother in all things to the best of his ability. A few years before Azula was scheduled to graduate, Zuko glanced into a mirror and was shocked at how much like his father he looked.
Except for the scar.
Ozai was still so handsome that Matron Ursa had not sacrificed him screaming to Lolth.
Zuko shuddered and put the thought out of his mind.
His mother sent him to fetch Azula from the Academy. She sent him to the graduation ceremony itself.
The smoke from the braziers made his head swim, but while he was young, he was not a youth anymore. He shook it off and watched the ceremony, watched the presentation of the priestesses, watched the summoning of the glabrezu. Lolth's favor was with them, but when was it ever gone from the Academy?
The smoke and the emotions from the ceremony worked their magic, and sex broke out in scattered pockets that soon swept over the entire ceremony. He remembered this, vaguely, but not with any particular fondness.
He watched as the finest young priestess presented herself to the demon. The only reason that was not Azula, he knew, was because she didn't want it to be.
He was right.
"Zuko," his sister purred as she appeared at his side. She swayed, eyes half-closed and lips parted. "I thought you wouldn't come."
"Matron Ursa sent me," he said. How could he refuse his mother's orders? He had a sinking feeling he knew where this would go, but there was a snake-headed whip at his sister's side. How could he spurn a high priestess of Lolth?
Azula smiled and reached for him. "Mother always did love me best."
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I was half-way expecting Ozai to be genderflipped, but this works wonderfully.
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Genderflipping Ozai would have been way too easy and taken out a lot of the creepy. Way more fun to play with the drow matriarchal society with everyone in their proper genders.
Poor Zuko. *cuddles him*
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OH ZUZU YOU ARE SO SCREWED. IN EVERY SENSE IMAGINABLE.
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He so is. *ruffles Zuko*
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Bonus points for taking the advantage of Drow's 'tolerance' of incest for Zucest.
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Drow are such a horrorshow of a society. They're great fun to play with.
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