Ascot as Toph == ALL THE APPROVAL!
When I was considering who to slot into each role, that just really seemed to fit.
Just imagining him learning earthbending from badgermoles... *fanflails happily*
Not
just learning earthbending from them, but actually
being raised by them for about five years. I was unable to see Ascot fitting the "rebellious noble child" role Toph has, so I decided to give him a backstory somewhat similar to his MKR one, but adapted to fit the AtLA world. So in the fic, the Fire Nation destroyed his village when he was eight. He only survived because he was off with the badgermoles (Or at least, that's what he thinks. He came back from their tunnels to find the village in flames and no one else in sight and assumed he was the only survivor.), so, since he had always gotten along with animals better than people anyway, he just started living with them. When he needed stuff he couldn't find in the wild (like new clothes), he'd either steal it from other villages or farms in the area (when he was still to young to be taken seriously as a good earthbender and was also at risk of someone trying to adopt him because of his youth) or, once he was somewhat older, finding someone who was willing to give him what he needed in exchange for him helping them out somehow (earthbending, gathering wild herbs, etc.) or competing in the Earth Rumbles and using the prize money to pay for what he needs.
And then I'm re-imagining the whole fight between Katara and Toph in "The Chase" but with Umi and Ascot. Like, Ascot only seeing to him and his pet/s needs (because come on, in any universe, Ascot's got to have some sort of animal friends), Umi ticked off by him not caring about the rest of them, them both getting increasingly stressed by the unknown enemy after them until Ascot says something that Umi just can't let go and then "Apologize!" "Why do I have to apologize, Sugar Queen?" "SUGAR QUEEN?!" ... Eventually culminating with her slapping him and him leaving because to hell with that.
Later, when they make up, she gives him that smile of hers, and Ascot's just like, 'Oh, crap, puberty, when do you get here?' *more fanflails over OTP*
Those are some wonderful images. Do you mind if I actually use some of that in the fic?
Also, one suggestion cause I hadn't seen anything for her yet: Caldina as June.
I honestly don't know if June's role is going to appear in the fic, but if it does, Caldina does seem like a good fit for it. And actually, now that you've brought up the idea of her in that role, I have this image of Bounty Hunter Caldina being one of the few people (possibly the only person) who knows that Ascot is living with the badgermoles (maybe he helped her out one time when she ended up chasing her quarry into the badgermoles' tunnels?) and whenever she's in the area, she stops by the tunnels just to check on how he's doing and see if he needs anything.
And then she stops by the tunnels sometime after Ascot leaves with Team Avatar and freaks out because not only is
he not there,
none of his stuff is there. So she frantically searches his living space for
anything whatsoever that might either explain his disappearance or let her track him and finds something with his scent on it, then uses her shirshu to track him down, hellbent on rescuing her 'little brother' from whoever forced him to leave his home and his friends, only to end up getting damn near flattened by the rest of Team Avatar when she comes charging into their camp because, after all, the last time the rest of them saw her, she was hunting them. And then Ascot recognizes her and gets the others to stop attacking and he assures her that he's really fine, he joined Team Avatar completely voluntarily, etc, etc. So she apologizes to rest of Team Avatar and they apologize to her and from then on, although she doesn't actually go out of her way to help them, she refuses to do anything that might bring them harm. And if the whole 'the Avatar disappears right before Sozin's Comet' thing happens in the fic, she helps them readily, simply because it's Ascot asking her.