Fire Nation Graffiti (and other primary sources)

[fulselden]

Series: Avatar
Characters/pairings: canon characters, mention of Mai/Zuko
Ratings/warnings: G


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Being a notation made at the foot of a wall

In the lower passage of the eastern apartments

By the children of the second prince

In the year of the sand leopard

At the close of the evening

In the electrical air before thunder

When they should have been in bed.

 

 

When I grow up I am going to be

A prince.

I was going to write that!

I know, dumb-dumb.

 

 

 

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Being some fragments of juvenilia

Attributed to Fire Lord Zuko,

Who was given to the fire

In the year of the dragon-hawk

Honour to his memory.

 

 

Mai, your hair shines like

The sun on a [deletion: ‘sword’] knife, I wish

I could stroke it now.

 

Mai, your face, [deletions: ‘beautiful’, ‘fine’, ‘lovely’] so clear,

A full moon in deep water.

Or in the night sky.

 

I want you to know,

Mai, that I even enjoyed

The part with the fish.

 

Summer rain falls [deletion: illegible] softly.

Mai, your skin is snow pale silk

Except [illegible].

 

 

For access to the remaining texts, please apply to the royal archivists.

Relevant forms are available at the central library and from the lower palace offices.

Access is subject to approval.

 

 

 

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Being a notation discovered on the wall of the upper guest chambers,

accompanied by a series of markings

possibly unidentified tribal symbols

perhaps intended as representations of individuals

or as schematic maps

together with a fine amateur drawing of an air bison

during palace renovation work in the wake of the Century War:

 

 

WATER TRIIIIIIBE.

 

 

 

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Being a letter in the hand of Fire Lord Zuko, provisionally dated from the third year of his reign, from the private collection of Fire Lord Akemi:

 

Aang. [deletion: I hope you are well] I’m sorry. I know you have a lot to do where you are, but I need you here, please. There are still disturbances in [illegible] and shortages [illegible] hardly any reserves; peasants are still using rice for brewing despite the prohibitions [deletion: illegible].

There are other issues but [deletion: I’m sure things will improve soon] the problem is Red Rock Island. People are refusing to evacuate and the Fire Sages say they need your help to allow for a controlled eruption. This absolutely cannot wait, Aang, it is not like last summer.

I hope you are well, all the same. I’ve had to do some things, here. I need to talk to you. Mai says hello to Katara and so do I of course.

Please disregard the wording on the letter sent through official channels and come as soon as you can. With deepest respect, Zuko.

PS – Aang I don’t know if you will be able to [illegible; the lower half of the document has sustained severe fire damage].

 

 

 

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Being a notation earthbent into the ceiling of the throne room:

 

Toph Bei Fong rulez [sic].

 

Other fragmentary characters appear in general to be attempts to represent vulgar Earth Kingdom phrases. They are however legible only with difficulty.

 

All these characters are still extant behind the decorative panelling.

 

 

 

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From the collection of messenger scrolls in the possession of Prince Kenzo, second child of Mai and Fire Lord Zuko. Transcribed and deciphered by Hina Laosin, palace archivist.

 

 

For the immediate attention of Fire Lady Mai.

 

Your Honour,

 

Glory and good fortune to the Family and the Nation.

Allow me to state at the outset that our guest remains in custody.

We have reassessed our security procedures in the wake of the incident.

Nevertheless, at sunrise check-in this morning, the following text was discovered burnt into the wall outside our guest’s room:

 

I wish to emphasize that my business remains unfinished. My dearest Mai, please inform [illegible] that I have something to say.

With all due respect,

[illegible] Azula.

 

She appears to have locked herself back inside without any further activity.

 

Awaiting immediate instruction,

 

Your humble servant,

Ayako Muzon

Chief warden, Seika Island Facility.

 

 

 

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Written by Princess Ursa for the attention of her youngest child, just prior to her departure for exile.

 

 

My dearest girl,

 

Please remember what I told you this evening about your honoured father, it is very important.

I promise you that other things are more important than [illegible].

Please remember that I love you, Azula, always.

Please remember that a certain standard of behaviour is required

From someone in your position.

I wish I had time to come to you but there is no time.

Darling remember it is how you use it that counts.

 

Please be careful, darling, remember you are very strong with all my love your mother.

 

This paper was burnt while the ink was still wet.

 

 

 

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Being a note discovered tucked into the side of Fire Lady Mai’s mirror by Mai herself.

 

I’m sorry Mai.

I know you’ll already know when you find this.

I know you’ll understand, sort of.

I’ll try not to hurt any of the guards.

I’ll try not to let her hurt anyone.

Hugs, Ty Lee.

 

 

 

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Being a notation discovered on the favourite wall scroll of Fire Lord Zuko

Which is a perfect example of Kanzo Era calligraphy

OR IT WAS

And which he had only taken down

And left on his desk

For a moment.

            Dad, Mother said you’d be in here.

            We need to ask you something.

            Because Uncle said you were the expert.

                        Just put it here, silly.

            Fine. Where do babies come from?

            We will be in the garden.

                        ANSWER SOON PLEASE IT IS A BET.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[quigonejinn]

Doomthread is the best, really. It's hard to doomthread when you only ahve two people, but three, I think, is when you can really get something to take off AND IT IS LIKE A CONTINUOUS STREAM OF JOY IN THE INBOX.

even if her family had bred for prettiness as successfully as say Mai’s household

You know, this is really an itneresting thought, because it really seems that the Fire Nation is damn good at its human breeding programs -- I mean, OK, it's canon that Ty Lee's sisters all look alike, and it's head-canon that Ozai bred for Firebending ability first and morals never and somehow ended up with Zuko as a total sport. But throw in the idea of Mai's family looking for pretty, classically beautiful girls (I'm using Ursa as a model -- there is a definite resemblance in the way that they're drawn with the height and the long face and pale skin) -- and yeah. Yeah.

In my head, the fic is about three times when Ilah surprised Azulon -- once when he saw her in the just-out-of-middle-class part of the city, once when they actually met on his sister's campaign and she started singing, and once, when he was recalled from campaign because his father was finally dying, and he was going to be the Fire Lord, in which event he would damn well marry Ilah if he wanted and legitimate his son, and he comes back, and the compound he had established for her was empty, because she was dead of the same summer fever as his father and half the city is dying of. And there is eleven year old Iroh, kneeling and trying to hold back tears and properly welcome him as a subject to the Fire Lord and --

LOOK, LAST OF THE WINE WAS A PRETTY BIG INFLUENCE ON ME, TOO.

the little flicks of fire and air, here in Ba Sing Se

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. See, I was going to say that I wanted to write this, but that phrase, that phrase convinces me that you are the only person to do it. LITTLE FLICKS OF FIRE AND AIR.

even if her family had bred for prettiness as successfully as say Mai’s household

I am fascinated by the idea of the Fire Nation nobility and their little breeding programs. We know Ty Lee's sisters are all in the same mold, and it's pretty common head-canon that Ozai bred for firebending first and morals never, except he ended up with a sport like Zuko. So -- Mai's family, breeding for classically good-looking children, if you want to use the points of similarity between Ursa and Mai as your touchstones (height, slender, long oval face, long hair).

Ilah's family bred for strength. Endurance. Height, not so much. :D

[obsession_inc]

Doomthread is much much better with more than two people, because there are more surprises and much more to bounce off of! I have been so happy about all this, I can't even express it. WELCOME TO DOOMTHREADING! YOU FIT IN WELL!

I do love the theory that it's not so much Iroh that Ozai is competing with, as it's Lu Ten, who isn't a firebender. God. I wonder what all Ozai was up to, while Iroh and Lu Ten were on the field? I can only imagine that his bid for bumping Iroh from the Crown Prince spot was the last part of a long, long campaign of whispers and winks, trying to undermine Iroh with Azulon, and Azulon put up with it because they're brothers, it's normal for brothers to bicker and not get along, even if he would have preferred that they did get along because there's only two of them, this is normal, too! Right?

I am going to have to write myself an Azulon story at some point, I think. The loss of his family was so huge, and impacted him so strongly-- impacted the country, too, I would imagine.

the little flicks of fire and air, here in Ba Sing Se

JFC, fulselden, this is AWESOME.

I SHOULD MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVE YOUR IDEA OF THIS SPRAWLING ROYAL FAMILY BEING WHITTLED DOWN TO A TINY BITTER KNOT OF INFIGHTING AND INCEST BY THE WAY.

I am convinced that Azulon wanted a huge family to make up for the loss of his own, and that the problem with not getting to marry Ilah first off-- and then having problems with his politically-selected brides (from the same family!) and fertility-- made it so that he ended up with just the two. Although I keep wondering, since my brain is still all Tudor on this, how many miscarriages happened-- OH, WAIT. If maybe the politically-selected brides' family was too close, genetically speaking, to Azulon, and a regressive gene kept popping up? I know this makes it way too easy to go AHA, AND THUS THE TENDENCY TOWARD INSANITY IN OZAI AND AZULA, but I don't think it's that (although man, it couldn't have helped), it's something that made pregnancies unstable. Ozai was something of a miracle. A sucky miracle, but there you go. And someone might have tried to explain what happened to Azulon, but he had it in his head that obviously he wasn't meant to have much family, and that's when he went back to the original Plan A and brought up Ilah and Iroh, because if this is all the family he gets then by god it's all going to be legitimate. And of course Ilah was too old to have any more kids at that point. God, it's all so awful. (AND WE MADE IT ALL UP. Which I love.)

And there is eleven year old Iroh, kneeling and trying to hold back tears and properly welcome him as a subject to the Fire Lord and --

Seriously, Rhod, you have got to freaking write this. Er. When you have time. Because that image punches me in the heart every time you mention it. Oh, Iroh.