fulselden | Fire Nation Graffiti (and other primary sources)

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

-----

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.

-----

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.

------

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.

-----

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].

-----

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.

-----

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.

-----

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.

-----

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.

-----

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

quigonejinn

he knows that Lu Ten is in the ground, too, somewhere near the walls of Ba Sing Se

You know, I never thought about it, but I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me -- you know that hill we see in Tales of Ba Sing Se? That could be the exact, literal, no-joke hill where Lu Ten died, looking at the city that he had died to help his father take.

We know that Iroh made it past the Outer Wall. I can't deal with the idea of Iroh going back there from time to time while he is in Ba Sing Se.

From:

fulselden

I don't know ... it almost seems worse to me if it isn't the precise place, you know? That Iroh knows Lu Ten fell, but whatever clusterfuck went down meant it was impossible to recover the body. He just knows it's there, somewhere by that particular section of wall.

BUT EITHER WAY, FUCK. IROH.

Oh man, your idea of him getting his little shopkeeper friend to send back the seal. I can't even.

I can't deal with the idea of Iroh going back there from time to time while he is in Ba Sing Se.

Yeah. I mean, it's easy to gloss over the fact that however content Iroh is in his tea shop, however much of a life he makes for himself in the Earth Kingdom, he's living half a world away from his surrogate son in the place where Lu Ten died. The scene of the Dragon of the West's greatest defeat. IROH.

From:

quigonejinn

Iroh knows Lu Ten fell, but whatever clusterfuck went down meant it was impossible to recover the body. He just knows it's there, somewhere by that particular section of wall.

In my head, good people run terrible risks, and some die, to bring Lu Ten back to his father. Iroh is loved and respected and yes, the soldiers stayed through six hundred days of a siege for the glory of the Fire Nation and the Fire Lord, but also because of Iroh and Lu Ten. It's the story of how a father and a son should be, and it ends on a hill, with the Dragon of the West alone, weeping and weeping and weeping.

Although, yeah. Iroh. Not knowing. I could get behind that. And just somewhere out there is Lu Ten's body, and the consolation is that it probably turned into ash anyways because the Fire Nation did retreat, but they also left seven days worth of flame behind them.

However content Iroh is in his tea shop, however much of a life he makes for himself in the Earth Kingdom, he's living half a world away from his surrogate son in the place where Lu Ten died. The scene of the Dragon of the West's greatest defeat. IROH.

Those scars, man. Those scars run deep.

From:

obsession_inc

Some days I think I just follow you around in the hopes that you will doomthread and I will get to read something AMAZINGLY COOL like this. And now I am jealous that I have missed all the fun.

He's there to keep Lu Ten company. God. It kills me. If Iroh were the type of man given to writing poetry, an epic poem of battle and grief would have come out of that, but that's not the sort of emotion and experience he could imagine putting into a poem. Instead, he makes tea. He serves tea to the people of the Earth Kingdom, giving back one drop of service at a time. And he keeps the spirit of his son company.

From:

fulselden

It's the story of how a father and a son should be

And it's not as though there have been many stories like that in the Fire Nation royal family in living memory, right? Hell, given how long Sozin lived, not for generations.

seven days worth of flame behind them.

Oh fuck. When Iroh gets to Ba Sing Se with Zuko, the first time, he can trace the extent of his fury and grief in the newly built houses, all the way up to the walls closing in the Middle Ring. When he lives there, later, he'll walk the boundary between the old and the new streets.

ETA:

Instead, he makes tea.

OH FUCK. IROH. Making tea in the Upper Ring with Lu Ten's absence beside him.

Edited Date: 2010-09-21 08:32 pm (UTC)

From:

obsession_inc

When he lives there, later, he'll walk the boundary between the old and the new streets.

Oh, God, and he's the only one who knows, anymore. There are precious few Fire Nation ex-pats living in Ba Sing Se, and the few he's encountered are even older than he is, retiring in comfort, something to write home about with hoary old jokes about conquering Ba Sing Se. They never served under him, never fought here. It makes him feel old and forgotten in an unchosen way, and all the things he did here feel old and forgotten, too.

When the Earth King returns, he finds a months-old letter from the new Fire Lord, painstakingly written in the way only a teenager who's trying to sound like an adult can, and in the middle of the stilted formalities about normalizing relations and repairing damage there's an offhand comment about the Dragon of the West and a tea shop in the Upper Ring. Four weeks later, his chief clerk puts this together with the invitation that had been extended, once, to a tea shop owner who-- rumor had it-- had been a Fire Nation general of some kind.

The Earth King decides not to summon Iroh, since that would put them off on the wrong foot, and invites him to tea instead. Iroh spends several hours drinking some excellent tea and explaining, as delicately as he can, the Siege of Ba Sing Se, and the damage he did to the city. The Earth King, who's still trying to catch up on a century's worth of history, has heard of this but finds the outsider's viewpoint fascinating. Iroh comes away with the scent of the excellent tea still caught in his beard, mildly depressed because the only thing worse than being forgotten is to never have been heard of at all. Still, it is good diplomacy.

He does not mention Lu Ten to the Earth King until his third visit, and regrets it. It is his last visit to the Earth King.

Edited (whoops, Iroh icon!) Date: 2010-09-21 08:55 pm (UTC)

From:

quigonejinn

He does not mention Lu Ten to the Earth King until his third visit, and regrets it. It is his last visit to the Earth King.

Fuck, I hate you so much.

From:

obsession_inc

Iroh can take the bright-eyed, eternally fascinated treatment from the Earth King on a lot of things, but not about Lu Ten. Lu Ten's memory is not something for someone to peer at as if it is a bug stuck through with a golden pin under glass. It is one thing to do his best to improve the Earth King's knowledge of his history and, in doing so, to improve relations between their two nations; it's another thing to discover that the king has been so protected from everything, his whole life, that his responses to the tragedy of others are completely inappropriate.

I keep thinking that there were so very many refugees into Ba Sing Se that they are the ones, for the most part, living in that new section and the sections around it. Iroh suspects that if he ventured further out, he'd find people who lived there when they were children, but even with his penchant for penitence he doesn't want to see their scars.

From:

fulselden

Lu Ten's memory is not something for someone to peer at as if it is a bug stuck through with a golden pin under glass.

Fuck, you're right. He wouldn't be quiet, he'd ask questions. About what it was like, raising a son in the Fire Nation. Going off to war with him. Where, exactly, he is buried now.

I keep thinking that there were so very many refugees into Ba Sing Se that they are the ones, for the most part, living in that new section and the sections around it. Iroh suspects that if he ventured further out, he'd find people who lived there when they were children, but even with his penchant for penitence he doesn't want to see their scars.

But, oh god, some of them will make it out of the Lower Ring, you know. As merchants or gangsters who do well for themselves or whatever. Coming up into Iroh's rich, posh tea shop, with the matrons of the Upper Ring laughing into their sleeves and the soft clink of tea bowls, smoothing down their new fine clothes, glancing across the counter into the back of the shop. Every time, Iroh wonders if someone will stop and say his name.

From:

obsession_inc

What is it like, losing a son? The king doesn't say what is it like to have grief? but Iroh hears it behind it, in the attentive set of the man's head and the slightly-too-interested tone of his voice. This man, whose parents died when he was too young to remember, who never had siblings who betrayed him or children to lose. Iroh doesn't know how to talk to this man without hate rising in his voice. He goes home, and he pours tea for himself, and for Lu Ten, and he keeps both cups hot for hours without drinking a drop.

Coming up into Iroh's rich, posh tea shop, with the matrons of the Upper Ring laughing into their sleeves and the soft clink of tea bowls, smoothing down their new fine clothes, glancing across the counter into the back of the shop. Every time, Iroh wonders if someone will stop and say his name.

And what he'll do if they do. It seems so unlikely that nobody would, but it keeps not happening. His own importance here is not with his own face, certainly not with his hair so white. It is so strange.

From:

fulselden

His own importance here is not with his own face, certainly not with his hair so white. It is so strange.

Sometimes he wonders if this is something akin to what Zuko felt, just a little, when he first took the bandages off. Then he tells himself that he evidently hasn't missed out on the family tendency for over-dramatisation as entirely as he would like to believe. He pours his tea, a new blend. A little too sharp, the leaves picked slightly too soon.

And oh, damn:

Iroh doesn't know how to talk to this man without hate rising in his voice. He goes home, and he pours tea for himself, and for Lu Ten, and he keeps both cups hot for hours without drinking a drop.

... Yeah. That's his story, man. That's how it ends, Iroh looking down through the steam.

From:

quigonejinn

Or this: a funeral club. Iroh is a steady member of the merchant's association for the district, and since he came back without the young man who had been helping him, a few months later, one of the other merchants approaches him.

"Do you have family in the city?" the man says, sipping his tea. He runs a tailor's shop, specializing in high-end custom robes. "It is a good idea for those of us who are alone."

Members to put their money in every month, and when they die, the club pays for the expenses of the funeral. Even if you are buried in the city (as opposed to being transported home), there is a grave site. The after-funeral dinner. Incense to burn, so that your ancestors know that you are on your way to join them. Small clay models to accompany you into the grave, so that you will have presents for your ancestors when you finally see them.

Iroh does not hold much stock with this: the Fire Nation teaches grave-fire purifies us all into ash and nothingness, but Iroh has seen too many burned bodies to have believed that for decades. This is, in fact, why he made them bury Iroh, rather than burn him. In the circles of power, this was counted as a sign of his madness.

From:

fulselden

if you are buried in the city (as opposed to being transported home), there is a grave site.

Oh man, burial in Ba Sing Se. Well regulated, of course: there is really no alternative. But pricey, contested. When Iroh’s friend writes his letter to his young relative, after the old man’s death, he waits until after the funeral (it is arranged quickly, as is proper, propitious) so that he can include some of the details, though he feels too awkward, in the end, to describe the funeral dinner properly.

The men and women Iroh’s age, letting themselves have too much rice wine, spilling it from the little conical cups at the close of the evening. The earnest young people in their best clothes for the funeral.

The same serious young men and women who used to come and talk Pai Sho strategies, who told Iroh their troubles over tea in the back kitchen after he’d closed up shop for the day.

Iroh might have preferred to collect cheerful youngsters – he is pretty fond of Ty Lee, for instance; her bendiness is so very ... impressive. But he seems to have lost the knack.

In the circles of power, this was counted as a sign of his madness.

ARGH. I mean, Iroh may never have just flat out lost it, like Jeong Jeong, gone and sat in a swamp and meditated on the fire inside him as if he could chew it up and spit it out if he tried hard enough, but to order his only son, a prince of the Fire Nation, buried ... yeah.

There are mutters, as well, about how unfair it is of him to deny Lu Ten the grave-fire. Of how his spirit will be trapped in the Earth Kingdom, inside the walls of Ba Sing Se.

Iroh never believed in this kind of thing, of course, even in childhood. But living in his tea shop in the Upper Ring, he keeps an eye out, just the same.

From:

obsession_inc

Jesus Christ, you guys, I LOVE THIS ALL SO MUCH. Burying Lu Ten instead of giving him to the fire-- God. I'm thinking of the theory we had going about Iroh's legitimacy and this? This would be another thing that would make it 'okay' for Ozai to overthrow him.

From:

quigonejinn

Bury Iroh. *FACEPALM*

But living in his tea shop in the Upper Ring, he keeps an eye out, just the same.

I want the fic about him being haunted -- no joke, actual poltergeist-y ghost haunted -- so bad, it's not even funny. He takes it as a sign that he is going to die soon.

What, was he supposed to be frightened? That is his son, blood of his blood, fire of his fire. It Lu Ten wants to move around a few pai sho figures, whisper a few things to the fire in the stove, well, Iroh isn't going to be worried about it.

From:

fulselden

Burying Lu Ten instead of giving him to the fire-- God. I'm thinking of the theory we had going about Iroh's legitimacy and this? This would be another thing that would make it 'okay' for Ozai to overthrow him.

OMG, that epic thread you guys produced (lol what, me, internet-stalk?!) where AZULON IS PRINCE CHARLES? And Iroh is pretty much Azulon’s Henry Fitzroy? Only finally legitimated after much courtly wrangling? And Ozai and he are all kinda vaaaguely like Edmund and Edgar in Lear, but with the legitimacies swapped? Yeah. When Ozai hears the rumours, back in the Fire Nation, about this final insult to the royal line, he can hardly believe his luck.

Finally, finally Iroh has done something so crass, so egregiously weak minded, that Azulon won’t be able to indulge him any longer. After a century of war, it’s understood that any general can suffer disaster in battle. And Iroh has had a glorious career. But to put his son in the earth ... it is an offense against everything a Fire Lord should stand for. Ozai rolls the message scroll back up. He smiles, a little. He goes to check on his daughter’s training.

And, oh man:

What, was he supposed to be frightened? That is his son, blood of his blood, fire of his fire. It Lu Ten wants to move around a few pai sho figures, whisper a few things to the fire in the stove, well, Iroh isn't going to be worried about it.

Iroh would I think be pretty much delighted? Saddened, perhaps, at his son’s presence being so tentative, so peripheral, perhaps even a product of his own aging mind, his secret wishes. But there’s not really any harm in that. If his mind is going, it is slipping peacefully, with the sudden shivering of the surface of a bowl of tea, a flicker out of the corner of his eye as he bends to stir the pot.

And it might after all be his son, retired to domesticity from whatever distant reach of the spirit world he has been travelling. Come to keep an old man company in the dank Earth Kingdom winter.

He takes it as a sign that he is going to die soon.

Of course he does.

OH MAN. Uh, thanks for descending on this thread and MAPPING OUT IROH’S LAST DAYS, you guys.

From:

quigonejinn

AZULON IS PRINCE CHARLES

That phrase will always make me laugh. Always. If reports start popping up of some chick wandering around conventions wearing a shirt with that, you can be pretty sure it's me. (And yeah, in my head, Ilah is as far from being model pretty as Camilla is -- handsome in the traditional cultural sense, so well-built and strong and good at the upper-class sports of FIREBENDING and MILITARY CAMPAIGNING of the Fire Nation, but really, not going to show up as a fashion icon or on a commemorative plate in a Cinderella dress anytime soon.)

And yeah, Iroh is so, so, so the FitzRoy that lived up to the titles and then some. In my head, a big part of Iroh's guilt about Lu Ten dying is that Lu Ten was so gung-ho about campaigning and personally being part of the seige of Ba Sing Se because he saw it as a way to help his dad secure the throne. Helps if you know the next one in line is really great, too, especially in a society with as many Confucian undertones as Fire Nation.

(Although one thing I'm not sure I know is if the Fire Nation works on a strictly patrilineal line of descent, rather than a generational one -- like, if the Fire Lord-ship would have gone to Lu Ten if Iroh kicked it, or whether it would have gone to Ozai. Because that would explain, I think, the line in Zuko's flashback about how Azula shouldn't hope that Iroh dies because how would she feel if Lu Ten wanted Dad dead? Because while that makes sense in a familial way if Lu Ten is ahead of Azula in succession, it makes much more sense on a power-scheme sense plus a family sense if the succession goes Iroh - Ozai - Lu Ten - Zuko - Azula.)

Come to keep an old man company in the dank Earth Kingdom winter.

It helps with the guilt of having forgotten some things about Lu Ten, who has been dead for close to twenty years now: there is that picture of him, but Iroh can't summon up the image of the living thing anymore. Easier to think of Lu Ten as consisting of patterns in the flame and the movement of curtains on a dead-still afternoon.

OH MAN. Uh, thanks for descending on this thread and MAPPING OUT IROH’S LAST DAYS, you guys.

DON'T EVEN TRY TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE THIS WAS ALL US YOU WERE IN ON IT TOO

From:

fulselden

I WOULD SO WEAR THAT T-SHIRT. Hilarious from every possible angle!

Ilah is as far from being model pretty as Camilla is

SO MUCH YES. I mean, didn’t you have Azulon meet her on campaign? And be turned on by her firebending. And even if her family had bred for prettiness as successfully as say Mai’s household, a youth spent training and fighting with firebending, trekking along hot dusty roads on the fringes of the Earth Kingdom colonies, commanding decisive, brutal assaults on every little port or fortress that’s needed as a refuelling station or which commands rich farmland or potential mining territory – well, that’s gonna leave you looking weathered, to say the least.

Helps if you know the next one in line is really great, too, especially in a society with as many Confucian undertones as Fire Nation

Oh man, Lu Ten, so much THE GOOD SON. And Ozai, conversely, so profoundly aware that he was never, ever good enough, mapping his own lack so precisely out onto his children.

the line in Zuko's flashback about how Azula shouldn't hope that Iroh dies because how would she feel if Lu Ten wanted Dad dead? Because while that makes sense in a familial way if Lu Ten is ahead of Azula in succession, it makes much more sense on a power-scheme sense plus a family sense if the succession goes Iroh - Ozai - Lu Ten - Zuko - Azula.

That’s such a fascinating line of thought. I mean, it makes Ozai parading Azula and Zuko in front of his father even more gratuitously nasty. Because of course even if he and Lu Ten were much more closely tied in the succession stakes than those rules imply, because Lu Ten is A GOOD SON and Azulon knows perfectly well that Ozai is a poisonous little brat ... he was still technically ahead of Lu Ten and would be ahead of any children Iroh might produce in the future.

And oh man, little Zuko never considers, when he’s defending Iroh to his sister, that if she’s willing to wish for Iroh’s death, if she’s apparently unmoved when Lu Ten does die, what else would she be willing to countenance, to gain the throne? Who else is most important to her, stands most in the path of her ambition?

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.

the guilt of having forgotten some things about Lu Ten

Oh, Iroh. In the Fire Nation, he knows there are more pictures, statues. Zuko has been rather emphatic when it comes to honouring his cousin, and it was of course politically expedient. But Iroh would rather have the little flicks of fire and air, here in Ba Sing Se.

YOU WERE IN ON IT TOO

I APPROVE OF THIS ‘DOOMTHREAD’ BUSINESS

From:

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

From:

obsession_inc

From:

fulselden - Date: 2010-09-23 08:50 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

fulselden

It makes him feel old and forgotten in an unchosen way, and all the things he did here feel old and forgotten, too.

Oh, man. He doesn't even get to see himself passing into history, not really, because the great things he did are not things people want to remember, not any more.

They're things Zuko is trying to make the Fire Nation forget.

And in the Earth Kingdom he's a bogeyman of sorts, something mother's use to chase their children down to supper. The Dragon of the West will get you! The first time he heard something like this, passing by a downstairs window, he half thought someone was calling him.

in the way only a teenager who's trying to sound like an adult can

Oh, Zuko. Diplomacy is never really going to be his forte, and he's just spent three goddamn years on a boat. Iroh tried to encourage him to keep up his calligraphy, at least, but he wasn't interested.

And, man, Iroh and that nervy, speccy, geeky Earth King. Who he might have got along rather well with, in a different life. He is glad, at least, that Zuko has no-one worse to deal with. And of course, he has always appreciated irony. It is really a base condition of his life in Ba Sing Se.

He does not mention Lu Ten to the Earth King until his third visit, and regrets it. It is his last visit to the Earth King.

OH MAN. The Earth King, bending forward, pouring the tea himself, such an honour - he doesn't do it often; he even forgets to lift his sleeve away from the table - looking up across at Iroh, blinking, hovering between polite commiseration and, perhaps, disgust.

He has looked up more records of the seige himself, since Iroh's last visit. He has read some eye-witness accounts. Talked to old soldiers. And the only thing he is prepared to give Iroh, now, is a kind of pity, the pity you would give to a much smaller man. He pours the tea in silence.

From:

obsession_inc

And in the Earth Kingdom he's a bogeyman of sorts, something mother's use to chase their children down to supper. The Dragon of the West will get you! The first time he heard something like this, passing by a downstairs window, he half thought someone was calling him.

Oh, God, AWESOME. It's so strange to be remembered, in that foggy way, without being recognized. Remembered as something he never felt he was, really, and not remembered as himself. He concludes that he needs to make more friends as himself, completely divorced from that shadow-self used to scare children. Making friends is something Iroh is good at; within a few days he is arguing genially about Pai Sho with a widow who owns a candle-making business two doors down, and who never notices, up to the top of her mind, that the tea she takes with Iroh never seems to go cold.

She tells him, a week later, about her son, who died during the siege. Iroh watches the tea he's pouring for a long, long time and then says that the Fire Nation took sons from them all.

From:

fulselden

Remembered as something he never felt he was, really, and not remembered as himself. He concludes that he needs to make more friends as himself, completely divorced from that shadow-self used to scare children.

It would help, he thinks, if he could show people how to make sweets flavoured with aniseed and cardamon, could fill his pockets with candied plums in waxy paper for the children. But those are the tastes of the Fire Nation. And tea is enough for almost anything, after all.

She tells him, a week later, about her son, who died during the siege. Iroh watches the tea he's pouring for a long, long time and then says that the Fire Nation took sons from them all.

OH FUCK. IROH.

From:

quigonejinn

She tells him, a week later, about her son, who died during the siege. Iroh watches the tea he's pouring for a long, long time and then says that the Fire Nation took sons from them all.

Burn. BURN. OH MY GOD, THE FIRE NATIONADLKFJ:LSKDJGDF.