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fulseldenSeries: 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.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 03:25 pm (UTC)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 INCESTBY 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
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 04:13 pm (UTC)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
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 05:29 pm (UTC)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,
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 INCESTBY 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.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 04:17 pm (UTC)(SO GREAT I TALKED ABOUT IT TWICE!)
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 05:05 pm (UTC)TRUFAX.
AND I MEAN FIRE NATION BREEDING IS TOTALLY WORTH TALKING ABOUT TWICE.
Especially since as you say they seem really fucking good at it. Even when they produce dudes shaped like teapots – vide Iroh - (well, until his prison workout session), said dudes have numerous compensating qualities. So, yeah, the thought of Mai especially being every bit as completely what her parents were hoping for – at least physically - as Azula (well, at least, she’s certainly what Ozai was hoping for) ... man. And then she does make it all the way to Fire Lady, and they’re so very pleased she has done everything they could have asked of her.
And Zuko, total sport. Poor Zuko.
the fic is about three times when Ilah surprised Azulon
YEAH. I was about to quote basically that entire paragraph back at you, but I think you should just write the fic. Azulon, hearing Ilah singing, out in the Earth Kingdom on his sister’s campaign. Oh man, Iroh kneeling in the dust in the courtyard, the smell of the incense they’re burning in the house to ward off the fever, his father coming home down the dry road. YES YOU SHOULD WRITE THIS SO MUCH.
ALSO: DEAD GAY GREEKS, AND THE PLAGUE AND THE DREGS OF THE WINE. OH, MAN. MY HEEEART.
I was going to say that I wanted to write this
WELL I FEEL YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO THIS FIC TOO. There can’t really be too many versions of Iroh in Ba Sing Se. And if fic writing is a hall of mirrors anyway it can totally refract different versions of random comment-thread canon, right? I FEEL SO POSTMODERN.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:14 pm (UTC)And, man, I will go and discover those stories. I do heart Iron Man pretty strongly. But apparently I needed a flying bison to make me heart stuff on the internet!
it's not so much Iroh that Ozai is competing with, as it's Lu Ten, who isn't a firebender
Oh, man, that just makes the stakes so much higher. I mean, is it even traditional for a non-bender to take the throne at all? And yes, Ozai – kept at home because Azulon knows he’s too old to be sure of siring another heir, and he can’t afford to lose all of them in the field. And sure that if he did go to war, he’d burn the Earth Kingdom down to ash within five years, but instead holed up in the palace, orchestrating this elaborate whispering campaign against Lu Ten and Iroh.
it's normal for brothers to bicker and not get along
Yeaaah. I mean, for Azulon, this Cain and Abel dynamic would just be so fucking alien. If he grew up the little brother, tagging along after his older siblings, watching them train and flirt and bicker, leave for war and return and leave again, he knows that family is the one thing you do not tear apart, because the war will do that for you. In other words I would love to see you write Azulon, man.
And, yeah. What this would do to the Fire Nation. All the pictures of the royals in schoolrooms and libraries and offices, getting draped one by one with white cloth.
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?
ARRRGH. Or even, positing some other base reproductive dysfunction, phantom pregnancies, as with Mary. So he’d keep on trying with the first poor bride for years. And yeah, lol inbreeding is too simple to explain Ozai and Azula, but, man. Ozai the precious son who isn’t quite precious enough. Who takes such care to make sure his wife, at least, comes from a lineage that hasn’t been welcomed into the upper echelons since it produced the Avatar. But of course, that doesn’t mean much to a prince. All it promises is power. And, you know, less in the way of consanguinity.
And, man, Ilah being too old to have kids by the time Azulon’s finally, finally brought her and Iroh into the fold.
God, it's all so awful. (AND WE MADE IT ALL UP. Which I love.)
IT IS A HEADY SENSATION. OH FIRE NATION WOE.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 07:05 pm (UTC)Ozai the precious son who isn’t quite precious enough.
I keep thinking that oh, holy shit, this may actually explain a lot about why he is the way he is. Not only because he lost his birthright to Iroh when he was small, but because, even before that, he was spoiled rotten and told endlessly how special and wonderful he was. Because he was the one that survived. The only child of the Fire Lord, the last representative of that bloodline stretching back a thousand years. My God, how he must have been pampered. He was told he was a miracle, and he completely believed it.
And then, Iroh was brought back, and it wasn't just that Ozai's birthright was taken away, it was that he wasn't special anymore. He was one of two princes instead of the only one.
Damn, that also explains a lot about how he raised Azula, first behind Ursa's back, and then brazenly when she was gone. Zuko is weak; she was the special one.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 07:28 pm (UTC)The only child of the Fire Lord, the last representative of that bloodline stretching back a thousand years.
And you just know that the Fire Lords probably claim descent from some Fire Spirit or ascended Fire Lord or some such. Man.
As you say, that explains so, so much about Ozai, about Azula, about their absolute trust in perfection. And when it became apparent that Zuko wasn't perfect by his standards, Ozai made sure you could tell it as soon as you saw his face.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 08:42 pm (UTC)::flails very hard::
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 08:44 pm (UTC)(Also, this makes Ozai-the-Ripped-WWF-Phoenix-King extra hilarious.)
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 08:52 pm (UTC)Oh, oh, oh, here's the thing: it might not be just that he was fragile (he might not have been fragile at all!) but-- weren't we talking at some point about some of Azulon's siblings being killed by assassins? Especially with the line of succession working the way you sketched out above, what if that happened a lot with Azulon's nieces and nephews?
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:09 pm (UTC)And, man, assassins. I'm pretty sure they would have been a fixture in the upper reaches of Fire Nation society, you know?
I mean, this is a society which SOLVES PROBLEMS BY THROWING FIRE AT THEM.
Though ... I am loathe to relinquish the idea of weedy, delicate little Ozai, brimful of shiny resentment towards bluff, buff Iroh.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:27 pm (UTC)...
Of course, there is more than that, but separating actual events from the ballad from the street songs from the didactic text from the novels -- it is not easy, because in later years, the story became a romance. A fable. One version had your father falling in love when he saw her firebending. A few have your mother saving your father's life. One has it the other way around. Some are softer, more romantic.
What you know, as a child, is this: when your father is not on campaign, your father comes to dinner two or three times a week. He is a tall man, much taller than your mother, and not only servants, but anyone else in the house gives way to him. Otherwise, when it is just the three of you, it is not terribly formal, though once a while, your mother will get up the whole ceremony and the kneeling and the offering of food when your father needs reminding of his duty towards you. When your father comes for dinner, he usually spends the night, and you expect that during holidays and the days of ritual, he is not there. This is because your parents are not married.
Your mother likes the idea of your father falling in love after seeing her wash her hair. "As if there would be time for that on one of Azula's campaigns," your mother says, laughing.
Yes, Azula.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:58 pm (UTC)WRITE MOAR. OMG.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 07:04 pm (UTC)separating actual events from the ballad from the street songs from the didactic text from the novels
IS THIS A WORLD WHERE THE FIRE NATION WON?
ETA: THOUGH THE ABOVE MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE. FACEPALM. BUT DUDE, I STILL CHERISH THE WEIRD AU BELOW:
Is this ... is this Mai, some of the edges rubbed off her by victory, getting right the hell out of being Fire Lady? Because her association with Azula gives her even this much latitude; because her parents presided over the fall of Omashu and not over its recapture; because she isn’t a bender and Zuko can’t afford to take the chance of having a non-bending heir? Because she never really wanted that job, anyway? Because there are other ways of exercising power?
Or is this not Mai at all, and she’s the one still in the centre, in the palace, letting Zuko have his nights off, his little warm segments of domesticity?
though once a while, your mother will get up the whole ceremony and the kneeling and the offering of food when your father needs reminding of his duty towards you
YES. Oh, man, control through subjection, of a sort. A skill it is still expedient for any woman to acquire, in the Fire Nation, for any noble, even. This whole society shot through with the sideways, the conditional, the indirect, even as it trains its children to go straight for the kill. Subversive ballads, propaganda rhymes. Memories of war.
"As if there would be time for that on one of Azula's campaigns,"
INDEED. Hell, who is even fire lord, in this world?
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 08:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:15 pm (UTC)Fuck me, now I want that fic so bad I can taste it. What happened to Iroh in this universe?
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:34 pm (UTC)I'm trying to think through this. If Zuko never left, what does that mean? Does Katara still go to the Fire Nation capital? If she has to face both Zuko and Azula (who is a little nutty, but no more than usual, because Zuko never left, so Mai and Ty Lee are still with her). I just. If Katara goes, I can't -- both Zuko and Azula?
Wow.
(I'm trying to think about Iroh's utter heartbreak in Zuko, and I don't know if I can really think about it, because it just hurts so much.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 09:42 pm (UTC)Man. I mean, maybe Toph goes with her? Because they don't even know about the airships. And maybe Aang gets delivered to his last stand by the Lion Turtle, as per usual, and maybe he takes out most of the airships by himself, once he hits the Avatar state?
But Toph and Katara get to the Fire Nation capital, and there is a fucking army waiting for them, with Azula at its head, fire pooled in her hands.
Iroh's utter heartbreak in Zuko
Oh, man, no. And what's worst of all is that he can see Zuko trying to be the Fire Lord he should have been, trying to snip away at corruption and blunt the damage they're doing to the world. And he can trace in every new dispatch from the Fire Nation how he is failing, how his failure is changing him.
(no subject)
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