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.

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[cofax7]

::loves::

These are marvelous. I think I love Ursa's letter to Azula best, and the way Azula burned it while the ink was still wet. Poor Ursa. Poor Azula.

[terajk]

Oh, wow.

Should I admit that I'm crying right now? Too late.

[quigonejinn]

This is absolutely goddamn perfect and gorgeous in every way and a couple more besides. The mastery of tone is pretty much fucking dead-on. Also, I would kill puppies to read more epistolary work about Azula's break-out.

(note: when I look at the post, I see all the entries twice. Is it supposed to be that way?)

[fulselden]

Oops! Thank you - preview, it should be my friend...

And wow, thanks in general - I'm really glad you think I managed ok, tone-wise, because I was obviously going for raaaange, and it was tricky!

Also: puppies, no! But, yes, I too am left pondering the mechanics of Ty Lee breaking out Azula. More might be forthcoming!

[fulselden]

Uh, double wow! I'm honoured.

And I'm happy this worked for you because, well, obviously the emotional torque in this one is pretty extreme. So I'm really glad you think I pulled it off!

And, well, at least Zuko gets a happy ending of sorts, right? Even if he does have to think up something to tell his children (I feel his next move would actually be to go shout at Uncle)...

[quigonejinn]

YOU FIXED IT SO FAST I THOUGHT I HAD HALLUCINATED IT.

You've nailed the tone and then some. But man, man, man, I just love how you leave so many things hinted and unsaid in the way of real primary documents -- like how Zuko and Azula are "the children of the second prince" at the beginning. And the euphemism for Zuko's death being "given to the fire." And the way that the report about Azula comes direct to Mai.

Man. It's fucking fantastic. Every time I think about Zuko's teenage love poetry being saved for posterity, I just giggle.

[fulselden]

Thank you so much! Heh, especially as you had to read the double-posted version (sigh, self).

As you say, poor, poor Ursa and Azula.

Man, I'm glad my foray into epistolary writing went ok. Watch out Henry Fielding!

[fulselden]

DUDE I AM AN INTERNET NINJA (also currently procrastinating like woah).

And, heh, you have no idea how many sappy and/or vaguely porny haikus there are in the royal archives! Mai was very forebearing at the time!

[quigonejinn]

I WOULD READ ALL OF THEM. I WOULD FILL OUT ALL THE FORMS TWICE AND PRINT SO VERY NEATLY.

And now, I'm imagining the letter that comes to Zuko some years down the line, from Ba Sing Se -- handwriting he doesn't know, but direct to his attention because the seal on the front is Iroh's, informing him in unsteady, Earth Kingdom-styled script that his honored uncle is dead. Iroh had made friends in his old age that Zuko had never met.

[fulselden]

Oh, god! And Zuko can't even quite read the script, at first - it's not just Earth Kingdom, it's plebian, and he never really got the hang of the way common people are taught to write.

So at first he think maybe it's just Uncle getting some Pai-Sho friend to write to him, because his joints have been playing up in Ba Sing Se's winters these past few years.

[quigonejinn]

It's written with a pen, for the record, and not a brush. And in this funny little scratchy shopkeeper script, and just -- short illness, peaceful death, speaking of his love for your children. We were able to make him comfortable, and his bones have been put to rest in the north slope of the Third graveyard, fourth from the willow tree.

In my head, too, the correspondent doesn't know that he's writing to the Fire Lord. He just wrote it, stamped it with what Iroh told him to stamp, and put it in the post. When Zuko opens the scroll, the white jade Prince of the Blood seal which Iroh took with him into Zuko's exile falls out. Zuko had not been entitled to bring his.

[terajk]

But, yes, I too am left pondering the mechanics of Ty Lee breaking out Azula. More might be forthcoming!

Oh, PLEASE, yes! And might I hint that metalbending might be helpful?

[fulselden]

IROH. IROH IROH IROH. ZUKO.

OH MAN.

And Zuko knows that Iroh wanted to be put into the earth, he knows that Lu Ten is in the ground, too, somewhere near the walls of Ba Sing Se. But he thinks of going and counting out the graves in some scrubby little Earth Kingdom graveyard, and the letter in his hand crinkles away in little burning shreds.

It is another two years before he is able to visit the grave.

[fulselden]

Hmm, you interest me strangely! Though, as you point out over on your DW, the mechanics of an Azula-Toph team-up are ... complicated.

But yes! If anyone could equal Azula in terms of sheer bending prowess, it's Toph (and Katara. But I can't see that team-up happening in any vaguely familiar iteration of the Avatar world).

And the thought of Toph's inimitable stubbornness up against Azula's fierce, fierce pride. Man. *Goes to read your journal entry properly*.

[musesfool]

WATER TRIIIIIIBE.

hee!

And Zuko's poetry! Bwah! Ty Lee busting Azula out of prison!

I enjoyed this.

[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.

[fulselden]

Thank you!

Heh, between Toph and Sokka, the Fire Nation palace is totally covered with random tags/drawings/science notes - not to mention obscenities - within, like, a week.

Zuko is still discovering them years later. It's not as if Toph puts stuff where it's easy to see, after all (she gets Sokka to tell her how to form the characters, but she's impressed to discover Katara knows a surprising number of swear words and is secretly quite keen on the whole project).

Anyway! Glad you enjoyed!

[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.

[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.

[obsession_inc]

I love you SO VERY MUCH right now, oh my lord. Between Toph and WATER TRIIIIBE and the amateur drawing of an air bison and Zuko's teenaged love poetry and his KIDS and OMG, AZULA'S ESCAPE. The image of her breaking out and going back in after burning a letter into a wall is so fantastically bad-assed that I am losing my mind.

And Ty Lee. Oh sweetheart. I need that story now, fyi, you are killing me here. I would write it myself but I could never come up with anything half that cool.

And Zuko's kids! ANSWER SOON PLEASE IT IS A BET. ::dies:: Dead, I am completely dead of laughing so hard. Emotional whiplash ain't got nothin' on this story.

[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.

[fulselden]

OMG WELL I AM GLAD YOU ENJOYED! THANK YOU!

Oh, Ty Lee! The really annoying thing is that I know I have read that story! Pretty well done, not once but twice, somewhere on the internet! Ty Lee breaking Azula out seems to bring out the best in the Avatar fandom, for some (femslash-y) reasons.

BUT MAYBE I SHOULD TRY AND LIVE UP TO PAST GLORIES. Also, find those links, man.

[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.

[obsession_inc]

Jeez, if you find them, LET ME KNOW. I don't know anything about the fandom, much, so I am creeping around the edges living on rec posts and hoping to find complicated, funny, and/or evil. Or all of the above, which are the best!

[fulselden]

Or all of the above, which are the best!

TRUFAX.

And, man, if I find those fics, I will let the world know! But my initial acquaintance with the Avatar fandom (also my first acquaintance with fandom AS A WHOLE, NOT AN IDEAL CHOICE, OH MAN) was so disorientating - GOOD STUFF! but then, SO MUCH BAD STUFF! - that actually keeping track of the gems kinda fell by the wayside. Sigh. Creeping round the edges is the way to go, I feel.