alesana4ever: She is, yes. And she does have a new face. Hopefully your questions will be answered in the next few chapters! This is actually my first time really working with the pair. I've done a few one shots here and there but never a long fic with these two. So It's going to be interesting (hopefully lol).
gemsofformenos: Thank you! I don't really work with Mai as much as some of the other characters so I'm still gonna have to feel her out. Yup, it is Azula. I'll just say that right now because it might not have been clear in the premise. "It's nice and still sad that she has lost her memories cause on the one had it has taken the bad memories and pain but on the other hand it's sad to see that she doesn't even have a name anymore." That's true; she doesn't have a lot of the baggage but she also doesn't really have much to her name...including a name. But yeah, she's resilient and can take care of herself. "I definitely been curious about the direction you have in mind for this one still" xP what direction? Literally I went into this one with just a premise (Azula meets Mai except she has a new face). Everything else is one big question mark lol. And of course, no pressure on the reviews, you take care of yourself. Everything IRL comes first.
Guest: She does! New face and no memories.
It hurts. It hurts terribly. Agonizingly.
She sinks deeper and deeper and the water around her seems to bubble and boil.
She sees a face and then several of them and then many more. They all watch her.
They are all around her but her gaze is still fixed on the first one. It is quite lovely. Lovely and terrifying in synchrony. Like an erupting volcano it is intense, splendid, and promising of demise. That face fades into the background and the others circle around her.
For a moment her vision is obscured by a thick cloud of bubbles. They flit and flick about like moth-wasps. She thinks that she can hear them buzzing. When they clear the faces are all scowling at her. They are twisted and ugly.
Evil.
They want something.
They all swarm closer.
Closer…
Closer…
She bolts upright and shakes her head. It doesn't matter how much or how hard she shakes it, the dream never leaves her head. It is always there replaying in different variations and tones. But those faces, they are always there. Always watching. Sometimes she feels them watching her well into waking. She shudders. It is still dark out, she ought to roll on over and get back to sleep. Especially now that she has a new job. She smiles to herself, Mohi will be proud if she can make this one work. Especially since she hasn't really been able to hold a job; if it wasn't tardiness it was getting mouthy with her employer. If it wasn't snark and wits it was brawling on the job. And sometimes that wasn't even her fault, sometimes they just came to her. She thinks that this is why Mohi moved from Hira'a to the Capital. Something about a fresh start and no enemies.
She sits still for some time, staring at the moonrays that spill through the cracked window. The draft that comes through it is cool on her face, refreshingly so after so many sweltering Fire Nation nights.
She stretches her arms and pulls herself out of bed. Ultimately she has no desire to plunge back into the waters of her nightmare. Slipping out of the house isn't so difficult, Mohi and her sons sleep heavy. She wishes that she could do the same but she supposes that being up so early has its perks. Namely she can slink about the city and swipe a few goods from mostly unmonitored food carts and trinket stalls. And when she isn't in a swiping sort of mood she can jump from roof to roof, swing from railing to balcony, leap over walls and on top of stacks of crates. It is a hobby but it keeps her both fit and entertained. It gives her something to feel special about when Zenyul and Kaz overzealously dance around with their flames.
She takes a step into the cracked city streets. They are littered with trash, mostly discarded posters, broken glass, and piles of excess coal that the factories were too lazy to carry out of the city. Apparently the outskirts worked just as well, out of sight out of mind; really there was no harm, the outskirts of Capital City are already dirty.
The wind carries the scent of sulfur and factory waste as it smacks against her face. She bunches her nose and gives a little cough, she hates windy days. This doesn't really matter either, she will be in the inner city soon enough and the offensive odors will transition into more pleasurable scents like sizzling skewers, poignant spices, and upper class perfumes.
She finds herself a building to scale. Find might not be the best way to put it, she has found this building quite some time ago and it had quickly become her favorite with its rickety and rusty ladder and its crumbling smoke stacks. On the first week it had been something of a playground to her and she is still discovering little quirks and treasures within; new places to climb up or crawl into. Height, or lack there of gives her the ability to slip into all of those tight places. All the while it makes it harder for her to reach certain places, she has yet to reach the top of the tallest smoke stack. She has climbed it from the inside but it had eventually grown too tight even for her. From the outside, she can never quite stretch her arm far enough to reach a possible handhold.
She promises herself that she will make it up there one day. For now she settles for climbing as high as she can.
From her new vantage point, she feels free. Free and above people she otherwise never would be. The inner city skyline glistens like gold or sunshine or something pretty and poetic, she never really has the right words for it. But it is splendid, a goal even higher and less reachable than getting to the top of the smokestack. Most opulantly of all is the palace palace. She spies it's gleaming multi-tiered roof. Even without the sunlight to cast it in the most flattering light, it still sparkles and glints and outshines the rest of the city.
By the time she shimmies her way down the smokestack her hands and clothes are as dirty and smudged as the palace is pristine. Her feet meet the floor with a dust-kicking thud. She wipes her hands on her pants and climbs back over the fence. She ought to make her way into the inner city before the sun can rise and spoil her fun.
She makes it there with the ease and quickness that only familiarity and routine can provide. It still takes a good hour or so, but she has leaned the quick routes and the ones that take her past the street gangs and their drug trades.
This is the trip that finally wears a hole in her shoe, just one more tatter among many. She guesses that that's what her new job will get her first. The vendors almost never leave shoes, clothes, and jewelry unsurveyed.
She ought not with her shoes growing battered, but she can't resist scrambling up a pile of crates and discarded boards. She balances upon a beam that has yet to be thrown out. With luck, they will drop it off at the old industrial factory so that she can have more discarded war machines and parts to enjoy. She leaps from the beam to a balcony. It is always a risk to use the inner city balconies, sometimes they spot her. Granted she is too quick for them to catch her so she doesn't fret it too much.
She worries over other things. And she can't seem to outpace them no matter how many buildings she weaves in and out of. The thoughts follow her and the more she thinks on it, the less she feels she is suited for this new job. It had been such an impulse volunteering. She's no good for it and the woman running the shop didn't seem particularly enthusiastic to have an assistant. She can't imagine that she'd be particularly hurt if she didn't show.
.oOo.
Mai inhales deeply. She shouldn't be surprised that the woman hasn't shown up. It was a joke or an attempt to blend in until whoever had it out for her had come to pass. Mai thinks that it is mostly her own fault for humoring the woman and then getting her hopes up. For putting her faith in someone who clearly takes few things seriously. But she has quite stupidly brought an excess of flowers under the impression that she'd be having help.
She turns around and lifts the first few flower pots to be arranged and scoffs when she finds that one of them has broken, spilling dirt everywhere. She hears the shuffle of feet on cobblestone. "I'm not open yet." She grumbles without averting her gaze from the mess.
"'S fine, I'm not here to buy anything. But I can clean that up for you, my hands are already dirty."
"I didn't think that you were going to show up."
"Me neither." She shrugs. She stoops down and begins pushing the dirt into a neat pile.
"I have a broom."
"And I have hands that work just fine."
Mai rolls her eyes, "If that's how you want to do it." She shrugs.
"It's already done." The woman declares.
Mai looks at the woman's dirty hands and sighs. "You're going to have to clean them…"
The woman quirks a brow, rubs her hands on her pants, and lifts them up.
"Close enough." Mai grumbles. "Help me set this up." She gestures to the flower pots.
The woman nods. "I'm pretty good at arranging things."
"I usually put the poppy and violets in the front and…"
The woman is already arranging them in her own way. "I think that these yellow ones look nice by these orange ones. Pinks also go nice with them. Like a sunset, ya know? And we should put the bright ones in front because they'll draw more attention." She moves a few deeply colored violets and poppy and switches them out for the dahlia, marigold, and fire lily.
"Ugg, the bright ones make me nauseous."
"But they make your customers notice the stall. See." She points to a couple wandering near.
"I guess." Mai shrugs before turning to her customers. For some time they mutter between themselves occasionally pointing at one flower or another. The woman seems to watch them with much more intensity than she ought.
"I don't know…" Says the man as he strokes his chin. His companion shuffles on her feet and shrugs. "Well what do you think she'd like?" He asks.
His companion gives another shrug. "She's your sister."
Mai drums her fingers upon the counter, she wishes that people would decide what flowers to get before they approach her stall.
"What are the flower for?" The woman asks.
"My sister just had a baby."
"Lilies!" The woman declares and picks up a potful of white lily.
"Why lily?" Asks the man's companion.
"They're soft and pretty like babies." The woman declares quite boldly. Mai rolls her eyes, much too boldly for something that sounds like improvisation. "Lilies are supposed to represent innocence."
"Really?" The man asks.
The woman nods. "Back in Hira'a I knew a woman who had a garden. She always said that lilies are pure, especially the white ones."
"What do you think?" The man's companion asks.
Mai shrugs. "Yeah, lilies are soft and pure."
"Sounds good to me." The man passes her a few coins as the woman hands his partner the flowerpot.
Mai watches them wander back into the crowd. Truthfully, she doesn't think that she has ever gotten a customer so soon after opening. "Maybe you're right about putting the bright flowers in front." She admits. She also finds herself admitting that the woman reminds her of her aunt in a way, prattling about what characteristics each flower represents.
"It's all about presentation!" She declares. "You arrange them all nice and pretty and then you talk about what each one is supposed to mean, draws people right in."
"Have you sold flowers before?"
She shakes her head. "I sold other things though. Rocks and trinkets, stuff I found laying around, and fireworks. Lots of fireworks."
So the woman is a scavenger. "I swear to Agni, if you're one of those people who gets all crazy over shiny things, I'm gonna puke."
"Want me to get you an empty flowerpot?"
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, I got lots of shiny things, see." She pulls her necklace out from under her shirt. Each charm-though she uses charm quite loosely-is fixed on a thick rope cord. She sees a bent and slightly rusty spoon, a key, a few beads, a dull razor blade, and small shards of metal. The woman tucks it back under her shirt before she can pick out any more knick knacks.
"Interesting."
"Thanks, I made it myself."
Mai nods and folds her arms across her chest. "So you really don't have a name?"
"That's right." The woman nods.
"Then what am I supposed to call you?"
"Most people just say, 'hey, you!' or 'streetrat!' Mohi and her sons usually just tap me on the shoulder or something."
"Do you actually answer to streetrat?"
"Sure. I don't really care what people call me." She gives a dismissive hand gesture.
"I'm not going to call you that…" Mai trails off. Something in her stirs with discomfort or maybe bitterness on behalf of the woman. She's much too energetic, disorganized, and somewhat grubby but she's got determination and diligence. Truth be told, Mai thinks that she has an intelligence about her, one that might be lost on even she. "I don't think that you're a streetrat."
She gives a hum. "Not entirely, no. Coulda been though." She pauses. "You can name me if you want."
Mai blinks, "you want me...to name you?"
"Sure, if that makes things easier."
"I can't just come up with a name for you on the spot."
"Sure you can, people do it all the time."
"Well I want to call you something that fits you."
"How are you gonna decide what fits?"
"I guess it'll come to me when I get to know you better."
Her eyes seem to light up. "I can take you to the industrial park after you close the shop."
"What?"
"Yeah, I don't have much going on and Mohi doesn't mind me going there as long as I come home first, ya know, so she knows that I'm not dead or something. She gets worried that the Iwaken are gonna get me." She pauses. "So I'll say hello to Mohi and then we can go to the industrial park."
Mai very nearly groans; she hadn't meant to talk her way into a spontaneous outing with a bizarre character, and at an probably dirty and shady industrial park of all places. She opens her mouth to decline but the woman is looking at her with such delight…
"I haven't been able to make many friends since coming to Capital City, everyone is so uptight here."
This time Mai does groan. "Alright, fine. We can go to the industrial park." She very well could suggest a trip to a restaurant or to a nature path or something of a more mundane variety. But Agni if she hasn't been longing for a break from the monotony. Things have been rather drab without any national catastrophes and with TyLee having off with the Kyoshi warriors again.
The woman flashes her a grin and Mai thinks that she might have just made the right decision. "We can always close early and…"
"Nice try. You have a full day of work ahead of you."