1st Team Meeting

[makeadragonwannaretire]

WHO: Azula and any vault dwellers who show up.
WHERE: The Rec Room
WHEN: Three hours after her annoucement.
WHAT: Azula's "War Council" to disseminate information and introductions...also snacks.
WARNINGS: Possible discussions of violence and/or dark backstories.

Azula had attended a number of war meetings growing up as well as social affairs for meeting with important members of the public or military. This was different for a number of reasons, the largest being that this was a place no one seemed to have any respect for her title.

But she could handle that. It had taken her half a month to come to terms with it but here the title "Princess" was only as important as she made it.

Unfortunately that meant having to play "Nice" having to bite her tongue and not get frustrated when she wasn't catered to. That would have been harder for her two years ago, and impossible a year ago.

But here we were, with her waiting patiently near the entrance to the Rec Room to greet people as they came in. Oh how far she'd fallen.

"Come in, help yourself to some snacks. We'll get started soon."

Comments

Jiro

[cicadashell]

This is fucking ridiculous. Jiro hated his own team meetings and hanging around in the warehouse, and he hates doing the same thing in this shitty rec room. He's sprawling on one half of the couch and isn't at all hiding his annoyance with being here in the first place. Fuck everything. Cookies were not worth this. The basics are all he goes for here, because the rest of it is irrelevant when it comes down to it.

"I'm Jiro, but everyone already knows that." Maybe. He may not have given his name to them all, but he's talked to everyone at least once and that's good enough. "I'm from Japan, in the year 2017, if that's even fucking true. Who the fuck knows? Anyway, I'm shit with computers and whatever, so what I can 'do for the team' is move heavy shit and punch... creatures."

He has to start thinking of them as either some category removed from sentience, or objectively evil, to deal with the mole rat and cockroach infestations.

[wildguardian]

"You know," Yunlan comments, "I've been thinking it might be nice to figure out where some of those creatures are coming from and see if we can shore up the cracks. The last thing I want is to run into an angry mole rat on my way to the bathroom at two a.m."

The rest of Jiro's introduction isn't a surprise, though the parts about 2017 and Japan are useful information.

If, as he says, any of that's even fucking true.

[cicadashell]

"Two of them came from a hole in the wall just past where the cave in was. Sandy crawled in there, but didn't get very far. They didn't even show up until we got into that section of the vault, right? So, they don't have an exit past there yet."

Hopefully.

"Their nests are probably in the new sections somewhere."

The roaches are more ubiquitous, but he's been watching them and they have a couple places they seem to congregate in larger groups.

[wildguardian]

"Oh yeah? Maybe we can block that up." Yunlan leans back, wrinkling his nose as he thinks through the options. If the mole-rats have some second entrance to that hole, it might not do too much good, but they're big enough that any space they can get through is going to be easy to find.

"I didn't know they only showed up when you got to that section of the Vault. That was before my time. Good to know!"

[cicadashell]

Block that up and they maybe suffocate, or starve to death, or eat each other out of desperation. He doesn't want to think about any of those scenarios.

"Yeah, there were only the cockroaches before."

Which is sort of strange, but cockroaches are the type to get into everything. Mole rats are...

"Where did they come from, the rats? Do you think they were used in experiments, or that they somehow got into the vault from the earth and there's a breach?"

Were the rats already here before they got irradiated, or is there a hole to the outside somewhere?

[wildguardian]

"Good question. I haven't seen any rat cages in those experiment rooms, but I haven't checked 'em all, either."

The experimentation largely seemed to be human, if the ripped and bloody Vault suits are any indication.

"They look like underground creatures if you ask me -- and I guess it's not impossible for something like that to dig all the way down here. Especially if there's cracks in the rock from quakes. And we know there's been some collapses, so I'm guessing there've been quakes."

[cicadashell]

"I didn't think of that, earthquakes."

He hadn't given any thought to what could have caused the cave-in or some of the other dilapidated areas of the vault. What fallout from a bomb might have done to whatever mountain or bedrock the vault was buried in.

"I think they dug their way in. Maybe we should check out that hole again and see if it leads somewhere outside the vault."

Into the earth, and maybe they could tunnel out like mole rats.

[wildguardian]

"It could be a nice way around having to beg for the key to the front door!" Yunlan's perking up at the idea, though he isn't fully convinced. At least it's something to do, though.

And they do have built-in flashlights on their wrist computers....

"How big's that hole? We might want to bring some weapons, just in case a pissy mole-rat goes for our face."

[cicadashell]

"It's too small for me, but Sandy got in; some of the others should be able to."

Yunlan maybe not. They may have to widen it somehow.

"Does anyone have guns? Pool cues aren't gonna work. Sandy stabbed one of the rats in the eye, but it kept coming."

[wildguardian]

"That robot in the Overseer's office has some kind of blaster gun. Who knows -- maybe it knows where we could get some of our own?"

It had seemed suspicious enough that Yunlan's not sure he can sweet-talk it into handing over the keys to the armory, but if he plays good little soldier he might be able to get past that paranoia.

"But I don't think any of us have working guns."

[cicadashell]

"Send Louis in there with the blowtorch?"

He's never been a plan guy.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy's still mad at Jiro for barking at her about her sewing, but listening to his attempt at an introduction she can't help but speak up.

"He also saved me when a mole rat was gonna rip my arm off so he's dependable."

Which at the moment is the best thing she can say about him.

[pride_outbreak]

"Still as approachable as I remember from our first encounter." Saya starts and crosses her arms. "Are you just trying to end up alone? Or is your attitude part of whatever plan you have to survive this mess?"

She was honestly curious. Part of it was... because she could see a bit of herself in Jiro as far as having too bristly of an attitude at times, and part of it because while she had grown up quick during her own apocalypse, she also knew that these kinds of attitude meant trouble if not worked on in the long run.

[cicadashell]

"It's working on the latter, isn't it?"

Self-reliance is a perfectly acceptable way of coping with this, as far as he's concerned.

"If you have a problem with it, we can take it outside."

In the hallway, because there is no outside.

[pride_outbreak]

"Cute, somehow that's the response I was expecting but it's still surprising it came out of your mouth anyways."

Saya sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose before shaking her head.

"Making sure we have capable people to get out of this mess is enough without having to deal with hormonal males strutting their bravado places so I'll opt to stay here."

[cicadashell]

"Don't provoke me if you don't wanna deal with it then!"

He growls a little. Saya is an instigator; she didn't have to say anything at all.

[pride_outbreak]

"No one's provoking you, if anything, I'd say that considering how you seem to have encountered most of the people here in a rather confrontational way, people seem to be willing to put that aside and include you in all this talk don't you think?"

After all, people with less attitudes have been left behind in other cases back when the outbreak back home started. So she thinks he's pretty lucky in that regard.

[cicadashell]

"Who wants to be included in this?"

He gestures at the room. This is not anything he wants to be a part of, but he thinks it would have caused more problems if he didn't show up.

"I don't know what you want here; just get to the point if you have one."

[pride_outbreak]

"You really are dense aren't you?!"

He really was starting to get on her nerves.

"If you really want to die that bad, go and continue being the lone idiot. Do you think you have any chance of surviving this place by yourself, let alone once we're out there?" Because if he did, he was a special kind of stupid and Saya would leave it there.

[cicadashell]

"I'm not gonna die because I don't play well with the rest of you, unless you're planning to kill me yourself."

He's always had issues asking for help, and he won't do it until he has absolutely no other choice.

[pride_outbreak]

"No, I think you'll do a great job of it yourself." she huffed back.

"I suppose I should forgo counting on you for anything the group needs."

The nerve! He was like annoying copy of her younger self, except stupid! Grrr!

[torsion]

Jill can't say she loves it, but it's a smart thing to do in this situation. Maybe everyone will be on the same page and be able to offer some tidbit of information they weren't previously aware of this way? Maybe it wouldn't do anything useful? It could go in any direction.

"You sound really happy to be here." She was going to cheerfully say 'hello, Jiro!' at the start, but she gets it. She's never been fond of meetings back home since they often involved semantics. While she could work with a group, she definitely preferred a partnership for a reason.

"2017, though... it was 2009 for me. Not sure if it even means anything considering how different some of the places we've come from can be, though."

[cicadashell]

"You're right, it doesn't mean much at all. I don't see what having this information is good for."

They have a list of years and what, general descriptions of alternate universes? It's not going to help them get out of the vault.

[torsion]

"We might find a clue about why we're here. Specifically us. Not our friends or family or anyone else from our worlds. We might have some little detail in common we're overlooking and year, location, languages... they're the most basic, you know?"

The most simple things to start off with without getting too personal. There are a million different possible qualifiers and then some. It could be food, childhood memories, violence... something small, but it's a start.

"I think it can also help us understand one another and what we might not get about this place -- and what we might be able to -- better. You and I are from places that have technology, right? We know that much. It means we're at least familiar." His introduction made it pretty clear he wouldn't be too much help in that area, but he's likely more adept than someone who has never seen a PC or television before. "It's a start. The problem is figuring out where to carry on when there's infinite possibilities. Maybe if we each posed a question that comes to us to the group, even if it seems trivial, it might help."

[cicadashell]

"There isn't much lining up so far, and I don't know what other information we can go on. What's next, a bunch of survey questions?"

He's more frustrated with the lack of any obvious parallels. He and Saya are both from Japan in 2017, but he didn't have zombies.

"Yeah, we all have different things we can help with, but besides technology and things like that, we don't even know what's relevant to bring up, or ask."

He can't think of any questions at the moment.