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

'Captain Simmons' and the Overseer's Office

[wildguardian]

Yunlan waves a hand from his perch on the table. "So! Saya and I broke into the Overseer's office after the reactor got up and running. There's a robot in there that looks a lot like our three handybots, only with some kind of blaster weapon that it tried to use to blow our heads right off.

"We managed to talk it down, and, long story short, it goes by Captain Simmons and claims it's now the Overseer by chain of command. Supposedly the scientists and civilians out here led a mutiny over some kind of order they didn't want to follow, and the fight that followed killed 'em all. As far as it knows we're all nice, docile civilians willing to follow orders... and I think we ought to keep it thinking that until we talk it into giving out access to the secure systems and telling us how to unlock the sealed doors. It claims it'll authorize expeditions outside as soon as the rest of the Vault's up to code."

His tone is casually sarcastic, but his foot is swinging back and forth at a tempo that suggests he's not too calm about the blaster robot.

[cicadashell]

"Fuck that! Dismantle the pile of junk and get the data for access codes from the microchips and shit!"

That's how robots and computers work. Yeah. Jiro looks like he wants to go down to that office right now and tear the robot apart. This is all military experimental bullshit and he's not stepping in line with it.

[wildguardian]

"Dial it back," Yunlan snaps, sitting up straight and glaring. "Taking it down is going to mean doing it plenty of damage, and I'm not about to risk losing whatever information we can shake out of it."

Not unless leaving it operational starts to look like a bigger threat. For now, it seems happy to hang out in its little office and throw orders around, and Yunlan's happy to give it the mushroom treatment as long as it keeps bearing fruit.

(Keep it in the dark and feed it on bullshit-- now that's the bureaucratic way.)

[cicadashell]

Jiro cares less about information and potential destruction, and more about freedom.

"Shake it out fast."

It sounds like a threat and it is. He will go straight into the office and start a beatdown on Captain Simmons if given half a chance, or if playing along takes too long.

[wildguardian]

"Don't go get yourself shot for stupid reasons. We might need something heavy moved."

Yunlan's eyes narrow, and he meets Jiro's gaze levelly, resting his hands on the tabletop behind him.

"I'll tell you when we're done shaking it out."

[cicadashell]

He glares, because he's sure Yunlan is mocking him.

"Fine."

He's trying not to give in to the impulse to punch either Yunlan or the table; clenching his fist but not raising it.

[wildguardian]

Yunlan absolutely is mocking him. Still -- he's got to give Jiro points for not giving in to his urge for violence this time. He nods, and deliberately relaxes, glancing away (although, just in case, he's keeping the kid in his peripheral vision.)

"Anyway. While we're on the topic, anything else you wanted to know about our robot overlord?"

[cicadashell]

"Nope. Know everything I need to."

The robot thinks he's in charge, and has now become their number one problem.

"You really think you'll get anything out of him by doing his bidding?"

[wildguardian]

"I've got some information already." Yunlan puts his foot back up on the table; now that the initial order's been received well, he's relaxing back into his slouch. "Honestly, he's not that clever. I don't think it'll be that tricky to talk him around as long as we don't trip over anything that makes him think we're enemies."

If they do? Well, at that point, he'll help Jiro disassemble the thing with a pool cue. He isn't that interested in having an unpredictable robot with an energy pistol zipping around the Vault taking potshots.

[makeadragonwannaretire]

Puffed up military types she could deal with.

Robotic military types with high tech weapons? That would be more difficult.

"No sense in rocking the boat until we have the upper hand. For all we know he's lying to us...can machines lie?"

Her experience with robots is lacking.

"But if his goals involve us getting out of here to see what the world is like outside then it's beneficial to all of us."

[wildguardian]

"I'd normally say, only if they were programmed to lie! But the robots around here are a lot more flexible than the kind I'm used to." He tosses a grin her way and spreads his hands. "Seems like the best plan is to assume they can lie just as easily as a human can."

He's in agreement with her about the eventual goals, though, and he nods along as she continues.

"I'd rather play nice for as long as we want the same thing. It's paranoid, though, so careful what you say to it."

[makeadragonwannaretire]

"Oh I will." I always try to be. She thought quietly.

"It's good that he recognizes a chain of command to some degree. That lets us know where we stand. Depending on how he feels we could offer her rank to him and see if that earns us some good graces."

By "Her" she meant Jill Valentine whom she gestured to across the room.

"In my own country I was Commanding Officer to a number of task forces but never given an official ranking because well...Princess seemed high enough."

[wildguardian]

"And feudal ranks don't hold much sway with military from a different country." He nodded -- it's a reasonable concern. "She was American military, it sounds like, so that's not a bad idea. My rank's civilian and I'm not American, so all I could do was claim to recognize its rank and go from there."

He shot her a wry grin. "It can't hurt to see if it'll decide Jill's higher up the chain of command than it is! Imagine how much annoyance we could skip right past."

[makeadragonwannaretire]

"I'd love for it to be that easy. If any one of us took control of the Overseer's office our lives could be much less complicated."

She considered her own words for a moment before adding "Any one of of us except possibly Jiro."

He had his uses, leadership was not one of them.

"The alternative is less desirable but we should also perhaps plan to...remove him if he becomes a problem. Working together is best right now but if he lets the power go to his mechanical head we'll have to be willing to take more drastic measures."

Just how durable were these machines anyway? In theory they had lasted for centuries without human assistance.

[wildguardian]

"Way ahead of you, Princess," Yunlan chuckled. "--I'll be honest: I want to keep him around for as long as it takes to get his access codes. He's well-armed and trigger-happy, and I don't like the idea of all of us winding up as the remains of mutiny number two.

"That said, we're in no position to try that right now. Proper preparation prevents poor performance, isn't that how the line goes?

"We'd do better to stockpile some better weaponry before we try a trick like that."

[makeadragonwannaretire]

"Organizing a search team to do a sweep of each room we'd be more likely to solve that problem." She muses "Though I'm getting the idea that the very suggestion of organized action seems to rub this group the wrong way."

She may be a little bitter at how only a couple of people at this gathering seemed to think it was a good idea.

"I'll need some practice using these modern weapons, but if we can't find enough we could attempt to lay some traps. How durable could it be really?"

After all she'd seen a powerful military war machine taken down by two children and some water. Everything had a weakness.

[wildguardian]

"Had a problem with someone?" If they were objecting to organized action, Yunlan's willing to bet it was Jiro. He half-shrugs, and adds, "Anyway -- I don't know how durable it is, but I know it's got a pretty powerful weapon. So if we do try for it, not only do I want to do it well armed, I think we should catch it by surprise.

"It's a lot safer that way."

[pride_outbreak]

"It wasn't pleasant, but in the end it was the best course of action and it opens up a lot more posibilities for what we can do and what we can learn from the previous denizens."

Saya bows her head slightly at Yun, "Thanks for going with me... I admit, I would have been at a loss on what to do for a while. I got used to dealing with Zombies in my apocalypse." She tried to joke about it but it made her feel a pang of guilt wondering what happened to everyone... If she was here, where's the rest?

[wildguardian]

The glance he tosses her is sympathetic. He recognizes that tone: sometimes it's easier to joke about your past because thinking about it beyond a joke, when there's no going back and they've all died of old age at best--

-- that hurts.

"From what I spotted in that third lab, zombie hunting experience might be something we need too!" he laughs, letting the glance of sympathy go unspoken. Talking about it can't help, so as far as he's concerned, it'll just make things harder to deal with.

"But you're welcome. I'm just glad we did manage to talk Simmons down before anyone got shot."

[pride_outbreak]

"Us in particular. Last I'd want is to be back in the infirmirary again so quickly, further dimishing our supplies..." A pause.

"Assuming I would have survived getting hit by a futuristic energy weapon... I do kind of want to see what it is though... Maybe we can find more of them."

"The weapons, not more of those particular model of robot I mean." No one needs more of them around.

[wildguardian]

"It probably depends on where it hits you! But I think you've hit your infirmary quota for at least a couple months -- you and Chocolat both. So take care! I can take point."

For now might be implied by his joking, but, well, they're kids. Even Chocolat, who's clearly got combat experience, looks like she's a decade his junior. He'd feel a lot better about being the one taking any theoretical energy weapon bolts than he would about them doing it.

That said... he makes a thoughtful noise. "Those are interesting weapons, aren't they? I wonder if you could ask Simmons about doing maintenance on his. He might have some specs he can hand over." Even if there aren't any other energy weapons in the Vault, they know there's one. And if they wind up having to take down the Mr. Gutsy to avoid some kind of paranoid shooting spree, they'll have the one to play with.

[pride_outbreak]

"Let's not think about getting hit at all," Saya shook her head. She had no intentions on dying here...

"I was thinking about that, but it'll have to be once I get him to trust me enough. If I start asking about the weapon so soon, his paranoid self will definitely think something's up."

[wildguardian]

"Too damn true. Ugh -- if I wanted to deal with that mindset I'd have joined the military." He pulls a face, leaning back on his hands.

"No helping it for now, I guess."

[pride_outbreak]

"Yeah... I had enough of that at home too." But right now... she feels they could really use her parent's guidance right about now all things considered.

"In due time though. I think since we're all definitely out of our element and no one seems to have knowledge of whatever nuttyness we ended up in, it's better to take our time and not rush into foolish decisions."

[wildguardian]

"With the zombie outbreak?" Everything she's saying is true; they're all out of their element and they don't know what's going on outside the Vault. Rehashing it, in his opinion, isn't going to help much.

He might as well kick back and gossip about their pasts. It'd be interesting to find out a little more about the disaster she remembers.