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

[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.

[wildguardian]

"Ha! Maybe so. If Louis'll fit, anyway." Metal housings just don't squeeze through small places as easily as flesh. Yunlan barks a laugh, waving the theory off with a casual gesture.

"--Anyway, maybe I'm wrong about the gun shit. Sandy managed to find those batons for us, after all."

[cicadashell]

"I think she'd tell us if she had a gun."

The others, he's not sure about. Maybe Chocolat has one hidden away.

[wildguardian]

"If it came up in conversation, sure! Azula or Chocolat might have one tucked away somewhere, and there's some of the older residents I haven't spotted except in passing yet."

[cicadashell]

Speculating about this is getting annoying, so Jiro's just going to address everyone.

"Does anyone have a gun!?"

Meetings would go by faster if he conducted them.

[justoutrunyou]

"Why? Who are you going to shoot?"

With Jiro it honestly could be any of them...or all of them. Sandy didn't want to think he would snap and murder them all but he probably wouldn't like knowing she still trusted him.

[cicadashell]

She's not too far off from the 'snap and murder' people angle, because that's happened. It wasn't entirely his fault, and no one died, but uncontrolled murder rage isn't out of the ballpark for potential outcomes if powers start working again somehow.

"Mole rats! And not me, someone who can crawl in that hole we found. We wanna tunnel out."

He nods to Yunlan. It's a potentially horrible plan and people could just die in an unstable tunnel of rock and tons of dirt piled on.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy looks like she's already imagining dying under a collapsed tunnel and she's not particularly keen to try it.

"And you're good with guns?" She suspected some of the others had gun training before today when they had confirmed it but...Jiro? Wasn't he exactly the kind of guy people didn't want with a gun?

[cicadashell]

He's had guns pointed at him, a lot of guns, but has never touched one himself.

"It can't be that hard, you just pull the trigger. Anyway, whoever's going in the hole gets it."

[justoutrunyou]

She wanted to argue with him, but that's more or less how she'd felt until Choclat started training her.

"I found one in the lockers. Figured since we only have so many bullets we needed to save them for emergencies."

[wildguardian]

"I'm good with guns," Yunlan chipped in, grinning, "or, at least, I'm fully qualified. And I think I've got a better shot at fitting into that tunnel than this guy."

He jerks a thumb in Jiro's direction; the teenager's got several inches and a lot of muscle over him, and with the chances of a furious mole-rat coming at somebody's face, Yunlan's absolutely not sending Sandy down that tunnel with a gun. The mole-rats are pretty big, for animals. Anything they can fit through, he can probably fit through too.

"Best case scenario, we wouldn't even have to use it, but there's no room for swinging melee weapons around when you're in a tunnel."

[justoutrunyou]

"See him? Him I believe wouldn't accidentally...or on purpose...shoot one of us." She points to Yunlan only half joking. She's still not super comfortable giving up the gun. Sure she hasn't had a chance to fire it yet but it feels like the most powerful thing she's found yet.

At the same time, it scares her just enough that she's checked it every day multiple times to make sure it's unloaded.

"Wait...guns are really loud. If you shoot one in the tunnel you're gonna really hurt your ears...and maybe worse."

[wildguardian]

"You're not wrong! But one or two shots in a confined space isn't gonna hurt as much as having a rat take a chunk out of my face."

He tosses her a sidelong glance, lifts one hand up to his face, and plays the got-your-nose trick, keeping his hand in front of his nose to make it look slightly more realistic.

"Now that would hurt." He winks, and 'puts it back,' dropping his hand.

[cicadashell]

"I wouldn't shoot anybody!"

He needs to protest that, in case Sandy isn't the only one who thinks he's one step away from murder. He did hit Yunlan with a femur, but... hmm.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy can't help but laugh, both at Yun lan's lame joke and Jiro's protests. This meeting had started out sour but things were getting better.

"Alright, when you need to come borrow it let me know. Just don't use up all the bullets. Chocolat gave me those." And thus they were a gift and important to Sandy.

[wildguardian]

"Good to know," Yunlan teases Jiro. The kid had hit him with a femur, after all. But that's a long way away from murder.

"How many bullets have you got, Sandy?"

[justoutrunyou]

"twenty two." She had counted them again and again with obsessive care feeling the weight of each one.

"The gun can hold 12 bullets in the clip." She added "So that's...important I guess."

She trailed off feeling sheepish that after having the gun in her possession for a few weeks that was the most information she had gathered from it other then how to take it apart and put it back together. She decided not to mention that she hadn't fired it yet.