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

[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.

[pride_outbreak]

"Well, even before that... My parents, they were from a very strict government party with military power..."

That's not to say she didn't have an amazing childhood without wants, but the Mr. Gutsy really gave her bad flashbacks of the not so good times in that sort of environment.

"As for the outbreak, we didn't have to deal with many of the adults till later. Apparently stupidity runs high during a panic with most of them and they ended up offing each other rather quickly. My parent's group excluded, they actually held off and kept a lot of people safe during it. That's where our group ended up at before the alarms went off for the nuke..."

[wildguardian]

"Ah." He winces: growing up with strict rule-followers for parents rings some bells for him, too.

As for the second part... he finds his fingers tapping nervously against the tabletop again and stills them. "The nuke? They were trying to wipe out the infection?"

He doesn't know exactly when the bombs fell outside this vault, but...

... well, "trying to stop a zombie apocalypse" would explain why they were launched. Especially since the last he'd known, international tensions weren't nearly high enough to excuse a dumbshit move like starting nuclear war.

[pride_outbreak]

"That's what most hoped, but with my father's connections we knew better... Fear causes chaos, and chaos can destroy the order in society." It's almost like she echoed similar words to her group on the day the world went to hell.

"The world was thrown into turmoil, governements didn't know what to do so what better way than to start firing at each other yeah?"

She sighed and looked to the side as if hoping a window was there so she could enjoy some sort of calming nature view, instead she was met with the cold steel and tarnished surroundings of the vault.

"The Japanese-Amaerican alliance tried to counter the missiles launched from China, but one got through."

[wildguardian]

"Fuck."

That's all too believable. He'd barely managed to talk the government down from sending in the troops over Dixing's breakdown, and whatever you could say about an underground alien enclave with longstanding treaty obligations to the human locals, they hadn't had nuclear weapons.

But China did. And if Japan were suffering a world-threatening zombie outbreak--

"Well, I fucking hope that's not why the world's like this," he muttered, "or it's not just being from a Communist country that might make Captain Lasers think I'm the enemy."

[pride_outbreak]

"You and me both..."

Though, if they were home and maybe the others survived too, she wouldn't be too distrught if they were to find her group.

"I doubt it. Don't bring it up? Right now, you really did a great job buttering him up so unless you bring it out, I doubt he'd suspect anything ill from you."

[wildguardian]

"Yeah, I'm keeping mum." It's a bizarre idea that a Chinese policeman would have wound up saved from certain death and popped into a cryogenic facility in some American bomb shelter to begin with; but no more bizarre than a Japanese high schooler and an alien princess.

The thirteen-year-old might be the closest to making sense here. At least she's from the area.

Few of them are what a paranoid Cold War robot personality would think of as natural allies to begin with.

The corner of his mouth quirks, and he adds, after a moment, "Wonder if we were in storage as experimental subjects?"

[pride_outbreak]

Saya shakes her head quickly and rubs her arms uncomfortably, "Don't even joke about that. After the things we've seen and heard they've done here? I really don't want to imagine what would have happened if we were and they got to us for the experiments." That's a horrid thought.

"In any case... at least it seems most are willing to work together. That should increase our chances of surviving."

[wildguardian]

"I'm not joking! We might've lucked out waking up after all the scientists were dry bones."

He laughs, shortly -- it's not funny at all, but on the plus side, the scientists are all dry bones. They're not in any danger no matter what purpose they had been brought here for.

"You're right, though. It's a good thing most everyone here is willing to play along with the group. We've got a pretty decent range of skills, too."

[pride_outbreak]

"Dry bones... yeah, I suppose you're right. At least dry bones shouldn't have the muscle or sinew to get mobility again." You know, like zombies...

"There's still some that don't value that fact," she pinches the bridge of her nose in annoyance after looking in Jiro's direction. "But I feel that's more of a self defense attitude than anything and I can't really blame them waking up in an unfamiliar place. But they'll need to do better if they want to make it here. I don't know if the others will be willing to play nice for too long."

She certainly wasn't going to.

[wildguardian]

"Had some trouble with lil' Jiro, huh?" Yunlan comments, following her gaze. "I think you're right about the self-defense attitude, but it can be a handful."

Chocolat's already not playing nice with him, from what Yunlan's seen -- but she doesn't seem like a girl with any patience for bullshit. Except her own.

He shrugs, and adds, "Calling him on his shit works, in my experience."

[pride_outbreak]

"He's a dumbass," Saya huffed and crossed her arms. "I mean, this really isn't the time to be acting that way, what're they trying to prove anyways?"

He's not the most affected here, everyone that's in here, so far as she knew, was not here because they wanted to. He needs to chill as far as Saya's concerned.

"I wonder if we breach the surface, they'll go on their way? It's not safe to go out alone, but I don't think anyone could stop them if they were that stubborn."

[wildguardian]

Yunlan sighed out a long breath in echo of Saya's irritated huff, scanning the room.

"Honestly, sister, I sure hope he doesn't. Or anybody else, for that matter. Outside of locking them up it's not like we can stop it from happening, but when we don't know what's out there, there's just too many ways somebody stomping off in a huff could get killed.

"Or -- say -- captured by roving bandits or hostile military."

They didn't know what was outside. If it had been long enough since the bombs fell, it was easy to imagine the remnants of civilization getting back together into, oh, say, a police state. Or some anarchist might-makes-right Mad Max scenario. And groups like that might be interested in a spot of torture to find out about a largely intact Vault with working technology and a running nuclear reactor.

With a bark of laughter, he added, "Maybe I'm being paranoid! But I say we stick together, because there's not enough of us in here to fight off a serious attack."

[pride_outbreak]

A wry smile played on Saya's features, "I mean, you're not being paranoid at all. As much as I'd like to believe that, should we breach the surface, we'd be one of the firsts out there; Who knows what crazyness awaits us all up top. And one person's recklessness doesn't put just them at stake, but all the people in here as well."

It was an unusual scenario, but she wasn't one to leave things to chance and if she had to lock up Jiro in order to keep the group safe, she would. But she really didn't think it'd come up to that.

[wildguardian]

"If I'm paranoid, at least I'm in good company." He shrugged, settling back into his comfortable slouch, and eyed the refreshments table. It had been long enough since he tried the first cookie that he was almost tempted to try another one. They didn't taste much like cookies, but they had some crunch, and he was tragically snack-deprived.

"Anyway -- it's a good line of argument to remember! Just in case someone does think it's a good idea to go poking around up top without backup. Hey, Saya, want another cookie?"

Decision made, he hops off his perch on the table and starts towards the refreshments.

[pride_outbreak]

"Good company is hard to find nowadays, so that's a plus." She tried joking back as she settled a bit more comfortably.

"I certainly wouldn't be opposed to another, thank you!"

At least the majority of their company so far was willing to work together and were varying degrees of pleasant... Jiro just needed to see that she supposed, but right now, she was done with dealing with him.

[wildguardian]

"Too true!" He waved in acknowledgement; a minute later, he returned, handing a cookie over to Saya and taking a bite of his own. He almost succeeded in hiding his grimace.

[pride_outbreak]

Saya chuckles, "Nice job there, really make it seem SUPER appetizing, yum~" she teased and shook her head. Pinching her own nose and taking a quick bite, she does her own mock 'delicious' sound before swallowing fast.

"A, um, delicacy. An acquired taste even." Gotta try and brighten up their situation.

[wildguardian]

"Well... an acquired taste, anyway." Determinedly, he takes another bite. "The texture's fine. Ugh -- what I wouldn't give for a decent takeout place. Maybe one that does noodles?"

He might be the only man left alive who knew what late-night Dragon City noodle takeout should taste like. And that was a real fucking kick in the gut to think about. Funny -- the big things bothered him all the time, but the little ones were like finding bits of broken glass in the carpet of his mind.

"Who knows," he adds. "Maybe we'll get up there and find out civilization is just fine outside of a couple glowing holes in the ground."

[pride_outbreak]

"Noodles, sushi, steak, seafood, dumplings...." She closes her eyes and takes another bite in hopes the imagination will override the taste of the cookie.

"One can hope right?" Hope wasn't something that she relied on much in her past... But after the outbreak and the encouragement from the team, she started believing in it more.

"Prepare for the worse, rejoice when better outcomes surface."