vault66 | Paranoia paranoia everyone's coming to get me.

Paranoia paranoia everyone's coming to get me.

WHO: Azula and whoever
WHERE: The training room, pod room
WHEN: After the Grand opening of the Vault but before her mission on the 10th
WHAT: The Princess self reflects and has a bad night
WARNINGS: N/A yet but we'll see.

If you hadn't been there when it happened surely by now you'd heard about it.

Princess Azula, that haughty, self assured and moody girl who insisted that in her own country she'd been a military leader and a skilled warrior...had fled from the opening of the vault.

Sure you could argue it was a tactical retreat, that the combination of radioactive water and giant crab monsters might be enough to scare anyone away.

But after spending an entire month talking herself up it was hard not to imagine it would be a massive blow to her ego.

The real question is how one deals with such an embarrassment in a place like The Vault?

She avoided talking to people when she could, only coming to the rec room to get food and trying to do it when there was no one else there.

Once or twice you might have seen her lurking around the medical bay, but she never stays long.

Ultimately there are two places she keeps going back to and spending the most time...

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Azula had been pleased with the amount of work she'd put into converting the classroom into a training room. Some basic items from around the vault had been scrapped together to form rudimentary workout equipment, she'd even managed to form a make shift sparring partner out of an empty barrel, some old mattresses and things.

His name was Zuko. She'd even written it on his "Chest" area.

But for all the pride she'd felt at having carved out a little place of her own in this miserable and filthy vault, she was far from feeling good at the moment. She was sullenly glaring at Zuko as she tried to work up enough anger.

"I bet you're really enjoying this aren't you?" She spat pacing back and forth in front of him bare handed. "To see me so lost and alone. Far away from everything you took from me."

She had closed the door, or so she thought but it was open just enough for someone to overhear if they cared to.

"Well never. AGAIN!" She planted her feet, adopting an aggressive stance and thrust out her fist once, twice punching the air before springing into a spinning kick and landing a solid blow on the bucket that served as Zuko's head.

The bucket spun around in place, dented but still functional.

Despite the beautifully executed kick, the Princess doesn't seem satisfied. She straightens her stance and tucks her hair behind her ear before moving back into her starting position to try again.

Before Azula gets a second kick in at Zuko, the door opens, slamming against the wall. Jiro takes one look at the poor approximation of a training dummy, and decides it's not even worth his time to make fun of. He also won't mention any of her conversation with this Zuko; at least not yet.

"I've been looking for you."

He's holding the decapitated head of one of the large mirelurks. It's now pretty dried out and no longer dripping goo and brain fluid or whatever else was in there. A trophy, as promised.

"Wanna mount it on the wall in here?"

Azula froze in place as the door slammed open, taking a moment to compose herself and turn to face him. Her eyes roamed his face looking for some sign he had been listening in. They were soon distracted however from the decapitated monster head he was holding up.

"Disgusting." She sneered looking at it and then bringing her gaze back up to him in confusion, "Did you preserve this somehow or is it just...ripped from the body of our victim?"

While Azula didn't mind trophies from previous conquests she wasn't about to let something decaying making her training room look like filth.

Jiro looks from Azula back to the mirelurk head, and shrugs.

"No, it's not preserved. But it's an insect! The exoskeleton won't decompose for a while. All the fluids are gone."

He has no idea if this is true or not, and after he's said it, he realizes that crabs aren't insects. Molluscs? Crustaceans? Anyway, they're hard-shelled, it's... probably fine.

Was that true? Azula didn't know either but she wasn't willing to admit it.

And, he had helped her rather then mocking her when she lost her nerve. Best to cultivate this relationship for now.

"How very thoughtful of you. You can leave it on the desk and I'll ask Nick if he'll help me mount it on the wall. The first of many victories to remember I'm sure."

With minimal previous interactions with Nick, Azula had heard he was difficult to work with and was wagering that unless she could bribe him, he probably wouldn't do it.

"Were there any casualties?"

He arranges the mireluck head on the desk so its dead eyes stare at anyone coming through the door.

"Nah, no one's dead."

Injuries, he's unsure of. It's not like he checked on everybody. He nods towards the training dummy.

"So what's with this Zuko?"

Ominous and unsettling. She's kind of loving it actually the more she thinks about it.

She nods in acceptance that everyone returned alive. She suspected they had but never bothered to check.

"Zuko is here to help us keep our skills sharpened. While I can do my daily exercises without assistance having tools at our disposal will keep things from getting stale."

She moved over to the training dummy and twisted it's bucket head around so the scowling face she'd drawn on it was looking at Jiro.

"Not to mention he makes for excellent stress relief."

"Eh, it's kinda nice not to do this shit all the time."

He hasn't been training at all, and Zuko won't inspire him to get back to it either. The world got blown up or something; what is the point? They can be lazy bastards, they're all gonna die anyway.

"What'd he do to you?"

He suspects it's personal; otherwise, why give the dummy a name and a face?

She feels almost nostalgic thinking about Zuko, shit talking him will be helpful to her mood.

"He's my brother, a selfish and short tempered brat who was always more obsessed with himself then the needs of our Nation. And when his selfishness lost him the crown and brought me to power he decided suddenly he had to be Firelord and usurped me." She sighed and patted the bucket's "Cheek".

"He had to cheat to do it too. He never could match me in combat or tactical abilities."

"Sounds like a dick. Some people want all the power, but they never wanna work for it."

He studies Zuko's 'face'. It's punchable. He approves.

"Exactly. And he had no idea how to rule obviously. But no he just had to ruin all my hard work because of his hurt feelings." She shook her head in dismay.

"Would you believe I once traveled halfway around the world just to bring him home and try to patch things up between him and father? Do I get a thank you? No just more complaints. You'd hate him if he woke up here."

And if she had her way by the time anyone from her world would be just as distrusted and hated before they had a chance to tell her story properly.

"I hate people like that," or demons in his case. "Think they have a right to do whatever the fuck they want to get power. Their feelings matter more than anyone else's."

He's guilty of that selfishness himself to a degree, but he doesn't see it that way, and he can condemn this Zuko person without self-reflection.

"I would blame myself for not being a good younger sister, but obviously our parents had more influence on him then I did." She took up her stance again and began making calculated strikes on the dummy. Each punch and kick had a satisfying amount of thud to it which was helpful in dealing with the complicated feelings she was stuffing down.

"Feelings can't be trusted. They are unreliable, unpredictable and dangerous for a leader. He was never meant for the throne."

"So you don't trust your gut instinct on things?"

That may make her a 'good' leader, but ignoring some feelings is a bad idea in his view.

"Now I never said that." She took a moment to adjust her stance before lashing out again. Each strike perfectly calculated to the untrained eye.

But Azula knew she was missing the mark ever so slightly every so often. And only perfection was acceptable.

"But all things must be taken in moderation. You moderate emotion with wisdom and experience. Like the Firelords before me I would have ruled with advisors who could share their knowledge with me so that my choices were always right."

Not that she needed advisors. She didn't need anyone who might threaten her position.

Unfortunately for her, Jiro has a trained eye and he's absolutely catching those mistakes. Watching her is more interesting than listening to her, because they've gone too far into politics or something for him to stay interested.

"Yeah, experienced advisors and wisdom... Anyway, I brought the... crab thing, so I'm leaving."

Yeah.

"Straight forward as always." She commented slowing her strikes to glance at him over her shoulder.

"Have you found a team willing to tolerate you on the surface?" She had been avoiding Saya but sooner or later she'd have to talk with her again about when they were going to leave.

He's halfway to the door when she asks, stopping to growl in annoyance at her use of 'tolerate'. He doesn't think he's that much of a problem and this is some kind of conspiracy to blackball him from these outings for an unknown reason. The robots may be behind it.

"Fuck you. I'm gonna go even if no one wants to tolerate me."

And he will, even if he has no allotted provisions. He's getting the fuck out of the vault somehow.

"So that's a no then. There's no need to be so crude about it."

He just makes it so easy to get under his skin.

"I'd be willing to put in a good word for you with Saya for when we depart on our mission. But you'd have to do whatever she wants you to do even if it annoys you."

"I don't need you vouching for me, and I'm not going to take orders from some girl!"

It's very easy to set him off, and he can rarely stop himself from taking the bait.

"Now that's no way to react to someone who wants to show you some gratitude."

Sure, that's what she was doing.

"What I'm saying is, to get what you want sometimes you have to play along as distasteful as someone as honest as you are might find it."

"If you want to leave, you could try and do it all yourself and likely get shot by that robot or hurt yourself trying to open the door, or you could accept that someone else has been put in charge for now and prepare for the day when it's no longer necessary that you play along. A day when you can be in charge of your own life again."

Yeah, he's not listening to this.

"Whatever."

He turns around, but not to approach Azula and have a civil conversation. He's taking the mirelurk head back. It's his now; she's lost her trophy privileges.

Well, looks like either way she wins.

"If that's your choice, I guess we'll have to see where pig headed stubbornness gets you."

Honestly it was a wonder that so many men managed to be put in charge of things when they snapped so easily.

___________________

It's late...or as far as anyone knows it's late.

That's one of the things she's hated the most about being locked down here. Without the sun to tell her the time Azula is forced to rely on the device on her arm which tells her that she should be in bed. She should be asleep.

But she can't sleep. Not when she knows that somehow she is here.

Stalking into the pod room Azula looks tired. The rings under her eyes, the messy bed head. She's irritated and holding her sword as she prowls between the pods studying them carefully and muttering to herself.

"You can hide as long as you want. I found you before I'll find you again."

She had though poorly of Chocolot for doing this exact thing, browsing the pods as if somehow she could divine which one held her beloved carrot. But instead here she was shaking gently and gripping her sword till her knuckles turned white.

Occasionally she was place a hand on a pod, or an ear to listen only to draw away in continued frustration.

"Show yourself!" She suddenly barked in anger, was she talking to you?!

"Princess?" Yunlan straightened from his slump next to one of the pods on the end, the sleep-fuzziness clearing from his gaze as his eyes flicked from the sword in her hand to the strung-out look on her face.

Had she heard him? He might've been snoring -- he'd only meant to sit down and rest for a little, but, well, he'd just woken up. So it'd been more than just a little rest.

"What's up?" he added, keeping his tone deliberately light. She looked like she needed a distraction, and he wasn't going to push with any tough questions until she put the damn sword away.

"Yunlan?"

This one again. The most reasonable but also somehow infuriating in this moment.

"What are you doing in here?" She demanded lowering her sword but not completely putting it away. Not yet.

"Napping." He yawned, glancing down at his pip-boy. "Sleeping? Fuck if I know how long it's been. I figured I'd stick around, see if anyone else woke up."

It was a long shot -- the few pod openings there had been so far appeared to be in regular groups. Besides, no two people here yet had recognized each other, and he knew for a fact the face he most wanted to see was dead and gone.

Sometimes, it still felt better hanging out with these stupid metal Pandora's boxes than staring at the springs of a top bunk in the darkness, alone.

"What are you doing in here?" he shot back, and knuckled a bit of sand out of the corner of his eye.

Something about that slothful response seemed to calm her down. Of course he was sleeping. Sure he was one of the smarter people down here but his motivation seemed very carefully regulated.

"I thought I heard a monster that needed dispatching to protect the pods. Turns out it was just snoring." She lied so easily she didn't even have to think about it. "But apparently you and Chocolat just can't seem to stop fussing with the pod room in the dead of night."

"Chocolat, really?" He blinked, projecting casual innocence. "I must've managed to avoid her down here so far. Hey, have a seat."

He gestured at one of the open pods -- the sides almost made a decent spot to sit, and he doubted Azula would want to sit on the floor like he was. Hauling himself up to something closer to a normal sitting position, he ran a hand through his hair to fix his bangs.

His ankle was killing him. Stupid fucking sprain.

"Also," he added, pouting at her, "I have it on the best authority that I don't snore."

"Whoever said that was lying to you." She shot back begrudgingly putting her sword away and leaning against one of the pods. She would not sit, but acting like she was still deciding on if she wanted to cut him wouldn't help her calm down.

"She likes to look for her Carrot down here, and clean things in case he wakes up and is so disgusted by the state of things that he goes back to sleep."

Putting the sword away was a step in the right direction. Yunlan let his smile go easy and rueful. "Okay, so, he might've been sparing my feelings... and I guess I have Chocolat to thank that the floor's clean enough to sit on.

"I didn't know you were running night patrols around here, though, Princess. You do this kind of thing regularly? We're a long way from the bunk rooms."

"I wouldn't call it a patrol exactly." Because it wasn't. "But how else does one deal with a sleepless night then to stretch your legs? It's not as though I can have a warm glass of milk."

Of all the things she thought she'd miss, fresh dairy had not been high on the list until about three weeks in. She'd kill for some fresh milk.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have someone regularly come down here though. Who knows when our next new "friend" might wake up."

"I've been going with cups of warm water. It's not like tea at all, but it's the best we've got." He quirked a smile, looking back at the sea of silent pods around them.

"If Chocolat's down here looking for her boy, and I drop by, and you come by on your evening perambulations... I think we've got it informally covered. Plus, there's not too many hiding spots around the Vault. Not unless someone's getting the front door open on their own and making a run for it."

"I'm quickly becoming tired of "The best we've got." She muttered with an irritated gloom to her tone. She had tolerated so much but she was nearly at the end of her rope. This entire situation was so beneath her.

"Perhaps you're right but I won't be caught off guard." The paper thin excuse for why she was wandering the halls may have held up, but only because he was so easy going. It wasn't comforting thinking about how this commoner seemed to be able to see her tattered edges.

"Given the nature of this place though, what it was built for it's not much of a stretch to imagine there are panels, tunnels, things we haven't uncovered yet. Places where people could be lurking."

"It's not impossible," he shrugs, spreading his hands in a theatrical shrug. "But it's a stretch. We've been picking this place over for months, and they had all those doors they could lock -- why bother with secret passageways? If anything, I'd expect them to have secret cameras."

He shot her a wry grin. "Look -- the best we've got may not be so great, but I could do with a cup of warm water. Why don't you come with me? It's a waste just to heat enough water for one."

There was hesitation and she glanced past him into the shadows of this room.

She had been so sure...

"Very well. There's no point in being down here any longer I suppose." At least no point that she wants to discuss right away.

"How do you maintain such a...casual and positive attitude despite all this? Is it willful ignorance or natural?"

He quirked a smile in her direction and led the way towards the door of the pod room, letting the smile fall away to leave a distant desolation in its place.

"I'm used to leading," he informed her, and hung a left towards the rec room and kitchen. "Nothing kills morale like a leader admitting he's feeling the stress! So."

Another deliberate smile, as he glances back at her. "I'm a good liar."

"Apparently I'm not as good a liar as I thought I was then." she muttered irritated with that answer.

She had staked so much on her ability to manipulate, lie and make people do what she wanted. Now she could barely make her own body and mind comply when she felt overwhelmed.

There was a weight descending on her as she considered the possibility she really was never going to get back to her old self. The girl who had almost led the nation to victory.

"Your smiles are becoming more stretched and thin the longer we stay here." She pointed out perhaps a little bitter "The others might notice if something doesn't change."

"Yeah, well." The jukebox was playing some old song, low and quiet, in the corner of the rec room. Yunlan cast it a glance as he entered, then shrugged it off as background noise and headed for the kitchen.

"You're young!" He didn't even try for a smile to go with that one; he was busy rummaging through the cupboards for the kettle. "At your age I couldn't even stay in control of myself, much less lead. Practice makes perfect.

"Give it another five or ten years, maybe I'll have made it to perfect too."

Another five or ten years: saying it seemed to make the time stretch out before him, vast and awful.

"Then you were weak." She answered plainly "I was raised from birth for perfection and I hit every mark. Even when I wasn't instantly talented at something I would not, could not stop until I was."

For all the good it did. She wouldn't allow herself to dwell on that for the moment.

"I'm sure in five to ten years when we are the pillars of our new civilization you'll look back on these humble beginnings and smile more honestly."

"You know what, you're not as heartless as you like to sound!" Yunlan parked the kettle, full of water, on the stove and hoisted himself up next to it, crossing his legs and tapping the heel of one against the cupboard front. "I'm an old man, Chocolat keeps telling me. Five to ten years, maybe I'll be in the ground."

He shouldn't be up and wandering around in any case. He'd given his life up to burn in the Lantern for an eternity already, if any of his memories were real at all. Absently, he bit down on the edge of his thumb, worrying at the dry skin there. The worst thought -- the more unbearable thought -- was going on, five, ten, fifty years alone.

"What kind of civilization would you build?" he asked, idly, while the kettle simmered away.

"Yes well Chocolat is allergic to modesty and in love with a root vegetable so you should take most of what she says with a handful of salt."

Azula on the other hand never ran out of salt to share.

"One that was organized and logical." She began thinking of her home. "Where everyone was able to become their best selves and put forth their talents and abilities for the good of the nation. A place where skill and ambition is respected."

The Fire Nation, just without the war that had fueled and shaped it for 100 years. Sure that would work.

"Those things are both true!" Well, 'Carrot' was probably a name, but Yunlan could make allowances for hyperbole. He leaned back, raising his eyebrows.

Somehow, while he might have expected 'organized' and 'ambitious,' he wouldn't have guessed Azula'd want to spread that opportunity around to anyone who wanted to grab for it. That'd teach him to be judgmental about hereditary nobility, he supposed.

"I like that idea. Plenty of education, peace and order for the common folk?"

"Of course. In my country even the peasants had education, opportunity, and all served in the military which taught them valuable life skills." She bragged "Unlike the Earth Kingdom which allowed their masses to live in squalor and couldn't support the size of their own territory or the primitive water tribes and their resistance to change the Fire Nation has always been the fastest developing and strongest Nation."

"And I would bring that same sort of power to our new world."

"You divided your countries up by element?" Did that have something to do with the elemental powers she'd been talking about? His eyebrows bent dubiously for a moment before he shrugged. "Same with my country on those three points, not that I can speak for much of the rest of my world. I was always more worried about our local problems.

"Anyway, who knows? If there's any decent civilization out there I'd be happier moving than I would be building a country from scratch. There's just not that many of us."

"Naturally." It made perfect sense at the time. "The people just seemed to gravitate in that direction and eventually the lines were drawn. Though the Fire Nation wound up with significantly less territory then we should have had given our population."

But that was all history and dead Emperors. No point in dwelling on it.

"We'll only know once we're up there." She agreed "Perhaps we can bring some kind of positive change to whatever qualifies for civilization up there, with our radical ideas about keeping things clean and not bathing in radiation."

"Ha! When all your water's glowing, maybe you take what you can get. I'm hoping it's not that bad all over, though."

He'd just skate right past that bit about the Fire Nation's territory. That sounded like an excuse for expansionism if ever he'd heard one. Still: not his world, not his politics, not his problem.

And not likely that they'd ever wind up seeing anyone else who knew what a Fire Nation was, the same way he hadn't met anyone else who knew of Dragon City.

"Your optimism and low standards for success are a fantastic combination." She teased lightly.

"As for me, I may accept a partial victory temporarily but nothing short of complete success can be tolerated long term. I was raised for perfection and will strive for you all to reach it too."

"They manage to keep the water down here radiation-free somehow." He frowned, gaze drifting away to focus on a point somewhere beyond the wall. "And that shit that poured on our heads was not."

Something to put aside for another time: were there filtration systems for the Vault that could clean radioactive water? Or was it just recycling the already-clean water they put down their drains?

"Anyway," he said, shrugging the question away. Maybe he'd try cheating at a hand of cards to get the answers out of Nick. "Let's not get hung up on perfection, Princess, because if you want that you're going to have to make everyone in here agree perfectly about our goals."

The corner of his mouth ticked up, not quite in a smile. "That's harder than changing the world."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Paranoia paranoia everyone's coming to get me.

The Training Room

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The Pod Room

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cw, just a touch of suicidal ideation

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