time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.

[pyroelectric]

Who: Azula + y'all
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: HS MARSIVA BABY
When: Idk, now.

[Oh, she's furious at first. Waking alone in a strange place, with no one to answer for her predicament? Azula is not happy about that. But she refuses to lose her cool under pressure. She won't waste time throwing a temper tantrum. Instead she gets to work. When she can't find anyone, she looks for exits. When she can't find any exits, she finally resigns herself to examining the-- the "communications log", her augment helpfully supplies.

Hm. That's new. She absorbs that information and continues. Figuring out how to use the system is somewhat of a learning curve at first, but the augment helps her along until she has the gist of it. She snorts in derision as she reads and watches one log after another, published by individuals clearly once in the same predicament as herself. Every post the same as the last. "Where am I? How did I get here? How do I get home?" How ridiculous, she thinks. If only they had bothered to take a few extra minutes to figure out how to access the network records, all their questions would have been answered, and they would have been saved the indignity of looking like a fool. Well, no-one will catch her looking like that, that's for sure.

The more she reads, the less she likes. Her scowl deepens the longer she spends. After a while, few unpleasant facts make themselves readily apparent:

1) This is not home. Few here will recognise or respect her authority as crown princess of the Fire Nation.
2) Her ability to threaten or intimidate people into doing what she says while she's being held captive on a completely separate vessel to everybody else is virtually nil. First rule of thumb: don't give threats unless you can actually follow through on them. Otherwise you only look stupid.
3) She currently has no money with which to bribe people with, either.
4) Her brother is here, has been here for a while by the look of things. She doesn't understand how that's possible, but there's no point in debating the facts. He's also had time to make allies.
5) She, on the other hand, has none.

All in all, it's an extremely unfavorable position to be in. All her favourite tools have been summarily taken from her. Arms crossed, one finger tapping on her arm, she tries to think of the best way to spin this horrible situation to her advantage-- at least until she can leverage herself some bargaining chips, or isn't on the Marsiva. She reads further back on the network some more, until one particular post gives her an idea. A brother, separated from his siblings. The sympathy pouring in for miles. It's a masterful stroke, really. ... Well, that settles it. Mind made up, she uncrosses her arms and turns on the video feed, prepared with her most innocent smile.]



Good evening, citizens of this... ah, fleet. I am Princess Azula, of the Fire Nation. Your newest arrival, of course. Not to worry, I've already availed myself of the answers to the standard newcomer questions.

I'm addressing you today because I believe some of you may already be acquainted with my dear brother, Prince Zuko. I do hope he's all right-- ever since we were young, you see, he's had this knack for getting himself into trouble. If it's not too much to ask, I'd be extremely grateful to anyone who can put me in touch with him. Or at the very least, let me know how he's doing. From what I understand, apparently he's switched his message apparatus off to take a long nap. I wouldn't want to interrupt.

In any case, I look forward to ... co-habitating with all of you. [No, she absolutely does not.] I suppose if you wish to introduce yourself, you may do that too.

[If it's a competition the Atroma want, she doesn't intend to lose. But she can't do anything from her current position without backup and information. As irritating as it is to have to fake interest and politeness, this will help her get the lay of the land much more efficiently than causing a scene right off the bat. There will be time enough for that later.

Plus, it will absolutely infuriate Zuko, and that's always hilarious.]

Comments

1/???

[honorbends]

[ zuko has managed to figure out how to put his communicator on silent, but that doesn't mean he's not going to be checking the network. you never know when people are going to show up, and just because he needs time to himself doesn't mean he's going to not make sure everything is okay.

even if he has caused a lot of the problems in the past day or so.

but when a new post pops up, and it's that familiar face, he nearly drops his communicator. ]

[honorbends]

[ azula?

his first instinct is to immediately turn on the communicator and tell her to calm down and to not do anything stupid, but he stops himself from doing so in order to actually listen to the message. she sounds... calm. collected. digging around for friends. smart, poised, like she used to be.

-- and prince? princess? ]

[honorbends]

[ -- he is either incredibly lucky or incredibly unfortunate, but either way, if he had to be suffered with any member of his family outside of iroh or his mother, he can tolerate azula before she snapped.

he can do this, but he has to be careful.

god, so much for two fucking days of radio silence. ]

ok done sorry ur big brother is dramatic af.

[honorbends]

[ when he finally turns on the video feed, he looks tired, his jaw tight, but not afraid, or uncomfortable. it's a forced neutrality, calm and even.

off-screen, he is gripping his pillow with everything he has in order to have something to focus on. ]

I'm fine.

[ lmao no ]

Are you alright?

[ may as well play along with the caring big brother role so long as azula is intent on attempting to fool the masses. ]

video;

[avaricious]

He is kind of an asshole, isn't he?

[Zuko was such a little bitch in Greed's first network outing. These are things that Greed does not forget. Things he does not forgive.]

[pyroelectric]

[Azula looks distinctly amused.

She likes this person already. But no-- she has to keep up the charade of being a dutiful sister.]

Surely you don't mean Zuzu. [At the very least, she can still embarrass Zuko while pretending to be nice.] There are a lot of words I could think of to describe him, but that isn't one of them.

video »

[steeledskin]

[ softly: ] Zuko is a prince?

[ well. this is...an odd bit of learning. sansa swallows hard and struggles to recover her good manners. ] Welcome to the fleet, your grace.

[ seven hells. ]

video

[pyroelectric]

["'Your highness', actually, is the correct form of address," is on the tip of her tongue. She's about to say it. She wants to say it. But the aim of this broadcast was to make allies. Not enemies. And this girl has some connection to Zuko. She bites her tongue.]

I know, he doesn't exactly look the part, does he? But yes, he is. Crown prince, in fact. Older than me by one year. Alas.

My thanks for the welcome. Not everyone has been so gracious.

[action]

[flameandpassion]

[ have a girl with a massive amount of long dark hair wandering around the deck. she's wearing boots, jeans, and what looks like a loose sweater -- fare from Adstringendum, but miraculously minty-fresh and mended. weird.

she's half convinced she's wandering around a new trap laid by the animus and the scientists, but instead, she's stumbled across azula. azula, who definitely was not in adstringendum when rei just left it, and she stares for a moment or two before drawing in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

patience, rei. patience. you're going to need

so much fucking patience. ]

Azula?

[ where in the fuck did she wind up ]

[action]

[pyroelectric]

[Azula regards her with some degree of confusion, her mind working overtime to try and work out how this girl possibly knows her name and where they know each other from-- but the only conclusion she can draw is that they don't. While she certainly looks Fire Nation, no Fire Nation citizen would ever dare address her without her title.

Eventually, she settles on being blunt.]

... That is my name, yes.

I do not believe we've had the pleasure.

voice...

[bolder]

[It takes a bit for her to process. It's been years since they've have to really worry about Azula like this.

So that means Toph simply voices her feelings in the best way possible.]

Nope!

[And that's all she wrote.]

[pyroelectric]

[... The little Earthbending peasant, is it?

Well, if that's the way she wants to play it, that suits Azula just fine too. Minimal interaction is fine by her. She's just as happy to ignore.]

Video;

[alwayscomeback]

[Well balls. This is the worst timing ever, Azula why do you gotta make everything difficult by existing?

Prince Zuko, though. So she's from the past. Way past. That's...something, at least. It means she can't go telling things about their mother he hasn't found the heart to tell Zuko yet. Plus she's probably about 30% less crazy so.

...Not good especially, not good at all, actually. But it's not completely and utterly disastrous. Still, fuck you, Azula.]

I can introduce you to a great new friend for you, Azula. I call him Mister Airlock. He'll be your best friend.

[pyroelectric]

... Ah. Look who it is. My favourite Water Tribe peasant.

[Unfortunately for Sokka, Azula has already spent her time on board the Marsiva wisely, getting herself acquainted with this world's strange technology long before the broadcast. So she gets the joke, but instead she turns it back on him. Two can play at that game.]

Don't be ridiculous. Why would I throw anyone out an airlock? That sounds tremendously uncivilized.

[jamminshield]

You're a real live princess?! That's amazing! And I'm so glad you get to be with your family here.

Don't you worry about Zuko! We've been taking great care of him, and we even played snowballs last month! My name's Steven Universe, by the way!

[pyroelectric]

Of course I am.

Well, nobody is more happy to hear that than me... Steven. [She says the name like she's committing it to memory.] Tell me, are you terribly close with my brother?

[video]

[eyeforaneye]

[ The family resemblance is clear but he makes no comment on it, too focused on mentally reviewing the information Zuko's given him in accordance with the guidelines that came later. He's intelligent, sure, but being purposefully indirect and lying aren't his strong suits (somewhat inconvenient for a ninja, really).

Holding back information? That much he can do. ]

It's possible you'll be placed on a ship with him, though impossible to say. They're all full now as it is.

[video]

[pyroelectric]

I hope you're right. We do work so well together, after all.

And you are...?

video

[experiencepoints]

[Well, that's a hell of an introduction. If her newbie guide won't be needed, then she almost doesn't reply. But, she does have one question.]

"Standard newcomer questions", huh? Have you done this before?

[pyroelectric]

Not at all.

I simply availed myself of this "network" and spent some time reading what everyone else had written beforehand. It wasn't very hard.

[video]

[summerschild]

[Zuko's sister?? Having recently been reunited with two of his own siblings, Bran is pleased to see that his crewmate gets to experience the same joy.

Sorry Zuko.]

I know Zuko! He lives on the Blue Fish, as our counselor!

[video : private]

[honorbends]

[ god dammit ]

Bran.

[ as gingerly as possible. he can't snap at a kid. ]

Don't tell her anything else about me, please.

[pyroelectric]

[As counselor? Now there's a hilarious thought. It's enough to make her laugh-- she almost does. As it is, there's the odd sound of a repressed laugh in her throat, but she quickly kills it.]

Did I hear you correctly?

I could've sworn I just heard you say that my dear brother is a counselor.

private; video

[effluent]

[Drama llama. The variety in these messages is astounding. Seems almost like everyone who knows this girl is eager to tell her absolutely nothing about Zuko. She doesn't know the politics of their world, and honestly she doesn't care. But this girl so far is one of the most interesting new arrivals in weeks. So she sets up a tight private communication channel--]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Princess. [she can play nice when she wants to, and funny enough she's in the same info-gathering head space right now]

My name is Sarah. You sound like you can handle yourself pretty well, but I'd be happy to help a princess get situated.

private; video

[pyroelectric]

[Hm. The private thing is new. She can only assume there's a reason. No matter-- it works to her advantage.

She can spot sucking up when she sees it, and it pleases her immensely. Finally, someone useful.]

Well, I never say no to new friends. Sarah, is it...?

[video]

[kyasdaughter]

Hi, Azula.

[ katara's expression is bland and her voice is absolutely flat. ]

Pleasure to have you aboard the Fleet with us.

[pyroelectric]

Ah. So the gangs all here, is it?

What's wrong? You seem terribly down. I remember you being more spirited.