Gumball Wishes and Taxicab Dreams

[thespaceopera]

[On today's episode of the Drift Fleet:

The cargo holds are full of mysterious crates! The crews are filling beyond capacity with new faces! Official alerts are informing the passengers that they are signed to contracts that they've never agreed to! They are docking at the dazzling FS Starlight, but are flat broke!

What are they going to do!? Stay tuned to find out!


...Meaning, this is a kickoff mingle for you all to enjoy the beginning of the latest plot setting. This is a convenient place to start threads relating to the first week of the event-- meeting new crewmembers, reacting to the mysterious cargo, arriving on the station and discovering that you're all broke, etc.

Tag around, start whatever you'd like, have fun. And, as always, feel free to make your own posts and mingles from here on in, as this will be the only mod-posted one for this event!]

Comments

[honorbends]

Not robust enough for whatever this idiot decided to do.

[ under his breath, and zuko reaches out to take the tickets back, leafing through them quickly with a frown. he didn't actually look at all the charges, but now that he is... ]

You get paid every week, so you'll have something soon -- not that we can get to anything, with the accounts being frozen.

[ what in the hell is soliciting? ]

[pyroelectric]

Oh Zuko. Obviously I'm not talking about my account.

Haven't you managed to earn any money since we've been here? It has been a whole week.

[honorbends]

[ -- no, he hasn't, because he's been dealing with azula's arrival, and attempting to find some sort of inner peace within himself to function as a normal human being. ]

I haven't had time.

[ which isn't necessarily a lie, but also not the entire truth, and zuko sighs to himself before the tickets burst into flames in his hands -- carefully contained, but soon withering to ash, and he dusts his palms off before crossing them over his chest. ]

What have you been doing for money?

[ he almost doesn't want to know ]

[pyroelectric]

[ Azula just smiles that little smile of hers. ]

Do you really want to know?

[honorbends]

Probably not.

[ which, were this zuko of a few years ago, would leave it at that. but as zuko is the one who's got the best chance of actually cooperating with azula while she's here, he continues. ]

But I'm going to ask anyway.

[pyroelectric]

[ She examines her nails, seemingly bored. ]

Very well. Since you asked: I'm rigging matches in the fighting pits and profiting off gambling idiots.

[ In more ways than one.

She doesn't seem at all concerned about the fact that they're right outside a police station. ]

1/2

[honorbends]

[ . . . . . . ]

[honorbends]

[ you know what

it could be worse. ]

Why not just win the matches yourself?

[ also -- there are fighting pits, which zuko honestly didn't know. zuko has mostly stuck to being outside and not wandering into dark alleyways. you never know when little sisters are lurking there. ]

It wouldn't be hard for you.

[pyroelectric]

Well, you're right about that.

But prize money from those things are a pittance. Why do you think there aren't any rich fighters? It isn't where the real money's at.

[honorbends]

Why would I know whether or not gambling is a good way to make money?

[ zuko is a horrendous liar, azula, though he knows she's just prodding him to prod him. ]

It's not like we've ever been short of it -- where are the fighting rings, anyway? Underground, or are they in back alleys?

[ zuko has spent most of his time in the park, meditating and trying to sort out his mess of a life. it's worked about as well as you expect. ]

[pyroelectric]

We've never needed money, no. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that everyone who works a service job or fights for a living is poor.

[And gambling is a terrible way to make money, Azula almost corrects him. A gambler always loses. The house always wins. Azula isn't a gambler. She's the house.

But if Zuko doesn't care enough to understand the difference, she isn't going to correct him. Blandly:]

There may be some in the back alleys, but the real action is in the Underground.

[honorbends]

[ he bites his tongue from the snippish that's not what i meant, but he lets it go with a slow exhalation through his nose. relax. ]

Makes you wonder what kind of people are dropped off here.

[ there's an awful lot of... well, thievery. and the casino probably doesn't help. ]

Or what the purpose of an Underground is, here. Though I guess it's a quick way to make money if you're a traveller.

[pyroelectric]

Really, Zuko, it's no different from any of the hundreds of sailing ports back home. The primary visitors are sailors, smugglers, and pirates. What did you think it was going to attract?

[honorbends]

I didn't spend much time at the sailing ports.

[ it's said dryly, glancing over at her, his tone a little shrewd.

no one would help him in exile. whenever zuko had to dock, he didn't speak to anyone. ]

And when I did, it wasn't to talk to pirates.

[pyroelectric]

Really now?

Because I heard an interesting tale from Admiral Zhao before his untimely demise about you and some pirates while you were in exile...

[honorbends]

[ there's a silence, at that. zhao. that was a name he hasn't heard in a long time, and he certainly hasn't dwelled on it. the exemplification of everything wrong with the fire nation, in his professional opinion, and a condescending asshole to boot. ]

He probably ran his mouth after I defeated him in an Agni Kai.

[ it's said finally, with a casual shrug, and zuko glances out at the ground. ]

He tended to make up stories whenever he was disappointed in himself. -- where are you heading after this?

[pyroelectric]

[Yes well, being Zhao, she imagines that was rather a lot. Though in this, she thinks he was telling the truth.

Neither of these she says to Zuko, however. Instead:]

I was planning to stop by a rather exclusive "party" on the upper levels. Apparently everyone important is going to be there.

Naturally, I have an invitation.

[Meaning, she probably bullied or coerced her way into getting an invitation.]

Why? Would you like to join me, brother?

[honorbends]

[ judging from the look on his face, the actual last thing he wants to do is be at a party with a bunch of strangers with azula for company, because zuko is pretty sure he outgrew that stage of his life when he was 12.

but -- keeping an eye on azula means keeping an eye on azula. and it would be a good opportunity to figure out better ways to make money on the station, and a potential good way to learn information about where they were. it could prove useful, in the long run, to talk to the natives here. it could provide a ticket out of here. or a way to at least unlock their damn bank accounts.

weighing it... weighing it... ]

Are you inviting me?

[ a bit flatly, because even zuko can't be bothered to pretend he'd be excited at the prospect of hanging out with his sister for that long. ]

[pyroelectric]

Of course.

Think of it as good practice for all those boring formal events you'll have to host once you're Fire Lord.

[honorbends]

[ once you're fire lord. ]

I'll go.

[ better to just ignore the first part, for now.

and he exhales slowly, continuing dryly: ]

But I'm not going to enjoy it.