Day 285 [open]

[fireburn]

Who: Azula & anyone
Open: Open
When: Day 285
Where: Northern Bastion
What: Azula arrives in Bastion.
Format: bracket-action but happy to match
Warnings: n/a for now.

[Azula was angry. Whether or she actually believed that her world had been destroyed, blah blah blah was a different question entirely. It all sounded crazy (this whole world sounded crazy - maybe it was all just one giant hallucination and that's a terrifying thought), but more importantly she had better things to do. If this was some kind of spirit-world shenanigan, she wanted no part in it. She had been in the middle of something important, damn it.

Which is why, naturally, she gets herself quickly and fairly easily from the Skyway to Bastion. If anyone was capable of figuring it out, it was her. And when she's on a mission to get to the bottom of something, that drive can move mountains.

When she questions the person who told her about this "calamity" she doesn't get answers she wants and sets a tree on fire in retribution, but the action is...oddly taxing? And for the first time in her career she actually feels like it's difficult to firebend which angers her more, RIP patches of grass.

Since all of that is clearly getting her nowhere she proceeds to go question anyone who is around in the most tactful and personable way possible:]

You there! Tell me what is going on here immediately.

Comments

[daughterofursa]

[Not that Zuko has ever been good at predicting her sister's actions, but that wasn't what she was expecting.

She's not even sure what the not-quite-question means. Azula isn't someone who'd be confused by a change of wardrobe, and there isn't much else different about Zuko from the last time they met.

Or is there? When Toph came, she wasn't the Toph that Zuko remembered.]

What do you mean?

[fireburn]

[Azula stares incredulously for a moment. For all that Zuko could be infuriating, he had never been this obtuse. Surely there was some logical explanation for this (no there wasn't) and switching tactics might just help.

In almost too sweet a tone, she changes her line of questioning, playing along with this stupid world and its stupid surprises.]

How long have you been here, br--sister dearest?

[daughterofursa]

[That tone just makes Zuko narrow her eyes, though that's not enough of a slip for her to reach the "brother" conclusion. It's.. really not a conclusion someone would easily reach.]

...

Almost four months. Since Sozin's Comet. Are you going to tell me you don't remember that?

[And the part where you almost killed her and then went kind of crazy? But if Azula really doesn't remember, it might explain why she's even bothering to talk.]

[fireburn]

Don't be silly. Sozin's Comet hasn't come yet, and certainly four months haven't passed since then. It isn't like you to make up things.

[tbh zuko should probably keep the rest of the story to herself.]

[daughterofursa]

[It isn't like her to change genders either but okay.]

That's because I'm not.

Stranger things have happened here than people coming from different times.

[Especially in light of the recent time travel revelations.]

[fireburn]

Stranger things like what? Brothers suddenly becoming sisters?

[daughterofursa]

[Well, that's a weird example to bring up.]

Actually, that has happened. It's like... different versions of the same person?

[fireburn]

[that went straight over her head wow]

Great.

[daughterofursa]

[...

Wait.]

...why do you ask that?

[fireburn]

No reason.

[lesson number one about tactics: being information ahead is never a bad thing.]

[daughterofursa]

[Hm.]

What is the last thing you remember anyway?

[She's still trying to figure out why Azula isn't, y'know, attacking her. Could she actually think they're allies?]

[fireburn]

I was on my way to pick you up from Boiling Rock. I don't know what got into your head running out on us like that, but maybe if you ask nicely father will let you come back.

[no he won't. and she was probably going to kill you but lets go with allies]

[daughterofursa]

No, he wouldn't.

[At least Zuko's finally got that one down.]

I know you wouldn't understand, but I left for the good of the Fire Nation. Not that it matters now.

[Baby dragon is getting antsy inside Zuko's shirt. How long does she have to stay in here? Azula will probably notice some strange movement under there as the dragon crawls around and up Zuko's back in search of the way out. Also a change in Zuko's expression because hello tiny claws.]

[fireburn]

Why would you --

[it's a little hard not to notice a tiny baby dragon and that is suddenly way more important here.]

What is that?

[daughterofursa]

It's nothing!

[Yeah, that is totally not a baby dragon head poking out of the back of her shirt beneath her hair. Zuko tries to nudge it back down with her hand.]

[fireburn]

It is clearly not nothing.

[daughterofursa]

[Baby dragon nips Zuko's fingers and pushes her way to freedom! At least as much as sitting on Zuko's shoulder is freedom.

Yeah, she can't really insist this is nothing anymore.]

Don't even think about hurting her.

[fireburn]

[dragon hunting is a great sport, but...]

What good what I get from hurting a baby dragon?

[it's better to kill them when they're big!! more xp!]

Where did you get that, anyway?

[daughterofursa]

I don't know, the same kind you get from scaring the turtle ducks?

[Unlike Zuko, animal cruelty is aboslutely on Azula's lifetime of evil list.]

Does it matter where I got her?

[Okay, someone else will probably unwittingly explain the Monument and shards to Azula, but Zuko doesn't want to be the one to do it. Who knows what sorts of things she'll make?]

[fireburn]

I'll figure it out one way or another. But you do realize it's more suspicious when you say nothing, don't you?

[daughterofursa]

I don't care.

And don't do anything when you meet Paarthurnax either. You'd turn the whole Bastion against you. [...why is she giving Azula advice.]

[fireburn]

Paarthurnax? Is he a dragon too?

[daughterofursa]

Yes. One who's thousands of years old. He could teach you a few things, if you listened.

[fireburn]

Maybe I will listen to what he has to say, then!

[or maybe not who knows]

[daughterofursa]

Will you really?

What do you plan on doing, now that you're here?