trans_9 | Open Hours [open]

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Open Hours [open]

Hiccup was seated in his forge, the fire was turned off to keep things cool and more comfortable, and various plans for machines and weapons and other interesting gadgets scribbled on parchment and pinned up to a cork board. Candles procured from Orongo were lit around the room, though the wide windows let a light of light in, creating a comfortable workspace. Right now, he was sketching out the intricate designs for...something. It may have been designs meant to go on an axe. Perhaps.

After putting out his omnicomm message, he waited to see if anyone had something to say.

"Here goes nothing, bud," he said, the "bud" tacked on out of old habit, before his eyes widened slightly as he was reminded by the following silence, once again, that a certain dragon wasn't there to listen like he usually was.

That was okay, though. He was going to keep busy. Throw himself into doing the best he could to help the crew. Not that it took much more than a few fish to earn the dragon's love and affection, but Toothless would be proud of him when he finally woke up again. His father would be too.

And you know what? If he did this right, and helped people that deserved helping, deserved someone else working towards their best interests, he could be proud of himself.

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Azula felt her heart flutter slightly as the forge drew into sight. She finallly felt as though she were accomplishing something other then spinning her wheels trying to stabilize what was left of her strength.

Upon learning how the comm system worked she dedicated herself to learning about those who used it frequently. It was through their words she would find ways to overcome them in time. They were all just pieces on a Pai Sho board.

And this piece...he was very important. Already she began forming ideas of who he was from his words. Idealistic obviously. A strong sense of responsibility.

And most importantly, friends with her brother.

So far she had done well to avoid the others from her world (Or perhaps they were avoiding her, she had yet to figure that out) but she knew the time would come soon when she would have to face them.

So learning about their allies was essential.

She took one last moment to adjust her robe in the reflection of a window. She had requested a comfortable dress robe be made, something that made her feel like a princess again but still functional. She couldn't fight in it very well but it was easily shed of needed.

Her hair was finally starting to even out once more, though had to be pulled back to achieve any sort of manageable form.

When she was satisfied with her appearance she approached the forge, the familiar scents drew her back to the machines of her homeland.

Taking one last breath in she exhaled slowly and noted with some pleasure that her voices had fallen silent for the moment, as if they too were anticipating this conversation. Finally, she knocked.

"Door's unlocked. Come on in," Hiccup said in friendly tones.

Azula entered quietly and shut the door behind her "Good day Counciler. I do hope I haven't caught you at a bad time." Being polite was a habit she had to work herself back into, but once learned skills were never truly lost.

Hiccup nearly shat out his heart when he saw her. He froze where he sat, a clear sign that he'd been warned about her.

His comm-ring, he had his comm-ring, didn't he? He promised Zuko he'd keep his comm-ring with him--and he had kept it.

But he'd taken it off while working with some of his tools and it was on his work table across the room. Azula was in front of the door. Any attempt at bolting could easily be intercepted by her.

"Actually--"

It'd be too suspicious if he just outright bustled out the door. He had to make sure he didn't set her off.

"Actually, I only have a few minutes before--before I promised someone I'd go look at one of their projects, but until then, you have my undivided attention."

Don't talk to her, Zuko had said, but what he hadn't said was exactly what to do if he was pinned down in a room with her.

He had to try to talk his way through this, and figure out a way to run for it, without just...running. It was a little hard to outrun, you know, fire being shot at you.

Azula tipped her head in a half nod, "I see you recognize me. Good, that should save us time since you're so...busy." The voice she used said she didn't believe him.

"I simply wished to hear your thoughts on the future for our crew, now that you are in office."

"Right. Right."

He swallowed thickly. "Obviously, we need to have more cohesion, and less infighting, and I have a few ideas on ways the Council can communicate with the crew to help with that and include them more in the legislative process. Open meetings, regular hours--and Zetta had the idea for communal projects to put people to work setting up things we need, but to also get them more used to working together than bickering."

Please go awaaay, Azula.

"Hmm." Her lip curled slightly in a sneer. It sounded like he planned to turn the crew into something akin to how the Water peasants ran things in their tribes, but even they hailed to a chief.

Savoring how uncomfortable she was making him she moved closer keeping her hands together in her sleeves. "And if the crew doesn't like the choices your Council makes and comes to these meetings, how will it be handled?"

He sat back in his chair slightly, almost unconsciously.

"I--I was thinking we should maybe set up an appeals process, just so people have--have the option of overthrowing a Council decision if it's somehow misguided or unfair." He licked his lips slightly. "Or unwise."

That might have been a shot directed at the decision to let her go free. Maybe.

Because he was clearly an idiot.

She took another graceful step forward, like a predator sizing up her next meal, her eyes never leaving his with a far away look like she was seeing right through him.

"Unwise decisions? Surely the people that the unwashed masses elected to lead them don't do that often do they?"

"There are...some. That they've made."

"How unfortunate." She adjusted her stance looking down on him, "But at least not all the leaders on this ship were picked by the majority. Some were just lucky. That should count for something."

"Yeah, hopefully they can do some good."

His eyes scanned round the room.

"Welp, time's up. There's that, y'know, project. Agricultural thing. We can always chat some other time," Hiccup said, standing up.

"You seem tense." She pointed out the obvious leaning closer, "Surely you don't get so flustered every time someone comes to speak with you? You'll make a terrible leader if this is how you respond to a little questioning."

Okay, he was done with the little fake nicey-nice talk now.

"I'd be a lot less tense if I wasn't talking to the person who set my friend on fire."

"I see..." Slowly she turned away, "I had hoped that perhaps...but no. I was right after all. There really is no chance to put things behind me."

"Some people just need to stop trying to be what their not."

"You really shouldn't even bother with the act."

This was possibly going to get him killed, but he honestly did not know how to do this, deal in deception, play along with deception. He did not not know how to be something other than blunt, because even if he wasn't the best Viking, he was still a Viking and Vikings didn't play head games, they just headbutted things with their heads.

"I think you severely underestimate your brother's ability to make friends that are good judges of character. The problem is, to pull off what you're trying to pull off, you have to do more than pretend to be a little wilting violet. You also have to paint him as a liar, as the aggressor, as someone that bends the truth, as someone who can't forgive or have compassion, and that's something you can't ever make me buy."

Suddenly, he didn't seem so afraid anymore. It wasn't that he'd stopped being afraid, it was that it just didn't matter so much. In fact, he sat down again, and looked distinctly...annoyed that she was wasting his time.

"You also aren't the first person that's walked into my forge pretending to be be something they aren't to get something they want."

Edited 2011-06-18 10:08 (UTC)

She was silent while he spoke, with her face away from him she rolled her eyes while the voices in her head laughed at her, mocked her.

Lost your touch Azula?

Look at him, all puffed up and proud.

So much for the Fire Nation's greatest tactician.

"If I honestly thought any of those things about my brother maybe I would have tried to tell you that, but it would be a lie. He doesn't need to lie about what I am, everyone knows. And yet for some reason the Monster was set free. Walking among the commoners like a real girl. Like she isn't the kind of horrible creature that would try to murder her older brother when his back is turned."

When she turned to face him her eyes were empty, she looked suddenly so much less elegant and regal and all the more like the walking dead, "Say what you will about my brother, but he's a terrible liar."

"But that doesn't make him right, just truthful."

"What exactly is he wrong about?"

"Letting me live." An excellent point, and she was less then a foot away from him again,

"Avoiding me when he needs to take responsibility for his little sister."

And for a brief moment her eyes focused on Hiccup's, there was fire in them not unlike looking directly into a forge.

"Leaving me alone with people who are important to him..."

Maybe a year ago, he'd have cowered. He'd have shrunk back in on himself, been stuttery and meek and nervous. He'd have been Hiccup the useless, the meek, the weak.

But he'd seen uglier things staring him in the eyes since then. Things that were (marginally) more predatory.

"And there it is. I was wondering when that would come."

He leaned forward, and stared back.

"Do you want to know where you're wrong? If you were ever any good at this at all, you seem to have lost your tough--I think you don't quite see it."

Don't you want to know, Azula?

Her stance relaxed and her eyes unfocused again, "No, but do go on."

This would be rich.

"Mistake number one: making threats you don't immediately follow up on. If you ever had any chance at all of convincing me you wanted to change, or there was good inside you, or anything like that, you just blew it. Now you have a Council member set against you."

He looked back to his sketch.

"Mistake number two: If you do intend to follow up on that--not bringing anything but your fire to an assassination--which is what it would be, by the way, given I'm a member of the Council. Charred corpse--who do you think they'll think did it? Even all my weapons are at the other forge. There's just you me, your fire, and your bare hands."

He turned back to her.

"Have you ever heard of 'forensics'? Interesting stuff. You should read up on it sometime. Although, the media library doesn't even cover half the things they can detect with machines and things. To figure out who did a crime, and when, and exactly how they did it."

He grinned a little grin.

"And then there's mistake number three: Not doing your research."

His voice went low.

"You don't know who I am. Not yet. There's too much that isn't on the omnicoms. You don't know who I know, you don't know who my allies are, what kind of people they are, and what they'd do to someone if something happened to me."

He clicked his tongue.

"Unless you discover a way to, say, commit a crime with it being completely undetectable to modern science, don't make threats. It just makes you look...mildly suicidal."

She listened carefully and smiled, a warm sickly sort of smile.

"But Councilor you forget, I'm crazy. And Crazy people make foolish mistakes every day."

But she didn't approach, instead she just chuckled, "Oh dear, my attempt to threaten and intimidate someone in a position of power failed. I suppose I'll just have to go into hiding forever and never ever bother Zuko again." She laughed much harder this time, harder then any joke deserved though she had said nothing remotely funny.

And then she stopped sharply and gaze him an accusing glare from through her eyes, "You're not laughing. If you were as smart as you act you'd have gotten the joke."

She shook her head side to side, "Can't make him like me, no hope of that. Just another person in power who leads with his heart. We'll all die sooner or later." A childish giggle, "Killed by a heart, that doesn't even make sense."

Azula herself, was not making much sense.

"So if you don't fear, me, don't trust me, don't want me helping the crew...just how are you going to take care of me? Councilor?"

She smiled at him again through the bangs that hung over her eyes, "Perhaps you'll call your friend the dragon. I would love to meet another one. Oh...but you can't call him anymore. That's OK though, you must have many many more allies, all briefed by Zuko about his crazy sister. The one no one's afraid of anymore, but for some reason we'd all rather she be locked away."

Suddenly she was very much interested in the empty forge behind him watching it like one would watch the clouds go by.

"I'm sure Astrid would be more then happy to take care of things for you Councilor, would you like to call her? I'll wait."

"Are you done yet? With your whole...psycho, crazy act intimidation thing? Whatever it is you're doing? I have actual work to do."

She chuckled again, breathing heavy to catch her breath, she'd gotten rather worked up. "You might want to reconsider your open door policy "Councilor" (This last word she said with mirth as if the title was a joke.)

She opened the door to let herself out, "But you really were very helpful. Say hello to Zuzu for me."

And with a gentle click she closed the door behind her.

Sweat beaded on her forehead but she was surprisingly calm as she walked away. Whatever she thought that had accomplished left her...very pleased indeed. In fact she was humming an old national pride song.

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i-saw-myself.livejournal.com - 2011-06-18 11:26 (UTC) - Expand

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