{RL WITH VRISKA}

[bentflame]

Thanks to her trusty worldhopping feather, Azula showed up in Vriska's land less than a minute after hanging up from their conversation. She'd already been to Eridan's planet, but this one looked entirely different-- and while they were both impressive in their own right, she definitely liked the Land of Maps and Treasure better. The scenery (but not the architecture) reminded her a little bit of the outlying islands of the Fire Nation. The sky was also fascinating; she couldn't help but spend most of the time looking up at it.

Because most of it was ocean and she didn't have a boat, Azula couldn't really do much more than wait for Vriska to find her-- which probably wouldn't be too hard, as she was right outside the little island's only large, looming building (one of those "hives", maybe?).

Comments

[emberandash.livejournal.com]

"I would have been surprised of you were." Azula took her arm with her free hand, and off they went. Vriska might have felt a little funny in the split-second that they were between worlds, but that would be over quickly-- they appeared in front of a huge, ornate building that was still all lit up despite the late hour.

"The training grounds are through here," she explained, stepping through the door and holding it open behind her for Vriska. "They should be completely empty by now."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

Vriska looked around with approval. Trolls don't really go in much for form over function, but humans seemed to have a thing about decorating in line with importance. And since Azula mentioned a training ground, this must be a facility that has something to do with the military or warfare. If humans had decorated this building to this extent, that must mean that this culture attached due importance to warfare!

Hands in pockets, she stepped through the door, still eyeballing the scenery. "Oh, right. Humans do everything in daylight, don't they?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"Mostly. I stay up late a lot these days, though." She elected not to mention how big a roll insomnia played in that.

Azula led them quickly to the training area, which was as deserted as she'd assumed it would be. They were barely through the door when she immediately jumped into her demonstration.

She always liked describing firebending because she knew how impressive it sounded to people who had never met a fire user, but words couldn't hold a candle to the actual act. And Azula knew how physically talented she was, which meant that she didn't hold back from the fancy stuff-- double flips and complicated spins and conjuring large wheels of fire that she spun through the air. Showing off her lightning took a bit more control-- she had to stop moving entirely and take a few calming breaths before she could allow it to crackle out around her and into the air. And unlike the fire, she had to be a lot more careful about where she sent it-- she could damage something (or somebody; either Vriska or herself) if she wasn't careful.

After the lightning, she finished up her little show by shooting a large blast of fire toward the ground and rocketing herself into the air. She was proud of the height she could gain-- her record so far was twenty-six feet-- but she had no real way of bringing herself down safely from such a stunt, so she opted to land in a tree and look down at Vriska.

"That is firebending."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"That is badass!" Vriska had watched the display with delight; there wasn't anything remotely like that on her own world, and as much as she went on about using manipulation and trickery, she could appreciate a good fireball or twelve. She ran over to the foot of the tree, looking up at Azula with excitement. "You're like, probably the most dangerous person I know now!"

[emberandash.livejournal.com]

"That's a high compliment," Azula replied, turning to start climbing down the tree. She'd missed being "the most dangerous"-- it's what she was on her own world, sure, but the introduction of other worlds and other powerful fighters had pretty much blown that out of the water.

She glanced at Vriska over her shoulder, still climbing. "I'm interested in seeing what you can do, actully."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"Of course you are! Get down out of the tree, and I'll show you!" Vriska had already selected the tree for her target. What's an attack without a target?

[emberandash.livejournal.com]

Azula hopped down from the last branch and went to stand next to Vriska.

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"Stand back!"

Vriska took six of the Fluorite Octet out of her pocket; if her luck ran out in the middle of this, she could always say that she hadn't been fighting at full strength. She shook them in both hands and tossed them to the ground; luckily, the roll wasn't bad, 6-4-3-8-4-5. Ice claw.

Out of nowhere, the unlucky tree found itself pierced about six feet up by an icicle as wide around as an arm. Two more flew either side of the tree and shattered on the ground, knocking off no more than a few leaves. The tree can thank its lucky stars it's not very thick. Or it could, if it weren't a tree.

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Normally Azula was pretty disdainful of people who fought with just weapons-- even cool ones. She saw it as relying on something else to do your fighting for you. Still, in this case, she made an exception; she knew enough about Vriska to know that she was strong and skilled even on her own.

Plus, she liked her. People that Azula liked got plenty of concessions that most others didn't.

"... Impressive." She peered down at the dice on the ground. "Do those come from your sylladex too? Can they do other things?"

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"They're from my strife specibus! When they're equipped, I mean. And they can do any attack! All the attacks. See..." She bent down to pick up one die, and rolled it; it came up a 2, and a small water balloon made it about halfway to the tree before landing. "If you only use one or two dice, or you make a really shitty roll, you get really shitty attacks! But if you roll eight eights, you're basically unstoppable!"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"Can you control the rolls, or keep yourself from getting a bad score?" she asked. "Or is it all just chance?"

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"It's aaaaaaaall luck!" She gathered up her dice and put them back in her pocket. There wasn't really any reason to keep them actively equipped here, but she liked to be able to roll them around in her hand. "So I've been doing pretty goddamn dismal lately. I'll get my luck back, though, wait and see!"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"Is luck quantifiable in your world, or are you just being figurative?" Given the community, both were equally likely.

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"What a weird question!" Vriska laughed, as if Azula was being silly on purpose. Everyone knows luck can be transferred or stolen or gained, duhhhhhhhh! "So does everyone here firebend? Is there an army or something?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Azula took that to mean that her world's luck was indeed quantifiable, and decided to leave the subject alone (for now, at least). "The Vatican has an army, but there aren't firebenders. All of the other ones are on another world; the one I originally came from. I have an army there, too. When I'm done on this world, I'll return to that one-- to take it back."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"I guess you must like it there then, huh?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"It's my country," Azula replied. "I have a rightful claim to it, and if I don't go back and set things right, no one will."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

Hands shoved back in her pockets, Vriska kicked a stone idly across the training yard. "What's wrong with it? Or do you just mean getting your throne back?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"That, and the people who are 'running' it right now don't deserve it. They're keeping it from expanding and flourishing, and the entire world will suffer from it long-term. And beyond that, they're jerks."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"Good luck! I mean, if you think you can fix it, go for it, I guess."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"Thanks. I plan to; it's my duty."

She paused for a moment, then remembered something from earlier. "By the way, Tavros has asked me to tell you that he's sorry-- though I'm not sure why he couldn't tell you himself."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"It's because he's a little wuss!" All these other worlds had Vriska thinking about her own more and more lately, but she couldn't help but be a little glad that Azula hadn't asked her about her situation. It was hard to put into words these days. "What's he sorry for this time? I keep losing track!"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"I'm pretty sure it was that thing that was accidentally recorded over community journal a little while ago." Azula avoided stating flat-out which situation she meant-- she knew how embarrassing that sort of thing could be, and she could (sometime) be considerate when she tried to be. "He seems to think you might feel bad about it."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"What, that? Again? We already talked about that, on one of Karkat's retarded memos! I swear sometimes he gets so hung up on that angry leader crap he forgets the rest of us don't give a shit about reading ten thousand words of apoplectic rage fits just to get to whatever information he was trying to tell us... wow, what was I talking about again?"

She picked up another stone and threw it at the tree; it missed, so she pretended like she hadn't been aiming at anything much. "I don't feel bad! What is there to feel bad about?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"I don't know." She tossed a rock herself, just for something to do, and hit the tree. Years of firebending had given her good aim. "He seemed a little confused about it all. I wasn't sure if you liked him or not."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"Well, yeah! I mean, I guess. He sure does piss me off, though!" Vriska wasn't embarrassed to talk about this with Azula, because everything was clearly Tavros's fault forever. "I keep trying to make him stronger, and he keeps wimping out!"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"I can see how that would be irritating," she said carefully. And she did. Weak people were annoying sometimes, but weak people who didn't even try were worse. Vriska's methods may have been extreme-- maybe even for Azula-- but she understood them. "Maybe he doesn't want to get stronger. Though considering your society that seems a little silly."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"I know, right? Weak people die pretty quickly where I'm from. Some people are so ungrateful!"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Though she did like Tavros, Azula still did have to agree with Vriska there. So what if her methods had been unorthodox? They were probably normal for trolls, anyway. "I wonder why he didn't realize that you were just helping. Given what you've said it seems like it'd be pretty obvious."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"It's because he's a loser!" Vriska stretched her arms over her head-- well, her arm. Even if the robot arm could move, she couldn't feel anything with it, and it never got stiff; but it would look pretty fucking stupid to stretch only one arm. "He just wants to pretend he's some kind of Pupa Pan hero or whatever, and doesn't even notice that I could make him a real hero!"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Azula threw another rock at the tree; another perfect hit. "Is that why he wants to avoid you? Because he doesn't like the truths you tell him?"

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"It's probably because I made him jump off a cliff! Some people just can't get over stuff, you know?" Shrug! Vriska threw another rock because Azula is and Azula is cool and... she hits some leaves. Bitches.

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[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"You could explain why you did it. It worked for me." She aimed her own rock higher this time. "... Well. Sort of, anyway."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"He wouldn't get it." Shoving her hands back in her pockets, tired of these stupid rocks that keep missing, she looked towards the Vatican itself, staring up at the towers. "He's had a pretty cushy life, you know!"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"I do know." She paused for a moment, thinking. "That's a good point, actually. People who grew up like that never get it."

[h8ers_gonna_h8]

"That's why they need people like us to whip them into shape, right????????"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Azula leaned against the tree, idly tossing a rock into the air and catching it. "Exactly. In some cases it isn't worth it, though. They can end up causing trouble for you in the end."