{RL WITH ARADIA}

[bentflame]

A little while after finishing her text conversation with Aradia, Azula hopped on over to the Land of Quartz and Melody to pick up Aradia for another movie night. She wasn't in any particular hurry, so she just started to walk around a bit, figuring she'd run into the robot girl sooner or later.

Comments

[deathfangirl]

Aradia shrugged. "I'm not scared of her, and she killed me," she said. "It's not about fear. Anyway, you can talk to her all you like. But if I think she decides to use you in one of her schemes, I won't hesitate to protect you."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"I doubt I'd need to be protected. I'm good at taking care of myself. I'm also good at not being manipulated."

[deathfangirl]

"I know you can take care of yourself, Azula," Aradia said cheerfully. "But it's still my job to protect you, and you to protect me. So I will."

[emberandash.livejournal.com]

Azula leaned her head back, her eyes on the screen (even though they were still talking. "I really do get how she operates. And I don't think she'll try anything."

[deathfangirl]

Aradia turned back to watch the movie again, though she was also paying attention to the conversation. "I get how she operates, too. Which is why I'm not worried right now."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"All right, then." She almost felt like asking Aradia when she would be worried, but (for once in her life) she was more interested in watching the film than in being pushy.

[deathfangirl]

Aradia would be worried if Vriska ever discovered something about Azula that made killing or hurting her make sense. But for now, she wasn't anticipating that happening, so she focused on the movie and relaxed.

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Azula watched for a little while, then spoke up again. "What's wrong with Equius, anyway? I asked if you were annoyed by me talking to Vriska, and you said you weren't because you're not Equius."

[deathfangirl]

"Equius is a jerk," Aradia said, frowning. He still made her so mad, even if he was being sweet all the time. She was sure it was just because he still wanted to manipulate her into being his little smoochbot.

"He is very overbearing of his moirail, Nepeta. I know she can take care of herself, but he will try to decide who she gets to talk to, and what she can do. He wouldn't let her FLARP with us, for example, because he thought it was stupid." Though in retrospect, that was, perhaps, a smart decision.

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Azula listened, considering. "Hm. Interesting. When I spoke to him he just seemed a little uptight."

[deathfangirl]

Aradia grunted. "He's very uptight and controlling. And he thinks he's better than everyone because of his stupid blood."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"... You sound angrier about her than about Vriska."

[deathfangirl]

If robots could blush, Aradia would be blushing now. "I hate him," she admitted. "Um, possibly in a romantic way."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"So that black romance thing?" Azula asked.

[deathfangirl]

Aradia nodded shyly. "That's right... But it's complicated, because while he is flushed for me, it seems like his own feelings are definitely red."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"It's annoying when jerks have crushes on you."

[deathfangirl]

"Really annoying!" Aradia agreed, grinning. "Do you have that problem, too?" The only person she really knew had a crush on Azula was Tavros, and he was definitely not a jerk. But she could mean Eridan, or someone else entirely.

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"It was a while ago," she replied. "He started hating and avoiding me when he realized that I wasn't interested in going out with someone who thought I was both a bad leader and his damsel in distress." Even though she hadn't talked to him in a while, she still sounded fairly annoyed.

[deathfangirl]

"Ugh, that's so typical!" Aradia growled, snuggling in a little. "Equius tried to force me to be his little smoochbot, like I'm going to be so grateful that he gave me blue blood instead of my inferior red blood I had before, that I'll fall all over him. Who's this jerk that's gone black for you, now?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"That's pretty creepy," Azula agreed. "And he's just a kid from another world. When he used to talk to me, he'd alternate between pleasant and actually fairly nice, and being an insulting, entitled jerk. And then he had the gall to act like he'd never done anything to me. When I gave him examples, he tried to pass them off as jokes-- even though they clearly weren't." It was nice to have someone besides Cuddy to rant to about this sort of thing. She could talk to Lilith about plenty of things, but when it came to complaining about people, she was such a peacekeeper that she'd just gently try to get Azula to see the other side of the story, too. And no matter how valid that course of action might have been, Azula didn't like to think about the reasons behind the bad actions of most other people (even though, of course, she expected everyone to do the same for her). She was content with just calling them jerks and being done with it.

[deathfangirl]

Aradia nodded along to this, making sympathetic noises. He sounded like a typical troll, to her, so she was more than acquainted with the problem. "Is he on the community, still?" she asked, wanting to keep an eye on this jerk if he was still around.

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"Oh, he's around-- making lots of friends and pretending to be nice," Azula huffed. "And maybe he is genuinely nice to some people. You can be nice sometimes and still be a jerk."

[deathfangirl]

"You can definitely be nice and a jerk at the same time. Most trolls are like that. What's his name?" Aradia asked casually, watching the movie screen. A good part was coming up.

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Azula hesitated for a moment. Maybe Aradia would talk to him and decide that he was just so nice and gentlemanly, and that any problem he had with Azula was clearly her own fault. Maybe he'd tell her lies and exaggerations about what had happened between them-- or maybe he'd tell her the truth, but twist it and leave out everything bad that he'd done. Or maybe he'd--

... On second thought, Azula wasn't sure why she should care, so she decided to force herself not to.

"Larsa Solidor. I could show you some of the ridiculous things he's said sometime; they're mostly all public." She was careful to sound casual, and not at all desperate to have someone unequivocally on her side.

[deathfangirl]

"Hmm, don't know him," Aradia said. She sensed Azula's hesitation, and gave her a squeeze around her waist. She didn't want to know who he was so she could second-guess Azula's feelings. She wanted to know so she could keep an eye on someone who'd hurt her moirail. "If you want to show me, you can," she added with a gentle smile. "But I don't need proof."