towerofanimus | (no subject)

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Characters: 24 year old Azula, and -- you
Setting: Cafeteria, Dorms, Art Gallery
Format: Prose or whatever you like
Summary: Just a day in the life of a 20-something Fire Nation princess
Warnings: Azula can still be creepy

Today seemed quite strange in the Tower. It was still the same place, but somehow changed, like coming home after too many years at sea. Azula brushed it off as feeling out of sorts, and went about her day like she had the past ten years. Breakfast first, then tea with Iroh, then she would study her copious amounts of information she had gathered over the years to see if she could find a way out. Then training. She had kept herself very busy, trying to focus on her goals and ignore the monthly experiments she sometimes got caught up in.

Today, at breakfast, she stared at her plate and pushed the eggs around, not feeling particularly hungry. It had been ten years. Maybe that routine needed shaken up a bit. Frustrated, she dropped the utensil and rubbed her face, letting out a soft sigh.

The old Azula would have scoffed and called her a baby, maybe even told her to get a grip on herself and just burn down the whole Tower. The old Azula hadn't been through the things she had, though, and definitely couldn't style her own hair.

Balancing a tray on her hip, she walked out of the elevator and sought out Iroh's room. He was her only family in the Tower, it was important to spend time together, even if she didn't agree with him all the time.

"Uncle?" She knocked in her usual forceful manner, growing a bit impatient. "Uncle. I have tea."

Wandering into the art floor, she decided to skip that study session. It wasn't anything she hadn't seen a thousand times before, and getting a change of pace was nice. Especially when she discovered the Fire Nation section when she walked deeper in to the gallery. Familiar and famous paintings adorned the walls, including some old family portraits. And then there were the Fire Lord tapestries.

She stopped and looked up at them, thinking of all the things Tahno had told her. These tapestries stopped at Ozai, no hint of the future she would have had back in the Fire Nation. She wondered what her own Fire Lord tapestry would look like, another birthright taken from her when she appeared in this terrible place.

"Fire Lord Azula..." She murmured, just to hear how it sounded. Zuko had been the Fire Lord after their father.

Anger darkened her expression, and she tried to set the tapestry on fire with a gush of blue flame. She had tried so hard to please him, to be the best daughter she could, and in the end he had betrayed her and left her alone.

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Tohko sighed as she wandered into the Cafeteria. Normal food had no taste to her, but she had to keep up appearances so that no one would manage to find out her secret. It would also give her a good opportunity to think and relax. However, as she wandered in she noticed Azula rubbing her face at the table. At least..it would be Azula if Azula had aged a few years. So, she was part of the experiment too. Again, Tohko sighed and smiled at Azula.

"Good morning, Azula. Are you feeling alright? You don't look well."

Giving another sigh, Azula looked up and tried to smile. After all this time, Tohko seemed like her best friend, purely out of persistence.

"I'm perfectly fine. I was just thinking this breakfast has to be the most boring breakfast in the entire multiverse." Azula definitely seemed different, not the least of which was her sudden figure and expertly mended and altered outfit. "They could have at least given us coffee this month."

Tohko often gave false or half-true smiles, so she recognized that Azula's wasn't in the best of shape. In response, she patted Azula on the head and chuckled.

"Well, at least the food here is better than it was last month. Eggs and other things are much better than just nutrition bars and water. I'm sorry that you can't get coffee this month though. Hopefully you'll get it next month though."

Iroh was very old now, he'd lived a long time. Still, he was strong enough to make tea and to go get his collar seen to. But, he also spent a lot of time in bed resting. In the end, he was a man in his 70s and had been in this place for awhile. At the very least he had Azula here. She'd grown into quite the woman under his eyes and he was pleased to hear her voice.

"Azula. Come on in."

Sighing a bit with relief when he answered, she brought the tray in and set it on his trunk.

"I brought jasmine, and that mix of herbs I told you about. I thought you might like to try it."

Kneeling, she started to prepare the water, using a bit of bending to heat it. The cups she unstacked and set side by side, warming them as well to avoid cracks from the temperature change. They were ones she had made herself in the workshop and glazed, and she was always rather proud of them.

"How are you feeling, Uncle?"

Nutrition bars? Azula frowned, trying to make sense of that because last month hadn't been nutrition bars, but she brushed it off after a moment. She was more concerned with the pat on the head, trying to hold back the itch to grab Tohko's hand.

"It's not that important." She gave Tohko a calculating look now, trying to figure out what was off.

"Maybe not..but not having a meal that you've been craving for awhile can be terrible sometimes, so I hope you can find a cup soon."

If Azula was trying to figure out what was off, she may also notice that Tohko's right arm was in a sling, broken. That may not be how she remembered it.

"Oh, by the way..Azula, only a month has passed since I was blind in here in December. If you remember that, can you tell me how much time you think has passed?"

"Tohko," the princess spoke with an exasperated tone, her eyebrows scrunching together, "not in the morning. I'll talk all you want later about last month, just later."

Mitchell for one was having a blast as he walked through the different art galleries. How could he not? Sure he wasn't much of an art person, but he did enjoy seeing what so many people had made from their own perspectives. Sometimes looking over what another person had created could be quite the eye opener into how that particular person thought. The current section that he found himself in was no different.

That is, if you didn't count the angry woman currently attempting to burn down a tapestry.

"You know arson is very much illegal."

Hearing the voice, Azula whirled, trailing flames and took up a ready stance. Blue flame came off of her fingers, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

She didn't say anything, just watched him and tried to make sense of his words. If he was a perceptive type, he might notice she bore a resemblance to the man depicted on the tapestry that was still smoldering.

Tohko sighed and scratched her head.

"Sorry..everyone else thinks that different amounts of time have passed, for some reason, so I wanted to see how much time you thought had passed."

He showed some mild interest in her control of, what he believed to be, a form of that mature, but nothing else. It was the same story with the portraits as well. He did notice the similarities and came to the likely conclusion that the two were relatives, perhaps father and daughter based on the age differences.

He wasn't going to readily comment on them either, not yet anyway. Perhaps after he finds out more about her. But for now he silently gazed at her to see if she would make some sort of retort. If not then he would find a way to get a response out of her.

When he didn't make any move, Azula chose to ignore him and turned back to the tapestry, giving it one good blast of blue fire that instantly disintegrated it.

Feeling quite pleased with herself, she extinguished her fire and dropped her stance, but not her alertness, and turned back to look at him as if daring him to do something about it.

Unfortunately for her, the tapestry appeared back on the wall when nobody was looking at it.

"...What did that make you feel like a big girl?" He couldn't help but say that, as she looked far to pleased with herself for destroying the rug. Not that it seemed to matter much, since in just a few moments later the thing had been restored.

Curious, perhaps he should look into that. Perhaps it used a similar style to how he had been resurrected. If so then that would be more than worthy to look into.

She merely raised an eyebrow at him, that daring expression still on her face. From the look of him he was younger than she was. "What I do and how I do it is none of your business. You must be new here, otherwise you'd know that nothing is 'illegal' unless the drones stop you." Azula stated, quite matter-of-fact.

That was when she looked back at the "tattered remains" of the tapestry and sighed, as if she wasn't really surprised by its continued existence.

"Obviously you have never heard of teasing before." But it was good to know that some people here were on the know, even if it seemed to be small facts. though as far as he was concerned he couldn't care less about the small facts. He had much bigger fish to fry. Such as the fact that the art work seems to be able to reappear after being destroyed.

"So does the big girl have a name?" As much as he couldn't really find it in himself to care about her, he did have to admit that names are important.

After so many years in the Tower, Azula had a good grasp of herself and her temper. She decided to let most of go, but this boy needed a lesson. "You'll find I react better to good manners. It's very uncivilized asking a young woman her name in that manner. Try it again."

"I did notice something strange about the Tower lately." She was getting a slight headache behind her eye, so she took a drink of her water. "I think I'm just going to go home today."

Tohko sighed at that. "What do you mean by that? There's no way out of this Tower that leads back home that anyone knows of..but you are right about something strange going on. People think that twenty years have passed by, others say a thousand, some can't remember..not many seem to remember that only a month has passed since the flu experiment."

That had Azula's attention. Obviously poor Tohko was suffering from some sort of experiment. She reached up and patted Tohko's head. "I just meant back to my room, Tohko. Don't strain yourself."

Tohko rarely recieved pats on the head, so she usually didn't mind them..but not in this case. She felt like the was being called a liar and a fool behind her back. She sighed again..and looked a little annoyed.

"Alright then..but I'm not lying about the time differences! Legolas says he's been here a thousand years, Waver Velvet says he's been here about twenty, Kidou says he's been here about ten years, and the two Lancers here can't remember how much time has passed..just that it's been a long amount of it. They all have memories to go with that, and their appearances have also changed. Kidou even got a wedding ring. And you look like ten years have passed. So that's why I'm asking. Don't make me sound like an idiot."

Azula was starting to feel a little sorry for Tohko. "Of course you aren't, Tohko. I didn't say anything about it." She still had her knack for lying, only she was better at it. Much better. "I wouldn't worry too much unless they're causing problems. These things have a way of going back to normal." After ten years in the Tower, that seemed to be the one big constant. After the period of weird, it'd go back like nothing had happened. "You can tease them later."

Now he gave her an amused look. Just where did that temper of hers go? Perhaps she was just as amused at him as he was of her? Or maybe it was just that he had caught her full attention. Whatever the case, he wasn't about to kowtow to her demands. "And you will find that I only use manners towards people who deserve it. After that little tantrum of yours, princess, I don't think you deserve it." It was rather uncivilized of her to trow a fit in public, after all.

"Even if you don't tell me I'll still find out."

Azula never threw fits, even when she was a child. She merely got even. Burning the tapestry was a calculated risk. At least he had the princess part right.

"Then do without. I don't remember asking you to join me in the first place."

He considers burning a work of art throwing a fit. But to each their own, he supposed. "Like I said I will find it out eventually." He's eyes turned back to the tapestry, ignoring the last sentence. "So why burn the portrait of a relative?" Because that was the main question that he wanted to ask her. Even if it was most likely personal, he was more than willing to drag the answer out of her. Most preferably without too much kicking and screaming.

He already has a migraine from the tower itself, no need to add to the pain.

She laughed softly, finding his question amusing. "Like I just said, you'll have to do without. I don't talk to people without formal introductions. I do still have a sense of propriety, even if the rest of the people in the Tower doesn't."

"Propriety fades away in the face of necessity. Doubly so when the one asking the question will continue to ask them until a valid answer is given." All of your secrets are belong to him, he is the All-Seeing-Eye after all. "But I'm glad you found the question so amusing." He wasn't entirely certain how long she would find it amusing, though.

"No. I don't think so." The boy was still amusing. He really thought he could get answers out of her? Ten years in the Tower, honing her skills, and she had ways of disappearing into places others would be afraid to go. She was a Master, after all, of blue fire and lightning.

"What you think and what is true are two different things." Yes, yes he could get the answers that he wants out of her. The thing was that he couldn't use the usual methods, he would have to get her to tell him willingly. Besides he wasn't afraid to follow her into those said places. It was a part of his job back home to go to worse.

"If that's true, make me." Just smiling, she started to walk away, again daring him to do something about it. The gallery was large, and easy to get lost in.

Besides, all she had to do was get on the stair case and go to the more dangerous floors if he got really annoying.

That didn't make Tohko any less annoyed. "You may not have said anything about it, but I can read behind the lines sometimes!" She was a book girl. Sometimes she could pull this off. Other times, she failed though.

"And I'm going to worry if my friends think that a long amount of time has passed. After all, that's going to hurt and affect them in some ways. I imagine being stuck in this Tower with experiments and thinking that you've faced it all for a thousand years would break almost anyone. Immortality is a tough enough curse on it's own without all that. And why would I want to tease them later?!"

True to his word, he began to follow after her. It would take much more to get rid of him. "Now who was complaining about being uncivilized? I'm not going to make a lady do something." We'll he would if the circumstance called for it. However at the moment it did not.

Unless, of course, she was a masochist. Thus secretly hoping he would do something more violent.

In the ten years Nesir had been here she had grown taller and stronger though some part of her regretted that she would never be a warrior.

Most other parts of her had decided this place was a decent alternative. She watched Azula destroy the painting and smirked. "Still not found that door then?"

Somehow after ten years teasing Azula never got old.

Still, watching the thing burn was satisfying, even if it did come back. Azula brushed her hands off and shook her head. "I was hoping the door would be behind it." A tinge of humor, even if it was bitter humor. She was used to Nesir and her quirks.

"Ah." Nesir made a point of looking at the burning patch, "I do be thinking you did be wrong. Better luck next time."

"A little bit of aching in these old bones but nothing I cannot handle."

Getting up, he slowly got off the bed and walked around to where his trunk was. There he knelt and gave her a warm smile. True he could stay in bed but he felt tea was best shared like this. Besides, he could still move so why not do just that.

"You look well, Azula."

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Cafeteria

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Tea

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Gallery

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Please forgive the typos in that last sentence ;;

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Art Gallery

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