July Catch-All (Open)

[itstillhurt]

Who ⬤ Azula and whoever you think has wronged you enough to deserve her!
What ⬤ July substories and unrelated encounters
When ⬤ Any time in July after the festival
Where ⬤ Throughout the city, I'm flexible
Content Warnings ⬤ None off the rip, will tag appropriately if they come up



SUBSTORY 4: Stardust

Azula's primary focus for all of July will be gathering Stardust. She wants as much of it as possible to get into the good graces of the Department of the Enma, and she's not terribly bothered if somebody else is under the misguided presumption that they already own it.

She's not going to fight anybody for it- it would reflect poorly on her with her new employers- but manipulation, pilfering, and other less attention-grabbing means of relieving people of Stardust are all on the table for her- and, of course, she can be found hunting it the old-fashioned way, searching any nook and cranny of the city for the stuff.

GENERAL: New Hire

Azula hasn't really gotten a permanent 'day job' per se, outside of her assigned Enma duties. However, she's been pretty enthusiastic about learning everything she can about the Department of the Enma and the work that's done at the Administrative Offices, even if that means menial grunt work.

Unfortunately, "enthusiastic" doesn't necessarily mean "good," even for a quick learner like Azula. Her attempts to deal with the public are mixed at best, her patience for redundant meetings and unnecessary errands is slim, and despite taking pride in her rapid mastery of modern technology, somehow she still can't make the worthless printer work properly.

Need to submit paperwork to the office? Need to file a complaint with the Department? Whatever you need, it's your unlucky day, because Azula is here to... help?

GENERAL: What Is Free Time

When not engaged in the odd menial labors she's assigned by the Department, or hunting Stardust, she's still spending a lot of time studying the city. Starting in Enma territory and working her way outward over the course of the month, she'll be exploring businesses, memorizing neighborhoods, and occasionally even engaging in what appears to be parkour. She won't particularly care about respecting silly little trifles like "This is my roof and I'm trying to sleep" or "That wasn't meant to hold weight and you're damaging it."

GENERAL: Wild Card!
(None of these grab you? Got something else in mind? Feel free to hit me up in PMs, on the discord server, on plurk at YonFellow, or at my plotting post.)

Comments

[itstillhurt]

She follows without complaint, at least. Ugh, now she was going to need a new notepad, new paperwork-

Well, he had helped her avoid a situation that might have otherwise ended... less than ideally. And they'd even collected some stardust, so the mission was a success.

She sighs, and offers-

"I suppose I should thank you."

It kind of resembled gratitude. A little. Sort of. Okay, not really.

[himbosupreme]

Well, thankfully Cain was used to maybe-not-thank yous that were a bit mean. This is actually pretty mild, and she was at least making an effort. He just smiled back. "Ha...no problem. I heard you were having problems and I didn't want a random brawl to start up. You get why that'd be a bad thing, right?"

Well, at least he can try. This was at least easier, in his opinion. "And sorry-I'm sure you've noticed, but I can't actually see you right now. Can you shake my hand so I can?"

And he's extending a hand that wasn't clutching their supply of the stardust.

[itstillhurt]

Does she get why- How dare he-

She takes a moment to suppress the immediate rage, and instead replies with a venomously sweet smile as she takes the offered hand. She's not entirely certain how a handshake can fix that, but she's not ruling anything out from the people here.

"Believe me, if I wanted to resort to violence, there wouldn't have been an altercation for you to resolve."

Hi, hello, yes, you can now see the actual literal sixteen-year-old girl who is casually implying that she might have been comfortable seriously hurting all those yokai under different circumstances.

[himbosupreme]

Azula would be able to notice how his mismatched eyes could now focus on her completely.

Well, a bit younger than he thought, but he could work with this. It wasn't like all the norths behaved like 2 year olds on occasion. Still, he gave her an expression that can only be described as 'I'm definitely humoring you.'

"Yeah, and that's what I was trying to prevent. It's not gonna help us in the future if they think we're all violent thugs." He can be very patient about this too.

[itstillhurt]

She certainly doesn't miss the way his eyes focus on her as soon as she touches his hand. That's very interesting. Is it related to the mismatch, or is that a coincidence? Well, it doesn't matter. It's noted and she moves on.

The condescending tone of his voice immediately rubs her the wrong way, but she doesn't let it reach her face or her voice, and she keeps the tightly controlled smile in place.

"You didn't need to worry your gentle head about it. I had everything under control."

Ugh. The condescending, presumptuous- She'd managed a coup of a fortified capital city without any bloodshed, she could manage a few irritated civilians- no. No, not helpful. Ally. Possibly one who outranks her. Be nice. Be nice.

"Not that I'm not thankful for the help, but I'm more than capable of conducting myself in a civilized manner even when tensions start to rise. I'm royalty, you know, that sort of thing comes with the territory."

...Well, that was... reassuring? Reassuring. Yes.

[himbosupreme]

It wasn't condescending! Okay it probably would seem that way to her, but it was more him trying to wrangle misbehaving children into maybe not starting street fights. Not sure what she meant by gentle head, though. Was that an insult?

"No offense, but you guys were literally like a few seconds from a fight. Might not be the worst case scenario this time, but what would happen if you got cornered? Or you're just trying to do your job and no one will even look at you because they think you'll just beat them up?"

Her being royalty did...explain things a little. Arthur was a unique case but there were still things that Cain every so often taught him about how to lead. Young royalty, too. It made him feel...a bit sad.

"I work with my leige, so I know what you mean. But unfortunately, dealing with difficult people still sometimes requires you to swallow your pride."

[itstillhurt]

And that only makes the irritation worse. Swallow her pride? She's done nothing but swallow her pride since she got here. To be reduced from a princess and a gifted firebender to a glorified errand girl was so galling it defied description. Even the asylum had been less humiliating- miserable as it had been, at least she was there because she was dangerous.

She restrains the agitated retort. No. She's trying to be nice here. She's failing, obviously, but she's not just giving up entirely on it. She takes a deep breath, smooths one bang, and keeps the smile firmly in place. She even resists the temptation to lace her words with sarcasm.

"Of course. I'll try to keep that in mind."

See? She's already applying his advice. Isn't that nice?