fandomhigh | Computer Lab, Thursday morning

"Huh," Azula sat back, "this is very useful. It would certainly help cut down the time I spend staring at the dictionary."

Dinah grinned. "Yeah, I thought that might help. And you can type in the address--" She pointed to the URL in the browser, "--of a page you want to translate, and it'll transform it to all Chinese so you can read anything on the web. It's not perfect, and the grammer might suck. But still." She shrugged, and typed in the address for CNN.Com. "News of the day! If that's what you're interested in."

"What sort of news?" She peered curiously, "The images on the page changed, is that usual?"

"From around the world. Well, this world," Dinah qualified it. "It doesn't have news from the Fire Nation, or Kaeleer, or Camelot. Just Earth." She nodded. "It's on a loop, new news gets sent to it, and it updates. Every few minutes, depending on what's going on." Dinah typed in 'China' into the Search line, and copied the URL into the Google Translate. "And this is the news from China, which is as close to the Fire Nation in this world as we'll get."

"I borrowed some books about China and Japan," Azula said, "there are some similarities." She eyed the pictures, "Some of the architecture even look familiar."

"So there you go. If you type in the word you want, the browser will change the page to whatever you were looking for," Dinah said, pointing to the search bar. "There's just about anything on there. Books, music, videos, news, sports, tons of stuff." She typed in the address for YouTube, then searched in 'martial arts', then clicked on a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMJ_b9uV1Lo). "Like this."

Azula was a lot less creepy when you were telling her interesting stuff, than when she was trying to get you to do what she wanted, Dinah felt.

Azula raised an eyebrow then made a face, "It had to be a monk but then again, his martial arts is the closest to what I know from home."

She smirked. "It's only right the monk beat his opponent."

...or not.

"Yeah?" Dinah gave her a mildly skeptical look. "Are they really well-trained in the Fire Nation?"

"Yes," Azula answered, "everyone is expected to fight. People are conscripted into the army by the age of twelve."

She paused then added, with a level of disdain, "Unless you're a spoiled noble who does nothing more but lounge around on the beach while everyone is fighting for the Nation."

Dinah snorted. "How many of those can there be?" She started clicking on more links, including a video for the Killers song, another video for Krav Maga, and one with someone's cat trying to get out of a box. Awwww.

"Twelve. Jeez. Way younger than here." It explained a lot about Azula, though. Ino's still won for 'way too young' although maybe Arthur's beat that. "It's eighteen here. But we haven't had a war on our soil for generations."

"A lot more than should be, if I were Fire Lord I would make it law that requires all nobility to work. And not just lounge around and play with their stupid hair and fake strong arms." There was theme going on here.

"That's too old," Azula said with a frown, "it's better to start young, all our schools are designed to train children into soldiers."

It's not like Dinah hadn't heard that opinion before from a lot of people here; but Azula, at least, seemed to already appreciate some of the results of the culture she'd been transferred to, so....

"Because we don't, they can spend time coming up with stuff like this," Dinah pointed out, nodding to the computer. "We don't have magic, so everything's from, well. Scratch. More art. More music. More transport. More food." Not argumentatively, just stating a fact. "It might not work for your world, or your country, anyway. But it works for us." Another click, and then, "Does Zuzu, I mean, Fire Lord Zuko, of course, have stupid hair?"

Just checking.

Azula smirked, "Zuzu always has stupid hair but other nobles take it to the extreme."

And then turn down her offer to dominate the world. Who does that?

"Perhaps it works for this world but its different in the Fire Nation," Azula said, a little stiffly. This was one thing she won't be able to concede. "We're the most technologically advanced nation in my world but we're also only a small island surrounded by water and we have a growing population, warfare is the only way to secure more land for us."

Dinah studied her a moment, wondering if she wanted to get into this, then finally asked, "You couldn't trade for it? Goods and services for land? Navy and sailboats for more territory?" She added, "I'm not doubting your word, I just want to know. It's one thing to conquer, it's another thing to settle in and make a country your own."

"My ancestor had a vision, a prosperous empire under the Fire Nation," Azula said, becoming even more stiff. "One nation, one world. The Fire Nation extended its arm not only to help its people but to share the glories of the empire to the less fortunate nations in the world."

"...."

Dinah's expression probably communicated what she thought of that, but all she said was, "Hope that works out for you." Sort of. Not. Look, she's being polite, okay?

She shook her head. "Right, so, what else are you interested in finding out about?"

It didn't.

But Azula chose not to reveal that. It was still a sticking point.

"Can I purchase weapons through this computer?"

She really had a one track mind about certain things.

Mental facepalm.

"Some, yeah, if you have money, and can send it to the sellers. Or if you set up a bank account here. Others, no, you probably won't have the identification to prove you're old enough to own a gun. For instance."

How did they get on this, again?

"What a shame," Azula propped her chin on her fist, "I've been looking forward to ordering one of the weapons Triela showed me."

"You can probably borrow hers for Gun Club, if it was a gun." Dinah didn't shake her head, but she wanted to. "I think there's a place in town? Maybe they'll sell it to you."

Dinah had no idea that nothing ever got sold there. But maybe the meditation would be good for Azula.

"Do you do anything besides Firebending and fighting?" Dinah had to ask.

"I was hoping to order bulk for the army," Azula said.

"Of course," she answered, miffed, "I like to go to spas."

Dinah immediately brightened. "Really? There's a really nice one here, Theodoric of York." She brought up the web page for it, with photos of the manicure-pedicure-haircut-wrap options. "I was there just last month." She sent Azula a speculative look, not quite ready to suggest a spa trip with her, but did say, "Does look like the ones you're used to?"

She looked at the pictures, "Yes, that does look like my spa back home, does this also have a hot spring?"

"Hot tubs? And heated pools, yeah. Although I think there's a real hot springs on the island somewhere. I haven't been there," Dinah said, typing in 'hot springs' onto the island's website. "Oh. There it is." She pointed to the map where the Onsen was shown. "Good to know you can relax." Without a weapon being at her throat.

"I'm pleased there are places to go here to relax," Azula said.

"Of course I relax," she looked at Dinah oddly, "it's especially enjoyable after a long campaign. It makes coming home sweeter."

Computer Lab, Thursday morning

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)