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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 5:21 pm
She had put her foot down and demanded--well, asked politely--to be allowed to sit up--like they had ever tried to stop her--and the nurses had hid smiles behind their hands as they helped her. It seemed to be the general consensus that she was one of the more adorable patients on the ward right then. Elke stayed bullheadedly oblivious, sulking except when her grandmother brought her a small stack of magazines or a nurse popped in to say hello.
Pediatric nurses were very friendly.
Apparently Grandma Arma hadn't vetted the magazines she'd brought her granddaughter. Elke had discarded Cosmopolitan, almost managing to get it to fall under the bed. A nurse had helped her out by toeing it underneath with a wink. She had similarly discarded Parenting, Oprah, and Seventeen. Now what she had left was a bridal magazine and Vogue; she had fully intended to read the more respectable fashion magazine, but then she'd just been drawn in by the pretty white dress on the cover. Now she was holding a pen clumsily in her left hand, pouting determinedly as she underlined a particular thought of her current article.
After all, what else was there to do? Her nails had been painted so many times, she couldn't do much of anything with her laptop at all, and her cell phone was charging... Maybe someone would visit soon. That would be nice. She would be able to put down the magazines.
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 5:54 pm
She hadn't been back to see Virgo in the hospital since the girl's father had arrived; Scylla had made it out of the hospital room moments before he arrived, to see an open window with billowing curtains and a flash of dark hair leaping out. It had been several days since that time, and Scylla hadn't been back to see her friend.
But her face was bruised and she had nothing else to do with her day, or her evenings. Why not go visit her friend under the anonymity of being... herself? She slipped out her window, turning to close it behind her. As normal when she snuck out the window, she left it cracked just enough to slip her slender fingers under the window and be able to pry it back open.
As she slipped out the window, bushes rustled. A cat? She didn't have time to look, running down the path.It took her only a few minutes to sprint to the hospital; scooting in among the crowd and into one of the bathrooms; she locked herself in one of the stalls, henshined, and slipped back out with the crowd.
It was near the end of visitor hours when Scylla tugged herself up through Elke's window, expecting Virgo to be asleep. Her face, even as Scylla, was a giant bruise, and the Lord Himself knew it had been a painful climb to get to this floor with her ribs in the condition they were in and a thornless yellow rose in her teeth.
When she climbed up, she saw Elke sitting up, a pen and a book of some sort in her hands. She propelled herself over the ledge, heels clicking quietly to the floor. Just in case her friend was in a loud mood, she put one gloved finger over her lips, giving the bedridden girl a wink before pulling the rose out from her teeth and making a face. "Flowers don't taste very good." she said conversationally, moving for the bed.
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:02 pm
Elke didn't seem to notice Scylla, engrossed in trying to draw a straight line with her left hand. This was a lot harder than her left-handed friends made it look. It was very hard. Elke rather thought she wanted her IV out now so she could make proper underlines, these were so ugly.
Then, when her friend spoke, the bluenette answered: "Well, of course they don't, Scy, that's why you don't eat flowers! Why are you eating flowers any--"
She realized who she was talking to and then looked up, smiling brightly enough to light up the corners of the room. Then she saw Scylla's face, and her brows furrowed, the smile turning to an unhappy frown. Scooting over--moving closer to the window, since that was the side her IV was on--and wincing, she asked, "What happened, Scy? Your face is all... all hurt!"
The dosage of her pain medication had been lowered, but apparently her vocabulary hadn't come back yet.
Elke patted the spot next to her on her bed. "Come help me make underlines," she said, holding out the bridal magazine to Scylla. It was open to a page on outdoor weddings, and it was painfully clear why she wanted the help with underlining. "And tell me what happened! Scy, you look like a mess..." Why hadn't anyone brought her her makeup?
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:42 pm
Scylla grinned at her friend when Elke looked up at her, bending down to hug her and press a gentle kiss to her forehead, passing her the yellow flower. "I'm eating flowers because it is hard to climb into your window with it in my hand. I didn't want to hurt it."
She sat down next to the other girl on the bed, showing her the unbruised side of her face. "I got on the wrong side of some angry gnomes. I'm fine, promise." she gave Elke a smile. "So, how are you feeling?"
She reached out, taking the magazine in her hands. "W... Sweetheart, why are you reading a book on weddings?" She gave her friend a bright smile. "Is there something you aren't telling me?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:38 pm
"Angry gnomes?" Elke twirled the rose between her fingers and rested her head on Scylla's shoulder. Flowers always smelled so pretty... Experimentally, she tucked it behind her ear. The stem didn't catch and it didn't immediately fall over, so she fluffed up her hair around it. "Why were the gnomes angry? Sometimes in France they got mad and ate the strawberries... but really that was us..." She furrowed her brows and then looked back to the magazine.
With a shrug, she continued, "Am okay. Kinda hungry but I'm not s'posed to eat anything. They're all 'stuff is still healing'! And I'm all 'but I am really really hungry'." She sighed, shaking her head. Red roots were becoming pretty obvious in her hair, and it was a good thing no one had exposed Elke to a mirror because if they had she would be fretting and asking to dye her hair and they would also be denying her that.
Of the magazine... She blushed, pressing her left hand against her cheek. "Well, um, Grandma brought me some magazines and I didn't want to read the other ones and I was gonna read Vogue because Vogue is nice, except when they have the--" her voice dropped to a whisper "--naked people--" now back to normal volume "--but the dress on the front is really pretty and the text in Vogue is really small." And, with her current predicament, the larger text of the bridal magazine wouldn't give her such a headache.
"Plus, um, I was thinking about... you know, someday getting married." If she had been any less drugged-up she would never have said such a thing; she knew that Zodiacs only cared for other Zodiacs and the Princess and sometimes the Handmaidens depending on their mood. "And since I don't have hardly anything to do, I thought I could think about it." She looked at Scylla, a bit red. "It's not stupid, is it?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:00 pm
"Youma." Scylla explained, voice low. "Europa and I got attacked by an army of possessed garden gnomes." She gave Elke a grin as her friend twirled the flower in her hair. "Not the kind that eat strawberries, the kind that scare little children by giving them that creepy stare and smile." What kind of gnomes had Virgo been exposed to as a child? Midgets?
"Wait, are they at least feeding you Jello?" Scylla looked mildly infuriated. "I mean, they can't starve a sick woman. How are you supposed to get any stronger?" She gave Elke's hair a pat. "I could sneak you some sports drink or something if you want me to. Electrolytes and everything."
Jada smiled down at her friend as Elke blushed. "That's right, we never got around to that talk about undies." she gave Virgo a severe look. "Undies are lovely things. You should buy something cute. The end. As for Vogue, how about you tell me the articles you want and I can read to you later. Then I'd be the one looking at the naked pictures and tiny text." She gave Virgo a wink, underlining something else in the wedding magazine for her.
"And it is never sorry to want to get married." That part Jada could say in all sincerity. "Or even to daydream about it. My mom..."she grinned. "My mom's been planning my wedding since I was about 7 years old. No joke." None at all. "Down to the flowers and the guest list. Even the potential grooms."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:20 pm
Elke gasped at the army of possessed garden gnomes. She never ran into anything so weird or oddly adorable-sounding, why was that? Just gargoyles and trash youma and panther-things. Nothing cute, ever.
With a sigh, she said, "Only little bits of jello but I dunno, they told me 'your nutrients are taken care of!' So I guess I shouldn't fuss." It was okay if they said it was okay. Elke wanted them to like her, just like she wanted Scylla to like her. Painkillers gave her a bit more freedom than she normally allowed herself with her brain-to-mouth filter: "But I don't like sports drinks"--which didn't mean that she wouldn't drink one, if Scylla wanted to, just that she wouldn't drink one if she had a choice between water and Gatorade.
"Would you, Scy?" Elke would like that. She wondered what kind of reader her friend was; was she one of the people who read too fast? Or boringly slow? Maybe she'd be one of the ones who read at a just-right speed. Elke hoped so.
How could you plan a whole wedding plus groom when someone was only seven? "She was picking out your boyfriend? That's not right," said Elke. She slipped her arm through the older senshi's, squeezing gently--more to protect her own side than to make the motion unobtrusive. Then she pointed out a picture of a wedding on the beach. "That's where I want to get married. On a beach somewhere, you know? In the evening, in the summer? I think if I was getting married to the right guy, I wouldn't be scared of the dark."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:31 pm
Scylla laughed. "I don't care for sports drinks either. I just thought it might be something kind of healthy for you to drink." she gave a small shrug. "But if the doctors say you are going to be nourished, then I guess it is a good thing." she nodded her head.
"I wouldn't have offered to read for you if I didn't mean it." she chided Virgo gently. "Just tell me when you're ready and I'll start reading. If you want, I can come by on patrol every night and read you something?" it was a nervous offer. "At least until you're feeling a little better and you can read the smaller text. Have any of your teachers sent you homework yet?"
She turned her eyes to the picture that Elke pointed out to her and smiled. "I think that would be a gorgeous wedding." she agreed, wistfully. "Getting married just as the sun sets so that all the white is just tinted that gorgeous sunset color. And then when it sets you could have a party, torches and lights and people dancing and enjoying themselves. The air would be so cool and salt-sweet..." she grinned shamelessly at Elke. "Not to mention a handsome man in your arms."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:22 pm
Her friend was laughing, and so Elke smiled. "Okay," she said; she was being silly, wasn't she? No one would offer something if they didn't mean it, of course they wouldn't! If Scy offered to read, she meant she would, and that was good. "Could you? Come visit me, I mean. It gets really lonely here, everyone is really busy." And barely any of her Zodiac friends had come to see her... it was getting really depressing, that's what it was.
"No," she said, "They're giving it to my friend Giselle, I think, but she hasn't come to see me yet." Elke sighed, trying to make it theatric but failing. It ended up just adorable, the kind of heart-melting adorable most people can only manage at the age of four.
(What could she say, she was gifted.)
"He wouldn't have to be handsome, just mine, I think." Elke closed her eyes, imagined getting married--the groom was taller than her, of course, because that always looked best. And he had dark hair, that's all she really knew... "With seashells in my hair," she said, opening her eyes. "And pretty white gloves that button at the wrist. Flowers, too, white ones, I think."
She looked up at Scylla, setting her chin on the other girl's shoulder. "Where would you get married, Scy?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:38 pm
Scylla nodded, firmly. "It may not be too long every night, but I will come by, I promise." she promised Virgo. "I'll even try and bring you some new reading material when I come." mental note. "Maybe Cosmo?" Jada had a few of them stashed under her mattress. She lived vicariously through dreaming of being able to put some of those lessons to use.
Maybe.
"I'm sure she'll be by soon. If not, let me know." Scylla told her. "I have a friend who goes to Crystal so I can have her grab a copy of it for you. It'll give you something else to do."
She watched Elke close her eyes and for a moment she thought that the other young woman was starting to fall asleep. "Seashells?" Scylla pondered the way that would look. Depending on how it was done... "What about the actual dress? Puffy? Or fitted?" she asked.
As Elke rested her head on her shoulder, Scylla reated her own head atop the other. "I... I don't really care where. I've always thought that I'd be married in some big cathedral, right when the sun was coming through a stained glass window." She laughed. "Or in Vegas, when my Prince Charming swept me away to elope."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:10 pm
"I have a copy of Cosmo," Elke mumbled, looking off at the window. She did not want to admit that she was actually a little curious about the contents of that particular magazine. From her encounter with Castor, she had the idea that she couldn't ever do anything that was talked about in that magazine, so... why should she read it? Plus, it made her feel awkward. "A nurse kicked it under the bed for me."
She smiled at Scylla adoringly. Once, she'd wondered what it would be like to have an older sister--now she had one in the form of Sailor Scylla, and she found it to be quite wonderful. How come she had to be the older sister, huh? "Uh-huh," she said, nodding firmly. "And... a fitted bodice with no sleeves and a big floofy princes skirt, if I don't scar too bad from this. In silk, the kind that looks like a pearl when the light hits it." Somewhere she knew that she shouldn't be talking about this. Zodiacs were for Zodiacs, but surely...
But surely...
A tear slipped down her face, but she wiped it away before it hit Scylla's fuku. "I can come to your wedding, right?" She held out hope that one day her friend would trust her enough to tell her her real name--before either of them was old enough to get married. "If you elope, you gotta at least tell me! I'd help you plan your escape."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:27 pm
Scylla bumped her head lightly against Elke's. "I have a whole bunch of those." she admitted. "They just have some awesome articles." She was pink-cheeked. She rolled off the bed, being careful of Virgo's IV lines, pulling the magazine out from under the bed. "Don't worry, I'll read these really quietly." Her smile was wicked.
"I think you would look adorable in a dress like that, Elke." she said, settling back onto the bed. "And I hope you don't scar." a dark look crossed her face briefly.
The she saw the tear drip down Elke's cheek.
"Sweetheart," she slid an arm carefully behind Elke's back, "I promise that you'll get to see whatever wedding I get around to having." she pressed her forehead to the other girl. "Why are you crying?" So what if it had only been one tear?
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:27 pm
Elke stared, and then settled herself against Scylla's side again. It hurt a little to bend her torso, but not too much that she would move. "If you promise," Elke whispered, "to be super quiet, ok?" And she resettled herself to smile up at the dark-haired senshi.
"I don't want to look adorable on my wedding day," she grumped, gently poking Scylla in the side, "I should look beautiful, or, uh, that one--how do you say it, ravishing? Is that right?" You always were supposed to be radiantly lovely on your wedding day. That's how it worked! To look otherwise was against the rules, wasn't it?
She shook her head, then looked back at Scylla. How was she supposed to explain it? The Zodiacs, and then-- and then Avery-- "I feel like... like this is the stuff I shouldn't plan. It feels like I'm cheating on someone, but I've only ever had one boyfriend and, and he's dead. And--" Elke had never really talked about Avery to anyone but Serenade, and that only one the one time. Sometimes, when the Princess cried for Eon, she would let a few tears slip, but--
"We were in a bad place together," she said, slowly, looking off at the wall. "And something bad happened to him, and he hurt me, and said things that weren't true. But I loved him--I loved him so much--and--"
It was easier to explain Avery than to explain the past. Monogamy is another word for isolation. She rubbed the white scar on her left ring finger, much like one would rub their wedding ring. Could she get married if she already was?
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:42 pm
"I'll be quiet as a little mouse." Scylla assured her. She let Elke snuggle back into her comfortably. One of those times Scylla was glad she was soft.
.....
As Elke's little finger poked into her side, Scylla gave a soft dqqueal, wriggling away. "Ravishing it is!" she agreed. "The wedding day is the one where you are the most beautiful woman in the world. Everyone knows that." She didn't expect that for her wedding. Heck, she'd be lucky if she was even a first wife. For all that she'd stamped her little foot down to her father, she didn't know if she'd be able to bring herself to refuse her mother. The thought frightened her.
Elke's face frightened her even more. The Zodiac looked so lost. Scylla swallowed, slid her arm carefully back around the other girl. "I don't know what to say." she admitted. "I'm sorry." she pressed her cheek to Elke's. She'd never lost someone she loved. And hell... her first 'boyfriend' had been... considerably older. She felt her body give a small shiver. "I've never had anyone to love. I'm a little jealous of you, if I can be honest."
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 12:09 am
It was hard to picture Scylla being quiet like a mouse; Scylla wasn't cute like a mouse, she was more... regal! Like a cat! Cats were quiet... weren't they?
"We'll both be beautiful," she decided. "What kind of pretty dress would you wear, Scy?" Of course it would be a pretty dress; it would be the prettiest dress in the world, tied with Elke's wedding dress. And the Princess's dress, also, because the Princess always dressed well. Elke didn't know that the Princess would want to marry, though... Ally was dead, and Ally had been the Princess's one true love.
She blinked, then. "Are you cold?" Without waiting for an answer, she tugged the quilt over Scylla too; it was a panel quilt, telling a story of what looked like--sleeping beauty? Something fairytale... "You'll find someone, Scy. I know you will." Elke smiled, eyes bright.
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