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 Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:32 pm
So it turned out that typing was pretty hard with an IV in one hand and a massive stab wound in one side. And apparently taking the IV out was not an option, so eventually Elke had given up on updating her blog for the first time in two weeks and typed a line about being in the hospital for now. Then she had started watching a talk show in French, and that was what she was still doing now.
It seemed like life in France was a lot easier. She remembered it as being easier--more throwing pottery on the wheel and shrieking when it splattered, less getting stabbed and being told to go for the eyes. Elke loved her Princess, loved her fellow Zodiacs, but kind of missed that ease from before that purple cat had told Princess Chronos 'I'm sorry, your roommate is Sailor Virgo. We'll never be rid of her now.'
What had Zue meant by that, anyway. Why would the Princess ever want to be rid of her?
Well, um. Unless Sue had been telling the truth about them voting her off the figurative Zodiac island. (She had also watched Survivor! Only like, one episode though, because she'd gotten sick to her stomach on seeing people eat roaches.) Now that she was on the downswing of her drugs she acknowledged it was probably unlikely they had made Snuzzles Sailor Virgo in her place.
(The drugs were on automatic drip but she could normally tell what was going on because, well, when she wasn't loopy she could tell the dots in the ceiling were indeed in straight, evenly spaced lines.)
She decided, though, as a French lady wailed about her husband's infidelity ('you cheated on me!' sounded much better in French) that she would ask Hero anyway. Elke had her email, and typing with her left hand wasn't totally impossible. She could make it work. Just as she opened a new browser window, someone knocked on the door, and she guiltily closed her laptop screen, took off her headphones, and said, "Come in?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:11 pm
It seemed that think of the devil worked just as well as speak of the devil. Sober, red-headed, dressed in slacks and a tailored shirt as though she'd just come from the office, Hero Barrett opened the door. The pro was that she had a bunch of flowers in her hand; the con was that it was Hero Barrett --
Well, that was a little unfair. Then again, she was Elke's captain. It wouldn't be unfair to expect a chewing-out.
"Miss Arma," said the lead Zodiac, though immediately relented: "Elke." She walked into the room and drew up a chair: Hero always looked a little haunted nowadays, with brief shadows underneath her eyes that saw no pancake makeup to hide them, though slightly disturbed grief didn't look so bad on Hero Barrett. But she gave Elke an expression which wasn't quite a smile, and laid the flowers -- daffodils -- down on Virgo's bed. Daffodils. She imagined Hero going to the hospital florist and hesitating, finding the rest of the flowers frustrating or unsuitable: no roses, but daffodils. Too cheery for her fingers. "You don't look altogether bad, considering."
Well.
"They're treating you all right?" A bit brusque. "You're getting fed, treated? Destiny City Memorial is a curate's egg -- if you want anyone to make a complaint, I can issue it in writing. Or speak to one of the nurses. The youth ward's got a better reputation than some parts of this. I'm glad strings were pulled."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:38 pm
Oh no. It was the Captain! And now she was going to get yelled at, or something, for not being fast enough or not thinking that Hematite would actually strike with lethal force or something. (She should have realized that last one, but Elke was uncertain if moving to save Merope would have helped anything.) She cringed, expecting an immediate lecture, and when none came she opened one eye a crack.
Nope. No lecture yet, it seemed. Elke smiled, gingerly picked up the cheerful daffodils and said her thank-yous; then she carefully unwrapped the plastic and put them in the little vase her grandmother had brought in with Scylla's yellow rose. "It's mostly under the gown," she mumbled, picking at her grandmother's quilt. If strings were pulled, she didn't know of them; she was fifteen, and therefore would be put with other pediatric patients. Unless Hero meant that she should have gone somewhere else?...
She brought back the tentative smile, fidgeted with the blanket more. "Uh-huh," said Elke, "They're really nice to me."
Fidget. If Elke was trying to impersonate Simon, she was succeeding. What exactly what she was supposed to be doing? Well... "Did you guys really make Snuzzles, um, you know--" Virgo "--instead of me? Sue said you did, but I think he was lying, but I don't know, so I was going to email you, and then you knocked and now-- I wasn't alone, I promised the Princess I wouldn't be, I was patrolling with Scylla because Grayson was patrolling with someone else and Giselle had to study for a test and I couldn't find Aurelia and I'm sorry!"
Should she repeat that, slower? She was uncertain, but stared at Hero worriedly for a few moments before asking, finally, "Are you okay?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:53 pm
Hero had been staring at her as though Elke had grown a second head. "Snuzzles," she said. "Virgo." And then said it again: "Snuzzles. Virgo?" Eventually this battered its way past some defence, and she repeated -- "Snuzzles. Virgo. No. Snuzzles is not Virgo. Snuzzles is Andeon's ridiculous monster pet who he keeps simply because the Ancient Lady has -- a bad sense of humour -- no. So does Zue, apparently."
Obviously her Captain was still uncomfortable. She swung one knee over the other and sat back in her chair, looking at her daffodils bracketing Scylla's yellow rose, eyes flicking over the clean coverlets to the rest of the room. Finally they settled on Elke's face. They were crimson, composed, serious as ever. "First things first," she said, and the younger Zodiac prepared for her scolding: but instead of that, Hero said finally, "I'm proud of you."
What.
"You fought hard. I'd prefer you not end up in the hospital the next time, but you showed a degree of bravery and fighting spunk -- " Who used the word 'spunk' other than Hero Barrett -- "that I'm proud of. The injury's no shame. Keep it up."
What.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:22 pm
Snuzzles was not the result of a bad sense of humor. He wasn't ridiculous, either. He was cute, and a little hard-shelled, and she did freak out some when he hugged her face, but that happened so rarely anymore. Elke liked Snuzzles. Just not when Sue was saying that she had been replaced with the headcrab. (Virgo's coronet would not look very nice on him. She didn't much think it would fit, either.)
"So you aren't locking the Princess up in a tower either?" No, that was a dumb question, although it looked like Elke was seriously considering the benefits of locking Serenade in a tower now that she knew for sure she would be there to guard her. Hmmm...
First things first--Oh no, thought Elke, here it comes, she is going to yell at me. She prepared her excuses: I'll go for the eyes next time, I was protecting Merope and trying to keep Scylla safe, I tried. And then--
She stared at Hero. Her jaw dropped a little. Hero was proud of her? For getting beaten up? That didn't make sense, because Zodiacs weren't supposed to get beaten up--
It would have been better if Hero had stopped there, because then Elke was looking down at her hands. No, she hadn't fought hard. Fighting hard meant winning, or at least walking away with the enemy worse than she was. She'd... she'd done what she could for Merope and stayed to protect her friend, forgetting that Scylla could look out for herself. Now, faced with her Captain, she could remember that.
Elke did not want to point any of this out. Instead, she said, "Thank you, Captain," and picked at the coverlet. Hero was proud of her. Hero was proud of her--the thought did bring a smile to her face, but it was like winning something you'd really wanted but had never quite obtained because you gave up and cheated.
"Are you okay," she asked again, looking up at her Captain again. She was starting to feel like something of a bobblehead. Elke felt like she should send Tara an email and ask her to check Crystal for body-snatcher pods. (She had watched a movie with body-snatchers with Grayson. It had been scary.) "Not like you look bad or anything, Captain! You look tired, is all. You shouldn't be tired."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:57 pm
"I'm not tired," said Hero a little automatically, despite how tired she looked. Then: "There's nothing to worry about. My health is fine."
Up close, Elke could see a mess of little scratches around Hero's face -- as though she'd scraped on something, maybe a rough piece of wood. They clustered around one cheek, but there were a few tiny cuts up on her eyebrow, jutting around her chin. She kept her hands folded in her lap, and said: "There's something you should know."
Elke's expression immediately turned a little white-knuckled and aghast. Her Captain said, voice low: "Serenade was attacked two nights ago."
The Princess was attacked --
"She's fine." That was at least a relief. But Hero's voice was grim, and her mouth was straight in a set, chapped line. She looked better in slacks and a button-up than she did in her Crystal dress. Some people commented a little cruelly that, in the pastel blues, Hero Barrett looked like an unsuccessful drag queen; something about it was like a lampshade put over a light, made her look ridiculous. Elke looked adorable in the Crystal uniform. So did Serenade. Miriam Jacobs looked cute, even. "But the attackers took away the Opal Crystal of the Zodiacs. You're on lockdown. I'm asking Zue to stay with the Princess at night until you return: I can't have her being alone at the moment."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:24 pm
Excuse Elke for not exactly being reassured. Grayson had said he was okay after hearing about Jude's death, and then he'd been crying. She always knew when her brother hadn't been feeling well, and it was similar with her captain, though not to such a great degree. But the bluenette tried to be reassured, knowing--or hoping--that if there was something wrong (and wasn't that wording about her health being fine strange, like Elke when she had first come to America) Hero would tell her. "Okay," she said, staring at the scratches as unobtrusively as she could; "If you need me, though, just tell me! You know you can count on me."
And then--oh God here came the lecture--
No lecture, but what Hero said was worse. Serenade? The Princess? Her Princess had been attacked and Elke hadn't been there to stop it why hadn't she been there--at least she was fine but Elke should have been there, not sitting in the hospital laughing at constellations on the ceiling! Not talking with Scylla about getting married someday, she should have been out protecting the Princess, and she hadn't been and.
"They took... her Crystal?" She knew it was important. She knew. "Lockdown? What do you mean--the Princess is really okay? You promise? Really she's okay--are you okay?" It was a good thing she'd been taken off the heart monitor a few days ago, the thing would have been going berserk. If she had been pale before, now she was practically as white as the sheets on her bed. "What's going to happen? Will Serenade be all right?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 11:46 am
It took her Captain a moment to reply. She sat back in her chair and steepled her fingers together unconsciously, but then she said: "We're unsure."
Elke's green eyes were already as round and horrified as Elke could make them, but Hero held up a hand. "It's useless worrying. What we know right now is that she's alive, can transform, and nobody has her identity." They hoped. "We have to move from there. They got what they wanted from her, or they would have killed both Mr. Boskovic and myself."
Which was humiliating, to say the least. "We're fine. We are all fine. I'm going to see the lay of the land: I have to know if we're the first, and if the Moon Princess is really in hiding here."
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:19 pm
The Captain was good at Captainly things, but not so good at making Elke worry any less. Someone tried to kill the Captain? And Andeon? What exactly was Elke doing, there was no excuse, no reason for her to be sitting here in the hospital when her friends were in danger.
Had Hero not been present, Elke might have been pulling her hair and making the most unattractive faces. Why wasn't she well yet?
"The Moon Princess would never do anything to us," she said, gingerly crossing her arms over her stomach. Evidently today was 'prove why you are senshi of innocence' day. "We protected her court. If she's in hiding, will we be looking out for her too? While looking out for the Princess?"
And then she said, "I know I shouldn't ask--but could you--maybe--ask Serenade to call me? or something?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:16 pm
For a long time Hero leant back in her chair and looked at her, Elke's worry filling the room like it was a tangible object and rose with the warmth. She shook her head. When Hero made a decision she did, however, make a decision. "Out of the question." But when Elke's face fell, she said: "Serenade will want you to feel better, will want you to not carry the strain."
Which sounded harsh, but they both knew it was true. The Princess was less likely to pour out her miseries than she was to panic about how Elke felt, panic about Elke panicking, and then panic more about the entire subject in general. Hero's eyes were calm and crimson, though her mouth was still strained. "Listen to me," she said, and now it was a command. "I will find the Moon Princess. I will do it before these people do. And you will wait here until you are ready to fight again."
Somehow when she said it it was as though she were reading from the Bible: simple gospel that could not be argued. Hero's hand briefly came down on Elke's over the coverlet, and her fingers closed briefly and awkwardly on her own before her Captain stood.
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:28 pm
"Yes, ma'am," said Elke. She understood the reasons behind Hero telling her not to contact Serenade, and not to ask others to get Serenade to call her. That didn't mean she agreed, or that she was happy with being asked. Aries was powerful, and Virgo would follow her anywhere, and in absence of Virgo she was the best protection the Princess could have, but...
She looked down to her hand, then up to the Captain. "I'll report to practice when I get out," she said, looking out to the window. "Please take care of yourself."
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