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 Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:15 pm
Kelly hadn’t been feeling any better since her near disastrous after Christmas shopping excursion. She had truly hoped that by now things would be getting better at home, or at least that she would be feeling better about things…but nothing was happening to move her in that direction at all…the world just kept seeming more and more awful by the minute.
She supposed that the one consolation to all of the upsets she was feeling had been when she had powered up a week or so ago and that cat had been so nice and had given her more power…that had been…very unexpected…but not unwelcome at all.
She wasn’t intending to power up tonight, even though she had snuck out of the house and it was nearing midnight…she snuck out a lot lately. Much more than when she was trying to be a contributing member of the court…and mostly it was just to get out of the house, away from the oppressive…dislike that she kept feeling, getting worse by the day.
It hadn’t been her fault that she had gone missing…she hadn’t gotten into any drugs or anything like that…but her father…
It was truly as though she was a leper. And there wasn’t anything she could do to even begin to mend the relationship between father and daughter, and her mother just…tried to stay out of the whole thing. Charlotte was still a help, but even her younger sister seemed at a loss now of how to reach Kelly…she had pulled too far away, it seemed and now there was no going back.
Her coat was warm, and that was a good thing with the weather being how it was tonight. The teenager sat under her favorite tree in the park, knees drawn up to her chest, eyes closed. One arm was wrapped around her knees, and the other hand was tucked in her pocket, fingers gently running over the changed henshin pen.
She hadn’t been…worthy of the upgrade, but she was…she was happy that she got it. It seemed almost like validation from Altea herself…either that or the cat was just dumb. She was a traitor, not someone who should be trusted with more power.
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Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:05 pm
Elsa took a breath of fresh, cold air, and smiled faintly to himself. It wasn't as murderously cold as it had been, and it seemed, as far as he was concerned, like a very good night to be out. He wasn't exactly a silent, stealthy stalker of the night - the heels of his boots clicked on the asphalt under his feet, and the charms hanging off them clinked against each other with a bright, cheery sort of metallic sound.
It was strange, how much more comfortable he felt as Elsa than Levi these days. Levi was, as he always had been, as his doppelganger had reminded him, a martyr without a cause -- angry, ready to fly off in whatever direction of social injustice he was pointed at, ready to fight with no war to win. Elsa, though. Elsa had a purpose.
He made a turn into the park, prepared to accept that this might not be a productive night for draining, but his eyes fell on a huddled figure, curled up on a bench. He frowned and jogged over, concern written on his face. Some might have taken her as an easy target, and that was sort of why Elsa wanted to help. If anyone deserved to not get drained, it was someone who thought a park bench was a good place to be this late at night.
"Hey. You okay?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:16 pm
It took a long moment for Kelly to even look up. Though, when she did, the recognition that lit up her eyes was almost as plain as the fear and disgust that followed. She curled closer into herself, hand gripping the pen so hard it had almost started to hurt as the little bits of metal dug into her hand. “What are you doing here? Can’t you tell that I just want to be alone? What, have you come to eliminate the traitor or something? I haven’t been around. Just leave me be.”
It didn’t even occur to her that she wasn’t powered up. It didn’t register for a few long seconds after she had spoken that he hadn’t recognized her, he even…seemed worried about her.
Did she look that pathetic?
Drawing out the henshin pen from her pocket, Kelly looked at the male with a glare of contempt, and powered up without another thought, moving so the bench was between the two of them. “Leave me alone.”
Now that she was powered, her warm coat was gone into the nothingness of wherever things went when you were powered, and as a gust of wind blew past, billowing her overlay and causing her hair to blow around her face, the stupid short hair that she hated so much. It was cold…and now she was really feeling it, even as the heat of her anger started to bubble up inside of her.
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Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 6:16 pm
Elsa took half a step back out of surprise, hands going up in defensive surrender. That was not what he expected to hear from a strange civilian -- he'd have guessed delusion, but she seemed to personally recognize him, and that meant that maybe she was....a member of the Court? But traitor? What?
And then she powered up, and a tiny little "oh" passed his lips. Yeah, okay, now he understood why she was reacting with such aggressive hostility. Why she was under the impression he might have been sent to...eliminate her. Because she'd done some stupid s**t in Altea's castle, that was for sure.
But Elsa also remembered what she'd done for him, and what might've happened if she hadn't come to her senses when she did.
"If you really want me to, I will," he said, lowering his hands, "but before I do, I want to thank you. You saved my life. If you hadn't given me energy when you did, Altea would've killed me. So, thank you."
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Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 6:41 pm
Kibirev continued to glare at Elsa, defiance in her expression, muscles tense and ready for a fight, and even though he looked…unhappy? Upset? And…and why was he thanking her? She hadn’t done anything…
But..well, that wasn’t completely true…she had helped him, hadn’t she? With that small mirror shard…she had slammed it against him to…to stop him from dying after she had dealt what was almost unmistakably a fatal blow.
Kibirev’s lower lip began to tremble, followed by the rest of her body, and before she knew it, overpower sobs wracked her too thin form, the force of them bringing her to her knees. This was too much. Dealing with this was too much.
All of the fight left the super senshi, and she simply knelt there, arms wrapped tightly around herself in at least an attempt to hold herself together. Nothing was going right. Nothing had been right since that castle, and she knew in her heart that nothing would be right again. It had been so easy to just…ignore everything and pretend as though that had never happened. As though she had never danced with Lovejoy…or kissed Lovejoy…or been the happiest she had ever been with a beautiful queen gossiping with her and letting her try on dresses…it had been the best fairytale ever, and that fact that it was over…that it was broken…that the end of it meant the end of the best and longest friendship she had ever had was just too much…and seeing this other member of her ‘court’…of the people who were supposed to be her ‘family’…tore down every bit of the walls she had tried to build up.
It wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t they all just leave her alone? Why did they have to come and bother her with everything…why was he thanking her instead of attacking her like he ought to do? Didn’t she have a bounty on her head? She was a traitor…and he was thanking her…
And it didn’t make any sense at all.
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Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 2:45 pm
It was painful, to see Kibirev breaking down like this. Elsa could think of only one thing to do, and he knelt in front of her and reached out to pull the sobbing girl into a tight hug.
He wasn't super great at the whole comfort thing, but he was pretty sure he could do this; could pat her hair and hold her while she cried. It was obvious that the scars of what had happened in that terrible mirror palace remained, and it was deeply unfair that she was so completely and utterly alone in this.
Was she afraid to reach out to the rest of the Court? Did she think they held a grudge? Maybe some did. Elsa might have, if it wasn't obvious that she'd realized the error of her ways when he went down. If it wouldn't have been utterly impossible in the face of how miserable she seemed about the whole thing.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," he said gently. It wasn't, obviously, not for her, but maybe a little reassurance would help anyway.
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Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 3:25 pm
The sudden feeling of arms around her made Kibirev stiffen and her sobs cut off suddenly. She sat there for a moment, torn between moving away…or attacking or maybe just relaxing in the much needed embrace. Maybe he was honest about wanting to thank her…maybe he…maybe he just…
Maybe they all didn’t hate her as much as she figured that they did…
Quietly, hesitantly she wrapped her arms around him as well and it was then that the sobs started up again, and before long she was clinging to him as though he were a lifeline, harsh, ugly sounds being ripped from her throat as she cried.
When some period of time past, she wasn’t sure how long, but it had been long enough for her sobs to diminish to simple sniffles, Kibirev finally pulled away, her face blotchy and her eyes red and swollen. “S-sorry…Things…have sucked lately and…”
She stopped herself.
He didn’t care about what was going on in her life. He was just here to thank her for not letting him get killed and that was it. There wasn’t going to be another meeting like this. Once this moment was done, it was done. She couldn’t go thinking they would ever be friends. Any of them.
She was still the enemy. And…she would always be the enemy. No amount of tears could change that…especially not when she still thought she had been on the right side of things.
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Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 5:02 pm
Elsa held onto her, gently stroking her hair and letting her cry. Yeah, it was ******** heartbreaking, seeing her break down like this; he was pretty sure this meant he'd objectively made the right decision by stopping to help her, because goddamn, she needed someone to lean on, that was more than obvious.
So he sat there and held her and let her cry, and wished he could do more and hoped he was doing something like enough.
He let her go when she pulled back, but kept his hands lightly on her upper arms, a gentle, hopefully comforting grip. Her little half confession made him frown, faintly.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, without hesitating. "We can find somewhere a little warmer, or right here, whatever you want, but I really think you need to tell somebody, and." He huffed, briefly. "I know we're not exactly bffs or whatever, but I'm here and I'm willing to listen, so."
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Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2018 7:34 am
Kibirev looked at him for a long moment, her lip quivering slightly, almost as though she was on the verge of telling him something…but finally she just shook his head.
“You don’t really care…I’m just wasting your time. I won’t bother you again…I…”
She reached up and brushed some of the hair out of her face, brushed the tears that she could off of her face as well. “Just…tell everyone that I…died or something. I won’t be a bother. You don’t need a traitor in your court. I know what you think of me…I…”
The senshi drew in a deep breath then bit down hard on her lip. Hard enough to draw blood. “I don’t care. I don’t care and I won’t care. You guys shouldn’t have killed my Queen. That was horrible. You drove her to become so awful…you know that right? All of you were so…so mean to her. Said such hurtful things and you made her become a monster…”
The tears were beginning to fill her eyes again and she shook her head. “And I lost everything because of you guys. You guys and the stupid mirrors I hate all of you.”
Her breathing was growing more and more ragged and her knees were trembling. “I just want to be left alone…”
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 3:56 pm
Elsa's frown deepened, and he refused to let go of his gentle grip on her arms, because there was no way he was backing down, here.
"Yes. I do care. And you're not wasting my time. I chose to stop here, and talk to you, and I'm choosing to keep on doing that." He gave her a smile that he knew was till tense and a little sad, but he hoped it was obvious how much he meant what he said. "Because I want to be here for you. And not just because you saved my life and I owe you, or whatever. Because you're a person who pretty obviously needs a friend."
He gently squeezed, a little, and fell silent as she kept talking. If nothing else, because---yeah, she was throwing around some accusations he really didn't want to hear, but maybe he needed to hear them.
"You know what?" Elsa admitted. You might be right. Maybe if we hadn't been so suspicious, maybe if we'd been kinder, things would have gone differently. But she hurt people, Kibirev. Her own people, and then us. And everyone was scared, and angry--and you know what, I bet she was too."
Elsa sighed, and let go, and sat back. "If you really mean that you want to be alone, I'll go. But I don't think you do. I think you need a friend. More than you want to admit, probably."
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 4:51 pm
“She didn’t mean to…” the senshi whispered, feeling the cold biting her again when he had let go. She wanted the embrace back. She wanted to know that someone cared. But.
In a way it was good to know the truth and slowly, Kibirev pushed herself to her feet, stumbling for a moment before finding her balance. “…I don’t really…think I need anyone. My parents don’t like me anymore. My best friend hasn’t talked to me in months…I’m starting to really know my place…so just…don’t worry about me…”
She sniffled and turned her back on the male. “…Just…for real just…tell them I’m dead or something if they ask. I won’t…I won’t be a bother…” Her arms wrapped tightly around her own chest for a moment and then she broke into a run, diving head first when she saw the glint of a mirror nearby.
It didn’t matter so long as she got away.
It didn’t matter that she hated the mirrors. It didn’t matter that there was nothing in the Mirrorscape or in Mirrorspace for her now…
She would be alone regardless.
Being alone was just her state of being now.
Perhaps one day she would be used to it.
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