[IC] ANKL. Part 2

[Shamitako]

Arturia

 

It had been three weeks since the school trip and Arturia had spent most of them in the hospital, having gone home early due to her injuries. Kallisto had visited her partway through the hospital stay to help speed up Arturia's healing with her powers and apologize for not doing a better job of protecting her. At the end of the visit, the goddess had also given Arturia Lilith's home address, that was where Arturia was now.

 

Lilith's home was in Estheria, which was the nearest city to campus. It was an hour away by train, and since many of the students or their families lived there, OI provided train passes to all students. Those that lived in the dorms would often travel there on weekends, often just to get away from the school atmosphere.

 

Lilith lived in a quiet, well-kept suburban neighborhood. Her house was two stories tall with light blue siding and plenty of windows (though they seemed to all have closed curtains). In contrast to the extremely neat properties all around, Lilith's front lawn was getting a bit overgrown. The doorbell seemed to be broken, but there was a silver-color knocker suspended from the heavy-looking wooden door that was just waiting for Arturia to use it.

 

Esyllt and Platinum

 

After large school trips, there were often room reassignments. But due to the sheer number of them, they often took weeks or even months to complete. Both Platinum and Esyllt had known they were being transferred out of their rooms since they returned to them after the trip, but hadn't known which room they were being moved to until they were told to move there, which was what they were doing right now. They ran into each other in the hall outside the room they were both being transferred into, both lugging their belongings with them. Neither of them knew who they would be joining once they knocked on the door and went inside.

 

Kaede

 

Kaede was alone in her room. Arturia had gone into town for the day, and their previous roommate had abandoned ship as part of the multitude of room transfers occurring in the wake of the school trip. Their new roommate was supposed to be moving in soon, but they hadn't arrived yet. So Kaede was left alone to go about her business while she waited for a knock to come from the door.

 

Alva

 

As it turned out, that new roommate and her belongings were just outside that very door. Unlike Esyllt and Platinum, Alva knew exactly which room she was transferring into. She shared a few classes with their former roommate, and when she'd heard they were transferring out to escape Kaede, she'd volunteered to take their place. She hadn't seen Kaede since the trip, so Kaede was certain to be surprised when she saw that it was Alva who knocked on her door.

[Twinwolf]

Alva had been more than a little bit... rattled, by the whole shebang with Katja. Outwardly she seemed as cheerful as ever, but she tried to avoid being alone, when she could. At least, besides the couple of times she had intentionally tried to find a time to be alone in order to try out her powers. She hadn't 100% processed that she had magic powers in the first bit of time after the incident. When she'd tried it out about a week later, she'd half expected it to all turn out to be a dream. But no, it wasn't. She had awesome magical powers. ...Which mostly consisted of getting a cute green dress and basically turning herself into an ice sculpture, but that was a thousand percent cooler (no pun intended) than what she could do before that! 

 

She had tried to get in touch with Kaede and Riley as well, over the time that it had been. While she hadn't been able to get in touch with Kaede - completely different schedules, and she always seemed to be out on the weekend - she had managed to find Riley. Alva found her very... focused. Alva tried to be friendly, but she always seemed more focused on business. Except when Alva brought food. She was a fairly good cook, if she did say so herself, and she felt she owed Riley something for saving her there. Even if she didn't beat Katja, she'd been able to warn her against going with her, which was nearly as good in her books! Well, even then Riley seemed a bit quick to get on with it, but at least they managed some small talk while eating. They did some planning, for what to do about Katja - obviously, breaking the hourglass didn't work, so they figured the plan would be take the hourglass away without damaging it. Somehow. Work in progress. They also did some physical training, teaching Alva how to use her abilities and fight. She was certainly an enthusiastic student, as she tried to figure out what she could do with her ice, how to fight in close, and how to not break when something hits her in the wrong way. She wasn't a prodigy, but she was making progress!

 

Alva had been hearing about all the room swaps, but hadn't really expected the chance that had presented itself. She wasn't particularly attached to her current roommates, as they'd also been recently swapped into the room and seemed to find her sort of tiring with her endless energy, so she offered to swap with the girl who was trying to "escape" Kaede and this Arturia girl to save some time for the both of them. This is what led her to being outside the dorm room with her bags, cheerfully knocking on the door as she hummed a tune from a reasonably popular tv show.

[Chevaleresse]

Arturia was restless. Possibly more on edge, in general, than she'd been earlier when she was fighting for her life. Funny, that, but one was an immediate threat with a clear solution. Recovering in a hospital bed for weeks while trying to reconcile the fact that you'd been an atheist that scoffed at the idea of the gods with the fact that said gods actually existed and had probably heard you do so at least once and also worrying about some of said gods getting themselves offed or exploding or something was not exactly something that you could hit until it stopped being an issue. This being intermixed with more than one night consisting largely of mental self-abuse was not exactly the greatest time Arturia had ever had, but moving on to the present.

 

She stared at the door for a few moments. For some reason, she felt the much more mundane stress of being rather awkward when it came to social interactions, important purposes behind them notwithstanding. The circumstances under which she'd actually met Lilith were. . . unusual, to say the least, and truth be told she wasn't entirely certain what she was doing here. Still, standing here wasn't exactly productive. She reached up to the knocker and rapped the door with it three times. 

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

For the most part, Platinum was able to easily get back into focus on school, keeping track of what she needed to learn and do to keep moving forward. It was rather chaotic still, after the entire trip, and Platinum still couldn’t go long without thinking about something about that trip, even after several weeks had gone by, but she was making due.

 

Of course, even with the refocusing back on her school work, Platinum wasn’t entirely free of distractions concerning that trip. She found herself researching more about the “goddesses”, since she was never too keen on looking up on them before, and with everything that happened, she needed to make sure there was… Some truth, at the very least. She couldn’t really tell, at this point, if there was a relation, but perhaps in the future she’d figure something out. Platinum even had checked up on Aislin several times in the past few weeks, making sure she was doing fine, if only because of the floating/burning girl’s warnings.

 

But, school life managed to interrupt her workings on figuring everything out, and she now had to move through the building’s halls, moving her belongings to a new dorm. It had taken a while, and for the most part, Platinum had no idea where she was even moving to until recently.

 

For the most part though, Platinum didn’t exactly care much as she picked up her pace and turned the corner… Only to ram right into a blonde haired girl before she could react, practically bouncing off of her harmlessly, due to her small stature. Though, thankfully, she was able to get her footing extremely quickly, a brief look of annoyance passing by her face as she looked up at the other girl, before fading just as quickly, “My apologies” she stated, though made no other move, at the current moment.

 

Last time she’d arbitrarily speed up.
 

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede

Kaede sat on her bed all alone in a room. Not a sound, nothing. Silence was her only company for the time being. She didn't much mind that however. She prefered silence to most people and was glad her other roommate had finally transferred out. Since Arturia was gone if that girl was here things... probably wouldn't be pretty. There'd been trouble in the past before. Verbal... physical perhaps even when she was left alone without Arturia to stick up for her. Many a third roomate rotated out of this room. They never stayed long. lt was well known around the school as a bad omen to be the one transferred to this room.

There was plenty of stories about it, many claiming her to be a witch, a demon... and many other unspeakable things. That to be stuck in there would cause madness, that she'd eat your soul trying to fix her own. That she'd drive people to suffer, to commit acts of sin for her own amusment. The rumors were quite varied and creative. They reminded her of some of the fantasy she read, the stories that she used to pass the time. But, they always cast her as the villian. She never got to be a hero in anyone's eyes. Kaede had tried on many occasion to change the narrative herself, but it never worked. Each and everytime something would scare them away. Her presence... or perhaps just the looming of the stories about her always drove that person away. Some would be outright hostile to her. Trying to cause her physical harm. Others, suffered more inwardly and caused harm to themselves, some permenant harm. At some point, she stopped really trying. She didn't really know when it was all a haze of grey. She couldn't help but think about all this as yet another cycle was to begin, yet another person that would leave this room stark raving mad to get out of here... or would choose some permenant method to get out.

She decided to get her mind off of things by thinking about something else, but... what could she do to distract herself? She could read through one of the books in her library, but she wasn't interested in that at the moment. She didn't feel like moving fromher spot to grab one of the dusty books from the bookcase that stood against the wall. lnstead she retreated into a different place in her mind. There was a world in there that she could hide in. One that she had been piecing together ever since she was small. Though, she supposed perhaps given recent circumstance... maybe her small world wasn't all that different. She had a power now, an ability. Magic perhaps. Goddesses existed, they truly did if Eden was to be believed. Kaede really saw no reason not to. lt was during this musing that the knock at the door came. Kaede immediately jumped at the sound. She had dreaded it's coming. 

Though the inital feeling quickly passed whatever it had been. Whoever this was Kaede had to accepet fate that she was stuck with them for a time. Despite starting at the sound her mind didn't really process that she needed to go up and answer the door however. She usually let Arturia do this, and had to remind herself that Arturia wasn't currently present. She got up, brushing off her skirt, more out of reflex to waste time than for a real reason. She walkedover to the door and cracked it open slightly only really asmall protion of her becoming visible and one deep blue eye peering out into the hall. She wasn't going to say anything at all and just leave the door open... until she saw who was standing there. "Alva...?"

[Shamitako]

Lilith

 

The door stayed shut just long enough for Arturia to wonder if anyone was home, but was finally answered by Lilith. "Arturia! What are you doing here?" She initially seemed excited, but with each word she shifted away from cheerful to suspicious, the final part of her question being accompanied by a suspicious glance over Arturia's shoulder. She looked at Arturia's face for what felt like ages, though their eyes never met, before finally seeming to accept that Arturia had no ulterior motive. "Come in." Her tone still held a hint of caution, but she seemed to mostly be happy that Arturia was there.

 

The inside of the house was almost completely dark, so Arturia struggled to tell where she was until her eyes adjusted, by which point they had arrived at their destination. Lilith sat down at the kitchen table, next to what seemed to be the only open window in the entire house. There was small stack of books on the table, and one was laying open in front of Lilith's seat. Though they were hard to make out in the dim light, Arturia could recognize some of the titles as part of a fantasy series she had read. Lilith very much looked like she wanted to keep reading her book, and didn't seem to know how to interact with Arturia. It was very apparent that she rarely had friends over, if she had ever done so before at all.

[Twinwolf]

Alva interrupted her humming as she saw the door open a crack, and a pretty blue eye peeked out. She leaned in, peeking on the same level as Kaede was, eye meeting eye again. "Oh hey, Kaede! I was sort of worried nobody would be here and I'd be locked out or something! Do you mind if I come in? You're not naked or something right?" Alva was her normal high-energy self, and if Kaede could recognize such in her tone might be able to guess she was happy to see her. 

 

Once Kaede stepped back, Alva opened the door and went for a hug, leaving her bags in the hall for the moment. "It's good to see you! I've been trying to find you for weeks now, but we don't share any classes and you weren't around on the weekends, so it never seemed to work. Sorry if I worried you!" she said, stepping back and smiling. "It won't be a problem anymore though! I heard your old roommate transferred out?" she stepped aside to let Kaede see her bags. 

 

...It occured to her she may be doing too much too fast. "...Uh, assuming you and your other roommate don't mind much..." she coughed, and did a curtsy. "I'll be staying here from now on!" Yeah, that's way more polite. Definitely. 

 

Alva was glad to see Kaede, for sure - another person who knew what had happened. Another person who'd saved her. Another person she wanted to talk to more. And she was a little worried about her, to be honest. She didn't seem entirely ok, from their conversation before Katja had come for her. She wasn't sure she could help, but maybe another friend would be nice for her?

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede

Kaede couldn't process hurricane Alva with how fast she was zipping about. This amount of energy was not something that Kaede herself possessed, and to her she wasn't sure how any human could. But here she was now. Suddenly that door was open Alva had definitely invited herself in, and was definitely...touching her. She wasn't really sure what this was, but it felt... warm. lt didn't feel like she was trying to harm her or cause her discomfort so Kaede just silently accepted it. Her arms sort of just hung at her sides however as she didn't really understand what was happening. 

Kaede wasn't really sure how to respond though, she hadn't really been expecting this possiblity so she was just standing there staring at Alva.

[Chevaleresse]

"Hey, Lilith." The house being this dark was. . . unusual, but given who she was talking to, darkness was not exactly a shocking thing to encounter. "I just wanted to check if you were doing alright." She tried to avoid poking at her own ribs. "Well, not the only thing, but, uh. . ." By Nayru's left nipple this was awkward. "A lot of stuff happened last time we ran into each other, heh." An awkward laugh, one that wasn't exactly uncommon to hear from Arturia. "I wanted to make sure you weren't hurt or anything, first of all. Or, if you were, that you'd gotten better."

[Twinwolf]

Alva at first didn't notice that Kaede was sort of... stunned. She had begun to bring her bags in when she caught Kaede staring at her blankly. She paused in her constant rush. "Uh, Kaede? Are you alright? I'm, uh, sorry about how sudden this is. I wanted to tell you ahead of time but like I said I couldn't find you..." Maybe Alva had misinterpreted them being friends after that whole shebang? She hoped she hadn't... "I could... go back outside and knock again? Then maybe do it properly?" she suggested, not really knowing what was wrong and trying to figure it out as she waited for a response. 

[Shamitako]

Lilith

 

Lilith seemed relieved that Arturia had started a conversation for her, and replied, "I was just scratched up, I got a pretty nasty bruise on my arm but that was the worst of it. The doctors bandaged me up after they took you away and then sent me back to my cabin to rest." Her speech was a little halted, it was painful for her to recall. Physically she'd been rather miraculously okay, but mentally she still hadn't recovered from the ordeal. She was still distrusting of Arturia, she could never bring herself to trust anyone who showed her kindness. Yet at the same time, Arturia had risked her own life to save Lilith, and that made Lilith feel a lot safer with Arturia around. It was almost like having a big sister, Lilith had always wanted a big sister.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

She finally snapped back to reality after that last statement as she caught up, this was a lot to handle for Kaede. She was prepared for the new roommate to want nothing to do with her, not... what was happening now. ln fact she was... rather not used to talking to people in general that weren't Arturia or her mentor. "No, that's okay. l'm not accustomed to answering the door. lt...has been a lot to process." Was this a common greeting? lt couldn't have been if past roommates were any indication. However they probably weren't typical for anyone but her. This never really seemed to happen when Arturia opened the door so... perhaps this was special?  Kaede was more than a bit lost on this whole situation.

"l'm sure Arturia will be fine with your arrival, but she isn't here right now. She had business to attend to in the city. Even if she didn't transferrals are absolute for a time so she'd have no more choice than l do." she threw out remembering that Alva had asked the question. She quickly realized though she probably made it sound like she was stuck with Alva espcially given her typical flat tone of voice. Perhaps all her talks with Arturia were helping her realie at least in part to pay more attention to how she was coming across. "l'm...happy to see you though. l hope you're here longer than the others that have come before." she still didn't really get what happiness was at least not truly. But, she had been surprised by her presence and she didn't feelany of the darker colours, the negative ones, rising to the surface. That left only light colours. Happiness was probably part of what she was feeling, so she wasn't lying.

[Twinwolf]

Alva let out a sigh of relief. "Ah, that's good... I was worried I'd messed up..." she said, dragging her things to whichever bed seemed like it was unoccupied and sitting down. "Uh... explanation, your old roommate was talking about transferring in my class and I wanted to talk with you more anyway and..." she made a vague 'things happened' sort of gesture. "And now I'm here! How've you been? It's been three weeks and all, so I was wondering." She began unpacking her things as she talked, starting with some clothes. She did not immediately broach the subject of what happened at the camp though. Not the sort of thing you jump into.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede remained standing in the middle of the room for the time being as Alva made herself comfortable. She pondered the question for a moment. Only really Arturia ever asked her something of the sort. Most others didn't really care to ask her such things. She still really never understood how to answer this question though. She went with the typical answer like she usually did. "l've been fine." She just conintued standing in the middle of the room, lifelessly looking somewhere in the distance. She was a life sized doll, or would seem to be if one wasn't paying attention with how little she was moving. The only true signs of life were the minascule rise and fall of her chest from her breathing and her eyes blinking passively. She took her left hand in her right and placed them in her lap as she stood there silently.

[Twinwolf]

Alva nodded. That was good, that was good... "So... if you don't mind me asking, what's your roommate like? I think I've seen Arturia around but I've not really had the chance to talk to her."  She'd mostly come since she'd wanted to be a bit closer to Kaede, but she would also need to get to know her other roommate now, and that was always fun. 

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede didn't seem to stir much if at all when Alva had asked about Arturia. As a result it remained quiet for a time silence creeping back into the room as the blue haired girl pondered. What was she like? What was an important to mention here? Kaede found herself wishing Arturia was here so that she could introduce herself rather than her having to figure this out, but she couldn't really just stand here and say nothing. Well she could she supposed but it'd only contribute to how strange things were going already. "She's... nice." was all that she said at first.

"To me." Kaede indicated towards herself with her hands before folding her arms back together and placing them in her lap once more. She wasn't sure why she made this gesture. She continued "Not a lot of people are." She slowly drifted over towards the bookcase that stood towards the edge of the room close to her own bed. She walked without a thought as if instinct carried her. She floated as if through a dream, her bare feet landing softly on the floor not making a sound. "Many of these books she gave to me or were ones that she had shared with me once and l found a copy for myself. This is my library... lt's the only possession l care about."

[Chevaleresse]

"That's good to hear." Arturia squinted a bit at the shelves, after which her expression brightened slightly. She recognized quite a few of them; it wasn't her favorite series, but wasn't nearly her least favorite either. It was good that she apparently had something in common with the girl. Still, she had things to do other than chat about books, unfortunately. "You know, if you need to like. . . talk about what happened that day, you can always get a hold of me. I'm never really busy and I wouldn't mind listening." A part of her felt slightly guilty; she did genuinely want to help, but she was also trying to approach the subject without bluntly questioning her about it.

[Twinwolf]

Alva nodded, thinking about that as she continued to unpack. It was a strange conversation, to be sure. Not quite the strangest she'd had in her life. That honor belonged to three weeks ago. Still, Kaede was certainly no less mysterious than she had been last time. "She sounds like a great friend. I'll be happy to meet her when she gets back!" Alva said, retaining her cheer. "I think it's good you have a friend like that. Always nice." she said. 

 

When the conversation lulled again, Alva took a breath. Well, no more dancing around it. "...So, what are your thoughts about what... happened, a few weeks back?" she said quietly. "During the trip I mean."

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede had been touching the spines of the books and tracing the titles with her finger. She was listlessly doing this without a real second thought. The books of course reminded her of Arturia and she was feeling a bit... lonely without her around. She had for but a moment forgotten Alva was present. She had picked a book from the shelf and was holding it in her hand when Alva asked her about what had happened. lt crashed to the floor with deafening crack, a thunderous roar.  The question had caught her off-guard. She quickly moved to place it back on the shelf. She didn't make eye contact with Alva as she was speaking just conintuing to stare at the books. "l don't really know. l haven't thought about it much if at all. lt feels like... like..." she was clearly struggling to find the words. She frantically wracked her mind as she attempting to put it to word to make it understandable to another that wasn't her.

"lt's black... pitch. Tar. Suffocating. As if it fills the lungs with an inky blackness. lt's hard to breathe when l think about it. l... you shouldn't have to share a curse. Not with a doll, not with someone inhuman. lt was fate for the doll,  life as it was meant to be, as it was ordained by the infinite. Curses shatter wings, the feathers unable to bear the weight of hexes, cruel and malignant. You shouldn't have to bear one." she sighed deeply, unsure if she was spouting nonsense or not. lf Alva would understand any of that which she said. "But it would seem that the loom of fate has woven you a cruel destiny. l suppose all born under this sky are ordained to suffer. One way or another... Their wings to never truly allow flight."

[Stalkerkain]

Esyllt

 

Esyllt's mind wandered off, the events of the school trip three weeks ago still lingering on her mind. No matter how much she tried to forget, the strange events that unfolded kept replaying themselves in her head. The only way she could get any answers would be to flag down Riley, but that proved to be a difficult task as well; she hadn't been able to flag down the girl ever since the trip. Not to mention that living in a dorm provided almost little to no privacy. The last thing she needed was for a passerby to eavesdrop and gossip about Esyllt's (lack of) sanity. The same concerns applied to her ability to transform. No matter how curious she was about it, there was no way for her to reliably test its properties. At the very least, she wasn't accidentally transforming at the drop of a hat.

 

She was barely disrupted from her thoughts, when a small but familiar girl had bumped into her. She put aside her thoughts for the time being, and greeted the girl with a warm smile.

 

"My my, it seems that we've crossed paths once more," she said innocently. For the most part, she was glad that it was Platinum, as opposed to any of the other girls whom she had been involved with during the school trip's unpredictable events. She had little hopes for a chance at normalcy for the rest of time, but one could dream. "I take it you being here means that you've also been assigned to this room?"

[Twinwolf]

Alva sat quietly for a bit, listening and thinking. She could... sort of get what Kaede was saying, even if she was being more than a bit poetic about it rather than straight talk. A cruel destiny, a curse, it's not hard to decipher that sort of language. What was harder was that Kaede seemed to be referring to herself as a doll. Which actually had sort of fit what she was doing earlier but as far as Alva was aware Kaede was not in fact a doll. "...It could be worse." she said, with a bit of a smile towards Kaede. "You and Riley and that girl saved me from something really bad. I don't really believe in fate, but if it does exist, mine could have been so much worse. And I'm not alone, too, I have friends. So, if even if it's a curse, it can't be that bad, can it?" 

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Kaede wasn't really sure how to answer that question... friends were a bit of a new subject for her. Though, she had been friends with Arturia for awhile she still didn't truly understand the social contract. This was probably fair given her absolute lack of practice on the matter. Were they important enough that they could placate fate? Could they hold the weight of a curse, ease the burden? She wasn't really sure. She did now however that something drove her to protect Alva that day, to protect her from that fate. Perhaps fate wasn't as ordained as she thought. Alva lived, and further, she had helped at least in some part kept her from Katja's clutches. That other girl had been the one to truly save them but... she still felt as she did something despite being truly helpless in breaking that loop in time, whatever that hourglass was. 

"l suppose. However, that curse still exists. l doubt that she'll ever stop, those she works for ever will... l don't know if l can protect you forever. Whatever this power that l have is l barely understand it. All l know is it is a reflection of myself. Further l...don't understand "friends". ls, that really strong enough... is it truly something that can lighten that of a curse? l suppose, l feel better when Arturia is present but l don't know if that makes the burden any easier. Perhaps..."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Platinum

 

For a second, a brief look of confusion passed over Platinum’s face, wondering what Esyllt was talking about, not remember who she was… Before her thoughts went back to the camp trip. Esyllt, the girl who had been the head of their specific cabin. Right. How she had forgotten that was beyond her. Then again, with everything that went down, she probably lost track of a dozen small things.

 

At Esyllt’s question, Platinum looked at the dorms door, then back at Esyllt, “It appears so. I’m not sure if I should be surprised at the fact that we’re sharing a room with each other again” she stated, before turning to the door and doing a brief knock on it. Someone could still be moving out, so it was mostly best that she give them a heads up before heading inside.
 

[Twinwolf]

Alva nodded. "I think having friends always helps. To use your words, it lightens the burden. If it's a good friend then even if they can't help with what you're doing, just talking can make you feel better about things, and that's definitely worth a lot in my books!" Alva said cheerfully. After a few more moments, she moved on with the conversation. "I've talked with Riley some, we've been trying to figure out how my powers work and getting a plan for how we're going to deal with her if she shows up again. Maybe we could invite her here sometime when Arturia's out again and talk about it all together? ...And probably the other one... Esyllt, that was it. She was there too so it might be worth asking her?"

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

"l...l'd prefer the least people as possible." Kaede said. She finally sat on the corner of her bed instead of just hovering about her bookcase. Kaede was a bit apprehensive to believe Alva at face value in that sense. She wasn't sure that friendship was as strong a force as she had claimed. lt'd sounded but a temporary succor to her. Regardless, people weren't keen on being friends with her in the first place, so she doubted it was a power that she could really tap into all that much even if she did believe in that. Arturia was an expection, one she was... happy existed or as happy as she could feel anyway. She trusted Riley more than not at all now. She had proven herself in part now, but she wasn't sure she could give her all of her trust even now.

"People aren't often willing to be around me. l'd rather not invite many into my space. Riley maybe...but no more please." there was little emotion ever present in Kaede's voice, however despite this Alva would know that she was adamant on this and wouldn't budge.