(no subject)

[frozenfractalsallaround]

Who| Elsa & Shepard and an OPEN Prompt
What| Elsa asks Shepard for help | Elsa makes tea
Where| Shepard's room | The kitchens
When| Present
Warnings/Notes| N/A

[Elsa & Shepard]

It isn't exactly with enthusiasm that Elsa has decided to seek Shepard out for additional training. Her previous encounters with the woman were less than stellar, and she found Shepard's personality a bit at odds with her own. But she can't deny that Shepard has experience and the ability to teach it well. After her recent experience in the arena, she thinks the time has come for her to stop running away from her problems and seek a more proactive way of dealing with them.

She's tired of running away from her powers. She's tired of constantly being afraid of hurting people. Elsa's had it hammered into her head several times since getting here that running isn't going to help anyone. As nice and helpful as everyone has been, she also thinks that Shepard is that rough, pushy instructor that she needs to get her ass in gear and make a change. Shepard won't coddle her. That's what she needs, and as intimidating as it's going to be, she's confident that it's the right decision.

So there Elsa is, stopping in front of Shepard's door. She hopes that the woman is in and not busy or anything. She didn't exactly call ahead to make sure it was okay to visit. Either way, she reaches out and gives a few knocks before stepping back to wait, hands clasped in front of her, shoulders straight. It's obvious she's trying a little too hard to look calm and composed, as she mostly looks rigid and cold.]

[OPEN]

[Later on, Elsa can be found in the kitchen, quietly making a cup of the tea that helps with sleeping. Ever since the previous mini arena, she's been dealing with nightmares more frequently. They mostly consist of repeating her death over and over. The painful way she had been crushed to death saving Harley has her really shaken up. She'd went into it thinking she would have died forever, yet she'd woken up all the same. It's been hard to sleep since then.

She also hasn't been out of her room that much, either. It left her shaken up and in need of some alone time, so this might be the first time anyone's seen her out and about since then. Thankfully, the anti-socialness is fading away and she finds it isn't quite so bad to be around people again. She's even humming quietly to herself as she finishes making the cup and moves over to a bar stool, so that she can sit down and sip her tea.]

Comments

[frozenfractalsallaround]

While Elsa could appreciate the gesture, a part of her found it painful to think of home. Her eyes drifted shut as she thought back to it, eyebrows furrowing a little as she recalled her last memory of being in Arendelle.

"Home is... far away," she said. "But it's... nice. I guess." It was hard to think of anything positive to say about it, when her last memory was of fear. "The mountains were beautiful, though... They were quiet and snowy. My favorite kind of place."

[polyturtle]

"Ah." Don looked down. "Same with my home, in a matter of speaking. It existed in this world, but its long gone now. Not many mountains, and not a lot of snow. Just a sea of metal skyscrapers and sewer systems."

A pause.

"Home was an old, abandoned water pump station in Central Park. Before that, we lived fully in the sewer."

[frozenfractalsallaround]

Elsa realized a moment later that her look of surprise was probably tactless. She quickly turned it to an expression that was as neutral as possible. "A... a sewer," she said. "That couldn't have been comfortable- could it?" Her eyebrows furrowed in concern. "I mean, even for a turtle... That just sounds dirty and depressing- no offense." The last thing she wanted to do was offend him, but it was hard not to be put off by the idea of living in a sewer.

[polyturtle]

"And smelly." He smiled at this. In other words, he didn't take any offense; mainly because it was true, the sewers were pretty dirty. "But we made it our home for most of my life. Its not too bad, once you figure how to adapt. You'd be surprised at the kinds of things that people would throw away."

He stirred his coffee.

"And not every place had sewage. Or, they had very little or clean water tunnels. There were abandoned tunnels and subway stations and even basements that no one had touched or remembered for decades - you could move right in, and just bring in furniture you found thrown out topside. That was the great thing about the New York sewers - you could have started your own underground city if you wanted and no one above would have been any the wiser."

And some people did, even before New York was a thing. Though whether that was a good thing or not was another thing, of course.

"Besides...not many people are...welcoming to the idea of giant mutant rats and turtles and alligators living anywhere in their city, even if New York's got a running joke about normal sewer rats being giant mutants. Some people are accepting of us, and those people have become our best friends, but most are liable to either run away or start attacking us."