debut: Elphaba

[no_good_deed]

"Fiyero?"

The word echoed around the room in a wholly unsettling way - this was not Kiamo Ko, nor was it any place Elphaba had ever seen before in her life. It had the cold, unsettling feel of some of the clockwork alleys she had peeked down in the Emerald City, but there was nothing green here. Well, except for her.

Pacing solved nothing, nor did her attempts to force her way past the invisible door trapping her inside. The words that usually sprang more or less fully-formed to her lips were shy here, refusing to issue forth no matter how hard she probed for them, and eventually she had to concede defeat. Tucking her knees to her chest she sat and waited, a deep and unsettling gnawing in the pit of her stomach. This had to be the work of the Wizard, she just knew it.

***

When she was suddenly transported out of the cell Elphaba thought at first that perhaps Glinda had found her, rescued her, but there was no sign of the bubbly blonde in the wide-open room where she was. More chicanery from the Wizard, then, most likely.

She hadn't gotten far in her investigations before a noise to one side startled her, and she turned to glare in its general direction, wary of tricks and illusions.

"Show yourself," she said flatly. "I know you're there."

Comments

[no_good_deed]

"'Us'? Who else is here?" Elphaba demanded. She obviously had no problem peppering him with questions, though she seemed less than forthcoming with information herself.

[theycallmecap]

Steve, for his part, had no problem answering them. They had all gone through the disorientation and the defiance of being teleported on board. He had wanted answers, too.

So he was glad to give them, now, although he wished they were better answers.

"There's about thirty of us," he explains. "From - all sorts of worlds, crazy as that may sound."

[no_good_deed]

She didn't look too shocked, all things considered, though she also didn't look particularly pleased by this information. "And what is this? Some sort of prison for political dissenters? A magical gulag? What?"

[theycallmecap]

"Not magical, as far as we know," Steve answers, but the 'how' really isn't his area of expertise, and the 'why', nobody can actually ascertain. "But we have no idea what it's for, or why we're here." Since she doesn't seem too shellshocked, he even gives her the whole truth. "The welcome announcement you saw in quarantine, that's all we have. Sometimes we're given missions. Sometimes our lives are put in danger. We can never predict what's coming next - and we've been trying."

[no_good_deed]

So they were prisoners, of a sort. It all sounded too strange to believe, but Elphaba had long since learned there were some things that couldn't be explained. "I see. So you're just... stuck here. Waiting."

[theycallmecap]

"Unfortunately," Steve confirms, nodding. "We've tried a lot of things, but nothing's been very efficient so far." He pauses, and, "So what is your name?"

[no_good_deed]

This gave her pause. "You mean you don't know who I am?"

[theycallmecap]

"Sorry," Steve confirmed with a shake of his head. "We're probably from different worlds. There aren't any green people in mine." A beat. "That I know of."

He hadn't known about Rae before meeting her here, after all.

[no_good_deed]

"There aren't any in mine, either," she told him with an almost-smirk. "Except me. Elphaba." She hesitated, then gave him a short nod, which seemed to be about as close to a handshake as he was going to get.

[theycallmecap]

"It's nice to meet you, Elphaba," Steve told her with a warm smile, and a nod in return. He was curious about why she was the only green-skinned woman in her world, but he felt as if asking more general questions might actually get him more answers. "Is your world an Earth?"

[no_good_deed]

"I don't know what that is," she stated, shaking her head. "I'm from Oz - I was in Kiamo Ko before I woke up here. Do you know where that is?"

[theycallmecap]

Oz - and just like that, it clicked. "You're from -" He stopped himself before saying the movie title. "Are you a witch, by any chance?"

[no_good_deed]

And there it was. "Yes, and just you remember that," she told him sharply, suddenly wary. Nevermind that her ability seemed to have completely abandoned her; if he knew who she was then perhaps he'd be intimidated by reputation alone.

[theycallmecap]

"I will," Steve assured her, but it was not in acknowledgement of the threat woven into her words. Instead, it was acknowledgement of the skill set she was bringing to their little party. "We're all in this together," he added, hopeful that she would eventually see that, although probably not right away. There was no reason she should trust him straight away, and given who she seemed to be, she probably didn't trust easily.

Elphaba. Steve couldn't remember her having a name, in the movie.

[no_good_deed]

Together. Somehow Elphaba felt a distinct lack of comraderie with this coterie of heretofore unseen and unnamed prisoners. It took more than a shared environment to make a 'together', that much she knew.

"Well. Thank you for the pep talk. I'm sure everybody else will be just as welcoming as you have been," she said dryly, not believing that for a second.

[theycallmecap]

Steve might not be the most well-versed in sarcasm, but it would have been impossible not to hear Elphaba's dry tone. However, he was very well-versed in ignoring sarcasm in favor of meaning. "Nobody should give you any trouble. If they do..."

He trailed off, as he realized that telling the Wicked Witch of the West to come and find him if she got bullied was ridiculous, even for him.

"Please don't do anything rash," he finished, instead. He didn't know how much magic she had left, but he trusted that she had some.

[no_good_deed]

Stick a golden-blonde wig on him and he might as well have been Glinda, for all his well-meaning and platitudes. 'Please don't do anything rash', indeed.

"I'll do what I must to protect myself," she told him then, chin high. "People will learn quickly enough." It wasn't that she wanted to start off in an adversarial position, but it seemed to be the role that came naturally to her, and she was tired of fighting it.

[theycallmecap]

"So will you," Steve answered, without making it sound like a threat. On the contrary, he sounded as if he wished that she wouldn't be in the position to learn. He would be sorry.