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

[born_guilty]

Mystique considers her for a second, frowning. Elphaba doesn't even blink at the joke, isn't phased by it in the least, and instead is staring at her, at her skin, like Raven might be contagious or something.

Or maybe that look means something else.

"It's a great ability to have," she says after a beat, casually. "'Cause in my world, if I'd been blue without it? I wouldn't have made it out of primary school alive."

She has no idea if there are other green people in Oz, but everything about Elphaba's mannerisms and body language say: outsider. It's a decent guess.

[no_good_deed]

And one that's right on the money, given the other woman's reaction to this revelation. Elphaba's face betrays sympathy and remembered fear, and no small amount of envy - ironic, perhaps, given the colour of her skin.

"Well. Count yourself lucky, I suppose," she says shortly. Not everybody had that luxury.

[born_guilty]

"I do," she admits, and for the first time since they started talking, for just a moment, Raven looks entirely on the level.

"...see you around, Green." Turning, she heads back out the door.