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The Magic Box, Wednesday

Mummies wandering around outside? Flying, undead fish? Creatures that insisted up and down that they were trolls, even if Elsa totally knew better, thank you? Bears?

It was going to take more than that to keep Elsa from coming in to work today, island. One never knew if there were people around who were going to need a healthy supply of rat teeth or fairy earwax, and for some reason, there even seemed to be a few live chickens near the back of the store today. Elsa wasn't entirely certain if they were meant to be for spells or for dinosaur bait, but she gave them a few pieces of magic corn (guaranteed to make your reindeer fly) and let them be.

And if she was tending the counter today while wearing armor, with a rapier made of ice sitting just within reach? Well, that was just in case any of the Vikings that were wandering about decided to come in with any funny ideas. They brought their own alcohol in and tended to get a little rowdy around the spices.

[OOC: Open, but OCD-Free. Elsa's from whatever AU this fanart came from, because it is freaking fantastic, and I might or might not vanish at some point if the snowpocalypse knocks out my power.]

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And there was a whirlwind of a little girl, clad in pink tutu and flowery knee-high socks bouncing into the shop. Her tutu was splattered with blood and things... less pleasant than blood, and she carried a gun in one hand like she knew how to use it.

(Because she did.)

"Elsa! Hi!" she said, peering out the door before shutting it and turning to see Elsa. "There's flying fish and monsters and Sparkle said--Oooooooooh! Your armour is so pretty!"

"Amelia!" Elsa smiled as she set down a magic book she'd been flipping through, crouching down a little to get more on the little girl's level. "Thank you very much! And you're dressed in quite lovely clothing today, yourself. Have you been out battling the monsters?"

It really looked like it. It looked as though she wasn't hurt, as well, which was even more important.

"I have been," she said, looking pleased with herself. "Sparkle said I can't, but I can."

Amelia never took very well to the word 'no', unless she was the one saying it.

"None of them give money though, which is weird." She shrugged a little. "Have you been fighting?"

Oh dear.

"I have been," Elsa replied, "for a little while, yesterday and today. But I have to be here to work for a lot of today, so I'm not able to get out there quite as much as I would like."

She hesitated for a moment before adding, "Sparkle doesn't know you're out here, then? He must be worried sick."

Not in the least bit because of the dinosaurs.

Amelia considered that thoughtfully.

"He should know where I am," she ventured, after a moment. "We argued about my going out and he said no, but then he left me by myself, so I went."

Sparkle had probably had to go pee. Sparkle was probably regretting that.

"But that means he knows where I am."

Her logic was impeccable. … Right?

Well, at least it was a consistent sort of logic. Elsa wrinkled her nose a little, not completely convinced, however.

"He knows you're outside," she allowed, "though he has no way of knowing whether or not you're safe. And there's a lot of 'outside,' as well. You've wandered a pretty long way from the dorms."

"I survived for months in a ruin with more monsters than this," Amelia said sulkily. Elsa was being no fun. "I told him that and he didn't care. And see, I'm fine!"

She was! A little bloody but it wasn't her blood!

"I'll go back when it gets dark out."

"I can see you're fine," Elsa noted, gently. "But he can't. And you're an extraordinary little girl, and I'm certain he knows that, but if he cares about you, he's going to be worried regardless."

Elsa looked outside, and then offered Amelia a tiny smile.

"Do you know how to make the phone work? You could call him, and tell him you're safe, and that you're not alone right now. And then if you want to fight more monsters, you and I could set out together?"

Like a proper grinding party!

Those were the best parties!

"I don't understand why he's worried," she said, heaving a sigh. The sad thing was, Amelia really, really didn't. "But I guess I could call him, if we're going fighting after."

"It's a very human thing, to worry about the people we care about," Elsa offered softly. "Give him a call and put his mind at ease, Amelia. And then we'll get something to eat and go and take down a few more monsters. How does that sound?"

Because Elsa still had yet to take lunch, and there had to be some sort of restaurant with employees crazy enough to open, around here.

"That sounds okay," she said, after a pause. Amelia went up on her toes to look around. "Where's the phone?"

It wasn't like she had one of her own!

"And I know about worrying for people," she continued. "But I'm not in danger out here. I'd be worried if he went out, because he can't fight, but I can. So I don't get it."

"Right over here," Elsa said, leading her back to the counter. "Do you know his... his number? Or will we have to look in the book?"

Sparkle had probably insisted on giving her his number in case of emergencies, Elsa.

"And I'm certain he understands that you've taken care of yourself for a while," she added, offering her the receiver, "but there is a bit of a difference between the things he's seen you deal with, and what's running around out there."

... A bit of a difference, yes. Since the most scary thing he'd seen her deal with had been the warehouse and that hadn't been scary at all.

"I know it," Amelia said, rattling it off to prove that she did as she took the receiver. "He made me learn it."

Just in case.

"Good," Elsa decided, dialling in the number as Amelia recited it. "Probably partly for situations like these."

With the island being crazy. That sort of situation.

The phone rang... most of once, really, before there was a click on the other side and Sparkle's somewhat panicked voice spoke up.

"Amelia? Is this Amelia? If you're not Amelia have you seen Amelia?"

Yeah, he'd been maybe a bit worried.

"It's me," Amelia said simply, giving Elsa a doubtful look. "... Hi, Sparkle?"

It wasn't like she knew what to say, okay?

"Oh god it's you," Sparkle replied, letting out a held breath. "You're okay? Where are you?"

He was worried, dammit.

"You scared the crap out of me!"

Amelia bristled.

"I told you I would be fine and I am!" she said crossly.

"You are! And that's great! And don't you ever scare me like that again, dammit. I had no idea where the hell you went! You know I tried to go out looking? Got as far as Loon Drive before a frigging bear chased me back inside."

Because that was a stupid thing to do, Sparkle.

"Why would you do a stupid thing like that? You don't even own a gun!" Amelia said, appalled and upset. "You could have gotten hurt!"

"Because you're practically my little sister and I don't like the thought of you out there with things trying to eat you!"

Sparkle was right up there in 'appalled and upset' territory, too.

Elsa, meanwhile, was standing back with her hands clasped quietly in front of her, paying attention but trying not to be distracting. She could hear Sparkle's voice over the phone from there.

"They weren't going to eat me!" she said, voice rising. "I can take care of myself with monsters and you can't! I don't get why you're worried! And why you'd go out there when I said I'd be fine!"

Elsa? Being toootally ignored here.

Yeah, Elsa was going to just pull up a seat. This could be a while.

"Because I can't help worrying! Because you're still a kid and kids shouldn't feel like they have to run around killing monsters and I know you just want to help with money and taking care of the danger but you're out there looking for trouble and you don't have to be!"

Poor Velcro. Sparkle was clinging to the cat like a limpet, now. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down.

"Because they can't hurt you in here, and out there they might, and I know you think you're invincible but horrible shit happens to people with insane skills all the time and I don't want to risk losing somebody else I care about when there's no need for it to happen."

"You don't trust me!" she shouted, furious and hurt and red in the face. "Daddy trusted me with way more and now I can't do anything and I want to, I want to, I want to!"

Well. That was... well.

Elsa was... going to put on some tea.

Tea was always the answer.

"I trusted you until you ran off behind my back, leaving me to worry," Sparkle countered. "I'm not questioning your skills, I'm questioning this place. Have you even found any money out there? This place is screwed up, Amelia! It's not like the place you came from. It's not like the place anyone here came from, and running out into a fight when you don't know your enemy is how you end up hurt!"

At least that much was common sense. Sparkle was thankful that he had a role model like Hannibal to demonstrate erring on the side of caution so many times to him in the past.

"But I'm not hurt!" she insisted truthfully. "And I told you where I was going! But you didn't listen, so I went anyway!"

So there!

"I've been through worse and this is nothing and you haven't trusted me at all since the beginning!"

"I let you point a gun at me and I still came back! That's trust," Sparkle protested, a little desperately now. "I'm just worried, okay? I know you're not hurt, but why chance it?"

"Because I'm good enough to do it," she said angrily. "And because you don't trust me! You don't talk to Carla anymore and don't apply to university and when I called Carla no one answered! Where'd she go? And you say you don't have parents now, but you did! I was going to meet them! You were excited! And I don't understand why it changed! And now you can't help me with my maths and you never told me what made you clingy and sad and now you seem angrier, and I can't even go out and do what I'm good at doing!"

She swallowed, trying hard not to cry.

"So you don't trust me! You're lying all the time! And I, I l-love you but I can take care of myself and I don't like being lied to! I can do this! So I'm gonna, because it's the truth!"

Her logic was a bit shaky, but her feelings weren't,

"I--" Well. That hit Sparkle like a punch to the heart. "Carla is... I haven't talked to her in... it's complicated."

He hadn't seen or heard from his sister since he was six. And now some other him apparently talked to her all the time. Amelia had spoken to his sister more recently than he had.

"It's all complicated. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Amelia. I just... I want to explain it all but none of it has anything to do with trust." He wasn't going to cry on the phone. He wasn't going to cry on the fucking phone. "I love you too, kiddo. I'm just afraid right now. Everything keeps changing and I'm doing the best I can and please, please come home?"

"You talked to Carla a week ago! I fell asleep while you were singing something to her! She was laughing."

Amelia sniffled.

"I want to go home! I want Mama!" But Mama was dead and had been for most of a year now, even before she'd lost Elena and Daddy too. And now Sparkle was lying to her. "And, and, I want you to make sense and I don't understand and it makes me sad and I don't like any of this!"

"Sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry..." Fuck. Fuck, he was trying and he had no idea who this other him was supposed to be but he was obviously so much better for her than he was, obviously he could give her so much more than he could and who the hell had he been fooling thinking that he could be good for her? "I'll be better, I promise, if you want me to help you with math I can learn and I can try to make sense, I want to make sense, I'm trying but everything is so fff--reaking messed up and I'm sorry!"

Amelia swiped at her eyes, trying not to just give up and burst into tears.

"I ju-just want you to trust me and you don't!"

Everything else was weird and confusing and she get any of it, but that was what hurt the most.

Edited 2014-03-29 00:33 (UTC)

"Please just come back? Amelia, I'll get better... I'll do everything I can to make sure things are good, just give me another chance. Please? Please..."

Velcro mewled sadly. Possibly because Sparkle wasn't letting go, and the poor cat needed to pee.

"I'm trying. I trust you. I do. I'm just so bad at this..."

The social worker had been right. There was no way he was what Amelia needed, was there?

She wanted to go back, she did.

But maybe the problem was really that she didn't trust him right now, more than the other way around.

Amelia's chin wobbled, but she steeled herself, wiped a few stray tears, and straightened her shoulders. Military posture, though Sparkle couldn't see it.

"I'm going to hunt monsters," she told him matter-of-factly.

Then she hung up on him.

Elsa was watching Amelia quietly over her cup of tea as she hung up the phone.

This was... nothing she was really prepared for. At all.

"Are... are you okay, Amelia?"

Her experience with small upset children was somewhere in the neighborhood of 'nil.'

She scrubbed at more tears, ones that she was determined not to let fall, and turned her back so that Elsa couldn't see.

"No," she said, her voice tiny. "I'm sad and I hurt and I don't want to talk about it."

"I understand," Elsa offered softly, and then looked down at her tea. "Can I get you some tea, then? We don't have to talk right now, not if you don't want to."

She took a deep breath, and then another, and swallowed hard.

"Okay," Amelia said, turning back to face Elsa. "Can we... can we still go after monsters, after?"

"Of course we can," Elsa replied, pouring another cup for Amelia, cooling it slightly as she did so. "Would you like some milk or sugar with your tea?"

Sugar helped, she found.

Amelia glanced at the phone, then wandered away from it, over to where Elsa was.

"Both, please," she said, muted in comparison to the girl that had come in through the door just a while ago.

"Of course." Elsa took a moment to serve out some of both into the cup, and gave it a little stir. "So, what monsters have you seen out there?"

That teased a tiny smile out of her.

"Flying fish," she said, leaning her head against the counter. "They try and bite, like they want to eat me. And then there were big furry things," bears, Amelia, those were bears, "and funny-looking bandaged wrapped people."

"Ooh? I haven't seen the wrapped-up people yet," Elsa noted, smiling as she pushed the teacup her way. "Maybe we'll run into a few of those while we're out there?"

She was actually rather curious about them, now.

"They sort of unravel as they die," she shared, reaching for her tea and trying to hold it the way Elsa did, because she looked grownup when she drank tea. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome," Elsa replied, sipping at her teacup, pinky finger up. "I've seen a few monsters out there, too. Mostly yesterday, though, when it was only the... dinosaurs and trolls... The Vikings are rowdy, but they can be reasoned with."

Sort of. And she wasn't completely convinced that the trolls were actually trolls, either.

"The Vikings are the big, scary people, right?" she asked, sticking her own pinky finger up, a bit awkwardly, as she copied Elsa. "What's a dinosaur?"

Elsa couldn't help but smile to herself into her teacup. Could Amelia be any more adorable?

... Particularly now that she was no longer throwing a tantrum?

"It's a little like a dragon," she explained. "I don't know much about them myself, only that they lived a very, very long time ago, and then all died out for some reason. According to a friend of mine, there are people who dedicate their entire lives to studying their bones."

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The Magic Box, Wednesday

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