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Another Way; [Kyo, Aleksandria - Closed]
Topic Started: Mar 11 2014, 09:43 PM (502 Views)
The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
This thread takes place after Winter Returns To the Earth.

---

Kyo had visited this particular warehouse once or twice at night while Aleksandria was gone, usually on the way either to or from the ruins. She'd discovered something interesting: there was still electricity here. Who was paying the bill for this warehouse? Kyo had no idea. It was obviously still abandoned, it just happened to have power.

So what had she done? She'd salvaged the old mini-fridge from a specific room in the ruins and lugged it out to the warehouse. It was this fridge in which she'd stashed her alcohol shortly after awakening, when she'd needed a place to hide it while her mom and dad had their eyes narrowed at her for any suspicious activity. This fridge was the subject of the very ruins expedition that had ended in her gloriously jumping Hiroko's glorious bones and--well, that had been a memorable night, even if most of the memorable-ness was rose-tinted hindsight (Hiroko had been pretty amateurish at the whole sex thing back then).

So Kyo had kept some vodka out here in expectation of the next time she would meet Aleksandria Fyodor in this warehouse, as well as supplies for starting a fire. It was their ritual, she supposed--another old sentimental memory. Alexis Kriemgund knocking back bottles of Russian water with the girl who was trying to save one of Aleksandria's old victims from self-destruction.

Ha. Funny enough, hindsight wasn't so pretty when it came to that. Kyo had been nothing but an interfering busybody back then. She wouldn't change any of it--not if it meant never forging her bond with Isoroku or Aleksandria--but, still. Some people would glorify her actions and tell her she was such a good person and all that, but Kyo knew it wasn't that simple, and never had been.

She wasn't about to get hung up on it again, but thinking about it was sobering.

Sobering. Sober wasn't what she wanted to be right now, so she started on her first bottle before Aleksandria even arrived, and that was how Aleks would find her upon entering: sitting by an already-roaring fire, several bottles of various vodka set off to the side (well away from the fire) and one bottle in her hand, which she sipped at in a vaguely ponderous way that was more than a little uncharacteristic compared to her usual drinking habits.

Kyo's yellow eyes were fixed on the door the whole time, like a cat's.
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Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
Aleksandria would have beaten her there and been sitting by the fire herself, but she had something to retrieve from her new apartment. Something she had been carrying when she first arrived, in case her friend was the first person she made contact with. It had not been the case, so it had been put safely into storage. She slipped through the door, wearing clothes that did not scream 'Russian Mad Scientist'. Gone was the captain's coat, gone were the fancy clothes.

She slipped in wearing a black shirt with a red running jacket tied around her waist, in her hand was a cloth bag which rattled as she walked and made a small clatter as she put it on the floor. The Russian gave a smile, a large one. The Archangels were her family, to be sure, but Kyo and Aleksandria had gone through thick and thin. She had a lot of respect for the green haired girl and looked forward to spending some time alone with her.

In her mouth was a cigarette, which she tossed into the fire, having been done with it. "I must say, I have been waiting for this moment again." She sat close, which said more than any words ever could. She placed the bag between them and pulled one slender bottle out of it. "I know you have started drinking already, but this is for you. I brought it from Russia like I promised." The bottle's white label was covered in cyrillic, but it was obviously Vodka, judging by the symbols that matched Kyo's own bottle.

But on the label was a picture of a Vanilla flower. "It goes down smooth. My father loved this stuff. This was liberated from the Fyodor Liquor Cabinet." She gave an impish grin. "What can I say? I know for a fact that no-one was going to drink this. Better than it going to waste." She didn't open it, merely handing it to Kyo and pulling another bottle from the bag. This wasn't vanilla, judging by the honeycomb design on the label.

"And this... this is one of the reasons I went home in the first place." Her face was of childlike wonder, which heavily contrasted with the subject matter. "I've never drank these with anyone but myself. I'd like to share them with you. They are... my two favorite things to drink." Her actions spoke much louder, which was Aleksandria's style. "...I must say, I have looked forward to this. It is... good to be back in Nagashima."

"Good to spend time with friends."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo grinned a bit and set her bottle on the ground as Aleksandria approached. It widened as the Russian girl gave her own smile, and widened still more at the sight of the vanilla Vodka; Kyo remembered that promise. It had been among the things she'd been looking forward to sharing with Aleksandria one day, a few notches below "a day out in the sun without any disguises to get in the way of things." Although at the rate things were going, that would probably mean they needed to take a vacation in another country to have it.

Such were the trials and tribulations of making friends with the damned. #warcriminalproblems

The smile became curious when Aleksandria extracted the second bottle. Kyo took the first one off Aleksandria's hands, opening it without giving her first bottle a second's thought--she would close that one and stash it back in the fridge later. As she sipped her own (expression quite approving), she wondered what the new one was. Two drinks she'd never shared with anyone, huh? It was touching stuff, until Kyo considered that it involved getting dead plastered and how that usually turned out more obnoxious than anything... especially with Kyo herself involved.

She smiled anyway, and lowered the Vodka. "I gotta say, this's worth any kinda wait," she said, holding up her bottle. "Sorry for startin' without ya, by the way. It's good t' have ya back, I just... have a lot on my mind."

Kyo set the vanilla down on the ground, nearer to hand than the first bottle, and looked into the fire. It glittered in her yellow eyes. She wasn't launching into a great, long-winded stream of tangential bullshit like she normally would have; she was quiet this time. Not mournful or mopey like the last time they'd met, just quiet. There was calmness there, but it wasn't exactly Buddha-levels of tranquil. A closer inspection would reveal a tightness to her jaw and eyebrows, as if she were straining a bit not to give away some other sort of expression.

After a few moments, she said, "It's good t' have ya back, too. But it's sorta my fault thatcha needed t' switch disguises in the first place. You sure you're alright with that?"
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Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
Aleksandria shook her head slightly, wincing when she realized her long hair would be gone for a while. Not that a pixie cut didn't suit her, she just adored her long blonde hair. It was a subject of many rumors at school. Some used to call it spun gold. Some thought it was a Siberian trait, pointing to her countryside heritage.

"It is fine, I too have a lot on my mind. It is why I offered to come and speak to you alone. They may be our brothers and sisters, but there are a lot of things I cannot tell the Archangels that I can tell to you, my 'Keeper of Secrets'." She chuckled slightly and fetched a regular bottle of vodka from her bag, placing it on the floor and breaking the seal, taking a large gulp. Alcohol and Aleksandria had a long mutual relationship, it helped her relax and in some cases, soothed her paranoia.

The calmness allowed Aleksandria one view into Kyo's mind. Despite the fact the Russian had missed it, she had changed for the better. She wasn't quick to butt in, merely peacefully calm. The Russian gave a small chuckle. "If not you, then my rosa would have potentially given it away. Living like a shadow in the city I helped destroy, it is what I have earned being the woman I have chose to be. If I must change my face to stay, then so be it."

She paused for a moment. "Besides. This is the closest thing to home I have left."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo's eyes followed the bottle as Aleksandria extracted it from her bag and set it down. The sentiment that Nagashima was her only home was touching, though in truth Kyo knew that if she wished, Aleksandria had more than enough capital to build a new life somewhere else. Kyo had half-hoped she would, if only because it would keep her away from the likes of Shin Imoto and Maki Yamada. Once Aleksandria was done talking, Kyo shrugged a bit, and looked into the fire.

"I get the feeling. But I'd be careful whatcha tell me," she said quietly. "A Keeper o' Secrets ain't worth much good if she has a mental link to a Shadow that ain't got no compulsions against divulgin' secrets." Kyo lifted up her bottle and frowned down at it in a puzzled way. "It's weird, though. It coulda gone for the kill at any time and just blabbed that I know ya. It hasn't, though. I get what my Shadow is now, but I still couldn't tell ya why it says exactly the things it says..."

She shrugged.

"Well, I just needta kill that thing. Red-eyed doppelganger Shadow in the ruins. I trolls me on Bedlam sometimes. Guess it stole a phone from someone in the ruins." Kyo looked to Aleksandria. "Before I even touch any o' the stuff I wanna talk about, though... Aleks, what happened? In Russia, and before y'left? Y'musta got past somethin', if ya lost those wings..."
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Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
Aleksandria shrugged slightly. "If I must face the community, then face it I must. I am not afraid to step out of the shadows. What could they do to me that has not already been done? I am a broken woman Kyo-san. There is still a lot about me you do not know. A lot I am not comfortable to tell you." A pause. "A lot I may never be comfortable to tell you." She took another swig of vodka. Alcohol made her honest. Made her looser.

It was a way she wished she could always be. "I'd say it hasn't because that's not fun. Your shadow is playing on your insecurities. To blow the big one, as it were, would be to spoil all the fun. I could not tell you why either. My shadow seemed to enjoy talking to me when I was alone and underdressed. I feel that is an insult at my damaged body, for one."

She sighed slightly. "What happened in Russia? What happened before?" She didn't hesitate. She turned away from the girl and lifted her shirt. A tapestry of pain was all that was before her, two large scars where her wings used to be and a spiderweb of old scars that crisscrossed over her back. "A lot. To simply tell you would not let you understand. Better I show you." The girl didn't flinch at Kyo seeing the scars. To her, they were simply a part of her body.

"I killed my child. Project Rebirth. I drove my rapier through his heart. All he said was he told me he failed. He failed and that was why he died. As for Russia?" She motioned to the scars. "To get free of my father... I had to repay a debt." The Russian hesitated slightly.

"That debt... was not money, in the end."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Child? Hang on, that didn't make any sense. Aleksandria was barren, right? Or had she heard that wrong when it had come up? Then, "Project Rebirth." So she meant an experiment. Some ghost of her past as the perpetrator of the Russian Incident? Kyo set her bottle down and leaned forward, looking at the scars running over Aleksandria's back. She could see the scars where the wings were... they brought back a memory of those wings draped over her, the warmth and the comfort. It was nostalgic, and also, a little embarrassing.

"I dunno about this Project Rebirth you're talkin' 'bout," Kyo said, tilting her head to one side. "I mean, I know about Genesis, but you're talkin' about a specific person. You're gonna hafta explain that one."

And then, biting her lip, she asked in a quieter tone:

"...What... debt, though?"
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Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
"Project Rebirth? He is a child I resurrected. I found him dead in the ruins, so I brought him back from the brink. That was Project Rebirth. After the fall of my base, he escaped and worked alone for a while. He was picked up by a gang member and protected the city. One night we encountered him and I killed him. I killed him without even knowing who he was."

Another swig of vodka. "So I learned... the importance of the ties that bind us. That triggered their removal." Then the second question. "I retreated to Russia. I wanted to be free of my father. That meant fulfilling a debt. If I could not fulfill it with money, I would fulfill it with pain. So my father tortured me. He tore me apart."

Another deep swig of vodka. Made her too honest. "I won my freedom. But I was hurt. Cut deep. I am no longer allowed to return to Russia. But... I am free. My father has disowned me as his child. I am Aleksandria. Not Aleksandria Fyodor." A frown came over her face. "....Its exactly what I wanted... but I cannot feel it wasn't worth it."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Aleksandria had brought someone back from the dead? Her experiments had gone that far? Kyo couldn't help imagining some kind of Project Lazarus, bringing back the best of the best from the dead and augmenting them with cybernetics to make up for the parts that would never fully heal...

She shook that distinctly nerdy thought away, although knowing what Fyodor, Inc. was capable of, it might not have been far from the truth. "The ties that bind us, eh?" she murmured. A small, humorless upward quirk of her lips died the moment Aleksandria mentioned torture.

Kyo stiffened, her eyes going wide, and then she got to her knees and moved closer to Aleks, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked quite simply pissed off.

"Jesus Christ! Are ya insane or somethin'? Don't do stuff like that!" she hissed. "I mean--I mean if y'really had no other way, but--Aleks, shit. Come on. I don't care what was goin' through your head, y'don't gotta put yourself through the wringer for it."
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Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
Aleksandria flared with anger. "There was no better way! I wanted freedom and I had to suffer for it. I went alone to face my father and... I couldn't win! I couldn't take him out. So I suffered until he finally cut me loose of his family. I am a Fyodor no longer." She drank a large portion of the bottle. The burning helped her be honest. It meant that these words were from the heart.

She spat into the fire, the heat fizzling the saliva. "It doesn't matter. That was the past. The future is now. Now, I just want to focus on the reason I came back. I came back to fix the situation. I don't want to dwell on it. I did what I must."
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