Instant Replay

[Gitane Blesse]

(ooc) Reply whenever you get around to it, Jen. :) No hurry.

"Coming, Mother?" The girl called over her shoulder as she stepped out of a tall building. Her small wings stretched and folded against her back as Gitane looked up at the sky, brushing a few ash-blonde locks from her face. An odd feeling thrummed through her mind, giving her the paranoia of someone watching her. The Falleen's eyes quickly darted about her surroundings, before catching just the glimpse of a woman from a store window. From this distance, it was hard to tell whether the figure was a mannequin or a shopper. But there was one thing that struck her hard. She was green.

[Fauna Sang]

She hadn't meant to return to the planet ever again, so long as she lived. But she had been forced to land, due to the need to ship repairs and supplies. Without even giving any thought to it, Fauna had wandered into the end of town that Elena had lived; She wasn't sure if she remained there. When she saw the teenager step out of a tall building, her heart began to race. Her mind told her she had no desire to see the woman she still thought about daily, so she ducked into a store. But curiousity took over.

The girl, standing there, looked so frighteningly like she had when she was still little more than a streetrat with a price on her head. Aside from the clothing, it was exactly how she had looked. Fauna couldn't help but stare.

[Elena Van Derveld]

A decidedly gaunt looking Elena exited the building after the little Falleen. All the verve and vivacity she had inherited from Vega was long since gone, leaving her worse for it. She sighed as she looked down to her adopted ‘daughter’, the one she’d kept secret from her father and the others in their group – it, she, was the only remaining trace she had of the real Gitane (who though she told herself she did not need, she found herself aching over day and night).

“Where’re we going today, darling?” she said in a light, sing-song voice to the girl, trying to put as much enthusiasm as possible into the tone.

[Gitane Blesse]

"Where ever we end up?" Her thin shoulders gave a small shrug as she turned around partially to look at the woman. Her eyes kept drifting across the road to the figure she'd seen. There was something alluring about her. Something almost painfully familiar.

There was one feeling that Gitane had never been able to stop herself from going after. Curiousity always seemed to get the best of her. Hooking a small arm with her "mother's", she gave her a small tug and pointed across the road.

"What about there?"

[Elena Van Derveld]

She nodded slowly, solemnly almost, and began walking. There were no cars or traffic of any kind here, so there was no fear of being knocked down - unfortunately. The Lupine coughed, and looked around in apathy. Had she been able to use the Force still, she would have sensed Fauna, but since she was now null she was blissfully unaware of her former lovers’ presence.

“How about I buy you something? It seems like it’s been ages since I bought you a new dress. Would you like that?”

[Gitane Blesse]

"Okay!" Gitane threw her arms around Elena with a clinging hug. Being only several months old, the girl had trouble, at times, understanding if or when everything wasn't as fine as it seemed. And right now, even if she had been able to detect that she wasn't being let in on something, she was too distracted by the other woman to pay much attention.

[Fauna Sang]

"Frell..!" Fauna backed away from the window, towards the back of the store. The loud curse had caused a few customers to turn around and give her dirty looks. She apologised, chewing on her lip. Elena and the girl were too close for her to slip out of the shop's door, unnoticed, so she simply had to try and hide while they were in there. She looked around, studying a few racks of clothing. Grabbing the first dress she found, she pushed past an aging man and headed toward the changing rooms, hoping to slip away before Elena was able to see her.

[Elena Van Derveld]

As they entered the shop the assistants were still in a bit of a fluster, and two old women were making some rather catty comments to themselves about a ‘rude little harlott’. Elena didn’t notice much of it. She felt Gitane’s hand slip away as she skipped off into the racks of clothes, and followed in her giggling wake through the shop. The girl picked out something in a deep blue, and held it up.

“It looks a little too large for you, darling,” Elena said with a bit of a sigh, to which Gitane shook her head and held up the dress towards her ‘mother’.

“Oooh…”

The dress was thrust into her arms and she was bundled off towards the changing rooms, as Gitane carried on looking for something.

[Fauna Sang]

Fauna tossed the dress onto a hook in the small room, leaning back against the mirror. She reached over to pull the curtain across the opening, but her hand froze in mid air. Her eyes were locked on the Lupine walking toward the line of cubicles. She sighed heavily and yanked the curtain shut.

Her head leaned back as she stared up at the cieling, her eyes fixated on the bright lightbulb that lit the tiny room. She let her mind drift openly, carrying her ex-lover's name.

[Elena Van Derveld]

All of the rooms were occupied. Elena sighed, sat down, and closed her eyes. If she hadn’t been so sure that she was already hearing things, she might have thought she just heard someone – not someone, her – say ‘Elena’. But that was ludicrous. She had to stop getting her hopes up over nothing, and concentrate on what she was making of her life now. To take her mind off things, she began to hum a tune quietly.

[Fauna Sang]

Fauna closed her eyes as her senses were suddenly flooded with the thick heat of oncoming tears. She clasped a hand over her mouth, sliding slowly down the mirror to curl up on the floor. The urge to race out and hold Elena was almost over powering. Salty droplets seered over her cheeks as she concentrated on taking in slow breaths. With no success to stoping it, she whimpered and hugged her knees, trying to push the woman from her mind.

[Elena Van Derveld]

Itching to get out of the shop, she stood up and shifted her weight about. Once she’d tried on the dress and bought Gitane what she wanted, she hoped she could go get some sleep or hunt for a while.

“… I want to try this on sometime today, please,” she said loudly, frustrated.

[Fauna Sang]

Fauna flinched at the suden noise, pushing her feelings into the depths of her mind. She stood and grabbed the dress and rushed out into the store, moving quickly past Elena and ducking behind a large clothing rack.

[Elena Van Derveld]

Her immeadiate thought was how rude the woman was, though this was over ridden quickly. Overcome by a sudden rage, she pushed her way out to where the woman he skulked to and drove a palm against her chest, hissing through her teeth:

“Why are you doing this to me?!”

Already she was crying silently, and causing a commotion amongst the staff as they tried to work out what was going on. She wanted to kill and kiss Fauna all at once.

[Fauna Sang]

"I didn't plan this!" She snapped back, her eyes gleaming with tears she refused to let fall. Her fingers locked around Elena's wrist as she stared at the woman.

"I didn't plan any of this.."

[Elena Van Derveld]

Snatching back her hand, she frowned, and looked back over her shoulder to see little Gitane watching, puzzled.

“I wish you’d make your mind up,” she whispered again, words damp wheezes.

[Fauna Sang]

"I told you, I didn't plan on coming here," she repeated, turning her gaze away.

"And dammit.. I'm weak, Elena, you know that. Especially without the Force.."

[Elena Van Derveld]

“You aren’t weak at all… you don’t even need…”

She wanted to explain it all, but she knew it was hopeless. Vega had frelled her mind up beyond retrieval when it came to this.

“… Why did you make her?”

[Fauna Sang]

"She wasn't supposed to be a child..." Staring at the girl for a moment, she turned back to face Elena, resisting every urge she felt.

"...She was supposed to replace me... Supposed to be me.. I didn't want you to find anything out.... I don't know what went wrong.."

[Elena Van Derveld]

"You could have just told me that you didn't want to give up using the Force, you know? … But no, instead you lied to me and made this thing and left me with all the responsibility to raise it… the product of your deceit."

By now little Gitane had rushed over and was clutching Elena's leg, looking up at the woman so similar to herself. Elena was holding back the urge to lay a slap right across the Falleen's face.

".. Perhaps father was right about you all along," she added, face twisting in distaste.

[Fauna Sang]

"How could I have told you?! You were following your father so faithfully," Her voice rose loud enough above a rasped whisper that nearly every customer in the store turned. Fauna clenched her fist at her side, gritting her teeth. She couldn't admit the real reason that she hadn't told Elena. She was afraid of disappointing her, yet it seemed that she'd managed to do that on an even more severe level.

"And I told you... She's not supposed to be like that. She was supposed to be fully grown." She knew it was a poor excuse, and could hardly make things any better.

[Gitane Blesse]

The child stared up at Fauna with large eyes. Her curiosity was slowly melting into fear from the tension growing between her and her mother. She reached to tug lightly on Elena's hand, whining quietly.

"What's she mean..?"

[Elena Van Derveld]

“Go and talk to the nice shop assistant, Gitane,” she said on command, looking always at Fauna.

Once the girl had edged away into the reluctant company of the shop staff, Elena spoke again.

“I would have understood… so long as you had kept it to a minimum… I could have told a few white lies to my father.”

[Fauna Sang]

Her eyes stayed frozen on Elena's, her vision blurring off and on with threatening tears. "We would have eventually ended up enemies.." Sighing, she bowed her head, her hand brushing back a few locks of hair.

"And besides, what would have happened if your father found out?"

[Elena Van Derveld]

“Haven’t you ever heard of crossing a bridge when you come to it?”

[Fauna Sang]

"I'm sorry, okay!" Her concentration breaking, a few tears slid down her cheeks. She gripped her hands into fists, tight enough that cresents began to break in her palms, from her nails. It was taking everything she had to not drop to her knees and beg forgiveness.

Her voice barely above a whisper, she mumbled again, "I'm sorry"

[Elena Van Derveld]

“Hey… hey! Don’t cry.”

She frowned, and mentally scolded herself. Had she been in Fauna’s situation, with the Force abilities she was so deserving of, she would have acted the same.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Gitane, seeing things had brightened up a bit, ran over to Elena and clung onto her again, looking inquisitively up at Fauna.

[Fauna Sang]

She slowly let her hand loosen up, rubbing her palm over her eyes. Forcing a soft laugh, she looked at Elena again.

"I told you I'm weak.."

[Gitane Blesse]

Gitane didn't at all understand what was going on, but she trusted this woman. Part of that may simply have been her familiarity, but these types of thoughts were beyond her mind's capacity. She took the few steps between Elena and Fauna, taking the Falleen's hand with a timid smile.

[Elena Van Derveld]

Elena shook her head dismissively, then sighed somewhat.

“We’ll buy your dress later, Gitane. How about we go with Aunty Fauna to get some ice cream now, hmm?” she said, smiling at her Falleen counterpart.

[Fauna Sang]

"Oh, but.. I don't want to intrude.." Fauna chewed on her lip, looking down at the girl, giving her hand a small squeeze. Agreeing to the outing would mean staying around Elena longer, and while carrying out a brief, argumenative conversation was one thing. She didn't know how long she could remain calm, let alone what she would do.