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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Dec 1, 2007 18:56:08 GMT
Madeleine chuckled. "If there's one thing this school is not, it's conventional. Don't worry about how you arrived, half of the people here came unexpectedly. And even if I'd had warning, I wouldn't have been able to..." She bit her lip, and glanced around at the Warriors. Her coma wasn't something that she talked about often - not because she didn't like talking about it, but it was a great conversation killer. People always became awkward at the mention of death and near-death experiences. "Well, I guess you know that story," she said, smiling at Misa. "So how long have you been here for?"
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Post by misa on Dec 1, 2007 19:10:19 GMT
"So how long have you been here?" Madeleine asked and Misa was keen to change the topic also, after the transformation she had just seen across the other girl's features, she sensed this as a topic which was not spoken of. It was simple curtesy really and she curse herself for making Madeleine think of it, it was so wrong of her.
"Not too long, a few days now." She said. "It feels like much longer. Like...like I've known this place for an entire lifetime already. I've been looking for it for so long it's hard to believe I'm actually here. For a while there it seemed like I would never make it..." She cut off abruptly realising that she was spewing all this rubbish Madeleine probably didn't want to hear. How could she be so careless?
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Dec 1, 2007 19:30:56 GMT
Madeleine smiled at Misa's words. "I know what you mean... a little. At first, it's just so big and intimidating, but within a day or two, it's more like home than anywhere else. Or maybe that's just me, I don't know." Well, for her, it was more of a home than anywhere else. She didn't have a home - Orchid was definitely the place she'd lived in longest. Of course, she loved the life she'd lived as a traveller - how could she not? But there was something about the stability of Orchid Hill that she really loved. Where she could see the same places, the same people... Whatever. Thoughts getting off track.
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Post by misa on Dec 1, 2007 19:47:09 GMT
At Madeleine's comforting words Misa felt something connect in a way that was entirely different to anything she'd felt before. It was different to the feelings she held for Ken'ichi obviously, and there was a different vibe about it to what she remembered feeling for her mother.
Misa had never been allowed to interact with other girls her own age. Maybe this was what it meant to have a friend. So few people had ever understood her.
It was so peculiar that in one conversation a single person could do and say so many of the things next to nobody had done or said in fifteen years.
"Will I be here for all classes?" Misa asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the more sensitive topics for now. In murky waters such as those it was all to easy to flounder and drown.
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Dec 1, 2007 20:08:40 GMT
"Just Combat and the battle training sessions we hold," Madeleine said, glancing about at the familiar room. Her domain, Jack had jokingly called it. "I try to make as few as possible, because I know it can be awful having to come here when you've been piled down with homework. If the situation gets really bad, you can afford to miss a couple of practices, but it's a good idea to go to as many as possible. You want to be prepared, in case we get called in to battle suddenly, like last time. Last time, they'd had less than 24 hours to prepare. And too many had been lost. Madeleine vowed that they wouldn't lose that many again.
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Post by misa on Dec 1, 2007 20:14:21 GMT
Misa nodded as Madeleine's expression became more severe. The battle that had given her freedom had of course taken more lives than the one which she so often reflected upon. But he wasn't quite gone really...well, that was too complicated to even think about.
"I, I lost someone in the battle also." She confessed. "We escaped from the other camp but he got caught in the earlier cross fire and...I understand the need to be prepared." She coughed to cover the ever so slight break in her voice.
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Dec 1, 2007 21:48:27 GMT
Several emotions flickered through Madeleine as she registered this - and suddenly, she just wanted to reach out to Misa. Losing a comrade was always awful... ...but a comrade who you had escaped with? From - presumably - torture, beatings and God knows what else? Pain like that could kill. But Misa had unwittingly let slip a piece of information that helped Madeleine figure her out. The other camp. That could only mean one thing - that she and her friend had escaped from Marius's camp. And suddenly, some things started to piece together. Giving no sign that she had registered that piece of information, Madeleine half-smiled wistfully and sadly. "I'm sorry about your friend. War is a horrid place."
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Post by misa on Dec 2, 2007 11:30:18 GMT
She was relieved to see no pity upon Madeleine's face as she gave her condolences - pity was the last thing she had wanted. Instead there was almost a regretful sorrow playing on the other girl's features, a regret Misa could understand all too well.
"I'm sorry about your friend. War is a horrid place."
"Yes, it is." Misa agreed whole-heartedly. War had been her childhood, her exsistence for the majoirty of her life. And, well...not to be terribly dramatic but, her life had pretty much been a horrid thing. "For a very long time I wondered if perhaps, there was a physical escape from it. Now I realise the only way to free yourself from this is to fight back. That is exactly what I plan to do."
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Dec 2, 2007 11:44:11 GMT
"For a very long time I wondered if perhaps, there was a physical escape from it. Now I realise the only way to free yourself from this is to fight back. That is exactly what I plan to do." Madeleine couldn't help but smile. "Spoken like a true Warrior," she said softly, the smile playing about her lips. "I suppose I should show you the ropes, then..."
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Post by misa on Dec 2, 2007 11:53:15 GMT
"Nowhere to start like from the top," Misa said with a weak imitation of the smile she had lost so many months before. She had a good feeling about this, she was going to do something. She was setting the wheels into motion. She was going to get her revenge, for herself, for Orchid Hill...for Ken'ichi.
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Dec 4, 2007 19:20:08 GMT
Madeleine smiled back. "Exactly." She beckoned Misa over to the weapons store. "Okay, so I take it you haven't brought weapons or armour?"
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Post by misa on Dec 5, 2007 18:37:35 GMT
"We were searched and all our weapons were taken. As for armour...I still have this," She took a deep breath. She didn't want to do this, but she couldn't just show off Tsuyosa in front of all these people he was a secret for the most serious reasons. Even though he gave her strength, he could be her greatest weakness were they separated.
The only way to show Madeleine was the way that she had vowed to never use again. Another thing she had said she would never do that she was doing, what was wrong with her? Was it this place? Was it changing her?
Well, Misa reasoned internally, not all change is bad. Just every change you've ever experienced is, her thoughts retaliated.
Misa dropped her voice lower still to ensure no one else was listening then she said softly, "look me in the eyes for a moment."
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Dec 5, 2007 18:48:43 GMT
Madeleine didn't bother to arch an eyebrow - because this didn't entirely surprise her. She'd already guessed that there was a lot more to Misa than what she was revealing. So, she just looked her square in the eye.
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Post by misa on Dec 5, 2007 19:48:52 GMT
Madeleine did as she had asked immediately. Such trust...it was more tha Misa could even try to comprehend. Yet, at the same time it gave her a strength Tsuyosa could never.
She took a moment to tell her heart to stop it's insanely loud thumping then she took the image of her pendant clearly in her mind.
Then she projected it to Madeleine's mind. It was so simple, so unexpectedly simple. She knew now that it was something once done, never forgotten.
She looped the image into the moments previous when she had given her demonstration. She let Madeleine feel the pulse which it gave and how the magic seemed to rush from it rather than within her - this would take further explaining but for now it would suffice. She finally projected a single moment. The moment she christened the amthesyt stone - Strength, Tsuyosa.
And then she withdrew the image and half-turned away, ashamed of having revealed how terrible, how dispicable her gift was. She knew that bond of trust would be gone now - how on earth could she ever expect someone to have confidence in her when she held such dark and warped powers?
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Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Dec 9, 2007 15:37:47 GMT
Madeleine stepped backwards slightly, reeling. When the image of the necklace had been pulsing, Madeleine's heart rate had increased. Then she'd saw... Misa half-turned away from her, as though she was ashamed. While Madeleine was surprised, the Head side of her brain was brutally planning out what she could use Misa for. The powers were most definitely an asset, that was undeniable. But part of her was a little shocked. "Okay," she said softly. "We can work with that."
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