Room 505, Tuesday Evening

[notacokeperson]

There were very few things that Karina actually cared about enough to bother looking for if they went missing. Especially since both by natural inclination and career-driven motivation, she was extremely organized and things seldom went missing in the first place.

So if something wasn't where it was supposed to be, Karina usually wrote it off as 'whatever, not a big deal', since it generally wasn't.

That was… not the case today.

Her room looked like a tornado had gone through it, leaving the contents of her closet and desk strewed about the floor, and covering both her bed and the empty bed with her things. She'd gone through her backpack meticulously. She'd even lifted up the mattresses to thoroughly check underneath them.

No luck. Shit.

The fact that she'd used her phone to manually turn the bracelet to voice (since it was usually on vibrate) and that if Agnes needed her, she'd hear that French Bonjour loud and clear… well, it really didn't help.

Because Karina didn't lose things, and she hadn't lost this, and given how weird things were lately, it was probably Fandom's fault. Which meant she wasn't likely to find it until the island felt goddamn good and ready to give it back.

Which meant she was probably fucked.

"Shit," Karina said, muttering to herself as she began yet another search through her things. "This fucking place."

[Door & post open!]

Comments

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"This place," Elsa agreed, lingering in Karina's doorway. She hadn't been there long, only long enough to hear Karina's profanities, but then, she was really rather feeling like saying a few, herself.

It had been a long day, and she mostly just wanted to see somebody else who could appreciate just how perturbed she was.

"Good evening, Karina. Though I suppose you might disagree?"

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina looked up from pulling one of her drawers out, sighed and dumped the contents of it on the floor, and sat back on her ankles.

"I've had better," she said. "Hi Elsa. Come in if you want. Uh, I guess, sit where you want, too?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa hesitated for a moment before taking a few careful steps into Karina's room.

"... I think I'll stand, if it's all the same with you," she replied, glancing at the scattered debris. "I'm guessing you lost something?"

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"I didn't lose anything," she said, going through the stuff that had been in her drawer. "The island did."

...

"...Which sounded less stupid in my head, by the way."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm certain it did," Elsa replied, smiling faintly. "This place is determined to leave us all saying that at some point or other, isn't it?"

Elsa was starting to wonder if running from Arendelle was actually the proper decision, here.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"Unfortunately," Karina said ruefully. "Don't feel obligated to look or anything, but if you happen to spot a flat, white bracelet, please pick it up."

She couldn't find it and this was terrible.

"It's hideous," she added, like that would help Elsa spot it. "Anyway, how are you? If you're agreeing with me about this place you can be sunshine and roses."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Sunshine and roses doesn't even begin to describe how wonderful my day's been so far," Elsa replied with no small amount of dry sarcasm, looking at the items on the floor as though maybe the ugly white bracelet was just staring up at them from somewhere in the open. "I yelled at one of my teachers, and now I have to meet him in his office on Thursday for a talk."

Because she really wasn't up for accidentally killing someone in class someday.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"... You were yelling?" Karina asked, surprised. "Wow. Why?"

She piled stuff back in the drawer, looked at it, rolled her eyes, dumping it out again to begin putting it back neatly. Sleep probably had to happen at some point, and it definitely wasn't with this mess.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Over a... a simulation? A scenario that he set up in the Danger Shop. It started with everyone being handcuffed to pillars in an arena."

And it went downhill from there.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

...


"... What?" Karina looked horrified. "Are you okay? Is everyone okay?"

Her classes were usually weird as hell but, also usually, they had the option to just sit and do nothing.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I think we all got out in one piece," Elsa agreed. "But Joker spent a lot of the class worried that just trying to escape from the monsters that were going to eat us would end up with him being injured. And I..."

She wrapped her arms around herself and shrugged her shoulders a little.

"Mercy picked the lock on my handcuffs. I told her not to touch me. She picked the lock anyway."

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina hadn't actually met Joker, so his concerns about being injured flew over her head. Mostly so she could focus on the more important thing.

"Oh, hey, that's... I'm sorry that happened," she said, getting up and hastily clearing off a spot on her bed. "Come on, sit down. I'd offer you a hug but..."

Well, that seemed rather strange, given what Elsa was upset about.

"Nothing happened, though, right? Everything's okay except for your nerves?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Nothing happened that I'm aware of," Elsa replied. "I was so busy telling Professor Skywalker not to do that again, if anyone was injured as they left the class today, I completely missed it."

She lingered for a moment longer where she was standing, and then started across the room, carefully stepping around things before taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"Oh, him," Karina said, disgust in her voice. "He's horribly lax about safety. This... doesn't surprise me now."

That wasn't super reassuring, was it? Karina was bad at this.

"But, hey, I don't think he'd ignore a seriously injured student," she offered. "So I'm sure everyone left in the same condition they arrived in."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm not certain if I should be reassured or even more irate, now," Elsa admitted with a frown. "He seemed... very adamant that nobody was going to get injured on his watch."

She almost left it at that, but a moment later, she was looking down at her hands.

"But how is he supposed to protect students against threats he doesn't even know about?"

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina frowned as she began picking up her clothing, shaking it out, and tossing it on the spare bed for now. She'd pick up the hangers next to get them back in the closet.

It dawned on her that Elsa had come to her for... help? Comfort? And Karina knew she was pretty terrible at that. Most of her friends, well, they ragged on each other and on what was the issue until, after a good vent, things felt better.

But she wasn't sure that was what Elsa wanted, and she wasn't sure what to say.

Except the truth.

"I don't think he cares," Karina said, grimacing. "Like, don't get me wrong, I think he cares in the sense of 'if a student is on fire in front of me, I will pour water on them', and probably if the fire is metaphorical too," did that even make sense? "but I know he doesn't care about things like setting up evacuation points and ways to get non-combatants to safety should something go wrong."

Karina had had that fight with him before. She still judged him hard for it.

"And telling you 'hey, you didn't hurt someone this time' doesn't change the fact that you could've, I know. I could say I'm sorry it could have happened, but I'm not really, and even if I was, how would an apology help you, right?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm not looking for sympathy or apologies," Elsa offered, nodding a little. "I just... I think I want advice."

A pause, and then she shook her head a little.

"Not even advice. I want to make certain it doesn't happen again, and I don't know if that's possible."

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Okay, yeah, this was not something she was super comfortable with. Karina starting hanging clothes up, thinking about what Elsa said as she worked.

"I don't think you're going to have any luck at convincing him to teach differently," she said finally. "And I don't have advice for you, in the sense of what to do if he does something freaky like that again, because my reaction would probably be to yell at him too."

No, not probably. Definitely.

"The only thing I can really suggest is control," she admitted, looking over her shoulder at Elsa. "Have you thought about what I suggested before?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"It's crossed my mind," Elsa admitted softly. "Trying to... freeze you?"

She couldn't picture herself working up the nerve. But it a difficult suggestion to let go of.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

That had kinda been the point.

"You know," Karina said, not looking at Elsa but instead focusing on her clothing, "my--powers, I guess, weren't really a terrible surprise to my parents, after they showed up. Don't get me wrong, they weren't what my parents wanted, especially my mom, but they said I'd always been weird about the cold."

She shrugged.

"I used to scream and cry whenever they tried to get me to put winter clothing on. They always made me too hot, but in the summer I was fine no matter how hot it was out. I guess the biggest clue, though, was when we went out skating one winter and the ice broke and I went under." She studied her closet, twitching the clothing over just slightly. "I was fine, just fine--wet, but not even cold. I wasn't even scared. I think Dad guessed then…"

Karina picked her way over to the spare bed, and began sorting through her backpack's contents. "When I was eight, I woke up trapped in my room, everything covered with ice. They had to call the fire department to get me out, because I didn't know what was going on and I was scared. But it didn't hurt me, you know? I was stuck in that room for hours and hours but I never got cold and even the sharp edges didn't cut me, and the only reason I was scared was because I couldn't figure out how to get out, and I didn't know what it would mean for my future. Because it changed things. I won't tell you that having powers don't change things, because they do, but I think a lot of people get caught up their powers being the only thing about them, you know? Mostly because, until you know what to do with them, they are in the way. They can't be ignored. They're big and strange and weird."

Packing up her backpack again, Karina glanced at Elsa out of the corner of her eye. "I'm not saying there's no reason to be scared. I wasn't, not of the ice, not of the cold, but I know right now that I always had better control than you have. But the nice thing about control is that it can be learned. The first step to that is learning to not be scared. You can't learn control if you're scared. And I'm not saying that to force you to use them or anything. I rarely use mine," except when she was on the job, but that was different, "but if you don't learn control, they'll use you. If that happens, and you go out of control, you won't hurt me. I can't be hurt by you or your powers. That means, if you go out of control, I'll probably be the one that has to stop you. I'm better than you, and I'm stronger than you, due to experience if nothing else. I really wouldn't want to hurt you, Elsa. I like you."

She took a breath. "But if you hurt other people, I'll stop you. It'll probably hurt you, but I'd stop you. But, you know, I'd rather help you, and I can't do that if you're scared you're going to hurt me."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa winced a little at that. It made her feel better, really, that Karina wouldn't let her hurt people. If ever her powers went out of control, there would be somebody there who not only would stop her, but someone who possibly even could.

And as for the rest of it... well, that was a lot of information to take in, and Elsa suspected that it wasn't the sort of thing that Karina shared often.

"Thank you," she said, softly. "Big and strange and weird sounds about right. And I know that there's more to me than ice. I haven't spent much time around people until recently, but without people around, I could focus on other things, on other pieces of me."

Alone, though. Always alone.

"I... can't promise that knowing I won't hurt you will help me feel better about anything, really. But I think I want to know for sure."

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

She'd never shared that information before. Elsa was right about that, at least.

Karina zippered up her backpack and set it on the floor beside the spare bed, and looked over at Elsa.

"I'm not asking you to promise that it'll make you feel better," she said. "That would be a ridiculous promise, really, I just think it would make you feel better to know you can't hurt me, even if you try. I could be wrong. If I'm wrong, well, then that's the way it is. But you'll still know you can't, which means something, though I don't know what it'd mean in that case."

She began picking accessories off the spare bed. "Let me know, when you want to find out." Karina smiled. "It's great you think you want to, after all."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Right, great," Elsa echoed, with a strained sort of smile that didn't say either way whether she was really in agreement, there. "I'd... want to do it somewhere far away from people, whenever we do it. Perhaps out in the preserve."

She'd feel sorry for the deer, then, but it was still preferable to accidentally freezing up somebody's dorm room.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina wasn't going to call her on that smile. Somehow, that didn't seem fair.

"Sure," she said agreeably. "Far away from people is good."

Hmmm...

"How are you at skating?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Skating? I... I'm not sure. I know I'm fairly steady on my feet on the ice, but I haven't actually been skating. Not properly, with skates. Not since I was very little."

She had far more experience with mastering the first, over the years, out of necessity. It wouldn't do to fall and panic again.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

“Well,” Karina said, “I thought that, if you want to be away from people, that there’s a better place than the preserve: the ocean.”

And if a fish got frozen, well, Karina didn’t care.

“Skating would probably be faster than walking, to get far enough out that people wouldn’t see us, though we could do that too.”

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Skating on seawater?" Now there was something that Elsa definitely hadn't done. "That... seems like it would work, too, if we could get it to freeze."

All they needed to do would be make it cold enough, right?

"It would be safe?"

Her parents kind of died at sea, was the thing.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

… And Karina was remembering that. Crap. Sometimes, okay, a lot of the time, she spoke without thinking.

“Safe? Yeah. If you’re not sure, then just leave the freezing the water to me,” she said, fiddling with a few fashion scarves, before just putting them away as they should be. “I’ve done it before. Skating too. It’ll might be bumpy going, depending on how much ice is still there, until we get past the breakwater but then it levels out pretty nicely. It’ll be windy and, I hear, cold out there but I don’t think that’s going to bother either of us.”

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"The cold isn't really something I'm concerned about," Elsa agreed, her smile going a little more wry. "I think I will save the freezing things for you, though. I might overcompensate and get carried away."

No, she would overcompensate and get carried away. Fear and powers didn't mix well.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Might. Would. It was funny how those words sounded so much alike.

“Sure,” Karina said, shrugging. “No problem. Like I said, I don’t want you thinking that I’m… making you use your powers.” She studied her hands. “In some ways, I’ve turned mine into a useful thing.”

They’d certainly jump-started her career.

“But if someone offered me a way to get rid of them, I’d take it. I don’t need them, and they’re not who I am, so who am I to tell you you’ve got to use your powers all the time? Which doesn’t mean that I don’t think control is good but… maybe it’s hypocritical of me, but I feel like those are different things entirely.”

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I don't see how using one's powers all the time and learning how not to are the same thing at all," Elsa offered. "If I had any say in the matter, I would give away mine, completely."

And also in a heartbeat.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

“To bad no one asked us, huh?” Karina shook her head and began picking up the last of her things, deciding against pointing out, gently, that learning to control powers wasn’t the same as learning to not use them at all.

It wasn’t really her business what Elsa did with her powers, once she learned control, anyway. Besides, not using them at all was a perfectly valid option.

“Is there any time you’ve got in mind for this? We’d probably be less noticed, really early or really late, but once we get past the shore, I don’t think it matters.”

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Morning, perhaps," Elsa offered. "That way we have the benefit of daylight, once the sun is up. Coming back again might be slightly more difficult, but getting out there... Well, I would rather be able to see what I'm doing."

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Light probably was more of a concern for someone who didn’t glow.

“That sounds like a plan to me, then,” Karina agreed. “And if worst comes to worst, for getting back, we can circle around to the causeway and get back there. People will think we went to the mainland.”