thearena | Not Quite The Princess You Were Expecting [OPEN]

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Not Quite The Princess You Were Expecting [OPEN]

WHO | Snow White & Ruby | Snow White + YOU!?
WHAT | Fresh meat?!
WHERE | The Cornucopia and probably Fantasyland eventually?
WHEN | Snow's Arrival - Week 6
WARNINGS | Nothing to speak of yet

Snow White looks the part of a storybook princess, head to toe. The dress and the cape they've put her in do not strike her as something out of the ordinary, but the machines that lifted her here and the strangely destroyed looking future certainly do.

For now, the only plan she has is to get somewhere out of sight. Somewhere less exposed. Safer. If anything, all she really wants is a quiet minute to herself to just collect her thoughts. To try and make any of this make any sense in her head. So the moment she feels it safe to take her first step out into this strange new place, she starts to run at as quick a pace as she dare. She's defenseless here and she knows it. Lost in a completely unknown territory with only the vaguest understanding of what is going on, she heads for the thing that looks the most familiar.

The castle.

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It's been a while since Ruby wore these kinds of clothes... Not that she'd ever really worn things so fancy. She was a village girl - woolen clothes, and practicality. The finest thing she'd owned back then had probably been the cloak.

That's not the only thing that's different now, though. Her senses have been shut off. There's been a tracker stuck into her skin. And she's been set loose in what looks like an apocalyptic theme-park. None of which can be good...

She presses back the fear, though, on the alert for others as she moves toward the closest monument - the castle. Her eyes keep scanning for signs of other life, other people.

She thinks she hears something, and moves into a defensive crouch.

Why is she always running?

Literally. Metaphorically. Just when things seemed like they were going to get to stop running forever. And now? Now she'd been ripped from everything she knows and loves and the gaping hole in her heart hurts far too painfully right now for her to be afraid.

She isn't afraid.

Not of this place. Not of dying. Just of never seeing anyone she loves and cares for ever again. Or perhaps more so... that they are here also. And have met worse fates.

Emma.

She holds the name in her mind like a prayer and hopes with every fiber of her body that she's not here. That whatever they did, they didn't send her to this place. But the only real way she will ever know, is if she survives this. She may not be a trained killer, but Snow's learned a thing or two about surviving, and if it means finding Emma, Charming, Red and all the others again...then survive this she will.

In this place though? Avoiding anyone and everyone she possibly can is going to be her main strategy and unfortunately, there seem to be many places ahead for a person to be lurking just out of site. She slows her pace as she gets nearer, concentrates on the quietness of her footfalls.

Soft, almost gone - but Ruby knows what she heard up ahead; and while she's not a killer she is most definitely a fighter. She doesn't know what's going on. If her family is here - if she's the only one who's been snatched. She needs answers, and she hopes whoever she heard has them.

So she moves slowly toward where she heard the sound, listening for the patter of footsteps as she silenced her own movements. She wishes that she still had her own senses to make things easier, but she'll settle for what she's got right now. Namely years of hunting and her time surviving in the woods with Snow.

It takes time, pushing back the fear - the worry over whether they were ally or friend... she thinks she catches sight of someone, though, and picks up the pace. Hoping they can't hear her. Her footsteps and heartbeat sound loud in her ears. Closer. Closer...

Its the moment of shadows and light on the ground she notices before the sound of another person approaching, but it's only the hint of movement that she needs to take that as her queue. Lucky the shoes they have given her are fairly decent. She turns, mid-step almost a full 90 degrees to her left and does what she can to hide amidst the remnants of a nearby wall.

Ruby steps into the open, eyes roaming, traveling. She tries to keep the fear out of her eyes as she searches for a sign of life. If there's tracks on the ground, she will find them - assuming her "quarry" doesn't show herself first.

She keeps silent as she starts to search, worrying that she might have lost them, but convinced that they can't be that far. If they aren't in the area, then it's anyone's guess where they went anyhow. Without tracks, it's all hopeless...

Maybe it's time she takes a risk. "Hello?"

There's the sound of movement. The presence of another person is palpable and Snow shuts her eyes tight and takes a breath. Hopes that this is just some person passing by. Hopes that she will remain unnoticed by them entirely.

She can wait it out. Let them pass. And then keep running another way. Any way. As long as she keeps out of sight.

What she doesn't expect however, is the sound of someone's voice. A woman's voice. And... for a half a moment, Snow swears it's even a familiar one at that.

With one more breath, she opens her eyes and turns her head enough to get herself a small look at the other. But the smallest look is all that she needs.

"Red?!" Snow pushes herself from the wall and to her full height in an instant, at the site of her.

"Snow?" That voice. That sound. She hasn't realized yet how accurate her choice of names is - that this is purely Snow, with no Mary Margaret mixed in... Not that it would matter in the moment, either way.

One moment of staring seems to stretch into eternity. Thoughts running through her head. Snow there, in danger - who else? Is she hurt? Was anything done to her? What caused this?

All important. But oh so meaningless - because even as her mind struggle with answers, she's already dismissing every question. She's already running forward. She's already scooping Snow up and into her arms, and hugging her tight as she feels sudden hot tears in the corner of her eyes, and relief.

She's not alone. She hasn't been separated from Snow yet again. Hope hasn't been lost. She's with Snow...

"Thank goodness!" the emotions that bubble up inside of her are almost overwhelming; a deliriously disorienting mixture of relief and worry and pure happiness. If there is such a thing as emotional whiplash, Snow is certainly experiencing it, but in the very same moment there isn't a force on earth that could rip the two of them apart. She embraces her dear friend just as vigorously and finds hope in the actual, physical realness of her.

Red is here. Alive. Unharmed.

Things are not looking so grim as they only just seemed to have been.

"I've been so worried! Are you ok?" until now, she's seen no one else. Only strangers and cold rooms and a blur of a thousand things she doesn't understand.

She held her friend even tighter, squeezing with all she's worth - almost glad she's lacking her extra strength, now. She doesn't have to hold back as she holds the princess against herself.

"I'm fine," she promised, voice soft as she tried to gather herself up again. They were in danger still. They should be on guard. ...But it was hard to not feel instantly safer, holding Snow. Like things would somehow be fine, now.

If only she knew the full nature of the Games...

"Are you hurt?" she asked, parting a little - just enough to look Snow in the eyes.

"I'm fine," she shakes her head as if to insist this as best she could. So far, she was entirely unharmed, physically. Poking and prodding and the complete disregard for her privacy aside of course.

She takes a step back, as if to pull herself back to reality. "We should go somewhere... safe."

She doesn't know where. She's only just arrived. But she knows that out in the open like this will not be a good idea for very long. Of what little she knows of these so-called Games, she does know the rules. And that everyone else here does, too.

Edited 2013-04-25 10:59 (UTC)

As does Ruby - although the idea of only one person surviving... that hasn't hit her yet. Not at all. Even if it did, though, she'd know who she wanted that one person to be.

It's regretful, letting Snow go - even this small amount. It's as if reality has just been waiting for them to give it room, so that it could flood in - It's like letting go of the dream, that everything will be alright. The harsh world is back, and she has to push aside all her feelings if she wants them to survive what's coming. If she wants Snow to survive what's coming.

Ruby grabs the other woman's hand, holding it in her own as she starts to move forward. At least she can keep her voice cheery. "Come on. We'll look for shelter."

Edited 2013-04-25 11:06 (UTC)

Snow nods. Even smiles a little, and keeps hold of her friend's hand as the two of them continue on. Together.

She's been dressed similarly to Snow, same design of the same dress, except her colours are different. Otherwise, she looks healthy. Unharmed. It's a relief she doesn't even know how to express.

"How long have you been here?" she asks. From her brief crash-course explanation, Snow was under the impression that this 'arena' thing had been going on much longer. But Red showed no signs of wear or hardship.

"I just got here," she admitted, glancing at Snow. She couldn't seem to unclasp her hand from the woma, not that she wanted to. It seemed fitting, anyway - like the dress. A matched set. Even if the clothes weren't best for the arena...

Now that she has more time to look at Snow, she is noticing a few things though. She assumes it's something the designers did, their way of fitting the scenario - but she can't help narrowing her eyes at the fact that Snow looks just like how she used to, before the curse...

"Me, too," Snow confesses, even though its probably quite obvious. "What... what is this place?"

She doesn't expect her friend to have an answer. But looking around, this place is nothing like anything Snow has ever seen. Twisted metal and rubble and the decaying carcass of an amusement park - Snow has never seen an amusement park. The cracks cement walkways look like strange, meandering roads, storefronts and the faces of the decaying rides look like strange houses. Nothing about this place makes any sense...

"I don't know," Ruby admitted. She'd never been out of Storybrooke - she hadn't even known what a lemur was. Her knowledge of Disneyland was... a little limited. Though she would have loved it, back in its prime.

"It looks like an amusement park," she admitted, eyes traveling over the rides as she drew her friend toward the castle. "Maybe we can find someone."

"What is an amusement park?" she is unfamiliar with the term, let alone the idea of a theme park where she could literally find caricatures of herself painted on walls and printed on tee shirts.

She is in no place to argue with Ruby's assessment of the place though.

"You don't know what an amusement park is?" that didn't sound quite right... but. Maybe the curse hadn't given her that information.

"It's a place people come to have fun," she responded. "you know... Rides?" She was studying Snow's face, then.

"No?" she furrows her brow slightly, as if she finds it odd that her friend thinks that she should. "Rides? As in... carriage rides?"

She typically preferred to ride her own horse, but understood the appeal of carriages. Especially for those who may not always have the opportunity to do so.

"Snow..." She was looking fully into her friend eyes now, even without coming to a pause. She needed to look into her friend's face for this.

"What's the last thing you remember?" she asked. It couldn't be that she was before the curse, could it? ...Did they maybe strip away all her memories from before Storybrooke? Leaving the town usually did the reverse, but...

"It's a little fuzzy. I remember Emma..." her eyes go almost distant as she tries to remember exactly, and tries not to let the worry show too much on her face, "Charming. He was hurt. And... "

From then on it's mostly swirls of smoke and a haze of noise and a hundred thousand things at once. Then it comes back into focus again and she's in this place.

"Red?" she can't disguise her voice as well as her expressions, "Is this where I sent my daughter? Did I send her through that wardrobe to this place?"

"...You don't remember the curse?" she asked, voice soft feet stopping for just a moment. She has to give Snow's free arm a faint squeeze before she can bring herself to continue.

"She wasn't sent here," Ruby promised her. "I... I don't know what's going on. But it's not Regina's curse."

"I remember that it was coming. I just assumed... that was what this was. Imprisoned. Frozen in time. I've been under a curse before. It doesn't always look like what you expect it to when you're under it," she wants to believe her friend, but unfortunately, it may take a little more convincing.

"It was broken," she promised, voice soft almost breaking - feet still hurried. "Emma broke it. Just like you knew she could..." She doesn't want to share everything - it's too much to go into right now, and so much of it will make Snow sad... but she won't have her friend believing that her daughter was sent to a hellish place like this.

The look on Snow's face is one of obvious confusion.

"What?" she wishes she had something more eloquent to say, but nothing is coming.

No. She's running through a ruined future world in with her best friend who is telling her what sounds to be utter nonsense.

"...I don't I remember any of that," she confesses.

She saw the confusion, and her heart went out to her friend. Snow. She wished she could do something to ease it, but she din't really understand it herself.

"We'll figure it out," she promised, picking up the pace a little. Her eyes were still darting for threats, but she was glancing toward the castle as well. How much further until they could start looking for shelter, and she could explain things to Snow?

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