Humanity Will Shun You {Red}

[Red Riding Hood]

"Here. Saw him here in the woods, actually, over there somewhere" she waved a vague hand in the direction of the place she'd run into Olaf. She assumed he'd probably moved since then, but he hadn't seemed like the brightest spark so maybe he hadn't.

"In some ways," Red replied ambiguously. Technically it was easy to hide, as long as she avoided people around the full moon she could probably keep her secret forever, but back in a place where her reputation preceded her? It was a lot more difficult. "Although at home most people already knew." she added, feeling a compulsion to let Elsa know she wasn't entirely alone. She argued to herself that it was because she didn't want Elsa to think she was just making something up to try and share the attention, even though she'd never before cared what anybody else thought of her. In truth she had a certain amount of sympathy for Elsa, she knew what it was like to be feared for something that was just a part of you, and she wanted the other woman to know that she wasn't alone.

Her hair was beautiful down, Red thought, admiring the way it tumbled over her shoulders in snow-white waves, and she was a little disappointed when Elsa turned away to braid it back up.
"No sense standing on ceremony, I'm nothing special." she shrugged.

[Elsa]

So Olaf was here... that was hardly surprising. Hopefully he'd make it out of the forest. Then again, fools were often the most lucky, weren't they? The thought offered cold comfort, but that sort had become a long companion to Elsa.

Other people? "Some people back home---well, most people back home know about my abilities too," admitted Elsa with a slightly bitter laugh. "That certainly wasn't a choice, but I suppose it's better to have it all out in the open," she focused her energies on braiding her hair, suddenly quite determined to yank the loose ivory strands back into an almost confining braid.

"I'm fairly certain you just finished making the case for why you are," replied Elsa, glancing up from her work, "special, that is. Besides, I'm doing it more for me than I am for you," she flushed at that, almost frustrated that she'd let that little bit of truth slip out. Made her almost want to just blast some ice. Wait, would that first bit count as flirting? God, Elsa didn't even know how to flirt; that's what happened when you were quite literally trapped in a castle for most of your life with just your overly cheery sister for sometimes company.

[Red Riding Hood]

"For you it might be," Red shrugged, then realised it probably sounded harsher than she intended it to "I mean, once you demonstrate to people that you're not dangerous, I can see how they'd find the beauty in what you do, and the skill. For me... it's hard to convince them not to fear me." not that any of them would even let her talk long enough to convince them.

"I'd say different rather than special, but I suppose," she agreed, feeling a little pleased that Elsa would call her special, although she didn't know just what it was Red could do, perhaps she'd be as scared of her as everyone else... at least she didn't have the added stigma of a possible Big Bad Wolf on her tail here, people didn't know that part even if they found out about the wolf blood in her.

[Elsa]

"You never know," replied Elsa. "I've seen both sides of my power now, so, well, I do see what you say. But you didn't see when I wrapped a land in winter,' Elsa swirled her hands rapidly, creating a miniature blizzard. Icy winds and whirling snow flew about almost at random between her hands, and she guided it, waving back and forth to create another fleeting moment of beauty, before letting it drop.

"Besides," Elsa looked around her, "it seems to me like this is a place that welcomes that sort of strangeness. Though I haven't quite had the chance to encounter many people I haven't met before," she looked back at Red, eyebrow quirked. "And this may seem a little hypocritical considering where we are, but hiding in the forest worrying about it doesn't help matters. It wasn't until someone reached out that I started to see what I have as more than a curse."

Another gesture followed as Elsa rolled her wrist. Ice coalesced, though not in a random shape. By the time Elsa was done, a matter of seconds, she was holding an icy rose. She extended it toward Red, nodding slightly and smiling as she did.

[Red Riding Hood]

Elsa had a point, everything Red had seen so far was just beauty and grace, but she understood that it could have terrifying power as well - especially if Elsa had enough control to cause the whole land to be covered in snow - so she was willing to concede that Elsa had likely experienced the same fear and rejection that she had.
Still, there didn't seem to be any way to make the wolf seem like a good thing, not in a way the villagers could understand...

"It does feel that way, doesn't it?" she agreed. There was just something more relaxed here, something in the air almost. Maybe she was imagining things, maybe it was just because she was away from the people who knew her for once, but she still just felt a little more...free.

"Reaching out isn't really my thing..." Red admitted, and to be honest even that was probably the closest she'd ever come to letting someone in, it was more than she'd ever said to anybody else about her relationships with other people. Maybe it was just something in her that sensed a kindred soul in Elsa. The rose earned an impressed look, and she reached out to take it in a gentle hand, not even minding the cold.

"It's like glass.." she murmured, bringing it close to her face to inspect "You have a beautiful gift, no matter what anyone says."

[Elsa]

Yes, there was definitely something in this place that encouraged a release. Something about this strange, overgrown world that just welcomed the people, or at least let them be who they were meant to be. Then again, Elsa had spent quite a bit of time and energy learning to open slightly, so maybe she was just carrying that with her. Who knows, maybe it's even a little infectious, and that's what Red was picking up on.

"It's not mine either,' said Elsa. "Yet here we stand," which was enough as far as she was concerned. Pushing yourself, figuring out boundaries and reorienting them to better fit within this strange new world. Still, she had to flush as she saw Red looking at it, realizing that she'd just effectively given the other girl a flower. It made Elsa look away, raising a hand to try and tuck hair back behind her ear, as if any had fallen loose from her recently constructed tight braid.

"So people keep telling me," said Elsa, letting out a light laugh. "Maybe if everyone keeps saying it, it'll somehow come true,' she looked back to Red. "But thank you all the same."

She looked beyond Red then, at the forest, wondering. "Are there other things or people out there?" Should they be worried about something else showing up? The place was wild now, who knew what lay in the wild...

[Red Riding Hood]

"I suppose so," Red agreed with a shrug. Maybe Elsa did have a point, maybe she had to start somewhere, and this whole new place would help her change just as much as it would be a change in the people around her. She wasn't about to start now, but at least the seed of an idea had taken root in her mind, and maybe she'd think about beginning to let other people in, maybe.

"Well I think it already is." Red shrugged, wishing she could keep the rose safe somewhere, contained and frozen as a reminder that maybe she wasn't quite as totally alone as she thought, even if Elsa's gift was so different to her own.

At Elsa's question, she lifted her face and sniffed the air before she even thought about it, a look of concentration on her face, before she shrugged and shook her head.
"Not anywhere near here, anyway," she replied "Maybe deeper in the woods but there seem to be people popping up in all sorts of strange places around here."

[Elsa]

Already true: a beautiful gift. Elsa nearly flushed at the words, trying instead to cover it with her question, with her gaze pointed deeper into the forest. She could all but sense something out there, but it could simply be another, different sort of freedom. It had certainly called both her and Red to this place, if nothing else.

"People keep popping up in odd places?" repeated Elsa. She frowned. "That certainly does sound like magic. But it seems odd to me that it would just grab people at random and drop them nearly the same..." then again, maybe this land was somehow broken? Elsa turned, looking back to the overgrown city, thinking about how nobody here seemed to actually be from here.

"What exactly qualifies as strange?" she finally had to ask, smiling as she looked back to Red. "This entire place seems to fit that definition in some way, doesn't it?" she took another breath, inhaling the forest, exhaling a little more frost. "Not that I mind it, but nonetheless..."

Elsa thought she saw something moving in the distance, a rustle in the forest. It was enough to draw her from her own rhapsodizing to stare, wishing she had better senses. It was probably just nothing; Red certainly didn't seem to think there was anything of note deeper in.

[Red Riding Hood]

"Well some people weren't grabbed," Red mused "I came through the portal myself, though I didn't expect the place to be... well, like it is. But everybody seems to be coming out of the portal in all scattered places, you'd think they'd all come out in the same place somehwere..." she explained, snorting slightly at the mention of the whole place being strange "Everything is a little strange here," she admitted "Bad choice of words perhaps."

The fact that Elsa was getting so many words out of her was impressive enough, for some reason she was far more talkative here than she'd ever been back at home, since the attack anyway, perhaps it was something to do with the freeness of being here, or perhaps it was just that the people she had met so far were the kind of people able to draw her out of her shell a little bit, even if her guard was still well in place.

Red's eyes darted to the movement quickly and she froze, once again sniffing at the air. Without even thinking about it, she growled low in her throat, just a warning, a territory thing, but she caught herself as soon as the sound was made, and cleared her throat quickly as if that had just been part of it.
"Just a fox." she said dismissively.

[Elsa]

"So did my sister," admitted Elsa, chewing her lip in consideration. She still was focused ahead, at the shifting, moving bushes. Red insisted that it wasn't anything, dismissed it outright .But just a breath ago she'd been talking about how strange this place was, how everything about this place was just slightly off. Elsa found herself believing that a little more than she did a quick dismissal...

..but there had been the growl, hadn't there? Elsa looked over to Red, remembering that the other had spoken of a gift that had pushed her to the outskirts of civilization as well. Did it have something to do with animals?

Well, best to just take it in stride. Elsa pulled back, smoothing her dress. "It's odd that I'm still so jumpy here," She looked around. "So far I haven't encountered anything more powerful than me,' She lowered her gaze, looking back to her hands. She rose them, seeing bits of ice and snow falling from between the gaps. Was that something she should take into consideration? Did she... should she leave? Not like that was an option, but what if it was...?

[Red Riding Hood]

"Sometimes that happens," Red said softly, her gaze staying on the disturbed foliage for a moment before turning back to Elsa "The jumpiness. It's sort of like... territory. People are animals too after all, and when you come to a new territory you can feel unsettled, until you get your bearings. There doesn't seem to be any threat here, at least none that I've seen, but it's easy to feel uncertain when you're somewhere new."

Red knew about territory, and changing it. She'd moved around so much she was used to settling into a new area quickly at this point. Perhaps that was why she spent so much time wandering the forest, getting to know the lay of the land quickly.

[Elsa]

No threat, and some cautioning, almost soothing. Elsa looked to the woman again. She'd said something about power, and she, like a few others Elsa had met, seemed completely confident and comfortable around Elsa, as if the abilities weren't anything to fear. Elsa looked back toward the icy blast she'd shot upward near their first meeting. The area had started it melting slightly, but only just: the night wasn't exactly warm.

"You don't seem to fear me," she noted, trying to make it sound casual and nonthreatening. She looked back to Red. "Is that because of your ability? Or are there just more beings like I am where you're from?" She folded her arms, considering again. "I keep hearing that there's no one else quite like me, you see, and you're already mentioning abilities... I'm trying to find it out, and possibly a bit more besides."

Which was perhaps a bit more than Elsa felt like sharing, but she felt a little more... open around Red than she had other people she'd encountered thus far.

[Red Riding Hood]

"You haven't given me any reason to fear you any more than any other person," Red shrugged "You haven't threatened me, and while I can see how your power could be dangerous so can fangs or claws or a sword, or a harsh word in the right hands, or lips as the case may be. Everybody can be dangerous in the right circumstances. These don't feel like the right circumstances." Red was guarded around just about everyone, she'd been bitten (literally) once before and she wasn't going to let it happen again, but she wasn't afraid.

"I've never met anyone with an ability like yours, but I have met other people with abilities, magic and the like." she offered "None that I know well enough to tell you much, nor any I know that are here, but they do exist, and I assume some people with... gifts like ours have found their way here. As we've discussed, it seems like the kind of place for those who might otherwise be shunned."

[Elsa]

"You have a point,' admitted Elsa. "Well, beyond shooting at you in the beginning. I've learned to play rather defensively when it comes to my powers." She felt her eyes going to the bit of frost, noting that in her surprise, she'd thoroughly iced the thing over. That would take some time to melt.

And there wasn't anyone with powers quite like hers. Elsa sighed. "I'd be lying if I didn't admit to being disappointed to hear that. Still, pulling together and working is better than not," she refocused on Red. "I don't suppose you know any secret tips for controlling abilities? At this point, mine come down to 'don't get too nervous', and it's rather difficult to be constantly in control of my emotions."

She raised her hand, and, as if to prove her point, snowflakes gently fell. Nerves were apparently showing, though Elsa frowned at the sight, closing her fist and cutting it off.

[Red Riding Hood]

"Sometimes that's the best way," Red agreed "Don't let anybody take advantage just out of fear, but never be the one to go on the offensive first... even if sometimes that doesn't even work. There are people out there who were already decided to see the worst in you no matter what you did or didn't do." she shrugged. She had long ago learned to just shrug those people off and move on, if they didn't want her around fine, she didn't want to be around them.

"I'm afraid I don't," she apologised "I learned most of my control when I was young, but around the full moon it's impossible to resist, I don't think there's a way to stop my powers then.... my emotions have never really affected my abilities, unless I get very angry I suppose... they're a little different from yours though. You may find there are people with similar abilities somewhere, or at least people who might be able to offer you some advice."