Lollieroxstar: Really? Well to late to change it now right?
Enjoy and review for constructive criticism!
Elliot waited with some other card guards outside the only personal space that Elisea had left since their father had followed through in his promise, the bathroom.
He knocked on the door for what felt like the millionth time, the same phrase he had been spouting all day coming out of his mouth only a few moments afterwards, taking a moment to frown at how corny it sounded and annoyingly repetitive it was making him feel.
"Come on Elisea, just talk to him while he's here, you never know he might just let you go." He yelled desperately over the sounds of Hairdryers and showers, knowing full well that she was not really using either and instead just trying to drown out the pleas of all her 'prison guards' as she liked to call them when she was in a rather foul mood.
The Blonde sighed under his breath, muttering on how he was frankly terrible at comforting people, especially Elisea and was about to attempt to break open the locked bathroom door to speak to her face to face when he felt the doorknob under his hand turn and was greeted by the angry face of his sister, making him back away a few centimeters from the door, knowing that an angry Elisea was not worth the scars he was inevitably going to receive from attempting to calm her down.
"I do not want to see him Elliot, but if he's so damn desperate to talk to me I want him to come here, no guards, no Mickey, I want to see him alone okay? Now you go tell him that and while you're at it, tell these guys to go away!" She yelled the last part, slamming the door behind her. Taking a moment to lock the door as loudly as she could so that Elliot could hear it.
Eventually she heard the retreating footsteps of the Cards and her sibling and sighed as she was finally left in peace, trying to ignore just how much of a horrible person she felt at the moment, mentally noting to apologize to her brother and the guards the next time she got the chance.
She knew her father was busy, and she was pretty sure that Elliot had better things to do in the morning than try to comfort a stubborn, unthinking teen but there were times when she was to angry to think before she spoke, and would usually spout something that would either make her sound like a complete idiot or an insensitive clod, either way after the impending fight she was always the first to apologize for her behavior.
She walked over to the shower and hairdryer, turning them off quickly so that she could be left in peaceful quiet, not wanting to be disturbed by anything as she lay down on the cool tile floor, her eyes bloodshot from how tired she actually was.
Soon the soothing feeling of the tiles on her skin lulled her to sleep, her tired form slowly relaxing as her unconscious mind was filled with calm, relaxing dreams, her anger slowly draining away as she dreamed.
She was in the middle of one of them when she felt arms lift her up from her soothing sanctuary of cold tiles, making her mumble tirelessly in objection as she slowly attempted to lift her eyelids to see who was carrying her.
However, her exhaustion seemed to even include the easy action of lifting one's eyelids so she was unable to get a good look at her carrier until she was laid down on her bed, a warm, comforting blanket being lifted over her.
Oswald quietly tucked his daughter in, a sad look in his eyes as his hand carefully brushed some strands of her blonde hair out of her face, his look softening more as she finally looked back up at him in exhaustion, her thoughts clearly not including the argument they had recently.
"Dad?" She mumbled confusingly as he sat beside her, smiling in response as she shifted quietly in her bed, her head turning towards her nearby Mickey Mouse Alarm clock, growing as she saw the hands pointing directly at early numbers.
"It's only seven in the morning; can't I sleep in a little bit more?" She said sluggishly, turning completely on her side as her father laughed quietly under his breath, standing from his spot before walking over to her bedroom door, taking a moment to look back at his daughter as she slowly fell back into sleep, whispering a response to the now unconscious toon.
"Sure Sweetie, I'll see you later." Oswald left the room, making sure to carefully close the bedroom door behind him quietly before sighing, his soft thudding footsteps eventually leading him back into his office, where his son was waiting rather impatiently.
"Did you talk to her?" His son said briefly, still angry on his sister's punishment, feeling as though Oswald should have punished him instead, especially since he felt as though he was the one who started all the trouble.
"Not exactly Elliot, I'll talk to her later today, for now, I have to-"
"Go and check on Mickey, I know." Elliot finished, his lips twitching into a smirk as he saw the brief look of annoyance on his adopted father's face.
"You know you could come with if you're just as bored here as Elisea is." The rabbit said briefly, already knowing what his son's answer would be as he turned, walking back out of the office and down the mountain towards the projector that would lead him to Oz-Town.
"Not if that damn Gremlin is with him." Elliot growled half heartedly, trying to fight down an embarrassed smile as his father laughed, looking at the Blonde toon pointedly as they reached the Projector.
"You know he is Elliot, besides you never know, he might just apologize." Oswald said sarcastically, nearly repeating Elliot's 'compelling motivational' speech to Elisea.
"Yeah I'll pass father of mine. Besides it would seem a bit unfair to leave Elisea here to die of boredom." Elliot said humoringly, his apparent issue with Gus was not gone, but had thankfully simmered over the past few days.
Oswald nodded once in farewell and quickly jumped through the projector, he ran through the cartoon world, doing his best as he involuntarily thought back on his daughter's angry words during their fight, all the while thinking on defences for himself.
We're not kids anymore! We can actually protect ourselves now! You have to let us out sometime!
He knew that, he just wanted them to be safe; he didn't want what happened to Ortensia to happen to them.
What did I do wrong?
She and Elliot disobeyed him; they got arrested for Pete's sake (and quite literally to.) Then they went and started another fight as soon as they were freed, exactly at what point were they not doing something wrong?
I was not in that fight if you recall!
Oswald growled angrily, leaping through the othersider of the projector, trying to remove the reasoning voice of his daughter as it slowly buried him in his own guilt.
As soon as I find a way out, I'm not coming back
She didn't mean that, she couldn't have...
Wanna bet?
Oswald stopped outside Mickey's house, trying to calm his breathing as he quickly went inside, not wanting the citizens of his town to see their leader looking so distressed.
He sat quietly on the couch, his hands rubbing his eyes in complete exhaustion, unsure of what to do next.
He knew he should go back to the Mountain, talk to his daughter, try to make them understand his point of view. Let her know he was only trying to keep er safe, that he really did trust her, he just didn't want her to get hurt.
But still...
He needed to go check on Mickey and the rocket, there's no telling what that Mouse could get up to when he wasn't around. Besides, the faster he's gone, the faster he could deal with the other issues int he town.
His mind made up, the rabbit walked out of Mickey's Wasteland house and back into the streets of OzTown; ignoring the weird looks he was receiving from its citizens.
He was about to head towards the projector that would lead him back to Mickeyjunk Mountain when he felt a hand on his arm.
"Oswald, we need your help, some Spatters have made their way to Mean Street and we can't stop them all." Oswald nodded once at the Gremlin behind him, following him quickly towards Mean Street, his eyes slightly downcast as for the last time that day, he thought back to his sleeping daughter, quietly hoping that she would understand.
Elisea woke some time later to the garbled and slightly distorted sounds of her Mickey Mouse alarm clock, her hand eventually reaching out to silence it's sad rendition of 'Mickey Mouse March" before rolling over to the other side of the bed as her mind went back to the events of earlier that morning.
Sighing at her behavior, the blonde toon climbed out of bed, changed in a sky blue t shirt and black jeans, not really bothering to put on any shoes as she walked out of her room and sneaked through the halls of the Mountain's Secret Summit rooms (Secret to the rest of Wasteland anyway.) Hoping not to get caught by 'duty bound' guards.
She walked up the stairs that leaded to Elliot's room, hoping to apologize for her snapping at him the way she did.
The young toon knocked on the door, waiting patiently for a response for a few minutes before shrugging and opening the door, taking a moment to reflect on just how messy her brother's room really was.
There were clothes all over the floor, posters of anything besides Mickey Mouse lining the walls, obviously his desperate attempt to cover up the strange Mickey Mouse faces that had once covered them.
Elliot himself was nowhere to be found, at least as far as Elisea could tell, since she wasn't up for looking for him through the mess of his room. She did however; see a small brown leather journal lying on top of some cans of spray paint.
Curious, and a little worried about the spray cans, she held the small journal in her hands, briefly wondering on exactly where he found it since it didn't have any Mickey Mouse faces on it.
She opened the book to its first page and read the small scribbles that took up as much space as it could; the first entry seemed to take place years ago.
It has been a few months since me and Elisea have started staying with Oswald and I have been in my first battle!
I know he told me not to follow him, but I had to know why he was gone nearly all the time. I followed him up the mountain for what felt like forever, until finally he stopped at the very peak of the mountain, glaring intently at this huge bottle that seemed to take up most of the space on the cliff that it was on.
"You took my life away, but now I have a new family, and I'll protect them from you, no matter what." He said seriously before noticing that the cork of the bottle was a little out of place and panicked, quickly using all of his strength to push the cork back into place.
While he did this a small drip of the strange ink from the bottle slipped out, he didn't seem to notice so I followed it, hoping silently that I wasn't caught on my way down or that I wouldn't get lost during my investigation.
It took me a while but eventually the small drip suddenly stopped on a nearby edge of the cliff and morphed and grew into one of these strange creatures that lived on the mountain below that Oswald told me to stay away from.
The creature looked at me for a minute before screeching weirdly and running towards me. I wasn't sure what I should do so I quickly backed away from the strange creature, my hand eventually grasping a sharp stick from behind me.
I swung it out in front of me and quickly hit the strange drip across the head with it, my heart nearly stopping in fear as the stick when straight through him. I held the stick out in front of me, why wasn't it working?
The creature let out what I think was a laugh but it sounded much deeper and threatening as it walked closer, knowing that I couldn't escape.
Even though I knew it was useless I held the stick out in front of me, swinging it back and forth in fear, hoping that at some point it would scare the strange creature.
While I was backing away from the creature I tripped on a nearby Mickey Mouse doll and fell, the stick I was holding landing in a thinner puddle nearby.
I looked back up at the Creature in fear as it laughed again; about to pounce when I lifted the stick out of the puddle and swung it at the creature desperately, silently knowing that it would never work.
So I was surprised when the creature screeched in pain, backing away from me as I looked back at the stick before smiling and swinging the stick at the creature again, happy to see it back away from me before running down the mountain, tripping half way and falling of the summit altogether.
I was about to celebrate my achievement when I felt this strange burning feeling on the palm of my hand. Scared, I instantly dropped the stick and looked at my palm, surprised to see my skin turning grey where the thinner had touched it.
I ran back to Oswald's office in fear, the grey on my palm seemed to be growing across my hand and down my arm.
When I finally made it into Oswald's office I was sobbing with pain, trying not to wake Elisea as I ran to Oswald, who looked at me in shock before panicking about the grey mess that seemed to be covering most of my arm. He quickly ordered a Card guard to watch Elisea before he grabbed my other hand and we ran into a white room.
He sat me on a nearby chair before telling me not to touch my hand as he grabbed a nearby grey box off a shelf, stopping only to open it and pull out a small blue bottle and some bandages.
Oswald walked back over to me, squeezing my free hand in his own before gently laying my arm on my lap and quickly covering it in the blue liquid before the greyness could go onto my leg.
I whimpered at the pain it caused before smiling at the cool feeling of the blue liquid, I looked back at my injured arm and smiled, it was all better now.
I was about to stand up when Oswald stopped me before taking my arm and wrapping it in the Bandages, mumbling something about it needing to be stable for it to get better.
He was soon finished wrapping my arm and I was about to go back to the office to check on Elisea when Oswald stopped me, his face filled with concern.
"What Happened?" He said seriously, his expression was different, he seemed...worried.
I couldn't tell him that I had been following him so I quickly thought something up.
"I was looking for a Mouse doll for Elisea when my hand touched this really strange green stick, I didn't know it was Thinner. It really hurt so I came back here, I'm sorry." I said quickly, wincing as I poked my arm through the bandages.
"Don't touch till I say okay?" Oswald said quickly, holding my hand away from the bandages.
He seemed to be happy with my answer so I nodded and went back to the Office, smiling sadly at the now awake Elisea, knowing that I couldn't hold her until my arm got better.
Later that day, I found the stick again and wrapped the end of it in the same type clothes my bandages before picking it up. I took it back to my room and inspected it further.
Apparently this strange thinner seems to do real damage to these creatures than normal weapons do. Maybe the Cards should use the thinner as a weapon instead of something to avoid?
Elisea raised her eyebrows, clearly impressed as she glanced appreciatively at the sword that hung from her belt. Elliot had been making both of their weapons for years, but had it been longer than Elisea had previously thought?
The blonde toon flipped through some more of the pages before coming across a familiar date, smiling happily as she read on, her own memories helping with events of that day.
Elisea remembered the day Elliot gave her the first weapon she ever carried...
Elliot had been working on the same sword for months, developing the blade, doing his best to add the right amount of thinner in the indents he had made in the blade, welding the right handle to the blade, using the right type of cloth to wrap around the handle so that if the sword was damaged in any way when thinner dripped out of the indents it wouldn't injure the wielder's hands as much as it did to him all those years ago.
Elliot held up his arm, smiling as the scar was finally gone, apparently a thinner injury can take years to heal, luckily his had healed by now though it had left a small grey spot on his forearm.
The blonde teen held the finished sword in his hand, watching the sunlight shine on the intricate welding on the blade, the green of the thinner droplets in the blade shinning like emeralds in the light.
He wrapped the sword in a white towel as he placed it carefully on his bed before going to find his younger sibling. Eventually found her in her room, watching the rain fall out her small window, a forgotten book lying next to her.
He had been debating over the past few days on whether or not she was technically old enough to be able to handle the sword but eventually trusted that Fourteen was old enough, besides he was the same age when first got his weapon.
"Hey Eli," the older of the pair whispered to his sister, smiling as she walked over to him.
"What ?" She said quietly, following her brother to his room as they snuck past the Cards. Eventually they made it to Elliot's room where he showed her the previously wrapped sword.
Elisea gasped at its beauty, holding it carefully it her hands before swinging it to her left, accidentally knocking over her brother's guitar stand.
"Oh, sorry Elliot!" she exclaimed, helping him clean up the mess she had made. Elliot chuckled while he picked up his guitar off the ground, laying it on the bed next to him before taking the sword out of his sister's hands.
"It's fine, but what do you think of the sword?" He asked placing the sword on a nearby desk before taking his guitar in his hands, tuning it quietly before playing, relaxing the younger siblings frayed nerves from causing the mess.
Elisea smiled at her elder brother lying next to him as he played, the music seemingly fitting with her emotions.
"It's beautiful Elliot, is it for the Cards?" She asked off handily, smiling as her brother stopped strumming the guitar and looked at her pointedly.
"Not really, no," He said looking away from her as he placed the guitar back on its stand before continuing, "Actually, it was for you."
Elliot felt the wind being taken out of him as his sister tackled him into a tight hug, squealing in happiness.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said, not noticing the blue that seemed to be filling her brother's face.
"Eli, I can't breathe." He gasped, breathing deeply as his sister finally let go, giggling with embarrassment.
"Heh, sorry Elliot." She said quietly, grinning as he finally placed the wrapped sword in her outstretched hands.
"Remember, this is an incredibly dangerous weapon, use it on a toon and they'd be dead before they hit the floor, okay?" He said carefully, making sure he had his sister's full attention.
"Okay Elliot." She answered back, her eyes showing complete trust before they lighted again in the ever familiar humor.
"Now how do you use this again?"
Elisea laughed under breath, memories of happy times filling her mind as she looked over at her brother's guitar, briefly wondering how long it had been since he had played it before she looked back down at the journal in her hands, suddenly curious of what could lie in between the pages.
The young toon was about to read another page in the journal when she heard a strange noise coming from the nearby bathroom and freaked, quickly placing the journal back on the collection of spray paint cans before running out of the room before her brother could catch her.
She ran down the stairs, past a few befuddled Cards who remembered what their duty was and followed after her. She continued in her marathon, unaware of where exactly she was going but it was away from the annoying Cards so it was good enough for her.
Eventually the hallway she was running through managed to lead to Oswald's office, so she quickly slammed the door behind her, smiling victoriously as she heard the desperate pleas from the guards to just talk to them or her father.
Eventually the voices where silenced as they gave up, walking away to find something else to guard or some Blots to battle. Leaving Elisea to relax in the silence.
She walked around the office a few times, clearly not wanting to go outside increase her brother, or the Cards or even her father were waiting for her.
Instead she took to her sight accidentally landing on the image of Ortensia's inert statue. Elisea shivered yet walked closer to the case where Oswald's wife was kept.
It was as if today was one for remembering since her memories reeled back to asking her father about Ortensia for the first time.
Elisea is seven, and she has nothing to do.
Elliot was busy with helping the guards protect the summit and Dad was busy in his office doing, whatever he did in there during the day when he wasn't gone.
Deciding that her father could take some time out of his work to play with her Elisea walked out of her room and over to her father's office, frowning slightly as she lost her way a few times.
Eventually she made it and lightly tapped on the door, knowing full well that her father would be able to pick up the sound of her knocking with his long ears.
"Come in." The voice behind the door as Elisea opened it, smiling brightly at the turned back of her father.
"Hi Daddy," Elisea said happily, walking over to her father's chair, stopping only to notice that he looked sadder than before.
"What's wrong?" She said worryingly, tugging slightly on her father's pant leg for his attention, her already worried frown deepening as she saw his sad eyes.
"Nothing Sweetie, Daddy's just tired that's all." He said quietly, ruffling his daughter's already messy hair with his hand, a weak smile gracing his face as he sat up in his seat, looking out the large window, at the view of his base and beyond.
Elisea watched him quietly before looking around the room, her eyes settling on the strange figure in a glass case, she had seen it before but it never rose to her attention until now.
"What is that Daddy?" She said carefully, tugging on her father's pant leg again before pointing at the glass case.
Oswald followed her hand and sighed miserably, though knowing full well that she would ask after this at sometime, but why now?
Sucking it up, Oswald picked his daughter up in his arms and walked over to the case, holding his daughter close as he spoke, making sure that the sadness in his voice was kept to a minimum.
"That is your other mummy and Daddy's wife Eli, She had an accident but don't worry, some day she'll get better and when she does, you can have all the tea parties you want with her."
Elisea watched the small statue with curiosity before smiling and hugging her father as he lowered her to the ground.
"I hope it's soon Daddy, Elliot hates playing tea parties with me..." She said happily as she left her father to his thoughts, making her way to her room in happy abandon, stopping only when she reached her room, pulling out her tea cups and dolls in perfect order before starting her tea party all the while saving a seat for the woman that would be her mother.
Elisea glared half heartedly at the inert toon in the case, despite knowing full well that it wasn't Ortensia's fault that she never showed up to one of her tea parties.
But still from then on whenever she played tea parties with her brother or any of the Card Guards she would make extra sure to keep a seat open for Ortensia.
It took until she was twelve for her brother to tell her that Ortensia was never coming, because and in his own words 'she was never going to get better.'
The blonde toon quietly wiped away what definitely wasn't tears as she could never forget the stinging feeling in her heart that followed after that statement, despite all her father's attempts to convince her and himself that what he had said wasn't true.
But the damage had been done and the resentment was planted in her mind as she knew that she would never have a mother.
Elisea looked away from the glass case, trying to ignore the fresh tears and a rather decent sized lump that had been growing in her throat as she thought back to her childhood and the mostly depressing thoughts that came with them. The imaginary friends that she made up just so that she would know someone her age, the times she was never allowed outside the mountain, the first time she actually killed a Blot and how horrified she had been at the time, the times she cried when she was all alone.
And all because she could never get better.
What hurt mostly was the expectations she use to have for Ortensia when she would finally 'get better', she was hoping for someone who could talk to her about her troubles, and wouldn't leave her alone when the Blots were getting to close to base, someone she could be girly with and watch movies with, eat popcorn talk about boys, normal things that she was apparently supposed to be into at that age. But all she got was a literal mountain of boys that would never understand.
Well, not exactly.
Elisea looked over at her father's desk; there in the corner was a picture of just her, Oswald and Elliot together. They were standing near a brand new set of Mickey cartoons for her and the bunny children to watch. Elisea smiled as she remembered the excited looks in the bunny's eyes as she showed them a small cartoon about Mickey and his friends cleaning a clock tower, which had become one Elisea's favorites over the years.
Oswald always seemed to understand how Elisea felt some days, and always tried to be there for her if he could, so could it be so far off that all he was trying to do was keep her safe? To help her from danger like a parent is supposed to?
It must have been hard for him to take care of both her and her brother all these years while systematically trying to 'help' Ortensia, lead Wasteland and beat back the Blot Army, maybe all he needs was for someone to show that he doesn't have to handle everything on his own?
Elisea was silent for a moment then finally nodded her head in understanding, knowing that she was absolutely sure of what she was going to do next, not thinking for a second of the consequences she would have to face.
Ugh, now I feels all emotional...