Mio caro papà,
Cześć tata,
Two girls as different as fire and ice messaged their fathers. Even the style was different. While Elsie wrote with an elegant font, Weronika chose something basic, and threw in a few emojis for good measure. As different as they were, though, the contents of their messages were eerily similar…
There's been some confusion over working here with Sho… More similarities and differences, they were both aspiring musicians who'd taken up with the mysterious talent scout, yet neither one could understand what he saw in the other.
But of course, I'll do it for my siblings. Weronika promised.
But of course, I'll rise above it! Elsie raised her chin. Weronika would not break her! This was but a chance to prove herself worthy of her father!
For I know that's how you'd want me to respond, yes! But still… There's been some confusion that you really ought to know…
For you see my bandmate is… an uneducated, unrefined, unrestrained, untrained individual who lacks accountability, civility, common sense, decorum, politeness, propriety, respect, responsibility, sense, sensibility, and social awareness! She is a scoundrel, savage! Heathen! Hedonistic in the worst way! It is painfully obvious she is of very poor breeding and very basic ilk, hardly a penny to her Polish name! I've no doubt her family came here to escape some great plight while WE Largos were practically BEGGED to set up a base in America!
P.S. Her vibes are ATROCIOUS and hideodious!
-Con amore, il tuo cuoricino, Elsie Largo
Weronika's description of Elsie was far more concise.
Bitch.
What was this feeling, so sudden and new? It started the moment the two laid eyes on each other.
My pulse is rushing! Elsie thought, embarrassed as her pale, dainty cheeks were dusted with a light, strawberry pink.
My head is reeling! Weronika rested a hand on her aching head. That was what being around Elsie did to you!
What was this feeling? It was fervid as a flame, stoked and egged on to new heights any time the two girls were in the same vicinity. And as unit-mates of the same DJ group… Even now they were supposed to be rehearsing for Sho, but instead, they were obsessing over each other. They couldn't stop thinking or talking about one another, getting so emotional that the symptoms became physical. And yet, neither girl knew what to call this odd infatuation. Or perhaps their minds were too clouded with each other to think clearly. (Here was a clue: it started with an "L"…)
Yes! Loathing! Unadulterated loathing!
"For your face!" Elsie snarked. She's always scowling and frowning! She will have such hideous wrinkles when she ages! And she is so unclean that I am certain her skin is in very poor health as well! To put concisely, Weronika had a dog-ugly face.
"Your voice!" Weronika shot back with a low, grumbling snort. God, that nasally, high-pitched—! More than once had Weronika mocked Elsie for it.
("Weronika, it simply isn't done!"
"wErOnIkA! iT sImPlY iSn'T dOnE!")
"Your clothing!" Elsie continued to fire back. Her style is SO garish, tacky, and try-hard! She ran around in leather jackets, silver chains, ripped jeans, and Maverick shirts like some kind of delinquent degenerate (or degenerate delinquent!) Abyssmare was a unit of villains, Elsie would always say, but they weren't supposed to look like hoodlum hooligans! (Or hooligan hoodlums.)
God, I just hate her SO MUCH! The two girls thought at the same time as they both scowled and made rude gestures at one another across the rehearsal room. Let's just say, I loathe it all! Every little trait, however small, made each girl's flesh begin to crawl. With simple utter loathing, there's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation! It was so pure and strong. Though I do admit it came on fast, still I do believe that it can last! And I will be loathing you my whole life long!
Lucky for Little Miss Popularity, Little Lady Elsie Largo, she had more than enough emotional support to go around.
"Dear Ms. Largo, you are just too good!" One of her bodyguards consoled her as she came home after another long, grueling, miserable practice with Sho and the rest of Abyssmare. How did she do it? How did Weronika manage to be the most tiring thing about their demanding setlists?
"How do you stand it? I don't think I could!" Another guard agreed. Already, the quartet of black suits had needed to physically restrain Elsie and Weronika from each other multiple times. It typically only took one to carry Elsie away while the other three went after savage Weronika.
"She's a terror! She's a tartar!" The third guard nodded, flexing muscles on reflex as Weronika was mentioned. The most recent incident saw her pin Elsie to a wall. Their noses practically touched as they screamed and swore at each other, even as Elsie's guards dragged Weronika away.
"We will surely show a bias, but Ms. Largo, you're a martyr!" The fourth finished admiringly.
Ego appeased and delightfully soothed, Elsie put on a wise, pained expression as she rested a little hand over her dainty, elegant heart. As she'd dictated in her communications to her father, "These things are sent to try us!"
And it wasn't just the guards that Elsie had on her side. A lot of the workers and other performers of the studio also seemed to favor the girl of silver over the girl of off-purple, and that included the girl of gold, Neo Lone.
She was a mysterious diva, the first of Abyssmare, and its true leader. Sho might've been the one with all the executive power, but it was Neo that drew them all in, including Sho himself. Elsie met her at a gala, and was so impressed by the other girl's ability to stand up to her father that Elsie knew at once that she had to serve beside the quiet queen.
Whispers even said that perhaps Neo was part of a disgraced family, a last great American dynasty, heir to fading fame and money. Was her decision to form and lead Abyssmare a last hurrah to preserve that dying reputation of her once-feared name? She certainly carried herself with the proper grace and poise! It was how and why Neo swept Elsie so easily off her feet. A girl of silver as the right hand of the girl of gold!
The two dined at a local café, Elsie sitting forward attentively, desperate to impress Neo. Neo, by contrast, reclined in her chair languidly.
"You and Weronika," she said suddenly, sipping her tea quietly and calmly. "If I didn't know any better, I would say it's… love."
"WHAT?! LADY LONE!" Elsie clutched her pearl-studded black purse to her chest, so embarrassed and scandalized that she hopped up from her seat, amber eyes comically wide while Neo only smirked at her over the top of her teacup. Well, maybe Elsie didn't have everyone on her side.
Secretly, Neo was not at all sympathetic to any of her unit-mates. As far as she was concerned, they were mere pawns to get her where she wanted to go. But, it was entertaining to break out the popcorn and watch two of them go at it in a dogfight while she sat safely on the sidelines. The only reason Neo spent more time with Elsie—and thusly seemed more tolerant and preferential of her—was because Elsie followed her everywhere. She called Neo "Lady Lone" even though, regardless of Neo's bloodline, Neo had never asked anyone to address her as such.
Weronika, meanwhile, avoided them both vehemently. And contrast to Elsie, it didn't seem like anyone wanted to take her side. Except…
"I just don't get it, Soph. Even you aren't as bad! That little bit—brat—is gonna kill me if I don't kill her first! She and Neo deserve each other!"
"N-n-no! W-W-Weronika! N-n-neither of us ha-ha-has enough m-m-money t-t-to pay your b-b-bail or b-b-bond!" Sophia clasped her hands together.
"Then you can break me out, or go rob a bank, or something, and get the bail money!" Weronika growled. Even she couldn't tell if she was being serious or sarcastic. But she could see by the way Sophia yelped and covered her head that Sophia was scared she was being serious, already trying to imagine and plan a life where she and Weronika were cellmates.
N-no w-way I can commit a crime and p-p-pull it off! Sophia thought. Weronika could only sigh and roll her eyes.
Despite being the DJ, and thusly one of the most important members of the unit, Sophia was perhaps the most pathetic. She and Weronika only knew one another distantly, having grown up around the same area of New York City. They were not friends, per se, but the moment Sophia saw her and recognized a familiar face in Weronika, she all but glued herself to Weronika's hip the way Elsie glued herself to Neo's. What frustrated Weronika, though, was that Sophia was also glued to Neo's hip.
Ever since the four of them met, finalizing and creating Abyssmare, Sophia and Elsie both seemed to fall head over heels for the mysterious, blonde diva, and quite frankly, Weronika thought it was disgustang. Maybe Sophia thought Neo was hot enough to hero-worship, but Neo was a bitch! And so was Elsie! They really did deserve each other… And Weronika could only shake her head disdainfully as her Munchkin childhood "friend" Sophia was constantly verbally abused by their midget, Munchkin enemy, Elsie.
"Ah! Is this Ms… Sophie Smith? Our DJ?" At first, her amber eyes twinkled, but after drinking in Sophia's rather ratty appearance, her nose crinkled. And especially after learning that Sophia and Weronika had somewhat grown up together, in Elsie's silver-haired head, it all became all the more clear and perfect. They deserved each other. Sophia and Weronika were the unwashed masses, and Elsie and Neo silver and gold elite!
"Th-th-that's Sophia, actually!" Sophia corrected her timidly, but even with Weronika occasionally grunting and snapping at Elsie for being such a smartass, dumbass constantly forgetting Sophia's name, that didn't stop Elsie from making it a point to butcher it every time she could.
"Ah, Ms. Sally! There you are!"
"A-a-actually it's… S-S-Sophia…"
"Right, yes, whatever, Sarah."
Sophia would only sigh in resignation, assuming she deserved it. She was just a commoner, peasant, and plebian, after all. While Elsie and Neo were obviously of fine, aristocratic breed, Sophia was… even more pathetic than Weronika, though financially slightly better off. But even though Sophia felt way out of her league around the rest of Abyssmare, some of her prayers were blessedly answered as she did find herself in Neo's company increasingly of late, and not just because they were unit-mates.
"Poor Ms. Elsie forced to reside with someone who so loves a good fight!" Neo smirked and crossed her arms as she observed the latest catfight. Sophia cowered beside her, shaking and shrinking in on herself, thinking the same thing she'd told Weronika the day before.
PLEASE don't do anything too… physical! I know that's how you are, Weronika! They'd known each other since childhood, after all, even if they hadn't really connected/reconnected until Abyssmare. But I REALLY don't want you getting arrested! Elsie's bodyguards were right there, after all.
The DJ twiddled her thumbs and whimpered and moaned to herself as she unwittingly drew closer and closer to Neo. Neo only cast her the tiniest of disdainful, dismissive glances out of the corner of her stormy, sapphire eyes.
Hmph. I do not think much of her, and yet, it appears that she is Weronika's minder just as I am Elsie's. How… interesting and amusing… Smirk widening marginally, Neo finally leaned over to Sophia. "Care to place a bet on which of them makes it out of this duel unscathed?"
"L-L-L-LADY LONE!" Just as Elsie before her, Sophia was scandalized, but also over the moon that Neo was even looking at her, let alone talking.
As soon as she had the chance, sly and sadistic Neo turned her attention and words back to Elsie, stormy sapphire eyes also briefly sweeping across the quartet of black suits surrounding the little girl in the little black dress. "We just want to tell you, we're all on your side!"
Neo and Sophia didn't actually share the loathing, but neither girl could, or would, look away. While Neo was mentally feasting on popcorn, Sophia clutched the sides of her head in horror at the tango unfolding before her, the guards circling like black vultures waiting for someone to drop dead.
What is this feeling, so sudden and new? Weronika and Elsie also circled each other, seething, eyes seeking out any opportunity to strike.
Loathing, unadulterated loathing! Neo knew the answer confidently. Beside her, Sophia moaned the words in her head in a guilty panic.
"I felt it the moment I laid eyes on you!" Weronika and Elsie got into each other's faces, pointing accusatorily, fingers almost touching noses.
For her face, her voice, her clothing. Neo had observed many a verbal sparring between half of her unit, even down to petty pranks wherein props, makeup, clothing, set pieces, and other equipment would suddenly go missing, but only Elsie or Weronika's.
"My pulse is rushing!" Weronika accused. "You trying to kill me from high blood pressure, or somethin'?!"
"My head is reeling!" Elsie shot back, clutching her head and looking close to swooning as her amber eyes flashed in indignation.
Let's just say, Neo thought glibly, they loathe it all!
"Oh, what is this feeling?!" Silly Elsie and Weronika, did they really not know?
Every little trait, however small… They are so attentive to each other, and yet they are blind and oblivious to this!
"Does it have a name?!" Yes. Yes it did. And this time, every voice seemed to join the hateful, harmonious chorus, even Elsie's quartet of black suits.
"Loathing! There's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation!" Elsie and Weronika turned away from each other, one of Elsie's eyes twitching as she curled her fingers into claws, imagining herself wringing Weronika's neck. God, it was satisfying! And at the same time, a sadistic, savage smile seemed to tear its way unevenly across Weronika's face, making her look equally unhinged. "It's so pure, so strong!"
"Though I do admit it came on fast, still I do believe that it can last! And I will be loathing for forever…" Elsie slowly turned around again.
"Truly, deeply, loathing you!" Weronika was already pointing at her, and again, the two came dangerously close, the four bodyguards still hovering right over their shoulders while Neo and Sophia watched from the sidelines, all of them anticipating hands being thrown…
"Loathing you! My whole life long!" Right before anyone could come to blows, the guards finally intervened. Again, one of them picked up Elsie and walked away with her while the other three held down Weronika. One on each arm, then one standing directly in front of her.
But they had to let her go eventually, and the moment all backs were turned, Weronika managed to sneak up on Elsie with her fingers curled into claws, a wicked, sadistic smile on her face. "BOO!"
Elsie shrieked and, on pure reflex, slapped her with her pearl-studded black purse before scowling at her, seething all over again. SEPERACK!
All the while, Weronika could only cackle, but before anyone could do anything else, Sho pushed open the studio doors with a loud and sudden BANG! It was time to get to work! Loathing or not!
AN: Even though this song precedes "Popular", I wrote it after I wrote Chap 1 of this fic. Also consider this an AU in that Fiyero and Boq are Neo and Sophia, so Boq/Sophia knew Elphaba/Weronika when they were kids while Fiyero/Neo is the new transfer student that Galinda/Elsie quickly latches onto. I guess Sho is Madam Morrible/the Wizard? LOL!