attitude | stripping flowers at a petal pace

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edward

stripping flowers at a petal pace

Before anything else registered, as Faye Valentine slowly emerged from sleep that morning, she became distinctly aware of a mattress under her back. Of a down-filled pillow pressed up to her cheek. Of sheets, warm and smooth, and wintry air teasing at her cheeks where they peeked above the covers. Thinking it a dream, she tried to coax herself back to sleep, furiously burying her nose further into the pillow and enjoying, for once, what it felt like to sleep in a proper bed again.

But the very moment she began to try, she found herself growing increasingly alert, until she finally sat up with a disgruntled sigh, a hand scratching at an uncomfortable woven collar as her eyes blearily blinked open, only to fall on a dimly lit room and a crackling fire in the distance. Eyes traveling from one end of the room to the other, Faye leaned forward, her back in a hunch, as she tried to parse out what had happened. Obviously, she wasn't on the island. And this wasn't anywhere close to Bebop. The only real friend she'd made from an era like this was James Norrington, who had left the island long ago. So what had happened?

Ruffling her hair with one hand, Faye's free hand slipped under the pillowcase, until she felt the cool, smooth surface of metal and closed her fingers around an unfamiliar pistol. Loaded, she noted thankfully, checking the barrel. And through the shiver, she lowered herself to the floor, gripping the weapon tightly in hand as she decided to check the next room over, prepared to knock out an opponent if need be.

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Edward was confused. She didn't like being confused and here on the island it was happening with great regularity and she liked that even less. Upon waking, she'd been happy for all the warm blankets and fluffy pillows, but when she rolled out of bed and started looking for her clothes, all that happiness faded away, leaving the beginnings of a very bad day in its wake. Not only had she tripped on the hem of the nightdress she'd woken in, but every item in her closet was made of strange fabrics and cut in such ways that Edward couldn't even begin to figure how they even went on, let alone how to make them fit. The clothes (http://www.costumes.org/history/victorian/women/fashionplates/1889girls.jpg) were completely foreign to her.

With a worried whimper, she dove across the room, tripping again with a crash, holding onto the bed to keep from completely falling over. There was a small desk and on it was... not her beloved Tomato. What was on her desk was a far cry from her precious computer, it was something completely WRONG (http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/datamancerlaptop-open.jpg).

Clothes she could handle, she spent enough time at the box pulling through strange and unusual things, but her computer? No, that was the last straw and she couldn't stop the plaintive wail before it left her lips. "No-ho-ho! Why is it all WRONG!? Ahhhhhhhhh!"

"Edward?"

The sound of the young girl's voice was enough to relieve Faye, who heaved a soft sigh and looked for a place to tuck the pistol away— but it was too large and cumbersome, and she had no pockets— before setting it on a nearby nightstand and making her way over to Edward's side. Her brows furrowed with worry at the crash she'd heard only seconds before, but if there was anything that Edward was capable of, it was somehow managing to remain unscathed, even after falls and tumbles alike. Letting out a sigh between her teeth, Faye reached out for the girl's elbow, hoping to steady her and ease her gently away from the computer that was anything but functional right then.

"Looks like the island's pulled a number on us again," Faye said quietly, threading her fingers in a frustrated motion through her hair. "I guess this is the December change people have been talking about. Come on, Edward, let's find some better clothes."

"Everything is wrong, Faye-Faye, why did it all go away? Edward liked Ed's things."

Arms crossed, she looked up at her oft-aggrieved guardian with a look that clearly indicated a bad mood on the horizon. Ed thought she did pretty good most of the time, she had fun, she read things, she played on things, and she stayed out of people's way. She liked to think she even helped sometimes, like on the Bebop, so why was this place being mean to her her.

"Did all of Faye's things change, too?"

"It changed because this island likes being a little bitch," Faye muttered under her breath, no more pleased with the change than Edward appeared to be, and newly finding herself saddled with the responsibility of trying to keep her chin up for the other girl. Sometimes, concerns slid off Edward's back like oil to water, but in this, Faye suspected that there'd be more friction for the redhead. After all, the island had newly robbed Edward of the only thing that kept her busy most days— her computer. Faye glanced over at the briefcase which stood in its stead, a bemused expression on her face. "But before you start crying unfair, yes, all of my things changed as well. And I'm sure everyone else's did, too."

With a groan, Faye pulled away to start looking through the dressers in the room, curious to see what options either of them would have for the day. "We need to figure out where we are. Need to figure out where to get food, and where... everyone else is."

Ed began poking around too, looking at all the strange dresses in the closets and the heavy fabrics. None of it looked even remotely like what Ed was used to wearing. There were frills and lace and ties and buttons and it was all worse than the dress Jet had put her in when they went to the hospital.

And the shoes. The shoes were the worst, because they looked pointy and leathery and uncomfortable. But looking out the window, Edward could clearly see snow, and if she remembered right, snow was a cold thing.

"No shoes. Edward will not wear shoes."

"Oh, you'll wear shoes," Faye replied at once, even as she felt a touch of guilt for having to be so strict on the girl. It wasn't Edward's fault that they'd suddenly wound up in surroundings far too cold to justify keeping their feet bare, and from the looks of the various shoes cluttering up the corner of the room, none of them were particularly sound for long distances. Still, Faye reached out for Edward's arm and gently tugged her over to the pile, trying to pick out a pair that looked to be the young girl's size. "Unless you want a case of frostbite, but that's one choice I'm not giving you. I doubt that this place even has the supplies for treating it."

Finding a pair with heels that didn't look to be much thicker than an inch, Faye leveled Edward with a warning glance. "We're going to find socks for you, and clothes, and then we're heading outside to figure out what's happened."

"But..." Edward frowned. She couldn't walk in socks, what was she supposed to do in shoes? She couldn't feel the ground and she couldn't wriggle her toes and if she couldn't do that, how could she hold onto the ground? Even if the ground was cold.

"Can't Edward just stay in until it changes back? The weird things only last a few days, don't they?"

"Maybe if you were sixteen, I'd consider. But as I'm responsible for whatever trouble you get yourself into, I'd rather that be minimal, which means keeping you in reach at all times," she sighed through her teeth. In truth, Faye didn't really care about the island laws. Didn't think that she'd get in trouble with much of anyone if she left Edward to her own devices. But knowing how easily distracted the girl was, and knowing how easily the island's whims could change, maybe Faye just didn't feel comfortable leaving the teen alone.

Cared too much to.

Eyes narrowing, Faye pulled out a long coat, holding it out against Edward to check its length. "Or are you really telling me that you'd have the patience to stay in here for a few days?"

Well, no, not exactly, Edward would probably sneak out at some point, but Faye-Faye didn't need to know that. Maybe she could manage socks, lots and lots of socks to sty warm, although they made her fall over, her toes didn't work right in them.

"If Edward had to, Edward could." She poked at the coat, not really liking it, but she figured that it was better than nothing. At least it didn't have lacy bits.

"I know better than to fall for that," Faye replied, even as her tone softened with a sigh that passed through her teeth. If there was anyone on their team who was bound to be most thrown by a change like this, it was Edward. Edward, who wore the same outfit practically every day, who kept barefoot as though that was the only way to be. And Faye could sympathize. She could remember how the world seemed when she'd woken up, suddenly transported fifty years into the future. She remembered how lonely it'd felt.

And the last thing that she would do was abandon Edward in the midst of a situation even remotely similar.

Turning to dig further through the drawers, Faye unearthed a blouse and trousers, handing them over to Edward. "Look, if you get dressed, we can... go and see what's in the other buildings surrounding us. Maybe even," Faye shrugged as she walked over to the window, staring down at the street. "Maybe even catch a taxi."

Unimpressed, Edward started trying to get dressed. The trousers went on relatively easily, although she didn't know what to do with the straps. Did they tie around her waist? Loop around her neck? And the shirt. It had ties, too, and Edward couldn't figure out why.

With a shrug, she ignored all the tie-things, leaving them dangling as she walked over to the window. The rolling thing was moving on its own, just wandering on down the street and Ed spoke without really thinking.

"How's it work? Does it have an engine? What's the fuel? Does it stop? Is it-" She suddenly stopped and looked at her exasperated guardian. "Faye-Faye, is it like home, will your ship work now? Can we fly again?"

Following Edward through the apartment, Faye held the girl in place as she reached down to pull the suspenders over Edward's shoulders, carefully tightening both straps until they fit snugly, unlikely to slip off again and somehow trip the girl. As the shirt's sash didn't reach long enough to be a hazard in the same way, Faye simply tied it once in front of Edward's chest, helping to prevent it from flailing in the wind or getting caught in passerby. "I don't think that home's going to be so easy to find, Edward," she answered honestly, getting that out of the way first. It twisted in her stomach, the thought that maybe she'd be able to find a good amount of fuel and go flying for some time, soaring above the buildings, looking at the tiniest of figures down below.

"Well, we'll only know if we set out," she concluded, one way or the other. "But I'm not going to make any guarantees, and all I've done lately to understand engineering is take that class of Tony Stark's. Not the most balanced education. So. Socks and shoes? Or are you staying in?"

"Ed can help!" The idea of maybe flying again had caught in her mind and like Ein with a bone, she was going to gnaw at it until nothing was left. If this place was going to take everything familiar away (again) Edward was going to find something normal and fun to do. She needed it, she didn't like all this sudden change it was like...like being left behind again.

Looking down at her feet she wriggled her toes. She needed her toes, used her toes for picking things up, reaching things while her hands were busy. Her feet were important and she didn't like having them all bunched up.

"Just socks?" Ed could still wriggle her toes if there were just socks, although the last time she tried socks she couldn't walk. Too slippery. Still, she would try for Faye-Faye.

"Socks and shoes, Ed," Faye insisted, brows furrowing as Ed tried to worm herself out of the deal. Even if it was more than a bit aggravating to try and get the girl to change her ways, there was absolutely no way that Faye would have forgiven herself were anything to happen to the girl. "Otherwise you'll get frostbite once all of the snow melts into the socks and freezes you solid from the feet up. It'll only take a few minutes for us to get to somewhere that has answers anyway, so why don't we just tough it out, alright? And if we're still feeling awful in a few hours, well."

She paused, eyes wide before she set right back to helping Ed into the socks.

"Then we can take it out on Spike if we have to." Her voice lowered. "Provided we find him."

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stripping flowers at a petal pace

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