fandomhigh | Defying Expectations, Tuesday, Per 3

Karla had promised the class no final last week and she had no intentions of going back on her word for that, especially after the weekend the island had just had. They were meeting in the Danger Shop for their last class, though the food and drink from JGOB and the Perk were all real enough. The Danger Shop was programmed to look like an amusement park, complete with rides and games, though there was one pavilion tent sitting rather prominently in front of the midway.

"I hope you've all gotten some ideas on ways to avoid or defy whatever expectations you're facing in the future. Whether it's just carving out a little more room for yourself under the weight of your parents' wants or deliberately turning your back on whatever fate has in store for you, I wish you all the best of luck." Karla toasted the class with a cup of tea, giving them all a smile. "For the next hour, feel free to ride the rides and play games of skill to your hearts' content, though any prizes you win will be unable to leave with you. But for those who are interested, I've programmed another guest."

The tent flap opened to reveal an older woman standing there. "This is Helene--sorta--my mentor in the Hourglass. As a Black Widow, she is capable of seeing into the future." There was more than just simple Damger Shop protocols involved with that, but Karla saw no reason to get into that. "Black Widows are the caste of dreams and prophecies. For those who are interested, she'll take a glimpse of into your future and tell you what she sees." Helene didn't look much like an amusement park fortune teller; she was dressed sensibly, in sturdy blues and grays, with no shawls or turbans in sight. And she made no grand pronouncements or tried to entice anyone in to see her, she simply nodded at the class and returned into her tent.

"Regardless of whether you want your fortune told, have fun for the next hour and perhaps I'll se some of you next semester. Either way, I wish you best of luck for whatever life holds for you."

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Oh, tea. Elsa would never say no to that, and she even smiled and dropped a slight curtsy before making her way over to sit.

Whether she needed her fortune told or not, this was by far preferable to the noise and bustle going on outside.

"Thank you," she said, smiling faintly. "I'm not terribly used to all of the spectacle outside, I'm afraid."

"You're going to need to get used to it," Helene said bluntly, indicating the chair across from her before picking up the pot and pouring into a delicate bone china teacup. "You may not be a Queen the way I'm used to, but I'd have to be a deaf and blind failure of a Black Widow to miss the signs."

She offered Elsa a wry smile to go with the tea. "If it helps any, the reluctant Queens are usually the best ones. They know too well the price of failure."

Elsa bit her lip and nodded a little before tentatively making a reach for her tea.

"It helps... a little," she replied. "It's what I've been raised to do. I can't imagine walking away from the responsibility of it."

As terrified of it as she was.

"It's not enough to guarantee that you'll be a good Queen, but it's a better foundation than most," Helene declared. Apparently, she was also a graduate from the same school of diplomacy that Karla had attended. "And it's a good reminder that there's more to your position than pomp and circumstance."

She pushed the box containing the spiderweb towards Elsa. "Usually, this requires a drop of blood to work, but Karla believes she has a workaround. Normally, the very idea of a Karla-related workaround would have me in a panic, but I haven't been programmed for useful responses." Her lips thinned and she rolled her eyes. "Instead of blood, I simply need you to touch the center strand. Actually touch it, with skin."

Elsa winced a little, and then set down her tea.

"I'd almost be more comfortable with giving you a drop of blood," she admitted, looking down at her gloved hands. Of course today would be one of the days she chose her gloves over the bracelets Barry had made for her. "Do I have to hold it there for long?"

She was willing to give this a go, fake Helene, but if she had to maintain that contact and her fortune got upsetting, it was going to get chilly in here fast.

Helene gave her a small smile. "Not long. Though your cheek would serve just as well, if you wanted." Sure, nuzzling the web would be weird, but Elsa still might find it more comfortable than taking off her gloves. "Finding the wiggle room inside your restrictions makes life easier. Especially for Queens, bound by laws and treaties as they are. Your survival--or that of another--might depend on finding new ways to interpret the words of another."

"True, and I'll most certainly be working toward learning that," Elsa replied, her smile going a little warmer as she nodded at Helene's words. "But as a Queen, I'm going to have to learn when to and need to be willing to step out of my comfort zone as well. An inflexible Queen will leave her kingdom with no room to grow, and herself with no room to learn, and I would like to do as much of that as I possibly can."

Elsa had learned a thing or two, it seemed, since coming to the island almost a year ago. She took a deep breath, and then carefully pulled her glove from her hand, reaching one finger to delicately touch the web.

"Here and now, I have control of what happens if I push my comfort zone for a few moments. And... more pragmatically speaking and without meaning any offense, I won't be hurting anybody real in this room, if I'm wrong."

"That's what I like to see," Helene said. "A good girl with her head on her shoulders. You keep that up and you'll do fine. You take all the time you need, dear--or as little, I suppose-- and push the web back towards me when you're ready."

Elsa was still smiling as she ran her finger delicately along the spidersilk, tracing the threads of the web for a few moments. She pulled her hand away again and put her glove on only once she noticed a thin layer of frost along one of the strands where her finger had passed, and frowned a little at it.

Once her glove was back on her hand, she reached to move the web back toward Helene.

"I'm sorry," she said, softly, "if the frost obscures the reading."

Or if it damaged the web at all, but she was mostly just holding her breath and hoping that wasn't a possibility at all.

"A little frost won't hurt it," Helene assured her. "It gives the Craft a bit more to work with, in fact. Besides, the Blood are no strangers to frost and ice. We just limit it to when we're angry."

She picked up the box and had her fingers follow the path of Elsa's own, readying her Craft to read what the threads told her.

When she spoke again, her voice came from a distance, echoing slightly. That which you fear will come to pass. But fear can turn to freedom; some chains must be worn if only too see how to be broken. Leash your fear, learn to control it, and perhaps this path I see will not come to pass. Control is strength and love is an open door.

It... was a good thing that Elsa had her gloves back on, because the room would have iced over in a heartbeat at the very first sentence.

She held her breath as she listened to the rest, trying to keep her worry from reading too clearly on her face.

Anna.

"I need to learn to control it," she murmured. "But I don't know how to stop being afraid."

"There is no easy way to stop being afraid," Helene said quietly. "What you need to do is learn to work through your fears and in spite of them. Only once you can do that, will your fears leave you."

"Through and in spite of," Elsa echoed, looking down into her tea and nodding a little. "I thought the answer might be something like that."

No easy way. Of course there wasn't. The big, terrifying things never came with a simple solution or an easy way out.

"Thank you," she said, abruptly looking up at Helene with a forced smile, even if there was still worry in her eyes. "The fortune itself is nothing I haven't been told before, but you're the first to tell me that it can be overcome. That's an improvement."

If it was easy, it was probably bullshit. One of the few constants of the universe, unfortunately. Every universe.

"Very few futures are set in stone, child," Helene said, and the worry in Elsa's eyes was met by the compassion in Helene's. "Even the fates of men and Empires can be changed if there's one person willing enough to do what is needed. Yours is hardly so fixed even as all that. What someone says is your future is only what is the most likely future at the point of the reading--especially should you choose to do nothing to change it. It might be that mine is the first to tell you it can be overcome because you have already taken the first steps to make that possible."

Defying Expectations, Tuesday, Per 3

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Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, please!

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Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, please!

Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, please!