Makeover [2430-1-2 Wed 10:00 am]

[Persephone Ruspoli]

"There are enough. You actually find more in the middle, since the main spaceports are there, but we get enough visitors. It's sort of a status symbol these days to have an alien working for you." She'd met a few visiting artists. Somehow they never annoyed her the way that terrans attempting to imitate aliens did. But Perse didn't visit a lot of their exhibits. Once again, she didn't want her art being influenced by external factors, and there was nothing more external than off-planet.

"If you want to meet some, we can swing by TU's campus sometime. They've got a couple of Elvish professors there, and an assortment of others who visit to give guest-lectures about their planets." Perse turned to the viewscreen, "Scheduler, display upcoming lecture dates for TU."

The screen quickly brought up a listing of dates. Each one one was marked on a calendar, bring green squares light up to indicated which dates there would be discussions. As well, each green square had a crude but approximate pictogram indicated each race. In a week, there would be a lecture from a winged person, and two days after that, a faun (though knowing fauns, it would be less like a lecture and more like storytelling). A yellow square indicated the current date.

Perse preferred a more text-based layout, but this was perfect for Skye. If she didn't understand calendar dates, this would help her get the hang of it. Plenty of Persephone's friends were functioning illiterate and used similar systems to keep track of dates and times without ever learning to read more than the words for "party" and "entertainment".

[Skye Thompson]

It was amazing how quickly her mood was shifting. One moment she was angry, the next ecstatic. Then she was frightened or sad. What's wrong with me? She wondered, Well, I suppose having your entire life change in a matter of minutes will do that to a person. Skye sighed. She get over it. Eventually. Hopefully. But for now, her fear of Digeo was fading and she was falling back into her excitement about finally being in the Top. She still found it hard to believe that she wasn't just dreaming it all, that she wouldn't wake up at any moment on Terra's cold, dirty streets.

But no, she was here, really here, and she was going to get the chance to meet real aliens up close. She was going to work in a real garden, and she was going learn to read. She would never again be freezing cold or starving hungry. She was in Paradise. But now, she was a little bit confused. The viewscreen had conjured up a series of small, colored boxes which was confusing in itself. Persephone was saying something about 'the TU' but that only made Skye feel more disoriented. "Um..." she mumbled, feeling rather ignorant, but then of course, she was rather ignorant, "What does 'TU' mean? And what, um..." she pointed to the image on the screen, "what exactly is that?"

[Persephone Ruspoli]

"TU is short for Terran University. It's an acronym, which means it's made up of letters from the words. In this case, Terra starts with a T, and University with a U. So. TU!" Persephone was actually having fun teaching Skye. She had never thought she'd have the patience to deal with a child's need to learn simple things, but now she was starting to reconsider her initial assumptions.

"And this? That's a calendar. It shows the days of the week, broken up by month. We're in January right now." She touched her finger to the far column, reading out the days of the week. "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, which is today-" She paused to double-tap the yellow square before moving on, "Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The green squares show you when an event is happening. If you decide you're going, you can let the calendar know to make an appointment."

She addressed the computer again, "Scheduler, Skye will be visiting my home tomorrow, around two pm." Beside the yellow square, a pink square appeared, with a picture of Persephone on it. She smiled at Skye. "Is it staring to make sense?"

[Skye Thompson]

"Yeah," she said, nodding. "That does make a lot more sense. Thanks." She hesitated a moment, then confessed, "Since I got here, everything is so new, and there's so much of it... It's confusing." Skye felt that she could be more open with Persephone than she could with Titus. It wasn't that she trusted Persephone more, or even that she enjoyed her company more. It was just something... For some reason, she felt more shy in Titus' presence, less inclined to share her trivial thoughts and feelings. But why, she had no idea.

Skye let her eyes fall on the pink square next to today on the calender. So it was really going to happen. She was really going to Persephone's home tomorrow, to see her friend and all those wonderful plants. She allowed herself an excited smile, barely holding her laughter back behind it. "I can't wait for tomorrow!"

[Persephone Ruspoli]

"That's totally understandable. It's information overload. You'll probably be off-balance for a while, but you'll get the hang of things." And she would. Survivors always ended up back on their feet, no matter how strange or different everything was.

She returned the excited smile. Perse was going to have to make sure there was enough for Skye to do tomorrow. She could help water the plants, and plant a few seeds, and maybe Persephone could find a few sprouting plants to send home so Skye had something real and tangible to take care of. "It's going to be great. And anytime you want to visit, just send me a message and we'll figure out a time! I'm usually hanging out around home."

Home was also her studio, which could sometimes make working difficult, but usually it was great. Persephone relied heavily on waiting for inspiration to strike her, and sometimes it came in the middle of breakfast, or in the shower, or as she was sleeping. And knowing she could walk out of her bedroom and into the studio and start work immediately was essential. That was something else she could show Skye tomorrow, if Skye wasn't too tired out from the plants.

[Skye Thompson]

Somehow, she’d just known Persephone would understand. Persephone understood everything. Even Adrian hadn’t been able to do that. There were some things he just didn’t, or couldn’t, relate to. But Persephone… Persephone always seemed to know just the right thing to say, exactly what to do. Someday, Skye wanted to be like that. She wanted to be someone’s Persephone, someone’s friend.

Friend. It was strange to think of Persephone that way. Skye had never had a real friend besides Adrian, so she didn’t know much about them. She was pretty sure, however, that there was a general rule stating you had to know someone for a certain period of time before calling them a friend. But what the hell, she’d already broken tons of rules, what was one more? Yet somehow Skye felt suddenly shy and awkward as she looked at Persephone. “Persephone…” she murmured tremulously, almost pleadingly, unaware of how like a little child she sounded, “Can you… Can we… can we be friends?” She dropped her eyes to the floor, feeling nervous and embarrassed.

[Persephone Ruspoli]

Could they be friends? Perse almost laughed. It was something you'd expect five year old girls to say to each other. Except... when was the last time anyone had actually wanted to be her friend? Oh, sure, she knew plenty of people. She partied with plenty of people and talked about art, but they weren't really friends. They were just people you passed the time with. They'd sell you out if it meant being famous.

Skye wouldn't be doing that. And Perse couldn't stop grinning as she scooted over and hugged Skye. "Of course. I'd love to be able to call you my friend."

[Skye Thompson]

The hug was just what she needed. It filled Skye with warmth, both the warmth of Persephone's arms as they wrapped around her, and another kind. It was a heat that came from inside of her, a fire burning bright with her fierce joy. She smiled as she was enveloped in bliss, and hugged her friend back as tightly as she could. Her friend. Her friend. Yes that was what Persephone was. The first true friend Skye had ever had. She wasn't quite sure what that meant yet, but she'd figure it out. She hoped she could be a good friend.

As she sat there, joined for the first time in this union of friendship, a few tears ran down her cheeks. Yet she was smiling, perhaps more radiantly than ever before. She wasn't sad, but she wasn't crying from happiness either. It was somewhere in between, some middle ground that she had yet to understand. "I don't know what to say." She whispered. She never knew what to say. In the Below, she'd never had to say much. But now... here, she had to speak all the time and she never knew what to say. Perhaps she would get used to it in time. Or maybe not.

[Persephone Ruspoli]

Persephone rubbed Skye's back. Poor girl had been through hell. It was no wonder she didn't know how to handle any of this. Persephone honestly didn't know if she would have been able to handle it either if their positions had been switched.

"You don't have to say anything. That's the best part about being friends." Persephone assured her. She really didn't want to make Skye into a total mess, or Titus would be... well, probably not angry. More confused than anything. It would probably be a good idea to keep her busy until he got back. "Hey, you want to watch a movie while we wait for Titus to come home? There are some great cartoons on the Net."

[Skye Thompson]

With a sigh, she let herself relax in Persephone's arms. After everything she'd been through, it was such a relief to know she was safe. Yet she still found that hard to believe. She wasn't safe. Not with this Digeo character around, not as long as her father still lived. But then, was there really such a thing as safety? The Top was a wonderful place, but it wasn't safe, not with people like Digeo hanging around. Titus was the kindest man Skye had ever met, yet it would be foolish to call any man safe who made his living on death.

Perhaps safety was only relative. The Top was safer than the Below, Titus was safer than her father. But if there were such a thing as true safety, Skye would never know it. For sixteen years she hadn't known even relative safety. But no matter what she did, how far she ran or how much she tried to cover her tracks, there was one person who could always find her. No matter what, Skye Thompson could never be safe from herself.

At Persephone's words, she hugged her friend even tighter, then drew away. She remained close to Persephone however, their shoulders almost touching. Slowly, as she wiped the tears from her face, Skye nodded. "Yeah. Sure." She gave a weak smile, her excitement and curiosity returning. "It's been a long time since I've seen any cartoons." She remembered with another small smile how she and Adrian used to creep through the streets, peering in windows till they found a house with an image projector. Then they'd sit down right in the middle of the alley or wherever they happened to be and watch, enthralled, as the images raced across the screen.

[Persephone Ruspoli]

"At least you won't have to worry about having already seen them all." She joked, though it wasn't too much of a joke. There was just something wrong about thinking about a kid who probably had never gotten a chance to watch too many shows. It just seemed really unfair in the grand scheme of things.

Persephone gave Skye's back another rub before getting up and walking over to the viewscreen. She pulled up the Network and navigated to the movie section, quickly scanning over the cartoons. There were tons of cartoons, but Persephone figured Skye would enjoy something classic. Maybe something based on a fairy tale. She picked Cinderella, then choose the 2402 version of the film. It was nearly thirty years old, but there was something really wonderful about it. Everybody just looked so beautiful in it, and it had a happy ending, which Skye would probably really enjoy.

She set it to play, and dimmed the lights before heading back to the bed. Perse lay on her stomach, facing the viewscreen, just like she used to do when she was a kid. She patted the bed beside her, "I used to watch this one all the time when I was a kid."

[Skye Thompson]

Skye laughed. She didn't think Persephone's joke was particularly funny, it was to true for that, but it felt good to gave an excuse to laugh. Of course, she had every reason to be happy. She had a friend now, she was with people who cared about her, understood her. Titus' apartment was already feeling more like home than Adrian's small, cramped bedroom or that dingy room full of drunks. But most importantly, she had something she'd never had before, a future. Skye had always had hope, but now, for the first time, her dreams were being realized.

She felt a brief stab of anger and fear as Persephone stood up, and for a moment she wanted to shout, 'Don't leave me!' even though her friend was only walking across the room. In a moment the feeling was gone. She watched with interest as Persephone selected a video, and then returned to sit on the bed. Persephone lay on her stomach, and after a moment Skye imitated her, smiling, eyes fixed on the screen.

As the movie started and the story played out before her eyes, she felt a strange sort of connection with the ages old rags to riches tale. The story was rather familiar. A young girl, mistreated by her parent, longs for a way to break free. The only person who has ever offered her comfort is lost and she almost despairs. And then, something magical happens. Many would have laughed at such a retelling of the classic fable, but to Skye this was no fairy tale. For here she was, lying on the bed next to her new friend, living proof that dreams really did come true.

She tore her eyes from the screen and regarded Persephone thoughtfully. "If I were her..." she murmured, thinking out loud, "If I had a fairy godmother like she does... it would be you."

[Persephone Ruspoli]

Persephone considered this. There weren't a lot of people to be in Cinderella. There was the evil step-mother and step-sisters, already covered by the Below, and the fairy godmother and (of course) the Prince. Other stories added in other figures, but the core of the story was always those characters.

And hadn't Persephone been brought here to help Skye look the part? To cut her hair and help with make-up and maybe help with clothes (but Titus would probably have that covered)? That was textbook fairy godmother.

"Yeah, I guess it would be me. That's awesome. I'll be a great fairy godmother." And she could be. She could be a friend, and the girl who gave Skye the shoes and the dress she needed. And even better than anything, she could promise nothing would turn into a pumpkin after midnight struck.

She almost remarked that Titus was the price, but quickly kept her mouth shut. Titus wasn't the prince. Titus... was the wolf. And who knew what he was doing in Cinderella's story. As long as he didn't eat her up, he could play prince or fairy godmother, or whatever else he wanted to.

"I always loved the ball." Persephone said instead. "Cinderella shows up and just blows everybody else away, especially the mean step-sisters. And nobody can take their eyes off of her, especially not the prince."

[Skye Thompson]

"You're the best fairy godmother ever!" Skye grinned, again unaware of the fact that she sounded about ten years younger then she really was. She almost said something about Titus being the prince, but somehow that didn't seem right. The Prince and Cinderella were in love, and while she really liked Titus as a person, being in love with him would just be... weird, especially considering their age difference. Yet in all other ways, Titus was Skye's prince. He had been able to look at her and see beyond a grimy, starving street urchin. He had seen Cinderella, and he’d saved her from withering away in the maze of dark, icy cold alleyways that made up the Below.

As she grinned at Persephone, Skye felt the tears prick at her eyes again, but she held them back this time. She didn’t want to go to pieces again. Instead she considered Persephone’s words. “Yeah… it’s- it’s like her entire life has just been leading up to that moment. Like she’s been dreaming of something like this happening forever and ever and finally it did! That’s a wonderful feeling, the best in the world.” Skye smiled. She knew that feeling.

[Persephone Ruspoli]

"Maybe I should invest in a pair of wings." Persephone laughed a little, thinking of herself wearing sparkly fairy wings. A few years ago, they'd been all the rage, but had fallen out of fashion. She did still have a pair in her closet at home, buried somewhere in the back with the rest of her performance gear.

Skye was just so excited. Persephone was really going to have to make sure to show her some other fairytales, but Cinderella was probably going to mean the most to her. Perse had taken a course in Terran Folk and Fairy Tales once, a long time ago, and they'd dealt with Cinderella. The point of the story was that Cinderella was returned to her proper position in society, and that all the cinders and ashes couldn't disguise the fact that she was supposed to be royalty.

Which was kinda like what happened with Skye. This was supposed to be her life, and she was finally being returned to it. That was a nice thought.

"Yeah." She agreed, watching as Cinderella fled the palace, that one transparent shoe left behind as she ran. "It's such a good story. I love happy endings."