2381/I need a break

I need a break
Date of Scene:	04 March 2025
Location:	Penguin Park
Synopsis:	Glimmer calls Adora out to talk about breaking the sword and after a bit of downplaying each other's worries and traumas, the two break into a brawl. Who would have seen this coming?! Remember kids, dark energy, it can help make everything worse.
Cast of Characters:	Glimmer Brightmoon, Adora Rainbowfist

---

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Gloria Moonhawk was... stressed. Was incredibly stressed. Which was why she was on a park bench, laying down, a hand over her face. In that stupid henshin thing that turned off her powers, not hat it mattered right now because it wans't like she HAD her moonstone to begin with!

And now she had a cat that could LITERALLY light people on fire. And that was kind of cool BUT HORDE PRIME WAS NOT AND GAHHH!

She hoped Adora was doing well... Because she was not. And she was... just trying to cope, a little bit every day.

So she'd sent a text to Adora to meet her at the park, on the bench near the big penguin statue thing the kids kept playing on.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Really, most of the people from their world were doing... varying levels of not well. Ironically, beyond Bow, Catra was probably the most stable of them at the moment! And while Bow b eing the most stable is pretty normal, Catra on the other hand... well that's a bit terrifying.

Adora, in spite of the reassurances from the people around her, still was somewhat doubting the reality of this situation to some degree.

But she's /also/ good at distracting herself. Which is why she'd been baking when she got the text from Glimmer. It takes her a few minutes to reply, letting Glimmer know she'd be there Soon.

And when she arrives, it's likely Glimmer can smell her first. Because she's carrying a small basket with a freshly-baked loaf of bread in it. One of those nice ones that was thoroughly caked in and out with various seeds and nut pieces. Very hearty, basically a meal in and of itself.

Yep. Instead of trying to find a solution to the Horde Prime, Realityismaybestillbroken, or Runestone problem, she'd been... baking.

"Hey Gli--Gloria." Adora says, lifting a hand to wave.

The glint of the Sword of Power in its bracer visible on her wrist as she does.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Gloria Moonhawk glanced over and... sniffed the air. Ohhhh, that smelled good. She gave a light grunt before rolling up into a sitting position, before lightly patting the place next to her. "Hey, Adora. Where'd you get those? Your roommate?" she asked, before smiling at her.

"So... ummmm... things have been... tense, to say the least. In Obsidian. Horde Prime is still about. There's some jerks obsessed with the moon who ended up killing one of our girls. Catra is apparently a *princess* now, don't know HOW that happened cause THAT is new. That is SO new."

"... So. How goes fixing your sword?"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Nope, I made it. I've been learning to bake and cook!" Adora responds, setting the basket down between them. That probably explains why the 'bread' is mostly seeds and nuts, honestly. Very hearty and probably healthy though! Maybe. And it would taste good, too! Even if it feels a bit like eating bird seed.

"Ah, yeah. I uh. I know about Catra. I saw a fair bit of it." She pauses. "I ... probably should have stopped it but I didn't, so I'm sure that's going to come back to burn me later." Adora gives a bit of an awkward laugh. "And you said there was no way she was a princess before." Horde Prime is still about. And some jerks obsessed with the moon. "Man, that all sounds really rough. I guess the bad guys have it pretty bad sometimes too."

So, how goes fixing your sword?

"..." She lifts her hand, the Sword of Power turning into, well, the Sword of Power. "It's uh. Fine? I guess?" It's clearly still the Old Sword of Power. "Still does the shiny stuff and turns me into She-Ra and uh. Transforms. And stuff. Makes a /weirdly/ good mop. Maybe it's killing the dirt?"

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
"Ohhhh, you have? That's great! Thanks!" Glimmer said before reaching in and just taking a big chunk off the end. Sure, Adora probably intended to share, but Glimmer didn't have to just... assume Adora was going to. Then again, she did put it between them.

Still, she shrugged at 'stopping her'. "Meh. It's Catra. Girl has so many problems, her being a fire princess won't cause us any more trouble than... well... everything else. I'm still more concerned about how to get her to stop being such a pain in the ass. And making sure she doesn't try to almost destroy the world, again. I... think I'm making progress on her this time? But I'm admittedly... a lot more wary about Horde Prime. Last time he was so close to winning and like... Now?"

"... Now Bow's mad at me, Catra is... full morose, the whole..."

"Oh for... and you still have the first one's sword. Gosh. Darn it. Adora. You need to hurry up and break it and summon the REAL sword. I already told you! YOU'RE She-ra! THAT sword is just the thing that the first one's made to CONTROL She-ra's power! You need to hurry and break it before Horde Prime finds a way to hack THAT too!" She then took a big bite, shaking her head. "I can't hold off Horde Prime forever, you know," she said, not even swallowing before speaking like she normally would...

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
That was, in fact, the intent. To share the bread, that is! "Oh of course, her having the power of arson won't cause /any/ problems at all. Just tell that to Tuxedo Kamen when people have to go to him with burns." Was that a bit of bitterness in Adora's voice? Yeah. Just a bit. ...But not aimed at Glimmer, really.

"Last time was different. There's so many more people here than we ever had on Etheria, I don't know how powerful he is, but... I mean. I doubt we'd even need She-Ra to defeat him." Yeah, talk down on the thing that Glimmer is terrified of. That's the right move, Adora. She's not even thinking about that of course.

And then more talk about breaking the sword. She looks at it. And then looks at Gloria. "Break... I..." She stands up, lifting the sword again. "It's not that simple. If I break the sword I can't transform. And then I can't fix ... whatever is going on with why we're here, why everyone and everything is wrong and you're from the future and I'm from the past and Catra is catra and Bow is ... I don't even know what's up with Bow and where he's from and then there's Double Trouble and Scorpia and other ... things..."

She gives a soft sigh. "If you can't hold off Horde Prime, then just... just stop. Just let him do whatever. It'll be fine. It'll work out, and anyway it might not matter because frankly I'm still not sure any of this is real so if I can just figure out how to fix the portal then -- then everything will be back to normal and we'll be on Etheria and... and... things will make sense again."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
"I didn't say it wouldn't be any problem! Just she won't be more trouble. It's Catra. You could give the girl a wet-paper bag and she'd find a way to cause problems."

And her eye twitched when Adora downplayed the threat that was Horde Prime. She swallowed before snapping. "Last time he took over almost our entire planet. He has fleets of ships and has conquered entire WORLDS!" she snapped. "He can jump from body to body, even if we managed to kill whoever he was now. We needed She-ra to break his network, to lock him down, but we can't DO THAT while you're using first one's tech to become She-ra! He can hack it!"

"And why are you worried about Double Trouble? You don't even KNOW Double Trouble. They haven't played you for a fool like they have to me."

But then... then Adora said the worst. Possible... thing. "Just... just stop?" Glimmer asked before getting to her feet. "I will *NEVER* stop. I will *die* before I let that *monster* do to ANY world what he did to ours. How can you even SAY that?! He has destroyed ENTIRE WORLDS over STUPID BAUBLES! And he's PROUD OF IT! Millions, billions of people killed, for NOTHING!" she yelled, the fury clear in her voice.

"And what do you mean FIX the portal?! WHAT PORTAL?! The portal was closed ages ago when I became queen, when my mother sacrificed herself to save all of us! THAT, of all things, YOU should remember!" she yelled, practically shaking as she yelled, getting to her feet and gesturing wildly, the piece of loaf still in her hand.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"And that's why her having more power is the LAST thing we want! Because she was already bad enough when she didn't even HAVE any powers and just was fighting us with Horde Tech! And now she has ... has a dark sword and fire powers and I don't even know if I'll be able to stop her next time she tries to destroy the world now!" Adora snaps back. And then the yelling about Horde Prime. And hacking the sword. And Double Trouble. "I'mt not... WORRIED about her, just. She's... here and another new thing that I don't know about and the whole.. everything being wrong and some future that I don't know anything about and none of this makes sense and..."

She grips the sword a little tighter, not intentionally, just emotions growing high. "Well... well don't just... he's a threat but it's not a threat WE need to worry about because none of this is real because after closing the portal everything was suppsoed to go to NORMAL and I was supposed to exit back into Etheria, not ... not this Earth thing with all of the weird and new and some beautiful and cool things but none of this is *RIGHT*. None of this makes *sense*. This isn't what was supposed to happen! And now... now..."

She pauses. And then closes her eyes. People might be staring at them. Whatever. She didn't care. "You know what, if you want the sword broken so badly." She lifts the sword up over her head in one hand.

"For the honor of greyskull." It's not shouted, it's said calmly, almost coldly.

And the flash and transformation into She-Ra starts, leaving her in the giant amazonian form.

"Come and break it yourself."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
"She doesn't have the rest of the horde here to do anything WITH! She's adrift, Adora. The only goal she has right now is pissing you off and she's even losing her passion for that! She's spent so much time and energy trying to prove she's more than just your shadow, now she has something that's just her. She's a fire princess, nobody can take that from her. Like it or not? She's one of us now. And frankly? I kind of get it. You... cast a really big shadow, without even trying. Sometimes? It sucks having to live in it," Glimmer muttered.

However, the comments about the portal? They made her cringe. Before... "Is that... what you think? Do you think this is THAT portal?! Do you think we're STILL IN IT?!" Glimmer yelled, before she ended her own 'fake' henshin, now once more in her pink outfit... and dark sparkles in her hair. Dropping the bread back in the basket.

"I TOLD YOU already! That already HAPPENED! We got out, then a lot of stuff happened! Then Horde Prime happened and we almost lost everything again!" she yelled. "And we're going to lose ALL OF IT if you can't figure out how to... FINE! MAYBE I WILL! Since apparently I'm just 'delegating' everything. Maybe asking you and Bow to handle ONE THING was just TOO MUCH!"

Before she ran forward... and tried to punch the sword.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Yeah, well... well... she's still CATRA, she almost got us all killed and her having power is bad for all of us!" Is the response. Adora is listening, she knows she probably shouldn't be saying any of this but she just. She can't. Everything is just so weird and confusing and she's kind of just angry and...

"R-really big shadow?! Yeah I guess I'm tall but it's not like it'd matter if I didn't have this stupid sword. And of course w'ere still in the stupid portal because otherwise we'd be back on Etheria! It's... it's... there's no way that it would have brought us here. Your mom sacrificed herself! And... and... it's... it was all for nothing and we're here and maybe she's in a runestone now but that just makes even less sense and..." She shakes her head. Dark Sparkled Glimmer, Evil Glimmer.

"If we got out THEN WHY ARE WE HERE?!" She shouts back. It's stupid. This is all a bad argument. Why is she sticking to it. Why is it the only thing she can cling to that feels like it makes sense?

She could just accept that things are different. That she was on this new world with nice people and pretty things and no real war and... and...

Then she'd be pointless because they wouldn't NEED She-Ra.

"Yeah, because we're always the screw-ups, always the ones that ruin everything. We let Catra get the sword. We failed to move the runestone!" Glimmer runs forward to punch the sword.

And it was more reflex than anything that the sword is brought back at Glimmer in response.

It wasn't the edge of the blade thankfully, just the flat, but it might almost be worse to get hit by that instead of getting a proper swing, really. "And I failed to get us out of that stupid portal! I failed to stop Catra from getting the sword and opening the portal in the first place! I failed to convince Catra to come with me when I left the horde! I was BARELY good enough for the sword! It wouldn't let me transform at first, even! Frankly I'm surprised it's still letting me!"

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
"I can't believe this! How am *I* the one defending Catra here? She's a brat, yeah, but she's not Shadow Weaver! And there is good in her it just needs to get dug out! She's a self destructive idiot! Kind of like you!" Glimmer snapped.

"The sword isn't She-ra! You're not LISTENING! AGAIN! You never LISTEN to me when it MATTERS! YOU'RE SHE-RA! Not the sword! YOU! I don't know HOW someone as dense as YOU is her, but you ARE! And this isn't the stupid PORTAL! It didn't BRING US HERE! I DID!" Glimmer yelled.

Then she froze. For only a moment... because then she got hit by the flat of the sword. And she snarled, before lunging forward and blasting with dark energy, magical seals forming from her hands. "It was my mistake, okay?! We beat Horde Prime and saved the world and I found a way to save my mom! I didn't KNOW it would bring anyone else here! I didn't think it'd bring ME here! I thought it was just a portal back to that between dimensions place and if I went there I'd save my mom! I didn't MEAN for any of you to get stuck here, but now we ARE and Horde Prime is BACK and we need to stop him before he kills EVERYONE!" she yelled.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"You didn't basically JUST watch EVERYONE you know and love disappear one by one in front of you because of her! You didn't see her disappear and then come back as a corrupted, twisted version of herself actively trying to stop me from STOPPING it! She KNEW what she was doing when she pulled that lever!!! And now... now she's being 'better' but frankly I can't trust it! There's no way it's not just... just some plot where she's making us let down our guard and then is going to use it to ... I don't know, do ... do SOMETHING!" She-Ra yells back, the sword glowing faintly and the energy of the yelling making her hair float slightly.

"She-Ra might not be the sword but I'm not She-Ra without the sword! I can't transform without it! I've TRIED! I haven't just... just been screwing around! I've been trying what I can to figure things out! And..." That freeze. It didn't bring us here, I did.

Glimmer brought them here?! And... and ... then Glimmer was leaping at her with a dark energy blast.

She didn't defend against it this time, getting sent back a few steps and then losing her balance and landing on her rear. "You? You did this?! You're why everything is wrong and why Etheria is who knows where and probably being taken over by the horde because everyone is pulled out of there?!" She lifts the sword, turning it down to shove into the ground, pushing herself back up to stand. "I..." She pauses. The fire in her cooling ever-so-slightly. "...I can't blame you for wanting your mom back. Your dad being dead already was hard enough." She says, letting the sword drop for a moment.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
"MY WHOLE LIFE HAS BEEN THAT!" Glimmer yelled. "Because of the Horde! My father, my friends, my people! I've been stuck helplessly watching my ENTIRE life as they destroy and take and kill! But you know what? I learned from it!"

"Catra is a fuckup! She's a huge fuckup! But so are we! And when everything went down, when we needed it, she finally, FINALLY, got over herself! She finally realized that she didn't want you to get hurt! Because she actually cares about you for some STUPID reason!" Glimmer yelled. "And she almost died trying to help you! And me!"

"The sword is LOCKING your powers! Until you break it, you can't be the true She-ra! And we need her now, more than ever! Horde Prime is... is..." She trailed off, before... stopping.

Staring at She-ra... before... "DO YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?!" she yelled, before launching more blasts at the sword. "I didn't WANT any of this to happen! I didn't think it'd do... ANY of this! I thought I'd be the only one who went through it! How was I supposed to know about the... time thing! I thought... I thought I'd get her free... but instead it brought me to her, and then took all of us... here. To this planet. And now Horde Prime's here. And I..."

The lack of fight in She-ra... made her own assault slow. "... I need She-ra... the real She-ra. I can't... fight Horde Prime alone. I'm trying... but I can't... forever... none of this would have happened if you'd... just... listen to me... but you *never* listen to me. He's the biggest threat, so much worse than Catra, or Shadow Weaver or even Hordak and he'll kill us all if we don't have She-ra, the REAL She-ra..."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Her whole life has been that. "..." She-Ra gives a soft exhale, as she looks at her sword. And then she looks at Glimmer. "And I was part of that, for most of mine. The enemy." Catra is a fuckup. "Ironically, among all of the things I would call her.. she's not that. She's brilliant, she's dangerous, she's strong... and so stubborn." She mutters. Catra almost died trying to help them. She wants to believe that so much, but she still can't bring herself to believe it, but arguing the point with someone from a future -- supposedly hers -- is probably pointless.

The sword is locking her powers. She sighs softly as she starts to form a plan. It's a stupid plan. A dumb one. An absolute moronic one. But while they're just... just talking like this, not even angry.

"But you still did it. You did all of it." This plan is stupid. This plan makes her heart ache. "You chose to try to do something that, last time, almost destroyed our world, and the only reason it didn't is because of your mother sacrificing herself. Who did you plan to sacrifice next time, Glimmer? Bow? Me? Entrapta?"

"It's... it's..." She pauses. God no, she's not able to do that. She can't continue it. She just hopes that it was enough to make Glimmer angry enough, because she had an absolutely stupid plan.

...The next time Glimmer attacks?

... She would use the Sword's power to enhance others on it. And then bring the sword in the way.

....Because she'd TRIED breaking it, a couple of times. But she wasn't strong enough.

Not on her own.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
"Then you really don't know her. She's a massive fuckup. She makes so many mistakes. Just like the rest of us. Her entire time in Obsidian is just that. And she's going to have to learn that the one stopping herself from being happy, is her. That she needs to just... let herself be happy... let herself be with her friends... and it'll be okay. That's all there is to it."

But you still did it. You did all of it. That knocked the fire from Glimmer and she... "No... I... I didn't. I didn't do... It wasn't... the same. It was only supposed to send me. Just me. Alone. And it worked. Or... I thought it did... and then I'd get my mom and get back. I didn't use the sword. I didn't try to do anything with the heart of Etheria. I just..."

"... I was only going to sacrifice myself. You have no idea what it's like, Adora. What it's like to be the queen. To have everything riding on you. All of my people. The war. Recovery. I'm not... good at it. I'll never be good at it. I'm a fighter. I'm good at fighting. My mom? She was good at it. She was amazing at it..."

"... I try so hard to listen to everyone. To fix things. But I'm not her. I'm not a good leader for peace. I'll NEVER be the queen my mother was..."

"I'll never be the queen my people needed me to be. Need me to be. And every time I fail, every time I mess something up? Other people pay the price... other people get hurt because I wasn't good enough."

"... And you can't even begin to understand how it feels to be such a screw up," she muttered, before... rather than attacking? She just... dusk ported away.

Leaving She-ra behind.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
...

Yeah. That had been a dumb plan. Glimmer talks, and Adora is silent, her plan... plan didn't go how she'd hoped. She should have just... asked Glimmer or something. Explained her plan. Dones SOMETHING else. "Glimmer wa--"

And she's gone.

"...What am I even doing." She-Ra glances at the sword, gathering every bit of power she can into it, and then... she stabs it against the ground as hard as she can.

...

And it leaves a hole in the ground there.

"How am I even supposed to break the stupid thing." She mutters, glancing at the sword.

And dropping the transformation.

"I almost wish I'd never found you." She mutters, sorely tempted to leave the sword there, but instead she takes it and leaves.