Scene #2829:

Owner	Pose
Molly Skyline	School. A perfectly ordinary day at school, at least for most of the people who attend Radiant Heart Academy; even for the mahou, it's a pretty ordinary day. No monsters, no evil sorceresses, no extinction level events, and no freshly arrived aliens. For Molly Skyline, the day is anything but normal. For the purplenette it is the first day back from ten months spent under Seriss Nyx's control, being forced to take a backseat in her own body, and she's spent most of it talking to councillors, trying to work out a path forward for her schooling -- preferably one that doesn't involve her getting held back for an entire year. On the upside, it might be possible; on the downside, it's going to involve some serious summer school. But, what can you do? Right now she's seated in one of the cafeterias, facing the other one of her problems, coupled with a bowl of ramen (cafeteria ramen, not a fraction as good as her Mom makes but it's here and it's food and she's managed to still get extra egg); How does she do with one arm everything she used to do with two?
Aloisia Harlaown	Aloisia had been doing whatever she could to help get Molly back, at least while she could. And yet... for the last bit of it, it felt like she hadn't done anything. Life was always in the way. Some incident or another. Dealing with the fallout of her own actions. Plus just... frankly... A bit of guilt. All of these things had meant that Aloisia had largely avoided going to visit Molly, in spite of somewhat wanting to. As such, when Aloisia saw Molly sitting there, lacking an arm... she watched silently for a bit, before she closed her eyes with a stabilizing sigh. And walked over, holding her tray in her arms as she moves over. For Molly, it was likely something relatively sudden, just a tray sitting down next to her alongside Aloisia, who was wearing the winter uniform with a frog-print scarf wrapped around her neck (Aloisia could handle the cold okay, but frankly, it was an excuse to wear the scarf). "It gets better." Aloisia says, as she uses a fork to spear a vegetable from her own tray. "Welcome back." There was more she wanted to say, that she felt like she should say... but... well. Frankly, after everything, she just felt a bit awkward.
Molly Skyline	After a day of people avoiding her -- moving out of her way in the halls like water around a stone, gazes suddenly looking at something else, appointments suddenly remembered -- someone actually sitting down next to her, voluntarily, makes Molly pause dead in her tracks. Well, not dead, but she is shocked. She turns her gaze to face Aloisia, and it takes her about a second to clue in -- oh, right, I know this person. Rather well actually. ...It's been a very trying week. "It... does?" She stares at Aloisia for a moment, before remembering; oh, right. Can't do that with my left hand anymore. Her right hand lifts up and she almost pockes herself in the eye with her chopsticks, but manages to work out how to push her glasses up her nose without injury. It is not graceful. "Sorry," she mumbles, "That was super bitter of me. I ''should'' be glad to be alive." She pauses, looking back down at her Ramen, "And I mean, I ''am'', just..." She strails off a second time. "Sorry, I'm babbling about my problems. ...It is ''good'' to see you again, Aloisia-chan."
Aloisia Harlaown	"Yeah. It does. Readjusting to being back to normal life..." Aloisia shifts her gaze towards Molly with a small smile. "As well as your new challenge." She adds quietly. "I have not suffered similar myself, but I knew a few others who did." She looks back towards her food, taking a small bite of some meat and noodles. Aloisia scoots ever so slightly closer to Molly, reaching one arm out to somewhat hesitantly give her a quick, one-armed hug, before giving her back her space. "If you ever need to talk, I am no therapist, but I ... well. We went through similar things." She says quietly. "I'm glad that you're back. It's goo to see you too. I uhm." She pauses. "Thank you for believing in me. It helped me a lot." Aloisia hesitates slightly, before just shaking her head and taking another bite of her food. "...Also if anyone teases or bullies you, let me know, I shall make sure to remind them of their own shortcomings." She gives a lightly playful smile towards Molly.
Molly Skyline	"Nobody's bullied me yet, everyone's just... avoiding me." Molly shrugs her shoulders, "I guess nobody knows how to walk up to me and say hi or anything when I'm missing an arm. ...And it's not like I can pretend that I was gone for almost a year and somehow everything was fine, because... I came back without an arm. People don't do that if everything was okay." Molly doesn't return the hug, but that might just be because Aloisia was on the wrong side for her to do that. Plus she's still holding chopsticks. "I knew you were rescued from Nichts. ...I could see everything Seriss did, I saw her fighting you a few times. I'm ''glad'' you were there, to stop her." The purplenette glances back down at her arm, and sighs, before consoling herself with a piece of egg out of her ramen bowl. "I feel like I've lost my dreams," she mutters. "I still want to be a racecar driver but I have ''one arm''. And Rashmi-chan is convinced I'll find a way because, like she pointed out, I basically don't know when to quit, but I... wish I had her confidence too."
Aloisia Harlaown	"Yeah. And japan seems to have a viewpoint of not getting involved, I have noticed... though there are still plenty of kind people." Aloisia gives a small nod. At least it's good that Molly hasn't been bullied. If she'd heard of such, Aloisia might have strongly considered falling back on old habits. Talk of Nichts gets a slight shift of Aloisia's gaze away from Molly, and she's silent for a while. "Yeah. It was ... strange. Like being in a long dream, where things constantly seemed to be getting more and more out of control, further and further away..." She shakes her head slightly. "It's... different, being back after that. After being missing for a while. Coming back changed." She brushed her hand over her own hair, her own change, the silver hair that had replaced the dirty blonde hair she'd had before. "Becoming a racecar driver is still doable. I believe there is at least one in america that drives with only one arm, is there not? It will definitely be more difficult. Require more skill. Require more effort. Confidence... is one part, but also... stubbornness?" She muses. "Oh, and friendship. Relying on others is a dreadfully powerful skill to have. One I struggle with moderately." Aloisia laughs softly.
Molly Skyline	"Sure," Molly replies, resigned to the fact that Aloisia is, clearly, wrong. She pokes at her ramen, before pushing it away from her -- entirely unlike her s it is, to ever not finish food. "My Moms think the same thing. They haven't ''said'' anything but they don't have to, I know. But I just... I can't ''do'' any of the things... I can't do ''anything'' like I used to, it's like I'm just, useless now. I keep trying to do things with my left hand and nothing happens 'cause it's not there anymore." Molly shakes her head, "Whatever, it's... it's not going to change. I just have to get used to it and hope I can get a good prosthetic or something. Maybe if I just... Cars in Japan are right-hand drive, so I can use my left hand for shifting I guess. I dunno. I just... I'm going to have to work a lot harder than everyone else for half as much imprvement." The purplenette plants her elbow on the table, and supports her chin with her hand. "So," she asks after a moment, "How've things been since you... y'know. Got free?"
Aloisia Harlaown	"Yeah. But that's what the therapy is for. To help you adjust to doing those things, yeah?" Aloisia says softly. "I can't really say I fully know what it's like, since I... I mean. I went through some bad stuff, but it's definitely not the same." She shifts one of her feet up to her chest, wrapping an arm around her knee. "People who work hard tend to be the best at what they do, you know. Sure, there's the geniuses or whatever, but~." She looks at Molly quietly for a while, before frowning slightly as she thinks quietly. And then... well. Molly asks the question. The question she tilts her head in response to. "Well. I put Otto in eternal jail I think. Aaaand I accidentally undid my knighthood as well when I basically declared my family no longer noble. And uh... I ... ended up swearing an oath to the Moon and Earth because it gave me some direction... uhm. Chrono's mom adopted me... and... uh..." She shifts slightly, lifting her scarf. "...I learned frogs are cute?" "...Adjusting to normal life is weird, when you spent most of your life doing... well... yeah." She makes a vague gesture. "But it's also been kind of ... nice. Having a family that actually cares. And real friends..." She shifts her gaze off into the distance. "It changes perspective on things, that's for sure. I've been going to therapy too. I..." She pauses, going silent for a while. "...Well. Anyway." She shakes her head, before looking back towards Molly. "Things have gotten better, that's for sure."
Molly Skyline	Molly quierks an eyebrow upwards. "Boy I sure missed a lot," she observes. "I mean like... a lot a lot. And I'm sorry I wasn't there for you through any of the hard stuff, though the good stuff sounds... I mean ''really'' good." She pauses, still holding her chopsticks, and looks at her half-heartedly banished ramen. "I've never been a knight, but like... when I lived in England the other kids at the orphanage and I would run around the countryside playing make-believe a lot -- you do that when the government doesn't care about you and there's functionally no budget to buy toys -- and I read a lot of stuff about British history. I'm certain that being a knight or not being one isn't in wether or not someone gives you a title. ''I'' still think you're a knight." Molly sighs, and shakes her head. "Anyway. About people working hard and stuff... I mean good, 'cause I'm not a genius. Rashmni-chan's the smart one, I'm just a girl who with great reflexes who doesn't know when to call it quits which," she looks down at herself, "Is how I ended up like this in the first place, and..." 5r Molly trails off, and shakes her head. "Anyway. Sorry. I'm being bitter. ...And my Moms wants me to go to therapy too, but like... what's the point? I can't actually ''tell'' anyone what happened. What're they gonna council me on, aside from me saying 'I don't remember' to literally everything?"
Aloisia Harlaown	"Mostly all of that happened... within a week of when I stopped being possessed by the crown." Aloisia responds, frowning thoughtfully. "...But yeah. It was pretty good." She shifts in her seat, taking another bite as she thinks a little, looking back towards Molly thoughtfully as she talks. "...So both of us now have families that found us. And loving ones, from what little I saw of your parents when I, ah... well... you know." She says, looking away again. The comment of thinking she's a knight does get a smile back on Aloe's face though. "I am a knight. I made an oath to the moon and the earth..." She pauses, leaning in, her voice dropping. "Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion." A whisper, not that anyone around them was really listening in on their conversation particularly. "...Possibly mostly symbolic.... but it felt right." She adds. The talk of geniuses and great reflexes... and doesn't know when to quit. "You know that's a talent in and of itself. It's just a matter of putting that talent to the right use. Reflexes in particular are great for a mage." Aaaand then talk of therapy. "...Nurse Meiou." Is Aloisia's response to that. "She can help with that part." She pauses. "But the therapy I was talking about was of the occupational and/or physical therapy sort. To help you adjust to your loss. It will never be the same, unless you can fully replace it one way or another, but you can adjust. And there are prosthetics as well."
Molly Skyline	"My Moms are looking into prosthetics," Molly replies, "And... I don't want to sound ungrateful, I just don't want one. I want ''MY ARM'' back. But I know I can't have it so I'm just going to have to get used to the idea that I'm gonna have the best replacement that modern science and tech can give me that my Moms can afford, 'cause the super high-end stuff just is not cheap and there's just... like... there's basically no funding from the government to help a teenager who's lost a limb." "Yeah I could tlak to Nurse Meiou," she agrees. "I probably should've gone to see her by now, I just haven't. I dunno. I don't want to focus on it but I can't not focus on it and I get reminded every time I try to literally do anything, including just exist because I can't not notice this big of a... ...a change." The purplenette tugs her ramen back, and pokes at it again with the chopsticks. And hey, there's still a couple pieces of egg, so she eats one of those. (The sight of Molly having ramen, with egg in it, and not eating all the egg, is beyond weird.) "I'm glad you're still a knight," she murmurs, "And it's not symbollic. I saw you fighting Seriss. I saw you fighting to protect your friends. You're a knight, and I'm really glad you're my friend."
Aloisia Harlaown	"Well... yeah. Of course you want your arm back. Of course you don't want a prosthetic. You've lost a part of yourself. I don't think that's even ungrateful." Aloisia responds. "I... honestly get it. Sometimes I wonder..." She pauses, her hand brushing over her silver hair. "I... think I was pretty close to just being erased." Aloe says quietly. "...I don't know if I'm missing memories, or... or... you know... yeah." She shakes her head. "So... it's... not the same but I can kind of understand." She doesn't comment on the prosthetics. She doesn't know what she could do. She'd briefly thought about some sort of Device or something, but the sheer logistics of it... plus finding and making a new core... and the absolute lack of proper tools to make a new device. Ugh. Earth sucks sometimes. Even with all the upsides to being there. "...It's worthwhile to consider, at least, talking with Nurse Meiou. It's better than it just... letting it fester. I've seen what happens with that." She takes another bite of her own food, taking her time eating. "Ah, the uhm... well. It's ... yes. I am a knight. I meant... kind of ... the oath. I needed to make it, but it was more for me than out of any expectation from anyone to do it. To have that part of myself." She murmurs quietly. "I don't think anyone else questioned if I was a knight or not. But, well. It was important to me."
Molly Skyline	Molly scoops up the last piece of egg with her chopsticks, eats it, and then just drops the sticks in the ramen and pushes it away again. There's still plenty of protein left in it, but either... well either she's not actually low on mana or she doesn't care if she's low on mana, apparently. "...Aloisia-chan that's awful and I'm really sorry. I guess I can be grateful that I know I've got all my memories... I mean... even if I didn't ''want'' some of them. I guess one good thing about the Fade is that I'm not going to remember being trapped in my own body by a horror from beyond the stars for almost a year." She plops her elbow down on the table, and presses her cheek into her palm. "I get wanting to make the oath though. Like... I'm guessing it was important for you to define yoruself? And not just internaally, but like... for everyone to hear you say it. I am Aloisia, I am a knight, and this is how I will define myself. Like that. ...I hope I'm not being presumptuous or anything. But like, of course it's important to you, it's who you ''are''. Like how being a racecar driver someday is important to me. And I still want it to be me." As Molly says the last part, her eyes glisten and a single drop escapes the corner of each, rolling uncontested down her cheeks. "I don't like feeling like my dream is forever out of reach. I didn't do anything wrong, I didn't... I'm ''sure'' I didn't do anything to deserve this. Why me? I know it was the result of my own choices but just... just... why ''me''?"
Aloisia Harlaown	"...I think I mostly recovered okay, but it was definitely rough the first few days as I was sorting through things." Aloisia murmurs. "...And... mm. I don't know... I don't think the fade will ... 'fix' things... make sure that you do your best to work through it, honestly. I don't know how the fade works, but having anxiety or nightmares that you aren't entirely sure of the source of is not pleasant from what I know." She actually smiles, her smile warm as Molly basically hits it right on the head as to why she had to make the oath for herself. "No. You're not being presumptuous. That is basically what it was. That I am Aloisia Harlaown. That I will protect those who need it. That I will help where I can. That, in spite of my mistakes... I am still a knight. I still am a person who at their core is the shield to stand before those who need it. Even when they think they don't need it." She produces a handkerchief from a pocket at that slight glistening and the single drop. Gently dabbing it away. "You... I don't know the entire situation, but I believe you acted in the defense of another, and ended up saving someone else. But... ultimately... I do not know that there is necessarily 'fate' or anything of the sort. Simply... well... being in the right place, just possibly at the wrong time." A pause. And then spoken quieter. "...Or born to the wrong person."
Molly Skyline	"...We were fighting on the other side of a portal to the Dusk Zone," Molly replies, quietly, after a time. "There were civillians trapped on the other side. Viluy took them to be test subjects. Rashmi-chan and several of our friends were there, but everyone else was either hurt or was getting a civillian out, and I, I had to stay, just a minute longer to make sure everyone got out, but there were so ''many'' monsters and I just... I got stuck. I'm an artillery mage, not a defensive fighter, but I was doing my best to defend until I was too hurt to get out, so I blew up the portal machine and sealed myself in." Molly keeps staring forwards, gazing towards nothing in particular on the far side of the cafeteria. And it's not like it matters if anyone overhears them anyway, most people who know Molly through classes are aware that she's a mega-nerd and plays a lot of RPGs that she takes way too seriously. Which Molly is fine with, it's good cover. "Obsidian brought me back but I don't think they meant to bring ''me'' back, they just wanted my body to be a host and needed it not to be dead for that. Me being alive was entirely unintended, but... I mean..." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "I'm alive." The purplenette bobs her head once, "I know what it's like, though, to be... born to the wrong people. I mean, sort of. I was the only orphan where I grew up who's parents didn't die, they just... didn't want me."
Aloisia Harlaown	"...Mm. A noble sacrifice then." Aloisia murmurs quietly under her breath. "The way most Belkans would wish to go. Fighting, and ultimately securing the ultimate 'victory'." She frowns a little. An artillery mage should never have been the last line of defense. She should have been far back from the fighting, with barely any chance of defense. If only... ..No. Thoughts like that only go to dark places. "...Ideally, next time, let's skip the 'you being sealed in' part." Aloisia says, she tried to force some cheer into it, but it was a little more half-hearted than usual. "But I get it. You did what you had to do. At least in the moment. To stop the flood of monsters..." She sighs softly, before turning carefully with simple intent to give Molly a hug. "I'm glad you're back. We missed you, Molly. I... I missed you. It stuck with me, when..." She pauses, her tone dropping to barely above a whisper. "I had literally, you know... abducted you... and yet you still believed in me." "...It helped. It gave me something to cling to." She wouldn't hold the hug long. Especially if Molly seemed uncomfortable. "We're both in a better state now. And your moms seem pretty great. And I know my mom is pretty great too. ... Performs absolute sins against tea, though."
Molly Skyline	"Can't fight with only one arm," Molly mumbles. Quietly, the purplenette has to admit to herself how much 'can't' she's been saying the last few days. Can't race a car. Can't fight. Can't play video games. Can't carry her schoolbooks. Can't tied her damned shoes. Who knew how much stuf fyou needed a left arm for? Positioned as she is, Molly can't really return the hug, but she can lean into it. "I missed you too," she replies. "When you were... y'know. Not you. I'm ''really'' glad you're back, and... and I'll always believe in you. Because you're a good person worth believing in." Slowly, Molly disentangles herself; mostly by just gently indicating taht she needs to stand up. "I gotta get to class," she explains, and heaves a sigh. "i'm trying to figure out how to not get helf back a hole year."
Aloisia Harlaown	"Pfft. You've got a Device. Let the Device help you with that. One arm is fine. You'll have to use your body more to brace it than you used to, but one arm never stopped a Device from doing its job." Aloisia responds simply. "And if I am around, I will be there to ensure you have the time to adjust to the changes, ja?" She says with a simple nod. She gives a somewhat awkward noise in response to the comments. "I'm ... starting to believe that too, now. It's ... still awkward after, well." She shakes her head, before finally standing and moving over, offering her hand to help Molly stand. "Also, if you need help with anything, don't be afraid to ask. Such as, perhaps, studying?" She adds. She gives Molly a small smile, before they end up separating. Being in different grades, well... they likely ended up parting from there.