runs_the_show (runs_the_show) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-09-06 23:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | door: tales, pepper potts, rose red |
WHO Justine & Rose
WHAT Doing some research
WHEN Recently
WHERE Passages -> One of those cool new rooms
WARNINGS None
The hotel had become part of Justine's weekly routine for the most part. She taught her dance classes in the afternoons and went out to explore Las Vegas some nights while giving the others to Pepper, along with her coveted Saturdays and half the day on Sunday. Honestly, that woman worked too much as far as Justine was concerned, but she insisted and it wasn’t like there were better things to do on those nights. This evening though, she wasn’t going for the redhead secretary turned CEO. Tonight was for Rose and to hopefully apologize for being entirely childish about the whole Beauty and the Beast thing. She still really wanted to see the library and the ballroom, as if those two locations could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was wrong, but they were going to use one of those new rooms, provided that it worked. Justine hadn’t had any problem when she used it with Charming so it was easy to explain to Rose when they’d agreed to meet. She’d had enough time to bake a tray of cookies (she was getting a lot better at it) before hailing a cab down to the hotel. Justine took a key from behind the desk and went to the room indicated by the number on the handle, careful not to drop the plate in her hands. It only took a few minutes for her to get to where she needed to be. The plate of cookies was set on the dresser and she slipped off her flats before situating herself on the bed, sitting Indian style as she faced the door. A quick glance at her phone indicated that she was a few minutes early so she waited. There was still a part of her that hoped Belle would walk through the door, gold dress glittering with her hair pulled back into that super cute bun. She would’ve taken the blue dress with the white apron too, but the girl on the journal was Rose, not Belle. Just like Snow, Cinderella, and Red Riding Hood were all different, so was Rose. It was incredibly disheartening, but she still held out hopes that their fairytales would have happy endings. Justine got the blue dress, but that's where the similarities ended, and maybe the blue dress was just coincidence and nothing more. Rose stepped into the room like a maelstrom, the way she did most things. She was rumpled in blue, and her red hair had long since given up being properly cared for. It tumbled down her back in waves and muss, and she came to a stop on stockinged feet in the middle of the room. The girl, Rose realized, was no older than she was, and she wasn't sure whether that made her feel better or worse about things. But she was someone with answers, and that made all the difference to Rose, even if she was very young. Rose generally learned her truths from books and the woods, but she had only a few books she had brought with her to the castle, and she had yet to find the library Justine seemed so interested in. The woods, of course, were denied her. This girl, with her brown hair and striking blue eyes, would have to serve as her book in this instance. "Hello," Rose said, and she wondered if she should curtsey. But, no, this wasn't her sister's court. This was equal footing, like the woods, and such things were not required. She bounced from one foot to the next, eager to get on with her questions, especially given the situation with her sister. The Beast had been no help there, and she was more worried than she cared to admit. "I don't mean to rush into things, but I have many questions" Rose said, apologizing in advance and wondering if she should have worn the mundane clothing Snow had brought her for this meeting; she did so hate the "jeans." Justine hadn't been expecting someone her own age either, but she supposed that made sense. Most princesses were between sixteen and eighteen in the stories. Maybe that was why she was different. The story had to change to reflect how much older she was. No doubt she'd theorize more on that later, but for now, she took in every last detail of the other woman. Her hair was red, not brown, and it was long and messy. Justine thought it might be fun to brush and braid a princess' hair, but after the questions. Her dress was nice, blue but no apron and everything about her was different from the princess she knew and loved. Her frown only lasted a moment and then she was back on board. Whoever she was, she was still trapped with the Beast and she needed to break the spell. "Hi!" she greeted brightly, sliding back on the bed so that her back was against the headboard. "Come on, have a seat." Justine's accent was soft and her voice warm and friendly. "I have a few hours so hopefully I can answer any questions you have. Plus, if I can't, I can look it up on my phone," she explained, lifting the device up to show the redhead. "What do you want to start with?" Justine was eager to help, partly because she was interested in the story and partly because she felt bad for having such mean thoughts about her. Plus, regardless of whether or not she was really Belle, she was still living the story. That had to count for something, right? Rose noticed the frown. Rose noticed nearly everything. Snow had always been the one to logic through the things Rose noticed, and Rose had always been the one to plow ahead impulsively, even after Snow had pointed out all the reasons why it was a terrible idea to do so. Rose frowned back for a moment, the reaction unthinking instinct, and then she tipped her chin slightly upward in a defiant gesture that both her sister and mother knew very, very well. She wondered if the frown had to do with not being who she was supposed to be. But then the girl was tapping the bed, and Rose stepped forward and took a seat, wrinkled blue pooling around her as she slid back onto the mattress more fully. "I have as much time as we need. He doesn't go looking in my room, and if he knocks and I don't answer he only thinks I'm being impossible by ignoring him," she explained of the Beast. "I haven't found the one you think I should be, and I have looked in all the rooms, save the ones in the wing he inhabits, which he does not like me to go to. I think she has not arrived," she said, hoping to appease the girl. She didn't want to take some other girl's place anyway. After all, she had enough of castles and princes to last a lifetime. "I'd like to start with my sister, and the evil queen, and the huntsman. Do you know their stories? My sister came to the castle, and she argued with the Beast. I attempted to intervene, but before I could calm matters the queen appeared. She is a witch. It does not matter what my sister thinks. I know a witch when I sense one. I believe she's the one killing the land, and that she's the one who cursed the Beast, and that the huntsman works for her. I am afraid he has taken my sister." Here, Rose paused. "Not that I like my sister." Rose’s frown went unnoticed as Justine was far less observational about everything. If someone was upset with her, they’d tell her and she was the sort of person who wore her emotions on her sleeve. Of course, she caught sight of the cookies over Rose’s shoulder and scrambled off the bed to get them. She was back in two seconds, the plate uncovered and now settled between them, and she looked at Rose intently. Her sister was Snow, she remembered, and the queen wasn’t the same enchantress from the Disney story. The huntsman made sense with Snow White, so that was where she started. “I know some of your sister’s. She was the fairest of them all and that’s why the Queen sent the Huntsman to kill her. He couldn’t because she was so pure, so he let her go and gave the Queen a pig’s heart instead. Snow found the seven dwarfs and she took care of them, you know like cleaning and cooking? And when the Queen found her, she poisoned Snow White with an apple. It sent her into a deep sleep instead of killing her and the dwarfs built a glass coffin around her as a sort of monument. A prince found her and kissed her, waking her up, and he whisked her back to his kingdom where they got married and lived happily ever after.” She recited it all by heart, but as soon as she was done, Justine was worrying her lower lip. “I know that isn’t your Snow’s story though, at least not all the way. There was a new movie that came out, about Snow White and it had a really wicked Queen that made everything dark and snowy and winter all the time She had to drain the youth of the kingdom she took over to remain young and beautiful forever. When Snow White turned 18, Ravenna, that’s the Queen’s name in this movie, was told by the mirror guy that she had to eat Snow’s heart, but Snow managed to run away and so the huntsman was sent out to find her and bring her back to the Queen in exchange for reviving his dead wife. He didn’t know who she was though, because Ravenna had kept her locked away the whole time. The huntsman ended up kissing Snow to revive her and she stabbed Ravenna in the heart.” “Wait, how come you don’t like your sister?” Siblings were supposed to love each other, even when they hated each other. Rose grabbed a cookie, and she scoffed at the idea that her sister was pure at all. "Snow is not pure. She is a liar and a breaker of promises," she said, years old anger bubbling to the surface. She considered telling Justine, again, that the dwarves were rapists, but she held her tongue for the moment. "The dwarves are the sons of a dwarf who we bested in our youth. He thought we wronged him, when we were only trying to help, and the bear saved us. He was cursed, and we broke the curse. Snow and me. We were supposed to marry him and his brother, but my sister ran away and married another prince instead. Prince Charming, the philanderer. She was his third wife. He was married to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty first," she explained, wondering how a story could get so mixed up along the way. But there were things that made sense too - specifically Ravenna. "The land is dead though," Rose admitted. "It wasn't before, not where I was from, but it is at the castle and all around, and the huntsman says his wife is missing. I do not trust him. The queen, she's blonde and beautiful, and I think she's in love with the Beast. Or perhaps she was once, I cannot be certain, but she certainly seems obsessed with him now." She paused. "And my sister would look terrible in a glass coffin. She has a flat face." Justine was curious about Snow and Rose’s relationship. Snow White wasn’t even supposed to have a sister, she didn’t think. Rose had been forgotten from the modern story, transformed into another person entirely and given her own. Justine didn’t really understand why Snow’s running away impacted Rose’s marriage at all and that confusion showed on her face as well. “Why was the dwarf cursed? And how did you break the curse? And why did it matter that Snow married Prince Charming? He’s-” But for once, Justine managed to censor herself. She liked Charming, found him wonderful and kind, but it was overwhelmingly obvious that no one else seemed to like him. For the life of her, she didn’t understand why. “If he was what made her happy, then why did it matter? Don’t you want her to be happy? She’s your sister. I have an older brother and he got a voice in his head and left. He was my best friend and he abandoned me. It destroyed me for a long time and I still hate thinking about it.” Her voice turned soft with undercurrents of both sadness and anger. She hated him for leaving, but she also loved him for letting her back into his life. Even if he was mucking it up by living in a monastery. “But,’ she continued after a long moment, “He’s my brother and I love him. In the end, all I want is for him to be happy.” She considered the enchantress and nodded. “Here, let me see...” Justine trailed off as she picked up her phone and Googled a picture of Ravenna. “Is that her?” And once she’d looked at that picture, Justine pulled up one of the Huntsman. “And this is the Huntsman I think?” The visuals might help narrow down the source and Justine could always come back with more pictures and their stories written on the back so that Rose could find the answers she was looking for. "No," Rose said with a shake of her head, clarifying her own confusing explanation. "The bear was cursed. There are many cursed creatures in the woods. He was really a prince, who had been cursed by a witch. He saved us, and this broke his curse. He turned into a handsome prince, and he promised to wed Snow, and to wed me to his brother. And it mattered that Snow married Charming because Snow promised never to leave me behind, and she did. And anyway, Charming is a cheat and a terrible husband. You can ask any of his many wives. He marries women, and then he cheats on them. He will be as sweet as can be until he beds with you, and then he will want nothing else to do with you." She crossed her arms after Justine's story about her own brother. "No. I wanted her to be as miserable as I was for all those years after I was left behind." Rose had only to glance at the picture of the queen. "Yes, yes, that's her," she said sitting closer with interest, almost upending the cookies. "I've never set eyes on the huntsman. We've only spoken, and I don't know what he looks like. Is there a picture of the version of Snow from their tale?" she asked hopefully. This could help explain matters. Justine was confused. “Where did the dwarves come in then?” This had to be why Mr Disney simplified everything. Their story was so confusing that if she couldn’t keep it straight now, how could a child? She much preferred the simplified version. Her confusion gave way to annoyance when Rose started to say mean things about Charming. He was nice and he made her feel nice and how could he possibly be a bad person if he could do all of that? Fortunately though, she could empathize with how Rose felt toward her sister and that distracted her somewhat. “I know what it’s like to be that angry,” Justine replied softly. “It hurts, being left behind, but no matter what happens, it isn’t going to change the fact that they left or that they’re related to you. You must have been very close to her if you’re this angry.” It was fairly obvious that Rose hadn’t found something to focus her aggression on like she had. “It’s never too late though, not if you truly do love her.” Now that they’d figured out who the Queen was, it would likely make things a bit easier. “Hold on,” Justine replied, turning the screen back to herself so that she could find a picture of Snow from that movie. Once it loaded, she turned it back to Rose, absently pushing the cookies to the side so they wouldn’t make a mess. “When you know what he looks like, we can look again. I can find other versions of the stories though, and see what he looks like. I’ll find out more about the Queen. Actually, if you wanted, I could see about purchasing it and bringing a portable DVD player so that you could watch with me if you wanted. I don’t know if it would work through your door, but it would work through mine, if you wanted?” "The dwarves are the-" Rose paused. "Forget the dwarves. They're unimportant in the grand scheme of things." Unfortunately, Justine's insistence that she understood didn't actually make Rose feel any better about things. "We're twins," she explained, as if that clarified about absolutely everything. "I know I can't change it. I just want- wanted to ruin it all for her. I did, and now it's over." She had a feeling this girl, with her sweet roses view of the world wouldn't understand that, the desire to make someone hurt, but it was the truth. Rose was no angel, and she was no saint, despite her previously quiet life with the merchant. "It is too late," she added, and that was that. But then Rose was shaking her head. "That isn't her. My sister is prettier," she said, and it wasn't bias. Rose had always been acknowledged as beautiful. "And she lives in the mundane world. You see, there were troubles, and many left the homeworld and settled in the mundane world. I didn't go. I stayed. But Snow went, and so did Cindy, and I think Bigby is there as well. They have jeans, but I find them very uncomfortable," she added, shaking her head again. "That isn't her, but what is a DVD?" When Rose said that she and Snow were twins, Justine got it a little more. She realized how painful it had been for herself when Benji left and he was older than her. A twin, someone who was literally your other half, had to hurt a hundred times more. At least. She had wanted to physically hurt Benji but the emotional damage to their relationship, and her constant fear that he would disappear from her life again, wasn’t fading like she had hoped. Justine wasn’t sure if it would ever go away or if she’d ever stop being afraid of just how much he meant to her. Very quietly, she asked, ”What did you do?” She thought that maybe Rose felt bad about it, maybe even regretted it, but she couldn’t be sure unless Rose talked a bit more about it. Even if she didn’t want to think she felt bad, her tone and phrasing would make it clear either way. Or so she hoped. “Mundane world? Hmmm.” Justine had to think about that. She’d never heard of that, save for maybe Enchanted, but that was a whole bunch of fairytales together in one so that wasn’t it. “I’ll look for you. Bigby? Is there anyone else from there that you might remember? Names are helpful.” She had a feeling she wouldn’t understand the stories until she read them for herself. “Who said anything about jeans? You don’t have to wear anything you don’t want to. That’s just silly. Comfy is always the best option. A DVD though, oh man DVDs are great. I know you know books, so you can think of it like this. A DVD is an object that stores a visual representation of a story. People at film and television studios find a story that they like, pay actors and actresses to play a character, and then they take the movie - that’s the visual representation - and sell it to people as DVDs. The people at the studios though, sometimes they take liberties and change the story around, like writing you out of your sister’s story and making a whole new story for yours.” Justine wasn’t saying it to be mean, it was just the truth how she saw it. Rose ignored the question about what she did. She hated telling that story, and it wasn't even that she felt any shame at all. She just hated it. Instead, she thought about names, like Justine had asked, but there weren't any others that she thought important, and her expression went from pensive to disappointed on a sigh. "My sister brought me jeans," she explained distractedly. "When she and the Beast fought, and then she fled into the dead woods, and I fear the queen has caught her, but I do not know. I haven't spoken to her since, only to the huntsman, who assured me he would do anything necessary to save his wife." A frown, because that still made her feel uneasy, and Rose hated the fact that her gut was never, ever wrong. "I told Snow not to come, but she can be so impossibly stubborn." The explanation of the DVD held her attention until Justine mentioned people at "studios" taking liberties and moving things around. "They wrote me out of Snow's story?" she asked, the questioning look turning into a frown. "I don't have a story at all, do I? That's why you know so much about everyone else, but not about me." Which just figured, didn't it? She made a sound of annoyance, and slid off the bed, her stockinged feet finding the floor. She paced twice, and then she turned to Justine. "I slept with Charming. Or, rather, I let him sleep with me. That's what I did," she said angrily, upset to find out she had been erased yet again. Justine frowned as she listened to Rose. The Huntsman always had the same story, and he always chose to save Snow, didn’t he? The movies she remembered, he did. “He says that, but I don’t think he will. He just needs to get to know her. Maybe if he finds her in the woods, they’ll get to know each other and he’ll realize that he wants to see her safe more than his wife. He just needs to let go of her, since she’s dead. Though, technically Ravenna died and now she’s back? So his wife might reappear.” Justine waved her concern away though. “He’ll choose Snow White.” She was certain. Justine almost made a comment about Rose being stubborn, because she seemed that way already, but then she just looked so sad because she’d been forgotten. “You sort of have a story. You’re just named Belle and you’re not related to Snow White. Or, if you are, it’s never mentioned. I just don’t know the story that you come from. That’s all. I’ll find it and then I’ll know all about you too! Pinky promise.” She was trying to comfort Rose, going so far as to slide off the bed to walk toward her but as soon as she mentioned sleeping with Charming, Snow’s husband, Justine visibly recoiled, shocked at the admission. How could she have done that to her sister? That was just...Justine could hardly imagine it. She didn’t even have the words to reply to that, but the horror on her face was enough. Now she was glad Rose’s story got lost, if she was really that awful. "He's not going to choose someone he just met in the woods over his wife, not when the queen says he can have that wife back if he hands over Snow. That isn't how things actually work," Rose insisted, stopping mid pace. "And I'm not that girl you're talking about. We both know I'm not her. I'm just another girl that ended up in his castle, and maybe this girl you think is so wonderful comes after I do," she said, throwing up her hands in frustration. "And maybe my Beast isn't even the one you're used to. He isn't very nice, and I can't imagine anyone breaking his spell." She was considering asking what a pinky promise was when Justine recoiled. "You know, he was there too. Charming vowed to love and be faithful to my sister, and Charming slept with anything pretty in a skirt. Don't look like I'm the one to blame for everything, because I'm not. And you know what? She's better off without him. He was cheating all over the place before I came along. I did her a favor." She sulked, and any hurt from any of it was buried far away and out of sight. She was used to being the evil woman in this scenario. She tipped her chin up defiantly. “His wife isn’t ever coming back. Not like that. He’ll figure that out if you give him a chance to,” Justine insisted. But then Rose was being so sour and negative. “You did it to hurt your sister, not because you liked him. That’s not something you do with just anyone. It’s special and you twisted it into something ugly and mean, just like you’re acting. All you do is complain and argue and say mean things when all I’m trying to do is help. You didn’t do her any favors because a random woman? She could’ve gotten mad, worked through it, and let it go. She has to see you! I don’t know how you could hate her that much, that you’d want her to hate you that much.” Justine was angry on Snow’s behalf and maybe she didn’t have a right to be, but she didn’t care. Rose was a horrible person. She turned and grabbed her phone from the bed before moving over to her shoes, tense and angry as could be. “I’ll keep helping you, because Ravenna is awful and the others deserve it, but you? You’ll never be anything like Belle. She’d never do that to anyone.” Justine was absolutely sure of that. After saying her piece, she walked out of the room without giving Rose a chance to say anything else. She was an ugly, ugly person and Justine didn’t like her at the moment. |