Room 421; Late Saturday Afternoon.
Oh, God. Setsuna returned to her room, immediately falling back against the door with a long breath, closing her eyes. She grinned, easily, as she wiped sweat drenched strands of white hair out of her face. That had to have been the most incredible handwavey training session she'd ever experienced. There was just...so much...strength in every movement; it seemed unstoppable, flowing from her in a great current, past those finally broken levees. They must have been mad, her Shinmei Ryuu sensei, who wanted her to actually hold back this power. She had no idea...no idea at all. The power was still tingling in her fingertips, her legs; she rolled back her shoulders, bare and red from where the wings had finally gone back, exposed, as the heat, the work, the fire from inside of her, left her too hot to bother with a shirt. Her wrappings sufficed, and gave her a better mobility, especially with the wings anyway. Again, she sighed, softly, happily. So much strength; it was incredible. She ran a hand up through her hair, pulling out the hair tie, brushing out the pale, natural strands. She opened her red eyes, cast them about the room, and then propelled herself into motion. Even moving across the room was quicker, fueled by an inhuman grace and speed. Incredible. Absolutely incredible...
It hadn't been too long after Alphonse got off of his shift from work, and the job hardly ever left him worn out once finished. With a few things now returned to his room, as well as checking up on his cat and temporary pet hamster, he didn't want to waste his day lounging around again. This, of course, meant going to see Setsuna, especially since he knew she was supposed to have come back to Fandom since she had left. Alphonse hopped a floor down and knocked on her door once he arrived. "Setsuna? Are you in there?"
Setsuna paused at her dresser, her intention of getting together clothes before a shower distracted by the knock on the door. She stared at it for a moment; inside of her, there was a great surge of something strange. Well, it had all been strange, really, her powers being released like this all at once, but this not only made her stomach lurch, but it filled her with something she hadn't felt when she was alone in the salle. It was something akin to hate, which didn't make any sense, since she immediately recognized the voice as Alphonse's. But it was something about the...presence of another lifeform (a human lifeform) that just made her feel suddenly...violent again. "Yes," she said, stiffly, straightening her shoulders. "I am..."
There had been something about her tone in that response that threw Alphonse off. "A- are you busy?" he asked again. "I can drop by later if now is a bad time..."
His question was immediately met with a long, dragging moment of silence as Setsuna considered this. It was a bad time, but, on the other hand, the natural high from her training had already been killed stone dead, and the urge to take it out on the person who'd ended it had slipped into its place. "I'm not busy," she answered, avoiding answering the question directly, but she moved toward the door and opened it, looking out at him with her eyes, free from their usual contacts. Seeing Alphonse standing there made her wince. "What do you want?" she asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
Once she opened the door, there were a number of things that caught Alphonse by surprise right away; thinking on it, he would wish that her being only in wrappings to keep her covered-- him being a very modest kid at times-- was the most surprising thing. Her eyes had stared him down with an unusual fierceness, but a good chance of that being emphasized was Setsuna's red eye color... her natural eye color, Alphonse remembered-- he hadn't seen those in what felt like forever ago. Drawing his own sights up, there was that white in her hair, a huge contrast to what he was used to seeing. Setsuna's harsh reply piled on top of all that, Alphonse took a step away from the door hastily with a shocked look. "I-- I just..." he trailed off, swallowing, hesitant to point out the abnormalities. After an unsure pause, he managed to bring himself into making a skeptical frown. "What happened?" he finally said simply, his voice more firm.
"What do you mean, what happened?" Setsuna asked, crossly as she folded her arms in front of her. She kept a steady, annoyed looked on Alphonse as her shoulder met the door frame. "I went to Japan, for a job, and now I'm back, same as always." Stronger, she added to herself, and the expression faltered so she could close her eyes and draw in a breath. So much stronger now....
"You haven't dyed your hair," Alphonse pointed out, feeling this should be the obvious matter.
"I know," Setsuna muttered with a curl of her lip. "The dye hasn't been taking. My contacts haven't been staying in either, in case you haven't noticed that either. Not that it really matters; they were just...superficial masks that should have been disregarded a long, long time ago." Back when she actually felt the insane notion that she'd want to be associated with humans... "I think," she added, lifting her chin, "that the white suits me."
The reply left Alphonse with mixed feelings, unsure what to say. This... this wasn't her, it wasn't the Setsuna he was so used to hearing. Whether she wanted to throw away those "masks" she had or not was completely up to her, he knew it wasn't up to him to decide. But it felt too wrong, the way she was suddenly doing this. On impulse, Alphonse grabbed at her shoulders. "You didn't just go and come back," Alphonse said, his scowl becoming more defined. "What's wrong, Setsuna? You know you can tell me!"
As soon as Alphonse reached for her, Setsuna lifted her arm sharply, blocking him, producing a quick burst of energy from her body to push him back with a small whumph of air. The energy shimmered slightly, clearly setting an idea of a small boundary between them before it faded from sight. "Don't touch me!" she shouted, and, before he could work up an argument or attempt something like that again, she moved her arm sharply to push more energy against him, to push him back more, to build up more distance between herself and him. She felt sick to her stomach, slumping a little more against the door frame, but keeping a sharp, steady glare at Alphonse. "How...dare you...."
That was the last thing Alphonse had been expecting. Before he knew it he was falling in the opposite direction, loosing his balance quickly with the unexpected movement. He hit the floor almost immidiately, now nearing the opposite end of the hallway, regaining his breath that had nearly escaped him within the few seconds all that had taken place in. He lifted himself up slowly, still perched down on the floor, slowly bringing up his eyes to look at Setsuna again. ... That couldn't have happened. No, no, no, this wasn't right, not in the least, why was she... Why was Setsuna of all people... Alphonse felt his insides tie up in a knot, and it had taken him a moment to realize his hands were shaking. "You..." he managed to only choke out that much, before drawing a breath to say more, louder than he anticipated, "Why are you doing this?"
Setsuna looked down at him for a long moment, drawing in a breath before lifting her eyes away from him. "I was weak," she said, dryly. "I forced myself to be weak, because I thought it was what I was supposed to do. What I had to do." The red eyes returned to him sharply, but there was very little of Setsuna behind them. Just hatred, pain, impatience. She fought down a wave a disgust. "I'm not going to be weak anymore."
"You're wrong!" Alphonse shouted out with a wavering voice. "You never were!"
"I don't expect you to understand, Alphonse," Setsuna said, turning slightly away. "You never have, not really. If you did, you'd know why I'm doing this."
Alphonse froze, still on the floor; he was seconds away from finally pushing himself to his feet before he heard that. This couldn't have possibly been the same Setsuna that left a week ago, yet his heart still sank, hearing that from her. "... No, I don't," he admitted sullenly, considerably lower than his volume before. "I don't understand. But I... I don't think you do, either."
"No, Alphonse," Setsuna said sharply, turning back with teeth slightly bared. "I finally understand. My eyes are finally open, no longer clouded by those ridiculous contacts. This is who I am, what I am. They told me I shouldn't be like this, but I understand why not. They weren't protecting me, Alphonse, they were trying to keep me weak. They were afraid..." A smile touched her lips, but it wasn't mirthful at all. "I'm so much stronger now, Alphonse. So much stronger..."
Alphonse found it hard to find a way to argue that. Everything he knew was of Setsuna, it wasn't of this Shinmei Ryuu training and what they tried to do, or this foreign place called Japan and what happened there, or... or anything beyond Fandom. She was right, he didn't understand any of it; not what they were doing, or what happened, or why Setsuna was doing this... Alphonse didn't even try to hide his devastated expression as he finally did get back to his feet, though he didn't dare do what he did before and try to approach her. "Setsuna... please..." he begged, which would have been barely audible if there was any other noise around them.
And Setsuna's hearing was even more honed than ever; the mere whisper of Alphonse's voice was almost too loud. She winced, drawing in a breath. "What?" she asked; her eye slid shut critically as she looked over at him. "You..." She lifted her chin. "I'm not going to hide anymore, Alphonse. I'm better this way."
Setsuna was wrong, completely and totally wrong, why wasn't she listening to him? Alphonse had to bite down on his lip to hold back what he wanted to say, to just... shout out everything he wanted to. But no, that would be futile and he knew it. He was afraid of the next thing she would pull if he did. "This is wrong," he continued. "It's wrong, Setsuna, just-- just listen to me, will you? You can't do it like this..."
"Can't...Like this?" Setsuna drew in a breath sharply; a surge of energy raced through her, and she reminded herself that she didn't have to stand for this. She could do something...so easily, but she just...she couldn't believe she was hearing this, from him of all people. She shook her head, slowly, dismally, turning away slightly. She couldn't look at him; she knew that if she did, she actually would do something. In her tribe, a human just knowing your true nature was reason enough to kill them. Thankfully, for Alphonse, she wasn't a part of her tribe and hadn't been since moments after she was born. But she wasn't...one of them, either. Not anymore. Not ever again. "You're just like them," she said, bitterly, and then her anger started mounting and her hand gripped the door frame to keep herself from lashing out any more violently. Her voice rose to a shout. "You're just like them!"
Alphonse winced. That's all he could do-- that's all he could think to do, before he looked up at her. There wouldn't be anything in the world he could say to convince her otherwise, and it hurt. Far, far more than he wanted it to.
So. He didn't have anything to say. Setsuna bit down hard on her lip, hard, until the pain got to be too much. "Dammit! Of all..." She couldn't take it any longer. It was either Alphonse, or... Setsuna focused all her energies on the door, slamming it shut and then pounding her fist down hard against it. He was supposed to understand! If anyone was going to, she thought...But she was wrong. Alphonse was only human. He...couldn't understand...
And just like that, Setsuna had disappeared behind the door. After the loud bang against the door, it was completely silent. Alphonse stood still, watching the door intently and just as quietly, but nothing happened. Setsuna didn't open the door again. Maybe... that was a good thing. He didn't know. All he did know is that he wanted to collapse somewhere-- no, hit something-- he should have just said what he wanted to-- and out of nowhere he had become angry, but above all afraid. What... happened? What will eventually happen? Why did it happen? Alphonse eventually turned after a long while, leading himself back down the hall. It was too open here where anyone could find him, and right how he didn't want that. He hoped this was just one big horrible dream that he'd wake up from soon. [[ preplayed with the amazing, wonderful kitty__fetish, because we, lol, thought I wouldn't be around today. But I am! So...room is open to visitors after the event here if'n you'd like to stop by ]] [[ also, most monochromatic preplay ever? ]]