Trial Run!

[burningpainting]

Karolina sat on the edge of her new bed and gripped her knees 'til her knuckles went white.  This was not her familiar room back at the Hostel; the air here was processed and metallic rather than muggy and sulfuric.  The furniture had a stark, utilitarian feel to it, the ergonomics totally alien.  She wondered if she'd be able to sleep at all, then

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[burningpainting]

((OOC: Don't worry about it! I'm glad you're feeling better. I just received notice that I've been accepted at marvel_mansion, but I'm also leaving town tomorrow for the holidays. I might be able to post, but no guarantees. I'll be back definitively on Sunday.))

Uh oh. There it was. The pact their parents signed, hanging over their heads like a sentence. Karolina's gut churned. She could not screw this up.

"Xavin, um..." she didn't pull her hand back, not wanting to crush whatever expectations the Skrull had, "I don't know how they do things in space, but arranged marriages don't really happen where I'm from. And I'm about ten years too young to get married." Okay, so that was a little bit of a white lie, but she'd never been able to picture herself at an altar. At least, not in most states.

"What I'm trying to say is, I get that you and I would be an important symbol in stopping this war. But...I don't know if I can be that un-selfish. Not when I hardly know you. What if we hate each other? For the rest of our lives? I can't agree to that out of the blue."

She bit her lip, ashamed of the words that left her mouth. She understood how unimportant one person's happiness was, compared to an entire war, but it wasn't her war, not yet, and she couldn't just give up everything for it. It was selfish, and she knew that, but so be it.

[shemalien]

"I understand," Xavin said, and he did on one level, "You wish to get to know me first. It is reasonable... and perhaps to know yourself first. As... your parents... raised you as human."

Which made sense, they were surrounding by humans, and with the right equipment and control Karolina's people could indeed pass for human.

[burningpainting]

"Exactly," Karolina nodded gratefully. "I want to know what it means to be a Majesdanian. They probably won't take me seriously as it is."

How could she help if they just looked at her as an alien? She still considered herself human at heart. It was only recently that she'd stopped thinking of herself as some kind of mutant, had begun to accept that she was physically something else.

Maybe she'd always be a California girl.

"But I'm definitely standing with you." she added softly. She'd given up pacifism a long time ago. Maybe she'd surprise her "cousins" yet.