Of Saints and Sinners [closed]

[code_obsidian]

WHO: Garak and Elphaba
WHAT: After discovering she has made a horrible mistake, Elphaba seeks guidance and finds more than she bargained for.
WHERE: The Chapel
WHEN: After Elphaba interrogates Ford

Comments

[wicked_west]

"I am the only green person in Oz or on the Earth apparently," she replied in kind.

She listened to his monologue. She wasn't sure what to say at first. She just looked at him, with pity in her eyes. She thought carefully about what to say next. The best she could come up with was, "I'm sorry."

She thought further... trying to decide if her next question would sound harsh or not. But she needed to know... "Did it work? Did the Revolution make a better world?"

[code_obsidian]

Knowing how people, how almost any sentient race could be toward those who were different, Garak said, "That must have been very lonely at times."

His blue gaze slid away from the look of pity. Pity was something he never wanted. He took a sip of his kanar. Had it worked? Was Cardassia a better world minus so much of her population? He thought of all of the reforms, the people who were just learning to breathe and speak with true freedom from reprisal, the future that was possible with three new M-class planets. "Yes," he said finally, lifting a gaze clearer of trouble than a moment before. "Yes, it did. It worked."

[wicked_west]

She slumped back in her chair. "I was never able to instigate my countries revolution. Those closest to me were murdered and then, one day the Wizard finally came for me... sent is assassin for me actually. I am not a hero. Merely a witch." She knew he had heard all of this during her confession, but she'd rather tell him in the spirit of confidence with what he just shared.

[code_obsidian]

"Change often comes in increments," Garak said. "Who's to say that your death might not just be the catalyst for someone else to take up that torch? On my own world..." he leaned back, thinking of how to boil it down succinctly. "Our government was oppressive and totalitarian for generations. But there were little steps along the way. Failed movements, martyrs. People only get hailed as heroes if they succeed or die spectacularly on the verge of it, but results aren't the sum total of what makes one heroic."

[wicked_west]

"Were these martyrs named as Wicked Witches before they went down and hated by most of the country?" she asked, a little sarcastically. "I'm sorry, that came out much more harshly than I intended. in my world, I was the Wicked Witch. The Wizard feared me. Once Dorothy came, it was only a matter of time before I died. Dorothy was the hero, I was the evil force to be rid of. As I said before, the people were already enslaving the Animals and following the orders of the Wizard."

[code_obsidian]

He drew in a soft hiss of breath. How many of them had he personally taken down under Tain's direction? "They were universally reviled, and their executions were broadcast over a planet-wide feed, to serve as examples for those who might be thinking of following them. It sounds as though your Wizard might have fit right in on old Cardassia."

He took another sip of kanar. "So now you're here. It's a small place, our hotel. Things don't have to be the way they were unless you want them to be. You can be a Good Witch, or if you'r feeling particularly brave, you can just be Elphaba and all that might entail."

[wicked_west]

She skirted away from the first part of his topic. As much as she hoped her death would make a difference, she had a hard time believing it.

"The Wizard came from the Other World, like Dorothy. I don't know what they are like there, but he certainly did turn Oz into an awful country."

She played with the pudding for an awfully long while mulling over his next comment. "I was never 'just Elphaba.' I don't know who 'just Elphaba' is," she remarked quietly.