Chapter Text
this new world is…strange.
different.
not that that makes it bad. not by any means. elphaba knows what it is to be different and have that mean she is bad – on multiple, multiple levels (some intentional and some not so much), she knows what that means. strange and different can be thrilling and wonderful, and beautiful and popular can be horrible and destructive. the duality of life. existence. sometimes the things that seem most attractive are, at their heart, most devastating.
devastating isn’t always bad either, but you won’t catch her saying that.
you won’t catch her saying most things right now.
everything is too new and big and wild and interesting. bright and shining, like the emerald city only most of it isn’t emerald, most of it is a metal like tin but stronger, thicker. she’s aware of it, but they don’t build like this in oz.
she’s not in oz anymore, but that’s not such a bad thing.
maybe this place is better.
maybe strange and different will mean better.
winter is viv’s least favorite time of year.
she doesn’t like the holidays, she doesn’t like the cold, she doesn’t like—
everyone is happy. their cheeks are rosy. noses usually red, too, although sometimes they’re dripping and sick, not just cold.
viv walks in her human form – they’ll look at her weird if she doesn’t, and she doesn’t feel like weird looks right now – and shoves her hands into the front of her green sweater. her father is gone on some sort of avengers business. not surprising. something about some horrible weather that’s traveling along the country; something about some sort of magic being involved; something about it being a bigger deal than the champions should….
whatever.
it’s just another excuse to be somewhere else for the holidays.
(neither of them like them. her father tries; he really does. but it isn’t the same when her mother and vin should be there with them, when they aren’t, when they only had the one holidays with them before. before everything.)
the televisions in the store windows flicker as she walks by.
or.
not as she walks by.
someone else, wrapped all in black, is causing the flickering. it’s just still continuing as viv passes them, stops as soon as she’s past.
odd.
viv walks a little faster. not enough to be obnoxious, because the other passersby will notice that there’s something worth noticing if she does – even if that thing is just her pushing through people. but people who are drawn out of their own little world can suddenly find themselves catching sight of other things, and she doesn’t think the flickering would be….
no one else, even noticing it, would think that someone was causing it.
maybe they would. weirder things have happened in the world.
someone is following her.
elphaba slips down an alleyway and waits.
viv notes when the figure in black goes down an alley and takes the same turn. it’s dark. she lets her human guise drop as she scans the surroundings, as she pulls in images from the cameras hooked around her. (there’s so much chatter throughout the world, so much she connects to and sees and hears, a continuous buzzing in the background like music, and she’s pulling on pianissimo and bringing it louder.) her eyes do not widen. the woman stares at her from one of the shadows, but viv can see the green of her skin.
“are you a hulk?”
“i don’t know what that is.”
“the green skin,” viv says. “if you’re some sort of skrull, you’re doing a horrible job hiding.”
“i don’t know what that is either.”
viv steps closer, and the flicker of a light overhead reveals her ruby red skin and lime green hair. “what are you?”
“a witch.” the woman stares at her. “what are you? a tin girl? who cursed you?”
“no one cursed me.” viv nods to her. “who cursed you?”
“no one.”
“hm.”
viv pulls one hand from her sweater. “i’m viv,” she murmurs, “and i think you’d better come home with me.”
“elphaba,” the witch says, and she hesitates before taking viv’s hand in her own. “you don’t mind my skin.”
viv shrugs. “i don’t mind most things. emotions aren’t that useful.” she tilts her head back up the alley. “c’mon. let’s talk.”