But That's Forbidden Love (Haru/Alicia - Valentine's Event)

”Come on.”

“Why...?”

”You’ve steadily turned into the biggest grouch I’ve ever seen. Entirely warranted, yes, but you still need to loosen up and take time to just... let yourself destress. You’ll go gray very early if you keep this up.”

Alicia huffed softly, staring her second advisor in the eyes. The sad truth was she couldn’t argue with Kisara on that. She’d noticed the changes in herself, how short she was with people at times. She really did need what Kisara was recommended.

“But why to Whitewater’s bar? I’m a lightweight.” The bearer of Steel questioned with a raised brow. She could certainly argue the destination though. The ice maiden before her smiled.

”You ‘were’ a lightweight. I’d be willing to bet your tolerance has gone up quite a bit. ‘Sides, maybe you’ll find a like hearted soul for the holidays. I may be an ancient spirit but even I know about February’s events.” the bright ice maiden returned, her smile growing a bit more as she tilted her head.

Alicia narrowed her eyes in turn. A bar? For a Valentine’s date? That was either the most unlikely thing Kisara had ever said or the most cliche’d thing. Still... “Fine, let me get myself bandaged up then. Sol? Keep her in check while we’re there?”

Kisara deflated a bit as Alicia mentioned the bandages she’d taken to using. She was hoping that if the redhead was relaxing in the Digital World she’d let her guard down a bit more and... not acknowledge the mutation of her arm and leg. But it appeared that had been a pipe dream from the start. It was a distant hope though, she knew Alicia’s woes ran very deep on this subject.

How could both of the spirits not know, given what had happened...? Even if they weren’t present, what they could gather after the fact painted the horrific picture indeed.

Still, Alicia grabbed her D-Scanner and made a swipe with it. She was glad she picked up the Digiport when she did. When she didn’t want to be seen in the Real World, it made such an effective tool. The glimmering portal parted before her and she stepped through, sighting the bar Kisara was pointing her to almost immediately, and made her way inside. It seemed quite busy today, but that was fairly understandable, given what day it was.

“Mmm...?” Though one patron of the bar stood out in particular. A dark haired young woman sitting mostly alone, with little more than an orange cat Digimon to keep her company. Being in an unnatural mental state herself, it was easy to read that something was getting the other young woman down.

”Alicia...?” Sol started softly as he finally appeared at her side, before looking at her. The Steel Spirit Wielder had nothing to say to him though, just clenching her uncovered left hand into a fist. Kisara, in turn, started nudging the redhead forward.

Fortunately, she took the hint without another word, striding forward. Her bandaged right hand rested on an empty bar stool immediately to the younger woman’s left. “Hey...” Alicia began softly. “Is this seat taken, or can I take a seat here?” She might not be able to help herself much... but if her suspicions were right, maybe she could make this day a little less miserable for someone else.

Alicia couldn’t help but chuckle softly as the dark haired lass snapped to attention at her question. “Alright then, don’t mind if I do.” she returned as she took the seat for herself. So the cat who was almost certainly this young lady’s partner was trying to get herself wasted? Maybe Sol would be kind enough to point her in the direction of a brew that could achieve that. Honestly, though, the cat’s woes made her chuckle a bit too. Poor thing must have such a hard time.

“Admittedly, yes.” She answered back to Haru’s question. “Though not exactly because of what day it is. Lets just say my problems leave me on the tipping point where I’m seriously considering giving up on a relationship and what things follow. And are a lot more serious...” Her right hand clenched into a fist at that under the bandaging, which made a very soft, metallic scraping sound that no human hand should ever make under any circumstance.

Though she got the feeling this girl was normally too carefree to really pick up on subtle things like that. Oh well. “The name’s Alicia. Alicia Westfield. Pleasure to meet you.” With that, she shifted and held her right hand out to Haru in offering for a handshake. Sure, normally she would’ve used the left hand for this, but even that cross over would’ve been... awkward at best. It’s not like she could truly hide it forever.

“That’s an understatement...” Alicia commented with a sigh and a smile. This girl did get the picture at least, as much as she had given away at least. It was interesting how the girl seemed to perk up like this with just some interaction. Was loneliness the main cause of her troubles with the day? It certainly seemed like it. Apparently the Meicoomon didn’t count for this requirement for whatever reason. Being too grumpy certainly seemed reasonable.

“Ah... I wish it was just a burn, Haru. That would at least have a chance of healing inevitably or otherwise being treated...” the redhead answered after the handshake. Still, hearing it looked stylish brought a bigger smile to her expression. “Don’t be, I can understand it. I have my moments of just acting without thinking too. Sometimes.”

”What a ‘bottle-half-empty’ way of looking at it, little kitty!” Kisara suddenly commented as she poked the Meicoomon immediately after appearing seated right next to the cat digimon, giggling. ”And you’re never gonna get smashed at that rate, you need to really shell out. Of course, I don’t know if Haru here can actually afford it. So... sorry, kitty!” The ice maiden giggled to herself, as Sol approached the group at last and took a seat of his own beside Alicia, leaning on the bar and closing his eyes.

Alicia just sweatdropped a bit, wondering how the appearance of the two spectral advisors would effect Haru’s and Tawna’s reactions. This could either be hilarious of disastrous, and she honestly had no idea which way it was leaning. “Don’t mind them too much. The purple haired Queen of Mischief is Kisara. The dragon over here is Sol. They’re some... mentors I have, though honestly I wonder if Kisara actually ‘helps’ with anything...”

”Wha- That’s just cold, Alicia!” Kisara shot back with a huff.

“Say’s the woman who’s literal domain is ice.” Alicia countered with a smirk. The ice maiden had no retort for that and settled for pouting at her.

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” Alicia answered back with a nod. Maybe she’d be able to talk more about it but... would this poor girl even be able to follow what had happened to her? Maybe, maybe not. She at least had the certainty that Haru would at least try, though... Maybe it would be worth talking about.

Kisara laughed notably at Tawna’s snarking, smirking. ”Oh really? Bartender! Can I get a helping of what the kitty here is having?” Sure, it was bound to make the Meicoomon even more grumpy, but this was such a good opportunity to poke fun at the kitty.

”Please don’t antagonize the potential berserker, Kisara...” Sol commented, opening one eye to look at the ice maiden in question. He was aware that the evolutions of Meicoomon had a disposition towards wild destruction if left unchecked. ”Especially if Tawna’s not such a berserker yet. The less of those we have, the better.” He could only imagine how hard of a time Haru would have keeping the feline under control if that were the case.

“Partners?” Alicia asked, tilting her head. “Oh, no, I’m a different kind of digidestined altogether. These guys just hang around, offer advice, and lend out their strength when I need it, seeing as they’re from a bygone age. See... I actually do my own fighting, by transforming into a Digimon myself. It’s been quite the hectic time for me, to say the least.”

By now Kisara had gotten her own bottle, quirking an eyebrow as Tawna poked a feeler through her form. Still, she did have some substance, shown as she was able to hold the material bottle in her spectral hand. ”Maybe not fight all that well, but we can still pull some tricks of our own if we feel like it.” She snapped her fingers on her free hand, freezing the outside of Tawna’s bottle as a demonstration. Which had the side effect of making the cat’s beer a fair bit colder than before. The the ice maiden leaned back and downed her own bottle all in one go. With not even a single drop falling out. ”Mm, been a long time since I just let go and did that.”

Sol rolled his eyes and sighed. ”Truly... thou art a queen of mischief and mayhem. Chaos follows thy every foot fall.”

Alicia, admittedly, took the moment to give Sol an odd look at the sudden swap to some archaic word choices. Was there a point to that or was he just being weird for the moment?

”Hmm? Oh, no, not at all. She just has the feel of someone who uses wild but powerful attacks and may be a fair bit reckless. And potentially prone to angry outbursts if pestered. I should know. One of my best friends was quite the wild berserker himself...” Sol explained, waving away any concerns about Tawna. ”Hint, Kisara. Stop. Pestering. Her.”

Kisara seemed to not get the memo, pouting and wrapping Tawna up in a big hug. ”Aww, I’m sure there’s a heart of gold down under all the moodiness. Come on, can’t a few pokes for giggles?” The ice maiden’s grip suddenly slacked. This just happened to coincide with the moment Alicia decided to reach over and clock Kisara upside the head with a wrench, sending her sprawling over the bar.

Fortunately, due to being a spirit, nothing was actually damaged and nobody was too terribly inconvenienced, as Kisara went intangible as soon as her focus was broken by the blow. Maybe people were a bit surprised, but nothing was too out of the ordinary.

“No, Tawna is definitely not the problem here...” the redhead quipped. “... Hah... I haven’t felt in control of anything for a while now. The damned fact that I’m a spirit user was actually used against me. Now I wonder if I’m even remotely human anymore, or just some new Digimon species wearing a human skin...”

The tone she had as she suddenly let slip her own gripes and issues was... in a word, bitter. Bitterness at what had happened, bitterness at what she’d become, bitterness at being powerless to stop it... of being powerless to help the people she cared about most in the most dire moments...

”Kid...” The dragon spirit in turn let his tone turn somber and quiet as he addressed Alicia. ”You don’t have to talk about it...”

“... Kisara...” Alicia said simply. The ice maiden nodded and whipped up a heavily alcoholic drink for her, much to the complaints of the bartenders. The redhead shushed them with an overdone reimbursement for what had been used, and took the drink, sipping on it. Kisara then crossed over the bar onto the customer’s side again, and sighed softly.

The bearer of Steel had tears welling up in her eyes, regretting letting her composure slip enough to dwell on things she couldn’t change anymore again.

”Ah... I can see why my comment distressed you, then. I’m sorry for that.” the dragon spirit mused, nodding to Haru. He had also sighed upon noticing Tawna tense and look like she was about to try clawing Kisara’s eyes out or something. Fortunately that had been avoided by Alicia smacking the ice maiden earlier.

Alicia turned her gaze ever so slightly towards Haru as she mulled the offer over in her head. “If I’m going to talk about it, I should probably show as well...” It would help get the context across to Haru, at least... The redhead pulled her right sleeve up, showing that she had her arm bandaged like that all the way to her shoulder, and then started undoing it. She unraveled the covering down to her elbow, but that was enough to clearly indicate what was up with her.

Her right arm looked impossibly smooth. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, though, right? But that smoothness was accompanied by a very unnatural sheen. The kind of sheen that only existed on well maintained and polished metal. If Haru became interested enough to touch it, she’d find it both paradoxically firm and sturdy yet flexible at the same time. And indeed, the skin would feel like a strong Steel instead of normal flesh. If she looked closely, she might even be able to make out glimmering wires under the skin in place of some of the veins, showing that this mutation went down deeper then her skin.

“Word of advice: Avoid the Dark Area like the plague if at all possible. Nothing good happens there. Unfortunately, I have to hunt down progressively stronger forms, and one of them was located in said Dark Area. I... hadn’t wanted to impose upon any of my friends, so I went alone, thinking that with myself, Sol, and Kisara we’d have enough coverage to avoid an ambush. Suffice to say, an ambush did happen and I was completely unprepared for it.”

Alicia took a moment to breathe and sip her drink again, her right hand tensing into a fist. “The place I woke up in was some kind of lab... and I was the unfortunate test subject. I can’t remember much about my time there, only that almost every moment was agonizing. At the end... I, how to say... I snapped. I activated one of my Digimon forms and broke out. In the process, for a short while I had lost my sanity and just become another wild monster...”

Kisara interrupted her briefly with a hug, looking like she was going to speak up, but a glance over her shoulder from Alicia made her fall silent. She felt she could trust the girl to not freak out and run away screaming.

“... I destroyed everything around me... I nearly killed one of my best friends in the chaos. And even now I can feel it looming in the back of my mind. I have control of it right now, but it’s waiting. Waiting for me to slip up. Waiting for me to lose my cool and fuel my rage. It’d be another disaster all over again...”

That was certainly quite the tale so far, but that didn’t explain the mutated arm. “By the time I finally came back around... I found out part of the experimentation warped my body permanently. There’s an option I could try if I was desperate but... the odds of it actually working the way I want it too are a crapshoot. If it doesn’t work, I lose my right arm and left leg for nothing. The risk is too great to be worthwhile.”

The bearer of Steel took another sip of her drink, hanging her head. “So... yeah... I don’t feel like I have any control over my life right now. And I can be dangerous to be around if something’s getting me angry or stressed out.”

Alicia stayed silent as Haru apologized to her, sighing softly. The girl meant well clearly but... it seems self-esteem was something she was lacking. Hopefully she got over that soon if she was going to stick around in this world. That kind of hesitation could be fatal.

She should know, even without it she’d nearly been killed more times than she’d care to admit. She could only hope Tawna would be fast enough to cover her until she gets the confidence she needs to not second guess herself.

”Alicia’s the kind of person that’ll speak up real quick if she wants to. If you were pushing her, she’d let you know right away. The fact that she’s doing this means she at least trusts your not gonna make the situation worse intentionally.” Kisara noted with a soft sigh.

Unfortunately, Tawna... was not good at word smithing. The redhead’s fist clenched tighter at the blunt truths, but she stamped down her reaction. She meant well, she really did... The bearer of Steel sighed as she calmed herself. “I know all that, Tawna...” she bit out dryly, casting a dark glance at the Meicoomon. Which revealed that one of her green eyes, her right in particular, was currently glowing a dangerous red color. She didn’t particularly enjoy having those ugly facts presented to her again.

Haru thankfully stepped in again, diverting the Spirit Wielder’s attention. The red glow vanished after that and Alicia sighed. “I’ve gotten professional help from doctors and it hasn’t made a difference. I keep in touch with my friends as much as I’m able to as well. I appreciate the thought and offer... but this actually is a problem I’m completely on my own with. I can’t really heal until... something, I don’t know what.”

”That’s not to say emotional support doesn’t help, though.” Sol cut in quickly, wanting to shed some positive light on the situation.