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[swordjock]

placeholder! (i mean you can use it i just haven't made it look nice yet)

for the record: adora uses the username grayskull on the network, and can be reached at that id. assume all replies come from the same unless stated otherwise. she makes no effort to hide her identity in the slightest, so feel free to handwave knowing it's her.

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[swordjock]

You're wrong. [ She says, more out of stubbornness than anything she actually feels. ] Catra still believes me. And I don't want you touching her, either. I want you to figure out what's happening, and let me take care of it.

[ Somehow. She can barely heal even minor scrapes and cuts, let alone whatever's wrong with Catra's memories — if those memories are even there for her at all, yet, going by what the Admin said. It makes Adora's own head hurt, not having someone to just... explain things to her. Someone she trusts, anyway. Shadow Weaver showing up made the blame game so much harder, when it's clear even to Adora that she isn't the one responsible. ]

... You were never going to help me, were you? [ It can't be her that's wrong. No matter what she said, no matter what she asked for, Shadow Weaver would have been Shadow Weaver about it. ] I thought being in the Horde was what twisted people, but this is just who you are. I don't know what I expected.

[ What she hoped for. ]

[sinistramanus]

I cannot help someone that does not want to be helped. You are an adult now, Adora, and I will not coddle you, no matter how much you wish to avert your eyes from the truth.

[Her patience thinned. Adora could always be dense, but this wasn't unlike talking to a wall. The sorceress pulled an empty pot to her, starting to filter soil into it.]

I have made my offer of aid. And my parting advice is that you stop letting fear rule you, Adora. I thought you knew better than that, by now.

[Disappointment hangs in her words.]

[swordjock]

[ Oh, that's — she can ignore Shadow Weaver's attitude easily enough, or at least convince herself that she can, but the disappointment stings. It's not that she cares about disappointing Shadow Weaver anymore (she doesn't, right? isn't it a good thing?), but the other woman doesn't get to talk to her that way. Like she's a child, even as she dismisses her as an adult.

Shadow Weaver said it herself: Adora's extraordinary. She can't just be dismissed. She won't be. ]

You didn't offer anything, Shadow Weaver. [ Nothing Adora would actually accept, which is the same thing. Making threats isn't natural to her, so her voice is forced, stilted, but the words still come easier than she expects. ] And just so you know? You're the one who should be afraid, because this place can change us, too. I don't know how, or why, but it's not always good. So maybe, you should be a little more careful from now on. [ A pause, as she worries she hasn't gotten her point across. ] ... About what you say. [ Another pause. ] To me.

[ It's not a good threat, given that Adora was the one to warn Shadow Weaver away from touching her a moment ago, but it's something. She-Ra is too much of a known quantity, not like the mark that pulses almost appreciatively at her words, filling her with instant regret. Too late to back down now. ]

[sinistramanus]

Oh? [But there's something plainly performative about the way Shadow Weaver stretches the curious sound. Yes, child, she's been warned. Been changed. The soil warms subtly under her fingertips.] It can, can it...?

[But Adora's been changed too, hasn't she? That is what that strange feeling is, that faint... something, crawling over her senses. It was like that collaboration of information on the phones said. One way the island changed you was dangerous, and the other kind of change was the dangerous' prey, was it? Perhaps she should be careful.]

I'll keep that in mind—as a favor. [Her voice takes on a light, chiding lilt.] Really, Adora. All those years with me and you never learned to deliver a half-decent threat...

[And to salt the wound, she chuckles.]

[swordjock]

[ Adora mockingly scoffs, half at the word favour, half at the insult. (And wholly to protect her already bruised pride from further injury.) ]

It's not a threat. It's a warning. [ Technically true, even if the intent was definitely the former. But heroes don't make threats, and Adora doesn't do things she's not instantly good at, so obviously, it's Shadow Weaver who's wrong. Obviously. ] I'm nothing like you, and I don't need the evil things the Horde taught me anymore. End of discussion.

[ Except for the way she clings to them, to logic in the face of what still feels so unfamiliar, both here and in Bright Moon. What the Horde teaches is practical; can be learned, by anyone, in ways that magic can't, and doesn't rely on charging or runestones to be effective at navigating or causing pain or getting information. Adora might not be a perfect She-Ra yet, but she's an excellent soldier, and that part of her identity is important to her, will likely always be, even with her edges softened. ]

[sinistramanus]

[A hand lazily rises from the pot, making a loose shooing motion. Even with her back to Adora, the girl's tones were expressive enough]

In that case, you are familiar with the door.

[End of discussion, right?]