all the way down the eye of hell lies a bleeding angel
prima ballerina assoluta.
a prestigious title awarded to ballerinas recognized internationally for poise and talent exceeding the skills of her generation and honoring the country with her art.
a title khyzenia zadriva has been dreaming of for nearly her entire life.
year round training under her adopted mother, yelizaveta—an ex-widow, shows a side to ballet many would never see. many young girls were taken under the woman's wing, given a new life of warmth forged by hands and hearts that have known nothing but the cold. and of them all, khyzenia believed herself quite promising, worthy of opera performances and venues around the world, and by god, she almost accomplished it.
yelizaveta was never secretive with the life she lived, not with her children, no. they knew, they all did, and perhaps this knowledge is why little khyzenia wasn't too upset when her ballet career took a massive turn in europe.
the past does not stayed buried for very long with the red room, and as khyzenia had performed as Odette for the first time in her life, the infiltration had begun. the ballerina and her sisters used as mere bargaining chips in exchange for yelizaveta returned. 13 grueling hours of loud bangs, distant screams, pooling blood, and stained pointe shoes were all the sisters could remember of that performance. though none were scared of course, because as we all know... 'never underestimate the fury of an angry mother.'
knowledge was a power yelizaveta considered primary.
power in the body; secondary. each girl was raised to be incredibly receptive, perceptive, and deceptive. to become so sure in their mind and cognitive ability that no situation shall overwhelm them.
khyzenia took to this like moth to a flame, although if you ask her, she might recall this in a different way...
history, information, secrets, so many things about the world kept in ink slathered on paper after paper, book after book. as ballet had become a secondary career more akin to a hobby after the performance, what with name changes and new homes, khyzenia (aka katerina) had found a new love for information science. in her dive into such a vast world, she had become a fan of the world of museums, libraries, and universities. believing that if she couldn't be serious about ballet, she'd find her place in a community some other way.
as all the older sisters left the house, one by one, when the question came of what she'd study and where, katerina already found a prestigious upper east coast university to earn her bachelors and masters and moved away with a thousand kisses and two thousand promises to maim anyone who would ever dare hurt their precious baby sister.
the subconscious mind is a powerful thing.
it's said that it absorbs 95% of information, with the conscious mind absorbing the other 5%. a fact that haunts katerina's hidden brain every second of every day. from when she was born in whatever family she came from, to the moment she wakes up in the current day, there is something within her head that has done nothing but watch and learn.
knowledge festering into power, turning into an esoteric form tucked away in the eyes of a young woman with a kind soul. an angel with wings stained pink at the ends, as if blood had been washed away. . .
now of course, this strange creature, her brain, does not interfere in her everyday life.
katerina is living life! it's the 2000s, she's in new york, she's got a penthouse curtesy of her mother, she's a ballerina still, she's begun an internship under landman & zack, she's an archivist now, she's receiving cryptic messages of corrupt city ongoings, she is now an enemy of fisk and the hand, she keeps mistaking the future for the present, and the past for the future, the minds of those around her are leaking into her own head, and she can't figure out how her body knows to fight in ways she's never learned before. . .
oh, prima ballerina assoluta. . . how far you've strayed. . .
@briiverse @deepinthegroves @easyboyrecliner @janie-lind @multiverseluck @rrezshifts @riverinthehighlands @unidentified-divinity
