#elanore

Drew these little pieces up AGES ago for a larger piece. All the alternate versions of Elanore (to mirror the same piece but for Jan).

Still working on it, but very VERY slowly. Thought I would post them before I forget about it all over again. (More to come)

The Mario Bros set up an obstacle course to teach the kids the finer points of platforming, and Elanore's certain she's got it in the bag since she's based on the Jumpman himself. In fact, she'll probably have the second-best time out of all the students (the best time is out of the question because Bullet exists). And in all fairness her pride is deserved, as she ends up going through the course with just as much ease as the Bros did when they demonstrated it...

...and then she misses the last jump and falls in a pit. It wasn't even a particularly hard jump, she just happened to misjudge the distance a little.

So. She just embarrassed herself in front of her idol after bragging about how easy it would be. And Rumble and Lester are ribbing her about it because of course they are. And somebody happens to point out that she isn't actually based on Mario the way everyone else is based on their counterparts, she just happened to kinda-sorta look like him either by coincidence or because her designer took some inspiration from The Company Mascot.

And, well, she's stubborn, so she tries the course again.

And again.

And again.

She ends up completely obsessed, running the course every chance she gets, filling notebooks that should have her schoolwork and invention ideas with diagrams and calculations to analyze her failed attempts and figure out the solution. Because there are a lot of failed attempts.

It gets even worse over time since the building frustration and stress and the eroding self-confidence and... just about everything else, means she starts messing up on the rest of the course too, until eventually she can't even manage the first jump, let alone finally reach the flagpole. By the end of what would probably be a montage of All That she's become a bundle of nerves who's convinced she can't do anything right, especially not achieve her dream of actually being in a game.

Obviously her friends have been worried about her this whole time, Barney especially, so they've come up with a plan to rebuild her confidence and skills.

...Said plan involves Rumble "kidnapping" Barney and luring Elanore into reenacting the original Donkey Kong arcade game.

Because 1) if she wants to be like Mario, why not start where he started, and 2) from what they can tell the root of the problem is that she started overthinking things after that first failed jump, and if she's focused on saving Barney and kicking Rumble's ass she can't be paralyzed by her calculations and insecurities.

This actually works, reigniting her confidence, and after actually taking care of herself and a quick training montage involving levels from other Mario games she's ready to give the obstacle course one last try.

The front door shut with a familiar clumsiness. The chandelier hanging in the foyer chimed ever so slightly with the change in the air.

Elanore held her page with a thumb and picked up the wine glass from the small table beside her seat.

Words slurred into the parlour following the sound of a single boot hitting the stone tiles in the doorway, “Which one of you creatures is up at this hour?”.

The youngest of the troupe, Lidriana, stumbled while still wearing one of her boots. Black splattered across the knuckles of her left hand in the low greenish light.

“Are you okay?” Elanore gently placed the open pages of her book back beside her glass and folded one leg over the other as Lidriana sank into Marion’s high-backed seat. The young lady let out a gurgled sigh.

“I’m. Okay.” She blinked alternately and let out another staggered sigh.

“I should have-”

“‘Should have seen the other guy” Lidriana cut in.

“Mmhm. Let me get a little cloth. Wait there” Elanore unfolded her legs and rose to her feet in a single motion, tendons in her ankles cracking.

“Where am I going to-” Lidriana trailed off.

Elanore returned not long after, lightly dampened cloth in hand and kneeled beside the sleeping Lidriana. Taking her left hand, Elanore gently wiped away the dried blood. The sharp pain woke her up from the hastened drunken sleep.

“Ach”

“You’re okay, it looks like just a little split. What was this one over?” Elanore continued cleaning up her hand and wrist, turning it over in her grip. Wiping down the younger’s fingers one by one. Slowly. Gently. The soothing massage on her sore knuckles put Lidriana back to sleep briefly.

“Lid’?”

A snort back into the waking world. Lirdiana shook her head and blinked hard, “Uh-wha?”

“What was this fight over?”

“It wasn’t no fight. Look-” She brought her right hand to her neckline and plunged her hand into her breast, pulling out a handful of coins and promptly leaning her head back and raising the coins above her face. 

“Wager” Lidriana began to drop the coins and let out a childlike groan as they tumbled directly onto her face, crunching into her nose, eye, forehead, cheeks and lips.

“If i knew you were going to do that I would have just taken them from you” Elanore turned the hand in her own, now just mindlessly massaging Lidriana’s palm.

“Eh-yeah. Didn’t though did’cha.” She smirked. “Won though. We were knocking them back a bit and this bloke gets bored and starts egging the lads on and none of them would bite but he ignored me!” Her eyes wide and glassy.

“Mmh” Elanore shifted her legs so as to sit beside the chair, still holding onto Lidriana’s hand as she regaled her.

“So I says. ‘You got a thing against women or something?” and I throws the-ah- a peanut at him. Big head too. I missed” She paused to scratch her eyebrow, “And he looks about and the lads start saying some things and he says ‘I aint beating up a pretty little lady’ and I says ‘Nobody’s askin you to fight no pretty little ladies’ and I get up from me seat and I dukes it up and do a little stretch” She looked down at Elanore’s eyes, glistening in the low light, “And I says to ‘im, I says, ‘If you can pin me, I’ll pay for everyone’s drinks, if you knock me out, I’ll pay off your evenings tab when I come to.’.. An’ he didn’t even ask what happens if I beat him up. He hears the whole ‘tab’ bit and just starts swingin’ and that”

“Right.”

“And I do a whoosh and a wish” Lidriana shifted suddenly left and right in the seat as she spoke, the moment playing again behind her eyes, “An’ he’s big, right, but he’s a bit slow on account of bein’ a bit drunk as a fart, and i do a dip and i crack him one in the cheek, and i come back the other way and go again but he went to bite me!”

Elanore opened her mouth to speak but was too slow.

“An’ that’s how I did my knuck’s in but I did take one of his teeth out so it’s all fair and good. So There I am doin’ the ol’ one-two step and-” She stopped to take a deep, rough breath and swallowed, “An’ I just. Slap the silly bugger and he hits the deck. Cracked himself on a chair on the way down. Lads all cheer, some buy me a drink, some gave me a bit of of that” she said, pointing to the coins on her lap and the floor, “and that’s it. He woke up a bit before I left and just sat there nursin’ ‘is ‘ead a bit. Then I came home.”

“And then you came home.”

“Threw up on the way though. Don’t tell anyone”

“I won't. At least you’re back in one piece.” Elanore patted her hand before letting go and pulled herself to her feet, scruffing Lidriana’s dirty-blonde hair before heading off toward the kitchen to clean up the cloth.

“What you been doin’?” Lidriana called from her seat.

“A bit of light reading and a glass of red.” The voice called back. A tap squeaked and she returned to the parlour, and her own seat.

“That sounds nice.” Lidriana had become more tired, her voice trailed off again.

Elanore folded one leg over the other and moved to pick up her book again “It is. You should try it.”

“El’.” Lidriana was quiet, it clearly took effort to be heard.

“Mmh?” she replied, a mouth full of wine

“Can I try it?”

“Try what?”

“Nice night in”

“I don’t see why not. What would you like to read?”

Lidriana paused to think. “What are you reading?”

Elanore turned her book over to the cover, turning it in the light, “ Empress Catherine- the younger years of the ill fated final ruler of Bitaea”

Lidriana’s shoulders slumped further into the seat and the skin around her nose crinkled, “Doesn't sound very interesting…”

“It isn’t, to be honest, but it does pass the time. I was about to doze off before you came home”

A lip curled downward and a lonely tear tumbled from between her eyelashes, “Sorry…”

“It’s fine.”

A little while passed. A page turned and Elanore took another sip of wine.

Slowly, sluggishly, Lidriana hauled herself from Marion’s seat and shuffled over to Elanore. Elanore looked up and without a word, Lidriana placed herself onto Elanore’s lap and nestled herself into Elanore’s shoulder. Within seconds she was fast asleep. Deep, heavy breaths aching against a reinforced bodice.

Elanore adjusted her arm around Lidriana, gently caressing her with a thumb as she continued to halfway read the historical book.

“It’s a good thing you’re surprisingly light.”

Feather Fall