braavado | IC CONTACT (FOR HAVEN)

Oh, Matryoshka dolls! I have seen those before, although not these ones, and none so...

[ what is the polite word ]

...Unique?

Creepy, more like. I have no idea what they’re for, but I found them in the library, around the same place we found the box last time.

So I took them. In case they’re useful for something.

[ ............um. Sonia wonders if that could be what happens to people who open the box, very briefly, before shaking herself and moving on. ]

...Maybe so. Anyway, I...wanted to talk to you about...my past.

[Will they ever find out what the box does?? Stay tuned to find out...]

Your past? [Korra straightens.] You mean...about Junko, and what happened in your world.

[ Sonia mayyyy have an idea but it mayyy or may not suck her into a hell portal if she ever figures out the opening part...she is debating how fast people would take it away if they heard this haha...

But that is not the current topic she wanted to talk about! She will take a seat, though not on the same couch as Korra. She isn't sure how close Korra will or won't want her when she's finished speaking. ]

...Yes. I...hm. You have heard pieces and parts of it, so it is hard to know where to start, but - I shall just start, shall I? And if you have questions, you may ask them.

[ If she doesn't force herself through this, she won't be able to say she's moving forward. She can't just let Hinata and Komaeda tell everyone; it...feels like taking an easy way out, and Sonia never wants to pretend her past did not occur. That would be too much like going back to it. ]

I told you about Hope's Peak, I think. And how you become a student there. You must be a high school student - that is, ah, a level of education...teenagers, mostly - and you must be the top of your field in something. You can be recruited from anywhere in the world because that title means you are the best there is, anywhere in the world. For my part, I was extended an invitation as the Super High School Level Princess.

I had always loved Japan. The country where Hope's Peak is. It seemed a dream to go there. And to have peers, classmates, outside of my own country...I had never had close friends, you see, for even when there were those close my age, they were people from my own homeland, and the weight of the crown always hung between us. So, I was...glad, that I would get to go and meet people.

I do not know how it went. My last memories of that world are of stepping up to Hope's Peak's doors, and then...the island. You see...there are years missing from my memory. I do not know how many. Several, at least. All the years I attended that school. I do not know precisely what occurred. I have to assume that everything did not go as I hoped, that I was...isolated somehow. You know what happened on the island, somewhat - I told you of the game, the mutual killing game, no?

[ But this isn't the part she needs to get to. She's just setting up.

...Sonia isn't sure how to do this, for all that she is usually so good at speaking. She just plunges in, therefore, her hands clasped tightly in front of her so she doesn't fidget. ]

Those games, set up by Enoshima Junko. Super High School Level Despair. I also...I also told you once that her followers had the same title, and that they helped her tear our world down. That they fell to Despair. They killed countless innocents, all for the sake of Despair, and made that world into something...something I find it hard even now to imagine, though I know it to be true. I did not tell you the names of those people. I do not suppose I know all the names, but...I do know several. My own name appears among them, as do those of all of my classmates save one.

What I became that day when I attacked you was not simply "Enoshima Junko", and it was not...simply my worst fear. That is a woman I once was, even if those memories are locked to me at the moment.

[ Even now, she's trying to keep the story simple, when it's anything but, to communicate the part that matters most. ]

[So basically they are never opening that box unless they’re using it to trap Kite in the hell portal, right??]

Sonia…

[The first part of her friend’s explanation sounds like she’d expected. Sonia, being lonely under the weight of the crown, wanting to make friends because she’s never had any real ones—all of this she knows already. They’d become friends because it’s a trait that they both share.

And then, the shock, the disbelief starts seeping in. Killed countless innocents, helped tear her world down…it all sounds so. Impossible. Korra stares at Sonia, wondering for a brief second if she’s heard wrong, but…she knows she hasn’t. The look on Sonia’s face says it all. It’s all true.]

I can’t believe it… then Hinata and Komaeda, too?

[Suddenly Komaeda’s words to her down in the tunnels make so much more sense.

”Even... even some good people made terrible mistakes in joining her.”

“Maybe it can still be put back together. With people like the Future Foundation... and with people willing to move forward despite a difficult past like Hinata-kun and Sonia-san... I think there's a lot of hope for it.”

Korra reaches across the distance and puts her hand on top of Sonia’s.]

Even good people can make mistakes. [Korra repeats Komaeda’s words, then adds her own: ] Junko changed you into something you’re not. The Sonia I got to know so far—that’s the real Sonia, not who Junko’s despair made you into.

Everyone in my class, save Nanami-san.

[ For reasons that aren't really Sonia's to share, although she doubts Nanami would mind anyone knowing about her true nature should she ever return.

The reaction, Korra reaching out, is enough to ease the tension in Sonia's posture. Mistakes - well, they've made those in spades. There's nowhere to go but up, at this point, and all of them had decided that together. ]

...I thought you must know, and more than that, I did not wish to hide it. If I ever am changed like that again - [ And she can't say she won't be thanks Kite ] - you must be properly warned. And if Hinata-san or Komaeda-san are ever experimented on to push them back there, also - none of us wants to become those people ever again, even if none of us but Hinata-san properly remember it. But in this place, I cannot say "it won't happen"; that man might make such things happen again.

[ ... ]

And...I simply wanted to tell you. [ She trusts you. ]

[She gets the message. It must have cost Sonia a lot to admit all of this, knowing some people might not react well to it, despite everything.

But she'd trusted Korra enough to try, and that touches her in a way that Korra can't describe.]

Thank you.

[She breathes in quietly.]

Whatever happened to you and Hinata and Komaeda before, that won't change what I think of you guys here and now.

[ And that is, honestly, a relief. This hasn't changed things. ]

...I feel it is I who should be thanking you.

[There doesn’t seem to be any thing else Korra can say to that, so she’ll just hug Sonia and let her actions speak for her instead.

This doesn’t change anything at all. Still besties!]

[ Sonia will hug Korra bag. Still besties, yes.

You are the best friend a girl could ask for, Korra. ]

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