Princess

[This post is for continuations, off-community threads, and texting!

If you try to call Kohime, you'll just get a message indicating that voicemail has not been activated for this user. Looks like she's never set up a mailbox. Texting works, though, even though she's terrible with it and slow to respond!]

[As of Day 334, the background of her phone has been changed to:]

( season 4, episode 10 )

[This memory is odd -- it slips through time, it feels a little disjointed, like Kohime herself wasn't really having the greatest of success in anchoring herself to reality.

She's in a control room, numerous monitors and control panels lit as she flips through different surveillance scenes of the various Horde occupied territories every few seconds until she stops on a shot of the Whispering Woods. She says Scorpia's name with (let's be real here, slightly unhinged) intensity and zooms the shot in -- apparently she was seeing things, though, as there's nothing there.

At about that point a squadron returns. She goes to meet them and asks if they saw anyone -- then corrects herself, anything, and when Lonnie tells her 'no' she orders them back out even though they're returning from a double shift.

Then she's back at it again in front of the monitors, flipping through every few seconds -- it feels like it could've been a few minutes, maybe hours, maybe days? She certainly hasn't been sleeping, and you can add auditory hallucinations to her list of problems now as she hears Scorpia laugh and reacts, getting up to greet her -- only no one is there! She roughly scrubs her face, telling herself to get it together.

She watches one of the squadrons come in, and Lonnie is among them (so some time must have passed?) and she goes to drag her into the control room, confronting her and demanding to know if they were talking about her and laughing at her. Lonnie tells her everything will be fine if she just lets the troops rest, and she responds that "Everything isn't fine! Scorpia would be here if everything was fine!" and breathing harshly. She turns on Lonnie, who looks a little alarmed (which is probably fair, with how erratic she's behaving) and she laughs caustically, telling her to "Just leave, like everybody else."

When Lonnie bolts, she grabs a tracker pad and tries to call Double Trouble, who doesn't respond to her calls. Tearing up, she grips the pad hard enough it shatters and throws it to the ground before collapsing.

At some point, she's tearing the room apart in a rage, shattering monitors and throwing equipment.

At some point, she's due a check-in with Hordak. She reports to him with an eerily placid tone and smile as she reviews the current status of the Horde occupied lands and that "everything is under control", but after he signs off, she slips off her mask and collapses on the ground amid the wreckage she's made of the room and breaks down, sobbing.]

((Note: This memory is from Season 5 and can be viewed here.))

[There’s a whole group (Adora, Shadow Weaver, Glimmer, Bow, a cat-like creature, and a woman Kohime doesn’t recognize). They’re moving through some sort of underground stone chamber — Adora steps ahead of everyone else and right onto a glowing sigil on the floor. Shadow Weaver tries to warn her to wait, but it’s too late, and there’s a sudden violent rush of flame, engulfing Adora entirely.]

Catra: “Adora!”

[Catra leaps into the flames, dragging Adora out and landing on top of her, both unhurt.]

Adora: "I’m okay! I’m okay."

[Adora smiles down at her hesitantly, relieved, though that quickly fades when Adora gives her a smug, knowing look.]

Adora: "Did you just jump into fire for me?"

Catra: "What?! N-no! Shut up!"

[Catra shoves her hand right in Adora’s face, pushing herself up, and Adora breaks into a fit of giggles ending in a gigglesnort, telling her that she did. Catra slips off of her, though she stays kneeling by Adora’s side.]

[The sparkly Princess, Glimmer, steps forward and puts her hand into the wall of fire, and remains unscathed.]

Glimmer: "It’s… an illusion."

Shadow Weaver: "Some fire is illusory and some is real. Everyone be careful."

[Shadow Weaver gestures everyone else to go ahead, and they walk into the fire illusion, Adora guiding Catra and then going in last.]

[Note: This memory can be viewed in this clip. Clip is from Season 5.]

Adora: [Adora is pacing before a makeshift war table, a map with markers spread before her. Four other Princesses (Netossa, Perfuma, Frosta, and Glimmer) as well as Bow are gathered around it, with Catra and Entrapta off in the background. The only name Kohime actually knows other than Adora's is Entrapta's, though.] “Mermista, Spinnerella, and Scorpia are wreaking havoc across Etheria. If we wanna stop Horde Prime, we have to neutralize them, and figure out how to free them from their chips.”

Netossa: [She slams a book down, startling Adora, and is very intense.] “Leave this to me! I’ve been keeping track of every Princess’s weakness. AND I’ve discerned the best tactical strategy to overpower every one of them. Spinny’s weakness is obvious.”

Adora: “Uh-huh, uh-huh. REAL obvious. And, um, ahem, what is it exactly?”

Netossa: [She sighs.] “Everyone knows she twisted her ankle when she was a kid. If you keep her off-balance, her injury will act up on her. Next time we fight, I’ll target it, subdue her and un-chip her and save her and remind her of it every time she tells me it’s my turn to clean!” [This rant comes with illustrations, for some reason. Actually, all of her explanations do.]

Bow: [At this point, he breaks in, putting a hand on Netossa shoulder to interrupt.] “Riiiiight. But could we circle back to your not-at-all-weird-and-very-detailed theories on our weaknesses?”

Glimmer: “Yeah, not all of us will be as easy as a twisted ankle.”

Netossa: [She gives a slightly unhinged laugh.] “Ooooh, you don’t believe me. That’s–– that’s fine. I’ll just demonstrate. Entrapta’s weakness: tech.” [She picks up a piece of machinery and throws it across the room, Entrapta immediately dashing after it.]

“Mermista’s: fire. Frosta’s: also fire.”

[She strolls over to Adora next.] “Adora can’t act to save her life. Also, extreme hair envy with She-ra.” [As she moves on, Adora awkwardly rubs at her hair poof with a frown. Netossa then crosses to Glimmer.]

“Glimmer: Crippling self-doubt mixed with overwhelming hubris.”

Glimmer: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s, like, really personal compared to fire.” [She throws her hands up, offended.]

Perfuma: “Oh, oh, do me. Do me next.” [Perfuma is pretty much jumping up and down, excited.]

Netossa: “Perfuma? Fire. And an inability to unleash your full power due to your overwhelming fear of hurting the people you care about.”

Perfuma: “Some might say that’s actually a positive quality.” [She responds with a smile, which quickly turns to a frown at Netossa’s blunt ‘it’s not’ response.]

Netossa: “Bow’s weakness…” [She lifts his bow and cuts the string, crushing his soul with a devastated gasp.]

Bow: [He drops to the ground, clutching the bow.] “You’ve spent a long time thinking about this, huh?”

Netossa: [She calmly uses her magic to create a new string for him.] “Contingency plans are how you win, and I always win.”

[It’s about this point that Catra, hanging out in the background with a magical purple and blue alien cat thing, speaks up.]

Catra: “Okay, we get it. Princesses are easy to take down. You and your files don’t have anything on real threats, like me.”

[Netossa calmly pulls out a spray bottle and starts squirting Catra, who shrieks and panics, trying to get away –– until Netossa traps her in one of her nets.]

I've been here well over a year now so here's a pop quiz meme! Ask me anything about my characters (past, present, or future) or relationship status/CR status or how amzingly excited I am for She-Ra's final season releasing tomorrow.

Anything goes!!

[Date: February 21, 7:00pm EST
Participants: D.Va, Ruby, Allen, Intensity, Kaguya(?)
Channel: kohime-heart]

[Date: February 15 at 6pm EST.
Participants: Amaranth, Nemesis, Wildfire, Emet-Selch, Shrike, Absinthe, Sekhmet
Channel: kohime-heart]

[This memory opens to a chaotic scene. There's a small village under attack, its buildings really just huts and hovels made from clay and wood from the surrounding area. The locals are humanoid deer, dressed in simple linens and flowers, and they run in a panic fleeing from the Horde army descending on them armed with tanks, armour, and rifles. It's not even remotely close to a fair fight, these people are unarmed and were in the middle of some sort of festival. Their village is in ruins now, crushed and on fire, and Adora marches out into the middle of it to stand in the way of one of the tanks, demanding they stop.

It does –– and then Kohime, of all people, comes out, calling to Adora and happy to see her. She scampers on all fours along the barrel of the tank to pounce on Adora, knocking her to the ground.]

Catra: They let me drive a tank, can you believe it?!

Adora: Catra, I don't––I don't understand, what are you doing here?

Catra: Uh, duh, we came to find you! "Cover for me Catra, no one will even know I'm gone!" [She quotes in a mocking voice, making a face, before returning to her normal tone.] Seriously, did you just immediately get captured right after you snuck out, or. . . what are you wearing?

[She draws attention to the flower that Adora has in her hair, which Adora hastily knocks off, crushing it in the process. ]

Adora: Look, there's no time, we have to put a stop to this!

Catra: What? Why?

Adora: Because this is a civilian town! Look around, these aren't insurgents, they're innocent people!

Catra: Yeah, sure, innocent people who kidnapped a Horde officer. Now come on, let's get you back to the Fright Zone. Shadow Weaver is freaking out. [Kohime takes Adora by the hand to lead her toward the tank, breaking into a laugh at this point -- only to drop into a flatter tone right after.] It'd be funny if she weren't such a terrible person.

[At this point Adora pulls away from Kohime, refusing to leave until the Horde stops attacking Thaymor.]

Catra: What are you saying?

Adora: I'm saying this is wrong! They've been lying to us, manipulating us, Hordak, Shadow Weaver, all of them!

Catra: ...Duh! Did you just figure that out?! Manipulation is Shadow Weaver's whole thing! She's been messing with our heads since we were kids.

Adora: How could you possibly be okay with that?

Catra: Because, it doesn't matter what they do. The two of us look out for each other, and soon we'll be the ones calling the shots. Now come on, can we go home already?

[At this point Kohime is imploring, smiling encouragingly at Adora, and fully expecting she'll come along with her. An explosion and screams interrupt them, and Adora's expression hardens into anger and determination.]

Adora: I'm not going home, Catra. I can't. Not after everything I've seen. Come with me! You don't have to go back there, we can fix this!

Catra: Are you kidding? You've known these people for what, a couple of hours? And now you're gonna throw everything away for them?

[But Adora still refuses. She says she has to do something, that she's sorry, and she turns her back on Kohime. And Kohime's expression just shifts. On its face, it looks so simple: Adora has seen the evil of the Horde and makes the righteous choice to leave them, and Kohime does not. But there's layers to this, there's resentment and codependency and a girl who built her survival strategy on a promise made by two little girls that they'd always have each other and nothing else mattered if they had that, and Adora is just. Fucking. Leaving her, because of some perfect strangers.

So! She pulls out a nice little taser baton and jams it right in Adora's back, knocking her to the ground. Adora is coming back whether she wants to or not! Though Kohime immediately apologizes, explaining she didn't think it would be so strong, only to give Adora another shock when she moves to get up, calling it a "reflex". She tells Adora she's doing this because Adora left her, and if she doesn't bring Adora back, Shadow Weaver will have her head for it.

That's about when Bow and Glimmer intervene, Glimmer firing her sparkle magic at Kohime to chase her off while Bow shoots a trick arrow that traps her in a net. Hissing and spitting, she goes down, only to break free moments later when Glimmer teleports Adora away, leaving Kohime to fight with Bow.

The end of the memory is just as chaotic as it started. Just when it looks like the Horde has the upper hand, a new princess emerges -- 8 feet tall and hella built, glowing faintly with residual magic in a new white skirted jumper and red cape complete with a tiara, and she just trashes the Horde with only a sword and ridiculous super strength. When she's defeated all the soldiers, tanks, and spider bots, someone calls a retreat and the new princess collapses, transforming back into Adora of all people. All while Kohime watches, stunned, and when Adora calls out to her faintly she takes one step back, then two, then flees into the smoke and dust with the rest of the Horde.]

cw: abuse

[This one's another Fright Zone memory. Kohime approaches some kids her age who are going through training exercises against some spider-looking robots. Or, trying to, anyway, as a gangly blond boy is completely failing at it. There's a strong-looking girl with her hair in cornrows who is griping about where "Catra" is, and when she notices Kohime she starts to chew her out (as that's exactly who "Catra" happens to be). Kohime taps on a shiny new badge pinned to her chest with a claw, grinning smugly, and calls the girl "Sweet, dumb Lonnie" who responds with disbelief that they made Catra, of all people, a Force Captain.

Kohime of course launches straight into gloating about her new promotion, until an ominous sorceress literally materializes out of the shadows, catching her off guard. She refers to this woman as Shadow Weaver and gives a quick nervous salute (combined with a nervous kitty prrrrt), meekly following when Shadow Weaver just gestures her to.

They go to the locker room area, empty except for them, and Kohime asks Shadow Weaver what she'd like, briefly getting excited as she wonders if it's an assignment for her first mission as Force Captain. Shadow Weaver interrupts her, however.]

Shadow Weaver: You will explain how you lost Force Captain Adora.

Catra: Uuuugggh! [She scrubs her hands down her face, and smacks a locker behind her with a fist.] I've told you everything I know about Adora!

Shadow Weaver: I know you're lying, you have to be lying. What happened to Adora? What did you do? [Shadow Weaver, at this point, looms, confrontational and menacing.]

Catra: ––What did I do?! She left us! She left me! You ever think Adora's not as loyal as you thought?!

[At this point, Shadow Weaver looms even larger, a gem on her mask glowing as she gathers power, the shadows gathering around her as she closes in on Kohime and backs her right up against the lockers, raising her arms. It's obvious she doesn't mean to do something nice! And Kohime herself is visibly afraid of the sorceress.

Shadow Weaver: I will learn the truth, Catra, even if I have to drag it from you––

[Whatever she was going to say she doesn't finish, as the glowing red stone in the forehead of her mask flares and she cries out in pain, the shadows receding as she clutches at her face and hunches over. Kohime looks. . . concerned? Despite what just occurred? And approaches the sorceress as if to check on her, but Shadow Weaver just strikes her, telling her to get out of the way as she leaves the locker room. Kohime, at least, doesn't seem injured, just staring after Shadow Weaver as she goes.]