the lost queen

{ MRS. COSSACK RP; FLASHBACK AND AU-CENTRIC. GROUP EXCLUSIVE.}

[mamacossack-blog]

♥ || Mother and Son ;

[deathofmikhailov]

Same, Mrs. Cossack.

Upon meeting Vladmir Cossack, DCN-032: Skull Man for the first time, one would assume him to be a cold, stone-faced soldier with maybe a slight soft spot. One would probably not expect him to react to his baby sister going to university by sobbing pathetically in his room once they returned from the airport, rocking back and forth with his pillow in his arms.

Heck, even at the airport Vladmir had been having an awful time trying to stay calm. Maybe it was just the profoundly powerful big brother programming Mikhail had given him, but Kalinka’s existence tended to turn the scary, violent combat robot into a big baby.

Once he heard his mother- the one other person whose programming caused him to regard as one of the most important things in the universe- at his door, however, he startled and looked up; luckily for him that he hadn’t any face paint on beforehand, as it would’ve started running quite quickly with his distress. He hastily pushed away the pillow and scrambled off his bed to stand up and make himself vaguely presentable, embarrassed that she’d seen him in a sorry state.

“Er– um. I-I’m not busy,” Vladmir stammered. “Wa-was there something you needed…?”

[mamacossack-blog]

Ohh, poor baby! Isabelle can’t help but chuckle at how startled he’d been by her appearance, and makes her way into the room to join her son. Looks like he’d been taking Kalinka’s departure just as badly as she’d been perviously, given how much of a mess he looked. She reaches up, standing on her tip-toes to try and finger comb Vladmir’s hair.

Yes, she’s definitely going to stick around for a while. Vladmir is one of her younger boys, and given how colourful his past already was, it would be important to make sure he didn’t feel overlooked. With how he spoke and acted sometimes it was as though he didn’t consider himself part of the family...!

And that was just saddening. Brushing a few stray hairs out of Vladmir’s eyes, Isabelle replies, “No, no, there was nothing I needed. I just wanted to come see how you were holding up-- It’s a little hard to believe time’s flown so fast, isn’t it...?"

[mamacossack-blog]

♥ || Slithering Serpent ;

[reptileintheshadows]

Snake wasn’t bothered by Isabelle turning away from him. He waited for her to speak, or to see if she’d have any other reaction.

The DWN blinked once Isabelle had finished. Then he laughed– an equal mixture of amusement and irritation. He found it funny how the human thought that he would do what she said, but at the same time he didn’t like the idea that she, a human, thought that she could order him around.

“I don’t have to do what you say, Mrs. Cossack.” He said, taking Isabelle’s chin in his hand and turning her head to face him again, getting face-to-face with her. “Were it not for Master Wily’s orders that you and your daughter not be harmed, you wouldn’t be nearly so confident in how you speak to me.”

He paused before continuing.

“Tell me…What made you give Master Wily so many chances? Out of curiosity.”

[mamacossack-blog]

That laugh was a bit unsettling, but Isabelle tries not to let it show too much, instead crossing her arms. She’s half tempted to go find Kalinka and join her and her playmate of the moment without another word to this disgusting excuse for a Robot Master attempting to interrogate her about her past. Actually, that sounds nice-- Albert’s other boys were fairly polite, or at least fun to watch play with her daughter... 

Except her attempt to leave is blocked by Snake putting his hands on her. Isabelle tenses, fixing the robot with a glare when she’s facing him once again. She reaches up, attempting to force his hands off of her. How dare he--! Touching someone without their consent...?! Did Snake Man do this to Kalinka, too? Ohhhhh... As soon as she gets away from Snake, she’s having a word with Albert about this robot of his! She doesn’t want him anywhere near Kalinka, especially if he just implied he’d be fine with harming her should he be allowed! 

Or at least, passing a message along through one of his boys, considering they’re rather adamant about her not seeing him.

“You don’t have to listen, no,” She begins, “But then you won’t get what you want. It has nothing to do with that father of yours, and our history is none of your business. Why should I speak about such a personal subject -- a rather touchy one at that -- to someone who can’t even show the barest trace of respect?”

[mamacossack-blog]

♥ || Mother and Son ;

Perhaps it was because her little girl was all grown up (sob!) and on a plane probably now halfway to America for university (double sob!), but Isabelle Cossack really needed to baby someone right now. The plane had departed almost four hours ago, and yet it felt like Kalinka was still here in her room doing last minute packing... 

She’d been getting misty eyed every time she caught herself about to call for her daughter -- her grown up, university age, about to follow in her father’s footstep’s baby girl! -- and stopped in the nick of time. She’d cried at the airport, that was enough! Isabelle Cossack was strong, and she would get through this, and call Kalinka as soon as she was settled, and before she knew it the girl would be home for Christmas, or the rest of the family would be in the states during reading week...

Yes.

...Goodness, she needed to distract herself. But who to lavish attention upon...?

Soon enough Isabelle found herself standing before a door with a skull on it, hesitating for a moment before knocking gently. She then opened the door, peeking in to find Vladimir there-- Just as she’d hoped. 

“Hello, darling,” She said, remaining in the doorway, “Are you busy?”

[mamacossack-blog]

♥ || Slithering Serpent ;

[reptileintheshadows]

“Mrs. Cossack,” Snake repeated, a hint of mockery in his tone. He placed his hands behind his back, studying the human for a minute. Given that it was their first time meeting, he intended to become more familiar with her.

Looking down at Isabelle, he listened to her questions before answering them.

“Yes, she is. Nothing happened, not that I’m aware of; and I came here of my own accord, not because I was asked or ordered to.” He replied, leaning down to get closer to Isabelle’s level.

“My name is Snakeman– DWN-022. I’ve read up on you, Mrs. Cossack. You’ve made me curious; that’s why I’m here.”

[mamacossack-blog]

Isabelle’s frown deepened at the mockery, and she turned her head away. It’s not like she could really fight him or force him to stop that... Staring, but she could at least make it a little more difficult for him.

Well... Kalinka was safe, at least. There was that. While she desperately wanted to believe Albert wouldn’t stoop as low as actually harming Kalinka to get his way with Mikhail, any faith she’d had in her old friend had all but been lost-- Especially if he was so willing to try and reduce a robotic child to scrap metal. His best friend’s child, at that! 

Snake Man, huh? A fitting Robot Master for such a treacherous serpent of a man-- Oh, all their old group must have thought she and Thomas were so foolish to give Albert Wily so many chances; Mikhail certainly hadn’t hesitated to point out why every instance of forgiveness had been a bad idea...

...

If only she’d hardened her heart and listened for once. Ever since they’d met Mikhail had possessed a wonderful intuition, and he was rarely wrong... While their college days were forgiveable, no one having any real idea of what the redhead had been capable of, fighting on Albert’s behalf to get him out of jail time after the EMP wave...!

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

...

But why exactly would this robot be so interested in the hostage wife of his boss’ unwilling subordinate? It didn’t make sense to the blonde, and she’s quiet for a moment.

“I see. Well, I don’t know what sort of information you think you’ll be getting out of me with an attitude like that. I‘d at least hoped Albert programmed his boys with manners, but it seems that you can’t even expect that much from him in the end.” Sassing the much taller robot that could crush her like it was nothing should he want probably wasn’t a good idea, but Isabelle wasn’t in the mood to deal with Snake Man’s antics. “We can try this again a bit more politely, or you can just be on your way-- I don’t associate with rude people who mock their elders.”

...She was older than Snake Man, right? Albert wouldn’t have made one of his boys older than them...?

[mamacossack-blog]

♥ || Slithering Serpent ;

[reptileintheshadows]

Snakeman made it his business to know as much about Isabelle as he could; not only because she was currently being held hostage along with her daughter, but also because he decided it’d do him well to keep tabs on anyone that Dr. Wily knew personally.

After all, it wasn’t like Dr. Wily had many relations with anyone. The DWN’s affinity for sneaking around only aided his desire to know all he could about Isabelle.

Which was why his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he had decided to pay her a visit. He hadn’t met her face to face before, and he was eager to do so.

Naturally, that meant that he would go through the vents. He didn’t have to go through the vents, but admittedly he wanted to sneak around and make one of his more unique entrances. The noise that Isabelle would hear was Snake opening the vent that was positioned on the ceiling, the DWN slipping out of it. He dropped down behind Isabelle, standing close to her before announcing his presence.

“Hello, Isabelle.”

[mamacossack-blog]

From the vents, hmm? How clichéd. Isabelle tensed all the same, however, at the sight of the DWN dropping down from the ceiling. This was one of the robots who’d participated in the last attack, wasn’t it? She’s fairly certain one of them was reptile themed... 

What did he want? Most of Albert’s boys had been fairly good about leaving her in peace; Air Man in particular had apologized for the Cossacks’ situation, and the others had been content to focus their attention on keeping Kalinka as happy as they could.

“Mrs. Cossack,” she corrected the DWN, a little colder than she’d intended, “Please.”

...On second thought, this might be a good thing. Perhaps this robot would be willing to let her talk to his creator for a minute or at least pass a message...? It hadn’t occurred to her before, but now that she realized just how badly Albert Wily deserved a piece of her mind Isabelle really wanted a way to get how furious she was with him across.

Still...

“My daughter’s with your brothers, right?” It would be best to make sure her daughter was safe before dealing with her own agenda, “Did something happen, or is she asking for me...?”

[mamacossack-blog]

♥ || Slithering Serpent ;

Isabelle gave up keeping track of time after the third day. 

What was the point? All it served was as a reminder of how stupid she’d been to trust Albert Wily; How foolish it had been to call him her friend so long ago, even! She’d realized this after he’d tried to take over the world using that-- That peacekeeping robot Thomas had been building, but then the world thought the man had died after his third defeat...

And he’d used that to his advantage to kidnap her, and worse Kalinka, in order to force her husband and their boys into doing his dirty work for him. Just goes to show how grateful he really was for so long ago, huh?

...

At least he wasn’t being overly cruel; Albert might have been lording hers and Kalinka’s lives over their family’s heads, but they were given free range around the fortress they were being held in, and from what she could gather from his boys they weren’t to touch either woman and make sure they were as comfortable as they could be in such a situation. Kalinka had even made friends with some of them! 

Isabelle herself was having a harder time. She didn’t blame Albert’s boys at all, it not being their faults they had to do what they were told, but the sting of a friendship she’d put so much work into with such high hopes going to waste didn’t fade easily. She honestly just wanted to be either with her daughter, or alone.

...

Too bad that didn’t seem to be happening right now, if the sounds of someone appoaching were anything to go by. Strange, though... No one was there when the blonde turned around from where she sat...

“Hello?”

[mamacossack-blog]

♥ || Just Another Night ;

[herrscherwily]

And there was the young Albert Wily, red hair in disarray and glasses buried somewhere among the bedsheets. His face was currently buried in his pillow, cellphone stuck in the drawer next to it and his entire half of the room littered with tissues.

Struck out again- he just had the worst luck with guys, didn’t he? They either already had somebody, or they were straight, or they were homophobic or really any combination of things. Albert had pretended to have been napping off the pain when Tom had left the room; because he knew that his bestie wouldn’t have left if he knew he was awake. Whatever- Thomas could go hang out with his friends for his girlfriend’s birthday, didn’t matter to Al. He wanted to mope on his own, anyway. No need to have him drag down the mood–

Okay, he was a little more bitter than he’d want to let on. Still, he really wasn’t up for anything right now aside from wallowing in heartbreak. The robotics student grumbled as he lifted his head for a moment to rummage through his drawer and pick up his phone. What time was it?

…It was getting late. Ish. Tom would probably still be gone for a while, and he’d have the time to himself. Well, he’d stopped crying for the moment- that was at least a plus?

“Gah!” He was startled by the sudden knock on the door. Wait- he can’t have possibly been back this soon! Then he heard the voice coming from the other side of the door and identified Isabelle’s voice. Wait, what the hell was she doing here? Did Tom forget something-? Wait, maybe not. Thomas Light aside, Isabelle did seem to be the one other person in the universe that ever paid him any mind.

…Uh. “Just– just gimme a minute,” Albert called. He looked around for his glasses, shoving them on his face and grimacing as he noticed smears all over the frames. He grabbed whatever tissues were in plain sight and dumped them in the trash bin, which had already been overflowing with papers; and took another three seconds to wipe his glasses on his shirt before answering the door.

“Hi,” he said. “…Shouldn’t you still be at dinner with the others?” He did notice that Isabelle still had makeup on, but she wasn’t wearing anything fancy. Huh. So it wasn’t that Tom forgot something.

[mamacossack-blog]

...Well, if that shout was any indication at least Albert wasn’t asleep when she showed up. That would’ve been embarrassing... The blond shifted the bag of food into her other arm, smiling when Al told her to hold on a second-- At least it wouldn’t be a fight to get in this time. Maybe things had gone... Less awfully than usual? No clingy jealous girlfriends giving him trouble for daring to ask their boyfriends out would be an improvement, at least.

When Albert finally opened up, Isabelle gave him a sympathetic smile. Geez, the poor guy looked awful. His hair was usually kind of messy, but this was... Wow. And his eyes were so bloodshot and puffy... How long had he been crying? Maybe she should’ve skipped out, too, to comfort him longer... But nah. That wouldn’t have been fair on Noele.

“Hey... I should have called or texted first, sorry...!” She murmured, realizing just a moment too late she’d forgotten to remove her make-up. Oops. Al wouldn’t mind if she borrowed his bathroom fro a minute or two, hopefully! “Nah. I stayed for cake, but I figured you needed me more. You like that place-- I figured there’d be something up if you weren’t there...” 

She held up the bag of snacks, continuing on. “Can I come in? This is really cold; I brought you some ice cream. You like rocky road, right? I’m not just awful at remembering things?”

[mamacossack-blog]

♥ || Just Another Night ;

There had to be a reason he hadn’t shown up to dinner. It wasn’t every day someone had a birthday, and Isabelle had gone out of her way to make sure Albert had been invited. Noele (nor Mikhail, for that matter!) might not have been too upset over the lack of redhead at the restaurant, but the blonde certainly had been. He was a good person! She could tell! He just took... Time to get through to. Tom had managed it, and she thought she was well on her way... But the only way for Pedro, Noele, and Mikhail to do the same was to be in his presence.

...And he was usually pretty good about showing up when he was invited, anyways-- If only when it was a given Thomas would be there. And it wasn’t like Tom would miss out on Noele’s birthday... 

Something had to be up, and she’d taken it upon herself to find out. Isabelle had left early, convincing Tom to stay with the group; If Albert talked, she felt one-on-one would be easier for him anyways. And if she thought what was wrong was actually wrong, then it might be difficult for the poor thing to open up with his best friend present. What was that guy from engineering’s name, again...?

She’d stopped at home first, changing out of the dressier clothes she’d picked out for the restaurant in favour of something more comfortable-- There was going to be a lot of sitting around on Tom’s bed listening to Albert rant or rave or cry about whatever made him miss out on dinner, and as pretty as her dress was it wouldn’t be very good for that. She didn’t want to bring much attention to the fact that the group had gone out without him, too-- It might make Albert feel worse, and that was the last thing Isabelle Beaulieu wanted. 

Before heading out, she made sure to grab a couple of bad sci-fi films and snacks. Making fun of or criticizing all the inaccuracies might make Albert laugh a little, at least, and if they were going to be there for a while it would be nice to have a good supply of junk food lying around.

The next stop before dropping off at the boys’ dorm was to the nearest corner store, in search of a big tub of rocky road ice cream. She didn’t care much for it, but it was Al’s favourite, and Isabelle wanted to make him as happy and comfortable as possible. Once the precious ice cream and a few more snacks were collected, the blonde set out for Al’s dorm.

...Maybe she should have bugged Thomas for his key, in hindsight. Oh, well.

Albert would soon hear a knocking at his door, followed by Isabelle’s voice.

“Albert? Can I come in? It’s Isa...”