>>19994358>>19994359Nikki listens carefully as Elyssa explains more about her soon to be chaperone. It’s possible Elyssa is underselling Valari due to her dislike of the woman, but even if she doesn’t realise it, one detail Elyssa mentioned made it quite clear why Valari was chosen to supervise her. Her ability to see and communicate with Coco.
“Oh Elyssa. Don’t worry yourself about whether she’ll be of any help to me, I’m sure she’ll be valuable in her own way.” For Nikki, talking to Coco always meant being perceived by others as mentally unstable. Her own sister Cassie, even Priscilla, Coco landed Nikki in trouble with both of them. But someone like Valari that could actually see and hear Coco too would surely never look down on her for talking to her.
It’s just as this thought crosses Nikki’s mind that she and Elyssa encounter Valari in the hallway. In her dress and corset, Valari is visibly uncomfortable. Very much a fish out of water. But what a physique. Elyssa did say that she’s immensely strong, and god does it show. And did she curtsy? Heh, she did. Nikki chuckles, no one had ever curtsied to her before.
“Nicole… Nikki… you can call me whichever you prefer, though usually only my friends call me Nicole.” Nikki grins and runs a hand along Valari’s arm, squeezing her bicep slightly. “And as it happens I’ve only got one friend with guns like those, and she’s a blonde.”
But then the way Valari looks at her changes, and Nikki recognises her focus has switched to Coco. She’s never experienced anything like it, someone so casually perceiving that part of herself, and even speaking to it directly. It felt to Nikki almost like Valari was reaching into her, in a way that a near stranger perhaps shouldn’t be allowed to, and yet she felt completely at ease.
