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 Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:23 pm
Zia rolled over with a light groan when a soft knock echoed through the empty loft. If she was more awake maybe logic would've told her it wasn't the UPS or pizza man at this hour and she just rolled over and tried to get back from being half asleep to fully asleep.
But then there were more knocks, a little louder. Annoying. She just sandwiched her head between pillows until they turned into very insistent pounding and her frustration bubbled up until she snapped into a fully awake sitting position with, "What the hell?!"
With lightening speed and obviously not giving any more ******** than usual about her massive pillow of curls and ratty pajamas, she swung the door open with angry force, ready to claw out the eyes of whatever drunken idiot was at her doorstep this late.
Except it was Christopher ******** Gallo. She ended up softly trying to catch her breath and looked cartoonishly confused while both hands gripped the door frame and door edge.
Until finally she just kind of said "What?" It wasn't a what-do-you-want so much as a ********. Until it hit her and she glared off at the floor just to his right. "Michael," She growled, silently swearing vengeance against the traitor.
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:08 pm
Had he been in a better mood by this point, he would have said something on the lines of 'it's Chris, not Michael', but his sense of humor had seemed to have left him for the time being. Blood was pounding in his head as his temper flared, especially upon hearing Zia's greeting.
Chris had tried being polite and gently knock on her door so as not to disturb anyone else, clearly expecting her to answer. After a few minutes, and building thoughts around how Zia had been avoiding him and pushing him away, his patience seemed to have cracked.
"We need to talk," he said in a low voice, his anger almost morphing the words into a growl. He took only a few moments to glance around her to make sure she was alone, and when she seemed to be, he reached out to push at her shoulder, steering her back into the loft and shutting the door behind him.
A voice in the back of his head was telling him to be more gentle with her, but he also knew the longer he stalled, the longer she had to get away from him, distract him, or even shut the door in his face. After hearing what his brother had told him of their meeting, he wanted to corner Zee in a place without an opportunity for her to escape, without semi-acquaintances in their fancy cars, and without mirrors.
"I pledge my life and loyalty to Jupiter, and to Valhalla," he said out loud, his voice clear and determined, just moments after taking hold of her wrist and powering up. "I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine."
He'd never tried to show up specifically in a certain place before, at least not in the past few times he'd gone to his Wonder. He doubted he had much control over it, but as he felt them both being tugged away from Earth, he couldn't help but request them ending up somewhere secure and safe.
Where they'd ended up was not a room he'd been in before. Lightning flashed through large, thick bricks of a substance similar to glass that formed columns, twelve inches in thickness, every five or so feet along a single wall of the room. The room itself seemed to be some kind of meeting room with a large, thick wooden table in the center, and two dozen matching chairs of various disrepair scattered about, as though their last occupants had disbanded in a hurry.
The ceiling was nearly two stories high and hanging over the center of the table was a chandelier similar to the ones he'd seen in the gigantic entry hall on a previous visit... just obviously smaller. They didn't seem to have any kind of candles to light, but instead it was lined with what looked like clear stones of different sizes and shapes.
As the light of a voilent storm outside filled the room, it was easier to make out the large tapestries of various harvest scenes and elegant knotwork patterns that covered the thick stone walls that muffled the tremendous cracks of thunder. Thick, worn carpet covered the stone floor, and at one end of the room stood a large door, dwarfing the smaller doors on the opposite end. Perhaps a servant's door? Or a more private rooms?
Regardless of the number of doors in the room (four of which he could see — the large one, one smaller opposite, and two across the wall of warped glass), he knew none of them would open without his permission, and maybe even required his touch.
And while there were vases and end tables and decorations that still survived, he was pleased to see the lack of mirrors.
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:26 pm
Zia allowed herself to be pushed back but the motion ignited a far more bloodthirsty rage to take the place of the frazzled annoyance of being woken up.
And when he started his little chant or whatever her shoulders dropped and her eyes rolled in a massive, "Oh fu--"
"--ck." They were in space. They were in goddamned space. Maybe if she wasn't increasingly becoming murderous at the very short series of events she would've felt liberate to finally be off that stupid little rock called Earth, something she'd yearned for in a quietly creeping stir crazy with all the memories she had in her head of galaxy traveling, but now wasn't the time for glee.
Now was obviously the time for punching the boy next door.
Her hands had been balled into fists since he first pushed her shoulder, and she liberally took a swing at him. Zia had taken great care to avoid being cornered these last several months and it was like in a week she had been in corners with youma, corrupted senshi, and childhood friends she thought she had done a better job of shaking loose, and the only reaction she could think of besides running was a right hook, apparently.
"Are you out of your mind?!" She shrieked, only to be partially drowned out by a thunder clap. "Is this Jupiter? Are we on Jupiter? Some people have work in the morning, you know. This is kidnapping. Are you out of your mind?" Yes she started and ended her impossibly fast paced babble with the same question.
After some teeth gnashing and pacing like a caged animal, she calmed down... about a fraction, and turned to glare at him again. "Talk about what?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:00 pm
Valhalla didn't try to dodge the punch, taking it in the lower part of his jaw. He was taller than her, after all, especially when she wasn't in heels. Retaliation had been expected after all, and as she yelled and began to pace, he lifted a hand to make sure his lip wasn't bleeding. Had he moved, she may have hit his helmet or other pieces of armor. It was better that she got a clear shot, without risk of causing her even more harm than what would probably be a sore fist.
And no offense to Zee, but he'd taken harder hits before...
"About why you've been avoiding me," he glared in return, completely ignoring her question about their location. Naturally they were on Jupiter. It was the only place he could think of to corner her without her finding an excuse to escape.
"What's going on with you, Zee??" he continued, concern ebbing into his anger and frustration at her. "You're changing and I know it's her fault, but don't push me away... please," he added in a somewhat desperate manner as he took a few steps towards her, as if to follow her in her pacing.
Lightning flashed again and he frowned, not liking the inconsistency. It must have been night, because although the storms raged on during the day, he was always so surprised by the amount of light that came through the thick clouds. He supposed that was why the plant life seemed to be so lush outside the fortress.
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:21 pm
"How do you know I'm not 'her'?" Zia asked, stopping her frantic passing around and giving Chris a half cruel smile.
"Ares killed Fallon, you know. I'm pretty sure. It wouldn't take much to lobotomize little Zia into staying out of my way." Yes it was a threat, it was also a fake one, but Zia had also become extremely excellent at playing the personality shift when she was sick of playing the intimidated victim but didn't want to take the consequences for her violent and frankly, borderline sociopathic way of handling problems she didn't want to work out. She'd done it to Chris before, she figured she could do it again.
Having another personality to blame it on was like a get out of jail free card, no wonder so many people mysteriously developed them before being tried for murder or something.
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:35 pm
"Don't ******** with me," he spat, his eyes flashing dangerously. If he felt Zirconia was threatening Zia in front of him, he wouldn't hesitate in hitting her. If Zirconia really was taking over his best friend's body, he was going to make sure he avenged her.
"I'm not in the mood for your games, Zee," he shot back, unsure on whether he was calling her bluff or if it really was a lost cause and he was just making a fool of himself. "I'm not taking you back until you talk to me and tell me what the hell is going on. And if Zia no longer exists... I'll feel no remorse in leaving you here."
If she could threaten, then he could threaten as well. If Zia really had been lobotomized... he didn't know what he'd do, but his flaring temper made him feel like it was a perfectly justified idea to just... leave Zirconia there to rot. Good riddance.
"Michael told me he ran into you. Said you were shouting to yourself and started talking about killing Ares and wasting away... being tortured?? What was he talking about, Zee!"
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 10:15 pm
"Aw damn," Zia suddenly cut the ready for war act and flippantly waved her hand like she'd just lost the argument over which pizza to buy. "You're pissed, dude," She commented and dug around in the yoga shorts she decided were pajamas earlier that night because she was too tired to change, trying to find out if she had a stray cigarette left in a pocket somewhere, somehow.
Because yoga and smoking were totally not contradictory activities to do together.
But she wasn't going to keep it up when he had way more energy to fight the good fight than she had to rebuff him with bullshit. She found a wrinkled, sad cigarette that had slipped out of the pack currently an eternity away on her dresser with an 'Ah ha!' and flopped in a chair that looked mildly sturdy, putting her bare feet up on the massive table.
"Michael needs to get his a** kicked," She muttered, chewing on the end and glancing to him with an unnervingly casual demeanor beyond the still visible annoyance at being awake. "I guess you're the wrong person to ask for a light?" She joked bitterly.
"I'm not planning on killing Ares, the b***h has like, claws and s**t. I just said I think about it sometimes, yanno, just one quick little knife jab in the middle of her smug face with... oh, s**t," Zia had taken to carrying a fairly sharp, but small knife while in her own territory of day to day life, but it was also in her dresser. Rage makes you forget about the proper tools needed to face the day, apparently.
"Okay, look, Zirconia's locked up in a mental kitty crate and she has been for a while, you're just really willing to believe any bitchy behavior is her gig and I'm like, hiding in the corner or something. And I was, I was, don't get me wrong, but then I got sick of her constantly ******** s**t up and when going to Mirrorspace to try to talk s**t out with Ares went bad, I figured, hey, why bother having nice things when she's just going to break them? Eh? So anyway, you had to go. Noah had to go. Dog had to go. Start fresh, stop caring." She stuck the end of the cigarette in her mouth and lightly chewed on the filter, frustrated with it's inability to spontaneously light up. "And look, we talked!" She gushed sarcastically, even clapping. "So. What's it going to take to hitch a ride back to earth, kiddo?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 7:36 am
Valhalla bristled angrily as she waved him off and pulled out a cigarette. "You smoke?!" he growled in disgust, his nose wrinkling as if he could smell the stench, even unlit. What the hell had he missed in all those months they'd been apart? During the time she'd been avoiding him, possessed primarily by that damn guardian cat from another dimension, or even going about things of her own accord. What had happened to her to turn her into such a pathetic state?
"You'd be correct," he hissed, standing his ground as she suggested asking for a light, not moving save for balling his hands into fists as if that would control some of his anger. It didn't help. If anything it made him more ready to try and punch something, although he remained standing away from Zia to keep himself from being tempted. He'd never hit her, of course... but if he got one whiff of Zirconia...
The knight deflated slightly upon hearing about her 'starting fresh' and to 'stop caring'. "You got rid of Harley...? But... why? You love him," he said sadly, although he could hardly imagine that he was in the same league as her mutt. It must have been more difficult for her to part ways with Harley than her childhood friend. For someone who thought himself better than other on a moral standpoint, Zia must know by now that his opinion of himself varied greatly, and was often lower than it probably should be... But with the way she'd been treating him recently (or not treating him, as she avoided him), what else was he supposed to believe?
Naturally, the anger that had turned into nothing but steam suddenly flared back up upon hearing the nickname, "Kiddo?" he bristled again, moving over to slam a fist down onto the wooden table.
"That wasn't talking, Zia," he shot through gritted teeth. "You keep brushing me off like it doesn't matter, and get that thing out of your mouth, and don't you dare throw it on the ground. This is my home and no one is going to ******** it up with throwing s**t everywhere!"
The strangest sensation had crossed over him as he shouted at her, almost as if the anger had stemmed from some other cause and the energy was feeding into him. There was a slight hesitation in his yelling as he looked up and around the room, a particularly close crack of lightning and thunder causing the floor to vibrate and the pieces of decoration around the room twinkled as they were rocked on their bases. The feeling that they were not alone had passed, though... as quickly as his anger had subsided slightly.
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:37 am
"Yeah," Zia snorted out a flippant laugh. "Sometimes I even eat pizza and wear jeans." She said like these were terrible, shocking things. Bringing up Harley managed to kill the 'to upbeat to give a damn' thing she had going, but only way she changed was the way she went stone faced for a moment and broke eye contact with a shrug.
Harley had been her baby, and sometimes if she thought about his big stupid face waiting for her months after she left him with her clearly not a dog person brother, tears would threaten to well up. "Whatever, man," She muttered, to tired of herself and him to argue about who was right about what.
His rage was an unsettling contrast to how relaxed she seemed about everything, and she watched him with a negative facial expression that seemed more appropriately paired with 'really? That shirt with those shoes? Ooookay.' Than a heated fight.
"Well I don't see what more there is to talk about," Zia insisted with a shrug of the shoulders and kept playing with the cigarette with a total 'You're not the boss of me' attitude. No one was the boss of her, dammit.
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 1:31 pm
"Eating pizza and wearing jeans isn't going to put yourself and others at health risks," he snapped, seriously not in the mood for these kinds of games. What she did with her life was her business, but he sincerely hoped that she realized there were people who happened to give a s**t about what happened to her.
"Why do you feel the need to avoid me?" he said lowly, moving to sit in one of the chairs close to where she was and placed an arm on the table. "I want to be your friend, still," he continued in earnest, his anger melting to something closer to desperation. She couldn't just pretend as though he didn't exist. "I haven't spoken to you in months. Not anything more than the few times we'd crossed paths... and part of that wasn't even you. It was her," he bit back a snarl, the corner of his lip turning into that of a sneer at the thought of Zirconia.
"You're not alone, you know. You don't have to be alone. As much as you want to push me away, I'm going to keep pushing back," he promised, looking her over and frowning. He hadn't really thought of waiting for her to grab a coat or anything... just... grabbed her arm and took her there. While it wasn't freezing in the room, it was still a bit chilly, and Valhalla stood momentarily to work on unclasping the cape from around his shoulders. He made sure the filigree with the symbol of Jupiter wouldn't stab her before passing it for her to use, glancing away a bit guiltily.
"What have you been up to...? Michael says you're working, but... you don't seem too happy," he said, shifting his feet along the worn carpet as he sat back in the chair. "Every time I see you out... uh... as a cat, it's like... a relief to know you're still alive... I mean, I don't know if you've been getting my texts or messages... but... You know I care about you, Zee..."
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 2:34 pm
"Oh my goooood," Zia groaned, sounding exasperated and throwing her head back to stare at the high ceiling and then back at him with a snarky, "You aren't my dad." And also, "It's not like I'm blowing smoke in my roommate's face, kay, and our loft smells fabulous." Two clean freaks and a bottle of Airwick did wonders for a place.
His question managed to make her give him a pitiful pout that was bordering on sarcastic, but was one of those things that was walking a thin line. She did snatch away the cape and pull her legs under it like a blanket. Places were much colder in t-shirts, workout shorts, and bare feet than they were for the fully goddamned powered and clothed.
"I don't want to avoid you, I wanted to push you out of the way of this nuclear blast of self destruction," She joked, but it was entirely true, in a way. "But I care about you too, I guess," And when she realized how insincere that sounded a hand appeared from under her makeshift blanket and was held up in a 'shush' gesture. "Don't start, I'm working on it, kay. I come from a long line of repressed Irish maniacs, I'm not used to Doctor Phil'ing it up with seriousness." Really, emotional outbursts were Zirconia's thing. Zia got pretty weepy on their last encounter too, but it was much easier to get weepy over utter bullshit at playing victim to get someone to get off your case.
"I guess I just don't see things ending well, and it's like... it's just better if I'm not pulling people into the crossfire. Nehelenia did that, and look how friggin' awesome that went. Not that I have the capabilities as Moon b***h Number 1, but I've seen my own potential at turning everything I get my fingerprints on into death," She had to shrug at the end of all that as if to assure herself we weren't crossing into cheese territory. She paused, glancing to the right like she had the habit of doing when talking to Zirconia. "Really? Nothing?" The last time she took a shot at Helen, Zirconia lost it completely. Now there was just that irritating silence.
"Also I totally dumped that phone, dude," She informed him and then stopped for a minute, stopping a huge laugh before it made it all the way out. "Oh god, I hope no one new has that number yet." After some thought she actually found herself concerned he might take her dumping her phone along with the rest of her identity as another way to lose him. "I didn't do that to get away from you, though. I did that when I started fighting with daddy." She pursed her lips in thought about that little war she ignited in her own family. "Robert Connolly really pulls out all the stops when he's pissed I guess," She laughed. Though in all seriousness, it was a huge step away from the established norm. Robert had a nasty reputation for being vengeful and vicious, and Zia had a reputation for never being on the wrong end of that temper.
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:05 pm
Valhalla still highly disapproved of anything to do with smoking, but other than another wrinkle of his nose, he made no more comments. At least not for now.
Instead, he frowned sadly at her as she tried to explain her absence in his life. They had once been such close friends, but this damn war... and that damn body possessing cat ruined things. Had he been a knight and she just another normal civilian, everything would have been okay... But because of Zirconia's nature, things were much more complicated.
He didn't like her joking about dying. It made him flinch slightly when she did. Self destructing, being killed, having her body taken over entirely... It didn't help that she was being so nonchalant about everything, whether she was faking it or not.
"You could have asked me for help," he suggested, although things are always easier in retrospect. He'd deflated slightly upon realizing that he'd been leaving desperate messages and texts to no one... or someone he didn't even know. As angry as he could get with her flippant attitude, he couldn't remain angry for long. She was his best friend, or had been...
"If your dad has a problem with something you've done... why didn't you talk to me about it? I could have helped... Mom would have been happy to help. You don't have to do this all alone," he reiterated, wanting to make sure she knew that.
"I miss you... I don't like feeling like we're strangers. Uh... I'm in a relationship... have been for about a year and a half... I've wanted to tell you but... I only see you in passing these days," he said cautiously, knowing how fond Zia had been over Skye. "It's pretty serious," he added, shifting nervously in his chair.
And that was when the strangest thing seemed to happen. Zia stood from her chair, only... it wasn't Zia. It was a young woman with the same color hair and uncanny likeness to his best friend. Valhalla's eyes widened in surprise as the young woman moved away from the table, a scroll of something clutched in his hand, and a frown on her face as she seemed to try and peer out of the thick glass at the distorted shapes of the top of the forest several stories below.
Valhalla stood suddenly from his own chair, nearly knocking it over as the man he knew was his past self appeared as well, taking something from the table to throw angrily across the room, gaining a reproachful glance from his purple haired companion. Serge appeared to be in his mid-twenties, with long dark hair pulled back into his typical pony tail in the middle of the back of his head, and neatly trimmed facial hair that sometimes gave him the appearance of being older than he really was. The young woman was a bit younger, maybe in her teens still — Valhalla couldn't tell. All he knew was that the memory had disappeared almost as suddenly as it had come.
He had no idea about the details of their meeting, but... one thing was for certain...
"You're a knight, Zee..."
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:28 pm
Zia shrugged, but she knew she couldn't. She had gotten all of her feuding technique from her father and where Zia could be subtle and sneaky and manipulative, he was so much better at it. Their family problems were twisted and complicated and Zia was in a deep pit of denial about half of them. Though in a way they had a comforting aspect, in that they were something from before Zirconia, and would probably always be consistent. Mostly. Her dad turning on her definitely wasn't expected, but she was also sure it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed with some manipulated apologies.
And she definitely didn't want Mrs. Gallo knowing about it. She'd probably die of shame and embarrassment, for some reason she couldn't quite grasp.
She watched him shift around like he had some groundbreaking, terrible confession, and only admitted to being in a relationship. Zia was conveniently forgetting kicking Skye into a lake, but even if she didn't, she'd argue Skye was a special case. All the same, her once-upon-a-time interest in scoping out everyone Chris touched seemed to be forgotten entirely.
"...Okay? I mean, I figured you'd move on with your life without me, dude. Good for you!" She tried to sound chipper about it to avoid sounding flippant. She figured she owed him for as much as she was purposely prodding his temper tonight.
And then he got weird. "...Whatcha doin'?" She asked in a singsong voice, watching Valhalla stand up straight as a ruler with an awkward amount of urgency. Her own mind instantly assumed they were about to be electrocuted by the raging storm.
And then he went and said the worst joke ever.
Zia tried to keep a straight face for half a second, and then a fit of laughter broke through in such force she fell out of her chair.
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:48 pm
"Stop calling me 'dude'," he snapped, bristling irritably. He wanted to see more of the vision, to confirm what he'd just witnessed. Valhalla knew his past self, sure... but there was no mistaking it. The young woman had to be Zia's past life.
Of course, she didn't seem too keen on believing him.
"I'm serious!" he snapped, standing almost rigidly as if that would help the memory return. What had she been holding? And why was Serge in such a foul mood? Maybe that was why he was so angry before... Had he been channeling his past self's energy? Was that even possible? And the woman who looked like a younger Zia... she'd been sitting in the exact same chair at one point, hundreds of years ago...
"I didn't want to move on without you," he slipped back to the previous topic as she had her fit, his temper flaring at her manic disbelief and flippant attitude respectfully. "It's not my fault you've been pushing me away, for whatever reason. You've met him. Last year at the summer camp. Paris... blond, dresses like a girl. It's complicated but I'm happy, and will you please stop rolling around, do you have any idea how much mold and dust you're getting all over yourself??" he snapped once more, abandoning his search for the vision as he noticed the small cloud she had disturbed from the ground.
"Just now... I saw a memory... I saw you... Well, not you, but she looked just like you. It had to be your past life, too... Which means... you're a knight, Zee," he rambled, clearly more hopeful than he'd been in a long time. Maybe if she was awakened into her knight self, she would be able to push Zirconia out and live a somewhat normal life again...
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:02 pm
"Phhhhhblt," Zia tried to hold it in when her laughter just made him mad, but she ended up breathing in a mouthful of dust and sputtering out a combination of laughter and choking all at once. Clearly she was too amused to be disgusted.
"I don't think so," She said, eventually pulling herself together enough to stand up and brush her self off and pick up his poor cape that had been kicked to the ground when she fell.
"I mean, don't get me wrong. I would love a power upgrade. I have a few things to pay Ares back for." She wasn't talking about the emotional betrayal Zirconia had sustained by Ares' corruption; Zia hadn't approved of Ares since the Blood Moon Court got off the ground, as evidenced by her gesture when she mentioned payback. She tugged down the neckline on her t-shirt to display the scar from being branded as Ares' pet, resting just below her collarbone and an embarrassing mark Pascal had left the other night she hadn't noticed yet. Or didn't register it. She wasn't a teenager, she didn't care about hickeys any more, damn.
"But... I mean, d-- Chris, I don't think it works that way. And if it did, I think the universe has no idea I exist." If she understood Helen's explanation when she first got her starseed implant, she had no idea how she'd awaken into anything ,and that was even assuming Chris wasn't straight up hallucinating wishful thinking into a perceived memory.
She paused and processed a small piece of information before her relaxed demeanor regarding Paris vanished. "Wait, that was before we stopped speaking. Were you keeping secrets from me?" Suddenly she had gotten petty and accusing.
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