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 Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 10:14 pm
The last thing Pascal remembered was bearing his soul to Zia and then being knocked unconscious. Not by the punch of any sailor senshi that had attacked him but by his ex-girlfriend, ex-booty call, ex-FWB, one Ms. Zia Connolly. He wasn't sure what had been thrown at his head but before he could open his eyes he could still feel the remainder of its strike pounding away at him.
"Annnnnn," he said with a groan, still not fully conscious yet. He seemed to be tossing and turning when he seemed to realize he was in something quite soft, and more importantly, something that smelled distinctly like Zia. Was he in her bed? Could he be? Why would he be in her bed? Was this all just a dream? Had he gotten so drunk last night that once again they had fallen back into the realm of FWB?
His body said no. Not unless they just had one hell of a time.
It was the sound of Zia's crying that drew his eyes slowly open, his head slowly tilting to the side of the pillow so he could look at her.
"Zee...?"
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 7:38 pm
The whole time. The whole time.
Zia had spent most of Pascal's unconsciousness after revealing himself as her Dark Mirror contact pacing and muttering and rubbing her arms and going over everything. Every instance where the creepiness and deception made her skin crawl, every moment where it made her relieved it had been him. Every moment it devastated her it had been him.
Every clue she should've seen.
It was a whole mess of emotional turmoil she couldn't sort out. She was angry, she was sad, she was mournful. At what they lost, at what she lost, but especially as the realization brought with it the gravity that he had lost so much.
So much.
It was hard to reconcile with the rage he had lied to her for so long.
But she had still dragged him up from the floor. She had still patched his wounds as best she could and salved his burns. Regardless of the deception, something she had to admit she was party to too with her own lies, he was still someone she cared about and when he exhibited signs of consciousness she stopped her pacing and on and off crying to run to his side.
"Oh good. God. You're awake," She breathed, stroking his hair, and avoiding the spot where she'd hit him with the bottle earlier.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 5:57 pm
"Did you... hit me with a shampoo bottle?" He said with a bit of a laugh before he winced as everything began to hurt, immediately stopping his action in his tracks. Okay, laughing was a bad idea. He made note of that as he lied in Zia's bed uncomfortably, wanting to shift his weight away from her when she began to stroke his hair. Her reaction was probably a lot tamer than it could have been but he'd already been injured, did she need to make matters worse? It was then that he realized all his wounds had been patched up.
"Did you... knock me out and then patch me up? Oh... Zee," he said, his lips smirking pathetically as he tried really hard not to laugh.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 6:34 pm
Pascal's amusement at the situation had the magical power of turning the soft hair touching to an open palmed slap across his face.
"The whole time?" She practically snarled as she grabbed his scalp and held his head in place as she frowned very, very close to his face.
It was easy, when someone spent a lot of time in close quarters with another someone, to come under the illusion that you knew every corner and crevice and ugly little nick in their lives. She knew his triumphs and his humiliations and the annoying way he liked his pizza. Where he liked to be touched and where the emotionally sensitive buttons where.
When you were that close to someone, any random surprise was not usually taken well, and this was a very big surprise.
While she had been gradually warming up to the idea of Dark Mirror senshi being whole beings and not rotting corpses, there were still certain levels of physical closeness that made her skin crawl, and all at once the level of physical comfort she had with Pascal had gone out the window. The fact she had been in an intimate relationship with him spurred on moments of nausea when she thought too hard.
"Did you seek me out on purpose? Was this entire relationship a trick?" She interrogated with brutal seriousness.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 7:26 pm
The slap across the face stung, and under any other circumstance he probably deserved it, but he had opened himself up emotionally to Zia and when the only pained reaction he could give her was humour and he got slapped for it? Well, Pascal didn't take it that well. The accusations? The plots? It all made his stomach twist. How could she even think that? Why would he bother telling her? He had tried to protect her. He'd given up everything for her!
"You're not making any sense," he said with exasperation and little appreciation for his situation.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 7:34 pm
"Don't ******** with me," She spat in an almost identical fashion to the way she had barked at him in the alleyway. And what followed seemed to evoke memories of that night too. "Did you know? Do you know?"
Paranoia was running rampant. It seemed too perfect that when she withdrew and went into hiding after the Blood Moon Court fall out that someone had integrated themselves into her life like he had.
In a romantic lens it would've been fate, further confirmation that they were soul mates, but under her more practical mind she was on the run from his court as the last bastion of uncorrupted mirror users, the only cat that could convert to one of their kind, and she had just found out that she had one in her bed for the last two years.
All of his hatred could've been a trick too.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 8:16 pm
The familiar way she barked at him brought Pascal back to a time long ago where her paranoia was great and so was the luster of death. He had always tossed aside his identity as Sailor Orpheus but when Zia had come into his life things changed. There was someone more important than his own hatred, someone worth protecting. He had given up a year long magical drought that night when he had seen Zia being attacked by a youma.
He had saved her.
Maybe she didn't need it but he certainly saved her the trouble.
How had she repayed him? Well, it wasn't pleasant. It was that reaction that further brought on the mindset that he couldn't tell Zia the truth. He couldn't tell her who he was, nor had he wanted to. Honestly, he hated himself as much as she did. He couldn't change it, no matter how hard he tried. If he could change it, he would change it in a heartbeat. Now, laying broken and bruised on her bed, he wondered if anything had changed in these past two years.
"Nothing has changed... huh? I thought... I don't know... I," he whined, looking away from her. His voice had cracked but it was uncertain whether he was nearing tears or his injuries were simply getting the better of him as he shifted his weight uncomfortably as she abused him physically and emotionally in her tirade.
"After everything they took from me, after everything that b***h took from me, I thought I'd finally... I thought we had something special, Zee. I wanted to tell you but every night I'd meet you as Orpheus and you would tell me I was soulless and dead. There was so much hate in your eyes when you looked... at me. I... I should have known better... but I just... hoped..."
He found himself rolling over but soon forced himself to stop when he remembered the broken ribs. He wanted to roll into a ball. He wanted this to end. Instead he closed his eyes, and tried to think of the good times but all he could think of was how much he could see the truth. She hated him. She'd never not hate him. He got that. Why did he hate to get yelled at too? She should just throw him out already, and end this heartbreak.
"So I get it. You hate me. You don't have to make it any clearer. You don't have to remind me how worthless my life is. I look at myself as Orpheus everytime I power up and I get it. I am part of the very court I hate so much."
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 8:45 pm
Zia's hand was brought up over her mouth but her fingers were so tensely curled in the motion her nails were piercing the flesh of her palms.
His whine broke her heart, and his words did worse. It did nothing to ease the nausea and the way her skin crawled and her stomach roiled, it only added the veritable assortment of terrible feelings and emotions to the point of physical sickness.
This whole situation was sick.
"Don't... don't make me the villain here, you have no idea..." She managed out, but speaking was difficult. Her lungs were notably low on oxygen for some reason.
Or was she hyperventilating? When did that happen?
At some point during all of this, she found herself awkwardly relieved that his pain was genuine and not further deception, but the gap in awful feelings was suddenly flooded in by new ones for new reasons but all at the same, intense level of rage and grief.
"It's really not a lie...?" She asked, awkwardly hopeful. He didn't know about Zirconia. He had manipulated and lied, but not on the level she thought he did, and it did make it a little easier to swallow.
A little easier, but it still wasn't doable, yet.
"Shut up. I get it, they took s**t from you," She countered. "They take from everyone unless you go drink their stupid cult kool-aid and join the family. They've always taken. They're ******** parasites. But at least you still got to be human."
A direct contradiction of the things she so often said about the Dark Mirror Court. That they weren't alive, they weren't human. Now it just sounded bitter and jealous and she was yelling at him. It wasn't as satisfying as she thought it'd be, in spite of the urges to keep screaming until catharsis set in.
She didn't want to yell at him, she wanted this dilemma to not even exist.
But she was yelling because it was better than crying, and she finally just elaborated the only way she could. She powered up, and suddenly he was faced with a Mauvian, cat ears and dress and all.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 9:03 pm
He wasn't trying to make her the villain but she was so eager to make him the villain. Had she never thought about how hard it would have been for him to tell her? By day she adored him and by night she hated him, despised him. He made her skin crawl, he made her sick and he could understand that. It was also why he had never made the jump to tell her. He didn't want what they had to end. He wanted her to always look at him the same way she always did. He didn't want her to look at him... like that...
"I..." he mumbled, getting more and more confused by the second as she went on her tirade. He should have been happy. At least she was calling him human? It was something she'd never called him before. However, there was something he couldn't quite place his finger on about the tone. He tried to figure it out but thinking becomes increasingly more difficult when being yelled at, and by the time he found a thought to consider he found his jaw stuck open.
Very quickly, and much to his own regret, Pascal jumped up and stumbled backwards. He winced, and withed from the shock before soon he found himself holding his side as he simply stared at her.
"W..." He was speechless, surprised, horrified... and soon angry.
It wasn't immediate but Zirconia had been one of the only guardian cats he had ever met. He met her during his imprisonment at the Surrounding, and he would never forget how her existence had blown his mind. She had been interesting, and he remembered she was also a book thief. He would have laughed about the similarities but his anger boiled up over the most important fact.
"You... you... YOU WERE THERE! At the... at the Surrounding... I met you... you... didn't save us... didn't save... me," he growled out bitterly as he looked away. She was just like everyone else. She... had just turned a blind eye to the whole event, and now this was all his fault?! He picked up the closest thing to him (a pillow) and threw it at her angrily.
"Did you enjoy the books while Ares stole my life from me, or were you standing on the sidelines like everyone else?!" He was yelling very loudly at this point, his breath harsh and uneven as he struggled to get off the bed. It was hard. His body felt like collapsing onto the ground and his emotions felt betrayed. He began to get off the bed, holding his side as he limped over the edge.
He was heading toward the door.
"I can't be here... I can't look at you..."
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 6:16 pm
"Who the ******** am I going to save, Pascal?" Was the venom he got back. The bitterness was out in full force as he stumbled and limped across the large master bedroom.
"You think I have a choice in any of this? I'm a ******** pet," She powered back down to a civilian to cut out the energy beacon, but she she pursued him if only to keep him from killing himself. "I'm not a senshi. I don't get magical attacks, my only power is turning into a small housepet and if you don't sit back down I'm going to drag you, you idiot."
Everything was still up in the air and shifting wildly. She was upset, and that was basically all she could say for certain. She was also sad, angry, relieved, confused, reeling from revelation, all of the above.
"I wasn't even at the Surrounding by your corruption anyway. I stood up to warn them and got chased out as a traitor because I was the only one of us who hated her back then, they didn't believe one of her own would be against her, who didn't join the court," Her voice at least softened. She looked at him and saw a battered figured that could've been her years ago. She saw a lot of herself in him, and it was why in spite of all of her assurances she wasn't attached, she had thrown in her lot with Orpheus and walked with him.
"I think we both know you're too weak to fight me. Sit. Yield."
All at once it dropped and seemed to click into place, and her venom and hatred seemed to be fully replaced in her tone with grief. "We were both stolen in a way no one else is going to understand. We shouldn't hurt each other."
There was pause, and it was fully because of the effort it took to extricate out the next sentence. "I'm so sorry."
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Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 6:27 pm
Pascal winced at her, ignoring her demand that he stop this instant and pushing on through the pain that haunted him.
"Big deal, you're a cat," he threw back, words he would come to take back when his emotions had calmed down. "I don't want to be a senshi, Zee. I'd rather fight by my own means than use this curse given to me. There are worse things you could be than a cat. You could be a terrorist."
He was still yelling at her but when she said she wasn't at the Surrounding there seemed to be a pause. He'd seen her there and just because she hadn't been there for the battle and his corruption, it didn't mean she couldn't have helped. She could have found a way to get him out of there, to stop his imprisonment. It made no sense that they were stuck there. He never believed that everyone could come and go as they pleased except for them. Bullshit lies. All senshi seemed to do was lie.
"You could have helped us escape before then..." he whispered in a tone that was more like a mumble. She probably didn't hear it. He hadn't meant her to but who knew what sort of crazy hearing she had with or without those cat ears. Women always seemed to hear the things you didn't want them to hear, anyway.
"Don't tell me to ******** sit! I'm not a cat, Zee, you are!" He snapped, quickly realizing he'd gone too far.
He stopped, looking away and then at the ground.
"... sorry."
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Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 6:45 pm
Zia wanted to bite him back but she was all out of steam to power her hatred. Her mouth just seemed to settle in a tired line as she dropped the hands reaching out to him and took a step back.
"No. I can't do anything. Except go out there every night and look for something. And that does a hell of a lot of good considering in all these years I only found you and..."
It was probably not the time to bring up mirrorseeds.
She just shook her head and shrugged, suddenly looking the part of staying up all night and more. "Let me help now, then..."
She didn't reach for him, she just reached out and let her hand hang there, hoping he'd come back to her and take it while her other hand gave way to her nervous tic in spite of her calm expression and reached up to trace her BMC brand on her chest. "I don't want to be what I am any more than you do. Why do you think I've been so hellbent on finding a cure?"
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 6:18 pm
She'd only found him.
It was such a small thing but it rung true for him too. His position lingered away from her, his shoulders slouched and his head hung low. In all his years in this meaningless war, he'd only managed to find one person he could relate to. He hadn't meant to find her, not like this, but someone Zia had always been there. He sought to protect her and yet had she ever really needed it? He felt strange, his emotions conflicting with him.
He felt betrayed, deceived and utterly hopeless. If even Zia was stuck in this life, what did it mean for him? If she couldn't escape, how long until he gave up to the shackles that bound him? He looked at his wrists, his eyes seeing the bracers of Orpheus despite not being powered up. He hoped to ignore his existence but even if he didn't power up, he'd never be free.
He turned to her but his eyes did not meet hers. However, his hand met hers as he took it in his. This familiar, warm hand that he had engraved into his memory. Every motion, and every touch burned through him. What was he suppose to do with this? He couldn't simply forgive her and push it aside, could he? He always suspected that she never would and the pounding that continued in his head reminded him of that. Were the memories of the past enough to protect them through this?
One simple need could be seen through the haze of deception. Neither of them wanted the fate that had been dealt to them, clinging to the hope that change could be possible if they simply found the right equation. Without all the data, neither had been successful yet. They had attempted to pool their efforts but even then secrets and deception blinded their way. Could this be the key to finding the solution? Pascal wanted to believe it was, he wanted a reason to linger here in Zia's hand.
"Then help me," he said roughly with a crack in his voice, his hand squeezing hers tightly. She'd saved him once before, could she do it again?
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 6:54 pm
"I don't--..." She cut herself off and squeezed his hand as the whimper escaped, tears welling up as she looked at him, angling her head, searching for his eyes. Searching for anything.
"I don't know how yet."
It was whispered, nearly silent and yet somehow her voice still managed the feat of cracking underneath the heartbreak and shame at the confession. She hadn't found anything. She didn't know who to ask.
She glanced to her nightstand in arms reach of there they were standing and reached over with her free hand that wasn't latched onto him to pull out the ********* could, in a second, summon Iris and ********* here so collaborate, brain trust. Try to figure out a solution to his dead mirrored starseed.
She didn't want mirrorseeds to be dead, not in this moment. Any other day she would've given have the world to have her thesis proven right and just, that they were dead and she wasn't yet. But suddenly that was a theory that sacrificed him.
She hated that a Dark Mirror senshi had managed to root his way into her heart and infect her, and that he was the object of so much affection on her part, but he was, and denying it wasn't making her feel any better. She loved him, and that was all. They weren't together anymore, and they likely would never work as a couple, but love had better definitions than who you were currently sleeping with or who was dating who, something that went beyond romance.
Hell, he was just like her, in a way almost no one else was anymore.
Struggling with his mirror soul and self loathing in a way no one else was going to understand.
She sniffed and her fingers tightened around the *********, weighing her options.
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 9:14 pm
Pascal watched on as Zia seemed speechless, wondering what it was she had in her hands until finally he asked, "What's that?"
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