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 Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2015 10:19 pm
Backdated to shortly before Christmas
It had been less than 48 hours since Zia made her first appearance in the moonlight of the circus grounds, and she had spent most of it looking for food and passing out. But with the sun rising and consciousness settling in, she managed to find some of her old clothes and pushed the door to Chester's office open for the first time since she'd entered. She had spent most of those hours sleeping, or exploring the confines of Chester's office. But sleep was preferred, because sleep took her away to Tartaros. Sleep was easier.
It was time to go outside, though. She blinked dumbly in the sun for a few short moments before she pulled the oversized sweater she'd found tight around her shoulders.
The carnival staff still felt like it was waking up, but she shuffled along stiffly, seeming to have a vague idea of where she was going.
Structures triggered old visions of having been there before, and so the entire layout was soothing to wander in. She stopped and attempted to rub sleep from her eyes before she glanced around again, spotting a glimpse of blue braids moving between tents.
She moved to catch up, and reached from behind him to catch his sleeve.
"Hi..." She nearly whispered with breathlessness at the sight of someone else who was familiar. "Elijah."
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:44 pm
A tug at the elbow of his black sweatshirt pulled the lanky young man to a halt and he glanced back with surprise. He hadn't been expecting anyone out and about in the Carnival... this time was normally quiet and just staff. Staff would have called for him, though, not appeared out of no where to grab hold.
"Zee?" He said as orange eyes found her, widening in his dark face with a mix of confusion and growing joy. Chester had been moping around horribly since she had disappeared, and even before that, things had been... sketchy. They'd left him out of everything, waiting until everything had completely fallen apart before bothering to inform him of just what the bloody hell was going on right under his nose.
The sight of Zia standing there with her fingers in his sweatshirt, looking lost in her own and still rough from sleep, gave him a painful sort of squeeze in his chest. He couldn't stop the too wide grin that spread over his face and suddenly he was letting out an ecstatic whoop as he threw his long arms around the smaller woman and swept her up into a tight hug, her feet dangling off the ground.
"Zee, where the bloody hell have you been? I didn't know if you were ever coming back and Chester is insufferable without you around." He laughed, his voice ringing out in the stillness of the Carnival.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 11:12 pm
Under more normal circumstances Zia might have kicked and struggled and complained about being manhandled, but in this case, once scooped up, she just went slack until she managed to get her bearings.
Her fingers found the fabric of his sweatshirt again and hung on for dear life.
"Nn... Nowhere good," She exhaled, her voice shaking as if even these small and mundane interactions were overwhelming. "But I came home... so..."
The dregs of sleep lingering in her her temples managed to stress itself into that dull feeling that came before tears, and she clenched her jaw in an effort to suppress what was welling up. "My head's kind of... Messed up." Chester kept saying she was different, and he didn't know why, and she seemed to be bracing for the comment to be lobbied at her as she tried to push words out in stilted speech.
"But I remember you, now. I think. The contortionist. And m-mm... and my friend?" She finished like a question, looking at him with unease while she waited for him to confirm or deny with cautious hope in her eyes.
She forced out a weak chuckle that didn't sound entirely sincere, and she brushed her fingers on the back of her ears like she was checking to make sure they were still human looking as she glanced at the ground. "It's just a glamour. If you thought I was a youma before, it's worse."
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Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 4:06 pm
The tall man set her down on her feet again at the shake in her voice, giving her an awkward sort of smile as he patted her shoulders with his long-fingered hands. That wasn't the usual sort of reaction he got from her, but if she'd just come back from some sort of traumatizing experience, well... he'd already sort of shot himself in the foot grabbing her up like that.
"Um, yeah, Zia... I'm your friend. Or I like to hope I am, anyway. I mean, I've always thought about you as like one of my big sisters, but I guess you could have thought I was just some incorrigible annoyance for all I really know." He rambled as he smoothed her sweatshirt over her shoulders and then spread his hands wide, wiggling the fingers playfully. "Did you forget all of that, cat-girl? I guess its not a big deal if you did, I just always thought I was sort of... unforgettable."
Stepping back, he called his mask into his hand and it appeared in all its silver gilt glory, dangling ribbons and all. A flourish of the 'weapon' and his clothes changed, melting from street clothes to high gothic fashion, flavored with harlequin accents. Bells began to ring as soon as they appeared and he swept her and long, elegant bow with one arm over his middle.
"In case you have forgotten, lovely lady, my name is Ys, Page of Saturn. Also Elijah King, contortionist currently employed by the Carnival of Fate." He flashed her his biggest grin as he straightened and spread his arms.
"I am ever at your service, because if I wasn't, you'd probably tattle to Luxor on me and then I'd have to do it anyway." His voice was teasing and he winked at her, banishing his mask with another flourish of his hand. "You have a glamour now? You look normal to me. Same old Zee."
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 8:46 am
"No..." Was the meek whisper he got in response to his conclusion she could have thought of him as an annoyance. "I would... I mean, I'd like that. To still be friends. If you still wanted."
She fidgeted nervously with her fingers in front of him until he transformed, and she managed to turn her eyes up at him with awe. "Ys. I remember." Her index was lost in the technology she had logged it in, but in the recesses of her mind, it was there, every knight identity she had investigated and the few the guardian cat had 'claimed' as favorites. "Ys is mine," She concluded.
She went back to fidgeting before she tugged at the sweater she was wearing. "The brand is gone," She murmured, referring to the burn scar that she used to sport just below her collarbone that marked her as one of Ares' in the defunct Blood Moon Court.
Her hands went up again to check her ears, a constant habit now, as the glamour still didn't feel entirely natural in spite of its necessity.
She dropped it, revealing the pointed ears and teeth, the eyes that tensed to cat like slits when necessary. "Zirconia unbound is not a true Mauvian, it is doubtful she ever was, beyond a witch imprisoned in a weaker body. I confronted the priestess of the dream world Tartaros to remove the seals, and take her home, and instead everything collapsed. I think... for a moment I was dead. And I didn't come back the same," She said, brushing fingers along her earlobes again.
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 2:46 pm
There was something very strange about all of this and about the way Zia was acting. She was never this nervous and awkward around him... It felt weird.
His eyebrows lifted and bells rang with his shifting of weight as she named his hers. That was... new, but a hopeful thing. It boded well for the friendship he had assumed they had and it made him feel rather good, actually. Her, Luxor and Megiddo... they meant a lot to him, even if it seemed that half the time they wanted to beat him black and blue.
The tall man watched her appearance change and while there was something subtly... different about her, it wasn't that much of a change.
"Hey, look at that." He said with a grin as he reached to tweak her ear, his brown fingers brushing hers. "At least you don't have a tail, huh? You actually look more normal than you did before... you know, when you weren't being a human. I kinda like it... your ears are cute."
Bringing his hands back, he braced them behind his hips as he looked her over, his gentle rocking on his heels making his bells ring.
"I'm glad you came back, you know." He said after a long moment, his smile crooked and wide.
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 9:21 pm
At first her eyes went a bit wide as she glanced up at him, but the stare was followed by a wide smile.
Repeated commentary on her differences earlier had given way to anxieties about rejection and being burdensome. But Elijah's easy acceptance removed the weight. She had appeared at the carnival for a reason. It was home, and Elijah and Chester were both part of what made it home.
"Thanks..." She said, reaching up to touch them again. It was a habit, and both forms still felt weird. The aura was massive, though, which prompted the glamour's return in an effort to tamp down the giant power signature. "It's still... not... human, though. I was hoping to con the priestess into taking Zirconia back to her home universe. Instead I just made it permanent. I mean I wanted--... nevermind."
She reached up to brush her fingers against his uniform and smiled again. "My head is still kind of uh... kind of jumbled? But I'm glad I came back too. Where else would I go? This is home."
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 9:16 pm
The young man grilled as he reached up to pat Zia's hand on his vest with long fingers.
"Well, if its permanent, you'll just have to make the best of it, huh? No where to go, but upwards, right? And you've got some glamour going on, so you can hide it if you want to." He shrugged flippantly as he released his power, the comfortable sweatshirt and jeans returning. Reaching up, he tugged his hat down a little more to warm the spaces between his cornrows.
"You'll figure it all out, Zee. You've got time now, don't you? Not like any of us are going anywhere. Not unless Chester gets a wild hare and decides to up and sell the carnival, which I don't see happening any time soon. I guess he could finally fire he like he likes to threaten, but then I'd sit out on the sidewalk and do tricks for change in a hat until he got aggravated enough to let me back in." Eli grinned as he said it, bouncing on his feet as he pantomimed clowning for her entertainment, his face pulled into comical expressions. "Plus, how many of his employees are knights who can keep down the youma infestation, huh? I'm at least good at dusting the pesky bugs."
It was about the only thing he was good at as a knight, really... the few times he'd been called away by the code had not exactly been wildly successful ventures. He tried really hard to forget how the damn thing seemed to have the power and will to drag him willy nilly across the universe whenever it pleased, to places where people really died. That was not what he had signed up for.
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Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:27 am
Not quite getting the hypothetical at first, Zia's eyes went wide. "He can't sell the carnival!" It was, after all, the constant that had let to her resurrection back into this universe anyway. The mounting panic that the notion hit her with caught her off guard.
"I mean, I don't think he would do any of that," She said with a bit less volume, wringing her hands close to her chest.
But after some thought, she looked up and nodded with a content smile on her face. This was home, this was safe. Ys and Luxor made it that way. That's why it was so hard to leave
"Th-thanks... Eli."
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 5:43 pm
Elijah laughed, the sound coming from deep in his chest as he snagged his arm around Zia's neck and tugged her after him, gentle despite the rough way it looked.
"Naw, I'm just joshing. That man will grow old and decrepit running this place, you just watch." He grinned widely as he directed them both towards the entrance of the carnival, his gate shortened to match hers.
"You're welcome, Zee... no problem. C'mon... I'll buy you some coffee, huh? I think we could both use it."Carneli fin here or your next post?
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:58 pm
Zia seemed to sink in relaxation and an easy grin formed on her face. At least until she noticed they had reached the entrance, where she froze and grabbed his arm, hoping to stop him too.
"There's coffee in Chester's office," She said, rooted in place. At least until she turned to briskly walk towards it whether Elijah was coming or not. She wasn't ready to leave the grounds yet.
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