Zia wondered as she sat on the table surface of her staked out space, holding a snowy white bat in her cupped hands. She kept her human glamour up, not wanting company tonight. Only the one she’d called.
The visage of glowing, healed starseeds freed of the strange creature that had been surrounding it, acting as its shield and substance had been bothering her since that night with Chariklo and Hvergelmir when she managed to completely remove it. Those starseeds could be re-entered into their rebirth cycle. But what if they didn’t have to die first? What if.
The night of April first, Zia woke up in a cold sweat after already spending the early evening tossing and turning. She had been obsessing about it, and the drunken encounter with Pascal, for days. Dodge whined at being disturbed, but the 80 pound rottweiler seemed content with a few pats on his side. But unable to contain what felt like the urgings of a fever dream, she defied common sense and picked up the phone. She left a message asking him to meet her on neutral ground, but after their last meeting went-- Coupled with the intense and toxic nature of their relationship-- She wasn’t sure she had any right to expect him to show up.
Zircon in his glamoured form as a small bat seemed to be echoing her concerns. He complained of the cold, she reminded him it was spring. He complained of the timing, she reminded him of their more nocturnal hours.
And they whispered and murmured and chattered together, waiting, and hoping for the man of the hour to arrive.
Appeal
Should he go?
Pascal had asked himself that very question over and over. his hands shaking as he held his phone between them as he paced back and forth along the street. Despite this question haunting his thoughts, he had already left his apartment and was making his way toward her. Commitment didn’t mean a world without question and that left Pascal in a weird state of back and forth without a comfort to fall back on in his sober state. He hadn’t had a drink since that night, and the effects it was having on him wasn’t something he wanted to admit.
A familiar path surrounded Pascal, and with it a dread formed inside of him. What was going to happen? Their last night together had left him with so many questions, and maybe a bit more hope than what was healthy for him. It didn’t hold well with him, and he found his hand slipping his phone back into his pocket a
nd his arms crossing around his body as he shifted uncomfortably. Despite that, he kept walking. The pacing changed though, shifting from casual to more urgent strides until eventually he began seeing a familiar perched on the top of a picnic table.
Seeing her here, he knew he wanted a drink more than ever..
“I’m not even going to ask,” he declared, his eyes focusing on the bat that was with her.
Pascal had asked himself that very question over and over. his hands shaking as he held his phone between them as he paced back and forth along the street. Despite this question haunting his thoughts, he had already left his apartment and was making his way toward her. Commitment didn’t mean a world without question and that left Pascal in a weird state of back and forth without a comfort to fall back on in his sober state. He hadn’t had a drink since that night, and the effects it was having on him wasn’t something he wanted to admit.
A familiar path surrounded Pascal, and with it a dread formed inside of him. What was going to happen? Their last night together had left him with so many questions, and maybe a bit more hope than what was healthy for him. It didn’t hold well with him, and he found his hand slipping his phone back into his pocket a
nd his arms crossing around his body as he shifted uncomfortably. Despite that, he kept walking. The pacing changed though, shifting from casual to more urgent strides until eventually he began seeing a familiar perched on the top of a picnic table.
Seeing her here, he knew he wanted a drink more than ever..
“I’m not even going to ask,” he declared, his eyes focusing on the bat that was with her.
“Well,” Zia said, as the round and winged thing rolled over in her hands and made a strange whine, “He’s kind of important..”
The bat took flight, and Zia climbed off the table. “His name is Zircon, and he eats sickness.” The claim was followed by an alien sounding warble as it hovered around the air. “Pascal?”
She grabbed the ends of her sweater she was stubbornly still wearing even though springtime temperatures had started creeping into the city. “If… Do you think… What if you could just start over?”
For being an answer to a question they had both been searching for all this time, it seemed stupidly hard to broach all of the sudden. “You never had any loyalty to any of them. You’d leave it all behind tonight if you could, right?”
Appeal
“Where was he when I got the flu?” Pascal joked, falling back on his usual habits. It was much easier to simply jump around the real subject than to consider the truth of the matter. Would he want to start over? Cameron Reid died a long time ago, and it had taken him a long time to find a place in this world as Pascal Lalande. He had accepted his fate, and drowned that reality away with alcohol.
This had never been what he wanted.
He didn’t want to be Sailor Orpheus, Dark Mirror a*****e. He didn’t want to be Pascal Lalande, the dropout college student drowning his life away one bottle after another.
“It’s not like I can change it. We tried so hard, Zee. It’s fine if only you manage a happily ever after.”
He lied. He lied through his teeth. He smiled. He smiled like he hadn’t smiled in what seemed like forever.
“Everything is all right.”
This had never been what he wanted.
He didn’t want to be Sailor Orpheus, Dark Mirror a*****e. He didn’t want to be Pascal Lalande, the dropout college student drowning his life away one bottle after another.
“It’s not like I can change it. We tried so hard, Zee. It’s fine if only you manage a happily ever after.”
He lied. He lied through his teeth. He smiled. He smiled like he hadn’t smiled in what seemed like forever.
“Everything is all right.”
“Is that what I managed?” She muttered before she could stop herself, sounding hoarse and bitter through her teeth. The last months had been confusing moments of darkness and fear trying to thread together what pieces she recognized of herself in an ocean of memories and nightmares.
She was learning to dominate the ugliness in her usurped kingdom, but it was a difficult process that felt like it was draining her soul while she grew increasingly distant from everyone around her.
“Nothing is alright,” She said, feeling her voice grow unsteady. So far operation hold-your-s**t-together was failing miserably. And she had briefly lost focus on what she came here to find out.
She dropped her glamour, and summoned the torch staff in a sudden burst of fire and magical aura that lit up the park. Simultaneously the bat’s glamour was removed, and his form was replaced with a winged eye that sounded out a freed screech and came to rest in the flames.
“He doesn’t eat just any sickness. I think he can devour yours. The one infecting your soul. I’m not sure… if… I mean, we’re both at the end of the road, Pascal. And I know I don’t have any right to ask, but would you be willing to risk it all tonight just to see?”
She did her best to stand firm, authoritative, but her hands twisted on the bone of her staff. “I’ve never cured a living soul but I have saved several dead ones, to give them a chance at the next life. I think I can save you, though. Just without needing you to die first.”
Appeal
Pascal didn’t know what to say. He simply watched Zia in silence as she settled uneasily in her words to him. Amber eyes followed her motions but nothing could prepare him for the moment she dropped her glamour. It might have been something he had seen before but it had been sudden and there was a ******** GIANT EYEBALL flying around. Nothing could prepare him for that. Nothing. His body fell back as a sound he didn’t want to vocalize slipped out of his throat as his arms braced his fall.
“WHAT THE ******** IS THAT?” He found himself yelling, his body gasping for air as panic began to settle into him.
Ares. Ares. Ares. Ares. Ares. It wasn’t fair but that’s all he found think about in that second. He couldn’t think straight as his mind fell to chaos for a moment.
“It… it…” He muttered, his eyes on Zircon widely.
It wasn’t the eye that was the biggest surprise. It was the connection it brought back to Ares to him. However, it was that same through that flowed through his mind when she asked him those questions. Had he been living a life since that day Ares had stolen everything from him? He lost his life that day. He was an empty shell living, or at least he was. Now he simply felt like an empty shell as the effects of what she had done to him finally tore the last of the pieces off of him.
He wasn’t Cameron Reid anymore. He wasn’t even who he wanted Pascal Lalande to be anymore.
“I’d die for even a chance to escape her curse.”
After all, what did he have left to lose now?
Nothing.
Except those bottles of alcohol under the cabinet.
“WHAT THE ******** IS THAT?” He found himself yelling, his body gasping for air as panic began to settle into him.
Ares. Ares. Ares. Ares. Ares. It wasn’t fair but that’s all he found think about in that second. He couldn’t think straight as his mind fell to chaos for a moment.
“It… it…” He muttered, his eyes on Zircon widely.
It wasn’t the eye that was the biggest surprise. It was the connection it brought back to Ares to him. However, it was that same through that flowed through his mind when she asked him those questions. Had he been living a life since that day Ares had stolen everything from him? He lost his life that day. He was an empty shell living, or at least he was. Now he simply felt like an empty shell as the effects of what she had done to him finally tore the last of the pieces off of him.
He wasn’t Cameron Reid anymore. He wasn’t even who he wanted Pascal Lalande to be anymore.
“I’d die for even a chance to escape her curse.”
After all, what did he have left to lose now?
Nothing.
Except those bottles of alcohol under the cabinet.
Zirconia did her best to hold strong and firm in her stance, keeping the torch steady as its flame contained Zircon, who let out a horrific screech at the reaction to him.
Gibberish and warbling emitted from the thing as it stared at the boy on the ground. Some disturbed, old tongue language only Zirconia could comprehend.
I don’t understand why this subject is so important. I feel like our first test subject should be more disposable. This is a poor idea, Lady.
Zirconia’s face seemed stone, save for some brief hints of grief. Even as Zircon turned to direct his increasingly annoyed and frantic noises at her, as if impatient for attention.
I highly recommend you consider failure to be an option.
She sharply inhaled and exhaled. There was a brief consideration for what failure would entail. His death, possibly, or simply putting him through the pain of a partial removal and dashed hopes when his hopes were already so fragile. Both of them were hanging by a thread, she realized. She had just done a better job of hiding it, carefully placing friendships around her hollow existence, searching for meaning in relationships to other people that were more devastating the more she found them wanting. Her roommate of one year hadn’t even informed their mutual acquaintances of her untimely demise. He went to a party.
There had never been more fire and purpose in her life than when she was searching for a way to break the barrier around Orpheus to her.
Her jaw was set, her teeth were grit. This could be both of their chances to renew themselves to what had become a bitter existence. Or it could be his death, followed by hers only because she wouldn’t be able to live with herself.
She held out one hand to him, ignoring the tears forming in the corner of her grim expression. “Let me heal you, then, Sailor Orpheus.”
Appeal
The familiar amber eyes of Pascal Lalade looked into the eyes of Zia, and soon those familiar eyes changed as the form of Pascal Lalande was replaced by Sailor Orpheus. It was strange how the same eyes could have been looking at her for years and she had never even noticed. The same pain had been staring at her and she had never put the dots together. The man she had become so close with had always been beside her but his path seemed further and further away from her the closer they got.
His hand look hers, and he could see the tears forming. He knew, and he could feel his heart beating in his throat. For years now he had felt dead but actually dying? Being a step away from possible death? His free hand moved to caress her cheek reassuringly. He’d never leave her. He didn’t want to make her cry anymore.
“You healed me a long time ago at a bus stop in the summer.”
His hand look hers, and he could see the tears forming. He knew, and he could feel his heart beating in his throat. For years now he had felt dead but actually dying? Being a step away from possible death? His free hand moved to caress her cheek reassuringly. He’d never leave her. He didn’t want to make her cry anymore.
“You healed me a long time ago at a bus stop in the summer.”
As badly as she wanted to stand firm and appear in control, the feeling of his hand on her cheek allowed a slight quiver to break through her otherwise sturdy and tense jaw. Her stomach knotted, but she couldn’t focus on that. One hand planted the staff end to the ground, the other pressed against his chest, just over his heart where she knew his mirror encased starseed rested.
The rest of her, unable to stand upright any longer, allowed herself to press close and bury her face into the curve of his neck and shoulder. Everything was so familiar, and reminiscent of something sweet but long buried, and long forgotten. She could remember.
The wavelength was almost too easy to tune into. She could feel the life that had hidden in his chest, camouflaging as a piece of him. Her magic could communicate with it, and sooth it into heeding her demands.
It is time for you to leave, little one, you are no longer welcome here.
It wasn’t like any purification Zia had ever witnessed. There was no struggle or pain. It was nothing but warmth and ease as the infection gathered itself, hypnotized and beckoned to obey. Light burst as what seemed to be a liquid piece of mirror was extracted from his chest, and into her hand. Chaos and dark aura radiated from it.
But it no longer radiated from Sailor Orpheus.
Appeal
It was like a moment in time that had been long forgotten. The two of them frozen in a moment that would never exist again. Her hand on his chest, he could feel his heart beat wildly. It had been a long time since they shared a moment like this, long before their drunken hookups and constant fights. If this was his last breathing moment, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. If this was his last breathing moment, he’d die with the regret of knowing how much he’d hurt his best friend.
He’d die without ever telling her he was sorry for being an a*****e. He’d die, and he was sorry for that, too.
Maybe it was his lucky night, or maybe The World had other ways to torture him yet. Either way, death didn’t come for Sailor Orpheus tonight. Under the glamour of Zirconia’s soft touch, a piece of Sailor Orpheus changed. The part of him that was connected to the Dark Mirror Court was drawn out of him and the true vessel was all that remained behind. For once in his life, the true Sailor Orpheus stood in front of Zirconia as his amber eyes looked at her with a foreign tenderness.
“I feel different,” he whispered. Was he dying?
He’d die without ever telling her he was sorry for being an a*****e. He’d die, and he was sorry for that, too.
Maybe it was his lucky night, or maybe The World had other ways to torture him yet. Either way, death didn’t come for Sailor Orpheus tonight. Under the glamour of Zirconia’s soft touch, a piece of Sailor Orpheus changed. The part of him that was connected to the Dark Mirror Court was drawn out of him and the true vessel was all that remained behind. For once in his life, the true Sailor Orpheus stood in front of Zirconia as his amber eyes looked at her with a foreign tenderness.
“I feel different,” he whispered. Was he dying?
No answer came. Zirconia had gone slack against him and the hand holding the mirror infection dropped limply.
For a brief moment, the glob seemed to float there, until the winged eye swooped down from the flames and devoured it before it could reclaim its host.
Zircon’s speed increased as he zoomed around and then thought to reclaim his aura, as Zirconia retook her human disguise. Her eyes were closed, though, and he aura had been absent moments before her transformation, because she had no aura when unconscious and sleeping in Tartaros.
The bat hissed and intentionally seemed to place his round body under one of her limp hands.
“Dead Moon Witch must rest. One full cycle of the moon to heal her damaged soul. The process is too much,” The bat seemed to suddenly be capable of articulating English, having just consumed the raw energy of a mirrorspace node.
Beady, red little eyes skimmed the newly minted white moon senshi up and down, as if scrutinizing the risk and reward, but all he said was just a final, “Lady must rest.”
Appeal
Dead weight. That’s exactly what Zirconia, and then suddenly Zia had become. He’d been quick. Quick enough to notice the change in her motion and catch her before she fell onto the ground. He whispered to her with concern, adjusting his weight. Slowly he began to notice the change. His clothes were white, and most crucially the shackles of his imprisonment to the Dark Mirror Court were gone. He found himself staring at his arms and the lilac hair that tangled around it.
“Zee?” He whispered. “Zee, it worked!”
The tone of his voice. Everything he’d ever hoped for suddenly seemed possible again.
For a second, his dream had come true. However, it seemed that The World still had tortures lined up for him yet. His excitement dropped as the bat began to fly around. Even more so when it began to talk, and then his smile completely disappeared when it said damaged soul. Once again, he seemed to only hinder her. How much damage did he do to her simply by being here? How much did he hurt her? Was there really no way for them to even be more than simply poison to each other? He found his hand brushing strands of her lilac hair over her shoulder as he simply nodded as he powered down into what was no longer Pascal Lalande.
It would have been nice if he knew that. It would save him a lot of trouble later. For now though, he simply lifted Zia into his arms and began to walk back to his place. Would she heal? It wasn’t suppose to be this way. He was suppose to be the one to get hurt, not her. If he’d have known… if he knew this would happen… would he have still done it? Would she have still done it? He pondered as he looked at the bat that was locked by Zia’s side.
“I’ll keep her safe.”
He smiled a little as he looked at his wrists. It sure was nice to be free.
“Zee?” He whispered. “Zee, it worked!”
The tone of his voice. Everything he’d ever hoped for suddenly seemed possible again.
For a second, his dream had come true. However, it seemed that The World still had tortures lined up for him yet. His excitement dropped as the bat began to fly around. Even more so when it began to talk, and then his smile completely disappeared when it said damaged soul. Once again, he seemed to only hinder her. How much damage did he do to her simply by being here? How much did he hurt her? Was there really no way for them to even be more than simply poison to each other? He found his hand brushing strands of her lilac hair over her shoulder as he simply nodded as he powered down into what was no longer Pascal Lalande.
It would have been nice if he knew that. It would save him a lot of trouble later. For now though, he simply lifted Zia into his arms and began to walk back to his place. Would she heal? It wasn’t suppose to be this way. He was suppose to be the one to get hurt, not her. If he’d have known… if he knew this would happen… would he have still done it? Would she have still done it? He pondered as he looked at the bat that was locked by Zia’s side.
“I’ll keep her safe.”
He smiled a little as he looked at his wrists. It sure was nice to be free.
