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 Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:59 pm
"Oh my god, you're amazing," Zia was trying so hard to calm down, it was just so hard She had gone a year straight of breathing Destiny City's war in and out with no relief. She thought there had been breaks, but she was realizing that really, they weren't at all.
Not like Sophie.
"Senshi! Starseed! Chaos? Oh no wait," Chaos was too easy to mistranslate.
"Wow. Just... wow." Zia shook her head, absolutely incredulous at the entire concept of someone being so far out of the loop. Man, she was disconnected from normal people society.
"It's a whole big thing," She said, excusing her behavior. She wasn't exactly about to magic up right there in the restaurant, or start rambling on her conspiracy theories that were considered crazy even m some of the more magical inhabitants of Destiny City.
"If you wanna see the nightlife, maybe you should invite me out after dark," She said like she was changing the subject and flirting, even finishing off with a wink before custard arrived, and she had something else to focus on.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:40 pm
"I'm glad you noticed!" Compliments were always nice. It meant that she was doing something right, and she always liked having that reassurance. "Just so I know for future reference, which part of me is amazing right now? Something tells me it's not my stunning good looks." That was definitely a joke; Sophie had almost no confidence in her appearance.
Where were all of these terms coming from? "Slow down, wait a sec! One at a time!" She couldn't help but be a little suspicious of this random vocabulary quiz, but she continued to play along. "Chaos... like chaos theory? I'm not into science, you know. And much as I like gardening, I've never heard of starseeds. Are they the seeds of starfruit trees?" That last term made her narrow her eyes slightly. "Aren't the senshi one of the city's gangs? What are they doing on a vocab test?"
By this point, it was impossible not to suspect that Zia knew more than Sophie did about gang violence in the city. Unusual terminology, giggling up a storm about normal matters, and extending an invitation to see "the nightlife" sometime? What would be next, Zia unmasking and revealing herself as an alien? The whole thing was kind of bizarre.
Before she could ask more, the custard arrived. Sophie was equally glad for the distraction and tucked into her dessert with gusto. "Mmm... that's fantastic." Chocolate PLUS yummy dairy gooeyness. Few things were more perfectly Sophie than this.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 5:19 pm
"Oh, Sophie," Zia pouted at Sophie's self depreciation about her looks. She had always hated that, but she had never been very blunt about it. Well, never before. "Please, I would be hitting on you non-stop if I didn't have a boyfriend and was trying to be a good girl to him," She said in a tone that was treading that terribly awkward line between teasing and legitimate flirtation, and the wink didn't help.
"Senshi are definitely that terrorist gang you've been talking about," She at least conceded with a nod and went back to her custard. "But... let's just... not talk about that right now." It wasn't the proper time, or the place.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:38 pm
Sophie rolled her eyes, trying to contain her own giggles. "Then maybe it's for the best that you have a boyfriend, otherwise I might be tempted by a pretty girl like you." Even dressed as she was, Zia was still the sort of person that Sophie thought of as pretty. And she was not. And that was fine, since she didn't usually care enough about appearance to make that big of an effort. But it really was obvious when Zia also stopped making an effort, and still looked great, while Sophie herself looked plain. Fortunately, she had other virtues to help make up for that.
The list of things they were allowed to talk about seemed to be shrinking. Sophie took another bite of custard, made a mental note to follow up on the senshi thing later, and decided that if they couldn't go forward, they could go back. "You know, DCU has some really great scholarship opportunities." Nope, she wasn't done with this topic yet. When Sophie thought that someone needed something, it was hard to get her to ease up until they agreed look into it, if only to get her off their back. "Their class schedules are pretty flexible too. I mean, I'm not doing anything better with my life right now, so it doesn't matter too much for me. But I've talked to people, and apparently it's easier than ever to make school and career work together."
Okay, maybe she was overselling just a bit. But the way Zia had tried to quickly dismiss the issue earlier had convinced Sophie that they needed to work through it. Because she was there to help. To help and maybe be helped. And to eat custard, of course.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 7:05 pm
Zia inhaled with a slight hiss and a silent 'oh'. "Well I said trying, I didn't say I was succeeding," She laughed. Actually she was ridiculously uncomfortable. Zia was insecure in her looks and didn't like being called pretty. She didn't like Pascal suddenly being brought up because it just reminded her he was being cold to punish her for something she didn't even know about and furthered those feelings of insecurity. But then, Zia's reaction to such stomach knotting situations was to just antagonize, flirt, and basically troll her way out of them.
And then school had to be brought up again and suddenly Sophie was pushing all of her buttons. Why don't you go ahead and fangirl over Ares, while you're at it, Soph? Come on, let's go for a threesome.
"It's just really complicated, Sophie," Zia mumbled, hunching over her custard and moving her spoon around it, though, she didn't seem too interested in consumption anymore.
"I don't know, it's all too hard to explain in one go." Or, you know, ever.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 8:02 pm
Suddenly the atmosphere was really uncomfortable. Sophie stirred her custard a bit, wondering what to do. The subject of appearances was dropped, mostly because it was an uncomfortable one for her as well. If she knew that Zia was insecure about her own looks, she would have felt even plainer, so in this case ignorance was bliss. It was kind of tough to talk about ignorance, though.
Instead, she rallied and went for one final push. "Of course it's complicated, Zia. If it wasn't, you would have dealt with it already. 'Complicated' doesn't have to equal 'impossible,' not if you don't want it to. And I'm not suggesting that you handle it all at once. But maybe it's time to reassess and see where things stand. If you take a good hard look and decide that school's not what you need right now, that's fine. But if you don't stop and consider things from your current perspective, you'll never know, right?"
That sounded nice and impartial, or so Sophie hoped. Honestly, she would have preferred that Zia give school another go, if only to justify her own attendance. But that was selfish, and she really did want what was best for Zia, whatever that might be. Complicated situations were hard to make recommendations for, especially when she didn't know most of the circumstances, but that wouldn't stop her from trying.
"That's a blanket tip, by the way. Deal with things a little at a time. Like explanations." She took another bite and started scraping the sides of her dish. "And custard. Though it can be really hard to do that when you're at a place like this."
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Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2012 1:32 pm
Zia, after mentally scrolling through her social options filed away in her brain like a cheat sheet, opted to roll her eyes like a teenager in an argument with a parent.
"Well, today let's just eat." She would blow Sophie's mind at a later date.
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Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2012 1:40 pm
It was kind of hard to tell whether Zia was actually listening to her advice or just trying to humor her. Sophie really, really wanted to ask, but she knew that it wasn't going to help anything, and might possibly cause a breakdown in communications that she wanted to avoid, now more than ever. Because now she knew that Zia had a problem, and she was going to do her best to help fix it, whether her help was wanted or not. Giving up was not an option.
Calling it a rest for the day, however, was. "Fair enough," she agreed, and licked her spoon. Maybe this was a sign that Zia was taking her advice. And if it wasn't, there would be other opportunities for that. Sophie would make sure of it.
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