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 Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 7:48 pm
He was analyzing the physics of mirrorspace, and for some reason, that gave her pause. Something ever so slightly changed in her demeanor and the creature usually curious to the point of stupidity just sort of stopped.
She did not comment or banter with him. Rather, her eyes glazed over in an uncharacteristic detachment from what he was saying.
We don't want to talk about that. Something in the back of her subconscious whispered. Not out of fear, not out of any identifiable emotions, really. There was just a block there.
Her presence returned with that same, fake perkiness as before as if nothing had happened. "You sweet talker," She cooed at the compliment, squeezing her fingers around his hand. "All assuming you don't kill me in the next 15 minutes, of course, it's nice to know there are players in the game that can be trusted to strike a deal."
Which was as close to a genuine compliment as she could come, but at least it was genuine. A genuine Zirconia was a rare occurrence.
Her bicep tensed as she pulled him, stepping through the mirror and tugging him with urgency. Enough that her other hand gripped his arm as well. Stepping through mirrors was like plunging through water, all of the fluid pressure and rushing sensations included. She had meant it when she conceded to him earlier with the phrase 'let's go drown'.
But the trip was quick, and while Zirconia usually surfaced through the other end with casual grace, this time she reacted like she felt: Struggling through surface tension for oxygen.
She was getting better at it, but she was never good at guests. Bischofite was her third passenger since she'd arrived in the White Moon's world, an entire universe away from her power source. The Mauvian released his arm and took a staggered step on the unfinished concrete floor of what appeared to be a temporary structure, probably for storage on some undeveloped property. She used to ferret away all of her hoarded files and notes here, but now it only housed the less important things. The maps and blueprints and observations that she couldn't bare to part with but couldn't justify keeping at home, even with her living situation changes. The corner with the cheap Ikea quality futon and bedding that looked like a nest remained, which, combine with the stash of mirrors probably didn't do much to hide what this place was. Zirconia's creepy little lair.
As much as she loathed to expose the place, it was the only mirror she had committed to memory that she could guarantee was passable and safe for a tenuous task like dragging a general through.
A few more unsteady steps were taken before she shifted down to her fully feline form and seemed to melt to the concrete on her belly, all four legs extended and body flattened until she resembled the most unimpressive fur rug.
"I hope you appreciated the experience," She complained in a yowling groan of discomfort.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 7:58 am
Drowning.
Her pull wavered once they touched the mirror - no, struggled. Struggled against the thick presence of water lacing around them. He watched her hair blossom behind her, trailing as long tentacles did from jellyfish. His breath caught instinctively, loathe to draw in water, but the curiosity persisted - he cast his gaze about, looking for some solid sign of the frame or a corridor, yet nothing visible stemmed from the murky darkness. Only a light diffused across purported water molecules lent them a measure of sight, and even then, it petered to nigh blackness while they progressed.
The hallway spanned a thousand feet, he estimated. A thousand yards. A thousand miles and his lungs burned in a blaze hotter than the sun.
Another world lingered beyond a thin border - possibly the frame to a mirror. Zirconia aimed for it, reached for it, and made contact as the glimpse of Beyond rippled and stretched and shimmered into the abstract. Her fingers, her hand, soon her arm vanished through the strange hole in a stranger space, and afterward followed the whole of her. Down her biceps, her elbows, the thin meat surrounding her radius and ulna to every wrist bone he couldn't name and the metatarsals and the phalanges and finally his own fingers knew freedom from a world so wet he never felt it. More bones, more skin, more highways of sinew followed her until the last of his breath-turned-carbon-dioxide clamored from his body in a breathless pant.
Strangely, he felt dry - unweighted. A hand combed through his hair confirmed it.
While he reclaimed what breath he could, the lanky Mauvian abridged herself to the form of a cat and sprawled across the floor in a marked lack of grace. Bischofite stared a moment, too breathless for mirth, before he found the impetus to look about himself.
Papers knew more occupancy in the small space than any measure of comfort or necessity. As if a need to know, to consume knowledge, dominated any occupant passing into this zone. Nourishment and somnolence took a backseat to the endeavor, clearly enunciated by the files stacked atop a used futon - the blankets still curled at the foot of it.
It's an unnerving experience, he thought in response to her secretary-standard comment. Like passing through water that feels wholly wrong. I am uncertain when it started, but the whole of my body railed against it like a primal fear. Even now, I still shake. How curious... I wonder if I left marks on your wrists like a desperate victim.
Part of me hopes I did.
"It is not one I will know twice," he offered in response. After scooping up the pool of exhausted cat from the floor, he poured the feline into the collection of blankets crowning the futon. Afterward he took proximity as a cue to rifle through a stack of files, some labeled and housed in manilla folders. Blueprints, notes, observations, scraps of articles... You're studying the very fibers of our lives, right down to the layout of the Destiny City library. What are you looking for, cat? What lies in all these scraps of our earth besides some incredibly useful blueprints for my endeavors?
It can't just be curiosity. What are you planning? "What is zis place?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 10:39 am
The limp sack of fur responded with a weak swat in his general direction as she was lifted and deposited in the blanket nest. Propelling herself like a walrus, she snaked around in them in a circle until she thought it was a suitable resting space, and her yellow eyes could watch him over the folds like a crocodile in a swamp.
"Didn't enjoy it?" She asked, her tone melodic and mocking. "It's actually much more tolerable once you get used to it."
Her tail freed itself out from beneath a corner of blanket and flicked back and forth behind the hill of lilac fluff, growing in size as her fur stood on end with mounting irritation. He was touching her stuff.
"The only sizable mirror I could guarantee safe passage through. I didn't want to bounce back while carrying you," She said before he started flipping through manilla files, and managed to drag out a yowling hiss.
"Do you mind? You're being terribly rude," Not that she hadn't fully expected this inconvenience, it was one of the downsides to agreeing to their deal she had considered in advance and she thanked her lucky stars all sensitive information was safely tucked away in a spare room in the penthouse. But she couldn't stash everything there and while she had scanned most of her pilfered and hoarded documents and notes into a digital system, she easily undermined the term 'paperless' by being too attached to hard copies to ever actually destroy them, even when they were discarded or not especially helpful or had been at one point and had outlived their use.
She was a hoarder.
"A place to hide, I guess," She answered flippantly before rubbing her face on some untouched fabric that was still cold and stale with being left in the night air. "Nowhere important. If you're looking for reading material I think the notes on the Operation Rota torture scandal are to your left. But first," She stopped and raised her head to focus on him, "Starseed?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2014 10:19 pm
"If I get used to it," he corrected with a cold glare cast over his shoulder. They met with equal intensity, surprisingly - the feline now glowering at him for his incessant rifling through her affairs, picking apart photos and paraphernalia for applicable use. "Zat assumes zat I would endure it again, and while it provided ample fuel for my curiosity... I can't imagine zat exposing myself to a dimension beyond one natural to me might end well. You mentioned zat Mirrorspace does not want me - I suspect zat has to do wis' my existence beyond your realm, where you stood as castellan once before. If I am alien to it, zen it may reject wis' hostility, razzer zan simply forcing me back out." Regardless, I am wary of it. It is... redneck teleportation, as Americans might classify it.
Upon discovery of a pizza box housing both clipped articles and a few stray slices of stale pizza, Bischofite visibly recoiled, dropping the box atop its pile without a second thought. "Yes, I mind - I mind zat you lif' in a veritable pig sty."" He huffed through his teeth before casting another glance about the place, infinitely more wary toward the myriad germs housed on each surface. His curiosity urged toward another venture, but the sordid state of the place quashed what interest he had.
Instead, he donned his gloves and seriously reconsidered ever touching the lilac feline again.
Wordlessly the general slipped a blessedly gloved hand into his coat pocket, rummaging around for the lone Dark Mirror starseed that lounged at the seams. Upon procuring it, he tossed the gem toward Zirconia with little interest toward playing along. Considering that she brought him to a HAZMAT trap, he found little reason to offer the courtesy of legitimately bringing it to her.
"I pulled it from a basic Dark Mirror senshi. I know not whezzer rank affects ze state of ze starseed." And considering he knew next to nothing about the target, he lacked additional information to provide. Instead he searched for a place to take a seat while she studied, yet every portion of the place adopted a new and utterly repulsive classification of rancid. Instead he opted to stand.
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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 8:43 pm
The pizza box's discovery instantly raised the forest cat's hackles in surprise. Zia's mind was racing as she debated whether or not she had left it her last overnighter, since that had been months and months ago.
An intruder seemed more likely, which is what prompted the physical reaction, until she remembered that while she no longer had a need to hole up in her ramshackle 'base' there was a certain dark mirror senshi who crept around it on a regular basis. "I don't live here. Well I used to," She said, licking her paws casually and pretending that hadn't happened. "I live with the Mars knight Kairatos now."
She calmed down and retrieved the starseed with glee, an involuntary purr emanating from her throat as she batted it around like a toy.
"Pleasure doing business with you, as always," She chirped and the feline who had theatrically melted to the floor moments earlier too the starseed in her mouth and flounced through the mirror with total ease, the previous fatigue either miraculously faded or dramatically exaggerated.
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 10:16 am
"Kairatos. Interesting," he offered dully while he finished his inspection of the place. Of course you'd volunteer that so freely. There's nothing of worth in those words beyond expending the manpower to tail this Kairatos home, in hopes that he won't sense the foreboding chaotic energies breathing down his neck.
As always, she says. As if this wasn't the first deal. As if it wasn't the last. He eyed her a moment, stark gaze focused on her actions and how precise they were, how staged and manicured and rehearsed like one so determined to live a facsimile life. For a moment, his gaze darted to the starseed, dark-hued with the taint of the Dark Mirror, before a soft paw obscured the majority of it from his sight.
He offered no words in parting.
Just as the cat slipped through the mirror, the agent's presence dissipated from the strange hovel with far less pomp and circumstance - there he existed, and in the next moment, he didn't. Instead, what remained in the space was naught but what had aged there over the months - books, articles, magazines, manilla folders housing blueprints.
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