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 Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:20 pm
She had been worried about him.
No, not Ally, but Jude. Jude, the person she had thought of as an older brother; Jude, who had told Hero to take care of her when he was gone; Jude, who had died; Jude, who gave her that lost look when he was revived...
She hadn't seen him for days. She knew Hero had gone to find him, for Hero liked to rely on the Princess' ability to track down her Zodiacs to find Jude at all costs. He hadn't even bothered to come to Benny's, to meet with all of them again. It was like he was trying to avoid them, trying to avoid her.
And Serenade didn't like it that Jude was trying to avoid her.
They needed to talk.
As much as she didn't like going out alone; Charonite's capture of her still haunted her, and Hero would be mad (again), she had set out to find him, relying on the direction her mind was pointing her towards. Sagittarius.
But it wasn't Sagittarius she was looking for. She was looking for Jude.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:56 pm
Had he known the company that awaited him, he'd have gone somewhere more dignified. Jude considered his live-in storage unit perfectly acceptable, and couldn't fathom the idea of looking down on anyone for a choice that had to make. He had no parents around to home him, no inheritance to aid him, and truth be told he appreciated that freedom. There was only Jude to take care of Jude. (When Hero wasn't around, anyway, but that was something a hypocrite like him didn't recall when he got off on one of his tangents.)
He did remember Hero was everything. Breath, life, meaning. All of it was Hero, for Hero. The reason he would have cared about the redneck life style the princess was about to walk in on was because he could almost hear his precious Captain complaining about it: You let the princess see you like that?!
What qualified as "that"? Jude was just coming home from boxing, his third love (the first was Hero and the second was racing). No shirt, sweaty, bruised. They'd asked about the painful looking marks left behind from Obsidian and been told, "Fight." All they needed to know. Remember, this was a group of men who enjoyed beating the Hell out of each other as a pastime.
Fingers wrapped around the handle, he'd just pulled open the door when something off to the side caught his attention.
"Princess," he greeted, suddenly aware of how improper he must look. Again, not that he particularly cared for keeping formal, but he felt like Hero did, so he tried. "I wasn't expecting you or I'd be more..."
God help him, he was actually going to say it.
"...proper."
Part of him would have died, but all of him loved Hero Barrett.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:10 pm
Serenade looked sad, sadder than usual, which was only encouraged by seeing with her own two eyes, where Jude was living right now. Part of her wished she could help, but he wouldn't want that help. At least he was alive, right? Alive and well. She was pretty sure Hero made sure he was okay too.
She hadn't known how to approach him exactly and just stood there until he noticed her and had jumped slightly in shock. This was partly due to that he had just called her 'Princess'. Coming from Jude, that just seemed strange, even if their time in Barren Pines hadn't been much. Even though she was really his princess. "No, it's okay, Jude." She said. She wasn't calling him Sagittarius. This wasn't exactly a business trip. She assumed Hero did enough of that already.
"I just," Deep breath. "Wanted to make sure you were okay." I haven't seen you in a long time.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:19 pm
The damage was done. Serenade had bared witness to Jude looking like a mess in front of her and he couldn't take it back now, so he did what was within his character to do: he just rolled with it. For all the bruises (there were many), the living conditions, the lack of food sometimes he decidedly didn't want to bother anyone with, he looked happy. Honestly happy.
She didn't, and he thought about what Hero would do.
"I'm doing better than it looks like you're assuming I'm doing. I like it here." That was something you had to tell people living in a place like this. It took a very particular kind of person to live in a small space all alone with no electricity, taking showers at truck stops and working at a pizza place to look at you and tell you they liked it without lying.
At least he felt free.
Even the Zodiac no longer felt like an obligation. It was where Hero was, and where she was Jude eagerly wanted to be.
"That expression doesn't look right on your pretty face, Princess. What can I do?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:39 pm
Well then, if Jude liked it, then she was okay with it too. People had different tastes, didn't they? At least he looked happy, and the look on his face looked genuine. At least he hadn't said that with the expression of 'I'm just saying this because that's what you want to hear'. Her parents had often done that, and she had no longer bothered about how busy they were. She had stopped being affected by it a long time ago, ever since she met the Zodiacs as Serenade Soriano.
"I'm glad you're okay." She said, and smiled at him, but it was the kind of smile she had given him back then when she had been bothered by her lack of inspiration at the piano. "And... just call me Ser?" That's what he used to call her, didn't he?
It wasn't surprising that Jude could see that she was down; but really, everyone else could. Elke and Andeon had been trying their best to cheer her up, and it had worked. For a while. "I'm sorry, it's just..." She bit her lip, debating, and then blurted out. "Do you remember Alistair McGill?"
It was an utterly random question to ask.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:23 pm
"Ser," he repeated in a way that could have come off as obedient except for the fact he was Jude Lawson, defiant of all things authority. Really, he was just trying the name out to get used to it again. "Aries would rather I stick with 'princess', but she's pretty stuffy, you know?" With a grin he winked at her as a man who knew something she didn't. What could have been an insult was not. When he said "stuffy", it sounded like he had just listed off ten reasons Hero Barrett was the greatest person alive.
Many things had changed since the last time he'd seen her, be it as Princess Chronos or Serenade Soriano.
She managed to wipe the amusement off his face, replaced thereafter by a somber look of thoughtful recognition. "Yeah. I mostly remember he loved you." Jude was not someone you wanted to come to in your time of need. Not because he wouldn't help, but because it would fail miserably trying. He was too blunt, too tactless and too much of a Prince Charming in reverse at times.
So, naturally, he attracted people mourning over issues he didn't know how to handle like a magnet.
Fate. It sucked.
"And I remember he was one of the most respectable men to grace this plague of a city. I know he must be sitting at some Jedi council parody a few seats down from God himself."
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 7:01 am
"I think it's strange if all of you call me 'princess'." Serenade said, very matter-of-factly. "Wouldn't others think it was strange if they overheard our conversations?" Mental note to self: Try to use this logic to stop Hero from calling her ma'am. At least in public. She would have followed up by telling him that he and Hero seemed to be spending a lot of time together, or at least, the Aries and Sagittarius blips in her head liked to be close to each other at times. Jude would know that she probably had no idea what happened between them anyway.
But her breath caught as Jude said yes, he remembered Alistair. And even though he was referring to the latter in past tense, Serenade smiled. "Thank you." She said. "Sometimes, it's like... I'm scared of what I don't remember. I'm scared that what I remember is just, like, messing with my head." Then another pause and she confessed. "I was scared I was the only one who remembered him, or that he was a figment of my imagination."
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:26 am
"They might, but I'm sure they've seen stranger things than that in this city. Anyway, I mostly remember feelings." Jude wasn't worried about that sounding lame with her there. With any of the guys (Grayson included)? With his friends who weren't Zodiac? Yes, he'd never have said something so outright girlish; arguably unmanly. Not even if it was the truth, and it was. "It's a lot like Barren Pines, in a sense. I knew something was wrong there, and I feel like I respected the guy you're talking about. It's a big deal."
A very big deal. Jude Lawson Alpha Male respected no man, and if he did, he didn't realize he did enough to tell someone about it. Not yet. "You should be, Ser, if you want the truth." And leave it to Sagittarius' keeper to be all about brutal honesty. "Having lost a memory and know it's gone is the most horrible thing someone can do to a man--or woman. But if you're missing the details now, I'm sure they'll come to you into time without following my lead and going out to get gutted. Don't worry about it too much right this minute. There's a lot to handle and a lot to focus on. Sort everything else out first then go after this one thing."
Perhaps Hero could be proud of him on the grounds he was trying hard to be helpful in spite of living up to his hypocritical side in doing so. Succeeding in this venture was another matter, but clearly he was trying his best to put forth the effort. "And on the off chance he was a "figment of your imagination", there are ways that doesn't make him less real. Look at Pisces. She's still real."
Smooth, Jude. Smooth. Was that supposed to be a joke? Really?
"Be happy you're alive for right now," he said, if only due to feeling Hero would have told her something like that. It was easier to try and act like Aries rather than Sagittarius speaking to the princess now; she knew what she was doing in this situations, or so he thought.
Honestly, for the time being you could have told him Hero could fly to the moon and he'd have told you one thing in response: Duh.
"And that the Zodiac are alive. And together. --More or less. Count your blessings and not your baggage is what my mother used to say to my sister all the time."
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:02 pm
He respected Ally. It meant a lot to her, to know that Jude, of all people, had liked Ally too, and had a high opinion of him. It kind of added another puzzle piece to what she already had, the picture she was trying to build up of him to understand who he was. Not just about what he meant to her, but what he meant to the others as well.
"I know." She murmured. Astraea might have thought it strange that she was thanking her for giving her some memories of him, but it had honestly hurt a lot when she remembered that she had forgotten him. Jude was right; she wanted to remember everything, no matter how painful it was.
Pisces. She cracked a small smile. She was honestly glad that they had finally found the last Zodiac, and partly glad that Pierette didn't have to remember the fire like the rest of them did.
"I'm happy you're alive too." She told him, in all sincerity. "I and... uh... Hero were upset when they announced you died." Of bacterial meningitis, when it was really a murder. She had assumed it was one of the 'staff' in the school that had done this.
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:27 pm
He had to laugh because it sounded so much like something he'd say. "Gee, thanks. Always good to know I'm better alive than dead." Had she really meant something by it he'd have acted differently, but it was just Ser being Ser like the sky was blue. "It's alright. The guy who did it had nothing to do with Barren Pines, so it's not important. I got back at him for it not too long ago. Over and done with."
The replay of what she'd said had him doubling back. "Hero was upset?" This sounded like potential teasing material. God knew he could use more of that. Oh, he had some already, but what happened in the jungle stayed in the jungle--and Larry's Pizza on the days he worked with his friends.
"I dunno if we're talking about the same girl, Ser. I'm sure the most she did was shed a tear because she stubbed her toe too hard kicking my corpse." Come to think of it-- "How'd that happen? You find me somewhere or did he drag my body back and leave it like a dead bird on the lawn?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:11 am
Nothing to do with Barren Pines? Well, this was a new bit of information to her. She didn't really want to dwell on it or ask 'Who murdered you?' because it sounded stupid and insensitive. And to Serenade, the person who had murdered them, all of them, was Charonite. The man in charge of the Negaverse, the man she feared the most.
"Well um," Serenade fiddled with the edge of her dress. "She didn't cry," It was hard to imagine Hero crying, actually, "but she looked kinda horrible. It wasn't easy dealing with so many deaths, you know." And on the subject of how they had found his body and all, she wasn't exactly sure, but she tried to remember whatever Hero had told her about it. "She said she found you stabbed in the commons, I think." And that that 'doctor' and 'nurse' had been there, with that gun, pointed straight at her.
It was still unnerving to think about that.
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:03 am
"Sounds about right," said a very tactless man named Jude Lawson who had come a long way and even now barely knew when he needed to be more sensitive. Check back in his next lifetime and maybe he'd have it down then. "Yeah, I'm sure it sucked for her to find me gutted with my lip clawed off."
Or maybe not.
"He's got long red hair, green eyes, carries a wooden sword and likes to hang around low-income areas from what I can tell. That's where I found him most of the time before Barren Pines, and that's where I found him again. I don't have to tell you this, I don't think, but for the record if any of you girls see that you should run away and call for help."
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:14 am
Serenade looked horrified; was that how he really was killed? She didn't want to imagine it and she was already mentally clapping her hands over her ears and going 'la la la, I'm not listening'. He was alive now, she told herself. And alright, save for some bruises. At least he was alive and happy.
"I won't try to fight him." She assured him. Hero would though, and they both knew this. Mental note to self: keep a lookout for that guy when she went on patrol. If Hero allowed her to go on patrol. Serenade knew that she would probably be paired up with a Zodiac, perhaps even more.
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 7:12 pm
Tactless, yes. A complete moron, no.
Until he'd caught that look of terror, Jude wanted to ask her if she'd known how Marcel had died. Ignorance was far from bliss in his book.
Knowing could kill him, he'd learned that, but not knowing...
Not knowing killed him ways that were worse than being thrown in a grave. When it came to one or the other, he would pick being enlightened and dead any day.
He knew it would hurt no matter what they told him. Had Marcel went down in the fire, as a zombie, fighting zombies--it didn't matter. There was no tender answer to a question like: 'But how did he die?'
Serenade and Hero were the most likely to know Marcel, being the two Zodiac he spent the most time with in Barren Pines. Surely, Serenade had seen them together enough to recognize him during the whole ordeal Jude himself had missed. Hero, too, but it seemed he couldn't ask either of them. Not just yet.
How could he bring it up again with her making a face like that? Part of him still looked at her like some baby sister who needed to be protected. Her being a princess had nothing to do with it. Over time he had come to forgive her for dragging him back. Just doing her job. Just doing what she was told. He'd moved on to blaming other people instead.
It was always someone's fault.
"Right, good," he offered, drumming his fingers on the cement between one door and another. "So you alright for now? Need anything else?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:16 am
"Uh..." Serenade looked unsure. She had come to make sure he was alright, and sure enough, he was, so that was it, right? She did feel much more relieved now that she saw for herself that he was content with the life he had right now. "I should go. Take care of yourself."
She turned to walk away, but then paused. "It's good to know that you're patrolling with Hero, but don't do it so late all the time, alright? You two need your rest too." Perhaps he might had wondered if she knew about his relationship with Hero now, but he also knew that Serenade was pretty hopeless at understanding romantic relationships.
...Then again, she had a boyfriend before.
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