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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 6:50 am
The night before had been... interesting to say the least.
Not only had there been a cat that somehow got into his bedroom window, but it turned out that it talked and could change into his best friend. To make things better, there had been a monster to fight, and he found himself in the strangest costume with fur and a compass to accessorize with.
Getting Zia up into his apartment had been his first concern, not wanting her to turn into a cat again without his knowledge, and much less did he want her getting hurt again. Carrying her had been easy, but he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with whatever diet she was currently on... even though she didn't need to be on one. Instead, he was pretty sure that being in that strange costume gave him a bit more strength than normal. As soon as she had been tucked into his bed did he go about calling the police and... somehow figured out how to change back to normal.
It was a lot easier than he'd expected... He just... closed his eyes and concentrated on himself in the clothes he had been wearing prior to changing (which was nothing more than lounge pants and a single shoe, since he'd thrown the other at the monster in his attempt to get its attention away from the then cat.
He'd gone down (with a shirt this time) to stay with the girl who had been attacked until the police and ambulance arrived, telling them about a monster that had attacked but then disappeared, making sure to leave out the details of the talking cat and, er, his own strange metamorphosis. He was fairly certain that sharing something like that would land him in some kind of insane asylum.
After giving his statements, and getting his hand wrapped up by the paramedics, Chris went back up to his apartment to check and make sure that Zia wasn't hurt, once more... And then went to sleep on the couch, with Annabel for company.
He'd already planned on skipping his classes the next day, but he thought that after everything that had happened, he deserved a little break. That, and he wasn't about to just leave Zee in his apartment without trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
Of course, it would also help if she actually woke up... you know, sooner than later, preferably.
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 9:33 am
Last night was pretty much the worst case scenario that ran through Zia's mind every time that urge to 'just go look and see' whenever a youma showed up on her radar. If civilian hadn't been so insistent on catching it's attention, she would've just run off and probably led it away. But nooo, she had to completely waste herself in order to kill that thing.
But at least she was home, comfy, in her own be-- this was not her bed.
Zia's eyes snapped open and slowly skimmed the top of the blanket her shoulder had pushed under her nose. Tipped off by the fact her room smelled faintly of clean dog fur and White Linen, and this was just downright unfamiliar, she sat up and kicked off the blanket cocoon, trying to remember last night's details.
It only took a minute to figure out this was Chris's room, in his apartment. Finding a clock, she realized she'd slept in until noon and was still exhausted. Which left her with the only option to stumbled out and face Chris himself.
"Hey," She called out with the hoarse voice of someone who woke up too damn soon, standing there in her t-shirt and bright blue-plaid flannel pajama bottoms while her head was eaten by a mess of unconstrained ringlets. A rare sighting of a pre-hairbrush and make-up Zia.
"You wanna fill me in on what happened last night?" She asked as she crossed her arms. It was already coming back to her even as she asked. Accidentally visiting, the youma, Chris throwing things... Chris turning into something weird with fur boots. That part she honestly didn't have a clue about.
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 10:08 am
Oh, don't worry. He had a few questions, himself.
Annabel Lee was the first to jump up to greet the newly awoken Zia, her curled, fluffy tail wagging excitedly back and forth as she jumped down from the couch to sniff around the young woman's ankles, before looking up at her, wide eyed as though she wanted to get whatever attention she would give her.
"Hey," Chris called in return, though it was obvious that he had been awake for a while, especially since he was already dressed, hair neatly brushed, and clean shaven. It was all he could do to prevent himself from going crazy, waiting for Zia to wake up, though he figured she just needed some rest. If she hadn't woke up in the next six hours, though, he would have called for an ambulance.
He made his way out of the second bedroom he kept as an office of sorts, frowning in concern as he looked his friend over a few times. "I could ask you the same thing," he said with an unamused snort, "I thought you were a dog person." Apparently he was at least half wrong.
Chris moved around her, making his way to the kitchen where he had some things piled on the counter. Clean towels (a few of them), washcloth, and some clothes that a single college guy like himself probably shouldn't have in his possession. "Did you want any coffee? I made some earlier, so it'll need to be heated up," he told her, gathering up the things and holding onto them to make sure Zee would actually want to get freshened up before jumping into a conversation that they both wanted to have, by the sounds of it.
"Mom keeps clothes here," he explained, nodding to the top of the pile he was carrying. "She says she might decide to stay over, so she wanted to be prepared ahead of time. Uh... I just grabbed the entire stack she kept here. I'm not sure what would fit or not... so..." he trailed off, feeling a bit awkward about everything, at the moment. "Um... and if you wanted to take a shower..." he offered as well, though he did pause long enough to let her get at least two words in.
He just wanted to make sure she was comfortable, jeez...
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 11:13 am
Zia stopped and knelt to dote on Annabel, trying not to grimace as she listened to Chris. It might've been easier to claim Zirconia's persona if Zirconia hadn't been a total b***h last night.
Instead, she just kind of sleepily drifted into the kitchen to pour some coffee and pop it in the microwave and stared at the stuff on the counter like a zombie while she slowly woke herself up mentally and finally downed the heated up coffee, not even caring that she hadn't loaded it up with sugar and cream.
She could sense his awkwardness like a neon sign announcing it and all she could do was feel guilty about it. Zia was notably less awkward, just confused about what had happened last night. And with anyone else she would've been hugely embarrassed about her just out of bed appearance, but... Well sometimes you've just known someone so long you just kind of stop caring. So she wasn't in too much of a rush to hide her face in shame or anything.
"Uh, look," She stammered out, trying to think of something that could break the tension in the room and then realized she had no idea what to say. So instead that was followed up by a dumbfounded stare and silence that she eventually gave up on, and just grabbed a pair of jeans from the pile and vanished into the bathroom.
And there she hide, trying to gather her thoughts and stuff her curls into a scrunchie she luckily had on her wrist before she realized something the definitely needed to be said before anything else and she ran back out, suddenly looking very awake. "You didn't tell anyone, did you?"
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 4:46 pm
Was he really that awkward?? He was glad that Zia felt comfortable enough around him to be in her pajamas, though.
Chris blinked and watched as Zia went about getting her own coffee ready, about to tell her that he could have done that for her, but decided to shut his mouth, letting her do as she pleased. He then stared as she started to say something, but then stopped and took the clothes to get dressed. Er... O-okay...? He didn't do something to upset her more, did he? Sorry, but she was a freaking cat. He, at least, hadn't turned into an animal... Although he was very concerned that a few animals might have been killed in order to make up his strange outfit. Ugh...
Putting the towels back onto the counter, Chris let out a sigh, then went about getting himself some more coffee. When she came back out in a rush, he couldn't help but stare almost blankly at her before saying, "Oh yeah, I told everyone I ran in to. I put up flyers and sent in an article to the newspaper. I'm holding a press conference later this evening. What? Was I not supposed to do that?"
It was just a short pause before he rolled his eyes. "Of course I didn't tell anyone. What was I going to say? Hey, my best friend is a cat and I can change into some crazy looking viking dude? Yeah, no thanks."
He quickly placed his mug on the counter, lifting his arms in defense in case she decided to take a swipe at him for his dead pan sarcasm, knowing he probably deserved it if she did.
"I figured it was kind of a top secret thing, otherwise you would have told me already... right?" he asked, giving her a inquisitive look and trying not to sound as though he was hurt she hadn't included him in something like this. "Did you want to call in to work to tell them you're taking the day off?"
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 8:46 pm
"Yeah, I know, but," Zia ground her teeth, a little frustrated. Zirconia was more than willing to elaborate on the urgency of secrecy and consequences, but Zia didn't exactly want to threaten him with death just yet.
"No one can know, not even a little bit," She said, feeling increasingly stupid, like she was just hammering in an obvious point without adding anything to it. She sighed and rubbed her temples, becoming increasingly aware of her huge headache and other various aches down to the medium laceration from the youma and her hurt foot.
"Um, okay, how 'bout you ask a question and I'll ask a question and we'll get through this huge mire piece by piece," She offered, wanting to get it all out without an awkward infodump. And obviously, she couldn't go over everything. The BMC and relevant topics needed to be left out, but that just lead to her mind bartering against her desire to put certain actions on Zirconia without revealing parallel things that were probably better kept as secrets. But she at least wanted most of it out, even to the point she completely ignored his question about calling into work, because she didn't want to go off on an explanation about how she'd gotten fired and detract away from the current topic about monsters.
"You can go first since you probably have more questions than me," She said with an awkward laugh. Yeah, she only had one question: What the hell are you?
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 5:51 am
Chris stared at her, his expression relaxed and almost sad as he listened to her. This... This was serious stuff... Obviously it was, otherwise she wouldn't look like she was being backed into a corner on the topic. Did he have questions? Of course he did. He had a million questions. He always had a million questions. Did he like not knowing what the hell was going on? Of course he didn't. He would like to get answers, at least eventually, but at the moment, he was more concerned about Zia than figuring out if the fur around his boots and shoulders was real or not, or if he was going to end up feeling guilty every time he changed into that form because he was wearing dead animals for decoration.
He frowned lightly, still watching her curiously as he tried to piece the things he knew together. It must be some really big secret for her to not tell him... Or maybe she didn't trust him with things like that...? Cautiously, Christopher took a step forward, looking down at her as he drew close enough, reaching his arms out to pull her into a gentle hug — one that she could easily break away from if she didn't want physical contact at the moment, and for the purposes of not hurting her if he missed any injuries. If she looked at herself in a mirror, though, she'd see that he'd at least checked her over blood and had dressed those wounds with gauze and a handful of butterfly bandages. He just didn't want to invade her privacy more than he already was, so he obviously couldn't check her over, completely. He just wanted to make sure that she wouldn't bleed out in his bed over night while she slept.
"I do have one question," he said, his voice soft and almost a whisper, not wanting her to feel like she was being expected to do anything she wasn't allowed to. Did he like not knowing why his best friend was a cat? Hell no. Was he worried that this... other strange... form of himself would try and add her fur to his boot collection? A little. But he was trying to ignore that odd worry for the time being. When he had... changed... he'd still felt like himself... only different. Like he was stronger, more powerful. Did he accept all of this without a second glance? Of course not... But at this very moment, he didn't think that showering Zia with questions was the best idea. She already seemed on edge about... everything. And she definitely hadn't had that much coffee yet.
"Are you okay?" he asked, pulling back enough to look at her seriously, a frown on his face as he watched her expression, waiting to see if she had any reactions that could give away her lying to him. "If you can't tell me anything, then don't tell me anything," he told her, since she was so worried about no one knowing. "You've known me for how long? How many secrets am I already taking to my grave? I promise this doesn't change anything." It might be something life altering and confuse the hell out of him, but as a secret... he could keep that. "I'd rather die than see you suffer, Zee... I'm still the same person... You still know me..."
.... more or less.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:02 am
Zia felt fairly reassured and sunk into the hug, a small part of her turning eyes to his chest to see if she could tune into his starseed's aura. It didn't work, neither of them were powered up and it was really silly to even try but still, it's foreign take on the familiar signal of a cavalier last night was burned into her brain. Maybe she'd imagined it? If he had to be powered up with a secret identity, why couldn't he have just been a frilly senshi so they didn't have to deal with this s**t?
"I'm fine, it's just a scratch and a minor sprain. And my energy is pretty much sapped... Are you okay?" She couldn't really see what shape he was in when there was a slashing youma between the two of them and she didn't exactly look him over for any injuries before passing out.
After a few seconds, she broke the hug and backed up a little so she could stare at him, half expecting him to poof into his fancy viking costume at any given second as she closely inspected him and held her chin. "When you were... yanno, all dressed up, you were still you, right? You weren't like, from the future or some other universe or something?"
Well... she was at least starting to look for clues where she had started off. Part of her thought it was stupid, but who knew how many parallel universes there were? ********* did say there was another cat just like her but this 'Sue' could not be brought up for inspection in all the time she'd been half-assedly investigating.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:31 am
His vote was 'no' for a frilly... anything. Although, he would probably have a difficult time deciding between something frilly and the fur.
Chris continued to frown at her in concern, though he blinked curiously when she turned the question back to him. "Yeah, just a little shaken up, I guess," he said, though he held up his bandaged left hand for her to see. "Broken glass," he reassured her, "The... whatever it was... didn't really get me. I think it ripped my clothes some, and I think my butt and ego is bruised from being a graceless idiot, but other than that..." He was probably pretty lucky for getting out of that more or less unscathed.
"Thanks for saving me," he said, though he thought it was still probably too soon to mention the cat. "The other girl down there... the paramedics said she'd be okay after she rested for a while." Just in case she was wondering...
He frowned again as he thought about the whole... costume thing, taking a step back when she pulled away, letting her look him over easier.
"Not that I know of," he said, glancing down at himself as well, before lifting his own hands to inspect them, looking over the bandages that should probably be changed soon. "I still felt like myself... but... I think I'm from another place...?" He wasn't really sure what he was, but he'd... heard things...
"I mean, it doesn't make sense... Valhalla is from Norse mythology, isn't it...? Like... the place where dead warriors go and wait for the 'final battle' or something like that...? So it couldn't be on Jupiter... right? That's mixing Roman mythology with Norse..."
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 9:33 am
From another place... naturally Zia's first instinct was to put her own experience to it, but she quickly realized she shouldn't think of it in that context. There was no mysterious moon queen, no spelled out explanation, and obviously no fully intact memories of a moon kingdom and a fully functioning space society.
Okay, so, so far he was definitely still from this universe, hopefully still with one soul. He wasn't a senshi, and... Valhalla?
"Well, I think it might be less mythology and more of a place you guys lost when the whole Silver Millennium collap-- Um, maybe we should start from the beginning."
She took a deep breath and gathered up fragments of what she knew. She knew a little bit about specifically White Moon stuff but not quite the whole story. She remembered back to Nehelenia watching through the mirror and coveting their Earth and Moon. She knew they had a cauldron and a monarchy and civilization across the planets that was more or less similar to theirs before something happened and it was wrecked. Probably through their own fault. Silly White Moon people.
"Basic stuff. There's a few terms you should probably know before we get into more complicated stuff like that," She said, counting off on her fingers. "Senshi, they're usually the good guys, even though, I think the media's calling them sailor suited terrorists or something. They usually dress pretty frilly and flamboyantly and have tiaras and basic magic powers. Then there's agents of the Negaverse. I don't know too much about them, but they function like a military and collect starseeds and energy. And, oh yeah, they usually kill people to get what they want," She added on that last part with a roll of the eyes and light smack to her own forehead like that was the most important part of the whole thing. "Then there's talking cats with weird symbols on their foreheads that shoot lasers but you don't seem to be any of those things so I have no idea what you are or what happened because in my experience, everybody needs someone to awaken their powers or recruit them or something and you just kind of 'POOF! Magical power aura!" Zia rambled at increasing speed and ended it with a floppy shrug of her shoulders, her tone and body language sort of screaming 'I sound like a mental patient. I officially give up.'
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 11:05 am
Chris stared at Zia as she went on her little 'teaching' ramble about what everything was, feeling like he needed to get flash cards to help him remember everything... or something... At least a paper and pen to write it all down. But he supposed that if this was all top secret then he needed to just... memorize it.
"Maybe I'm just badass?" he said with a shrug, but it was soon followed by a tiny grin. He probably shouldn't be joking about things like this, but it hurt his brain to be so serious about things for too long. Besides, joking about things helped relieve stress for him... and this was... kind of stressful.
He reached out to gently take hold of her hand, giving it a light tug as he took a few more steps back. "Why don't we actually sit down...?" he asked her, letting her follow him if she wanted, but he continued making his way over to the couch. He took a moment to pick up his dog and place her in his lap as he sat, his arm casually over the couch back, turning to face Zia as he thought about everything she'd just told him.
"And the agents of the Negaverse are the ones making the monsters." It wasn't a question because he'd been told by another friend about them. He hadn't been given names of who was who, but he figured he should have believed Azzo when he'd told him the monsters were real.
As curious as he was about the other things, it was clear that she was curious about who he was. Hell, he was curious about who he was, too.
"I'm a Knight," he said suddenly, a voice in the back of his head reminding him... Reminding him? Had he already known? It felt familiar to say, but he didn't understand why.
He paused in petting his dog, giving Zia a curious look. "Would it be easier if I... changed into that weird costume...? For you to figure things out, I mean..." he explained, wanting to make sure it was okay with her before actually doing it. She was the expert, after all.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 11:41 am
"Yeah, you wish," Zia snorted, but she actually did smile at the badass comment. She just allowed herself to limply be led to the couch, flopping down and reaching over to give Annabel some more attention after she was hoisted into Chris's lap.
"Yes, exactly. Heeey, you know more than you let on," She laughed and then shrugged a little, relaxing as she comforted herself with cuddling Annabel.
And then: I'm a Knight.
"What?" She sat up and just stared for a looong, confused moment. "What is that? That's not a thing. What." Didn't Zirconia know pretty much everything?
And then she thought about it a little more and pulled her legs up on the couch, buried her face in her knees and left out a long groan of frustration. "Okay, I think we need to find a White Moon cat or someone who actually knows something about this universe because I'm so lost on this," She huffed. "Everything here is all messed up. Zirconia's memories are from a totally different universe where everything is normal!" Wait, maybe not normal. Or yes to normal? When 80% of your memories are of an intact moon kingdom it definitely SEEMS normal, but it felt weird to say, having grown up on this particular Earth.
She paused and debated having him power up but then shook her head no. "No. When you're like that, people can sense you, like you can sense them, and you don't want to draw any baddies in the area to your apartment, right? Besides, it's okay, I think I got all I can get when I first picked up your signature last night. Maybe you're just a mutant," She half jokingly suggested with a placid shrug. She should've stopped being riled up at surprises sometime around meeting Nehelenia and getting her body saddled with one soul too many.
And then an accidental subject change. "Wow, I'm hungry. Do you have any food?" She asked, figuring it'd be too rude to say that while stomping off to raid his fridge and see for herself.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 6:51 pm
Hey, he happened to think he was pretty freaking badass, thank you very much. Okay, so he didn't. But it was fun to joke about every now and then, right...?
Chris stared at her, frowning lightly when she didn't have anything to share with him, though all of her little tidbits of information was starting to get him curious... about everything. She didn't seem as though she was supposed to tell him things, but... he was so curious by this point... The stuff he sort of knew only went so far, after all.
"White Moon cat...?" he asked, though cautiously, not wanting to step into an area that was off limits. "Zirconia...?" Memories? different universe?? What exactly was she talking about. As if he wasn't already confused beyond reason already! And okay, so he wouldn't be changing in to that... costume... thing...
"Uh, yeah, I can make you something if you want? I have... eggs... and pancake batter..." he listed, frowning lightly at his selection. "I usually grab food when I'm on my way to class." She should know that he couldn't cook, anyway. Not very well, at least. He always ended up burning things or not cooking them long enough. That's why he was always happy when his mother came over and brought food with her. It was easier that way. Yeah, so, he was still reliant mostly on his mother, but with an awesome mother, who could blame him??
"Wait, people can sense me?? I mean, I didn't feel anything... Of course, I was busy trying not to get my face eaten off by that monster in the alley. A little distracted there..." he grumbled to himself, taking Annabel and setting her back on the floor.
He was curious about one... kind of very important thing, though...
"Zee... are you... really a cat...?" he asked with a semi-mock grimace on his face. Not that he didn't like cats... but... it was kind of unusual.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 7:14 pm
"Icancookthem," Zia sputtered out at his offer, all too familiar with Chris's cooking skill. Zee wasn't a fabulous cook herself but she was at least really good at following instructions on the box.
She got up and headed for his kitchen, hoping to at least whip up some pancakes to inhale. And if that wasn't enough she'd probably take this conversation somewhere with more or a selection in eatables.
"Uh, White Moon, okay. This whole universe is the your universe where you come from and I come from, etcetera and all that. We're currently standing on White Earth, and out there is the White Moon," She rambled while looking for a bowl to mix in and stopping when she realized all of his silverware had touched the floor last night and grabbed a handful to rinse off.
"There's another place, another universe. With a Black Earth and a Black Moon." This was at least okay to tell him, right? After all, Azzo seemed to be in full knowledge and he was a puny human. She could at least tell him about her own powers? Chris, she was certain, would take it to the grave anyway so as long as they both kept their mouths shut, she convinced herself it could do no harm. Zirconia was less inclined to agree, but she had already decided that if Chris put either of their lives in jeopardy, she'd kill him herself.
"Thing is, the Black Moon? They never stopped being this huge, magical kingdom, like what happened over here god knows how long ago. they had a society and a queen..." She had to stop and bite her lip at rushing memories of Nehelenia. "A really, really amazing queen. But her source of power was stolen and brought over here, so in pursuit of it, some senshi, the queen, her lover, his cavaliers... a cat. They came into our universe through a mirror. But they need a body from this universe to sort of... hijack. Two souls, one body," With that ending remark she grimaced a little, looking him in the eye. Part of her felt weirdly guilty, like she had just confessed to making a deal with the devil. "I'm not special like you, or senshi. I wasn't born with this grand destiny. Zirconia, the cat, kind of... hitched a ride. So instead of powering up into a 'normal' thing... I power up... into... a cat," It was officially the weirdest thing she'd ever had to tell someone in her life.
Then she sighed and went back to mixing. "Anyway, they're mostly all dead now. The crusade is over, and we're stuck like this, fighting over the steering wheel of my body and occasionally fighting monsters. There are cats from this universe, though. Other guardians that have more answers on the history of this place. I know one; *********, she might be able to help. Or maybe there's more..." She waved a spatula she'd procured sometime during her ramble at him, trying to find a word for what he was and just gave up with a weird gesture. "You know. Of yous. That would know what's going on. And, yeah, you should be able to sense them. You're just starting out so it probably takes some concentration."
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Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 7:00 am
Awww... at least he tried to cook? Maybe he should invest in taking classes or something.
Chris pushed himself off the couch, making his way over to the kitchen so he could sit on one of the barstools against the longer counter, giving Zia free reign of the rarely used kitchen. It was a shame, too, since it was a nice kitchen. Plenty of counter space, plenty of storage, an island, a dishwasher, two sinks, an infrared stove top, and and oven, of course. He knew it was really nice of his parents to help him picking out a place, but he ended up going with his mother's favorite that they looked at. Again, the intention was to visit all the time, but the extra bedroom was now taken over by drafting supplies and computer screens, the patio was rarely used, and the pool table would have started collecting dust had it not been covered. Why his brother bought him a pool table, he would never understand. Apparently it was a college thing. And it wasn't as though there wasn't enough room for it. But for one guy and his tiny dog? It was kind of big.
He leaned his elbows on the counter as he listened to her, frowning as he tried to understand everything that he was being told. Two universes? How was that even possible? He already had his set of beliefs and that involved just the Earth, heaven, purgatory, and hell. All of this... supernatural stuff, or whatever it was, was kind of difficult to put together.
"Uh huh..." was all he could manage to say for a moment, sitting back and just... taking in a deep breath. "If I hadn't seen you change, for myself, I'd think you were crazy, you know," he told her, thinking he was taking this... magical power thing pretty well. "So... you have a parasite in your body... another soul..." He was just trying to get the facts straight, really. "She's not... hurting you, is she...? The cat, I mean. She was kind of a b***h..." he pointed out. "Is she always like that? And... Cavaliers...? That's a new term..." He hoped he wasn't going to be quizzed on this later, because he didn't think he could remember everything.
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