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 Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:39 pm
Patrolling with Valhalla had become comfortably routine, which was nice, since Zia had been breaking her routine all over the place. Even if they were monster hunting.
She still had a habit of occasionally being distracted by whatever food places were open. Run around town all day, work out all evening, run around the city all night? Zia needed food. Constantly. Or everyone was subjected to Zia Connolly on low blood sugar which was a level of bitchery not witnessed since her obsessive dieting days in high school
"Pie!" She announced, running ahead of Valhalla for the diner door. It wasn't a fast food get out and go type place, but Zia was undeterred. "Come on, I'll just tell them you got lost on your way to a fair or something," She teased, pushing the door open and instantly deflating when she saw the guy cleaning the counter.
"We're clo-- Zee." Noah was unamused anyway but then he saw who was intruding, his brow lowered into a comical frown. He had a few things to say to the wayward sister who apparently only magically appeared to ruin dates and then rub it in by being the one who gets to spend the night at his girlfriend's. Cruel b***h.
"What are you doingWHAT THE ******** ARE YOU DOING?" He thought the escalation in tone was totally appropriate, considering he caught a glimpse of an armored guy just outside the window behind her.
"He's coming from a fair?" Zia tested and then shrugged, skipping in and making herself at home in the empty place. No need to make excuses when it was just Noah.
"We're closed. We are especially closed when it comes to magical bullshittery," Noah huffed, only to be ignored by Zia who was ogling the display case pastries. "I eat for free because you love me, right?"
"GET OUT!" His voice cracked. He had had enough senshi, negas, monsters, ******** trampling through his place. He wasn't even turning a profit guys. Geez.
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Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:45 pm
"Seriously?" Valhalla groaned at his friend's distraction for food, although he was surprised she didn't already have something to munch on in her hand. She usually had coffee or a snack with her. But now that Thanksgiving was over and life had to get back to normal, Valhalla was back to patrolling with Zia. Okay, so that probably wasn't the most normal thing someone could do, but...
The knight sputtered in alarm as she did indeed make her way into the restaurant, helpless to stop her from doing as she pleased, despite his reservations. He was wary or just bursting into any private establishment while fully powered. One, it could be dangerous because someone might have a gun and decide to kill some supposed terrorists or vigilantes or whatever they thought they were... two, because they may as well be on the side of Chaos and that would put Zia in danger by association.
Unfortunately, she had already drawn the attention of one of the employees and Valhalla quickly lifted his hands in a sign of peace as he cautiously stepped into the restaurant behind her.
But it wasn't just any employee... it was Zia's brother! Whom he hadn't seen in... years? Who knew...
It was the hair that confirmed it, of course. There weren't many he'd met with their particular coloring.
"Zee, come on... Stop harassing him," he warned, keeping an eye on Noah whom was already flipping out enough as it was, and they hadn't done anything but go inside. "Sorry... you don't have to yell, we're leaving... Zee," he tried to insist, not wanting to test anyone's patience. That, and he didn't want Noah involved more than he already was...
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Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 7:29 pm
"No it's cool, he knows what's going on," Zia said flippantly while Noah looked like he was going to pop a vein. "A-- tch... Zia I swear every time one of those super powered freaks... or you show up there's always one of those youma around and I'm already in the red this quarter profitswise." Poor Valhalla was pointed at when he mentioned superpowered freaks.
"I... what are you?" Noah had reacted to the poor guy on the basis of 'not normal clothes, must be part of the freakshow' and only now did he realize he was both a dude, and not in a miniskirt or chaps. And also him and Zia had incredibly similar, laser targeted looks of condescending 'really?', and Noah's was currently staring down poor Valhalla. He might've been nicer if he'd known it was the boy next door. Or... maybe even less nice than he was being now.
Zia was ignoring them both. She'd never been in Noah's place, which she found insulting as all hell because for a while when he'd been back in town they were having lunch together regularly. Maybe he was trying to impress her or something. But either way, she didn't just not stop, she freely reached over and grabbed a plate of pastries, examining one. "Does this label say cherry cheesecake cupcake? Jesus, you're madman."
Noah paused to give a twitchy look between the two of them, Zia and Valhalla, and then he just decided to regress back to how he dealt with her when she was four and he was sixteen. "NO, Okay? Just no. I haven't seen you in friggin years and you just dumb this stupid dog on me and then you pop up smashing monsters and then you completely cockblocked me and then spent the night with my girlfriend. And you just ate fifteen dollars worth of cupcakes and UGH, you know what?" He grabbed her arm and started dragging her like she was in his room getting in his toys. And neither of them were reacting like adults. Zia damaged Noah's calm like no one else.
Zia pulled back slightly but mostly just looked bored. She probably could've made a comment about how he'd made it sound like she'd stolen his girlfriend when she was just having a sleepover with Lily, but given how antagonistic she was these days just said, "You're right, I was wrong. Bros before hos, sorry."
And maybe if she hadn't been energy blind she would've felt a better reason for him not to throw her out on her a** before it actually crashed through the glass windows just behind them, barely missing both of them.
Noah slid back in a pretty impressive dodge, way, way too familiar with avoiding becoming youma food.
Zia just flounced behind Valhalla, since she's been dragged back to him. "Uh... guy in armor, you can do this one, right?" She still had half a cupcake in her hands.
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Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:58 pm
Valhalla shifted awkwardly in place, wishing he could be anywhere but there at the moment. Sibling arguments didn't always turn out very well due to the familiarity they had with one another, and he would much rather not get in the middle of it... but he did feel slightly offended upon being called a freak.
He didn't think he was that freakish! Yeah, he looked like a strange... costumed dude, but... seriously, there were better ways to go about things than resort to name calling.
Apparently maturity didn't run in their family? Who knew...
When he was suddenly spoken to though, Valhalla blinked in surprise. "Uh... knight," was all he could manage before Zia distracted her brother with the cupcakes. It was a little difficult to gauge the level of annoyance and anger between them. He could understand Noah being frustrated, though. Zia's flippancy often caught himself off guard and triggered him to react in ways he would rather not. In the wake of their argument, though... it was a bit easier to stay out of the way and let them do their thing.
At least until Noah grabbed her arm.
"Hey, let her go!" he bristled defensively, not at all condoning the manhandling of his best friend, whether or not she probably deserved it. He started towards them, but was suddenly forced to shield himself from a shower of glass. "What the hell??" he sputtered, taken by complete surprise at the apparence of the youma.
He shot Zia an exasperated look over his shoulder as he fumbled with his compass only slightly. The youma had probably picked up on him, which made him feel even more guilty about bothering Noah, and made a mental note to pay for the damages. It was ant-like, with a long, slender body, what looked like a hard shell, and pincers that Valhalla definitely did not want to get up and personal with. His compass was pointed towards the monster as a stream of green light shot from it, causing the youma's attempt at a lunge forward to turn into an awkward summersault backwards, and away from them... For the moment.
"You two get out of here!" he called, sounding confident for the moment, but he wasn't entirely sure this youma would be going down with a simple swing of a baseball bat that Zia was used to.
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 6:15 am
Noah, after many, many expensive encounters with youma on his property, had learned that the counter had a tendency to make an excellent barrage wall for youma of various kinds. Even if he kind of ended up there by being preemptively knocked on his a** to avoid being hit.
Zia on the other hand, apparently had her 'ha ha I'm an a*****e and don't care' lo self esteem defenses on at critical mass tonight, because she was still flippant and not showing much concern for anything but frosting.
"Yeah no offense or anything, knight-guy," Noah said, still kind of condescending, but he was having trouble taking kids dressed in silly costumes seriously. Even if they were magic. "But the last time I got outta here to let a bunch of magic kids fight a monster, you guys ended up costing me forty grand in damages." But for as much as he was trying to be snarky and not lose his s**t, he was reaching frantically behind the counter. He had a tire iron or something back here, he knew it.
And he had to stop and point accusingly at his sister who was still hanging back. "I swear, <********> you show your disaster area self around here, Zee."
"Well not every time," Zia argued. "I mean you knew what they were before so clearly there were times my fingerprints were totally not on!" She shrugged and tried to pretend it wasn't a stab in the gut that Noah of all people just called her a disaster area.
Though as the youma tumbled and flailed amongst chairs and furniture, she did stand on her toes behind Val to ask in a quieter tone, "Are you sure?" Because if he couldn't handle it, and her stupid brother wasn't going to get out of the fire fight. "I could zap it..." That would require powering up, though, which she was still iffy on.
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 7:11 pm
The knight-guy did his best not to get offended by the attitude Noah was giving him, using his magic once more to trip the youma as it tried making its way towards them. He did what he could to limit the amount of time he used his magic, not knowing how long it would take for the youma to get used to being forced in the opposite direction it was trying to go, or if his magic would run out first.
"I'll pay for it," he called over the annoyed growls from the creature as it tore up some of the seating area. If this guy was going to whine about how much it would cost him, and if that was why he had a poor opinion on knights... then he first needed to grow the hell up, and second, he could just ask instead of whine.
Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't been dropping money left and right and getting his grandmother to let him into his trust fund early... But that was for something important.
After that purchase... forty grand was nothing.
Some of Zirconia's comments about him being spoiled came to mind, but he did his best to push them out, focusing instead on the problem they were trying to deal with.
"Of course I'm not sure," he admitted with a grimace, pushing Zia out of the way with him as he dodged some debris, making a note to put that chair on his tab as well. "You know I don't have offensive magic... All I can do it beat it down until we can dust it, but I don't want to carry your a** home, so don't you dare zap it," he quickly added, not wanting her to get any ideas.
He decided to keep extra comments about her eating everything she could get her hands on to himself.
"If you can help me find a weapon and keep Noah from flipping his s**t, we can get out of here faster." As much as he would like to test her out on this youma and maybe trigger an awakening in her... he didn't want her brother any more involved than he was.
"It's Valhalla, by the way. Not 'knight-guy'," he finally snapped in Noah's direction. "Valhalla of Jupiter."
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:08 pm
Noah's frantic search yielded results in the form of his trusty youma dusting tire iron, only for it to end up lodged in the carapace of the flailing ant monster when it came a little too close for comfort.
Saved his a** that time around. And the thing let out a terrible, squealing screech that distracted him from the fact that stupid kid just offered to drop 40 grand like it was nothing. Either he was ******** lunatic, which seemed likely given the chosen get up, or he was like Destiny City's slightly more flamboyant Bruce Wayne and both options were not his favorite.
Also he was left without a tire iron and felt naked in the midst of a fight. That was destroying his way to often destroyed diner. At least it was distracting him from introductions which would not have helped.
He reached for something else. Something. Anything. A shard of glass, a bottle...
Zia stumbled when she was pushed, suddenly showing legitimate fear when she saw Valhalla narrowly dodge a piece of debris. And then Noah's little fiasco, mostly because the dumbass was in a seriously closer section to the youma because... why? If she knew it was because he had useful things to bash it with she probably still wouldn't have been very understanding. Noah was the last family member she had left that didn't make her sick to her stomach all of the time. Just some of the time. And he was totally not allowed to get eaten. Or bludgeoned by a stray youma piece. Actually neither one of them were, and she'd prefer if she wasn't either, considering she ended up hitting the deck when more debris when flying.
"I've got two good ones in me, if you have to carry me home instead of one or both of you losing a limb, I'm pretty okay with that," She snapped at Valhalla, trying to sound like she was in charge, at least of herself. She wasn't. Her skin crawled at the thought of powering up, but after a hesitant moment she needed to psyche herself up, she did. And actually, being a feline, even a larger one than a normal housecat, did make dodging that flying debris pretty easy. Easy enough to make it to high ground, which, indignantly to her was a table ledge, and deliver a precise shot of energy to it's underbelly the next time it fell over. Combined with the tire iron in it's back being shoved in further from the impact, the monster let out a few good screeches in pain and collapsed into dust.
Zia moved to get the hell out of it, coughing and grimacing and swearing. "Every ******** time! Right in my face!"
But as she wiped her eyes, she suddenly became aware that she was no longer energy blind, and with the absence of the youma signature she felt the very distinct presence of Valhalla... and a ********, you're a cat." Babble. Babble from a page. "You're a cat! You turned into a cat! Is... is that permanent?" A page on the verge of hyperventilating.
Zia shifted to her humanoid mauvian form, wanting to stand on two legs but not daring to go energy blind right now. Though, when she looked at her babbling brother, she jumped back with a yelp like it was a physical force knocking her over.
That bottle Noah grabbed was not one of his empty beer bottles.
It was so not one of his empty beer bottles. But that was besides the fact now. His senses were overwhelmed with the new clarity, random feelings and inclinations swarmed through his brain and also this mess was going to be so expensive to clean up. And he was in a costume. Like he was going to a Renaissance Fair. He was totally hyperventilating by now. "What's... what's happening? What the ******** am I wea-- WHY ARE YOU A CAT?" The fact he was surrounded by a knight and a humanoid mauvian's energy signatures was not helping the sense of 'oh my ******** god overwhelmed' that was making him dizzy enough he had to grab the side of the counter.
Zia was staring at him like he was a ghost, her jaw practically on the floor, and just took a few careful steps back, not wanting to crunch on any glass with her bare feet, until she could paw at Valhalla's arm like she was drowning, and eyes still glued entirely to Alfheim.
"Oh my god," She murmured, finally latching onto Valhalla's arm and hugging it as tightly as she could. "You totally weren't full of s**t."
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Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 4:52 pm
Zia's transforming had Valhalla in a slight panic, not wanting her to get trampled or hurt in any way, but he soon lost sight of her in all the commotion.
But Zia seemed to be thinking along the same lines he was. As soon as it was possible, hitting its soft underbelly would give them the best chance at dusting it. Sure enough, once his magic did its thing and had the monster stumbling back and over itself, she finished the job. Well, Noah and Zia finished the job, seeing as they had the actual prowess and weapons to do it.
He already knew his magic wasn't any good for trying to harm others, unless it was an accident.
It wasn't until the cloud of dust had started to clear and Zia was swearing did he realize that he was no longer the only knight in the room...
Valhalla stared at the other man, his uniform familiar somehow, but... that couldn't be.
"No," he shook his head in denial. "No, it can't be him." Valhalla's eyes were wide with some kind of panic in them. He couldn't have been wrong. He knew what he'd seen. It was a woman he'd seen. It had been Zia he'd seen! N-not that his past life self looked identical to him, but... but this was wrong. All of their work, all of their trying.
"Stop, just stop!" he said without any real sense of what he didn't want to continue. Maybe he didn't want them to keep talking. Or maybe he wanted this new Page to disappear and not exist. Maybe he hit his head on something and was imagining it! This wasn't what he'd wanted! He had to be Zia!
He didn't pull away from Zia clutching his arm, but he did power down both out of being overwhelmed, himself, and out of politeness for the fact that he knew Noah's identity but not the other way around. That, and he didn't want to deal with this nonsense any more, much less that night. He was trying not to look or sound as upset as he felt, but the expressiveness of his eyes would give him away.
If Noah was a Page... then he'd failed Zia... or rather, he'd failed himself. He put his best friend in danger for... what? Nothing...
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Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 6:13 pm
Zia looked blank, then distraught, then confused, then blank again and through all her staring all she managed to do was squeeze Chris tighter.
New Page Alfheim wasn't as good at keeping the cork in the bottle, figuratively speaking. His hyperventilating had evolved to pacing and yelling and pleasing and flailing his arms because no one was offering any explanation and the world suddenly made perfect sense and absolutely no sense at all.
The fact his sister and her 'little' friend were just staring was not helping. His sister having a tail also wasn't helping.
"Who are you?" After what seemed like forever, Zia's voice managed to ring clear among the shocked silence and confused babble, and it made Alfheim stop in his tracks and give her a disoriented look. "Zee... it's me," He said, half worried by the question.
"No, who are you?" She asked again, and his brow furrowed in distress. "You can do it." Te command was followed by some mild encouragement as Zia tentatively loosened her death grip on Chris, toning it down to a one handed tug on his shirt to take two steps closer to Alfheim, yellow eyes narrowed in focus.
"I... ugh, this is bizarre," Alfheim responded, bewildered and rubbing the sides of his forehead as he looked down at this boots. Which were not his sneakers. Which was not helping.
"No, say it. Not just your name, say your words," Zia sounded almost desperate, like she was going to cry, and actually broke physical contact with Chris entirely for the first time since this new energy signature popped into existence to grab the first Noah was clutching his weapon in with both hands. "Focus on this and say it!"
There was a sharp exhale, and what little microexpressions betrayed the millions of things going through her mind, none of them were positive.
Noah found that more unsettling than anything, even the whole suddenly in costume thing.
He frowned and looked at that stupid bottle in his hand and back to Zia, who had recoiled back to Chris when the page hesitated. He started to shake his head and stopped himself, caught in this moment, surrounded by millions of other moments that didn't make sense, in this one moment, he wanted to stop making her look at him that way.
"I..." He was trying, Zia knew that. He was confused, but he was trying. And one hand reached out to gingerly touch his shoulder.
"I pledge my life and loyalty to Earth,"
EARTH?! Zirconia's voice suddenly rattled Zia's brain, but she tried not to flinch. Tried and failed. Zirconia had... unpleasant feelings about Earth. And it's soldiers.
"And to Alfheim. I humbly request your aid, so that in return, I may give you mine."
And just like that, the room was empty.
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