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 Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 11:34 am
So it was New Years. He didn't think he'd ever been more on edge, or at least... not in recent memory. He just kept waiting for something to go deeply, catastrophically wrong, and the temptation to buy a six pack of beer, or hell, two... had almost overridden logic. Instead he'd pulled through a drive through and gotten an ridiculous amount of take out food, figuring he could share... assuming the people who were supposed to show up did. "Zee!" He was deeply relieved to catch a glimpse of lavender curls heading in his direction... though admittedly he'd done quite a lot of scanning the area for other familiar looks too... and held up the bags and a tray holding drinks. "Come grab something before the vultures get here." ... Unfortunate choice of words. ...Ugh. he should have bought booze.
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 11:56 am
Zia was still taking to being bundled up. No uniform, and, well ********, it was cold outside. But she wasn't wearing monster hunting or indexing gear tonight. It was normalcy, bordering on business chic fashion with her long coat and labels and perfectly groomed curls.
Tonight she actually tried and dressed up as if she were going to visit people who mattered, which made her statement all the more hypocritical when she approached and surveyed the food offerings with folded, gloved hands.
"Is this your idea of a party or something?" She cooed
In reality her stomach was in knots. While Mariposite's purification proved to be exceptionally non-fatal, his forgetfulness after still carried some weight with her. Camelot had been a highly influential factor on the Nega, and he forgot his existence.
Memories of her had been spared, but what if she wasn't going to be so lucky with another test subject?
She stiffly reached for a take out bag, trying not to look too uncomfortable or anxious to see him.
"How are you feeling?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 12:19 pm
"...Not a party... not really." He admitted. "But I figured it would keep me busy on something I'd potentially regret less than a six pack. ... Which isn't saying I would say no to a beer right now. Or several beers. I'd k...." He cleared his throat and changed his wording, suddenly self conscious of it. "I'd ******** love a beer right now but I don't think it's a great idea. I mean... maybe later." He wasn't sure the desire for a beer would fade or not, but if it didn't... well he was pretty sure the universe wasn't going to erase beer from existence to spite him for purifying. Pretty sure. "How about you?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 12:30 pm
Zia fumbled with the paper and avoided eye contact for a bit. She didn't even eat, when it came down to it. She was too nauseous and nervous for food so she just kind of stood there, awkwardly holding it with both hands to occupy them.
"I saw Mariposite purify," She said, rather than answering how she was. And she just let that hang there for a painful moment before adding, "He forgot Camelot. And the war."
She glanced down at the take out in her hands, expression tight in something grim rather than upset.
"Do you think you'd forget me?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 12:40 pm
As questions went, it was a bit of a gut punch, and he looked around for a dry bit of park bench on which to rest the other take out bag and drinks, fumbling to peer inside them as though he were trying to make a decision on what to take out, when in fact the only thing he was trying to decide was what to say.
"...I... don't know. I want to say hell no, but there's no handbook to this stuff exactly. "
So Mariposite had purified huh? Maybe he shouldn't be surprised that the almost ridiculously perky captain had smiled cheerfully and skipped off into the light already. But to forget the war? That sounded dangerous, and it made a the pit of his stomach feel like lead.
"...I just don't know."
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 12:56 pm
"You know," Zia didn't seem to waver. Nails digging in to cold food she never planned to eat and lidded eyes downcast on it instead of the captain trying to avoid looking at her. "It would be disappointing..."
It have been over a year since they met on a rooftop making jokes about flicking cigarettes down on the civilian population. Longer still since Zirconia was harassing the poor lieutenant only trying to feed strays. That was a lot of time to lose, after being someone who had lost quite a few charges already.
"I would hope you at least aren't afraid of me. I would like to keep you," She said, speaking in guardian cat terms. "When Ares and Gaia switched sides, they didn't want me anymore," She added, bringing up a name they had decided ages ago was too dangerous to elaborate on her connection to. Zia's level of involvement in the war, and why she had tied herself to people, had always been dubious and unspoken.
It was so pertinent to keep their stupid friendship plausible.
Her face was still hard in that cold, unhappy expression, but her eyes finally looked up to stare at his figure sitting on the bench.
"I know knights and the Negaverse don't work like senshi, and that they don't really connect with guardians like they should, but proper connections don't work for me anyway and--.... I just. Even if you forget me... if you'd still have me... I do consider you my charge."
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:19 pm
"...I'm not going to be afraid of you." He couldn't picture a scenario that would make that happen, though it was sort of... funny... picturing himself as the 'charge' of someone "The only thing I'm afraid of is that you might not buy me a stiff drink after this, because I'm probably going to need it." He joked.
...Well... a little afraid as well that she'd be pissed if she saw the cats.
"I'd have to loose everything to forget you."
And then he really would have lost everything, and by then he supposed he'd have lost even himself, so it wouldn't matter. Well... it would to her, but he'd be beyond being able to do anything about it.
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 3:25 pm
"Hm," Zia huffed out in a sigh and pulled back one corner of her mouth in some, very mild and strangely unhappy form of smile. "You're kind of dense," She stated, looking back down at the take out in her hands to pick it apart curiously.
And while she did this, her form shifted.
The crescent brand on her chest was now matched by the purple moon on her forehead, her chic winter clothes replaced by bare feet, dress and overlay, and of course the ever distinctive cat features.
"I'm curious to see what's on the auric field when a purification happens. I was powered down for Mariposite," She stated blandly, tilting her head so she could look at her food from a better angle.
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 3:46 pm
"...Yeah... yeah apparently I kind of am."
Holy crap. Definitely should have bought the beer, this might have been slightly less mind blowing with a good beer buzz going. Holy crap. "Although to be fair I'm not sure you currently have any further grounds to address me as "Crazy Cat Guy", especially after I gave you bacon."
He might well forget the whole damn conversation as soon as Iris showed up, but holy s**t.
"How does that even..." Nope. Nope. NOPE nix that question. He already knew it came with WAY WAY too much bad baggage attached. Do not ask how your ex bosses daughter turned into a cat. DO. NOT. ASK.
"You owe me a beer. Flat out. And I will make sure to tell someone else that you owe me at least one beer in case I forget.."
He wasn't even sure he was handling this correctly, but he didn't know how else too handle it, it was almost funny, no it kinda was funny. One of the most interesting Guardian Cats he'd met was also one of the most interesting Women he'd met.
....She was going to murder him if he rubbed one of the ears probably, but considering he didn't have a single beer in his system the urge to do so was pretty powerful. He blamed the adrenaline rush from waiting to step off the metaphorical cliff and see what happened.
"I oughta flog you with a soft Taco you... a**." He grumped, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Will you feel sufficiently punished then?"
She seemed to almost be looking for it.
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 4:00 pm
"I was wondering what this was," The mauvian mused, further inspecting the one she had in her hands like it was strange.
Burgers were a significant portion of her life force. Tacos? Not so much. And while her introduction to the world of cheap fast food and general crap for consumption had been nearly two years ago, she hadn't even really bothered walking into a Taco King establishment to find this strange and unholy taco/burrito hybrid on the menu.
She rolled her shoulders with a light shrug, trying to ignore the cold.
"Mirror people are made when the queen finds a suitable host for a soul, because their bodies can't travel over. You get all of their abilities for the price of your autonomy. But for some reason I was the lucky pick to not only get body-jacked, but also get the cat instead of anything useful... And then everyone who belonged to me died or left."
She shook her head and let her hands drop, a look of fervor and desperation on her face
"Guardians are supposed to watch over people. We're not supposed to be alone. And what I'm trying to say is I claimed you a long time ago, and I intend to keep you no matter what you lose tonight."
And then she brought the soft taco-burrito-thingy back up to her face for inspection before taking a tentative bite and giving him a flippant shrug to try to counteract all of that emoting.
"I technically never lied to you, by the way. I am not a senshi, or a knight, or an agent of the Negaverse."
So there.
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 4:16 pm
"You're going to turn into a popcicle instead of a cat." He pointed out with a defensive frown, trying to cover his uncertainty how to deal with being claimed.
They were some pair weren't they? A bodyjacked girl with a guardian cat with no one to guard and a racer who couldn't race. They were a regular carnival of broken toys.
"You also didn't tell me that was your dads garage we broke into." He pointed out. "I had to figure that one out...So I get to be a little annoyed I think."
He paused and added, reaching into the bag for something blindly and eying the wrapper warily, trying to remember what he'd ordered and what was in what container.
"...But I do not regret inviting you, and I do not regret listening to you, and I think you need to know that."
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 4:34 pm
"I don't want to be energy blind for this," She countered at his comment, and glanced away with a shrug.
Especially when he brought up the fact that she had taken him on a little tour of destruction in revenge against her own father without keying him in on that little detail.
"Are you mad at me?" She asked, anklets jingling as she moved to sit down next to him. Because obviously the respectful thing to do when you suspected someone was mad at you was suffocate them with your presence.
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 4:51 pm
"I'm annoyed, but I can't blame you for trying to keep parts of your life separate. I mean you don't know who I am when I power down..." Not for lack of a few hints tonight, but still.
"Although seriously half of Destiny City is going to wonder what the hell is happening in the park." He pointed out. Mirror Cat signature and Captain signature... already strange. Mirror cat, captain, and Princess? And if Camelot showed too?
Questions would be asked, no doubt, especially when his own chaos signature did... whatever it was about to do.
"Is the theory here that you'll fit into more expensive shoes if your toes turn blue and fall off?"
He was pretty sure she could turn into a real cat too, if memory served, but wasn't so sure how that affected how she saw energy. It had just never occurred to him to ask. Until now anyway.
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:24 pm
"Aw, green eyes, is that how you ask to pet me?" She snarked when she pictured up the hinting she should maybe power down and leaned close over his shoulder with an ornery grin.
And it was followed by another flippant shrug anyway.
"I wasn't really... I mean I don't usually power up anyway," She admitted with a weird look on her face. "Especially full cat. Sometimes... I get better at it, but it's weird. Especially around people who know me. It's not even really my body, it's her's and I don't really know how I feel about her sometimes."
She adjusted the heavy purple overlay that starkly contrasted the whispy overlays of the DMC senshi to cover her legs a little before she set down her food and raised a hand over her chest where her mangled starseed was.
"She doesn't talk anymore," She murmured quietly. "But I know she's there... in the back of my brain... one day she'll probably take over again. But until then," She looked at her own fingertips with a hardened expression that bordered on anger at the very fringes of it. Until she let it go with a drawn out sigh.
"It's just hard, and it's weird, and I don't like it. I like to just pretend I'm still human."
She scooted closer and hijacked his arm, whether he wanted to use it for eating or not, and leaned against him. "But I want to see this."
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Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:40 pm
"That... honestly makes this s**t sound like a cake walk. I'm pretty sure there's no one in my head but me..."
He shifted a little, to pat her hand with his free one. "You're one tough lady, you know that right?"
He wanted to say something more reassuring like 'Zirconia has to go through me to steal your body', or 'I'll make her share', but it would have been a feeble lie and an unkeepable promise, no matter what they might have wanted.
"Also if I wanted to pet you I'd just use my free hand and ruffle those fuzzy widdle kitty ears....just like this!!"
By god if she didn't punch him he was going to be insanely surprised but damnit. You only lived once, and this conversation could be a little lighter.
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