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 Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 12:24 pm
She'd finally gotten her long-awaited promotion, and Megiddo Squire of Saturn was ready to show it off to just about everyone. And when she thought everyone, she certainly included Ys in that number. After all, what good was a promotion when you couldn't gloat over it? (If only, she thought wistfully, she'd gotten the upgrade before being abducted by aliens and sent off to Mars. Then everyone could have seen how cool she looked!) (On the other hand, the armor would have probably been a pain in the a** in that weather.) The carnival was dark tonight, but she figured she'd find him if she poked around long enough. Like, for all she knew, he lived there and it was like going up and knocking on the door of his house. As for wandering around in uniform, she knew he didn't like when she did that and that he thought it was being youma bait, but the uniform was part of the point tonight and if he wanted to raise issue with it he could kiss her pitcher. That, she thought, was either a very good or a very bad threat. (She liked her new pitcher. It was much fancier than the old one, and heavier, and she was looking forward to killing a lot of people with it.) So, like, anyway, where were we? Eighteen year old girl in armor and a petticoat, wandering around a construction site in the dead of night, looking for Ys. Anything could happen. "Jingle balls," she called, peering across the darkened midway. "You around?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:40 pm
Unfortunately for Megiddo, Ys did not live at the carnival. At least, not as far as Luxor knew. But Luxor, Squire of Pluto, did. He had an 'office' there, which had been converted to a living space for him, where he conducted most of his work and spent his down time, when there was some. He had a real home in town, a rather nice one, but he almost never saw it these days.
This was his home now, when he was not off in space or something weird like that.
He was perched like a gargoyle at the top of one of the stands in the gaming boardwalk, watching her as she walked around the tents and tarps, the unused machinery that was no longer necessary because there was no more construction. He kept it all there, looking like there was work being done, but there was nothing more to do. He should re-open the place, but he just was not ready for that yet.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, hopping down from the stand and landing in front of her, though not too close. He watched her with his docile, vaguely irritated gaze, expression blank, eyes near impossible to read. He remembered her from that strange trip to space, the nickname she had given him ringing in his ears. She was a friend or associate of Ys, though that did not mean she was someone Luxor needed to know. He was always skeptical about people, mostly because he was terrible at making friends.
"You look different."
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:50 pm
Well, thought Megiddo, trying her hardest not to frown at the squire in front of her, she supposed he could have been ruder. He did not look pleased to see her, but, she realized, she hadn't exactly made the best impression. How was she to know that he was going to object to being called Fancy Casino Boyfriend, though? Actually, in retrospect, she thought, that was obvious. "I'm looking for Jingle ba--" She cut herself off, letting the juvenile nickname die in her mouth. "Ys," she corrected. "I thought all I had to do to find him was show up and click my heels three times and he'd come down on me like a brick wall, but apparently not." She bit her lip. "I guess he's not around," Megiddo surmised. Well, she could deal with that. Planting her hands on her hips, she swayed to show off how her new skirt moved. "Thank you for noticing!" she crowed. "I got a promotion! Just the other night, in fact. Rang in the new look by knocking out a general." No, that was a lie. "Almost," she added. "I had help. Anyway, I wanted to find Ys so I could show him, but he's apparently nowhere to be found. I thought he lived here?" Well, she'd assumed he lived here, and there was that old saying about what happened when you assumed. Brightly, Megiddo held out her pitcher. "This thing got an upgrade, too!" she said, voice dripping pride. "I'm going to crack so many skulls with it." If Luxor presumed she was a psychopath, he would probably not be wrong.
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Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 1:48 pm
"Ys isn't here," Luxor said blandly, with a soft sigh. That guy was a thorn on Luxor's side, but at the same time, he very much appreciated having Ys as a friend. Luxor, oddly enough, did not have many friends, and it took a very particular sort of person to put up with him. Though he had a very difficult time showing it, he did value those people.
Even if sometimes he wanted to punch them in the face.
He nodded his head at Megiddo as she spoke, his expression fairly difficult to read, if someone was looking for something in it. There was nothing there, beyond a serious, thoughtful gaze.
"Congratulations. It's not always easy to get an upgrade." He remembered his own, and he knew how hard he had been working to earn the next one, though he was not sure what exactly needed to be done for it. He would just keep on working, defending people and fighting those that wished to hurt the innocent.
He looked at the pitcher and nodded his head, though he wasn't sure it was actually designed for cracking skulls. They all had to make due with the weapons they were given. He had a glove with some metal work on it and, as far as he knew, that was all it was. He'd not used his magic yet, and just stuck to beating things up the old fashioned way. He had a lot of muscles, so he used them.
"Makes you wonder what it will be next," he said blandly, as if not wondering at all. But he did, and he wondered about his own glove as well.
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Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:28 pm
"My money's on an even fancier pitcher," said Megiddo, because she'd grown rather adept at this style of fighting and didn't really want to have to relearn everything just on the odd chance her weapon leveled up into something completely stupid. His expression struck her as odd, though - was she boring him? Did he want her to leave? Because, she decided, she totally wouldn't blame him if he wanted her to leave. Ys, on their first meeting, had demonstrated the sort of protectiveness the carnival staff held towards their enterprise; they did not appreciate trespassers. "D'you, um," she said, crossing her arms and pursing her lips thoughtfully. "D'you know where Ys might be like, lurking around? Or - it's probably pretty hard to lurk with all those bells. Not lurking. Um. Jingling? Jangling? Making a scene?" It sort of made sense, after what he'd gotten up to at Olympus, carrying on like-- Megiddo sighed demonstratively. "Well, I am sorry to disturb your evening, Mister Fancy Casino. I'll clear out before I turn into youma bait. Maybe he's at a clown convention." Or taking a night off. Or being everywhere except the one place she thought he would for-sure be, just to annoy her. Yeah. That last one sounded likely.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 1:17 pm
Luxor hummed his agreement, though if things really were so linear with their items, that meant his was still going to be a useless glove by the time he reached his Knight stage. He was not too happy to think that, but he supposed he'd been making do without anything too fancy this long, and he was still fairly strong. He would make it work.
Spacing out a bit, the Squire was not really paying attention to what sort of a face he was making. Of course, he had very few options as far as facial expressions went, and he was very used to people reacting to them in the same kinds of ways. He never meant to drive people off, but he was not the warmest guy around, and was very used to being solitary.
Minus a few exceptions, like Zia or Ys, who were oblivious to his grump factor.
"I'm not sure where he is," he said blandly, though he did put some thought into it. He had not taken the time to learn Ys' schedule, only knowing when he showed up at the Carnival, or when they went on patrol together.
"You didn't disturb me," he added, without any actual tone to his tone, "I'm glad you've gotten stronger, and if you want to come by again, you can. Looking for Ys, or if you power up more. I don't... know much, and can't offer much help... but you're welcome here."
He looked tired after saying so many words together all at once, but he managed without imploding, and did his best to offer her a pleasant look. His face didn't change much, but he did mean what he said, and was actually making an effort to be a little more open to others, since she was a knight, like he was.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 3:06 pm
Helpful, thought Megiddo impassively, at the news that Luxor absolutely had no idea where Ys was. Maybe she'd go home and flick magical post-it note text messages at him until he couldn't ignore her anymore - that would be fun! Anyway, as fascinating as tonight's discoveries had been (for example, Luxor and Ys were definitely not gay for each other), she wasn't really getting much done here and whether or not he wasn't annoyed by her, this was awkward. "Cool, thanks," she said, glad to have the standing invite - Ys had never given her one of those. "I'll stop by sometime. Ride the rides, maybe win a giant teddy-bear? Whenever you open, I'll be back, and you can fleece me out of all my pocket money on the carnival games." "Anyway," continued Megiddo, rocking on her heels, "I'll see you around? If you see Ys, do me a favor and tell him I was looking for him - I'm gonna scram, gotta find someone else's night to really ruin." There was a dangerous gleam in her eyes, and the way she gestured with her pitcher made her intentions perfectly clear. Someone was about to have a really awful time. "Toodles," she said, waving daintily. "Megiddo, out." And she turned, whistling a television theme song as she departed.
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 1:05 pm
Luxor nodded his head, and watched as the other Squire turned to leave. He shook his head thoughtfully, wondering about the encounter, and the way she conducted herself in this war. She seemed very fond of her item, and of the idea of going out and fighting with it, while Luxor spent his time patrolling his carnival and trying to stay as isolated as possible. He went out on patrol sometimes, to protect the innocent, but it did not seem like enough, with his focus primarily on his lands.
He had a very small world view, and he tried not to concern himself with the war at large. He wondered if that was a mistake, or if he was making more of a dent in one small area than he could be if he branched out more. It was difficult to tell, but he was now more curious than he had been to talk to other knights and see how they did things.
Maybe he would meet up with Megiddo again, and ask her more questions. He was terrible at conversation, and putting his thoughts and curiosities out in the open. Being the stoic, silent hero type had its disadvantages, sometimes. Being silent and sometimes antagonistic, then just made it that much more difficult. Link he was not.
Once she was gone, Luxor set out to finish his patrol around the park grounds, mulling things over as he went.
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