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 Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:10 pm
With a huge exhale, Zia ended the day at the gym flopping against her locker and surveying the area.
She hadn't gone to kickboxing since she broke up with Pascal in October, but they had made a pact to be friends and do friend things now, and since the gym was a common activity, she was sure it was going to come up again.
But she didn't want to be embarrassed by being out of shape, so today she had elected to sneak off and hit a session solo and was currently lamenting how badly it had winded her.
She still did yoga and it wasn't like she wasn't fit, but the intensive training was still a step up from the usual and there was clearly a lot of ground to cover. So she was decidedly quitting for the day. It felt awkward hanging around alone anyway; The gym was usually a social event for her.
She spotted a girl she'd seen around regularly but hadn't had much interaction with beyond occasional 'hi's and 'excuse me's. For all appearances Zia looked like she was in her early twenties and was actually older than that, so with that age gap she had never actually felt the need to acknowledge her as anything more than the landscape, even if only subconsciously.
But right now they had something in common; They were both leaving and it looked like in the same direction too.
"Hey! Luca, right?" She called out as she moved to catch up, slinging her gym bag over her shoulder and amicably smiling, "Walk with me, kiddo, I'm lonely."
Sami-Fire I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry this took so long.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:04 pm
"Hm?" Luca had seen this woman around at the gym a few times before, but she'd never expected to actually be approached by her. Frankly, she seemed like one of those cool older girl types from a distance, and Luca wasn't exactly sure how she'd fit in with such a person. Well, common ground was common ground, and since they both did kickboxing, that was better than nothing. She smiled brightly at Zia's invitation to walk with her and nodded. "Oh, hi! Yes, I'm Luca. And you are?" While she didn't explicitly accept the invitation to walk with her, she was already adjusting her pace to match Zia's a bit more.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 6:12 am
"Zee," She answered, lightly knocking her shoulder against Luca's with a friendly grin.
Zia didn't like doing things on her own so much, and she had never really gone to the gym alone. Pascal or Doug or Lily or someone was always with her. So she had no problem grabbing someone to keep her company and already insert overly friendly mannerisms into their interactions.
"Ah, god, I haven't been around in forever, I think that almost killed me today."
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Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:48 pm
"Hi, Zee!" Luca said back, chuckling when she was bumped. She was the sort of person to be receptive to playful gestures. She tended to be rather sociable herself (randomly approaching the girl in the Lolita dress a little while back was one example), so when she met someone who was equally friendly, it made her happy on a deep level. It was a bit like resonating with someone, in a way. "Haven't been around in forever?" Luca questioned. "How long has it been since you last kickboxed? I mean, I've seen you around recently, but it sounds like you took a break."
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Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 5:40 am
"Pascal got the gym in the divorce," Zia joked, a small reference to the fact she stopped coming around when she ended her relationship with the long time patron who introduced her to the sport.
Pascal Lalande had been kickboxing longer than she had, and until October she had usually arrived with him and then stopped arriving at all.
But she shrugged it off.
"It's been several months. I came back a few weeks ago."
But the easy pace of their walk was suddenly halted when Zia caught something inky black scurrying along the alleyway shadows and she grabbed Luca's arm, coming to a complete halt. She didn't get a good enough glimpse, but every alarm sounded off that it was likely a youma.
"We should cross the street."
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 7:24 pm
"Divorce...?" The tone said that Zia was joking, but Luca was undoubtedly a little confused by it. Ah, well. "Yeah, a few weeks... you might need just a bit longer to get totally in fighting form." Luca totally jolted when Zia grabbed her arm, having not been prepared to shift mindsets from an easy pace to handle sudden danger. Sure, kickboxing was fighting-oriented and helped her as a Senshi, but it was mostly a civilian thing. "Huh? Did you see something?" Luca began to look around, trying to spot whatever made Zia come to a halt. "We're not being followed or anything, are we?"
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Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 12:39 pm
Zia's eyes were mostly focused on that movement in the alleyway, but she did glance to Luca when she asked if they were being followed. It was getting dark anyway, and her nerves were frayed.
"No, let's just--..." She was making efforts to shuffle the teenager off the sidewalk when the strange amalgamation of canine and various other animals gave way to caution and lunged, giving Zia just enough time to give up on gentling guiding Luca's walking path and just flat out shove her in the other direction.
"Go go go go!" She urged, frantically looking around for a place that might have a mirror.
She had no way of knowing Luca was a senshi, but she knew her own offensive magical powers were lacking sorely, and all of her plans were mostly centered on get the ******** out of there.
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 3:17 am
Luca yelped when the creature burst forth from the alleyway and Zia shoved her. Her first reaction was, what is that thing?! But once she calmed herself down, it sank in that this was most likely "just" a youma. She reached into a pocket in her bag, rifling around for her henshin pen. After a quick glance in Zia's direction, she said, "You're going to see something kind of shocking. Please try not to freak out, okay? I'll explain after I take care of this thing." It was a rather shoddy introduction to the transformation that was about to take place, but it would have to do. She found her henshin pen in the bag's pocket, and with a glow, Luca transformed into Sailor Megrez, Senshi of Eggs. She conjured one egg and tossed it at the youma, hitting it square in the head and drawing its attention. "Quick, go somewhere safe!"
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 1:30 pm
Had Zia had any insight to Luca’s mind she would’ve argued with the assertion it was ‘just’ a youma. youma had teeth and varying degrees of strength and difficulty, and up until thirty seconds ago she had assumed Luca was a normal teenage girl from the gym.
Her reaction went very far in the opposite direction poor Megrez was expecting, with warnings of ‘shocking’ and whatnot, but Zia seemed to have calmed down considerably, crossing her arms and watching the egg go flying at the youma, which ceased its attack to stumble aimlessly in gooey egg coating its face.
“Really?” Was the flat question as the woman gave the senshi a look like an unamused parent. But she looked to the not-yet dusted youma and back to her. “How many uses do you get out of your magic per battle?”
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 11:44 am
"Huh?" Zia had asked a remarkably astute question, and yes, Megrez was surprised by the reaction. "Um... three eggs per battle. I normally punch youma out, though." And, right on cue, Megrez lunged forward to uppercut the stumbling youma. Hah, egg goop could be quite convenient sometimes. "Please, escape! I'll come find you when I finish this one off!" It didn't occur to Megrez that Zia wasn't quite all she appeared to be; not even the reaction really tipped her off.
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:57 pm
Megrez's begging seemed to garner a tired sigh, rather than invoke any sense of urgency. Zia watched and judged the punch, but suddenly, Megrez was robbed of her battle after only a few meager shots.
One shapeshift from Zia later and beam of energy shot past the senshi and hit the still recovering youma. Already weakened, and expert targeting from the blast, the youma disintegrated to dust right there.
The figure that had fired the blast, the large, long haired guardian cat, strolled to Megrez's side with smug pride in her step before she shifted back up to the civilian in gym clothes and dusted off her hands.
"There's really no need to be so dramatic."
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:28 pm
At first, Megrez just goggled, first at the youma dust and then at the re-morphed Zia. There was a whole lot of WHAT going through her mind right now. When she finally found words, she sputtered, "You're... you're a guardian cat?" And it seemed she was a strong cat at that, what with that energy shot. With a nervous smile, she rubbed the back of her head. "Gosh, if only you'd said so... I guess I would have told you my secret sooner, too." Well, Megrez didn't actually know what she'd have done differently if she had known that Zia was a guardian cat sooner. She probably still would have told her to escape.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 1:48 pm
"Sort of," Was Zia's non committal answer as she picked up her dropped gym bag from the shapeshifting and slung it over her shoulder. "It's not exactly something you advertise; It's dangerous to flaunt your identity."
What a hypocrite, Zia.
Although her exact nature as the mirror guardian was potentially a lethal secret, considering what corruption to the Dark Mirror Court could potentially mean for her, so it was something that wasn't going to be shouted in the streets.
"How long have you been a senshi?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 11:39 am
"Sort of?" Megrez didn't do well with non-specifics. She sort of thought the mention about flaunting identity was directed at her, but wasn't quite sure. She made a mental note to try to avoid henshining up around people she didn't know were senshi or knights in the future. "Aren't most guardian cats flaunting their identity by just being in cat form? And I'll try to be more careful." In response to the next question, Megrez answered, "I've been a senshi for a few months. I think I was first awakened in... March? Didn't dust my first youma till April, though."
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 1:28 pm
"Not really!" Zia chirped back at the observation of cats in cat form. It was a good question, but one that needed correction regardless. "Cats are cats, you wouldn't know one was a guardian unless it started talking. After that, you'll be able to tell if they're on your side or not by the color of the stars on their forehead," She pointed to her own forehead for elaboration, even though in her current civilian form there was nothing there and when powered she sported a deep purple crescent moon, not a star.
She would elaborate further, but she at least took a moment to go off on a tangent. "Dusting youma isn't all there is to being a Senshi, but that's pretty good!"
She looked around before stepping into the alleyway a bit. It was getting darker by the minute and there was no one around, but it still felt weird and exposed on the sidewalk. From there, she powered up to her humanoid form, with her ears, tail, and dress with flowing overlay. The parallel aura was massive and fully released. "I'm Zirconia, the mirror guardian. I can take human form because I have a human host, something necessary when crossing universes."
That wasn't entirely true, but Zia didn't see the need to get into the nitty gritty about double souls and voices in her head when Zirconia proper was dormant.
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