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 Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 9:06 pm
Zia was still absorbed in the philosophical debate of complacency and its meaning. Or that's what she told herself as she used her stack of textbooks to prop up her arm on the sofa. Soon it served as a barrier wall rather than an arm rest as she sunk lower and continued flipping through channels with a lazy, glazed over look in her eye.
Homework could wait was what she told herself when she went out indexing. Indexing was not as important as homework, was what she told herself when she stayed in.
But she was doing neither of those things, she was just laying there with her feet up with her chin to her chest waiting for Kairatos to stop patrolling so they could discuss take out.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 4:50 am
"Let me guess... you've decided to minor in literary architecture?" Xanthus voice cut in on the sound of the tv, right before he lowered his cell phone, screen lit up to display the image of something dark and purple-black on it's screen. "Here, before I forget to show you this again... I couldn't bring you the original because... in spite of appearances, the owner is still using it... and I've got other news for you besides, which might be more interesting than Sex in the City reruns."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 8:01 am
Xanthus' quip and appearance were reacted to with a lazy shrug and her eyes stayed focused on the TV until the phone screen came in front of her face. Her eyes went wide and she scrambled to sit upright and grab it and hold it still for herself.
"What the ******** is that?" She turned the phone screen this way and that and then knit her eyebrows together in frustration as the sensor kept the photo upright on the screen. "Is that... what is that?" Although suspicions and theories were already forming in her mind at rapid speeds.
She glanced up at him to say something, but aborted and closed her mouth before any sound came out. There was something about the look in his face, nothing discernible or obvious, but still concerning on some microscopic level that ignited worry. "Are you okay?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 4:18 pm
"Not mine, I promise." He was quick to assure. "It's Bischopite's starseed. If he ever offers to show you at trick, the short answer is 'hell no', because that would be it. ...Otherwise... mixed mess. Things have been getting kind of... ...I dunno. Did you ever run into Castor before he went AWOL? I met him once as a Lieutenant, then he turned up a few weeks ago... now he pulls out a party trick that makes Bisch's look like a kids cartoon."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:05 pm
There was a tiny part of Zia that often indulged in morbid fascination. It was a tiny part that was carefully repressed around the likes of Kairatos since he purified, although it was the same part that let her make jokes with him as Realgar about dropping things on civilians. It was something allowed to run wild when she was messing with Bischofite, and holding the photos created a weird conflict about the knowledge those two had been mingling.
She gave way to inappropriately starry eyes at the conclusion of what the photos were.
"Dare I ask why it's so weird?" She said, cautious words drenched in a giddy tone. "He can just take it out like that? Like a corrupt senshi?"
It went without saying if Bischofite ever offered to show it to her she would have probably too readily accepted just on the basis of how abnormal the concept was and how creepy she was reacting to the fact Xanthus had photos. The subject change to Castor was a new one.
"I uh..." She glanced up, suddenly blank faced as she thought. "On the Surrounding, yeah, there was a big meeting, he thought everyone should be a lot more suspicious of me and Zirconia yelled at him. When you introduced yourself to me you mentioned hitting him with a chair. I saw he's back in town, we chit chatted for a little bit," She shrugged and went back to the pictures. "He's a cocky kid who owes me a drink, what about him?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 6:19 am
"Right sorry, I guess I did mention him... Sorry it's... yeah." He ran his fingers through his hair and grimaced. "...Dude don't collect that drink. He friggin threw me into a cement wall because who he thought I might be, I thought he broke my damn back for a minute... then tonight? Tonight the little creeper turns up in an factory. He lured in a bunch of lieutenants and killed them. Not quickly. Then he summoned people.. I guess he sent out an emergency note like he needed help, and he and his creep a** brother started off on how they've declared war on the earth and anyone standing in their way they're gonna kill. Oh and he thinks purifying people makes things worse. Like the universe will make more chaos to retaliate because of..." He added air quotes. "Balance." He shook his head and looked angry and uncomfortable, maybe even a little haunted by the idea. "Don't know where he's getting his information but if there's actually a balance that needs restoring, we should be seeing more order, not more chaos. We're so out of cant the other way it's not goddamn funny. None of it was funny. Sorry. ....And Bisch... Sticky b*****d got himself fused with a youma, apparently it got one of his pals to stab him and moved in. He's trying to get purified. Tried once, didn't work. Then his partner tried to kill him, which also didn't work... so I talked to him about trying again. He's the first time anyone's tried to fix a half youma... so I figure it's gotta be a slightly different animal... so to speak. Thought maybe the star seed might give us an idea..." He waved a hand and moved over to find a seat and sit down heavily and rest his head on his hands, like it was full of unpleasant thoughts he'd rather tip out and get rid of but couldn't.
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:09 am
Zia glanced at Xanthus and then back to the phone with a nearly dejected sounding "...Oh."
She was quiet for a long time and then silently got up and walked across the open area to where the kitchen started and started rifling through the fridge for a beer.
"Bischofite isn't content with setting kill traps anymore? I thought he was aspiring to youma fusion. It figures Malicious would double cross his a** but, I mean," She snorted and knocked the refrigerator door shut with her hip. "Anyone who spoke to that thing knew it had something up its sleeve. He laughed at me when I questioned if it was even a youma. Something that retains that much humanity in monster form is never safe."
In spite of the way she seemed to have briefly frozen and shut down at the news of Castor, she was walking around and joking, focusing completely on Bischofite.
"Youma turn to dust when attacked with princess powers, I'm honestly baffled he survived one purification attempt and isn't like, just a mass of steaming pieces of flesh and dust," She wasn't sitting still, but pacing. Looking in cabinets, fiddling with the twist cap on the bottle, and endless variety of small motions to prevent needing to sit down and think.
"Starseed visuals are a start but I'd kill to get my hands on some sensory interaction. And I'd like to see what a Bischofite/Malicious hybrid looks like. Although I'm not sure purification is possible, unless he could somehow be repaired or made whole again."
She drummed her fingers on he counter. "Do you think it's like an infection? Necrosis? Where the tainted flesh can be excised and the body can heal?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 3:33 pm
He noticed the pause, the little hitch that said she was painting an bright, shiny curious vernier over something he had said that was causing her deep pain. No stretch to guess that it was Castor. The Castor he'd seen had been deeply twisted, but there had been glimpses of the smarmy, irreverent s**t he used to be, the kind of sass filled ball of jack-assery that would have appealed to Zia's love of verbal barbs. For now all he could do was answer the other questions though, and he thought that at least he could do fairly well. "Iris tried to purify him, and he got burned like hell, but I think that might have mostly been the youma at work, since he survived it. He was in serious pain though. It... I saw it. He showed me the spot where Avalon ran him through. It was twisted and warped and spread from there. That was my first thought, you know?" She'd nailed it, in a guess. "I thought it looked exactly like an infection. A really bad one. He's got wings... they shredded the ******** out with the purification attempt though... his face is all sticky with this tar crap that burns like hell." He wasn't sure if she'd noticed when he'd cleaned tar off the scratches that Bischophite had left on his arm in pain. "I think thats why the purification didn't take. You aren't just purifying chaos, you're trying to clean out an sentient infection. One being that does want to be purified... one that... really... really doesn't and can hide important places. To get rid of it I thought... maybe... maybe we might have to find a way to remove the youma.... or the bulk of it. Like... um... like removing a tumor. He'd probably need someone on hand with medical skills right the ******** away but..." He spread his hands wide then let them fall to his sides heavily. "I have no idea. It sounds stupid right? I don't know what the ******** I'm talking about I'm just guessing. This is why I ask the smart people." He shrugged again. "...I dunno. I mean... I feel bad for the guy. He's smart like Zink but not so smart he didn't realize he did something hella ******** dumb... I wanna see him pull through...if he can." He talked to him like he didn't think he was stupid. There were fairly few people who made him feel like they thought that. His lesson about the star-seed had been... painful... but it was amazing what you put up with for people that didn't dismiss you out of hand. Maybe that was stupid.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:27 am
"Hey, don't be stupid," Was the ineloquent and knee jerk reaction as she gave up her very carefully calculated distance from him and the uncomfortable news he brought to cross across that expanse of hardwood and give him a punch in the arm.
"In spite of my chosen insult a microsecond before, you are not stupid. You're brilliant and my favorite idea guy and you're anything but stupid. If I say so myself because that was the exact theory I was sorta getting at," She said, clearing her throat and adjusting the twine that her Alfheim pendant hung from on her neck.
In spite of the rough tone and communication, it was meant with sincerity and no bullshit.
"I think you're right, but what's weird to me is that purification didn't turn the youma segments to ashes. Have you seen the tiara attack? Youma just... poof! And I think the purification attempt would have been a lot stronger and more concentrated. So the fact that he's not a youma amputee is really interesting."
She took a swig of beer and swished it around in a weird thinking tic before swallowing. "You think it's because it's attached to a human organism, which could withstand it? Do you think their relationship is symbiotic or parasitic?" She paused, and a little bit, just the tiniest glimmer, of fascinated glee came through. "Does he hear Malicious like I hear Zirconia?"
She gave a lax shrug at his sympathy. "I'm not sure what your interactions have been like, but I've heard of his little fun with the kill traps, when he slaughtered civilians for a social experiment. He has personally kidnapped, threatened, and held me from precarious heights, and tried to kill one of my contacts purely for the sake of annoying me. And that isn't ancient history.
"Don't get me wrong. It's hard not to rubberneck at a monster, and he has been excellent help what with being an on hand murderer to get a mirrorseed from. Listening to him talk is entertaining, but I don't see how since White Phoenix he's had this great change of heart. Not even a change of heart, I think he would have to grow one with which to comprehend human empathy. Basic, instinctual value for life has never been high on his list of qualities. What does he hate about Chaos? Is it really the immorality? Or is he just tired of his leash?"
She made a drawn out sneer as she emphasized her final word and raised her brow to Xanthus in a challenge as she drank, ignoring the hypocrisy as she made a case for the value of human life. When it came to deaths outside of her personal sphere, Zia had substantial trouble seeing them as anything but statistics, numbers, and fodder. She had decades and decades of memories of wars and she did sincerely worry about how small the fractions seemed as the years went on. How small they will seem after more decades, and whether or not the people who were important to her now would matter when a few decades had become a drop in the ocean. A present issue with her own state of empathy and a constant background anxiety, but since her falling out with Alfheim, she had become aware of it enough to do her best to hide it.
"Doesn't mean I won't help. Do you think someone in the Negaverse could remove the youma pieces? Or at least kill a bit of it off? They have a lot of control over them, and while they might not want to gimp an officer they may try at his urging."
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 5:13 am
"I killed people too." Kairatos pointed out, suddenly a bit defensive, though it had never been for an experiment. He'd never been that thoughtful about it. They'd been fast acts of vengeance, or anger. One had been a calculated attempt to make the Prince of Hail feel more powerless. Apparently it had left an impression. "The list of people on that side who haven't is the short one, even when we were only supposed to be collecting energy, it still happened, and it wasn't exactly frowned on. If he wants purified... I'm going to make my own call and say wanting off his Leash is enough. For him it had been enough, even though he folded his arms across his chest defensively, embarassed he hadn't know about the full extent of Bischophite's choices, but the phrase "Culture of Misinformation" kept coming back and kept being appropriate. "Chaos plays to the worst parts of us... It doesn't mean they go away without it, but it feeds them." He appreciated being called 'favorite idea guy' but... "I don't know. Parasite I guess. I'm fairly sure if it can take over the rest of the way it will.It want's the body, not the mind that goes with it. I can't purify anyone so I can only guess at how that senshi s**t works." And speaking of death traps... I saw you flinch about Castor." If she was going to claw at him for his 'sympathy for the devil'... It was mean. He felt bad about it, but he didn't take it back, just left it hanging between them.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 7:20 am
"And so did I, but that's different," Zia responded to his defensiveness with measured defiance and a small dash of dishonesty. She had never physically killed anyone, although she had certainly tried the night she strangled Orpheus. No one had died at her hands, just her suggestion, or gambles gone bad. She had never killed for the Blood Moon, she had only covered up the auras so the torture could be sustained for the two weeks it was.
Regardless, her body language seemed to shift back towards a shut down, and her fingers on her free hand found their way to the brand that sat just under her Alfheim pendant.
She didn't want to explain why it was different, because she hadn't really thought about it much and wasn't sure she could. She just flew through going on this gut feeling or that bias and intentionally never dissected her hypocrisy too much.
"Nevermind, I don't want to talk about this anymore," She said decidedly and walked away from him in the open area to busy herself with fiddling with take-out menus.
She didn't look angry, she just looked blank and empty, shuffling through the drawer where all of the ads and menus and coupons that came with delivery or were hung on doors got stashed. "You think Chinese, or pizza tonight?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 7:57 am
"It's not dif.... never mind." He exhaled sharply through clenched teeth, resting his hands on the back of a chair, gripping it tightly as he waited for the bust of emotion to pass, or at least settle. "...Pick whatever you want." He growled, voice lower, but the frustration was still there, like the shimmer of summer heat. What he wanted to say was something to the extent of Stop and listen to me! Stop hiding!. What he wanted to do was protect people who had given him help and shelter, but instead what came out was: "I'm going for a drive." It didn't matter that he'd just gotten in, or that the place was huge, it was suddenly claustrophobic and choked with emotions he didn't know how to express properly. "I'll be back later." The 'maybe' and the 'how much later' went unspoken. He didn't want to commit to those implied statements, didn't know how he'd feel when he was over being angry enough to want to grab her like he had the chair and shake her until it was clear she understood the danger he'd seen tonight. He just needed time to be angry for now.
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