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 Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:05 pm
She had stared at her phone for a couple of days, debating on if she wanted to do this. She hadn't spoken to any of them in years- two, maybe three. She didn't know if the numbers were still in service. But there were those she wanted to see again. One of them was her cat. No, not Castor. Zirconia. Ophelia had been the one to Awaken her, to save her, Ophelia had been the one to power her to Eternal... But Zia- Zirconia- was the BMC Cat. Had been the parallel cat, her last link to Fallon, Dylan, to Johnny, to Leto, to the Court she had loved, the Court she had lost, to the last moments of desperate courage before she had lost herself, people she loved. Zirconia should be a bad memory, a shameful one, but no. For some reason, she just... wasn't. Jada wanted to see her again. It hadn't taken her long to send the text message. She hadn't signed it. The message had simply said High Noon. Celtic Cafe. Reservation in my name. If it was a wrong number- well. They either wouldn't show, or she would be going on one heck of a blind date. Neither of those were as intimidating, in their own way, as Zia herself showing up. What would she even say? Would it just be awkward small talk? It was too late now. Jada was there a few minutes early, claiming a small area upstairs, relatively private. She'd put on her battle armor (figuratively), straightened her spine, and ordered some tea and an appetizer for the two of them to share. If Zia didn't show- well, it could be Jada's entree. She set her phone face down on the table and resigned herself to anxiously refusing to look at the time. It would happen, or it would not.
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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:21 pm
The last few years since the loss of another court had not been especially kind to Zia. She spent nearly two years crippled and out of commission by depression and a toxic relationship as the harsher, older, wiser soul of Zirconia stopped working in symbiosis with her and instead began to withdraw into dormancy in the back of her brain.
She had only recently started picking up the pieces of life, and it wasn't the same. She liked to think she was tougher. She dressed like she thought she was tougher, in worn jeans and dark eye make up, tattoos over the abdominal scars where she had nearly been disemboweled and way too many rings and things. A lot could change in so many years.
But that thin veneer of 'tougher, harder, less breakable' didn't seem to matter much when she, still fiddling with her phone, saw Jada sitting at the cafe table.
The noise made was not attractive. Something between a cat's yowl and a dying whale in one quick burst of shock and emotion before she ran to the table and half slid next to Jada to invasively throw her arms around her. She devolved into sobs shortly after and the incomprehensible babble started to form English words.
"You're here! You're here and you're back and are you okay?!"
She was making a scene and she didn't even care.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 10:36 am
A pained, alien cry was the only real warning Jada had before her personal space was roughly invaded, and two thin arms were flung around her. Jada instinctively wrapped her arms around the other person, a moment before logic reminded her that this was most likely Zia. But when the sobbing started- oh, that was when the guilt punched her in the gut. "Hey," She pressed her cheek to Zia's hair, shushing her gently until the sobs and babble began to coalesce into something understandable. "I'm here. I'm safe. I'm fine." She assured Zia quickly, hugging her close. "Hey now." She didn't let go of the other woman, instead holding her close and inhaling deeply. Well. It was good that there was one friend who didn't hate her. Yet. "I've been working," she reassured the other woman, guilt suffusing her. She'd been working. She'd given in to fear and worry, given in to her family's pressure, and she had left without a goodbye. How many people had thought she was dead, as Scylla, never having heard of her again? How many people had thought she was dead as Jada? How many still did? She closed her eyes, swallowing back the guilt. "What about you, Zia?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 11:13 am
Zia hesitated before urging herself to pry off of Jada and sit next to her like a normal human being, but she was still sniffling and repressing whining as she tried to wipe away gathering tears without smudging her make up.
"I'm so glad you're back," She managed out in a voice that was so simperingly needy she was starting to get upset with herself and her inability to dial the intensity of her outburst back. "Are you just visiting or are you going to... you know... stay?"
She fiddled with the rings on her fingers as a grounding method and anxious activity.
"I've been... uh. It's been rough. Lots of people left town or moved on to other courts but I've just been kind of um. Alone and stuff. But things are getting better, I think," There was a pause in empty air as if she was second guessing that statement, but then she nodded to herself, "Things are getting better."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 4:20 pm
Zia was finally well enough to pull away, but Jada did not let her go just yet. She slid her arm through the older woman's and lay her head on Zia's shoulder, trying not to shake with emotion of her own. "I missed you," she told Zia softly, eyes twitching with the desire to produce moisture. Her voice was naturally thick- she would deny it as emotion. "I- I am here in town to sell my old house. Not the mansion, the one I lived in after." A large four bedroom, until... "Well, both the four bedrooms. My manager is with me, trying to get me some low key exposure. I've been doing really well, Zia, I got to do fashion week. At my height." Was she going to stay? Jada felt her heart break. "Zia, I... I don't know how long I will be here for." She gave a shrug, a broken smile. "Could be months. But I... Hell, I don't know, Zia." She didn't have any good reason to- Yes, she did. "Things are getting better?" She quoted dubiously. "Not if you have been alone. They shouldn't have left you alone, Zia. You are ours." Why? What had happened?
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:36 pm
Zia nodded, although her gaze was focused on the surface of the table. She sniffed and made another attempt to prevent her eyes from running and smudging her make up. Se let out a sad little laugh. "It's okay, you don't have to stay. But if you leave again to you promise to at least text?"
She was gaining some composure, or at least enough of her general wits to pick at the appetizer Jada had ordered."I missed you too. I'm glad you're doing really well.You were always cut out for fashion week," There was a little bit of almost parental pride that made it through her smile, and it seemed a little less sad and a little more genuine. But then she looked back down at the table.
Taking careful note to use civilian names given the public setting, she almost took inventory, "Ari made an appearance. She's been in Greece. I saw Delphine, Kaatje. Christa never left but she joined a new court with a new cat. Lily-- same. Johnny is MIA. Most everyone else seems to have corrupted. I never thought to find any new girls after that," She rubbed her arms and shrugged again.
"Not to say I don't have um... friends."
Things had progressed in weird, unexpected ways in the last year, from Realgar purifying into her roommate to actively working with Wolframite in the White Phoenix offensive, and having to explain them to a blast from the past like Jada suddenly felt awkward. Things like her Negaverse contacts and dubious activities might need to be gradually worked up to before confessed.
She ran her tongue against the roof of her dry mouth and glanced around, her speech lowered to a mumble. "I um. I found something."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 6:35 pm
"Yeah," Jada said easily. "I'll text. Promise. Hey, maybe you can even come and travel with me for a little bit if you need a vacation." She reached out and rubbed her thumb lightly over one of the circles under Zia's eyes. The sadness- She pulled away carefully and turned her attention to the food, poking at it idly. She was suddenly a little less hungry. "I'll be here for a while yet, Zia." Six months? Maybe longer, depending on the interest in the real estate. Jada grinned at Zia's pride in her, and took a bite of food. Ari had gone to Greece, huh? It didn't surprise her that Delphine and Kaatje were still around. It was good Christa had found a new home, and Lily... but hadn't they thought about Zia at all? (Had she?) Johnny's absence worried her, because with him gone... that left Zia the last of the uncorrupted parallels, didn't it? It sent a quiver down her spine. "Good." Jada's voice was more fierce than she meant it to be. "You need friends." She shifted in her seat, bright purple eyes fixed on the other woman. "You deserve them. So tell me about what you found." She bumped her shoulder against Zia's, then smiled up at the returning waitress. An order was quickly placed, food she would end up probably not even eating. She could give it to the cat, or make Zia take it with her.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 7:09 pm
"Travel sounds nice," Zia said with a nod and was doing her best to stay composed and very serious for about thirty seconds, but Jada's statement she would be around for at least a while shattered that quickly with an involuntary brightening to her expression.
A sheepish quality surfaced to her expression in response to Jada's tone, especially as things were starting to rush back. Dubious, not so BMC things she knew would make Zirconia throw a hissy fit if the cat's parallel soul was awake. But those could probably be swept under the rug for a better time.
She gladly gave her order, because Zia could always eat, but she leaned on her elbows and glanced around weirdly before answering in a lower tone of voice. "It's not really something to talk about here. I'll show you sometime. Where it's safe to power up." She leaned on her elbows and tapped her fingers on the table in thought before reaching for more appetizer. "She's gone, though. Ares, I mean."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 8:11 pm
"Good. Travel it is. We'll get you on one good vacation. Weekend trip to the Bahamas, get you a little sun." It was good to see her brighten up. Which only made the knot of guilt in her belly grow. They had all abandoned her, even Jada. Zirconia- Zia- who would have cut off her own paw to help them. Hand. Arm. Insert body part! And in the end, Jada couldn't blame anyone but herself, because if those feelings weren't shared... then she should have been there herself. Jada smiled, but her face paled a little at the thought of powering up. "I- I don't do that anymore. You know." She stared down at her hands, suddenly finding them very interesting. "I mean, if you do, that's- but..." her voice trailed off. Embarrassed? Ashamed? Like she knew she was doing something wrong, unfair? Her face went even paler, however, at the thought that- "Fallon?" Her voice cracked, helplessly. She still had the picture of Audrey, Fallon and herself. Her debut. The last- "Gone how?" Her eyes glinted, voice choked. Gone?
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 8:28 pm
Zia leaned to the side to bump her shoulder against Jada's, her smile still lingering. She had welcomed Birhan and Nemesis back to the city with open arms, and she had never even gotten along with Nem before. For her girls she was an endless fount of forgiveness and would swear for centuries no harm was done.
She reached over to gently touch Jada's hair, crossing boundaries with all the respect for personal space of any feline, "It's okay. I didn't power up for a long time either. Zirconia has even gone dormant, there's nothing wrong with it."
Realizing she had let that small secret out, since she still occasionally tried to act the part of Zirconia when necessary, she scrambled for a save, "I mean I can still dig around in her memories and stuff and she's definitely like, lingering in the back of my skull, she just doesn't, you know, take over or talk anymore."
She cleared her throat. "But I still... I mean it's a situation that needs magic for the presentation."
Her awkward stumble had erased the warmth, and the next topic seemed to quash hope of its return as she took on a grim demeanor. "Jada I think... Fallon was gone a long time ago," She looked down and fiddled with her rings again. It had always been one of her fears tied to corruption. If she gave in to Chaos, would Zirconia's corrupted soul swallow up whatever was left of Zia? "Rumors in the court say she just left, vanished one day. She left successors, though. You'll never guess who the new princess is."
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 11:41 am
Zia reached over and touched her hair, and Jada's eyes practically exploded with damp. That smile, though. She gasped, gulping in air to help herself maintain co.trol over her emotions. Best face, Jada. "I wish I could say the same for- for her. But the memories are in me, and they won't shut up. They-" she breathed out, woo-sah. Zia got a shaky smile. "April, 2012. That was it for me. I wussed out." She couldn't agree that there was nothing wrong with Zia's situation, but then who was she to judge? The coward. The traitor. "Do you ever wonder why?" Jada asked softly. "We are losing everyone." Maybe Zirconia was trying to save what little of her was left. Jada couldn't say that she wasn't trying to do the same. "Well, it is just me and my manager in the mansion, if you need a lit of open space for it." She said at last. "Or just privacy. The house is practically haunted, now. All those sheets and wild gardens. Still have the Black Pearl sunk at the bottom if the pool." But when she said- "I don't want to think that Fallon was gone. Zia, I loved her. I don't think it was ever any more romantic than a crush, it certainly changed once Ares- but Zia. If she was gone, what did I do all those horrible things for?" And that was the crux of it. Jada accepted that they had, some of them, been necessary actions... But the ones that haunted her were the ones she had done following on Fallon's coattails like a friendship-blind fool. The ones she had done when she had drank too deeply of Andromache's poisoned memories. She could make her peace with them,if she could pretend she had done it for the love of a friend. Jada had always been selfishly loving, and lovingly selfish.
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 6:48 pm
Zia drummed her fingers on the table, and then leaned back, staring off intently at space in front of her rather than looking directly at Jada.
"Being gone since she corrupted doesn't mean she wasn't ever there," She concluded. "You know it's been almost a century now, since Zirconia pledged her loyalty to Nehelenia's father. People come and go and leave and die, all the time. I remember every single one of them. The fact humans are temporary doesn't mitigate the impact they had, or how much I loved them. Now, I don't know why you did all of those things," She said, reaching for more food and giving a light shrug, "I know why I did them. Because Chaos took one of our own and we retaliated harder. Because at the time I was wholly convinced it was justified and just. I'm not sure if I've changed those beliefs. We aren't losing everyone, and every loss hurts, but there's still so much gained and so much left to fight for.
"Sometimes it's hard to live with, but those are my choices, I own them, and I made them at your side and I don't think I would take any of them back. Not even the ones that keep me from sleeping at night. I just know that's my lot in it all. I think only you can speak for yours."
She seemed very casual about it all, even stopping to give a cautious and sympathetic little nudge to Jada's shoulder before she was distracted by the arriving entrees. "But regardless, I'm still here as always no matter how you feel," She managed before stuffing her face gave her a forced pause. "And hanging out at the mansion sounds fantastic. I am unemployed-- shocking, I know-- and I've been happily living in Caroline's penthouse off of her money. But I have a smelly dude roommate who has, like, bajillion cats."
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 9:06 am
Jada felt her nostrils flare, and glanced out the window down to the ground below. The drumming, the silence- after she had just said that, was she going to be chastised for her lack of faith in-
No. Good. But Jada was a bit at a loss as to the point of- No. No, she wasn't. She just didn't necessarily like hearing it. People come and go and leave and die. Real life. Grown up life. The life she had fled, because she couldn't handle it. The impact that they had? Emotionally, Jada was like thin glass. Everyone had an impact.
"Maybe," she demurred faintly. It was hard to justify the number of lives she had save when balanced against the lives she had taken. Regret? No, never, not even when so many of them were apparentlybeing corrupted. Or weren't, or... "Two years," she sighed, and rubbed at her brow.
"Well, the mansion is open for hanging out in. I had always thought about renting out rooms, to fill it up and help pay for the staff upkeep, but there was always the... Stuff. In the way." Never knowing if a Negaverse agent might apply. Nit the kind of thing to put on a rental application. "I only have one cat. Still. I am sure he would be happy to see you again."
Smelly dude roommate? She could only imagine.
[quote="Carneli]
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:39 pm
"Hey," Zia said shortly after regaining the ability to speak after stuffing her face, and she reached over and jabbed the side of Jada's shoulder with her finger.
"Let's not talk about such grim s**t. And besides, people come and go, but I am eternal, and I am right here for whatever you need. As always."
She stabbed her fork back to her plate. "We'll make a date. I'll stop by the mansion to hang, I'll put on a show. Make my case. A lot of bad s**t has happened, a lot of good s**t happened too. We're on the edge of a paradigm shift. I can feel it."
She nodded as if confirming her own statements to herself. She could think of enough developments in Jada's time away both positive and negative, but it was clear discussing the topic of powering up was difficult for her and she didn't want to be like what the people in her life had been for her. A kidnapping to space to be lectured on giving up or dragged out as a vulnerable civilian on a patrol to be shown what she was missing. It eventually forced her out of her comfort zone, but she still felt rising, hot rage when she thought about it.
The majority of the length of time Jada had been gone, Zia had been avoiding powering up and hiding herself, and she would indulge Jada's proclivity to nope away from henshining up. Everyone should be allowed to nope comfortably and still keep their friends.
"Now eat! And look at pictures of my new puppy," She said in what was totally a subject change as deft fingers one handedly pulled up photos of the rottweiler mix on her phone to shove at the other woman.
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Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 7:07 pm
"Oi!" The mock-protest came easily to her lips as Zia poked at her, and Jada wrinkled her nose at the other woman. "I'd argue with your ability to live forever, but you'd prove me wrong either way." her lips quirked, and she leaned back in her seat, stretching out her legs to press her toes against a chair on the other side of the table. "Alright," she agreed. "Date it is. I doubt you want to spend a Friday night with little old me, so what about next Thursday?" It was as good a time as any, and she would have plenty of time to clean up a bit before Zia came over to the mansion. "You can bring your dog. I'm sure Castor would approve of the company. Pollux slipped his leash and got run over by a taxi, and poor Castor's been terribly lonely with no one to boss around but me." She obediently flipped through the pictures, grinning at the dog. "He's a cutie. What's his name?"
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