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 Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 10:08 pm
Having not slept in days and finally indulging in escalating her relationship to more intimate closeness, Zia reveled in the variety of side effects and with the comfort of Chester's presence warding off night terrors, she woke up to catching herself making an entirely unattractive snoring noise. She did her best to knock that off the second she regained a little bit of consciousness and blindly slapped around to see if Chester was in arm's reach.
Maybe it was first terror-less sleep she'd had in weeks or maybe it was the distance from the mirror, finding refuge at the carnival rather than staying home, but she did open one eye and ruminate on why, since this was pleasant contentment, she didn't just suck it up and treat every day like this.
Other than the obvious fact she couldn't interrupt Chester's work every night and every day begging for attention because she couldn't seem to handle sleeping without clinging to his torso for fear of another onslaught of visions or nightmares. She didn't want to test a showdown between his dedication and his work ethic.
Unwilling to get up and do much of anything, she just rolled in the blankets and let out a long groan that sounded something similar to "I'm starving" and with the reasoning she had been sleep deprived, made no effort to get up.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 8:57 am
Chester slept comfortably with Zia in his arms. He could not remember the last time he had someone so close to him, for so long. Probably never, knowing how he lived his stand-offish life so far. She could have been snoring loud enough to shake the bed and it was unlikely to wake him, as comfortable and deeply asleep as he was.
He only woke when she stirred, watching her quietly for a moment. He smiled and moved to kiss her on the head, quietly telling her to stay in bed while he got up and handled the problem of breakfast.
After a pit stop in the bathroom to dress and take care of general morning things, showering and putting on clothes suitable to continue his work at the carnival that day. Nothing too robust, as most of it was just in paper and phone calls at this point.
Moving into the kitchen area of his very well adapted office-home, he set about making some sausages and eggs for breakfast, which was his usual favorite with some toast and coffee. He was feeling very content and relaxed, honestly happy with where things were standing. Though he knew she was having a difficult time right now, their relationship was going to remain strong, and he would be the rock she needed, whenever she felt she was losing the strength to face things on her own.
First, though, breakfast. He brought both plates and mugs in on a tray for them, sitting down on his side of the bed carefully, and looking at her, waiting for the smells to rouse her. Food was always a good motivator.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:41 am
Vanity, always. At some point Zia has skulked off to the bathroom to reapply makeup and fix her hair and steal one of his shirts to stage a scene where she was not gross. It was staged for 'cute wake up', which involved not removing blankets to be devoured by a monstrous frizzy hair monster. And then reassumed state of blanket hogging burrito, as if such things had never happened.
Magical.
She probably would've stayed there for the duration of the day with occasional monstrous noises for Chester to come back, but she smelled coffee and sat up straight. "Aaaaah You know how to make... stuff..." She blargled, grabbing a mug and holding it under her nose, reserving actually sipping anything until she could confirm the amount of sugar. But the smell alone could wake her up.
She coiled around it as she sat there, glancing down into the mug and then up at him with a nervous laugh. "I, um..."
And then she shook her head. Nevermind.
"So thanks," She murmured, reaching for toast to nibble at a corner. "You probably have a lot of work to catch up on today, huh?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 11:18 am
"It can wait," he said, as far as his work went. Really, he was always so on top of things, even his 'late' paperwork was not as bad as it could be. He could easily get it all done with his usual focus, and then the Carnival would be fully open and complete, and that would be that. He was motivated by a few different things to get it done.
He tactfully made no comment on her embarrassment, though he felt a warm burning under his skin and realized he was sharing in her awkwardness. Except it was a very happy feeling that he could, in a strange way, get used to.
"We can do whatever you want today, I haven't had a day off yet."
He wanted to spend time with her but he wasn't going to seem like an overbearing sort, just because things had changed a bit. His feelings for her had just gotten stronger, but he did not want to push her away with too much affection. Which was odd for him to think he might be capable of, when he was so stoic and generally lacking in the emotion area.
He was not sure where the balance was, so he would have to be careful.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 12:36 pm
It wasn't exactly a burning, explosive passion of a romance, but it was a slow simmer that brought heat to Zia's cheeks and a sense of security she hadn't ever really been aware of as possible before.
She glanced up to stare at him, ruminating on his build and how handsome she thought the lines of his cheekbones and jaw were before her face flushed and she looked down, sacrificing one hand on her mug to cover her face as she laughed stupidly. "You're embarrassing me."
Even if she was embarrassing herself, it was easier to blame his gaze than the fact she was being silly and staring at him with such starry eyed adoration.
"No one's ever really been this nice to me before. You know, when..." She cleared her throat. The fact this was probably the most mature relationship she had ever had might have contributed to the novel feeling of it all, too. She was content to drink coffee and do nothing as long as he was in close proximity. In a lot of ways it felt like playing house and pretending things were all okay when they weren't, but if the future proved anything, she could be stubborn and play house forever if she tried hard enough.
I'm awake. I went away and let you have your fun, it's time to get to work.
Zirconia announcing her consciousness put the kibosh in that idea right away and Zia reacted to the wave of migraine that accompanied it by bringing her knees up close to her chest and wincing.
"Or... maybe I should just go home."
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 1:11 pm
"I'm sorry," he said gently, but he liked seeing her like this. Embarrassed or not, she seemed happy, and he liked that a lot. She deserved to be happy, that much was for sure, as she had so much to deal with that he just could not help with.
He did not think he had to explain to her again why he was nice to her. Because it wasn't just being nice for him. He was acting how she made him want to act, and it reflected how much better he was because he knew her. He felt like she brought out a better part of himself that he had never even known existed, and certainly had never looked for before.
He blinked when she shifted gears, looking up from his breakfast and frowning in his usual way as he tried to figure out what was happening.
"Are you okay? What just happened?" he saw the pain on her face, and the way she curled up. He put the tray of food to the side, on his nightstand, and scooted a bit closer to her. He was not going to ignore the pain that had flashed across her face, and the things he knew about her were whirling in his head for possible answers to his questions.
"I can take you home, but..." he would rather not leave her side.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 1:54 pm
One hand came up to keep some separation from Chester and herself. All of the doofy lovestruck behavior had ceased in a moment.
It was always easy to see when Zia wasn't Zia. Zirconia didn't hold her face in the same way. Even with the same physical structure of Zia's eternally 21 features, Zirconia just seemed to have a more mature air in the way her microexpressions made use of the small muscles. And when she glanced to Chester there was a flash of yellow in her eyes, just for a moment.
"No."
She got up, and seemed to ignore the fact that the loose shirt she was wearing like a near mini-dress was one of his she'd pilfered and just located her jeans to slide on under it.
"The mirror is calling, and if your girlfriend won't stop playing to do her job then I'm going to have to ruin the moment. Apologies." She stopped to primly adjust her hair to something more to Zirconia's liking and judged the sign of the mirror while frowning. She eventually concluded that one would be too small, but there would probably be others she could hit on the way out.
"Mirrorwalking would be faster. You can wait here, lover boy, I'll be done with her soon, assuming she survives the separation process," She said with a haughty wave, fully intending to leave him behind. Zirconia was more than certain this would be her final conversation necessary to convince Cassandra to bridge the gap in the portal, she wasn't too concerned with invading Zia's life ungracefully for one last hurrah.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 2:33 pm
Chester paused, watching her. As she got up and moved away from him, he knew he was watching someone else. Even her movements were nothing like the Zia he had come to know and love, and he felt anger rising in him at the idea of someone, something, else controlling her. He had not seen it before, and he hated it. Hated her, this being that thought she could interrupt their lives for her own use.
"No."
He stood now, but he powered up as he did so, Chester quickly replaced in a flash of light by Luxor. He had always said he was Zia's knight, and he felt like he needed to be that now: whatever Zirconia had planned, he needed to be there for it. He was not going to let her walk away in the body of the woman he loved, especially after she implied that Zia might not be coming back.
"Where ever you're taking her, I'm coming with you. I promised her that, and I am not going to let you make me a liar." His voice was even but deadly serious in his calm, monotone way. He fixed her an angry, dark look, his hands curled into fists and his white knuckles the only outward sign of his nerves. Everything else was stone cold, as if etched and preserved that way eternally.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:09 pm
Zirconia glanced the squire up and down and didn't look impressed. Stark contrast to Zee who seemed to always be impressed by every little thing.
She was quiet, though. There was a hidden conversation in the recesses of her head and as the internal debate went on, she did her best to stand her ground, braced with one hand on her hip.
"Fine, what do I care?" She conceded. She walked like she paid no mind to his presence, and didn't care if he was accompanying her or not. However, she didn't go where he couldn't follow and when she had located a large enough mirror to walk through, she had held out an inviting hand to take him along. Zirconia, or at least this was how she herself reasoned, was not cruel. But her actions were necessary. Zia was the one who made the pact, it was not her fault she regretted it later.
She didn't make any effort to make conversation with the angry knight companion, and her actions were dry. She made a beeline for the storage room where the room was held, changing forms where appropriate until she could enter as a full humanoid-Mauvian, and she walked with purpose to the large mirror covered with a sheet.
Even covered and here in the depths of the storage room, when it called it let out a small, tense sensation in the air that played on the auric sense.
"I need to speak with an old friend, I don't suppose you could be convinced to wait outside like a polite gentleman?" She drolled like she wasn't expecting results.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:29 pm
Luxor looked at her hand skeptically, not trusting her right off the bat. Any strange space soul that was currently controlling his girlfriend's body warranted a healthy dose of distrust, he imagined. He did take her hand, though, frowning seriously as he did so, not sure where they were going to end up.
Once they were in the storage room, he looked around, not making a sound. He did not know what to say, and he doubted anything he said would make a difference at this point.
When she asked him to step outside he did not budge, staring at her evenly.
"No."
He was not going anywhere. His promise remained firm, and so he was routed to his spot. He was not going to let her out of his sight, as he knew the moment he did, he would come to regret it. Something terrible was happening here and he was not going to turn away from it now.
"I'm staying with Zia."
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:51 pm
Luxor's loyalty was met with an irritated 'tch'. Zia's appreciation was covered and buried by the fact she was not currently 'driving'.
Zirconia pulled the sheet down off the large mirror and touched a hand to it, and Cassandra's visage appeared in it like it had on the moon.
"You have a new knight. This one bearing the symbol of Hades. Do you plan to trot them out one by one until we have representations of the entire planetary pantheon?"
The dark haired women seemed about as unimpressed with everything as the Mauvian did, but she stopped and took a second look at the cat-girl, and a smile spread to her lips.
"Oh. Zirconia. I knew when the human girl bragged you had been pushed into dormancy it simply wasn't to be."
Her tone played a thin line of genuine concern and sarcasm, and Zirconia's returned smile seemed almost the same. "Not when there's work to be done. Cassandra," She curtsied. "It's been too long." She brushed one hand flippantly in Luxor's direction. "He is a mere squire of Hades' analog, Pluto, on behalf of my human host. I take it you've opened the channel because there's something you want to discuss."
Cassandra still made a formal gesture to Luxor, regardless of how his presence had been brushed away with such disdain. "It is a pleasure, noble squire. I am the high priestess Cassandra of Tartaros."
And not a single Zia-esque 'aw, dude' was uttered in the midst of all of this archaic faux politeness.
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Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:21 am
Luxor frowned at the exchange, not sure what he was watching but knowing better than to ask any questions of them. He was inconsequential to them both, and his only concern was for Zia, who was not even in the room at the moment.
Well, she was, but not in a way that Luxor could connect with.
He nodded his head, though, when Cassandra noted him, a small motion of respect, or maybe he had just been raised well. He was not in a position to take risks, and he assumed that everyone currently in the room could easily kill him if they wanted, and he was only there because they were tolerating him. He could not afford to lose that small grace.
"I am Luxor, of Pluto," he said stiffly, standing his ground like the sentinel he was. "What is going on here?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 3:03 pm
"The Black Moon universe, on the other side of the mirror," Zirconia said with a gesture to the window into the regal sanctum where Cassandra stood.
"Zia began to explain, once, if the memories I'm sifting through are accurate. She made a pact with my queen to host my soul, until my mission was done. And now that contact has been made with my home universe, that pact should be nearing its conclusion."
"Confident words, cat. I am pleased to find out the human girl's words prove false, and that you are alive and conscious, if only for you to hear my curses. The mirror is open, but my brothers are still dead. My mind is unchanged. I have no interest in using the rest of my power to bring your wretched soul home."
"You opened the channel again," Zirconia took her judgemental gaze from Luxor to the mirror. "You're looking for something."
Zirconia radiated a smug confidence. Even with no real tell it was painfully obvious she felt she held a winning hand.
"Perhaps," Cassandra had a much better poker face. "I don't imagine what that could be. What offering do you have that gives you such brashness in my presence? Or are you simply posturing? Your courtly etiquette was always quite questionable, Advisor."
"Please, I've been courtly since before you were born, Cassie, don't test me," She scoffed, but a wide grin parted her lips before she summoned a small box from subspace. A little thing covered in velvet that jewelry was sold in. Its contents, however, were not accessories. Zirconia flipped open the lid to show the chunk of the greater crystal of Black Earth's monarchy, Alexandros' pyrite crystal.
"Your brother's greater crystal is an acceptable toll for your assistance?"
Cassandra's gaze broke its facade for a moment when she saw it. Want glittered in her eyes for the briefest second, and then she stood up straight. "Where's the rest of it?"
"Impossible to tell. This is most of it."
"Then no." she deliberately ignored the way Zirconia twitched at her answer. "I find it curious it remains in fragments instead of stardust or that it has not migrated to its home. But it is good information to know. You're correct in the assumption my brother's crystal is a suitable toll to pay, Mauvian, to buy your way home to your old body. However, it is useless to me fractured."
Zirconia's eyes flashed brown ever so briefly. Both souls stirred and the outrage expressed when she threw the box down was shared by both of them. "What?! Do you have any idea what I went through to get that?!" She nearly broke into a screech, body language shifting to something less poised and more panicky. Aggressive. "I broke in to an autopsy room. I violated a corpse. It was quite difficult to perform the extraction. And that was a big piece. You want every last splinter? That's impossible." Unexpected tears formed in the corner of her eyes, but they didn't fall. Her face was flush with rage, however, and she didn't make any effort to right her graceless stance.
"You're being cruel, Cassandra. I'm done with the human, the human is done with me. I know I failed, I didn't bring the others home, and for that I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. There isn't enough penance in the world to warrant my forgiveness for Helen and Gaia and your brothers and everyone else we lost. I know it's my fault. I know I didn't bring them back. But don't toy with me."
"Oh, do not fear, Mauvian. I have no interest in the games you enjoy so much yourself. I am not a manipulator, or a trickster. My request is simple. Find the crystal fragments and I shall bring you home. You have my word on that. Until then, I shed no tears for your sentence in this purgatory bound to your human host."
She turned to Luxor, "It was an unfortunate circumstance meeting you under these conditions, Luxor of Pluto. I bid you both goodbye for now," she paused and gave Zirconia a smile that bordered on sadistic pleasure. "Good luck."
And the mirror went dark once again, the sacred crystal laying on the dirty floor.
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 7:11 am
Luxor listened quietly, intently, at everything that was said. He did not know what was going on, or who these two people really were, but the things they were saying were not only interesting, but he was sure important. He would want to remember this, whatever it was, if time ever came to tell someone about it.
Who or for what reason, he could not begin to guess. He did not know if what he was seeing was good or bad, just that his Zia was in the middle of it, and he did not like that.
Clearly, things were not going as Zirconia had imagined they would. The woman in the mirror was not being particularly pleasant to her, and Luxor learned that there was an impossible task of finding some sort of crystal shards set out before the space cat, which she did not seem too happy about. What was that crystal? What did any of this mean to him, or to Zia?
He did not know, but he stayed quiet and waited patiently, his face grimly set in a thin line and furrowed eyebrows. When he was addressed again, he straightened up and nodded his head in a small bow, mostly on instinct rather than honest impulse to be respectful to her. She was gone by the time he looked up again, leaving just an empty mirror, a crystal, and Zirconia in the room. He stayed quiet for a moment, before taking a step forward.
"What happens now?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 7:03 pm
She powered down, no longer needing her mirror abilities and conscious of her energy signet, but even sans cat ears in Zia's pridefully youma slashed jeans, the sneer on her face was still distinctly Zirconia.
"Are you thick in the skull? Too many steroids rot your brain?" She snapped at him, taking out her frustration on the nearest target. Verbally for Luxor and physically on an unfortunate box she kicked. "How many times were you told Zia's a host to a parallel soul? That's what it means, a host. My starseed, her body. Until I go home--" She waved a hand towards the mirror, "--We're both stuck together. And I don't want to be in your girlfriend any more than she wants me here."
She made a few angry paces and ended up sitting on a stack of boxes, crossing one leg over the other and rsting her chin in her hands. "Cassandra's the only one that can bridge the gap, but she won't bring me home without the whole crystal. I don't even know if the tiny little shards are all in this universe..." But she crossed her arms and hugged herself, looking at him almost defensively of her physical form, "But don't think I'm letting the human brat off the hook just because she has some new oaf of a boyfriend. She made a promise, she's keeping it until I go home to my own body."
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