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 Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 9:07 pm
Following shortly behind The Crone's LamentZirconia taking over to talk to Cassandra in a private moment had left Zia with unsettling thoughts about her future. Cassandra was a necessary evil in her life, being the only person with enough power to feasibly separate her soul with Zirconia's, but it had been made abundantly clear she was no ally.
She hadn't told anyone on the other side Zirconia had survived. She could take the crystal and kill them both with no reproach. Zia didn't like needing help from people. That was why she had lived as a street kid for two years instead of asking her dad for help. She had grown up with Robert Connolly, a man with a reputation for great generosity with strings attached. And she knew first hand that attached strings could be used to strangle you.
That was how she found herself back at the base. The base was a temporary structure on a vacant piece of land her father had ceased construction on and forgotten about and Zia sneakily grabbed from his abandoned real estate dealings. It had once housed all of her collections and stashes and even occasionally provided a place to sleep when she was hard up on people to couch surf with or pester. The futon in the corner with the blanket nest had a lot of memories of providing desperate warmth when she thought she was completely alone and screwed. She didn't even used to function in the civilian world after Operation Rota.
Weird reminders of how far she'd come, as she set up an area to work on the cold, concrete foundation.
This is a reckless idea.
"But obviously you think it's a good one since you brought it up at all," She huffed.
Desperate times, I suppose. The disembodied voice of Zirconia sounded concerned nonetheless. At the very least we agree Cassandra can't be trusted. Do you intend to tell anyone?
"I think if they knew the moral ambiguity of handing her the shards, they wouldn't be so eager to help," Zia sighed. "Look, I've been dealing with the consequences of the s**t you made me do for a long time. I've learned sometimes it's best to leave the ugly truth casually unmentioned. Now let's get started."
She stretched her hands over her head until she felt her shoulders pop and flopped down to the ground where she had set up a magical array beneath a large plate of mirror that had been polished to pristine clarity. She powered up to her cat-girl form and summoned the crystal piece and the small shards and got to work.
Having collected quite a few shards by now, she thought maybe it was enough material to restore the crystal. But without a court working together, she didn't have the sheer amount of magic it would take to accomplish such a thing. But she was trying to trick reality into bending to her will. With the array and the mirror and Zirconia's proficiency in magic she was going to tr to reflect her magical output back to her, and hope against hope her little attempt to cheat would pass muster.
Hope didn't last long. Her magic was amplified and it sent out a dangerous shockwave of energy into the night air of Destiny City that could be felt for several city blocks, but it seemed to spark a reaction in the crystal. Her eyes brightened with euphoric glee.
And then it all went wrong, and she didn't understand how.
The mirror's surface seemed to bend physical reality, ad bow up and out past its flat surface in a way she'd never seen. Panic started rising when she tried to pull her hands out of it, and couldn't. "I... I... Z-Zirconia, what's happening?"
But the voice was silent.
What had once been an invigorating abundance of magic was gone, and she instead could feel the energy draining from her. It hurt, and the more she struggled, the harder it pulled. Tendrils for quicksilver like mirror substance started snaking up her arms as Mirrorspace started pulling her down. Feeding.
Zia shifted her position so she could more easily pull her upper body away and did the only thing she could do. She screamed, as loud as she could.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 12:28 pm
Camelot felt a startling amount of power flare up not too far away from him, the farther than he should have been able to feel it. Whatever it was, anyway. He looked around, though he knew he would not be able to see it: it felt like it was farther off. It was just instinct, really, because the sudden energy flare had startled him.
And he did not like the feel of it. It was not something a Royal Knight could simply ignore.
So, pushing aside the thoughts he had been wallowing in concerning everything that had been happening as of late, Camelot took off toward the power, leaping from rooftop to rooftop to cut the distance quicker than on the ground. It did not take him long to arrive at the seemingly abandoned lot, following where he had felt the initial burst of energy as best he could, feeling something else as he drew closer to it.
"Zia!" The scream was all too easy to recognize, but he had found her almost at the same time. He ran to her, planting his feet and wrapping his arm around her midsection, hauling her backwards and away from the mirror as best he could. He held on to her tightly, not exactly sure what he was jumping in the middle of, but knowing he needed to be there.
To stop it.
He moved to position himself between the mirror and Zia, hoping to break the tendrils that were gripping her.
"I've got you, hold on."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 7:32 pm
Zia's scream choked in her throat, but she sounded genuinely afraid, even as she suddenly felt a warm and comforting aura cut through the miasma of mirror energy she felt.
The Mauvian girl did her best to assist his efforts, but it wasn't long after he arrived that she could feel her body going slack, the energy being forced from every pore with more force than she'd known. She had been drained by wraiths, and she had been drained by Negaverse officers. This felt more forceful and painful than either of them.
Whether it was his massive energy presence or his strength, Camelot's efforts proved successful and the long streams of reflective mirror were stretched to their limit and released Zee, the large slab of mirror suddenly going back to solid, mirror backed glass as it always had been.
"A-ah, the crystal..." She murmured as she dropped it. There were marks on her hands as if it had burned her, with similar damage on her arms and legs where the tendrils of mirror had latched to her. She didn't have the energy to stay powered up and reverted to her civilian form, completely limp against the royal knight.
"Camelot..." She whimpered, looking at the crystal, seeing not all of the shards made it back out. She'd damaged her prospects rather than improving them. "I did a dumb thing..."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:02 pm
Camelot held on to her tightly, even after the tendrils coiled back and vanished into the mirror, whatever had been there vanishing now into something much more normal and familiar. He hugged her to him, his heart in his throat.
There had been far too many near misses recently for his tastes. Between almost losing his son and almost losing Zia, he was not sure he had it in him to face one more near miss.
Then again, it would be better for them to be near, but still misses, than not.
"I'm here, it's okay," he said carefully, looking down at the crystal she dropped skeptically. What had she been doing? Was she making this happen, or just a victim of it? What was that crystal? He moved back a bit to look at her directly, but he still kept his hands on either sides of her shoulders.
"What stupid thing? What happened? Are you okay?" He could see she wasn't by the way she wobbled, and he supported her almost effortlessly thanks to his strength, though at this point he would life a car over his head if it meant protecting her from something.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:38 pm
Zia's legs were still slack. If Camelot hadn't been holding her up she would've been a puddle on the floor.
"I found it. The portal. The doorway. To Zirconia's world. She can go home, if I finish the crystal. I thought... I could do it on my own. I don't know what happened.
She weakly attempted to cling to him but all she really did was shift the weight she had already been leaning on him with. And then she started crying. "I thought it might kickback, but I don't know what was happening. It felt like I was going to be pulled in and eaten. I've never... I have no idea what the ******** that was!"
She took a huge, gasping breath and coughed a bit before she got a grip. "I'm okay..." She concluded. "I think it's like... mega concentrated energy drain... on some of my muscles. So I should... As long as I get some rest. Maybe I can get someone... who donates energy to... whoa..." she at least found the strength to hold on to his uniform.
"Will you take me home? Wait-- no. The carnival."
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:49 pm
"The Carnival? I don't think you're in any condition for rides and popcorn," Camelot said sternly, in his best impersonation of a father as could be expected. He could not help the protective streak in him, and the disapproval in his tone at the idea, even in a half formed effort at a joke, of her goofing around while hurt.
Or energy drained. Close enough.
He sighed, though, knowing she was not, at least, going there for fun and games. Relenting, he moved to carefully pick her up, which was not all that difficult for him, even without being powered up. It was not like she was large or muscular, so he could not complain like he was carrying the Hulk or something.
"I think you need to rest, and I'm not really inclined to leave you alone in this state. I've already had to take my son to the hospital: I'm not about to drop you off some place if you need to go to one, too."
He did not like the way she looked or the way she was breathing and coughing. He was worried about how much energy was taken from her, and in what manner, as that was not like anything he had ever seen before.
The unknown was not his favorite thing to deal with.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:32 am
"Ugh, shush," She said, making a flopping pat of her hand against his face.
She was starting to recover her sense of alertness pretty quickly, but movement still appeared to be an effort, like a victim of frostbite, almost. "What's the hospital going to do? It's an energy drain, it'll go away with time."
Or at least she hoped. It admittedly didn't feel quite like any other energy drain she'd experienced.
"Um... the carnival is where Chester lives..." She fumbled with her hands, settling in comfortably to being held. "He... um." She felt embarrassed heat rising to her cheeks. "He'll take care of me."
Something else caught her attention, and she turned wide eyes up to him. "Why did Chaonis need to go to the hospital?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:09 am
"Well... fine. I'll take you there, but I am going to come back and check on you regularly." That implied, perhaps, once a day, but he was going to drive both her and Chester crazy with his visits, to make sure Zia was healing and there was nothing lingering after that strange attack.
Anyway, he had a lot of questions he did not feel he could ask right now, with the incident so fresh. He had a typical sense of relief following that terrible fright, but that was coupled with an even more familiar irritation that was purely paternal. His daughter had done something very stupid and almost got herself hurt because of it, and he wanted to be mad at her but his first priority was to make sure she was okay.
Once he was sure, though, then she was getting such a talking to.
He started walking, carrying her as he went, and being as careful as he could with the task. He knew where the carnival was, though he would have to learn more about Chester himself, it seemed, since Zia was so sure he would take care of her. Camelot had to be sure.
"Chaonis... tried to fight Painite, because she hurt his girlfriend. He was badly hurt by her, but he almost killed her. I arrived in time to stop him from... making a mistake." His tone got tight and strange, and cleared his throat.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 7:36 pm
"Thanks," Zia managed with a quiet laugh and started playing with her rings as he toted her around without making her exert any effort at all. And she seemed more than comfortable with that set up. "I wouldn't mind being checked on," She said with a small cough.
There was a void where he real family had checked out that Camelot filled, same with other knights she'd grown particularly fond of.
"Chester is a Pluto Knight," She said matter of factly with a haughty little nod. "He's my best patrol partner, he's very good at his job. I mean, he's not a very emotional type, but he's really serious and he's very smart."
Babble trailed on, bordering on gushing and just a bit of desperation, as if it was very important Camelot had a positive opinion about this Chester guy.
Things got a little more serious with his explanation, though. "O-oh..." She looked back down at her rings, fiddling again. "Well it's good you stepped in," She concluded. "It wouldn't be good for either of them to end up buyin' the farm or anything. He's going to be okay, right?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2014 11:41 am
Camelot was all too happy to play the role of father where needed. It was not like he had nothing to gain from it, as he liked taking care of others, and felt like he was at his best when he was helping. At the end of the day, it was as simple as loving Zia, and wanting what was best for her. The better life she lived, the happier he would be.
It was the same he wanted for his own kids, his real ones, after all.
He listened to the way she described the knight, giving his best qualities and focusing on how reliable and strong he was. It sounded like a teenage girl trying to convince her dad that her boyfriend was good for her. Unfortunately, this skeptical father was not so easily convinced. He was sure Luxor was a nice guy, and he was worthy of being a Squire, but Camelot would decide if he was worthy of Zia later.
He took a breath, thinking about the other kid he was really worried about at the moment. Chaonis and Zia sure did keep his plate full, and his stress up. But he wouldn't have it any other way, as the only alternative was to be without them, and he could not imagine that life.
"No, it wouldn't be good. But I think he's going to be okay. He's got a lot of recovering to do, but at least he won't have to worry about Painite coming after him."
He sighed, closing the distance on the carnival. He could see the rides rising up against the sky line.
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Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2014 4:31 pm
Zia didn't mind the fatherly attention and had more than latched on to it in that last few years. Camelot had accepted her when she had been at her lowest, and it wasn't like her actual father was doing anything other than bemoaning another child dropped out of prep school and generally shaming his empire. Camelot filled a void she couldn't consciously say was there, and that was fine. Especially when she was trying so hard to forget the threat of something unknown, and cope with the fact that for once she had no idea what was going on, and that feeling had started to creep back into her limbs and allow a burning pain with it.
"Oh, good..." Zia exhaled and seemed to relax substantially in his arms.
And then knitted her brow as she focused on playing with her bracelet.
"Why doesn't he have to worry?"
It seemed like a rude question at first, because obviously Camelot was there to protect him. But it wasn't like Painite gave up easily, or sopped going after people for no reason.
She glanced up and saw the carnival gate fast approaching, though, and tried to shift around. "Ah! I hope he's in his office and not patrolling-- ow!"
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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 3:17 pm
Camelot carried her carefully and nearly dropped her when she suddenly moved, though the pain in her voice because of it only made him move his arms more securely around her to discourage her from trying it again. He would wrap her up entirely in his cape if he had to.
That would protect her from herself, clearly.
Her question stuck with him, though, and he didn't enter the Carnival right away. once he did, he would leave her in Chester's care, and hope he was good for her. He did not want to share his story with anyone outside of his family, which extended to Zia but not this knight she was attached to.
Protective instincts flared up again for a moment, but he calmed quickly.
"You should stay still. And uh... I killed her. Painite I mean. I could not let him do it, but I could not let her hunt him down, either. I gave her a chance and... well. You know Painite. So I did what I had to do. I'm not... proud of it." He sighed quietly.
He waited for a moment, then took a breath and steeled himself, carrying her into the Carnival and looking around. It was not too hard to find the office, which had a light on in the window. It looked like he was home, so to speak.
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 8:47 am
It didn't sink in at first. not really. There were no real circumstances Zia had in her memory that would allow her to see Camelot as actually taking a life. Not when so much of his attempts to teach her a thing or two were about how life had meaning and was worth protecting.
It was obvious when it did, though, because her body just seemed to sink and become dead weight.
"Oh..." She exhaled out in half a daze, and seem to look straight at her own hands with a dejected sort of blankness. With all the death that happened in the war, it felt weird to be a shock. But it was Camelot, who was idealized as infallible and good and unwavering. If he was going to kill for any purpose, she figured, of course he would kill for his son. But it was still a shock to her system. A reality check when she was all full up on harsh realities.
She jumped out of her haze when she realized they were outside Chester's office, but she was still distracted, and looked up at Camelot with worry. "I... Are you okay?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 8:56 am
Camelot fell into a very troubled silence as she considered his words. He was hearing himself saying it as well, and it hit him hard to know that he had killed someone on purpose, without a battle or some other excuse to fall behind. She had to die, and he was the one who decided when and where. It was beyond him, the idea that someone like him had any right to decide who deserved to live, and whose life was worth more, but he had done just that. His son and family meant more to him than one Negaverse General.
And now she was gone.
For once, he was honest, not hiding his emotions despite his every instinct to do so for her sake. He did not look at her, staring ahead of him at the door to the office, though he did not seem to be looking at it so much as through it.
"No. I don't think so. But I will be, in time. We all have to do what we must, to survive and protect the people that need us. But I would rather it be me than any of you. Don't make the same choices I do: I will always be there for you, to help you through the most difficult times. Please don't do anything foolish without me."
Like tonight, whatever she had been doing, almost killed her. He could not bear the idea of losing her, under any circumstances.
Shifting his hold on her, he moved one hand out to knock on the door to the office, standing there awkwardly and wondering how strange it looked for a man in full knight apparel to be standing on a doorstep with a damsel in his arms.
Chester opened the door, but did not look particularly surprised. He did not make much of a face at all, though his eyes did lock on Zia and he moved to take her from Camelot quickly, taking over the duty of carrying her.
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 9:18 am
Zia just sort of seemed blank and empty, although her mind was not as hollow as the rest of her appeared to be.
Things like what happened tonight were a sign of the pragmatist that whispered in the back of her mind. Where Zirconia sat, and her advice seemed to constantly guide them both down to darkness. They'll break your heart, they'll never approve, don't trust them.
She suddenly felt torn. She had no idea how to manipulate her way out of her situation with Cassandra, but if she did, would he understand? Would he think less of her? Would he help her with those hard choices, if they came to pass? The lies and the tricks and the dangerous, unknown of magic.
Would any of them understand it was for survival?
Camelot's words urged her to find solace in the belief he would catch her, but they warred with the centuries old Mauvian soul that quietly urged her not to fall for it. He's only mortal.
Zia's fingers had grabbed onto his cape. When, she couldn't figure out, because she hadn't realized they did until she felt her nails pushing through the fabric into her palms. But she seemed to snap out of it when she looked up and saw Chester, and threw her arms around his neck. She found the energy to hug him tightly. Well not very tightly, but as tightly as she could.
And as her face buried into his shoulder and her fingers found their way up to his hair affectionately, she pieced back on a mask of carefree confidence slightly tempered by her magical mishap.
"Camelot, this is Chester," She said, settling against his chest and sparing one arm to wave up and down over him in a presentation. And then she slightly nudged Chester's temple and whispered in his ear, "Say hi, or something."
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