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 Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:43 pm
He hadn't even been back on campus for twenty-four hours before Zan was requesting another trip home. Or rather, another trip to Manhattan. The Prytaneum was home now, much more so than the city had been for him in recent years, though it was still rejuvenating to visit, to walk through the nearly empty streets in the dead of night and feel like he owned the place.
It had been a short jaunt, just long enough to pick up a thick winter coat he didn't have to borrow to wear, and to visit an acquaintance who called himself a friend to let him know he'd be away for a while longer. He'd asked after his mother too, with no meaningful results.
Zan was bundled in his new coat when he ventured out onto the beach that afternoon, countering the fact that it wasn't quite cold enough to have it on by not wearing shoes or socks. He looked like a large, red lollipop, all puffy, quilted fabric and skinny legs, pants rolled up to mid-shin. Curling his toes into the chilly sand, he smirked at the creeping carpet of water as it swept in and out several feet in front of him.
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 8:21 pm
Never before had a shower felt like such a luxury. Friday night baths had always been the luxury, but showers were only quick and necessary. Until Sylvia had come back from the Bayou. Where she would usually take a ten-minute shower with her hair up, almost immediately upon returning to the Prytaneum she instead took great pains to untangle her hair before letting herself indulge in a shower that took almost a full hour. It was glorious. Then she’d passed out for most of the following day, again. She knew there was supposedly no such thing as catching up on sleep, but she couldn’t seem to tell that to her body. She had a feeling that day-long slumber would become the norm after their excursions.
Unfortunately, she was also fairly sure that the restlessness that followed would be another norm, at least for a while. When she finally rose from the depths of sleep and worked her way back into solid consciousness, she found that her dorm was nearly suffocating. She didn’t want to be in a tiny room alone, trying to distract herself with books or movies or internet. She didn’t want to exercise at all, as she was again very sore. She wasn’t quite ready to run to her actual home… It took her some time to pin down an acceptable activity.
It was colder outside than was ideal, but Sylvia had at least packed some clothes for such a situation. Dressed in fleece-lined leggings and a mint, long-sleeved shirt and a large, cream knit sweater layered over it, she quickly secured her hair into two braided pigtails and went out to traverse the beach. She started with slip-on tennis shoes, trying to walk on the more packed sections of sand along the side of the Aphrodite dorm. Once she’d gotten used to the cold and warmed up a bit, she tried a few cartwheels across the sand. The cold made the sand stiff enough that she didn’t want to try much else, but it was something towards getting some of her gymnastic muscles back in practice.
She progressed down the beach, switching between walking and cartwheeling, for a decent while – until she saw someone else down the beach. Her cheeks were surely almost as red as the coat they wore by now, and she knew that if she stopped moving as much as she was the cold would get to her… but something inside her tugged. She didn’t know if she wanted company earlier, but the appearance of a possible companion made it clear that having someone to talk to might be a very good thing. So she stopped practicing her cartwheels and hoped that the other beach-walker would be up for some company. As she got closer, she started to recognize the profile, and a smile crossed her lips.
“Glad to see you made it back in one piece.” Sylvia sidled up to Zan and lightly bumped against him with her shoulder. She hadn’t really seen him (that she knew) since they’d assembled the map – maybe a glimpse or two in the final push for Circe – and it lightened her somehow to know that he was okay.[ 531 words ]
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 4:30 pm
"Hey!" Zan leaned into Sylvia's nudge and grinned over at her, even going so far as to wiggle a hand out of his pocket and circle his arm around her shoulders for a quick squeeze. "Glad to see you're okay too."
He had assumed as much, since he didn't really think word of someone's death or serious injury could remain a secret for long in this place, but it was still nice to see that the Chosen he had come to know were safe with his own eyes. His friends. Maybe. Caring too much about people had never failed to burn him in the past. He'd hoped to keep a lid on it here for as long as possible.
"Did you get some sleep?" Restful downtime was something he'd had trouble with in the muggy Louisiana swamp with all the animals around, though his own first shower had been a definite relief too. "That was what I missed most during our trip. A nice, soft bed."
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 6:48 pm
The squeeze was nice. She hadn’t realized how long it had been since she’d had anything remotely like a hug. Had she known Zan better, she might have made him indulge her in a much closer and longer embrace. As it was, she didn’t trust her closeness with anyone here enough to force them into such, so she settled with leaning her head against his shoulder while his arm was still around her.
“Oh, yes.” Her voice gave away how indulgent the sleep had been, though she still added, “I slept like the dead for nearly the last day. Priority second only to a very long shower.” She smiled up at him, “Did you sleep alright?” She assumed he had at least tried, given his comment, but she wasn’t sure that everyone would be as lucky as she – able to sleep quite well after a week like the one they had been through. She wasn’t sure if she had just been so tired that she couldn’t remember any nightmares, or if her brain was gracious enough to not provide any. Either way, she was glad she’d gotten rest.[ 188; 719 total ]
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:08 am
"It was too quiet after... everything, so I went home for a second first. I bought this very glamorous coat." He chuckled at how stupid it sounded now. "But then I did the same. So, yeah, I got a little." He hadn't dreamed, but he couldn't recall anything solid he'd had on that front in years. Maybe the dreams he had while he was awake drowned the others out.
"It's funny. I say I missed the bed, but now that I'm back, I just want to move." They'd had a true adventure, filled with maps and antidotes and villainous teenage sidekicks. It was hard to come down from. "I was never a big beach guy growing up, but this is nice." He watched the waves again—or the wave, to be more precise, since he had only given the water enough attention for one rippling crest to wash ashore before he perked up with another wide grin. "I wasn't a chipmunk when I turned." Zan was very proud.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 10:46 am
Sylvia nodded – she understood how quiet it could get. That was, essentially, why she had left her dorm. She was just lucky enough to have slept through the initial worst of it. She smiled at his coat, reaching out to touch the arm of the coat and get a feel for it, teasing a bit after, “It is a very nice coat.” But she was glad to hear he’d gotten some sleep of his own. Maybe it was just because of her own exhaustion, but she felt that was fairly important after these things.
Sylvia could also understand the need to move – again, that was basically what had driven her to the beach as well. Sitting still after running and fighting for a week seemed… well, logically, it seemed unlikely, but her body still had too much tension to let her relax, and she didn’t like sitting still when her head was still swimming while it tried to process the last adventure. She smiled and looked out at the water, “It really is. I didn’t grow up around the water, so I’m sort of surprised how much I love the shore here.” She idly slipped off a shoe and poked her toe into the sand.
She gave a mock-gasp at his announcement, turning to him with a wide smile and an impressed look, “You must have been very excited to not be so tiny and ‘annoying’.” Her eyes glimmered with amusement and she tilted her head, “So, what were you, then? Something scarier, as desired?” There had been so many different animals at the last fight, she couldn’t even guess; but she did wonder if maybe she’d seen him along the way.[ 282; 1,001 total ]
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 2:59 pm
He had been tiny, compared to some of the creatures he'd seen, but being an animal had been a great deal more fun than anticipated and he looked back on it with surprising fondness. He supposed that might have been because he kept his wits when he'd turned, confident that they had enough cures remaining to make him human again whenever he wanted. Also, he hadn't been stuck in another form for very long. Panicking or getting riled up had seemed like a waste of time when there was fighting to be done.
"Not really, to be honest." A laugh puffed out of him. "I'm pretty sure I was a fox, from what I heard later. I had white paws and a white muzzle, at least. And luckily I didn't have time to be annoying. I ate some of Circe's food, and then she did that flip-flop thing and it was done. I got to bite a live goose though. Cross that off the bucket list."
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 3:50 pm
Sylvia smirked when he revealed that he hadn’t, in fact, turned into something to terrify the masses. His description sounded familiar, though. She had seen a fox with a white muzzle and white paws while she was turned. She got distracted by the goose comment, laughing, “That’s definitely unique. I didn’t get to bite a goose, but I did attack a rather large cat…”
She tilted her head a bit, “I remember seeing a white fox, though it had some black on its face and ears… Maybe that was you!” She smiled, brows lifting a bit, “If it was, you might be able to tell me what I was. I made the same mistake with the food.” She winced. She knew that it wasn’t entirely her fault – there was a lot of magic involved – but she was still fighting through being upset with herself when she remembered it sometimes. Even if they had won in the end. “I haven’t asked Beth yet – or Ernst; Beth was there when I turned, but I know she told Ernst who I was, so either of them would know.” She hadn’t really thought to ask, actually, though she was curious now. After seeing how different everyone was, she wondered if the animal someone turned into actually said anything about them. She probably would never know, but she was still curious.[ 226; 1,227 total ]
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 11:15 pm
"I saw Beth and Ernst!" His response might have been a little overenthusiastic, but if she had stayed close to them the entire time she'd been an animal, there was a good chance he'd seen her. "After Misha took my cures to keep them safe, I ran over to 'em just to..."
His reasons for approaching those two in particular hadn't been all that clear at the time, kind of a mix of camaraderie over subduing Griffin together and a desire to share his animalness with others he knew had been there. Mostly, he'd just wanted to have a little fun, and barking at the giant Dionysus Chosen had seemed the fastest way to get there.
"... say hi, I guess. It must've been me. And if it was, that means you were a fox too." He raised his eyebrows and inclined his head, as if he was unveiling a most intriguing secret. "Pocket sized. Very cute. With these giiiiiiant ears. Two out of three of those are true all the time anyway, but you get the picture." Zan smiled as he said it, the most genuine one he'd worn in her presence yet, and he couldn't quite meet her eyes again until it had faded back to the jester's smirk he usually wore. "A fennec, I think they're called."
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 2:16 am
“Oh!” He might have been a bit overenthusiastic, but she was almost as excited. She had been with Beth and Ernst the whole time before Circe had revealed herself, so he must have seen her. Possible end to her curiosity!
And thus was it revealed – also a fox! She liked foxes, and a broad smile crossed her lips. As he took a somewhat conspiratorial stance, apparently continuing with details, Sylvia tucked her head slightly as well, watching him intently. She had figured the pocket-sized, given how large the world had seemed. Cute wasn’t a bad thing in her mind – though she would say she had managed to be fairly ferocious in actual battle, even being a tiny, cute thing. Giant ears was intriguing, and she was trying to remember the name of tiny, giant-eared, light-colored foxes when she was distracted by his next sentence, and the loveliest smile that crossed his lips with it.
Sylvia was rather glad that her cheeks were already pink from the cold, as it covered the bit of blush she was sure would have colored her in any other situation. Two of the three, huh? Well, she wasn’t a giant, so she knew at least one of the two. She could guess the other, but she went to tease a little bit anyway. Lifting her left hand to her ear, she asked, “Aw man, you noticed, huh? And I try so hard to cover their enormity…” A playful smile tugged at her lips even as she fought the urge to turn shy about it.
And then he mentioned the name. “Fennec! Fennec foxes, that sounds right.” She grinned, gazing off to the side as she remembered what they looked like – and, in turn, what she had looked like. “Aww, those are cute…” She then gave a decisive nod. “I’m okay with that. It would have been useful to be a bit bigger, but I held my own. And I was cute, too.” She may have been a bit too pleased with that last bit, a happy little smile on her lips as she turned her torso slightly, chin nearly touching her shoulder. Not that she wouldn’t have been pleased with being entirely ferocious, but she couldn’t deny that she liked being cute.[ 377; 1,604 total ]
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 8:23 pm
There was a hitch right above his stomach and below his heart, like a roller coaster drop only a little higher. The pleasure that came after a joke well told, its setup perfectly carried through by a cunning comedy partner. He laughed, but it was silent, only the jittering of his puffy red shoulders and his grin giving any indication of his amusement. He shook his head as he glanced at the waves again, brushing his toes over the sand.
"Don't forget the very. Very cute. Even with the enormous ears."
He couldn't see her blush, but Zan still hoped she was.
"I think it's the best thing we can do around here. Hold our own. No matter how small we get. And watch each other's backs. At least we'll never be bored." He shrugged, a shallow lift of his right shoulder. "But enough about that. What were you doing before my stylish outerwear distracted you? Should we be walking? Because this cold is really starting to sink in."
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 2:26 am
Sylvia chewed a bit at the inside of her bottom lip, trying to keep from smiling too big. She was blushing, alright – enough that the edge of the cold creeping in wasn’t bothering her quite as much as it would have been otherwise. She nodded at his emphasis, “Very cute, then.” Ugh, she felt so silly…
She was almost surprised at the depth he found in her somewhat offhanded comment. She nodded, an intrigued sort of smile crossing her lips – but her eyes filled with mirth at his conclusion. Indeed, the Prytaneum didn’t seem the sort of place to leave them hanging. That seemed like an understatement, really. But Zan seemed like the restless type, and she could see why something like that would be important for him.
An amused hum escaped her at the mention of his fabulous coat, and she looked back down the coast from whence she’d come. “Oh, well—” She hadn’t really been doing much other than wasting time, and she felt sort of silly not having a real agenda for him. She shrugged and turned back to him, “I just needed to get out of my dorm, so I was sort of walking and cartwheeling down the coast.” She did give her arms a light rub as he reminded her of the cold seeping into and beyond the knitting of her sweater. With a tilt of her head and consideration, she conceded a shy smile and agreement, “Resuming activity might be good. Did you have a particular destination in mind?”[ 256; 1,860 total ]
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 6:58 pm
The last time he had cartwheeled extensively, he'd been eleven years old playing in some penthouse. He didn't remember the guy who'd invited them there or who had owned the place, only that one of his arms had finally buckled under him after about the millionth attempt and he'd smacked his nose on the hard wood floor as he'd fallen, resulting in his fourth black eye. "My only plan was to wander aimlessly," he quipped. "But that means we can keep walking whichever way feels the most interesting. Or cartwheeling, if you prefer. Just tell me when you want to turn." And then he began to stroll, looking to Sylvia for confirmation that she wanted to continue.
"Do you do that a lot? Cartwheel, I mean. And if you don't mind me asking, what did you do before this? Or what do you do? I'm still not sure who's left their old jobs and who hasn't."
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 10:43 pm
Wandering aimlessly sounded just fine, and she gave a nod. “Sounds good to me.” When he turned to stroll, she followed his turn and began to move with him, offering a reassuring smile that she did want to continue on. It would take a bit to build up the warmth she’d had from her earlier activity, though, so in the meantime she crossed her arms over her chest, hoping to hold in what little warmth she did have.
She chuckled a bit, shaking her head, “I don’t cartwheel a lot, no – well, not anymore. I used to do gymnastics, and I was pretty obsessed for a while. But now it’s more for fun; and I recently sort of figured, why not get some of that back into my system? Any sort of exercise can’t hurt, so…” It had been quite a long time since she’d been a gymnast, so it would take a while to get fully back into it, but she’d held onto a few things as party tricks. She hoped that getting back in practice would be a little like riding a bike.
She still felt weird telling people about her job for some reason, even given how long she’d been living there now. And she had been living here – she hadn’t really gone back home at all yet, which was starting to eat at her. She would have to go back soon. Not just for the sake of it, but also because of the very thing he’d mentioned – she wasn’t sure she could keep up her practice while splitting her time at the Prytaneum. She cleared her throat, “I’m a marriage and couples counselor.” An awkward smile crossed her lips and she tilted her head a bit, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it, though. I love my job, and I’ve worked hard to get where I am, but I can’t just cancel appointments and run off to save the world, leaving my clients hanging, so… I’m figuring that out.” She squinted at him, her discomfort showing through just a little.
She was quick to shrug it off, though. She turned more fully towards him for a few steps and turned the question back on him. “And you? What do you do – or did you do before all this?”[ 385; 2,245 total ]
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:41 pm
Zan swallowed when she asked him the same, listening to the water and the faint crunch of sand under his feet for the briefest of moments. He had been certain the question would be turned back on him when he had posed it, he had even been ready to give an appropriately boisterous and extravagant response, at least in theory. But now that he actually had to come up with something, he didn't quite know where to begin.
He wasn't ashamed of what he did, after all, it had landed him here. He just did so many things, and not all of them were the sorts of things you opened with when you actually wanted people to respect you. He decided to start by holding out the arm nearest to her and urging her under it, offering her slightly more warmth if she didn't mind being closer to him. Then he took a breath and gave her an answer.
"I perform, and I hope the good people of New York are kind enough to pay me for it. I play instruments. I dress up in costumes. I even brought a couple of them here." He chuckled. "Some days I do well; some it's a lot like begging. But making people laugh is better than money." Zan made a face, but it didn't last for long. "So cheesy. Maybe it's not better really. But I am a little addicted to it."
"A marriage counselor, though?" He whistled, one of those descending notes that meant he was impressed. "That would be tough, working out a balance. I guess I'm lucky I could just... stop." It was a lot less stressful, knowing he had very little to go back to. He could spend all day sparring and doing cartwheels and no one would care.
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