capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

WHO: Look at the tags
WHERE: Starting at ~~his~~ ~~her~~ ~~their place~~ the MAC, around town, out of town, the surface of the sun
WHEN: Sometime after this but before this
WARNINGS: no
WHAT: Zelgadis takes some advice.
WORDS: yes

It was afternoon; shining was the sun, cold was the air, and doing nothing in particular was Terra, sitting by a closed window. Her expression and mood were not easy to read, especially turned toward the glass as she was, which at the very least meant she was neither bubbling over with joy nor bawling her eyes out for sorrow. Presently, she felt--well, if you asked her, Terra wouldn't be able to answer, either. Emotions were a complicated subject.

So for now, she was focused halfway between herself and the mundane action of a couple laughing teenagers pretending to be giant robots and chasing pigeons.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Zelgadis was having more difficulty reconciling with Abby's advice than anyone really ought to have. As if being a freak with a rock hide automatically invalidated any suggestions for normalcy presented, he kept making excuses over why this or that wasn't applicable to him. But it was hard to argue against food, context be damned. It was the other stuff he wasn't sure about. When the simple act of going grocery shopping could turn into something insanely awkward...

Well, too bad. He couldn't stand the alternative of sitting around doing nothing at all. He'd suffered through the purchasing part already (and really, if he stopped being so self-hating, he'd have realized that more than half the stares were out of a positive interest, not his idealized scorn and fear; Mary Marvel had been right). He had the stuff and the idea, so it made no sense to not act.

It beat the hell out of trying to have a meaningful conversation he had no idea how to navigate.

The door, as always, was a little opened; he poked the toe of his shoe at an angle enough to nudge it all the way open, plastic bags slung over his shoulder and held onto by two fingers.

"I'm back," he announced. Impulse. Not that he actually needed to say anything at all.

The taller of the two boys below was doing some strangely emotive victory dance while the other had hands shoved into his pockets, looking sullen; she couldn't hear the specifics, but her attention was diverted from that easily enough when the door opened. She didn't rise to her feet, but Terra sat up straighter, posture improving in turn.

"Hey," she replied, a bird-like tilt to neck and mild curiosity to her tone.

His own head tilted just a little, unsure of what he was interrupting - if he was interrupting at all. He stopped short of the middle of the room before saying anything else.

"Is," agh, dammit. He cleared his throat. "Anything going on today?"

"No," with a short head-shake. "Not really." Skimming the communicator network hadn't turned up anything pressing to Terra's attention. Or, if there was, it'd been some large block of small text, and she didn't have the patience to decipher every post on the off-chance it was important.

With a slight, indicative nod in his-and-the-door's direction, she added, "Trip go alright?"

"Yeah." Sure, why not. Zelgadis didn't feel like complaining about being maybe or maybe not persecuted by his hideous appearance. He had a goal, dammit, and he was trying to stay focused and not trip up well before the finish line even appeared.

"You can warp again, right? With your magic back..." He asked warily, uncertain of what asking about magic would trigger - if anything.

That was an unexpected turn of conversation. Terra blinked twice in momentary confusion, nodding once and moving to stand. "Yes..."

He was right to be wary; Terra still wasn't happy about the whole affair. Just like she hadn't worked up the courage to go back to her own, decimated apartment, she wasn't quick to use her powers, and certainly wasn't taking pride in them.

But she couldn't imagine Zelgadis bringing up a specific spell like that without a reason. "Why?"

No tripping, no stumbling, stay on target and don't slow down. "Does it work if you pick a place off a map?"

"It..." What kinds of questions were these? Terra's voice just grew more curious and cautious in turn. "... might take a couple tries. It depends on how far it is..."

She didn't need to ask why again; every word she spoke carried the inflection of it.

"Okay." Exhale. Zelgadis shrugged his shoulders, letting the bag slip away to be settled down at his feet. He left them there, stepping over to the table that was often occupied by too much food or books or both - both, at the moment - and rifled around for one of the atlases. He thumbed through it until his cruddy bookmark (chopstick wrapper) turned up. He was explaining as he did, more efficient with something else to look at and do.

"There's a place...west, a bit north...It's away from this city. I think it's worth checking out, at least..."

Again and still the why was not apparent. It didn't even seem to exist, but that made even less sense than even the most convoluted of reasons. Her confusion rode heavy on her brow and shoulders as she made her way to the table as well, peering to catch sight of his map. She hadn't been that way herself, so she had no idea what to expect — but at least maps made a bit more sense than regular books.

His finger traced between the two points of here and there, an inch or two, but not really too far at all. It was still in the state, whatever the hell that meant.

"We could probably fly there if that was better," he murmured, measuring out the mileage with the scale reference in the corner.

She leaned in a little closer to get a better look at where he indicated, eyebrows furrowing. It didn't seem that far. "I think I can handle it." Her gaze flicked up from the book to his face, scrutinizing. "What's up there?"

Zelgadis' gaze did a bit of a double-take as she moved in and puzzled at him. The edge of his mouth tugged as he swallowed, knots tightening in his gut.

"Like I said...It's not so crowded. There's some water, a little bit of forest-"

And, from what she knew about this world, a distinct lack of large monsters. ... Maybe he wants to go fishing? she wondered, attention moving back to the map. It was the only thing she could think of. She knew he sometimes took trips out of the City, but never really caught what for. In that case, it made more sense. If he wanted her to go along, it was probably more out of a desire to not leave her on her own. After all, she had her magic back, and with Illidan still in the City...

Terra's fingers tapped quietly on the surface of the table, her lips pinched together for her concentration, before she finally nodded, confusion dissipating for the moment. "Okay."

He grimaced a little, straightening up. "Unless that's...not anything interesting. I'm not trying to..." What? Be pushy? Wasn't the whole outing thing crossing a line, anyway?

He waved at the atlas quickly. "You can pick somewhere else, if you want, I mean."

And confusion came slamming right back like a mace. Better to just go with what he had in mind in the first place, she figured; answers, if they existed, would turn up later. Probably.

Terra shook her head, waving a hand dismissively. "No, that's okay," looking up his way with a reassuring smile. "This is fine."

Her assurance was permission to breathe again, now running on a rush of adrenaline that came with the fear of being pushy, screwing it all up before barely getting underway. It would've been so much easier if it was Lina, even Amelia - people whose opinions he was already certain of. Not the case at the moment.

"Then...If that's okay--" Zelgadis took a step backward, turning and moving to retrieve what he'd left sitting on the middle of the floor. "Is now alright?"

An easy nod, though she spoke when she realized he wasn't looking her way. "Yeah, let me get my shoes and stuff." Both were easy enough; her high-heel boots were near the door, and 'stuff' — that is, her waist-wrap of more scarves than an amateur magician and its hidden packs and pockets — lay over the back of the couch. She grabbed the latter of the two as she passed, wrapping and tying the colored fabrics around her waist by the time she reached her shoes.

As she slipped on the first and slipped fingers around laces, she added, "do we need anything else?"

Zelgadis tried to mind his own business, slinging the bag over his shoulder again and fidgeting with the belt that held his sword for lack of any other business to mind. His head snapped to attention at the sound of her voice, taking a couple seconds to think it over.

"No, I don't think so."

And with the second tied, she let her foot drop to the floor with a click of her heel. "Ready," was her useless pronouncement, hands resting on her hips.

Okay.

Zelgadis nodded, then proceeded to stand there and stare back at her a bit blankly for a moment before he blinked, suddenly unsure.

"Are...we flying there or are you going to-?"

"I can." Her slim shoulders rose and fell in an absent shrug, before she moved back toward Zelgadis. "You're ready then?"

Right...Zelgadis remembered this one. Or...hallucinated it. Whatever. He swallowed, nodding and straightening up. When she came over, he glanced down, positioning his feet toe-to-toe with hers, face set with the sheer effort of not screwing up or doing anything ridiculous, of which breathing seemed to be part of the list. He was holding his breath.

Zelgadis was just full of surprises today; Terra had to resist the urge to blink at him even more. Proximity helped, but it wasn't necessary, and she hadn't actually told it was — or how this sort of pose made it easier than if they were side by side, or anything.

With an inhale, Terra let the warm power of magic flood over her arms and whiten her hands in a bright glow, spreading around them at "Warp!" She closed her eyes as her vision got blotchy in the move, and in a moment the two of them disappeared.

The location that Zelgadis had picked out wasn't one he'd actually been to, so expectations weren't wholly set outside of vacant, green, and with some presence of water. They were a little off, but not by much; it was a whole lot of open land groomed for raising corn, fairly barren and unattended as it wasn't yet the season for growing. Zelgadis flew them the remainder of the way, and it wasn't far at all before they hit a tree line. It wasn't the densest of wooded places, but it was enough for cover if it was too bright, light enough to wander around in without tripping over every root or shrub on the ground. Homes weren't more than a handful of miles away, either, so there wasn't a complete sense of seclusion.

It wasn't terrible, though. Hell, it was miles better than the endless noise of the city they'd warped out of. If anything good came out of the trip, at least a little sense of peace was possible...

That mindset was what kept Zelgadis' feet from dragging and his head from drooping. He was actually...well, a bit excited in a fearful way that they were actually doing something out of the norm, possibly devoid of some kind of miserable conflict. He definitely didn't want to jinx that.

There sure as hell wasn't a lot of high ground, though...