Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2013 18:31:42 GMT -5
Zia shrugged. "Well, I mean, all weapons have pros and cons. Can a gun cut down grass?" She shook her head. "No. No, they can't," but she could see it was a deep wound for Arlie. Since most of Zia's family had been unconventional weapons, the environment was much more one of ingenuity and wit over prowess. She couldn't imagine what it would be like if her sister had been something like a sword. Zia would probably end up having a bit of a complex, too. Biting back her usual glibness, she leaned over and gave Arlie a pat on the shoulder. "Hey, well, back home we have a saying - اللى مكتوب عالجبين لازم تشوفه العين." She scratched her cheek, trying to translate. "It means - um, what's written on your brow will, um...eventually be seen by your eyes. It's like, you have this form for a reason, correct? Maybe there's something in your future that you can't do if you were a firearm. Maybe you'll find yourself in a situation and realize it's destiny...or something." Zia flushed, looking at her hands and becoming very interested in her bracelets. For a moment she was quiet, but then she looked up with a big smirk and said, teasingly, "In any case, my gauntlet form could totally beat your scythe in a fight!" Zia laughed, trying to break the tension. If she wasn't good for cheering up a roommate, what else could she do? Remembering something suddenly and jumping up, Zia began rummaging through her backpack, shoving aside the books she had as a carry-on to pull out a small package wrapped up in tissue paper. She had begged her sisters for something to bring her new roommate, and she worried it was maybe too - well, ostentatious. It was a bracelet hadn't sold because it was sort of big and clunky, so Zia's sisters had picked it out of the back and thrown it in a bag for her. Zia didn't know if Arlie liked jewelry, but it had seemed silly to arrive empty handed. It was generally polite to bring a small gift to housewarming parties, and since it was technically half of one, might as well bring something to break the ice (although she had forgotten it until after). "Here," she said, placing it in Arlie's hands for her to unwrap. "Always bring a present when you meet someone new! Although you won't be able to see it when you're in weapon form," she said jokingly, nudging Arlie with her elbow.
|
|
Arlie Davis
Weapon
Demon Scythe
A dry well teaches us the worth of water.
Posts: 63
|
Post by Arlie Davis on Jan 27, 2013 18:47:05 GMT -5
Zia did have a very good point. There were some things gun just couldn’t do, as cool as they may be. He words comforted the blonde and the bright smile she’d shown her before returned to Arlie’s face. The Arabic threw her off and she tilted her head until Zia explained. The initial translation had Arlie screwing up her face into a rather confused expression. She wasn’t too good with deep stuff like this but the secondary meaning Zia offered made much more sense. Yeah! She was supposed to be a Demon Scythe for a reason! What exactly that reason was, Arlie had no idea, but she was sure it would become apparent eventually,
“You know what? You’re right! I’m supposed to be a scythe and I should be dang proud of it!”
The blonde raised a fist to the air in a bit of a triumphant gesture, feeling all fired up from her roommates words. This girl sure was something else! She wondered what other kinds of sayings she had from Egypt and if she’d be willing to teach them to her. Arlie would likely massacre the pronunciation in the process, but that was all part of the fun, right? That was a bit how learning Spanish had gone for her until she’d finally gotten the hang of the letters and words a few years prior. The blonde only left her thoughts at Zia’s movements of suddenly rushing to rifle through her bag. Arlie tilted her head,
“Forget somethin’, darlin’?”
Apparently not, since Zia did find it luckily. As the tissue paper fell into her hands, Arlie damn near teared up at the kindness of it all,
“Oh Zia, yer just sweeter than a summer peach, aintcha?”
The Texan preparing what was essentially a mini-feast for Zia was one thing, but she didn’t have to give Arlie anything! That didn’t stop an unmistakably excited smile from forming on her face though! Giggling at Zia’s little bit of humor; the blonde very carefully shifted the tissue paper, trying to be careful about unwrapping the little gift in case it happened to be something fragile. However when she saw it was a bracelet, an excited squeal left her. Arlie quickly slipped it onto her left wrist, taking a moment to gawk at it before leaping up and throwing her arms around Zia in a hug,
“Oh thank you, sugar, I love it! It’s beautiful, just pretty as can be!”
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2013 14:27:27 GMT -5
Zia hunched her shoulders and felt her cheeks redden as Arlie embraced her. She didn't know what to do - besides her family, she had no friends who were this familliar. Was Arlie always like this? Signs pointed to yes. It didn't bother ZIa much, but she wasn't really a hugger. The Egyptian was gratified to see that Arlie had taken to the gift, though, and managed to give Arlie a friendly pat on the back despite her arms being pinned to her sides from the hug.
"It was nothing," she said, genuinely pleased that the trinket had gone over so well. Gently untangling herself from the hug, she inched over to her bag and began unpacking, embarrassed by Arlie's affectionate manner. Zia loved making people laugh, and generally enjoyed being the center of attention, but too much focused on her made her squirm. She wanted to make people laugh and then forget about her, to deflect attention with a joke, but Arlie was like a puppy - she focused in and made you feel noticed, which was something Zia was unfamilliar with. It wasn't that uncomfortable, though. Something about the blonde made Zia feel at home, although she was really unlike anyone Zia had ever met.
She wouldn't have admitted it, but the idea of staying in one place too long worried Zia. If she messed up, she was stuck with her mistakes - she had gotten used to moving, and it had been such a large part of her life, that she had become practiced at making a small impression, making people laugh, and leaving their lives as quickly as she'd come. Zia had encountered slight difficulties when they had first settled permanently back in Cairo, because she would wake up expecting to leave. She had gotten jumpy. She had thrown herself into her books, played with the neighbor kids, but hadn't put down any roots, just in case they had to leave again. She had, of course, but the impulse was still there. Make them laugh, make them happy, leave on a positive note. Getting too close to people made her heart ache. A part of her always assumed she'd have to leave them anyways. Better to be polite and funny but removed. That way she wouldn't be hurt. Not again.
With a start, she realized she had been staring at her backpack for a long moment, snapping herself out of her reverie and beginning to unpack. "Gotta start on this," she said over her shoulder to Arlie. Digging at the bottom of her pack, she finally hooked a finger around a picture frame and pulled it out, setting it reverently on the bedside table. It was a family picture - her father, looking tired but happy, had on his stupid tan hat he wore for digs on sunny days. His face was pink, the start of a nasty sunburn. Her mother wore sunglasses, dark hair braided, smiling a crooked smile as if someone had just told a joke. Her sisters were on either side of Zia's parents. Sophitia had a big, sunny smile, one hand on her mother's shoulder, and Caralinda looked like she had just swallowed a lemon, giving her twin a dirty look around her father. They had been about 21 when the photo was taken, and had started the jewelry shop a few months after. Zia was 10, and was holding a hand of her mama and papa each, standing in between, grinning to show off a tooth she had lost a week before.
Zia touched the picture with her fingertips, and said a silent prayer for her family. She had missed them as soon as she had stepped on the plane. She looked over at Arlie's side, wondering if she had any pictures of her family around.
|
|
Arlie Davis
Weapon
Demon Scythe
A dry well teaches us the worth of water.
Posts: 63
|
Post by Arlie Davis on Feb 9, 2013 17:39:00 GMT -5
Arlie did let Zia go eventually after giving the girl a good squeeze. She was just so happy! She’d gotten the best roommate ever in the history of dorm life and nobody could convince her otherwise! Zia was perfect, this match up was perfect, and this entire adventure of attending Shibusen and adjusting to dorm life would be perfect too! Arlie sat back and wiggled her arm back and forth, watching how the light bounced off the bangle. It was a bit bigger than what she usually wore in terms of jewelry but she didn’t care! She’d wear it until the day she died! Besides, bigger was always better with her. She was from Texas after all, go big or go home and all that jazz.
Temporarily distracted by the shiny thing on her wrist, Arlie eventually did come back down to earth and peer over at Zia,
“Need any help, sugar?”
If she was fine unpacking on her own Arlie would leave her be, but if there was anything she could do to assist her she’d be just as eager to help. The blonde was a golden retriever. The more she could do for you to make your life easier, the happier she was. In her mind, people were put on earth to help each other out and make the people they loved and cherished happy, and that was exactly how she intended to live her life. It certainly made for quite the collection of warm and jubilant memories, that was for sure. Seeing the picture Zia held, Arlie smiled a bit although it was smaller and more restrained than her usual beaming grin. She wondered if the homesickness was setting in already. If it was, she’d just have to come up with some way to make her new roommate feel better!
Speaking of home, Arlie wondered how her siblings were getting on back in Fort Worth. Leaning her head back to rest against the comforter on her bed, the blonde lt her mind drift briefly away. Her daddy was probably as busy as ever teaching Austin how to properly stuff and mount animals. Bentley was probably working with their mama when he had time apart from going to university, and the little ones were likely figuring out how to navigate the inner workings of early middle school life. Hopefully the bullies were staying away no that Arlie wasn’t around to give ‘em hell for picking on her younger brothers. Darren and Dexter were at Shibusen over in the boy’s dorms so she didn’t need to worry about those two. Seeing Zia’s glance over at her side, Arlie sat up and stretched her arms over her head. As she did so, she leaned to the side and withdrew a picture of her parents, herself, and all six of her siblings from beneath her pillow. Hunching her shoulders a bit, she looked it over,
“I keep it under my pillow so I can dream about ‘em, y’know? Darren n’ Dexter are both here at Shibusen too, but I miss the rest of ‘em somethin’ awful sometimes.”
The blonde turned it around for Zia to see. If was a big picture, taking up an eight and a half by eleven inch frame, but then Arlie’s family was sort of massive. Peering down over the edge, she went down the line, pointing to each siblings from oldest to youngest and then going to her mama and daddy,
“That’s Austin, Bentley, Darren, Dexter, me, Jack, and lil’ Colby. Gosh, he was just a lil’ thing when we took this. That's my mama there, Shirley, and then over here's Marshall, my daddy. I’d just won my first barrel race! Golly, what a day!”
Austin was standing behind Bentley, having putting the younger in a head lock. Arlie’s mama, Shirley, had her hand raised and a disapproving frown on her face, ready to smack her oldest son upside the head for his behavior. Darren and Dexter both stood on either side of Arlie, having lifted the then eleven year old clean off the ground in jubilation as she held a blue ribbon over her head with a big grin on her face, hair windblown and cowboy hat askew. Jack stood off to the side slightly, caught clapping and attempting some sort of strange victory dance and Colby was being held by the back of his shirt by their father, Marshall, who was trying to keep the little varmint from running for something off camera. Each of the siblings had their mother’s wildly curly blonde hair and sparkling grey eyes except for Bentley. The second child took after their father, dark straight hair and shocking blue eyes and all, granted his hair was a bit neater than their father’s rather outdated mullet hairstyle that looked like it had escaped from an 80s rock ballad.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2013 18:22:10 GMT -5
Surprised by Arlie's question, Zia turned, pausing as she unzipped her suitcase. "Hm? Oh, uh. I don't know if you want to handle my socks or underwear," Zia said, grinning, "but if you want to, you can help me sort my books and jewlery!" That was the priority. Clothing was clothing, but books improved the mind and jewelry improved everything else, in Zia's opinion. She didn't worry that Arlie would take any. She didn't seem the kind of person. Arlie didn't seem the sort to make fun of Zia's reading habit, either! It was nice to have her around. Zia was already feeling like she had been here for longer than a day, she was becoming that comfortable. Not quite, but almost. Having help unpacking would make it go faster, too, so there would be more time to eat Arlie's cooking.
Putting her packing aside for a moment, Zia crossed over to where Arlie was and, getting confirmation, picked up the picture she had of her roommate's family. But it was big! Zia had always thought her family was fairly large, but compared to Arlie it was positively tiny. She wondered if Arlie could feel the frame through her pillow, or if it was uncomfortable. Six siblings! Zia couldn't even imagine. Considering how much Sophi and Linda fought, it was probably noisy and full of energy. Taking Arlie into account, there was no doubt it was energetic at all. It'd have to be. Zia returned her attention to the picture, nodding along as Arlie pointed them all out by name. They looked happy, if not a bit rowdy. "They look like a lot of fun," Zia said sincerely. "You look alike." Zia had never seen such light curly hair all in one picture. At home, most people were dark skinned and dark haired. Zia was an oddity with her light blond locks, taking after her father. He had told her it was a recessive gene in his family, but she still didn't quite understand it. All she knew was that her sisters and mama had the darkest, curliest hair she had ever seen, but Arlie's family gave their curls a run for their money.
Something Arlie said puzzled Zia, and she sat the picture down on the bedside table. "What's a barrel race?" She asked, picturing people rolling wooden barrels down a hill to see which one was faster. She knew Texas could be isolated, but surely that wasn't the cause of such celebratory picture such as that. In any case, she was curious! Learning new things was one of her favorite things, after all.
|
|
Arlie Davis
Weapon
Demon Scythe
A dry well teaches us the worth of water.
Posts: 63
|
Post by Arlie Davis on Feb 22, 2013 14:51:48 GMT -5
Arlie would be more than happy to help Zia sort through her books and jewelry. Mainly the jewelry since the blonde was rather fond of shiny things, plus if they were anything like what her new roommate had given her as a gift she’d feel privileged just to see anything that pretty much less touch it. Books could be handled easily too since it was just a bunch of words on bound paper and Arlie wasn’t exactly a weakling, so she could likely handle even any heavy ones Zia may have brought. She may even skim a few! Well, if she could read the titles and if she got permission of course. Shrugging her shoulders, Arlie waved a hand,
“Whatever helps you, darlin’!”
The blonde happily let Zia take the framed photograph off her hands to closer examine it. Arlie was proud of her family and where she came from. She’d show it off and prattle on for hours about it if nobody stopped her. They were a rowdy bunch, and of course they sometimes had their disagreements like all families did, but they were one big happy bunch of blondes except for Bentley the lone brunette. The Texan nodded vigorously as Zia’s comments on then, blonde curls bouncing behind her head in the ponytail she’d restrained them in,
“Yup! All ‘cept fer Bentley, but daddy’s still glad that his colors got in there somehow. My mama’s got all the tough genes, as you can kinda see.”
Wait, had Arlie heard her right? Did she really not know what a barrel race was? She stared for a moment, trying to comprehend how that was even possible. It took a minute for the gears to start turning again, but she blonde instantly sat up a bit straighter and looked completely shocked,
“Zia, you don’t know what barrel racin’ is? Well I gotta show yah right now!”
Arlie turned and ducked under her bed, very adamantly searching for something. She knew she’d brought at least one family photo album with her in addition to the portrait she’d already shown Zia. Of course it’d be strange to prop it up for all to see, though, so she’d stuffed it under her bed with her suitcase, most of her cowboy boots, and what looked to be a hair clip that was now covered in dust bunnies. Pushing a couple of things out of the way, she idly kicked her feet as only her bottom half was visible with her head and torso hidden. Finally her hand hit what was she looking for and Arlie emerged, blonde curls laden with dust and what appeared to be glitter from somewhere ad she triumphantly turned and held the photo album in her lap.
Most of the pictures were bypassed. It was a more recent one. The only baby pictures within it were of Jack and Colby, thankfully. They passed several school pictures of Arlie and her brothers, what looked to be a family reunion in Dallas with mostly blondes as far as the eye could see with Austin hoisting Arlie over his head to toss her into a nearby pool much to her chagrin judging by the look on her face. A few pictures of the older siblings covered in mud, Arlie on several different horses, ah there’s what she was after! Page upon pages of the blonde on horseback from the last rodeo she was at just before she’d left for Death City. Turning it around so Zia could see better, she pointed at them one by one in stages,
“This here’s barrel racin’! The buzzer goes and you ride out on your horse as fast as you can, turn ‘im ‘round all o’ the barrels, and then ride back out. The one with the fastest time wins!”
The best picture was the last one with Arlie on her way back towards the gate. Knowing she had a good time, she’d taken her hat off and held it in the air over her head. The ponytail she’d worn that day had come loose, letting a mess of blonde curls stream behind her as she stood up in the stirrups to wave to the crowd. That had been a good rodeo, and Arlie hoped that it wouldn’t be her last.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2013 1:19:46 GMT -5
Looking through the pictures Arlie had, Zia gave a low whistle. Barrel racing was nothing like she was picturing, but it looked very exciting! She hadn't been to a rodeo, but she'd read about them. Zia had to admit the image fit her roommate to a T. From the pictures, Arlie looked extremely natural up on the horse, and Zia was sure to see her in person was to see her flying over the ground, completely focused and having a wonderful time.
Zia had ridden on horses before, and a few donkeys, when she had accompanied her father on digs out in the desert or in a jungle, but she was generally miserable at controlling them and in the end her horse or donkey was generally tied to whoever was riding in front so that her charge wouldn't wander around and out of view. Her sisters, who were much better riders than she was, had teased her about it to no end. Zia had been embarrassed, but she didn't mind, often trading jokes with whoever was lucky enough to be leading her steed. It was usually her father or one of his colleagues, family friends who Zia had known since infancy. They had great stories to tell, and she would listen raptly as they talked about mysterious treasures and hidden mysteries. It wasn't until Zia was much older that she realized most of the stories were exaggerated, but they made good memories nonetheless.
"I hope I can see a rodeo someday," Zia said, admiringly. "It looks like a lot of fun." She pointed to another picture. "What are you doing here?"
Her clothes and unpacking forgotten for the moment, Zia joined Arlie with the pouring over family pictures and asking questions about the rodeo and barrel racing, Zia occasionally exclaiming happily in Arabic, laughing along with the stories Arlie told her. The sun drew lower in the sky, and Zia knew that her time in Shibusen was going to be great, if only for the fact that she had made a friend.
|
|