Private Tales The unluckiest People Alive

[Zinnia]

Zinnia was not a tease, not historically. She was never the one to flirt, to pursue, to be anything more than a wilting violet...but it takes one to know one, and she was very quickly catching on to Ispir's mannerisms. It was an end she'd been on with more boys than she cared to think about..

"Very smooth catch," she ribbed the boy, feeling herself flash a rare, full grin. Even in her current state her canines were just a touch too long compared to what was normal, a change that had developed for her over the last year, and one she was acutely aware of. In this moment, however, she didn't really care.

Seri wiggled about, making his excited cooing that was characteristic of him waking up to something that interested him. Much like a cat, the creature rubbed bodily into Ispir's strokes and seemed to enjoy the attention he was receiving.

"Seri's a haterpillar. He's been with me for a couple of years now, so he's a very ch-chunky haterpillar now, too. Maybe a couple of weeks out from cocooning, if the folks in Vel Yuna are right," Zinnia explained, joining the bard in giving her pet a little affection.

"Also..." her eyes slid from the cream-colored pile of fluff on Ispir's head back to Ispir proper. "I...like compliments, y'know. You can b-be open...if you want."

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir would blush all the way up to his ears and wince a bit at Zinnia 's ribbing. Wishing for a brief moment that HE could turn into a hat and hide on someone's head, as silly as the idea sounded. But despite himself Ispir's gaze did linger too long on Zinnia's grin, her canine's especially, and consider. She didn't LOOK like a vampire. What with being in the sun and not being as pale as a corpse. Maybe it was nothing?

The cooing of Seri stole Ispir's attention away from their wondering and, as Zinnia lowered her gaze back to him, Ispir would gently heft Seri down into their arms, holding and cradling the adorable haterpillar in their arms. Zinnia's words, though, made him blink rapidly. A... tightness in his chest making him feel uncomfortable, but not in a bad way, even as a swirling cloud of butterflies took flight in his stomach.

Ispir took a moment to stare down at Seri instead of Zinnia, before noticeably swallowing, and giving a small, nervous chuckle.

"I.... I um.... I'm normally a lot better at talking than this. But fine!"

Tensing his shoulders and taking a breathe Ispir would grin back, a bit shakily, and meet Zinnia's gaze.

"I think you are very cute. And... nice. I'd like to be your friend.... and spend some more time together. If you'd want to as well?"​

 

[Zinnia]

Seri fit well in Ispir's arms, hefty as the critter was getting. As the bard prepared to be brave, Zinnia offered him a warm smile, and Seri just stared up at him with huge, curious eyes.

"It's okay. I'm normally a lot worse," she joked, doing her best to maintain the levity.

When he'd said what he wanted to a faint blush spread across Zinnia's freckled cheeks, and she smiled such that her eyes seemed to glimmer. She set Ispir's hat, his real one, back atop his head and adjusted it so that it was nice and neat.
"F-for the record, I think you're very cute and nice, too. We've got a long road ahead...I'd much rather share it with someone like you than keep on alone."

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir was, well, a bit speechless as Zinnia put their cap back on their head. Their heartbeat sounded far, far too loud now. All but filling their ears with the sound of rushing blood. An involuntary swallow would answer her words, words that made the swarm of butterflies all insist on tickling his stomach with their wings, and he nodded without a word.

He would then step up beside Zinnia with slow, stiff movements. Now feeling very awkward and more... exposed? Out of his element? He couldn't even remember WHAT his first performance on stage had felt like but something told him that this was that exact feeling. He didn't even feel like he could control his voice in the moment! But even so he DID try to speak.

"I.... I-I umm.... I really wanna know more about you Zinni. I don't.... really know WHY uhh... wait no that sounded bad."

Wincing a bit at his own words he would look down at the ground sheepishly. All but using Seri as a security blanket as he hugged them to his chest.

"W-What I meant to say was is that I'm a little unfair. I think? I don't have a lot to share. Probably less than anyone else on Arethil, to be honest."

He would give a fleeting, wan smile before it fell and he shuffled his feet awkwardly.​

 

[Zinnia]

"Y-you're more than welcome to ask all you like," she answered him, but it was plain to see by Ispir's body language that something was bothering him. Seri was, thankfully, the cuddly type, and didn't so much as fuss at the act of being hugged.

Still, Zinnia quirked her head a bit.
"You don't seem uninteresting, if that's what you're w-worried about. The outfit alone seems like a good story," she said, half teasing, but the boy seemed to wither by the moment. "Whatever you're c-comfortable with sharing, you can. I'd be a pretty big hypocrite to judge."

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir smiled brightly for a moment, Zinnia 's encouraging words meant a lot to him, but the smile died out after a moment as he laced his hands behind his back and tried to think of how to best explain. He would begin to walk again, slowly this time, along with her before taking a deep breathe through his nose and starting to try and explain.

"That's... kinda the problem. I don't exactly umm..... know the story behind my outfit."

A brief, tense pause would pass between them before he added almost reluctantly.

"O-Or me.... for that matter."

Quickly, almost as if he was excusing something, he would rush out.

"W-Which I mean I just don't know a lot of my past. Who my parents are, where I'm from, where I got my clothes or how I know a lot of the things I know. For example I KNOW you're supposed to have parents but my memory just sort of.... cuts off?"

He almost winced at his own explanation and he would fiddle with one of his twin braids anxiously.​

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia blinked in confusion, then realization.
"Oh...amnesia?" she asked, though the answer was clear. That certainly was a cause to be troubled over.

"You really are just...w-wandering then, agent you?" she thought aloud. "I know that most be worrying, but...maybe it could also be kinda freeing..."

It was a wistful idea. If Zinnia could suddenly lose all connection to Vel Anir, if she was without ties...maybe she would be happier. Then again, thinking that way wasn't really considerate. Ispir seemed to hate being without memory.

"If...if it makes you f-feel any better, I have no idea who my parents are, either."

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir would give a hesitant nod at the mention of amnesia, a few key pieces of information from his story still missing, before he gave a short, exasperated laugh as he was called 'wandering'. His nod would grow firmer and he would swallow down a strange lump in his throat at the idea at it being called freeing. A thought occurring to him as Zinnia said something that.... didn't.... make him feel any better.

If anything the look Ispir gave her in response was one of shared sadness instead of relief, his teeth briefly tugging at his low lip, before he gently shook his head.

"N-No. I.... ummm...."

Taking a steadying breathe he would look up at the sky and shrug.

"It IS freeing, mostly, I can't stand staying in one place for too long. I start to feel claustrophobic and trapped."

A brief, tense pause like a taut lute string would hang for a moment before his expression scrunched and he shook his head again.

"But I had never really ermm... thought about the fact that being stuck wandering forever might also be a sort of trap. Without the choice to do something else. Ya know?"

Closing his eyes and pausing walking Ispir's face would become slightly pained, his voice wary, not of Zinnia, but of himself as he revealed.

"I-I also... this bothers me so much because I can.... choose to forget things. Completely. S-So.... I want to know my past but also I'm...."

Lowering his gaze and crossing his right arm across his body to grip his left arm he would shrug in an almost timid fashion.

".... scared. What if I chose to forget it all for a reason?"​

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia's pace slowed as she listened. Her brow furrowed, and her voice faltered. "That...that makes sense..." she replied, much quieter now. "I'm sure It's a useful ability. There's p-plenty I'd want to forget if I could, too."

Sylas' treachery. Leander's horrible bullying. The myriad times she'd humiliated herself at the Academy. Caeso's...

A pang of guilt shot through her chest. No. No, she would not want to forget that. Not ever.

"I think...I think that p-pain is difficult to deal with. Whether it's physical, or from loss, or anything else. I've had some...v-very hard losses. It can't really be avoided when fighting and killing is your entire j-job, but...Ispir, I really wouldn't want to forget that pain completely," she mused, a deep tinge of sadness in her tone. "Learning to deal with it, and carrying the memories of those p-people with me...it's made me who I am."

She found that her gaze had turned distant, looking out to the horizon. White clouds gently rolled across the blue sky, Anirian firs and pines stretching up to try to meet them. Zinnia sighed before looking back to Ispir.
"I h-hope that if you do get those memories back that they don't hurt you so much that you wind up f-forgetting them all again. Or...at the very least that you can find something that's fulfilling enough that you can stop wandering, and stop forgetting."

 

[Ispir Sione]

It was a weird thing. To feel guilty over memories he couldn't remember. Doubly so that the source of his guilt was BECAUSE he forgot them in the first place. He also knew that that wasn't what Zinnia intended for him to feel but even her words after stung into his heart like a knife. Enough to make even his uncannily pretty face crease with pain.

'.....it's made me who I am.'

She said.

Ispir's breathe would leave him a quick, shallow rush and his eyes would dim noticeably. His footsteps faltering until he stopped walking altogether, stared down at the ground, and asked in a very soft voice bordering on outright fragile along with a timid little shrug.

"Then.... who am I?"

He drew in a shaky breathe and, after a moment, added.

"The earliest thing I remember is waking up on a snowy mountain, alone. That's.... not normal.... is it, Zinnia?"​

 

[Zinnia]

The gold-eyed girl slowed as Ispir's pace fell off. She turned and stepped in front of him, putting her gloved hands on his shoulders and leaning down slightly so that she'd be at eye level with him.
"I think...despite everything, you're still you," Zinnia offered. "You're not a shell, and from what you m-made it sound like, maybe the 'echoes' of those memories are s-still in there."

One of her hands squeezed Ispir's shoulder in an attempt to give him some degree of comfort or assurance. This was out of her depth, for sure, but the boy was kind and she couldn't much stand the idea of him suffering.

"As for the mountain thing...p-probably not. But you're not exactly in 'normal' company, you know?" she said with a sad smile and a halfhearted laugh.

As if to punctuate the statement, Seri began to squirm in Ispir's arms and making excited little noises; the creature did not understand a lick of what was being said, but it was remarkably good at picking up on base emotions. Many a cry in Zinnia's dorm room back at the Academy was defused by Seri's timely affections.

And Zinnia herself was...far from what anyone could possibly consider "normal," much to her own chagrin.

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir shrunk a bit under that intense, golden gaze. The grip on his shoulders was.... surprisingly firm. She was a lot stronger than she looked. Dulled aquamarine would meet gold, now almost something closer to discolored jade than their usual shining selves, and Ispir would nod a quick nod. More full of hope than actual agreement.

"Y-Yeah. Maybe."

He agreed shakily, his breathe coming in stuttering inhales, and he would flicker a ghost of a smile at her question about being in 'normal' company. Only to reply with just the tiniest ember of his usual self expressing a flood of genuine honesty.

"I..... Normal is the last thing I would call you Zinni."

He meant that in a GOOD way but who knows how Zinnia would take it? As for Seri Ispir would smile, petting the haterpillar comfortingly, and offer them back to Zinnia gingerly. Straightening his shoulders as much as he could he would then clarify.

"You're at least kind enough to help someone weird like me."

Zinnia​

 

[Zinnia]

"I..... Normal is the last thing I would call you Zinni."

A nod, another squeeze of the shoulder, and a bittersweet grin. She stood back to her full height.

"You have n-no idea," she said, a bit more distant now. The Dreadlord accepted Seri back and lifted him up to look him in the eyes. "Be what you like, buddy."

When he made no move to transform and simply trilled at her, she placed him on her shoulder.

"Wanna k-keep moving?" Zinnia asked Ispir.

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir would just barely fight back a wince at the squeeze, only to find that grin of hers absolutely beautifully charming, and tilt his head with just a bit of curiosity at her statement. Zinnia, however, would turn her attention to Seri and Ispir would give Zinnia his first smile in what felt like a long while. A smile big enough, genuine enough, that it reached his eyes and brought them shut as he gave a simple, single answer.

"Sure."

Ispir would move in front of Zinnia and, beginning to walk backwards in front of her, would offer her a hand and then add a bit cheekily.

"But only if you agree to get something to eat with me.~"

Spoiler: A Genuine Smile