i just wanna know: who broke it?

[summonerd]

[Sheena'd thought she was all done with dimensional travel, now that the two worlds were united. But here she is, having fallen asleep in one world and woken up in a Tethe'alla that's just different enough from the one she knows to be constantly jarring. Her connections to Aselia's summon spirits dangle loose, snapped by distance - not even Origin's power could follow her here, it seems. That's more than a little unsettling.

It takes her some time, alone in a bizarro version of Meltokio as she is, but eventually she stumbles on a lead - an old scientific journal, a mention of the power of something called an Aegis being able to transcend space and time, at least in theory. And a little asking around tells her that Tethe'alla has its own Aegis, though no one's seen it for years. Well. Worth a shot, right?

Somehow she manages to talk her way into the Tethe'allan castle where the Aegis's core crystal awaits being woken up, with a series of smiles and her very best politicking - yes, of course she's got nothing but loyalty for Tethe'alla, of course she's skilled at this, of course it'd be a great honor.

(Zelos would be proud, she thinks, wryly.)

They're dubious, but her persistence wears them down, or maybe they're just desperate enough for a return of the Aegis's power to let her try, and the orange core crystal is offered out to her.

She takes a deep breath, and reaches out to touch it.]

Comments

(malos voice) prepare to feel valued, you bastard

[theactingdad]

Malos gets to his feet, his smile a little sadder, but still genuine. "Hey, don't sell yourself short," he insists. "Sure, anyone woulda done it, but doesn't mean I shouldn't thank you for it. I really do appreciate what you did. 'Specially for Anna."

Looks like maybe there's more on Zelos' plate, though...? Malos is pretty sure talking about it isn't gonna help shit, so he's not even gonna offer. Instead, he decides, he's just gonna pull Zelos into a hug.

aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA

[presidentheartbeat]

Oh, Architect. Please don't mention Anna like this after Zelos just lashed out at her completely unfairly, Malos, you have no idea what kind of person you're trying to praise here. He doesn't deserve it. Your gratitude would almost certainly shatter and fall to pieces if you knew what he's just done. Guilt still eating him up from within his core, Zelos is halfway through forming yet another protest against Malos' words, laughing awkwardly and flapping a hand about as his brain works. It's just about enough time spent fumbling and distracted for Malos to grab for him and pull him into a hug, and the moment that they make contact, the Aegis freezes.

Physical contact isn't something he's used to unless it's meant to control him or sell an image to the public, usually an undesired violation of his personal space that he has no choice but to grit his teeth through and wait out. But the hold that Malos greets him with is different from that which his caretakers and the public have given; not exactly something soft, but not overwhelming, either. Firm and purposeful while still also having a sense of emotion to it. It is nothing like the types of contact Zelos has ever experienced or allowed to his person, more like a comforting weight than shackles falling around him.

It takes him a two full seconds of rigidity as he processes the action before Zelos' mind finally deems this to be perhaps safe, something that, while he's not sure if he wants it, he can accept without the grit teeth and hatred that he's used to storing in his core. Something gentle, perhaps. Wordlessly, he slowly relaxes his body, and even if Zelos makes no real move to return the hug, his forehead still comes to rest against Malos' chest, eyes closed as he tries to use the opportunity to calm down and takes deep breath after deep breath.

Zelos remains silent, absolutely refusing to bring any sort of attention to this and mentally begging Malos not to speak a word of it either. And slowly, all the overwhelming emotion in the Aegis' core is gently filtered out, taken string by string and shredded away to make way for a blissfully empty nothingness instead.

thanks aly for shenanigans ideas

[theactingdad]

Malos realizes not long after he's initiated the hug that he didn't fucking ask permission first but. Zelos doesn't tense or complain or push him off; in fact he seems to relax into the hug after a moment, which Malos counts as a small victory. Still, better not push his luck. He lets go of Zelos and sends him a small smile.

Then he moves to his pack to get out the Emergency S'mores Rations because, fuck it, yesterday was awful and they're stuck here until Anna and Kratos figure out their shit, anyway. "Yo, Zelos, you mind relighting the fire?" he asks. Then frowns a little. "Actually I guess if you'd rather I get the flint to light it that's fine, too, must be pretty insulting everyone asking you to light shit just 'cuz you're a fire blade, huh?" He laughs, a little.

In the meantime, he makes his way over to the tree Lloyd and Sheena are nestled away in, cupping his hands over his mouth and calling up to them: "Lloyd! Sheena! Get your asses down here, I'm making s'mores!"

What the dink is a s'more. Do you need more S

[presidentheartbeat]

Oh, that--definitely lasted shorter than what Zelos thought it would. He almost leans forward again when Malos lets him go as if chasing after him, but he manages to hold his ground instead, face carefully blank and instead busying himself with running a hand through his hair as if to brush it. Not wanting to unpack whatever the fuck that was, Zelos seals it away for never and loses the envelope in the mail.

Malos making such a big deal about the fire is funny, though, and despite the emptiness in his core left behind by the flames of his own emotions Zelos still chuckles at it a little. He directs a hand towards the dying embers and flips a wrist, raising his hand palm-up, bringing the campfire back to life to a satisfying popping height that quickly warms up the area. "Here you go, chief. Only the best from the best," he jokes. Then Zelos tilts his head, curious. "What's a s'more?"

Puppy Mode: ACTIVATED

[risingfalcon]

Chilling out in this tree was a good idea that got even better as soon as Sheena decided to join him. Lloyd continues carving at the sword miniature in the rising sunlight as Sheena and him shoot the shit, joking around quietly and just relaxing with one another after such an awful day and night cycle. Her presence, as per usual, helps calm him down until his discussion with Kratos and all of his fears are pushed down into his mind, to be left for later, when he's not exhausted and sore.

Malos calls down from below, and Lloyd perks up, a grin landing itself onto his face in no time. Excited laughter bubbles out of his mouth as he shoves his tools and the miniature back into his pockets and leans over on his branch, just enough to yell down "fuck yeah, I love s'mores!!" without earning an irritated smack from Sheena. Lloyd glances back at her, all smiles because this is the best thing to happen to him in the past week, what the fuck.

"I would die for Malos," he says, half-joking, half-serious, and then he jumps off of the branch he's balanced himself on, taking the larger branches of the tree as steps in a ladder. On the last branch, he jumps and rolls down to the ground, picking himself up and jogging over to where Nia sleeps. Crouching down for a second, Lloyd pokes at her shoulder and waits for her to wake up.

"Hi! We're making s'mores, come join us if you want any!"

That done, he makes his way to Malos and begins lightly punching at his grandpa's shoulder, all excited energy. "S'mores! S'mores! S'mores!"

smores heaven now

[theactingdad]

Nia hisses half-heartedly at Lloyd as he wakes her up, and Malos calls: "Hey, Lloyd, don't bother! Cats can't eat chocolate!" to which Nia replies "I'll eat your ass, Malos!" and Malos snickers. He keeps laughing as Lloyd bounds over and starts punching at him, Lloyd's excitement contagious and a nice distraction from whatever the hell Anna's emotions are doing right now.

"Here, Zelos," he says, "probably just be easier if I show you." He plops himself down next to the fire and settles himself into the classic marshmellow roasting position. "Technically, you don't have to roast the marshmellow, but it makes 'em scientifically better." He tosses the bag of marshmellows over to Lloyd while he waits for his to roast. Not that it really takes long. "And when it's nice and brown, you slap it between some chocolate and some crackers and-- There! Perfect S'mores! --hey!"

He doesn't even get to hold up his s'mores triumphantly before Nia's snatched it out of his hands.

"Ha!" she laughs, then takes a bite before Malos can even demand it back. Rude. "Repayment for healing your sorry ass."

"Coulda made your own!" Malos shoots back, then sighs and turns to Zelos. "Anyway, you want me to make you one or do you wanna give it a shot? Making 'em is all part of the experience, I think, but."

Zelos just realized that if he roasted a marshmallow in his hand he'd get dirty and he HATED that

[presidentheartbeat]

At least the light atmosphere around the campfire makes it a little easier to mask his own emotional exhaustion, but Zelos still has a ways to go before he stabilizes. Hopefully everyone's high spirits will help him copy that onto his mask, but, well--with Sheena here after everything that's just happened he's kind of nervous, so he makes it a point not to make eye contact with his driver.

Still, for now Zelos focuses on the commotion going on around them all and laughs at everyone's antics, flipping his hair back when Malos regards him instead and walking over to get closer. Humans are so silly. Food's irrelevant to a blade and especially to an Aegis, but, hey, it's always better to do things even if just for the social aspect of them anyway. "Sure, I'll give it a shot," Zelos says, reaching over to get a marshmallow. "Hand it over, old man."

just accept that there is no such thing as cleanly eating s'mores zelos

[risingfalcon]

Lloyd catches the bag of marshmallows with a beam, immediately popping one in his mouth and chewing. "S'mores are delicious, Zelos," Lloyd says through a mouth full of marshmallow, swallowing it only to grab a stick off the ground, wipe it off on his pants, and then shove another marshmallow on the end. "Really, you're gonna love 'em!"

He puts the marshmallow over the fire, eyeing it impatiently, turning the stick over in his hand to ensure a Full Roasting. While waiting, he glances over to Malos and his s'more, and hides a mischevious smile behind his hand before setting his expression into something resembling impressed surprise. "That's so much more efficient than how we do things in my world. We usually keep the marshmallow and chocolate on the outside -"

Lloyd stops, yelping into a laugh as his marshmallow catches fire. He brings it close to his mouth and hurridly blows on it, smacking it between graham cracker and chocolate as soon as the flames die off. He's still chuckling as he takes a bite, burnt marshmallow still tasting delicious in s'mores form.

"Maybe don't set your marshmallow on fire," Lloyd says with a smack of his lips. "Still good, though. Oh, and Malos -" he reaches into the bag, grabs a marshmallow, and tosses it at his grandpa with a playful grin. "Catch it!"

[theactingdad]

Malos is too distracted by Lloyd claiming they put the marshmallows and chocolate on the outside to be in any state of mind to fucking catch the marshmallow Lloyd just tossed at him. It bounces off his face, and he doesn't even really flinch at it, just lets it tumble into his lap.

"Why the fuck would you put the cracker on the inside," he says, deadpan, squinting at Lloyd. He's not sure if Lloyd's fucking with him or not? Kid's got one hell of a poker face. And how's Malos supposed to know how shit works in Lloyd's world, honestly? Parallel worlds are weird. "You'd. Your hands would get even more sticky than usual. That's. Why."

Architect, Lloyd can't be serious. He can't be.

"Lloyd Irving if you're fucking with me, you're grounded," Malos says.

"I'm sorry, did you just say you're from another world?" Nia demands, staring at Lloyd. Then she registers what Malos said, and rounds on him. "Hold up, Irving!?"

[risingfalcon]

Lloyd is delighted, actually, even though Malos didn't catch the marshmallow in his mouth like Lloyd wanted him too, and it's entirely because this stupid prank is maybe sorta kinda working.

"I'm not lying!" He says, like a liar, reaching into the marshmallow bag again to make another s'more but inverted this time in order to prove his dedication to this stupid joke. "It's how we eat them back home. It's a delicacy, so the idea is you eat the s'more and then get to enjoy it afterwards by licking your fingers clean. It's fun. Don't ground me for enlightening you!"

As soon as he has the marshmallow on the stick, Nia turns on Lloyd and questions his whole other world thing. He winces a bit because - yeah, probably should have introduced himself sooner. On his behalf, he didn't really think about the whole thing until now, as used to being with the party as he is, and as used to him and Sheena being from a separate universe as they are. "Yeah, sorry about that. I'm Lloyd Irving, Malos' grandson from a different universe."

Lloyd ends the introduction with a thumbs-up and a grin, "that's the short of it anyways. Sheena up there is from my world, too."

[presidentheartbeat]

You know what? It actually gets a little easier to tell when Lloyd's being a jackass and fucking with people about food after having been subjected to said fuckery in the first place, so when Lloyd starts to go off about the s'mores process being backwards in his world and Malos falls for it, Zelos stifles his giggling by eating a marshmallow Malos handed him over earlier.

Lloyd's really fucking committed to his act, huh? He could fool Zelos again if he didn't know what to look for, or if he wasn't expecting him to pull something like this again, or if it wasn't for the little pull to his lips that's telling of a shit-eating grin. He's not tricking Zelos again that easily. Still, though. Architect, must he do this to every unsuspecting blade out there in the world? Please.

Clearly there is only one way to handle a situation like this.

He starts by taking off his glove and laughing. "Yeah, no, that's totally how they do it," Zelos shrugs, reaching over for another marshmallow to carefully warm it in his hand. The idea of getting sticky for the sake of a joke is horrible, but, whatever. If all the pieces of the puzzle don't come together perfectly then the full picture won't be convincing, so it's a sacrifice he's willing to make. "It's quite the backwards culture, honestly. They do everything all weird, but cultural differences are fun, right!"

Oh god, the marshmallow's melting. This is disgusting. Last minute, Zelos isn't sure he can commit to actually grabbing chocolate like this and getting even dirtier, so instead he redirects everyone's attention to Sheena when he turns on his heel and waves over at her, shouting, "Sheena! Get over here and help me with this!"

[summonerd]

Sheena hadn't stayed asleep long, even with Zelos being gentle when he'd kicked her out. Some combination of his unease and her own mess of an emotional state had dragged her into wakefulness, and when she'd found Lloyd the only one awake, she'd called up to him to see if he wanted company. It's almost normal, a soft little nothing conversation that they could've had in any world after a bad night, and Sheena clings to that, lets it steady her heart and chase off a few of her worries.

When Lloyd jumps down, she hesitates, glancing down. Malos is up, obviously, but Zelos is, too, and… He probably doesn't want to see her, right now. The guilt that her conversation with Lloyd had softened bubbles up again, just for a second, before she pushes it away. It's fine. She doesn't mind staying up here a little longer - the early morning light is pale and dappled by the branches above her but warm anyway, and the others' words filter up to her as she closes her eyes and continues what the time spent with Lloyd had started and centers herself.

It's nice, actually, letting the conversation drift past her, though she has to muffle a very undignified snort of laughter and bright amusement as she realizes what Lloyd's trying to pull. And then Zelos calls for her, which she really hadn't expected, and she jolts a little as he waves, with a ripple of surprise. Well - maybe that was all the space he'd needed? S'mores don't sound like a bad idea, anyway. Sheena pulls herself to her feet, as casually as if she'd been on the ground, and eyes the distance for just a second before she leaps, straight down. Her landing is just as nonchalant, coming down onto one knee for a moment to distribute her weight better before she straightens up, heading over to Zelos.

"Don't look at me, my world didn't even have s'mores til Lloyd introduced them," she says, though the uncertain smile on her face as she catches Zelos's eye doesn't entirely match her tone. Not that she'd spent much time in Tethe'allan cities since the worlds were reunited, but the last time they'd stopped in on Regal he'd mentioned that Lloyd's prank had actually managed to take root in at least one noble's household, so far, and Sheena can't help the way her smile gets a little closer to a real grin as she remembers that. "What do you need?"

[presidentheartbeat]

There's a bit of a bubbling anxiety in Zelos' core when Sheena does approach them, but he tries to hide and keep it inside to the best of his ability with a loud laugh. Come on, Zelos. You asked her to come. At least he manages to succeed in making it sound natural, and his next words come easy, in that high-pitched, playful tone of his he always uses for shit like this.

"What do you mean your world didn't have s'mores!" he exclaims, dramatic and loud. Then he shrugs and offers the marshmallow to his driver, smirk big and eyebrow raised. "Honestly, I think the people here deserve a demonstration, so I was going to ask you to try the reverse process Lloyd keeps going off about! I even roasted a marshmallow for you since I'm so considerate!"

Please take the marshmallow, Sheena. Please. It feels disgusting in his hand.

[summonerd]

Sheena deliberates for just a second, as much to push her own trepidation down as to consider if she's really willing to do this. No, alright, she's done dumber things without meaning to. It's not worse than the unpeeled orange would have been.

"Okay, okay," she says, leans in to take the marshmallow from his hand. The motion brings her out of the fragile morning light and into a shadow, and her eyes reflect Zelos's ether back at him, bright, for a moment. Actually, she kind of has to scrape the marshmallow off of his hand. Gross. This is why people use sticks, Zelos. "Thanks," she tells him, more sincere than dry - though, on the other hand, she does now have a handful of gooey marshmallow because of him, even if she appreciates the gesture - and reaches over for the rest of the s'more supplies, creating a fucked up reverse sandwich with the graham cracker in the middle. "Here, this is how you eat a Sylvaranti s'more," she says, struggling to keep a straight face as she takes a bite.

He's actually curious

[presidentheartbeat]

Zelos wants to focus on the horrible fact that oh, Architect, Sheena's actually doing this and that looks so uncomfortable, but something else catches his eye instead. When Sheena leans in Zelos catches a second of Sheena's eyes reflecting the light of his arm's ether lines, almost cat-like, and the notion is so sudden that Zelos is way too flabbergasted to speak when she's done.

Without really thinking about it Zelos waits until Sheena's already eaten the s'more and at least cleaned her hand before he does anything, choosing to reach over and cup her face in one hand, pulling her to look at him. He moves her head from side to side, watching her eyes reflect the light of his ether, and raises an eyebrow. Curious. Like, what the fuck? Zelos has seen and lived with enough humans in his life to know that this is abso-fucking-lutely not a human trait. Or, maybe that's just how humans are in Sheena's universe. But then why don't Lloyd's eyes shine?

Do they even shine? Have they tried that?

"Has anyone told you your eyes are like, glowing?" Zelos asks, watching her closely. "Is that a thing in your world, maybe? Like, what the hell." He moves her head to the right again before humming, then turns over to squint at Lloyd without releasing his driver. "What about you, huh? Any glow?"

he's so valid

[risingfalcon]

Lloyd is absolutely losing his shit. The joy of Zelos getting in on the act and making it seem like inverted s'mores were just a thing that existed for Lloyd, compounded by the appearance of Sheena and the fact that she totally just ate an inverted s'more works to leave the bright, shit-eating grin on Lloyd's face obvious for anyone to see. God, he loves these fucking memes so much, he thinks, fighting off a wave of laughter as he shoves another (actual) s'more into his mouth.

He turns his head to look back at Zelos when addressed though, the grin softening down into a playful smile. "Nah, I'm human, so my eyes don't glow. Sheena's part elf, though," Lloyd shrugs, huffing out a laugh, "we think so, anyway, which would explain the nightvision thing."

Then, he sends Sheena a cheeky beam, ready to have something thrown at him. "She's a rescue though, so we don't know for sure."

HE IS

[summonerd]

Honestly, mess aside, the s'more isn't terrible. There's not enough cracker to make up for the marshmallow's sweetness, and she has to eat it before the chocolate can melt and make the situation any worse, but Sheena would take this over eating an unpeeled orange any day.

She's not expecting Zelos to just reach out and take hold of her face, though. "Hey," she starts, uncertain, though she doesn't fight it for the moment, letting him tilt her head. She can guess what this is probably about, but her face heats up a little in embarrassment anyway. And then Lloyd speaks, and the heat spreads into a full blush, scowling. "I'm gonna throw you off the closest mountain as soon as Zelos lets go," she warns him, tugging her face away from his grasp, though not as strongly as she could have. She's mostly joking. Probably.

"But yeah, I have a little elven blood," she continues, with a little shrug. She can't help the trepidation that wells up in her, just for a second, though it passes quickly-- it's not like anyone's given her shit for it in so long, and it's not like anyone here would so much as know why it's weird. "Probably not much, since I'm hopeless with magic. I can see better in the dark, that's all."

I'M GLAD Y'ALL LOVE HIM?

[presidentheartbeat]

Hm, okay, that explains it a little, except it really doesn't. Still holding onto Sheena because he doesn't want to be responsible for a murder, Zelos raises an eyebrow in Lloyd's general direction, then down at Sheena when she starts explaining the rest. "What the hell is an elf, though?" he asks. "'Cause, like, the way you're explaining it it sounds like you're either a Flesh Eater or a Blade Eater equivalent. Probably the latter."

Alright, that's quite enough. Once his curiosity is satisfied and when he's probably sure that Sheena's not going to actually throw anyone off any mountains, Zelos smiles and lets go of his driver. Right away the little droplets of shame and 'oh god I did that' start falling at the pit of his core, and he evaporates them out of his mouth through a laugh, reaching over to take off his other glove, because putting on the other one when his hand is still sticky is a preventable disaster.

"Wellp!" he exclaims, shrugging. "Not like I care, but I guess night vision is the more useful end of the bargain." With the gloves off Zelos reaches over for another marshmallow, this time just warming it a little bit before eating it as is. Fuck getting dirtier, man. And eating with sticks sounds like a health hazard waiting to happen, even if he doesn't exactly have the same health issues a human would have, but-- "Guess we now know who's in charge of keeping watch tomorrow!"

HE'S FANTASTIC

[risingfalcon]

Lloyd waves his hand in the air a little carelessly, shrugging while biting into a marshmallow he was too lazy to cook this time. "Elves are a race in our world," he says around a mouthful of sticky goop, "they have a collective stick up their asses and live in Heimdall. Better off not having to deal with them, honestly."

Pausing, he sighs a little out of disappointment at himself and his tone, and then straightens up and swallows the marshmallow. "Okay, well, they're not terrible, really. Their society is just like, really fucking strict and has some shit views so I have a grudge against them." A grudge is rather light of a descriptor, given the way his lips curl into a frown as soon as he thinks about Heimdall and Genis and Raine and everything the elves have done to treat the half-elves terribly, but he sticks with it. "They're pretty cool ability wise, though. Have some real good magic stuff and the nightvision thing."

I'D DIE FOR ZELOS

[summonerd]

Being this close to Zelos without him making some kind of weird terrible innuendo that makes her elbow him in the gut is a little weird, but she's starting to get used to it, she thinks. "Nope, neither of those," she says, tone light.

Sheena snorts in laughter at Lloyd's first description, not offering any argument to it. It's not like he's wrong. The way they'd treated Genis and Raine had been enough for her to not need to see any more, honestly. "That's about it," she says, after he continues. "At least they mostly keep to themselves."

She wouldn't mind a second s'more, but first--

Once Zelos does let her go, Sheena takes the opportunity to pull Lloyd down into a headlock, noogieing him mercilessly. "A rescue, huh?" she asks, messing up his already-messy hair.

NO!!!! HE'LL DIE FIRST. NOT NECESSARILY FOR YOU BUT HE'LL DIE

[presidentheartbeat]

Elves sound like a bunch of jackasses, Zelos thinks as these two explain the whole deal with them, as his core starts to find annoyance growing like an unwanted weed. Though--honestly? They just sound like humans. And it's kind of putting Zelos into a bit of a bad mood to be hearing this stuff--he did say he didn't care--so before any disaster can even think about striking, Zelos chooses to disengage from the situation instead of letting it escalate.

He laughs, dismissive. Then Sheena pulls Lloyd into a headlock and Zelos just throws his hands up in the air. Wellp! He tried. Whatever. The Aegis then turns on his heel and leaves the two idiots to themselves to walk over to Malos, marshmallows and s'mores forgotten in favour of grinning up at the only other responsible person here. "Anyway," Zelos says, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to the roughhousing duo, "let's leave the dumbass solidarity over there to their own devices and talk about mature things, like what the plan for today is and whatever. It's already morning and we have two new guests."

DON'T DIE YOU'LL BREAK MALOS' FUCKING HEART

[theactingdad]

"Oh I'm not staying," Nia tells Zelos, already packing up her things. "I think I'll steal another s'mores before I go-- least you owe me for saving your asses--"

"Hey don't take that out on Zelos, he did nothing wrong," Malos interjects.

"No you're right," Nia says. "But I swear I cannot count how many times I've had to look after you fuckin' Irvings, and I am Not changing my plans to follow you cross country just to do more of that." She closes her bag with a finality, shouldering it.

"Hey, you can't leave before you say hi to Anna," Malos tells her.

There's a split second where Nia looks like she might just kill Malos, but then she huffs and drops her bag back to the ground. "Fine!" she says. "I'll stay another half hour! But if she wants to spend longer than that messing around with her husband, then that's on her."

"Ew," Malos says, on reflex. On a list of things he's pretty sure aren't happening right now but still didn't want to think about, anyway? That. Thanks Nia. It's not worth arguing with her, though. He focuses on the question Zelos asked him, instead. "Anyway, just. Kratos is probably coming with us, which is for the best because he'll have a better idea of how to sort shit with Mithos than I do, for sure. Don't think plans have changed too much, otherwise. We'll head out-- I'dunno, soon?" He taps into the emotional bleed to try and get a gauge on things, but Anna's got a tight enough grip on her end that it's basically impossible. He thinks things feel better? "Give Anna and Kratos like twenty minutes to finish sorting their shit and then cool off-- Nia raise those eyebrows any higher and I'll punch them off your face."

"Hey, I said nothing," Nia protests, eyebrows raised and looking smug as hell. Malos takes a half-hearted swing at her which she ducks under, and she laughs, good natured. "Next time you need healing, ask someone else!" she shoots at him, slinking off to procure more s'mores.

Malos lets out a short, strained noise, then straightens and composes himself. "Anyway. Like. We'll head out soon, alright? Unless you think we should do something else. Dunno if you've got any kind of change of plans in mind after yesterday. If you do lemme hear it."

EXCUSE ME

[presidentheartbeat]

Architect, there's so much noise. Sheena's still putting Lloyd through hell, Nia is personally terrorizing Malos, and Kratos and Anna are probably still having their marriage squabble off where the Aegis left them. They're just so damn lively for so early in the morning. If Zelos knew what a sitcom was, he'd be mentally comparing the current situation to one of those. Unfortunately, though, in this universe there are no sitcoms to speak of, so the Aegis is left simply thinking about how absolutely bizarre these people are despite having just escaped certain death a few hours ago.

It's like everyone has someone to bounce off of, a bond to fall back on. Someone to distract them of the grim realities of what just happened. A group full of duos... and then there's him.

Huh. Um.

Alright.

Zelos blinks. The little plan he'd formulated with Kratos comes to mind, along with how unlikely they are to sneak off now that everyone's awake and so aware of each other. Oh, well. For now Zelos ignores it, chooses instead to flip his hair over his shoulder and sighs dramatically, like putting up with this mess and all this noise is personally offensive and oh just so much for him, and then settles for the hands-on-his-hips pose and a bored expression. "You say Kratos knows his shit, right?" He shrugs without taking his hands off where they are, smirks. "Then I say we follow him. We can head out once he's back and you lively lot have had your fair share of sugary poison."

MALOS LOVES HIM!!!!!!!!

[theactingdad]

"I mean he's known Mithos for hundreds of years, so I hope Kratos knows what he's doing," Malos laughs. "Anyway, sounds good to me-- don't shit on s'mores though! They lightened the mood right up after the bullshit we went through yesterday."

Not that he thinks Zelos is really doing anything more than joking, but it's nice to jest in good humor.

"But that's fine if you don't want any-- More for us!" Malos laughs, though what he actually does is goes to put together a slightly more substantial breakfast for everyone to start the day with.

MITHOS HEAVEN FUCKING NOW

[aurions]

He and Anna do sort it out, and though Kratos is still upset, he is glad she's alive, and she does seem to be genuinely sorry, so maybe he can find it in him to forgive her. Eventually. Since they have the same destination and he doesn't exactly want to leave her after just getting her back, he elects to travel with them, of course.

Before Nia leaves, Kratos asks her if she'll take the core crystals he gathered, since he certainly doesn't want to be lugging them across the continent on a rescue mission. She complains-- as she does-- but agrees, and keeps quiet about it, so that's alright. It's also out of his hands.

The travel plans don't change, though Kratos admits after some consideration that there's probably no point stopping at Mithos' tower-- chances are that he's likely long gone, already on his way to save his sister. They're more likely to bump into him on the road, or arrive after he's already freed Martel, given the speed advantage Mithos has with his wings. The good news is not stopping at the tower will save days of travel.

Truthfully, Kratos spends most of today's travels dissociating, trying not to think about Martel suffering, trying not to think about how long it's going to take him to get to her. He remembers-- him and Martel, traveling to get to Mithos. Those were the longest weeks of his life. It feels like a repeat is playing out before him, now, just louder, more voices to fill the terrified, urgent silence he and Martel traveled in some hundreds of years ago. Oh well. Everyone keeps their distance from him, at least, which is good becuase Kratos is not quite certain he'd react well if anyone got close enough to touch him, and doubts he'd be a good conversation partner, either.

After what feels like an eternity, the sun finally starts to set, and they pick out a place to camp for the night. Kratos starts to make himself useful, but then--

The sun abruptly yanks itself upwards, out of sunset position.

And then it swings due south, like it intends to set there instead.

Kratos stares for a long, long moment, his core slowly going numb as he processes what he is seeing and moreover what it means.

"Oh, no," he says, tries to breathe around his horror.

"What the fuck?" Anna asks.

It takes Kratos a second to find words, to make himself move, but he has to, he has to. "Mithos," he explains, somewhat breathless, frantically shoving everything he's unpacked back into its bag. "It's--" But he can't quite find the voice to explain that the sun only does this within a few miles of Mithos when he's outputting an extraordinary amount of power, way more than he would output normally, safely, and if he's using that much power then something's very, very, very wrong.

"Consider it a distress signal," Kratos says, knowing the sun has positioned itself right above Mithos' current position. "We need to move."