The mortification Lloyd felt this morning and grappled with since then disappears in a cloud of righteous anger, the blank look on his face betrayed by the fire in his eyes and the way his lips are pulled back into a severe frown. The idea that Colette is stuck with those cannons and those people keeps the fury from residing, the fact that Zelos had been in the same spot causing it to bubble over and boil, so close to being violent that he has to keep himself from accidentally yelling every time he opens his mouth.
Zelos' laugh is distressed, a finely-tuned mask to hide his panic. Lloyd's familiar with the tone, with the disbelieving and fearful edge to the breaths Zelos takes, familiar with the wide eyes that may look mirthful to untrained viewers, may even seem joke-y. He knows these expressions, knows Zelos' face, knows the masks he has at his disposal. But even before that, Lloyd knows stress, knows panic and worry and trauma, knows how they show themselves in every friend he has. The laughter echoes in his ears, reminding him of his own Zelos when it all came down to bat. Even though Lloyd's still fearful at the idea of talking to this Zelos after his disastrous interaction, the anger pushes him up straight, forces the words out of his mouth before he has a moment to think them through.
"We're freeing Colette," Lloyd states, arms crossed across his chest, eyes narrowed in determination. "We're freeing her and destroying those - weapons. We're going to put an end to this shit. Nobody deserves to have their gifts used against them, and no innocents deserve to suffer at the hands of people who do not give a fuck."
And just like that, his words leave him and he's left crawling back into his shell, the humiliation from earlier rising up past the anger and cutting a straight line through his ability to speak. He's talking a lot of tough shit for someone who couldn't introduce themselves without having a childish episode afterward.
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Zelos' laugh is distressed, a finely-tuned mask to hide his panic. Lloyd's familiar with the tone, with the disbelieving and fearful edge to the breaths Zelos takes, familiar with the wide eyes that may look mirthful to untrained viewers, may even seem joke-y. He knows these expressions, knows Zelos' face, knows the masks he has at his disposal. But even before that, Lloyd knows stress, knows panic and worry and trauma, knows how they show themselves in every friend he has. The laughter echoes in his ears, reminding him of his own Zelos when it all came down to bat. Even though Lloyd's still fearful at the idea of talking to this Zelos after his disastrous interaction, the anger pushes him up straight, forces the words out of his mouth before he has a moment to think them through.
"We're freeing Colette," Lloyd states, arms crossed across his chest, eyes narrowed in determination. "We're freeing her and destroying those - weapons. We're going to put an end to this shit. Nobody deserves to have their gifts used against them, and no innocents deserve to suffer at the hands of people who do not give a fuck."
And just like that, his words leave him and he's left crawling back into his shell, the humiliation from earlier rising up past the anger and cutting a straight line through his ability to speak. He's talking a lot of tough shit for someone who couldn't introduce themselves without having a childish episode afterward.