summonerd | i just wanna know: who broke it?

Kratos barely registers Zelos' anger other than that it is there, the slight rising temperature catching him more by surprise than anything else-- and really, only for a second. Zelos is a fire blade, it's to be expected. (Kratos' anger, light blade that he is, manifests in a pulsing of his ether lines, glowing faintly brighter to the rhythm of his heartbeat. The fact that he's a flesh eater means he glows barely brighter than a regular blade at normal, though.)

Zelos asks him what to do.

"We find Mithos, first," Kratos says, simply. "The tower is on the way." It will be slightly slower than taking the most direct route, yes, but-- "Mithos will want to save his sister, too. Better if we collaborate than let him run ahead on his own."

Kratos does his best to breathe, to keep his anger under control, but his mind is racing, feeding off Zelos' fury.

"After that, we head to Martel, and Colette. Saving them will be easy once we're there. Getting there is what will be..." He sighs. "Well, it'll be slower than it will be difficult. A party this large does not exactly move fast."

Great! Finding Mithos was already part of the plan, anyway. "Glad to know our goals align, then," Zelos grins, some of his anger lowered only through the joy of something finally fucking going his way. "I figured if anyone would have some sort of control over the situation, it'd be an Aegis. Like, I mean--two Aegises are better than one any time, right?" he laughs.

Kratos' next words stop Zelos in his tracks, though. The smile drops as he lowers his gaze, once again lost in thought while he tries to troubleshoot the next problem, to consider all of his options. It's true that travel time is the biggest issue here, and that the bigger the party the slower their progress will be--especially considering there's several humans with very basic and problematic human needs to take into account. A blade may go several days without food or sleep, for example, but a human cannot. Time at night that could well be translated into more ground covered is wasted sleeping, and the inherent need for food continues to put them in danger by forcing them to buy and trade in towns.

If they could somehow reduce all that travel time by reducing the amount of people traveling to Mithos in the first place...

Zelos raises his gaze to meet Kratos' once more, stance loose, expression questioning as he addresses the flesh eater before him once again. "You... You know where to find Mithos, right? Listen," he begins, voice careful and guarded. Arms still crossed Zelos shifts his weight from foot to foot, barely-contained excitement at the breakthrough he's made knocking on his core. "You and I are blades. Our travel time and distance could probably double just from the fact that we don't need to stop and eat or sleep as often as humans do. So..." Zelos trails off, wets his lips. Ignores the stab of guilt in his gut, takes a deep breath, and asks,

"What if--what if you were my driver?"

Kratos blinks.

That's... a lot to just ask someone.

He's not against the idea, exactly, and Zelos' point about speed has merit. He's not sure Zelos has factored in the fact he's a flesh eater, and even if he does not need as much sleep and food as humans do, he certainly needs more than blades do. Though... it would still be slightly faster.

But.

"Technically, I do not need to be your driver for us to go on ahead on our own," Kratos says, just to make sure Zelos has thought of that as well. "Though I am not opposed, if you want me to be your driver." He can certainly understand why Zelos might want that, might want a driver who isn't human.

"It's just... your current driver," Kratos says, slowly, becuase Sheena had not seemed like a bad person, for the little he's interacted with her. And if she has Anna's trust (and she must, or they wouldn't be traveling together), then she must be alright. "Won't she be worried?"

Fucking damn it, Kratos, don't bring up Sheena into this. Zelos recoils a little, hides that behind a roll of his eyes and him putting his left hand on his hip while the right plays with a red lock of his own hair. To be honest, the idea of leaving his driver behind already made Zelos feel guilty from the get-go, but being reminded of her worrying after the encounter they literally just had in the dreamspace makes that cold guilt at the pit of his core solidify and spread. It's not like Sheena's a bad driver, all things considered. And--he did promise her to take her home, anyway. He's kind of contractually obligated to see that one through, right?

Plus, Kratos does have a point: there's no need for Zelos to swap drivers for them to just leave, even if the idea of having a non-human driver sounds like a blessing. He's just being a pushy, presumptuous asshole by putting someone who already said doesn't want to be a driver to blades he doesn't know in the spot like that. Kratos is probably just being polite with him.

Ugh.

"Sheena's alright," Zelos ends up saying, shrugging nonchalantly while avoiding making eye contact with Kratos. "She's a fast learner, and she did break me out of Meltokio, so. You could probably trust her to help with freeing Colette and Martel, so I guess staying with her as my driver makes sense."

Bitter shame at his own behaviour this whole conversation is already starting to creep up Zelos' back. He sighs and lets go of his own hair, rolls his head back to meet the other's gaze, frowning, the motions exaggerated and highly dramatized to hide the rest of his boiling nerves. "Mithos goes first, though," he says. "We need to get to him fast, but we need strength in numbers for later, so maybe we could temporarily split up with the others instead."

Kratos is pretty sure he's said something wrong, but he can't quite figure out what it is. Was it wrong to bring up Zelos' current driver? Perhaps it was in bad taste. (He is very used to Aegises very, very eager to run, after all.) Still, he's not sure he can fix what he broke, considering he is uncertain what broke if anything broke at all, so he will have to set that aside for later. Zelos is right, anyway. The sooner they find Mithos, the better.

The sun is starting to peek up over the horizon. Kratos hasn't been paying enough attention tonight to be sure, but it feels... early. Shouldn't it be another hour or so before sunrise?

"You're right," he tells Zelos. "That's a good plan. Should we..."

Kratos' eyes drag themselves towards the sunrise again, worry thrumming faintly in his veins. A sunrise he's not even sure is early is not cause for alarm, but he thinks about how long it's been since the cannon went off, thinks about how Mithos felt it as well as he did, thinks about how long Mithos has had to make hasty decisions, thinks about how much of a headstart Mithos could have gotten. Would... it even do them any good to chase after him? Would they even catch up to him? Can Kratos afford not to try?

The sun stares at him, mockingly. Is it higher in the sky than it was a second ago?

Kratos turns on his heel and nods for Zelos to follow. "Let's go, then--"

He only gets a step before he stops again. Anna stands before him, arms crossed, eyebrows raised, alive and well and that's not fair.

"Without telling anyone?" Anna asks, watching Kratos carefully. Architect, he looks white as a sheet. Because he's been caught red-handed? Because... Well, it must be like seeing a ghost for him, huh? Maybe she should have let them go.

Kratos breaks eye contact with her, shoulders tense, hands clenched. Something uneasy stirs in Anna's soul. There's so much she has to say, and now isn't really the time.

She sighs.

"If it's a matter of time, Malos is the only one still asleep," she says. "We can have him awake and camp packed up in like ten minutes. Or..."

She swallows.

"If the two of you really want to go on ahead, I guess that's fine? By me, anyway. But I don't want to tell Lloyd and Sheena the news, so..."

Kratos doesn't answer, staring first at the sunrise-- weird??-- and then at Zelos. His face says he's waiting for Zelos' opinion.

Honestly, Zelos is just so focused on Kratos that he simply can't sense Anna's presence until she's staring them right in the face, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. Right away there's a cold, piercing sensation of shame and guilt embedding itself into Zelos' core, one that he forcibly keeps locked in there and away from Sheena no matter the cost.

When Anna speaks Zelos recoils a little, stumbling back a step and then flinching when both pairs of eyes settle on him instead, expectant and observant like a crowd waiting for their Aegis to speak, waiting for the empty promises of a weapon meant to look like a saviour. It's a familiar sensation and scene to the Aegis, one that he'd thought he'd left behind along with the painful, lonely life of an unnatural being only made to wage war. Violet eyes snapping between Kratos and Anna Zelos swallows down a lump, then releases it slowly in a small, breathy laugh, one that gets caught behind bared teeth, behind a sneer that tries to disguise itself as a grin.

Something in him snaps. In the absence of control, when put in the spot like this, the Aegis turns to anger. Because how dare these people trap him like this. How dare Kratos reject him. How dare Anna look at him like he's betraying them, how dare she bring up Lloyd and Sheena after what's just happened.

And how dare Zelos almost try and run away like this, to break his own drivers' trust by replacing her like it's nothing. To think he gets the chance.

Ridiculous.

"Tell them what news?" Zelos decides to play stupid, shrugging, grin dark and head tilted while he regards Anna. Because even if he rejected him, Kratos doesn't deserve the brunt of his rage, and even if Anna doesn't deserve it after what she's gone through, either, in the Aegis' mind she's still a more acceptable target to unload on. The temperature around him rises again, though it's more subtle, a small change in the face of his irrationality. He scoffs. "That we're packing up and leaving together in ten minutes? Sure, I can do that. No problem. Not a single problem."

Zelos is being irrational and he knows it, knows that the anger he feels in his core is misdirected when it should be kept bouncing in this isolated bubble that he's created within himself, knows that of all the people here he's the one that carries the most sins. And yet he cannot stop, focused instead on releasing it in the only way he knows how: outwardly, destructively and painfully, severing whatever progress and bonds he has made. "Besides," Zelos adds, turning on his heel to leave before he causes more damage, "Lloyd's all alone. Someone's got to check in on your son."

Malos wakes up not much longer after Anna does, truthfully. He's worried for about half a second about where the fuck everyone is-- only Nia's still around, asleep-- but Lloyd's ether signature is still nearby, and a glance in its direction shows Malos that Lloyd's chilling up in a nearby tree. Sheena's up there with him. You know what? Valid.

Kratos and Zelos' ether signatures are farther away, but still nearby. Same direction the tug in his core crystal tells him Anna is. After a few minutes, which Malos spends rolling up his bedroll and also Anna's, Zelos' ether signature aproaches, and the emotion bleed gets...

Oh. Yeah, that. It was about time for that, huh.

Malos cuts himself off from it, not wanting to feel all of Anna's frustration and guilt right now, especially considering Zelos is in sight now and there's something Malos wanted to talk to him about.

"Hey, Zelos!" he calls, sending the Aegis a smile. Zelos looks like he's uncomfortable about something, but Malos presses on, anyway. It's good news he wants to share, and like, who wouldn't be uncomfortable if they'd just had to excuse themselves from a married couple's argument. "Listen, I wanted to thank you for earlier. Saving Anna's life, getting us out of there... You were incredible, y'know? So, really. Thank you."

Edited 2019-06-24 19:03 (UTC)

Removing himself rather hastily from what he's pretty damn sure is about to turn into a verbal smackdown between Kratos and Anna, Zelos makes his way back to camp while keeping a tight leash around the emotional bleed, determined not to let Sheena feel any of this guilt and rage no matter the cost. Poor girl's already had to suffer through her own blade kicking her out of the dreamspace, and having to explain just why he feels like the world's worst douchebag would just be making it worse. Besides, Zelos isn't really quite sure what he's going to do now that he's gone out of his way to be a horrible blade to everyone in the surrounding area. He's in some deep fucking shit, isn't he?

Geez. He's kind of hoping to get some time alone before he has to face Lloyd and Sheena, given he's supposed to fabricate a lie that sounds convincing enough for them not to pursue the issue any further. It's not to be, though, because Malos calls his name and all of Zelos' time and energy is instead redirected at keeping himself in check so as to not lash out at an actual innocent just because he's hurting and it feels better to let it all out. He doesn't try to smile, but he does soften his expression and stance a little, trying to appear open, and--

Oh.

What the fuck, Malos.

Shame warms up Zelos' cheeks. Seriously, what the fuck is it with this fucking family? First he gets an apology out of nowhere, now he gets thanked out of nowhere, and, quite frankly, given the messes that Zelos has just created everywhere he's been, he doesn't feel very 'incredible' or worthy of any praise or gratitude. He tries to hide the surprise behind a last minute smile, letting out an anxious, breathy laugh as he raises his hands to--nothing, really. It's kind of stupid to be doing a defense/pacifying gesture at a time like this, but. Maybe that's just instincts.

The Aegis shakes his head. "Ah, no, I--" he gets stuck there, swallows hard. Shrugs. Add anxiety and slight panic to the horrible mixture of emotions in Zelos' core, then. Holy hell. "Anyone would've done it, right? We needed to survive. That's all it is."

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.

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.

Edited 2019-06-25 15:10 (UTC)

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!"

Edited 2019-06-25 17:16 (UTC)

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?"

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!"

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."

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."

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!"

Edited (pranking shenanigans) 2019-06-29 02:01 (UTC)

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!?"

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."

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!"

Edited 2019-06-29 16:39 (UTC)

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?"

Edited 2019-06-30 11:40 (UTC)

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.

Edited 2019-06-30 19:33 (UTC)

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.

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?"

Edited 2019-07-01 15:28 (UTC)

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."

done and done

Oh god I can't believe we're doing this

kratos decides to be somewhat responsible

GOD DAMN IT

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Zelos baby you're being irrational

NO HE'S VALID

GOD. ALSO HAPPY 500TH COMMENT

(malos voice) prepare to feel valued, you bastard

aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA

thanks aly for shenanigans ideas

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

Puppy Mode: ACTIVATED

smores heaven now

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

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

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He's actually curious

he's so valid