summonerd | i just wanna know: who broke it?

i just wanna know: who broke it?

[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.]

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Sheena's quiet the whole way back to the inn, sticking close to Lloyd's side. The conversation washes over her, lost in grief as she is, but she does her best to at least look like she's paying attention. Zelos's core crystal remains gripped tightly in her hand, the only thing she can focus on, its warmth and residual ether both fading as time pass in a way she hates.

When they do make it to the inn, she sits down hard on the closest bed, the tears she'd been forcing back threatening to spill over again now that she doesn't have to feign any kind of cohesion. Fuck. Fuck.

Mithos hates to leave Kratos, really, but he's coherent, even if clearly having a horrible time right now. And this... is more important than Kratos, actually. Now seems like the best time for it, anyway.

So Mithos approaches Sheena.

"Hey," he says, distracted, kind of rough. "Sorry to bother you, but can I see Zelos' core crystal? Father shouldn't have damaged that, but I want to check, anyway." He hates being open, vulnerable, especially with a human, but Zelos seemed to like his driver well enough, and it's for Zelos that Mithos is here. "It'll just make me feel better, I guess. Give me an estimate on how long it's gonna take him before he's ready to come back, too. I'll... be quick, promise."

Sheena looks up at Mithos blankly for a moment, not quite processing what it is he's asking. She must look awful, worse than she'd really want anyone seeing her, but that's pretty far down on the list of things she cares about right now.

"Before he's--" she starts, and then stops as something clicks for her, and she doesn't make it all the way to a smile but she doesn't look quite so crushed as she had a moment ago. She wipes her face off on one sleeve, swallowing hard. "Here," she says, unfolding her other hand from around Zelos's core crystal to reveal it. There are pale lines on her palm, where the edges had dug into it.

"Thanks," Mithos says, gingerly taking Zelos' core crystal from Sheena. He turns it over in his hands, probing it gently with his own ether, pinging it for regular system checks. Zelos' ether doesn't feel sick, and there are no cracks or deformations on his crystal, so Zelos is probably okay. Mithos almost thinks thank the Architect before he remembers the Architect is exactly why they're in this mess to begin with.

"Yeah, he's fine," Mithos reports, handing Zelos' core crystal back to Sheena. "At least, he isn't damaged, which is what I was worried about. Father should know better than to play around with that much ether." Mithos scowls, trying to wrestle with the icy bitterness that rests in his core. His hands clench, unclench, clench again at his sides. "I mean, I'm glad he got us out of that mess, but there were definitely better ways to do that than just blowing Zelos up. He could have killed us. All of us. If I'd reacted just a second slower--"

Mithos breaks off, keeps glaring. More than angry, he feels betrayed. If Father wanted to help, why choose Zelos, instead of his son? Was it because he thought Zelos expendable?

Mithos isn't really sure he prefers that option. In fact, he's quite sure he doesn't.

"But maybe Father doesn't care about that," Mithos whispers, tired, furious. "I wouldn't be surprised."

Sheena's careful when she takes Zelos's core crystal back, but her mind is fixed entirely on what Mithos just told her.

Okay. Zelos is going to be okay. Even if the memory of their link being pulled apart until it snapped is still haunting her - it's going to be fine. Zelos will be back; this isn't permanent. She lets out a slow, shaky breath, the worst of the weight lifting from her shoulders.

Mithos mentions his father - that's the Architect, right? Right - being the one responsible for what happened, and... okay, that makes more sense than Zelos just... exploding for no reason. But what the fuck? That doesn't sound like anything she's heard from the others about this world's god. Sheena frowns in confusion.

"I don't know why he did that, either," she says. Actually, she's not sure he was even really talking to her there. It's probably fine. "But-- thank you." She offers him a small smile, something still shaky but genuine. "For checking on Zelos, but for earlier, too." It hadn't hit her at all how close they'd all come to just being vaporized, but it sure is now. She shivers a little, turning Zelos's crystal over in her hands.

Edited 2019-10-21 10:53 (UTC)

Mithos blinks, startled. "Y- You're welcome," he says. Then he scowls, tries to keep his face more nuetral. Sheena looks... relieved, though. That's good?

Mithos sends a look to Lloyd, who's been sitting on the floor, leaning up against Sheena's bed. The emotion bleed there is all relieved, too, and a little hopeful. And that makes sense, Mithos supposes, that they're both relieved, but-- did they not know blades just come back? He did that whole dying and coming back thing just a week ago, so the idea that they've forgotten is ludicrous, and he's about to point that out--

But he catches himself, his mouth still open, and throttles the sounds in his throat. He... really, really shouldn't.

He looks at Lloyd again. The relief that dulls the grief is like a breath of fresh air, though Lloyd still doesn't look... great.

"....are you okay, Lloyd?" Mithos asks, quiet, a touch concerned.

So the thing about watching the person you love die? It fucks you up. It fucks you up for life, honestly, an unforgettable memory that tucks itself away into the deepest corners of your mind and comes back to haunt you in every living moment you can let it.

The thing about watching his reflection die? The same reflection you’re currently fighting feelings for off with a stick? It only compounds the pain, a very weighty dagger twisting itself into a wound that’s only barely healed. Every time Lloyd blinks, the images of Zelos, either dead in his arms or not even visible, reverted into a core crystal after being killed by his own power - they flash in Lloyd’s mind, torturing him in silence. Dry, aching eyes stare blankly out in the world as he tries his best to cope, grief choking every word he could say and leaving them stuck in his larynx, shock coating everything in a layer of hopelessness and regret. Lloyd can barely find the strength to be awake right now, but the threat of nightmares keeps him from sleeping. The idea of talking just seems like a waste of time and energy, the words unable to be pushed out.

And maybe he doesn’t want to talk. Maybe he doesn’t wanna show just how close he is to losing his goddamn mind.

Because, here’s the thing: Mithos’ reminder that blades can come back to life sends relief through Lloyd’s heart, piercing through the grief like a light in the dark. It’s comforting enough where Lloyd feels like he could allow himself to wrap himself up in it and try desperately to put the pieces of his shattered stability back together. But something else knocks at his head, incessant and maddening, something Malos had told him ages ago, back when Lloyd had first landed in this world’s Meltokio.

“We return to our core crystal until someone comes around to wake us up again-- but, we do lose our memories when we return to our core crystals, so it's kind of like dying, I guess.”

So even though Lloyd rejoices in the fact that Zelos will live, that his flame wasn’t coldly snuffed out like Lloyd’s Zelos’ was, Lloyd is left mourning for the memories this Zelos won’t have, for the late nights and the conversations and everything that had been built up. Zelos isn’t dead, but their friendship is.

And Lloyd doesn’t know if he has the strength to try again.

(But then again, a small, hopeful part of Lloyd's mind refuses to surrender, Mithos had died, and he had kept his memory. Maybe there's still a chance.)

Mithos calls out to him, and Lloyd blinks, staring up at him, distant in mind and body, as he speaks. He’s not okay, that’s the answer, and even though he appreciates the wave of concern he feels from Mithos, Lloyd can’t find it in him to open his mouth and say it. Instead, he grabs his pack, finding a pencil and a piece of paper he can write on, and explains in writing.

Can’t talk, his messy scrawl reads. I’ll be fine.

Edited 2019-10-23 14:26 (UTC)

Mithos blinks, considering first the note Lloyd handed him, then Lloyd himself. Chest heavy, slowly he smiles, pained but understanding. "Yeah, I get it," he says, quiet. He hands the paper back to Lloyd. "Kratos gets like that too."

Kratos is currently like that, actually. Damn. Whatever Lloyd feels about Zelos' pseudo-death must be... pretty awful, if it's made him nonverbal. Mithos sighs, long and slow. He's... pretty sure he's no further help here, though, and he checked on Zelos, which is all he came here for.

"I'm gonna go, then," Mithos says. He smiles at Lloyd, then at Sheena. A part of him wonders if Lloyd would appreciate a hug or a kiss on the head but that always helped Martel and never Kratos, and Mithos should err towards the Kratos side of Dealing With This, shouldn't he? Plus doing something like that would be... weird, he thinks, with Lloyd. As far as drivers go, Lloyd isn't bad at all, and Mithos wants nothing more than to see Lloyd recover. Physical affection is just... not something Mithos feels comfortable doing right now, and it's probably a bad idea, anyway. So. "If you need anything-- either of you. Just let me know, okay?" Mithos waves, gently, then heads out.

ZELOS IS STILL DEAD CRAB RAVE

Lloyd manages a nod to Mithos as he leaves the room, turning on his heel and walking out the door, and as soon as the Aegis is out of sight, Lloyd sighs, something barely audible, more of a slight puff of air than anything else. This sucks. This all sucks so bad.

At least Sheena is here.

It's with that thought that he shakily picks himself off the floor, ignoring the soreness of his body that lingers as a side effect of abusing his angel abilities, and plops down on the bed next to Sheena, wrapping an arm around her waist and resting his head on hers. Lloyd can't say anything, can't find the ability to say anything, still, but he wants her to know he's here for her too.

Part of him wonders if he should write to her, tell her about what he knows about a blade's revival, but the rest of him decides against it. If Lloyd is wrong, and Zelos revives with his memory intact, that will have been grief he didn't have to put her through. So he keeps his mouth shut, his notepad closed, and a tight grip on the knowledge which haunts him.

Sheena answers Mithos with another small smile and a nod, and another quiet "thanks" as he goes. The fact that he seems worried about Lloyd too is the most important part to her right now - she's not sure what she'd do if he'd decided to make things worse, instead. She's so tired. But this is a different Mithos, and the -- situation with Zelos isn't the same, either. It's going to be alright, she reminds herself, firmly.

She nudges Lloyd gently with her close leg, just enough to reassure them both that the other is here, and thinks about joining him on the floor - a blanket fort might be nice, but it's probably beyond either of them right now - but Lloyd beats her to it, getting up to sit next to her, and so she just pulls him in close, free hand still carefully holding onto Zelos's core crystal, with a low sigh of her own.

Neither of them get anything that could really be considered rest, that night - Sheena tries, awakening after a few hours from a nightmare that wakes her sobbing, and curls against Lloyd for comfort instead - but the sun rises, eventually, as it always does, and morning comes. The rest of their party must be awake by now, too, she thinks. Maybe some distraction would be good. So she stretches and pulls away from Lloyd a little reluctantly, suggests they go see what the others are up to.

It's quiet for late morning, when they step out into the hall. She'd been in too much of a haze to remember much of what had been said after - after, but she thinks she recalls someone saying the inn would be empty but for them. The others' rooms are close, at least, and Sheena pauses before tentatively knocking on one of the doors.

Kratos doesn't sleep well, exactly, but certainly better than Mithos had anticipated after the horrible day they'd had. They've been awake for hours (Mithos, actually, didn't sleep a wink, but he didn't need to) by the time Sheena knocks on their door. Mithos hesitates, flashing a worried look at Kratos. He knows that they have this inn to themselves (minus the staff, anyway), but Mithos doesn't trust that easy, regardless. Most of all he hates getting caught in the middle of political bullshit. The sooner they're on the way to Martel the better.

Kratos sends him a look like he better answer the door because odds are good it's someone they actually want to talk to, and reminds him that he promised Lloyd and Sheena help if they needed it for anything-- really, it's quite amazing what Kratos can convey in just a twitch of his eyebrows and a quiet disapproving stare. Mithos huffs, getting to his feet. "Right, right," he grumbles.

"Yes?" he asks, terse, pulling the door open only enough to see who it is, then relaxing when he sees both Sheena and Lloyd. Score one Kratos, he guesses. "Oh," he says, tone softening with his surprise and then with clear intent as he pulls the door open the rest of the way. "Good timing, actually. I was just gonna come get you two."

He steps aside to let them in. Kratos, from his perch on his bed, waves.

Edited 2019-11-02 04:12 (UTC)

Following after Sheena like a lost puppy, Lloyd takes the quiet walk to Mithos and Kratos’ room as a chance to try and test his ability to interact for the day. He opens his mouth, tries to will himself to saying something, anything, but nothing comes out. So it’s another one of those days, he thinks, resigning himself to another day of being mute. For now, the grief of what’s just happened continues to clog his throat, causing any possible words to stay stuck in it.

Sheena knocks on the door, and Lloyd places the best smile he can form on his face - something small and tired, though he doesn’t feel a drop of exhaustion even without sleeping the night previous - but a smile nonetheless. Lloyd waves at Mithos as a greeting, stepping in when the Aegis opens the door wider, and then looks over at Kratos, making sure to wave at him, too.

Good morning, Lloyd mouths, plopping himself down on the floor, legs crossed underneath him.

Sheena relaxes part of the way when it's Mithos who opens the door and not someone she doesn't know, and the rest of the way when he doesn't seem bothered by their presence. "Thanks," she says, grateful, as she makes her way into the room. She offers Kratos a small smile in return, leaning back against the wall behind Lloyd. "I just..." Hadn't wanted them to be alone all day, but that's probably obvious, she realizes. If she looks half as exhausted as she feels (and she does), she must look pretty rough right now, and Lloyd's condition is going to be clear to them pretty soon if it's not already.

She shakes her head instead of continuing her thought, looks back at Mithos curiously. He'd meant to go get them? "Did you need us for something?" she asks.

Mithos nods at Sheena's question. "Yeah, I do," he says. "Nothing really urgent, but... I mean..." He looks meaningfully between Kratos and Lloyd. Kratos shoots him a silent be nice with a flick of his hands. Mithos rolls his eyes and rephrases, a little. "I was thinking I should teach the two of you sign language, so that Lloyd has a better way to communicate when he can't speak, and so that you two can understand Kratos without me having to translate everything."

It's a pretty sound idea, in Mithos' opinion.

"Granted, the most I'm going to be able to teach anyone today is a crash course in finger spelling and a few basic words, but it's a start."

Look, Kratos is aware that as far as meaningful interactions go, sitting in the same room as your brother teaches your kids how to sign barely counts as one. But he's having a good time. He really is. Maybe it's just because no one's expecting him to interact at length, maybe it's because it feels normal after the hellhole of bad that yesterday was. Either way, it's a nice hour or so they spend drilling letters, which is going to only be useful if no one has pen and paper on hand, but it's only day one of lessons, so. Maybe they'll get somewhere if they keep at this for a few months, but Kratos isn't sure how long they'll all be traveling together.

He's not sure Lloyd and Sheena even have an idea of how they intend to get home...? He'll have to ask about that. Later. It'd be too difficult a converastion to have, right now. And likely not one anyone wants to think about, either, not now.

Especially considering Sheena has yet to put Zelos' core crystal down.

They're wrapping up, so Kratos waves for Mithos' attention and, letting Mithos translate for him, asks with a cautious smile:

How are you two doing, today? ...Better?

Lloyd listens as Mithos speaks, translating Kratos' signs with an ease Lloyd hopes he could achieve. The fingerspelling and basics were fun, but it is a new language, so he can't read shit from what Kratos signs.

Ah. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out the pencil and paper from the night previous, scrawling out a messy reply. I'll be okay, it reads, I just need some time. Feeling better.

Truthfully, he won't feel better until Zelos reforms, hopefully with memory intact, and Lloyd can put this episode behind him. Until then, the quiet emptiness left behind by Zelos' death will keep Lloyd's words in his throat.

Edited 2019-11-14 20:34 (UTC)

Sheena stretches a little as Lloyd writes out his answer, thinking about her own. She'd struggled more than she'd expected to, some of the letters harder to differentiate than she thinks they should have been, but then, she does still feel all wrung out. Having something to think about instead helped, though. It's not as hard as she thought it might be to answer Kratos's smile with a tiny one of her own, and she leans forward to see Lloyd's answer once he's done.

"What he said," she half-jokes, weakly, brushes her bangs out of the way with her free hand. "But... yeah, a little better. Thanks."

Kratos smiles back, relieved, and though he wants to say as much, he can get the point across with said smile and a thumbs up. That's good. Not perfect, not ideal, but neither is Kratos right now. They don't have to be 100%. Okay is enough.

There's a knock on the half open door, before Anna pokes her head in. Kratos relaxes immediately at the sight of her, which he admits is probably a little silly, seeing as in this company he isn't any safer with her around than he is without, but still. He waves at her, smiling, and she shoots him a smile back, her face full of joy in the way that suggests he briefly distracted her from what she even came here for.

"Hey!" she says, and its bright but kind of tight. Not completely distracted, then, but that's probably for the best. "Um, so, I just finished talking to Morag and I have... news."

That isn't comforting. Kratos would ask what kind of news, but whatever sign he'd taught Anna she's forgotten, and it's fine because Mithos is asking anyway.

"Good news or bad news?" Mithos asks.

"Uhhhh," Anna considers for a moment. "News," she says. "Listen. So, sometime last night, Sylvarant's cannon facility just, uh. Blew up."

"Where's Martel?" Mithos demands, before Kratos can even breathe.

"They looked, but no one found her," Anna says, clearly well aware she's giving bad news. Before Mithos can make more than a half-strangled sound, Anna continues, hasty. "But, there's been reports of some guy spotted near Asgard with the Aegis."

"Which Aegis?" Mithos counters. "Martel or the- or. Colette?"

"Colette," Anna answers. "But, uh, here's. The bad news." Based on the way her voice tightens with anger, it must be really bad news. "Morag believes Sylvarant was doing experiments that would have involved fusing Colette's core crystal with shards of Martel's."

"What the fuck," Mithos spits, sudden and furious. Kratos flinches, even though a part of him had expected this. "That's--" Mithos shouts, then cuts off. He twitches where he stands, clearly trying to keep a hold of his composure (Kratos fears what the emotion bleed must feel like right now, for Lloyd). "I. I need to. Go. I need to." Mithos's hands open, close, fists clenched tight at his sides, spine rigid and body trembling. "To talk to Father."

And then he slides out of the room, pushing past Anna.

"....a'ight," Anna says, hands up as she watches Mithos go. "So I guess the plan is to head to Asgard, or wherever else this guy ends up, track him down, find Colette, etcetera-- But I dunno if we want to wait for Zelos?" She looks to Kratos, and he takes a guess at what she wants to know.

2 D-A-Y-S, he spells out, which everyone in the room should understand.

"Two days," Anna repeats. "Colette's not in danger of being put in a cannon, but..." She looks to Lloyd and Sheena, now. "Well, what do you guys think? I don't think waiting two days is going to hurt the way things are right now, and we could all probably use a little more time to recover from that shitshow that happened yesterday, but... If you guys are eager to find Colette, then."

Edited 2019-11-19 05:01 (UTC)

Sheena sits up when Anna announces that she has news, uncertain - what kind of news would Sylvarant's royalty have that's so important? - only to gasp in horror, a sharp intake of breath, when she goes on. Lloyd grabs her hand under the table the second Anna mentions Colette, and she squeezes back probably-too-hard. "They what??" she manages, a little sick but mostly just thinking about how ready she is to make whoever hurt this world's Colette pay for it. It shouldn't be a surprise, the way this world reflects their own, but something about the way Anna describes it just sounds so much worse.

She barely even notices Mithos leaving, except for the way Lloyd squeezes her hand again, and she loosens her grip on his hand just long enough to properly intertwine their fingers, strokes the back of his hand reassuringly with her thumb. Her first response to Anna is that of course they shouldn't wait - who knows what could happen to Colette, in two days? - and she opens her mouth to tell the others so. But... she pauses to look over to Lloyd. He's trying to hide what's wrong now, but it's not like he'd been doing great before they'd found out. And Kratos is just as nonverbal as his son right now, and Mithos is as mad as he has every right to be, and she thinks she remembers Malos struggling yesterday too, and she's barely hanging in there.

"I think we should wait," she admits, instead, hating it the whole time. "At least until tomorrow. We really do need the time to recover, and if the cannon's gone..." She lets the thought trail off, because there's no way she can finish it and not hate it. Colette's not safe, and in two days she could be taken anywhere, but what could they do in a fight, like this? Rather than keep trying to justify it to herself, she shakes her head hard, looks back up at Anna. "What about the Sylvaranti government? Can they at least keep track of where this guy takes her?"

Lloyd barely has a moment to get over his initial wave of concern and furiousness about Colette, about what could have happened to her, about what could be happening to her, before Mithos’ tsunami of negative emotions floods their emotional bleed, overwhelming Lloyd under the weight of them. His eyes widen and he jolts forward, willing his heart to slow down as he tries to fight against the currents of Mithos’ anger, horror, and guilt. And - here’s the thing, what Mithos is feeling is - it’s incredibly justified, Lloyd’s worst theory about Colette and Martel’s shared existence being confirmed not at all helping him feel better, and for a moment, Lloyd embraces the fact that both of them are equally upset about the mistreatment of the Aegises, his own anger mixing with Mithos’ into some awful concoction of determined vengeance, but.

Lloyd bites back his fear, shivering as he feels the looseness of Mithos’ hold on himself, their bleed feeling unstable and unsafe, a distant reminder of what could be at risk should anything more happen to Martel, and - Lloyd squeezes Sheena’s hand again, attempting to keep his reaction hidden best he can from Kratos and Anna, wishing he could fucking speak, but even with the panic rising from his chest and appearing in the way his breaths quicken, because as Mithos’ sanity slips from him, Lloyd’s reminded of bitter, high-pitched laughter and manic energy, magic used against him and everyone he’s ever cared about with the sheer intent to hurt, hurt, hurt, take back what had been taken from the hero of legend -

Count to ten, Kratos’ voice whispers, and Lloyd does, using Sheena as a grounding force. Lloyd can’t talk yet, useless as he is, but he nods along with Sheena’s decision, knowing he’s in no position to fight at his best. Guilt not unlike Mithos’ joins the cocktail as Lloyd swallows, looking at his boots. He was too late to help Colette, and now he’s making her wait even longer. Keep holding on, Colette, he thinks silently, remembering a soft voice filled with gilded sorrow, thinking of her having to go through the unfair treatment Zelos has. Lloyd doesn’t know this world’s Colette, but he has no doubt in her mind she’s worth saving. We’re coming, I promise.

"Yeah, no, I definitely think waiting is a good idea," Anna tells Sheena, brightly, sending a gentle, reassuring smile at first Lloyd then Kratos. She doesn't know much about Lloyd or Sheena-- at least not how they cope with horrible shit like this-- but she knows that Kratos' downswings take at least twenty-four hours to ride out, and this was a downswing worse than she's literally every seen him have before. But this is also the first time she's seen him put in a literal, actual cage, so like.

Anyway.

"Yeah, we'll see how we're doing tomorrow," Anna says. "And then maybe take one more day after that, depending on how we feel. I think the least Morag can do is keep us updated on Colette's position, seeing as that's her job." Is Anna a little bitter? Maybe, but when isn't she with politicians, to be honest.

Kratos reaches into his bag and after some rummaging pulls out his journal. Anna waits while he writes (feeling guilty that she managed to forget nearly every inkling of sign he taught her, but that's just another guilt to add to the pile she's ammassed over the past five years) and then dutifully takes it from him when he's done to read to everyone else, seeing as she's done this before.

"'While I don't like leaving Colette or Martel with a stranger, we have no reason yet to believe she's in danger. Anyone could be driving her right now, good or bad. I think we can afford waiting until we know for certain.'"

Anna nods, when she's done reading. "Yeah. Yeah, me too. Not to mention laying low so no one can get their hands on Zelos while he's dormant is also... probably a good idea."

So they decide to wait.

Edited 2019-11-22 18:17 (UTC)

For all that waiting's the best option - for all that she'd been the one to suggest it -Sheena still kind of hates this.

The next day rolls around, and while she feels better, there's a tension in the air that's hard to ignore, and maybe they could push through and leave today, but she's aware enough to get the feeling it wouldn't end well.

So, okay. One more day. One more day, and then Zelos will be back and ~~everything will be okay again~~ they'll be able to catch him up and go wherever Morag says that Colette was last seen. She can handle that much.

... Except that maybe she can't stand another day of inactivity, now that she's gotten enough sleep that her brain isn't a haze of misery. She could train on her own, but the idea of sparring sounds a lot more appealing right now. Kratos is definitely out. Lloyd might agree to it if she asked, but she's not sure he really should, right now. And besides, Anna had seemed especially on edge, earlier. Maybe she'd appreciate the distraction, too. So she seeks her out, finding her in an otherwise-deserted guest lounge.

"Hey," she calls as she approaches, her smile not as weary as it had been yesterday even if Zelos's core crystal is still gripped tightly in one hand. She waves with the other. "Are you busy?"

Anna is absolutely, definitely, a little bit on edge, but good luck getting her to talk about why. Mithos promised he'd stop being an ass, and she has to trust that and so she needs to stop sitting here obsessing over it. It's not... as easy as just stopping, though, so needless to say she's very very very grateful for the distraction of Sheena deciding to ask for her attention.

Sheena looks better than she did yesterday, which is good, Anna thinks. Definitely good. Sure, Sheena looks kind of restless, too, but so is Anna.

"No, not really," she answers. The busiest she is right now is nervously braiding lanyards like Lora showed her how to do, which despite how difficult it is to be dexterous with her hands, isn't nearly distracting enough to stop her mind from playing back the events of last night, so. Absolutley yes she'd love to be doing literally anything else. "Did you need something, Sheena?"

Sheena's curious, a little, but decides not to ask just what had happened that she and Lloyd had missed out on. Unless it comes up again later, when they're all recovered and back on the road, or Anna wants to talk about it, it's really not any of her business. But Anna does seem happy enough to see her, which is more important at the moment.

"Just wondering if you might be interested in sparring, or anything." She shrugs, with a rueful grin, as she leans against the side of the couch. "I feel like if I sit still much longer I might explode," she confesses.

FOLLOWS UP THAT INCREDIBLE TAG WITH A TINY ONE

IT'S FINE IT'S FINE

I AM TENDER?

MITHOS GETS HEAVY ON MAIN

WHEN'S THE FUCK GOD CLUB GETTING FOUNDED

(MITHOS VOICE) RIGHT NOW

Lloyd is volunteering to make club t-shirts

oh HELL yes

no subject

SORRY FOR THE WAIT FOR SUCH A SHORT TAG

SHH I LOVE IT

SORRY I'M LATE I WAS GETTING DERRIS KHARBUCKS

OH DID YOU GET ME SOMETHING

i want a cruxis latte

well i bought 3 black coffees but they're all for me

rude,

you know what though that's fair

let's all go on the coffee run together next time

anna's paying and she can't tell me no

time to get a seraphim frappe

Lloyd cant feel exhaustion anymore but pls know if he could hed be about to take a depression nap

if he wants to nap it's fine malos can carry him around when they move

oh piggyback ride time

(malos voice) like lifting a couple of grapes

lloyd gets a kick out of being like nine feet tall