summonerd | i just wanna know: who broke it?

"Of course I would've," Sheena says, with a frown as her gaze follows him, unfazed by the sudden shift in light. It's a reminder that this Zelos really doesn't know her at all, somehow - she'd sworn not to run, anymore, and… she's been trying, at least. She's not sure if she's succeeding. (Maybe she should've brought it up before now, but she hadn't even known for sure that he'd seen it - and besides, he could have brought it up, too.) "I mean-- don't get me wrong, I still would've hated it, but I'm not gonna lie to you. Especially not about something like this." A little of her anger boils off when she realizes the way the emotional link feels, though most of it is quickly replaced with frustration. They barely know each other, and if he'd seen his alternate self dying so soon after meeting her she can't blame him for the mistrust, but she's not letting him off for this just yet.

And then he continues, and her whole train of thought crashes off the rails violently.

She just. Stops dead, going numb with horror. "No," she says, faint, her voice sounding far away to her own ears. "No, I--" She shakes her head, emphatic, too much force going into the motion as if it would help shake away the cold dripping down her spine, her sudden awareness of the blood on the grass. "No."

The wave of horror crashing against his shame is just about enough for Zelos to stop dead in his tracks, his pacing around Sheena interrupted, but leaving behind an incomplete red circle over the dark green grass of the fields around them. He still hasn't noticed it, so focused on Sheena as the Aegis is. Instead Zelos is glaring, hands closing into fists and opening back again as he regulates his breathing, as he tries not to break control.

In the distance, though, the dark clouds over the sunlight finally do break. Rain pours down, far away from the two of them.

And with the rain so too comes Zelos' resolve crashing down.

Maybe it's the sight of Sheena freezing up and crumbling under his gaze, or maybe it's the sound of the storm in the distance, or the lack of sunlight, the way the dreamspace reflects every single emotion that Zelos' expression refuses to display. Perhaps it's simply the mixture of horror and shame finally reaching a boiling point in his throat, clogging it and his thoughts. Whatever it is it pushes Zelos to stumble backwards, hands curled into fists and tapping against his thighs as he reaches for the dreamspace's port, ready to disconnect them both if that'll push them both out of here, away from each other once more.

He finds the concentrated block of ether mixing with mana, the space where their consciousnesses merge, and pulls until the scenery melts away into darkness. When he wakes, Zelos makes a tremendous effort to remain motionless and keep his eyes closed, pretending to sleep still, listening in and trying to focus on the way the ambient ether changes with his companions' signals, looking for Sheena's and paying careful, close attention to the way their resonance link feels after that. How badly did he fuck up, he wonders. Involuntarily Zelos shudders, but after that he stills again, too afraid to face the repercussions of his actions just yet.

So he hides. Hides, lies, pretends. Watches from a safe distance. It's so pathetic that Zelos almost breaks the mask and laughs.

Maybe him being a coward is a universal constant.

Zelos kicks her out of the dream and into consciousness, unceremoniously, and all Sheena can feel is relief as she lands back into her waking body.

Her face is tacky and damp with tears - she must have been crying in her sleep. Great. At least it doesn't seem like she'd been loud enough to wake anyone. Lloyd's got enough on his plate to deal with, and she has no intention of telling him about any of what just happened anyway. She lets out a shaky sigh, shifting in her bedroll to wipe her face dry. There's no getting back to sleep after that, her head still a mess of her own emotions, Zelos's distant-and-fading ones, and everything she'd seen, but she lies still, watching the stars without really taking them in.

The unease remains even as the others finally wake up and get moving, and she can't quite find an inner balance. She keeps her distance from Zelos, awkward, self-aware enough to know that if she tried to press the issue now, while she's still upset, she'd only end up making it worse. (And besides, what would she even say?) So she stays quiet - shakes off Lloyd's concern with a definitely-fake laugh and a comment about just having had a weird dream, spending her time practicing dampening the emotional link between them. She doesn't get far, still off-balance as she is, but even taking a little of the immediacy out of it feels like a victory.

There were only so many supplies they could really pack with them, so inevitably they do end up having to hit up a market somewhere. It's safer if Zelos doesn't go into town, so he and Sheena elect to camp out a little ways away. Malos apparently has some important thing he has to buy (he won't tell her what, which is rude, but she DOES know it's a gift for Lloyd) so he sends Anna and Lloyd into the market for food.

Thankfully they aren't completely out of cash yet, so Anna can do Entirely Legal haggling for all the supplies they need. She and Lloyd talk road-trip recipes, she's delighted to learn he knows quite a few more than she does (in her defense, Jin's always done most of the cooking) so she lets him buy what he needs. They're just about ready to head out when they walk past a fruit stall.

Fruit isn't gonna last 'em much longer than a few days, but Anna is dying to have something sweet for a change, and she's pretty sure they can afford a little. So.

Except, hold on a minute.

"You're charging how much for apples?" she demands, incredulous.

The guy running the stall is short and round and looks kind of grimy. All of his fruit is definitely imported, from the labels on the crates. His face is like a stone as Anna accuses him.

"We are at war," the merchant reminds her. "It's much harder to get fruit when--"

"Bullshit, we've been at peace since the misfire," Anna counters, before he can get any further into that excuse. She scans his prices again, getting more offended the more she considers them. Oranges can't cost that much either. She'll believe the bananas, since those only grow in Altamira, but-- Where is he importing these from? Bumfuck nowhere? "Look. Five apples. Half that price."

"No sale."

Architect, he's a real piece of work.

"Come on, that's totally reasonable," Anna insists. "You don't even have to give me good apples."

"That price is final," the merchant argues. "With our Aegis missing we are essentially at war, so I refuse to take even a single gold less for my wares."

"...fuck your apples, then," Anna says, turning away. "Come on, Lloyd."

Honestly, if you had told Lloyd a year ago that he would be doing something as mundane as going grocery shopping with an alternate universe version of his dead mother, he would have asked you what knocked you so hard on your head.

But here he is, being led through the market by Anna, holding their packs and calling for her attention when passing by something that is needed or could be useful for their travels. It's… really nice, actually. Neither of them bring up their conversation in the forest on that first night of their travels, instead joking around and having light-hearted conversations about the things they enjoy about traveling, funny stories and cool recipes traded back and forth like second nature. And watching Anna haggle for food and necessities as though every overpriced item is a personal slight to her character is fun too, especially when Lloyd gets to sneak in a few lines of support for her arguments. He wishes Malos were here with them, as used to the blade's presence as he's gotten in the past few days, but Malos was dodgy when Lloyd asked why he wouldn't come, so he let the topic drop. It's fine, he's having fun.

At least, it's fun until they get to the fruit stand. The apples the seller has on sale do look delicious, and Lloyd hadn't realized how much he missed the sweet treats until he was staring at them in the basket they were being held in, but those prices are outrageous, a blatant attempt to swindle some poor folk and the unknowing into buying overpriced food, a goddamn necessity. Already, Lloyd's mouth sets itself into a frown, definitely irritated by the gall of this dude, but while he probably would have just walked away from the stand and let it be, Anna takes the obnoxious pricing to heart and gets heated.

The man really is quite a piece of work. The way he talks is condescending, assertive and arrogant, disrespectful towards Anna and her own knowledge. Lloyd bristles at the way he says "our Aegis," as though Zelos is not a goddamn person, just a weapon. And even though the Dwarven Vows echo through Lloyd's mind, he thinks if Dirk were here to see this guy, he'd understand.

While Anna is arguing with the merchant, Lloyd steps closer to the apple stand and - without taking his eyes off of the confrontation - scoops up two apples from the edge of the basket, quickly and efficiently settling them into the pack he's let hang just off his wrist, giving him easy, one-armed access to the mouth of it.

Anna calls for him to leave, so with the deed done, and his face as blank as can be, he nods and continues on with her. They make their way out from the market's handwoven fiber cover and Lloyd listens with no small amount of amusement righteous satisfaction as his mom calls the merchant every filthy name in the book. She's not paying attention to Lloyd's movements, so he grabs one of the apples out of the pack as soon as they're out of the merchant's sight and takes a bite into it.

"Yeah, what an asshole," he says after swallowing, a wide, playful grin placing itself on his face. "Can't believe he was charging so much."

And then with his free hand, he grabs the other apple from the pack and holds it out to Anna, grin growing impossibly bigger. "Want an apple?"

Anna stops grumbling, blinking in surprise at the apple being offered to her. Slowly, she grins, wide and proud.

"Of course I do," she says, taking the apple from Lloyd. She's so excited, so proud of her son she doesn't even think about taking a bite right away, too distracted by needing to say: "Holy shit, I didn't even see you-- I mean, I guess that's the point."

She laughs, delighted, then takes a bite. It tastes incredible.

"And you managed to snag the best apples? Lloyd I'm so proud."

Lloyd uses his free hand to rub at the back of his neck bashfully, biting into his apple again, but his beam remains strong and bright in the face of Anna's pride. He never thought he'd ever hear his mom say that to him? And Anna isn't his mom, not really, but... Lloyd can pretend for now that she is, let the joy of the moment wash over him.

There is something to be said about her pride being over his own petty theft of fruit, but. Hey, he'll take it! Beggars can't be choosers, and the merchant deserved to have some of his inventory swiped. Plus, the apples are pretty good, and Lloyd can't really find himself regretting his decision when the sweet taste hits his tongue. It's a great day at the market, if he says so himself.

"I've got experience snagging stuff like this from jerks like that," he says, by way of explanation. "When I was going through my own journey with Sheena and some friends back home, there were times where we were strapped for gald and we would have to haggle and stuff too," and then he laughs, "Sheena and I have entire routines on how to deal with shitty merchants. They're always a fun time."

Anna laughs a little as well, just thinking about it, still brimming with pride. "Honestly, you should see some of the shit Malos and I have up our sleeves," she laughs, kind of hoping she'll get the chance to show him-- or maybe see some of his and Sheena's shenanigans. Maybe once they're in Sylvarant. Getting arrested there (NOT that Anna actually thinks something will go that wrong) would have less consequences, at least for Zelos.

Anyway, maybe don't think about that now. Listen to your son, Anna, stop talking about yourself.

"You went on a journey? What kind of journey?" she asks, eager to know more. She doesn't know much about his other friends, just hears names in passing; fond stories about Colette (which fill her with some sadness, knowing where Colette is in this world) (the sooner they get to her, the better), and a boy named Genis who she honestly wishes she could meet becuase it sounds like he and Lloyd are great friends.

Honestly she wishes she could meet all of Lloyd's friends.

But that's neither here nor there and at least she got to meet Sheena, grateful for the chance to see Lloyd interact with family he clearly loves so much (even if sometimes it feels like intruding, like something she shouldn't see, something she wouldn't wish to be apart of, but. Well. Lloyd probably feels the same way about her in return, huh?)

(...maybe don't think about that, either.)

Anna yanks her mind away from that and jokes: "I mean, I'd take a wild guess and ask if you were a fugitive, but Architect I do not wish my life upon you so please tell me I'm wrong, actually."

Anna's questions pull an obviously nervous laugh out of Lloyd, one he desperately tries to quell by taking a way-too-big bite of the apple, one that leaves him chewing for a few moments as he anxiously racks his brain for ways to answer without being way too honest and inspiring prying questions. Finally swallowing, and using his jacket sleeve to wipe at his mouth, he answers as best he can.

"The journey was - I mean it's. It wasn't a big deal, really. My friend - Colette, I've talked about her - she... Had a cool, uh, goal, she had to accomplish, so I joined her while she traveled. We met Sheena and some others along the way."

Lloyd pauses, mentally thinks back at what he had just said, and kinda berates himself. He's such a terrible liar, damn it, but as long as Anna understands not to pry, it'll be fine. He's just - he's enjoying himself. He doesn't want this day to be ruined by thinking too hard.

And then she asks if he was a fugitive. Well, Anna, it might surprise you that not only was he a fugitive, he was a fugitive on two goddamn worlds!

But Lloyd's not gonna tell her that.

"A-ah, no I wasn't - well, I wasn't actively." Lloyd pauses, blinks, and then continues. "I wasn't a fugitive."

He's a terrible liar.

Anna's smile falters a little. Hm, okay, maybe asking the fugitive question was too far? Lloyd seems... very nervous.

"It... I was just joking around, a little," Anna says. "I mean, sucks if you were a fugitive, but like... Sometimes the government's dumb as shit. And sometimes you do shit to piss 'em off. But if it's the right thing, who cares what the government thinks, you know?"

She has no idea if that was helpful at all, just running her mouth like she always does. She's curious, though, quietly proud, at the thought of her son doing anything to piss off any government, even though she can only really take a guess at what kind of wrong he was setting out to undo. (She doesn't even assume he wasn't. He's an Irving, after all.)

She could ask, but she isn't sure how, and-- And maybe he's more like Kratos and less like her, in that bragging about this sort of thing isn't something Lloyd really enjoys. Anna knows she's an oddball, on that front.

Still.

"Colette must be amazing, the way you talk about her," Anna begins. "What was she trying to--"

Anna catches herself, before she finishes the question. She remembers-- where Colette is in this world, again, the zero-hesitance admittance from Lloyd that this Colette and his own share somewhat similar roles. Maybe she better not ask. Maybe it's not even Lloyd's story to tell.

"Actually," Anna says, plowing into the subject-change with breathless determination that often winds anyone who's not used to her. "You said you and Sheena had ways of dealing with shitty merchants? Tell me before I forget to ask again."

Lloyd, an Irving with the general attention span of a dog very determined to get pets, has no problem following Anna's conversation track switch and gratefully latches onto it. Talking about his and Sheena's friendship is easy, safe, and Anna is familiar enough to know how they interact normally, even if she has no clue just how deep their sibling-like bond goes. Trust breeds trust, shared experiences breed loyalty, and Sheena and him have gone through enough shit to trust their lives with each other.

"Gods, we have so many," Lloyd starts, a grin already pulling at his lips as he turns the apple in his hand, hooking his free hand's thumb into a belt loop. "One of our main methods was something we called 'Get Help' and - we usually didn't get out of it without some form of property damage, but. Basically, one of us would pretend to be fatally injured, the other would run into the market while supporting the injured one, and we'd just -"

Lloyd breaks off into giggles, fondly remembering the few times he and Sheena had pulled it off, "- the one who was pretending to be fine would just yell 'my friend is dying! Get help!" And then threw the injured one at the nearest stall. Whoever was pretending to be fine would steal as much shit as possible, the injured one would distract, and we'd get up and run as soon as we had what we needed."

Anna is absolutely beaming from ear to ear. That's so stupid and so perfectly wonderful? Why didn't she and Malos ever think of-- actually. Okay. Malos is down for a lot of shit, but tossing her willy-nilly into a market stall probably isn't on that list. (He's a little bit protective, but seeing as he's both her dad and her blade, Anna supposes it's no more than reasonable.) (Also, pain share might make a stunt like that significantly less fun.)

Regardless. That does not change the immense pride she holds for her son right now, the incredible delight and awe that he came up with something so devious and incredible.

"Holy shit, that's so good," she says. She's completely forgotten about her apple in her delight. "I'm. You have to show me, one of these days."

Lloyd grins, flashing Anna a playful thumbs-up. "Of course! I'll see if Sheena is willing to help me demonstrate one of these days. It's fun to get thrown into stuff and then haul ass afterward."

Taking another bite of the apple, Lloyd thinks for a second, and then, the smile is back on his face, mischevious. "You should see the disguises Sheena and I have had to use before. We can't perform 'Get Help' looking like our usual selves, after all! We'd get banned in a heartbeat."

Curiosity lingers in his heart, a pressing want to know more about his mom and the grandpa he apparently has in this world, but he figures origin stories aren't the way to start. So he keeps it easy: "do you and Malos have any funny acts like that? He's been keeping the good stories away from me, I know it!" Lloyd pouts, grumbling. "Probably thinks I'll get ideas."

"Architect, I wish," Anna says, sighing a little. She absently takes a bite of her apple, then realizes she wants to talk still, so that's an awkward few seconds before her mouth is empty enough to form words again. "We've got st--" Maybe don't say stealing when you're in the middle of a market, Anna. "Stuff like this down to an art, but nothing as incredible as your 'Get Help' act."

She shoots Lloyd another smile, fond.

"Then again... I guess if our act ain't broke, there's no reason to fix it," Anna admits, with a shrug, then dives right into explaining their mastery:

"Y'see-- Malos? Big guy. Loud guy. Very good at drawing attention. Me? Tiny. Don't really look like a threat unless I'm trying to. If Malos is causing a scene, who's no one watching? Me. Especially not when I was still a kid, you know?" she adds, laughing. "Fucking no one watches kids, even though I swear kids are ten times more likely to just pocket shit. Case in point." She gestures to herself, grinning. "Stole more shit than I paid for, when I was thirteen."

Maybe anyone else wouldn't be so casually delighted to talk about shit like having to steal to even get a meal, but-- this is her life, and Anna's gonna be proud of every inch of it, thank you.

Edited 2019-05-09 01:52 (UTC)

"So you guys used your appearances as a distraction, huh?" Lloyd laughs, an awed grin gracing his face at the snippet into Anna's childhood and the idea of Malos, massive teddy bear that he is, purposely causing a scene to let Anna get what she needed -

Actually, it's completely believable, but it's still fantastic. Hearing stories about Anna and Malos works at Lloyd's itch to know more about them, to know the mother he never had and the grandpa he wouldn't have gotten to meet anyways had Lloyd never followed Sheena here to this weird, parallel world. He wants to know more about them, how they met and the subsequent shenanigans that seem to have happened. Maybe this would be a good time to ask?

"So... How did you and Malos meet, actually? I know you're his driver, but, uh. Do you just... Ask someone if they wanna be driven?" Lloyd pauses, squints, and starts over. "Ignore that. Just - yeah, how did you both meet?"

"Oh," Anna says. She stops grinning, but mainly because she isn't sure how to explain, and-- clearly, Lloyd needs some explanation. "No it's. Blades. Sorry this might be an awful explanation but I've never, uh, met anyone who didn't know how this worked. And I guess I just kind of assumed. Anyway."

Anna clears her throat. "Blades don't, um. They don't really exist, without a driver?" It sounds so weird, when she says it aloud. "Without a driver, they're just a core crystal. Dormant, until someone comes along and wakes them up."

Actually that wasn't so bad of an explanation, Anna thinks. Onto answering Lloyd's question.

"So, uh- well, twenty years ago-- was it twenty years ago?" Time's been a lot harder to keep track of since she stopped aging. "Somewhere around there. We were slightly more at war than we are now, and my village got raided, and... I was the only one who survived, and... I found Malos' core crystal after running from the destruction." Old, somewhat tender memories, of everything burning and the stench of blood fill her mind, but they're gone before long. "He saved my life."

That day itself isn't one of Anna's favorites, but her smile--if a little sad--is fond enough. The pain's mostly behind her. And she did meet Malos that day, even if she lost everything else.

Blades don't... exist without their drivers?

Lloyd blinks, eyebrows shifting downwards as his eyes narrow in thought. So, a driver awakens a core crystal, and the blade pops up as is, but where does the conversation come into place? Where is the deal struck and the agreement made? When is the contract signed and the terms of partnership made valid?

Do blades have absolutely no control on who wakes them up, who drives them? Who controls them, or how? How their resonance is shaped? How it's used?

Nausea churns in Lloyd's gut, the apple in his hand no longer seeming sweet. So this world has a system of indentured servitude, basically, where bladekind and their individual happiness is left in the hands of lucky draws, a chance for a good driver over that of a terrible one. And while Lloyd still has hope and faith in humanity - in the general will of people to do good - he's seen way too much, experienced way too much to know that this system works as it should, that all people treat their blades as they should.

Lloyd thinks of the Aegises - of Zelos, of Colette, of the way they were abused - and the anger that flares up in his heart is intense, rage choking his logical thoughts within seconds. It's a miracle he's able to push it down long enough to listen to Anna's story, because, well. He did ask for it.

And he does listen, places his free hand on Anna's forearm and gives her a small, reassuring smile, but the sick fury pulses through his veins, not unlike what he felt when he learned of the Angelus Projects, of the true cost of Exspheres and Cruxis Crystals. What the fuck, he thinks, does Sheena know about how awful this system is?

"Mom," Lloyd calls out in his distraction, not even realizing he's opened his mouth until his voice rings out around them, "you're saying that blades don't have explicit control over who drives them, and if that's the case, that's just - that's fucked."

Lloyd's words make her trip on her thoughts just a little, but not as much as his grip on her arm, somewhat tight, and the underlying rage in his voice.

"It. Yeah," she says. Her throat is dry. Her voice registers distantly to her brain, words she barely hears herself say underneath a roar. "Yeah I guess it is kind of fucked."

("If your driver's that much of an asshole, can't you just, I dunno, DO something about him? Hell, or I can--"

"Unfortunately, no, not unless I want to throw these past ten years of work down the drain.")

Something pulses behind her eyelids, strong, and then suddenly it's gone. Anna takes a deep breath, hand finding Lloyd's on her arm to steady herself. She feels fine, now, other than the foul taste under her tongue.

"But don't get mad at me," she laughs, sharp. "I'm not the one who made the world like this! And the asshole who did-- even if he is real, I highly doubt we can get our hands on him to lodge a complaint."

Lloyd doesn't catch Anna's quick lapse of composure, the hand on his arm seeming more like an unconscious way of calming him down, not unlike Colette's light gestures and touches back at home. Still, Anna's touch helps ground Lloyd, and he cuts his anger off at its throat, channeling it more into irritation and making sure not to direct it at Anna this time.

"Sorry," Lloyd apologizes, a little sheepish. "You're right, I just - I dunno, there is still so much about this world I don't understand, and, well. I guess the idea of... Okay, so there are these things in my world that are known as Summon Spirits and I'm not gonna really go into how that works because that's Sheena's whole shebang, but," he takes a breath, rambling, trying to get to his point.

"The whole thing here is that they can be summoned, and like blades, can be used for their powers and stuff, but it's all -" Lloyd stops, narrows his eyes, what's the word, what's the word, what's the w - THAT'S THE FUCKER. "It's all contractual. They have complete control in who's allowed to use their powers, so I just assumed that blades were the same way. It's..."

Lloyd forces himself to take another bite of the apple, mind racing, and as he chews he tries to better pinpoint how he feels about all of this -

"It's a little upsetting to think blades don't. Have that right. I, uh. So the Architect, he's. Okay, let's say he was real: where would we find him? We - Sheena and I, I mean, have our fair share of experiences in meeting mythological legends."

Anna nods along as Lloyd explains this whole Summon Spirits deal. "Yeah, that sounds like a much better system," she agrees, when he finishes. "Architect knows people misuse it all the time-- or." She chuckles darkly. "I guess maybe he doesn't know. Or maybe he doesn't give a shit."

She's not sure which is worse.

Anyway, actually meeting the Architect? She laughs at the absurdity of the idea for a second, but-- Come on, Anna, the Aegises are real people. If the legends about them creating the world are true, the Architect probably is too, and--

(The memory, somewhat sharp, of foreign ether filling her to the brim, burning her arm, saving her life--)

"Maybe he is real," Anna allows. "If he is-- Mithos would know." If she'd ever talked to him for more than ten minutes, maybe he would have said something. "So I guess we can ask him when we get there."

Edited 2019-05-13 00:26 (UTC)

The mention of Mithos chips at the thin barrier that constantly holds Lloyd's composure, causing a deep crack to appear in its surface, threatening to let the dam break and Lloyd's panic to rise to his tongue. He stumbles, Anna's arm holding him back enough to stop it from being an actual trip down to the hard ground, and swallows hard. God, he had almost gotten himself to forget about their true destination, who he'd have to face, and now it's come back to bite him in the ass.

"A-Ahaha, yeah," Lloyd laughs nervously, "M-Mithos. That's right, I uh - I'll make a note to ask him while we're there. He's..."

Hints of deranged laughter and desperate talk echo through his mind, the otherwise quiet sounds of nature not enough to block out the memories that want to flash through his eyes, the glinting of a blood-covered sword as it runs itself through a chest, the sound of a cruxis crystal being shattered -

"...He's our best shot at this, after all!"

"Careful there," Anna says reflexively as she steadies Lloyd. She studies him, her throat a little tight. That's. Well that's definitely a trauma reaction. To... Mithos?

Hmm.

"I mean, I can ask him too, that's not a problem," Anna says, to lighten what she guesses is his load, barely even thinking about the act. "Or I can ask Kratos. There's little Mithos knows that he doesn't." (She kind of wishes in hindsight she'd paid more attention, but Kratos talked so rarely about the Architect anyway that she's not sure it would have helped.) "I can take care of that, you don't have to worry."

And then, becuase she'd like to know, just a little more.

"Is... The Mithos in your world... What was he...?"

Goddamn it.

Floundering, Lloyd tries to compose himself enough to answer, except. Well, he knows that if he tries talking about Mithos here, without Sheena around to hold hands with and know he's not alone, that - that somebody else knows he didn't want to, that he didn't - he didn't know how else to stop him or what else to do because talking didn't work and fighting wasn't working and Mithos was supposed to block -

Take a deep breath, Lloyd. Count to ten.

He can't answer that question.

"Don't ask," Lloyd says, suddenly and a little curtly, before softening his tone, looking down at his scuffed up boots. Stop lashing out, Lloyd, that's not how you get people to like you. "It doesn't matter, anyways. T-This Mithos seems way different. I... I'll get over it, but don't worry, alright?"

And then he flashes Anna the biggest grin he can muster, putting his all into ignoring everything his mind can throw at him, and lightly pulls his arm out of Anna's grip, skipping ahead just a little, just enough to keep her out of proper observing range. "Let's go, I wanna see what Malos was being so sneaky about!"

Anna is worrying, but if Lloyd doesn't want her asking, she won't. Hopefully, whatever the problem is, he'll figure out how to deal with it. If she knew how to help, she would, but she doesn't know how... Sheena probably can, though. Maybe Anna should talk to her. Let her an Lloyd figure it out, as they should.

Oh. Maybe-- when they get closer. She'll make sure Lloyd knows he doesn't have to talk to Mithos, or get anywhere close, not if he doesn't want to. But the converastion's over for now. So Anna let's it drop.

Anna tugs gently on her ether link to Malos. Feels like he's pretty close, so if he could just intercept them-- There he is!

"Speak of the devil," Anna laughs, as if she definitely didn't just play a hand in orchestrating this timing.

"Hey!" Malos calls to them, waving with one hand and hastily shoving something behind his back with the other. Not suspicious at all, no. (Incredibly suspicious Malos, you're better at this.) Anna does her best to convey in as few seconds as possible that Lloyd could definitely use a mood booster, so unless whatever the hell that is Malos is hiding has to wait, now's a good of a time as any.

Malos gets the idea though, thankfully. He trots to meet them, sighing dramatically. "Alright, so, I meant it to be a little more of a surprise than this, but I guess that's on me for not trying harder to avoid y'all 'til we were back at camp," he complains, then pauses dramatically as he pulls his hand out from behind his back and reveals:

A modest kit of woodcarving tools.

He grins shakily at Lloyd. His anticipation is so strong it clutches Anna's windpipes, but she smiles, fond. Her dad's such a dork.

"Remembered you mentioning you liked making things, Lloyd," Malos says. "So I got this for you."

The sight of Malos automatically makes the fake smile on Lloyd's face turn into a genuine grin, wide and playful. The fact that Malos is being so bad at hiding whatever he's supposed to be hiding only peaks Lloyd's curiosity, and he finds himself squinting and leaning in such a way that'll let him see the thing. Malos is a goddamn mountain of a man, though, so Lloyd doesn't really see shit, not at the angle Malos is standing at.

And then he jogs on over and pulls the thing out from behind him. It takes Lloyd a few seconds, a blink of wide eyes being his only reaction, and then the realization of just what Malos had gotten him and the fact that he remembered Lloyd liked making things hits the boy like a train.

Lloyd throws the apple he's still holding somewhere into the forest, hands shooting out to grab the kit, excitement pulling his grin into a straight up beam, and then he's tearing up, sniffling, and looking up at Malos like the man had just told him tomatoes didn't exist in this dimension.

"Thank you!!" Lloyd not-quite shouts but kinda close to it. He glances back down at the tools, so fucking excited to be able to carve again, and then decides the thank you wasn't enough. So he tosses himself at Malos, pulls him into as best a hug he can manage with the toolkit and packs on him. "Thank you so much!!"

she'll high five him next time

Everything's bad

EVERYTHING'S BAD

TIMESKIP TIME

Lloyd Does Crimes

ANNA'S SO HAPPY

IRVINGS BOND OVER PETTY THEFT

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sorry lloyd

[lloyd voice] this is fine!

malos is gonna make me cry

malos is gonna make /lloyd/ cry!!!!