Kratos Aurion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
simulsimul) wrote2016-11-02 07:40 pm
simulsimul) wrote2016-11-02 07:40 pm
a thing; w/ ruinsprofessor & conductingresistance
canon
breached
confessed
dadly
future
grigori
mercenary
MEover
origin
reversal
titans
scenario list
canon: Kratos needs to stop running off
confessed: wing reflex
confessed: actual wingpull
confessed: turning Renegade
confessed: son meets father
dadliness: confrontation
dadliness: awakening
dadliness: illness
dadliness: a fundamental lack of understanding on the word 'abducted'
dadliness: updating parameters
dadliness: assassination assignation
mercenary: hiding in the library
mercenary: aftermath of librarian saviour
reversal: oracle destroyed
titans: storming the tower
titans: safety in the canyon
titans: night horrors
canon
- combo of Kratos and Zelos ending
- Zelos does the stupid thing, but not so far as his death, and is still the eighth member of the party to Derris-Kharlan.
scenarios
scenario one: Yuan tracks Kratos down at Dirk's.
breached
- canon right up until after Botta’s death
- no one uses Yuan’s name around Mithos so Mithos walks right into the Triet base with them
- cue an epic OH SHIT in which Yuan gets a lil bit beat up while covering the evacuation of the rest of the base
- until Kratos appears to intervene and have the Chosen group get Yuan out of there
- Mithos gets Kratos tho and he’s a bit mad cos, yanno, traitor and all
- time to be locked up and punished and need to be rescued
- kind of puts a crimp in the creation of the Eternal Ring plans
- mostly cos Mithos turns Kratos lifeless, with some armour to regulate his mana so he remains a seraph. can't have the seal becoming less powerful, yo
- it does mean he can only obey orders tho
- the first rescue fails miserably but at least no one dies and they know they need to reforge his key-crest
- the second rescue attempt (circumstances of canon-point under percolation) goes a little better, though Yuan almost gets killed by Kratos trying to attach the key-crest
- luckily that and the first telepathy in a while gets through and Kratos manages to break out a la Colette, and heal Yuan enough for Raine to get there
- after which, angreh father-son beatdown on Mithos.
scenarios
None yet.
confessed
- almost successful assassination lands Kratos as an injured stranger in Iselia (1-2 years pre-canon)
- recuperation leads to accidental-on-purpose 'holiday' in Iselia
- doubts result in a request for Dirk to make a key-crest like Kratos' own
- oracle room undergoes some stealth sabotage
- regeneration journey is slightly delayed, prompted by Genis and Lloyd being discovered at the ranch
- Triet is awkward. so very awkward. for the Renegades -- whose side is Kratos even on these days and why was he vanished for two years?
- initial overall journey similar to canon, save that Kratos is a bit less circumspect about advising Colette on how to cope with angel transformations
- there are more overt Dun Wanna Feelings
- then Luin, wherein things happen and the group is in town during the Desian attack. the others naturally want to fight but tis a mite difficult against an army and building-destroying magitech. luckily, angel on their side. unluckily, wingpulls in order to muster the power to cover the townspeoples' retreat
- questions and confessions ensue
- Colette rejects the key crest (for the moment) so there's still hopefully maybe ambiguity about Kratos's position re the last seal
- it wouldn't fit anyway, it's modelled for the hand like Kratos's is because he was a derp and did not specify otherwise, so Lloyd needs to make a thing to make it fit
- slow protective retreat toward Asgard.
scenarios
scenario one: Kratos confesses before Salvation; Raine wants to follow up.
scenario two: Raine's examination of an angel; and also Kratos realises how far he's put his foot in it.
scenario three: Kratos goes to taunt Yuan a little, and also ask for his help.
scenario four: in which Raine makes Kratos tell the children all the things, and Yuan takes too much amusement from it.
dadliness
- Kratos retires in Iselia under the name Irving to raise Lloyd after the death of his wife
- no exsphere. ageing occurs! so does a beard and a braid
- teaches Lloyd swordplay, but on the sly, to avoid the other villagers noticing. his daytime job is weaving
- Lloyd finds the box of their exspheres and wants details. after some prodding by Dirk, Kratos explains how exspheres are made and that one is Anna's life. Lloyd is too young yet, but when Lloyd comes of age (~15) Kratos lets him make his own decision re wearing it
- Lloyd chooses not to wear the exsphere
- Genis befriends Marble and Lloyd meets her, as in canon; this happens before the journey begins, with the fallout
- difference being that Colette is still in the village so they can't be too horrible, so they just demand Lloyd be turned over for a flogging
- Kratos stands in his stead because natch. luckily, they're only mooks and don't recognise the bearded weaver as anyone important
- gives Lloyd his guilt complex early tho
- the oracle happens much the same way except Botta doesn't quite recognise the weirdly familiar bearded swordsman
- he does when he's reporting to Yuan tho
'there was an exceptionally skilled human'
/brief physical description/
/did x other faintly recognizable thing/
and both he and Yuan are aware that Kratos has been awol for a while, so there's a moment of pure silence and dawning 'no, it couldn't be'
- but then obviously one of them has to go make sure
- cue an interruption just out of Triet.
scenarios
scenario one: Yuan feels the need to investigate; this results in Kratos injured and abducted.
scenario two: Yuan realises he can't kill Kratos with his own two hands; Kratos gets mothered.
scenario three: Kratos gets sick on the heels of his recovery. Yuan mothers him some more. Botta disapproves.
scenario four: Kratos recovers and makes an escape attempt. Sort-of.
scenario five: Kratos recovers more and talks to Botta, when not needling Yuan about his lack of preparedness.
scenario six: Sheena's contract takes a slight shift into undercover instead of assassination work.
future
- Aselia is Earth ~10,000 years in the past
- all is peachy-keen except the tree is now underground and the elvens/half-elves/some humans are in hiding in the centre of the planet, hidden thanks to the summon spirits
- Colette is working with humanitarian aid in various impoverished nations
- Zelos is a diplomat in West Asia / Middle East trying to keep the peace
- Yuan is a crotchety lecturer at Cambridge who's also HUGE into environmentalism
- Lloyd and Kratos are having family time in space
- occasionally the trio on Earth meet reincarnations of people they used to know
- but rarely at the same time and almost never in a position where they meet
- but then they start meeting them
- lots of them
- all in the same span of years
- they're starting to think something's hinky
- until the space-elves attack
- and then they know something is hinky.
scenarios
None yet.
grigori
- at some point significantly before canon, Kratos actually calls it quits
- the Church's institution calls him a fallen angel of vengeance
- really he's just going around trying to help people and avoiding being taken back to Cruxis
- assigns himself to the Chosen parties whenever he can, up to Colette
- ????? idk some kind of profit somewhere
scenarios
None yet.
mercenary
- when Yuan visits Kratos at the beach when Lloyd is 3 months old, he does not manage to escape before Anna and Lloyd return
- accidental attachment to this kidlet who likes pulling his hair
- three years later, Yuan can't stand to hold back while Kratos fights Kvar, so he throws caution to the wind to help
- Anna is still killed but they rescue Lloyd and Noishe and both are branded as traitors
- Lloyd is raised as a Renegade with Dad, Uncle Yuan and the extremely reticent Uncle Botta (how dare)
- meanwhile in Tethe'alla Yuan infiltrates the castle as the library archivist
- stays out of sight, mostly, but has a good ear around the politics thanks to recruiting Princess Hilda
- also happens to stumble on Zelos hiding in the library right after his mother's death
- look he's got a 'nephew' he can't just do nothing (even if all he meant was to recommend a book)
- unwittingly accidentally 'adopts' the Tethe'allan Chosen by virtue of being the only one who doesn't treat him like the Chosen
- sometimes Kratos brings Lloyd to visit and basically they're all separate pairs of exasperated bros
- by canon Lloyd and Kratos are wandering mercenaries, helping people on the sly while gathering intel to send back to the Renegades
- Yuan and Zelos are actively building resistance to the Church using inside knowledge
- the ninja are all Renegades
- Colette is escorted by Raine and by the priests
- yes the 'chain up the Chosen and drag her to every seal if necessary' priests
- she meets Lloyd randomly in Triet but Lloyd doesn't know her as the Chosen. they're a bit out of touch on the Journey of Regen timeline
- stuff happens and they keep missing each other up until Palmacosta, which is a warzone between the Desians (and Dorr as their figurehead) and the Renegades (with Neil as their leader)
- Colette wants to help; priests say no
- out come the chains
- Raine objects, but she has no exsphere so what can she do
- btw Genis got caught in the Iselian ranch and tossed in as a traitor to be made a host
- he gets sent to the Palmacosta ranch
- right after Neil manages to take the city, after Colette and Raine leave it, Botta takes the Palmacosta ranch and rescues Genis, among others
- Genis becomes his little shadow and is much preferable to Lloyd, in Botta's opinion
- Lloyd and Kratos are still trying to catch up to Colette to rescue her when they drop by
- Genis hears what they're trying to do and insists on coming along.
scenarios
scenario one: in which Yuan accidentally adopts a Chosen instead of a book from a library.
scenario two: in which Yuan is accidentally-deliberately adopted by the Meltokio Castle Knights.
MEover
- Mass Effect crossover someplace in the realm of 15,000 years after TOS canon
- except started before then, cos elves are really from Feros, planet of the cranky telepathic plant
- got decimated by the protheans trying to assimilate them into their empire
- elves objected, got killed a lot, fled Feros and got stuck in Aselia's orbit
- kinda forgot a few things but planted a seed from the Ferosian mother plant on Aselia
- Origin hasn't forgotten tho, kinda has a grudge against grumblegrumbleprotheansgrumble
- the entirety of TOS happened, and then some
- Kratos, Yuan, Lloyd, Colette and Zelos are the only ones left, but tis okay, they have each other
- somethingsomething natural space disaster, Aselia is destroyed but they manage to move Yggdrasill onto Derris-Kharlan and do a quarian by becoming a roaming ship
- mana is a variant of eezo lbr
- Derris-Kharlan's too big to use the mass relays, but c'mon it generates its own mass effect field so they develop tech to do hops on their own
- they're in no hurry tho, i mean lbr primarily angelic, elf and half-elf population
- so they're just bumming around their local clusters doing thorough investigations on all the things
- so much eezo on their ship
- so much
- suddenly the Normandy running from a reapers comes along to hide behind them
- reapers start shooting
- everyone on Derris-Kharlan objects
- JUDGEMENT IN SPACE
- so much profit and judging of reapers.
scenarios
None yet.
origin
- Kratos tells Lloyd the dad thing in Triet
- dad and son feelings ensue
- they culminate at the Tower of Salvation in Kratos stabbing Yggdrasill in the back
- unfortunately he does not quite die but impales Kratos against a wall and goes berserk on the Chosen party to the point of Yuan stepping in to help
- that is, by threatening to stab Kratos in the back while he's vulnerable (with Kratos's permission)
- Yggdrasill calls his bluff and fails, and Yuan does the thing
- while Yggdrasill is distracted the Chosen's group nail him but good and he retreats
- luckily while heart-stabbing happened, Kratos's cruxis crystal is still intact, and between Raine's healing and Yuan's mana transfusion he survives long enough to be taken to the Triet base and a refresher
- stuff happens in some fashion or other up until opening Origin's seal
- as it turns out, the mana tranfusion has fused the lock, so to speak, and Kratos can't unlock the seal even voluntarily
- only way to get Origin out at this point is to let him fuse with Kratos, so Kratos becomes Origin
- stipulation of this: Kratos refuses to let go of his humanity
- luckily Yuan already has a literal bond with him thanks to the mana transfusion, so with him as his summoner Kratos can keep his humanity, and only use Origin's powers when Yuan summons them
- commitment like woah for a literal eternity
- but hey, they messed up but good and it's the only way they can reunite the worlds.
scenarios
none yet.
reversal
~ 2000 years in, Kratos and Yuan conspire to kill Mithos and succeed, sorta
- he's stuck inside his exsphere, possessing people
- but he manages to survive and while Kratos and Yuan claim Derris-Kharlan for their base, he takes most of the angels as 'fallen', as well as the Eternal Sword
- most of his bases are hidden behind dimensional slips created by the sword - Iselia included
- Origin refuses to trust either Kratos or Yuan with the job, anyhow, and they don't have a summoner
- instead they're forced to fight Cruxis, embroiling the worlds in an angelic war between Cruxis and the new organisation of Chayim
- the Chosen bloodlines are more important to Cruxis than Chayim, but Mithos seals the seals so only the Chosen bloodline can flip the mana switch. Kratos and Yuan need someone to do that until they can reunite them, so the Journey remains an institution, just without compulsory death at the end
- there is angelification tho, if only so Chayim gets more soldiers and so the Chosen can defend themselves against Cruxis
- Kratos sends Anna and Lloyd to Iselia, because even though enemy territory, it's the safest place there is for them
- Anna get word to Kratos that the Desians are using Iselia as a long-term cruxis crystal cultivation location, and that the sword is held there
- her spy succeeds but is intercepted, and Mithos locks down the dimensional slip to prevent exit and access by angels for ~15 years
- Lloyd grows up in a town with a heavy half-elf population and believing he's training to help the good guys
- he has his own cruxis crystal as a host, but doesn't tell his mother due to the faith-based propaganda encouraging hosts not to bring it up or risk the powers not taking
- he wants to help though, so he steals a key-crest to ensure he can fight
- Yuan and Kratos plan to assault the town and shrine but Mithos uses the sword to interrupt travel between worlds, keeping Yuan in Tethe'alla and forcing Kratos to attack Iselia alone.
scenarios
scenario one: Iselia is attacked by Chayim to claim the sword, with the sword already gone
titans
- Yggdrasill captures Kratos before Kvar finds Anna and Lloyd, but after Kratos makes an Eternal Ring
- Yuan figures hell no and raises the Renegades to try and take Derris-Kharlan, rescue Kratos and solve the split-world problem
- the attack fails. a lot.
- Renegades are wiped out, Kratos is still in Cruxis's hands, but Yuan manages to escape with the Eternal Ring
- Cruxis follows him to Triet base, which gets destroyed and the few remaining Renegades scatter
- Botta is still around tho, helping out how he can
- mostly Yuan just goes searching for Lloyd and Anna
- doesn't manage to find them before Kvar does tho, and Kratos hears from Yggdrasill that they're dead
- this is slightly inaccurate, cos Lloyd still winds up rescued by Dirk in Iselia
- where Yuan eventually finds him, not knowing that he's 'supposed' to be dead
- so Yuan settles in Iselia for a bit to watch Lloyd and the Chosen
- cuts and dyes his hair, the whole shebang
- learns how to carpentry, invents a new use of magic
- winds up being Genis's role model just because scholar and magic-user and half-elf who can pass but also takes no shit from people
- is one of Colette's companions on the Journey when it starts
- he's been challenging their understanding of the Church's institution this whole time lbr
- Sheena is still a thing because the ninja have taken over the Tethe'allan base, which has survived, somewhat
- a grilling ensues
- sometime just after the Asgard Ranch Yuan does have to drop the bombshell
- about how the Journey is just a front, he and his bestie are angels, btw his bestie is Lloyd's dad
- how they're out to topple the institution of religion
- forget sacrificing Colette for the Regeneration, when they get to the seal they can do that without anyone dying
- and then move straight on to rescuing Kratos in Derris-Kharlan
- then they get to the Tower and realise Yggdrasill has Kratos under a Prometheusesque punishment a la 'impaled on the Eternal Sword to suffer the Seed's pain and watch the Chosen get murdered'
- luckily this does not happen, as they manage to rescue him and escape Yggdrasill instead, barely
- retreat to Botta's hiding-place in Asgard so Kratos can recover
- and also find out that Lloyd is actually alive
- the Chosen group goes around to make as many pacts as they can while in Sylvarant
- they get up to Aska when Yggdrasill sends his angels to attack Asgard
- cue Yuan and Kratos being unstoppable battle gods together
scenarios
scenario one: in which Yuan leads the Chosen's party to the Tower of Salvation to dismantle all the traditions ever, and find Kratos waiting for them in serious need of a rescue.
scenario two: in which being in safety reveals that Kratos is not precisely unscathed, but he's doing his best.
scenario three: in which Kratos is emphatically not okay, but with Yuan's help, could be.
no subject
There comes a point when Zelos remembers he should be getting tired. He isn't -- at least not physically. His muscles could probably do this forever. His mind, though, has other ideas, and as time passes, it slows to an exhausted crawl. That's most obvious when Zelos slows down enough to be careless.
It does pave the way for raw instinct, though. As Zelos's reaction times increase, his sense of spatial awareness gets better. When he turns to face each subsequent attack, his accuracy gets better. Some of that's just sound, yeah, but some of it's something else -- a wick in a candle flame, a stone in a rapid creek. An object that changes the flow around itself. He couldn't explain it even if he was aware of it.
Unfortunately, mental exhaustion doesn't stop taking its toll. Zelos mistimes a block, falls harmlessly under the strike, and his brain forgets to tell his body to get up again.
That's it, he wants to say. Time out. I need a break. Just let me lie here until things stop spinning.]
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[But he does drift over not-quite touching the ground, to see if Zelos will turn to him before he says something.]
Better.
[There's a short delay before Yuan lowers himself to sit cross-legged by Zelos, studying him critically with all the available senses. No; perhaps he should not have left it this long. But it's reparable, if he keeps on Zelos.]
As much as it might be useful to have your input, right now it's important that you have no other way to communicate but that which we're trying to trigger. Do you understand?
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Yes.
Yes!
Yes.
None of them have that inaudible echo. With a sigh, Zelos nods instead. Yes. He gets it. He'll play along. As hard as it is to think right now, he will admit that spending the afternoon fighting was loads better than sitting by himself doing nothing. Even if the admittance is only useful to himself.
Why is it so hot out here?
With a start, Zelos sits up. Now that had the echo. How? What did he do? Does he not have to be trying?]
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[And--]
[Almost. Zelos orients on him, and there is, briefly, faintly, at the back of Yuan's mind, the sense of a complaint about heat. Nothing like words, nothing clear, but a feeling that was not Yuan's making itself known.]
Hm?
[Apparently Zelos surprised himself. Yuan sits back, frowning, and strips off one gauntlet to hold his bare hand an inch or so from the Chosen-- from Zelos's shoulder, looking for a sense of temperature. It isn't hot. It is, as he told Kratos, fairly mild; the sun is only a pleasant warmth.]
You lean toward fire, don't you?
[Yuan would like this to be wrong.]
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But he does. He feels like he's spent a few hours in Altamira with long sleeves on. And the weird thing is that he doesn't feel like taking anything off would actually help.
It's easier to know where Yuan is when he's this close. Zelos still can't explain how. There's just something in the air that feels vaguely different, a spot that isn't like any of the spots surrounding it, right next to his shoulder. If Zelos didn't know Yuan was kneeling there, he'd probably assume he was imagining it. Instead, he turns his head slightly, and unwittingly pushes 'what are you doing' into the inaudible echo range. It's still not words, still not clear, but it's more of a start than he had yesterday.
Zelos's skin emits an unnatural warmth. Not painful, and barely noticeable, but Yuan's right -- it's too warm to be because of the mild day's sun.]
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[Dry, distracted. Yuan judges the warmth and the flow of the mana and sits back, frowning with dissatisfaction at Zelos.]
[That's leakage. Mana is seeping from him and he's only barely aware of it. There's still time to correct the problem, of course, and Yuan's made a reasonable start with him today.]
[That doesn't mean Yuan has to like that it's progressing that far.]
What else? Show me the other elements you prefer.
[He knows some of what Zelos is capable of. This is encouragement to reach for mana.]
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But Zelos doesn't try to argue. He can't, for one thing. Mental exhaustion doesn't get in the way like physical exhaustion does, for another. But he's also getting the distinct impression that something's wrong, and this is how he fixes it.
Casting without talking, without that ready-made channel, is still harder than it has any right to be. Zelos shifts so that he isn't leaning backwards on his hands and a light brown circle of mana pulses over the ground below him. After roughly ten seconds of shaping the arte -- deliberately longer than it would take Zelos in a battle -- he thrusts an arm out, and several feet ahead of them in the open grass, small stones burst out of the ground.
Earth. Stone blast. Fire always came much more naturally to him.
After a few seconds' pause to make sure no one's about to cry out that he destroyed something precious, Zelos demonstrates the other two elements he has in the same way. Wind -- wind blade, much less impressive without something to tear into. Then lightning, striking the same point in the ground as the earlier stones erupted from.]
no subject
[Yuan watches the sequence, and observes the flow of mana as Zelos moves it. Deft enough, though of course there's room for improvement, and it's evident enough fire comes most naturally to Zelos.]
[In the elements, at least, he's similar to Kratos.]
Hm. I see. Yes, that makes sense.
[He might almost be amused, on the exhalation.]
I'll try not to change the balance of that.
In any case, the reason you're so warm is because of your affinity for fire. You're...
[How does he put this.]
Leaking.
[That's a terrible word.]
no subject
He can't actually ask any of the questions he wants to ask -- What do you mean, you'll try not to change the balance? What makes sense? Lloyd saved both worlds and you're still obfuscating? -- so Zelos settles for leaning back on one hand and giving Yuan his best 'you better tell me more right now' expression.
One of the annoying things about losing all sense of feeling is that he can't tell if the expression works. Zelos quashes the urge to reach up and check. He'd know if he was smiling, right? Right.]
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[This is also not helping. Yuan wonders about touch, and the wisdom thereof.]
The crystal is trying to give you more to work with, since you haven't quite come into your proper sense for mana yet. Rather like assuming the only reason you haven't drunk is because you don't have enough water, not that you don't have a cup for it.
[They're mineral parasites. He doesn't begrudge them the foolishness, only the vast loss of life caused by the associated human foolishness.]
To an extent, it can and will help you grasp it. Unfortunately, if this is allowed to continue for too long, the backlash will probably kill you.
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But yes, okay, that makes sense. Some sense, at least. More sense than before. Definitely more sense than the crystal's trying to drive me insane. Zelos tips his head back toward the sky while he considers what Yuan is saying, looking and feeling a little more relaxed than someone who's just been told they might die should probably look and feel.
Don't tell Sheena. She'll be devastated.
Hm. No inaudible echo with that one.
Don't tell Lloyd. He'll never leave me alone.
That seems to work a little better, though Zelos can't tell how well. It still doesn't feel like he's speaking, just mumbling. What's the meditation thing Yuan mentioned before? Zelos can't transmit that question no matter what form he tries to put it in, which makes him wonder how useful telepathy really is. He can use it to say 'I'm hot', but not 'how do I keep from dying' -- which, on second thought, should probably be telling him something.]
no subject
[Something passes through the faint cobweb-thread of a link. The impression of boundless energy and not being alone-- ah. Lloyd. Of course. It remains to be seen what about Lloyd, but it's still better than Zelos was doing before, which was nothing.]
Kratos got through this when all of us barely knew what we were doing. You will if I have to drag you by the heel.
[Not said like a threat, but calmly, matter-of-factly, like it's just a part of life. It isn't optional.]
You said something about-- Lloyd.
[A pause, a calculating tilt of his head. Sparking an emotional reaction... hm. In the same dry tone:]
Are you in love with him?
no subject
Aaaand then Yuan goes and does exactly the kind of thing Zelos doesn't want him around for. The hand he's leaning on slips. His head hits the ground. He waits a moment for the inevitable pain, remembers he won't feel it, then scowls up at the half-elf.]
Don't tell Lloyd. He'll never leave me alone. That's what I said.
[He pauses, then goes on without thinking.]
Actually, the first thing I said is that Sheena would be devastated, 'cause she can't live without me. But still, nothing about being in love. How reliable did you say this was?
[It's strange, and tiring, and it very nearly hurts, like stretching a muscle you haven't used in a long time. But Zelos is relieved to find that not talking is still easier than talking, so he won't transmit anything to anyone without meaning to. That could definitely get a little awkward.]
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[Is it possible that Zelos was thinking too hard? Kratos would identify the faint tilt of Yuan's mouth as the precursor to mischief, were he here. Zelos can neither see it nor interpret it.]
Tell him this process is potentially lethal, or tell him you're in love with him?
[The obtuseness is intentional, but Yuan's tone is the same dry briskness as ever. Zelos still isn't completely clear, but the frustration and the annoyance carried much of what he was trying to say through without much trouble.]
Once it's fully established, you won't experience many problems that you don't when speaking. For now, strong emotion will carry you through much better than anything else. It's something about the need to make yourself understood.
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[-- it's a joke. It has to be a joke. The only reason that's a surprise is Zelos has never known Yuan to joke, but no one's that stupid without trying to be. As such, Zelos isn't going to dignify it with a response. Just a glare. A glare that probably loses some of its potency for being the glare of a blind person, but hey, Zelos will take what he can get.]
You know what? Just don't talk to him.
[Apart from when he's frustrated, Zelos has never been very good with strong emotion. He learned very quickly to lock it down, keep it hidden, pretend it didn't exist. If communicating hinges on that, he's doomed. Maybe he should just stay frustrated for the rest of his life.
What do I do about being able to sense --
--no inaudible echo with that one. Dammit.]
This sucks.
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[It's gotten Zelos reaching out mentally, so he doesn't think Zelos is in a position to argue.]
No, it's not enjoyable. That's the point. Most people would reach for anything to free them from such a situation, and the first route open is usually the one the crystal paves.
[The frustration was the clearest part of that last. With practice, it will improve.]
[Yuan's going to let Zelos rest before throwing magic at him again, but this is hardly taxing. Zelos can take needling a little while longer.]
no subject
And what's he supposed to do when he wants a night-time rendezvous? Not being able to feel anything makes that pointless. Stupid cruxis crystal.
Zelos is getting sick of feeling grumpy all the time. On a whim he sits up and casts fireball out in front of him, wordlessly shaping and then releasing the mana into three balls of fire coursing through the air. He does it a second time after that, and a third time after that. If the crystal wants him to use mana so badly, fine. Time to get this over with.]
no subject
[Yuan moves a hair to the side to reduce the risk of being clipped by a fireball, and he observes-- more the flow of mana than any gestures Zelos is making, though he does note the absence of a formal circle, the sort mages usually produce when casting.]
[Zelos is getting the right idea about this.]
That's a start, though I'd prefer you didn't set anything on fire that doesn't deserve it. It's coming easier to you, isn't it?
[As will happen, when you practice.]
Does this mean you're rested enough for me to drag you to your feet again?
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Zelos glances in Yuan's general direction, startled.]
Again?
[Another fight? ... Well, sure. There's no real reason not to, other than the habit of needing longer breaks than this to rejuvenate. A few seconds pass, Zelos gives a very dramatic resigned sigh, and he holds out his hand for Yuan to drag him back up.]
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Yes, again. You don't need to sleep, do you?
Unless you'd prefer to sit there and guess where I've moved to.
[Yuan gets to his feet, though, and reaches a hand down, clasping Zelos's and pulling him to his feet.]
I'll let you have a longer rest when I'm satisfied with your progress.
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Zelos rises to his feet easily enough and rolls his shoulders in preparation for another fight, even though not one single muscle in his arms feels stiff. Force of habit, probably, combined with the knowledge that just because he can't feel the stiffness anymore doesn't mean stretching out his muscles isn't still a good idea. He reaches instinctively for the dagger at his belt, remembers he doesn't have it anymore -- where is it, on the ground somewhere? -- and takes a ready stance, facing Yuan.
He's a bit more accurate about his direction this time, and not just because of the sound of Yuan's voice. Orientating toward mana doesn't require consciously knowing where the mana is.]
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[He lifts perhaps a handspan off the ground, just enough that he won't have audible footsteps, and casts lightning toward Zelos. It's light and shallow, just enough to be felt, as before, and his plans for the immediate future involve much the same lightning. If Zelos can sense it coming in time to guard, then there's progress.]
[Yuan also very intentionally varies his position more widely this time, skimming from side to side and providing even more unpredictability than he had before. Eventually:]
What are you noticing?
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At least he can probably play those up for sympathy later.
Eventually, Zelos gives up thinking. He can't hear, see, or feel where Yuan is, so thinking obviously isn't helping. There are a few strikes he completely fails to dodge thanks to that, but once instinct takes over he begins orientating towards Yuan's mana automatically.
It just feels like luck, at first. A few attacks that hit Zelos dead-on instead of slightly to the side. But he learns quickly, and he starts guarding.]
Nothing.
[Even telepathy's easier if he's not thinking. He doesn't communicate the word 'nothing'; he communicates the feeling. Like being lucky. Like being psychic.]
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[For the moment Yuan hovers in one spot, flexing his fingers, considering the virtues of more or heavier lightning.]
[The feeling of knowing without thinking, hm. Yes, Zelos isn't wrong.]
Yes. You shouldn't have to think consciously about it. You don't think about seeing, do you?
[When he can, that is. Still. This is encouraging. Yuan casts Lightning now, more than just the raw gathering and directing of mana, a proper little bolt to strike down.]
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Is that supposed to be a --
[He moves without thinking, shield arm up despite his lack of a shield, and feels the sharp edge of a bolt of lightning. It's not painful, though it probably would be if he could feel pain. It's not even a feeling, really. It's more an intuition, split seconds before he hears the lightning strike the ground. Better than his head.]
-- a joke? I'm blind. Seeing's all I've been thinking about for the past few days!
[Yuan's point isn't lost on Zelos, but a lot of the pent-up frustration finds an outlet before common sense does.]
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