a thing; w/ ruinsprofessor & conductingresistance

[simulsimul]

universe list
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 lightning and light can totally become a laserbeam amirite
- 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.

Comments

[simulsimul]

That depends. Do you read anything other than trashy romances from Mizuho these days?

[It's a parting shot, and once upon a time, might have been a valid one. Kratos does not actually know what Yuan's reading tastes are like these days; but he very definitely remembers what some of it had been a long time ago.

[But the words make Kratos cough again, and his throat is dry and aching, and his head is pounding; so he takes the better course by laying back down, curling up on his side with the blanket drawn over him and his pillow pulled over his head. He coughs, every now and then; but between the darkness and the warmth under the pillow, and gravity, he manages to doze off.]

[conductingresistance]

They aren't trashy--

[The objection is automatic and irritated, and Yuan scowls at Kratos pulling the pillow over his head. How dare he comes to mind, but it's the same old objection to Kratos growing mortal and old and sick.]

[Kratos is in no condition to have any kind of shouting match with him, either.]

[Yuan stalks out without another word, and almost regrets that he can't slam a sliding door behind him.]

[He'll be back later, with soup, tea, and no less than three trashy romances from Tethe'alla. Yuan had someone else collect them, but with Kratos' status still up in the air he doesn't want many people near him. Botta is good at handling the day-to-day running of the Renegades, and what Yuan can't delegate he can do from a place where he can keep an eye on Kratos, mostly. Unless Mithos needs something, but that's a different problem. One he's not faced with yet.]

[simulsimul]

[There is one sound, other than a cough, from beneath the pillow -- a low chuckle that even now Yuan chooses to stand on the principle of romances from Mizuho not being trashy, instead of denying that he reads them.

[But that amusement is long gone by the time Kratos wakes up again, bleary and even more miserable than before, with even less energy. He lays curled up under the warm darkness of his covers up until he hears the door slide open and Yuan's nearly-silent step. It's only then that Kratos stirs from his half-doze, pushing himself upright still wrapped in his blanket, and coughing, and generally sounding incredibly congested. His throat feels like it's burning, and his mouth is too dry to speak.

[He just holds out his hands for something -- anything -- to drink.

[conductingresistance]

[The chuckle is heard -- angelic hearing -- but not dignified with any response.]

[This will not be the last time Yuan thinks Kratos looks pitiful. With the tray of things set on the bedside table, Yuan lifts the tea from it and sets the mug in Kratos' hands.]

--careful. It's still hot.

[He did test it himself, with his sensitivity to pain and temperature at base levels, but there's still something a little disconnected and Yuan really isn't sure what temperatures a human Kratos can handle.]

You sound terrible.

[simulsimul]

That's what happens when you have a cold.

[He still sounds terrible, and raspy, and any sarcasm is robbed from the words by those facts. He cradles the mug using the corners of his blanket and sips it, very carefully; it burns going down and not just because of the temperature. Kratos grimaces hard, nearly coughs at the pain, and can't say anything for a minute.

[Sore throats are the worst.

[He stays hunched over that mug, his hair sticking out where it's come loose of the braid, breathing in the steam and not quite daring to try another sip yet. Instead he glances over what Yuan's brought with tired, bloodshot eyes, and he sounds a bit incredulous as he asks:]

No tissues?

[conductingresistance]

[--That's right. Sickness involves mucus and other generally disgusting things.]

[This did not honestly occur to Yuan.]

You didn't mention tissues.

[This is a terrible defense. He frowns at Kratos, noting everything from the bloodshot eyes to the hair gone awry.]

[Has he ever seen Kratos look so definitely miserable?]

I take it the tea is doing its job?

[simulsimul]

If you mean causing horrible agony, yes.

[This is said fitfully, between restrained coughs, and at the end of them he takes a breath and another sip. This one goes down more easily. Not well, but more easily. He can't really taste much of anything, which is probably just as well, because if Yuan forgot tissues he may not have bothered to ask anyone how much honey and cinnamon should be in the tea, and Kratos forgot to tell him.

[The third and fourth, and following sips, go down even easier. All of them hurt, and all of them show it on Kratos's face with the grimace and the little bracing breath he takes afterward. At least his mouth is no longer dry, so he doesn't cough when he asks with resignation:]

You brought me the romances, didn't you?

[conductingresistance]

You seemed interested in them.

[The nonchalance is what passes for innocence, with Yuan, but at least it covers the faint concern too. Kratos doesn't seem all that worried -- he must have dealt with this more than a little bit -- but something about willingly choosing to put up with this pain and mucus is bothering Yuan.]

How could I refuse?

[An afterthought:]

Horrible agony seems counterproductive for a cure.

[simulsimul]

Hmh.

[Kratos smiles a little, down into the steam, at the bafflement hiding behind that dry remark. So many of these little inconveniences were just that -- inconveniences -- but in their own way they remind Kratos of the perseverance it takes just to live day by day; the grit and tenacity inherent in being mortal.

[That, and having lived in Iselia for nearly twenty years. Still, it's been far too long since Yuan bothered to experience anything on a basic level, if he can't even remember this much.]

A cold comes with an infection in the throat. Swallowing ... anything ... hurts, but I need fluids to fight off the infection.

[His voice is raw because of it. The tea's only a third done, but at least now he wants to drink it -- enough to bear up the ache with every mouthful.]

[conductingresistance]

Thank you for the elementary medical lecture, Kratos.

[It's bitingly sarcastic, but Yuan had forgotten some of that, writing it off as simply unnecessary and not relevant to him in the grand scheme of things, retaining only the basics of sickness and how bodies respond to it.]

Fine. Liquids, tissues, books. You'll have what you need.

[Yuan thinks irritably of the cruxis crystal still kept in his pocket, retrieved last night and never quite returned. That, too, is counterproductive, but Kratos isn't going to take it. If illness were enough, he would have bowed to it years ago.]

[simulsimul]

You're welcome.

[That isn't bitingly sarcastic, but it's affectedly breezy in as far as Kratos can manage given the state of his voice and throat. Then, more quietly:]

Thank you.

[But that's everything Kratos has to say just now, in no small part because his voice hurts too much to speak much more than he already has. He focusses on the tea instead, and when the tea is done he focusses on the soup, more slowly. That isn't going to be finished; but he finishes enough of it that he actually manages to feel a little better. When the tissues arrive and he manages to decongest himself to some degree, he feels slightly better than that, too.

[Enough that he doesn't want to sleep right away, anyway; which means it's time to find his reading-glasses in his belt-pouch, settle back against the pillows, and open one of Yuan's ridiculous books, occasionally coughing slightly and sipping from a glass of water.]

[conductingresistance]

Don't thank me.

[Yuan's the one who injured him, after all, and is still keeping him more or less prisoner, and who may yet wind up killing him, depending on a vast variety of things.]

[But he arranges to retrieve tissues, though he doesn't bother finding any other reading material for Kratos, and he does more or less stay in the same room, absent the errand. He's sorting through personnel movements when Kratos resorts to glasses, and the tentative peace is thence broken.]

How long have your eyes been deteriorating?

[simulsimul]

[Mhm. Kratos had been wondering how long that would take. He's been aware of Yuan still around, looking at his own papers, but ignored him with no need for conversation. It had been a comfortable silence, despite all the circumstances.

[So Kratos doesn't look up from the first page of this tawdry fiction (he does not, in fact, know whether it's tawdry. He's never read the books Yuan likes before, primarily out of a desire to keep maintaining his moral high ground while teasing Yuan about them). He's been expecting a comment about the glasses, since it seems like Yuan can't help himself whenever it comes to something related to Kratos's mortality.]

Two or three years.

[conductingresistance]

[It's hardly tawdry. Maybe not high-class literature, but a step up from some.]

[Hmph.]

...Of course.

[The mortality problem is already half beaten to death, and Yuan doesn't anticipate any more open ears for it; but all the same, he's scowling faintly, like it's a personal affront. There are worse looks for Kratos, but still...]

...This is going to take some getting used to.

[It's muttered, mostly to Yuan himself, and he shakes his head with some incredulity.]

[simulsimul]

Heh.

[It's a short chuckle, that, but a genuinely amused one, though Kratos doesn't look up.]

Talk to me when you've suffered at least two colds every winter for the last twenty years, and needed to have a twenty-one-year-old healer tell you why you've been having trouble parsing threads on the loom.

[Good thing Kratos knows a dwarf. Spectacles aren't generally well-known in villages like Iselia.]

[conductingresistance]

In that case, I'd never talk to you again.

[The eyeroll is implied in his tone. That sounds miserable and Yuan can't think of a reason anyone would do that to themselves on purpose.]

[Except Kratos and his fixation on humanity.]

I meant it, Kratos. You've changed.

[Yuan takes a breath; then another, longer one, catching the irritation in the first and breathing it out. It isn't bad necessarily, that Kratos has changed, it's only that the most visible markers of it are those of age, and that is bothering Yuan like little else can.]

[Worse, perhaps, because it's Kratos. When had Yuan ever seen him this peaceful?]

...You'll have to try harder if you want me to see the appeal of aging.

[simulsimul]

I know.

[Kratos doesn't specify whether he knows Yuan means it, or he knows he's changed. He has. He pauses in his reading to take a sip of water, but despite Yuan's attempt to breathe there still seems to be an edge of bitterness in his last words.

[Kratos puts down the glass and reaches for the cleaned shirt folded on the bureau, put there by one of the staff. Someone had sewn up the cut; Kratos hadn't expected that. In Tethe'alla, the shirt would have been tossed, but in Sylvarant there were fewer resources. Maybe the Renegades here had learned that. Maybe Yuan had just asked them to keep it for him so Kratos doesn't have to keep borrowing his shirts. Either way, Kratos shakes it out to run his thumb across the neat, machine stitching. Even in Sylvarant, the Renegades used machines.]

I made this shirt. When I say that, I mean that I spun the yarn and wove the cloth, and sewed the shirt.

[By hand.]

It's not how it's usually done. There's a group in the village who spin most of the yarn, and another group who stitch the clothes, and a few of us who do the weaving. But sometimes we have to fill in for each other. Sometimes I just wanted to.

I wasn't very good at it, at first. When I first arrived in the village, all I'd ever done was fight. Even with Anna, I worked as a mercenary. For the first time in four thousand years, I learned a new skill, because I had to adapt -- I needed to work, to support Lloyd. As I got older, I needed to adapt more. Glasses to see the yarn. A new type of loom to account for my hands stiffening in the winter.

[Kratos lifts his head to look toward Yuan, but he's not precisely looking at him, and although his voice is low and thoughtful, it's still raspy.]

How long has it been since we changed, Yuan? How long since the world has, in truth? Ageing means changing. It ensures you adapt. It keeps you nimble in your thinking, because your body could fail at any time. How long has it been since any of us could think in any way other than through strength of arms? How long since we've been able to see the individual cogs in the machine?

[He folds the shirt again, carefully, to put it back on the bureau. Sometime he'll ask for some scissors to cut away that stitching, so he could resew it himself for no other reason than he could. Later, though. His throat is hurting again; a lecture is far too much talking to be wise, in this state. Kratos cradles the glass of water in his hands, and manages not to cough.]

[conductingresistance]

[Yuan listens with relative patience, for him, though his expression is going more and more set as Kratos goes on, mulish and annoyed.]

[Kratos talks about all this like something he's embracing, which-- he is, really. It makes bitter gall rise at the back of Yuan's throat, some nasty tangle of emotion he has neither the wherewithal nor the inclination to examine in depth.]

How exciting for you.

[That's outright nasty, biting and cold. Yuan makes an effort to pull that back; it doesn't go well.]

How long do you think it will be, Kratos, before I start showing my age? You'll be dead long before I find a gray hair.

[They were both in their twenties when they took up the cruxis crystals. Every half-elf's metabolism alters differently; Kratos should know this. Yuan might remain the same for centuries yet. Even Botta is over six hundred by now, and he doesn't look a day over thirty-five by human standards.]

The world's been stagnant for millennia. We did that. You're right that it needs to change, and that we need to change it. But don't talk to me about the advantages of mortality.

[Yuan turns a page over and stares at a page full of writing that he isn't really seeing, falling silent.]

[simulsimul]

[Yuan objecting is not a surprise. Yuan objecting in the way he does, with the comparison between them, pointing out that Kratos would never get to see Yuan grow old -- the bitter sneer of an advantage that Yuan doesn't have -- is like a blow. With the way Yuan's been acting, it hadn't occurred to Kratos that he might be jealous.

[Kratos looks down into his water, not responding right away. Suddenly, he's wondering about Yuan after this is all over. Suddenly, he's imagining Yuan after the end -- alone, with no peers, even if he unbends enough to make connections beyond Botta and his Renegades.

[The idea hurts more than Kratos would have thought.

[After a minute he stirs and moves to swing his legs off the bed, picking up book and tissues and taking with him the water. The sofa Yuan is using is only a few feet away, but Kratos still nearly falls into it with a grunt, pulling his legs up and leaning back against Yuan's shoulder. He sets down tissues, glass, and reopens the book, and doesn't look up at first.]

I'm not prepared to give up those advantages. But if I survive the reunification, and if you take yours off -- I'll put mine on.

[His head moves slightly, glancing sidelong.]

Just until you catch up.

[conductingresistance]

[The quiet is fine. Preferable, even. Yuan is perfectly set to ignore Kratos until there's movement; and even then, he doesn't glance up, only tracks Kratos by sound and mana and peripheral vision.]

[And yet somehow it's still a surprise when Kratos falls onto the couch next to him. Yuan doesn't so much flinch as freeze, briefly going inhumanly still, all extraneous movement ceased. But he still needs to breathe, and in a moment or two he's back to a normal state, scraping his pen down the page and still not bothering to look up.]

[He can't honestly remember how long it's been, for something like this. Long enough that it feels foreign; but Kratos is familiar enough that it's almost as natural as it is odd.]

[And there's something warm and tight in his chest.]

Even if it means you outlive your son?

[Because Yuan is apparently determined to sabotage his own potential happiness, such as it is. He turns a page over, drums his fingers against it. Kratos is a warm weight against his shoulder.]

Only after everything, hm?

[simulsimul]

Heh. Lloyd is wearing Anna's crystal. Who says that I will?

[Especially given the bond between him and Colette. What's to say Lloyd's exsphere might not extend his life too, or they wouldn't look for a way to make it so? Kratos turns his own page, flipping through to where he'd stopped -- which admittedly isn't far.]

Yes.

[He doesn't explain that. Given the argument they'd begun to have in the bathroom, Kratos wouldn't be able to explain himself and Yuan wouldn't understand. He's prepared to put the cruxis crystal on to save Yuan from centuries of loneliness -- but he still isn't sure he can justify it now.]

[conductingresistance]

[It's true that it was a product of the Angelus project. Yuan makes a noncommittal sound, not quite an agreement. There is the possibility. Kratos seems unconcerned.]

[Yuan doesn't plan to try too hard to talk him out of it.]

[He turns his head fractionally, the mirror to Kratos' earlier sidelong glance, a brief consideration of the mass of untidy auburn hair. There's some acknowledgment deserved there, but Yuan doesn't know what; doesn't want to start a yelling match at this point, either, despite that he still doesn't quite understand and will probably be frustrated with Kratos for some time yet.]

[Finally he reaches across his body, using the arm Kratos isn't leaning against, and rests his hand briefly on Kratos' head under the pretense of corralling a few errant strands. It's always been unmanageable, really. Just a moment, and Yuan's back to what he was doing.]

You don't seem to be taking particular issue with the 'trashy' romance.

[simulsimul]

[Kratos feels the shift under his back, and the feather-light touch, and though he makes no acknowledgement there's a faint smile hidden by that unmanageable hair. He's missed Yuan. He's pretended he hasn't, that he can't; pretended well enough that he thought he didn't. He does now, even with Yuan right there, as though his emotions need some time to catch up before they'll accept that Yuan is there.]

I haven't seen any evidence of the romance, yet. Just a man and his dog.

[He pauses.]

Please tell me that isn't the romance.

[Look, some of the things the ninja come up with ...]

[conductingresistance]

[Despite the generally bitter tone of most of the conversation, Yuan laughs softly at that.]

Noishe would never stand for it.

No, that isn't the romance; what sorts of things do you think I read?

[This is oddly easier. It hurts a little, but differently, more in the way nostalgia does when the past seems close but cannot be truly reclaimed.]

Just for that, I ought to find you one of the worst.

[simulsimul]

[When is the last time Kratos heard Yuan laugh? He honestly can't remember, which means it's probably been something close to centuries. It hurts, that awareness of how things have changed in the worst ways possible; but despite that, Kratos is smiling for it.]

I don't have a clue, but given they come out of Mizuho, it could be anything.

[The threat only makes him snort, which makes him cough and have to reach for his water. It's only after he's taken a mouthful that he retorts hoarsely:]

You do that and I'll make sure the kitchen makes nothing but curries.

[Mostly because of the coconut milk. You know. What Kratos had frequently cooked with while they travelled, and never mentioned for years, because there was no way to taste it anyway, because that wasn't the point.]