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

[conductingresistance]

[In the interim, Yuan has done no small amount of work.]

[Including purloining an unused set of robes from the Church and warping into the Pope's rooms in the middle of the night in a display of divine light.]

[He is going to talk about neither of these. There's a shelving cart absolutely full of old, old volumes in near view, and it takes a moment or two before Yuan appears from deeper into the archive in response to Zelos's call.]

[Today, his hair is braided, but it's a simple, unornamented queue.]

There you are. Good news?

[choiced]

Weird good news, but that's better than the other kind.

[Good. Yuan didn't vanish. In hindsight, it might have been a little too coincidental for him to disappear right after saying that might happen, but there's a large piece of Zelos's brain that refuses to listen to logic.]

Remember how I thought the Pope hired those men? He changed, like -- overnight. And I swear I didn't do anything.

[He thought about it, but in the end he decided Yuan was right. The safest thing to do was nothing. So while it's great that the Pope's no longer trying to push strict punishments for half-elves, Zelos can't help feeling a bit peeved that he hasn't even done anything yet and the problem fixed itself.]

[conductingresistance]

[Yuan controls his expression. It won't do to look smug here, since he can't properly explain it and doesn't yet want Zelos to know what he's done.]

[He settles for neutral curiosity.]

Changed overnight? How so?

[Yuan has definitely been here, buried in the depths of the library, all along. Definitely. He comes closer, into a more conversational range, setting the book in his arms on the cart on the way there. His braid has fallen over his shoulder; he doesn't bother to fix it, but his eyes light briefly on what Zelos has mostly attempted with his own hair.]

...perhaps his conscience got the best of him?

[choiced]

Maybe.

[Zelos sounds doubtful. He doesn't sound doubtful of Yuan, just doubtful in general. One of the early things he learned is that drastic differences in someone's behaviour are usually a bad thing.]

He stopped asking about you. Then the other day, someone told him he can't just ignore the Chosen, and his face went white. Does that sound like his conscience?

[Zelos honestly doesn't know. He never knew much about the Pope. Yuan probably doesn't either, but Yuan knows more about lots of other things. It never hurts to ask.

Quite unconsciously Zelos is about as far from the cart full of thick books as he can reasonably get.]

[conductingresistance]

If anything, it sounds more like a guilty conscience.

[Yuan turns to give the stacks his full scrutiny, and to make sure he doesn't give himself away. He doesn't think he'll lose control of himself, but it's very tempting to be smug.]

[Smug has no place undercover. When Yuan turns back to Zelos, empty-handed, he has careful interest down to an art.]

It's better that he isn't asking about me, in any case. Has he -- or anyone -- said anything directly to you?

[choiced]

Are you kidding? [Zelos laughs in a short, dismissive sort of way.] He never told me anything even before all this. It's just that now he acts like he's scared of me even when I haven't done anything.

[Which, if Zelos wasn't so worried, would actually be kind of cool. Definitely an improvement over the previous state of affairs, as his tender shoulder attests to.]

Something must have happened, right? Maybe something scared him.

[conductingresistance]

I wonder. What could possibly scare the Pope?

[It's meant to be speculative, not at all trying to lead Zelos to a conclusion. In point of fact, it's better for the moment if Zelos doesn't come to this conclusion yet.]

[Yuan folds his arms and studies Zelos more closely, looking at the way he holds himself now.]

How's your injury?

[And is he well enough to help, or will he simply be here to supervise?]

[choiced]

I don't know.

[Someone higher than the Pope? But that just leaves the king, and Zelos never got the impression he cares more than any king is supposed to care about a Chosen. Maybe the Pope's change of heart is due to something as simple as a nightmare.

But Zelos isn't here to speculate, like he's been doing on his own for days -- just to share the good news. So the thoughtfulness in his expression abruptly clears up and turns into a more cautious sort of anticipation.]

Better. [He rotates his shoulder -- slowly, gently -- to prove it.] Hey, how important is it that you stay stuck in here all the time? Can you make friends with people?

[Yes, this is going somewhere. Humour him.]

[conductingresistance]

[Yuan is perfectly happy to let the matter drop now that Zelos has dropped it. The only reason he encouraged it as long as he did is knowing Zelos would catch it if he tried to put it down more forcefully.]

[The less they examine what happened to the Pope, the better. Even if Yuan has some lingering smugness about it.]

Staying here typically keeps people from paying too much attention to me, but it's not as though I'll be killed if I step outside.

[Browraise. Where is Zelos going with this?]

I am capable of making friends with people, but it doesn't happen often. Why do you ask?

[choiced]

[Doesn't happen often? Zelos raises his eyebrows right back.] Maybe that's because you do things like lock yourself in a library all day.

[Just sayin'. It can't all be because of Yuan's sparkling personality. Though that probably doesn't help. An instant of pointed silence, and then Zelos goes on.]

I think you and Nethan should get to know each other. Nethan wouldn't be half as suspicious if he knew you, and you need friends. [Politically, in the guards -- not just emotionally. It was actually Nethan's idea, and Zelos wasn't sure how to take it at first, but if the guards try anything then Yuan can just whip out his giant sword and take care of them as easily as he did the assassins.]

[conductingresistance]

Perhaps I lock myself in a library all day because I don't make friends easily.

[The brow-raising contest is one they should not have. Yuan is alarmed at how easily he can feel himself conceding, and as such rallies an argument.]

'Get to know'? Do you intend for us to take tea together?

[He's dubious about this for any variety of reasons. There's a kind of idealism to it, honestly. Zelos introducing him to Nethan properly and assuming friendship is what will take place.]

[Perhaps the fact he's saved Zelos's life will incline Nethan to look past the fact he's a half-elf. Yuan doubts this, too, and wouldn't even bother to try but for the fact Zelos is asking.]

[Yuan sighs.]

What do you have in mind?

[choiced]

[Zelos shrugs.] Sure, if you think tea would help.

[It probably wouldn't. But Yuan's not the only one who can answer mockingly.]

You've lived longer than any of the guards have, and you know how to fight. Nethan said the other day how you should go join them when they're training and show them how it's done. You know, give them some pointers.

[Unmentioned: Nethan said this in the middle of a short argument with Zelos about the appropriateness of Yuan as even an unofficial guardian, and probably didn't actually mean a word of it. The funny thing is that Zelos doesn't think he'd object, if Yuan did show up for one of their training sessions. He might get a little awkward about it, but if Zelos is there, being the Chosen, making it clear this is what he expects to happen, Nethan wouldn't object.]

[conductingresistance]

[Yuan really doesn't think tea would help. He bites off his next sarcastic response, head to the side and braid swinging free of his shoulder as he tries to determine exactly how serious Zelos is.]

And how sarcastic was Nethan being at the time?

[That, too, is cynical. Yuan should try harder, but he can't honestly imagine even the guard he talked to willing to take advice or instruction from a half-elf.]

I-- appreciate what you're trying to do, Zelos, but it won't work that easily. They won't thank you for it.

[In the end Yuan sounds more tired than anything else.]

[choiced]

He -- [It wouldn't really help Zelos to lie now.] -- was being a little sarcastic. But that just means he doesn't know how much he wants it.

[Obviously.]

I don't want them to thank me for it. I want Nethan to stop looking at me like I'm putting my life in danger every time I want to visit you. I want them to...

[Not trust Yuan. Zelos isn't an idiot. He knows that won't happen. Not even like Yuan, because you don't need to like someone to make use of them.]

I want them to respect you.

[Which is probably just as much a tall order, but the knights respect fighting skill. Which Yuan has. It's as good a place as any to start. Still, Zelos watches Yuan carefully for his response, and it's by virtue of that that he realises just how tired Yuan sounded when he rejected the idea.]

Will you try, please? For my sake?

[Not as the Chosen -- never as the Chosen, not with Yuan -- but as a friend. As just Zelos.]

[conductingresistance]

[That isn't at all what sarcasm means.]

[But Yuan hears Zelos out, even if he doesn't think it will work, even if the idea of finding some kind of respect from humans with their own importance is an especially foreign one.]

[It is a nice thought. And it would be for Zelos's sake; Yuan has no expectations or illusions about the likely results. If it does by some miracle work then his life will be made easier, and if it does not then Zelos will learn why, exactly, Yuan was so pessimistic about this in the first place.]

[Yuan sighs very softly.]

Fine. I will-- try.

[choiced]

[The smile that blooms on Zelos's face is both instantaneous and unrestrainedly bright. It's an unthinking, properly joyful smile that he doesn't wear very often outside the library. He goes forward and pulls Yuan into a hug -- but a gentle one. One more suited to the tone of Yuan's voice. It's very nearly hesitant, except for how it's inescapable.]

Good. 'Cause they're practicing right now and you don't look like you're busy.

[The cart full of heavy books right next to them notwithstanding.]

[conductingresistance]

[Yuan is a born sucker, apparently. He drops his arms over Zelos's shoulder's, not quite sighing again, but relaxing some little ways with resignation. There is nothing else for it, apparently.]

[There are very few people for whom he would go to lengths like these. And very few people for whom he would concede on a 'please' and a smile.]

These books aren't going to inspect themselves for damages.

[Which... isn't actually a no.]

[choiced]

They won't get more damaged while you're gone though, right?

[It's basic logic, Yuan. The guards are training now. The books aren't going to vanish if they're put off until tomorrow. Sure, the guards won't either, but bringing Yuan to them would be a lot more interesting than examining books for torn pages or ripped spines.

It should also be said that Zelos isn't planning on ending the hug first.]

[conductingresistance]

Not unless someone careless gets into them.

[He both approves and disapproves of Zelos's logic. It's true enough. He just doesn't like that he's being out-thought by a ten-year-old.]

[Granted, it's a ten-year-old he is more than passingly fond of.]

[Yuan doesn't have any intentions of making Zelos let go of him, either. Part of it is that the longer Zelos hugs him, the longer they stay here and don't go to join the guards. The rest is that the simple warmth of contact is nicer than it has a right to be, and it has been some time since anyone hugged Yuan with any frequency.]

[He will admit this out loud eventually.]

I suppose they can wait a little while.

[choiced]

[That's a yes. Zelos smiles into the hug. He's too young to really understand why it's such a milestone for Yuan, but for him, it's the first time he can remember being absolutely sure someone said yes just because he asked -- not because he's the Chosen.

Also, he lied. Half-lied. He didn't plan on ending the hug first, but if Yuan isn't going to... the seconds drag out without either of them moving, and then Zelos slips out from under Yuan's arm.]

Then let's get going.

[He leads the way out of the library, smiles at the guard waiting down by the intersection to prove he didn't get axe-murdered, and turns to make sure Yuan's following.]

[conductingresistance]

[Yuan can hardly axe-murder anyone with the Swallow. Really.]

[There's only a little regret that his delaying tactic didn't quite work. He lets Zelos slip away from him, and for a moment considers not doing anything more before he gives in -- again -- and follows. His blade is with him, though he's not sold on the wisdom of using it here. He's still sharp enough with a more average sword.]

[He doesn't smile at the guard, but inclines his head a short measure. And he keeps trailing Zelos, a few steps behind but there nevertheless, unrelenting.]

[choiced]

[Zelos's shoulder gives a small twinge, making him flinch. He's in the hallway outside the library, and Yuan's there, and the wall Zelos fell back against when he was attacked is just visible around the corner -- it's enough to make the memory briefly raise its ugly head.

But Zelos isn't alone this time. The guard falls into step beside him, and eyes Yuan over his shoulder.] Master Zelos --

Don't worry, I asked him to come.

[The guard hesitates, surprised.] Where?

Back to the courtyard with us. He wants to see Nethan. He promised not to try anything suspicious until we get there, so we'll be fine.

[The guard takes the hint and falls silent. It's an awkward few minutes' walk out the back of the castle to the training courtyard, but the guard breaks off once they reach it and Zelos lets Yuan catch up so he can smile at him.]

Ready?

[conductingresistance]

[Yuan notes that flinch-- but there's nothing to be done about it, not in the public view.]

[So he shifts the distance between them, falling in perhaps a pace closer to Zelos. Not much. But something.]

[The phrasing 'he wants to see Nethan' is also a very creative interpretation of the conversation Yuan and Zelos just had.]

[But, true to Zelos's word, Yuan refrains from doing anything suspicious until they've arrived in the courtyard. Even then he restrains himself, only catching up to Zelos and glancing over. The smile is infectious, but Yuan offers only the barest hint of one in return. His posture is rigid in a way it usually isn't inside the library, and he links his hands behind his back in some old echo of a soldier's rest.]

As much as it's possible to be.

[Yuan surveys the area; and it's as much for potential exits and threats as it is for simple observation.]

[choiced]

[Yuan's determined to walk into this already expecting the worst. Fine. That's okay. Zelos will just have to carry the optimism for both of them.]

Good! Let's go.

[Nethan, who's only a few feet away on the other side of a sparring match, has already spotted them. His expression shifts from surprise to suspicion to resignation, and he moves to meet them after giving the sparring soldiers one last bit of critique Zelos can't hear.]

Chosen, this isn't --

Remember when you said Yuan should come and give you some pointers?

[Nethan frowns.] I didn't mean right this second.

Yes, you did. [Zelos steps back, hands in his pockets, a smirk on his face and looking in that second very much like his father before him.] So go. Talk about fighting, or whatever you want to talk about. Be nice.

[conductingresistance]

[What else would Yuan expect? Give him a reason to expect the best, Zelos.]

[Yuan slants his gaze from Zelos, looking so very pleased with himself, to the barely-familiar guard. An apology would probably be the smarter move to begin the conversation with, but the thought of it makes his shoulders prickle. It isn't the way to begin the equal relationship Zelos hopes for, either.]

I have the impression there was some sarcasm involved.

...nevertheless, the Chosen is insistent that some effort at cooperation be made.

[There's the barest of hitches in Yuan's cadence before 'Chosen', since it is his habit to use Zelos's name. An unwise one, here.]