vatheon | Choices

Choices

Who: Zelda and Zelos
Where: Their house
When: Backdated late morning, Feb 29th after Zelda absconds from this
Style: first person prose
Status: Closed!

This week really isn't going Zelos' way. His throat hurts, he aches everywhere, and he's pretty sure he's done more sleeping in the past few days than he has the entire time he's been here in Vatheon. At least the massive spa-style bath downstairs helps. The steam from the hot water helps open up his throat even more than the medicine Zelda got for him yesterday, something he thanks his lucky stars wasn't actually poison or something. He does't trust anyone from the clinic, not if they work with that deceptively sexy nurse who took a friendly booty call for an invitation to try and rearrange his internal organs. No thanks!

He sighs and brings a hand to his forehead, making a face at the feel of his own pruned fingers. Maybe he'd been in the bath too long. The Chosen climbs out of the tub and drains it, hitching a towel around his waist before heading out in the hall. Zelda probably wouldn't be home for awhile so why not take advantage of it by not having to dress in the bathroom for once. The 'no wandering around the house shirtless' rule was annoying, but he tended to follow it. Whenever Zelda was actually home at least.

But she's not, so he starts towards the stairs just in the towel, wondering if he's feeling up to going out and getting heat packs for his achy muscles.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's not as if the crystal leaves him at a disadvantage. When properly mounted in a crest, a Cruxis Crystal does indeed numb the senses but it doesn't leave the person it's bound to unable to feel at all, it just requires concentration, which is why it takes Zelos a moment to respond to Zelda's query.

"Your hand's really cold. I could warm it up for you~♥?"

Deflection is Zelos' favorite tool.

Edited 2012-03-02 07:35 (UTC)

"That took you a little bit longer than it should have," she said, pulling forward her cup of tea and sticking the tip of her finger in. The cup stops steaming almost instantly.

Zelda spreads her hands out in a gesture of defeat. "It is alright if you don't want to tell me, I suppose. I'll just die of curiosity wondering what it is that causes your mana to regulate itself in such an odd fashion."

"You're not gonna die. Sometimes I forget how much of a teenager you can be, sheesh! So dramatic." Really though, it's Zelda. At this point, he's only prolonging the inevitable by keeping it from her.

He sits back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other and tapping the crystal mounted on his chest with his index finger. "I'm sure I don't have to tell you to be discreet with this information."

"Well, I am a teenager, after all. Converting it to the time system most everyone seems to use here, I would be considered 15 years old."

She nods, sitting up and resisting the urge to pull out her notebook. "Of course, I won't tell anyone."

"You are not fifteen. There's no way." He shakes his head. Not the time!

"Okay, so, this crystal here basically makes me immortal. According to what I've been told, this thing puts my body into stasis so I don't age or feel extreme temperatures or need to eat. It boosts my strength physically and magically too. I rarely have to sleep either, but for the sake of mental health it's usually a good idea every once in awhile. I thought it prevented illness too, but Vatheon proved that wrong." He looks mildly irritated at that, even though he's been feeling much better today. "The metal thing it's in is a rune crest. If I didn't have that, I wouldn't be me anymore. It shuts down a person's personality if it's not set in one of these."

Even though Zelos is trying valiantly to distract her, the lustful glint (for knowledge) in her eyes might be a bit too much for him. She's almost on top of him as he keeps speaking, running her fingers over the crest with great interest.

"The engravings do seem to point towards an inhibiting spell of some sort. Fascinating. So this crystal is the cause of all of this? It does hold great power. Truthfully, it throws me off at times - it feels as if it has the presence of multiple souls, somehow. All of those enhancements make it sound like this was to make you a warrior of some sort. Is that true?"

Zelos's expression grows serious, outweighing his discomfort at Zelda invading his personal space so readily, though he does catch her hand to keep her from touching it quite so much. It makes him uncomfortable. "Less a warrior and more a sacrifice."

He's not really ready to give her the whole story on Exspheres and Cruxis Crystals, but if push comes to shove then he'll do it

Her brow furrows at that and she draws her hand back. Curious or not, Zelda can tell that this is a touchy subject for Zelos. She chastises herself mentally for going overboard.

"I see. We can speak of it another time, perhaps." Zelda picks her cup up and drinks it, making a face when she recalls that she cooled the tea with her finger. Eww.

As it turns out, it doesn't take much to push Zelos after all. He knows Zelda is still upset, and who wouldn't be? The least he can do is distract her. With a sigh, he starts explaining.

"My world was once split into two, though we didn't know it at the time, and the mana between them was sort of a pendulum; while one side prospered, the other went into decline. Now the only way to swing the pendulum the other way was through the journey of the Chosen of Mana. In a time of decline, a person, usually a girl, would be picked to go on a journey to open the seals in order to restore mana to the world. Each of those Chosens died, save for the last one. In a time of prosperity, the Chosen was told by the Oracle who they had to marry in order to produce the next Chosen. Prosperity Chosens were encouraged to have many children and the position was sought after as one of honor, especially if it looked like Tethe'alla wasn't going into decline any time soon since there'd be no danger."

He curls a lock of hair around his finger, looking at the ceiling. "The Chosen was given a Cruxis Crystal, which received 'blessings' from an angel at each of the seals and eventually lead to the Chosen being turned into an angel themself once the crystal was active." He turns towards Zelda again and locks eyes with her, expression serious. "It was basically a giant scam by an organization called Cruxis. Lloyd and Colette and the others stopped them and reunited the worlds, abolishing the Chosen system for good. We still have a small amount of political power, but generally speaking, aside from all the physical changes brought on by the crystals, we can be normal people."

Zelos grins widely, closing his eyes because he's certain the simulated mirth doesn't reach them. "Not that I'll ever be normal~! I'm too fabulous."

"What sort of scheme is that?!" Zelda seems angry, and not just for Zelos's sake. "What kind of insane person would manipulate the mana of the world like that? And why in the name of the goddesses would they... basically... breed people?"

Zelos's anger at the thought of Zelda forcing herself to have children suddenly makes a lot more sense to her now that she's feeling it herself.

"There was this little butthurt half-elf who couldn't accept the fact his sister died and decided to play mad scientist with the whole world to bring her back. That's why the crystals kill a person's personality if they're not crested, so he could use them as a host."

He could understand doing anything for your sister, but the way Mithos had gone about it was downright creepy and caused so much collateral damage, including to him personally, that Zelos is incapable of feeling sympathy for the little creep.

That's just so ridiculous that Zelda doesn't have words for it. Anyone worth all that trouble would protest such drastic action, after all. It was beyond idiotic to risk the entire world in such a fashion. She stares at Zelos quietly as if she's trying to figure out if he's joking or not.

"I see. That is... I see."

Well then.

"Yeah, my world's pretty messed up. Or it was, anyway." He leans back in his chair, tipping it back on two legs and putting on a professor face. "I'll now open the floor up for questions~"

Being goofy is probably a little better than dwelling on it, at this point.

"I'm curious what the purpose of all that mana transferrance was. Was it just to enforce this system of having a "Chosen", or was there some other purpose to it? It seems drastic if there was no actual reason for it." Zelda can't imagine what sort of purpose it could have that would actually be considered valid from her point of view, but she wants to know anyway.

"Apparently Martel - that's the sister - her soul was stuck in this seed that needed enough mana to keep it alive but not enough that it'd sprout or he couldn't stick her in a body. She ended up a tree anyway, in the end."

Martel didn't seem a bad sort, from what little he'd seen of her. It was a shame what happened to her, but that didn't justify Mithos' actions. Nothing could.

She stands up at that. This requires further study. A tree that sprouts due to mana? TO THE LIBRARY.

"I'm going to go to the library. I've heard legends of trees that have connections with mana, but never any conformation. I'll be back later, alright?"

"I was thinking of another nap anyway, I'm getting pretty tired." He smiles at her, a rare real and soft smile. Even if he didn't exactly want to share all that, he's glad it accomplished what he'd meant it to. She was sufficiently distracted. And now he can go deal with all the things their conversation had dredged up for him privately.

He stands, taking his tea with him. "Have fun at the library. Don't forgot to break for food, alright? I may not have to eat, but you do."

"I'm not going to set up camp there," she says with no small amount of amusement. She wants to know more, sure - but she's capable of taking care of herself. And others, for that matter. "I'll come back tonight." Zelda eyes him briefly, then smiles. "I'll bring back some heat wraps."

"My hero~♥ Thanks, princess." He grins again, raising his mug in a gesture of thanks and farewell, before heading up the stairs.

Maybe he'd call Colette or Lloyd before he went to sleep again...

Though she's quite late, Zelda is back that night as she said she would be. She takes a bath and gets around for bed before knocking on Zelos's door.

"Are you still awake, Zelos? I brought some more of the fever reducers and those heat wraps."

She gets a groggy response that could be a "come in" when translated from sickese. It seems Zelos took most of the time Zelda was gone to nap, though she may have noticed the tea set had been cleaned up and the dishes done if she'd checked the kitchen before heading upstairs.

Zelda heads in, sighing to herself slightly when she sees the ball of blankets that is Zelos once again. He doesn't seem to have much of a fever, so it wouldn't be terrible to give him the heat wraps if he wanted them.

"Are you still sore? Your fever is down, so it would be alright to put these on... so long as you don't put them near your head, of course."

"Still sore. And cold." It's hard to make him out under all those blankets. He seems to have scrounged them from all over the house, having made a sort of nest with only a shock of red hair poking out from any visible hole to be used as an exit.

Or, y'know, for air.

"Alright, where are you sore?" She heads over to the bed, trying to dig Zelos out of his cocoon somewhat. It's more difficult than it appears to be. He's wrapped up tightly with no easy way to get him out. She manages after awhile, finally able to see his face (or the back of his head, depending on how he's laying).

He helps the process along as well as he can but he's gotten himself pretty hopelessly tangled in the blankets. It takes them several minutes to work their way out of the blanket-beast that's engulfed Zelos until he's finally unencumbered and shivering.

"This is so stupid." It may be a little difficult to make him out over his teeth clattering.

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