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(no subject)

Who: Mikleo + OTA
Broadcast: Voice
Action: Huntress + Iskaulit
When: Today

( a. huntress )

[This place sure is good at getting you complacent and then slamming the door in your face. Mikleo's having a perfectly normal day, playing post-battle catch-up in his room, when Sorey tracks him down to give him the bad news. After that the rest of the day is a write-off; he just can't find the energy to focus on anything but the gut-wrenching loss. Dezel's gone. More than gone home, but rather...

It's hard to think about it, but there's no avoiding the truth. It's something he's been dreading for a long time now- something that's come up in discussions about Zaveid and Eizen. In just a moment, without warning, it could all be over.

Speaking of Zaveid... when he can bring himself to leave Sorey's side, that's his next stop. It'd feel wrong to do this any way but in person.]

( b. voice )

I'm sorry to be the bearer of more bad news- we've had more than our share recently. For those who knew him, Dezel is no longer with us in the fleet.

...while I can't imagine he'd ask for it, if you're so inclined... offer up a prayer in his name. It's how our kind draws strength.

( c. iskaulit )

[Once the hardest parts are done, he starts doing the busy work, so no one else will have to. Step one is to gather up all the creatures Dezel's collected from various planets - the fish, slugs, and lizards - and carry them over to the Iskaulit. The fish go to his water tank, and for a while he watches them flutter about contentedly in their new home amidst the sea greens. After that, he ventures to Edna's mountain to see if they might find a home in all the nature there, though only with Edna's permission. Finally he spends a few hours in the interfaith center, curled up against the seraph altar, idly spinning about the pinwheel. During his whole Iskaulit visit, he's wearing a quasi-replica of Dezel's hat. It takes him a while to get himself home again.]

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[She's an Earth seraph, that's what she does. When the wind blows and the fire burn and the water flows, earth endures. Sure she can be broken a little, but she's always going to be there. To judge and loom and protect and stabilize.

Besides, it's nice to have someone to share her own sadness with that doesn't expect her to have all the answers despite her age.]

Imagine Rose's face if we brought her back an actual ghost.

....Hah. She'd pitch a fit. Probably punch Sorey across the room again.

[It's such a bittersweet memory, thinking of that day- their return to basics after enduring so much grief, their first official introduction to Rose and Dezel. That single day had led them down a path right to Heldalf, but not without its fits and starts.]

I'd pay good gald for that.

[As well as a Normin to bully. These people are so boring after a while.]

You brought things.

Right, yeah- here.

[he stretches out to tug the box closer so she can see it. there's a handful of fluffy, multicoloured slugs and the rainbow lizards inside, though a couple have crawled halfway up the sides already.]

Dezel... he kept these in his room. I figured they'd be happier here than stuck on the ship without him. Do you mind?

[She looks over and frowns at the creatures. They're cute—the slugs. She has her own rainbow lizard and she thinks he's cute.]

I suppose not. I can bring Dyle over to keep them company, I guess. Better than being stuck on The Blameless, I guess.

[She points to the fuzzy things.]

What are those exactly?

Oh, these? I'm not certain of the technical term for their species. People affectionately call them fluff slugs.

[He reaches in and lifts one out of the box, a multi-coloured floofy thing that squirms gently in his hand. He offers it out to her.]

Contrary to the name, they're quite soft.

Fluff slugs? [She smiles and holds out her bare hand to take the thing.

It's soft, like he said, but she sort of thought they would be, considering how they look.]

So, they were Dezel's huh? Not surprising. He's always had a thing for weird animals. And dogs.

They weren't his originally, funny enough. Sora got them from the planet, but when he vanished Dezel took them in. I think he was just as attached to Sora as his animals, but that kid was half a puppy himself.

[Edna looks over her shoulder at Mikleo and snickers.]

I always heard that like is attracted to like. Guess it's true.

In some ways little kids can be like puppies. Loud and excitable, can't sit still most of the time... Sorey was like that. I'm sure Rose was, too... maybe that's why Dezel liked him so much.

Sorey's still like that.

[She leans her head against his shoulder in a very trusting gesture. It's obvious she's comfortable with Mikleo, despite her general disposition.]

Rose too for that matter. What I don't understand is why you have such a problem with dogs.

I'm allowed to have a problem with whatever I like.

[or don't like, in his case. though it's less about not liking dogs and more just wanting them to keep their distance and stop barking.]

Not when your closest companion is a giant, slobbering, overly excited mutt, you're not.

[Of course, Edna doesn't like humans, but she doesn't care about dogs. They're less annoying and a whole lot less malevolence-inducing.]

But, I guess he's sort of cute. For a human.

He doesn't slobber... much.

[though sometimes the kissing can get kinda...

...yeah he's not gonna tell her that, ugh.]

You should tell him that. I'm sure he'd like the high praise.

I've seen him in his sleep.

[She can guess about the kissing. Gross, by the way. Very gross.]

No, his head is already big enough. I don't want him to start acting like Zaveid. One is too much.

Hah, that's true. But I won't ever let him get that bad.

[it's kind of their job to make sure his ego is kept in check.]

You coddle him. I can't trust you.

[Pot. Kettle. Something. Something.]

But, he's...getting better.

All thanks to the watchful eyes of his strict and doting seraphim.

[it's their job to keep him in line, after all!]

That's the only way to keep the humans in line. And you know it.

[And she's going to make sure that Sorey doesn't screw up.]

Not all of them are as practical as Rose or as stupidly pure as Alisha and Sergei.

Sorey falls somewhere in between the two. We sure picked a handful.

[well, "picked". some of them were sort of pulled into it one way or another.]

Maybe you had a choice.

[She shoulder bumps him before turning her attention back on her pets.]

But it could definitely be worse. Sorey's gotten better, and we can toughen up Alisha.

[He accepts the bump without complaint, instead leaning into it and calling up a bit of water into his palm, which he offers out to one of the lizards for a drink. He's not terribly big on their kind - he's a snob who prefers softer things - but they're pretty cute.]

I think she's well on her way. Traveling with Rose and getting the chance to be a proper Squire again did wonders for her, and here she can help us keep Sorey in line.

[She sees you playing with the rainbow lizards, Meebo. It's cute.]

Well, if it hadn't been for the fact that Sorey was going blind the first time and her having other things to do the second, I'm sure we could have had more to do with the real toughening up of her than just sort of watching it happen. But, you know, it could be worse.

It's fortunate that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. At least not so far.

[Though now that she's brought it into his mind-]

He hasn't shown any signs as far as you've seen, right?

[He assumes he'd notice first considering his usual proximity to Sorey, but it doesn't hurt to ask.]

[She looks up at him with a blank expression.]

No, he just seems like Sorey. Maybe a little slower now because Dezel's gone, but he's the same.

You're overthinking this, Mikleo.