009; console; video

[ruinsprofessor]

[Raine has spent much of her week attempting to handle several things at once, and as a result she looks both tired and slightly harried when she appears on video. All the same, there's something she hasn't handled which needs now to be outsourced.]

I'm looking for a Foreigner who arrived here a week or two ago. He's about a head taller than I am-- broad shoulders, auburn hair, carries a single longsword. His name is Kratos.

Should you see him, please don't try to apprehend or otherwise attack him. Simply inform him that I need to speak to him.

[She doesn't know why he's avoiding her. Although she has her suspicions, to confirm any of them would require talking to Kratos and finding out when he's from. Raine hesitates, then adds, very carefully:]

Depending on his point of origin, I may have some messages to relay to him from Lloyd.

...Thank you.

[And back to work. Perhaps this will bear fruit.]

Comments

[lasergrenades]

Uh. [Pepper likes to think she's a good liar, but honestly:] I'm not great at lying. I wouldn't say terrible. I mean, I got away with using my school ID as a government badge once and I'm good enough at it to infiltrate a high tech corporate building during business hours.

[She's a pretty bad liar, even so. She's better at just not saying anything.

Gene does know how lucky he is to have Pepper and Tony in his life now, after everything that happened. They're all lucky, really.]

Well, that's something. I'm sort of in a similar situation - I'm from right before an invading alien ship explodes, but my best friend Tony is from after and said everything turns out as well as it could and we avoid Armageddon. [Something is nagging at her about this, maybe because Zelos is turning more boisterous on an otherwise serious subject. It doesn't feel like he's lying, although he's apparently good at that by his own admission, but it does feel like she's not getting the whole picture.] And it could have had to do with flirting. C'mon, you have to admit it would be funny if it was.

[choiced]

[Zelos imagines a teenager using their school badge to pretend they're a member of the Imperial Guard, and infiltrating the Lezareno company's headquarters in Altamira. Regal wouldn't be that careless, so maybe this is after Regal gets arrested. It's a stupid, awesome thing to do; Pepper would have fit in really well with Lloyd's group.

... No. Like Raine said, she's attached. Zelos's feelings are not allowed to go there. Lloyd was bad enough.]

I don't have to admit anything. Especially when you're wrong. Hey, I have an idea -- let's stop talking about Kratos. Let's talk about whatever we were talking about before Kratos came up.

[There's a pause while Zelos remembers that Kratos is literally the whole point of Raine's post.]

Let's talk about you. How long've you been here?

[lasergrenades]

[...well alright then. That definitely doesn't speak to some deep-seated issues between Zelos and Kratos, no, not at all.

But since they're on a public network, and she doesn't know Zelos very well yet, she decides to let the subject drop. For now.]

Oh, good, I'm great at talking about me. [It's said as a joke, but it's also true. She's just good at talking in general.] It'll be two years at the end of May. I was lucky that I wasn't on my own when I got here. It would've been a lot harder to adjust.

[choiced]

You've got people here from your world?

[Zelos was really hoping he wouldn't have any from his -- hadn't even been considering it as a possibility, really, until Raine contacted him. But that doesn't mean he's incapable of understanding why someone else might find that comforting.]

Is the jealous boyfriend one of them?

[lasergrenades]

[Pepper laughs for a moment, but it's tinged with a sadness she tries to hide. If only Bakura were from her world. Then maybe they could keep him alive.]

Yeah, the two guys I live with are from home. The jealous boyfriend is not. He's from another version of Earth, so it's similar at least, but his has magic and ours doesn't. He's been teaching me, though.

[choiced]

You live in a world without magic?

[This is the part Zelos can't wrap his head around. Does no magic also mean no elves or half-elves? Does it mean no summon spirits? Does it mean no mana?

But even that isn't as confusing as what he asks about next, frowning.]

What do you mean, a version of earth? We're standing on earth right now. You can't have more than one version of it.

[lasergrenades]

Yep. No magic.

[Unless you counted in stories or films, but to keep things clear Pepper doesn't say this. She shakes her head.]

Er, sorry. Earth with a capital 'E'. It's the name of my planet. Generic, I know, but it's ours.