"So, how far can we go down here?" Shini asks, referring to Elidon's purple labyrinth.
"As far as you need," He replies. He lags behind, looking at the ground. He kicks something, and it makes a shuffling noise as it skitters by. Shini notices. She stops.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just," he kicks again, "like sooo tired."
Chrisbopherd sighs, "How old are you?"
"25," Elidon says. Chrisbopherd and Shini look the hobbling old man up and down. They glance at his brittle knees peeking out from his wizard's shorts, his completely dry skin and lips, his- "Okay! Okay, fine, I'm not 25. I'm 36."
"Why are you acting like this?" Chrisbopherd asks.
"Like what? This is how I normally act?!"
"Why did you say the last part as a question?" Shini asks.
Elidon scoffs, "Look, why are you guys grilling me so much?" he addresses Chrisbopherd specifically, "Don't you need to get to the hospital??"
"Yeah, but I want you to be less annoying."
"Why do you care, bro???"
Shini interjects, "Now, see? What was that!"
"What!?" Elidon throws his hands up. The other two watch expectantly. He throws a couple strange hand gestures, but, seemingly, no magic happens, "I'm just being normal, you freaks."
"You're the-"
"Hey, guys," Kiddo shouts from down the hall, "what's going on?"
"Nothing," Elidon shouts/scoffs again.
"What's going on with him?" Kiddo shouts again.
"Nothing! I said nothinguh! Oh my god."
Shini shrugs, bouncing Chrisbopherd on her shoulder. "You have to be careful when you shrug. I could break more of my legs if I fall off.
"Right, sorry."
"Well, I mapped out this whole place," Kiddo shouts again, "It's the same as the inter- hold on," he walks up to the others. Shini glances around the hallway as he takes his time approaching. She notices that it's purple, and- "It's the same as the inter-territory tunnel layout."
Elidon rolls his eyes, "So everyone's just figuring out the tunnels now, huh?" He scoffs, "Who cares, even?"
He is ignored, "What do you mean 'inter-territory tunnels'?" Shini asks.
"There's a bunch of tunnels that connect all of the Enlightened Pure Territories. I think it's sewage, or maybe just irrigation. Either way, pretty unsanitary." Elidon doesn't even care, and rolls his eyes louder and harder.
"You say the whole acronym?" Shini asks.
"For what? The EPT?" Kiddo asks. Shini nods, "Yeah. Sometimes it helps people realize how weird the name is for our country. It highlights some of the hypocrisy with our leadership."
"Cool." Shini did think it was cool, but her "cool" came out in a way that made it seem like she was uninterested. The lands of the EPT, the most prominent and widespread nation in Grela, were mostly acquired through conquest and imperialism. Former leaders spreading themselves where they didn't belong. She got the message from the name of EPT, but still thought it was a little on the nose. "So how did you figure out these tunnels?"
"I used to get bullied a lot as a kid," Kiddo scratches his cheek, "I learned how to use them to navigate my home town, and then onward as I grew up," he laughs, "sometimes it's fun to just crawl around like a dirty little scoundrel."
"Yeah, I get that," Shini scratches her head with her free hand, "are you actually a kid?"
"What?" Kiddo asks, "Oh, no," he laughs again, "I'm probably older than you."
"I'm older than 10," Shini replies.
"Yeah, I'm 39," he sighs, "turning 20 next month."
"Sorry??" Chrisbopherd asks, and Elidon doesn't even care or anything. "39? You're 39 years old?" Chrisbopherd reiterates.
"I know, I know," he shrugs, "I don't look a day over 60, do I? Well, anyway," Kiddo shuffles to new conversation, "where did you need to take him?"
"Didn't you say you were a kid? I thought-"
Kiddo interrupts her, "What was your plan with the librarian?"
She pauses for a moment. "How'd you know about that?" She asks. She had never said anything about going to the librarian.
"You only know two people," Kiddo assures her, "and I would assume you don't want any more debt."
That would sate Shini for now, "Yeah. I do not."
"So then it is the librarian then?" Kiddo veers them back on track.
"Yeah. Yep. It is." There was nothing wrong with having to go see the librarian.
"You seem tense," Chrisbopherd notes, "can you please relax your shoulder? It's digging into my hip."
Shini obliges, de-tensing physically. She then plays it off very subtly, "Sure, sorry. Don't know what was up with that."
"Are you-"
Shini cuts Kiddo off, "I'm fine."
They stand in silence for a while. Shini holds her breath, and stares somewhere unimportant near Kiddo. The walls were just so purple! Kiddo and Chrisbopherd stare at her. It's a little difficult to tell with Chrisbopherd because of the strange angle. She could feel it. Elidon sighs. "Is something wrong, Elidon?" Shini exhales as she speaks, silently thanking him for the out.
His body language shifts immediately back to normal. He seems to grow, then hunch over to his original height and posture, "So you understand how that can be annoying," he rubs his chin.
"What?" She asks.
"You act similarly, but only notice when others act like it. It's an annoying way to act, but not if it's yourself."
She was taken aback, "That's not it. You exaggerated it."
"Ah, but your root behavior is similar, no? Or what is it really, then, if not that?"
She begins to speak, but stops. She starts again, but gives up. She shakes her head and frowns, "I don't know." she mutters.
"But there is a reason, right?" Elidon pries, "You said-"
"Wizard," Chris says up on her shoulder, commandeering the conversation, "nobody's having fun here."
Elidon takes a moment to finally read the room. He wrings his fingers, "Ah. Sorry, right."
"Can we go now?" Chrisbopherd asks, "My legs are broken."
Shini nods silently, and begins walking. Elidon lags behind a little, and Kiddo catches up to Shini. "Actually, I kinda forgot about your legs," he adds, "You've been hiding your pain pretty well."
Chrisbopherd shrugs, "I just feel at ease or something. I don't know, I'm not super agitated."
"That's pretty-" Shini starts veering off course, "left here-" Kiddo grabs a part of Shini's cloak, tugging towards himself. He feels much calmer than he did before. As a generally calm individual, this manifested in a strange way, "mmmmmmm. That's it," he slowly tugs on the cloak, and keeps moving forward. Shini shuffles behind him. "mmmm."
Elidon extends up to Shini's ear, "I think he's-" he glances at Kiddo, then back to Shini, "you know?"
She ignores him, both in defiance, and because she doesn't understand what he means. Kiddo lets go of the cloak, and shakes his head, his lips flapping as he does so. He regains his composure, "What's up with your cloak?"
"Do you want it?" Shini asks immediately, "It was forced upon me."
"By who?" Shini looks at Elidon. Kiddo looks at Elidon, "Do you know?"
"Yeah, I gave it to her."
"No, I meant do you know what it is?" Elidon smiles and shrugs in a coy fashion, "Okay, whatever, I don't care," Kiddo starts walking down the hall, "This way to-"
"Wait-" Elidon almost shouts, catching up to him, "it's a calming cloak. I gave it to her because she was-" he glances at her. She raises an eyebrow. Elidon leans in and whispers to Kiddo, "because she was incredibly neurotic."
Kiddo and Elidon look at her again. "No, what did you say?" She asks angrily.
Kiddo whispers into Elidon's ear now, "Did it help?"
"What did you say about me?" Elidon nods, "Oh yeah, doing your little wizard nod. Think you're so wizard."
"I'm so 'wizard'?" Elidon scoffs, "And you're so good with words."
"Wizard is a synonym for cool, you flounder."
"Oh, so now I'm a fish-"
"Wizard: worthy of the highest praise, in olden speak. Somebody in a play said it once."
"What play?"
"I don't remember."
"Okay, in a dead language and-"
"Please shut up." Chrisbopherd asks politely, "My legs are broken."
Shini realizes how neglectful she's been, "Right. Sorry," she mutters, and catches up to Kiddo. Elidon lags behind, muttering something snide that Shini ignores.
Many people ignore her on a regular basis, so Shini did not usually have anything to apologize for other than general discomfort caused to others via her existence. It was different, and strangely comforting, to have somebody to apologize to for something specific. She would have to apologize to Ghizh when he woke up, as well. Having a moment similar to another classic play, "Home Alone 2: Lost in Grela City," Shini realizes that they had forgot Ghizh at the arena, and stops in shock.
"What?" Elidon asks as he walks by.
"We forgot Ghizh," Elidon stops now.
"Oh, right," he scratches his chin, "well, I'll go back and get him."
Realizing that they had made barely any progress, as they had only moved about 30 feet, Shini understood that it was not so much a big deal. It was to Chris, though. At least enough for him to notice Shini's concern.
"I thought you didn't care about him."
"I know. A lot of feelings are hard to say." She realizes all too late that she just said something vulnerable, and starts walking immediately.
Chris and Kiddo admire the rare moment of maturity from Shini, "Yeah. That's a good point," Chris says as they move onward. They round the corner, and start making some decent progress towards the library.
Elidon returns to the previous spot, "He's still injured, resting in- hello?" He looks around, realizing he had been left behind, "Well, darn," he turns around, and heads back to the arena.
As Shini and her group head towards the librarian, and Elidon heads towards the arena, the gods remain as they were, in the material world. They grow ever stronger, as Shini grows ever complacent.