2023-12-21: A Ceasefire
- Log: A Ceasefire
- Cast: Xander Lovell, Riley Arwell, Dean Stark, Avril Vent Fleur
- Where: Viridian Forest
- Date: December 21, 2023
- Summary: Dean and Avril, scouting in Viridian Forest, come across Riley and Xander. Due to recent turn of events, they agree to a ceasefire, at least where Nede is concerned.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
As soon as everyone arrived in this new and strange world, the Fangs of Valmar peeled away from the group as discreetly as possible to find a moment to get their bearings. Or... that was the idea. It seems they haven't made it very far through Viridian Forest, what with Xander sitting peacefully out in the soft grasses with Riley lying miserably in his lap.
Xander sighs at whatever it is Riley's just said and gives his head a patronizing pat.
"You can tell them whatever you want. But I think they'll take it poorly when don't interpret my behavior the same way you do. And I'd hate to see you upset again."
Oh.
They haven't made any progress toward much of anything, it seems. They were in the middle of an argument. Maybe? If it's an argument, Xander is being unusually calm about it.
In fact, he's not even going to leap up and draw knives about hearing sudden sounds or the approach of footsteps.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley is still full of woe, although he doesn't seem to have any objection to patronizing head pats. He reaches up to lightly shake Xander in frustration.
"Could you at least PRETEND you're not going to destroy the world the next time you see any of them so you don't get them riled up again for no reason??" Maybe New Xander is better at acting... (he thinks he doubts this)
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean's wanted to check in on the Fangs of Valmar, but... well, they didn't exactly leave a forwarding address when they escaped from their last fight. Dean thus had to focus on what he *could* do, which was help out with the rocket to Marduk, and then go to Marduk, and then apparently end up here on... wherever this is. He wasn't expecting that Riley and Xander would *also* join--did they sneak on, or was Dean just in a completely different part of the rocket??--and so it's while exploring this new world with Avril (Rebecca is back at camp, prepping dinner) that, by sheer coincidence, a couple of familiar, arguing voices sound.
"Huh. That sounds like Xander and Riley," Dean comments to Avril, tilting his head. They walk a little further. The things they're saying become audible. "That REALLY sounds like Xander and Riley..." ...and then they come into view through the brush. "Wait, it IS Xander and Riley!" he declares, more than loud enough to be heard.
Of course, given that they were talking about destroying or not destroying the world, really, Dean should have figured that out by point two.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
With some of their group still unable to move (specifically Gwen, this is all about Gwen) movement through the forest had proven an impossible matter, with many opting to wait and see before going on ahead. Between that and the aftershocks of their confrontation with the Ten Wise Men and Innominat, most of those who had come to Marduk on the rocket are precisely where the jump between worlds had left them.
In better condition than most, Avril had proposed a scouting exercise while the others stayed behind. Already, this world seemed both highly unnatural and comprised several new and unexpected dangers--
Including that strange ball that had eaten Avile (temporarily) and a strange green bug (...less temporarily?). Avril still has hers in her possession. She may have tied a length of string around it.
...Just in case.
So far, they haven't encountered anything too strange. She spotted one of those strange yellow animals from afar, and saw some birds, but the forest has proven to be a largely (strangely) safe place to progress through. Perhaps this is just as well, given everything that's happened, and it's another thing they can report back regarding to the others. Though...
"They... are familiar," Avril hazards. There is a long pause.
"Dean, I think that is Xander and Riley," Avril says, perhaps in the same moment that he utters likewise.
Another pause follows. "They... were aboard Marduk, were they not?" Avril gazes at Dean for a moment more before making her way through the brush ahead to ask of the couple the question that's burning at the forefront of her mind:
"Why were you aboard the Marduk?"
...Avril can be terribly unsubtle sometimes.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
"I think absorbing more of Valmar is going to make it pretty obvious."
Xander glances up, seeing Dean and Avril. His eye narrows a fraction, and he rests his hand on Riley protectively. Not protective of any physical harm -- Xander doesn't expect that from Dean and Avril right now -- but as a pre-emptive attempt to soothe him.
"Your friends are here. Do you want me to send them away?"
Riley had been hurt by all the talk thrown back and forth at the battle in the cathedral. But seeing as Riley probably very much does not want any of that hostility, Xander shrugs at Avril.
"Adventure." He glances down at Riley again. "Or misguided redemption?"
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
"I mean before thaa.... oh shit." Riley stands up quickly and does adopt a physically protective stance, far less sure than Xander that this interaction won't come to blows. He doesn't know what to expect from anybody anymore. He doesn't draw a weapon, just holding out his arm, but of course, the two of them can summon vines and things from their bodies.
"I... don't know," he says, of Xander's offer to send them away. He looks between the two of them, trying to gauge their intent, and feeling like that same uncertainty is echoing back at him.
"...I wanted to bring Xander to space so we snuck onto the rocket," he supplements. "And... I don't know, calling it redemption is embarrassing. I wanted to be helpful or something. Are we in a situation now where you guys feel like you need to kill us on sight, or are we... all right for a bit?" He waves vaguely at the whimsical new world around them. "I don't think we need to cause any problems, here, specifically. Right, Xander?"
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Wait, they were? I didn't notice!" Dean utters to Avril. Though when he thinks back, he thinks he got the sense that they were around during that big fight with the Wise Men... though he'd been so caught up with fighting monsters that he hadn't paid *that* much attention.
He walks with her through the brush to approach the Fangs. Avril asks the obvious question, so Dean looks them both over for signs of injuries. He frowns when Xander calls them Riley's friends, as though they aren't his too... but they did draw that line in the sand last fight, didn't they. He doesn't protest it.
"Well..." Dean looks over at Avril. "I don't think we have to fight right this second, as long as you guys aren't trying to end the world." He looks back at Riley. "So I think we're all right for now."
Plus Riley makes a point that this is such a nice area that a fight to the death would really ruin the ambiance. Dean walks over to hunker down nearby the Fangs, though not so close that he crowds the two. "To space, huh? It *was* a really cool trip." He pauses and looks at Xander. "Is your whole, you know..." He gestures at one eye. "...calmed down?"
He means how *extra* floral Xander was for the recent battle. Obviously he's still cursed in general.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
They were, which is a fact that Avril herself had only realized on reflection thanks to being hit by the full brunt of Domain shortly after -- though it must also be said that of their particular little group, Avril and Avril alone had managed to stun her opponent long enough to break closer to the rest. Dean and Rebecca had simply been too mobbed by those strange monsters to try, let alone notice the presence of certain others.
Her eye is on Xander as she makes her approach. Just like the Fangs, Avril doesn't bear a weapon -- but just as they do, she doesn't need a sword to be dangerous.
There is perhaps a moment's silence as Riley answers her question. "You snuck onto the rocket?" Avril echoes, crinkling her brow. It's almost as if she were trying to wrap her head around it... "Why?" Why space, she might mean in particular. Did they intend to do something in Marduk, or...
"I do not believe any of us are in the condition to fight," she says simply, when Riley asks if they're good for the moment or if she's going to kill them on sight. "I do not have my sword."
Again, as if -- and the Fangs will know this -- that would serve to stop her, anyway. Rather more to the point is their recent brush with an Empyrean's domain... and the fights that they had all engaged in immediately prior.
Avril glances Dean's way. "As Dean says, so long as you do not aim to destroy the world this moment... then we are all right for now."
It's a ceasefire that will have to do, under the circumstances.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander might have once argued they were never friends. He'd have bristled and blushed and stormed off about it. Currently, Xander exist in a state of eerie serenity.
With Riley going on the defensive, Xander gets up, unhurried. He grips Riley's shoulder gently. "Riley."
Why, Avril asks. Xander looks to Riley for the answer.
He sighs again. "Right. I have no desire to fight at the moment." It would be fair if anyone else did, though. Xander wouldn't begrudge it. That's just the natural consequence of being a thing that's a natural enemy to this world, and becoming worse of one. Thankfully, it seems no one wants to get into it, even though they and Avril easily could, unarmed as they are. But even with's Dean approach, Xander does not ruffle.
He does bring his hand over his eye at being asked after that floral situation. "Mm? Oh. For now, yes."
At this proximity, and with Xander moving his hand up to his own face, however, they can spot the difference: Xander's fingertips have gone dark and scaled, and in place of human nails, he has longer, curved talon of claws.
As for their injuries, there are several burns and bruises, but they're already fading as if half healed. It seems Xander's already started treatment for their wounds. But it's no surprise they don't want to fight right now.
But any wounds from the Domain's influence would be less visible on all four of them.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Simply wanting to go to space doesn't seem to be sufficient as an answer for Avril, and Riley has to think a moment because he thought it was self explanatory. "It's just kind of... exciting, isn't it? To be out in the beyond, with all the stars...?"
Dean and Avril agree that they do not have to fight to the death here and now, and Riley's eyes sparkle with relief. A reprieve...! All of his Drifter friendships aren't canceled...! His posture relaxes. "I'm so glad... I hope your head is okay, Dean." After he clonked it with a shovel a while back, he means.
Xander also agrees to be peaceful for the moment, and Riley gives him a grateful sparkle as well. If he could just keep that up for three more years...!
For Riley's part, he has some energy burns from the battle with the Wise Men, but the Fangs have already taken some time to tend to wounds with Xander's alchemy, so they're no longer vibrant.
"Space was pretty cool," A few too many floating platform puzzles in that space station for his liking, "But this place seems even cooler. There are islands in the sky... Oh, do you know where we are?"
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
That's true, Xander definitely would have argued that. That's always been part of Xander's personality. But he's a lot more... or maybe a lot less... *something*, now. It's hard to pin down. It's maybe best described as if the eye of a storm could be a person. Either way, it's definitely connected to his trying to become Valmar. That much, Dean is sure of.
"I have my ARMs," Dean says, raising his hands, after Avril says she doesn't have her sword; Twin Fenrir flashes into them. They flash out the next instant as he settles his hands on his knees. "But I don't need them out."
If any of them were going to fight, it'd be Avril and Xander. If the two of them are willing to call a truce for now, then that's great by Dean. He shares a nod with her, then looks over at the Fangs.
Specifically, he looks at Xander's fingers and furrows his eyebrows in concern at the changes that haven't gone away, but... he doesn't say anything about it. Instead, he nods. "Well... That's something, at least."
He grins and laughs when Riley offers his own hopes for his head. "Yeah, I'm fine! Kaguya dropped a wall on my head once and I made it out fine," he replies, rapping knuckles on his skull. "Thanks for saying so, though, Riley! I know you didn't mean to hit me that hard."
Space *is* cool. Not cooler than Golems, but it was fascinating to see. Where are they now, though? Dean shrugs. "No idea. It's a really nice place, though. It's really peaceful and relaxing. Even the monsters are really laidback."
He looks back at Xander then. "So you really are serious about becoming Valmar, huh." He pauses. "Have you two... talked that through?" It sounded like they were in the middle of that very topic when he and Avril chanced upon them, but...
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
She glances sidelong at Dean again as he brings out his twinned weapons only to send them away once more. Yes, if they had to fight, they could, but-- no one wants to fight today.
Someday, so long as their respective paths continue, Avril will have to fight against the Fangs again.
But it does not need to be today, and that is the crux of Avril's argument at this time and place. They and their other friends are tired and wounded: let them not be pulled into another battle so soon.
But as Dean asks about Xander's arm, that arm Xander lifts as if to almost silently answer his question. Xander has been marked by whatever he had done in the cathedral. Avril, ever so slightly, narrows her eyes, her attention zoomed in on the appearance of that hand.
Her attention shifts from Xander to Riley.
"Please do not hit Dean with a shovel again," she says, quite soberly. It's the sort of tone that suggests that there will be consequences, however formally she might phrase the statement.
...Even if, as Dean states (and Avril certainly remembers) Kaguya once dropped an entire wall on his head once.
Where are they now, though?
"We are on Nede," Avril says to them. "This is another planet."
But more specific than that?
"...I do not know where we are on Nede, however." She pauses. "This is not a natural forest."
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
It's entire possible Xander knows why Avril's asking about Marduk. But if he does, he isn't showing it, and Xander's always been a known terrible actor and liar who wears his heart on his sleeve. Yet what Dean's thinking... there's some disconcerting truth to it.
A fight's inevitable. But today's a bad day for it.
Xander relaxes, seeing Dean and Riley get along, at least. If it makes Riley feel better...
"I didn't hate it," Xander says of space. Some things don't change.
(He had not seen Dean take that blow to the head either. It sounds like it wasn't the first. It may not be the last, given Drifter life...)
"It's the only way to save him," Xander says, which is its own answer. "He'd probably like you to know that if I had other options, I'd take them. I'd say that's obviously given, but apparently the church actually wanted every possible consequence."
He shares a glance with Riley over whether they've talked. "With what little time we've had. There wasn't much time for discussion before it happened. Even I didn't know that was going to be the plan that morning."
Nede... Despite Xander's needs concerning Filgaia and Valmar's divided body, he only taps his lip in thought at this news. The claws do not break skin. He seems already completely comfortable with their handling.
"Not natural as in artificial, or not natural as in evil?"
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley gives a sort of sheepish smile as Dean easily accepts his well wishes with regard to the shovel clonk. Riley does like to be forgiven, and he was starting to think his days of being forgiven for things were over... but he does almost feel like it should be a little harder?
Avril, at least, asks him not to do it again. He lifts his hands in a pose of surrender. "I would love to never hit Dean with a shovel again," he offers. Unfortunately this is contingent on a bunch of other wishes no one seems interested in granting over the long term.
Dean mentions laid back monsters. "We haven't started exploring yet, but that sounds... great. I'd like to befriend a monster!" Avril, meanwhile, supplies the name of the place. "Nede..." Riley tries it out as if it provides any additional information. Well, it IS good to have something to call it.
Dean asks if the Fangs have talked over Xander's plan. Riley winces a little. "We have done quite a lot of talking since the cathedral," Riley laments. "I'm pretty sure Xander was just about to come around to seeing it my way." This is extremely wishful thinking. Xander was almost supernaturally resolute before he absorbed a personality-altering portion of god power. Now it's like arguing with the ocean... But, just the same, Xander does mention that he said he was open to other possibilities. Riley nods with perhaps a bit more enthusiasm than this small concession merits. "So if you think of any more ideas... for... other things we could do that would let us live longer, or de-Valmar ourselves... ... that would help us save the world." His smile cracks slightly. "From us..."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean scratches his head when Avril makes that solemn request of Riley. He's not totally sure that's a request Riley can honor, and though Dean thinks differently from most people, it's not beyond his notice that Riley doesn't actually make any kind of promise. Of course, a promise from Riley isn't worth much, is it...
"Oh yeah, planet-wise, we're on some place called Nede. Wherever that is," Dean adds, nodding to Avril. That's been brought up. But beyond that, yeah, he has no idea.
He does laugh when Xander says he didn't hate space. "Wow! He says he loved it, Riley!" he declares, elbowing Riley playfully as he winks. Th-the rare Dean tease...!
He does sober as the conversation turns to Valmar--as he should, given that he brought it up in the first place. "That sucks," he says quietly. But he knows they did try to find another way. He blinks, though, at Xander's implication. "Wait, you only learned about that becoming-Valmar stuff that *day*?" He looks back at Riley. The face he makes at Riley's assertion says everything he thinks about that--but he brightens a moment later. "I'll keep thinking about it! If I hear about anything promising, I'll let you both know right away," he says with a firm nod.
It might all turn out as Xander suggests, but at least they're still open to try. That's all any of them can hope for.
Meanwhile, Dean forgiving Riley... is at least not specifically about Riley. He's never been the type to hold a grudge. The only exception he's met so far is Janus Cascade, and Janus is dead now. As for the laidback monsters: "Yeah, some of them are pretty cute! I think you *could* make friends with some of them if you wanted, Riley."
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
He'd love to never hurt Dean like that again, Riley says, but it's not something he can promise.
Avril's expression softens with something cousin to pity. "...I know," she says at last, looking at him for that long, long moment.
They're tragic monsters in the very truest sense: if they choice had been on the table, of course they never would have chosen this path. But with no other way forward for them except to commit to it or die, they had opted to live and thus...
And thus, what Avril had said in the cathedral remains true. She remains their enemy so long as they continue along this path, and if they do not continue along this path, they will die.
Valmar is a cruel god, without question.
But for now, strangers in a strange land, they'll have their truce.
"Yes," Avril agrees, nodding the once. "I do not know if they are friendly, but they do not appear to be hostile. Only Lunata had trouble with one of them."
To be specific, Lunata had become tangled in a sticky string from that one large green bug creature, but it had been tame enough that Ida had been able to remove the creature from her head without trouble.
"As in artificial. It is natural, but it is as if it has been constructed or arranged that way. Have you not noticed these wide pathways through the forest? It is artful, and yet..." Avril shakes her head.
There were even these plants blocking the way that looked like they could be cut... if only she had a blade. Alas.
Dean, though, asks again about the Fangs' plans and Avril glances away from both of the Fangs as if troubled. "If that was not the plan you had that morning, Xander, then what gave you the idea to try that?" she asks.
If only there was another way. She glances over at Dean, trying to meet his gaze. A third way. Yet, is that not something that is too much to hope for, sometimes?
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
A rare tease! But Xander regards Dean and Riley impassively. That's -- that's not the right reaction for a Xander at all!
Once Riley mentions befriending a monster, Xander's eye lights up with an uncharacteristic amount of childlike wonder. But blink a few times and it's gone. That's... the right reaction? Maybe?
As Avril describes the forest, he considers again. "...But purposeful." It hadn't occurred to Xander before. But then again, his relationship to plants and their growth is... unique.
Dean seems surprised that Xander only learned he could possibly become a dark god that day and then launched into the idea. It may be hard to imagine now, the way he's so at peace with the idea, that Xander might have been grappling direly with the information he had and the choices -- and lackthereof -- that were sitting in front of him.
Xander addresses Avril. "Pope Zera's rather wide breadth of research. The church's goal was to revive Valmar for their own ends. They may still want to. So. Something else to keep in mind." For them more than him, in this context. The Fangs could die, but Valmar will remain an issue. "After exhausting my options, I thought the church might, at least, hold a clue. I had hoped to discover something a little less extreme, but we were dying at the time." A little more bitterness enters his tone: "If you do find anything I missed throughout the years, I'd be more than happy to call the whole thing off."
He's done enough digging to know there are no other answers, and he's tired of making himself pretend there are. If he wants to survive -- if he wants Riley to survive -- he must commit without doubt. Avril understands it, and the cruelty that it is. He glances to her briefly, as if sensing her own convictions.
There is only respect there.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley shies away from Avril's look after a moment, giving an apologetic smile. He does wish he could have actually promised.
Dean gets a laugh out of Xander saying he didn't hate space, and Riley grins. "Oh, you've learned his language! Yes, that's glowing praise from Xander."
Dean confirms the monsters are befriendable. "Xander!! We should make friends with laid back monsters!" Thank goodness they don't have to threaten this world too, at least. Two of them is more than enough.
Avril mentions something seems artificial about their surroundings, and Riley looks around with that in mind. "I can kind of see it... maybe someone really did design this place... it's suspiciously delightul." He doesn't seem bothered by this possibility, though.
There's a grateful smile at Dean as he offers to help them think of another way. Riley isn't sure he's ready to actually believe in another way turning up, after the dissappointment of their most recent attempt at finding a way out of the curse... but he appreciates it as a means of bolstering the temporary peace.
Xander is less happy to hear the offer, and Riley silently takes his hand as he notices the edge creeping into his voice. Xander has tried so hard to save them, and he's finally found a way. There is just an unfortunate new joke on them that 'the way' is horrifying.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Right... You mentioned you found someone's research and used it for yourself," Dean says. He frowns--both at Xander's total lack of reaction to the tease, and how this research was so the *church* could revive Valmar. "Why would they want to do that?" He doesn't *doubt* Xander, but--it boggles the mind. Surely there couldn't be *that* many people in Xander and Riley's positions, where they have no choice if they want to live.
He grins back at Riley, though, rubbing a finger under his nose. "Hehe~ It was a lot of hard work!" ...even if Xander seems to be speaking a totally different language now.
Avril points out that their surroundings are natural in a sculpted sort of way. Dean takes a look around with the others. "Huh... Yeah, I see that. It's more like an orchard than a forest, now that you mention it." He grew up around an orchard; he can tell.
He sobers, too, at Xander's bitter sarcasm. He doesn't take it personally. At this point, if they did find a way, it would be sheer dumb luck. Dean gets that, too. He was just happy that Riley was still willing to ask for help.
"...Well, me and Avril were just passing through, so we ought to get back to that. You guys were talking before we came by, right? We'll let you get back to that," he says, clambering back up to his feet. "I know you guys need to do a lot more of that." He meets Avril's eyes and nods. A third way would be great, but that's what they've been searching for all this time without success. You can do anything as long as you don't give up--but sometimes there's something or someone in your way that won't give up, either. "C'mon--let's get going."
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Yes. It does not appear to be harmful, but-- ah," she says, moving to draw out the strange sphere. It's colored interestingly, the top half red and the bottom white, with a black stripe around the middle. There's something like a white button on the front. It's been further wrapped in string and tied in a careful knot.
"Be careful if you see one of these," she says, solemnly. "It appears to be a trap. It absorbed one of those green bugs and Xiumei's friend into it."
The fact that Avile was in drone form at the time may or may not be an important fact that Avril has accidently omitted.
"So we should be careful," Avril finishes, putting the sphere away again.
(After seeing Hannah throw hers away and it immediately ate a bug, she is concerned about letting the sphere get away from her in case it causes further harm...!)
"The head of church... was attempting that?" Avril sounds aghast at the thought. "Why would anyone wish such a thing?"
For her, awakened into this world only a handful of years prior, the fact of 'the church' and 'organized religion, generally' carry not as much weight as they might for most others who were born and raised in Filgaia and beyond. Her primary true spirital understanding is that of the Baskar tradition, which...
...can make no claim to such organization as Granas' faithful might.
"You had said that," and here Avril frowns, as if in thought, "that Granas was dead." Or never existed, possibly. "Is Granas not the enemy of Valmar? ...Yet, if Valmar lived while Granas does not..." Slowly, Avril exhales a sigh. Her gaze grows unfocused.
Listen, and I shall speak to you of power. To wield power is to become strong while remaining weak. So easily can another topple your throne. Granas is dead and Valmar lives: what would the common folk think should it become known? whispers the thing in the dark corners of her mind.
Once known, it would have been a weakness. Once known, no others could know it. And once known, of course, only one path had been set before Pope Zera.
"...No, I... do understand," she says slowly, rising from her reverie. "I understand why he did that. ...If we should find another way, then... we will help you." She pauses.
"If we do not, I will do what I must. On this, I give my word." It can be no other way and here, too, she will not lie, even to spare them.
Her gaze meets Dean's and she nods as if to already confirm her answer to his suggestion. "Yes. Please..." she starts to say only to trail off. What precisely do you say to people who might just attempt to destroy the world? "...Take care of yourselves," she decides, in the end.
It's the sort of sentiment she'd learned by watching Rebecca and Dean, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
"Yes, yes, we'll make friends with the monsters," Xander tells Riley with the faintest of smiles. Xander, don't sound like this is a favor to Riley, and like befriending monsters isn't a deep seeded desire that will repair at least a few of the holes in your heart.
But a Pikachu can't stop Xander from ending the world. Or it could, with enough liberal application of Thunder.
Avril offers a warning, and Xander squints at the contraption. He nods. For now, they are enough in this together that they should all be made aware. But Xander doesn't plan to keep information from them either, if they ask.
Xander shakes his head at Dean. "Something about purging sin and the creation of an ideal world. It sounded not unlike that entity... Innominat. Which is curious... That is the sort of stagnation Valmar was created to destroy in the first place, based on my other research." He tilts his head at Avril when she mentions understanding. "...But perhaps there was more to it."
Something she understands, but he does not.
"I expect nothing less," Xander says of her word.
Would the Valmar plan ever work for the church's purposes? Xander doesn't think it would have. But Xander only needs to become a god that won't want to eat itself. And Riley. The rest is an unfortunate side effect.
The sad truth is, Xander's not even being sarcastic. If there really were a third way... Riley takes his hand, and Xander is, briefly, startled before squeezing back.
But there's little more to be gained from conversation. Xander nods one to Dean and Avril. "...Mm." A returned sentiment, without the hypocrisy of having to say so, from his position. "The Fangs are sated for a while yet. So don't worry about focusing on more pressing matters."
It's the best farewell he can offer, for now.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Yes, unfortunately, the language of Xander has had some recent revisions... even Riley feels he's still learning it... though it may actually be more straightforward than the old one.
Avril shares a warning about trap-orbs. "It absorbed Xiumei's friend??" That sounds serious!
Avril echoes Dean's hope of finding another way, but reiterates her resolve. "As long as you don't give up on us too soon..." he says hopefully. There's a lot of parts to collect before Xander is in any serious danger of ending the world, right? Maybe they can hang on in limbo a little longer.
But it sounds like they are still settling into their unexpected surroundings, as are the Fangs, and have more exploring to do. Riley waves at them as they depart. "Bye! Good luck in the new world! Thanks for not fighting us!"