Dreaming and Chasing Promises
Chapters X.
Windows of the Soul
I look at them, and they look back with those incredible eyes, smile, and it pathetically makes my entire day.
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"Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
Fremde, etranger, stranger!
Gluklich zu sehen, je suis enchante, happy to see you,
Bleide, reste, stay!" Yuan sighed, not really paying attention to the act going on onstage. He was drowning himself in a bottle of the finest whiskey they had in the place, trying drink away his depression. The music was so unfitting of his mood that he ignored it completely.
"Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
Im cabaret, au cabaret, to cabaret!
Meine damen und herren, mesdames et messieurs, ladies and gentlemen,
Comment ca va? Do you feel good?
Ich bin euer confrecier, je suis votre compere, I'm your host!
Und sagen.
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
Im cabaret, au cabaret, to cabaret!"as soon as Martel had allowed him to leave on the excuse that he was tired, he had hauled ass over here. It was strange, he was actually getting drunk for once! It was amazing, he was mortal and immortal at the same time. Of course, there were problems, while he couldn't die of alcohol poison, if he got that way, he would find himself with either a permanent hangover, or permanently drunk, though at this point both seemed to hold some appeal to him. He looked up at the stage and noticed the act was changing, an elderly woman talked with another person, who had arrived from a train apparently and began to sing.
"You say fifty gald, I say one hundred gald.
A difference of fifty gald, why should that stand in our way?
As long as the room's to let, the fifty that I will get is fifty more then I had yesterday, aha!
When you're as old as I- Is anybody as old as I? What difference does it make?"Yuan found her amusing as she sang the song, especially as she was dressed in such modest clothes while the regular strippers, dressed in cabaret outfits, danced behind her shamelessly. His thoughts were getting mixed up in the show he realised.
"An offer comes, you take!
For the sun will rise and the moon will set,
and you'll learn how to settle for what you get,
it'll all go on if we're here or not.
So, who cares, so what?
So, who cares, so what?" he blinked, that made sense. he just... needed to accept that whether or not Kratos loved him or not was unimportant, it wasn't like him not being loved by Kratos would destroy the entire universe. The old lady departed, and after a while, a new face appeared, she was very beautiful, and dressed in far fancier clothes than anybody had come out with yet, even it was just a silk pants with slits up the sides.
"Mama,
Thinks I'm living in a convent.
A secluded little convent,
In the southern part of Meltokio.
Mama,
Doesn't even have an inkling that I'm working in a nightclub,
In a pair of lacy pants." Yuan blinked, the girl had redish pink hair, was half-elven, and for some reason reminded him of Zelos.
"So, please, sir,
If you run into my mama,
Don't reveal my indiscretion,
Give a working girl a chance.
Hush up, don't tell mama!
Shush up, tell mama!
Don't tell mama whatever you do!"Could it be his little sister? He'd never mentioned her, but Yuan would be an idiot if he didn't do some research. But... Wasn't Seles only thirteen or something? He watched without paying to much attention as she began her second song, surprised to see some resemblances to Zelos in her, but there was no way in hell she could be Seles, right? Certainly not, they would never let a little girl like her into a nightclub!
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Seles Wilder, 5'3, 16 years old, a pinkette who just couldn't admit she loved her annoying brother, cleaned up after the show. So, lying about her age probably wasn't a good idea, but still, if her idiot of a brother wasn't going to visit her, and she was allowed out of the damn abbey, she might as well do something she'd always wanted to do. Seles had always been good at singing, and the cabaret tour had welcomed her like a long lost sibling to the show. Many claimed she was just made for the part, of course, they all thought she was eighteen and had experience. In all truths, she was just going by what she'd heard her brother talk about, not to her of course, but when one can escape the abbey with ease and stalk somebody for awhile, they hear things, things they normally wouldn't hear.
"Good job Seles." Joss, her boss said, smiling happily at her, "Why, in a few years, you'll be going professional and leaving us all behind!" she smiled, always happy in this free environment.
"You know I wouldn't do that, I'd drag you all along with me!" smiling innocently up at him, Joss was suddenly uncomfortable, he felt somehow he'd made the wrong decision about accepting Seles, he really got that feeling too often for his liking, but he shrugged it off, better leave it alone.
"Go ahead and relax for awhile." he went off to go relax about himself.
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Genis and Kratos sat across from each other, just staring. Genis was wearing a pair of pajamas, having had to change into some sort of clothes after soaking his casual ones, and not particulary liking the idea of his uniform getting wet as well. Kratos was unwillingly cloaked in some pastor robes, and glaring heavily at the half-elf.
"So... you really have no clue about anything?"
"No, I don't." he answered shortly, having received several variants of the question in the last few hours. Genis sighed.
"Sorry, it 's just.... well, it's really weird to see you act like this."
"What do you mean?" Kratos asked confused, his head tilted to the side slightly.
"It's just... well.... if you hadn't gone to Derris Kharlan you would've won the badass award for the.... 4,029th time this year." Kratos blinked.
"Wait, I went where?" Genis sighed, and went to explain in great detail the journey of the Chosen, connecting the worlds, Kratos departure, and when it still seemed to elude Kratos, went on to explain as much as he knew about Kratos's own past, not much, but enough to explain some things.
"So... yeah, that's as much as I know." Kratos put his head in his hands.
"I am an idiot! I'm a terrible person, father, and friend!" a large thud signaled the intimate relationship Genis's hand and the table now had with Kratos head.
"You are not going to go soap opera on me!" Genis shouted angrily, "We all have problems, so don't you dare think you have it worse than anybody else, you are going to go and find Lloyd, you are going to apologise for being a terrible father to him, avoid getting pummeled by his boyfriend, then tell him you have amnesia, do you hear me?" Kratos stared blankly at him.
"Lloyd has a boyfriend?" another loud thud signaled the fact that two heads now had a very intimate relationship with the poor cracked table -angel heads could do that.
"This is really getting us nowhere." Genis murmured.
"Genis, and... Teddy I believe your name was?"Kratos blinked, then remembered that Genis had given him a false name as Kratos was one generally wide spread by now, along with the other saviours of the world, though some were more popular others.
"Yes." 'Teddy' agreed.
"I was wondering if either of you two would be interested in joinng the five O'clock mass?"
"No thank you pastor." Genis said.
"Mass?" questioned Kratos at the same time. Then stopped himself from hitting himself over the head, Genius had covered this, they worshipped 'Martel', and though she was actually a summon spirit, nobody was aware of it other than the group, and therefore the religion remained widespread.
"Yes, have you not heard of Martel?" questioned the pastor, subtle horrified.
"Oh, I have, it's just... where I come from we don't have mass, my village is very poor so we hold feasts and connect through the spirit of Martel?" the line was cheesy and obviously made-up, but pretty good for thinking on his feet, and Pastor Marche bought it hook, line, and sinker.
"I see, would you like to come?"
"Ah.. no, I'm really tired, and I think I might be getting a fever from nearly passing out in the rain." the pastor nodded, having never really gotten the idea that somebody could and would lie to a pastor.
"I understand, perhaps tomorrow?"
"Uh... sure?' as soon as the pastor left he turned to Genis, "We are getting the hell out of here before noon." Genis paused a moment.
"When Raine tries to beat me up for ditching school, will you take the blame?" Kratos shrugged.
"I don't see what you're on about, she's just a girl." Genis sighed and shook his head, poor, poor Kratos wouldn't survive the punishment he would get for that.
"Okay, help me pack up, we'll be out of here tomorrow."
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AN: chapter 10 down, ton of a ton to go.
Thoughts of the day: I have a fever, and I was on a ToS run, and just kept thinking, "Why in the hell does everybody like Lloyd?" I mean, I like Lloyd, you obviously like Lloyd, we all like Lloyd. There are people who love to kill off Colette, think Raine is a bitch, just ignore Regal, call Sheena a tempermental bitch, don't use Presea, say Genis rhymes with penis, get pissed off at Kratos regularly, and purposely kill Zelos in the game for the fun of it.
What about Lloyd? The worst label he gets is 'idiot', and on some occasions is removed from the party because if you're not good at playing him and/or don't play him he'll fight the monsters into the same damn corner Raine is in. But other than that, everybody likes Lloyd.
What is it about him that can never make you hate him? Sure, sometimes he's annoying (going on, and on, and on, and on about his beliefs to enemies he should be killing off) but really, who wouldn't do the same thing? He's idiotic, but we have control of most of his choices, and a lot of the time, we make him sound idiotic.
So, is Lloyd somehow the perfect character? The ultimate unhateable character? Liked by all, fangirl/boy'ed by many, and only vaguely annoying? I mean, he has faults, but they're understandable and explainable. Like his idiocy, I mean, who wouldn't be a bit thick if they'd fallen off a frickin cliff!The red, he was raised by a dwarf, wears dwarven clothes, and taught dwarvan vows, now, I don't know about you, but when it comes to dwarves, if you ignore the drinking/gambling they've obviously picked up from goblins and their cursing (everybody does that), they have some pretty damn good morals, when not under the influence. I mean, have you ever fought an evil dwarf? Besides the annoying ones who try to kill gods and steal things in norse mythology, they're obviously drunk or really don't like the norse gods (on a side note, they're not against killing people, as demonstrated by Lloyd several times)
So, to sum this up, the perfect unhateable character must be raised by a dwarf, have redeemable qualities, explainable faults, and wear annoying colors, along with having a higher moral sense placed in them, and perhaps falling off a cliff and being rendered a bit thick might help, or having a tragic past, oh! And you can't forget the good old fashioned child abuse shown several times, that had to help. (Sounds like Naruto... except for Naruto fails this because he has a catchphrase)
So, tell me why you don't hate Lloyd in a review.