A/N: I drew a cover for the fic! Yay.

Anyway, there's a reference to a change I made in chapter 22-23 a few months ago in this one, for those who have been reading for a REALLY long time.

Bit of a shorter chapter this time around, and it may seem kind of filler but it isn't really at the same time. I'm moderately happy with how it came out. xD I got some info in this one from the taleslations site. Some really cool info on that site, for anyone who wants to check it out.

Be warned there's some particularly foul words on Isabell's part in this chapter for younger viewers. :P

I still don't own Tales of the Abyss.


Chapter 51: Life Changes

"You know I hate people who beat around the bush, so I'll get right to the point. How much of his plan has Van revealed to you?"

Isabell sat in the chair across from Cantabile's office desk. The older woman paced back and forth behind the younger girl. It made Isabell nervous, not being able to watch her for any reactions. Hearing her footsteps approaching her and coming to a stop directly behind her only made the experience even more nervewracking.

Isabell thought about Cantabile's question for a moment, and only then did she realize how little she actually knew. She turned in her seat to look up at Cantabile, "He's only told me the end result. He wants Hod to be revived."

Cantabile nodded, the eye not hidden by an eye-patch quietly regarding her. Isabell shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She didn't like this. Normally when Cantabile was this quiet, and went this long without uttering a single insult, it meant there was bad news.

Cantabile crossed her arms and narrowed her eye at Isabell, "What possible reason could you have for being so dead set on helping Van, if you have no idea the details of his idiotic plan?"

Isabell flinched and turned away from her again and stared hard at her feet before mumbling, barely loud enough for her to hear, "I owe him, sir. He saved me."

She heard Cantabile sigh in frustration, and dared to look at her again.

Cantabile returned her gaze with a cold glare before opening the door and stepping aside. Isabell took this as her way of asking her to leave, "If that's the case, I won't train you any further until you've spoken to the Commandant."

"What?!" Isabell stood up, the chair falling backward onto the floor from the force, "But why?"

"I refuse to train someone so blind. Speak to Van, hear the details of his plans, and then come find me. Until then, I don't want you in my presence."

Cantabile then marched right out the door, slammed it closed when she left, and left a very perplexed Isabell in its wake.

She didn't know what else to do, since Cantabile had just basically cancelled the only plan she had for the day. She slowly left the older woman's office, and let her feet carry her to Van's.

Cantabile wouldn't act that way without reason, would she? Part of her didn't want to know more about Van's plans after what just took place, so it was with dread that she finally came to knock on the door to Van's office.

"Enter."

Isabell hesitated, but slowly opened the door to be met with Van's penetrating blue eyes.

"Isabell," he sighed, it appeared as though he was hoping for someone else, "You look troubled. What's wrong?"

Isabell took a seat in the chair across from him, "I just had a strange conversation with Commander Cantabile."

Van nodded, "I thought it would be something like that. Am I correct in assuming she no longer wants to train you?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"I spoke with her a few hours ago. I had decided it was time to tell her more of my plan, and she decided she does not agree with my methods. She has declined my offer to become one of my chosen God-Generals, and instead plans to continue to work in the Maestro faction, for Mohs," Van sighed, "I had my heart set on her becoming a God-General, but it is of little consequence now. We can make the plan work without her."

Isabell nodded, but couldn't think of anything to say.

"You still seem troubled," Van said, "Is this because she will no longer be training you? We can find you another personal trainer, it wouldn't be difficult."

She shook her head, "No...well yes, that may be part of it, but all you've told me about your plans is that you intend to resurrect Hod. The Commander told me that I should make a more informed decision. What exactly are these methods that she isn't agreeing with?"

Van looked at her closely for a few moments, "Do you doubt me, Isabell?"

She shook her head again, "Of course not! I just - I'd like to know a little more about this plan, if you really want me involved."

He rested his chin on his fingers and thought. Isabell waited nervously for a response before -

"Revenge."

Isabell's eyes widened slightly, yet she wasn't completely surprised by this. Van had told her that he held animosity toward the people who caused Hod's destruction, so she had been somewhat expecting revenge to be part of the plan. "Revenge?"

Van nodded, "Tell me, Isabell, would you be against the idea of revenge on the people who destroyed Hod? The same people who indirectly caused you to be homeless in the streets of Chesedonia, suffering quietly for years? Do you believe these people deserve to go on unpunished for what they've done to us and countless others?"

Isabell shook her head. Why should they have had to live in torment while the people responsible continued to live happily? Why did her little sister, the only family she had left, have to live under the roof of the man responsible for the attack on Hod without knowing who she really was? She had already been planning to infiltrate Fabre Manor to retrieve Alex at one time or another, whether or not she turned her sword on the Duke while she was there remained to be seen.

She had no intention of breaking her word to Van. He had saved her from her horrible life in Chesedonia, and she intended to repay the debt.

But still, this was a side of Van she hadn't seen.

"Are you familiar with Jade Curtiss?" Van suddenly asked.

Isabell thought for a moment, the name did sound familiar.

"He is more well known as 'Jade the Necromancer'," Van told her, watching her think.

"Oh, him," Isabell said, looking up at him, "Yeah, I keep hearing his name mentioned. He's some great fonist, right? Founded Fomicry?"

"Correct."

They was a pregnant pause before Isabell spoke up again, "So what does Hod have to do with the Necromancer?"

Van stood up and moved over to one of the overfilled bookshelves behind his desk, starting a search for a certain book. "You could say he is responsible for Hod's destruction."

Isabell knitted her eyebrows together, "But Duke Fabre's the one who invaded Hod."

Van shook his head, "I'm not speaking about the war itself. Before the war began, research was conducted on Hod, and it led to Hod's destruction."

"Am I right in guessing this Necromancer was heading the experiments?" Isabell asked.

Van nodded, and found the book he was looking for. He pulled it from the shelf and handed it to Isabell. She took a quick look at it and found that it was a book on something called Hyperresonance, written by Dr. Jade Curtiss. By flipping through the pages, she quickly realized she had no shot of understanding any of it even if she wanted to.

"What's a hyperresonance?" Isabell asked, placing the book on Van's desk as the man sat down again, "Is that what the experiments were on?"

Van nodded once more, "Hyperresonance is a dangerous ability that occurs when two Seventh Fonists use their abilities together. It allows its users to tear apart and reconstruct the fonons of an object."

"Sounds powerful," Isabell said, "So why would they be experimenting on that?"

"They were trying to see if it was possible to create an artificial hyperresonance," Van explained, "And they chose a young boy, who had the most affinity on the whole island for the Seventh Fonon, to participate in the experiments."

Isabell was quiet for a moment. "You?"

Van nodded yet again, "Correct. The experiments were all painful, you can understand why they would lead me to start to hate this Dr. Curtiss, who had ordered the experiments. Whether or not he ever set foot on Hod didn't matter to me, he was the reason I went through all that pain. And later, when Malkuth sensed the invasion from Kimlasca and abandoned Hod, they realized they had no time to recover the fomicry machines on the island. They summoned me to the institute, and attached me by force to a machine capable of generating an artificial hyperresonance. The hyperresonance accidentally hit a Sephiroth Tree, and so Hod started to fall into the Qliphoth. It took days, and it only fell after Duke Fabre had claimed victory and most of the inhabitants of Hod were killed."

"Wait, hold on," Isabell shook her head, "Sephiroth Tree? Qliphoth? What are you talking about?"

Van proceeded to explain everything he knew about the Sephiroth Trees, and how they held up Auldrant's crust, also known as the Outer Lands. He sang one of Yulia's Fonic Hymns to protect himself and his pregnant mother from dying during the fall into the Qliphoth. His so-far-briefly-mentioned younger sister had grown up in a place called Yulia City, in the Qliphoth.

Everything sounded too crazy to believe; she wondered briefly if the experiments conducted on him had affected his mind, and yet, Isabell trusted him.

"This is a lot of information to take in," Van said, noting the shocked and baffled expression on her face, "Take as much time as you need to process it."

"But..." Isabell said slowly, "That doesn't exactly answer my question. I know why you plan to do whatever it is you're going to do, but I still don't know what that plan is."

Van remained silent for a few moments before nodding, "I plan to eradicate the Score, Isabell."

Isabell knitted her eyebrows together in thought. "How? Can you really do that?"

Van nodded once more, "All you need to know for now is that I do plan for you to join me as a God-General. I can't do this without you, Isabell."

She believed him.

After hearing what he had to say, she couldn't really see why Cantabile would refuse his offer, and be so dead set against it. What was so bad about eliminating the Score? People would probably be better off without it anyway. If even Fon Master Evenos was against the Score, getting rid of it couldn't be so bad.

Cantabile never struck Isabell as one to be so dependent on the Score, either, so she couldn't see any reason for hating the idea so much.

She thought about her meeting with Van all through her division's training session, hardly paying attention to the trainer's lesson on Fonic Marking. Not that it mattered that much anyway, she wasn't a fonist so the lesson wasn't that important to her.

As long as the fonists she ever ended up working with knew how to place these fonic marks into her fon slots so their artes wouldn't affect her, she didn't care.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as the elderly man that was their trainer instructed the non-fonic arte users to stay within the fonist's sights at all costs in arduous battles. Something about this Fonic Marking only functioning when the fonist could see the people they had marked, she wasn't quite sure.

Maybe it would have been a good idea to pay attention...

Oh well, she was a little more concerned about going back to face Cantabile after the session, and hearing what she would say when Isabell told her she intended to stick by Van.

"You look like something's on your mind," came a familiar voice. Isabell sighed, just once she would have liked to go a training session without Morgan pestering her.

"What's it to you?" she asked him with a glare.

He shrugged, swiping his black hair from his eyes. He constantly did that whenever he tried speaking to her, and it annoyed her much more than it probably should have. Why didn't he just get a fucking haircut if his bangs got in the way that often? Seriously.

Apparently, the bespectacled moron had gotten used to her glares whenever he approached her over the weeks since he had practically started stalking her, as he had eventually stopped flinching whenever he was met with one. Honestly, it was almost as if he accepted one of her glares as a casual greeting.

The very idea of her willingly speaking to the annoying man was absurd.

Yet somehow, she had gone and almost...looked forward to the times during the day when he would seek her out and try to speak to her, no matter how much she wanted to hate him.

She picked out little details about him and tried hard to make them into something that irritated her - like his hair swiping, for one. The way he bit on the ends of his glasses while thinking whenever she saw him in the cathedral's library pouring over a book, for another.

Then she had to wonder why she was noticing all these little things about him when she didn't even care about him.

"I just noticed that the closer the end of the session is, the more antsy you look."

"You spent the lesson staring at me instead of paying attention?"

"So? You spent the lesson spacing out instead of paying attention."

"And you would know that because you spent the lesson staring at me," Isabell snapped at him, "What do you want, Creeper?"

He smiled his annoying smile, completely pushing past the 'Creeper' comment and making her roll her eyes. "I was wondering if you wanted to get something to eat once the lesson's over."

How in the hell could he still treat her like that after all the rude comments she had given him? Was he mentally damaged or something? She gave him a dumbfounded look, "You can't be serious."

"Then how come I am?"

Isabell scoffed just as the gong signaling the end of the lesson and the start of lunch period rang out though the huge room. Without another word, she turned her back on Morgan and made a beeline for the exit, hoping that would be the end of the conversation.

She should have known better.

"So is that a yes or a no?"

Isabell growled, not slowing her pace as Morgan had to move at a slow jog to keep up with her, "You're annoyingly persistent."

"Come on, it's not like I'm asking you on a date or anything."

"I should hope not."

"Okay, ouch."

"Look," Isabell halted and turned to face Morgan, "I have somewhere I need to be; I don't have time for this." She didn't wait for a response before she turned again and continued on her way to Cantabile's office. This time she didn't hear Morgan's footsteps following her, and sighed in relief.

She wasn't feeling relieved for very long, though. It was with dread that she forced herself to knock on the door to the commander's office.

The door opened slowly, and Isabell was met with the harsh gaze of the older woman.

"Well?"

It became clear that Cantabile wasn't going to invite her into the room until she heard what she wanted to hear. The problem was, Isabell had to tell her something else.

"I spoke to the Commandant."

"And?"

Isabell didn't exactly know how to word it, "I've...chosen to stay by his side."

"I thought you had the potential to be better than the rest of the maggots here, Isabell," There was a pregnant pause between them before Cantabile continued, "You can find someone else to train you. I refuse to train someone stupid enough to train that man. Never speak to me again!"

She wasted no more words before slamming the door in Isabell's face.


"You look upset."

"Don't I always?"

"Well..." Morgan pushed his glasses up his nose, "I guess you still never smile, but now you actually look really upset about something."

"What's your point? And haven't I told you several times to leave me the hell alone? Why are you so damn interested in me?"

Morgan shrugged, "I like a challenge."

Isabell rolled her eyes, "I am so close to getting a restraining order on you."

"I guess I have been trying to talk to you a lot lately, huh?"

Isabell glared at him, was he getting to a point anytime soon?

"Sorry, I heard that Commander Cantabile isn't training you any more, so I figured you might have some free time. I was wondering if you might want to spar with me for a bit? It looks like you need to blow off some steam, just try not to kill me, yeah?"

Isabell raised an eyebrow at him, finally he said something that got a little bit of interest. She sighed, it wasn't as if she had anything better to do, "Fine."

"Really?" his blue eyes widened, he obviously hadn't anticipated her saying yes.

"Why not?" she shrugged, "This better be worth my time. What weapon do you use, anyway?"

They started in the direction of the training grounds before he answered, not seeming annoyed at all that she didn't already know after being in the same training group for months. In fact, he seemed more excited that she had asked him something about himself, "I'm mainly fonist specializing in the third fonon. I think it might be good for me to try training with someone more suited for close combat, like you."

"You said mainly," Isabell noted, "So you use another weapon."

Morgan swiped his hair out of his eyes, making Isabell's eye twitch. "I can't just give away all my secrets before going into a fight."

Isabell smirked, "Fair enough."


Isabell stood over Morgan with her sword held at his throat. It hadn't taken too much effort on her part for the fight to be won. She had to give him credit though, he did better than she thought he would. He was quick to cast, and hit her with a Turbulence before she could even reach him. It wasn't powerful, but she had a feeling he was holding back as she had, since it had just been a spar.

The secret weapon he'd had turned out to be a handgun, with a fonic glyph intricately carved into its barrel. It allowed him to shoot his third fonic artes across a battlefield in record time. She could tell just by a spar that lasted ten minutes that his favorite arte was Wind Needle.

They were both panting as Isabell stood up straight and sheathed her sword, actually taking the time to help Morgan up, which was a shocker for both of them.

She left before they had a chance to talk, or he had a chance to try and get her to talk, and ever since she had been a bit kinder to him.

He was right, she had felt a lot better about Cantabile after their spar, and as the days continued, she found herself starting to humor Morgan a little when he tried to talk to her. She would comment on what he said occasionally without insult, and nod to him when they passed each other in the hallways, which he definitely seemed to take as a good sign.

He began to crack her shell, bit by bit. Part of her thought she was allowing this simply to spite Cantabile after what happened, but she found herself actually enjoying her life a little more when Morgan was around. She actually started to look for him after some time, though she would never be the one to initiate a conversation.

He had made her laugh once, and that had her finally realize that a person's company might not actually be so bad.

It had been so many years since she had really laughed, that the sound felt foreign coming from her, but she liked it. What had made her laugh was actually quite stupid, but he seemed to take it as a success all the same.

Someone had just made a comment about how Morgan had to be insane for trying to get to know a bitch like Isabell. She would have been insulted, had she not seen Morgan's angry face for the first time after the comment was made. It took a couple seconds to figure out why his face looked so familiar, but then realized that he looked very reminiscent of a turtle when he was angry. A turtle with glasses, that is.

She couldn't help herself, while he stood there and glared his turtle glare at the person who made the comment about Isabell, she started laughing. And once she started, she couldn't stop. Before she knew it, she was doubled over and almost in pain because she was laughing so hard. Morgan looked at her in total confusion as she made herself look like an idiot, trying to tell him why she was laughing.

It was after that that she really started letting him in.

After a couple months, they had wordlessly agreed on a meeting place in the halls, where their seemingly pointless conversations would be held. They had steadily grown longer, and she'd eventually learned to open up about herself. He'd somehow gone from being the most annoying person on the planet to one of the most important to her.

"I've been thinking this for a while, but have you ever considered growing out your hair? I think long hair would suit you."

That was all it took for her to start growing her hair out again.

Over the next year she had become more light-hearted thanks to Morgan, as well as the lack of Cantabile in her life. They had become more or less inseparable, and he had somehow managed to change her into a decent person. She no longer wore the scowl everyone in the cathedral had become accustomed to, and with longer hair than before she had pretty much become unrecognizable to everyone there.

She still had a hard time getting along with people other than Morgan, and on her own she was the same person she had always been. Angry, depressed...she'd just gotten better at hiding it around people. She was slowly becoming more sarcastic, and quick to make jokes, and everyone seemed to believe that she was alright.

Everyone but Morgan.

She'd long since told him about Hod, and her life before in Chesedonia. While he led a more privileged life, growing up in the more wealthy part of Daath, he did his best to try and make her feel better. He'd ended up fulfilling his goal of getting her to smile, anyway, though he said he only counted the ones that were real. He knew the only thing keeping her from being truly happy was her little sister.

A few months into their friendship, Isabell noticed he had started to take interest in a local girl, one who owned a flower shop. It became clearer and clearer that he wasn't ever interested in Isabell romantically, not that she particularly cared about that. She cared about him because he was an irreplaceable friend, there was no way they could really work as a couple even if they wanted to, despite all the accusations from their peers. There were rules against fraternization in place.

She was content with being friends, or she at least convinced herself she was, and would quietly support Morgan in trying to speak to the flower shop girl, and by the end of the year he had successfully asked her out on a date.

Isabell had other things on her mind than romance. She was still training hard to be one of Van's God-Generals, and nothing was going to stop her from climbing the ladder to that position.

Whenever he spent the little time they had to spend together talking about the flower girl, she tried to be happier for him, but she had become so accustomed to her new life, and when Morgan began spending a lot of his time with the new girl, things started to change again. He was still a dear friend, and they still spent time together when they were in the cathedral, but when the flower girl was around she felt like a third wheel. And on top of that, it was clear the new girl, Eliza, didn't like her at all.

Just once, she would have liked her life to have some sort of consistency, and this time, she wasn't going to let her life change without a fight. She wasn't going to let Morgan leave the way Alexandra and Cantabile had.

He may have forced his way into her life, but he couldn't force his way out if he wanted to.


Isabell knew now that Van had been twisting the truth and manipulating her to get her to join, he easily could have gone through with his plans without her, it was just nice to have her there.

She didn't actually know that for sure though. They did have history on Hod, so it was fully possible that he did actually care for her. She didn't have to question that he cared for his sister, after all. She just didn't quite understand how he would turn his sword against her for his plan once he found that Tear had no intentions of going along with him.

His words had led her to have a certain hatred for Jade, so when she learned that he was traveling with her sister, she was concerned that he would corrupt her, but when she had a few conversations with him, and they ended up together in the Absorption Gate, she was surprised to find that he wasn't nearly as evil as she thought he was.

It was strange for her to realize that she, in fact, was the one to be corrupted.

But not anymore.

"Why would you even be offering me this?" Isabell asked, turning away from the white-haired man, "As I recall, the last time we met, I came close to bashing your skull in."

The grin Dist wore only moments before when he had asked her to rejoin the Generals vanished, "I'm offering this on Mohs' orders. My feelings about that incident have not changed. It took three hours to wash the blood from my hair!"

She resisted the urge to laugh as she turned away from him, the golden ring hanging from a chain around her neck catching the light shining through the window as she turned. She noticed Dist's eyes dart to the ring before she had her back to him. "Whatever, you can tell Mohs I'm not interested, and nothing is about to change that."

"Who was that young man you were so fond of?" Dist asked, causing Isabell to stop in her tracks, "His name was Morgan Reily, am I wrong?"

Isabell paused, "Why would you care?"

"If I told you," Dist started, floating around her in his chair so they were face to face again, reaching out and lifting the ring between his thumb and forefinger, "That I was getting closer to creating a perfect replica - one who had their original's memories - would it change your mind at all?"

Isabell glared at him and snatched the ring out of his grasp. She knew it couldn't be true, but...

"What would Mohs need me for?"

"It has to do with that duplicitous snake, Jade, and the rest of his gang. The Fon Master is also a key part of his plan."

Isabell rolled her eyes, "And why would he think I would want any part in that?"

"We anticipated you wouldn't be so willing at first," Dist drawled, "Mohs would prefer you not to cause trouble for him like when you decided to go against Van in the Absorption Gate and join the Jade Gang-"

"Would you please not call them that? It's ridiculous. You can say whatever you want, anyway. I won't help you this time."

Dist glared at her before continuing, "Then perhaps you can think of it this way: if you rejoin us, you can control what happens to your little sister. If not, we can easily get someone for the job who cares not for if she lives or dies."

Isabell stared at him for a few moments, not knowing how to respond to him.

"Are you going to give me an answer or not?" Dist drawled, "What do you say, Garcia? The casual look doesn't quite suit you - perhaps it's time to change back into your uniform."

...

For a long time, he didn't care about whether or not he lived. But after he watched Sync willingly fall into the depths of the core, he changed his mind on the matter.

It wasn't that he wanted to die, but rather, he wanted to choose how he died. He wanted his death to be meaningful, he wanted it to be the death of someone who had lived for something. He wanted to die with the feeling that he had lived for a reason.

Before he left Daath, he didn't think he was living for anything.

He spent his two years of life knowing he was a replica, knowing he was meant to be nothing more than a replacement for the real Fon Master. After spending time with his friends, and watching Luke grow, he realized something.

He didn't have to be just a replacement for the Fon Master, used only for the Score, he could be more than that.

He didn't have to live life by the Score - no one did. They could choose their own paths, most just chose not to. They didn't understand that the Score was their to give them all helpful advice on what can be done about a situation, not what had to be done.

Perhaps he was the only one who saw just how easy it could be to change how people used the Score. It didn't have to be abolished, nor used for every little thing.

Mohs clearly couldn't understand that. It was obvious he was planning something that very well could lead to Ion's death, and as his journey with his friends went on, it was becoming quite clear that Anise had been forced to work with him. He knew Mohs must have had something on her to force her to co-operate, and that whatever it was Mohs was planning, she didn't really want to do it. He held nothing against the young girl, he cared too much for her to want her out of his life.

Whatever it was Mohs was planning, something that more than likely had to do with the Score, it wasn't how Ion wanted to die. That, he knew already.

Ever since watching Sync fall in the core, he had been searching for a way to die.

Every time he thought about the subject of his death, his mind landed on Tear. He could save her from her miasma contamination. He would do it willingly, he wouldn't mind dying for a friend. It would certainly add meaning to his life - and his death. But he knew she wouldn't be as happy about Ion dying for her, that was just how Tear was. That was one of the reasons why he hadn't done it yet, she hadn't become so ill there was no other way to save her, and there had been no good times for him to really even bring the idea up. With the miasma gone, Tear's condition had also become stable, so it would be years before it got out of hand, if it ever would.

But if the need came for Ion to save her himself, then he would do it in a second. He hoped Tear would forgive him for it, and Anise, too.

Anise was one of the reasons he hesitated, he didn't know what it was Mohs had on her. Ion knew her parents were poor, and were working in the cathedral for no pay because of something Mohs had done to help them out, so it was highly possible Mohs was holding Oliver and Pamela hostage. If that was true, then Ion didn't know what Mohs would do to them if he took Tear's contaminated fonons into himself and died before Mohs could go through with his plan.

Ion sighed and looked up from the report Tear had written detailing the increasing Planet Storm. His friends had left the day before, and he had only just found the time to look through the report after all the meetings and a public announcement to the city of Daath, in attempts to calm them down about the Score. He had by now done several of them, and they only ever worked for a few hours before the people would start acting up again. He would likely make another announcement in a couple days.

His green eyes landed on a vase of flowers he and Anise had picked outside a few days before when he had wanted some fresh air. The flowers, begonias, were already wilting.

It had only been a day, and he was already missing her. He had only had a few minutes to catch up with the others, and he hadn't seen Jade, Natalia, or Alex in over a month. He was missing them all, and wished he would have been able to go with them.

Although he was never of any use to them, he did always enjoy time with his friends.


Hope you enjoyed it! I'm not quite sure how I'm doing with Cantabile since I can't find a whole lot of info on how she acts. :P

Please review!

In the next chapter of Not What it Seems:

"You know, I always wanted to ask you if you could teach me how to tend to flowers," Alex called over to the older man as she approached. He looked up from his gardening and watched as she walked over to him. He narrowed his eyes for a few second before-

"Miss Alexandra, is that you?" Pere asked, his eyes widening as he stood to bow out of habit, "I hardly recognized you."

Alex laughed, "Just call me Alex, okay? And no more bowing either. I'm not a noble, you know that."