always prepared

Deimos He watched with a keen eye, noting her admiration, the curiosity, the intrigue of the blades in his palms, before putting them away. Always intent on education, on wisdom, on sagacity, and encouraging tactics, skills, and a gaining of experience, he tilted his head, stoked on the mettle of his own intrigue. “Are they your preferred weapon?” Uncertain of where the Ascended would fall on her yearning for knowledge, practicality, or effortlessness in the swiftness, in the rampage, of those serrated edges; but an extension of the barracks lingering behind his teeth just the same. Training was important, especially with recent ongoings, consequences, and lack of transparency, the world shifting in a direction not many of them could afford to be thrust amidst. Another inquiry settled in the back of his mind too, pushing it aside for later. Their wanderings from stall to stall only ensued more haggling, and he didn’t fail to notice her hesitancy, then lack of a purchase. There was a moment where he considered buying them for her, because he could always contort, snag, or intimidate into a deal; but felt no need to insult her either. In the end, he maneuvered along, expecting her to either follow or hasten off in her own direction. “If you cannot find anything here, I can always make one to your liking,” he offered instead; in muffled undertones and rumbles, not glancing back to see her reaction. He passed through, parting more crowds underneath lantern and luminary light, guided by the sights, sounds, and scents, pausing momentarily as she asked her inquiry, eyes resting on a performance made by puppets – the obvious representation of Ludo striding across a beach, courting and calling to the crowd. “Mid-Flowerbirth.” Honeymoons with the Shield; then they’d return, back into the folly, hopefully rejuvenated, healed, soothed, or assuaged from the torments they’d endured again and again and again. His gaze finally went back to her as Ludo transformed into someone in the gathered ring. “And you?” Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime