[week five - wednesday]

[ceded]

[ After Shinnosuke and Xion make their announcement, Xion, for what it's worth, does seem to make the executive decision to go, you know ... clean up. She's still covered in dirt and blood and despite ... everything, the practicality of no longer being disgusting seems to win out. She'll end up disappearing for a while, maybe in no small part because she isn't even really sure how to function right now, much less around other people.

Not too long later she'll be freshly clean and back in the hotel lounge, curled up in a chair and just ... staring at nothing. Not reading, not talking to anyone, not petting Pluto (though he does lie at her feet) ... just ... staring, unseeing, at a wall.

Despite appearances, though, it seems she is actually paying attention to her surroundings. It's why she'll say, as Noctis approaches: ]

Noctis.

[ ... and nothing more, her voice stripped of inflection. ]

Comments

[ceded]

[ Xion hums softly, a thoughtful sound. ]

What does that mean to you, Noctis? Helping, and fixing things.

[ She's asking what he'll do, more or less. It's a question she's had often lately: how to keep going. ]

[elemancy]

Trying to find the right way to end this. And... to make sure that nobody's losses are for nothing at all.

[they're already for so little, when nobody deserved to die in the first place. but making sure that they're avenged in at least some way.]

[ceded]

Do you think ... there'll come a point when we can end this game without killing anyone anymore?

[ soft, a bit wistful. ]

[elemancy]

...I hope so.

[he doesn't know. but he hopes, he really does.]