Here's theme #79. I hope you like Xellos applying wax to philosophy.
Chaos: Creator and Destroyer. G.
Xellos reflected, as he watched Filia scrubbing away at a stack of dishes and pointedly turned away every time she whipped around to glare at him, that between them, the humans and the dragons had come up with many colorful nicknames for the monster race. Let’s see… there was ‘the enemies of all who live,’ ‘the demon race,’ ‘creatures from the darkest void,’ ‘scum’ (one of Filia’s favorites) and… yes, ‘the agents of chaos.’ Xellos was considering that last one because, though fair enough, it wasn’t nearly as straightforward as it sounded.
‘Chaos’ had multiple definitions—multiple contradictory definitions that somehow managed to be true all at once.
Discord was an easy one, he supposed. Easy enough to define and easy enough to appreciate, at least at first. It was like… that stack of plates on the counter that Filia was chipping away at. So neatly placed one on top of the other—so organized. But what a clatter they would make if they fell, if they cracked. Certainly humans, perhaps even dragons could understand that dire impulse to make them topple. Just because destruction was to them a vice and to the monsters a virtue, did not mean there wasn’t some universality to the urge.
But discord wasn’t always destructive—that’s where it got tricky. Chaos was a harbinger of birth as well as death. Political tumult, construction, refinement, drama… discord is always lively. It is… creative.
There was a definite distinction, Xellos knew, when it came to destruction. It was one thing to want to send the dishes falling to the ground, one thing to enjoy the crash, one thing to delight in the shattered pieces that would take forever to glue back together—but it was another thing entirely to annihilate the whole stack, leaving not so much as a crumb of debris, so that it was almost as if it had never existed in the first place.
But that was the goal. To return everything to chaos… well, that brought in another definition of chaos. Depending on your perspective, that chaos was either ‘nothing’ or ‘raw everything.’ It was the formless beginning of it all and it was…
…Disinteresting.
And it worried him that he thought that way, but there it was. The ultimate goal in all this disorder was to create… order. Of a kind at least. It would be clean, and crisp, and would have no pesky landmasses or flowing waters or life forms to make it scruffy looking. It would be plain. It would be peaceful. Peaceful! The quiet nothing at the end of a war that should’ve been endless.
Endless. Was that really what he believed deep down? It was certainly not a thing that should be said aloud. He would say it was against his nature, if it weren’t for the fact that the contradictions seemed to have been built into that too.
Valgaav, when he’d joined with Dark Star and Volpheed, had described it as a trap. Perhaps it was—each side lined up against the other, duking it out for the right to choose the fate of the game board—Protect the King, check, check and mate (though perhaps, he realized, he should’ve been using a checkers metaphor since he doubted the dragons had the patience for chess). One game, winner take all; no mulligans, no chance for a truce and no way out of it.
But it wasn’t as simple as that. They were individuals, not ideals. Take the dragons, for example, and their desperate effort for peace and goodwill—which for some reason involved a great deal of war and badwill. Their eyes were fixed firmly on the bottom line and anything that threatened it must be… ah, destroyed. They were hypocrites. He’d delighted in this fact, a thought which now etched a self-conscious frown on his face. ‘Hypocrisy’ is a very dangerous word to throw around. It’s like a boomerang.
And someday… some dreadful day, Filia would be the one to figure that out about him; because symmetry is a fearsome thing.
Ah, yes, Filia and chaos. He couldn’t help but notice that, as her hunched shoulders conveyed her annoyance with him without her even needing to turn around. Now, by reputation, Lina Inverse was often labeled as the personification of chaos, but in Xellos’s mind at least, Filia gave her a run for her money. True, Lina Inverse was wrathful and destructive in a useful and even admirable way, but she was also straightforward. She made no bones about her vindictiveness. She was not, as Filia was, a walking, talking contradiction. She was not surprising as Filia was.
Filia did not merely have a temper, she had all the other emotions in the set, and she felt them with such a magnificent intensity. She wasn’t false—she truly did believe in kindness, charity and righteousness, even to the point where she’d break with the crowd if she thought it was wrong. Yet, that did not mean that she wasn’t petty, self-deceptive, and instinctively violent.
It had surprised him, when he first met her. And part of that, he had to admit was because she was female. Now, Xellos’s own interactions and… he sought around for the right word and decided that ‘upbringing’ would have to do, provided him ample proof that there was no gender disparity in terms of bravery and viciousness. But… dragon women were another story.
The servants of the gods did not have many natural advantages against his kind, but one of them was numbers and it was a fact that he knew that the dragons were very well aware of too. They overwhelmed and ambushed wherever they could—they relied on armies, not generals. And yes, he knew very well that this tactic did not always pan out for them, but their mortal ability to replenish their lost numbers without diminishing their own power was a very definite advantage. Right now, with the loss of all but one of the Fire Dragon King’s servants, the situation was dire for the dragons… but in a few hundred years that population breach would easily be healed. It was a thought that should’ve annoyed him, but it didn’t.
Because reproduction was so important to the dragon race’s level of strength, that also meant that women were very important. And Xellos was sure the male elders that made up the ruling class were horrified that someday the female dragons (whose hierarchy ran parallel to the male one, but never made it even close to the top) would figure that out.
So there were comportment books, there were classes, there was modesty, and there were ‘ways in which ladies behaved.’ It must have been quite a shock for the dragons when their race churned out Filia—aggressive, distractibly attractive, and with a killer right hook. You couldn’t blame anything on her; it wasn’t that she’d done wrong; it was just that the valkyrie played no part in their gender expectations.
He smiled. She must’ve made people very nervous growing up.
Was that what drew him to her? The fact that he didn’t need to knock down the stack of plates? That if he waited long enough she’d throw them at him and break them herself? Or was it just that her contradictions were uncomfortably familiar?
Her frenzied spirit mocked his organized mind. Who was who here?
All he knew, as she turned to him once more in a huff and tossed a dishrag in his face, was that he was in the world destroying business. And it was a business he had every intention of staying in. But… that was kind of the point, wasn’t it? It was a one shot deal. He couldn’t keep doing this if there was nothing else to do. It… was nothing more than that.
“Don’t just stand around watching me work,” Filia barked at him, soap suds clinging furiously to her gloved hands. “If you’re going to hang around then you might as well dry.”
“I suppose I might as well,” he said, approaching the sink, “after all, with your work ethic, I’m sure that by yourself within the next couple of minutes you’d be saying that you’re just going to ‘leave things to soak,’ and then you wouldn’t have anything to eat off of.” It was untrue. Filia’s work ethic was quite good. But an exchange of gunfire was always necessary in these proceedings.
“Are you calling me lazy?” she demanded, her arm leaning against his from shoulder to elbow.
“Not at this very moment, I’m not,” he answered, taking the clean plate she’d passed him and drying it.
Of course, Filia must’ve seen the writing on the wall (fractured porcelain on the floor?) when she included him in this task. Perhaps, he thought, she’d grown enamored with the idea of having something to yell at him about.
But… he decided, as he placed the dried dish on the rack where it could air dry further, there’s really no need to break all of the dishes. One should make my statement without much fuss—and it could be glued together again to be broken later, in any case. No need to break all the dishes today. They’ll be there tomorrow.
And perhaps fate would demand an answer to this game someday—but who could say how long it could be held off?
Xellos had been trying unsuccessfully for the last several hours to get Filia to look at him.
Ah, but putting it that way made it sound rather unfairly pathetic. The current state of affairs, with his outwardly nonchalant efforts to turn her gaze his way being thwarted by her insistence on looking at such things as tree bark, dirt, and animal dung (elements that she would most likely insist were much more worthy of her attention than he was), was not the way this whole thing had started. No… this campaign had begun not with failure, but with unexpected success.
That morning had run much like any other morning—with a lengthy breakfast served at the inn they’d stayed at. Lina had been complaining about her latest efforts to destroy her sleep cycle by staying up all night looking through as much Outer World literature as she could find concerning magical items, Zelgadis, who had been doing just as much research, complained about how much Lina was complaining, Amelia nearly nodded off into her pancakes, and Gourry, eyes on the prize as always, was taking advantage of the others’ distraction to steal the last of the sausages.
Xellos had turned away from the others for a sip of tea, and just as a result of their seat configuration, that meant glancing at Filia… who hastily turned her gaze down to her bowl of oatmeal. She twiddled her spoon around self-consciously in the cereal, but did not seem to have any intention of eating it.
Xellos observed her fixedly staring at her oatmeal for a moment before finally taking his sip of tea. Either, he thought, there is something very, very interesting buried in that oatmeal or Filia was just looking at me and turned away to avoid me seeing her do so.
And that was… well, a pleasing little thought. It was easy to imagine that prickly dragon setting her gaze on him and getting lost in thought—the rumblings of aggression going off in her head and her twisting silently to herself about the probably indignity of having to sit down to a meal with a monster—and not just any monster either. She’d probably been thinking words that a priestess shouldn’t know, but that she just couldn’t help thinking around him.
Oh yes, ever since he’d rejoined Miss Lina’s group, Filia had been such an interesting new addition. Yet, it was hard for him to say at this early stage whether it was for better or for worse. …Actually, it was easy to say, it was only that his opinion changed on the matter very frequently. Filia was an emotional tinderbox, easy to stir up, and, in the right hands, was a loaded weapon. She certainly added to the drama of the group, which was something to be valued, and her hatred of him made her extremely easy to goad and manipulate. Which was all for the good.
…Except that somehow it wasn’t. Goading her was fun, but it wasn’t a secure endeavor. Her choked-up fury often coalesced into some very nasty retaliation. On the one hand, he knew it shouldn’t bother him. So a little golden dragon calls him a few names that are no more creative or terrible than any schoolyard taunt? Why should that matter?
…It mattered because… because she had no respect. It was one thing to hate him, but she was supposed to play nice with the big, bad monster. She didn’t. And that, paired with her holier-than-thou hypocrisy, made her particularly obnoxious. After all, it’s one thing to be called despicable, but it’s quite another thing to be called worthless.
And that was why this little incident of drawing her attention was particularly satisfying. No matter what she said, she visited far too much interest upon him to truly believe all that ‘trash’ stuff she spouted. Nobody finds trash that fascinating.
Fascinating… hmm… He had to admit that he liked that.
And what was even better than her stare was its furtive nature. As soon as she’d been caught looking at him, she’d turned away. She hadn’t continued to glare at him determinedly, as though her look of menace was some kind of punishment—no. She’d looked awkwardly away, a cloud of embarrassment swirling around her.
She was ashamed that she’d been looking at him, which meant that she felt that she’d been doing something wrong. Which made him wonder (and not for the first time) just what sort of thoughts were sleeting across that dragon’s brain.
And he hadn’t even meant to attract this attention. His mind had been completely on other things before he’d discovered her… ogling? Was that what that was? If so, that was too hilarious for words. More likely it was the result of a hate-fueled diatribe that had driven her to distraction, but nevertheless…
…he wondered if he could do it again—draw her gaze once more. He didn’t think it would be that hard. Clearly he had that effect on her without even doing anything—it was just a matter of fact. So he decided, as a little experiment for the day, to try to repeat this feat.
…Unfortunately, he hadn’t yet been able to.
He’d walked next to her all along the road they were traveling, but she either kept her nose in the air or focused on the aforementioned components of the woodland scenery. His features creased as he tried to think of how one might go about getting a girl’s attention. It was not something he usually had to think about.
Of course, he could’ve tapped her on the shoulder or made a comment about the weather—perhaps even jump in front of her line of sight. But he felt in a purist sense that this would constitute cheating. What he was after was to pull her toward him without action, without words, but with nothing more than himself and his thoughts.
…None of that, however, was working very well, and it was frustrating not to know why. It should’ve. She had to hear her name, loudly and repeatedly, in his thoughts as clear as a voice calling out to her. Filia, Filia, Filia… why don’t you turn at the mere thought of your name?
And even if she couldn’t sense his thoughts focused on her, she should’ve certainly been able to feel his eyes skittering across her. She had to know! She must’ve been trying to ignore it, just to spite him. Yes, that was the only explanation.
Turn around, Filia. Turn and look like you did before—fury mixed with horrified magnetism, the desire to dwell on that same feeling over and over and over again, all etched in those too-dark blue eyes and radiating outward in lines across your young forehead and in the tightness of your jaw. Run me over in your mind once more with that same old inner monologue—unfocused ramblings that decry, denounce, demonize, dissect, deprecate, and… admire. Make snap judgments, obsess over the unimportant, and teeter on the edge, as you tend to do, of profound discovery without ever realizing it.
Turn…
…you know, just for the sake of this little experiment of mine if nothing else.
But she didn’t turn. She stretched out her hands in front of her and chose to look at them instead.
*****
It was dinnertime and Xellos had to admit that the ultimate fate of operation Get-Filia-to-Look-at-Me was looking grim. He blamed Filia’s obstinacy—perhaps her embarrassment at being caught in the act kept her from making the same slip-up again, no matter how much he ramped up the mental warfare to get her attention. How very like her to be so annoyingly stubborn just when things were getting interesting.
After all, she was across from him now and still managing to avoid looking at him. He’d been willing to accept her fiery glare, but the cold shoulder was a tactic from her that really chafed. He didn’t think it was one that she had any right to.
But it was at the point that he was about to cast his experiment as a failure (though not without heavy blame on his subject) when things changed. Both she and he reached for the last of the biscotti in the basket on the table at the exact same moment. Their gazes met and so did their fingers as they each grabbed the oblong cookie.
They both froze in the gesture—eyes locked on each other and in the gesture of clasping the little tea cookie. After a few moments, Filia withdrew her purchase on the biscotto and crossed her arms, making a mildly annoyed sound as she turned away.
Xellos, encouraged by this re-establishment of contact, held up the cookie to her. “Did you want this?” he asked, not so much as an offer, but a taunt.
And that’s when she turned back to look at him purposefully. “I don’t eat food that’s been in garbage,” she informed him.
His lips pursed. He knew they did because he felt them do so, even though he’d given no direction to his facial features to show such displeasure. “Is that a fact?” he said, as lightly as he could.
But even in the face of her comment there was cause to rejoice. The endeavor hadn’t failed. She had finally acquiesced and looked at him again, with… yes, he could see it all over her face. That raging inner-monologue barely bitten back, that dripping acidity in her heart, and, yes, even that awkward, not fully understood sense of guilt and confusion behind it all. Mission accomplished.
He sat back confidently and dipped his cookie into his tea before taking a bite. Yes, it had taken longer than he’d initially thought it would, but he’d proven today that he could draw Filia’s gaze. Sometimes it had to be catalyzed, but oftentimes it didn’t and happened entirely without his intervention. Getting her to look at him was something he was more than qualified to do.
A choking hazard of a thought occurred to him as he took a swig from his burning hot tea; that if he was looking for someone with a talent for getting someone else to look at them, then he had only to look at the dragon girl across from him, drinking her tea haughtily like the Queen of the Goddamn Biscotti-less, who had proven herself infinitely more qualified than him.
…And it wasn’t as thought it would be any trouble to look at her again, anyway, he realized sourly. After all, he’d been staring at her all day.
I did a bit of reading up on Wolves before I launched into this oneshot--it seemed necessary if I wanted to stay accurate. I think the book I read was called "Spirit of the Wild Dog" and it taught me a lot.
I’m very happy you did! It certainly showed.
It's hard to say because we see so little of dragon society, but I always think of it being rather patriarchical because of Filia's attitudes and because of the fact that I have never seen another female dragon--not on the council of elders, not anywhere. If that's the case, then Filia's bold attitude is even more surprising.
Maybe, because they are patriarchal, the Dragon Elder was being serious when he said he didn’t care that Xellos killed Filia.
All I can is: Creepy Dragon Elder is Creepy.
"Spirit of the Wild Dog" made it sound more like they throttled things to death by eventually breaking their neck. It was talking about that as being a big different between canines and felines (which have a good dental arcade for cutting vital arteries). Then again, you've obviously read more wolf books than I have.
No, I must apologize. When dealing with books on animal behavior, you must first and foremost realize that there are going to differences. After all, observations are not perfect, the researcher involved are not perfect, and the situations by which the animals are observed are not always perfectly the same. Yes, wolves do not have the teeth or bite strength to snap large bones with a single squeeze like other animals (such as hippos). And now that I’ve re-analyzed, it’s perfectly natural for a pack of wolves to invoke a throttle method, even if they are not always observed to do so. I apologize again for overlooking the fact that we are dealing with behaviors. You are correct in writing the wolves this way.
(EDIT: You are right--he did just kiss his finger and press it to her lips. ...Which is going to drive me nuts because I swear I remember two specific instances of cheek kissing. Did this happen in another episode that I mixed up with this one... or did my fevered brain cook this up? Have I been watching Try too much to the detriment of my Next memory?
*madness sets in*)
It’s ok. We’re all a little crazy sometimes. Who knows? I might find that other occasion when I get the chance to break away from Pokémon addictionitis and actually sit down and watch the Slayers again.
Ah...Madness....Pokemon addiction....taking over....going to...evolve...into....Absol...
Good Deeds. Rated PG.
Again, I beg you to forgive my sarcastic tongue. It’s only a muscle and really doesn’t know any better.
It had all started so – for want of a better word – innocently, Xellos reflected as he made his way through the inferno of timber and smoke that he found himself in. But things were rapidly getting out of control.
GASP. The words ‘innocently’ and ‘Xellos’ used in the same sentence? More Madness.
It came down to… well, self-destructive behavior of a certain kind. Take humans; they weren’t supposed to try to destroy themselves, but they often felt an… an unnatural itch to do so. To take that drink after they’re already too far gone, to inject something poisonous into their veins, to kill by inches and be killed by inches.
It funny isn’t it? We have such an unnatural fear of death and yet off we go, marching to the next war.
Of course, a lot of these inclinations were pleasure-based, but just as many of them were pain-based. Humans had an… inclination for danger and destruction. It wasn’t held as positive, and it was always met with attempts at suppression, but still, it was there.
Yeah, I never understood the rush some people get off of doing stupid, dangerous stuff. Maybe a certain type of person is required.
He’d always had an agenda in those situations. And that was the way it should be. But now…
…He blamed Filia for this entire mess, he really did. After all, Amelia had gone on about justice and virtue before and he’d never done anything like…
...Xellos...are you going to...?
…But the problem was, he realized, that wasn’t why he did it. He’d done it for that look. That shocked look she gave when the universe as she knew it became senseless. When he could look back into her startled eyes and say: That’s right, Filia. That fiend who can only destroy just. saved. your. life.
Heehee. I’m not surprised this is the real reason he saved her.
After that, he’d occasionally stopped by Filia’s shop. She might not have been very charitable where he was concerned, but she was very much into charity. Xellos tended to think that she used charity as a chance to whack people over the head with the metaphorical mace of morality. She just… took over. Wives that had run charity drives, bake sales, and soup kitchens were forced to sit on their hands as Filia, the tyrant of all organized events, lay waste to their leadership efforts and took the mantle of piety off their still stunned shoulders.
Typical Filia. Overcompensating to make sure she gets her point across, whatever point that may be at the time. If they have PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) like they do in our world, I wouldn’t doubt she’d have made herself the president.
Xellos said she was a control freak. Filia said that she was just trying to help and that he wouldn’t understand, now would he?
I’d like to think of Filia as the control freak and Xellos as the manipulative one. They make quite a pair, don’t they?
And it had worked too. He’d been much better at it than she was (except for one unfortunate incident of mass food poisoning at the soup kitchen that it was just better not to refer to). And she couldn’t stand it! It was fantastic and just went to show that she was only into the charity business for the chance to boss others around and look good doing it.
Unfortunate incident….mass food poisoning…of course you would Xellos.
They say that doing good deeds is meant to cause a warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart. If by ‘warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart’ they meant a feeling of nausea and a distaste for the smell of hobos, then Xellos had felt it.
It’s quite possible that you’re incapable of feeling that warm, fuzzy feeling, Xellos. Unless you really, really tried at it.
But it was unfair to say that there were no rewards attached to it. If there weren’t he wouldn’t be in the fix he was in. He’d learned that when he’d dispatched with the robber that broke into Filia’s shop. The thing was… just because deeds were good didn’t meant they didn’t involve violence.
Ha! Oh I see your logic there, Xellos.
He frowned at the memory. The stupid, stubborn dragon girl couldn’t even manage to be happy then. She’d yelled at him for hurting the guy. He barely touched him…
She yelled at him for hurting the guy who was going to rob her? Huh. Maybe she wouldn’t have been so mean to Xellos if he was a human? Perhaps she was just bitter that a monster saved her (yet again).
And that’s when the trouble reallystarted. There was a high attached to that kind of vigilante act. What made it worse was that he was out doing things he wasn’t really supposed to do. As he’d said so often to Filia, prohibition tends to make things more attractive.
Like drinking when you’re underage. I never did anything like that, but I knew a lot of colleagues that tried it and said it was so amazing and fun and…and when they reached legal age, they never touched the stuff ever again. Go figure.
So he’d started justifying it. He’d killed petty criminals so that… so that they wouldn’t kill some kid’s parents and cause him to grow up to be a caped crusader for good in the future. That made sense, right?
Of...course it makes sense...sortof....not really...
He looked down at them as they coughed the smoke out of their lungs and got to their feet. They looked like… troublemakers, he decided. Surely the world was a more discordant place with them alive. It was alright.
Ok, now I can’t keep the chuckles in anymore.
The child sniffed and bellowed: “But Mittens is still in there!” She looked up at Xellos with wide, pleading eyes.
Oh no, Xellos thought. Not the cat.
Ok, now I can’t STOP LAUGHING.
But he could practically hear Filia’s voice in his head: “I can’t believe you wouldn’t go back for the cat, you vicious beast! You probably just saved that kid so she could be sad about her cat dying and you could feed off that despair! You’re just twisted like that.”
So instead of it being “How to Train your Dragon”, it’s looking more and more like “How to Train your Monster”.
There, leaning on the charred siding of the burning house, in close enough proximity to die of smoke inhalation were that a problem she even had to think about in the slightest, stood Xellos’s Lord, Creator, and Master. She held her pipe close to the inferno long enough for it to catch ablaze.
Oh Beastmaster. How you casually lean against a burning building while lighting your smoke on said building. Oh Beastmaster. You are amazing.
She held it between her teeth and took a drag, blowing blue smoke into the already foggy air. “There’s a word for the kind of person that goes back for the cat,” she said calmly. “I think it’s idiot.”
Well, that had been Xellos’s second guess.
Hahaa. That’s a good one, Skiyomi.
“You’re not going to try to tell me that saving that family was actually helpful to me, are you?” Zelas asked, one eyebrow raised.
Sure it was. He prevented the rise of another Bruce Wayne.
“Still,” Zelas said thoughtfully, in a way that barely caused Xellos to dare to hope that he’d escape from this situation unscathed, “I get the feeling that a similar phenomenon is happening to your little Filia, but in reverse. Something like that could be useful yet.”
Filia is becoming evil. Xellos is becoming good. Pretty soon, they’re going to switch places and it will be Filia bowing down to Beastmaster and Xellos running the bake sale.
No good deed goes unpunished. No bad act goes unrewarded.
Was he really seeking good, or just seeking attention?
I love Wicked.
Maybe, because they are patriarchal, the Dragon Elder was being serious when he said he didn’t care that Xellos killed Filia.
All I can is: Creepy Dragon Elder is Creepy.
I think my opinion of the Supreme Elder is a lot... softer than most people. Yes, he was a terrible person and did terrible things, but I do think that, despite what he said about not making a mistake, he felt guilt about it. Then again, that just might be me rationalizing as Filia. Still, despite his awful means-to-an-end philosophy, it's still worth noting that he seemed very invested in Filia for a great deal of the series.
No, I must apologize. When dealing with books on animal behavior, you must first and foremost realize that there are going to differences. After all, observations are not perfect, the researcher involved are not perfect, and the situations by which the animals are observed are not always perfectly the same. Yes, wolves do not have the teeth or bite strength to snap large bones with a single squeeze like other animals (such as hippos). And now that I’ve re-analyzed, it’s perfectly natural for a pack of wolves to invoke a throttle method, even if they are not always observed to do so. I apologize again for overlooking the fact that we are dealing with behaviors. You are correct in writing the wolves this way.
Could be both... I should read more about wolves, since they're pretty darn cool. Almost as cool as dragons! Almost.
It’s ok. We’re all a little crazy sometimes. Who knows? I might find that other occasion when I get the chance to break away from Pokémon addictionitis and actually sit down and watch the Slayers again.
Ah...Madness....Pokemon addiction....taking over....going to...evolve...into....Absol...
I've really gotta get around to watching NEXT again... but with Diary of a Dragon on my hands, well... I'm probably not going to get to leave the land of Try for awhile.
Again, I beg you to forgive my sarcastic tongue. It’s only a muscle and really doesn’t know any better.
Oh, don't worry :P I have a similar malady.
Yeah, I never understood the rush some people get off of doing stupid, dangerous stuff. Maybe a certain type of person is required.
Well, adrenaline is a real thing. I enjoy riding rollercoasters and all! But yeah, I'm not into high level risk-taking either.
Heehee. I’m not surprised this is the real reason he saved her.
I just can't resist thinking this every time I watch that episode, because he is such a smug snake when he saves her. I mean, just look at his face!
Typical Filia. Overcompensating to make sure she gets her point across, whatever point that may be at the time. If they have PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) like they do in our world, I wouldn’t doubt she’d have made herself the president.
Oh, absolutely and 100%.
Unfortunate incident….mass food poisoning…of course you would Xellos.
I have no canonical evidence for this, but I'm of the private opinion that Xellos doesn't even mean to cook noxious mixtures. It just happens that way.
It’s quite possible that you’re incapable of feeling that warm, fuzzy feeling, Xellos. Unless you really, really tried at it.
It's kinda hard when he has no heart for those warm feelings to reside in.
She yelled at him for hurting the guy who was going to rob her? Huh. Maybe she wouldn’t have been so mean to Xellos if he was a human? Perhaps she was just bitter that a monster saved her (yet again).
He just can't do anything right in her book!
Like drinking when you’re underage. I never did anything like that, but I knew a lot of colleagues that tried it and said it was so amazing and fun and…and when they reached legal age, they never touched the stuff ever again. Go figure.
The forbidden fruit aspect. I've heard in countries where drinking is much less a right of passage, much less dangerous and mystified, they have fewer instances of alcoholism.
Ok, now I can’t keep the chuckles in anymore.
One thing that Xellos and Filia both have in common is that they're very good at justifying their bad behavior.
Ok, now I can’t STOP LAUGHING.
XD This was the whole reason for this oneshot. To make Xellos heroically save a cat.
Filia is becoming evil. Xellos is becoming good. Pretty soon, they’re going to switch places and it will be Filia bowing down to Beastmaster and Xellos running the bake sale.
I initially meant to do a follow-up to this that goes into Filia's, well, 'bad deeds,' but I never got around to it...
Thanks so much for reading and for your wonderful comments I really appreciate it!
I think my opinion of the Supreme Elder is a lot... softer than most people. Yes, he was a terrible person and did terrible things, but I do think that, despite what he said about not making a mistake, he felt guilt about it. Then again, that just might be me rationalizing as Filia. Still, despite his awful means-to-an-end philosophy, it's still worth noting that he seemed very invested in Filia for a great deal of the series.
Wasn’t it him that sent her on her quest to begin with? And I’m going to have to disagree with your opinion (sorry). I do understand where you’re coming from, but I still can’t get myself to see him feeling guilty. XD
Could be both... I should read more about wolves, since they're pretty darn cool. Almost as cool as dragons! Almost.
Yeah, it takes a lot to beat out a giant creature that can shoot lasers.
Well, adrenaline is a real thing. I enjoy riding rollercoasters and all! But yeah, I'm not into high level risk-taking either.
I don’t get any enjoyment out of rollercoasters, so it’s a little harder for me to imagine…I get adrenaline from daydreaming though.
I just can't resist thinking this every time I watch that episode, because he is such a smug snake when he saves her. I mean, just look at his face!
LMAO. Careful there, Xellos. You’re true intentions are showing.
I have no canonical evidence for this, but I'm of the private opinion that Xellos doesn't even mean to cook noxious mixtures. It just happens that way.
I imagined he doesn’t mean to either, because in the episode where the group goes into the tower dressed in costume and has to go through trials, it seems like he is genuinely trying to win.
It's kinda hard when he has no heart for those warm feelings to reside in.
Yeah, I would imagine that would make it a liiiiiiittle difficult.
The forbidden fruit aspect. I've heard in countries where drinking is much less a right of passage, much less dangerous and mystified, they have fewer instances of alcoholism
The grass is always greener on the other side. You would think that more people would do stupid stuff like feeding wild bears because of the whole “it’s forbidden” aspect. Oh wait. They already do.
One thing that Xellos and Filia both have in common is that they're very good at justifying their bad behavior.
Or at least, very good at justifying it to themselves.
XD This was the whole reason for this oneshot. To make Xellos heroically save a cat.
Man, I have to give you credit for this. Xellos heroically saving a cat is something I’m more likely to find in a crack fic, and yet you…*applauds*
I initially meant to do a follow-up to this that goes into Filia's, well, 'bad deeds,' but I never got around to it...
Aww, too bad. The Absol would have loved to read that. (Absol does not know why it has suddenly decided to speak in third-person. Absol just feels like it)
Amusement Park. Rated PG.
Normally, she’d have looked forward to it, but all she could feel as she passed out tickets from under the awning that was the only thing standing between her and the heat of the sun was dread. And it was all Xellos’s fault.
Filia, I think you’re starting to give Xellos a little too much credit. I mean, breaking the jars of your shop is one thing, but controlling the SUN?
Better step up to the plate there, Xellos. She has high expectations for you.
Let’s see… he had always one-upped her in any contest or game she tried. There had been the high striker game, the ring toss, the gold-fish catching game, the arm wrestling competition…
Come now, Filia. Getting shown up in a game at a fair is practically expected.
his only real failure had been the pie baking contest which had resulted in two of the judges going home sick and one of them spending the next four hours in the port-a-potty.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh man! That brings me back to that episode I mentioned before, with the tower where they all dressed in costume and had to go through trials. Xellos put on that ridiculous apron and made something that could compete with garbage in terms of ugliest appearance. I’m guessing the fact that he doesn’t require physical food to survive might be part of the reason he’s such a horrible cook XD
And her expo table was always a nightmare of shattering ceramic and pottery shard wounds. It was hard to get fair-goers interested in her wares when Xellos kept reminding everyone how breakable they were.
Xellos’ ten favorite things (not in any particular order):
10. Angering Filia
9. Telling people “It’s a secret”
8. Angering Filia
7. Screwing with the general populace
6. Angering Filia
5. Screwing with Lina and her party for lols
4. Angering Filia
3. Making sure he pleases Lord Beastmaster so that he can continue to live and thus be capable of Angering Filia some more
2. Angering Filia
1. Drinking tea.
She shuddered to herself. But the worst of it had been during the picnic basket auction. People still talked about that one. It had been a few years ago and the fair committee was trying a new charity ploy to raise funds for a roof for the schoolhouse. So they’d gotten a bunch of the women in town together to make homemade picnic lunches. Then the men at the fair would bid for the lunch of their choice (and, more importantly, a certain companion to eat it with). It was a set-up based on charitable intentions, an appreciation for good cooking, and male loneliness.
…Do people do this in our world? O.O
She’d started to think he had better things to do then spoil her good time.
What better things would he want to do other than Angering Filia? XD
“What?” Xellos asked, looking curiously at the slack-jawed crowd. “I thought this was an auction.”
Lmao. Oh, Xellos. So nonchalant about the whole thing. I wonder if he placed a bid just so he could gloat to Filia on how he bought her.
“1000,” Xellos said in an affectedly offhand sort of way.
Of course he has a bottomless pit of money. He probably steals or cons most of it out of people.
“Alright,” the auctioneer said brightly. “Sold to the man with the staff! And I daresay we’ve gone and raised enough for a schoolhouse roof earlier than any of us expected!”
Might as well build a new school while you’re at it.
When she’d questioned/threatened him about it at their inevitable picnic table meeting later, he’d played innocent. He said that all he’d been trying to do was contribute to a worthy civil works project. That made Xellos a liar, a cheat, and a potato salad hog.
How did he cheat, Filia? Other than most likely gaining his funds from unsavory means.
That particular meeting had ended in an overturned picnic table and a solemn vow to never participate in a farce like that again.
Xellos: *forlornly stares at the potato salad on the ground* I was eating that.
That was why she’d stoutly refused both the kissing booth and the dunking booth when offered to her.
…Xellos tricking Filia into participating in a kissing booth…Hmmmm…
So she’d taken a safe little job running the Ferris wheel on the last day. It was a nice job, she got to see a lot of the children she recognized from Val’s class, and Xellos couldn’t do much with something like that.
…At least… she didn’t think so…
Pay off one of the children to insult her for him.
“Mommy!”
Filia abandoned her inner torment over what the future might hold for a moment as she look up and saw Val approaching at a run with Jillas close behind. He had a balloon in his hand.
“Val!” Filia said warmly as he approached her ticket booth. “How are you doing, sweetie? Are you and Jillas having fun?”
“I petted a sheep,” Val said, as if that was all that needed to be said on that subject.
Awww. Little Val is so much cuter than “LET’S DESTROY STUFF” Valgaav. Of course, that might not last forever if Xellos has his way…
That’s right: Xellos had tried to feed her child to goats.
I doubt the goats were very interested in dragon meat. XD
There was no getting out of it. Xellos would show up sometime during the day for his annual make-Filia’s-life-a-living-hell festivities.
Of course! There’s all sorts of fun things going on at the fair. There’s:
Filia dunking
Filia berating
Filia pot breaking
Etc….
That was right! The Ferris wheel stopped at the top so that the people in the cars could see the entire fairgrounds and enjoy the view. She didn’t know how it would happen, but she just knew… she could see it as clear as if it was happening right then… Xellos would get her up there somehow… the car would stop… and it wouldn’t start moving again.
Then she’d be stuck with him in a tiny Ferris wheel car for hours. And we all know how dreadfully hard it is to swing a mace in a Ferris wheel car.
Okay, so maybe screaming at innocent snow cone vendors was not the action of a totally prepared and well-adjusted person. And maybe she’d overreacted in throwing a rock at that bandleader, but it wasn’t her fault! He shouldn’t’ve gone around with that baton which could’ve easily been mistaken for a staff! And only sociopaths like hairstyles like that!
XD She’s….um….losing it a little I think.
Oh no wait. It’s already too late, isn't it?
She subjected her surroundings to a penetrating glare. “I know you’re here,” she said sourly. “Why don’t you just come out?”
There was no response. She looked up at the Ferris wheel, sighed, and walked toward it. She approached the control lever and flipped it, causing the structure to jerk into life. As the slowly rocking carriages filed one by one onto the loading dock, she climbed into one of them with a stony expression and stared out into the night as the rig climbed.
Look! Xellos managed to stick Filia in the Ferris wheel without actually sticking Filia in the Ferris wheel. I guess her prediction about it came true.
Then she yelled loud enough to cause the fairgrounds to shake with echoes: “WHERE ARE YOU, XELLOS?!”
It’s official now, Filia. You were shown up.
Without him there, Filia would have no choice but to sabotage herself all on her own. The good news was that she was already so good at that.
She did end up sabotaging herself, didn’t she? But she’ll probably still blame it on him though.
He smiled in the darkness where no one could see him, then parted his lips in the emptiness where no one could hear him and said quietly: “Don’t miss me too much, Filia.”
Too late.
Yet again, you make it impossible to find stuff like spelling or grammar errors. And I can't even say that the story wasn't interesting, because then I'd be lying. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but when I comment on something a character does or make sarcasitc jabs at it, it's usually because that particular part amused me. And, considering that I can't seem to get through one chapter without writing out a review for at least an hour, you can probably tell for yourself that I like a lot of parts.
You know, it’s funny. I had even less time to do stuff that I wanted over the Winter Break than I do when I’m at school. Mainly because every time I sat down and got into my thinking mode to write, someone interrupted me. Every time.
I need to find an easier way to take things from Microsoft word to the forums because I always seem to spend 15 minutes editing the thing so that italics and spaces show up properly in the post.
Wasn’t it him that sent her on her quest to begin with? And I’m going to have to disagree with your opinion (sorry). I do understand where you’re coming from, but I still can’t get myself to see him feeling guilty. XD
It was--and in such a heavily patriarchal society (at least it certainly seems that way from the glimpses we get of it) it's kind of a wonder that he chose the inexperienced female to head up such an important task. It at least shows that he saw something special in her.
There's a certain 'methinks the man protests too much' aspect to his denial of guilt that just makes him seem... guilty to me. I'm not saying he'd go back and change anything, though. The dragons are means to an end folks, but I can't help but feel that he had more problems with the means than he let on. That's just my interpretation though.
The grass is always greener on the other side. You would think that more people would do stupid stuff like feeding wild bears because of the whole “it’s forbidden” aspect. Oh wait. They already do.
Yeaaaah, people are stupid like that. And following that logic, the grass in, in fact, greener around the 'keep off the grass' sign :P
Man, I have to give you credit for this. Xellos heroically saving a cat is something I’m more likely to find in a crack fic, and yet you…*applauds*
XD Thanks. It's really fun to take bizarre scenarios and try to make them plausible.
Aww, too bad. The Absol would have loved to read that. (Absol does not know why it has suddenly decided to speak in third-person. Absol just feels like it)
Maybe someday I'll get back to it... I did have kind of the beginnings of an idea for that.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh man! That brings me back to that episode I mentioned before, with the tower where they all dressed in costume and had to go through trials. Xellos put on that ridiculous apron and made something that could compete with garbage in terms of ugliest appearance. I’m guessing the fact that he doesn’t require physical food to survive might be part of the reason he’s such a horrible cook XD
XD It would make sense. In fact, he can probably eat completely undigestible things without any ill effects, so that would make him an even worse cook.
Xellos’ ten favorite things (not in any particular order):
10. Angering Filia
9. Telling people “It’s a secret”
8. Angering Filia
7. Screwing with the general populace
6. Angering Filia
5. Screwing with Lina and her party for lols
4. Angering Filia
3. Making sure he pleases Lord Beastmaster so that he can continue to live and thus be capable of Angering Filia some more
2. Angering Filia
1. Drinking tea.
That list = win--particularly number 3.
…Do people do this in our world? O.O
Apparently. I was in particular referencing the bachelorette auction from Oklahoma.
Of course he has a bottomless pit of money. He probably steals or cons most of it out of people.
And he made a lot off of Lina when she bought the talismans from him.
I doubt the goats were very interested in dragon meat. XD
Ah, but goats will eating anything. Food? Not food? They don't care.
Then she’d be stuck with him in a tiny Ferris wheel car for hours. And we all know how dreadfully hard it is to swing a mace in a Ferris wheel car.
It'd be waaaay too easy to lose her balance.
XD She’s….um….losing it a little I think.
Oh no wait. It’s already too late, isn't it?
XD Whatever she had left is gone now.
Look! Xellos managed to stick Filia in the Ferris wheel without actually sticking Filia in the Ferris wheel. I guess her prediction about it came true.
Yep! Sort of, at least.
Yet again, you make it impossible to find stuff like spelling or grammar errors. And I can't even say that the story wasn't interesting, because then I'd be lying. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but when I comment on something a character does or make sarcasitc jabs at it, it's usually because that particular part amused me. And, considering that I can't seem to get through one chapter without writing out a review for at least an hour, you can probably tell for yourself that I like a lot of parts.
I'm glad it amused you and thanks so much for all the comments!
You know, it’s funny. I had even less time to do stuff that I wanted over the Winter Break than I do when I’m at school. Mainly because every time I sat down and got into my thinking mode to write, someone interrupted me. Every time.
I know how that goes. 'Course, I interrupt myself a lot of the time.
I need to find an easier way to take things from Microsoft word to the forums because I always seem to spend 15 minutes editing the thing so that italics and spaces show up properly in the post.
Ugh, I know how that goes. I have to go convert a chapter to the proper coding before I can post it up here. And I know that there are going to be a bunch of italics for me to deal with.
Unusual sights often go unappreciated simply because spectators don’t understand what it is that they’re seeing. It was in this way that a handful of buzzed pub patron’s completely failed to appreciate the oddity of a monster and a dragon sitting at the bar and drinking together. All they saw through their booze-glazed haze was a young man and woman who looked as though they’d rather be anywhere else and in any other company.
And it was true that neither Xellos nor Filia would’ve put themselves in this situation of their own volition. But earlier that day as they were walking through town they’d been having a… let’s call it a discussion… a debate… a comparative exercise to demonstrate which of their races was best. The word ‘jerkface’ had been thrown around, yes, but there’s no reason for that to take anything away from the solemnity of the proceedings.
Lina hadn’t appreciated that in the least. She’d turned to them, raked her hands through her hair frantically as though she’d been nursing a headache all day and shouted: “That’s IT! I’ve had enough of you two!”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at them. “Whatever problems you two have with each other just get over them, or at least shut up about them!”
They both opened their mouths—shutting up was probably not their intention.
“I don’t even want to hear it!” Lina commanded. She put her hand to her forehead for a moment, either in great contemplation or great pain. Finally she swept her hand out and pointed toward a local tavern. “Until you’re willing to at least pretend to get along, I don’t want to see or hear either of you. So just drink it out, talk it out, hug it out or duke it out—whatever. Just as long as you work it out!”
So they’d been banished—expelled from their own party. And though neither one was willing to work on any reconciliation, there was one thing that they could both agree on.
“Miss Lina is so mean,” Filia sulked.
Xellos set his drink down, letting the ice clink as it settled. “She is being rather bossy, even for her,” he was forced to agree. “What’s she going to demand next? That Mister Gourry stop asking obvious questions? That Mister Zelgadis stop being sarcastic? That Miss Amelia stop using the word ‘justice?’”
Filia had her hands neatly folded in her lap—a pillar of decency in the dank, beer-scented room. “…That would never happen.”
Xellos raised an eyebrow at her. “Is it more likely for us to get along?”
She sniffed haughtily. “Not at all.”
“Of course, I’ve done nothing wrong even in the face of your constant harassment,” Xellos said sanctimoniously. “I’ve been perfectly polite.”
“Polite?” Filia repeated incredulously. “Is that what you call it?!”
“That’s exactly what I call it. You’re the one who’s always shouting. You’ll notice I keep my temper,” he said in a purposefully soft and even voice. This was slightly undone by his almost inaudible mumbling of: “…For the most part.”
“You provoke me to shout at you with your wickedness!” she shot back. “And anyway, insults are insults no matter what volume they’re delivered at or what fancy language you use. Don’t pretend that that’s civil.” She took a triumphant swig of her drink and set the empty glass on the table.
Xellos’s eyes followed her movement. Either because he had no counter-argument or because he was legitimately curious, he changed the subject. “Should you even be drinking that? I thought alcohol was a mocker.”
“You’re a mocker,” she muttered darkly as the bartender set two more glasses next to their growing collection. “Anyway, it’s only human-grade stuff. It’s weak.”
“True,” Xellos said, taking a steady drink. “If Miss Lina was expecting the alcohol to lubricate some kind of ceasefire then she didn’t think this through. It doesn’t really affect either of us.” He paused, glass still in hand. “Though if this goes on for long enough it’ll end up affecting you.”
“That’s because I’m flesh a blood,” Filia responded with what Xellos considered to be a perverse sort of pride in her own mortality.
“How nice for you,” Xellos responded coldly in what he knew was not going to be his best comeback of the evening.
“Prick me and I bleed,” was Filia’s bizarre brag as she gestured dramatically with her shot glass.
“I’m going to assume that’s not an invitation,” Xellos muttered. “Anyway, I could say the same thing if I had enough advanced notice. It’s just not worth the trouble for someone like me. …It’s not as though bleeding takes any particular talent,” he added in a snappish tone.
She blinked at him and in that odd speech felt the strange sense of a completely alien perspective. What was it like to have… options? To treat elements of appearance and form that mortals take for granted as permanent as though they were… just clothing. A disguise.
Apropos to nothing she turned her gaze fixedly to the wood grain of the bar. She fiddled with her drink awkwardly, letting the very small amount of remaining alcohol slosh in a circular tide. She gave him a brief sidelong glance before looking straight back at the tabletop.
“Umm… Xellos?”
“Yes?” he asked, watching her change in behavior with interest.
She seemed to have trouble knowing where to start. “Do you… at the Temple of the Fire Dragon King they told us that… that when monsters materialize in this world that their clothes are part of their bodies.” Red pigment was building up in her cheeks—probably that famous blood she was so proud of. “Do you have… is that true?”
Xellos sat back and surveyed her for a minute—whether it was to heighten her sense of embarrassment or because he was actually thinking was hard to say, and there’s no reason that both can’t be true. “Technically speaking, yes, it is true,” he answered. “But,” he said, tugging at the fingertips of one white glove until he pulled it off completely and pressed it into one of her hands—still neatly resting in her lap, “once I remove them, they’re just clothes,” he said, holding out a perfectly normal looking hand with perfectly normal, if unrealistically clean, fingernails.
She stared at the hand in front of her, and then back down at the glove as though not sure what to do with it. “…Oh,” she finally said.
She set the glove down gingerly on the table. Then she took a desperate gulp of the precious last drops of alcohol in her glass, set it down, and gestured to the bartender to bring another. The bartender, working at the other end of the bar, sighed and brought two more glasses out, rather suspicious of his endlessly-thirsty-but-surprisingly-still-upright guests, but not paying them much mind.
Xellos brought the new glass almost up to his lips with his ungloved hand—not really flesh and blood, but a damn good imitation. He watched as Filia took a drink.
“So…” he said, looking her up and down, “what have you got under there?”
She sprayed the contents of her mouth across the bar and began choking wildly. “You—!” she screeched furiously between coughs.
He smirked. “Well wasn’t that exactly what you were asking me, Miss Flesh-And-Blood?”
“That’s not at all what I meant, you creep! Stop twisting my words!” she yelled, recoiling toward the far end of her barstool.
“Oh, I don’t think I’m twisting anything,” he countered smugly. “You might as well have said ‘show me some skin!’”
She made a face at him that was so disgusted that the bartender was inclined to check if any of his ingredients had expired. “I don’t want to see your stupid skin!” she declared, pushing his glove closer to him as though it was a molted snake skin. “I just…” she began to crumple slightly, “…wondered if it was there, that’s all.”
“Did you?” he pressed, eyebrows arched.
“Yes! It was… it was all out of intellectual curiosity and nothing more!” she insisted.
“I’ll buy the ‘curiosity’ part,” he allowed, “but that curiosity of yours isn’t the least bit intellectual.”
“Oh please!” Filia scoffed. “As if I’d show interest in you in any other way.”
“I wasn’t talking about any other way,” he answered, taking an excessively dainty sip of his drink, “I meant one specific way.”
She turned her gaze to her drink in an attitude that she hoped made it quite clear that she’d rather look at just about anything but him. “I could never be that drunk!” she declared. Nevertheless she paused just before bringing the drink to her lips, and slowly set it back down on the counter. …Better safe than sorry.
The action was not lost on Xellos. “I’m glad to hear that you have at least some self-control,” he said, smiling smugly. “At least now I know that when you’ve had a few drinks you tend to make cheeky comments.”
“My comments were not cheeky!” she exploded. “Who even uses that word anyway?!” she demanded, more of the world in general than of Xellos.
“You seemed very interested in finding out about the body beneath these clothes,” Xellos said resting a hand on his chest. “That’s a rather cheeky thing for a Dragon priestess to ask.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Filia answered sourly. “I only asked because I figured you had to be made up of nothing but trash!”
“Oh-ho, really?” Xellos sputtered, eyebrows knocking together. “Well I suppose you could’ve been cheekier if you were going to ask questions along that line,” he pondered, repeating the hated word on purpose.
“What do you mean?” she growled.
“Well…” he began hesitantly, as though loath to speak aloud such indelicate sentiments, “I’m sure when your temple was teaching you everything they thought you needed to know about monsters they also told you that higher level ones, such as myself, can modify our forms to look however we like.”
“I know that,” Filia retorted. “And all that goes to show is that you have terrible taste. Cheeky enough for you?”
“Since you’re well aware,” Xellos continued, ignoring her comment, “did you stop to consider anything related to that while you were pondering the nature of my body under my clothes?”
“I don’t know what you’re—” she froze mid-speech and turned her eyes deliberately away from him. “No! No, no, no! I wasn’t thinking about that at all, you depraved weirdo!”
“Ah, but I think I detect the sound of some gears turning,” he said, holding a hand to his ear. “How could you know what I was talking about if you weren’t thinking about it?” He paused and then added, “…you depraved weirdo.”
Filia slammed her fists down on the counter. “I am not depraved! The only reason I’m thinking about it at all is because you put it in my head!” And try as she might, she couldn’t unthink it.
“Oh, so you are thinking it?” Xellos confirmed, beaming delightedly. “Why Filia, I’d blush if I only had a circulatory system.” He gave a theatrical shrug. “But I’m sure you’ll agree that artifice has its disadvantages as well as its… benefits.”
“I’m sure I will not!”
“Hey,” a voice said from behind them.
They both turned—Filia from her near descent into a tantrum and Xellos from his gloating—to see Zelgadis and Amelia approaching the bar.
“Miss Lina’s gotten over her headache,” Amelia announced, dispelling any notion that she and he might’ve been banished from the group as well. “She says you two can come back if you’ll stop the arguing.”
“So?” Zelgadis said, looking annoyed that he was playing errand-boy. “Are you willing to at least try to get along?”
“Not if Filia keeps sexually harassing me,” Xellos answered.
Amelia and Zelgadis both looked startled initially, but Zelgadis was quick to move to a deadpan expression.
“He’s lying! I’m not doing that at all!” Filia shouted. She pointed at him furiously. “He’s the one who’s sexually harassing me by pretending that I’m sexually harassing him!”
Amelia and Zelgadis exchanged a look with Xellos over Filia’s shoulder. Xellos mouthed, “Do you see what I’m dealing with here?”
“Um… Miss Filia,” Amelia tried, “that doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t think accusing someone of sexual harassment counts as sexual harassment,” Zelgadis said coolly.
“It is the way he does it!” Filia spat. “Everything is the way he does it! Look!” she said, pointing frantically at him. “Look at that sleazy leer and tell me that’s not sexual harassment!”
“This is just how I smile,” Xellos said, sounding, for the first time in the conversation like his defense was sincere.
“It is kind of unpleasant…” Amelia was forced to admit. “But look, can’t we just compromise on this?”
“Just how are they supposed to do that?” Zelgadis asked.
“Well…” Amelia trailed off. “I guess they could just agree that they were both accidentally sexually harassing each other.”
“I’ll agree to no such thing!” Filia declared. “There was nothing wrong with what I said.”
“What did you say anyway?” Zelgadis asked, not entire sure he wanted to know.
“She asked about my—” Xellos piped up.
“I did not!” Filia cut him off.
“Look,” Zelgadis said, cutting in before Xellos could reply, “aside from Xellos’s creepy looks which no one likes, all of this supposed sexual harassment—whether it was unintentional, imagined, or on purpose—was verbal, right?”
“Right,” Filia answered, crossing her arms and glaring over at Xellos.
“Yes,” Xellos agreed, rather annoyed at the way his facial features were being received—he’d been going for charming.
“Then I think I have a solution that’ll put all this to a stop,” Zelgadis said gravely.
There was a moment of silence as they waited for his answer.
Zelgadis shook his head at them. “Just… stop talking to each other. That’s all you have to do.”
The monster and the dragon exchanged a long look, and then slowly turned back to the man with the plan in front of them.
“What kind of stupid idea is that?” Filia demanded.
Zelgadis sighed and turned away from them. “C’mon Amelia,” he said, walking toward the exit, “let’s go find Lina and tell her that she can either have the both of them in her party or she can have blissful silence, but she can’t have both.”
I hope you accept prodigal children if they come bearing reviews ;.; I even tried to keep my sarcasm down for this one in favor of perhaps more substantial and perhaps helpful critique.
Flower Garden. Rated G.
Ok, so I’ve been wondering: Where the heck are they? I mean, are they at a place that we know? A place that was in the anime, perhaps?
Xellos ignored her question, seemingly too absorbed in the process of taking in his surroundings. “We can’t be on holy ground,” he said, nodding at the structure in the distance. “So is this an evil garden?”
I can’t seem to imagine an evil garden that lacks man eating Venus flytraps. Or trees that throw apples at you. Or at least Deku Babas.
Filia wilted visibly. The freshly picked stems looked livelier than she did.
What’s up with her? Or is she just glum at the fact Xellos is there? Is does it have to do with Xellos and the whole “You aren’t a member of a temple or anything anymore so why are you here?”
“I thought you’d abandoned cloistered temple life,” he said. “I thought you’d made a decision. And now I find you’ve come crawling back to the saintly lifestyle of lighting incense and singing songs about dead gods.” He sounded disappointed in her.
Oh I’ll bet he was disappointed.
“You left with such conviction,” he went on, “that I can’t believe you’d come back here just on a whim.” He looked at her critically. “Are you hiding from me?”
Is this part of the reason?
That was too much for Filia. She wanted to throw something at him, but all she had was flowers.
But if you threw flowers at a monster and followed up with a “Life is Wonderful” song, I’m sure you’d do quite a number.
“Maybe to you,” Filia responded bitterly.
“Maybe,” Xellos allowed. “But that still doesn’t explain why your house is empty and your shop is closed. It doesn’t explain why you’re here, Filia.”
One thing I don’t understand is her closing her shop. Can’t Jillas and Gravos take care of it while she’s gone? But then again, they’d probably just drop vases like Xellos (only in their case unintentionally).
Filia averted her eyes. It wasn’t fair that someone like him could make her feel guilty. It was probably just his penchant for picking apart anything she said or did. She could never be right in his books.
XD Oh I see what you did here. Xellos was whining about not being right in Filia’s books, so now it’s only fair that Filia feels the same way. NEITHER ONE OF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING RIGHT FOR EACH OTHER!! That means they’re more or less perfect, yes?
Filia glared at him. “You don’t understand,” she said. “It may not seem right, but this is the only chance Val has to be raised amongst his own kind. The people in my to— in my old town were kind, but they didn’t know how different he was from them.”
It’s funny, but the first time I read this I overlooked this part a bit. Now that I’ve re-read it, I realized she’s talking about how she moved to a new town, correct?
“Kind, but not his kind?” Xellos taunted.
Ha! I love this sentence.
Filia ignored this. “Can you imagine him going to a human school? He’ll never learn all the things I learned growing up, he’ll never fly on Saint’s Day, he’ll never have his first consecration ceremony… he’ll never be surrounded by an entire group of people with the same problems he’s facing. People he can talk to who will understand him. He’ll only have me, and I’m not enough…” she trailed off sadly. “He deserves to be among his people.”
I don’t really have anything witty to say here, but I do like the fact that you mention ceremonies and religious occasions that dragons might participate in. Gives us a little glance into what dragon culture might be like.
“Do you just think I’m stupid or something? Do you think I don’t know what you’ve been doing? Did you expect me to believe that you were just playing house for the fun of it? Ha!” she said again, and again: nothing was funny.
Oh I’m sure part of the reason has to do with fancying himself your better half, Filia. ...Or I guess in this case your worse half.
“But I can see you need time to think things over,” he said, putting his customary smile back into place. “I’ll be calling on you again, though not in there,” he said, gesturing to the temple once again with his staff as he turned to leave. “So I suppose if you’re really set on avoiding me you’ll just have to cut out these botanical excursions.” He looked back at her once again with a serious expression. “Lock yourself away in the temple if you think it’ll help,” he intoned, eyes boring into her.
...Can he go into the temple?
She watched him in stunned silence as he exited the garden. He stepped over the rows of mums, and daisies, and primrose until he reached the path. He walked around the flowers so as not to crush them.
He walked around the flowers so as not to crush them. Now what kind of monster does that?
Another great one shot! Yet again, no spelling or grammar mistakes that I can find, a rather intriguing plot twist in the fact that Filia is now in a place filled with dragons and not humans, and I truly liked the ending. Not only was the end a good point to contemplate on, it raises some questions: would the past Xellos have cared enough to avoid stepping on flowers or has Filia slowly poisoned changed him with goodness?
More reviews to come! I’m going to (make an attempt to) catch up.
XD It would make sense. In fact, he can probably eat completely undigestible things without any ill effects, so that would make him an even worse cook.
That, and I’m sure a part of him appreciates the negative emotions flying off someone who’s just eaten something gut-wrenching.
That list = win--particularly number 3.
Priority-wise, number 3 would most likely make it to the top of his list, followed quickly by Angering Filia, and then tea. Because Xellos is one to never get his priorities mixed up.
Apparently. I was in particular referencing the bachelorette auction from Oklahoma.
-.-; O...ok then...well...Seems a little awkward to me, but that might be in part because I’ve never really heard of one before but...
And he made a lot off of Lina when she bought the talismans from him.
You mean when she threatened him into giving her a price for them. It probably also helps that he doesn’t really need to eat or sleep...or buy clothes.
Ah, but goats will eating anything. Food? Not food? They don't care.
Still, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a goat trying to eat something bigger than a Chihuahua that was...actually alive.
I hope you accept prodigal children if they come bearing reviews ;.; I even tried to keep my sarcasm down for this one in favor of perhaps more substantial and perhaps helpful critique.
But of course! I always love your reviews!
Ok, so I’ve been wondering: Where the heck are they? I mean, are they at a place that we know? A place that was in the anime, perhaps?
They're not at anywhere that was in the anime, but I'd place them at one of the other Dragon Lord's temples--it doesn't really matter which to me. See, the idea of Filia going back to a Golden Dragon temple for awhile (in fact, a friend of mine is writing a full scale fic based on that concept). This is just a brief oneshot dealing mostly with Xellos's feelings about her doing something like that, and her feelings at being confronted. It's a snapshot, but I did my best to hint at how they might've gotten there. The set-up would've gone something like this...
Filia tries to carve a life out amongst the humans at the end of Try with her Vase & Mace shop and all. Everything goes pretty well until Val hatches, and then she starts to worry--worry about what his life will be like being raised with humans and how he might become an outcast and not have the kind of community that can really understand him. Her suspicions will probably be confirmed by difficulties that she has with the humans... misunderstandings and such. Meanwhile, Xellos has taken to hanging around with them getting uncomfortably close to their little family unit as Val's father-figure and well... close to Filia in other ways. Fearful of her own feelings and fear for her son both living among humans and with Xellos making concerted efforts to influence him, Filia retreats to an insulated community of dragons. Xellos is pissed off. He feels that Filia has gone back on her principled little rebellion from the dragon race (something he admired in her), that she's trying to avoid her feelings for him, and that she's putting Val in danger by going back among the 'untrustworthy' dragons.
I can’t seem to imagine an evil garden that lacks man eating Venus flytraps. Or trees that throw apples at you. Or at least Deku Babas.
This is the garden of my dreams and nightmares.
But if you threw flowers at a monster and followed up with a “Life is Wonderful” song, I’m sure you’d do quite a number.
XD True. I'm not sure she's up for singing and dancing though.
One thing I don’t understand is her closing her shop. Can’t Jillas and Gravos take care of it while she’s gone? But then again, they’d probably just drop vases like Xellos (only in their case unintentionally).
To my mind, she closes shop for good because she doesn't intend to come back.
It’s funny, but the first time I read this I overlooked this part a bit. Now that I’ve re-read it, I realized she’s talking about how she moved to a new town, correct?
Well sort of. She's talking about that human town she set up in at the end of Try.
Ha! I love this sentence.
XD Thanks. I patted myself on the back when I wrote it!
I don’t really have anything witty to say here, but I do like the fact that you mention ceremonies and religious occasions that dragons might participate in. Gives us a little glance into what dragon culture might be like.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I wish we knew more about dragon culture.
...Can he go into the temple?
That was a question I was delicately trying to avoid answering during the course of this oneshot because I'm not sure. He probably can go in the temple. I mean, he's been on Holy Ground before and was sitting on the top of the Temple of the Fire Dragon King. It probably wouldn't be as easy for him to walk around in there without people screaming at him though.
Another great one shot! Yet again, no spelling or grammar mistakes that I can find, a rather intriguing plot twist in the fact that Filia is now in a place filled with dragons and not humans, and I truly liked the ending. Not only was the end a good point to contemplate on, it raises some questions: would the past Xellos have cared enough to avoid stepping on flowers or has Filia slowly poisoned changed him with goodness?
More reviews to come! I’m going to (make an attempt to) catch up.
Thanks so much! And I'd say you're on to something there: Filia has had quite an effect on him.
They're not at anywhere that was in the anime, but I'd place them at one of the other Dragon Lord's temples--it doesn't really matter which to me. See, the idea of Filia going back to a Golden Dragon temple for awhile (in fact, a friend of mine is writing a full scale fic based on that concept). This is just a brief oneshot dealing mostly with Xellos's feelings about her doing something like that, and her feelings at being confronted. It's a snapshot, but I did my best to hint at how they might've gotten there. The set-up would've gone something like this...
Ah I see. I can imagine her trying to fit back into dragon culture, but I can’t imagine it would go all too well in the long-run. With or without Xellos. And yeah, I bet the monster would have a problem or two with rebellious Filia being unrebellious.
Filia tries to carve a life out amongst the humans at the end of Try with her Vase & Mace shop and all.
Which I always imagined the name of to be something like “Vases and Maces to Throw in Snide Faces”.
Her suspicions will probably be confirmed by difficulties that she has with the humans... misunderstandings and such. Meanwhile, Xellos has taken to hanging around with them getting uncomfortably close to their little family unit as Val's father-figure and well... close to Filia in other ways.
Xellos himself probably doesn’t help much with the misunderstandings either.
Fearful of her own feelings and fear for her son both living among humans and with Xellos making concerted efforts to influence him, Filia retreats to an insulated community of dragons. Xellos is pissed off. He feels that Filia has gone back on her principled little rebellion from the dragon race (something he admired in her), that she's trying to avoid her feelings for him, and that she's putting Val in danger by going back among the 'untrustworthy' dragons.
I like the concept, it adds another layer to their not-sure-if-happy romance. And yeah, Filia does seem like she is really there in part to avoid him. XD
This is the garden of my dreams and nightmares.
A garden of opposites is perfect for opposites.
XD True. I'm not sure she's up for singing and dancing though.
It’s funny, but I had this dream last night where Filia was dancing and singing “Cabaret” of all things and Xellos was just like ...-.-;
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I wish we knew more about dragon culture.
Well, you certainly paint a convincing picture of what it might look like given what little we’ve got to go off of.
That was a question I was delicately trying to avoid answering during the course of this oneshot because I'm not sure. He probably can go in the temple. I mean, he's been on Holy Ground before and was sitting on the top of the Temple of the Fire Dragon King. It probably wouldn't be as easy for him to walk around in there without people screaming at him though.
Probably. It certainly hasn’t been the first time Xellos has tread on “Holy Ground”. And if there happened to be any young, fiesty dragons hanging about and started challenging him or whatnot, I can see the elders of said temple looking a little horrified.
Gemstones. Rated PG.
Amazing, amazing one-shot. The episode in question is probably one of my favorites despite Xellos not sticking around for the entire time, so I’m rather happy you decided to write about it.
Filia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Her hands were feeling raw, dust was filling her lungs, and she had that Spring Cleaning high. Between caring for Val and running the shop, she’d been letting cleaning fall by the wayside lately. Well, no more. Filia had her mop out and she meant business.
I’m guessing she either set up a different shop, decided to go back to the human town, or this is in the past because one-shot collections don’t always follow set times continuities.
And organizing… organizing actually had its own quiet joys.
How I wish I could share your sentiments, Filia.
She reached in to take out the last remaining objects from the drawer to face her judgment. She held two of them, one in each hand, and half-sat, half-collapsed to the floor. “Oh,” she said out loud.
They were circular gemstones, yellow in color, and on the large side. She’d almost forgotten that she…
Whatever were they doing in her crafts drawer? Was she planning on making wedding rings from them? A bit large, but probably still doable.
It had all turned out to be a scheme of Jillas’s to turn them against one another and not some legitimate prophecy. Of course it had.
The irony is that Jillas is now her employee of sorts.
Her married to Xellos? The very idea was utterly ridiculous!
Something started to float into the back of my mind when I read this. It’s still a little blurry, but I think the word “Legal” and the name “Skiyomi” are somehow attached. XD
But she’d picked up the two gems that declared them ‘the gods’ chosen couple’. All of them had thrown theirs at Gourry and after Xellos had abandoned her outside the temple and the others had gone off on their fool’s errand she’d just seen them all sitting there in a bunch along with one of Gourry’s teeth. So she’d… picked the gemstones up and put them away in her bag, never mentioning a word of it to anyone.
Considering that Amelia/Gourry and Lina/Zel didn’t seem to work out that well...
The longer it took, the angrier she was with herself. It shouldn’t even be a question, she thought forcefully. They’re garbage! He’s garbage. And what do you do with garbage? You throw it out, that’s what!
And yet she doesn’t throw him out when he comes waltzing around her shop (though arguably because he doesn’t let her).
“You’ve been busy today,” Xellos said, sweeping a gloved finger over the top of her mantle like everyone’s least favorite mother-in-law.
O_O Mother-in-? ...HAhaha XD
“Xellos!” she shouted, trying to bluster her way out of the impression she’d been caught doing something wrong. “What are you doing here?!”
Xellos: Easy. I live here, in a matter of speaking.
Xellos sat down in one of her chairs. “Now this is interesting,” he commented cheerfully. “What do you have in there that you don’t want people to see?” he pondered. “Perhaps your diary? A secret alcohol stash? If this was your bureau then I could make some more colorful guesses.”
....Did he just...? Was he...?
“Absolutely not!” Filia screeched, incensed. Her diary was in a combination safe which was itself in a locked chest in the darkest corner of the attic.
LOL. I guess you really can’t overcompensate when a monster has taken an interest in you.
“Why would you want to see those?” she countered.
“Because you don’t want me to,” he said simply.
Best reason ever. I use it all the time.
“Not a chance!” Filia declared. “You have no right to go poking around through my things just because you’re evil!”
...Isn’t that the point though? Even non-evil people go poking around just because they can.
“Why should you care if an ‘evil’ person gets paint on their shoes?” Xellos asked, advancing still forward. He stopped in the middle of the paint puddle, getting magenta paint on his evil shoes. He tapped her on the side with his staff. “Well?”
I had to chuckle at that. EVIL SHOES WILL ONE DAY TAKE OVER THE WORLD, AND THEN THE PRICE OF ALL BUT CLOWN SHOES WILL GO UP.
“Oh, please!” Filia said incredulously. “You were just as insulted as I was when Jillas paired us up. Why would you want a reminder of all that? That’s just—” And then it hit her like a truck full of similes.
For whatever reason, when I first read this it looked like “Truck full of smilies”. :/ I need more sleep.
“Nothing,” Filia said, trying to hoist herself back up. She held a hand up to her head and took a few unsteady steps away. “I think… I need to lie down,” she said deliberately. And because of the current state of her mind, she added: “You’re not invited.”
PFT! Are you sure now, Filia?
He looked down at the golden gemstone in his hand. He held it up to the red one on his staff and shook his head. He didn’t even know why he’d thought that would be a good idea in the first place.
He gave the gemstone a little toss in the air and caught it.
Yeah, I know it's horrible looking. I'm not good with computers, and it doesn't help that I have to do this in Microsoft paint because I don't have anything fancy like Photoshop.
Which I always imagined the name of to be something like “Vases and Maces to Throw in Snide Faces”.
...!! This needs to be true!
Xellos himself probably doesn’t help much with the misunderstandings either.
XD Nah, he's probably an exacerbating factor.
I like the concept, it adds another layer to their not-sure-if-happy romance. And yeah, Filia does seem like she is really there in part to avoid him. XD
One of that things I was thinking about there is the part of the Sound of Music where Maria goes back to the convent to avoid her feelings for the Captain.
It’s funny, but I had this dream last night where Filia was dancing and singing “Cabaret” of all things and Xellos was just like ...-.-;
You know, it's funny you should mention that because I've always more or less assumed that Cabaret would be Xellos's favorite musical :P
Well, you certainly paint a convincing picture of what it might look like given what little we’ve got to go off of.
Thanks! I do my best with the information I've got.
Amazing, amazing one-shot. The episode in question is probably one of my favorites despite Xellos not sticking around for the entire time, so I’m rather happy you decided to write about it.
Thanks you! It's one of my favorite episodes too
I’m guessing she either set up a different shop, decided to go back to the human town, or this is in the past because one-shot collections don’t always follow set times continuities.
Yeah, these oneshots don't usually exist in the same continuity and that last one is particularly distant from most of these.
How I wish I could share your sentiments, Filia.
I'm pretty messy, but I don't know... I sort of like organizing the files on my computer XP
Something started to float into the back of my mind when I read this. It’s still a little blurry, but I think the word “Legal” and the name “Skiyomi” are somehow attached. XD
*whistles*
Xellos: Easy. I live here, in a matter of speaking.
I know I read a oneshot once where he was all moved in and she didn't even notice XD
....Did he just...? Was he...?
Xellos has a dirty mind.
LOL. I guess you really can’t overcompensate when a monster has taken an interest in you.
The jokes on her! Locks mean nothing to him!
PFT! Are you sure now, Filia?
She might revise her statement when she's had more time to think it over XD
So it’s like:
XD That's awesome. He should totally change out gems!
One of that things I was thinking about there is the part of the Sound of Music where Maria goes back to the convent to avoid her feelings for the Captain.
SOUND OF MUSIC REFERENCE! Now where are Captain Xellos’ 7 children?
You know, it's funny you should mention that because I've always more or less assumed that Cabaret would be Xellos's favorite musical :P
Makes sense. Jealousy! Nazis! The Blame game! Love! Hate! And a seedy club whose acronyms I accidentally once misconstrued for a rather hateful and nasty subject in Southern American history!
I'm pretty messy, but I don't know... I sort of like organizing the files on my computer XP
I don’t really do that either... >.> XD
I know I read a oneshot once where he was all moved in and she didn't even notice XD
XD Where did he stay if she didn’t even notice? Not that he needs sleep or anything, but “all moved in” suggests that he had some place to put stuff and whatnot.
Xellos has a dirty mind.
And it tends to sometimes be brutally honest too...
The jokes on her! Locks mean nothing to him!
I think her only saving grace would be to say “What diary?”
At then he (might) be slightly less inclined to go hunting.
ONTO NEXT ONE-SHOT:
Filia stirred her lemonade contentedly with her straw. It was a perfect day, the kind that even Xellos couldn’t ruin.
How much do you think I should bet?
“Oh really?” Xellos said, with a willingness to test her previous assumption about him. “Which part do you like best: the constant rain or the smell of worms the rain leaves behind?”
I never really thought worms had a scent.O.o
“I mean,” Xellos said, scratching his cheek speculatively, “what did you think the birds were singing about?”
Male Bird: I am pretty~ Oh so pretty~ I am pretty and witty and gay!~
Female Bird: You won’t be once I have my way! *dives*
Filia whipped around, waving a ladle at him in a threatening manner. “I thought even you couldn’t ruin a day like this! I guess I was wrong!”
Xellos surveyed her in an extremely unimpressed way. “It’s not as though it’s my fault the mortal races reproduce sexually.”
*snort* I can imagine him a sort of Prometheus though, introducing new ideas into—ok I’ll be good now.
“I mean, you like ducklings, don’t you?” Xellos asked. “It’s very juvenile to like ducklings but blanch at the steps necessary to get ducklings. But I suppose it doesn’t surprise me. The Dragon race has always had a high and mighty attitude about these kinds of things.”
True, but now that Xellos mentions it, I feel like a lot of societies in general look at things a little like this.
Knocking his brains out with a ladle won’t solve anything,
Yeah, provided that you can actually hit him.
Filia swung around. “How dare you threaten genocide in my house?!”
Considering that he, at one point, actually committed genocide I’d say threatening is probably a step down.
Filia hesitated. Thinking back to her youth, well… it wasn’t a subject that dragons talked about that much… or at all, really. She could still remember a time when she’d been quite young and her friend Mintha had made an innocent inquiry to their teacher wondering where eggs came from. She’d been told to stand in the corner until she was willing to behave like a proper dragon and to not ask again unless she wanted worse punishment. That probably classified as blame and fear-mongering.
Looks to me like they don’t really teach “The Dragons and the Demons” talk...I mean “The Birds and the Bees”.
Xellos considered the Dragon race’s attitude toward impropriety and their general fondness for rule collecting.
Rule collecting...man, I can make a whole list of people who have this as their hobby.
Filia bit her lip and shook her head. “We weren’t allowed to read it,” she said.
Xellos raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“They said it would give us ideas,” Filia explained.
GAH! Then how were you supposed to know what was right and what was wrong? I can’t stand stuff like that. I can already name too many times when something like this was used against me.
“And a diagram with numbered parts,” Filia finished.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve managed to collect some idea over the years,” Xellos said thoughtfully, “from the vague forbiddances of your elders, overheard conversations and half-understood jokes. But I’d guess that there’s a pretty good chance that you’re not at all familiar with, shall we say, the particulars.” He looked up at her.
Filia wished that she hadn’t put her ladle away. Whether or not it would solve anything, Xellos deserved to have his brains knocked out with a serving utensil.
“Do I need to give you ‘The Talk’, Filia?” Xellos inquired.
I wonder if Filia was under the impression he was going to be a little more...er...drastic.
“When a man and woman love—or sometimes hate—each other very much—”
Xellos: “They do something to relieve all their pent up frustrations and stress caused by the other. It’s very therapautic for, after all, it’s rather difficult to argue when said other has yo-”
Filia: *begins to throw dishes at him*
Another one-shot I really liked! It’s funny how Filia doesn’t “know” even though that’s how her race reproduces while Xellos “knows” even though he’s a monster (though I can think of plenty of reasons why he’d have such knowledge).
SOUND OF MUSIC REFERENCE! Now where are Captain Xellos’ 7 children?
Captain Xellos has a beautiful singing voice!
Makes sense. Jealousy! Nazis! The Blame game! Love! Hate! And a seedy club whose acronyms I accidentally once misconstrued for a rather hateful and nasty subject in Southern American history!
...And now my nightmares will be full of Xellos dressed up as the Emcee...
XD Where did he stay if she didn’t even notice? Not that he needs sleep or anything, but “all moved in” suggests that he had some place to put stuff and whatnot.
I believe he camped out in the guest room or something... and he was a very demanding tenent!
And it tends to sometimes be brutally honest too...
Well, in his dirty mind's defense I wouldn't be surprised if Filia had an unusually risque lingerie collection... but perhaps it's just that frilly black garter belt that gives me that idea.
I think her only saving grace would be to say “What diary?”
At then he (might) be slightly less inclined to go hunting.
If he finds out she has one then she's screwed.
I never really thought worms had a scent.O.o
It's just that nasty smell after rain... I always see a bunch of worms on the ground, so I tend to blame them for it XD
Male Bird: I am pretty~ Oh so pretty~ I am pretty and witty and gay!~
Female Bird: You won’t be once I have my way! *dives*
Nature is so... beautiful.
*snort* I can imagine him a sort of Prometheus though, introducing new ideas into—ok I’ll be good now.
Oh my GOD that is a terrible WONDERFUL idea.
I wonder if Filia was under the impression he was going to be a little more...er...drastic.
He might actually still be. Like... maybe he was going to explain using visual aids?
Xellos: “They do something to relieve all their pent up frustrations and stress caused by the other. It’s very therapautic for, after all, it’s rather difficult to argue when said other has yo-”
Filia: *begins to throw dishes at him*
It was always going to end in something breaking! XP
Another one-shot I really liked! It’s funny how Filia doesn’t “know” even though that’s how her race reproduces while Xellos “knows” even though he’s a monster (though I can think of plenty of reasons why he’d have such knowledge).
Thank you! In a lot of ways Xellos excentuates the physical much more than Filia even though he's not... you know... actually physical.
Amelia clamped one hand over her mouth and nose to stifled a cough. The only air available for breathing tasted like soot and left her lungs dissatisfied and hungry. Her eyes ached from the filth that permeated the atmosphere, and even if she hadn’t closed them as a ward against irritants, she still wouldn’t have been able to see. It was dark all around here—the kind of darkness that no lighting spell could illuminate. The physical darkness of the smoke pressed in on all sides—hot and oppressive. She’d lost track of where she was. They’d started on the third level, but the floor had given way when the fire started and sent them crashing down. Had they fallen all the way down to the first floor? Was the exit close? Or had they simply fallen down one floor and would they still have to find a staircase before they could escape? …Would they have enough breathable air left to make it that far?
She shook her head and stopped her dizzy mind from panicking. She didn’t know where she was or how to get out, but she just had to trust in herself and in the person in front of her whose shoulder her other hand was holding onto to guide her out.
The figure in front of her reached a doorway and pushed—once, twice, three times—before the wood finally gave way and the two of them were plunged into the sunlight.
Amelia took a desperate breath of the fresh air. “For a minute there I thought we were done for,” she said, coughing.
“Yeah…” Zelgadis said noncommittally, looking around.
Amelia caught her breath and then followed his gaze around the outside of the house. “Ooooh, where is everyone?” she moaned worriedly.
“We got a head start on them because the floor collapsed,” Zelgadis deduced, staring at the burning old house—a place he’d just escaped that he was now having to consider going back into. He took a step back toward the door. “I’d better—” he began.
He was cut off by the shattering of glass as a blade of light was plunged through a downstairs window. Lina stepped out over the sill with Gourry following, and helping her to avoid the broken glass.
“Phew! We made it!” Lina exclaimed, muffled because she’d pulled her cape over her mouth.
“They’re alright!” Amelia cried out, relief all over her face—but that relief was short-lived. “But where’s Miss Filia?!”
“Wasn’t she with the two of you?” Zelgadis asked, tensed.
Lina looked wildly over the window they’d just past through, awaiting the appearance of a priestess. “She was right behind us at the start…” she trailed off. “Gourry!” She turned to him. “You saw her come after us, right?”
“She did at the beginning,” Gourry said with a worried frown. “But it was pitch black in there… you don’t think she could’ve—?”
At that moment there was a horrible crash. The entire third floor of the old house sunk in onto the second. The second was holding, but it didn’t seem too strong. Flames jetted from every break in the wood and smoke flowed out of it like a liquid.
“We have to go back in there!” Lina declared, wide-eyed. “We’ll use a wind barrier for protection,” she decided, thinking on her feet, “with a layer of ice spells to keep the flames from breaking it.” She turned to the rest of them. “Zel, Amelia—can you handle the ice spells?”
Amelia said, “Right!” as Zelgadis nodded.
Gourry stepped forward with his sword drawn. “There’s a lot of mess in there—you’ll need me to clear the way.”
“No, Gourry,” Lina said hurriedly. “You can’t clear debris from inside the barrier and you won’t last outside it. Stay here!”
“But—”
“Don’t argue,” Lina said, lowering her head seriously as she began building up energy for the spell. “We haven’t got a second to spare.”
There was an explosion and the second floor fell in.
“Miss Filia!” Amelia cried out, but before they could finish their magical barrier or dart inside the stifling darkness of what was left of the house again, there was movement out of the corner of their eyes.
Flickering into existence to their left, and a safe distance away from the collapsing building, was the member of their traveling party that no one had felt the need to worry about when the fire broke out—Xellos. Hoisted in his arms was Filia—soot blackened, bruised, and bleeding.
“Filia!” Lina yelled, leading the charge as they all raced over to Xellos, who was thankfully wearing an at least comparatively serious expression to his normally smiley face.
“Is she okay?” Gourry asked, as Xellos released Filia’s unconscious form to Lina and Amelia, who set her on the ground and surveyed her worriedly.
She was breathing, but her eyes were closed. She was covered in dirt and cuts and bruises and splinters, as though something heavy had fallen on her. That was probably the cause of her unconsciousness, Amelia decided. In the collapse something had fallen on top of her and either knocked her out or pinned her down until she passed out from lack of oxygen. She could imagine some timbers from the ceiling crashing down in a pile on top of her so heavy that no normal human being could lift them… She risked a sideways glance at Xellos before turning back to Filia.
What was worse than the bruises or the cuts or the smoke inhalation was the burn. Amelia had mistaken it for a bloody gash when she’d seen her from a distance, but no—her side and all along her right arm was a ghastly red and white—blistering, moist and unspeakably vulnerable-looking. Amelia had often done her duty as a shrine maiden—helping to heal the sick and injured—and she knew very well that burns were worse than any wound. A simple cut would leave a slice of skin decimated—a breach that could be bound up once more and sealed. But burns could leave entire swaths of skin dead or dying.
“She’ll be fine,” Lina assessed quickly, in answer to Gourry’s question that seemed to have been asked a millennium ago, before they’d seen the damage. “You got her in time.” She gave Xellos a nod. In a very quiet voice she added to Amelia, “Use Resurrect.”
Amelia nodded and began chanting. It was nerve-wracking work—the worry over Filia would’ve made it so no matter what, but there was something else that set her nerves on edge. She was being watched—closely and critically. She didn’t have to see the eyes to know that they were on her.
Lina noticed it to. Her gaze titled behind them to where Xellos stood. But she didn’t comment on it as she dumped healing magic into Filia.
“Why didn’t she just follow us out?” Gourry asked, frowning at Filia’s prone form. “I thought she was right behind me when we all decided to get out.”
Xellos made a gesture with something that Amelia, turned away from him, could only see out of the corner of her eye, but said nothing. Apparently noticing his wordless hush, he chimed in a moment later with an unconvincingly breezy, “I believe she went back for this.”
“The book?” Zelgadis said, looking up from the healing process where he’d been poised to see if his less skilled hand at healing magic was needed.
The book, Amelia thought as she let the white magic flow into Filia. Yes… that made sense. After all, the book had been the whole reason they’d gone into that house—the whole reason Filia was traveling with them. They’d gone to meet the man who claimed he had the book about Ancient Dragons…
That book… the chance in would’ve given Filia to taste that lost to the ages culture that her people had extinguished… the chance to give her son even the tiniest trace of his people’s way of life and beliefs… that had to be priceless.
Of course, the meeting hadn’t turned out to be what it seemed when they first arranged it. The man who’d promised them the book had another agenda, one that Amelia couldn’t grasp in any full detail at this point. The man had said something about revenge but… revenge against who? Miss Lina was always the most likely option… but it could’ve been meant for someone else… perhaps even Miss Filia, for whom the book seemed to be designed as bait.
They couldn’t get the man—whoever he was—to tell them the whole story before he called some low-class demons to fight in his stead. There had been a struggle, but in the end it was clear that he was going to lose. And that’s when they’d set the fires—a cowardly and cruel act that proved by itself that they were dealing with an amoral villain.
Villains… and proof of villainy. Amelia couldn’t help but think that subject had gotten more and more complicated to the point that it was hard to manage. It had been easy when she was younger. Good guys wear white, make epic speeches and punish villains; Bad guys wear black and laugh evilly and tie people to contraptions that gradually lower them into vats of acid—simple. But real life seemed to be rife with exceptions—no one who traveled with Miss Lina’s group could miss that. She’d had to adjust her expectations because, deep down, she knew that Miss Lina was basically good, even if she was occasionally greedy and not 100% moral.
Mister Zelgadis had been a tough one, because, while Miss Lina would occasionally take on the role of hero with all the flare and style and passion that Amelia had been taught to expect as a child, Mister Zelgadis seemed to actively avoid it. He’d been quick to shut her down whenever the subject of heroism came up—quick to say that, no, he wasn’t a hero of justice—to say that they should stay out of things that weren’t their problem. But… she knew his intentions were good and despite his protestations whenever push came to shove he displayed more good, more heroism than she could’ve ever hoped for. She was coming to believe that part of the reason he shunned the ‘hero’ label was simply because he thought anti-heroes were cooler.
…Which, of course, Amelia knew was ridiculous. After all, nothing was cooler than a hero.
She stared down at Filia—at her speedily mending burns. It was when Filia had joined their group that she’d really… noticed that she’d changed in her attitudes about good and evil. She saw how rigid Filia’s definitions of the two were and thought I’ve been there… haven’t I? Filia had gone through a similar change. She must’ve known what it was like.
But still… she couldn’t imagine what it was like for Filia. Her struggles in where to place Zelgadis on the justice spectrum paled in comparison to… Her eyes flicked in the direction behind her. …Well, at least anti-heroes were still definitely heroes.
Xellos on the other hand… no one was really sure what to do with Xellos. But Filia would probably have the best idea.
And he’d snatched her up from that building when they’d all lost track of her. What would’ve happened to her if he hadn’t? It was enough to make a person think…
But no. That was being sentimental. She realized that when she looked up into Zelgadis’s eyes. He was looking over at Xellos with a sour and suspicious expression—more specifically he was looking at the book in Xellos’s hands… the one Filia had risked her life to get. Was he just holding it for safe keeping or was that book the whole reason he’d been following them again?
It was impossible to know… and this had happened before. It was dangerous to read into Xellos’s acts based only on their results. She’d made that mistake before. The things he did may have seemed one way but… his intention could’ve be something else entirely.
Amelia let the last of her white magic flow into Filia. It was a poor substitute for the revitalizing holy magic locked in Filia’s unconscious mind, but yet there was something sacred about it. It was not the kind of magic for monsters. Xellos could rescue Filia, but he couldn’t save her—that he had to entrust to them.
…If saving her was even what he’d been after. Perhaps it was just a bonus and the book was the real prize. Perhaps its knowledge held something that he and his kind needed to know or needed to keep from others.
But she couldn’t believe that was the whole story. Amelia was sure. It was a convenient excuse and would’ve preserved a certain world-view—a categorization of good and evil. But it couldn’t explain the force—the manic pressure of eyes boring through the back of her head. There was an edge there, a tension and an ultimatum. She didn’t need to turn around to feel the intensity, the judgment of his gaze.
Filia’s eyes fluttered open and the pressure ceased.
From the review game this is illegal you know in reviewing theme #40, "Childish". I decided to try my hand at one of your numerous Slayers stories despite knowing almost nothing about the series. While at least having a slight idea of who Xellos is, I decided to treat them as original characters.
Okay, highlighting a couple parts that stuck out to me the most.
Originally Posted by Skiyomi
“I think spring is my favorite time of year,” she said as a yellow finch let out a burst of birdsong.
“Oh really?” Xellos said, with a willingness to test her previous assumption about him. “Which part do you like best: the constant rain or the smell of worms the rain leaves behind?”
Filia breathed in the moist air that only had the slightest aroma of worms. “You’re wrong,” she insisted. “It’s the most beautiful season there is.”
This is probably an unintentional funny moment. I half-expected her to shoot him a look or something along those lines. I mean... what the heck do worms small like XD? Far as I know, it's just wet dirt, and you smell that all the time after it rains whether or not you see the worms. It sounded like somewhat of a childish statement for him to make, which fit the theme a little bit had she pointed it out.
Xellos cocked his head to one side to look at her. “Autumn has its changing colors, winter its frosted vistas, and in summer everything is at its height of liveliness. What makes spring superior among the four?”
Filia shook her head. “Someone like you could never understand. It’s just… the feeling in the air. It’s like everything is being renewed. It’s full of new life: carefree and… innocent.”
At this exact moment, a squirrel ran across Filia’s yard, hotly pursued by a second squirrel.
“Though not for very long,” Xellos commented, following the two animals with his eye.
SQUIRREL! *stands at attention*
*beat*
I just got the last sentence there. Xellos is cheeky, ain't he XP? He must really be the complete opposite of Filia.
Filia managed to avert her eyes before the second squirrel pounced upon the first squirrel, but she was just in time to see a female duck being chased around the shrub at the edge of her property by, not one, but two male ducks.
Quacks filled the air.
Ducks make everything better. But I wouldn't want to see two animals get it on in my yard either xD.
Filia slammed her lemonade down on the porch, got up and stomped back into the house without looking back. Xellos raised his eyebrows and followed her.
“Filia?” he tried when he followed her through the screen door.
“I’ve changed my mind,” she said shortly, not turning around from the dirty dishes she’d chosen to occupy herself with. “Autumn is much better.”
Xellos leaned against the wall. “What, just because of that?” he asked, gesturing to beyond the door.
There was another loud quack from outside.
And ducks are forever ruined.
Xellos surveyed her in an extremely unimpressed way. “It’s not as though it’s my fault the mortal races reproduce sexually.”
I dunno, he's an evil overlord, right? He probably would do things like that if he could get away with it XD. He's so snarky, though I'm not sure if he really is in the series (not that I don't trust you in keeping characters in character). Now I really wanna watch this series if just for him.
You also bring up Filia bring part of a dragon clan. I'm probably wrong about this, but they probably can change from human and dragon forms at whim, or at least until the exhaust themselves. Unless it really is just a clan and the dragon is used as the symbol for said-clan. *shrugs*
Though of course, there is this interesting story... or something... can't think of another word xD, about how strict the dragon clan is about virtue and celibacy. I don't know if it's really from the show or is just your fan theory, but it truly is fascinating. There is something humorous about a baby dragon getting sent to the corner of a classroom for asking where eggs come from, but it's serious business in their world, and I'd probably get my head torn off for snickering at the imagery.
“From what I always understood,” Filia said, rooting through memories, “whenever two dragons get married they are given a pamphlet.”
“Of things they aren’t allowed to do?” Xellos asked.
“No,” Filia said. “Of things they are allowed to do.”
Xellos stared at her in silence.
“And a list of instructions,” Filia went on.
Xellos’s silence got, if at all possible, more silent.
“And a diagram with numbered parts,” Filia finished.
o_o...
...again... interesting, but... huh. I have no idea what to say about it. So... you're hinting that the mommy and daddy dragons don't tell their own children about life because the elders or whoever decided to make it a clan rule that everyone be completely uneducated until the moment they marry. Wonder how many dragons freak out whenever they discover this xD.
I have to admit, the idea sounds plausible, and I guess a good way to prevent illegitimate children from being born (especially if it's during a time period where bastard children are deeply frowned upon), but... I don't have any negative feelings toward this idea, but I'm sure it has its flaws. Of course, those flaws are probably very quickly swept under the rug if it's anything to go by.
If they do actually talk about this in the series, I'd like to know, because this is very interesting, and may back-up Filia's personality and attitude about it all.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve managed to collect some idea over the years,” Xellos said thoughtfully, “from the vague forbiddances of your elders, overheard conversations and half-understood jokes. But I’d guess that there’s a pretty good chance that you’re not at all familiar with, shall we say, the particulars.” He looked up at her.
Filia wished that she hadn’t put her ladle away. Whether or not it would solve anything, Xellos deserved to have his brains knocked out with a serving utensil.
I'd hit someone too if they were to bring this particular subject up without my consent XD.
“Do I need to give you ‘The Talk’, Filia?” Xellos inquired.
“What?! No!” Filia yelled, her horror knowing no bounds. “Absolutely not!”
“When a man and woman love—or sometimes hate—each other very much—”
“GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN THIS INSTANT!” Filia screeched.
The ending feels so abrupt, but it ends in a way that leaves me chuckling inside. It feels like the scene can just cut away to another scene, and it'd be just as effective.
Overall, I learned a little bit about the Slayers universe (maybe) from this little one-shot, and that it looks like Filia and Xellos get along well, even if they really don't in the show. There was a whole "teasing" feel to it when Xellos was approaching her about this topic, and she really didn't want to hear it because it's pretty much the unspoken rule in her clan. She seems like someone who is loyal, so I can't blame her for wanting to whack his brains out and shoo him out of her house.
The whole "Childish" theme is a bit... deceptive, I think. Xellos is pointing out it's childish of her for deliberately ignoring the concept of reproduction even though it's pretty much a law in her clan that she, being unmarried, is forbidden to learn of such things. So... would that make him childish for "poking fun" of her?
That said, the connection between the two is pretty close despite their vast differences. Whether they are enemies in the show or not, judging by this particular one-shot, they often find middle ground together so they could just talk and get to know one another. Could that be the reason you love the two so much, or is there more I'm unaware of? It's not unusual for a villain and someone from the good side to have feelings for one another, but most series tend to make it feel forced, in a way. From what I saw here, it was natural, like the two have known each other since they were young and just grew up choosing what side they wanted to be on, yet continued to remain in contact with one another. I haven't really seen this anywhere else before, so this is pretty refreshing for me to see. (I may be way off, of course, but this was what I got from this one-shot, so bear with me.)
So while there wasn't a lot of shippiness to this one, which I think subtlety is probably for the best with these two characters, it's cute and fun. Xellos really must show a lot of concern for Filia, even if he's an evil overlord. Still, I think she deserves to whack his brains out every now and then. Putting up with him must get overwhelming at times XD. If they were to ever get married, it would be one heck of a marriage.
I should read more of your Filia/Xellos stories, something tells me you have a whole lot of fun with these two's chemistry.
From the review game this is illegal you know in reviewing theme #40, "Childish". I decided to try my hand at one of your numerous Slayers stories despite knowing almost nothing about the series. While at least having a slight idea of who Xellos is, I decided to treat them as original characters.
Don't worry. I did ask first. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment on this! I know it must be disorienting to read for a series that you're not familiar with, so I definitely appreciate it.
This is probably an unintentional funny moment. I half-expected her to shoot him a look or something along those lines. I mean... what the heck do worms small like XD? Far as I know, it's just wet dirt, and you smell that all the time after it rains whether or not you see the worms. It sounded like somewhat of a childish statement for him to make, which fit the theme a little bit had she pointed it out.
This might be totally just limited to my family, but that's always how we described the smell after rain. Especially since there were all so many worms hanging around--writhing, gross and the perfect scapegoats :P
SQUIRREL! *stands at attention*
*beat*
I just got the last sentence there. Xellos is cheeky, ain't he XP? He must really be the complete opposite of Filia.
XD He is indeed. Cheeky is a good way to describe him.
And ducks are forever ruined.
The duck thing is a true story actually. Lustful animals are forever ruining my springs.
I dunno, he's an evil overlord, right? He probably would do things like that if he could get away with it XD. He's so snarky, though I'm not sure if he really is in the series (not that I don't trust you in keeping characters in character). Now I really wanna watch this series if just for him.
He's actually a monster or demon (or Mazoku from the original). Monsters reproduce asexually by basically cutting off a part of their body to create a new being--which divides their power. Xellos himself wouldn't do this, since it takes a big chunk of energy, only demon lords (he's the sole servant/"son" of one) would take that measure to create generals to serve them. As to whether Xellos gets up to the more... usual course of things... hard to say. Never actually addressed in the anime.
XD And I'm sure it goes without saying that I totally recommend Slayers from the bottom of my fangirl heart.
You also bring up Filia bring part of a dragon clan. I'm probably wrong about this, but they probably can change from human and dragon forms at whim, or at least until the exhaust themselves. Unless it really is just a clan and the dragon is used as the symbol for said-clan. *shrugs*
Yes, her true form is a dragon, but she can transform into a human form and that's how she spends most of her time in the Slayers series.
Though of course, there is this interesting story... or something... can't think of another word xD, about how strict the dragon clan is about virtue and celibacy. I don't know if it's really from the show or is just your fan theory, but it truly is fascinating. There is something humorous about a baby dragon getting sent to the corner of a classroom for asking where eggs come from, but it's serious business in their world, and I'd probably get my head torn off for snickering at the imagery.
A lot of this is extrapolation, but it's based on real stuff in the show. Filia is always one for taking the high moral ground and is very modest--she's a priestess of the Fire Dragon King, one of the gods of the world of Slayers. Golden Dragons serve the gods and strive to preserve the world, while monsters like Xellos serve the Dark Lord and try to destroy the world (and also feed on negative emotions).
Making any kind of commentary on dragon society and their feelings about sexuality is difficult because of their limited appearances in the series. Filia is the only female golden dragon that's appeared in the show. I've always assumed their society to be very patriachal due to some of Filia's hyper religious and repressed attitudes and, well, I am obsessed enough to have freeze framed and looked at every single shot of the dragon council of elders and didn't see a single woman there. It's from this information that I make some guess about how their society is run.
I have to admit, the idea sounds plausible, and I guess a good way to prevent illegitimate children from being born (especially if it's during a time period where bastard children are deeply frowned upon), but... I don't have any negative feelings toward this idea, but I'm sure it has its flaws. Of course, those flaws are probably very quickly swept under the rug if it's anything to go by.
It might help to know that of the dragons that have appeared in Slayers, Filia and another one named Milgazia are pretty much the only good, sympathetic ones. The elders of the golden dragons have a very fanatical attitude when it comes to "the greater good" and will do any low thing in the name of preserving the peace of the world or the way of life they deem best. That's where some of Xellos's criticism is coming from.
The ending feels so abrupt, but it ends in a way that leaves me chuckling inside. It feels like the scene can just cut away to another scene, and it'd be just as effective.
It is pretty quick, I'll admit, but these oneshots are meant to be pretty quick snapshots. I always wonder about these quick endings though... what if I hadn't ended there? I think Dusk is the worst example of this.
Overall, I learned a little bit about the Slayers universe (maybe) from this little one-shot, and that it looks like Filia and Xellos get along well, even if they really don't in the show. There was a whole "teasing" feel to it when Xellos was approaching her about this topic, and she really didn't want to hear it because it's pretty much the unspoken rule in her clan. She seems like someone who is loyal, so I can't blame her for wanting to whack his brains out and shoo him out of her house.
The whole "Childish" theme is a bit... deceptive, I think. Xellos is pointing out it's childish of her for deliberately ignoring the concept of reproduction even though it's pretty much a law in her clan that she, being unmarried, is forbidden to learn of such things. So... would that make him childish for "poking fun" of her?
Ah, well, part of the reason Xellos has a right to criticize her for sticking to this moral code would be... spoilers.
Spoiler:- I'll try to be vague.:
This oneshot takes place after Slayers Try, by which point Filia has quit being a priestess of the Fire Dragon King and gone off to live with the humans. Since she's rejected her place in dragon society (and, in many ways, their philosphies) she's no longer bound by their rules.
That said, the connection between the two is pretty close despite their vast differences. Whether they are enemies in the show or not, judging by this particular one-shot, they often find middle ground together so they could just talk and get to know one another. Could that be the reason you love the two so much, or is there more I'm unaware of? It's not unusual for a villain and someone from the good side to have feelings for one another, but most series tend to make it feel forced, in a way. From what I saw here, it was natural, like the two have known each other since they were young and just grew up choosing what side they wanted to be on, yet continued to remain in contact with one another. I haven't really seen this anywhere else before, so this is pretty refreshing for me to see. (I may be way off, of course, but this was what I got from this one-shot, so bear with me.)
They're both very special people--at least to me XD. Xellos is one of the most complex anime characters I've ever seen (Filia's quite complex too, and I think she's underappreciated in the Slayers fandom). You could say these two fall into an easier rhythm together because even though Xellos is "bad" he's not really the villain of Slayers. He travels with the heroes much of the time and sides with them when it's convenient for him. So they might be enemies, but they're also companions. Their relationship with each other begins basically with on-sight loathing, and they keep much of that animosity toward each other, but they develop into a sort of regard/fondness as the season progresses.
I am biased, though. The two are, I maintained, ship teased significantly in the series, but I think people who watch my signatures and then actually see Slayers wind up surprised when they find out the show isn't all about them XD
So while there wasn't a lot of shippiness to this one, which I think subtlety is probably for the best with these two characters, it's cute and fun. Xellos really must show a lot of concern for Filia, even if he's an evil overlord. Still, I think she deserves to whack his brains out every now and then. Putting up with him must get overwhelming at times XD. If they were to ever get married, it would be one heck of a marriage.
XD I've done my take on that before and, trust me, it's crazy.
I should read more of your Filia/Xellos stories, something tells me you have a whole lot of fun with these two's chemistry.
You are welcome to and I would love to hear your opinion on them if you decide to! XP And yep, these two are a lot of fun. I don't know how to quit them!
'Sup? I haven't reviewed in a while so I figured I would since I have some time on my hands at the moment. And yes, I'm aware I'm skipping chapters. I'm not ignoring them, I'll just come back to them later because I want to review this one first.
He was cut off by the shattering of glass as a blade of light was plunged through a downstairs window. Lina stepped out over the sill with Gourry following, and helping her to avoid the broken glass.
HA. Nothing new here; Lina and Gourry had a tendency to break walls even when there isn't a legitimate reason.
“No, Gourry,” Lina said hurriedly. “You can’t clear debris from inside the barrier and you won’t last outside it. Stay here!”
“But—”
Lina: "Stay here, you're useless at casting spells."
Gourry: *sadface*
Flickering into existence to their left, and a safe distance away from the collapsing building, was the member of their traveling party that no one had felt the need to worry about
Or probably even cared to worry about. If something happened to Xellos, I can only imagine Lina giving a half-hearted shrug and Zelgadis saying "Serves him right."
when the fire broke out—Xellos. Hoisted in his arms was Filia—soot blackened, bruised, and bleeding.
Speaking of bruised or broken people, I hope there wasn't anyone else important left in that building...
That was probably the cause of her unconsciousness, Amelia decided. In the collapse something had fallen on top of her and either knocked her out or pinned her down until she passed out from lack of oxygen. She could imagine some timbers from the ceiling crashing down in a pile on top of her so heavy that no normal human being could lift them… She risked a sideways glance at Xellos before turning back to Filia.
She was more likely knocked out instead of pinned, as I can imagine her capable of lifting any number of heavy things a normal human couldn't. Like her mace.
What was worse than the bruises or the cuts or the smoke inhalation was the burn.
First she gets burned (repeatedly) by Xellos' numerous comments and now she gets physicallyburned. ....Ouch?
Erm. This is a relatively serious one-shot, so I can't come up with anything more funny to say.
Poor Filia. I know Xellos gets bash around a lot in these one-shots, but I feel a lot worse when it's Filia taking the beating. I suppose it could be possible that monsters don't feel pain in the same way as humans, and any injuries cause more or less a temporary weakness or decrease in their abilities. Especially when I think about the end of Slayers EVOLUTION-R; Xellos was little more than a head and it seemed to me that it wasn't pain so much as a lack of limbs/power exhaustion that causes him to be out of the fight.
Plus, Xellos arguably deserves a lot of the beatings he gets in your stories.
Amelia nodded and began chanting. It was nerve-wracking work—the worry over Filia would’ve made it so no matter what, but there was something else that set her nerves on edge. She was being watched—closely and critically. She didn’t have to see the eyes to know that they were on her.
Xellos: Don't mess up now.
“The book?” Zelgadis said, looking up from the healing process where he’d been poised to see if his less skilled hand at healing magic was needed.
HAHAHA. Ok, ok. When I first read that, I briefly thought she had actually gone back deeper into a burning building for Xellos' saucy romance novel...
The book, Amelia thought as she let the white magic flow into Filia. Yes… that made sense. After all, the book had been the whole reason they’d gone into that house—the whole reason Filia was traveling with them.
So she's only there for the trashy books, huh?
That book… the chance in would’ve given Filia to taste that lost to the ages culture that her people had extinguished…
It's because they don't want too many baby dragons or young, hotblooded dragons running around promiscu-Ok ok, I'll be good now. ;~;
I'm just trying to laugh at something because I don't like injury scenes.
The man had said something about revenge but… revenge against who? Miss Lina was always the most likely option…
Lina Inverse? Pissing someone off? Impossible.
Why, Lina is the picture perfect angel of social norms and polite manners! The most developed of which are her table manners.
...Yeah he was probably there to get revenge on Lina.
They couldn’t get the man—whoever he was—to tell them the whole story before he called some low-class demons to fight in his stead. There had been a struggle, but in the end it was clear that he was going to lose. And that’s when they’d set the fires—a cowardly and cruel act that proved by itself that they were dealing with an amoral villain.
Ah ok. No random, innocent citizen dying tonight!
It had been easy when she was younger. Good guys wear white, make epic speeches and punish villains; Bad guys wear black and laugh evilly and tie people to contraptions that gradually lower them into vats of acid—simple.
Ahaha....Amelia, you can be so adorable sometimes. Didn't Valgaav wear white pants and was prone to epic speeches while he carefully tried to bring utter destruction on the world?
But real life seemed to be rife with exceptions—no one who traveled with Miss Lina’s group could miss that.
It's not always Black and White
But your heart always knows what's right
I can imagine Amelia getting along VERY well with any of the main Anime Pokemon characters. Or just getting along in the Anime Pokemon world in general.
She’d had to adjust her expectations because, deep down, she knew that Miss Lina was basically good, even if she was occasionally greedy and not 100% moral.
And prone to anger, obsessive-eating, kicking the rears of people who insult her, insulting people back, shirking duty until her sister tells her to do something...etc. I could sit here writing a list all night.
Mister Zelgadis had been a tough one, because, while Miss Lina would occasionally take on the role of hero with all the flare and style and passion that Amelia had been taught to expect as a child, Mister Zelgadis seemed to actively avoid it.
And I'm guessing the whole fiasco in the first episode of Slayers NEXT didn't exactly help either.
He’d been quick to shut her down whenever the subject of heroism came up—quick to say that, no, he wasn’t a hero of justice—to say that they should stay out of things that weren’t their problem. But… she knew his intentions were good and despite his protestations whenever push came to shove he displayed more good, more heroism than she could’ve ever hoped for. She was coming to believe that part of the reason he shunned the ‘hero’ label was simply because he thought anti-heroes were cooler.
Anti-heroes are cooler. And I always thought Zelgadis avoided the whole hero/villain issue altogether mostly because he didn't want to involve himself too emotionally in something that wouldn't help him reverse his chimera situation.
…Which, of course, Amelia knew was ridiculous. After all, nothing was cooler than a hero.
Batman fans and TV tropes disagrees. In fact, Amelia is currently listed as an anti-hero (along with Lina) under the Anti-Hero page.
Filia’s eyes fluttered open and the pressure ceased.
Yay! Amelia was surprisingly contemplative in this one. I guess she can get past the whole black and white sentiments and think deeper.
EDIT: MORE STUFF
Old Replies:
...And now my nightmares will be full of Xellos dressed up as the Emcee...
....
*Perks up with the idea of photo shopping...* >:-D
....
*suddenly remembers that I don't have photo shop, and trying to plaster an Anime face to a real body might not work all that welll...* D-':
Well, in his dirty mind's defense I wouldn't be surprised if Filia had an unusually risque lingerie collection... but perhaps it's just that frilly black garter belt that gives me that idea.
I did wonder about that. It just seems so...counter to the way she was raised.
He might actually still be. Like... maybe he was going to explain using visual aids?
Xellos: Here, I will be Figure A and you can be Figure B :-D
Filia: . . . . *grabs the first thing she can throw*
Xellos really must show a lot of concern for Filia, even if he's an evil overlord.
Forgive me for quoting you, Kutie Pie, it's just that the thought of Xellos being called an "Evil Overlord" (if only by Filia)...it's so beautiful. Because in an AU world where Beastmaster doesn't exist, what's to stop Xellos from being one? XD
Ah..again, sorry for quoting you. It's just that you're comment was so perfect I couldn't resist.
They're both very special people--at least to me XD. Xellos is one of the most complex anime characters I've ever seen (Filia's quite complex too, and I think she's underappreciated in the Slayers fandom).
Here here; they should have made Filia come back. It would have been much preferred to some stupid kid in a stuffed animal bossing people around and trying to take the spotlight from Lina. That's right, I don't like Pokota and I wouldn't be sad at all if he disappeared completely. And I have to agree on the complex character part, though the same could be said for a number of the main characters as well (Zelgadism anyone?). If Xellos weren't in REVOLUTION, I probably would hate that season ten times more.
Last edited by AbsolXWolf; 11th August 2012 at 12:43 AM.
HA. Nothing new here; Lina and Gourry had a tendency to break walls even when there isn't a legitimate reason.
Doors are for lesser mortals.
Lina: "Stay here, you're useless at casting spells."
Gourry: *sadface*
Awww! Poor Gourry!
Or probably even cared to worry about. If something happened to Xellos, I can only imagine Lina giving a half-hearted shrug and Zelgadis saying "Serves him right."
Awwww, I'd like to think they'd secretly miss him. Or they'd probably just refuse to believe he was really dead.
Erm. This is a relatively serious one-shot, so I can't come up with anything more funny to say.
Yeah, sorry XD You hit one that's kind of a downer.
Poor Filia. I know Xellos gets bash around a lot in these one-shots, but I feel a lot worse when it's Filia taking the beating. I suppose it could be possible that monsters don't feel pain in the same way as humans, and any injuries cause more or less a temporary weakness or decrease in their abilities. Especially when I think about the end of Slayers EVOLUTION-R; Xellos was little more than a head and it seemed to me that it wasn't pain so much as a lack of limbs/power exhaustion that causes him to be out of the fight.
You're right, but he does seem to cry out in pain some time, so that kind of confuses the matter. Xellos is confusing.
Plus, Xellos arguably deserves a lot of the beatings he gets in your stories.
Very true. If anything he deserves more beatings.
Xellos: Don't mess up now.
Talk about pressure!
HAHAHA. Ok, ok. When I first read that, I briefly thought she had actually gone back deeper into a burning building for Xellos' saucy romance novel...
XD Oh, if only! I should return to the theme of Xellos as romance novelist someday...
Ahaha....Amelia, you can be so adorable sometimes. Didn't Valgaav wear white pants and was prone to epic speeches while he carefully tried to bring utter destruction on the world?
The poor thing is constantly getting her world-view revised.
I can imagine Amelia getting along VERY well with any of the main Anime Pokemon characters. Or just getting along in the Anime Pokemon world in general.
I actually just wrote a vignette recently that had them dipping into Pokemony stuff. I should really get around to posting that (but not here since it's not shippy).
Anti-heroes are cooler. And I always thought Zelgadis avoided the whole hero/villain issue altogether mostly because he didn't want to involve himself too emotionally in something that wouldn't help him reverse his chimera situation.
I agree with the not wanting to get emotionally-involved thing, but I also think feels like it's cooler. He *did* seem to dig being called a "heartless mystical swordsman."
Batman fans and TV tropes disagrees. In fact, Amelia is currently listed as an anti-hero (along with Lina) under the Anti-Hero page.
She would be shocked to find that out!
Yay! Amelia was surprisingly contemplative in this one. I guess she can get past the whole black and white sentiments and think deeper.
Yeah, I really wanted to take a look at Xellos/Filia through the eyes of other characters and Amelia seemed like a good one to explore moral grayness. Of everyone else in the series, her worldview and morals is probably closest to Filia's Though not the same as Filia's. Something Hourglass of Falces didn't seem to get.
*Perks up with the idea of photo shopping...* >:-D
....
*suddenly remembers that I don't have photo shop, and trying to plaster an Anime face to a real body might not work all that welll...* D-':
Huh... but I do. Maybe I should take up the challenge?
I did wonder about that. It just seems so...counter to the way she was raised.
It is rather weird, isn't it? I gave the garter belt a bit of an origin story in Diary of a Dragon.
Xellos: Here, I will be Figure A and you can be Figure B :-D
Filia: . . . . *grabs the first thing she can throw*
He's only trying to be helpful, Filia!
Forgive me for quoting you, Kutie Pie, it's just that the thought of Xellos being called an "Evil Overlord" (if only by Filia)...it's so beautiful. Because in an AU world where Beastmaster doesn't exist, what's to stop Xellos from being one? XD
I can totally hear Filia doing that.
Here here; they should have made Filia come back. It would have been much preferred to some stupid kid in a stuffed animal bossing people around and trying to take the spotlight from Lina. That's right, I don't like Pokota and I wouldn't be sad at all if he disappeared completely. And I have to agree on the complex character part, though the same could be said for a number of the main characters as well (Zelgadism anyone?). If Xellos weren't in REVOLUTION, I probably would hate that season ten times more.
I don't actually dislike Pokota, but I completely understand your reasoning for disliking him. In the end, he really seemed like a proxy-main-character. Someone who could develop and grow and change by the end of the series so Lina wouldn't have to which... doesn't do his or Lina's characters any favors.
The box was small, cardboard and taped closed along the edges. The markered-on label insisted that it was originally meant to hold paintbrushes, but its purpose had changed. It was a poor casket, really, but it was the best Filia could do on short notice.
She lowered it into the hole she’d dug, deep enough that she hoped that no marauding coyote would make to rob the tiny tomb. She wiped her dirtied gloves against her skirt as she stood up on the parched grass of her backyard. The shovel was by her feet, but she didn’t feel quite ready to stitch the ground up.
“Val didn’t want to be here for this?” the lone figure next to her asked.
Filia dabbed the sweat from her brow and looked sideways at her fellow “mourner”; if he could even be called that. “No,” she said. “He’s pretty broken up about it. This is his first real experience with death.”
“In this lifetime,” Xellos pointed out.
“Yes,” Filia nodded gravely. “Gravos and Jillas are trying to cheer him up—they’re taking him out for ice cream.”
Xellos gave a little smile. “A salve for all life’s wounds,” he observed.
“Don’t make fun,” she snapped, turning to him with a sour look on her face. “She was his first pet—this is a big deal for him.”
“I wasn’t making fun,” he scoffed. “Don’t be touchy just because you didn’t manage to keep her from sampling your highly toxic art supplies.”
Filia didn’t say anything. It was like he’d taken hold of a screwdriver in her gut and twisted it.
He seemed to take pity, at least enough to change the subject. “Do you think you’ll get him another pet? Perhaps one that curiosity isn’t so inclined to kill?”
“I don’t know,” Filia said with a massive sigh. “It seems too soon. Like we’d be trying to replace her or something.”
“It doesn’t have to be another cat,” Xellos pointed out. “It could be something you could keep in a cage so it won’t go wandering off and getting into trouble—a guinea pig or some other small rodent.”
Filia grimaced. “Don’t those only live for four or five years? I don’t want to do this again so soon.”
Xellos tapped his staff into the ground where it crunched against the drought-starved grass. “You’re going to have to get used to this, you know,” he commented.
She stared at him, eyes narrowing as she looked for his angle. “What, do you think I’m going to turn this backyard into some kind of pet cemetery?” she asked derisively. “I told you, Snowball wasn’t even supposed to be in that storeroom. Someone left the door partway open. It was an accident. Despite what you may think, I’m not negligent enough to let the same thing happen to another pet.”
“I don’t mean that,” Xellos replied calmly. “You’re a dragon living among humans, Filia. It just follows that you’re going to need to get used to funerals.”
She was silent for a moment, looking back into the makeshift cat tomb that scarred her lawn. There were some things that she just didn’t want to think about anymore than she had to.
“I suppose it’ll be rather odd for the town several decades down the line, now that I come to think of it,” Xellos mused. “If you stay here, you’ll practically be a fixture. Generations will pass, yet the grandchildren of your long-dead first customers will still know that they can get good deals on ceramics and melee weapons from the pretty little shop on the main street and the dragon girl who runs it.”
She gritted her teeth. “Do we really have to talk about this?” she asked. “It’s so morbid.”
He put his hands on his hips and gazed heavenward, rolling his eyes at her under his closed lids. “Morbid? At a funeral? How dare I?” he conceded mockingly. “In any case,” he went on, “if you chose to settle amongst other dragons—those with the same long life span as you—then you wouldn’t have to think about it as much. But you didn’t. You chose to live among people who will die significantly before you.”
“Oh, a gift for magic has certainly been known to increase a human’s lifespan, but that can only go so far,” he added. “Your neighbors, your customers, Jillas, Gravos, Miss Lina, Mister Gourry, Mister Zelgadis and Miss Amelia… in all likelihood, they will all die before you do. Don’t you think you should prepare yourself for that fact?”
Despite the summer’s heat, the moisture in the air around Filia felt clammier than it did humid. Near everyone in her life that she counted as important had an expiration date well before hers. It was a terrible thing to think. Hadn’t there been enough death already?
“I don’t think anyone could really prepare for that,” she said softly.
Xellos shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe,” he allowed, “But at least if you try then it won’t take you by surprise.”
Filia wasn’t sure about that. Even the hot stab of surprise seemed preferable to the cold, slowly tightening noose of dread. But there was no forgetting now that it had been brought up.
“Umm…” she said, breaking the silence as she reached down to pick up the shovel. As she drew back up, she looked at the makeshift casket intently once more before saying, “…So… do you suppose we should say a few words?”
Xellos looked mildly perplexed. “Words?”
“Yes,” Filia said, slightly impatient. “Words.”
He cocked his head to the side. “You mean something in the ‘Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat’ vein?”
“Just… something nice, before we close up the grave,” Filia said.
“…Very well,” Xellos said after a moment’s hesitation.
He took a step forward toward the open grave, thought for a moment, and then picked up a bit of loose dirt from the pile beside the hole. He cleared his throat. “Snowball,” he began. “Truly your death has taught us that turpentine should be kept in a sealed container and on a high shelf where a small animal cannot poison itself on it.” He let the dirt fall through his fingers and onto the sad cardboard box. “Rest in peace.”
He stepped away from the grave, apparently satisfied with himself.
She gave him a hard look before shaking her head and chipping her shovel into the ground. “That was miserable,” she declared.
He frowned. Sure, it wasn’t exactly “a flight of angels sing thee to thy rest,” but she’d asked a monster to give a eulogy for a domestic cat. What exactly had she been expecting?
“I just hope you do better at my funeral,” she added, ladling a shovelful of dirt into the grave.
There was a pause, slightly longer than it should’ve been. “…What?” he asked.
“Well, it makes sense doesn’t it?” she said, stopping her shoveling to lean on the handle as she looked at him. “If I’ve got to get used to funerals then you really have to get used to funerals.”
“I wouldn’t imagine many people would invite me,” he said lightly.
Filia snorted. “Since when do you need an invitation to show up anywhere?”
She got back to her shoveling. “So, are you saying you wouldn’t show up to pay your last respects to me?” She paused. “Or more like your first respects, come to think of it.”
His eyebrows were drawn together ever so slightly. “I… may,” he said carefully.
A wistful look crossed her features for a moment and her fingers squeezed the shovel handle. “So… after I’m gone,” she said slowly, “…will you still remember me?”
“Hmm?” he asked, as though lost in thought.
“Like, after I’m dead will you just sort of… forget I ever happened, or will you still wince every time someone says the word ‘garbage?’”
He gave a smile that was accompanied by a barely audible laugh. “I can say with certainty that your rudeness will live on long after you’re gone.”
She nodded, satisfied. “And you’ll remember it,” she said certainly. “So that’ll be my immortality.”
He opened one eye, more a look of cautious confusion than of malevolence on his face. “Your… immortality?”
“Yes,” she said. “Because you won’t die, right?”
He paused, absent of his usual nasal “Hmm”s to fill the space between words. Instead he opened his other eye and regarded her words very seriously. “I won’t die,” he finally said, “…naturally.”
She tapped her shovel against the filled-in hole, packing in the loose dirt. “Naturally,” she repeated, a slight trace of bitterness in her voice.
“And you, Filia?” he asked, sweeping over so that he was standing on the other side of the small grave from her. “Will you remember me?”
She frowned. “Why would you even ask that? It’s not like it makes any difference in my case.”
“You got to ask me,” he pointed out. “It’s only fair.”
She tossed the shovel to one side. “Of course I will,” she said, as though it went without saying. “But that doesn’t even mean the same thing. You’re not mortal, so if you remember me even after I’m gone, then you can be my immortality. But I am mortal, so it doesn’t matter if I remember you because eventually I’ll die.”
“Of course it matters,” he chided. “It just means that instead you’re my…” he trailed off. “…Ah, that’s it, isn’t it?” he said, almost to himself. He shook his head, a strange smile on his face. “I might’ve known,” he said.
She gave him an odd look “…Might’ve known what?” she asked.
“Never mind,” he said. He let out what was very nearly a sigh and extended a hand to her across the grave. “I think it’s about time we joined Val, Gravos and Jillas at the ice cream parlor,” he said. “I think we both could use some cheering up.”
She looked at his hand hesitantly. “Even you?” she asked.
“It happens sometimes, Filia,” he said patiently.
She slowly reached out and put her hand in his, walking around the grave and over to his side. “Who’s paying?” she asked.
“You, of course,” he said simply as they walked toward the back gate. “It’s your fault I need cheering up.”
She scoffed. “Me? What did I do?”
“That… is a secret,” he said, guiding her along until they reached the sidewalk.
She groaned. “Of course,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“However…” he said slowly, “I can give you a sincere opinion on this whole situation.”
“Really?” she asked, as though doubting his ability to be sincere.
He stopped their hand-in-hand jaunt in the direction of the ice cream parlor to look her directly in the eye. “…I think you should get that guinea pig,” he said solemnly.
Filia raised a blonde eyebrow.
“Everything dies, Filia,” he said. “Both you and Val need to come to understand that. If the only reason you don’t want to get another pet is because you don’t want to deal with it dying, then that’s not reason enough. After all, it’s not as though you’d end your friendship with Miss Lina or any of the others simply because in all likelihood they’ll die before you.”
He looked away from her. “It’s not as though I’d leave you because I know someday you must die.”
She stared at him, her mouth slightly open. Her hand felt slick in her glove, more resting against his hand than actually held by it. She wanted to remember this moment for as long as her lengthy but finite lifespan would allow. She wanted to take it out later and examine it from multiple angles—question it, deliberate on it, and treasure it.
…But jut for the course of their conversation along the way to the ice cream parlor, she wanted to distance herself from it.
“Xellos…” she croaked, not realizing that her throat had gone slightly dry.
“Yes?”
“You…” she began, casting around for what to say before deciding on, “…You’re not seriously comparing me to a pet are you?”
He grinned and continued his movement forward, pulling her along by nothing more than his fingertips lightly brushing against hers. “I would never,” he said in mock offense.
“Good,” she said.
“…But if I were to,” he went on, “I’m sure I wouldn’t pick a guinea pig or a cat to compare you to. I’d probably choose something more long lived and overly talkative, like a parrot.”
She rolled her eyes.
“No?” he said. “How about an iguana? Am I getting closer?”
“Not in the least,” she said, lacing her fingers more firmly in his. “But you seem to have cheered up. Are you sure you still need me to pay for that ice cream?”
“Nice try, Filia,” he said, leaning in closer to her as they walked down the road. “You’re not getting out of it that easily. I told you that ice cream is a salve for all life’s wounds. Since you’re the one that inflicted them, you’re the one that needs to fix it.”
“It’s not like you to bruise so easily,” she commented. “It’s very…” she trailed off for a moment, the pieces falling into place so suddenly that it startled her.
“I am so sorry about this, Miss Filia,” Amelia confessed in a shrill whisper too quiet for even the guests seated at the nearby table to hear, let alone anyone else in the crowded ballroom.
Filia smiled fixedly, aware that every guest in the room had their eyes on the princess. It was all so bizarre. Here was Amelia on her big day—wearing a dress that probably cost more than Filia’s house—all grace and royal dignity; here she was, the absolute apple of the eye of Seyruun’s celebrating residents; here she was, finally married to Zelgadis after much feet-dragging and excuses on his part. This was the happiest day of her life. And yet, she felt the need to deliver a sincere apology for making the kind of hard decisions that any reception planner must inevitably make.
Filia glanced from Amelia to Zelgadis, dressed up in his military best and with a thin, ceremonial sword tucked at his side, so unlike his usual broadsword. He was letting Amelia take care of the heavy-duty meeting-and-greeting of the wedding guests while his eyes shot back and forth suspiciously across the room—still more in the mindset of a guard than a groom.
“He was probably going to show up anyway and I had to put him somewhere,” Amelia was explaining in her ear.
Filia eyes were drawn magnetically to Xellos, still standing at her side after getting up from his chair to receive the greetings of the bride and groom. He was grinning, damn him. Of course he was grinning.
“There are a lot of really important people here today,” Amelia continued wretchedly. “I just thought… maybe if I sat you two at the same table that he’d be too focused on you to cause trouble with anyone else.”
Filia’s stomach still boiled with wrathful acid from the discovery—the indignity as the usher directed her to her assigned table and she found Xellos sitting there in that faux-innocent manner of his. A card sat on his place setting with his name in a flourishing script—the place right next to it had a similar card with her own name.
And she’d thought it had to be some kind of mistake. Or that perhaps Xellos had moved the place settings himself. Amelia wouldn’t have purposefully tried to torture her by seating her next to Xellos. That’s what she’d told herself… but…
“Sorry…” Amelia finished, drawing back from her with an unrelentingly pitiful look. It must’ve been hard to look so pathetic in a skirt that nearly tripled her size, but she managed it.
Filia strove to speak, remembering first to unclench her teeth. “It’s… it’s fine,” she finally said, breaking into an uneasy smile. “You shouldn’t worry about that anyway. I mean… today’s about you.”
Amelia let out a massive sigh of relief before tipping her silk-enshrined form forward to hug the former priestess. “I knew you’d understand!” she cried.
Filia kept her smile in place as Amelia greeted the rest of the people at their table—second cousins twice removed or other such obscure relatives that no one could keep track of, but who got invited to big family events anyway. As soon as Amelia drifted away toward the next table, to attend to her other guests, Filia’s smile immediately dropped. She turned to Xellos, silently broadcasting her displeasure.
“What?” he asked, giving his attention to her after gesturing with one last wave to Amelia and Zelgadis.
“Must you ruin all blessed occasions?” she asked him coldly.
He sat down in his chair, flaring out the tails on his suit jacket as he did so. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “I haven’t ruined anything at all. I’m just trying to enjoy my Chicken Kiev in peace.”
Filia sat down at his side with a disbelieving, “A likely story!”
Despite his claim, Xellos’s attention was focused much more heavily on Filia than on the breaded chicken dish sitting on his plate. He tapped his fork against the table a few times, a thoughtful look on his face. “I think I know where all this bitterness of yours is coming from,” he finally concluded, arching an eyebrow at her. “What do they say? ‘Always a bridesmaid, never a bride?’”
Filia clucked her tongue in exasperation. “That’s… that’s not even… Well, look, I’m not even a bridesmaid so that doesn’t apply.”
“Oh really?” Xellos asked, slightly taken aback. “I assumed you were. That mockery of fuchsia and ribbons you’re wearing looked like the sort of dress a bride who wanted to guarantee she wasn’t competing for attention with any of the wedding party would assign.”
Filia glowered, straightening out the wrinkles on an overly puffed sleeve as she did so. There’s being evil and then there’s just being catty. “I’ll have you know, I made this dress myself.”
Xellos picked up a glass of wine, staring into the liquid as he swilled it around. “That explains a great deal.”
She swiveled around in her chair to face him in full, ignoring the cooling meal on her dish. “Well, why don’t you explain to me how you don’t even know who’s in the wedding party? I didn’t know spies were so unobservant.”
He made a little “Pfft” sound before taking a drink of his wine. “The logical explanation would be that I didn’t attend the wedding.”
Filia was stuck for a moment. It made sense. She hadn’t seen him at the wedding, but assumed he’d be observing from a distance. “So… you showed up at the reception, but not the wedding?” she asked skeptically.
Xellos shrugged. “In my experience, receptions are much more rewarding to attend than weddings.” He cast his glance upwards in reflection for a moment. “I think it has something to do with an open bar and the promise of cake.”
“So you’re just here to mooch!” she concluded, not bothering to keep her voice down. “I bet you weren’t even invited.”
“There was a place already prepared for me when I arrived,” he argued. “I think that implies an invitation.”
“Ha!” she returned. “Forcing people to plan around your gate-crashing isn’t the same as being invited. It couldn’t be clearer that you’re completely unwanted here!”
He chewed a bite of his chicken thoughtfully. “That is both harsh and unfair,” he said after a moment. “But I’ll overlook it since it is clear that your aggression is born out of fear of becoming an old maid.”
She let out a scoffing noise. “You’re out of your mind,” she informed him.
Perhaps she would’ve elaborated, but a cough from the other half of the table turned both their gazes away from each other. “Umm… excuse me?” one of their table mates cut in—a woman with slightly greying hair and a ridiculous hat. Filia couldn’t read the woman’s name tag from her angle, but it seemed to be quite lengthy. “I don’t mean to interrupt,” she said, turning toward Xellos with the corners of her mouth drawn down in concern, “but I was wondering… you’re not one of those dastardly men who show up at weddings they’re not invited to for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the desperation of single women are you?”
Xellos stared at her, momentarily unable to respond. “Um… no,” he finally said. “No, I’m not.”
The woman across the table dropped her judgmental gaze and stared instead into her soup. “Oh,” was all she said. She sounded somewhat disappointed.
Filia realized that her jaw had fallen open at some point in the course of this exchange and attempted, with some difficulty, to correct it. “Is…” she began, not quite sure how to continue as she gave Xellos a horrified look. “Is that one of the ‘rewards’ of wedding receptions?”
Xellos gave her a weary look. “If it was, Filia, ask yourself this,” he responded in a withering tone, “do you think I’d be sitting with you?”
Before Filia could answer, a chiming rang out from the head table. She craned her neck around to see the wedding party, having concluded their exhausting meet-and-greet, back in their seats. There were familiar faces—Amelia and Zelgadis of course, along with Lina and Gourry who seemed to have had their patience tested by forgoing food to act in their roles as maid of honor and best man. They already had forks and knives in hand and were glaring at the figure sitting on one side of Amelia, who had interrupted their chow-down before it even began.
King Philionel was tapping at his wine glass with a spoon to command everyone’s attention. He seemed to have pulled himself together a great deal since the wedding, when Filia had last seen him. It was quite a sight to see a man that big and self-assured weeping as though he’d never run out of tears. But it was a proud sort of crying. Filia was sure that, after all Seyruun had been through in the last year, that the new King was relieved to trade the mournful tears shed after the death of his father, King Eldoran, for the joyous tears at the marriage of his youngest daughter.
There were other faces there that Filia did not recognize—members of the royal family, perhaps. There was an old woman with grey haired piled up high on her head, holding a handbag and wearing a look of displeasure. Her hat had a taxidermy starling perched on top of it which was… an odd choice for wedding attire. Next to her sat a rail thin, tiny old man who seemed to be enjoying the proceedings much more than his seat-mate. Closer to the center of the table and the bride and groom, sat a very tall woman who was in the process of downing a mug of beer. Despite the fact that the wedding party couldn’t have been seated at the table for very long, she already had quite a few empty glasses in front of her. She slammed the empty mug down on the table and motioned to a waiter for another one, pawing at her bridesmaid dress all the while as though not used to wearing so much clothing.
“People of Seyruun,” the King began, a broad smile on his face. “Loved ones, distinguished guests, today we celebrate the union of my dear daughter Amelia and—”
“Oh, it’s just a toast,” Xellos murmured, drawing Filia’s attention away from the King. He put his spoon back on the table. “I thought we were going to peer pressure the bride and groom into kissing.”
“What?” Filia whispered, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Hmm?” Xellos turned to look at her. “…Ah, that’s right, you probably haven’t been to too many human weddings. It’s just a silly little tradition. Guests will clink their glasses in order to get the bride and groom to kiss.”
“That’s… strange,” Filia commented, stealing a glance at Zelgadis. He already seemed uncomfortable with these proceedings, being goaded into a public display of affection probably wouldn’t have helped.
Xellos opened one eye and looked at her lazily. “Strange? I suppose. Don’t dragons have any such traditions?” he asked. “I’d assume so. You’re such a highly ritual-driven people after all.”
“Well, we don’t have any rituals like that,” Filia responded, taken aback. “Nothing to make anyone kiss in public. That doesn’t even happen at the weddings themselves.”
“Of course not,” Xellos responded patiently. “Such a spontaneous show of warmth and fondness would be far too scandalous for your uptight, reptilian sensibilities to process. No, I just meant,” he went on, talking over Filia’s attempt to register her umbrage at his less than respectful attitude toward dragon sensibilities, “I wanted to know what sort of wedding traditions you dragons keep.” He held up a gloved finger to make his point. “This may surprise you, Filia, but, for one reason or another, I’ve never been invited to a dragon wedding.”
“One reason or another?!” Filia screeched as silently as she could, knowing that they were drawing annoyed looks from guests who were trying to focus on Phil’s toast. “You know exactly what the reason is!”
“…May their future together, and as leaders of Seyruun, be bright,” Philionel finished, lifting his glass high and taking a drink.
Filia reached out for her glass at the last minute and took a furious swig which she nearly choked on. She was doing it. She was letting Xellos distract her from properly enjoying the reception.
“Yes, well,” Xellos began again, talking through the cheers from the guests after he finished taking a drink, “with that in mind, I’m not exactly likely to be a guest of honor at those sorts of affairs. I thought perhaps you could enlighten me. What characterizes a dragon wedding?”
Filia was silent for a moment. She folded her hands in her lap while their tablemates dug into their dinner before it got too cold. “…Fire,” she finally said.
“Fire?” he repeated as the orchestra started playing soft, digestion-aiding nothings from the corner stage.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “It’s…” She absentmindedly smeared the mashed potatoes on her plate into a circle shape. “There’s a large ring of kindling they set out where the ceremony takes place. Most of it’s the usual sort of thing… wood, rope, sweet smelling grasses, but there’s usually something a little extra. The bride and groom each choose a personal item of theirs—a piece of clothing, an article of furniture, a document—something that symbolizes their lives before they were together.”
“And then they burn it,” Xellos concluded, pressing his napkin against his upper lip. “Rather dramatic, but then again, I suppose we are talking about golden dragons.”
“It’s not just that,” Filia cut in, choosing not to comment on the perceived melodrama of her people. “When they set the kindling ablaze, all the guests flap their wings to make the flames grow higher and higher—until it’s just a column of fire. The bride and groom fly into the center of it from above and that’s where they say their vows.”
“I’m assuming this is more a tradition of the Fire Dragon King’s followers, than of the golden dragons as a whole,” Xellos commented, taking another bite of his meal. His eyebrows drew together slightly, perplexed. “Still… that’s an awfully hellish setting for a wedding.”
Filia went for a drink of wine and rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t get it,” she said. “Of course a monster would only think that fire is for destroying things. Dragons understand fire. Fire warms houses, hatches eggs, melts ice. And that’s not even mentioning our fine tradition of smithing.”
She chewed thoughtfully on a piece of chicken. “Anyway, the idea of fire being dangerous and violent is part of the point. It’s… well, it’s a trial by fire, I guess you could say. Flying into that swirling mass of flame is frightening, even a little bit risky. But that danger is supposed to cement the union between the bride and the groom. They’ve passed through the fire—they’ve overcome that to be together.”
Xellos sat back in his chair as the strains of violins played. “I already mentioned the dragon race’s love of theatrics, but I suppose I didn’t even know the half of it. But…” he began, cupping his chin in his hand. “I suppose I can somewhat see the logic of how living through a catastrophic situation with someone might strengthen your bond with them.”
He looked at her, as though wondering if she had any thoughts on the matter. She appeared not to. Instead, she put another forkful of mashed potatoes into her mouth and stared ahead at the two women sitting across from them—trying to embroil themselves in a private conversation and ignore the sporadic interactions on the other side of the table.
“And would you have anything like this?” Xellos pushed on, after it was clear that she wasn’t going to comment. “A wedding reception? Some kind of feast?”
She cleared her throat. “No, nothing like that,” she answered. “In fact, usually the newly married couple goes off on their own right after the wedding ceremony is completed.”
“To?” Xellos asked.
“Traditionally?” she clarified, specifically not looking directly at him. “To gather nesting materials.”
“…Ah,” he surmised, a small, knowing smile on his face. “Honeymoon.”
She nearly dropped her fork. “It’s not…” she began, “It’s not really about that.” She straightened up in her chair, looking upwards imperiously. “It’s an ancient tradition that began when dragon settlements were more scattered. New couples had to set up households in caves or forests. Now, for dragons that make the temple their home, the trip is really more about giving the couple some time on their own.”
“Exactly as I said,” he said, his smile not at all dimmed. “What do you think they want time on their own for?” He shook his head. “I know the dragon race likes to put business before pleasure, but when the business is reproduction… well…”
She grimaced, a slight blush on her face. “The dragon race doesn’t… we don’t really…”
“What, ever?” he interrupted her, a mock-aghast look on his face as he leaned in to force eye-contact.
“You don’t understand,” she snapped. “It takes a lot of resources to feed dragon young, and the temple only has limited space. And anyway, dragons live much longer than, say, humans, so they’re not as concerned with… replacing themselves. So there’s a need to be…” she struggled for the word, “…careful.”
Xellos leaned back in his chair, giving back some of the personal space he’d stolen. “I see,” he said. “How very austere.”
She hesitated before making a response. Generally speaking, her default policy was to disagree with Xellos. This was almost always the right and true thing to do. However, in this case… “Going to a human wedding, where there’s such a sense of… celebration,” she began wistfully, “I have to admit, that by comparison, my people treat the occasion with much more… solemnity.” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her pointed ear. “It’s almost like there’s a sense of loss about it.”
“Did you ever think you’d do it?” Xellos asked, his question rushing out as though it had been lined up long before she stopped speaking.
“What?” she asked, giving him a wide-eyed look.
“Marry,” he said. “Burn a symbol of your youth and innocence, fly through the circle of flame, take part in an ancient breeding ritual that your society has nearly rendered pointless.”
She was stuck for a response for a moment. It all sounded so bleak when he put it that way. “I… I suppose in the back of my mind I thought I would,” she admitted, thinking back. “But it was never really a priority.”
He nodded wisely, reaching toward his plate for a bread roll. “I’m sure that makes the fact that you can’t anymore much less disappointing,” he remarked, breaking the roll in half.
Her forehead creased as she turned over his pronouncement. “Why do you keep saying that?” she asked. She wasn’t exactly bursting with the desire for matrimony, but his continued poking at the subject was starting to get annoying.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, taking a bite of bread. “I just sort of assumed that after your very dramatic and principled exit from the society of your people, that you weren’t currently shopping around for a new temple in which to serve.”
When he put it like that… “Well, of course not,” she said stiffly.
“That eliminates your primary chance for companionship on that level,” he opined. He grazed the tip of his index finger thoughtfully against his chin. “I suppose, though, we should never say never,” he added. “There’s always the lively and controversial world of interspecies marriage to consider. There’s your sort of ‘adoptive’ people—the humans. And you get along quite well with beastmen, I’ve noticed.”
“I hope you’re not suggesting that I marry Jillas,” Filia returned coldly.
“You’ll hurt his feelings with talk like that, Filia,” Xellos replied, a pleased smile on his face. “No, I think the humans are worthy of the most consideration here. You are, after all, taking human form and living primarily amongst humans. There’s a degree to which you can fall into their mindset and thus relate to them—you have many human friends. But…” he went on, as though they’d approached the knotty part of the issue, “…ultimately, the relationship could only go so far before certain incompatibilities might become obvious. Possibly insurmountable ones.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “…What are you talking about?”
“Well, as you and I well know, Filia, though you are able to nearly perfectly imitate human form,” he coughed here and added: “most of the time” in a mumble, “you still retain many of the attributes of your true, dragon form—such as weight, strength and stamina.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “That might be a little… much for the average human to take.”
She hadn’t quite arrived at his point yet, but was close enough to dislike where this was going.
He sighed magnanimously. “Either you’d have to be a much more restrained lover than I assume you to be or…” He tut-tut-tutted with his tongue a couple of times. “Let’s just say, crushed pelvises are a possible hazard a human suitor of yours would have to contend with.”
“How dare you! You… You REPULSIVE, VULGAR BEAST!”
Smack. Her chair hit the floor and the reality of the many, many other people in the room hit Filia. They gawked at her, mouths agape at the red-faced, visibly shaking woman standing before the table. She was huffing and puffing and looked one moment from blowing the house down. Filia tore her gaze from Xellos (who was incidentally looking very proud of his workmanship) to the head table where Amelia was wearing a “No please! No! Not here! Not now!” expression.
Slowly, and under a great deal of pressure, Filia leaned down and righted her chair. Aware of the gaze of hundreds of people upon her, and none more prominent than the two ladies at her own table who were already trying to edge their way toward another group, she sat back down. She took several deep breaths, staring only at her hands—still clenched in shuddering fists.
“Ummm… everyone please try to finish up your meals quickly,” Amelia tried from the head table. Her voice was higher than usual and to Filia it sounded as though it was coming from the other end of a long tunnel. “They’re going to be bringing the cake out soon.”
It took a few minutes, but the crowd grudgingly resumed its chatter—though not without stealing several intrigued or appalled looks at the dragon girl sitting at a table not too far away from the royal family.
As Filia gradually got her breathing under control and managed to persuade her fists to unclench, she took a moment to give herself a bit of a mental pep talk—perhaps even a congratulations. Granted, that outburst didn’t exactly look good. But the fact of the matter was that only a few years ago a comment like that from Xellos would’ve almost certainly goaded her into transforming. She was getting better at resisting—better at keeping her human appearance intact regardless of what her wildly running emotions.
“The tail might be a bit of a problem as well,” Xellos said in a tone that might’ve been described as gentle if it wasn’t so obvious how much fun he was having.
Filia looked down and, sure enough, there was a golden-scaled tail poking out from under her skirt. She quickly slid it under the table and decided that she was still doing pretty well, self-control-wise, because she hadn’t 1. Transformed fully; or 2. Beat Xellos over the head with a silver platter.
She took another deep breath. “You are,” she began, but had to pause to take a minute to ensure that she stayed under control, “the vilest creature I have ever met in my life.”
“Charming, as ever,” Xellos responded, not at all impressed by her more focused rage. “But did it ever cross your mind that I’m doing you a service by making you aware of uncomfortable truths?”
She said nothing, but she did not look like a woman who felt she had been provided excellent service.
“These are things you should probably consider if you ever intend to find the so-called ‘man of your dreams,’” Xellos informed her, an ironic smile in place.
Filia snorted. “Well, I’ve already found the man of my nightmares,” she grumbled.
Xellos chuckled. “Those weren’t nightmares,” he informed her.
“…And, you know, perhaps I’m not a bad choice,” he added, after a moment’s thought. “You wouldn’t have the same problems with me that you might have with others outside your own race. I’m much more… ah, durable than your average man. And I can’t say I mind the tail at all.”
Her face contorted in disgust. “Don’t you even pretend to take that idea seriously,” she warned him.
“But it’s more than that,” he went on, ignoring her comment. “I don’t think either of us knows anyone else even half as well as we know each other. And that must count for something, regardless of whether your dreams of me are good or bad.”
Filia opened her mouth to respond. His every comment had been catching her off-guard, but this one did so for a different reason. His previous comments had almost seemed like he was betting with himself as to how far he could push her—how much he could offend those uptight, reptilian sensibilities that he accused her of having. Perhaps it was just in contrast to those comments that that last one seemed so different.
She was spared replying, though, by the announcement that the cake had arrived—a lush, multilayered thing with columns of frosting in white and pale pink. Candied flowers ran down its sides like an overflowing fountain of botanical saccharinity. Filia watched as it was rolled—carefully—up to the princess and the new prince on a cart. Zelgadis stood up and was handed a knife by the chef. The action felt rehearsed, maybe because of the stiffness in Zelgadis’s manner (though he can hardly help that). Amelia followed behind him, placing a hand over his. When she looked into his eyes, some of the nervous aggression seemed to fade from them—some of the anger at this perfunctory ritual that was required of him in order to have the things he needed and wanted in life—some of the fear at the privacy of their tender moment being invaded. With that attitude, they reached upward and, together, cut the first slice of cake. Everyone in the room broke out into applause.
And that moment hurt a little—the simple sweetness of it all. The idea of this matrimonial world being blockaded had never really occurred to Filia before that day. It wasn’t something that entered her daily thoughts—her desires or her priorities. Perhaps there was some small tendril of expectation in the back of her mind—a leftover from her childhood—but it was barely acknowledged. If it had snuck to the forefront of her mind then she probably would’ve come to terms with it as unlikely in her situation—and she would’ve done so on her own. It was Xellos’s smug flaunting of the idea that she couldn’t ever have this which had made her itch at the thought—to want to have something that he said she couldn’t. But even that she could’ve gotten beyond with time. It was just one of Xellos’s taunts after all. But seeing a moment like that between Zelgadis and Amelia, who had overcome so many difficulties to be together… The companionship that they shared fell off them like fumes, leaving her with a contact-high of affection. She couldn’t experience something like that without feeling a little lonely… especially when grappling with the concept of “never.”
Xellos watched her face as this feeling passed through her. “I suppose you could always try to catch the bouquet,” he suggested. “The woman who catches it is supposedly the next one to get married. Since the odds are against you, why not appeal to superstition?”
“What’s the point?” Filia asked dully, resting her elbows on the table and letting her head fall into the cradle of her hands.
He tilted his head to the side. “Oh, Filia,” he said quietly, “have I destroyed all sense of romance in you?”
“Shouldn’t you be proud?” she asked sourly.
“Not particularly, no.”
She lifted her head out of her hands, sitting up straight as she stared at the dance floor beyond her, where, very soon, the bride and groom would have their first dance. It was safe to say, that being a bride was almost certainly not in her future. That was alright, really. It wasn’t a necessity. But… she could dance. She could still dance. And damn it, she would dance.
It just came down to finding the right partner. She gave a sigh of inevitability and turned to look at Xellos, who was being passed his promised cake by a waiter. Xellos. The evil, obnoxious, no-good, very-bad, durable and tail-tolerating speaker of uncomfortable truths who she knew better than anyone else and who knew her better than anyone else. The man of her nightmares indeed. But, if you wanted to get technical about it, nightmares still counted as dreams.
As for Xellos, he wasn’t much thinking about dancing or about cake. It occurred to him that a bouquet would not be the only flying object up for grabs by the time this reception was over. It would not be difficult, he realized, to guarantee that he would be the one to snatch up the flung garter belt before any of the bachelors waiting to be unconfirmed could make the catch.
Of course, Xellos had little use for a token that would proclaim him the next man in attendance to be a groom. Marriage was a concern of the mortal races and certainly not any of his business.
…On the other hand… he knew a woman who could always use another garter belt.
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Originally Posted by Skiyomi
