The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

It was a Monday.

It had been a normal weekend.

Arthur, ergo, was in the salle, practicing his staffwork for once. He did have a battle with Mat due tomorrow which was going to be pushed towards next week due to a sudden case of the fox, SPOILERS and it wouldn't do to show up in anything but perfect fighting shape.

He made for a few impressive sweeps through the air as he practiced, showing off for his (Merlin-y) audience as usual.

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[puppy_fair]

Zack was no longer tracing anything into the floor. Zack had both feet firmly planted, and he was clenching his hands into fists so tightly that his arms were shaking.

"Copies," he agreed. "Human copies. At least, their faces are. I don't think there's a bit of their mind left to them, though. They just... stand there. Twitching. And then they attack, like they just want to do whatever their master wants them to. Or maybe because they just want to kill."

That last bit seemed entirely too likely.

[bitchprince]

Arthur's eyes flicked up to Zack's face. Searching.

He found something. He wasn't going to divulge.

"Sounds almost... inhuman," he said, not entirely recognising his voice. Possibly because he was still too-- whatever. About everything. "Time for a fight."

[puppy_fair]

And at that, Zack's anger cracked again entirely, and once again the floor had become enthralling.

"Like I said," he sighed, "it works on SOLDIER and monsters."

Because suddenly, there didn't seem to be much of a difference in the two.

[bitchprince]

Arthur snorted. His hand reached over to pat a shoulder. There we go. "Monsters have no honour," he said, "They just maim and hurt to kill and nothing else. They know nothing of pride or dignity or decency."

[puppy_fair]

"Neither does Genesis," Zack noted. He managed to suppress a shudder at that thought, mentally grabbing on to the little bit of comfort he could find in the pat to his shoulder. "I... don't know what's up with Angeal, lately."

[bitchprince]

"Things have been troubled," he noted, "Anything in particular that springs to mind about him?"

[puppy_fair]

"Well, there is that whole part where he let Genesis attack me with a dragon," Zack noted, almost dryly. "That part was kind of on the dishonorable side."

A smidgen.

[bitchprince]

Considering that one day Arthur was going to attempt to murder his father for the release of certain knowledge...

"A bit," he noted, finally. "But you handled it."

[puppy_fair]

There was a long pause, then, while Zack bobbed his head slightly, trying to puzzle out what he was supposed to say from here.

After a while of completely failing at words, he opened up his mouth and added, not quite in a pout;

"It was a really big dragon, too."

[bitchprince]

Arthur's mouth curled up into a smile, and he managed an amused noise despite the levity of the situation. "I fought a dragon once," he confided, "in Canadia. Merlin blew it up."

[puppy_fair]

"Blew it up?" Zack was grinning a little, now. Because... there was something about exploding a dragon that was kind of funny, damn it. "Sounds effective, at any rate."

[bitchprince]

"I was fighting it off," Arthur spoke, thinking back to it, "Merlin kept babbling about me getting in the way, so I told him to get rid of it. And then he asks me, of all things, 'What can I do, short of blowing it up?!'."

He snorted. "I don't know, Merlin. Maybe blowing it up would actually be a good start."

... this was Arthur's way of trying to cheer someone up. Fear.

[puppy_fair]

It was weirdly effective! Ten points for Team Arthur!

"That's about it, isn't it? If it's out there, terrorizing people, you take it down. Or blow it up, if that's what it takes."

A beat.

"I bet it was messy."

[bitchprince]

Well, good, because if this hadn't worked he'd be forced to resort to noogies.

Arthur didn't do emotional well. Could you tell?

"It took me two hours to get it out of my hair," he complained.

[puppy_fair]

"Sounds like that time the alligators attacked," Zack noted, clinging to the complete topic switch like it was a lifeline. "Took me all that night to get the reptile out of my hair and clothes, and then the next day? I found myself in detention and I ended up knee-deep in it all over again."

Which, he really didn't need to add, was really, really gross.

[bitchprince]

Arthur wrinkled his nose. "I've fought a great deal of creatures back home," he said, "And yet I had to come to Fandom to find any number of them that actively enjoyed messing you up."

... yes, okay, Arthur was fond of his hair.

[puppy_fair]

"That's the one thing I miss about where I'm from," Zack noted, frowning thoughtfully. "When you kill a monster? It just disappears. None of this guts and gore clinging to your clothing. And they leave things behind, too. Gil, sometimes armor. Stuff like that."

[bitchprince]

"I've heard about that," he replied, thoughtful in kind. "Although it does leave you to wonder where they go..."

Zack was no longer moping. Mission succesful.

[puppy_fair]

Zack gave his head a shake.

"Like heck if I know," he noted. "Back where they came from, I guess. Summons just disappear when you defeat them, too, but I don't think it's quite the same. You can call on them again, after all, so they can't really be dead."

It wasn't too difficult to pull Zack out of a mope. Just present him with shiny things and convenient distractions, and he'll cling to them for dear life.

[bitchprince]

"Some kind of magic," he mused. "Oh well."

Then shook his head and reached over to clasp Zack's shoulder with one manly hand gesture. "Zack," he said, finally, "Figure out where your loyalties lie, follow your honour, and stay with your duty. It's the only thing you can do."