to our DISSONANCE!

he was looking for dietrich -- he had lost him.

it was only supposed to take a bit. kuja had told him he’d run with him to go grab something since for some reason he had not wanted to go alone. or tell cain, for that matter. so here he was. after remembering he was allowed to drink now. walking into a near tavern and ordering a glass of wine. he’d had wine so much back when he was part of the courts in treno --

slowly, he looks over to the woman sitting near him noticing her... well, he doesn't understand why she’s so tense. if this had been in treno, he would -- he was a killer. convicted murderer, having killed their queen and stolen their princess, set to ravage their world. he’d --

perhaps he shouldn’t have left. but he’d found himself needing a breath of fresh air again, and cain insisted he not go home -- his palace. though, an internal crisis was to be had on where his real home was. now that they had a family... shouldn’t it be with them, with cain?

but he finds himself rather with isaak as he went off to preform something for the orden, insisting that kuja stay behind -- that it was a task best done alone. and he agrees. not at first, of course, but after a tad of convincing. it’s dark, and he can smell what isaak is up to, distantly. metallic tang at the back of his throat -- what exactly was best done alone, what had they come here for?

it’s not that cain leaves him out of the orden’s affairs -- it’s simply that kuja doesn’t ask. which he does realize, he should change. he should be more involved, more informed. it would help, if not in any other way than helping his peace of mind. and surely, he should be home. home being, in this instance, the orden. but he still wasn’t the attentive mother that cain wishes he could be --

he flinches as he walks straight into the chest of another, metal shoulder plate banging up against his nose and kuja, disgruntled, would have fallen backward if he hadn’t grabbed at the other -- and looks up to spy a man whom he has heard of but never met. not yet, not until now -- by mistake.