A Little Reconnaissance (Social)

"We have to find a way to get the wedding invitations, but it should not be that much of a problem. Do you need to sleep? If not we can make it there in no time. Sleep isn't something i fathom yet or understand. So if I have to I can always carry you while you sleep on the way." He thought about carrying her and blushed. He would be watching her sleep... "And this book is from a world that no longer exists... A dark guild helped with its destruction and my dad saved my mom from there. This book is the last remnants of that planet even existing. The knowledge in it is vast, and the magic it describes is amazing. It will take a long time to be able to master though. I do plan on learning it eventually." He held it once again as he spoke. The only gift from his parents besides his abilities was clasped in his hand. He looked at his half demon counterpart. "To be honest I don't think your abilities will be much of a mystery. 'A scholar researches that which is closest to their heart first in a library of knowledge.' If I had to guess, you don't use take over magic. That magic doesn't involve theory comprehension to that level." He stopped walking and grabbed her arm to halt her advance. "Biological Magic is the best guess. Why else would you be researching it so extensively." He smiled wide with his eyes closed as he laughed a little bit, then met her gaze. "I don't keep secrets really. This book is just a gift I cannot part with. Not to just anyone I mean." He looked up at the sky for a moment, then back at her. "I understand not telling me much. Like i said in a world such as this, who can you trust? But we will be travelling with each other for a while, if you don't want to tell me something don't, but lets keep from lying to each other at least? I don't like seeing you get flustered. There is no reason for it. That's not what I want." He let go of her arm with a bright smile and continued in the direction she was walking, hoping she would hop ahead of him.

Zeron pulled her arm back as Phaje let go, glaring at him for a few moments and not speaking as she continued moving forward. She spent a few minutes seemingly deep in thought before she replied to Phaje's monologue. "You keep making me re-evaluate my impression of you," she muttered, a mixture of irritation and amusement in her voice. "You're much cleverer than I had given you credit for. Kudos to you. I suppose you've earned the right to know the truth about what I do. Follow me." Although she said for Phaje to follow her, she wasn't giving him much of a choice; she grabbed him by the arm and hauled him down a nearby alleyway, making sure they were out of view of the roads and any nosy people who might be around.

Once they were hidden to Zeron's satisfaction, she turned to face Phaje and took a deep breath. "For all your curiosity, you were about half right. I do use a form of Biological Magic, but it's a rather...unique branch. Most Biological Magic is medically based: Magic based on speeding up the body's natural healing processes, or spells for eradicating harmful ailments. As I've already revealed to you, however, I'm a demon. Demon magic simply doesn't do healing. It changes, transforms, corrupts." Zeron held out her hand so that it was between her and Phaje, a shadowy black miasma forming and writhing in her hand. "This is my power. The power to corrupt, corrode away the very foundation of a person's structure, and rewrite it to fit my desires. This is Biomantic Mastery, Chaos Corrosion." She snapped her hand to the side, the miasma fading as a few dots spattered across the wall.

"So yes, I have a Biological Magic, although the 'hip' term is Biomancy," Zeron said off-handedly. "I can transform and corrupt people at a cellular level, making them more vulnerable to attack. When my magic takes root in them enough, I can start making larger changes, bending them to my will. It's not just other people, though. I can also change myself, like so." Zeron took a deep breath and activated her Rakhasa's Guise, changing her shape. For the most part, she returned to her normal appearance (or at least, her main disguise for her research siesta), returning to a smaller, slimmer body with medium length silver hair, darker skin, and yellow eyes. She remained female, however; she didn't want this boy to give up his crush on her that easily. Her formerly tighter clothes now hung around her loosely, giving her an overall more casual and messy look. "This is closer to the true me," she told the boy that was now slightly taller than her. That was another half-truth, of course, but her true form was something that she didn't want to show any other mage yet. Plus, it was still more fun this way.

Phaje studied Zera for a moment. It sunk in that what he had wanted to see from the biological branch of magic was right in front of him. Something he had always wanted to see just inserted itself right into his life, in the form of a woman he had just met. He thought about it for a good minute before he spoke.
"It's... remarkable. I've always wanted to see and experience it. To see the side of it I've thought could exist but seemed like a dream. My notions were correct... manipulation of living matter IS possible..." he trailed off for a moment. Why was she being so open with him? This confused him and he pondered before continuing on.
"I want to see it in action sometime. And maybe when the time is right see what your true form is. But you have hid the truth a few times. At least you have made it obvious this time with it being only closer to your true form that you aren't trying to now... So i guess a secret for a secret then."
He steadied himself as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "My real name isn't Phaje. It is just what my father called me. My name is much more different and i prefer to stay known as Phaje." He sparked up an intense gravity field around his hand, his hand cloaked in  a conentration of dark purple and black. "It's no secret I use gravity magic, but I am also well versed in the arts of hand to hand combat. I don't know how to control myself during an encounter and I often go overboard. I don't need to eat. I don't need to sleep. Also, I have visions of the future from time to time. All I know is it comes from my mother's side. She wasn't from Earthland and her planet is long dead." He reached for her hand that she had been using the Biomantic Mastery in and held it in his in front of him so she could feel the gravity for a moment, then had it disperse. He rubbed her hand for a moment then looked up into her eyes.

Zeron listened with a sense of pride as Phaje expressed his wonder at her magical prowess. It's true, Chaos Corrosion was a unique magic in every sense of the word; Zeron wouldn't have been able to even discover it, much less learn to utilize it, if it hadn't been for the myriad of lineages and experiences that she had been exposed to. It was truly a magic that was unique to Zeron, and she had every right to be proud of it, at least in her eyes. Confirmation was always nice, though. His talk about his secrets was respectable as well; equivalent exchange was a decent enough principle to live life by, especially since Zeron had uncharacteristically been the one to go first.

As soon as he grabbed her hand in a romantic sense, however, something in Zeron reacted violently. She knew the reason, of course: She'd never been treated with a sense of compassion and love growing up, so she had a serious aversion to actual romance and the related physical contact. Standard psychological stuff and all that. Knowing the reasons behind it didn't do anything to lessen the reaction, though (another reason why Zeron wanted to shed her human self as soon as possible). Briefly, her glamour dropped, her left eye reverting back to her normal, demonic form. She ripped her arm away from Phaje's grasp, her demonically enhanced strength making tearing it from his grasp easy.

She stepped back a few paces, her eye slowly regaining its camouflage as she regained her composure. She took a deep breath to attempt to calm her nerves, which was rather unsuccessful. "Please refrain from doing that," she told the boy, her body stuck between shock at being touched that way and fury at being so shocked by it. "If you do it again, I can't guarantee your safety." That statement was truer than one might think; if Zeron became unstable enough to go into Demon Form, the whole block might be destroyed, not just Phaje. She took a few more deep breaths to try and calm herself, all the while berating herself for these damned human emotions and the frailty that came with them. The sooner she could become a full demon and leave these experiences behind, the better.

Phaje stood paralyzed for a moment, then realized what he had done and hung his head. "My apologies Zera, I didn't mean... I'll leave..." He turned away and started to walk away briskly. He had a knack for messing things up. This is why he didn't communicate with people much. Maybe being alone was best. His emotions were always so out of flux. He was stricken with fear as he realized his mistake. She would have been a wonderful friend and companion to have. She was smart and witty. She had knowledge like no one Phaje had met and he rejoiced at finding someone so similar. His chest ached as he was walking and he clasped it. What was this feeling? It felt like his heart wanted to die inside and he had no idea how to fix it. The remorse reminded him much of what it felt like when he lost his mother. Tears started to carress his face as he sped forward out of the alley. He was heading back for the forest. Maybe it was better not to be around anyone. Maybe interactions with others would only bring pain. He decided maybe it was best to hide for now and redistributed his gravity, and walked up the wall to a nearby shop and sat at the top and let his heart sink. Tears rolled down his face as he clenched his chest, hoping the pain would subside. He looked at the town around him and the structures. Society seemed like such a beautiful artwork that he could never find a place in, and this is why he had been alone for so long. He messed everything up. There was no way for him to let it pass either. He heard from others sleeping was a great way to help, but he couldn't sleep. It seemed like such a curse to always have to think. He watched in the direction he had come from for Zera, just to see what she would do. No one had ever ran after him, so why would she?

Zeron watched her new colleague walk away, frustration and pain as plain on her face as shock and dejection was on Phaje's. She hated this. That boy could have been a valuable resource and a powerful mage to be in contact with. As loathe as she was to admit any weakness on her part, he might even have become somebody to rely on when her quest became difficult. And now it was all ruined, thanks to the magical things known as emotions. This was why humanity was such garbage; feelings and emotions were something that ruined productive relationships and got in the way of progress. It was something truly detestable, one of the only things in this world worthy of full-blown hatred.

Moping about it wouldn't do anything to help the situation though. Zeron took a few shuddering breaths to attempt to calm herself; it didn't quite work, but it was enough to get her out of her rut of self-hatred. Now, what was the logical thing to do here? Obviously, going after him. He had potential, after all. Her detestable outburst, however, had most likely caused his opinion of her to drop like a rock. It was fairly possible that he would reject her outright now, like had happened the last time Zeron had undergone a major outburst. Plus, she had spent a decent amount of time thinking about the dilemma at this point; it was possible he was long gone. If only she had used her magic to act as a failsafe-

Her eyes widened as the most important point occurred to her. She had told him exactly what she could do. This was dangerous beyond belief; knowledge was power, and the last thing she wanted was to get that knowledge exploited and used against her. For that reason, if nothing else, she would have to seek him out once more. Feelings had nothing to do with it, she assured herself. What mattered was making sure the information didn't get out.

Finding the boy was easy enough; he was slowly meandering his way towards the outskirts of town, sadness still plain on his face. This might be tougher than expected. Well, she'd try the lighthearted route first. Zeron dashed past Phaje, turning to face him and grinning as warmly as she could manage with her still-agitated state. "Sorry about that," she said as happily as she could pull off. "I'm not particularly comfortable with that stuff, that's all. It's nothing personal, I assure you. Can we pretend that never happened? I'd rather not end our contact with such a sour note."

Phaje saw her round the corner and hopped down from the ledge... continuing for the forest. She decided to come find him? He rejected this observation, and continued until just before the outside of town when she hopped in front of him. After she spoke all he could do is look at her. Saddness hadn't left his eyes, and he hated feeling this way. Then it struck him. Zera hated showing emotion. In the way she rejected him, the queues throughout their conversation. She hated emotions just as bad as him, and seemed just as awkward. She was hiding behind the same mask, but Phaje didn't think she realized that's all you can do with emotions... mask them.
"No," he began, "I want you to please listen until I am done with my explanation. No, it can't be forgotten."
He began to think on his mother's words and the teachings of Arcadia.
"You see, if its forgotten then it will happen again. Feelings aren't something I am good with, and I hate them, But every being has them. You can't erase them. You can only mask them. There are 3 primary feelings in the world, with the main being Desire. I let that control my actions earlier. I was foolish and I'm sorry. Without desire though, no one would survive, no one would learn, and the magic you use would even be unfathomable. Arcadia, the goddess of my mother's people once said, 'I have seen a dragon fear, I have seen a demon love, and I have wept. Not even the greats are free of emotion.' I rather live with this emotion I feel right now and know what I did wrong than pretend it didn't happen. I can try not to do it again but I can't make any promises"
He looked at her, wiping his tears from his face. He took a deep breath and continued.
"I don't want contact with you. I don't want to pretend what happened back there didn't, because disappointment teaches us. You coming after me, gives me pleasure to know that you still want to be around me. But that creates a new desire. So I'll say it again. I don't want contact."
He paused for a few moments but help his finger to his mouth to show he wasn't done yet.
"I want you to come with me. For the first time in five years, i feel happy to be around someone. I don't understand it, and if it is what I have read this feeling is, I am deathly afraid of it. But you make me smile and your company warms my heart. I want you to come with me. Or for you to let me come with you. I just desire to be around you. To be where you are."

Zeron's face fell, slightly at first, then more as Phaje spoke about emotions. The color drained from her face as he spoke about masking emotions, her eyes almost completely unblinking as she listened to what he had to say. By the time he was finished, her hands were trembling; whether from anger at being lectured or at being asked to come with him, not even she was sure. When he was done speaking, she remained silent for a while. When she finally spoke, it was at barely above a whisper. "Do you think I didn't already know that?" she muttered. Her tone was that of somebody who was angry, but also excited. Nobody this intelligent had ever challenged her views on emotion before, after all.

"If it was possible to seal away emotions at the moment, I wouldn't have become a scientist," she started explaining. "Science is all about making the impossible possible. I realized very early on that getting rid of emotions is something simply impossible, and hiding emotions for somebody with as volatile a lineage as me is also a monumental task. For most other people, it would simply be a pipe dream. But through experimentation and discovery in the field of biology, my dream will become the reality of the situation. This is my dream: To shed the chains of humanity that bind me and become something more, something better."

"As for your point about desire, it is a special exception. Desire, I believe, is the only hardwired feeling in this world. All living beings, even those that do not exhibit any other emotions, have desire. They crave food, water, sleep, and reproduction, at the very least; as organisms get more complex, they exhibit other desires, like companionship, progress, and a search for meaning in their lives. Many of these are irrefutable, with the exception of some special magic." Her gaze flicked over Phaje's body at this point, as if acknowledging his special circumstances of not eating or sleeping. The anger in her voice was completely gone at this point; it was a lecture now, not a rant. "Nobody can hope to abolish all of desire. Even when I seal away all other emotions, I am certain my desire for scientific progress and to search for my mother shall persevere. Desire is simply a hardwired response that all living beings possess, no matter how simple or how complex."

Zeron was silent for a moment before continuing. "This is something I've studied for years, arguably moreso than my exploits in Biomancy. It's also something I am incredibly passionate about." She smiled, an almost predatory grin spreading across her face. "Nobody has challenged me in my viewpoints to this extent, though. I was considering it before, but now I'm certain. If you'd like to come along with me, as you claim you desire to, I have no more objections. Just make sure to keep me engaged like this."

Phaje looked at his companion with a new respect, but this only affirmed what he already knew. There was a reason he had said it that way, and now that he knew what she thought, he could continue. At the mention of wanting him to come with her, his heart skipped a beat. He thought surely he had offended her enough already to warrant complete disapproval.
"I just have one request. It's kind of personal and I have my reasons."
He studied her for a few moments waiting for her to respond. He knew this would be something that would catch her off guard and he hoped she would understand. Part of him thought maybe it was best to bring this up later, but with everything that had already happened, now would be the best time, he thought. There was no other way to get around what he had to ask. It was necessary if they were to travel together.

Zeron cocked her head curiously at Phaje's comment, wondering just what the heck was being planned. A request? For her? One had to wonder what was going through his mind. The request had to be something rather important; otherwise, he would have waited to ask her about it. Not like it mattered too much to the half-demon. As long as he kept engaging her with thoughtful discourse and interesting viewpoints, Zeron probably wouldn't mind having him around. With that in mind, there was only one path left for the conversation to take.

"What's the request?" Zeron asked, intrigued. She had no idea what was going to come out of his mouth, but there was very little that could surprise her about this boy anymore. He'd already exceeded her expectations several times over; she was about as content with her newfound companion as she could be. Things were looking to take an interesting turn in her search for the thief and the runaway.

"Don't hide behind the mask, and neither will I. If we travel together its best to know how we both feel. I hate the idea of being open with someone, but with you I can make that exception. To hide how i feel about something while with you could surely cause more problems like what just happened back there. There are times we will have to be in close quarters or times I may need to protect you, and I need you to understand that physical contact may have to occur, but my main concern is actually about us both hiding behind our masks. Just to me. Weakness or no, remember I will be showing mine too. It will make traveling together easier if we don't conflict and we know what bothers each other, Agreed?"
He was sure she would understand but was curious to how she would react to this request. He would have to open up too, which kind of scared him, but this was for the best

Zeron froze momentarily as Phaje made his request, but almost immediately relaxed and sighed deeply. "I can't make any promises, for several reasons," she began, "but I suppose I'll work on it for the sake of a new research partner. Hiding emotions is something I've tried to do so often that it's basically reflex at this point. Undoing that conditioning will be difficult, to say the least. The same goes for romantic contact, although normal contact is something I can handle well enough. The mask is so well-defined at this point that I sometimes feel like it's my true face. That being said, I'll make an effort at transparency with you, even if the idea might be somewhat frightening to me. If something is bothering me, I won't hesitate to say it; if one of us makes a stupid decision, I promise I'll be the first to point it out." She smirked at that. "As long as you act with the same transparency and diligence towards me as I will attempt to do with you, I shall make an effort towards showing you my true face. Just don't get frightened when you see me truly angry," she finished, a wry smile on her face.

Truth be told, she was exceedingly nervous about this, even more than she had expressed in words. The idea of having somebody she shared almost all her secrets with was an incredibly nerve-wracking proposition, especially for somebody like her who had spent a lifetime cultivating secrets all to herself. The idea of having somebody intelligent and witty enough to engage her like this at her side all the time, however, was enough to make her want to push through it. Since she was a child and had learned of her heritage, Zeron had almost prided herself on keeping her true self separate from the world. For the first time, however, she was considering taking off the mask and revealing her ultimate, true self to somebody. The thought caused several emotions to roil in her stomach: Nervousness, fear, but also a little excitement. The combination made Zeron feel like she was about to puke, in all honesty. Detestable emotions, one and all. Still, the idea of having an intelligent, capable partner in her search was almost reassuring as well. It was enough to make Zeron agree to something she never would have otherwise.

"Now that that's out of the way... your mother was around Ace of Spades last I saw her. Though, she wasn't IN Ace of Spades, but somewhere on the outskirts. That was a few months ago, but if she was in that area there might be someone there that knows about her. That is my thoughts at least. Let's head for their first? After we grab a bite for you. You have to be hungry still."
He was relieved to see that she was calm when she answered. This could work, but the feeling she gave him. She defined his action as... romantic? This frightened him even more. The emotion he thought he was feeling... he was right. When he looked into her eyes, his heart swelled. He shook his head to try and remove the feeling, knowing it was worthless to even try. Looking back at her he continued.
"I understand the hardship of showing someone your true self. You are a biomancer though so as far as physically I am not too worried. Emotions are something I hate as well. If you truly can find a way to remove some of them, please don't hoard the knowledge. It would help sometimes to not feel like the world is trying to tear me apart. I will try my hardest to open up as much as I can."

Zeron arched an eyebrow momentarily, then broke out into a bitter laugh. "Oh, you thought I was searching for my mother?" She replied through fits of laughter. "Not in a million years. For a succubus like her, a child like me is an afterthought at best, a leech at worst. I've only met her once, and it was because of a miscalculation on her part. She probably wouldn't even recognize me, even if I were in my original form. Even if she did, she wouldn't even deign to speak to me; a half-breed demon like me is a disgrace to her pure-blooded lineage. Worst case scenario, she might try to eliminate me to cleanse her lineage. Either way, searching for my mother is a terrible idea."

She took a deep breath, rebounding from her laughter. "Sorry. I shouldn't have laughed at you for that, there was no way you would have been aware of that. Since we're traveling together for a long time, I suppose I should tell you exactly who I'm looking for. A thief, and a runaway. The thief is a person who had the gall to steal a large chunk of my most recent research and run. I have a few ideas as to who did it, all former colleagues, but none of them are certain, so I'm traveling around trying to find any of them and interrogate them. The other is the runaway. To be precise, she's my younger half-sister; she ran away from home recently. She had always hated me and my father, so it's not too surprising; however, she took a very important magical artifact that I had been studying with her. My newest research all but requires the artifact, so finding her and the artifact she took with her is exceedingly important."

She stretched lightly and continued. "If we can retrieve both the research notes and the artifact, I should be able to make great strides in my experiments, to say the least. I might be able to find a way to repress our emotions rather easily. Finding them, however, will require some serious footwork. I haven't checked Ace of Spades yet, so it's not a bad idea to go there at all. After food, of course. I'm rather starving after everything that happened." She smiled and gestured towards the direction they had initially been heading. "Shall we go?"

Phaje was astounded by how she responded. A thief and her sister. Seemed like they had their work cut out ahead of them.
"While i doubt that emotions can be anything but suppressed, we will definitely have to see. Two people in a world so large? The girl will be the hardest to find for sure. We have no telling what her intentions are unless you have some inkling. Let's grab that food. Also might have to recruit some more help for finding them quicker. As much as I am against it, might want to join a guild. Taking some jobs from them will definitely give us destinations and things to do while we are searching. The legal guilds always seem to be full of helpful people, though we will have to do your research in private. I don't know how they would react, but you can change forme, so we can actually use that to our advantage. We need caring people who will sympathize. Best place is a legal guild. Use them to get what we want and then leave. Just a thought."

"I have a minor idea about where my sister might have gone off to," Zeron replied off-handedly as they made their way towards the restaurant, "but it's just a guess. Knowing her, however, she's very likely to stay in one place once she thinks she's far enough, meaning we can take our time getting to her. Personally, I'm more worried about the research notes, since I'm not positive who took them and I don't know the suspects particularly well. I don't really have any leads on them, so like I said, it'll be a lot of legwork. I don't doubt that we're capable of it, though."

Zeron frowned when guilds were brought up, however. "A guild, huh? I never really considered it. It's true that it would give us an advantage in terms of manpower, but most guilds tend to be a little too conspicuous for me. If they know we're looking for them, it'll be harder to find them, after all. Did you have a group in mind that would give us enough freedom to do what we need? Or one that's secretive enough that we can trust that any helpers we get won't get caught?"

"Well Blue Pegasus doesn't have a guild leader right now, so hiding within should be really easy. Plus they have so much going on, we can observe who is trustworthy enough to get what we need. Just a thought."
He was positive this would be the best course of action. As they approached the restaurant, he wondered what the place served. He could stomach most things, but meat was not one of those. He hoped it wouldn't be too bad.
"So what do they serve here? I can't do meat, so i apologize ahead of time. It's hard to find enjoyment in something that doesn't suit you."
He studied her once more, this time taking it all in. She was beautiful to him, awe inspiring really. She showed an interest in his knowledge and wanted him to stick around. He blushed as they reached the restaurant. How did she feel about him? I guess only time would tell.

Zeron tilted her head back slightly, deep in thought. "Blue Pegasus, huh?" She mused. She'd most certainly heard of the guild, especially its recent troubles; a sudden power vacuum in such a strong guild caused rumors to go far and wide. It's true that it was probably having enough issues that their search (and Zeron's propensity for live experimentation) might go unnoticed by the higher-ups. It might be a good idea to use it as a camouflage, at least for now. "I can see Blue Pegasus serving our purposes for now," she said finally. "Shall we make our way over there after Ace of Spades?"

She looked up to realize they had reached the place she had been aiming at. It was more of a market than a restaurant, admittedly, but it was the only place Zeron knew in town that had fresh fruit for Phaje's taste. He'd mentioned enjoying fruit before, and the half-demon didn't have any particular likes or dislikes herself, so she figured playing to his tastes would be best. At the very least, having him in high spirits would probably benefit them both. "Take whatever you'd like," Zeron said lightly. "I've got funds to spare." Being a semi-famous researcher certainly had its benefits.

"Thank you." She was buying HIM food? "I really don't need any but those apples look tasty. I could use one. I don't eat much so no need to get me much." He laughed. It was nice to have someone with him, he mused. For once, the world didn't seem so alone. He thought about where to head first though. Maybe the guild would be the best first stop. They could find out if there was anything of interest there where they were heading. Wherever he went really didn't matter as long as Zera was with, he figured. Her company would make his life easier. He would have someone to share with. He could protect what he cared about...
"As far as where to go, I need to go to Hargeon eventually. My old home to see if there is something I am missing. Joining the guild would be a good first step so we could always head there first. Get that out of the way. Ace of Spades or Rose Garden next. Those two places always have some news abuzz. So guild then wherever?" He tilted his head to the side as he looked at her, a bright smile accross his face. Then it dawned she never answered a very important question.
"You never did answer me by the way. You sleep right?"

"I gotcha," Zeron replied as she scanned the market for something for her. Within a few minutes, she had a good idea of what she wanted. Within another few minutes, she had Phaje's apple, along with some pre-sliced bread, cheese chunks, and a drink for her. Not the highest quality meal ever, but she had a fondness for bread and cheese, so it worked out. It was solid travel food as well, so she could take it with her when they had to move again. She tossed the apple to Phaje and bit into one of the bread and cheese slices, savoring the rich flavors. Oak Town had some good food, she had to admit.

"Those travel plans sound decent," Zeron muttered with her mouth half-full of food. "Clover Town is a decent suspect for where one of the people I'm looking for might be, along with Blue Pegasus, so it's a good starting point. Hargeon is where I suspect my dear sister ran off to, so we will have to visit there at some point, but like I said earlier, she's likely to stay there so there's no rush. Ace of Spades and Rose Garden are solid options as well." She finished off the first bread slice and took a swig of her drink before continuing. "And yes, I do sleep, albeit not as much as most people. Four or so hours a night is enough for me to function, so it won't hold us up too much. Lead the way, I suppose." This trip had just gotten a lot more interesting, Zeron mused.