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Dissonant Hearts (Degusaurusrex x AndrewS)

"Supplies, yeah." She gave him a small nod and kept plodding along, shifting slightly closer to him as she caught sight of people beginning to look at them. Look at her with such a look of disdain and anger that she flinched and pulled her hood over her head before continuing. It wasn't as if she had brought danger to their town on purpose. As far as she'd known, they hadn't been hot on her tail, she had been moving for some time before they'd finally caught up to her. She hadn't done it on purpose.

"Let's just get whatever we can carry and go. I hope you have some bags in there. I can probably handle the weight of another." Even if her large backpack was already a hefty weight for her to carry, she could manage another if it meant having important supplies with them. "Just.. Let's hurry." She tried to focus on the path back to the cabin she had stayed the night in, to focus on nothing but that and to ignore the heated looks and curses murmured in their direction.

She kept her hood up, head down, hands in her pockets as she crunched through the snow toward the cabin, nearly running by the time it was within her sight. She didn't wait for Isen to go ahead and open it for her, simply sped ahead, threw the door open, and went inside before dumping her bag on the floor. All her things were in her bag, but he had said to gather supplies. That meant things like blankets, food, probably some basis utensils. She had absolutely no idea what things were going to be like for the next while.
 
Adelaide took the initiative to go searching through the cabin on her own. He had nothing in there he really wanted to hide from her, he barely had anything at all, so he didn't stop her. He let her occupy herself with gathering and collecting; it was a temporary distraction from what had been on her mind, especially after she had to confront the demon's questioning of her past. He helped her where he could but found she was more than capable of doing it by herself and decided not to get in her way. Instead, he walked back outside the cabin. He saw the distress in every direction. The shattered peace. The uneasiness of what had once been a quiet, serene getaway from the chaos that the DSTF had brought to the rest of the Dissonants in their world. He felt as much to blame for this as Adelaide was. She was only here in the first place because he had picked this place to bury Meribell. Another stain on his guilt conscious, he relented.

He saw the Dissonant who had helped him find Adelaide and wished to approach him, to thank him for the information but when he saw Isen, he turned away. He leaned into his friends, friends who looked at the demon as the outsider he was, pretending as if he didn't know him as anything more than what the rumors said about him. Feeling like an outsider wasn't something that was new to him but it never got any easier.

"I need to do something before we leave." He told Adelaide as he pushed open the front door once again to check on her. "You're welcomed to come with me if you want or you can stay here. It shouldn't take much more than a few minutes."

"The girl?" The demon asked. Isen didn't need to answer for him to know it was true. He couldn't leave without saying goodbye to his sister first.

He said nothing and walked back outside, feeling eyes piercing him like daggers as he made his way through the town into the direction of the graveyard.
 
"I'll be here." It was the first thing Adelaide had said since entering the cabin, and she didn't bother to look up from the bag she was sifting through when she spoke. "I won't do anything stupid while you're gone." Not if she could help it, anyway, but chances were they at least had a short bit before any more trouble found them. All she had to do was survive a few minutes while he attended to his task, then they would be on their way, although she wasn't sure where exactly they would be going.

Once she was certain all the bags were packed with the essentials they could manage to carry between the two of them she made certain they were near the front door before she took a seat on the couch. Was it the ring that had caused that particular memory to surface, or was she slowly losing her mind? The thought made her frown as she twisted the ring on her finger, finding that it still proved just as tight as it had been since she'd first put it on.

She didn't care that anyone from the DSTF had been hurt. She savored the thought of that. What she did care about was the innocent people that had been hurt. Her friends, just for knowing her. The people in this town, because she'd been careless and the force had stalked her, followed her in and slaughtered so many of them as her and Isen had fought against them. How many innocent people were going to die because they'd laid eyes on her?
 
"Hey, Bell." Isen began, speaking out loud. His hand reached out, resting against the chilling cold stone, his thumb tracing along the indentation that spoke her name. "A lot has happened. I don't know if you'd be proud of me for the choices I've made but I think I might get to see you soon." He sighed, his hand trembling slightly as it moved before he brought it back to his side, resting it there. "Not just a visit to your grave, either."

For Isen, the thought of seeing his sister again was both terrifying and the only thing he could ever dream of as his ending. If such a place as an afterlife existed, which he was inclined to believe with all of the fantastical things that have been revealed to be true in their world, he wondered what their meeting out be like. Would she still be as terrified of him as she was when she was bleeding out in his arms? Or would she have forgiven him? Would she be happy to see him or angry that he threw away a chance at living forever?

Forever was an awfully long time to be alone. Forever was a trail of bodies, of pain and bloodshed, of living in a world where he didn't belong. Forever was just too much.

"I met somebody. She's strong. She reminds me a little of you." He commented, laughing to himself. "She doesn't like to listen. She's head strong, stubborn...but I think she can help me get back to you. But I need to leave for now. In order for me to make this work, I need to help her. She's lost a lot of people too. I can tell that the guilt in her heart crushes her the same way mine does. If I can help her make things right then, well...I guess I'd be doing some good for once, yeah? And then, she's going to...I'll be back soon. We'll see each other again, I promise."

If Isen was capable of crying, he probably would have shed a tear or two but that human emotion, as the demon in the sword like to call it, was not something he was typically allowed to feel.

"This sure seems like a lot of effort for nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"That girl is a Lancaster and she does have that ring but I stand by what I told you before. You can try all you want, I'm not going to let you go, Isen Hiyori."

Right. For a brief moment, Isen forgot that the demon he was bonded refused to cooperate with the plan he had formed with Adelaide.

"Why won't you let me be free? Can't you find somebody else to torment? Somebody more willing? I don't want to do this forever. I just want to rest."

"There can be no other. You were the only one. I've told you this before. I saved you because you were the only person strong enough to keep me whole."

"And I did. For years. You've had your fun."

"And have you not? You're the Reaper. Before I found you, you were boring, a nobody. Now, you're a legend!"

"I never asked for any of this. That boring life as a nobody? I was happy with that. I had my sister, I had a life. It wasn't anything special but it was mine to do with as I wished and you took that from me."

"You were inches from death, bleeding out. I took nothing from you, I gave you a second chance, and then a third and a fourth. And countless others. How many times have I brought you back? How many times have I saved you from yourself? Are you really going to put your trust in the hands of some witch when I have been here for you all this time?"

"...we need to go back to Adelaide. We have to leave." Isen responded, ignoring the demon's question, earning a victorious laugh from the entity as though it had won the argument that Isen didn't wish to continue.

And so with one passing glance back at his sister's resting place, Isen reminded her, if she was listening, that he loved her and sat a course back towards his cabin to meet back up with Adelaide again.
 
Maybe she was a monster, maybe that general had been right when he had said that. She had brought so much pain to a place full of people she didn't know, people who didn't deserve it, and for what? For the handful of DSTF agents she'd personally been able to kill? Even if she combined the number her and Isen had killed together, was it worth all the loss the Dissonants had suffered because of her?

She sat and stared at her hands for what felt like forever before she finally got back up and began to pace. She had been sitting there for some time, Isen would be back any moment and they could get far, far from the place of prying eyes. She just had to remember the town her new friend had slipped up and mentioned, and then they could be on their way and toward finding more information, leaving more bodies behind them.

"You're back." She was gathering the bags back up when Isen returned, her own strapped onto her back and another in her hand as she stepped back. "I can carry mine and this, but you'll have to grab the other stuff. I tried only to pack what I thought we would need." She jostled her bags around to get a better grip before she finally looked at him, meeting his eyes for only a brief moment before going for the door.

"I know you're angry at me for back there, but at least I found out something useful. We need to find a town called Cresthaven. I think they have another facility there."
 
Isen eyed the bags that she had packed, a quizzical expression on his face as he doubted whether they really needed all of that stuff. "This is you packing light?" He asked, gripping the handles of the bags he was to carry. He was more than capable of holding the weight, it just seemed a nuisance for what could be a long journey ahead. It still felt awkward, like she wasn't herself. Isen preferred the version of Adelaide who was more like his sister, even if she was a handful. He hoped it was just a side effect of everything that had happened and that she'd normalize within time or else traveling alongside her was going to be uncomfortable for a while.

She was aware that he was angry. He still was, in a way, but enough time had passed for him to have mellowed out a little. He wasn't happy about it, not in the slightest, and he still knew he would endeavor to separate her from that ring as soon as the opportunity arose, but he saw no need to push the subject any further at the moment or make things worse. Besides, she seemed to have a destination in mind.

"Never heard of it." He replied, shutting the door to the cabin. He wasn't nostalgic about it, he didn't mind leaving it behind, he was more broken up about having to distance himself from Meribell's resting place than any silly old cabin. "But yeah, I got the feeling that the one we were in wasn't their main base of operation or anything. Do you think there are more of those archives?" Or perhaps more men like that captain. "Why are we even walking anyways? Can't you use your new magic trick and just teleport us there? It would certainly save us a lot of time.'
 
"Neither have I, but I'm sure we can ask around and find it." Of all the times to be without a phone, this was one of the worse ones. "There might be," She shrugged, content to keep walking until he questioned her about her newfound magic. There was a moment of pause as she jerked to a stop, digging her heels into the snow before turning to look at him uneasily.

"I don't know how I did it before, I told you. One second I was trying to get away from the guards, then the next I'd grabbed you and we were outside. I don't even know how long I was laying in the snow, I just kept seeing--" She frowned and pressed her lips together before turning away from him. "If I knew how to use the magic, don't you think I would have already done it? We'll have to take a train or something. Then we can find a map and see where Cresthaven is so we know where to go." She rubbed at the ring self consciously before huffing.

"Let's just go before your friend starts complaining again."
 
She had managed to make the ring teleport them but had no idea how to do it again. Had it been purely by lucky chance that it had activated when it did, whisking them away from danger? It was inconvenient that she couldn't replicate the process but maybe that was a good thing. The less comfortable she got with that ring, the easier it would be to convince her to get rid of it when the time came.

"Alright. Sorry." He breathed out an apology, catching himself after the word had already left his mouth. Why was he even saying he was sorry? It was unlike him and he hadn't done anything more than suggest she use her magic to ease the burden of their travel. It brought an air of silence around them as they started to walk again, leaving the small town behind them and trudging through the snow in search of some place they could use as refuge that wasn't on the radar of the DSTF.

"You're quiet." He commented, musing towards the voice from the sword which had been eerily silent for the past little while. The statement had been aimed towards him but it was entirely possible Adelaide may have thought it was being directed towards her as well.

"I am thinking." It responded, simply, before returning to the background.

"About?"

"It does not matter. Since when were you interested in actually talking to me?" Well, it had a point there.

Isen felt a laugh brim past his lips, low but clearly audible. "Point taken. Very well." If they both the demon and Adelaide wanted to be awkward and silent, he would allow them. He had done his part in trying to alleviate the tension, it was beyond him at this point. She'd talk when she was ready, or perhaps never at all. It didn't matter as long as they reached their destination and continued to work towards their common goal.

But this was going to be a loooong walk.
 
Had he actually apologized to her? Adelaide glanced at him in confusion but merely dipped her head in acknowledgment, focusing on the path ahead until she heard him speak again. For someone who was only using her as a means to an end, he was acting awfully nice to her. It was only when she realized he was speaking to the sword that she made an amused noise, shaking her head and listening to the two go back and forth. Like children, honestly.

"Let him be silent for once. Must be nice." Just the thought of always having such a voice in her head made Adelaide shudder involuntarily. She had enough of her own inner demons to deal with, she couldn't imagine having a literal demon speaking in her head, constantly whining or demanding things, never leaving her alone. And Isen had lived like that for how long? He didn't have a choice in the matter, it seemed. Even when he tried to tuck himself away into a quiet little town, violence found him. She had brought violence.

They had been walking for several minutes before she peered over at him, looking him overly slowly before forcing her eyes ahead again and huffing. This wasn't the monster people had made him out to be. The demon was the monster, the demon and all his dark magic. Was that how she was going to become now that the ring was stuck on her? She'd already hurt so many, gotten so many killed, what would happen now that she had the ring?

"Am I a monster?" She blurted the words out and jolted to a stop, nearly tumbling over from the weight of the two bags she was carrying. After the brief moment it took to steady herself she dared a look toward Isen, shuffling between feet and sniffling quietly. "I'm the reason so many of them died."
 
She had a point. Moments of true silence in his head were few and far between. He was either hounded by the demon's voice or haunted by his own mistakes, he should have been comforted by the quiet but he didn't feel that at all. It was probably a byproduct of everything that had happened over the last day or so. It was hard to feel anything but uneasy, everything had been so hectic. He went from living by himself to being responsible to the safety of another, somebody who gave him hope for freedom yet flirted with a curse as powerful as the one that had ruined his life. And now, he was a target of an entire organization simply for associating with her; association with her in general seemed to bring nothing but pain to those around her but he couldn't understand why.

She wasn't a bad person. Sure, she may have been blinded with a need for revenge, but she wasn't a bad person. Just misguided. She had done things he wasn't happy about, namely stealing a particular ring that should have been kept where they found it, but he couldn't help but feel like the hand she had been dealt was as unfair as the one that he had been given. No doubt her connection to this supposedly powerful Lancaster family was to blame. Being forced to live up to false expectations, or to fit a role they didn't wish to play...that was something they both had in common.

He could feel her gaze venture over towards him and he turned his head, slightly, to meet it, only for her to look away again and refocus her attention on the path ahead. They had been walking for what felt like hours but in reality, it had likely only been a couple of minutes, it was that tension that hung over them that made each second drag on and on.

The second time he caught her looking his way, he came alongside a pointed inquiry. "Am I a monster?" How was he to even answer such a question?

The general had called them both monsters at different points during their encounters and seeing what had become of the town after the DSTF found it wasn't helping matters. Of course it would weigh on her conscience. He knew a thing or two about that.

"I don't believe so." He responded after taking a moment or two to gather his thoughts, stopping forward progress to join her in standing stationary beneath the weight of the subject matter. "I would like to believe I know a thing or two about what it means to be a monster and you, Adelaide, you don't really fit that billing."
 
"Then what am I? All I do is get people killed, apparently. You don't like me. He," She pulled a hand from her pocket to gesture vaguely towards the sword, "doesn't know whether he hates me or wants to know more about me now that he knows my last name." She was not going to cry standing in the middle of nowhere with some demon sword bearing stranger.

"You're angry with me for taking the ring, but if I hadn't, we might never have gotten out of there." And they never would have found out she somehow had access in the security system. Why did she even have access? "And none of that answers why the system recognized me, either." She kicked at the snow and sniffled again with an irritated look.

"Maybe we'll at least get lucky and it'll work at the next place, too." The chances of that were slim to none, but regardless of that, she needed to know why it recognized her. Had it picked her up as a similarity to whatever family member they had killed last? That didn't make sense for the system to still have the information, but not much of anything made sense to her right now.

"Forget it. It was a stupid question. My head still hurts, I'm clearly not thinking straight." What she needed to do was get her head on straight, get them to the train station, and then at some point in the day she desperately needed a nap. "I'm not used to using so much magic." She paused and looked uncomfortable before turning away from him and starting to walk again.

"I'm sorry."
 
It was a long time coming. All of the emotional weight, it was a levee breaking and finally flooding out all of her frustration. Isen let her finish, he allowed her to safe everything that was on her mind, to clear her head of the negativities that had been festering inside of it. He hoped it would bring her clarity to finally get it out in the open but that didn't appear to be the case at all.

Did she want him to reassure her? He was hardly the type for that but he supposed he could try, even if he wasn't sure he could pull it off convincingly.

"You don't need to apologize to me." Isen responded. He made no attempt to walk after her, he was staying exactly where he was until this was resolved. He was certain when she noticed, she would stop and turn back to look at him again.

"You're as much a victim here as anybody. It's easy to let your guilt consume you but don't let it change who you are or make you lose sight of the true enemy here. You know who that is." It wasn't him, nor the demon in the sword. It wasn't a magical ring or a Dissonant of any kind. It was the DSTF. They were to blame for everything, she was simply suffering as a causality of their actions.

Isen sighed. He wasn't good at this and he certainly couldn't rely on the demon for any help in this matter. "Adelaide, I don't hate you. I can't speak for the sword but I can talk for myself and I do not hate you. I'm angry with you, that is true, but I don't hate you." It was a simple, albeit blunt, explanation. There was no need to mince words. She knew the situation, she had laid it out pretty plainly, she just didn't have all of the information required to come to an informed conclusion. "Many of the things you've said about yourself could easily be applied to me, you know. I'm more of a monster than you could ever be. If you feel as though death follows you, how do you think I feel knowing how many lives I've taken? How many people I've killed against my will simply to serve the nature of what I was turned into? I want to die, I'm far from happy about what I've become. You're taking as much a chance on me as I am on you."

He could kill her at any time. She was choosing to trust him. It may have been out of selfish need but it was still trust. "So, from one monster to another, suck it up. Stop blaming yourself for things that are out of your control and do something about it. Make a damn difference. Don't waste your life the way I've wasted mine. He only called you a monster because he's scared of you, so, let them be scared. Maybe they should be. They've done so many awful things, you can be their recompence for each and every life they've taken. You can save all those they've yet to hurt. And when you're done, you can save me too." She could sever the curse.

He had gotten a little carried away. He had surprised himself, truly, and it was enough to bring the demon back from it's quiet.

"Nice speech. Now, shut the fuck up, I'm thinking over here."

Isen wasn't offended, he simply laughed. Having the demon chew him out like that was the most normal thing that had happened to him all day.
 
"How about you shut the fuck up, you pesky demon? Now you know how it feels when someone is constantly talking and you can't hear yourself think." By the time Isen had finished speaking she'd realized he hadn't followed after her, and she had turned back to plant her hands on her hips and glare in the direction of the sword. His words hadn't exactly been comforting, but at least he'd been perfectly blunt with her and snapped her out of her daze. Not that she wasn't frightened, or worried, but at least now she knew where they stood with each other.

"I've half a mind to talk until I fall asleep just to annoy you." She rolled her eyes and stuffed her hands back in her pockets, nodding in the direction they had been walking. Isen was right. She needed to focus on what she could do now, not what had already been done. She needed to continue with their mission, save those who had yet to be harmed, and get her revenge before she finally freed him from the curse. It was almost a pity, really, but if the man wanted to die that badly, who was she to tell him he couldn't? If she had to kill both him and the demon to get the deed done then so be it. She had made a promise, and she would find a way to follow through.

"Hopefully we can get directions once we get to the train station. I still have some money left from my emergency pack, so at the very least it'll be enough to get us tickets." How much longer after that it would last, was another question entirely. "I don't know what we're going to do after that, but I guess we'll just take it a step at a time. Right now I want food, I want to sit, and once we find somewhere to hole up in for the next night, I want to sleep like the dead."
 
"Can we kill her now?" The demon asked Isen, it's voice dripping with annoyance as she fired back at him. Isen continued to find amusement in the interaction. She seemed to have snapped out of the haze that had been fogging her mind, maybe that meant they could finally get back to normal. She seemed refocused but he couldn't help but still feel a little concern for her headspace. "Why are you laughing? I was serious."

"One step at a time." He confirmed, beginning to move with her again now that their interruption had been taken care of. "That sounds like a decent enough idea, though. You definitely need the rest."

"May I ask you a question in return?" Isen asked once more, having one last thing to say before they let the conversation rest for the time being. "You may decide not to answer it if you wish but I want to ask you the same thing that you just asked me. Do you believe me to be a monster as well?"
 
"Try it, brat, see what happens." She muttered under her breath as the demon continued its whining, glad that Isen had begun to move with her again. At least now they could get back on track and figure out what their next step was. "I think we both need rest." How much did he need to rest, anyway? That was a question she didn't have the answer to. He hadn't slept when she had overnight, had he?

"What's that?" She snorted at his question, she couldn't help it!" "I don't really know if you're a monster or not, Isen. You don't seem like one. The difference between me and other people, though," She paused only long enough to look directly at him before she kept going, "Is that I don't care if you're one. We're here to help each other, and if that means walking into hell a couple times along the way, then that's where I'll go."
 
She had both said the didn't think he was a monster and that she didn't care. It was an answer, he supposed, but it only reiterated the fact he was simply a means to an end for her. She needed him to kill and protect her and that was about it. He shouldn't have expected any less but perhaps, for but a fleeting moment, he thought their shared trauma could lead to them at least learning to tolerate each other as more than just tools in a search for revenge.

"Did you say hell because I'm a demon?" He asked her, raising a brow. "You know we don't go there, right? That's just part of the myth. I've never...nevermind." He grumbled, ceasing the pointless explanation. First he was showing concern, now humor? This day couldn't end fast enough.

Their journey led them through the snow covered woods and across a trail. In the distance, he could hear the unmistakable noise of a train racing across tracks and pointed that out to Adelaide. "We're headed in the right direction. Do you hear that?" With a little luck on their side, they had managed to stumble upon exactly what they were looking for and it didn't take them much more than an hour or two of walking to arrive. They appeared to have stumbled upon some sort of tourist trap, a nature park off the beaten path with a small station in front of it for carting the tourists in and out. With this weather, there didn't appear to be a ton of people looking to do any sight seeing, but the trains were still running, so that was a start.
 
"You're not a demon, it is." She rolled her eyes again. Why was he taking it so seriously? She hadn't meant any of it an insult and yet he'd taken it not quite the way she had intended, apparently. Clearly she was out of practice socializing with people, and it wasn't as if she'd thought to try and bother being friends with the scary demon everyone talked about.

She stayed silent except for when he spoke, nodding her head and plodding along toward the sound of the trains. She hadn't remembered it being that far away initially, but she'd been a lot more fired up going to find him than she was now tiredly walking with him. By the time they finally reached the station she was almost out of steam, huffing and adjusting her bags as they neared the ticket office.

"By the way, about earlier.." She paused several steps away and looked back to give him a slightly exasperated expression. "I meant I'd go through hell if I had to because your company is tolerable enough to be worth it. You're not nearly the person I thought you would be, so, yeah." Her expression quickly changed from exasperated to awkward and she shuffled in place.

"Thanks for talking sense into me earlier. I'm gonna go ask for directions and get us some tickets." Now her cheeks were pink from both the cold and embarrassment, and she skittered off to the booth where the tickets were bought. This time she was grateful for the several minutes it took between waiting, asking for directions, and finally getting the tickets before she could go back to where Isen was. By then she had managed to cool off from the embarrassment of trying to act like a nice human being, and she shoved the piece of paper at him with a sigh.

"Twenty minutes until it leaves."
 
It had been ages since Isen had seen a train or travelled by one. He tended to avoid areas that had a high concentration of foot traffic, cities and stations included. Luckily for him, this one was sparsely populated and he didn't need to figure out how to navigate the transport system on his own. For that, he was thankful to have her with him. His social graces were not quite up to par, after all.

Adelaide seemed tired and so he slowed down his pace as they neared the station, giving her a moment to catch her breath. While doing so, she made an unexpected statement towards him, clarifying what she had meant before with what almost sounded like a compliment. No, it most definitely was. He had little hope of ever receiving something from her that wasn't a comment towards his ability in combat but this was a pleasant surprise, one which he didn't really know what to do with or how to react to. "Thanks?" He responded, though it sounded more like an uncertain question than a proper thank you. It wasn't on purpose and he certainly wasn't meaning to be rude, he just didn't do this sort of thing, he didn't know how. But it was nice to know she didn't think of him as a monster and that his human side still remained persistent enough for her to see him as more than a killing machine or the fabled Reaper his reputation had grown to include. "I...tolerate you too?"

"You are both utterly hopeless. Kill me now."

With Adelaide on a mission to get their tickets, he wandered around the lobby. He found a bunch of vending machines with various treats and even one containing sandwiches but he couldn't figure out how to get them open. Upon realizing he needed money, something he sorely lacked, he gave it the old-fashioned try, smacking the machine. This caused some of the food inside to loosen and fall down the chute but it also drew some odd looks from the few onlookers there still were within the station, he was far from subtle or quiet about it. He didn't need the food for himself, he wanted it for her. She had mentioned she was hungry...

He retrieved what he had found and gathered it in his hands, meeting her. She showed him the tickets, he showed her a couple of candy bars, a small bag of potato chips and half of a pre-made, wrapped ham and cheese sandwich. At least he was trying.
 
"You got food?" She gave him a puzzled look. She hadn't known he had money, he hadn't mentioned anything. Although judging by what she knew of him, it was entirely possible he'd gotten it from just beating up the machines, which would explain the strange looks they were getting from the bystanders.

"Uh.. Thanks." She was far hungrier than she realized when he displayed the food. She hadn't eaten the previous night after arriving to find him, and she definitely hadn't eaten anything so far this day. Out of anything someone could offer her, food was not something she had been expecting, although she was certainly grateful, and it showed on her face as she stared at the food.

"But.. Don't you need to eat too? Or are you just this machine that doesn't need sleep or food?" She'd feel too guilty if he was giving her all that food when he needed some himself, but apparently not guilty enough to stop from opening the sandwich and biting into it. "Wait, is that what all the noise was about?" She finished chewing the bite after nearly choking, looking around them and back to him before she laughed. "Did you beat up the machine?"
 
His gesture was meant to be thoughtful and it seemed as though she appreciated what he had done, even if she didn't quite agree with the means he took to actually acquire the food in question. "Demon stuff." He simply replied to her question about whether or not he needed food. He rarely ever had to eat, one of the few perks of the dark magic the demon was supplying to him. As long as they killed a few people along the way, he would be fine. He hoped that wouldn't be a problem, especially given he knew the demon would never shut up about it if he didn't, but it was highly unlikely they could do what they sat out to do without taking down a few DSTF members along the way. Still, demon stuff was a simpler way than to explain the full details, something of which probably wasn't a good idea right as she was about to eat anyways.

"I might have hit it once. Or twice." He confessed, reaching his hand upwards to the back of his head, running his fingers through his hair in a way that was equal parts innocent and all too incriminating. This seemed to elicit a laugh from her. He wasn't sure if he had ever heard her make such a sound, at least one that wasn't forced. Intriguing.

"Oh, look. You made the witch cackle. I'm so proud of you."

Isen's brow furrowed into a glare that would have been pointed directly towards the source of the comment had he been someone he could actually glare at in the first place. It was as if saying 'she seems happy, don't screw with this right now'.

"What? Why are you angry with me? That's what witches do, is it not?"
 
"Yes, we cackle as we stir the cauldron and sacrifice animals to Satan in hopes of summoning one of you bastards." Her tone was dripping with sarcasm as she took another bite and rolled her eyes. "Besides, I seem to remember something about a promise to stop talking for a face if we got into that room. Or is this revenge because I took the ring instead of giving it to you?" He sure was mouthy, wasn't he?

"I broke a vending machine once, so I can't judge you too much." Adelaide shrugged now that she'd directed her attention back to Isen, nodding toward a set of benches some feet away. "I'm gonna sit down. I don't know if you need to pace, or argue with the idiot, or what, but I need to sit down. I've spent most of the day on my feet, and unlike you, I get tired easier."
 
"Mind your tongue. Your sarcasm is as insufferable as your laughter..."

"The ring was meant to be mine. But I suppose you are correct." He conceded, though he sounded quite annoyed while doing so. "Very well, then. I shall resume my silence. But, please, continue to fail at making basic human conversation with each other. It is quite entertaining hearing the two of you struggle to talk about anything that isn't magic or murder."

Isen followed her towards the bench when she began to walk. After all, people were still staring, standing at the center of the station as the center of attention seemed unwise. It was bad enough that he was walking around carrying a big sword on his hip in public, after all, though he didn't really seem to show any intention of trying to conceal the fact that he was escorting around a weapon.

"It is fine. We can take another rest." He reassured her though he didn't sit beside her, he remained standing, just adjacent to the bench rather than out in the open. She sure did need to take a lot of those. He had forgotten what it was like to feel that type of exhaustion and fatigue. It wasn't something he missed, to be fair, so he wasn't about to complain about it. "Why did you break the machine?" Isen asked her once they had arrived, bouncing back to what she had said with curiosity as to why she would do such a thing. His excuse was that she was hungry and he didn't have money but was she really a thief in real life as she was in battle with her magic?
 
"Hm?" She'd just finished the sandwich when he questioned her, and her cheeks turned a brilliant shade of red as she stuttered. "Well I didn't mean to! You weren't supposed to ask about the details! And I didn't.. Didn't break the whole machine, just.. Put a dent in it and made some of the lights stop working." She focused on unwrapping one of the candy bars as the red began to fade from her cheek, and after a moment she looked up and shrugged.

"I had a customer grab my ass, and I got mad, so I.. Kicked the machine in the break room." It seemed such a silly thing to be embarrassed over when they had literally killed people together, but there was something so ordinary about a normal job, and normal customers that made it odd to talk about. "I'm sure you've done stupid things when you were angry before, too."
 
"Oh. I see." He commented as she further explained the story. "So, you did not break it, you damaged it. There is a difference." Just as there was a difference between a wound and a deathblow, he was sure. He couldn't relate in way she probably wanted him to. In fact, it was weird to think that she was once just a normal girl. No magic, no vendetta, just somebody working a basic job to try and make ends meet and doing the best she could to forget about her past. For Isen, it had been too long for him to remember the last time he had a menial job or had any need for any of the basic things humans seemed to need to survive. He had no money, but he never needed it. He had no real belongings because he felt no connection strong enough beyond that of his sister's grave. For her, the ordinary had been just a couple of days ago. For him, it had been years. How was he to relate?

At least he didn't need to worry about handsy customers.

"I try not to let myself get mad. I don't really need to give you-know-who any more reason to mess with me." He admitted, offering a shrug of his shoulders. "That usually ends with him killing somebody and me trying to pick up the pieces afterwards."

He had spoken that a little too loud. Now, the errant eyes who had been staring belonged to people who quickly realized their sudden need to get far, far away. He had much to relearn about social graces.

"Did that happen to a lot?" He wondered, now, thinking back to what she had said about them grabbing her inappropriately. He was trying to make further conversation, he didn't realize how embarrassing this entire conversation probably was for Adelaide. "The customers making you angry. Did that happen often?"

He could hear the voice of the demon trying not to laugh in his head, still finding further amusement in just how terrible Isen was at this whole thing.
 
"Sometimes." She shrugged. "People are stupid." Perhaps she'd always had a temper, but not as bad as she currently did. The realization made her frown as she chewed on her food, swinging her legs back and forth before sighing.

"I didn't really socialize for a long time. After I had to run when my family was.. Well," She stopped eating and set the food in her lap, fidgeting with her sleeve and wrinkling her nose. "Well, I was a really angry teenager and it spilled over into my adult years before I finally found somewhere to settle down. It was nice while it lasted." She shrugged again.

"But I guess it was bound to end eventually. Just.. Wasn't expecting it, that's all. Not every day someone had to up and run after being settled in for years." Well, she had effectively ruined her own appetite and she groaned, opening up her bag to stick the remainder of the food in before she settled back down on the bench. "At any rate, I don't need to complain. You've had it worse than me, so, let's just fuck up everyone who did us wrong."
 
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