[And it's that, more than anything else, that has Jack quiet throughout as Zelos speaks, chin slowly settling into the palm of his free hand as something of a story unfurls partway. The concept in itself isn't an unfamiliar notion at all--he's familiar with the church (a church, some church, there's a lot of churches in the world and some of them are more fervent than others), the kind of power those sorts of things could end up having over people.]
[The power of belief can be a pretty incredible thing, after all.]
[But this, though...was he expecting something like this? It's still surprising, yes, but not as much as it maybe ought to be--because, as Jack realizes, there'd really been plenty of hints dropped along the way already, intentional or not on Zelos's part. He'd mentioned being famous where he came from, being in command of some measure of responsibility--both in such flamboyant ways that it'd been difficult to really take them seriously...and maybe that was the point, as the idea realizes now. Frame the truth in such a way that it'd be hard to believe anyway, and you're not exactly lying--]
[And that's a very interesting realization in its own right, but Jack still shifts it to the backburner as soon as it forms anyway. Something to consider later, for certain, but...even besides that, there's another pretty important thing being opened up here.]
[Because Zelos's emotions are certainly shining through moreso than normal, and none of them seem at all happy with the arrangements he goes on to describe.]
[Unhappiness...]
[Zelos mentions a sister, and something in Jack's demeanor shifts in a way it hadn't since the beginning of Zelos's story. A slight lean forward, one leg dropping a foot down to the mattress, staff pulling closer, the oddest expression fleeting across features (something between startled and sympathetic and piqued on some base level that goes beyond interest and right into a habit almost too old and worn to remember). But then Zelos stops speaking, and a silence falls, and Jack pulls back somewhat more upright, trying to figure out what to possibly say...when the beginnings of a glimmer catches the corner of his eye, and keeps him quiet just long enough to stare with renewed astonishment as the iridescent wings slowly seep into being.]
[...Well then.]
[At length Jack finds himself rising back to his feet, standing upright on the rail again, as if the higher vantage might somehow tweak the sight in some way. ...It doesn't, and a free hand goes up to card through his hair as he exhales a bit, finding himself unable to really stop staring.]
...Angels. Huh? [The word's breathed out at length, no less bemused than his expression is at the moment. He blinks, shakes his head, hand falling back to his side.] Man, that's...y'know, in my world, nobody'd ever met one before. Myths even among myths, it was kinda funny...
[His eyes move from the wings, at length, to meet directly with Zelos's instead.]
Guess it's really not all it's cracked up to be at all, huh? But then, it never really is...ending up with something like that...
[And he turns away to slip easily off the rail and back onto the floor, the thump barely audible at all. (Because keeping eye-contact while saying that, it's still...pretty difficult--)]
no subject
[And it's that, more than anything else, that has Jack quiet throughout as Zelos speaks, chin slowly settling into the palm of his free hand as something of a story unfurls partway. The concept in itself isn't an unfamiliar notion at all--he's familiar with the church (a church, some church, there's a lot of churches in the world and some of them are more fervent than others), the kind of power those sorts of things could end up having over people.]
[The power of belief can be a pretty incredible thing, after all.]
[But this, though...was he expecting something like this? It's still surprising, yes, but not as much as it maybe ought to be--because, as Jack realizes, there'd really been plenty of hints dropped along the way already, intentional or not on Zelos's part. He'd mentioned being famous where he came from, being in command of some measure of responsibility--both in such flamboyant ways that it'd been difficult to really take them seriously...and maybe that was the point, as the idea realizes now. Frame the truth in such a way that it'd be hard to believe anyway, and you're not exactly lying--]
[And that's a very interesting realization in its own right, but Jack still shifts it to the backburner as soon as it forms anyway. Something to consider later, for certain, but...even besides that, there's another pretty important thing being opened up here.]
[Because Zelos's emotions are certainly shining through moreso than normal, and none of them seem at all happy with the arrangements he goes on to describe.]
[Unhappiness...]
[Zelos mentions a sister, and something in Jack's demeanor shifts in a way it hadn't since the beginning of Zelos's story. A slight lean forward, one leg dropping a foot down to the mattress, staff pulling closer, the oddest expression fleeting across features (something between startled and sympathetic and piqued on some base level that goes beyond interest and right into a habit almost too old and worn to remember). But then Zelos stops speaking, and a silence falls, and Jack pulls back somewhat more upright, trying to figure out what to possibly say...when the beginnings of a glimmer catches the corner of his eye, and keeps him quiet just long enough to stare with renewed astonishment as the iridescent wings slowly seep into being.]
[...Well then.]
[At length Jack finds himself rising back to his feet, standing upright on the rail again, as if the higher vantage might somehow tweak the sight in some way. ...It doesn't, and a free hand goes up to card through his hair as he exhales a bit, finding himself unable to really stop staring.]
...Angels. Huh? [The word's breathed out at length, no less bemused than his expression is at the moment. He blinks, shakes his head, hand falling back to his side.] Man, that's...y'know, in my world, nobody'd ever met one before. Myths even among myths, it was kinda funny...
[His eyes move from the wings, at length, to meet directly with Zelos's instead.]
Guess it's really not all it's cracked up to be at all, huh? But then, it never really is...ending up with something like that...
[And he turns away to slip easily off the rail and back onto the floor, the thump barely audible at all. (Because keeping eye-contact while saying that, it's still...pretty difficult--)]