Jason's eyes slowly opened, seeing the canvas ceiling of the tent. He felt better than he usually did, likely because he was taking the time to get actual rest, instead of pushing himself to the brink of exhaustion as he used to. He felt Lance's head on his chest, looking down to see that she was still there. He was somewhat surprised to see it, she couldn't have fallen asleep, it was far too soon for her to need it yet. She must have wanted to stay warm through the night, but there was a fire outside and Nolvi would need sleep as well, it didn't make sense that she would stay in here with him. Sunlight seeped through the narrow gap between the tent flaps, so he indeed had slept all night. It wasn't as if Lance had come back in and crawled back into his blankets, Jason would have woken up if that happened.
He then realized that he heard gentle breathing from the far side of the tent, and he craned his head around to see Nolvi slumbering, bundled tightly in a cocoon of blankets. That must have meant that Halm was still on watch, being a Fiend meant that he may not need to sleep. Still, he wasn't completely at ease knowing that only one of their squad members was on watch. He looked down at Lance again, for some reason, he found himself unwilling to move from this spot.
Not because he was comfortable, but because he didn't want to disturb Lance. What if she really was asleep? It didn't seem possible, but he couldn't write off that possibility just yet. He was all too aware of her breathing on his skin, of his arm keeping her cradled beside him, her leg resting atop his, and of his hand resting on her thigh. She couldn't be awake, she would have been livid at this sort of contact… right?
Maybe she just didn't mind close-contact with him anymore, not after he had carried her while she was naked. That made sense to him, what didn't make sense was why he was enjoying this closeness. He felt at ease with her resting on his chest, not only that, but he found that he enjoyed how soft she felt against him. He shut his eyes as he considered why this was. He unfortunately didn't have time to come up with an answer as he felt Lance's head leave his chest.
She looked up at him, wide awake, "Good morning." She smiled warmly.
She had been awake this whole time, meaning that she was alright with where Jason's hand was, he would not be scolded.
Relieved, he smiled back, "I thought you would have left for the fire by now."
Lance shook her head, "I didn't want to wake you up. That and you make for quite the fire yourself."
"Affirmative." Jason told her, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
She frowned, "What's wrong?"
"I don't know why this feels nice." He admitted, brow furrowing.
He watched the tips of her ears turn red again, and he winced, preparing for her to call him an idiot of some kind. Instead, she surprised him.
"Well." She said, hesitating, "The simplest answer is usually the right one, yes?"
Jason nodded, "Affirmative."
"What about this feels nice then?" Lance asked, staring deeply into his eyes.
"I feel relieved because you're close." He told her, "I know I can't lose you when you're right here with me."
Logically that was what made sense, she could not be attacked with him here to protect her. This answer however did not seem to satisfy her, for she buried her face in his chest with a sigh, her ears reddening further. Damn it all, what had he done wrong? What he said had clearly upset her.
"Is there any other reason you can think of?" She asked, peeking up at him expectantly.
He needed to give her another answer, maybe she was asking about why it felt nice in the physical sense?
"You can just say it, I won't be angry with you." She insisted.
Ah good, she wouldn't be mad, "I like having my hand on your leg and your chest on my side, your body is soft, so I must find it comfortable."
She stiffened against him for brief moment, her features reddening before eventually she melted back into his chest. What he said had been the wrong thing again. What was he missing here?
"Well that confirms it then." She continued, voice quavering slightly, "There isn't a doubt in my mind now."
"Confirms what, exactly?" Jason asked, confused.
"Nothing I need to tell you about, you oaf." She told him, right before inching her way up him to lay her head beside his, "You will figure it out eventually, I'm sure."
"Being pointlessly vague does not help, Lance." He told her flatly, "I was honest with you, why can't you be honest with me?"
She paused a long while before saying, "I can't be as honest as you are."
"It isn't hard." He insisted.
"For you, maybe." She muttered, her face still red, "Are you ready to get up now, or would you rather-" She hesitated, "That is to say, would you rather keep holding me?"
"I'm awake." Jason told her, "There is no point in me laying down any longer than this."
Lance frowned, green eyes now glaring. Great, he'd said the wrong thing again.
"Halm is out there on watch, the cold doesn't bother him and he doesn't need to sleep." Lance insisted, "There's nothing wrong with waiting until Nolvi wakes up to start the day."
"I need to start getting my armor on soon," Jason said, "It will take me a long time to-"
"She won't be asleep for much longer," Lance reasoned, "Jason, I'm freezing."
He narrowed his eyes, "That's impossible, you've been next to me all night."
She sighed, putting a hand over her face, "Maybe I like how it feels too." She admitted meekly.
He blinked, "I'm soft?"
She shook her head, "No. Just-" She paused again, "Let's just lay back down, just for a little while longer."
He wanted to tell her no, that he needed to get ready, but she put her arm across his torso, hugging him tightly. He could not be that soft, her chains certainly weren't as they rubbed against his skin. He let out an annoyed sigh, but found that he was unwilling to remove her, his hand coming to once again rest on her thigh. She stiffened at the contact for a moment before eventually easing back into him.
Lance was utterly incomprehensible. Still, he enjoyed the closeness for another hour before eventually, Nolvi awoke, sitting up from her cocoon with tired eyes. She locked eyes with Jason before quirking an eyebrow.
"Already?" She asked.
"Already what?" He asked, confused.
He felt Lance tense once again. Nolvi just shook her head, giving a small giggle. He finally sat up, displacing Lance who frowned.
"We can't lay down all day." He reasoned, "We have an objective to accomplish."
"I suppose you're right." Lance sighed, standing.
Jason stood as well, briefly taking the time to stretch before he picked up his chest plate, bringing it outside the tent as Lance and Nolvi began to whisper to one another. There he saw Halm, stoking a fire in a stone-lined pit, the Fiend nodded at him with a grin.
"I like being naked too." Halm told him, "Nothing brings you closer to nature and thus Zodd's Blood then being in a more animalistic state."
"I just don't have clothes under the armor." Jason told him.
"Ah." He replied.
"Can you help me assemble my suit?" Jason asked, "It takes a long time to do it by myself."
"I'm not sure how to do that." Halm said, looking down at the different pieces of the Phalanx suit, "I hardly know anything about plate armor, much less whatever that is."
"You don't need to. If you follow my instructions it won't be too difficult. First though, I need to bring out the rest of the pieces, and take care of my needs, then we can begin." Jason told him.
"Alright, just let me know when you're ready." Halm shrugged, continuing to stoke the flame.
Jason left him then, drinking some water and taking care of his other needs before finally dragging his armor outside. He noticed that his skin was steaming, his high body heat quickly melting the snow he stepped through. Jason then began assembling his armor, Halm helping him with the process. With how strong the Fiend was, the assembly was accomplished far more quickly, as he could hold the pieces with one hand instead of two, allowing him to more easily maneuver them into place.
Despite that, it still took a while, nothing could beat an assembler. Once they were finished, Jason donned his helmet, nodding to Halm.
"I appreciate it." Jason said.
"Was no trouble, but goodness, those plates weigh as much as a man each, how can you move so quickly with all that on?"
"Didn't you help me put it on before?" Jason asked, brows furrowing, "I thought I told you already."
Halm frowned, scratching his chin, "Perhaps you did?"
"The armor supports itself." Jason said, "I don't exert myself when I wear it."
"Remarkable." Halm nodded, "I suppose that's Outworlder engineering for you."
"Let's get ready to head out." He said, right as Lance and Nolvi emerged from the tent.
"We have some good news, Jason." Lance said with a smile, "Nolvi managed to reach Twindil in The Dream, they're on their way to Castle Blackgaze right now."
"Affirmative, that is good news." Jason said, "I'm assuming that we'll need to rendezvous at the castle itself, finding each other in this wasteland will take too much time. What did you both end up agreeing on?" He asked, looking to Nolvi.
"Your assumption is correct." Nolvi nodded, "We'll meet at Castle Blackgaze, we'll just continue on our way until inevitably we cross paths."
"What's The Dream?" Halm asked.
Everyone fell silent. That's right, Halm didn't know anything about Nolvi and her friends being Pillar-Born, or about what The Dream was.
"Classified intel, Halm." Jason said, "I apologize."
Halm paused for a long while before he simply shrugged, "Very well, you don't need to tell me. All that matters is that we kill Kazon, I don't care if you end up needing this 'Dream' to do it."
Nolvi eased, letting out a sigh of relief, "Thank you for not pressing. Jason, there is some other important news as well. Please do not panic, Tuji is still alive, but he is not well."
He froze, eyes going wide, "That's impossible."
Lance too looked shocked, jaw falling open.
Nolvi shook her head, "He was there in the Dream, but he was in a pitiful state. He specifically asked for you to return to the Faewood to finish him off, that he was a slave."
"A slave?" Lance asked after a moment of shocked silence, "He can't be alive, I saw Terlin incinerate his corpse!"
"He wants me to kill him?" Jason asked, "Why?"
"Like I said, whatever happened to him, he has been enslaved." Nolvi sighed, "I've never seen him act like that before."
Lance frowned, "Once we get back to the Faewood, we'll get to the bottom of this. Then I'll be the one to put him down, if he wishes for death so badly."
She wanted to avenge Muro no doubt, but Jason doubted it would be as simple as walking up and stabbing him. Whoever could enslave Tuji wasn't someone to take lightly, and they wouldn't likely be keen on Lance trying to murder their property. Still, that left the question of who, who enslaved a Pillar-Born?
"An old foe from the sound of it." Halm noted, "But let's not pay that any mind now, Kazon is before us and this Tuji seems to be awaiting death, he isn't a threat right now."
Lance frowned but nodded, "You are right, he can be taken care of after our quest is concluded."
Halm nodded, "Let's pack up camp and get going, it'll be a few days before we'll arrive."
"That long?" Jason asked.
"We'll be in sight of Blackgaze when the Rotting Ilum is out of view, so yes, it will take some time." Halm nodded, popping his back, "I hope we find Twindil before that though, I have a cramp that just will not go away."
"Understandable," Jason said, "Given what you are, you can't heal on your own, even minor aches will pile up."
"Exactly." Halm groaned.
They all continued to talk as they ate breakfast, before they began readying their supplies, packing away the tent and everything else as quickly as they were able. Carrying the bindle and barrel once again, Jason followed after Nolvi, who continued carving a trail through the snow. After a few hours of quiet marching, the silence was broken.
"Jason," Lance started, "What do you think of women?"
"What do I think?" He asked, "As in do I see them in a negative light or positive light?"
"I like women." Halm nodded, "Some of my favorite people in the whole world were women, my mama and sisters were great warriors."
"From what I remember of her, I loved my mother." Jason said, "I can't recall what she looks like though."
"I hate women." Nolvi said flatly, "Except Twindil, my mother, and Grandmother of course, and no offense Lance, but I do not know you well enough to give an opinion on you."
"None taken?" Lance asked, uncertain, "Why do you hate women?"
"In Umant, the village women and their daughters avoided and bullied me often. It left a sour taste in my mouth. The only ones that would play with me were the boys, like Elum, Alistair, and Kid'ka, among a few others." She explained, "I think their hatred was because the women didn't like my mother."
"Why is that?" Halm asked.
"Let's just say that my mother took after Lithia when it came to love." Nolvi sighed, "Nonetheless, I will release her soul from Kazon's clutches."
"I've heard a term for that before. Your mother was a barracks bunny." Jason nodded, remembering the term he'd heard marines use, "She must have-"
Wait a moment. Maybe it wouldn't be socially acceptable for him to define what a barracks bunny was. His instincts warned him that it was a bad idea that wouldn't end well.
"Barracks bunny?" Nolvi asked, confused, "I'm afraid I don't know what that means."
Halm shook his head, "Me neither, what is it?"
"I shouldn't say." Jason admitted, "Forget I mentioned it."
"...Alright then." Nolvi said after a moment, "I think that may be for the best, I doubt the connotations are positive."
"They are not." Jason confirmed. "Let's change back to liking women, along with my mother I also have my sisters, one-hundred and twenty of them."
Lance sputtered, "How many!?"
Halm simply nodded, "Me too, I had ten more than that though."
"I had one-hundred and twenty sisters out of three-hundred siblings." Jason said, remembering the various female Hoplites.
"Your mother was a busy woman." Halm noted, "Your race must live a long time, then."
"It was my father that was the busy one." Jason told him, "He reproduced with three-hundred different women to make me and my siblings. Most if not all of them are dead by now though."
His eyes fell after saying that, a deep melancholy forming in his chest. Hector, Orion, Nix, Rhea- He remembered all their names, their real names, not just their designations. Despite having grown up with them, he found himself unable to recall much about any of them, what they liked or disliked, their families, anything. He'd only began properly learning about Hector once he'd been freed from his brainwashing the first time, and now even he was dead.
"It will be okay, Jason." Lance said, turning her head to smile at him, "I'm sure they're watching over you, even as we speak."
Hector always believed that as well, having adopted a Pre-Jynesian religion while he was among the rebels. Hector had tried to convince him that it was real, but Jason just couldn't make sense of it. No man can come back from the dead after three days of being a corpse, it was simply illogical. Yet Hector had insisted that the faith he followed, Christianity, stated that their Messiah was no mere man, but the son of God. Not a god, the definitive God. He had been fair to Hector and had heard him out, after all, he'd seen video evidence of their inhuman father becoming a gigantic space kraken, some things became less far-fetched in Jason's mind after witnessing that.
There had been a few other faiths that had managed to survive through Jyn's reign as well, archived and followed by the rebels. Abrahamic mostly, though Jason had also spoken with priests of other faiths too. Jason could not say for a fact that they were fake, but he just couldn't understand why any of these deities would allow for World-War Five to have happened, followed by Lord-Jyn's occupation of their world.
Then again, the gods of this world seemed equally aloof, allowing it to go through terrible disasters instead of preventing them, and the Pillar-Gods were certainly real… perhaps Earth really did have Gods, or a God, but they were just as hands-off as the Pillar-Gods were with Ahkoolis. Jason didn't know for sure, nor would he ever get the opportunity again to learn about the faiths of Old Earth.
"Jason?" Lance asked, concerned.
"I'll agree that they're at peace now." Jason told her.
She nodded, "I'm sorry, I didn't think that question would bring up painful memories."
"It isn't your fault." Jason said, "Why did you ask it?"
"We'll talk about it another time, alright?" She insisted, turning her head away.
"I know why." Nolvi said, her tone growing mischievous.
"Really?" Halm asked, "Can you read minds?"
"What was the reason?" Jason asked Nolvi.
He saw Lance clutching her cloak as Nolvi said, "Have you ever thought about having children?"
Jason's brow furrowed, "Me, have children?" He asked.
The question was alien, even just saying it was surprisingly difficult. Jason couldn't even think of what that would be like, to be a father. He'd rarely ever seen babies before, he had no clue about what went into taking care of one. He shouldn't even consider it, he could not raise a child properly, not with how he had been brought up.
"I wouldn't be good at being a parent." He said, "Children are fragile and I don't want to hurt one."
"Who says that you would be bad at it?" Lance asked, voice quavering, "You don't know that for certain."
"Maybe not." Jason shrugged, "I wouldn't know and I don't have time to pursue such things anyhow."
"I felt much the same when I wasn't cursed." Halm chimed in, "These hands are meant for battle, not for cradling young."
"Exactly my train of thought." Jason agreed.
"You might think that now," Nolvi said, "But maybe you'll change your mind in time."
Jason shook his head, "Not in a hundred years." He said firmly.
"That's a good amount of time to wait…" Lance whispered, barely audible, "Things will be settled down by then."
"Now the process that goes into making a baby, I did enjoy that part," Halm chuckled, "But I hardly ever had the opportunity, for I only enjoy women who are taller than me."
"Impossible, you are a minimum of ten feet in height." Jason pointed out, "There can't be a woman in the world bigger than that."
"Amazonians are!" Halm insisted, "Not many of 'em are larger than me, granted, but there were a couple! Ogre's aren't as shapely but they're all taller than I am, that's all I really care about."
"You want a woman that's stronger than you?" Nolvi asked, "I didn't think there was a man alive that would want that."
"No," Halm said quickly, shaking his head, "I want a woman who's taller, not stronger, my father was the one who liked stronger women." He continued, flexing one of his arms, "A real man wants to protect a kind, gentle woman who's taller than him."
"...Right." Nolvi said, "That's your taste in women though, Jason might not have those same desires."
"I suppose you're right, but I'm sure he's like me. You like women taller than you, right?" Halm asked with a grin.
"Negative." He replied.
Halm's face fell, "Ah."
"Well, what kind of women do you like then?" Lance asked, hands moving to cover the tips of her ears.
"For reproduction?" He asked, shaking his head, "I don't want children."
"Well not yet." Lance said, "There still has to be a type of woman you like, right?"
"I don't know." He said, "I would have to think about it."
"I see." She replied before lapsing into silence.
Why did Lance seem so interested in this subject? If he didn't know any better then he would assume that she was considering reproducing with him. A ridiculous idea, she had another reason for asking these things, surely.