Night has fallen on the Dragon Slayer, or at least most of the lights are off. Tapping at various screens and controls, Zelgadis sits at Hawk's station, the green lines of Matrix code scrolling down the three main monitors in front of him. Sighing to himself, he catches something out of the corner of his eye and looks. Lina. "Whoa!" She jumps a little. "Lina... you scared the bejesus out of me." "Sorry," she replied, pulling the blanket curled around her shoulders a bit tighter. "It's okay," he says, absently glancing around the vacant deck and taps another button, all the screens going blank besides the three center ones. Lina looks at the black screens then to the main ones still on. "Is that...?" "The Matrix? Yeah." She leans a little closer. "Do you always look at it encoded?" "Well, you have to. The images translators work for the Construct program, but there's way too much information to decode the Matrix. You get used to it, I don't even see the code. All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead," Zel notes as he points at each screen in turn. Lina rolls her eyes. "Hey," the metal-haired man looks back at Lina with a growing grin, "You want a drink?" "Sure." He leans down and picks up a plastic jug from the floor beside him, pouring some into a cup for Lina. "You know, I know what you're thinking, cause right now I'm thinking the same thing." He hands her the cup. "Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here. 'Why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill'?" Lina watches Zelgadis a moment then takes a gulp from the cup. Immediately it sets her throat on fire and she coughs, a bit surprised at the potency. He chuckles and claps her shoulder with a blue-skinned hand, "Good shit, huh? Gourry makes it. Good for two things: degreasing engines and killing brain cells." She shakes her head, looking up at Zel after taking another sip. "Do you mind if I ask you something, Zelgadis?" He shakes his head, though by his expression he already knows what she's going to ask. "Why are you... like that? I mean, the hair and such." He laughs shortly, crossing his arms as he looks back at the Matrix screens. "The short answer is I'm an experiment. The Dragons played with my DNA and made me like this." He sighs, apparently still upset about the idea. "As far as we know, they've done these experiments on others, too. I'm the only one to be let out of the power plant who's had them done." "So inside the Matrix, your RSI is the same as if you never were changed," she thinks out loud to herself. "That's right." He sighs again then looks back at Lina, "While we're on the subject, could I ask you something too? Did he tell you why he did it? Why you're here?" She watches Zel then looks down at her cup, hesitating before nodding. He doesn't like the answer and looks up at the ceiling in disbelief, "Jeez-us! What a mind job," he mutters, then slides his gaze back to her, "So, you're here to save the world. What do you say to something like that?" He leans back in the chair, continuing. "A little advice. You see an Agent, you do what we do: run. You run your ass off. If Xelloss says you can fly, I wouldn't go jumping out any windows to find out if he's right." She looks down at her cup, considering, and takes a last drink out of it before handing it back, "Thanks for the drink." Lina heads back to her room, Zel watching her go. "Sweet dreams." --- The view: magnificent. The food: extraordinary. The prices: non-existent. "Do we have a deal, Mr. Magnus?" The patrons: unlikely. Zelgadis cuts a cube of steak from his dinner and lifts it up, and then he looks at it almost in wonder. "You know... I know this steak doesn't exist," he begins, glancing over the savory meat across to Valgarv sharing the table with him. "I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy, and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?" He pops the chunk of meat into his mouth and chews, thoughtful before releasing a sigh. "Ignorance is bliss." Valgarv watches through his sunglasses, face like stone and revealing nothing. "Then we have a deal." Behind Zel, a waitress squeezes skin lotion into her hand while he leans back. "I want to remember nothing." He glances at the Dragon, making sure, "Nothing. Do you understand?" Valgarv lowers his head slightly. Zelgadis closes his eyes as the waitress starts to rub the lotion into his face, another content sigh leaving him. "And I want to be rich, you know, someone important... like a legendary celebrity." "Whatever you want, Mr. Magnus." Zel thinks for several moments more as the cream is rubbed into his face. The feeling of normal skin again distracts Zel from the memory of his true form still on the Dragon Slayer. "Okay... You get my body back in the power plant, reinsert me into the Matrix, I'll get you what you want." "Access codes to the Sairaag defense net," Valgarv responds with a dark smirk. Zel's eyes pop open as he looks at the Dragon again. "No, I told you, I don't know them. I can get you the man who does..." "Xelloss." Zel hesitates and glances at the Dragon, then closes his eyes once more and allows the massage to resume. --- "There you go, Lina, breakfast of champions." She looks down at the bowl Hawk slides in front of her. The contents look like creamed corn that's been put through a blender set to liquefy. "If you close your eyes, it almost feels like you're eating runny eggs," Phibrizio remarks helpfully. "Yeah, or a bowl of snot," Garv mutters. Eris, beside him, smiles a bit. Seraya, the last person on Lina and Phibrizio's side of the table doesn't comment. "Do you know what it really reminds me of," Phibby asks no one as he looks up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Tastee Wheat. Did you ever eat Tastee Wheat?" He looks back at Lina with the question. "No, but technically neither did you," Eris answers for the redhead. "That's exactly my point, exactly," the boy exclaims. The wheels are already turning behind his eyes, as this is something he's thought a lot about. "Because you have to wonder, how do the Dragons really know what Tastee Wheat tasted like? Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe what I think Tastee Wheat tasted like, actually tasted like, uh, oatmeal, or tuna fish. It makes you wonder about a lot of things. You take chicken for example, maybe they couldn't figure out what to make chicken taste like, which is why chicken tastes like everything. And maybe they--" "SHUT UP!" Eris rubs her ear after Garv sits down following his outburst. "It's a single-cell protein, combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs," Gourry informs Lina about her breakfast. "It doesn't have 'everything the body needs'," Phibrizio grumbles in a mocking tone then looks towards Lina who's slowly but surely eating her bowl of runny eggs/Tastee Wheat/snot. He scoots closer with a knowing grin. "So, I understand that you've run through the Agent training program." She nods. "You know, I wrote that program." Seraya groans from her corner of the table. "Not this again, Phibrizio," she begs the boy as the others exchange knowing looks. He ignores the blond woman. "So, what did you think of her," he asks with a sly grin. "Of who?" "The woman in the white dress. I designed her," he informs Lina proudly. "Her name's Zelas. She, ah, she doesn't talk very much, but if you'd like to meet her, I can arrange a much more personal milieu," he grins and winks at Lina, who's staring back at him in disbelief. "The digital pimp hard at work," Eris comments as she rolls her eyes. "Pay no attention to these hypocrites, Lina. To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that make us human," he notes wisely then smiles brightly, going back to his breakfast. At the impulse comment, Seraya glances up to Phibrizio and Lina sitting on the same side of the table. The redhead, on the other hand, has snapped out of her horrified expression and jumps to her feet. "What impulses are you talking about, you little--" The door squeaks loudly open, protecting Phibrizio from Lina's wrath. Xelloss looks in. "Gourry, when you're done, bring the ship up to broadcast depth. We're going in," he informs the crew, glancing around at all their faces. "I'm taking Lina to see her." He disappears from the small dining room, and Lina looks down to Hawk still sitting across the table beside Eris. "To see who?" "The Oracle," the operator replies quietly. Seraya's gaze rises up to look across and meet Zel's eyes.
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