The change from a little chicken to a pretty large eagle was admittedly impressive and the following shift to a shark was equally as so. After the mishap of being literally half shark it seemed like Maui had gotten back into the swing of things pretty easily. He even went out his way to turn into a whale, above the water and crashing back down into it. Now drenched, Kel wrung the water out of his hair. It was about all he could do besides sit out in the sun and let himself dry naturally and given the raft they were on, that was going to happen regardless during their search for Te Fiti.
With no real reason to refuse the offer of hot chocolate, Chrono followed behind the others to the kitchen. With cup in hand, he drank some of the drink while listening to what was going on. Following Torrin's original statement, Enzo had thrown in his own two cents. Admittedly as Chrono took another sip of his hot chocolate, he didn't know if Enzo actually know what it was he was talking about or not. He didn't seem like the type that did, but that didn't mean much in regards to him. His thoughts soon transferred to wondering about the realm of darkness and a hypothetical trip there. There was some appeal to it, but in the aspect that whatever was currently ailing, there was resolved. It would suck if they got dragged into yet another mass scale conflict. "Well, more so things to do. Afterward, though it should be fine." Presuming all went well with his own goals at least. The sudden intrusion of Gero's voice caused Chrono to put his cup down and look in his direction. Wonder what he wants that he didn't say earlier?
So they just needed to take advantage of the numbers they had over them. He could see that working for the students, but for the Light Chaser himself. Well as it stood right now, he could see more of the risks, but the possibility of it working was there as well. It left him feeling unsure about it all as a whole despite wanting a better way to go about it. Thankfully this wouldn't be something that would come up anytime soon. "Maybe we can come up with something better than just 'gang up on him' while we're here."
"Illiana went off to get some fresh air, said she didn't have time to be angry after you two left." Chrono explained, his attention turning to Kal and his story for being here. It reminded him of another threat that needed to be dealt with and while not as immediate as the Light Chaser was, he's seen first hand how easily it could happen. "Its good to hear that you're confident about that, but if he does come here, he'll likely bring his students as well and I don't know how we stand up compared to them." His arms crossed before adjusting himself slightly. He lacked the experience needed to accurately make that comparison given his encounters with the Light Chaser's students have mainly either been words or just avoidance. Disregarding the dislike he held for two of them anyway.
Another attack missed and Gale was getting frustrated with all this all well and it was noticeable with the audible growl he made as his spellbook opened once more. At the very least he had to spell up to be used, but not the MP to use them at the same time. That being why he went with the one that had the most power behind it. Gale didn't even bother with closing his book this time, he figured his spell would miss and readied for the next one. Gale cast Blaze Colum and prepared to dodge.
At the notion of 'starting off small', Kel first tried to think of a small animal that he could turn into. His first thought went to a small fish, but a small fish could get eaten by a bigger one which was not something they had time for should it happen. "Hey Maui, try turning into a bird, that should be a small enough start." Without the risk of him getting eaten by a larger predator too.
"If you say so." Chrono said, his attention turning towards the returning duo. He hadn't been expecting to see Torrin or Aria back this quickly as they hadn't even been gone for all that long. "Already done with whatever Master Gero needed you for?" There had been some doubt in his voice when he asked that, and it wasn't like he was prodding for an answer, thus there wasn't a response he was trying to get or anything like that.
He was glad that he had some way of shortening his name, otherwise, he could easily foresee the troubles he would have in pronouncing his name. "Okay Kal, that saves some trouble. I'm Chrono." His hand was held out for him to shake. "Might be a rude question to ask, but what are you doing here?" Chrono didn't mean it to come off as rude as it possibly did, but curiosity had gotten the better of him in this regard.
With Torrin's arrival ironically bringing the small group to an end, Chrono looked to the new guy who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. "Don't worry about it, he's always like that." Solid first impression, but he doubted Torrin really cared for that. Actually, given his own first interaction with Torrin, he knew the didn't really care for that kind of thing. "Anyway, who are you?" He'd thought he had seen everyone here who wasn't a master and yet here this guy was, an unfamiliar face Chrono had no idea about.
Kel had been relatively silent following the reveal of both Moana being a princess of heart and Marx's transformation back into a human not because he was busy trying to process it all like what he'd done with shark head Maui, but instead it was the result of a lack knowing what to say. He'd certainly been through a lot even before he had been turned into a wolf. "I can only assume that we all got here the same way, got knocked overboard and nearly drowned."
"Chrno, that aside I've been good." Before he had a chance to ask what they were up to, Torrin had walked up to him and once again Chrono waved at him. "Humor her with what exactly?" Like Aria had said, he'd just gotten here himself and had no clue what was going on right now. Not to mention Illiana was more the enigmatic one out of Atmos's students so her wanting someone to humor her was curious in itself.
It was good to know that the Stamatis of this realm was willing to help her as well. "Alright, I'll see you around then." He gave her some space before waving as she walked back to the kitchen. In an ideal world, Chrono wouldn't be the one having these talks with his sister. That role would likely fall upon their mother or father and he would just throw in his two cents afterward. In that same ideal world, chances were that he wouldn't be standing here right now, he would likely still be at home and most importantly, their mother would still be alive. Reflecting on this wouldn't change anything so he let that train of thought come to a close before making his way down the hall. Along the way, he walked past Torrin and returned the waved the former had motioned to him. Further on down the hall and he spotted both Aria and Illiana coming down the stairs. "Morning you two."
From the moment they had arrived at the farm, Zephyr had his attention focused on the Alpaca. Yes, seeing a rainbow alpaca or just an alpaca, in general, would've been both odd and new for him to see in the first place. Didn't change his odd track record with animals. Dogs outright hated him, cats seemed to like him and most other normal animals treated him the same as any other person. Normally an alpaca would be in the same category, but a rainbow alpaca might be different. That was why Zephyr had been keeping a close eye on it. The alpaca, on the other hand, had been glaring at everyone the moment they had arrived. Who were these plebians to gawk at her amazing fur, especially this blonde hair boy. Getting all close to her and just staring at him. Why she had half a mind to just up and kick up. She would have something for that later. Now she just kept on watching the party as they talked to the farmer. Maira was quick to take in a breath of the fresh village air. The atmosphere here seemed different and was something he enjoyed. If only they had actually been here for fun and games, she might've taken the time to enjoy all this a bit longer. They were on a job and information gathering was the first thing to do, so Maira had strolled over to another market stall which, unless the candy selling one that Everette had walked to, was selling trinkets and such. "Oh, that one looks nice, how much is it?" Her eye had caught sight of a necklace that was adorned with a singular jewel in its center.
Vice heard the various opinions of his comrades and honestly still couldn't bring himself to care about Lloyd or any of this in the slightest. However seeing as everyone wanted to move on, he supposed he could pretend to care the slightest bit about Lloyd and leave it at that. He found it a bit odd that Noire had chosen now to start singing, but the shadows that moved to restrain and drag him were even odder. Naturally, his first instinct was to resist, but that soon proved to be pointless. "Happy now oh so called 'leader'."
Chrono knew that she was right, both in regards to them almost losing Take and that she wouldn't be able to rely on him forever. It may have been slightly relieving to hear that she wasn't looking for death, but the willingness to sacrifice herself so that others would live was what bothered him more. Not that he could say anything about that to convince her. He was guilty of having the same kind of thoughts, not to mention his hypothetical third option was not one he had right away. " I can't really say since any help I could offer would only be a temporary solution to things. Though I suppose you can stay here, with this Stamatis. I don't know what's your standing with him, but I assume its a good."He wasn't sure how willing she would go for that, but it was better than nothing as an alternative, as far as this realm when anyway. Naturally, he would still be there for whenever possible, but part of her healing would be Tinarah standing on her own two feet, without 'big brother' to help her and despite the detour that it took, it was still something Chrono wanted to see his sister achieve.
"You gotta give yourself more credit than that. I don't think I'm as strong as you claim I am. Magically you got me beat and I've only just started understanding my drive as opposed to you guys who already have a good understanding on how they work. You've definitely gotten stronger." But that wasn't what she wanted to hear, she wanted an answer to her question. She'd asked for his answer objectively cause surely she knew how he would've answered otherwise. That didn't change how when it came to questions like these, he always felt that there was a third option as opposed to the given two. "Objectively the answer is the master, but even still there has to be a way to avoid making that sacrifice. I'm not saying that cause I don't want you to be the one to have to do it, but cause I don't want anyone to have to do that." Be it his sister, friends or anyone else, enough had already been lost those whole battle.
Chrono caught up to his sister in the hallway after a little while of chasing her and following the moment of silence, heard what she said quite clearly. He wasn't surprised that she felt that way, not after everything that she's been through. Even if there had been some way to get her back to the way she was before all this, he couldn't see that happening anytime soon. Not until after this whole mess with the Light Chaser was dealt with. "I know, but that doesn't change how I feel." He briefly adjusted himself as to look right at Tinarah. "I get that you don't want to lose any of us, but you don't have to bear that burden by yourself. There's me, Take, Aria, Torrr...." His voice trailed off remembering the interactions that she and Torrin have had in the past, be it their Torrin or the other one. A brief moment of pondering lead him to a better save. "Oh! Stamatis and that Fost guy that can help you." He assumed that 'Uncle Fost' would be willing to do so, even if he barely knew either of them. "We may still be working on rebuilding our bond and I don't know how willing you are to lean on me for stuff like this, not to mention up and leaving home isn't exactly 'sharing the burden'. " Admittedly he didn't want to leave the way he did, but at the time he didn't see any other ways then. "Just don't feel like you have to push yourself for an end we all to achieve."
At first Chrono had chuckled awkwardly at his sister calling him out on the very same thing he wanted them to not do, but much like with the overall change in mood the conversation took, he chuckles turned into a sigh. Not one of frustration or annoyance, but understanding. He didn't doubt for a second that if he had been the one to go through what she had, that he would do whatever he could to avoid having to go through it again. In that regards, they were similar to one another, which was why he wouldn't sit by as she constantly endangered herself to avoid this. The very moment Tinarah had gotten out the door, Chrono had gotten up and chased after her.
"None of us were able to do anything when the Light Chaser had made his move." Chrono stated. That had been why he wanted to learn how to properly use his drive in the first place and even with what he knew now, he could only really see it working for a few seconds if any at all. Not the most pleasant of thoughts, but it was the truth. Precisely why he needed to improve himself. "I can see them taking some more precautions before sending us out again, so we should at least do what we can before they send up out again." Saying that made Chrono feel as if they were just soldiers being shipped out to war, which to some they might as well be. Chrono remembered that he still had food to eat, he reached for his partially eaten hashbrown. Through Take's pep talk of sorts, he managed to eat another bite of it before adding in his own two cents. Least he tried to think of what these 'two cents' would entail as a fair bit of what he would say, Take had already covered. "If its any consolation, and while the council might not see it this way, but you're both equally as important to me and I would very much appreciate it if you dialed down the 'putting others before ourselves' aspect. It'd make me feel better at least."
Having brushed off the sand stuck on him, Kel stood up and stared at Maui and his shark head for the sight to register in his head. It had occurred right as he heard the last bit of what Moana said. "We did go through all that to get your hook back to have a better chance at dealing with Ta Ka" Nor did he like the idea of leaving something unfinished if they had the choice to finish it.
