Distractions

	The objective was clear… but when it came to traveling the winding side-streets of Darremont’s Bell in pursuit of that mansion full of strange-looking cultists, it was some time and patience away, requiring careful tracing of a map with every step, huddling around another Order’s Hunter as he made sure not to diverge from the charted path. That meant that traveling to the Antiquarian Manor was a different experience from just darting straight into the town itself, and… it was an odd one for Silicon Dioxide.

	One foot, and then the other. One foot, and then the other. One foot, and then the other. She kept Jerv in her peripheral vision as she stared at her own feet (with Rotten being vanishingly rare in this part of town) and made sure that he was at a constant distance from her at all times. Jerv was a deliberate, quiet Hunter, always seeming to be contemplating something, and each of the steps he took with this map were deliberate too, measured to get them where they needed to go. Every step he took, she took, and by keeping that balanced, it was a simple routine to keep from getting separated.

	…the only issue that it [i]was[/i] a routine, not one of her trances. This was an Expedition, still – she could not, unfortunately, empty her mind totally. After all, there was still some level of vigilance that did need to be maintained even in the quiet of this area of Darremont’s Bell. Although the Rotten were rare, that probably did not mean she could entirely rule out the idea of running into them on the way. Although Zeal under Moonlight had spotted the patrol of cultists they had run into last expedition long before she had, and though that had happened (according to the map) much closer to the Manor, it was of course fully possible that they could run into a patrol even out here – the Rotten were rare in this part of town for a reason. And, of course, there was the number one issue that Silicon had to watch out for when traveling out to the manor…

“—well, as I’m sure you lot can agree, it gets more than a little boring trudging through these twisty windy hallways having to go molasses-slow thanks to this ol’ map. What say I do a little exploring around the edges and find us a nice shortcut, wouldn’t that be fhGURK-“ Zeal was cut off at Silicon’s arm shot out with lightning speed and accuracy, hand gripping him firmly by the neck and reeling him in. As always, as [i]always[/i], the number one issue was Zeal.

	There were a few seconds of flailing from Zeal that perhaps less dour company than Silicon might have found amusing (okay, maybe she found it [i]just[/i] a little amusing), before she roughly barked out: “Keep following Jerv like you’re supposed to.” Silicon was silent for an awkward moment more before she followed that command up with a: “Stay focused on the objective.” The Manor promised to be a difficult enough set of tasks to deal with without Zeal endangering things before they even begun – but, well, maybe Silicon was getting used to “looking out for Zeal” being one of her important duties on expedition by now. Still… her mouth began to set into an irritated frown, as she let out a long breath, and then started to let the routine take her again.

	“Iiiiin [i]that[/i] case,” Zeal’s voice rung out again as he spoke, and Silicon whirled to look at him as she prepared to have to grab him a second time, but… he actually didn’t appear to be running off. Her posture froze for a moment of uncertainty before Zeal continued speaking: “why don’t I make this dreadful march a tad more entertaining in another way? I will tell you young’uns a story of sorts,” and here he grinned, sweeping one hand out in a showman’s gesture, “I will tell you of Hunters past, their glories and their falls – I will tell you of Big Waltz and Fylakas! How do you like the sound of [i]that,[/i] dear Silicon? Does that stay enough on the mission for you?”

	The uncertain tension in Silicon’s posture had melted mostly away, and now she found herself looking at Zeal with a reluctant curiosity – actually, what the bald old Hunter had said had even managed to catch Jerv’s attention, with the RoboCorp Hunter sneaking intrigued glances between taking careful stock of the map he held. “…fine,” Silicon agreed after some hesitance. “Just also pay attention.”

	With permission granted (although he would absolutely have done it anyway), Zeal launched into the beginning of his rambling description with [i]aplomb[/i]. “I shall begin by telling you about… Big Waltz!” Zeal whisked into a spot between Jerv and Silicon, making sure he was in Silicon’s vision so long as she wasn’t looking down at her feet, and then he twirled a full three-sixty degrees, his arms outstretched, one hand holding his hat and one his cane. “Big Waltz… now there is one of my favorite people that I have ever known!”

	Zeal turned towards Jerv and winked quickly, before facing his main audience member again. “Waltz was kind of a funny guy in a lot of ways, you know. He really was [i]Big[/i] Waltz, for one, ho ho ho, let me tell you. He was a tall guy, Silicon, taller than you by a few inches – but he got called Big Waltz because,” Zeal made a completely inscrutable ‘sshwwwwwp’ sound effect with his mouth, and traced his hands a distance around his wiry frame to indicate a… rather corpulent figure. “well, largeness such as that of Big Waltz does not see fit to be confined to one dimension, hahah! And he had this [i]wonderfully[/i] enormous wooden hammer, the fellow looked like quite the caricature sometimes when he had that thing hefted way up yonder in the air.” Naturally, this was matched with a hand held in the air to match the apparent height of Waltz’s hammer.

“But he was downright [i]joyous[/i] to be around, too, outside of battle. I like to think that I’m something of a mirthful master myself,” Zeal’s smile turned smug, but Silicon’s stare merely gained a flat quality to it, “but Waltz could give me a real run for my sovereigns! When he was in a room, why, things lit up! He was a Hunter that had [i]fun[/i], a journey that I’m afraid you are yet to take the first steps on, Silicon, my dear. Really, almost everybody is too [i]dour[/i] these days, that Duffy has the right idea. In part, anyhow, ho ho.”

Zeal paused, caught out in his own train of thought, and Silicon sighed softly to herself. He was just going to start talking about ‘carousing and merriment’ again, then. That was the sort of routine that Silicon was already getting frustrated with very quickly, especially since such things were… failing to find a word that expressed her mix of apprehensive feelings, she settled on ‘not objectives and not desirable.’ She had been… maybe hoping for something different-

“Aha! Right. That’s not all that’s important about Big Waltz, though. No, it’s only half of his story, and even if it’s a half I personally appreciate, it is certainly not the most important. No, you see, Big Waltz joined us on our first great journey to go slay Governor Martyn, the Betrayer of Darremont, he of the eternal blade of the heart, Governor Martyn the Dies to Bullets!” Zeal cackled. “On our way to that church where we blew that nutty bastard into organs, we came to a hell of a battle – multiple shrikes, those gigantic skittering masses of lunacite, blasting shotgun sprays of razor sharp crystal and tearing men to pieces with their wicked claws!” One of Zeal’s hands thrust up in a dramatic gesture that closed into a fist, highlighted against the night sky by the ever-present moonlight. Silicon remembered having to save Zeal from one of those. “I was one of the two men in question, hah hah. Waltz was the other. We all fought like madmen, but in the end, he succumbed to the frightful barrage of bloody piercings that he was dealt. But if he had not been there, well… I surely would not have survived. And if I had not survived, my gun would not have been there to blow Martyn’s minions to pieces. What then? Could we say for sure that we would have triumphed…?”

Zeal let the question hang, and Silicon shifted uncomfortably, not sure if she was supposed to answer or not. Thankfully, Zeal spared her from having to do so. “Waltz lived well and then he died [i]violently[i], in the thick of combat on the most important expedition any of Haven have ever taken! He is the example that you all ought to be looking up to! And it was his blood and bone that I saw that gave me some of my insights on the world, too – let me simply say that human blood does not act the way Hunter blood does. It was Waltz in part who taught me the particular value of death.”

Silicon stared at Zeal for a long, uncomfortable moment before she suddenly started. She’d realized that he was at danger of leading them both on a wrong turn, if she kept paying attention to him instead of Jerv’s footprints, and reflexively she yelled at him. “Zeal! Eyes on the path! Now!” Yanking him by the arm, she forcibly reasserted him back in line behind Jerv, although now she took the position behind Jerv, not wanting to stare at Zeal’s theatrics anymore, because… because… because it was distracting from the journey to the objective and could get them into serious trouble.

That didn’t actually stop Zeal from continuing to speak, though. “Ahhh… and I can’t forget Fylakas either, you know! Fylakas, Fylakas, ah Fylakas… I’m a little surprised he doesn’t get talked about much these days, actually – one of the very first Hunters, along with myself! He was supposed to be the elite of the elite, a master of battle and all of that business, but that didn’t stop the poor fellow from being about the unluckiest Hunter around at the time. He just kept catching stray wounds at seemingly unlikely moments, and that luck caught up with him in the end.” Zeal shook his head.

“Ah, the guy was a real stick in the mud, though, ha ha, maybe you would’ve liked him, Sili.” She visibly reacted only with a slight frown, increasingly caught up in a strange mood as she was, and Zeal took this reaction as victory, plowing on ahead. “But it was at least not in a traditional stick in the mud way, I’ll give him that. He was very much about ‘defending the people’ and boy, he sure liked to talk about it – I didn’t find it all that interesting whenever he kept on, but it is very heroic if you’re into that sort of thing.”

 	“[i]BUT![/i]” And Zeal raised a finger, thrusting it into the air a short distance insistently, “make [i]no[/i] mistake, I do respect that man greatly. When it comes down to it, Fylakas perished in battle, and not only did he perish in battle, it wasn’t in some random fight – it was in the [i]height[/i] of our bloody battle with Martyn. He fell fighting the man himself, too, and not before doing some damage. I think perhaps that’s the most impressive and important death that any Hunter could possibly have asked for. And, well, that’s what matters.” Zeal looked at Silicon here, and his gaze grew… it felt to Silicon like it was piercing right through her. “Don’t you agree?”

	Zeal’s words certainly were making Silicon think – in a way she didn’t often like to, of course, but his speaking had swept her along and she hadn’t had a choice. And the way that ultimately his thoughts on previous Hunters made her feel… it was something that felt volatile. Silicon knew that she didn’t like it, but the shaky mixture of thoughts and emotions wasn’t something that lent itself to easy identification or resolution – particularly frustrating, frankly, since he’d elected to do this when they were all busy, and Silicon was beginning to realize that he was doing something on purpose here.

	Still, eventually, Silicon found it in herself to speak, though the words that came out were quiet when she did. “…no. You’re wrong. I think… I don’t know why. But you [i]are[/i] wrong.” There was a brief exhalation of breath, a voiceless sigh that followed that. Then, she wrenched her gaze back to being as straight on Jerv as possible. “Now, [i]please[/i]. Be quiet and focus. We have an objective.”

	Mercifully, for once, Zeal actually did what she said without any serious complications. She’d seen his expression for a bit before she’d managed to wrench back what of her focus she could – his eyebrows had nearly been at what would be his hairline. Her mouth twisted a bit -hopefully he enjoyed whatever that bit of surprise that reply had given him, because Silicon suspected it had come at the cost of a good deal of her mental peace for a while. She wasn’t going to be able to stop thinking about this in her peaceful moments for a while, was she?