Delinquents in the Desert

Flax found Yogu's dialogue with Monster... Endearing, in a way. She almost wished she could have a dialogue with her own shadow monster, even if Monster wasn't particularly pleasant. At least there existed the possibility of negotiation and coordination between him and Yogu. Flax couldn't do a damn thing about hers, short of satiating its hunger. There was no way to bargain with it, no way to question it, no way to convince it to stop. It may have been trapped inside her body, but Flax was just as much its prisoner.

Still, Flax let out a snort as Monster expressed his distaste for Yogu's teenage demeanor and habits. She wasn't exactly far removed from her own teenage years, though... She at least recalled bathing herself on the regular. "You don't bathe?" she asked the boy with a furrowed brow and a frown. There may have been more pressing matters at hand, but that particular comment stuck out to her. Shortly after, though, Monster finally got into the meat and potatoes of who he was, where he had come from, and why he acted as he did. And the revelations were... Intriguing.

"You were sealed away in him before he was even born?" Flax asked. She was a bit confused with the semantics of that, but it sounded rather rude of Yogu's ancestor to just kick the problem down a generation. If he had been strong enough to seal Monster, surely he was strong enough to have defeated him instead? Monster's motivations weren't particularly helpful, either. How did you bargain with someone that only did what they did for the sheer enjoyment of it? Plus, it wasn't like they had much to bargain with, either - Yogu didn't seem capable of wrestling control back permanently in any way.

And, finally, the Monster left, its threats fully spewed. Ultimately, while some questions had been answered about Yogu's predicament, Flax didn't feel any closer to figuring her own situation out. Disappointing. There was one thing that had been made clear, though.

"I think our only real option is to do what he wants," Flax stated after a moment of pensive thought. "Take him to the Kashvar. They'll know what's going on with him - and with me." Sure, he did say he would obliterate the Kashvar on sight if taken to them... And probably would if Yogu went to them alone. However, he didn't have to go alone.

"I'll go with you," Flax stated, her arms crossed. "I can keep him in check, so to speak. I have many questions of my own to ask, anyway. That ridiculous blast of his was strong, of course, but I have a feeling it's a one trick pony. He had to immediately retreat back inside of you afterwards, and it banged you up pretty good to use it. And, as you saw, I'm more than capable of blocking it. Outside that laser..." Flax's lips twisted into a smirk, a rare expression to see on her ordinarily stern or expressionless face. "...I'm pretty sure I can kick his ass with relative ease. I'm made of tough stuff. You won't kill any Kashvar with me around - not until after we get our answers."

Flax felt good about this. With Yogu's help, she might actually be able to extract some useful information about her shadow monster, while also helping Yogu to figure out how to deal with his own, similar situation. To think she may have actually found a lead on solving her problem, all the way out here on some backwater planet she'd never even heard of before she'd arrived. Was it fate? ...Surely not. If fate were such a thing, she'd still curse it until the day she died no matter how much good fortune it presented her with from here on. For if fate was real, it cursed her to be like this, to watch her friends die, to become a monster herself.

"Hm?" Flax was snapped out of her dark, self-pitying thoughts as Yogu proudly declared the two of them as the 'Kashvar demon squad.' She... Liked that, actually. It was strange to find a sense of kinship in someone like Yogu, who she was quite certain would have annoyed her to no end if she'd still been a normal, untarnished Konatsian. But having someone presented to her with such a similar predicament as her own who still found joy, still cheered and celebrated... It was nice. "They won't know what hit them," Flax tenderly replied.

"And, it's Flax," she added as he asked her name. "Flax Yd. Just call me Flax." Just after she had introduced herself properly, though, Yogu suddenly remembered that he was... Running for President? "What?" Flax asked, her smile vanishing as her brows furrowed. In an instant, he'd summoned some sort of dark cloud that seemed to glare at Flax, then whisked the boy away, far beyond where Flax could see, leaving her alone in the desert.

"...What a weirdo," Flax mumbled to herself with a sigh, though she wasn't exactly finding herself that annoyed. She had an ally, of sorts, in her fight against the Kashvar. It seemed as though it'd be a bit until he was ready to take the fight to Konats, and that was fine with Flax as well. She wasn't sure she was prepared to go back, just yet. Besides, she had other things to do, and strength to unlock. As much as she didn't like it, if they were really going to take down the Kashvar, she was going to have to learn to hone these shadows, and use them as a powerful weapon to be wielded at her own will...

Thread concluded!
Final word count: 4,375