“W-what?" The words caught Shou by surprise, dashing her rising hopes against stone in an instant. “What do you mean I don't have a soul! I do certainly think I'd notice if mine was missing."

Kalokin shook his head, eliciting multiple small cries of surprise from his snake hair. “No, it isn't that your soul is missing. It's that its empty. On a spiritual level, it you look something like a sponge with all the water wrung out of it. I've seen it happen to mortals that don't get enough spiritual nourishment. Those whose lives revolve around work, distraction, and sleep."

“Well you're entirely off target in that regard!" She crossed her arms and glared. “I love performing on my stage, and I get all the spiritual nourishment I need from painting and the occasional nature hike. What do you know anyways!"

Khaesho walked up behind her and coughed, muttering into her ear. “Shouyousei, I'm going to guess you didn't recognize the name. This is Kalokin, patron of thieves and librarians, deity of the moon, and one of the four divines who protect In'Gha. It might behoove you to have a little more respect."

She paled slightly as she turned back to the bemused gorgon, who was currently eyeing her up like a snack. “Indeed. So, when you ask what I know, I must respond that I know quite a bit. You wil nnnnn-e-e-ev-" His words fell into pieces as his entire form spasmed, looking for all the world like a poorly programed, glitchy game. His manifestation rent itself into pieces, its skeleton tearing forwards onto the floor with a clatter.

Khaesho uttered a faint “oh dear" as the two halves of Kalokin's body resolved, reforming downwards. The skeleton shifted into something like a wolf, but one thoroughly stricken by mange, half-starved with its ribs showing. It turned and growled savagely at the skin, which had changed very little. It floated, hollow, but pulled itself together into a recognizable shape, clasping itself together at the ribcage.

Shouyousei had been on such a roller-coaster of emotions since she'd woken up that, rather than respond to this with the shock she should have, she instead felt only a thinning of patience. “And, oh powerful, all knowing thief. What exactly do you call this?"

The ghost sighed, but its voice was strangely emotionless as it spoke. “I am unlike my siblings in that I exist in two distinct halves. To make it simple, I'm what you call the 'thinking' half, incapable of emotion. That" he pointed down at the diseased wolf “Represents my emotions, devoid of any ability to use logic or understand language. On occasion, she disagrees with me so violently that she feels the need to make herself known."

The wolf's growls quieted, but she still glared up at the ghost, giving a brief bark. With an exasperated sigh, the ephemeral, floating entity continued. “For convince sake, you may continue to call me Kalokin, since I'm the half you converse with. She, being my inverse bears the name Nikolak."

The wolf smiled smugly, and the nastier patches faded from its hide. It still couldn't be called healthy, but at least it no longer looked diseased. Shou had a particular fondness for wolves, and so extended a hand towards the beast. It sniffed her, then nodded, pushing up into her hand to receive scritches. “Awwww, you're just a sweetheart, aren't you? Nothing like that nasty snake I'm sure." She glanced up, but her words had absolutely no effect on the spirit. Even in the short time knowing him, she'd concluded that Kalokin was rather prideful, but this… ghost was totally unfazed.

“If you've forgotten, I cannot feel the anger or indignity such a remark should cause, but I'd thank you to not butter Nikolak up quite so much. She tends to become irrationally attached to things, which I find distasteful."

The dog spared him just enough of a glance to bark at him, and then proceeded to prove that a lack of language didn't necessarily mean an inability to communicate. An image bubbled up in the wolf's mind, echoing outwards until Shou saw it just as well as Kalokin did; it was a ceremony, likely back in their home nation by the look of it. It looked like… a coronation? A strange type of coronation without a crown though. She opened her mouth to ask about it only for Kalokin to snap.

“Absolutely not. I will explain your idea to Shou, and then you will stop acting difficult, but you cannot keep her!" With a further exasperated sigh, he glared the wolf down until she- reluctantly- got up from where she'd curled around Shou and padded back to the ghost. He wrapped around her like a sheet, and there was a brief moment of chaos when the multicolored snakes sprouted from his skull, and then Kalokin was whole once again, fleshy coils haphazardly piled now.

Shou smirked and leaned up against the side of the mining tunnel. “Your emotions are sweet, Kalokin, you should let them out to play more often. And you're one to talk about spiritual malnourishment, she looked half starved! What was her idea, by the way?"

Kalokin twisted his head in a full rotation, bones cracking and reforming, scales shearing off cleanly before stretching to melt back together. “In due time, Shouyousei. The more important question you've forgotten to ask is this. If I'm one of the four most powerful entities on this world, praised and beloved by an entire nation, why am I tooling around with an outcast in an oversized rock?"

Shou paused and considered that very idea. The memory Nikolak had shown detailed a temple seemingly dedicated to the trickster… “Why… in that case, why are you here?"

Kalokin grabbed his tail in his hands, raised it, and yanked. It lost all form, fading into a wispy blue mist that now extended in a lazy trail straight into Khaesho's chest.

“Because I am bound to this troublemaker here." At this, Khaesho bowed with a smirk. “We divines… it is quite difficult for us to experience the physical world in any meaningful way. We cannot eat, and so did not understand hunger. We never lived, and so did not understand death. We…" he sighed and gave up all pretenses of making it sound grandiose and mystical. “We got bored. So, long ago, each divine chose a mortal to serve as their Vash, their mouthpiece, their vessel." He paused there and quickly added “That's a title, by the way, not just a noun. Vash Khaesho doesn't like to use it, but it is proper."

This earned an irritated glower from both humans, and he coughed politely before launching back into his monologue. “Right. So, each of we four deities took a mortal to be our Vash. It has always been a symbiotic relationship, of great gain; the mortal gains prestige, privilege, and access to our power, experience, and memories. We, on the other hand, gained the ability to experience the world directly through a physical form." He gestured downwards to himself. “It took another thousand years or so of firsthand experience to figure out how to make these meat puppets, and even then, they're not as accurate as the nerve endings you two have."

Shou nodded, following along as best she could. “Right… I suppose I can understand. If I was a ghost, I'd be curious about what food tastes like too." She paused, brow furrowed in concentration. “But what does that have to do with me, and whether I can use magic or not."

Kalokin opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a chorus of hisses from his serpentine halo. “Yes, yes, I'll be sure to tell her the truth this time! Demanding things, emotions." He re-focused on Shouyousei. “Nikolak proposes that since your soul is empty, we could fill it. Make you her Vash. I'd still be able to access Khaesho's emotional state, and she'd borrow from your intellect and language processing. It might even work, but that's beside the point." He sharply cut Shou off before she could speak. “Becoming a Vash is to surrender personal desires and to put the good of an entire nation before you. The Vash are more than just toys, they are our tools, our representatives. They work hard, every day, to do for others what they cannot do alone. They are famous, yes, and they are well paid for their efforts, but to become a Vash is to put the good of our proud desert nation before oneself, and it is -not- an honor that will be gifted to an outsider." He stopped here and pouted for a moment. “No matter how much I happen to like you. Emotions are vain creatures, and you've certainly won your way with mine."

Shouyousei wasn't quite ready to give up hope though, as she found at least one flaw in Kalokin's grandiose speech. “For the good of the people, hm? If Khaesho is your Vash, how exactly is him wasting away in a cave the best thing for the In'Gha?"

Even with her back turned, she all but heard Khaesho flinch behind her. Kalokin's eyes narrowed (all of them, including many snake eyes) and his voice was tight with displeasure. “It is not your place to ask, whelp. Khaesho has given more than most. He sacrificed everything for his people, in a way I don't expect you to understand, much less empathize with.

And then Khaesho stepped between them, all but physically pushing them apart. “Dear one, Shou meant no offense. Please, do not think poorly of her." He turned to look back to Shou, continuing. “My exile is a painful topic, for me, but especially for Nikolak, as she blames herself. She knows I hate this isolation, and long to be with my people again."

Shou bit her lip and resisted the urge to step forwards and hug him… he really looked like he needed a good hug. They both did. In lieu of that, though, she offered the next best thing. “Well, why don't you leave the cave then?"

Both glanced at her quizzically, Khaesho answering this one. “Because I have none of your currency, no passport, no license, and I would quite quickly be arrested. I thought that was obvious."

Shou only grinned recklessly as she grabbed her backpack. “Well then, you happen to be in luck, Vash Khaesho, and…." She turned to Kalokin, trying to remember if he had a title, but coming up short. “Kalokin, do you have some honorific title I could use?"

He shrugged. “We are properly called the Stráž. That will suffice in lieu of my lengthy and varied epithets."

She grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. “Well then, Vash Khaesho and Stráž Kalokin. It just so happens that I happen to have money enough to enjoy a day on the town, and nobody will shake you down for documentation if you're with me.

“This is a bad idea." Kalokin's anxious, yet excited tone rang from the silver earpiece curled around Shouyousei's right ear. He'd decorated himself to look like a dragon, a properly daring and gaudy look, and he was indistinguishable from jewelry so long as he kept his mouth shut. Which was a good thing, since talking jewelry would look awfully out of place at her favorite burger bar.

“Oh, keep quiet! When's the last time you two did anything fun?" Shou chided him playfully. He had an odd habit of vibrating; likely due to Nikolak being entirely for the adventure and Kalokin being entirely against. It had taken a solid fifteen minutes of coaxing to get the two back together after she'd suggested they follow her down the mountain, and it seemed even now Kalokin was having second thoughts. “You already committed to this. Look, there's the bus! If you try to flake out now, people will notice. You don't want that now, do you?"

It seemed that his desire to stay hidden was enough to convince him not to cause a scene, which was all he really needed to stay properly meshed with Nikolak. Feeling him calm down, she smiled “Besides, why'd you go to all the trouble of teaching Khaesho English if you planned on never letting him leave?"

The exile, for his part, looked mostly unremarkable in the T-shirt and jeans he still wore. Shou sincerely doubted his clothes had anything even approaching an honest providence, but they had been stolen long enough ago that it would have been pointless to raise a fuss, and either way it was good that he could blend in now. Granted, he still had a positively exotic face, and his accent might throw people for a loop, but if she bought him a hoodie and did most of the talking, he'd be practically invisible.

The bus pulled up and she swiped her bus pass twice, then all but pulled Khaesho up the stairs. When she took his hand, she could feel that he was wound tight as a spring, but he hadn't objected to the vacation in the least bit. It was far too late for cold feet now though.

Shou led him to the back of the bus to find what privacy they could. A feeling emanated from her ear that was starting to become familiar; that not-quite-physical pressure that she was beginning to associate with magic, specifically Kalokin's telepathy. Khaesho's eyes lost focus for a moment as he listened, then relayed the message.

“Ka-" he paused and coughed, then continued in a less conspicuous manner. “I… was wondering what you had planned for the day… darling…" He was blushing already; Shou had to wonder exactly how long he'd been alone in that cave, he certainly didn't have a clue how to handle a woman.

Of course, that had been her idea. Nobody would question a couple going on a date… plus, it was always fun to watch the shy ones squirm. Plus, in her experience, the shy ones were more likely to be closet deviants… really, the only way he'd be that good at tying people up was if he practiced, and he didn't seem the type to plan for a kidnapping.

They were far enough in the back that Kalokin apparently thought it safe enough to whisper, but he did so for her ears alone. “Don't think I didn't see that, Shouyousei. I know what you're planning, and while I don't object, I do certainly hope you know what you're getting into."

Shou smirked at that. She wasn't planning on things getting out of hand! She was just… planning a series of events that would create an incredibly conducive scenario for things to get out of hand. Some shopping at the mall, burgers and beers… and it could hardly be her fault if time got away from them! Why, if it was too dark for them to make it back home, Khaesho would just have to stay at her place for the night. And with them both drunk… and considering she'd stashed his rope in her backpack when he wasn't looking…

“Mhmm. The only person you're fooling is Khaesho, sweetheart."

Shou sighed dreamily and relaxed sideways, leaning in to cuddle Khaesho instinctively, before his polite cough drew her attention back to reality. “Shou? The plan?"

“Ah!" She didn't exactly jerk upright, but she did snap to attention. “Right. We're going to the mall to grab lunch and some new clothes for you, something stylish. Then there's an old arcade at the foot of the ski slopes, where I'm going to show you what we can do with the electricity you so seem to disdain, and then I'm going to share the best part of any culture with you."

She paused here, and let that hang long enough for Khaesho to guess at her meaning. “You mean… art and poetry?"

She slugged him playfully and laughed. “No! I mean food and alcohol. The closest proper museum is-" over in Angel Fire. The one her parents used to take her to all the time. She hadn't been since she was a child, pulling her mother between exhibits. She smiled fondly, but shook free of the reverie after a moment. “It's in the next city over, too far for an afternoon trip."

Khaesho nodded, relaxing by degrees as the other bus patrons failed to give him anything more than a second glance. He looked a bit rugged and dirty, but so did the other campers. He smiled and relaxed enough to let himself believe that today wouldn't end in disaster. He trusted Shou when she said she'd take care of him… and it wouldn't be hard at all to pretend that he had romantic intentions for her. She pressed herself against him and looked up pointedly, so that he'd put his arm around her with a smile. If the day continued like this, it would soon be harder to pretend that he didn't.