Welcome to Gaia! ::

Noah preceded his weapon into the room, looking uneasy and almost twitchy; in spite of his expression, he didn't look back at the shorter golem that loped lazily behind him, and the way he moved didn't suggest discomfort with being followed by a creature whose skin and flesh were missing in several places. Lazarus had dark skin where it was present, liquid black eyes, and pointed ears poking out of a mop of messy black hair. He wore tattered, dirty-looking clothing and a heavy chain around his neck, and his gaze darted around the room periodically.

"Hi," Noah said, stopping beside the table and looking decidedly fidgety. "Um. Solia? I'm Noah, this is Laz. Lazarus. My weapon. Um, yeah." He startled suddenly as the weapon prowled up and into his peripheral vision from behind him and out of sight. "Jesus, Laz," he hissed.

"Noah says you want to talk to me," the weapon said, his gaze zeroing in on the girl and fixating unerringly. His voice was low, even, almost monotone, and oddly wet-sounding. "Hello." He smiled; at first the smile remained fairly friendly-looking and ordinary ... and then his face began to split open down the middle, a crack that widened slowly.

"Laz!" Noah prodded his weapon's shoulder. "Don't smile."

"Oh. Yes. Right." Laz closed his face again and looked expectantly at Solia.

"Nice to meet you," Noah nodded. "Coffee? Thanks." He poured himself a cup and added plenty of cream and sugar. Lazarus slid up beside Noah, announced, "I'm hungry," and reached for a muffin.

"Laz, the tech said no human food," Noah reminded.

"I'm hungry," Laz whined, and gave Noah a sad, wide-eyed look. His tail drooped.

"The tech said no human food. I don't want to get fined," Noah repeated sternly.

Laz burbled grumpily and took a seat as his human finished getting coffee. He flopped forward, halfway lying on the table and eyeing Solia with his cheek against the table's surface. "My name is Lazarus. I'm an undead zombie dog. I don't have many memories. The first thing I remember," and he paused, his gaze going distant as he thought about the question, "is waking up. Like halfway waking up when you've been sleeping but still dreaming, but you know you're awake. I couldn't see or hear or smell, but Noah was there. I could feel him. He'd been killing and then someone killed him, and he was alone and afraid."

Noah pulled out the chair next to Laz's and sat down, hunching nervously and watching Laz as the weapon spoke, but he didn't interrupt.

"There was nobody there to protect him," Laz said, his voice dropping and going wetter, more gravely, almost a growl. "I didn't like that. I went to him and he touched my ears and felt better, and I decided I would protect him. Just me. After that I went back to sleep to wait for him to come and get my leash so I could." His face cracked slightly open, and he licked the crooked yellow fangs visible through the opening before closing it again. "That's the first thing I remember."

"My core has a form," Laz said, sounding almost insulted, and sat up, only to drape himself bonelessly across the back of the chair, slouching and letting his arms hand down behind the chair back. "This isn't my core's form. It's not my blade form either, but it's me. I'm in it now. When I went to meet Noah my core's form met his core's form." He clicked his teeth together and gave Solia a long and assessing look. "What's your core's form? Noah's is like his body. Is yours?"

Noah fidgeted, looking increasingly embarrassed. He sat tensely, holding his coffee cup in his left hand and not drinking much out of it. It seemed more like a prop or something to keep his hands busy than like a drink he really wanted. "When - when I first sensed Laz," he offered, "I felt like he was the size and shape of a big dog. I thought, I thought I was dreaming, actually. Before I woke up out of the pod. But yeah. It was like he came up next to me and I touched his head. I didn't know what he looked like, but I still knew he was like a dog and I could tell he was going to guard me."

"Noah is my handler," the weapon corrected. "Not my master or owner or friend. Sometimes I want things and I shouldn't have them. Noah is for telling me no. Or telling me yes. I am for guarding Noah and Noah is for knowing how to be guarded."

Noah's eyes slid sideways towards Laz, and a small frown furrowed his forehead. "I don't," he said. "I don't know if I'd define it as anything else. He's ... my weapon? My guard dog. I control him. Mostly. Um, no, not mostly, never mind that. He said leash, it really does feel like that, like if he wants something it feels like he's pulling on me and sometimes he pulls pretty hard, but I've got it. Usually he's just there though. Watching things, watching me."

He bit the rim of the cup absentmindedly, leaving a half-circle of neat toothmarks in the styrofoam before drinking a mouthful of coffee while he tried to organize his thoughts. "It's like, have you ever walked a dog? Like, a trained dog, where you could say heel and have it get in the right spot next to you and just stay there while you walked. It feels like that, like Laz is there just behind me and left, like right outside my peripheral vision."

He slanted another look at the lazily sprawled golem. "It kind of creeped me out at first," he said, and grimaced when Laz gave him a toothy smile (but remembered to keep his face closed this time). "But once I started getting used to it it felt nice, knowing he was there to keep me safe." He squirmed again in his chair, bit another half-moon of toothmarks in the cup. "That kind of sounds childish," he stated, disgruntled. "I don't know. He's always there, but I don't think about him a lot. Uh. Sorry, Laz."

"That is okay." The weapon sat up to scoot his chair closer to his hunter so that he could flop over sideways to lean his head on Noah's shoulder. Noah flinched, slightly but visibly, and Laz's ears twitched and backed a little; the zombie dog's eyes rolled up so that he could look at his human's face without turning his head, and Noah breathed a deep, windy sigh, then said, "Laz. Your breath is stinky."

"My breath is not stinky. I haven't eaten anything and I'm hungry." The still, waiting tension went out of the weapon's shoulders and back.

Noah sighed, clearly exasperated now. "We'll find someone to fight when you're back to being a knife then."

"I'm not a knife," Laz replied, the near-insulted tone back in his voice. "I'm a cleaver. Fiona is a knife."

"Noah thought he wanted an electric thing." Laz rumbled a little in the back of his throat. "But I am his weapon and we are a good set."

"I saw Konstantin's totem when I woke up," Noah explained, embarrassed. "It's like a tamagotchi. I thought that was cool. But it's not like I want anything different, or someone else's weapon, Laz is good." The statement seemed to be half directed at Laz, perhaps a reassurance.

Laz cuddled closer to Noah when Solia mentioned body language; Noah tensed a little, but then relaxed again, flicking a fleeting look at the golem, then patting the weapon's back almost gingerly. Laz's tail wagged once in response.

The question made both of them pause. Noah seemed to be thinking it over carefully, his gaze drifting up and to the right; Laz, on the other hand, turned to watch his hunter's face, quiet and intent. When Noah's eyes refocused, he looked at Laz first, then back to Solia. "I'd hope he'd survive to find a new hunter and go on," he said.

Lazarus sat up stiffly, his ears rotating back. "No," he said. "I am guarding you. I will go with you and guard you after too."

Noah startled slightly and turned toward Laz, his brows furrowing anxiously. "But humans die, we don't come back. You don't have to die."

"Who will guard you where you go?" Laz angled himself toward Noah, watching his human without blinking.

"I don't even know if I'll be going anywhere, it might just be like stopping," Noah argued.

"If you go somewhere you will need me to guard you," Laz answered firmly.

The pair stared at each other for several long, tense seconds. Noah looked away first, his posture softening and drooping. "We can talk about it later," he said.

Laz scooted his chair back over as close as he could to Noah's and flopped over sideways, this time actually placing himself across Noah's lap and pulling his arms against his chest, somewhere between sulking and seeking comfort. He didn't answer.

"I don't think so," Noah answered the next question, relieved to have something else to talk about. Without paying attention, he put a hand on Laz's head and gently ruffled the weapon's hair as he spoke. "I mean, he's super-creepy, but since our minds are touching I know he won't hurt me and he'll protect me, and he thinks about how I'm his." He half-shrugged. "I heard that some people argue with their weapons? We don't talk much but we don't really argue."

"We don't talk a lot. I guess it didn't come up." Noah looked down at Laz; Laz closed his eyes and pretended to be sleeping. Noah sighed. The compliment made him brighten up, though. "You really think so?"

He shrugged sheepishly at the question. "I like dogs, but I like all kinds of animals. I don't know. They're loyal?"

Eyes still closed, Laz said, "I like humans. I like Noah. I have someone to guard now. That's good."

Noah frowned, his gaze slipping off to the left as he thought about it. For some reason, the memory that kept reoccurring was one he'd seen again in Wonderland, the uncomfortable recollection of the dead snake, the smell of rotting meat, the new understanding of death that had slithered into his consciousness with the discovery. "I, um, I don't know how it has anything to do with Laz," he said slowly. "But a few years ago, I found a dead snake behind the shed. It was summer. It was rotting in the sun, and I just remember ... the smell, the way it was, was falling apart." He swallowed, his mouth twisting in disgust. "I don't. I really don't know what that has to do with anything but that's what I just thought of," he added, defensive.

Laz sat up after a moment and gave Solia a long, unblinking stare, almost reptilian in its intensity. His face cracked open and closed again, and he licked his lips thoughtfully. "I wanted to hunt and I could not hunt," he said, "not without a handler, and then Noah was for me, and now I can eat and eat and eat. I'm always hungry." The intense stare shifted to Noah, changed abruptly into a begging face. "But now Noah can feed me."

Noah squirmed a little, looking unnerved again, and didn't respond to the statement. Laz tilted his head, his ears moving as though he was listening to something nobody else could hear. Then he whuffed a breath of air and flopped back over Noah's lap.

"I hope we helped some," Noah said, and shook Solia's hand; he didn't get up yet, as Laz remained flopped over his lap, eyeing Solia thoughtfully. "Hey, move," Noah said after a moment, and gave Laz's shoulder a light shove.

Laz rolled an eye up at Noah, thought about it, and then popped up to his feet. "How long is left?" he asked. "I want to run around. Can I chase you?"

Noah got up more slowly. "We'll check, you can run, no you can't chase me," he answered the questions in sequence.