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The moment Zebulon and Diryas got back from the Bayou, Zebulon asked if they could go home to Maryland. He was tired of the Bayou and, frankly, he wanted a break from this whole "Chosen" thing. They could go back to being scientists for a while. Just normal researchers. None of this hocus pocus transformation magic god crap.

Not that toxicology research was the most normal field, but to him? It was exactly what he needed.

He and Diryas came back for a weekend at the Prytaneum after a week back at home, and one of the first places Zebulon went to was The Hearth. Besides for the Labs and the Athena Dorms, it was one of Zebulon's favourite locations of the Prytaneum. They had tables and tables of hot, delicious food, and Zebulon had to admit, he liked being able to eat delicious food without having to cook it or chase it down himself.

The table he had sat himself down at was relatively empty. He figured it was because it was lunch--people tended to eat lunch at varying times between the late morning and the early afternoon. Zebulon was fine eating lunch by himself, of course, but the sudden presence of someone else sitting themselves across from him didn't pass his notice, and he looked up from the food he was currently eating.

She looked familiar.

He squinted.

Oh! She was the one who pulled Diryas away. Right.

If she lifted her head towards him, he offered a casual wave.

Did she recognize him?

Not that Zebulon would be offended or anything if she didn't. Zebulon didn't necessarily consider himself to be extraordinarily memorable, and considering the rushed, panicked, beaten conditions they met in, he probably would have been less--

Ah, she did. Zebulon shot a bit of a grin when she asked how he was. Even more so when she asked about his friend.

Before responding though, he responded to her last question. "Zebulon. Nice to meet you officially," he offered something of a playful scout's salute as a substitute for a handshake, considering he had little interest in trying to reach over the middle of the table to shake her hand. Besides, there was food between them...

"I'm alright. Just about done with swamps and snow for the next eon, though." He took a moment to take a bite out of his food, before continuing, "Diryas is doing much better, thank you."

Zebulon admittedly knew his name wasn't overly common. There was a town in North Carolina he shared his name with, though. One of the North Carolinians at his university had joked about it...

Sylvia had visited Diryas? She must have come by when Diryas had managed to get him to go away. He'd have to ask him if anyone else had come by later. "I'm sure he was glad to see his saviour was alright," he offered, with a vague swat to the air. "Don't mind if he seemed a little standoffish. That's just his way."

If that didn't answer her question about him having known Diryas before coming here, perhaps the laugh afterwards did. It wasn't necessarily a mocking laugh, though his tone was teasing at best. "Nah, I just met him like a couple months ago and decided he was my best friend forever."

He let that sit for a moment before a smirk cracked and he more accurately replied, "We know each other very well, trust me. Known for years even."

It was admittedly strange that there were people that knew each other, overall. He could guess why he and his partner were chosen, but--

Sure, the degrees of separation from person to person were not usually ultimately that large, but to have several here with no degrees of separation? That was interesting. Were these gods looking for preexisting camaraderie to bring them closer at the onset?

Zebulon shrugged it off. He wasn't going to pretend that he understood what the Greek Pantheon was on. Athena told him he was here to learn, anyway. Maybe he'd learn their logic too. "Whatever is going on in their god heads, I think Athena chose Dise and I for the same reason. We're both the same profession and while we don't work in the same area of the lab, we do both work in the same lab. Maybe it's a benefit we know each other."

He was putting an odd amount of emphasis on the word know.

Zebulon swirled his spoon in his soup bowl. "I'm gonna assume you didn't know anyone else here, then?"

Zebulon did catch her eyes narrow for just a moment, and he couldn't help the small smirk that formed on his face once again.

He was definitely trying to hint at something or other.

"Well, I can say it's good to have Dise here, besides for the danger aspect." And beyond all his smirking, that actually seemed to be the honest truth. He probably owed some of the Chosen at least some of his deeper honesty, he supposed, considering the situations they had been universally been through. "Besides, the implications of not being able to talk to him about this are alarming."

Zebulon couldn't imagine trying to be a Chosen without Diryas around. He'd have no one to fall back on, really, and not only that, but he'd be hiding an absolutely massive secret from his own husband. That was the way relationships fell to pieces. He could sort of see why no one else here, so far as he had been able to gather, was married. Anyone who could handle that level of secrecy in a marriage may need to wonder about their relationship itself. It should never come easy to keep something major private from a long-term partner.

She did have a point that all of the preexisting relationships so far seemed to be friendly relationships. "Gods probably trying to avoid conflict within the ranks if they can." He couldn't see that lasting, though. Gods, from what he could tell, did whatever they wanted. If they wanted two conflicting people? So be it.

For a moment, Zebulon considered not answering her question, but he shoved his privacy bubble down with his next bite of food and replied, "Yup. Toxicologist." After only a moment, he returned, "And you? What d'you do?"

The more people in one place, the more likely there would be conflict.

In his opinion, conflict was inevitable. She was right, 'eventually' they were going to have to deal with conflict. It was only a matter of time. Honestly, Zebulon was a little surprised there weren't more heads butting already, though maybe it was their shared traumas of metal birds and personimal-filled bayous that were keeping them more friendly and less fighty with each other.

He took the chance to eat a bit more food while listening to what she was saying. Couples counselor? Maybe the gods did plan on bringing more married couples in. Or maybe they figured that fighting was inevitable in the couples that would inevitably form among the Chosen themselves, too. "Aphrodite, then?" It was an easy assumption for him to make. He wasn't sure who else would want a couples counselor. Maybe Hera? "Maybe she's thinking ahead for those eventual conflicts you mentioned."

He took another spoonful of food and winked.

"I mean, stick people together in one environment long enough and people are gonna eventually start hooking up, right? That's the human way, sexual attraction and all."

Getting called in for every conflict would get annoying. At least, it'd annoy Zebulon. Probably why he wasn't a counselor.

Well, that and several other reasons...

"It's probably already started, the hook-ups anyway," Zebulon laughed, dropping his spoon into his emptied bowl and kicking his seat back. "Hopefully not the conflicts though. We have to deal with enough s**t anyway without relationship crap."

At the mention of having him around to help, he nearly cackled. "Dise's a little better at the synthesizing cures aspect of the job," offered Zebulon, honestly, with a wink. They did, after all, work in different parts of the lab in different areas of research. "I can certainly tell you how dangerous a toxin in someone is, though." The glint in his eyes was a little odd to say the least, fascinated for a moment by the prospect of getting to analyse what a group of maliciously-minded Chosen could come up with, but he quickly squashed it as he pushed his chair back onto the floor.

Randomly, he added, "By the way, about the s**t to deal with, thanks for getting Diryas out of the way. Don't think I actually thanked you." He squinted. Did he? That whole fight was just a red angry blur.