Two Sugars (Zell/Sachiko/Arwen/Open)

Thankfully, despite her earlier irritation, Alkaev just seemed entertained by Zell’s awkward attempts to reassure her; especially with his handling of Arwen. The half-elf’s reply only seemed to further amuse her, idly putting her hands on hips with mock impatience. ”Oh, now now; do you think I’m dressed for action? I suppose I can’t really speak for you three, but I’d certainly put on a better show than this if I was going to play bodyguard. Ah, well… perhaps you’re just that professional~” teased the unicorn, apparently more happy to hassle her aides than complain about them. Or, maybe she was just being passive-aggressive…

Regardless, Zell’s warning about his smoking habit did elicit a frown from the lady – unsurprising, given her race, but she felt the need to comment all the same. Probably just for the fun of it at this rate, though. ”Tsk tsk, you shouldn’t smoke, young man. It’s bad for you and nature. Besides, I’ve heard it’s not considered very cool these days, either.” chided the centaur, sort of seeming a bit… dull despite her effort at humour. Err, or was it? Maybe she was just very out of touch… still, she seemed satisfied with just that warning.

Unfortunately, Sachiko’s blunt reaction to her charge’s playful bullying interrupted any peace the group might have been able to appreciate – smiling bashfully as the map was snatched from her hands, the little kitsune’s scolding seemed to mostly just embarrass the unicorn rather than upset or guilt her. But, once the storm had passed, Alkaev would give the fox an apologetic smile for her troubles… ”So sorry, puppy~” ‘apologised’ the lady to Sachiko’s back, but only for her eyes to then sparkle with newfound mischievous glee… that tail that swung like a pendulum had caught her attention now. Err, unless she was just checking out the kitsune, at least…

But, there was work to do! While Arwen led the way, the unicorn followed along – and admittedly, raised a few questions with her approach. Surely she must have made her way there in some noble and dignified fashion before, but now… well, her centaur body’s lack of dexterity was showing a bit blatantly, as the heavy unicorn just stamped a path through the forest rather than giving any sort of subtlety. She couldn’t be totally blamed for the trouble given the issues that came with her physique, but she quite clearly seemed to be enjoying her little path of destruction… and definitely a bit too much as it only halted so that she could give her unfortunate kitsune comrade’s tail a quick pet before returning to her ‘duty’.

In the meantime, though; Zell was hopefully disciplined enough to try and ignore the blouse-wearing bulldozer beside him, and instead focus on his new lead –and indeed, through his enchanted eyes an extra soul danced about above… well, ‘danced’ was probably not the right word. Awkwardly stumbling a decent ten or twenty metres away amongst the sparse canopy, whoever was there was invisible – and having a bit of a tough time getting around, even just judging from the bouncing pseudo-flame. Not quite the most threatening tail, but...