All Around Me Are Familiar Faces (SSoDI-N)

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Starting to question how strong my tolerance for bulls*** is," Kelsey groaned lowly as she rolled her eyes at the ceiling. She didn't bother trying to compare her own power with that of the angels. This guy wasn't worth the debate. "Least I know what to look out for."

She leaned deeper into the couch cushions and took a deep breath. She looked comfortable. At ease. Unfazed by Vakaris's threats. "So what about you? No psychic powers, hardly any muscle, went down with the ship like a b***h... How useful is your canary a**?"

"You know anything about that inventor angel?" Paul asked, his curiosity piqued ever since Kelsey brought the guy up. "Short, yellow, loud, no one seemed to like him very much, had kind of an ordinary-sounding name? What was it... Mike?"

The fly was trying to go out the window. The constant buzz-tap-buzz-tap on the glass was quickly getting on Paul's nerves.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Wh-Who's Lord Aello...?" Jamie mumbled, almost regretting speaking up the moment he asked the question. "Is he like... the leader of your people? H-How does your hierarchy even work? I'm... guessing the higher-ups are made of tougher stuff than you? No offense."

Maybe try not to insult the guy you'll be sharing a soulscape with, James...'

[DanteMGalileo]

"I'm going to choose to ignore your comment for now, even if it's rude to mock the guy who's giving you an inside look at Paradiso," Playing with a piece of hair as if to avoid snapping at Kelsey, Vakaris turned to face Jamie, for once seeming genuinely happy. "Lord Aello, or Lord Sidhe to you non-Anemo, is one of the leaders of our race. He's a master of wind magic in all its forms, and much, much smarter than all of us combined. All Anemo report to Lord Aello- the Ofan of the angels!"

He glared briefly at the fly, before choosing to ignore it. "That little yappy thing? He's part of Lady Gnowee's court. Lord Aello and Lady Gnowee don't see eye-to-eye, and to be frank, I don't feel the need to associate with that court outside of my former teammates. Ask the commander, he let the flying exploder on board..." Vakaris placed his face in his hands, and let out a scream. "... Okay, I'm calm now. He just annoys me."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Anemo?" Kelsey tilted her head, trying to put together the pieces that Vakaris was giving her. "So... what? You divide yourselves into courts based on... what element you control? You said this Aello guy has wind magic. You the same?"

Tired of cringing every time the fly smacked the glass, Paul marched over and opened the window slightly, swatting the pest outside and promptly securing the pane again. If it was so content to drown in the storm, then so be it. With that annoyance out of the way, Paul sat back down and continued, "Is he really that bad? Yeah, the device he was trying to use on Kelsey kinda blew up in his hands..."

"Contextually speaking, I think it was supposed to be a healing machine? Emphasis on 'supposed.'"

"...but compared to some of the other soldiers on that ship, he seemed... mostly harmless. His enthusiasm to help your commander was actually kind of endearing if you ask me."

Kelsey shrugged, finding herself disinterested with the topic at hand. "Personally, I'm more concerned about how many higher-ups are gonna wanna come at me after I give the commander a piece of my fist."

Just the fist? Not going up to the elbow?

"Yeah, okay, I had that one coming," Kelsey grunted, tightly closing her eyes long enough to brush off Tri's remark. Then she looked up at the angel again. "How many folks you got in charge?"

Unseen by the people in the hotel room, the fly clung to the side of the building, desperately trying to shield itself from the torrential downpour. Eventually it launched itself off the wall, instantly shifting from a tiny insect to a still relatively tiny, yellow-feathered elf owl, fluttering away in a panicked frenzy.

Too close, too close, too close...!

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Oh... That's... kinda cool..." Jamie nervously mused, wringing his hands, smiling bashfully as he soaked in Vakaris's description of his leader. "W-What's an Ofan?"

[DanteMGalileo]

‘‘Tis a good thing that us Plasmises don’t have to think too much about it,” Vakaris thought. ”Our superior government is run by the Serapis, leader of the council- Caladrius II Ukko Serapis- may Faravahar bless his name and glorious reign. The council is made up of the six strongest angels, one of each element, Kovaltios all!”

Noting the confusion (to him), Vakaris continued. “The Kovaltio are bluebloods. Literally. They’re also perfect beings of power and wisdom. Especially Lord Aello, he’s the Ofan- heir to the throne- for a reason! Next, the Prasinoes, greenbloods and nobles. Maybe they’re a bit squishy, but they have great magical prowess and tend to hatch with psychic powers the most. Which they use to keep their subordinates in line. And then there are us humble Plasmises, yellowblooded middle class. We exist. We’re not special. And finally, we have the Ferroes. Redblooded low-class scum. They’re strong physically, but they’re all morons and only good for the labour nobody else will do.”

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh..." Kelsey sunk into the cushions, tilted her head back, and let her tongue loll out of her mouth in disgust. There was a name she recognized. Rarely did she find an excuse to call someone "punchable," especially someone she'd never actually met, but this Caladrius was already making a solid case for himself.

With her gaze pointed upward, Kelsey noticed Tri. His astral projecting was sitting Indian-style on the ceiling, smirking and nodding down at her. She knew why. There was a question that had been lingering in the back of her mind ever since her new familiar has disclosed all the powers at his disposal, and now that she had been provided with a solid answer, she wasn't sure whether to be relieved, excited, or even unsettled by this revelation. Either way, Tri was gone again in the blink of an eye, leaving Kelsey to mull over just what exactly she had received.

Deciding to leave that on a back burner for now, Kelsey sat up straight again and turned back to Vakaris. "Alright. So blues are the ones to watch out for. Not gonna go so far as to call 'em perfect."

Guess we'll just have to see about that.

"Can't say I'm surprised to hear you have a low opinion of red blood." She dropped her chin into her hand and drummed her other fingers on her lap. "Alright. So I have a pretty clear picture of how your society runs and what you're capable of. Now here's the real kicker: What was you guys' original plan before I stepped into the picture?"

Paul was silent, simply contemplating what he had learned about the angels' caste system. Given this newfound information, he had to wonder if Vakaris's mindset was the norm among his kind. Reds being viewed as slaves, blues as gods among people, yellows as commoners destined to never amount to anything special... Given that little inventor's attitude and the way the others looked at him for it, Paul got the feeling that deviations from this mentality weren't especially prevalent.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"I see..." Jamie scratched behind his ear and slowly nodded. That about covered everything he wanted to know about Vakaris and his people. Honestly, he couldn't think of much else to say. Aside from a mumbled, barely audible "That's... cool."

More than anything else, he was starting to wonder how easy it was going to be, getting along with this angel when it was just the two of them in Kelsey's soulscape again. For that matter, how long would they be alone together? Did Kelsey intend to absorb more souls anytime soon? When she did, would they be more angels? Being the only human soul in a crowd of angels was already an intimidating prospect, but if the majority of them were like Vakaris, Jamie was seriously worried about how they would react to him.

[DanteMGalileo]

"Psh. I'm just another soldier. I don't get too much details about the plans, aside from get your rump cushion in gear and get to the battlefield," Vakaris replied in an annoyed tone. "If you want details so bad, I dunno, kill a Prasino and interrogate him- and probably a him, we're mostly men!" He yanked at his hair in frustration. "All I know is that they needed the Phoenix Platoon- one of the best units in the entire Paradiso army- to establish a foothold for future operations in the region! I'm just another Plasmis soldier, there's thousands of guys just like me, who don't know shit like me."

Exhaling to calm himself, Vakaris raised a palm. "Okay, okay. I'm calm again. Here's the thing. Most angels actually don't want to fight for the sake of fighting, or even for the glory of the Paradiso empire. We're doing it for our families, our countryangels, our lives."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Really?" Kelsey turned so she was fully, directly facing the angel familiar sitting next to her, her fists gripped, her scowl prominent. "You invade other worlds, conquer and oppress civilizations, attack, threaten and subjugate whatever isn't an angel, just so you winged bastards can prosper? Is life really so s*** back home that you can't improve your own lives without taking others'?"

Uh, Kelsey...?

"You don't seem to have a very high opinion of the lower castes of your own kind. You ever take a moment to think that maybe if you stopped treating each other like pieces of meat and TRIED to help each other instead of just blindly following fascist orders, you could've found a way to help yourselves that doesn't involve putting your own men at even greater risk?"

Kelseyyyyy...

"Because let me tell you something, buddy." Kelsey inched closer to Vakaris, her eyes slowly changing from dark cerulean to glowing cyan. "If you didn't wanna fight... you shouldn't have brought the fight to me."

Kels, the blanket.

"......" Kelsey leaned away from the angel and looked down at herself with a vacant expression. Her subtle movements had shifted the blanket around her waist, exposing her Rainbow Dash underwear for all the males in the room to see. She didn't dare look up at Paul out of sheer humiliation, but she could see in her peripheral that he was averting his gaze and awkwardly twiddling his thumbs. Perhaps for more reasons than accidental objectification.

After hastily covering herself back up, she turned back to Vakaris with a cold glare, as if nothing had happened. "At least I have a better understanding of what I need to do now. After all, what better way to take down an empire than with a good, old-fashioned rebellion?"

With merely a thought, the ghostly angel's form started to dissolve, his astral energy steadily retreating back into Kelsey's body. "We're done here. I'll repay you for your generosity soon enough."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Jamie was stunned silent. All he could do was watch Kelsey chew Vakaris out, wonder what exactly she was getting herself into, and question whether or not they were getting the full story from this angel. That and pretend like he didn't just see his master's underwear. He felt like she had a point about this angelic society, even if she was being a bit harsh about it, but part of him at least wanted to try to figure out what the angels' actual motivation was. Try as he might, though, he couldn't find it in him to sympathize with them. Not if their warmongering was putting Kelsey and her friends at risk.

He had to side with Kelsey. Slowly, unnervingly, Jamie was starting to realize that he mentally, indisputably had to side with Kelsey.

[DanteMGalileo]

"Pah. You're all scum. Go collect around a drain."

As Vakaris's form dissolved and retreated back into Kelsey, he merely glared at the disgusting trio before him. Was this what he had gotten himself into? An eternity of slavery to this judgmental demon girl? He left his wife and daughters for this?!

Must be nice to have a planet with resources. Do try to preserve what empathy you have.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Soon enough, the angel was gone, returned to Kelsey's soulscape. Where he once sat, Kelsey flopped onto her side and rested her head on a pillow, groaning out a protracted swear under her breath, her arm keeping her blanket secured around her waist. The things she put up with for he people she cared about...

"Well, he was a bucket of sunshine, wasn't he?" Paul mumbled, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees as he anxiously studied Kelsey. "I guess that got us somewhere, huh? We know a little more about these angels and how their society works. Not much in the ways of strategies or plans, but... it's a start."

It was clear from Paul's tone that he still wasn't entirely certain what to do with any of this information, releasing all of that uneasiness with a deep sigh. "I don't know, Kels. Realistically, situations like this tend to amount to more than just a bent for universal domination. Obviously this fight was never going to be simple, but what if it turns out even more complicated than we anticipated? The way this guy was talking, once things really hit the fan, it sounds like folks on both sides are gonna die for nothing."

"That's how war works, Paul," Kelsey sadly insisted, propping herself up on one arm. "Everyone assumes they're right. More and more people get dragged out to fight over who's more right. And regardless of whoever is right or whoever ends up on top, people die and everyone loses something. So what am I supposed to do? Just go home and let someone else try to stop these guys from enslaving the island for their own gain? Hell no. I'm not selfish enough to send someone else out to die for me."

She dropped her arm and plopped down on the couch again, staring worriedly at the wall. "I get what you're saying, though. I am the one who escalated these matters to the point they're at now. From here on out, I'm inevitably gonna hurt people, and I'm willing to accept that. What worries me is that you guys are gonna get hurt in the process."

Paul took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm in enough danger as it is. Everyone is. It's not gonna come as much of a surprise if the angels come after me, Percy, Ranuen, or any of us to get to you. But I don't blame you for that, and if these guys really are your friends, they won't either. We can fight for ourselves. We're not leaving this entire mess in your hands."

He mustered a limp smile. "Besides, you're doing this to protect us. To protect the island. No one can fault you for that. Yeah, I wish things didn't have to be this intense, but if you're willing to put a stop to it one way or another, I'm with you."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"I'm with you too," Jamie meekly offered, reaching over to give Kelsey a light nudge on the leg. "I might be genuinely terrified to fight, and I might not know a whole lot about this place or this conflict you're involved in, but... we promised to help each other. So just say the word and... I'll see what I can do."

He looked up at Paul with a little smile. "Best case scenario... maybe we can get through this without anybody getting hurt. Your friends or the angels. I mean, neither of you guys really seem to want to fight either from what I can tell. If no one wants this, maybe we can stop it from happening. Somehow. I dunno. A-Am I being naive, wishing for that?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Um... Idealistic, maybe?" Paul chuckled, scratching his head and shrugging at the ghost boy. "I doubt it'll be that easy, but I'd be more than willing to try a bloodless route if at all possible. If not... well... I'll stand by that too."

He offered Kelsey a slow, curt nod. "If you're this dedicated to protecting Will, Percy, Ranuen and the gang... you can trust me to watch your back in turn."

Silent, somber, emotionally exhausted, Kelsey lifted her arm and stared at her hand. Protection was not her mission. She was the team's destroyer, not the guardian.

Honestly... if there was anyone her friends needed protection from...

---------------------------

"So yeah... we kinda know what to look out for. It's just a matter of planning around the gaps in our knowledge."

"Makes sense," Scott sighed, idly stirring his fork through the pasta that Paul had dished for him. He was glad to hear that Paul and Kelsey were trying to think ahead, even if they still had so little to work with. "Any idea if she's plotting another frontal assault?"

"Kelsey?" Paul set aside the dish he had been cleaning and awkwardly drummed his claws on the countertop. Kelsey had long since returned to her own hotel room for the night, which Paul was honestly kind of grateful for. On top of allowing him some one-on-one time with his estranged brother, but he wasn't sure how comfortable he was discussing these things around Kelsey. "If she is, she hasn't said anything about it. I'm just trusting that she won't act that irrationally again if confronted by an even larger army. And if she does... well, she made me promise to keep her in line if that happens."

Scott shrugged and swallowed a mouthful of food. "Well, at least she has some level of self-awareness... So what does she intend to do about these angels?"

Paul's shoulders sunk with dread. "I have a theory. She said something about... staging a rebellion. I'm wondering if-"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The brothers' eyes flicked towards the door, caught off guard and slightly confused by what seemed to be an unexpected visitor. With an arched eyebrow, Paul walked over and checked the peephole, opening the door shortly thereafter.

"Hey, man!" Kenny waved to the dragon man standing above him. "Sorry, I forgot my key."

"Oh... no... problem, dude..." Paul hesitantly mumbled, stepping aside to usher his roommate in. "Where've you been?"

"Oh, you know," Kenny hummed as he hung up his parka and started checking out the dinner that Paul had made. "Walked around the city, tried checking out that big shipwreck and figuring out what that was all about. Haven't quite figured out if there's any relation to the temporal anomaly there."

"Well, we could've caught you up on the shipwreck." Paul uncomfortably rubbed his neck, then perked up when he realized the two people gathered at his table hadn't been formally introduced. "Oh, sorry. Kenny, this is Scott. Y'know, my brother. Scott, Kenny, my roommate. Been looking after him ever since he was dropped off on the island without his friends or family."

Scott nonchalantly waved to the messy-haired ten-year-old. "Hi."

"Nice to meet ya!" Kenny chimed in return.

Huh... Considering the stories Paul had told Kenny about his brother, that first meeting went better than expected. Opting not to dwell on that for the sake of avoiding that can of worms, Paul steered the conversation back to the object of his roommate's prolonged absence. "So what did you mean by 'temporal anomaly'?"

"...Heh?"

"Was there some sort of disruption in the timeline that the Angel of Time needed your help investigating?"

"Oh, that, right..." After scooping himself a bowl of pasta, Kenny sat down and continued, "Well, there seems to be some sort of rogue element to the timeline being kept at the museum –y'know, something that shouldn't be here and maybe resulted in a paradox– but we haven't quite yet figured out why it's here or what it's for."

"I see..." He wasn't sure he understood, but Paul was at least somewhat willing to roll with this.

"Angel of Time?" Scott questioned. "You are aware of the angel invasion that took place in the Plaza, right? I don't think you wanna be associating with those guys, kid."

"Well, if it really was the same angel who helped me and my friends get on the ship, I don't think he's with them," Paul offered as he went back to cleaning his dishes. "He didn't look like the other angels. He was a bit more human and had white wings. Something akin to a Christian depiction of angels."

Kenny beamed and nodded as Paul explained this. "So what happened at the Plaza anyhow? Are you guys planning on doing something about those angels?"

"We are, yeah, but we're not exactly sure what yet. I was just telling Scott, I'm worried about what Kelsey intends to do to them. She's been almost inconsolably angry ever since the invasion began, but to her credit, she's making an effort to think this through clearly." Paul stared anxiously at the glassware he was drying. "If I had to guess... I think she intends to absorb the souls of as many angels as she can. She can boost her power that way... and she could potentially create an army of ghosts with them to fight the angel empire. Fight-fire-with-fire scenario, y'know?"

"Oh..." Hearing this seemed to unnerve Kenny somewhat. "That's... intense."

"You're telling me. I wanna keep her safe and all, but Lord knows how I'm gonna do that if she digs herself into too deep a ditch with these angels. Even with these new powers of mine."

Kenny looked up, his awkward grimace turning into a blank, innocent look of curiosity. "New powers?"

Paul slumped a little. "Yeah, turns out my dragon heritage has now manifested in the form of lightning breath."

"OHHHHH DUUUUUDE, THAT'S SO COOL!"

"I guess so." Well, Kenny's adorable enthusiasm was at least somewhat uplifting, even if it wasn't quite enough to get Paul to smile. "Well, if I can get a handle on it, it should come in handy. I'm to understand electricity is severely debilitating to angels."

"Heh... Yeah, that'll do the trick." After smiling and nodding to Paul, then taking a bite of his pasta, Kenny turned to Scott with an eager grin. "So, Scott! What brings you here? Here to help your brother fight the Paradiso army?"

Scott cast a cold glare at the table. "By accident, I guess. I wound up here after falling down a hole in a cemetery while chasing this demon cat."

Paul sharply turned around from the shelf he had been placing dishes in, taken aback by this bit of information. He vaguely remembered Scott mentioning he had arrived on the island through the cemetery, but not only did the tidbit about the demon cat strike him as a curiosity... but didn't Kelsey, Ranuen and Percy find the Protostar Beast there?

Before he could question any of that, though, Kenny cut him off by saying, "Not much of a resemblance, huh? Growing up with Paul musta been interesting!"

Cue the awkward looks and uncomfortable mumbles from the brothers.

---------------------------

Night fell upon the island. The overcast sky was pitch black, devoid of light save for the dull glow of the city below. Much of Void City had gone to sleep, the chaos of that morning feeling like little more than a distant memory in a perpetual sideshow of commotion and confrontations.

Scott had managed to fall back asleep only a few short hours after supper, opting to take the pullout bed so his brother could sleep in his own room. Meanwhile, Paul was still wide awake, sitting on his bed with his laptop open. During their dinnertime discussions, Kenny had raised a lot of questions that Paul didn't have the answers for. Sure, he could easily recap the day's events to his roommate and even shed some light on the nature of his transformation for his brother, but there was still so much about what he was and why he felt the way he did that he simply didn't understand.

He'd put it off for too long. He could remain complacent any longer. If he was going to make himself useful in this war, he had to learn more about himself.

So far, Paul had spent much of his Google search reading information on dragons of Dungeons & Dragons lore. In many ways, he fit the description of blue D&D dragons, and in many other ways, he didn't. He had the coloration, brains and lightning breath for it, and he was even instinctively fluent in the draconic language portrayed in the game, but a lot of his physical traits were off the mark, particularly his two stubby, still-developing horns as opposed to a single rhinoceros-style horn.

And then there was the matter of dragon psychology... He absolutely refused to believe he was inherently evil like how chromatic dragons were generally portrayed, and he didn't fret on that piece of information any further than that. But the aspect of arrogance and superiority? At first, Paul felt comfortable brushing that stereotype aside as well. He didn't think any more highly of himself than he did of Kelsey, Scott, Percy or any of his friends. He wasn't any greater or more worthy of power and affluence than anyone else on the team.

But... did he honestly believe that? If he didn't have that high an opinion of himself, then why wasn't he more keen to question why he was like this? He liked to think that he was just comfortable with his draconic attributes, but the more he thought about it, the more he wondered if that feeling went deeper than simple acceptance. Growing up, while he endured the metamorphosis brought about by his dragon soul, even as the people around him saw him as a freak and a monster, Paul was never bothered by any of it. This was who he was, and he not only accepted it, but he embraced it. So much so that if he was given the chance to be fully human again, he had to concede that he would not take it. Sure, each new development startled him at first, but he always ended up appreciating them. He was already starting to view the perks of lightning breath with genuine enthusiasm.

All of these were fascinating to ponder, sure, but as Paul stared at his laptop screen in contemplative silence, something else started to occur to him. He could spend entire nights researching the potential abilities afforded to him. He could psychoanalyze both his human and dragon emotions all he wanted. He could justify the sudden bout of territoriality and defensiveness he was feeling as pure instinct. But nothing on the internet could explain why he was like this. No studies on dragon biology or psychology could tell him who his soul belonged to in its past life, why it was passed onto him, and why it had brought him here.

With a deep sigh, Paul set the laptop aside and slumped deeper into his bed, running a hand through his hair and staring forlornly at the ceiling. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuggggghhhhh... Svaust mi si?"

He wasn't the only one gathering information on dragons, though. In the bedroom adjacent to Paul's, Kenny was scribbling in a notebook, jotting down everything he had learned during his chat with the Sellers brothers. He dedicated a page or two to Kelsey, detailing what she had done so far and what the group theorized she was going to do in the near future. Another page went to the Angel of Time and what little he actually knew about this mysterious, non-Paradiso being. The rest of his writing covered what he'd been told about Paul. Growing up with Scott, his childhood transformation, his arrival on the island, the reincarnation theory, his lightning breath that only seemed to have developed that day... He recapped all of it in intricate detail, utterly fascinated by the stories and the questions they created.

Once he had recorded everything, Kenny put the notebook away and gazed out the window. Today had been so stimulating. Hectic and perhaps a bit upsetting in places, but the things he had accomplished so far and the work he still had yet to do excited him to no end. Speaking of which...!

Kenny jumped off the bed and opened the window, taking a deep breath as he wistfully stared out into Void City. He was eager to catch up with Paul again and hear where his research had led him, but he opted to leave the dragon man to his business for now. In the meantime...

Slowly, lightly, Kenny tiptoed backwards until he was standing on the other side of the room. Then he charged forward and leaped out the window, spreading his arms, transforming mid-leap from a small human boy to a little yellow elf owl.

The bird silently fluttered over the city, backtracking to a location he had pinpointed for this exact moment. Now that the city was asleep, he felt more comfortable carrying out the other task assigned to him, and he was just as anxious to do it as he was to study Paul. Perhaps a little more so than usual. Maybe he was just high off the rush he got learning about the dragon man. Maybe it was that sense of recognition he felt having been given such important jobs. Maybe it was the change in scenery; he always had been a nighttime kind of guy, after all.

Soon enough, the inner district of Void City was behind him. Up ahead, just outside the business district, was a series of metallic towers and generators with wires extending from each one, tucked away inside four fences.

The owl swooped down onto into the power grid, touching down in front of one particular pole with a conspicuous metal box attached to the side. Once he was on the ground, he instantly shifted form his owl form to his natural angel form.

"Okay..." Mic hummed to himself as he pulled out a screwdriver, opened up the box, and studied the control panel inside. "Let's see what need be done here. Hmmmmm... Wasn't expecting this elaborate a setup."

He cautiously reached his finger in to flip a switch. "This one should be-"

KRRZAAAAAAAAAAAAP

"GGGKGKGKKKGKGKGGAAAAAGAGGAGGGAGAGAAGGAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

An explosion of white-hot sparks enveloped the panel, travelling down the wires and through every tower.

All at once, every light in Void City went out.

...........................

Mic stood in front of the pole, nearly every inch of his body charred black, swaying back and forth like his knees were threatening to give out, staring into space with an utterly dopey grin. "...Who ordered the extra crispy?"

He leaned forward... then he fell backwards, laying sprawled out on the ground, out like a light.