Nightfall's Nest: Basement

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Xellos the honest(ly frivolous)

Xellos has a reputation as a sneaky, manipulative bastard, and he deserves it, too. Aside from talent, he has the added advantages of silent teleportation and dark clothing. He showed us during the Halciform arc that he knows how to not be seen when he wants not to be. He's good at it.

Observe. This (forgive me, Fans Of Filia) is what is known as an Open Tail. Sometimes the follower wants to be seen and makes no effort to hide.

But, uh, not like this. You really have to see the episode (2 in Try) to get the full effect. He clicks his boots as he patters over the cobblestones. He swooshes. He zooms He ducks abruptly. He plays with their peripheral vision. He behaves, in fact, like the a dime-novel enemy spy.

He could have gotten Filia's nerves jangling just as effectively and with a lot less effort any number of ways, and some of them would have preserved his innocent front just as well. Leaning casually against a building with a newspaper or buying fruit while smacking her upside the head with his Astral signature, for example, are classics. They would have worked nicely, and they would have taken a lot less effort.

But they wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.

And then there was the time they all went to Sailoon to look for Zel's cure. Why did Xel tag along?

Sure, Xel. Yeah, we all buy that.

But he could have give plenty of much more believable excuses.

See? Much more effective. This is like hanging a big sign on himself that screams I HAVE A HIDDEN AGENDA, BE SUSPICIOUS OF ME!!

Which isn't unusual. He does things like this all the time. It's like a disclaimer. He never acts trustworthy, and so if and when he acts against the group's interests, no one can complain.

Much.

But why do things like the ice cream? There are other ways to act suspicious.

Well, see, the problem there is, Zel's already got most of them covered. He probably could get away with acting all cold, haughty and Beast Master; Lina's actually very bad at telling people to get the hell away from her after she's known them for longer than three minutes, and everyone follows Lina's lead. But it would be redundant and boring. And he wouldn't get to eat ice cream.

And speaking of which, does the way he eats it there drive anybody else crazy? Lick lick, kitty-beast. It makes me, for one, want to either take the cone away from it and take a handkerchief to the ice cream on his nose or, well, something. I'm guessing that piece of provocativeness was aimed. This is exactly the kind of thing that gets him a reputation as a fruit. But he gets away with that, too, despite the edge of homophobia among the Slayers men. More on this later.

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