Gabe wants some love too.

Magic cousin kiss!

Then Gabe will complete the cycle with Ari.

Magic blonde kiss. (Eee.)

"Too cute."

Katur approaches. "So, would you boys like to go home?"

"Well, I'd love to go searching with you, but I'm sure I'd just be a distraction. So I'll go distract them while they rekindle the stars, instead."

Grin. "It's a show alright. I am going to drop you two off and then take Gabe to search for Annabeth."

"Thank you, so much."

"Thanks!" Ari says earnestly. He hugs Katur impulsively.

Sure. Hugging the other blond guy who is obviously into him.

They figure out the vehicle arrangements.

Gabe takes a seat in the back.

(Henry seats next to Gabe.)

Katur snorts and turns on the AC and puts a CD in the radio. He waves the triplets goodbye (they need someone who can recognize Annabeth). "It's a short trip don't worry."

Ari will take shotgun, since fitting three enormous men into the backseat of even a pickup is not a task Ari wants to undertake right now. (Perhaps later, under less clothed conditions.)

"Vehicle buddies!" he says to Katur. "What do you even call this thing?"

Poor Katur clearly is squeezed very tight in his driver seat.

"Pickup truck? It's a kind of automobile. Which is the term for this kind of... horseless carriage."

"We have those, but generally they look more like carriages. They're fancy, though. You see them in Caldeum and places."

Ari seems delighted by AC and radio alike. He keeps waving his hand in front of the cold air vent.

"Carriage isn't really the term, but I didn't know how to explain it. Caldeum? Is there where you grew up?"

"Nah, I grew up in Khanduras. Caldeum is on the eastern continent, takes a couple of months to get there in a caravan. We've been a few times, me and Uncle Deckard. It's right in the middle of the desert, but it's got these beautiful fountains, and the bazaar is full of people selling perfume and jewelry and silks and a million other things. Beautiful place."

"How about Khanduras? Nice place to grow up?"

He nods. "Lots of forests. Good people. It's less impressive than Caldeum - except maybe the churches, Khanduras has really nice churches - but I think it's a nicer place all around. In Caldeum there's this massive gap between the rich and the poor that gets kind of depressing; in Khanduras, everybody's just getting by, and they like each other better."

"Good." Henry pets Ari's hair from the backseat. "How about the place you were taken from? New Tristam?"

"S'in Khanduras. Sleepy little town, founded a couple miles away from Old Tristram, where Diablo rose twenty years ago. Fucking stupid idea, honestly, but there was money to be made out of slaughtering the demons and undead in the old cathedral. They collect gold and magic items, you see, and so if you can kill a few and get back to civilization you can get pretty rich. So adventurers came to take advantage of the local portal to Hell, and a business sprang up around feeding and housing them, equipping them to take on the demons, all that. They're probably all going to get themselves killed one of these days, but Uncle Deckard grew up in Old Tristram and said he wanted to check the place out, so there we were. And it was good a place as any to cool our heels for a while between searching for forgotten Horadric lore."

"Wow. It's... I was told about demons, but failed to realize that something like that could come up. What's Horadic lore?"

Ari's eyes close. "The Horadrim were an ancient order of warrior-mages, charged by the archangel Tyrael with capturing the Prime Evils. My uncle is the last descendant of their order. In their conflicts with the Prime Evils, they made incredible discoveries in the field of magic, but those advances were never shared with the world; all too often, the Horadrim took their knowledge to the grave. Our mission is to find the writings of the Horadrim and make them known to all who can use them to make the world a better place."

"Wow, that's amazing." Katur exclains, he takes a moment to take a second look at Ari.