"I happen to be a very good judge of character," Zidane defended with something of a pout, though in reality the truth of his statement had yet to be tested. The course of his life had hammered an eternal spring of optimism in the boy, and since his journeys with Dagger and company had begun a little over three, three and a half years ago that optimism had been tested a thousand times over. Each time, Zidane stubbornly endured and each time his determinedly hopeful outlook on life was that much stronger for it. By now, there was simply no stopping it. Zidane's optimism was a force of nature, and he wasn't holding back even in these arguably grim times.

"Since you asked so nicely, though, I'll tell you my story even though you might've just alluded to being one of those shady, dangerous strangers my family always warned me about~" That was a bit of a half truth--Tantalus was, as far as Zidane was concerned, his family. And, well. The group of them were usually the strangers other families warned their kids about, but. Ah well, a point was a point.

"Let's see... Okay, once upon a time there were two mice," Zidane began. "They spent all day in their little burrow under the kitchen cupboard, never venturing out because the owner of the house had a cat. One day, they were watching the house cat sleep like usual when a block of cheese fell down near the cat. Now the mice, see, they didn't get much to eat in their burrow and that cheese was looking real good. So the first mouse said to the second, 'We should go get that cheese.'

"'No way!' replied the second mouse. 'What if the cat wakes up and eats us?'

"'And what he doesn't? Maybe he's real tired. Or maybe he's not sleeping at all. Maybe he's dead. You don't know that he isn't,' argued the first mouse. 'I'm going.' And then he darted out while the second mouse stayed behind. Now what do you think happens...?"