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2 yrs ago
Current "So curious, Draugr! To make me monologue about my evil plan, that is your strategy?"
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"Oh that's the wonderful thing about Magic," Archer snickered. "You can't ever truly escape it. Even in this place, low levels of Mana seep into the area from the plants, water, stone, and local fauna. Even the air you breathe carries trace amounts," he explained, taking the final drag on his cigarette and putting it out in his foil pouch.

"The ripples in the pond from acute manipulation will settle quickly, and my ability doesn't produce any Haze so there won't be any lingering disturbance... you have more to worry from our guest here, who involuntarily burns Mana and constantly produces a low Haze, even in her sleep," Archer grinned. Yue immediately blushed, flinching like she'd been struck at the realization she was polluting Raudd's sanctuary.

"Oh fuck! I'm sorry, I-I didn't- I can't turn it off, I just needed to be someplace... 'dim' to collect my thoughts, I didn't even think," Yue flustered as she hurried to get up. Archer laughed. "It's not funny!"

"Settle down," he chirped. "Part of the reason I came out was to help clean up. Wouldn't do for us to leave our trash laying around this beautiful garden."

Yue paused and took a deep breath to settle her spike of anxiety. She resumed walking back towards the house after a moment, flicking Archer in the back of the head as she passed, eliciting a smirk from the man.

"Well. Regardless, it's getting late. I don't know if I will sleep, but some quiet time to read is in order at the very least. New book and all, you know how it is," she teased. "Good night."

Archer stood up, dusting himself off and stretching for a moment before he lifted his hand towards the center of the garden. A breeze picked up, rustling the leaves of groomed trees and shrubs, and blowing ripples across the pond below them. The leaves, grass, flowers, stone, and water all seemed to respond. For a fraction of a moment [Artemis] was there, at the center of the gentle vortex. Nature's primal beauty, and visceral danger pulled Yue's lingering haze to [her] palm where it formed into an arrow.

[She] pointed a finger, and the tattoo on the back of his hand pulsed, an intangible bow flickering into existence for just a moment, just long enough to loose [her] shot. Unerring, the arrow carved a path over the garden and through the door to the manor, navigated the 90 degree turn and whipped out of sight nearly faster than the eye could track. A fraction of a second later the crystal chime of the arrow striking the Manor's Arcane Drain and Yue's "Ooh!" of wonder echoed softly into the garden.

Archer snapped his fingers. It resonated through the [Immaterial] as he sat down, and the Astral Sea surrounding the garden, and for some distance beyond became as tranquil as though it had been untouched and unexplored for years. Even Archer's presence was difficult to detect: if you weren't looking directly at him, one could easily forget he was there.

"I don't think you'll need to worry about Hera," he chimed in after a long minute of silence where he just gazed out over the manor at the cloying darkness overhead, probably longing for the days when the curtain of night wasn't blotted out by the progress of mortals. "Our tree has since been relocated to Elysium," he gestured above them in the direction of the tower.

"And if you really are serious about marrying into the pantheon I'm pretty sure Apollo is single right now," he grinned, unable to hide the expression of amused mirth spreading across his face. "He doesn't usually go for the outdoorsy handsome type, but he might come around once he finds out you're immune to the relationship ending by dying horribly."
"I also said not to run your mouth about that," Wolf quipped with a grin. She forced her ears to stay up and recording in spite of the fact that what her implants were picking up sent chills slithering beneath her skin. Oddly, the phantom sensation even traveled the length of her cybernetic arm. She normally felt cold void when the sensors on her steel palm and fingertips weren't telling the lizard part of her brain that registered touch she was, indeed, holding something and it was [71.1 degrees Celsius]. Wolf set down the coffee she didn't remember picking up back on the nightstand.

"If Alex caught wind that I was threatening to castrate people in ShieldTown, he'd make the 'Upsetti-Spaghetti' face, and I just wouldn't be able to cope."

"Hey hey," Wolf comforted, pushing herself off the bed after a moment of hesitation where here eyes flicked up and to the right as if that would make the voice-print confirmation and HK's message in the corner of her HUD that her target was [75% Emotionally Distressed] easier to read. "You're in a safe place. I'll make sure nobody can hurt you here uh," Wolf paused, taking an involuntary glance back towards Jade's room as she slowly approached Jemma. "Jade is new and doesn't really have a handle on her new abilities yet, you'll have to forgive her."

"Vi is another new face... well... she never takes her fox mask off, so she'll be a new mask and... she has lots of chrome for you to work on! I'm sure she'd appreciate your expertise, and... Hey," Wolf stopped a few paces away and held her arms open loosely, inviting Jemma in for an embrace, ignoring the [Warning] that HK flashed in her HUD. Clearly there was something more there than just the Dove she knew, but they hadn't told anyone about the ex-boyfriend incident. There was enough of Dove there for her to justify the risk.

"We don't have to talk about all that right now. There's a safe haven for you here for as long as you need it."
Th physician's limp thud from the adjacent room drew Wolf's attention as she comforted Jade, allowing her enough time to watch as the dead girl propped herself up, dissolved her severed head, and then grew a whole new one. Wolf felt the stinging heat of HK's processes running behind her right eye as she stood up and leaned against the door frame. Things were never dull in the Den. HK was taking an uncharacteristically long time to feed any information into her HUD. "[Processes Running] . . ." burned into her retina long enough to leave an artifact in her vision when it finally blinked out.

[Appropriating Resources]
[Searching Archives] . . .

[Run Facial Recognition] . . .

[Considering New Parameters.]
[Processing] . . .

[Subject Identified - ShieldTown-ResidentFixer-Dove - Visual Match]
[Returning Host Processes] . . .|


Wolf raised an eyebrow. "Dove" was ShieldTown's Chrome-Fixer, and a friend of Alex's. She'd disappeared about two years previous. Wolf knew this because because Dove used to regularly help maintain her cybernetics, and HK had sent the Interceptor to follow her after calculating that there was a high probability that she'd been headed towards the Graves. The Interceptor was fast but had limited range, and hadn't been fully fueled yet from its most recent sortie. A second drone was dispatched to cover Dove, one with the range and armaments to cover her for a long time, but there was a gap in the coverage between when the Interceptor had to return and Albatross 2 arrived on site.

It couldn't have been more than ten minutes or so... but that was all it had taken for Dove to vanish into the Graves. She'd patrolled the area both in person and with her suite of drones for days, but eventually had to be called away to prepare for the impending Hunt.

"Good news, Jade! You didn't kill anybody," Wolf chirped.

"Oh lovely... Good news, good...," Jade trailed off as the tension audibly left her body and she fell into exhausted unconsciousness. Wolf quietly dimmed the lights in Jade's room and shut the door behind her.

"Pardon," she approached Jemma, nudging the physician with a toe once before stooping to lift her up and put her on one of the other infirmary beds. She sat down on an open bed with a sigh and let her legs swing for a long moment. Her black furred ears perked up and turned towards the girl, cyber-cochlear implants listening for and recording any involuntary sounds her body made... Wolf already knew she didn't really have vitals, which wasn't concerning in the least. Nope.

[Vocal Analysis Standing By] . . .

"Dove?" Wolf asked pointedly... no point in hesitating: if this was a Stranger, both HK and she would know pretty quick. The red of HK's attention glowed dimly behind the blue of Wolf's right eye. "Do you remember who I am?"

[The Den - Infirmary]



"Ugh," Jade winced as Jemma's voice began to pick up. "I-It's- You're in The Den you were... y-yes-I mean no? Probably no... agh- yelling- yelling in my head, inside voices inside," Jade stammered, clutching her ears as fresh blood weeped from her eyes.

"I-I can't! I c-can't! I can't touch I can't," Jade muttered in response to Jemma's pleas to be released, shaking in place, too stunned to back away, and doing her best to avoid eye contact. "Alex... yes? No. B-big big man, big man, no yelling, I can't touch, inside voice inside," Jade groaned against the assault, clutching her head.

Blood dribbled freely from Jade's nostrils as Jemma's shriek... it was loud, and grated against her ears through the crushing grip of her palms, and shredded her already frayed mindspace. Her eyes snapped wide to meet Jemma's gaze as their foreheads collided, bloody tears streaking down her cheeks in that tangible moment of silence.

"N-," Jade squeaked, trying to jerk away.

Psionic energy crackled over her skin for a split second, and the whip-crack of air violently tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and into her face, causing her to flinch and blink involuntarily. When her eyes opened, only the stump of Jemma's neck remained, sliced with surgical precision as though by a monofilament blade. The door opened to the high pressure spray of ink and viscera splattering against the bulkhead and the violent hiss of an air stream ripping through an impossibly small space at some extreme velocity.

Jade stood there dumbly, staring at the carnage as she was ushered roughly into the adjacent room. Wolf was pushing her, firmly but without malice towards one of the beds, using her organic hand to shield her face from the rapidly multiplying flechette shards of steel being gouged out of her cybernetic arm. Jade flopped limply at the bed, staring at the ceiling vacantly.

"Shit," spat Wolf, as she carefully plucked metal slivers out of her skin. "Jade. Are you okay?" She asked, with uncharacteristic softness, as she sat on an adjacent bed a safe distance away.

"I was, I woke up... new guest, new... (face) she looked cold, I brought her clothes I... I just wanted...," Jade trailed off.

"To help. I know," Wolf sighed, gazing back into the other room at the physician who was standing sheet white over Jemma's headless body. What do you even say to comfort someone after something like that? "Hey hon... you're hurting, inside and out. It's... you saved all our lives yesterday. We're all grateful, focus on that... and get some rest," she ordered softly, pushing herself to her feet and striding into the next room with a deep sigh to help clean up the mess.

[ShieldTown]



ID froze as the Templar captured her gaze, and it became noticeably warmer in an instant. Her hand darted to the hilt of a sword that wasn't there. She couldn't suppress the flicker of amber that pushed at the edges of her burgundy irises, nor the near imperceptible slither of crimson scales forming against her spine. ID held her fingers poised to snap a spark from the flint skin of her fingertips.

She hoped a fight wasn't about to start, especially right after she promised she wouldn't cause any trouble in town... however, ID wasn't about to back down from the Queen of Swords if she was threatened. Just as it felt like Dean would have more windows to replace, the Templar apologized and moved past.

"No worries. Happens all the time," she informed in a flat tone, without turning to face Maire. ID hesitated for a couple more moments before continuing down the street, unable to release the tension from her shoulders and back until she'd made it a few blocks away. It was definitely time to leave.

"Wait!" Shrieked Rat, scrambling after Maire. "Born in a barn?! Have to knock! Even Rat knows!!" Rat instructed, knocking at the door hurriedly before poking his head in behind her.

"Lazy-Cap! Rat is here!! With... Guest."

[The Stoneworks - Erling Manor Garden]



Yue took the last drag on her cigarette and allowing Archer to collect the stub in his foil pouch. She exhaled slowly, savoring the dwindling aroma.

"That doesn't align with what I understand to be the generally accepted telling of that mythos, which is interesting. Reminds me, since my family are generally accepted as practicing Shintoists. However, contrary to traditional Shinto, our family's worship focuses on five specific Kami: Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Sarutahiko, Susanoo, and Ryujin. Five dragons representing the Sun, Moon, Earth, Sea, and Storms. There are other notable Kami in our family's cosmology, and other differences from traditional tellings of the mythos, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind," Yue mused, swinging her feet over the ledge rhythmically as she leaned back on her palms.

"The only Greek 'dragon' that immediately comes to mind is the one wrapped around Hecate's pinky," Archer chuckled, snapping his fingers and materializing a blank tarot card in his hand and whipped it out over the pond with a flick of his wrist. It arced back around and Yue caught it gingerly between two fingers.

"Was that completely necessary? I'm sitting right next to you," grunted Yue. Archer just smiled without answering as she turned the card over in her hands. It read [7-The Serpent], and featured an enormous serpent with emerald green scales entangled within a massive tree dotted with golden apples as it breathed acid down on some minuscule figure. "Oh! Ladon!"

"Correct!" Archer chirped. "The myth goes like... something something twelve labors, something something Hercules, something something Garden of Hesperides," he gestured dismissively. "Zeus was conducting some alchemical research in a laboratory which he'd kept secret from the other Olympians, which he had guarded by a monstrous serpent he claims he tamed. Well Zeus got busy doing Zeus things and forgot about his pet, and Hecate found the lab following Ladon's cries. The creature's distraught emotional state was so powerful it had stained the local Manascape and attracted Hecate's attention so... she went to see what was going on and found Ladon trapped in Zeus' tree," Archer giggled, taking a moment to collect himself following something he clearly found incredibly amusing.

"Well Hecate has a thing for adopting neglected or abandoned spirits, it's kind of become a running gag," he giggled. "Zeus had since cleared out his lab there so all that was really left was the tree and Ladon, and Hecate is furious but doesn't know who to confront. So... she brings it up to Zeus over family dinner one day and I've never seen him sweat so much!" He snorted, unable to contain himself.

"Oh my God," Yue giggled.

"He made up some bullshit and swore the rest of us to secrecy," Archer laughed. "Her hunt for the owner of the garden became so notorious that the rumors just could not be quelled, and Hera eventually took over tending it so she could give out the fruit that grew there as gifts."

"Your family is too much."

"We've had a long time to do dumb shit and collect stories."
Rat stared at Doll for a long minute while he tried to process what was happening, narrowing his eyes with a hint of suspicion that the boy might be trying to usurp him as the Templar's guide. His whiskers twitched as the mental cogs turned... the grinding and smoke was nearly palpable.

"STHSTHSTH. Fine! Rat is Doll-Child's guide," he conceded, after losing the staring contest with the child and blinking hard to clear the stinging in his eyes. "Away from underfoot!" Rat commanded, shaking a fist before scurrying out of the alley and around a corner. He poked his head back around at them.

"Come along. Come along! Rat guides you. Rat is your guide! First to Drowsy-Cap. He will know Big-Man, and Shiney-Plates. Watch! He will!"

Rat vanished around the corner again, though he didn't allow himself to get too far ahead of the group. They were led across town through side-streets and alleys to what appeared to be a residential area, and then to a particular property that towered over the other buildings. Rat paused as he approached the house his nose wrinkling. The ground was littered with broken glass, and the shattered remains of a night stand that had yet to be cleaned up.

"Here. It is here. Rat guides you. Rat is your guide. The Nest of Drowsy-Cap. Sends many packages to Stoneworks. YesYes. Rarely leaves," he explained, affording them a healthy pause before allowing them past to approach the door... which opened as they arrived.

"Thanks for breakfast," ID called back inside as she stepped out, closing the door behind her. She flinched as she turned around to meet the gaze of Rat, and then Doll and up to Maire. Rat and Maire she recognized immediately from their confrontation at the Stoneworks. The child... ID had seen him around occasionally in the markets but had never spoken to him. She always wore her mask and cloak while in town, and didn't really interact with the locals beyond what she needed in the market... something she'd be much more cautious about now since not wearing it had caused so much trouble.

"Umm...," she flustered awkwardly in the doorway under Rat's hard gaze. The rodent squinted at her for a long minute, and ID's burgundy eyes flicked towards Maire once. Did Rat recognize her? Was this going to turn into yet another confrontation?

"Out of the way!! Here to see Drowsy-Cap!!" Rat shrieked, shaking the sword at ID.

"O-oh! Sorry," she mumbled, though her stance relaxed visibly. ID gave them a nervous smile as she released the door and moved to step past.

"Ungh. Am I gonna get to sleep at all tonight?" Wolf's voice came muffled through the door as she slapped something rhythmically against her steel palm. After a few minutes of struggle and swearing she jammed something with the crinkle of thin plastic in her pocket, lifted an object to her mouth, and struck a match in a fluid motion.

"U-uh..."

"Fuck off, I'm under a vent," she quipped tersely.

"What? No, the patient's neural activity is picking up. She's coming to."

"Oh. Fuck, I'm sorry. It's been a long day," she muttered, and exhaled a tired sigh. "Status?"

"Escalating neural activity. Still no vitals. No heartbeat. No respiration."

"It's not the weirdest thing I've run into... but it's pretty damn weird. How's Jade?" Asked Wolf with a note of concern, and another deep sigh.

"Stable again. If she hadn't..."

"Yeah, we'd have all been fucked. I know."

"Oh. Wait a tick... this says her bed is empty."

"Oh God Damnit! Somebody find her before she melts her stupid brain doing something else reckless!" The sound of running footsteps echoed from outside the door, and Wolf lingered for a moment longer to swear under her breath. "Everyone is going to rest and recover today if it fucking kills me, I swear," she muttered, stomping down the hall in the opposite direction.

For a few long minutes everything was silent in Jemma's infirmary room, and then the air stirred. A weight flopped onto the end of Jemma's bed. A weight attached to a girl, who was smoothing out her rumpled, sandy blonde hair and tying it back out of her eyes. Her skin was pale, and stained with ruddy crimson streaks down her cheeks where she'd either been crying or bleeding... or both. She had been cleaned up recently, but there was still dried blood residue at the corners of her mouth, ringing her nostrils and collected in her ears. She met Jemma's eyes with her own vivid green ones for a long time, chewing on her bottom lip in apprehensive thought.

A pile of neatly folded, recently cleaned laundry was tossed onto Jemma's abdomen, and the girl snarfled loudly, rubbing her nose on the back of her arm and leaving a red streak on her skin. She tried to rub it off with an expression of mild annoyance before returning her attention back to Jemma.

"Hey. Um... I'm Jade. Are...? I brought you some clothes. And a drink," she explained, opening a bottle of water absently and chugging half of it. "Awwww... shit, I'll get you another one. My head is... a little melty," grunted Jade, trying awkwardly to find a place to put the half emptied bottle before she chugged the remains. She threw the bottle haphazardly across the room, and a gust of air carried it smoothly into a chute labeled with the recycling icon. Her eyes and head dipped for a moment before she jolted back to alertness and jumped off the bed.

"Right... what was I doing?" Jade paced across the room for a moment before ending up over Jemma, peering down curiously. "Are you a zombie? If you're a zombie... and I ask about it? Don't lie, 'niether. I'm psychic," Jade informed, with a note of suspicion.

[The Stoneworks - Erling Manor]



Yue gasped audibly, grabbing Archer's shoulders and shaking him with excitement as her Anime dreams were coming true. Archer sputtered and giggled uncontrollably for a long minute before regaining his composure.

"Careful, you're going to make her explode," he snickered. "As for not having to experience loss to the ravages of time... I guess marrying into our fucked up family is a solution, although that won't necessarily spare you: we live mortal lives. On the other hand, if you manage to hook up with the one or two of us who aren't fucking crazy, or get one of the nutters to like you enough to keep you... you'll have the added benefit of getting to raise your spouse's new incarnation in regular intervals. Also don't forget the possibility of your wife occasionally growing up with extra equipment," he grinned.

"Mythology is real, there's fucking Gods and Yokai wandering around in the world and you two want to talk about boring romance? Tell me about the DRAGONS!" Archer sputtered while taking a drag on his cigarette and broke into a choking laugh.

"Seems we've forgotten that Gods and Yokai aren't commonplace for our guest."

[ShieldTown - Locklear Residence]



The mention of the Runesmith made Dean snort. "So she gets stuff from you too eh?" He leaned back in his chair and let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding until just now. " Truth be told I was considering bringing her into this anyway. I'm not too sure where to even start fixing whatever's going on with him and spirits know it's easy to make things worse if you don't know what you’re doing in our line of work."

Dean waved a hand around the room in a casual gesture. "We get enough people coming and going around here anyways, long as you keep to the rules and be hospitable you're free to come and go. Just please knock and ask before waltzing on in." His tone made it evidently clear that more than a few people didn't give him such courtesy.

" I think this is an acceptable arrangement all things considered. I can always give you a few more pieces of Jade later down the road for your troubles anyways." Leaning forward, Dean held his hand across the table towards Ash. " Shall we [Shake] on it?"

"Ah?" ID blurted out in an attempt to suppress voicing a thought. She raised an eyebrow, slowly lowering her fork back to the plate. Was that an invitation to use pact magic on him? Did he somehow know she could do that? She pursed her lips, drumming her fingers on the table for a long moment as her eyes flicked back up towards the stairs. Her eyes flashed luminous amber as she turned her gaze back on him.

The crushing intensity bore down on him like a rapidly approaching freight train, and he could scarcely move a muscle. Without breaking eye contact, she breathed gently into her hand, whispering a spell of [Commitment]. Her breath ignited into a Magatama array with [盟約] burning in its eye. ID clasped his outstretched hand without waiting for confirmation, and the spell pulsed through them. It was hot, but didn't burn like expected, and when she released him, the Kanji lingered on his skin faintly, like a mild burn. ID broke their gaze and returned her attention to her plate as the [Light] faded from her eyes.

"Agreed," she intoned with a note of finality. There was no backing out now.

Dean's hand traced across where the kanji had lingered before nodding. "That would do it." Looking up at his guest, a sheepish smile grew across his face. "Well, unless you have anything you wanted to add-" He was cut off however by the rapid footsteps coming down the stairs. "Never mind, we'll talk later."

Alex walked briskly back into the kitchen. while no longer shirtless, the dull grey fabric clung to his torso enough that it didn’t really leave much up to the imagination anyway. Alex didn't seem to notice or really care for that matter. "So, what did I miss?"

His roommate gave an incredulous look. "You left to go get a shirt on and call the repair man, HOW did it take you that long to get back here?"

" . . . I uh . . . got distracted."

Dean gave the large man a flat look long enough for Alex to fidget in place uncomfortably before rolling his eyes and turning back to Ash. "This is a rather common occurrence. Forgive him, for he is dumb of ass." That comment got him a light bap on the back of the head as Alex walked passed to sit down. Dean flipped Alex off in response, Alex replied in kind. The men laughed like school boys and the once serious air from before quickly melted away.

ID's eyes followed Alex through the room. She wasn't sure whether the tight-fitting shirt was less distracting, but the corners of her lips curled into an amused smile at the exchange. Lacking any practical place to hide the jade piece in a hurry, she had pinned it in the fold between two fingers and turned her palm towards the table. It thrummed distractingly against her skin as her eyes followed the Brute into his seat.

"Nothing to forgive," she answered, blowing an involuntary smoke ring from the residual combustion of her breath. She disbursed it with a subtle hand gesture while Alex's gaze was focused on Dean. "Considering the... unintentional stir I caused, the meal and the show has been plenty gracious." smirked ID. "Mantis-Raptor eggs have a peculiar musk, but the flavor is simply divine."

" The trick is to use aromatic herbs and spices. Thank goodness they lay so many eggs, though I wish they were less . . . Hostile." Alex shivered slightly and rubbed his arms.

Dean shook his head. "Your tales letting people know you’re a brute. Usually need heavy equipment to go near those things. I mean the scythe arms are bad enough but holy fuck they have too many teeth for me to be comfortable even going near." There was a collected pause among the three followed by various forms of responses that would be described as "Nope, don't want to think about it."

" Thanks for reminding me, ass hat. I promised the game wardens I'd help with collection this week."

" I've said it once and I'll say it dozens of times my dude, you're too damn nice for your own good."

"Oh bite me."

"Piss off, I don't want to break my jaw," Dean jabbed. This remark was followed by a utensil being chucked halfheartedly at the large man.

Instead of letting the fork bounce off of himself harmlessly, Alex reacted without really thinking and the fork was caught suspended midair in a softly glowing blue bubble. Dean stared wide eyed, which confused Alex for all of five seconds before he made the same face. The fork clattered to the ground as the bubble evaporated. Both men very slowly turned to look at their guest apprehensively. Given their reactions . . . This situation, or at least something similar, wasn't too uncommon in this house. It was a wonder how Alex had any form of secret identity for as long as he has been down here.

ID had been watching them with interest when the opportunity to observe Alex's powers in perfect time dilation had her rapt attention. She watched the pulse of [Blue] radiate outward through his body from his chest to his fingertips before tearing away and quickly encapsulating the drifting fork. The static cling of the barrier pulled on the residual haze from their pact, swirling it inside the sphere.

After a while, the sphere dissolved, and ID's eyes followed the trail of clinging energy back into Alex's chest, as it dragged the haze into his body. She stared at him thoughtfully for a long time with a raised eyebrow before an intrusive thought bubbled its way to the surface of her mind.

"I'm probably strong enough to leave bite marks on him...," she commented absently. ID grimaced, clapping a hand over her mouth and shooting a momentary glare across the table at Dean.

Alex raised an eyebrow at that remark. "You wouldn't be the first to try. Wouldn't recommend it. You don't need to break any teeth and ruin a nice smile. he paused for a second, seemingly confused by his own statement but shrugged it off.

Dean however fell out of his chair and was laughing like a hyena on the floor.

"Mmph," she replied, clapping her other hand over the first as a flustered blush spread across her cheeks. It was real difficult to keep a lid on those intrusive thoughts if she wasn't focused on it. ID took a breath and tried to compose herself before releasing her hands. She clucked her tongue, now unable to meet Alex's eyes.

"W-well. Um, it's... uh! I'm- thank you for the meal," she stammered uncomfortably as she got to her feet. "I um, well... have a... THING I have to do... I'll um... I'll see you in the afternoon. Uh. If that's okay," she mumbled, awkwardly unable to find the proper thing to do with her hands, and lacking pockets to shove them in.

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