Colin's posts

The man just grumbled to himself.

"I had not foreseen this." he said.

"I think you are correct, in that removing my presence from this ship would be the best possible solution." he agreed.

"Are you sure you can make it?" he asked.

"You DID sustain a rather unfortunate injury earlier."

Ryker just laughed.

"Naw." he replied.

"He's just moody, is all." he assured Eke.

"Seriously, don't worry about it." he told him.

The man looked at her silently for a moment.

"Oh?" he asked.

"And why is that?" he asked her.

"I've been rather good at keeping my presence hidden." he commented, before sighing.

"Or is this a case of complications I cannot control?" he asked.

"Can one of them... sense me?"

They watched her leave, and Karivyn sighed.

"This seems like a very difficult situation." he commented.

"To say the least." Kai interjected.

Meanwhile, in the room Xeri was looking for, the cloaked figure sighed as they put their hood down, their back towards the door.

"...it will only get worse." he mumbled to himself.

"I just know it."

Ceth didn't like this.

But he couldn't argue it.

And it was plain to see in his expression.

"Damn it." he cursed.

"I don't like this!" he exclaimed.

Adym just sighed.

"I'm going to go to my room and try and ignore this headache." he told them, before leaving.

"...odds are it's just going to get worse." Kai mumbled after the wood elf had gone.

Ceth was suddenly on HIGH alert.

"Woah, woah, woah!" he said.

"Right, ignoring the whole 'moved past that' thing... because moving past genetics is a lot harder than it sounds... on shore?" he asked her.

"Ohhhh, no, no, no." he mumbled.

"You may have gotten the antidote, but you are in NO shape to be alone." he told her.

"What if someone finds you and manages to take advantage of you not being at full strength?"

Adym responded just as quickly, by slapping his hands over his mouth. He was frozen like that for a second or two, before slowly removing them.

"I... I..." he stammered.

"I don't... know..." he admitted.

"I do." Ceth responded.

"Oh?" Kai asked, curious about this now.

"To cut a VERY long story short, and not bore anyone with a lot of history, there are different kinds of elves in this world." Ceth said. "And, generally speaking, they get along. But it wasn't always that way. Elves used to always keep to the same kind, and were horribly discriminatory towards any other kind of elf. And for the longest time, Wood Elves were seen as... well... the 'commoners' of the elf hierarchical system." he explained further.

"Now, time has passed, and those attitudes have, for the most part, gone away. That being said, it happened for so long in the past, it's almost carved into genetics by this point, sadly." he then said.

"So when tensions run high, or stress is prevalent, sometimes people slip back into old ways. In this case, Adym fell back into the mindset that we believed he was lowly because of him being a Wood Elf, and responded with a bitter attitude." he finished.

"...." Adym was silent, before looking away slightly, and shamefully.

"Sorry, Xerica..." he apologised to Xeri quietly.

They all got in the Van, and Ryker pulled out of the parking lot. Soon, they were on their way.

There was silence for a moment, before Ryker sighed.

"He's not saying anything to me." he told him.

"That being said, I know he heard what you said." he went on.

"And I know it reached him." he assured Eke.

"Just give him time to realise that you two need to make nice-nice."

Adym was growing visibly angrier now.

"Fine." he said.

"I'll go back to the room and be slowly driven insane by this pounding headache that I can do nothing about." he said further.

"I mean, whatever, right? Who cares, right?" he then asked.

"I'm just the little wood elf." he went on.

"Nobody to be concerned with."

Adym just growled a little.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"THAT'S what you're going to say?" he asked her.

"Great." he muttered.

"So I'm not going to hunt for them because... they want their privacy." he said.

"Does that sum it up?"

Adym responded by gently taking the hand and holding it for a moment.

"Well?" Ceth asked.

"It's warm." Adym replied.

"And?" Kai inquired.

"And that's it." Adym said, letting go of Sara.

"She's not the one." he told them.

"...so there's another crux on board." Kai muttered, thinking about it.

"Ah, there's a language barrier." Adym said.

"Indeed." Karivyn responded.

"Myself, and those two are the only ones that can communicate with her, it seems." he commented, gesturing to Ceth and Xeri.

"Well, would you ask her if it's all right for me to take her hand, and see if she's the one I'm connected to?" Adym asked Karivyn.

Karivyn just nodded, before looking at Sara.

"Is it all right if he takes your hand for a moment?" he asked her.

"To see if you are the crux that he is sensing." he said.

Adym just sighed.

"All right, fine." he said.

"Let's do it." he told her.

Sure enough, a bit later, they were all gathered in the pool area. Callie, Adym, Kai, Ceth, Xeri, Sara, and Karivyn. Kai was still in the pool, but they were all clustered close to him... with Sara being the furthest away from the water.

"All right." Adym mumbled.

"I'm clearly not connected to Callie." he said. "I'm not connected to you or Ceth." he told Xeri.

"Clearly." Ceth said. "As I'M the one connected to Callie." he chuckled.

"I'm not connected to Kai, as Callie is." Adym went on.

"Indeed." Kai confirmed.

"That leaves..." Adym said, trailing off a little and looking at Sara.

"I... don't believe we've been properly introduced..." he realised.

"My name is Adymar. I am the Crux of Nature." he introduced himself to her.

Adym just sighed.

"At least SOMEONE can." he said.

"What do you mean?" Ceth asked.

"Well, when Callie and I arrived in town, and got on the ship, she started suffering from a massive headache that nothing could relieve." Adym responded. "Seems like that is the sensation of a crux sensing another crux. In this case, Callie was sensing Kai." he explained further.

"All right... and...?" Ceth asked further, wondering where Adym was going with this.

"And the same thing's happening to ME." Adym responded.

"There's a crux on this ship, I can sense them, and it's giving me a massive headache." he told them. "So I intend to find them so I can make contact and at least make this pain dissipate." he finished.