Colin's posts

Ash just sighed.

"I don't know much about the second thing." he said.

"It's all I've ever known." he admitted.

"But yes, my abilities ARE quite useful." he agreed.

"I can also withstand really cold temperatures, too, but that's probably because of the daily ice baths." he added, thinking about it.

"Miss Rylie?" he then addressed her.

"Is there any way I can help you?" he asked. "At all? With anything?"

"Huh?" Ash muttered.

"Didn't I say I was a mouse?" he asked.

"Or... kind of?" he went on, before pausing.

"Oh. Wait. Yeah, no. It's a special kind of mouse." he told her.

"It hunts scorpions." he continued. "It can turn off its pain receptors, and when it gets stung, it can nullify the toxins and such." he explained.

"So I can do that." he said.

"Whenever I'm exposed to a new poison or venom, my body makes antidotes for it, and it can never hurt me again. And I can turn off my sense of pain at will. I can make it last for up to 10 hours." he finished.

"I can walk." Ash replied.

"It doesn't hurt." he told her.

"I have received worse damage in the past." he then assured her further.

"But we should go." he said.

"I feel the blood coming from the wound, and it won't be long until I feel weak." he finished.

It was alarming, and depressing, how calmly he was talking about this... and how knowledgeable he was here.

"......" he was silent, before getting close.

He then pulled the coins off of her, making sure he got them all (with her help).

Once that was finished, he stepped back behind the bar, and sighed.

"Looks like I need to clean this place up." he said.

"Tell you what... if you leave this town relatively soon, we'll all act like this never happened. We're close-knit, and we don't condone such acts as what happened." he told her.

"However, we don't want any more trouble." he continued.

"So if you both scram in the next couple of days, we'll act like we saw nothing regarding this, and it happened in the blink of an eye."

"Down the road." the bartender replied.

"Building with the greenish roof. You can't miss it." he told her.

He was then silent, and looked to Ash.

"I'm sorry." he apologised.

"This shouldn't have happened." he went on.

"I have no idea what that was all about." he admitted.

"Please. I had nothing to do with this."

Ash just sighed quietly.

"Yeah." he replied.

"Never encountered THAT particular poison or venom before." he admitted.

"But it's okay." he said.

"It won't be able to hurt me again." he assured her.

"...though I AM bleeding..." he admitted, knowing the wound on his back was still a slashing wound.

The bartender hid behind the bar, as those that were still conscious that witnessed this, all bolted from the tavern in fear.

At that point, the bar was quiet. Deathly quiet.

However, it was soon broken by some quiet noises coming from Ash.

They only lasted for a few seconds though, before he froze, almost paralysed for a moment, and then relaxed... almost alarmingly so.

He looked like he had collapsed to the floor, but was managing to keep himself on his hands and knees, breathing heavily.

"...ngh..." he grunted.

"That... that was... a little nasty." he said, as he started to get to his feet.

"......" Ash was silent, before nodding.

"Okay..." he replied.

"...just... okay." he repeated.

The two of them then went to the bar, to at least pay for the bread, drink, and fruit.

The bartender seemed to have nothing to do with it, and was apologising profusely... but none of them saw one of the downed people getting up, pulling out a knife and dripping some sort of green liquid on it, coating it.

He then lunged forward, specifically at Ash.

The bartender saw this, and looked horrified.

"JASON, NO!" he exclaimed, but it was too late.

The man slashed at Ash's back, causing a large wound, and allowing the poison to seep into him.

Ash looked about ready to attack HER when she spoke to him, but he stopped abruptly.

"Ah... ah..." he stammered.

"I..." he started to say, before his expression changed to horrified.

"Oh, no..." he said quietly.

"I... I did... bad, didn't I?" he asked her.

"I'm sorry..." he apologised, sounding ready to cry.

Ryker had overheard the little exchange, and smiled.

"Good." he said.

"The kid deserves it." he said further, as Aly approached.

"Where's Eke?" she asked.

"Learning about his father." was the reply given.

"Oh. Good." Aly said with a smile, before going to sit down and read.

Ash stumbled forward a bit... and Rylie could see his eyes starting to fade a bit, like he was losing consciousness... before they suddenly snapped back to being 'there' and alert.

He planted his feet, whirled his torso around, and shot a blast of black fire into the man's face, causing him to scream in agony as he clutched at it, falling over and rolling on the floor.

The others took unconscious steps back, but Ash was now full-on attacking.

He fired orbs of his fire at them, and while some managed to dodge them, most connected, and they were soon on the floor as well.

"Stop!" Ash yelled.

"Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!" he shouted.

"LEAVE US ALONE!!!"

Ash could see people throwing coins at her, and he felt anger.

Anger welling up inside him, that he hadn't felt for a long time.

"Stop it... stop it..." he said quietly.

"STOP IIIIIIT!" he then yelled at the top of his lungs, as he jumped onto the table and started firing bursts of black fire around. Those that they connected with fell to the floor, clutching at where they had been hit.

And their screams were... not what Rylie expected.

It almost sounded like they were screaming about their souls being in pain.

Before Ash could say anything, the entire rest of the tavern all stood up.

"...an ambush." Ash said under his breath.

The man then grabbed a few more coins, and tossed them over towards Rylie... just as Ash sent a stream of black fire towards him, causing his hand to catch fire.

This caused the man to yelp in surprise and pain, as he fell to the floor.

"Miss Rylie!" Ash then exclaimed, when he realised the coins had been thrown.

The man picked up one of the coins.

"There's a few things." he said.

"A theatre. There's also a park." he went on.

"But see, nobody here can truly make a decision." he admitted with a chuckle...though there was a darkness to it.

"We all just... flip a coin." he finished.

With that, he flipped the gold coin he had picked up... but it was clearing arching towards Rylie, and looked like it would hit her square on her chest.