Colin's posts

Luke nodded.

"Right." he said.

"Got it." he said further.

He then left to get the bloom, and returned with a flower that had bright orange petals on it.

"Got it." he said, showing her the small flower.

"Your pot should be big enough for it."

Luke just left the room, a stunned expression frozen on his face.

---

After about 15 seconds, the door was answered.

"Oh." Luke said.

"Hey." he greeted her.

"Mom said you'd be here to pick up the stuff." he said, before stepping out of the way.

"Come in." he told her.

"I'll get it for you." he added, his tone very... mono. And distracted.

"Hey!" the demon said, taking over.

"I... you... that..." he stammered, before sighing.

"Demons aren't inherently evil, you know." he said.

"We respect the balance of light and dark. Or most of us do." he muttered.

"Just... don't go around saying I'm not a bad guy." he told her.

"...a king has a reputation to uphold. For the time being." he finished, before disappearing back into Ryker's subconscious.

"Uhhh, right. Yeah, what he said."

"........" Luke was silent.

Lily wasn't giving him anything, and it seemed like the viper wasn't either.

"Okay." he replied.

"I... still think you should get your injuries looked at." he then told her.

"....might call Doctor Calder to come out here and take a look at you." he finished, before making his way out of the room, stopping at the door and looking back at his sister.

"Hey, sis?" he addressed her.

"Love you." he said. This served two purposes.

The first one was to actually let her know, and remind her, that he cared for her. The second was to test her reaction. Normally she would say something along the lines of 'yeah, yeah, spare the mush', but... who knew, now?

"......." Ryker was silent, before audibly swallowing.

"Ah... heh." he chuckled.

"Fair.... fair warning, though." he said.

"You say my 'passenger' is 'funny'." he told her.

"But... he's a lot more than that." he warned.

"He's actually... well... the Demon Lord."

"I... uh..." Luke stammered.

He wasn't sure how to respond to that.

This attitude was something he was completely unprepared for, and not used to. Lily was never like this. Not this bad, anyway. It was alarming how nonchalant she was about... everything.

"Well, I mean, it matters because you're acting really different, and it seems to be for no reason." he then said.

"Or... or is this just like a 'new you' thing or something?" he asked.

At this point, Luke was worried that something else might be going on. He was now scared to push it a little too far, and wanted to give himself an out so he could think about this on his own, without someone thinking he was going to probe further into this.

He also glanced to her viper, wondering if the familiar was acting like something was wrong as well, or if it, too, was under the same kind of weird... whatever this was.

Ryker froze again, almost stunned.

"R... Reciprocate?" he asked.

"You mean... you feel... I... well..." he then stammered further, before shaking his head and slapping his cheeks.

"You're hanging around here because... you're interested in me?" he asked.

"I... wow..." he mumbled.

"Admittedly, I... didn't expect to hear that..."

".....Lily, are you okay?" Luke asked.

"You... should probably see a doctor about your injuries." he told her.

"And what about the burn? Did you get that looked at?" he asked further.

Lily just shrugged.

"Lily, I'm worried about you." Luke then said.

"Why were you so passive back at school?" he asked.

"Normally you would just flick them away and make them hide from you? Why the change in that?" he asked further.

After a couple of minutes, she heard knocking on the door.

"....Lily?" Luke asked from the other side of the door.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

"I'm worried." he said further.

On the other side, he wore a concerned expression.

For all he knew, she hadn't gotten the burn looked at. And she'd been acting weird for a bit.

So had their Mom and Dad.

Was everyone being weird? Why? Was HE the one being weird?

"....." Luke was stunned for a moment.

"Ah..." he stammered.

"Lily!" he then called to her.

"You were just burned!" he reminded his sister.

"Go see the school nurse about it!" he said further.

'....the hell is going on?' he then thought.

'Why are people acting so... weird...?'

"Lily, I'm just intervening!" Luke replied, as he had the vines toss the trio to the side, Lily's bag falling at her feet.

"Seriously, why didn't you do something?" he asked.

"You normally kick their asses, what's different this time?" he asked her.

"It's not like you to just... take it." he went on. "Especially when mana gets involved." he said further.

"...Lily, what's wrong?" he asked.

"You've been acting... weird..."

"......" the three were silent for a moment, before they all charged up their mana.

One fire, one wind, one electric.

However, vines emerged from the pavement... strong vines... and wrapped around them.

"What the!?" one exclaimed.

"Hey." Luke said, approaching.

"How about y'screw off an leave my sister alone, huh?" he asked.

"Or I'll show you what -I- can do." he threatened.

"....I...." Ryker stammered.

"Well, I mean..." he said, scratching the back of his head.

"What I... well, I was just wondering..." he then said further, trailing off a bit.

"He thinks you're hot!" the demon shouted out, taking control again.

"The little baby has a crush on ya!" he laughed, before letting Ryker come back.

And he was now blushing beet red.

Just as she turned to grab the bag, one of the trio snatched it.

"Hah!" they exclaimed.

"Got this!" they said. "And you're not getting it back." they then added, as the other two closed in further on her.

"Come on." one of them said, bumping into her with their body.

"Come on!" another goaded her, doing the same thing, but harder.

"You think you're better than us!?" the other one then demanded, grabbed Lily by the collar and pulling them up close.

"We'll see how much better you think you are once you've been blasted with fire." the second one said, an orb of flame forming in one of their palms... before he launched it right at her.