Colin's posts

"She is." Ilias agreed.

"She and Marcus make for quite the little couple." he added.

Evan just looked at Blair and pouted.

"Cuter than me?" he asked.

"Because you always say nobody's cuter than me." he said.

Ilias raised an eyebrow, before looking at Kiah and smirking. He thought that was, frankly, adorable.

Ilias placed a hand on Blair's shoulder.

"Relax." he said.

"She doesn't mean anything by it." he assured him.

"Let's go to the table." he then suggested, before looking at Jasmine.

"And yeah, menus would be great." he told her.

"It's Evan and Blair's first time here, so they should see what food you have on offer."

Ilias just smirked a little when the woman approached.

"Jasmine, this is Evan. He's Kiah's cousin, and the latest addition to the Unit." he told her.

"And this is Blair. His boyfriend, and artiste." he added with some flair at the end of it.

Evan smile a little and nodded.

"Evan Kiczys. Pleasure to meet you, Jasmine."

Evan was silent as he heard that, before nodding.

"Er... all right then." he said.

"Good to know." he told her, before taking a deep breath and exhaling.

"Just need to relax and remember that." he murmured, before they all made their way to Helscape, and opened the door.

When they stepped inside, Evan looked around, and his eyes widened a bit.

"Place looks REALLY inviting." he commented, the aura of mana hunter decently strong in the building, but he was doing his best to tolerate it.

Ilias just sighed heavily.

"He's in the break room." he told her.

"Odds are he'll be there for the next... er... well, I was going to say 5 minutes, but I think that's going to turn into however long you intend to ream him out." he then said further.

"Well! Bye-bye then!" Evan quickly said, before turning and hastily leaving the lab area, not wanting to see Kiah when she was angry.

Later that evening, Ilias, Kiah, Evan, and Blair appeared in an alley that was about 5 minutes away from Helscape. The destination was chosen because it was remote, non-suspicious, and allowed them to be inconspicuous.

"All righty then." Ilias said.

"Let's get some grub and poison!" he declared jovially.

"Wait, did I grab a bigger one by mistake...?" Ilias wondered.

"Well, at least you're okay." he then said.

"Anyway, you'd better get moving." he told Evan. "You do NOT want to be here for when Kiah starts reaming into the one that's messed things up." he warned, looking subtly at Kiah.

"...right." Evan mumbled.

"I'll text you, Kiah, when Blair and I are ready to head out." he told her.

"And you and Ilias can come pick us up whenever you want after that."

Evan accepted the crystal and nodded.

"Ah, right." he said.

He then concentrated, and Ilias and Kiah saw the crystal fill with his mana, right ton the brim. Evan then stumbled a little, before handing the crystal back.

"That holds a deceptive amount of mana." he commented.

"It really does." Ilias agreed.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I'll be fine." Evan assured him.

As soon as that happened, there was a chorus of pained crying from most of them... while one or two just hung their heads and let the tears silently flow.

Eke then found himself standing off to the side, watching them all mourn his passing. He then saw his father, and another dragon that looked very similar, off to the other side.

"Come on now, son." Arkus said.

"It's time for you to go with us, and take your place in paradise." the other dragon said with a smile.

"And you'll get to know your old Uncle Therius." he added with a hearty laugh.

No sooner had she asked her question, did they see Ilias returning.

And he did NOT look impressed. At all.

"Here." he said, handing her a mini crystal.

"Seems Wilkins decided to rearrange things in an order that only made sense to HIM." he told her.

"I swear, he's starting to be more trouble than he's worth for compounding smaller reasons." he went on, clearing a little more than annoyed, before shaking his head and taking a deep breath.

"But I found them. In the back corner of one of the cabinets in room ONE."

"...huh, fancy that." Evan muttered.

"And... well, yeah, odds are Blair and I will want to shower up and get changed for meeting up at Helscape." he then reasoned, thinking about it.

"Also, I don't know how late you intend to be working... so I could just keep going for the couple more hours I had planned for my office, and then just head home afterwards. Call Blair soon so he can get ready before I get back, and then I can do so when I get home immediately." he went on.

"Then I can text you and you can come get us whenever you and Ilias are ready?" he suggested.

"Because I assume you'll be working far later than I."

Savra was silent, before shifting to their humanoid form, and nodding.

"Of course." they said.

"I'll be with them always, protecting them both with everything I have." they told him.

"...thank you for seeking me out that night." they then thanked him. "If not for you, I'd still be alone and scared and causing thunderstorms unintentionally." they said further.

"And we'll make sure those words are remembered, Eke." Ryker then assured him.

"We'll carve it in stone." he promised, the statement having both a metaphorical, AND literal meaning.

"Ah, right." Evan said, taking his phone out and sending a text to her.

"My address." he told her.

"If you want, Blair's still at the place getting things ready and unpacking and stuff. I can message him and we can figure it out." he said.

"Neither of us use teleportation mana, so we'd be limited to the cars we have." he reasoned with a small sigh.

"But if you can think of a way to streamline this, I'm all ears."

Evan looked at her briefly, before nodding.

"Absolutely." he said.

"He and I were just going to get some take-out when I got back anyway, so this works out beautifully." he commented.

"And I DO want to try Helscape." he then admitted.

"Heard VERY good things about it."

Evan... almost fell over when he heard that.

"Y-you're the head of this entire department!?" he exclaimed.

"W-wow!" he said.

"That's... heh, I admit, I didn't expect THAT, for some reason." he then admitted, shaking his head a little and chuckling.

"But seriously. Head honcho, eh? That's pretty neat." he told her.

"NOW I get why it was funny." he said.