Colin's posts

"...she did!?" Ty asked, some light in his eyes.

"She did." Vae confirmed. "Not much... maybe an hour or two... but it was some." she said.

"That does my heart good to hear." Ty responded quietly, exhaling in relief.

"Also... seems she gave us a clue about what's happening." he then revealed.

"Oh?" Vae asked.

Ty then proceeded to tell her what Hazel had said... the little there was. But it was SOMETHING. It was more than they had before.

"It's not much, but we know this is transmitted by touch. Or... hand-touch, I guess." he finished.

"I know you did." Ty responded.

"Still... it hurts to see her regressed to this." he muttered. "But yes, there IS progress, and given how she was essentially forced to relive the existence she left behind, that is a miracle, in and of itself." he reasoned.

"And I'm... fine..." he mumbled.

"Hate seeing her like this, hurts me every time I ask something of her, and she takes it as an order." he went on.

"I want to slam my fist into Sebastien's jaw SO badly." he then growled. "...but I'd be hurting a victim of this, as well." he lamented.

"This is just... such a shit situation."

Ty gritted his teeth as he saw this. Seeing Hazel this way, acting like she was, being the way she used to be... and knowing that Sebastien was... technically responsible for it, but at the same time, not... ate at him inside.

Sebastien was a fine target for his aggression, his anger... but that wouldn't be right. He was just a pawn as well. A tool that someone else was using. It wouldn't be right to be mad at HIM.

And yet... knowing that Sebastien would probably trigger a relapse if she ever came into contact with him again, made him SO angry.

But there was nothing he could do.

He wanted to tell her not to eat, because he hated that she was taking his plea as an order, but he wasn't about to tell her NOT to eat.

"...I'm sorry..." he apologised softly, before turning and walking away from her, stopping at the door and looking back. "I believe in you, Hazel. You can come back from this. You're already doing so well." he told her further, though it was mostly him talking to himself at this point.

Or he would have been, had Vae not been walking by at the time. He looked over towards her, and sighed.

"I guess I should be happy that ANY progress is happening." he admitted to her.

Ty witnessed her, taking in her form and demeanour, before sighing silently.

"Hazel." he said.

"I promise I will always be here to help you." he told her, moving the small table over towards her.

"Try and eat a little something. It's bottled water and some Fårikål." he told her, before pausing. "Er... mutton stew." he clarified, in case she didn't know. "Pretty sure I butchered that pronunciation, too." he admitted with a light laugh.

"Anyway, please try and have a little." he went on.

"I need to tell the others about this new info."

During this time of her being there, Ty had not touched her. Mostly because she would get VERY scared when he did. He tried once, and she withdrew back into herself for a good solid hour. So he'd stopped. He would let HER make the first move when she was ready.

So he didn't take it personally when she flinched at his sitting down.

"It's okay." he told her.

"I'll tell Agent Sharp." he said.

"And I'll keep being here for you. You know that." he said further, standing up.

"I always will be. I'm not going away ANYTIME soon."

"....I see." Ty responded.

"Hmmm. I'll let people know." he told her.

"This is a valuable piece of information." he continued.

"Someone is passing this along through TOUCH, and that is terrifying." he went on.

"Thank you for telling me, Hazel." he then said further, sitting down beside her.

Ty froze a bit when Hazel spoke, before quickly walking over towards her and setting what he'd gotten on the table near her.

"Someone touched him?" he asked.

"I... you mean...?" he started to ask further, before realising that mentioning Sebastien's name might not be the best thing right now, so he clammed up and said nothing more on THAT.

"What do you mean someone touched him?" he asked her.

"How so?"

"..." Ash was silent, before sighing.

"We'll work something out, I promise." he told her, before shutting the door and activating the outside lock for it, so she couldn't get out.

Once he did so, he texted Sydney.

Yo, we need to talk. he sent.

Ended up making emergency use of your mirror room, and we need to talk about it. he then sent further.

I'm at your place right now, pick somewhere for us to discuss this. he then added in a third one.

Ash didn't say anything in response, just nodded.

The two then disappeared from where they were, in a burst of black fire, and appeared in a place she didn't recognise, in front of a door. He opened it, and when she looked inside, she saw herself reflected hundreds of times over, in mirrors.

"This is a special mirror room that reflects mana." Ash told her.

"Get in, and your rune won't be able to penetrate outside it." he said further.

"We'll try and come up with an actual solution soon, but for now, this will stop the threat the rune poses."

Ash was not entirely unaffected by the rune. He was surprised and caught off-guard by JUST how powerful it was, but he managed to activate his own rune, shattering the one Kiah had dropped.

"Now! While you have clarity!" Ash exclaimed.

"I'm taking you away from here! I'm going to take you somewhere that you can't hurt anybody!" he continued, racing up towards her.

He then grabbed her by her shoulders, and looked into her eyes.

"...and it's for your own good as well." he told her.

Ash just crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, no." he said.

"Come at me with your weird new rune." he told her.

"You're angry. Take it out on a big boy that CAN take it." he went on.

Obviously, he didn't mean it. He was baiting her to use her rune again, so he could disrupt it again, and then get her out of there as quickly as he could, if need be.

She was too dangerous to be left alone like this, with no control over the rune.

Ash narrowed his eyes, and readied himself.

"Out of the room. NOW." he ordered Nate.

Nate just nodded and rushed out of the room, as Ash stood his ground.

"...it gonna drop again?" he asked.

"Or can you reign it in?" he asked further.

Ash looked at Kiah as she said what she did, and then sighed.

"Gotta admit, THAT was a new thing." he admitted.

"But all right, if you couldn't control that, that's a problem." he stated, before looking at Nate.

"You good?" he asked.

"Y-yeah..." Nate stammered.

"Good." Ash said, looking back to Kiah.

"And we need to nip this little rune problem in the bud."

Nate didn't know what to say or do here. Kiah was clearly on some kind of warpath, and anything he was trying to help settle the situation was only making it worse. He could feel the rune creeping at him, crawling all over him, and there was nothing he would do to stop it.

Or stop her.

He then opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't get the chance, before there was a burst of black fire off to his and Kiah's side, and Ash was suddenly standing there.

"...the fresh hell is THIS rune?" he asked, looking it over.

"Well, first things first." he said, before letting his own rune pulse out from where he stood, negating and dispelling the one Kiah had created.