Colin's posts

"....." Evan was silent again for a moment, before getting out of her lap and sitting against the wall again.

"...do we even have a chance, regardless?" he asked her.

"We're someplace that nobody can find us." he told her.

"This is where people go missing and are never found. Ever." he went on, some tears trickling down his dirty cheeks.

"Why? Why is this happening?" he asked.

"What did we do to deserve this?"

"...I don't know..." Evan said in a defeated tone.

"I don't know what's going on." he told her, sobbing lightly.

"Maybe... if I just gave in, they'd let you go..." he then said quietly.

"Maybe if I surrendered to them, they'd free you." he said further.

And she could hear the sincerity in his tone.

He was seriously considering it.

"...I know..." Evan said quietly.

"I've tried." he told her.

"Never works." he said further, before coughing violently.

"...o-ow..." he stammered afterwards.

"I feel better now." he then said.

"I always do after you help me."

Evan looked at the orb, before forcing himself to lean in and drink it, slurping it down quickly.

After he'd done so, he collapsed lightly into her lap.

"...Sammy..." he whiepered.

"This is horrible." he said.

"And we can't call for help. Nobody knows where we are..." he said further.

"What are we going to do, Sammy...?"

Another was sitting in the room, silent and still.

They seemed to be in better shape than the female, but that was only physically. Their eyes were glowing a faint crimson red, and they looked at her.

"...sorry..." he apologised.

"You're here... because... of me..." he said.

His voice was strained, like he was fighting to get those words out. Because he was.

The fact that he could even speak freely right now at all was a testament to how resilient he was... or perhaps, how cruel their captors were.

Bast paused for a moment, thinking about it.

"...that... is a good question." he said.

"It was clear they had NO idea who they were dealing with, though." he continued. "That extract only affected my human half, and my demonic half tried to take over, which would have been a bad time for... well... everyone." he explained with a sigh.

"So they really could have fucked things up." he muttered.

"But yes, there are SO many questions about that encounter." he agreed.

"At least we both seem to be okay now."

He looked at the pill confusedly for a moment, before grabbing it and taking it, quickly swallowing.

He then sighed, and looked at the ceiling.

"Cain, huh?" he asked. "Guess mother needed to call in help." he said.

"...how are YOU doing?" he then asked her.

"Are you all right?" he asked further.

"I didn't hurt you or anything?"

After about 7 minutes of her laying there to allow the pill to do its thing, she finally felt the pain in her head subside a little. Granted, what she had was still a decent headache, but at least it wasn't the borderline migraine that she'd woken up with.

At that time, Bast started to stir, before his eyes popped open quickly.

He looked ready to freak out, but sensing that someone was beside him, he looked over and saw it was Jordan.

"...." he was silent, before noticing he was in his room, and then sighing.

"...hi." he greeted her, placing a hand on his head.

"And... ow." he mumbled, feeling the pain like Jordan had.

Cain sighed again, but it was clear he was calmer, and in a MUCH better mood now.

"Cool." he said. "Thanks." he told them.

"And... you're very welcome." he added with a small smile.

---

She looked around, unsure as to whether she should wake the still-sleeping Bast beside her. He looked like he was having a bit of a fitful sleep, but it didn't seem like it was anything TOO concerning.

She then noticed two pills on the endtable beside the bed, a bottle of water, and a note. She grabbed the note to read it, and saw it was from the son of the demon that Bast's mother was friends with; Cain.

Odds are you have a whopper of a headache.

Whipped up these pills with some help, take one. It should take the edge off, at the very least.

-Cain Callamachi. it read.

It took Cain a moment, but he finally seemed to calm down. He breathed in and out a few times, before composing himself, and clearing his throat a little. He then looked between the two of them, and sighed.

"Indeed." he said.

"Is there anything else?" he asked.

"I should... probably head back to continue assisting with Mom's current project." he told them.

"I think we're good." Jaden responded.

"...however, pretty sure we now owe you about 4 litres of that pop just to apologise for what we just pulled." he added with a light snicker.

"Hmmm..." Jaden mumbled.

"That IS true..." he said, playing along with what Desiree was saying.

"ExCUSE me." Cain interrupted indignantly.

"Kiah is a chemist. A chemist that uses mana." he told them. "That is NOT an alchemist." he continued. "I interweave the very essence of mana, and cause it to BOND with basic elements and complex components." he said further.

"..." Jaden was silent, suppressing a smirk.

"Same thing, yeah?" he asked.

Cain was now on the verge of sputtering from sheer outrage, and Desiree could see that Jaden had a make a heroic effort to not burst out laughing.

Cain paused for a moment, looking at the drink.

"Recipe?" he asked. "It's home-made?" he asked further.

"In-house." Jaden laughed.

"...pretty sure you now have payment for any alchemical service I can render." Cain told them bluntly. "I will do almost anything for this stuff." he admitted, taking another swig.

"There you go." Jaden said to Desiree.

"Don't give him the recipe, and we have our own personal alchemist-for-hire." he chuckled.

Both just sighed.

"Only two people that can answer that." Jaden said.

"Indeed." Cain concurred.

"When WILL they awaken, anyway?" Jaden then asked him.

"48 hours at most." Cain responded. "And they'll have migraines like nobody's business when they do." he mumbled further. "I would NOT want to be them right now." he added.

"...I can well imagine." Jaden sighed.

"Still, thanks for the further info." he told him.

Jaden was silent for a moment, thinking about it.

"Yes. We do." he said. "It's... certainly plausible. Outright probable." he agreed.

"But as for your question about the lack of research, it's possible it was a crony of hers acting on their own to gain brownie points with her, or acting on some more generic orders, and THEY didn't do their research." he continued.

"...meaning that follower is in DEEP crap for their failure..." he then muttered.

"We can't say outright it wasn't some strange isolated attack, though." Cain interjected.

"It's true." Jaden agreed.

"But I'd say it's an 80/20 split in favour of... well... the greater of the two evils." he sighed.