Colin's posts

"Ah!... Ah, I'm sorry!" Levi exclaimed.

"No... I don't... that's..." he started to say further, before she saw something in his eyes.

His pupils were smaller, and his eyes were vibrating a little. It seemed like he was having a panic attack. An outright panic attack. But that's when she swore she saw blue rings in his eyes... before he bolted.

He didn't run very far, just to a storage room a few feet away, and shut the door behind him.

And then she felt... a massive pulse, which was steeped in THEIR presence.

It almost felt like an abomination was about to emerge from behind the closed door, before it just... vanished.

Immediately, Levi seemed to be on the defensive.

"H-huh!?" he exclaimed.

"G-going on? What do you mean?" he asked her.

"Is something wrong!?" he then asked further, growing more panicked.

"Oh no... oh no, are we being attacked?" he went on, looking around feverishly.

"Am I being fired!? Are you kicking me out!? Are you breaking up with me!?"

Sometime after Levi had picked up Ally's order, the two of them were working in their Unit department... but Ally had noticed something was... off... about Levi. And it was concerning her.

It didn't seem like they were taking hold of him again, thankfully... but if that were the case, at least she would have known what was happening, and would have been able to take steps to help him.

This was different.

She would notice him flinching slightly whenever someone said something close to him, even if they weren't speaking to him. His gaze jolted around erratically, and it seemed like he was just... overall nervous. Or scared. For all intents and purposes, he was acting the way he'd acted before her and the Unit had managed to help him sort his life out and realise what was happening with him.

And it was starting to affect his work, too. She knew that if this kept up, their immediate boss would take this as a chance to try and get rid of him.

Levi seemed to be genuinely shocked and surprised at that.

"Are... are you sure?" he asked.

"Your friend got a good-sized order. Think of it as a complementary addition, or perhaps a 'first order' bonus." Abigail responded with a small smile.

"Oh... well... a-all right then." Levi replied.

"Thank you very much." he told her.

He then made his way to the door and stepped outside, looking back at her and waving as best he could, before walking away.

Levi gingerly grabbed the book, but paused as he noticed something.

"...huh?" he mumbled, seeing what looked to be a blue gem there.

'...this doesn't look like it should be here...' he thought, as he reached towards it and picked it up with his fingers.

"Hey, this looks like it should be with your jewelry." he commented, taking it off the shelf... just for it to crumble in his fingers and turn to dust that dissipated as it fell to the floor.

"Sorry!" he quickly apologised.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to break it!"

Levi raised an eyebrow.

"All right, I'll take that copy." he told her.

"And... uh... both?" he then said, an almost worried tone to his voice, before sighing.

"I have a vested interest, you could say." he muttered.

"I'll go get the book." he then said, before making his way to the shelf where he'd seen the books.

"...heh." he then chuckled.

"I see you have a mix of legit and fairy tale stuff here."

Levi looked over at the box, before approaching and looking inside it, checking its contents.

"...mmm, yeah." he said. "Mmhmm, mmhmm..." he mumbled further, checking his phone again and referencing the list he'd been given. "...ahhhh, yep, all here." he confirmed.

"Oh, and I noticed you had some books on... well, Ancient Ones." he commented.

"I was just checking to see what they were." he added.

Really, he was wondering if they were books that had legit info on them, or if they were just stories that coincidentally referenced things that existed. It became a bit of a hobby of his; to see just how much 'legit' info there was out there of them.

So far... results were minimal.

Levi nodded in response.

"Yeah." he confirmed.

"Oh." he then said, taking out his phone and looking at something on it.

"Right, here it is." he mumbled.

"She told me the confirmation code was B5ST786G22." he told her, pocketing the phone once more.

"Or... well, the order code, or whatever. The number that says I'm really here to pick it up for her." he finished, before looking around at everything she had, and seeing there was a decent selection, considering it was a bit of a smaller store.

"Hi, I'm Levi." the young man responded.

"I was sent here to pick something up." he told her.

"A friend, of mine, Alyssa, told me she called and confirmed an order here, and she sent me to grab it for her, as she's unable to come get it, herself." he continued, pausing for a moment.

"...no rush, though." he then said.

"I can see you're busy, I... I can wait."

Marc watched her head off, and sighed quietly.

'Yeesh.' he thought.

'You've dodged a bullet, kid.' he 'told her' mentally. 'Odds are you were nowhere near the banshee when she screamed. Otherwise you'd be in a LOT worse shape...' he added.

---

As she was restocking, she heard the front bell ring as the door was opened... but when she looked, she saw it was slowly being opened, and a shy young male was sticking his head in, almost to see what was going inside.

He then noticed that she had noticed him, and almost jumped a little, but stepped fully inside, allowing the door to shut behind up.

"Oh, uh, hello." he greeted her quietly.

"Get the tub going and I'll be there shortly." he told her in response.

"...hm..." he mumbled.

"Give me... 15-20 minutes." he said further, as he turned on their oven and looked through their freezer.

"Yeah, I'll have a decent selection with me." he chuckled.

"You in a wine mood?" he then asked her.

"Or want something harder?"

"Why don't you relax in the hot tub?" Marc suggested.

"Throw in one of those soothing dissolving balls." he went on. "That's always helped in the past." he reasoned.

"I can join you with some bite-size snacks and such, and some alcohol." he chuckled.

"If you think it'd help." he added.

"If you just want to lay there and crash, I can make myself scarce."

"Indeed." Marc responded, before sighing again.

"That could have been a lot worse, though." he then said.

"Seriously. You're lucky you got off with only the damages you sustained." he commented further.

"Regardless, will you be able to work when the bar reopens, you think?" he asked.

"Or will I need to cover for you?"

"...oh crap, right!" he said, remembering the note.

And then he pieced it all together.

"Oh... oh, that answers my question." he said, seeing as SHE hadn't.

"Guessing they gave you a swab and a pill to take." he went on.

"Odds are you'll be fine." he told her further.

"That had to have been hard, though... to massively understate it."