Colin's posts

Hal met her gaze, and nodded.

"I know." he said.

"I get the feeling the worst has yet to come, and it's going to be shattering." he muttered.

"Maybe not permanently, but... we've not seen the last of Vanessa Encrae, now more than ever." he went on.

"Something tells me we're headed to a last stand disturbingly shortly."

"So we should be able to end this lockdown and move forward with Unit operations." Hal said.

"Good." he went on.

"Barring Jordan, which I have no idea what to do about, and Aedan, who may very well need Fyrane help, we're all back to normal. Or, as normal as we GET." he added with a light chuckle.

"Now. YOU." he stated.

"YOU look like crap." he commented.

"I assume you'll be taking some time off, yes?" he asked.

Hal just crossed his arms over his chest, and thought a moment.

"Perhaps..." he mumbled.

"That could work. In theory, anyway." he said. "...which is all we HAVE right now." he lamented quietly.

"But we'll need to discuss it with her, obviously." he went on.

"Still, we should be on the right track with the rune line of thinking."

"Ugh." Hal groaned.

"At least you got the majority." he said.

"We'll need to keep HER quarantined away, but if everyone else is back to normal, then we can reopen the Unit fully, and completely end this lockdown." he then stated, but then paused.

"...and Aedan." he muttered.

"I have NO idea how to help her..."

Hal just shook his head.

"Figures." he said.

"Seems Encrae STILL had her claws in Jordan." he growled.

"So did you get ANYTHING?" he asked.

"Or has Jordan barred off ALL information?"

Hal saw what happened, and he KNEW what that meant. And he cursed.

"Oh, God damn it." he growled.

He then went to his minifridge and shifted through the contents, before going to Anya and handing her a bottle of water.

"Here." he said. "This should help." he told her.

"At the very least, it should make this manageable." he added, unscrewing the top for her.

"I'm sorry, I thought that wish would be safe." he then apologised.

Hal nodded in response.

"Granted." he said, snapping his fingers.

With that, she received a rush of information, but two things were notable.

One was that Virgil and Arryn probably needed a checkup by a medical team, or at least Arryn did. Thanks to what had been happening, neither had been taking very good care of each other, but Virgil was faring better, being a demon. And that they were in one of the dorms.

The second was that Jordan was essentially rendered in static, which she mentally crashed into like a wall.

"Hm." Hal mumbled.

"Though if the same thing happened to them, odds are it may have interrupted. Or... perhaps they are in no shape to do so." he reasoned.

He then just sighed and shook his head, before snapping his fingers.

"Well, there's ONE way to find out." he told her.

"You can wish for one of us to know the locations and status of all those currently in the Unit." he suggested.

"That shouldn't be interrupted or blocked off."

Hal paused and thought for a moment.

"I... don't know, actually." he admitted.

"I guess... no, they'd have separate secured dorm rooms...? Maybe...?" he mumbled.

"I don't know, Anya." he lamented.

"Admittedly, I haven't known a lot about what's been happening in this building for a while." he continued.

"Maybe try the dorms. It's possible they were having fun in one of them."

Jake watched her go, before laying down again.

"...this was too close..." he mumbled. "She's getting dangerously close to probably finally getting us out of the way..." he lamented.

Anya then made her way to Hal's office, where she saw him hang up his phone.

He looked over towards her, and smiled weakly.

"Hollie seems fine." he reported.

"Suffering the same as I am, but she's whole again."

"Well, it worked a BIT." he responded.

"And that's not nothing." he said.

"For... whatever that may be worth." he then mumbled.

"Anyway, you go report back to Hal." he told her, releasing the hug.

"I'm going to stay here and effectively wait until I'm feeling like I'm whole again."

Jake was silent, before shaking his head again.

"All right, all right." he said.

He then took a few shaky steps forward, closer towards her, before throwing his arms around her in a hug.

"...I missed you." he whispered.

"There's so much I wanted to say while that was happening, but I couldn't." he went on.

"I'm glad we're both still here."

Jake nodded in response.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's... definitely something to be happy about." he admitted. "Seriously, it's a MASSIVE relief to be rid of her influence, and to have... well, ALL of me back." he commented further.

"Now, are YOU going to take time to recuperate?" he asked her.

"Because you do NOT look good. You look ready to collapse soon." he said, sounding concerned.

"I'm sure Ty wants you to rest soon, too, I imagine?" he asked further.

"...that is confusing, and slightly concerning." Jake admitted.

"It's surely not the work of Vanessa." he said.

"I don't feel her mana within me. Or... well, on a conscious level, anyway." he went on.

"And I know how it feels. My molting gives a VERY good sense of foreign mana awareness in me." he declared, before pausing.

"...unless that's how the foreign mana WANTS me to feel..." he admitted, shaking his head.

"I just know that odds are this isn't part of her plan."