Eskarina Dennels's Story

He believed her, but seeing the previous shirt with more than a little blood on it was concerning enough. Her comment about the orb was enough to distract him for a moment, however, and he nodded, saying "I liked it. Next time I try to do something like that, I'm sticking with things that won't explode like that though. No sense blowing off any fingers, or destroying things I like." He hadn't mentioned his most recent thought, but he wondered if it was an experiment best left for when he was back in his apartment. He didn't think it would go wrong in the ways that the object-moving had, but he also figured she was probably a bit skittish about 'experimenting' right now. So he stayed silent on that score, deciding that waiting would be better. After all, it's not like it would be more troublesome later than now.

His eyes fell back to the blood-stained shirt, and he thought about some way to make it up to her. He stood then, and walked toward the shirt, saying "Well, the least I can do is get this thing cleaned. I should do something to make it right." His long strides took him over to its location quickly, and he reached out for the piece of clothing. If it couldn't be repaired, maybe he could just buy her a new one, but at the very least he owed it to Esk to try.

Esk turned closed the latch on the cupboard and turned, just in time to see him reach for the bloody remains of her shirt. "NO!" She's across the floor before she has a moment to think, and with a kick sends the shirt into the fireplace in a moment of pure panic. At the same moment she slaps at his forearm with an open hand, her pupils reduced to pinpricks in her panic

Her eyes dart down to his hand- and sees nothing. Her heart stutters, then lurches back into a semi-regular rhythm and she takes a deep breath. The panic drains as quickly as it had come, and quite suddenly sits, her backside thudding against her wooden floor as she does so. She makes a grab for his wrist before he can move, as she tries to compose some kind of non-crazy explanation for her behaviour. But her head was buzzing with momentary fear, and at that moment she can't seem to come up with much of anything.

He had never seen anyone react like Esk did to the sight of him reaching for her shirt. He stepped back for a moment, though he was still close enough for her to reach after she had sat down. The raw fear in her eyes, radiating from her, was actually quite disturbing to him - what could possibly cause her to be so afraid? He was pretty sure the Aschen had found cures, or at least treatments, for most of the potentially lethal diseases which had plagued humanity for so long, though some things clearly took longer than others to address. Yet somehow, she feared him coming into contact with her bloodied shirt. Why would that frighten her so much?

He wanted to ask; he wanted it with a surprising amount of fervor. However, fear such as she was showing could not be dealt with by questions that would demand confrontation of that fear. So he took the other route and said "Okay, so I guess I'll be buying you a new one then." Sitting down on the floor near Esk, he laid his hand over hers, layering its sudden coolness between his wrist and palm, and said "I take it you weren't going to miss that shirt much then?" in a tone meant to convey humor. He didn't come across as amused, because that would have been too incongruous, but it was tangential enough to at least partially derail whatever thoughts or emotions were fueling her fear.

Her head, which had begun to sink with the realisation that she looked, at best, completely insane and at worst... well, no, just insane, really, lifted to look at him as he sat next to her. After a long moment she allowed her balance to shift, until her shoulder rested solidly against his and she could rest her head on his shoulder for a minute. After a moment, however, the giggle started. It rocked her, doing a great deal to shake some of the tension out of her muscles before it could settle in for the long haul. "Wrong colour for me anyways." She says at last, when she can pull herself together enough to speak.

She righted herself, and then, a moment later, pushes herself to her feet, reaching down to offer Drew a hand up. "C'mon. I promised you a coffee. I've got some books here that might help anyways." If he was willing to downplay her issues, then she was more than happy, actually, perfectly happy, to play along. If they could forget it and move on, she'd be greatful; Drew's powers were much more interesting than her... quirks... surely?

Moments later, she'd lead him to the kitchen. After all, if nothing else, she could distract him about the ranch until the afternoon, until it was time to leave. No problem... right?

He smiled when she started to giggle. Good, she was relaxing again. That terror... Her mention of the shirt's color didn't even require thought to give a response, and he said "Then we'll have to go shopping again, so you can help me pick out a new one for you." He smiled up at her as she rose, then gathered himself and took her hand, rising with only a little assistance on her part. Dancer or not, she still was smaller than him, and there was every chance that trying to haul him to his feet would undo whatever repair work was done to her back.

He grinned at the mention of coffee, and said "Hey, coffee and books. Looks like our situations are reversed this time, eh?" He followed her to the kitchen, occasionally rebounding off the wall as one of the massive canines wandering the halls shouldered him aside. It was odd, they almost looked a bit disdainful, as if he were a barely tolerated visitor. He'd known dogs that had been aggressive toward most but somehow still liked him well enough, and dogs who greeted everyone with an equal amount of enthusiasm, but never dogs that acted like he was, at best, a harmless intrusion into their daily lives.

Of course, he'd never seen dogs, in person at least, that resembled something out of the prehistory of humanity either. These things were huge! He wondered what breed they were supposed to be, but didn't want to seem overly curious quite yet. After all, there was coffee to be had, and he was curious about their library.

The ocean pulled away from the beaches of Queleya, holding for a moment off of shore. Half of a reef was exposed. Fish flopped on the bottom, and crabs frenzied about. As suddenly as it withdrew, the water returned, crashing upon the shore!