Quelaya

Having already dabbed at the cuts until they stopped oozing blood, he knew that the statement Nick directed at him was more a commentary on the actual damage, versus the perceived danger. So he said "They're really quite shallow. Esk saved me losing hand or an eye or more. I'm fine." He walked over and examined what he could see of the damage that had not already been covered, and he winced slightly. "That's gotta sting," is about all he could say about the matter, though he didn't do anything as foolish as putting his hands in Nick's way.

A thought occurred to him then, but he looked over at Nick as he spoke again. "I think I might be able to help a bit with that, if you'd like. I've got three years' paramedic training, and I might at least be able to...ehm...sense where the quartz is. I can try at least, if that's ok," he finished, his gaze firmly on Nick and not on either the damage he was responsible for or the exposed and undamaged skin that looked...rather nice. Down boy, he chided himself. Appreciation was one thing, but it was bad form to appreciate a potential patient while they were in any way compromised.

Imperceptibly, Esk tightened, the muscles along her spine shifting from mild tension and discomfort to something short of panic. She cleared her throat just as Nick shook his head. "Just done. Nothin' to find. Let's see to you." He nodded towards a seat next to Esk, using his best Sensi tone and brooking no argument. He dropped the hair to one side of the girl's head and strode out, heading towards the bathroom to disinfect his hands before beginning again.

Esk, for her part sat up slowly, pushing her hair out of he face as she does so and looking Drew over. Her gaze flicked to the door before back to her companion. "And without the macho crap?" She lent forward, reaching out to move his chin to one side and then the other. It didn't look too bad overall, and she wasn't as convinced as he seemed to be that she'd saved him from serious maiming. After a moment's assessment, she took her hand away, and promptly punched his shoulder with it.

"Don't *do* that to me!"

Nick's suggestion that there was anything to see to regarding his own wounds was not something he felt the need to comment about, so he shrugged and said "I doubt there will be anything to find, really. I'm handy with tweezers." He also felt no need to remind anyone again of his peculiar biology, and he had spent a moment trying to sense any significant pieces that might have been lodged in his skin. It looked very much like what had struck him had mostly been glancing hits, skidding along the surface but not lingering thereafter. And tiny shards, most likely, were going to be absorbed anyway. Still, an extra pair of eyes looking things over was not a bad thing, and he definitely didn't buy into the 'I'm medically trained, I can treat myself well enough' school of thought either.

Esk's attention made him slightly uncomfortable on several levels, but that was all forgotten when she slugged his shoulder. He yelped slightly and shied away, saying "I didn't expect it either! I'll definitely be much more careful in the future," he added almost under his breath. Paper. Yes, that should be safe enough to work with, especially starting with small pieces. Of course, that was only one possibility within a range of potential abilities, but it was still safe enough. And that thought actually inspired another thought, and he actually thought about it for a moment before he even tried to figure out what he could do with it, or if he should even try. He decided to wait a bit, just in case, and instead looked at Esk more seriously and asked "How's your back? I thought I saw more than a little blood, but I don't see ambulances or EMTs. Are you ok?"

She grunted in acquiescence to his point. "Still."

At his concern about her back however, she blinked and shrugged, pushing herself to her feet. "I'm alright." To demonstrate her point she turned on one foot, stretching her arms above her head as she did so. "Looked worse, I'll bet. Got your head bashed plenty." Seeing that Nick had yet to return she stretches out and shifts a bowl and a stack of paper from the coffee table in front of him, dragging the first aid kit into her lap as she does so. "C'mere."

She gestures with one finger before opening a single unadorned pot- one that looked like it had had heavy use in the past. If he allowed her, it would be applied gently to each scratch, warming it on contact for thirty seconds or so, before numbing it completely. As she worked the door to the hall opened, and closed again without allowing anyone within. Esk continued until she was satisfied before sitting back, letting out a breath of tension she hadn't realised she'd been holding. "Hand too." She laid her left open, waiting, her gaze suggesting that... given as he'd been the one to hurt himself, she should be the one to fix it. And she wasn't keen for him to refuse her. "Drew."

He allowed her to work, approving of the loss of pain caused by the salve. Her request for his hand was answered as she wished, with him putting his hand in hers, palm-up. He couldn't resist asking at least once more, however, "You sure you're ok and it's not just this stuff hiding the problem? Wouldn't want you getting an infection or anything." He meant it too. He liked her, and her getting hurt because of him just wasn't right. Still, he settled down and let her do her thing. He'd done the best he could, and if he wasn't imagining things, he could almost feel the tingle of the shards that he knew were in his hand reducing, almost as if they were getting absorbed.

That didn't seem to stop the wounds themselves from being an issue, but it meant that nobody might have to dig through his skin to find things. Of course, even if his body were absorbing the quartz, their presence would slow down the healing process enough to make things inconvenient. And how it would affect his classes and OJT....geez. He thought about it again, and he sincerely started to wonder if he should try the thing he had thought of a few minutes before. He'd still have to be careful, but he knew that shoving large amounts of energy at something was clearly not the way forward yet. Perhaps once he knew how to do it without unintentional problems, but as things stood now, it was still something to approach with extreme caution.

The moment she had his hand in hers she went to work. Quick, deft movement spoke more than she would probably like about how often she had had to do this before, and it would take the work of a minute or two for her to have it bandaged securely again, gently pinching the end of one of his fingers to test if she'd tied it too tight more out of habit than extra concern for him.

Only when she's finished does she look up, and seem to register his question at all, a soft and slightly indulgent sigh escaping her lips. "I'm fine. Honest." She swung her legs around the corner of the table and with her free hand lifted the back of her shirt, to reveal a patch of gaze that was, perhaps, only two inches or so square, and entirely clean and dry. "You worry too much." She dropped the shirt and turned to stand, grabbing the first aid kit as she does. Her route back to the cabinet on one side of the fireplace takes her past a bundle of abandoned cloth, the shirt she'd been previously wearing. Torn, and stained with more than a small amount of blood despite her protestation that all was well. Still- the bandage was dry and clean and despite his worries, she moved well enough. As she pulled open the cabinet and reached up to put it back on one of the higher shelves she half looks over her shoulder; "I'm sorry about your stone though. It was pretty."

A silly thing to say, perhaps, and internally she winced at it's clumsiness, but really... what else could she do?

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!

Einar Robidine materializes from the void.

In a cacophony of obliteration, everything to the southeast vanishes.

Einar Robidine has left the area, heading south into Llohap.

Einar Robidine has arrived, coming from Gonthar.

Einar Robidine has left the area, heading in into Port Tovon.