[Center][color=A290F5][H1]Felix Jones — MY-1801-FJ[/H1][/color][/Center]

The boy watched his friend as he awaited their response, absentmindedly wondering if the wisps of shadowy stuff were thicker than they had been just moments before. Noticing his friend making some kind of gesture to him, a fist with their thumb pointed towards the ceiling, confusion flashed across the boy’s face as he tried to determine the meaning behind the motion, a lifetime without meaningful social interaction having left him at a loss to many basic social conventions. The boy’s confusion was short-lived, however, as only moments later the accompanying message reached the boy, making the gestures meaning clear, [color=C1CDCD]“Good idea”[/color]. Unlike the last time his friend had spoken, this time the boy was pretty certain that his friend hadn’t physically spoken, their voice seeming to have come from somewhere directionless. [i]In his head maybe?[/i] The boy dismissed the thought, as far as he was concerned some people just spoke like that and right now he was more preoccupied with the pride that had begun to well up in him from the praise he'd received, however small that praise had actually been.

The boy moved to follow his companion, the smile on his face showing that his pleased feeling had not yet faded. The boy noticed his friend making the same thumbs-up gesture and another that the boy recognised as ‘come here’ to the girl but didn’t think much of it, it wasn’t like he was being asked to do anything difficult like speak to her after all. The boy found a strange comfort in having someone friendly to walk beside, an alien feeling, but a nice one nonetheless. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the boy was snapped out of his stupor by a loud banging noise, followed by another, then another, then another, until, with a metallic screech, the noise stopped.

The boy saw the girl hold the flat of her palm out towards him and his friend. [i]That one meant she wanted them to stop, didn't it?[/i] Watching her as she slowly began to move in the direction the noise had emanated from just moments before, the boy saw her clutching tightly in her hands the unidentified object he’d noticed earlier, what appeared to be some sort of sharpened instrument, made out of what looked like bone. [i]Was she planning to go and see if whatever had made the noise was dangerous?[/i] He guessed so. [i]Did she want to protect his friend and him?[/i] Even if he was too shy to talk to her the boy certainly didn’t want anyone to get hurt for his sake. [i]Should he try and help her?[/i] The idea of facing whatever had made that crashing noise before seemed a little scary, but for whatever reason, the boy felt like it probably couldn’t hurt him, or maybe more like it wouldn’t matter much if it did… And maybe if he helped out his new friend would praise him some more afterwards? After several long moments of contemplation and hesitation, the boy decided he’d help the girl, taking a deep breath as he slipped his hand away from his friend’s and moved to position himself just behind the girl, trying his hardest to appear as small as possible as he did so.

[@Bartimaeus][@AelitaJezebelle][@t2wave]