[color=662d91]"Fine,"[/color] Liu mumbled, his voice sounding distant despite his proximity. He stood up straight and dusted off his person. This mundane dusting did nothing to clear the sap and mud. Some leaves peeled off of his garb but many of them just shifted a centimeter down. That would have to do, [color=662d91]"I am fine, thank you for your concern,"[/color] he replied dryly. Until now, his tone was most always smooth, respectful, and subtle. His response to Esther was firm and forceful, a break from normalcy. 

Liu strode into the derelict cabin at last. Dolls leered at him and he watched back with suspicion. Penny's tidying job made him feel better -- since he could easily see if one of them began to move. On his way by her, he patted her shoulder, an emboldening gesture of gratitude. It left some faint streaks of jungle detritus where he patted. 

He waited for the doctor to finish his explanation before cautiously reviewing the journal, surveying text scrawled on the open page. He had no heuristic for determining the age of this scrawling. The lunatic did not deign to keep track of the date, so obsessed with the heart and the forest were they. Squirming internally, he swapped suddenly to not looking at the dolls before asking gently, [color=662d91]"if this text is related to anything in our reality, it seeks an avatar. I do not believe our illustrious forewoman mentioned anything about missing persons but I cannot assume it doesn't already have something. Or... we are delivering some options in ourselves. Unless it wants a child,"[/color] he looked around at the group once more, counting once more to ensure they didn't have any bona-fide children -- creatures appear so young anymore, he is beginning to have trouble telling. 

[color=662d91]"I suppose it is reassuring, at least, that this entity is not cunning enough to fashion an acceptable body for itself. What is this stone, then? If not the source of twisting nature, is this merely a piece of it, or an empty eggshell?"[/color] He pondered aloud, walking in a circle around the stone, his eyes flitting nervously between the dolls aligned on the wall, each perched to take his head off, the stone, and the forest outside, expecting some kind of impending encroachment. He hoped faintly that they were not arriving during some kind of gestation period. He hoped that thoroughness and care were not their enemy. This thrum he wasn't sure if they all felt seemed to him to be what one expected of a presence noticing them. Sometimes steady and assured, or ignorant, other times attentive and bearing animus through its leafy envoys. For a moment he considered touching it. Guilty at the recklessness of the thought, he allowed it to perish and stood watch for any of his compatriots to make the same move, and resolved to stop them from doing so, no matter how far above or below him they stood on the social ladder.