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Hey all, who is up next? Last time I think it was @Mogtaki, but before that it was @raylah after me.
Adrianna had no intention of forcing the kid to join them. Frankly, it would have been a relief if she had decided not to join them. They had a whole ship-ful of hurt people they had to get help for, and a stray kid wasn’t going to make her job any easier. But the girl’s pet seemed to think that joining them was a good idea, as did the boy, so their numbers went up. The white-haired man introduced himself as Ethan, and after a brief back and forth with Yarri, Adrianna perceived a bit of a struggle as to who would proclaim themselves leader of this ragtag group. Fortunately, they would only be together for this walk, so she didn’t imagine things would come to a mutinous end.

Ethan decided, after a bit of back and forth, that Adrian would lead the group, and the children would be in the center. Yarri, with supposedly the keenest senses, would take up the rear and keep an eye out for tigers or stray children, as these forests seemed to be riddled with both. It wasn’t a bad suggestion, but the nature of it reminded her a bit too much of the most basic training done by the Church. Just a coincidence. She told herself. You’re being paranoid and seeing something where there is nothing. But paranoid was what kept her alive, and she couldn’t help but feel a bit more on-edge about being so close to the man.

“Sure.” Adrianna, unlike the sailors, made no fuss about the assigned post, and moved up to the front of the group. She set a somewhat brisk pace, though she slowed when she put too much space between her and the others. With everyone on alert, Adrianna didn’t begin to start up another conversation with the girl or Ethan, and the others were too far away. It was probably better to just stay quiet to not attract unwanted attention.

As they settled in more comfortably, Adrianna’s senses began to wander. She glanced back at Ethan, feeling something…off about the man. They had already been walking together for some time, and she hadn’t picked up anything before. But now… No, she was sure of it, he had gotten hurt. But how? When? All they did was make camp, and…well, he got run over by a child, but surely the boy couldn’t have caused that much damage. Adrianna turned back to see Cecil’s gauntlets. Well, perhaps he had. He clearly had some sort of modifications, and if the blunt ends of those things had smashed against the wrong part…Ethan could have gotten seriously injured. He likely wasn’t, in this case. All she could sense was some blood clotting in his chest. It would probably form a nasty bruise, but it was nothing worth fussing about. What’s more, the injury was not the type she should even be aware of.
@Raylah you good to go this round?
@Vena Sera Thanks Vena!

Shy and I collaborated a bit on mine, so you see dialogue from both Adrianna and Amuné in my post.
Everyone at the camp had gone quiet after the new arrivals. Well, nearly everyone. The boy apologized to Ethan, though Adrianna didn’t immediately notice how hurt Ethan was from the collision as she was a bit distracted trying to get the girl to respond, though she wasn’t having much luck on that front.

Adrianna looked up to see Yarri and some of the crew keeping lookout. Good. They couldn’t afford to drop their guard now, especially with these kids to protect. When the kid didn’t continue the ‘game,’ Adrianna decided not to press. She probably could have, but there was a part of her that didn’t want to take on the responsibility of caring for another human being. It took all of her energy to keep herself alive and safe, and this kid was clearly on the run in some direction. Amuné not responding was like a free pass. She could write the kid off, and then—“Who taught you?”

Shit.

Why couldn’t the kid ask for her name like any other normal person? I mean…who replied to an introduction with a question like that? Maybe she knew a bit about healing? Or maybe she was in awe because she was from an area where no one helped others who were injured. There was no telling, given her current state. “Uhh...” Adrianna floundered a bit, her voice seeming to crack as she was caught off-guard.

It’s your own damn fault. You told the kid to ask anything. “Mostly I learned from a guy named Nevyn.” She began. It was the truth, mostly. It was just also true that Nevyn was not a very uncommon name. “But I picked up a lot from books and out of necessity as well. I’ve spent a long time out on the road, or path.” Adrianna answered, gesturing to the path they were currently taking.

As she began to contemplate what she would ask the strange kid next, the white-haired dude chimed in, offering the Amuné the chance to travel with them to town. “He’s got a point.” Adrianna said, looking at the both of them. “Traveling alone isn’t the safe. If you are heading to town, you should come with us. Is everyone ready?” Adrianna looked around at the group.

“And as for your question. Are you running away from something, or towards something?” She asked. There was no point in pretending that the kid wasn’t on the run. Everyone could see that. Well, everyone except the girl herself. Amuné grew pale and rigid at the question, and Adrianna wondered if perhaps she had been too direct.

After just a few moments, though, the girl answered, so quietly that the crew members getting ready to move again probably didn’t hear it over the shuffling of their bags and chewing of their snacks. ”Away.”

Taking a deep breath, Adrianna nodded, and then shifted herself so she was a bit closer to Amuné, so they could converse a bit more quietly. She was about to say something to the girl when another question was asked. “How did you know?”

With a weak smile, Adrianna lowered her voice to a whisper as well and leaned in close to the girl’s ear. “You aren’t the only one who has had to run away.” Placing a hand on Amune’s shoulder, Adrianna gave it a brief squeeze before straightening and speaking up a bit louder. “So, are you coming with us for a while?” She smiled as she asked her own question, albeit a much lighter one than the girl might have been anticipating, with how things had been going.
@Raylah Ah, thanks for the update. Passing is always an option when you aren't feeling inspired. In future posts, you can always give an idea of how Yarri and companion would be reacting to the sudden appearance of children in what is clearly a dangerous forest. There are also crew member NPCs that I'm sure Vena would collab with you on if you wanted.
@raylah, everything okay?
Adrianna had nearly the same reaction as Ethan did to the prospect of taking a break. Her eyes grew wide, and she opened her mouth to protest, but heard nearly the same words coming from Ethan. Good, that meant she didn’t have to step up completely and lead this ragtag group. She looked over the others, and saw that one of the crew members was bleeding. Really? He wasn’t missing an arm or anything, it was hardly an injury worth stopping the whole trek.

“Sounds good.” Adrianna agreed to Ethan’s words about only spending ten minutes. He began to pace, and Adrianna turned her attention to the guy with the cut on his leg. She pull out her supplies, a bit annoyed at having to use them for such a minor injury when there were people on the beach who needed it more.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t need stitches or anything.” She replied. She wiped the blood away, careful to wipe away from the wound so as not to risk getting dirt inside. She did a cross wrap above and below the knee to hold the bandage in place, and declared him good. When she finished, Yarri had returned with troubling news. Adrianna completely agreed with Ethan, and gathered up her things to suggest that they get moving now rather than resting, but the giant cat seemed to have something more important to say.

Ethan addressed the intruder, and though Adrianna still didn’t know his name, she was silently grateful that someone was taking control of this situation. She rested her hand on her weapon, ready in case this new beast attacked. She didn’t even notice the kid hiding beneath until Ethan addressed her. Adrianna stepped to the side until she could see the girl, though the moorcat was still standing over her protectively.

A sudden crashing of metal drew her attention to Ethan once more, where she saw him tackled by… a young boy with a fair amount of robotic enhancements. “What is up with these woods? First a tiger and now a bunch of kids…?” Adrianna muttered, though she didn’t make a huge effort to keep her words from being heard. Looking between the children, she saw that the young girl looked injured, having some scrapes and cuts, while the boy looked uninjured. Ethan was probably more hurt by the machinery than the kid himself was.

“You take care of the boy. I’ve got the girl.” Adrianna said. It was a better way to divvy up the work, since the girl was injured and Adrianna was the most qualified (as far as she knew) to deal with this sort of thing.

“Hey there, sweetie.” Adrianna ignored the moorcat for the moment, since it had meat it would eat when it was comfortable, and addressed the girl. “You look like you’ve had a rough time… And I can see you are a little bit hurt. Why don’t you come out and let me take a look. I help fix people up.” She gestured behind her to where the crew member was sitting with his pant-leg still rolled up. “See, I just finished bandaging my friend’s leg because he fell and got it cut. And you don’t want any of those little scrapes to get infected. It would hurt.”

“So if you come out and sit over here with me, I can get you a snack and help clean up those scrapes. And then, if you want to go your own way, you can. Or you can come with us.” She smiled. “It is your choice.”

If her last crew had stumbled across this little lady, they would have likely offered her a chance to show she could hold her own among them, and if she failed they would have left her in the woods with nothing (not that it would have been much worse than her current state). It was strange to be so…nice. She didn’t hate it. But she didn’t like using her supplies on these strangers, either. What had any of them done for her?

The little girl seemed to debate the offer for a short while before crawling out and meeting Adrianna part way. “What do you say we play a little game while I work?” Adrianna asked. She looked up at the girl’s face, and though she didn’t answer aloud, she didn’t seem to abhor the idea either. Adrianna started to look at the little girl’s foot, inspecting the dirt and grime for cuts as she spoke again. “It’s called questions, and the way it works is that we both get to learn new things by asking questions. I’m sure it was scary to come across a big group of us here in the woods, so if you want to know some things, you can ask me, or my friends, any questions you have. BUT… each time you ask a question, I get to ask one, too. Okay?”

Adrianna didn’t let that count as her first question, though, and after a short pause, she asked one she hoped was manageable. “What is your name?”

The little girl answered after a few moments, supplying a name (that was possibly a lie, but Adrianna didn’t think so). “Amuné.” She grew quiet after that as Adrianna cleaned off an area, waiting for a follow-up question from the girl.

“Nice to meet you, Amuné.” Adrianna once again looked at her eyes expectantly, but no question came from the girl. Well…that was one clever way to get out of having to answer any more questions about her own situation. The girl probably wouldn’t make it out here on her own, but if she was stupid enough to ignore help when it was offered, then perhaps she still had some harsh lessons to learn. “Okay then….” She didn’t try to make conversation again to the girl, and looked over her shins. She patched up a few other spots, wiping the dirt away and making sure that nothing was getting infected. She grabbed some of her own rations and handed them to the girl. “Here, like I promised.” Now the kid could run off into the forest with her cat, and hopefully avoid the tiger.
I'm sure we can have a bit of dialogue here. As Ethan said, we have about ten min before we are going to get moving again. A lot of dialogue can happen in ten minutes.
@Mogtaki I'm confused, Mog. You wouldn't put any of your plans/ideas in the OOC, and now you are upset because we are not playing exactly into the hand you wanted? How are we supposed to ever integrate Cecil if we don't have communication? We can't read your mind.

You are making me feel like I can't post at all because I might interfere with the plans you won't share, and that is extremely frustrating. If you at least had a post of what Cecil was doing right now, we might get an idea of how to help those plot-lines meet.

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