Still strolling through the shadows, part II

[Shin]

Shin was actually relieved, though he didn't show it. If someone had snuck up on them then it meant he was getting soft, and if you got soft then you were easy prey. As it was Shin could barely use his own Chi, sensing others was easy enough, but anything else with it was impossible.

He kept his sword leveled at Kremnaes for a heart beat longer, then it was back in it's sheath put there as quickly as it had came out.

"Indeed."

It was all Shin would say on the matter, the slug had an agenda of his own Shin was sure of that. But what? The thing wasn't obviously suited for travel, for god sake it got out of breath when it just tried to keep up with Shins walking pace! Was it here for protection? No. Shin ruled that out right away, it was safe inside Sturms facility. Then what?

Well...now that that chair is broke i'll have to sit somewhere else. Always thinking tactically he moved to the corner of the room, where he could watch the door and any windows, as well as the entryway to where Isac would be cooking. Also, he wouldn't reflexivly break any more furniture.

Nothing else would be said by Shin, taking his seat, once again placing the Shiden Blade across his lap he would wait. Not the most exciting thing to do, but until morning came all he had was time to relax.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Awww, damn, I missed it?" Isac pouted, turning to Kremnaes at last, long after all action had ceased. "I bet it was something cool, too." Kremanaes and Shin were both very fortunate, the former because it never occurred to him that he'd been lying, and the latter because he didn't seem to notice that there was any additional damage--one chair didn't stand out in the current state of his house.

There were a few moments of silence, before he exclaimed, "Right, dinner, crap!" and hurried to check and make sure nothing was burning.

It would be another fifteen minutes or so before he Isac emerged from the kitchen again, carrying their dinner. Not wanting to take huge amounts of time to make anything, he'd simply made some hot sandwiches and soup; but despite the way he acted, his guests would discover something: he was actually a pretty decent cook.

[littlebean]

Everything had finally died down. The excitement about the imaginary threat disappated, and once again things were at that comfortable calm stillness that Kremnaes enjoyed so much. He didn't even respond to Isac's mention of the situation, because the subject was to be avoided completely, he just stood in the corner quietly, going over his course of action in his head, plotting step by step.

Dinner would provide a perfect opportunity, and another challenge to be overcome. In the fifteen minutes Isac was gone in the kitchen cooking, Kremnaes was back in his corner, putting his brain in overdrive, just thinking. There were matters that needed to be discussed with Shin, and doing it over dinner would be a proper setting. The dinner itself was an issue. Because Kremnaes was a slug, his diet consisted of fresh or rotten vegetation, but he wouldn't dare turn down the meal for fear of appearing rude and offending the host, yet a few hurt feelings were less risky than the potential illness from straying outside of his diet. Would he get sick? It didn't seem unlikely, but he needed to stay on good terms with Shin and Isac, if the food didn't settle in his stomach he was a nurse, he knew what to do.

The mission was turning even the most simple decisions into a big issue. For a moment he couldn't believe he was thinking so damn hard about whether or not he should EAT. The food smelled delicious though.

"Need a hand?"

[Shin]

The fifteen mintues Shin spent alone were welcomed. Except for the noise Isac made in the kitchen it was quiet and peaceful, at least to Shin. He kept his senses focused however, using the time to meditate and try to focus his Chi, which he did to no avail. It was like a wet bar of soap, he could grab on to it but it kept slipping out of his hands.

Rather then get fustrated he got depressed, feeling one of his biggest advantages in combat slip away was a horrible feeling. So when Isac came out with the food Shin slowly got up and made his way over to take it, turned around and went to sit back down in the corner and eat.

Unless interupted he would stay this way all through out the meal, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings as he drew back deeper into himself.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Nah, I got it," Isac replied to Kremnaes, setting plates in front of everyone. Truthfully, it never occurred to him that he might have a different diet and require different food; it might not constitute a full meal, but there were enough vegetables on the sandwich for a snack, at least.

Unless one of his guests spoke up, he'd sit down and eat in silence, cheerfully oblivious to both Kremnaes's dilemma and Shin's sour mood. His mind was already gone, thinking about how after he was finished he could head over to Usurii's...

[littlebean]

"Alright then."

Kremnaes almost sat down for the meal with everyone else until he remembered his slimey slug bottom would definitely dirty the chair. He knew the house was already pretty damaged and Isac had said nothing about Shin completely obliterating some of his furniture already, but perhaps he had something against the slime? He would eat his meal standing, and even felt bad for touching the dish that was handed to him. All of his actions were carried out hesitantly. Everything Kremnaes ever did was with such uncertainty, he didn't even know if standing would offend the host, or if he should be eating.

"Thank you for dinner Isac."

The sandwhich was held up to the eyes on his chest and inspected. The sight of the vegetables in the sandwhich pleased him. Perhaps the veggies would dilute anything in the sandwhich that might cause his stomach to become upset? The only way to find out was if he tried it. Again, as if the sandwhich was going to bite back, he took a small bite slowly. When he did, the sandwhich surprised him with it's taste.


"Isac this is really good!" Then he continued eating his food.

[Shin]

Finished with the meal Shin set the dishes to the side and rose to his feet. The sound of heavy boots clomping on the wooden floorboards easily drowned out the sound of their chewing, he walked a little more forceful then needed.

Stopping in front of Isac he sat down as the boy took another bite, sword and sheath set to his left side. "What time do we leave in the morning?"

Simple and to the point, he stared into Isacs eyes (assuming the boy met his gaze) looking for any sign of hesitation, if he was going to lie it would be now.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Eh, it's not much," Isac replied to Kremnaes's compliment. Truthfully, he kind of rushed the meal because he wanted to see Usurii. If he took his time, he could have made one even better, though whether he could appreciate it with his diet was another matter.

When the meal was over, Isac gave Shin a funny look; there was no deception in his gaze, as deception required a person to think ahead a little bit, something that wasn't exactly his strong suit.

"You can leave whenever you want; I'm going over to Usurii's for the night." Which was something he'd made clear earlier, back when they were in front of the main building.

[littlebean]

While finishing up the remainder of his meal Kremnaes disagreed with Isac about the meal not being much. First of all, if he was reffering to quanity, it was plenty (Kremnaes was feeling rather full) and secondly, it was his first time eating anything aside from vegetation and he felt it tasted very good. Of course Kremnaes wasn't one for disagreeing with people, so he would drop the subject all together, collecting Shin's dishes and his own, still trying his best to help out like a polite guest should.

"Where would you like me to put the dishes?" He asked standing with them, waiting for Isac and Shin to finish discussing their plans for the night, not wanting to interrupt. If Isac was going to Usurris for the night, he supposed they'd all be going. He recalled Shin saying he wouldn't leave Isac's side, and he certainly couldn't leave Shin, so in the end did it mean they were all staying at Usurri's? Somehow Kremnaes doubted she'd be okay with that. Not a word was spoke, in case his inquiries would spark an argument.

[Shin]

"Of course, that much is understood. You wish to be with your lover tonight." Shin said, seeing that Isac was being truthful.

"In the morning however, when are we leaving?" Shin was calm about the situation, diplomacy wasn't his best skill but even he understood the important of tact now and again. He had made it perfectly clear earlier that while he wasn't happy about letting Isac go with the sword he would trust the boy to come back in the morning.

If not, Shin would hunt him down, kill him and take it. He ignored Kremnaes, the slug wasn't of any concern to Shin and to be honest the Tenken did not trust him, the thing was up to something. Of that Shin was sure.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Eh heh heh," Isac laughed nervously, blushing and turning away. What was odd was that it was true--he actually had to stop himself from denying it out of habit. It was embarrassing, but kind of pleasing at the same time. Something he'd have to get used to, in any case.

"Ohhh...that's what you meant. Err...I'm not really sure; I'll have to ask Usurii if there's anything we should be doing." As far as he knew, they didn't have any orders just yet. Though, Isac himself was rarely given any orders; mostly, he just helped Usurii with whatever she was supposed to be doing.

"Ah, just put 'em next to the sink, I'll wash 'em later," he told Kremnaes offhandedly. Turning back to Shin, he said, "I suppose if I don't know, I'll come and check in around midday or something." He wasn't too concerned; whether out of confidence or ignorance, he really didn't fear Shin, though he was forced to admit he must have been tougher than he looked for surviving that scary woman back in the port city.

[littlebean]

"Alright."

Gathering the plates slowly and carefully, he walked with caution towards the sink, clutching the plates as hard as he could, trying his best to prevent them from slipping out of his slimey hands. As much as he liked to help, now he remembered why he didn't usually wash dishes, or owned any for that matter, it was a safety hazard.

If Kremnaes was anything other than a slug, it might have looked awkward to watch someone walk so slowly with the dishes, but it all was in an attempt to prevent any accidents from happening. Ignoring the conversation happening in the background, he carried out his plan. One at a time, he put the plates on the counter next to the sink, stacking them neatly on top of eachother.

Behind him the others conversed about what was going to happen. Isac didn't have much of an idea of when to meet, and probably didn't care anyway, so neither did he, as long as he had time to talk to shin and-

"Aah!" The final dish slipped out of his hands. Before letting it crash to the ground Kremnaes stumbled with it, closely resembling a clumsy circus clown trying to juggle before his slow, slug like reflexes failed him and the dish came crashing down into a million pieces.

"AAH SORRY!" Was his immediate response, before stepping away from the shards on the ground. "Oh god Isac I'm so sorry, I-I" Apologies spilled out of his mouth. "This is my own stupid fault! I promise I'll get you another plate!" The eyes on his face opened wide in shock. Often Kremnaes's expression was awkward and misplaced, his frown showing worry in one place, his eyes following through with the rest of his expression in another.

"Gosh lookit what I did I'm such a goof geezes.." Kremnaes muttered quietly to himself, picking up the pieces of broken dish off the ground.

[Shin]

Shin was silent for a moment, he kept his cold blue glare fitted on Isac. There really wasn't much Shin could do, short of crawling back to Sturm and he wasn't about to do that. He could attempt to take the sword from Isac, but what would that really accomplish? A fight?

Shin was hating himself, he was thinking to deeply into the situation instead of trusting his instinct. If Isac was going to leave him, then there was nothing he could really do. He was in foreign territory and had to remind himself of this on more then one occasion.

"Very well. I will wait ..." His voice quickly drowned out by the dropping of plates and Kremnaes's pathetic pleas. He rose from his seated position and went to sit back where he had been before. Leaving Isac to deal with Kremnaes and his constant bumbling and apologizing.

[Zach Kaiser]

Isac's relief at Shin being patient was offset by the sudden crash from the kitchen. He went to go see, for a moment hoping that those Gartel had shown up and started making noise so he could give them a piece of his mind, but it was just Kremnaes being a klutz.

He was less annoyed at the loss of a plate (really, he had way more than he needed--having those two over for dinner was the most company he'd had in a long time) and more at the constant distractions trying to keep him from leaving. He really didn't want to have to babysit them--heck, they were probably older than him.

"Don't worry about it; one more broken thing around here isn't going to make any difference," he replied, though he sounded a bit annoyed. "Well, I'm heading out--you two have fun, or...not," he amended, glancing at the sulking Shin.

And with that, he hurried and grabbed the extra bag of food and his sword and rushed out the door, before they did anything else to delay him...

[littlebean]

"O-okay." He stuttered to himself, picking up the sharp glass daintily with the tips of his fingers. It was true that this wouldn't be the only thing in the house that was broken, Shin smashed a chair but Isac didn't seem to mind did he? Well...what if he did? He couldn't quite tell if Isac was being sarcastic or not. It seemed to Kremnaes that Isac may have been upset but just wasn't showing it. Of course, in Kremnaes's imagination everyone was mad for some reason, and his list would be growing too.

For a brief moment he glanced at Shin, wondering if now that Isac was gone it would be a good time to have that talk he was waiting so long to have. With the way Shin was sulking, he figured perhaps it would be best to wait awhile, he didn't want to bother him with one nuisance after another.

To pass the time he finished his task, trying to clean up his mess without accidentally causing another one. The entire ordeal had been pretty embarrasing, and he swore once he was finished all of his chores he'd go back to his corner and sit there for the rest of the night. But until then....

"Hmmm..." Kremnaes had successfully picked up all the glass, but now he needed to dispose of it safely. Briefly he wondered how safe it would be to throw away glass in the garbage, in case it cut through the garbage bag. Right after that thought he wondered if it was impolite to be snooping around Isac's house looking for the trash anyway? There wouldn't be a possible way of doing it without him knowing, because his hands would leave slime prints behind and there'd be glass in the garbage as evidence. But then what was he supposed to do with the glass?

One by one he opened and closed each cupboard underneath the sink, trying to find the garbage bin. When he found it, he placed the glass inside and closed the cupboard, turning to Shin, not entirely sure how to start the conversation. "Ehe. So...."