Welcome to Gaia! ::

poke couldn't help but snicker at neko's remark, as well at his vast range of vocal range. She did her best not to laugh any more but it was quite hard. "I see your, point..." While she plucked, she noticed how the holes in his shirt and backside were starting to close up. Thats odd.... She thought. She had yet to have seen neko's amazing healing abilities, and it was safe to say she thought them to be...amazing.

Also hearing riyo's question, poke could help but come up with her own answer. "He's the guy who wanted to to be a porcupine for a while, so he dressed up. He did a pretty good job of it too..."

"As for rooming, as long as it contains a bed I'll be happy."

Atticus had jumped a little in his seat at the high-pitched scream, enough to where he just stood up when it was over. Pipe in mouth, he walked back to the room where it had emanated from and peeked in. "Mitsu?" He asked, taking some steps into the room. "I'd ask if you were alright, but it's obvious that you're not."

He'd seen Blade bring her in sleeping, so either a nasty snake or spider just bit her, or she'd had one hell of a dream. Wondering if he'd regret this, he sat on the edge of the bed and let out a puff of smoke away from her. "Now, I'm not going to ask you whats wrong. That's incredibly cliche and I probably know anyways. Instead, I'm going to say something that my father would always tell my mother when the weight of the world was on her shoulders."

He took in a deep breath, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the tears off of her cheeks. "It's not your fault."

Neko had jerked hearing the scream and in doing so made numerable amounts of uncomfortable spots where the thorns still resided in his flesh. He did his best to keep from yelling out as well and instead leaned forward a little trying to focus on something else.

When Blade approached, Neko looked to the human with a raised brow. "Apologize?" His facial expression told volumes of what he thought of that idea. "Apologize for what?"

----

At the first sound of her name Mitsu turned a shaky gaze toward Atticus. She watched and listened to him though it was hard to hear the words clearly passed the thundering heart beat in her ears. As he sat on the bed Mitsu scooted a little closer, the realization that it was nothing more than a bad dream starting to settle into place. He pulled a handkerchief out and started to wipe at her face, cleaning her cheeks of the fresh tears. It was then that the words that he spoke were heard audibly.

'It's not your fault.'

Such simple little words but they carried so much weight. Crimson orbs turned up toward Atticus before it looked like the waterworks might start again. Slowly she unwrapped her arms from around herself and reached out to him. She moved slowly and unsure, she had never really received comfort from this man before. He always seemed to stay in the background and never made his presence known. But here he was, he had come to check on her. And though he didn't ask the problem, which was welcome, he still had a kind word to share.

Shaky hands first took hold of his shirt but all too soon she was nearly crawling into his lap. The smell of smoke choked her up a little but it didn't seem to matter. She pressed her face into his shoulder desperately seeking any comfort that could be given. Her body still trembled from time to time, an after effect of the dream, but the tears she shed were new.

The scream had caused poke to start, probably pulling out a needle much more awkwardly then intended. She half expected shun to be in the next room trying to kidnap her, but instead of running in to check it seemed atticus was doing that for her.

That was when blade had come over to tell neko to get of his injured rear and to apologize to the mitsu. It wasn't a bad idea either, however neko seemed to be oblivious as to why he should.

"He has a point neko. I doubt mitsu wanted to put anyone in danger" poke pulled out a few more thorns as she spoke. "She's just caught up in a horrible situation that she has no say in. It's not her fault some bloody psycho is after her."

Still frowning, Blade didn't quite buy Neko's reasoning. There was some merit to it in his opinion but would it be so hard to apologize to her?

"Yes it would have been nice to know. But there's no point in going about what ifs. If we're going to go that route, then I shouldn't even be traveling with you either. What if on the morning after you all met me one of those guards had decided to turn on any of you? What if they, by some chance, decided to send some bounty hunter? And in that case, what if you all were targeted as well for being associated with me?"

With a sigh, he shook his head slowly, "Like Poke said, it isn't her fault for having grown up with some madman. She is just as worried for our well being as you are. She apologized to you and to the rest of us. So why can't you be man enough to do the same for her when you didn't have to be so harsh with her in the first place?"

'Works every time, Atticus m'boy.' He could almost hear his father say as the girl broke down. Not particularly the desired effect, but she'd probably feel better after this. Setting his pipe off to the side, he sighed and welcomed her with open arms. So much for his clean jacket... At least it was just salt water, though. He had been cried on before... Couldn't say he particularly enjoyed it, but there were worse things.

A gentle hand reached up to stroke the back of Mitsu's head. "Just let it all out. You can cry as long as you need to. I'm here if you need to talk."

----

Since the scream had pierced through the air, Riyo had been silent, her eyes focused on the ceiling. The lingering memories of screams floated through her mind and cycled between each one. She registered the voices in the room, but didn't quite acknowledge who each one belonged to.

Two of the voices argued that the third voice needed to apologize to... Mitsu? Obviously the third voice didn't want to... Something about... Never forgiving her if any of them died...

"How would you feel... If a person you didn't like killed somebody... And everybody hated you because of it?" Had she been a sober woman, there probably would've been a lot more intricacy involved. Her eyes never left the ceiling even as she spoke, though her eyes looked saddened by the thought. "S'pose I've got no room to talk though..." It'd probably be her doing the killing... She thought about who could've possibly been affected by her past transgressions... And could think of no one, since she assumed everybody who had been affiliated with her was dead...

Though, she had no definite way of knowing...

There was a troubling thought. Staggering to her feet, she wobbled her way to a vacant room without another word spoken to anybody.

Hitsu was the only one between she and Yuki that was still conscious and coherent enough to process anything around them. The fighting had caught her attention, but it had taken a while for her to actually turn in her seat; literally, her knees on the cushion and leaning over the arm, propping herself up with her arms; tiny within it and looking a lot like a child in their father's armchair.

Her attention had gone between everyone as they spoke, the frown on her face suggesting her disapproval of their bickering. Though, it wasn't until after Neko gave in that she spoke up. A few seconds late in trying to stop the argument. "Hey!" Hitsu barked. "All of you need to stop-!"

Before she could finish with 'fighting' she was cut off. As the intoxicated feline had been watching, her hands had slowly been sliding forward. Now, that had left her arms to slide out from under her, off the side of the chair. Hitsu toppled off of it headfirst, yelping in her surprise and crashing to the floor with a loud thud.