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Since Alexanders back was turned towards Yin when he entered the room, he really had no idea the other boil was even there, not even when he heard the sounds of the floor board creaking as though somebody was approaching, or the rustle of cloth as somebody sat down nearby. He didn't know it was him until Yin spoke, and Alex winced inwardly, eyes cringing shut even tighter then they already were.

But the question he was asking had nothing to do with kissing, or protection charms, or touching that had made Alex short circuit and fall out of the hammock to the floor. That was probably good, because if that topic got brought up again so soon....

Alex was rolling over in the hammock to face Yin, one eyebrow raised in question. When he spoke, his voice sounded somewhat hoarse, as though he had just awoken from sleep. "You're sure you're ready for that now?"

Ignoring the pink elephant in the room sounded like an excellent plan to the zomboil.

Without waiting for a proper response, because only jack knew if Yin was going to use the opening to start talking about other...things..again, Alex struggled his way up into a sitting position, every movment causing the hammock to twist and swing, nearly tossing him out onto the floor for a second time that evening.

"Are you planning on sitting down there or would you like to join me?" He said, looking Yin in the eye.

Yep, see, everything is perfectly fine.

Mitzi still hated the dorm. Her fear of heights had been reaching "reasonably manageable" everywhere else, but the room with its rickety construction, the holes in the floor, and the hammocks they were meant to sleep in hanging precariously over dead drops... she found that she just couldn't handle it. If she hadn't been exhausted each night, she probably wouldn't have been able to sleep.

So she spent as little time there as possible, but right now, there was something she definitely wanted to do. She took a deep breath, holding it as she crossed the room to her own bed. She then sat on the hammock, as there wasn't really anywhere else to sit, and pulled out her phone.

After what had just happened near the observatory tower, she felt an overwhelming desire to text the ghost who had been on her Trials team, just to be sure she was all right. It was ridiculous, really; they weren't even particularly friends. But the wall carvings in that tunnel... They set off all sorts of warning bells, and she couldn't get them out of her mind. Really, it would just set her at ease a bit, and she could pass it off as friendly interest, right?

She quickly tapped out a fairly innocuous message, that shouldn't give the other ghoul any idea why she was texting.



She then glanced up, trying to decide whether to wait for a response, or leave the dorms that made her so uncomfortable. She could always pick up any answer that night... although waiting just a bit, in case Imryn got it right away and could reply, didn't sound like a bad idea either.

Alex nodded slowly. So Yin didn't want to sit with him in the hammock again. Well, that was certainly understandable, he supposed, though they were going to have to sit close together even on the floor so it didn't really make much sense. Well, it was what he wanted, though, so Alex slowly and carefully eased himself off of the hammock, keeping his face carefully blank of any thoughts he might be having related to the earlier incident, and in fact, trying very hard not to think about it at all.

It was time to teach Yin how to use an eyephone, so he needed to just focus on that. He moved carefully so as not to accidentally tread on the edge of one of the holes in the floorboards, and then slumped down on the floor next to Yin with a very audible and somewhat alarming creaking of floorboards, combined with sharp crack. His eyes widened slightly, and he scooted closer to Yin, but couldn't actually see any visible damage to the floor.

This place was a death trap, surely.

Well, right up against Yin once again, but not really minding in the slightest, he held the eyephone out in front of Yin. "Do you remember how to turn it on?"

Nope, Alexander was certainly not about to bring up..other things..right at this point in time. Right now he was more focused on getting the mantodae to learn how to use the eyephone, and who knew when this rare opportunity would ever arise again? Better to focus on this for now and then maybe, maybe talk about the earlier incident when they were finished.

And that was pretty big maybe, and not one Alex was going to be looking forward to.

But for now, this took precedence. This was something Yin needed to learn, or at the very least, one that Alex needed him to learn. Otherwise next week the zomboil was likely to go completely crazy, not knowing if Yin was okay.

He was a little bit tense when Yin first took the small electronic device away from him, unsure if Yin quite knew how to properly use it. He nodded in response to Yin's question, and then sighed in relief with a quietly spoken "Yes, just like that, exactly. You're doing a great job!" when Yin not only had it turned on, but also managed to take it one step further.

"Now, do you see the messages icon?" Alex could see it, and noted with some surprise that their was a small notification to tell him that he had received a message. Who could that have been from? Probably from his mother, to see if he was doing alright. He would have to message her back right away.

"You just need to tap it. Gently, of course! It's quite sensitive, so it should be easily brought up by your touch." Was he slightly paranoid that the weremantis might go at this too vigorously and potentially break the object he held in his hand, rendering it completely useless forever?

Possibly just a little bit.

"I know you will be..careful I mean." Alex responded, watching the screen as Yin did as he was instructed and tapped on the message icon. With fingers as long and skinny as the weremantis's, typing on the small screen would likely not be a problem for him, so that was good at least. Instantly, when the screen changed, it brought up the most recent message he'd received, and it was not from a number he recognized.

"Here, let me see that for a second." He frowned, reaching over to take the phone back from Yin.

"I...got a message from that ghost ghoul, Reiko.." He sounded quite surprised, and was still frowning down at the phone, lips pursed and a somewhat annoyed look on his face. Why the jack was Mei giving out his number to ghouls he barely knew?

"I can't imagine why she would be sending me a message though...well, uh, here, just watch while I type in an answer. See all these letters at the bottom of the screen? It's the same as the keyboard on your scraptop." He then proceeded to tap in the message, but he did it slowly so that Yin could follow the actions and see what was happening. He was careful to show Yin where he would need to go to get numbers and symbols as well, in case he needed to use them.



He honestly couldn't remember. The assembly had seemed like a lifetime ago, barely even registering in the zomboils brain anymore. He turned back to Yin and said, "We'll just wait a minute to see if she responds. If she doesn't, I'll let you text my mom, okay?" He grinned, fairly sure that was probably the best idea ever. Let Yin learn to text by texting Alexanders mother. Excellent.

Alex relinquished the phone back into Yin' care as soon as it became obvious that he might not be receiving a response from Reiko right that second. The other boil did not seem to be too eager to be learning, but it was enough that he was at least willing to try, and he didn't get up and run from the room. That was all Alex could really ask for, at this point.

"Just take your time." He smiled, showing him where to go to find Alex's contacts, how it was all in alphabetical order so it would be easy to find. "I don't know who's phone I will be using when I get to Famine, or if I might just borrow one from the horsemen, so I'll have to message you first." He explained, even as Yin began typing in the message to Alex's mom. He watched the other boil, pulling his knees up and resting an arm on top only to lay his head down on the arm and stare at Yin sideways as he went about his task.

When the phone vibrated in Yin's hand, Alex had to grin at the startled reaction on the other boils face. "It's okay, it does that to tell you that you've received a new message. Look." He pointed to the top of the screen where it showed the new message that had come through.

"Finish sending your message to my mom and then we can answer Reiko, okay?"

He waited until the other boil was done and then took the phone back from him, tapping in his own message back to Reiko at a much more rapid pace then Yin had been.



Not that he really cared. He barely even knew the ghoul! But she was obviously desperate for friends or something if she was sending Alex a message. Either that or she found him attractive and was trying to hit on him....

...He raised an eyebrow at that thought and then quickly dismissed it. Nah, she was just lonely, that was all.

Another message vibrated on the phone, and it was from Alex's mom. The message read: 'Hello, Yin Cang. Sorry I don't know how to spell your name properly on my phone. Is everything going well? How is Alexander?"

Alex handed the phone back to Yin so that he could work out how to answer on his own.

Alex tried to answer all of Yin's questions even while he was typing out the reply to Reiko, and then handing the phone back to him. "Well, I'll tell you it's me, for one. But if you want we could agree on a..phrase or greeting that I can use so that you know it is absolutely me and not somebody just pretending to be me." He grinned, as to him that was more of a joke then an actual suggestion. Yin could be so silly sometimes. What messages could he possibly be sending that it would matter if anybody else read them or not? Well, he could solve that problem as well.

"I can also delete our conversations when we are finished, if that makes you feel any better." he shook his head in amusement, and waited patiently for Yin to finish messaging his mom before taking the phone back from him and checking the newest incoming message from Reiko.



Really, was this going somewhere? Was she just that desperate for somebody to talk to that she was continuing to text him?

His phone vibrated again shortly after he hit send. Another message from his mother, of course, was displayed on the screen.

'That's good to hear. Sorry if I seem a little bit more concerned then is necessary but, when you say Alexander fell, do you mean he was being his usual clumsy self and tripped over his own feet or did he fall from quite a distance?'

Maybe Yin should have been more careful about what he told Alex's mother. He raised eyebrows at the text she sent, but instead of answering her like he so desperately wanted to do, he handed the phone back to Yin.

"Sooooo, I think she might be a little bit freaked out. Maybe stay off of topics about the different ways we may have gotten hurt today."

The phone in Alex's hand immediately buzzed, almost the second Yin had given it back. Before he could even finish reading the message from Reiko, the phone buzzed again. Apparently whatever Yin had sent back to his mom had done very little to reassure her, because she had sent back a very quick reply. Whatever, Alex would look at it later.

First, he needed to finish reading this text from Reiko. His eyes widened in alarm at what she had to say. "Hunter.." Alex murmured, as he stared at the text incredulously. She had fought against something made to look like a hunter.

He was suddenly very glad that he never signed up to go to the island of Death.

quickly, he tapped in a reply.



He didn't explain what exactly he wanted to talk to her about, or why it should wait until they could talk face to face, but he really didn't feel like explaining to this clueless ghoul through texts what it was she had actually been fighting against, if she even really wanted to know.

With that text sent, he finally retrieved the one from his mother, and nearly face palmed on the spot.

'Okay I am a little confused. Why was his face pink? What were you two doing in the hammock to make him fall out? There is adult supervision there, right?'

This was drawing dangerously close to territory he wasn't exactly comfortable with, but he handed the phone back to Yin regardless, unsure on what, if anything, the weremantis could text back to make her ease off of the assault of questions.