Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was no fear, no terror, no horror on Dusty's face as she smoothly approached the head and began to assault the apparent weakness of the strained neck with her wooden sword. In fact, there was neither any viciousness, or rage, or bloodlust, even as she nimbly moved on to coordinate her efforts with Lethe's . There was... nothing. An unexpected calm on the turbulent toddler, ill-fitting and eeriely professional. A hired killer could show no less emotion in the face of such a danger.

"Stay there," Lethe hisses venemously at the liquid, giving it one last stomp for good measure before withdrawing completely.

She wanted to sit down and -- just stay there, really. First she had to see if Dusty was okay. Turning towards the smaller girl, Lethe visually checked her over for any wounds; there were none to be seen, however, and Dusty only stared back with no response.

"...Dusty?" Lethe tried, cautiously offering a hand to another girl. "Are you alright?" Still no response. "...Stomp if you can hear me--"

Stomp.

The River Fa'e was taken aback, but none of this registered in her posture or emotion. Well -- her only urge for action was expended, so she decided to sit and think about what she should do next. She squatted down on a stack of books and stared off into the distance. She occasionally turned to look at Dusty, but otherwise remained as still and motionless as her companion.

It seemed like an eternity passed before Lethe finally stirred -- and it was a tiny motion, a twitching of her fingers, as something seemed to brush her mind before it was instantaneously lost again. It felt Fa'e, from what little she knew of the gesture, but... but...

Oh. Dusty was still here. Lethe blinked, and tilted her head up to regard her companion. She winced, quickly realizing how stiff her neck felt, and raised her hands to rub the back of it.

There was nothing to do, was there? Dusty seemed content to stay still, and there was nothing but a puddle left of the monster, and... But she'd have to do something, right? It was only right. It was what all the humans did, skitter around like little ants all the time. She might forget how to be one, if she waited too long. She might turn into a statue, lifeless and eternal.

So what should she do? Lethe stretched her arms out, anxious to continue her state of motion, and was immediately struck with a thought: What would Xochitl do?

...Be hardcore, of course. Probably yell a lot, kick at all the stupid monsters, tapdancing over their carcasses and swinging over deep chasms with vines with music playing in the background and rescuing all the homeless kittens with just enough time for dinner.

Lethe hopped to her feet, and balling her hands, placed them on her hips. "Okay, Dusty, let's get out of here." Her voice was too weak and soft on the first try; she cleared her throat and repeated it in a louder and more imperious manner, even managing to half-roll the last 'r'.

With that, she turned on her heels and peered into the shadows of the room. She didn't hear anything, nor see anything moving -- but maybe there'd be other things that could help? Ropes, weapons, wizards? "Will you help me look, please? A..anything that seems like it could help."

Nothing. There was nothing here. Lethe surpressed the urge to throw another tantrum; without an audience, the expension of such a great amount of energy would be a waste. Of course, if she were Xo...

She'd just have to make do with what she had. "Dusty? When you become all whole again, do remember that you like me, okay?" Her voice quavered with the words, and she paused at the end of them, confused. Nervousness was one thing; fear, fear was another, unknown variable. Xo wouldn't have felt it -- Lethe herself barely knew the meaning of the word.

"...We should go. We have to find Callix, and Seung, to make sure they were not attacked by monsters." She was about to command the smaller Fa'e to follow her, but realized eventually she had no light, and didn't want to, she'd rather Dusty be eaten first, but she didn't want Dusty to remember that Lethe had made her go first. She couldn't remember which decision would be better in the long run, and it was not one she wanted to make. "Um. Let's hold hands, so we don't lose each other."

Taking a deep breath, and throwing nervous glances over her shoulder at things that weren't there, Lethe finally managed to skitter over to the front door, Dusty in tow, and opened it. It took her another moment and another deep breath before she could convince herself to step out into the inner hallway.

Mikhail had discovered the library in his idle explorations of Fa'e HQ in his first week or so of living there, and while he was hardly a bookish sort, he'd found it to be a nice, cozy sort of quiet place. Though he was no longer in residence upstairs, having finally been able to move out, it was still a nice quiet place to go to. And familiar, which helped some. He liked familiar places.

There hadn't been anyone in the common room, and so instead of waiting around for someone to come by - which could have been anyone, and that wasn't necessarily a good thing - he decided to go and waste some time in the library instead. Who knew, maybe he'd find something useful about...about Hebrew or something. Like why it was all over his face.

A distant, unrealistic hope. Instead, he found a slender, veiled individual with long, dark blue hair. Quietly, since it was a library after all, he offered a polite "Hello."

Those white eyes were...very disconcerting, particularly coupled with the veil that his half of the other Fa'e's expression. But, well, Mik was starting to get used to things that ordinarily would weird him out, considering that was most things in this crazy new world. So, after an initial moment of staring, he let it go.

"We haven't," he confirmed, reaching to shake Rionne's hand. "I'm Mikhail." It was curious, courteous, but as yet not overly friendly, seeing as they'd just met. But here was someone his age, and whose guardian hadn't gotten into a shouting match with his, so he was hopeful.