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Yin glanced up at his name, really just rather mortified at how his booth was looking (again) as the zombies arrived. "Leaving so soon Lady Van Rotte?" He did sound genuinely sad to hear her say so because he had always liked her more than Alexander.

And it seemed like, this time, Alexander was going to talk to him. He opened his mouth to respond when he caught sight of where his eye was supposed to be and started to let out a hiss that he barely bit back. Hearing about it was one thing, seeing it up close quite the other.

He was trying to behave himself though. Just...treat this like any other visitor. "Um you just capture the scrags before it gets to the end of the maze..." It was one of those times where when he said it...it sounded really stupid. He knew Alexander was probably judging him for his horrible game and just...he needed to act. "I shall demonstrate..."

This was good, just releasing a scrags into the maze, timing it, and pulling it back out before the scrags reached the end. He was a professional scrags hunter after all...or probably should be. "Um, you get less time each try..."

This was just awkward as...something. He did not know what. But something.

He might have sent a quick pleading glance toward Lady Van Rotte. Something like "but you were the one I was supposed to speak with." When he looked back...it looked like Alexander was trying to hide a smile. Probably trying not to laugh at how silly his game was.

Wordlessly, mortified, Yin released the scrags, watching as...oh good, he got it. It did seem a bit...special afterwards. Yin quickly got out a new scrags for the maze, holding the one by its tail in one hand. "See...I do not believe it is too hard...' he all but muttered, eyes focused on the game, wings twitching nervously.

Lady Van Rotte. Halp.

Yin reached out to take the scrags, determined to ignore that when his fingers brushed against the cold flesh of the zomboil's it was almost like a surge of electricity going through him. Nope. Ignoring. Just another undead here.

Of course he was also debating ripping off his wings as they fluttered nervously. He seriously needed to learn how to control them before they gave everything away. Hopefully the language of wings was not universal and no one would notice.

"There is just one last stage..."

The next time Eisheth decided to master Scrags, however, something went wrong: the jackdammit rats got used to her tactic and nor were fleeing in different directions, so the alchemist lost in the first round having no time to practice.

Her only prize was a green sticker:

It was like a reflex action. As soon as Yin was smiling at him, the zomboil couldn't help but smile back, and then he turned to flash a grin at his mom as well. After all, he had won! That was cause for some happiness, right? However, he was clutching the scrags far, far too tightly, likely just from nerves, and the sound of bones cracking alerted him to the fact that he had just snapped the poor things neck.

Well...waste not?

And while Alexander might have complained about the scrags being the only food Yin ever brought him when he'd been staying in the boils room, it was kind of funny how he actually missed eating them. Just as he was now missing quite a few things. Like seeing Yin smile, feeling the warmth of his touch, sharing dinner in his room, surrounded by minipets. Watching him sleep.....

Okay, that last one might be considered just a little bit creepy.

"I'll uh..I'll keep this one, if you don't mind? Or..or if you want it." He waited until Yin had come back with his tokens before speaking, reaching out his hand to take them from the other boil, almost purposefully letting his fingers linger against his skin, though the lump that was beginning to form in his throat suggested that he should just stop, and leave. Yin didn't want him anymore, and giving himself any hope that this might change was only going to make things worse for him in the end. Alex's mom was approaching now, and she reached out to place a comforting hand against her son's shoulder, likely sensing that he was dealing with a lot of inner turmoil, at the moment.

"So you say you built this game yourself? It's really quite clever." Yes, she was finally stepping in to try and help diffuse the awkwardness that had been continuously mounting since they had first arrived, attempting to smooth things over before she left the festival.

Oh several moments were to be had, but none of them were pleasant and all of them were extremely awkward. Still, his mom had picked a great time to decide to finally butt in, hadn't she? But the zomboil was still grateful, as he pocketed the tokens that were still warm from Yin's hand. "Thank you." He murmured, glancing away now, letting his mom and Yin have a chance to chat and for her to get to say goodbye, since that was really what they were there for, anyways.

"Don't sell yourself so short." Alex's mom chastised lightly, and was opening her mouth to probably add more praise when a crashing sound cut her off, and had Alexander turning back towards the booth with a frown, the dead scrags still clutched tight in his hands.

"What was tha---" He started to ask, taking a step forward, when a flash of white caught his attention, as well as a sudden gnawing sensation on his skeletal foot.

Uhhhhhhhh, okay this was just weird. He frowned down at the ball of white fluff, slowly lifting his foot up off of the ground, glancing back towards Yin. "Is this yours?" He asked. He would have bent down to pick it up, but frankly, by the way it was going after his foot he was a little scared to put his hand anywhere near it.

Sheridan wasn't sure if he was relieved to see the game reopened or not. What, was it reopened? There still seemed to be quite a mess at the booth, had anything been cleaned? Or had everyone 'helping' just made it worse?

Oh, there was a scrags running, he supposed it was open. Quick after it before it escapes!

(( stage one - pass ))