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As Miss Xiu-Ying shopped Yin found himself scooping up another crumbling bit of gold...this truly was a peculiar festival. He was content to just accompany the ghoul. Then she was offering him food, which apparently was something that she liked to do. He took the bag from her, mummering his thanks even as he began thinking about how he could give the red envelope he had picked up to her without her noticing.

Because he was distracted by bag now held carefully in his claws he had missed the tall boil coming toward them, whom ordinarily would have been hard to miss. He was with Mort and a ghoul that Yin had never seen, but was not exactly excited to meet. At least he looked like he was having fun, so maybe he had not been too effected by their fight...had it only been yesterday? But even though the other two were offering their greetings Alexander seemed to not be talking so maybe it was just Yin he did not want to be around.

He could not just stand there and think about it the entire night. He lifted his free hand and waved, belated realizing that he probably looked fairly awkward standing there, waving. "I trust that you all are having a good evening?" he questioned, unable to resist shooting Alexander a hopeful look. Everything could be okay...could it not?

Flushing at the sudden compliment, Xiu gave an unconscious little wag of her tail. "T-thank you! You're wearing an amazing outfit yourself!" It really was quite elegant looking! Smiling, she extended a hand out towards the other ghoul. "I'm Xiu-Ying, but I usually just go by Xiu. It's nice to meet you, Michi!"

The baku was clearly pleased to make a new potential friend, but her expression became puzzled as she turned to regard the three boils, shooting Michi a questioning look. Mort seemed...quiet? At least, he hadn't said anything yet, and Alex and Yin...

What was this strange awkwardness that was in the air?

Clearing her throat, the little baku suddenly clapped her hands together, trying to keep a cheerful expression on her face. "So! How are you guys enjoying the festival so far?" Pausing, she glanced over towards the closest booth, doing a quick sweep of what it had to sell. "Why don't we go play some games together?" Xiu had no idea that Michi had suggested the same thing not long ago--apparently demon ghouls thought alike, or something.

"Mrr . . . y-yes, have fun. Ate meat."

Much like Alex, Mortimer was still quite interested in his feet, like not looking at anyone's face would diminish the presence of his awful lenses. Though apparently his fellow zombie was also rather tense about something - was it the sight of the mantodae's broken nose? He didn't know much about Yin really, so he could only speculate that somehow the boil had gotten into a scrap.

Pygmy dragons? Sure, let's go catch the little things. Anything to move on from whatever this situation was that made it so awkward. The zomboil bobbed his head a little, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously.

Alex was really, rather pointedly, trying very hard to inspect the rock next to his foot. So it was with some amount of surprise that he suddenly felt a very warm hand slipping into his. His first thought was of a time in the maul not that long ago, and his eyes quickly shot over to the hand clutched in his.

Oh, it was a red hand, with blue fingernails. Ah.

The hand was pulling on him, and the voice was asking him to please try and win her a dragon. He finally raised his head up to give Michi a small smile, and a nod, though he was still having some trouble finding his voice right now.

He was suddenly very aware of how this must look to both Xui and Yin, having a ghoul holding his hand and talking to him the way she was. They wouldn't have much of a clue yet that Michi pretty much talked to all boils she was even somewhat interested in this way. He could feel that warmth creeping up the back of his neck, yet again, and he reached up to run his fingers through his hair, then let his arm flop back down to his side.

Ok, he could do this. He could do this.

He watched as Yin made a quick attempt at the dragons, and winced when he saw the other boil get his fingers bitten in the process. He threw a rather reluctant look towards Mort, and hissed at the other zomboil. "They aren't fire-breathers, are they?" but barely waited for a response before pulling his hand out of Michi's and going to stand next to Yin.

Sucking in a breath (he didn't need to breathe, but sometimes did so anyways), he reached in and attempted to grab one of the slippery little creatures, but was also only rewarded with nipped fingers that he quickly pulled back out. There wasn't exactly blood, but there was a sort of dark ooze where little chunks of his fingers were bitten off.

"Little jack-bastards" He muttered darkly, then without thinking glanced towards Yin to see if he would agree.

Michi really didn't know anything about any of these people. She knew a little of Alex, but frankly Michi didn't care or didn't realize. The red skinned ghoul was here to have fun.

"Ooohh, drat! Thanks for trying though cutie." She grinned at Alex and gave him a little wink. Michi really was a flirty ghoul out for a good time. She stuck her tongue out at the little dragons and gave a little chuckle as everyone else missed too. At least she wasn't the only failure around here, so she didn't have to feel like she had messed up something really easy!

She was about to say something else, even with a hand held up in the air to go along with whatever she was going to say... only to spot a small pile of coins that just glinted at her. Grinning she scooped them up, only to have them crumble in her hands. Fiddlesticks.

"Anyone else got any ideas for this place? Other than walking around, I got nothing!"

We're going to pretend that Mort was still quite conscious of what everyone was saying and doing, only that he was stuck in a sort of waxen state as Xiu's hands had been on his shoulders. Both his shoulders. It's quite plausible that he was stiff with awkwardness and gollygeeshespurdyinthoseclothesandtouchingme and thus was very, very slow to react to the whole dragon-baiting-and-catching. Let's go with that.

Grimacing at the various bite marks his group was getting, only after a pause did Mort tentatively reach a hand in towards the nearest one. It looked docile enough as those fingers crept in by inch forward -

- and then the thing sneezed, letting out a tiny plume of flame that caused Mort to yelp and recoil backwards violently, patting his hand down on his pants like his afterlife depended on it. Singed, but none worse for wear.

Well he did look a bit paler, if you could tell the difference with dead flesh. His stitched lips were so tight that the seams almost broke.

There was your answer about fire, Alex. There was yours about the dragons liking him more, Yin.

Never one to give up easily, Xiu went for another go, leaning forward as she tried to wrap her hands around one of the ridiculously fast dragons. She managed to avoid getting scratched or bitten too much, but--...seriously, what was with this awkward silence? Were Alex and Michi the only ones talking?

Remaining where she was, the ghoul glanced over her shoulder to survey her friends, gaze going a full circle as it fell on each of them in turn. What bothered her the most was that Alex and Yin--who she thought were close friends--hadn't really said much to each other today. Was she simply imagining things? Or maybe...

No. His smile just now had been kind of strange, and the look he gave Yin...Clearing her throat, Xiu put on a small smile and nodded. "Shopping would be nice. Maybe we could get some firecrackers and set them off? At a distance, of course." The last part was added with a hasty glance towards the two undead boils. At least, firecrackers weren't as big of a threat as, say, fireworks or sparklers.

There was a beat of silence, and then, "Oh! And Alex--can I talk to you for a sec? I want to ask you something."

So Mort had almost been burned, that was worrisome. He shot Alexander a glance, concerned, but the zomboil was just....addressing everyone else. He looked back at the dragons and swallowed, feeling more than a little rejected. It did not have to be so obvious that he was unwanted. He took another grab for the dragons but it was a feeble attempt at best. So Alexander just wanted to leave to go shopping with the ghoul. Well, that was his own business.

And now Miss Xiu-Ying wanted to speak with Alexander. Alone. So even she was trying to get away from him. Things had been easier without friends to care about.

The other ghoul was addressing him and Mort, but he merely gave a small name that yes, Yin could be used for his name, and continued to be very interested in the dragons. Maybe he should just go, Princess Eva probably would not mind a late evening walk by the lake. He probably would have left right then and there if it had not had a slight feeling of running away about it.