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Such a kind, kind spirit.
He tapped his head again, and Hyo felt joy filling his mind. In this alien place full of foreigners and demons, the spirit was truly kind to him, transforming the nightmare that recently happened into just another not-too-pleasant encounter. His whole life won't be long enough to repay for his kindness.

So he concentrated on what he was doing at the moment. Needle after needle after needle after needle, making his thoughts fly off, leaving just pure enjoyment from work. And when the portrait will be finished, he will present it to the kind spirit with his both hands. Hopefully the spirit will like it. Hyo tried to make it as accurate as possible in this style, together with Raai's hairdo and outfit. And the mask he was wearing before, on the embroidered portrait placed in his hand.

Lai resettled back into the lull of watching the needle as it swam through the cloth. Oh yes, much calmer out here, more his preferred speed. Lai disliked going against the flow of things and even a small spat would leave him slightly tired. It had always been that way. Involuntarily he smiled at the handiwork from time to time but let his mind drift off into nothingness.

Once or twice he nodded, seeing the picture forming but not really seeing it at all. Lai had spent the past few weeks in either worry over the Norwegian whom his mix of feelings for were slowly being sorted out since his talk with Shee and whom he hadn't seen in such a long time or, at night, tossing, turning, and losing sleep for no apparent reason at all. It felt good to just feel one's body grow rested and warm as though in sleep and not have to worry about anything else. Just watch the needle and go off elsewhere while your body stayed put.

"......"

He would not sleep like this, no, he was not reclined or truly comfortable enough to do so and there was his mind slowly working out what the picture was becoming as well. Still, it felt nice to be relaxed for the time being, no matter how long or short a time that was. If he could later on, he would mime out asking for the bilingual scroll and thank the girl for helping him calm down.

"Ah, mais mademoiselle, I am assured she is a wonderful girl. She will have a lovely time, do not worry."

Sebastien bent down to give the newly recieved hand a light kiss. As odd as it felt to be seducing half a hamburger, he figured it was for the greater good, and he was willing to sacrifice a little.


This was just great. Half of them were already drunk, and the other half were just stupid anyways. Wraith groaned. Why had they even decided to serve alcohol anyways? Right. Eknephias. Shee thought it would be a nice welcome back. She apparently hadn't counted on the fact that a sizeable portion of their recruits liked alcohol just as much but couldn't be counted on, as Eknephias rather admirably could, to down as much as a small whale and still keep his bearings.

He heard some Spanish that sounded rather profane, from what he knew of Italian, and turned to see that the source of it was Johannes. That was... surprising. He had thought the Austrian meek. Hopefully there would be a dearth of throwing up. Wraith did not like messes.

Walking over quickly to the Austrian man, Wraith slipped in between little huddles of people, almost unseen as he was dressed completely in black, with a subtle brocade pattern deftly sewn into the fabric that shone when the light hit it and was inky and flat otherwise. He melted in between the brightly coloured frills and sparkle that surrounded him. He put his hands firmly on the shoulders of the recruit, intending to do his best to prevent any falling over. "Are you feeling alright?"


Eknephias sighed. The age-old story of the fractured family, the boy who couldn't make his family proud no matter what he did... he'd have to tell that one to Thasios.

He slowly felt the crystals of sugar of his own drink detach from the bottom of the glass and slip down his throat.

His eyes flickered open slightly as the other man spoke. "Are you absolutely sure? It doesn't take much," he murmured, his voice low. Nevertheless, he prepared two more glasses, adding more sugar and water to the other man's, and more alcohol to his. "Enjoy this one. Otherwise, what's the point?"

Lai came out of his stupor as Hyo spoke up in an excited tone. He sat up straight, for he had been slouching, and stretched. He felt better, a bit more rested than he had when he had arrived, despite not sleeping. The Russian turned to look at the girl, his eyes coming to rest on an extremely happy face and a folded handkerchief.

"....Oh!"

He looked surprised but smiled as well, taking the the cloth with both of his hands. He brought it to his lap and carefully unfolded it, not wanting to disturb the threads in the slightest. As he looked at what the girl had done, he finally realized who exactly was stitched onto the fabric with the floral branches. An embarrassed but grateful flush rose high in his cheeks and the Russian brought the handkerchief to his chest, though not against it, and bowed to show his gratitude for the gift. He topped it off with yet another pat to the head for Hyo and a short, soft laugh.

"Thank you Miss Hyo." Lai was sure the girl would know those words despite the fact they were in English.

An insane laugh was bubbling up inside of him, tugging on the corners of his mouth and threatening to ruin the entire facade. "Do you really prefer women, mademoiselle? I should hope not, for then I would feel a fool."

He could sense hesitation on her part. He didn't know what it was-- it could have been one of a multitude of things.

"Nevertheless, we can still have some fun. If you are not confident in your ability to dance, you should not worry. I know more than enough for the both of us." He wasn't being egotistical; his hazy days in the French court had conditioned him well. With a gentle tug on her hand, which he'd kept in his, he pulled her as close to him as he could pull a hamburger half. "Well... open form it is."

...he put it over his heart...
Hye blushed furiously, and quickly took cover, hiding his face behind a sleeve...completely forgetting that the mask he was wearing would hide most of the blush anyway.
There was no deep meaning behind such a move, he said to himself. The spirit was just being nice, that's all... Customs in spiritworld are probably just being different than they are in the real world...
Yet, it was a weird feeling, that a spirit would hide a gift from him close to his heart. After all, spirits and humans are just too different from each other.
...maybe I am in the spirit world...
Anyway, he wanted to befriend this kind spirit. Maybe the gesture meant just that? That Raai also wanted to befriend him?
Hyo hoped so.

When he finally managed to restrain his blush, he coughed quietly, and returned to the (hopefully) dignified pose. The spirit was silent, and didn't seem to be going anywhere. So the boy just closed his eyes, and waited for him to decide what to do. A refined young lady can sit and wait in silence, motionless, as long as it's needed. He will do just so.

Lai raised an eyebrow to the girl's odd actions. Was she blushing? Lai had done a motion that could be taken as "near and dear to the heart" rather than "this will be safe here because it's up high". Momentarily he thought back to the short letter his cousin Sasha Mikhailovich had sent to him;

'Dear Cousin Lai Ivanovich,

I give this hammer to you so that you may defend your girlish figure from all the women who will be coming to rape you while you sleep have you marry them since I am now off the market. Remember, use it self defense only! And to hang up frames, it does that pretty well too.

Have fun!
Sasha Mikhailovich Kirillov'

Not that he would ever use the thing for anything other than hanging up frames. Striking against someone with such a thing...He couldn't comprehend it, and he hoped Hyo did not interpret the patting he did to his chest in that way. Lai showed no emotion but a pleasant smile on the outside while on the inside his mind was telling him about how he was a terrible person, how he never, ever got along with younger women so well before, and accusing him of cheating on Einar. Wait...He had no relationship with Einar other than three meetings (one forgotten) and a storm cloud of emotions that needed to be examined, plus a lot of violent blushing at the mere mention of Einar's name. How was that cheating? It was confusion to the extreme, that was it. His mind was just playing tricks because of the lack of proper sleep. Better to get out of his own head and come back down to Earth.

Lai blinked rapidly a few times as he came back from his mind, coming back just as Hyo was regaining his odd posture on the chair. Seeing his eyes closed made Lai again tilt his head to the side. Was the girl tired? He wouldn't blame her if she was, she just had a very trying day. He put a hand to his chin, trying to think.

"Hm...What to do..."

Sebastien laughed at the girl's explanation. "It is not that easy to get out of now, I am afraid." He placed his free hand on the girl's, figuring it was the only way this was going to work, and stepped back slightly, turning on his heel.

He frowned as he tried to recall the quarters of Paris. They had changed since his time, but strangely, had been almost completely restored to the way that he remembered them.

"You are speaking of Saint-Michel? Mais Saint-Michel is a beautiful district, bordering Notre Dame. I assume the times of the Revolution are different from my own. Have you been back there since you left? I am afraid the Revolution has been reversed; the Courts are again in fashion."


He had taken off his mask, figuring that it would be alright to do so out in the hall. It was rather brownish now, dripping unpleasantly, Eknephias having run into him and given him a faceful of wine. He tugged off the turban as well, and it unravelled in his fingers as his hair fell about his eyes, finally free.

He shook his head a few times as if to shake off stress, and extracted a golden handkerchief from inside his coat and began to wipe any remaining droplets from his face when he realized he wasn't alone. That meant the removal of the mask hadn't been such a good idea. His hand slowly moved down, and the handkerchief fell away from his face, revealing an astounding beauty about his features. Thasios seemed to almost glow, an effect only heightened by his golden eyes.

In front of him, he found the Russian man he had previously been talking to and a small girl that he recalled had been screaming earlier.

"It appears I have also been found out."

((Yes, Thasios is super, super, super pretty. Like... unbelievably so. I promise there's a reason, and it's not pure Gary-stu-ness. xD))