Who: Lorenzo, Vesna, Evren, Lumi, Eriol
Where: Lorenzo’s home/office in Durem
When: After midnight, mid-January
Weather: Freezing temperatures, lots of wind


The ride from the library was quick, the roads being almost deserted thanks to the late hour, but it wasn’t quick enough to keep the whole thing from being terribly awkward. Lumi glared at everyone, including the driver, too upset to try to hide her displeasure. Eriol was trying not to think too deeply about her comments, or the way things had turned out, or, well, anything. Evren was totally silent, only speaking when he was asked for the address for their destination. He didn’t respond when Eriol asked if he was okay, or when Lumi tried to warn him this was a fool’s errand. He didn’t say anything until the car stopped in front of Lorenzo Fisch’s office - and, apparently, his home.

As soon as he was out of the car, Evren went from catatonia to hysteria in three seconds flat, banging on the front door with both fists and yelling at the top of his lungs while his companions looked on uncomfortably. The driver, not wanting any part of this, pulled away as soon as everyone was out, while Evren was still screaming at the door. ”Mr. Fisch! Please help! It’s really, really important! Urgent! I have nowhere else to go! Please, Mr. Fisch, I screwed up and I really need your help!”


_____________________


The door opened more quickly than might have been expected without warning in the middle of the night, but it was not Lorenzo who opened it. It was a young girl, who, had the trio bothered to cross-check with each other, appeared ever so slightly different to each one of them. Two things were apparent regardless of their impressions, however; Firstly, she was shocked to see them. Secondly, there was considerably less of “her” than most people, she was not much more than a head and a torso bobbing in space.

“I- Da- Lorenzo’s coming,” she stammered, waving her phone by way of explanation. “He’s out on a job right now, uh, so-” She smiled wanly and gestured inside to Lorenzo’s waiting room. “Um, maybe I can help you?” she asked, and immediately corrected, “I mean, I’m not a licensed necromancer, but if you, uh,” she seemed to consult a rehearsed monologue for a moment, “Need someone to talk to about undead discrimination in your home or work life, need a safe space to wait in until a crisis passes, or just need a friendly face to make chitchat with, then I’m your girl! And also I’m pretty handy with a surgical needle.” She sized up the visitors, and took in how very much alive they looked. “...If your limbs fell off or something. Somehow.”

Clearing her throat, she floated into the living room and looked awkwardly at her phone again. Seeing no new updates from Lorenzo, she hesitated, then offered, “Sooooo... Would it help to talk about the situation?”

_______________


About two seconds before the door opened, it occurred to both Eriol and Lumi that it might have been a good idea to call ahead, if only to warn whoever lived there that Evren was going to beat down their door. At that point, it was far too late to do anything about it, other than feel silly for not considering it earlier.

Evren didn't even think about it. He just kept pounding, convinced that the sooner the door opened, the better chance he had to fix his mistake.

Then the door opened, and he snapped back to reality. Possibly. It didn't look very real, right then.

Eriol raised his eyebrows at the girl behind the door, but said nothing. He was a Gaian; he'd seen stranger. And it wasn't really his place to interfere. He was mainly there to keep what little peace could be found.

Lumi's mouth dropped open momentarily, but she closed it quickly. One could practically see the gears turning inside her head, as puzzle pieces began falling into place, giving her a slightly clearer picture of the current situation.

In theory, Evren should have known what - or who - he was looking at. He'd read the Lab 305 brochure, had signed all the paperwork, had heard about Mr. Fisch's ward from the man himself. He had hoped to meet a Raevan at some point before he found himself in custody of one, if only to get a better of idea of just what he was in for.

Right then, he was barely even conscious of who - or what - this young woman was. All he could see was that she wasn't Mr. Fisch, and that was disastrous. Or was it? She did seem to know what she was talking about, so maybe there really was something she could do to help. There was no way to know until he asked.

Rather than offer an explanation for his intrusion, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the soul bottle, still full of gently swirling mist, which he held out for her to examine. "Please, this wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to go somewhere else. Can you help get it out?"

"My ex-client brought an undisclosed soul-snaring device to a spirit transference," Lumi translated, the habitual scowl back on her face now that her shock had worn off. She stepped into the waiting room, looking around critically. "He wants to ask if Mr. Fisch can clean up the mess he made."

"Please," Eriol added, elbowing Lumi in the side. While he still wasn't quite sure what was going on, he knew that being needlessly rude wouldn't help one bit. If he'd been in the girl's shoes, he probably would have slammed the door in their faces, though he supposed it was a bit late for that.

_______________


Vesna blanched at the sight of the soul bottle being brandished at her- she had never seen her own, but she was familiar enough with Lab 305 to know what it was, and, being Lorenzo’s daugh- charge left her more than aware of the full significance of its contents. If something had gone wrong...

Her mouth felt dry.

If something had gone wrong…

“Who’s in that bottle?” she asked carefully, registering that Evren had referred to the soul as an ‘it’. “What’s a spirit transference?” Normally, Vesna would have been excited to meet another magical person. Lorenzo was hardly forthcoming about his profession, or very magical in the anime-sense. Things had changed, she supposed, since December. Then she remembered, with an increasing sense of panic, that Evren had asked her what to do.

“I, um…” Could she just open the bottle and let it out? Was there a way to do that? She reached for one of Lorenzo’s pamphlets, searching the titles for something, anything that could be useful. Unfortunately, Lorenzo had not thought to include a pamphlet entitled “SO YOU WANT TO PERFORM NECROMANCY WITHOUT PRIOR EXPERIENCE OR A LICENSE??” Even if he had, the interior would probably just contain the word “don’t”.

She was saved by Lorenzo rushing in, his hair even more flyaway than usual, his cloak askew, and his mask hanging down the front of his shirt. Vesna didn’t care. She was, for once in her life, profoundly grateful to see him.

“He got the wrong soul,” she babbled, gesturing at Evren.

Lorenzo gauged the situation, furrowing his brow. The expression on Lumi’s face went a long way towards explaining what soul Evren had captured, precisely.

“Ah,” said Lorenzo, fixing his mask idly as he thought.

“Can you fix it?” Vesna asked.

“Do you have the corpse?” asked Lorenzo.

“Corpse,” Vesna repeated. “I thought that the soul was all in the bottle?”

“That’s right,” Lorenzo agreed. “The soul- the bottle extricates the soul from a living thing.” He saw the look on Vesna’s face and hastily added, “Though the client here was seeking a nonsentient soul to use because of this.”

_______________



The girl's reaction to the bottle was less than encouraging. Her question felt like a slap in the face, and in some ways had the same effect. Rather than continuing to ramble incoherently, Evren stopped talking altogether and looked at the floor. Or, to be more precise, at the bottle in his hands.

It obviously wasn't an actual beating heart, so why did it still feel like one?

"Mr. Fisch referred this client to me for what I was told would be a routine exorcism. Instead, I found that we were dealing with a living spirit, rather than a ghost. The library staff ignored my advice and offers to serve as a negotiator. Which is the only reason I took the request to perform a transfer from someone with no formal connection to the spirit's home, but then-" Lumi was also looking at the bottle, but she wasn't so much horrified as furious. "If I had known he was in possession of something so dangerous, I never would have taken the job."

With every word, Evren shrank into his coat a little more. He really couldn't dispute any of it. He'd known all along that he was in no position to interfere, but he did anyway, because somebody had to do something. He knew the bottle was potentially hazardous, which was why the first thing he'd done with it was lock it away. But all this time, he'd been careful, doing research, following directions, and doing what he knew was right. So why had it turned out like this?

When Mr. Fisch walked in, he shrank into himself a little more. He really didn't want to explain what had happened, not to someone who'd encouraged him, helped him, trusted him to do right by the responsibility he'd been given. But he hadn't come all this way just to clam up at the moment of truth. If there was any chance they could fix this, any at all, he had to jump on it, and he'd take whatever consequences would come.

"Please," he started, and then his train of thought derailed and he couldn't think of anything else to say. He did hold the bottle out, hoping someone would take it so he wouldn't have to feel the phantom pulsing of an imaginary heart anymore.

At the mention of a corpse, his hands shook slightly, but he didn't drop the bottle. "Oh god, oh god, what-"

"I think I've got that," Eriol said quickly, patting Evren on the shoulder in a halfhearted attempt to calm him down. From the messenger bag at his side he pulled a pair of books, wrapped in clean white cloth. They were about the same size and shape, covered in dark red fabric and stamped with black ink. "I've got the, um, replacement too, if that'll help."

"The yorishiro," Lumi corrected. "The vessel that was made for this spirit to occupy, as its original form was in jeopardy. I believe these volumes were the catalyst for its manifestation, but it controlled countless other documents at the library. As corpses go, I cannot be sure this one is complete."

Picturing a human body that had been hacked to pieces, Evren began to shudder. The pulsing sensation picked up again, and his hands began to twitch in rhythm with the heartbeats.

He felt frozen in place. Like he would never be able to live with what had happened, so time was just stopped. But if he wanted to move past this, he had to own up to it, and do something about it. He could freak out later, after he'd done everything he possibly could to fix his mistakes.

Finally looking Mr. Fisch in the eye, he pulled his thoughts together. "I'm still not exactly sure what happened, why this went so wrong. But I will do whatever it takes to make things right. Please."

_______________


“Oh, I know what that is!” Vesna interrupted suddenly at the mention of a ‘yorishiro’, seizing onto a thread of the conversation that she could actually follow. “What kind of yorishiro is it?”

“Vesna,” Lorenzo cautioned. “We don’t have time for this right now.” He looked tired and drawn, but he shook his head slightly to make himself more alert.

“All right,” he said, more to buy time to think than because he had anything in particular to say quite yet. He was not an exorcist, but he knew a bit about demons- so did Vesna, apparently. He remembered that when she was born, she spent a great deal of time reading his mythology books. “A book demon.”

“A kyorinrin?” guessed Vesna. “There was one on My Highschool Romance With the Demon Lord.” Truly one of the less-renowned anime titles Vesna had gotten secondhand from Guinevere months ago, perhaps its only saving grace was that it was at least vaguely informative if you were living with a necromancer who involved himself with the supernatural. It was certainly not very forthcoming with any practical or grounded information about high school or romance.

“If it is fully a demon and not a spirit, its soul will be difficult for me to transfer.” Lorenzo continued. “There is a great risk of failure when it comes to full resurrections even in traditional necromancing with humanoid souls and vessels. And doing a normal resurrection would be impossible if we’re trying to use a yorishiro or a body that may not be complete. In a humanoid resurrection, I would at least need to know that the vital parts were present- the head, the heart, etcetera. With a demon whose form is so atypical, not having all the pieces of its body present isn’t something I would normally feel comfortable with.”

Vesna waved a hand. “Aaaand in short terms…?” She asked.

“At this point, the yorishiro and its old body could reject its soul even more easily than in a normal full resurrection if I try to guide it back. The odds of a full resurrection are not great to begin with.”

_________________________


For a brief moment, Lumi was struck speechless. Then, managing to look delighted and smug all at once, she favored Vesna with a smile. "Well! It seems that some people here have actually done their homework." And she shot Evren a glance that seemed to ask why he couldn't be bothered to know this much, and why weren't these educated people her clients-

And then her smile froze, sort of off-kilter. "My Highschool what?"

"Here," Eriol cut in, drawing another book out of his bag. It was a bit larger than the others and much newer, its solid black cover a sharp contrast with its pristine white pages. A short length of undyed string was wound around it, tied in an intricate-looking knot. "This is what you needed, right?"

"Not if it won't work," Lumi snapped, her confusion forgotten. "Though the term 'demon' isn't a perfect translation, it is hard to be accurate when discussing matters we do not fully understand. In exorcism, we view beings such as kyōrinrin as spirits, but living ones. At least, this one was alive."

Even without Lumi's harassment, the discussion was taking an unpleasant turn as far as Evren was concerned. He wanted to have something of use to contribute, but he was way out of his depth when it came to technical information, and he didn't even have the books. All he had was the burning desire to make something happen, and the conviction that with everyone trying, they could overcome any hurdle. The only question was how to convey this in a way that would inspire the others, rather than convince them he belonged in an asylum. Or a prison.

"What... what would happen if you tried? I mean, I get the conditions aren't exactly ideal, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?" No, that wasn't enough. He had to put all of himself into this - if he didn't sound sure of himself, he'd never sway the others. "If we stop here, that's it, it's over! This isn't the time to let fear of failure get in the way, not with a life at stake. This is when we need to pull together and seize the chance we have! Otherwise..." His confidence ebbed, and the facade began to crumble. "Otherwise, what was the point of any of this? Why did we try, if we're just going to give up?"

_________________________


“My Highschool Romance with the Demon Lord,” elaborated Vesna for Lumi. “It’s not the best, but it’s got kind of a cute subplot with Mephistopheles and Kaede-chan if you want to borrow the DVD.”

Lorenzo examined the corpse and the yorishiro and bit his lip thoughtfully, pulling out a notebook and sketching some circles as Vesna regaled Lumi with her anime opinions. He rushed over to the bookcase and ran his finger along the spines, pulling out a few volumes and consulting their indexes. The irony of consulting books in this situation was not lost on him.

When Evren spoke up, he cut in. “Lumi’s right. This kind of exorcism is complicated enough in an ordinary situation. I’m good at what I do, but if we wanted a real chance to resurrect the kyorinrin, we’d need an experienced necromancer with a cross-focus in Japanese demonology here right now. There just isn’t anyone we can call in on short notice like this. If I try, it’s more than likely the soul won’t take.”

“So we just let it die?” demanded Vesna, who was clearly more susceptible to dramatic rallying speeches than Lorenzo was.

“We don’t get to decide.” Lorenzo replied. He turned his gaze to Evren and told him, “This is your decision, actually, Mister Candemir. As it stands now, the kyorinrin as it is will cease to exist. However, it won’t die.” His eyes alighted on the soul bottle. “It will change into something else- and you will be its legal guardian. I would say in the form it is now, you already are. Therefore, only you can decide whether you want to see that responsibility through or take the risk of resurrecting it so that you can capture a more suitable soul and it can return to its original form.”

“Ah,” Vesna realized. “Like me?”

“Yes,” Lorenzo said, “But remember, your soul had a choice. Still, what I told you the last time we met is true, Evren. Many raevan souls don’t choose to become raevans, yet they live perfectly happy lives despite this. I spent a long time cultivating a relationship with Vesna’s soul, but she doesn’t even remember. Any actions you take to obtain a soul responsibly for your charge are entirely personal: they do not affect the Raevan in any way.”

“What’s the problem, then?” Vesna asked. “If making it a raevan means it won’t die, that’s the best choice, right?”


“It’s still a hard choice,” Lorenzo rebuked. “As any decision regarding someone else’s soul should be.”

___________________



"Er... another time, perhaps," Lumi said distractedly, her eyes on Evren. Though it was clear she wanted to say something, she kept quiet, waiting to hear his decision.

As he listened to the explanation, Evren's cautiously hopeful expression shifted, passing through fear and panic before settling on dismay. He almost seemed to shrink a little, before lowering himself to the floor, crouching with his head resting on his arms. The bottle, still clutched in his hands, ceased its imagined movement, which felt almost more alarming than the heartbeats had.

Everything about this situation felt wrong.

You weren't supposed to try your best and fail this badly. It went against everything Evren believed in. He was the first to admit he'd made some mistakes with this, and sure, those mistakes had consequences. But he hadn't acted carelessly, or failed to take precautions. He'd done his research. He'd called in experts. He'd kept that damn bottle locked up for weeks, so it couldn't suck up anything accidentally. So how had it come to this?

The hero in him wanted to insist that they try the revival anyway. That if they all tried hard enough, all believed in it and fought for it, everything would work out somehow. It hadn't so far, but if he didn't do his best until the very end, he couldn't say that he'd given it his all. There was still a chance to fix this, and if he didn't take that chance, it would make him a murderer all over again.

Yet for some reason, he hesitated.

Nothing in this venture had gone the way he'd expected or planned. No matter what he tried, it seemed like circumstances were determined to play out differently. Evren didn't believe in fate, but his confidence in his view of the world had been shaken. As much as he hated to admit it, even just to himself, maybe there were some things that just couldn't be fixed. Maybe, if he gave the go ahead, that act would truly kill the spirit he'd tried so hard to help.

Mr. Fisch was right about one thing. Whether he wanted this turn of events or not, the bottle, and its contents, were his responsibility. If he left things alone, the spirit would definitely be gone, but it would go on to create something - someone - new. If he mucked around some more, maybe he could save a life. Or maybe he would take one for good.

The hero in him knew what it would do, but it had called the shots all along, and nothing good had come of it. Though he would never stop seeing the world that way, now he had a new perspective on things. And it was with that new voice - the voice of a guardian - that he finally spoke.

"I've already messed this up so badly." He stood up as he spoke, stiffly, holding the bottle out in front of him. The despair in his expression was still there, but it was mixed with resolve, and he looked everyone in the eyes without flinching. "I can't make it worse by insisting on a course that seems doomed to fail. Not when there's some sort of future if it stays in here."

He knew it was the right choice as he said it, but once the words were out and the room was silent, he began second-guessing himself immediately. "Does that make me a terrible person? I swear, I wanted to do this the right way, this wasn't supposed to happen, but if it's my responsibility I have to choose the one that guarantees some kind of living at the end, right?" Or did that make him a hypocrite, for going with something so against his morals? Why wasn't there an easy answer for this?

___________________


“If you start second-guessing yourself here, Mister Candemir, you will have a hard time adjusting to your role as a guardian,” Lorenzo advised. “Let me tell you this now: whatever decision you make here is the right one. Not because of your moral code or my moral code or right or wrong, but because you made it. Your first real decision as a guardian.”

He cleared his throat and added, “Of course, as a necromancer, I would advise you to begin researching kyorinrin right away. I would also warn you about the value of sentient life, but it seems that you will sufficiently linger on that matter yourself without my professional opinion.”

Vesna had lapsed into a thoughtful silence as Evren agonized over his decision, but her eyes were actually on Lorenzo- and when she did speak up, it was with a question. “What’s the right way? Do they tell you?”

“I think Mister Candemir meant-” Lorenzo began, but Vesna cut him off.

“Does Lab 305 tell you how to be a guardian?” she asked again. “How do you know you did it wrong?”

_____________________


"No, I get that. I mean, I get that it has to be my call." Evren wanted to leave it at that, but he had too much momentum to be stopped that easily. He had to keep going until he ran out of steam or crashed. "But I haven't exactly done a great job so far. I think this is the right thing, but I thought that before too, and I was obviously wrong. So what makes this any different?"

"Haven't you been listening?" Eriol asked incredulously, folding his arms. "It's not about what happened before, or whatever mistakes you made, or whatever you didn't do. This's about the life of someone in your care. And since we can't ask them, you're the only one who can make it, so whatever you think is right, is."

"I wanted to ask!" He laughed when Vesna spoke up, but there was no joy in the sound. "The only reason I had the bottle on me tonight is because they wanted to see it. The spirit was helping me research souls, and it said-"

Evren broke off abruptly, mulling over his choice of words. He kept referring to the spirit as an "it." Maybe that was okay when it was still some unexplainable phenomenon, or something out of a monster movie. For a friend, or even an acquaintance, it was unacceptable. He couldn't say when the spirit had become an entity to him, rather than a mystery to be solved, but it was clear that he'd been using the wrong terminology. And probably the wrong mindset, but that was a problem to tackle another day.

He took a deep breath before continuing, paying closer attention to how he phrased things. "They said they needed to see the real bottle to be sure. They promised to give me their recommendation after the ceremony." He should have taken the bottle outside right then, or left it for afterwards, but he was too excited to think of it. "We were looking at rocks. I figured that way, nobody would get hurt. Nobody was supposed to get hurt." So much for that.

In response to Vesna's other question, he shrugged helplessly. "If they tell you how to be a guardian, they left that part out of my package." It would have been nice, if they'd included some tips beyond be careful with your magical color-coded soul vacuum! "But even if it's not wrong, it feels wrong. We had a deal: they'd help me find a soul, and I'd help them find a new home. Instead, I totally screwed them over. If that's not wrong, what is?"

_____________________


“That’s not wrong!” Vesna said. “You did just what you told them you were gonna do, right? They have a new home now, with you, and… And I don’t see why what they were before should matter, so long as they’re happy…”

Lorenzo cleared his throat. “Protocol matters,” he opined, “But I would hardly say you, ah, totally screwed them over. In some ways, Vesna is right. You’ve done what you told them you would do, more or less. Were you to neglect them moving forward, or otherwise mistreat them, I believe that would be totally screwing them over, but that’s a hypothetical future that, based on my interactions with you thus far, I highly doubt shall come to pass.”

“Yeah,” Vesna said, still struggling to express herself. “Like, if you’re a good dad, that’s all that matters, right? Why do you care about what other people think?”

“You keep using the word ‘hurt’,” Lorenzo embellished. “Nobody has been hurt here, Mister Candemir. There are certainly some ethical issues with what has transpired tonight, but necromantic ethics are a labyrinth of hypotheticals and conditionals and no necromancer or client has ever followed the protocol to the letter as much,” he emphasized, “As we believe we must try. These standards are an ideal, Mister Candemir. The reality is very much like the decision you have made tonight: We make mistakes, we fail, we realize our limitations, and we course correct as best we can. That is the best advice I can give you now.”

“Yeah, and you have us,” Vesna added, “So the kyorinrin won’t be lonely, you know? And I can, like, show them My Highschool Romance with the Demon Lord and stuff, so they’ll know where they came from!”

“We also have books we can lend them on the subject,” Lorenzo offered, “Which are slightly less enthusiastic about the source material.”

_______________________


There was nothing anyone else could say that would make the whole situation feel any less wrong. Even if there was a future to look forward to, Evren knew that the past would haunt him for a long time to come.

But there was something comforting about hearing from another Raevan - from an example of what the spirit could become - that he wasn't the monster he pictured himself as. He wasn't a hero either, far from it, but maybe, right then, he didn't have to be. He could start with just being a guardian, and go from there.

The tension in his shoulders eased a bit, and he rolled his head from side to side, in what could have been a cross between a head shake and a nod, or a means of relaxing his neck. "Thanks. Both of you. I'm still not convinced this is all for the best, but..." He took a deep breath, trying to assemble his thoughts in a way that might make sense to his audience. "It is what it is, and the sooner I accept that, the sooner I can move forward, I guess." He still wasn't sure, but this time he let his statement stand on its own, the need to justify his decisions lessened in the face of more acceptance than he could have expected.

The mention of the D-word made Evren wince a little, though. Try as he might, he still couldn't picture himself as a parent, much less a dad. He had very solid images of what those kinds of people were like, and imagining himself in those roles was like trying to fit a cantaloupe in a thimble.

Putting that issue aside for the moment, he latched onto their offers. "I'd appreciate any reference material you might have." If only he'd done that instead of going to the library... no, he couldn't keep thinking like that. He had to look forward, not backward. "Both for me and for..." He looked down at the bottle again, wondering if the crazy heartbeats would start up again, but all he could feel was the glass, warm from being held for so long. It was just a container, if a vitally important one.

"I think they were really lonely, being ignored for so long," he ventured, still struggling with his words. "So I'm glad they've got friends already."

___________________



“Of course,” said Lorenzo, moving briskly to his bookcase in hopes that keeping things rolling would stop Evren from fixating upon things he had no hope of changing. “I’ll collect what resources I have and email them to you in the next few days. Is a PDF acceptable?”

Vesna needed no prompting, and flitted upstairs, returning with a DVD which boasted “SEASONS 1-5!!!” on the side. “The kyorinrin doesn’t show up until season three, but if you don’t watch it in order, you won’t really understand the character arcs…” she mused. Even if the character arcs weren’t particularly good, knowing them made the “Zany Supernatural Antics!!!” that the front of the DVD bragged slightly more tolerable, it seemed. “Aaand, here’s my phone number!” She scribbled it briefly on the front of the DVD in marker. “Give my number to the kyorinrin when they’re born! I’ll definitely be their friend.”

Lorenzo smiled wanly. “Yes, and this book is a good starting point if--” he began, but as he went to approach Evren, he swayed dizzily to the side. Catching himself on the desk in front of him before he fell, he shook his head.

“Da-” Vesna began, and caught herself. “Lorenzo, how long have you been working today?” she amended.

“As soon as Evren feels at ease, I’ll rest,” Lorenzo assured her with a wave of his hand. “I’ll be fine for a bit longer.” He looked to Evren. “How do you feel, Mister Candemir?” he asked gently. “Remember, if you need anything, you can call me anytime.”

“You can call us,” Vesna corrected, waving her phone at him. “I’m pretty free. And I’m, like, super good at Google.”

_____________________



"PDF is fine," Evren replied. He couldn't help but feel guilty at asking for even more assistance, but he knew he needed that support if he was to have even the slightest chance of making this situation less of a total catastrophe.

For that reason, he offered Vesna a smile, heartfelt if somewhat forced, when she presented him with the DVD. He wasn't in good enough shape to turn down any kind of help, even if it was of questionable use and packaged along with "Zany Supernatural Antics!!!" As Lumi took the DVD from him, to look it over and give it a series of quizzical looks, he nodded to both of them. "Thank you so much, both of you. I don't-"

And that was as far as he got before Lorenzo collapsed, causing a fresh wave of guilt to wash over him. This was his fault. He came here unannounced in the middle of the night, making demands that not even a superhero would be able to satisfy, and going off the deep end when things didn't work out the way he wanted.

So while he was far from at ease, Evren gave a shaky thumbs up. "I'm... I'm fine. Really." Vocal manipulation wasn't his strong suit, but he was an actor by trade, and that meant he could fake it when he had to. "Please get some rest. I'll take it from here."

Take it where, he wasn't really sure, but the sooner he got out of there, the better it would be for everyone. "Thanks again! I'll uh, let you know how it goes." With one last wave he scurried out of the living room before anyone could argue, with his entourage trailing awkwardly behind him.