Pacing Themselves

[Little Rose]

Cassandra didn't know how to react to head patting, especially so many at once. One moment she was embarrassed and hiding behind her hands in an effort to avoid confusing conversations, the next she felt a bit of weight on her head. When she looked up from her hiding place it was up into Dane's face who was idly running his hand across her dark colored hair. He appeared to be in mid-thought as he didn't speak nearly the whole time he ruffled her feather-soft hair.

From the distance of time, the past crept close again to overlap over Dane once more. A man that looked nothing like him phantom stood in his place, smiling down at her and petting her just like it... Myst whimpered to herself and hid her face once more, the inherited time manipulation she was not aware of trembled under her emotions once more as the memory of Ivory faded away like the sands of time in an hourglass. About that time was when his hand slipped away and went back to his side as he began to explain that he'd rather go in a different direction from the original idea. Of course Sandy wasn't paying much attention to this at all.

Luckily the conversation turned away from her long enough that she could steel herself once again for human contact, the warmth of her cheeks calming until it wasn't very noticeable. So she could move her hands so that they crossed over her heart, one cuffing her other's wrist while she took a few deep breaths. No one was heeding her any attention now, Dane has taken up to talking about someone of importance - at least they had to have been to name drop like that.

When she did look up finally, she found out how wrong she was. As someone had been looking her way. The little blond girl with the torch. It surprised Sandra, but after a small glare she received from Clownpiece, the fairy's attention seemed grossly on Dane. Very aware of other people's attention, as it was a safety issue most time to keep aware of the company in her immediate area for hunters, Sandy along with the other's noticed how upset the girl was. In fact, the only person who didn't seem to notice was the one person she was seemingly mad at. Dane.

When silence settled into the conversation, and before anyone could think of something to fill it with, Clownpiece spoke in Dane's direction. Something about them both having pets? Myst was trying to come to terms what that could mean when Dane's hand came up. Before it could come down on her head, the hell fairy was already grabbing it and pinning it down. Whining like the child she appeared to be. Cassandra felt the need to assist, consumed by her compassionate nature to help, but was stopped in her place when Dane's hand successfully came down to her head and ruffled her hair once more.

What pleasure could be derived from such a simple and innocent action was wisped away as the small child comically picked Dane up carried him away from Myst. This confused her completely and concerned the ceramic beast enough to come closer and hiss at Dane. Myst felt as though she missed entire pieces of conversation and looked to Renko for answers, even Afrátos seemed clueless about what exactly was going on. Sandy was torn between listening in to better help and not wanting to intrude in a private conversation. The end results left her completely distracted from hearing exactly what the two of them were talking about but she gathered that Clownpiece wanted headpats. This made Cassandra lift her slender and small hand up to look at it as if it had some magical calming power that she'd never known about before...

To test out this theory she looked to her side, the white and blue creature that seemed to towered over her and at the ready to defend his master. He was raised just a bit higher than before, his front paws not touching the ground, just raised so that he was halfway between futile intimidation methods and standing down out of fear of his master’s displeasure.

Myst's hand lifted as high as it would go, and she also lifted her weight to her tippy toes to get that last extra inch to reach for China's head, the side that was still there. Very carefully and very gently, while still attempting a firm stance, she put her hand on the smooth cold surface of the creature beside her. Her hand was shaking as she lacked the proper height, but she managed a kind hand just the same.

Her actions more startled the creature than comforted. China remained statue still if only to keep himself from attacking the girl outright. His single eye locked on the fast one as he tried to resist biting the yum-yum beside him. If the creature was capable of sweating, bullet size beads would drip from every inch of him. It was like putting as biscuit on a dog’s nose and watching at it twitched uncomfortably as the treat became too heavy to bear.

Cassandra eventually pulled her hand away and tried to observe if her hand did the same thing as Dane’s. Afrátos looked [i]calmer[i] but if it had the desired effect at all, Myst was uncertain. Especially since she was pretty sure she was doing it incorrectly. She meant to ask Dane if there was a trick to it, but they were interrupted when Renko called out to her.

“Cassandra!” The dark-haired woman called back to them, Dane and Clownpiece already leading the way to their next destination. “Let’s go, or you will be left behind.” She added, and then turned her back to Myst and followed along.

Sandra tensed up, “W-Wait for moi!” She said, taking a step forward before turning around and grabbing China by the paw. “Je veux dire nous!” She corrected herself, pulling him to follow as long as he will allow her to pull him along as they reached the next gate.

”Us, I mean!”