Some Personal Time

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"Lyn-Lyntael."

It wasn't much; heck, it could've meant anything for all Ion knew, but it was better than nothing. Smiling reassuringly in profile, the cyborg did his best without outright looking at the youth to be a pillar of support. "Alright, Ion, just like Leif taught you: reassuring, but firm. You need to be the strong one right now. Alright, we can do that," Ion's eternal running monologue worked to remember all the step-by-steps to assisting through a panic attack: it was a fairly short list, but no plan ever survived contact with the...well, not enemy, but...

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"Get back! Don't touch me, don't touch me! Stay back!!"

[ZAP!]

Whatever had been running through Ion's head, it was immediately halted, courtesy of being caught utterly flat-footed by Lyntael's static wave. The pulse knocked the wind out of him, but the damage had been slight, and more importantly, it shocked the Navi's combat reflexes into action. "Whoa!" Ion got his legs under him just in time to notice the girl lashing a foot out at him; perhaps it was the Elec element they both shared, but the bright flashes arcing off her ankle striker were bright and obvious enough to the hybrid Navi that hopping out of harm's way was a relatively simple task. Servos gearing back down from the sudden movement, Ion took a deep breath to steady his jump-started nerves, and got his bearings again. "Alright, she's running through the hot spring, she's...ahh, there are her clothes; alright, that's progress."

Another fortifying deep breath, and Ion started off walking around the hot spring; his metallic feet were caked with mud in seconds, but this was hardly the time to be worrying about his body's cleanliness (even if it was a bunch of gross muddy slop). Peripherally, he noted that the two aquatic viruses had followed Lyntael (was that her name?) into the water, but weren't trying to follow her out of it, but rather stayed in the depths to soak and...cuddle? Well alright then. The muddy little Bandcoon, on the other hand, was climbing right back out on the other side, now dripping wet but refusing to leave his friend completely alone. Ion almost stopped to ponder how he'd so easily accepted that the girl was honest-to-goodness friends with this bunch of viruses, but ultimately forged on to stop at Lyntael's side...if a little farther away this time.

Ion took a quick, cursory glance at Lyntael, and saw her trying with panic-numbed fingers to work the clasp on her skirt. "Okay, what to do, what to do..." Ion wracked his processors; Leif had outright left the room, he'd buggered off so hard, and Lyntael didn't seem to have an Operator on-hand to help out. "Well, at least you're getting to practice a little independence..." he muttered with a rueful eye-roll, and cleared his throat. "Hey...Lyntael? That's your name, right? I'm not gonna hurt you; I'm not gonna touch you, even, I'll stay right over here if that's what you want. But I want you to know...that whatever you're seeing right now, I know it's probably scary and, well, miles beyond anything I could imagine, but it isn't here. This is a safe place; your Bandcoon's trying to tell you the same thing, hey? But for now...take a deep breath, get your clothes back on for the time being; that'll help. Maybe wash off a little in the hot springs, or that mud's gonna dry and feel good and wretched later."

He was rambling and he knew it, but Leif's advice was blaring strong and true in old, often-accessed memory files, "Don't patronize; whatever they're seeing, it's just as real to them as a broken arm might be to me, or a Charge Shot to the face for you. Just be calm, and be a neutral party outside of what they're seeing." It was the kind of logic that suggested past experience, and it had worked to calm down Phase...Ion could only hope that it might help here as well, and he needed to reach out to this girl. "Lyntael," he tried again, still with a hint of uncertainty to his tone (what if she'd been scared or something by someone named Lyntael and he was just reminding her of that?), but charging on anyway, "...just keep taking nice deep breaths; I'm gonna ask you a question," he tried giving her plenty of time to react, forcing himself to slow down, "Are you panicking because of something that's here right now, something I can see myself...or is it something you're remembering that's come up to the surface?"

In the layers of code that made up his mind, Ion saw flashes of Phase, running blindly through the lab corridors and screaming for him and Cal and Jenga to stay back, of Leif's voice soft and serious as death as his Operator whispered instructions into his brain, of holding Phase in the aftermath, lab a wreck around them, while she sobbed a series of mad hysterics into his steel-and-muscle chest. Closing his eyes and mirroring his own advice, Ion took a deep breath of steamy onsen air to calm his nerves. "Deep breaths," he said aloud, both for his own benefit and for Lyntael's. "First step is to catch your breath; the rest follows from there."

=Predators(?)=
Bandcoon: 60HP [Mud] [Hovering around Lyntael]
Lark: 69HP [Onsen] [Cuddling Snoozy]
Snoozy: 60HP [Onsen]

=Hostage(?)=
Lyntael: 150HP [Overcharge: +1] [My Pain is Real: Ready!] [40HP Barrier] [Buster Charge x1] [Off-Target] [Mud]

=Objects=
Spire L: 500HP
Spire R: 500HP

=Terrain=
60% Onsen [Two large pools, dubbed Onsen L and Onsen R]
20% Coal ['Bridge' between two pools]
20% Mud [Ring around Onsen]

=Rescuer(?)=
Ion: 190HP [Mud] [Back a ways from Lyntael]

If she could get her clothes on, that would make things better. It was the clearest thought Lyntael had, for the moment, and it wasn't a particularly clear one. Part of her mind insisted, though: if she could get dressed, that would mean she wasn't there, and it wasn't happening again. Her hands shook, and the catch wouldn't take. Sparks were jumping between her fingers as she looked down, trying to do up the simple garment, and her vision was blurry too. The latter was simply from her body's latest attempt at distressed tears; her eyes were sore and dry, but they still managed enough of a film of hinder her sight.

She gasped a short breath before a sob shook her. It wouldn't go. Why wouldn't it just catch? The frustration only made her fingers tremble more, and brought more sobs as her breaths grew shorter and quicker. If she could just get it on, then it wouldn't be real, but she couldn't get it on. One end of the skirt slipped between her fingers and she twisted awkwardly, half turning as the garment fluttered away back around her before she managed to grab hold of it again. The concept of being exposed or not was more or less abstract at this point, so fixated was she on the one goal she could hold onto; that losing the skirt again for a few seconds had once again put everything on show, never registered.

A small part of her mind knew that she needed to calm down; knew that the momentary flashback was just that, and nothing more, but it was a very thin thread in a whirlpool of other overriding reactions. The skirt was too hard. Start with something easier. Her pants were here somewhere, right? Her fingers let go of the skirt, giving up on the belligerent clasp for now as her mind reached for a simpler option. Unheeded, the strip of fabric fluttered down and to the side to settle onto the surface of the springs, quickly soaking through. She looked around, half expecting the undergarment to simply be there, because her thoughts said it was, until the recollection of where she'd put them, for safe keeping, surfaced at last.

There was another voice nearby, and she looked up from her search. She did see Ion, sort of. A part of her saw him, and identified that the voice was his, and that he was the one speaking to her. The connection didn't make it all the way through, though, not completely, and after her eyes brushed over him briefly, her head dropped again to begin searching in her vest for the folded undergarment. Ion would likely have seen wide, red-rimmed eyes dart over him in a far more twitchy set of movements that Lyntael herself was aware of, and if he was familiar with the feeling of being stared right though, he'd probably have felt it then.

He'd said something about what she was seeing. What was she seeing? Water. Steam. Hot coals. Her toes were curled around some of the smaller, looser stones in the shallow water. She wasn't there; that had been cold. Here was warm, hot even. That was a difference. She couldn't find her underwear. They weren't there any more.

"Where... where are they? Where did they go...?" That much she actually spoke aloud as she began to cast about, looking for where the underclothes might have escaped to. Her hands were still shaking and she still felt numb, but speaking aloud had forced her to take a longer, deeper breath, and the small thread in her mind that was trying to calm her held onto it. Once the pattern was there, she kept it, gradually taking longer, smoother breaths again.

"It was here. I had them... safe, but, they're gone now..." Her voice shook in between uneven breaths, but both were better than they had been, at least a little. Lyntael was looking around more desperately though, eyes wandering over the coals, over the surface of the spring, looking for the missing undergarment, but it didn't seem to be anywhere. The part of her mind that was still fixated on dressing as a means of dispelling her fear was beginning to despair of ever being properly dressed again, and after a few more hopeless glances about, the girl sank slowly to her knees at the edge of the spring. The coals felt scorching hot against her bare skin, but at this stage, that sensation was more of a positive thing than anything else.

The voice was talking again, and she lifted her head. She was coherent enough to recognise Ion talking to her from a safe distance, but if she'd really been seeing him properly, she'd have been far more aware of the fact that she was kneeling with her knees wide apart, facing the other navi, and bare from the waist down; as it was, those features were still abstractly disconnected in her mind. She could feel the little bandcoon close by the outside of her left thigh. He was probably worried about her. That thought in particular was a more rational one than she'd had in recent minutes. The voice. Focus.

He was telling her to clam down as well; to breath more. She found herself nodding blankly. He knew her name.. did he know her? Or had she told him. No, she had said her name earlier, that was right. Her heart was still hammering madly in her chest, but now her breathing was closer to panting, rather than shallow gasps, and each inhale and exhale gradually lengthened. Her head dropped again, looking down at the surface of the water just in front of her, but this time it was more so she could focus on getting herself under control. Thoughts were slowly coming back together, bit by bit, and she wrapped her arms about herself, hugging tightly while she sought an answer.

"I... I, I'm not..." She tried again. "I'm not there. That's not now." It sounded weak to her ears, and there was no denying that she was speaking the words as much to convince herself, as to answer the question from the mysterious other navi. "That's past. I got away. He... He didn't... didn't... He didn't..." Her breath quickened and her shoulders heaved again, and on instinct Lyntael cut the train of thought quickly, falling silent again as she concentrated on long, slow breaths.

When her calm had returned enough to put the pieces together on her position, and the presence of another navi, and a male one at that, she might have panicked again, but some small part of her mind that had held onto the situation was ready for it. There was a moment when she looked up, blinked a few times to focus on Ion properly then gasped, but her reaction was much closer to what might be considered 'normal' in such a situation. She fell back, first, folding her legs, then shifted quickly into the concealing water of the spring. The hot flush on her cheeks was, really, quite a healthy sign, considering how she'd been a moment minutes before. The girl bit her lip, mostly concealed by the water, and drew her knees up to her chest while she looked at him.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know what happened." Snatches of her previous minutes were less clear, but she recalled enough. "I attacked you. I hurt you, didn't I?" She broke eye contact, looking down again. "I'm sorry, I hurt everyone around me. I don't mean to, but I can't seem to help it." Without realising that she was following his advice, Lyntael began to lift some of the water to wash the mud from her face and hair. It was all in one side of her vest as well. Her eyes fell on her skirt, floating nearby, and she absently wondered if there was any point in tyring to keep anything dry at all. Her blush spread further and she paused.

"Ah... Can... can you turn around please? I should clean my vest, and, um..." Words failed her, but hopefully the other navi would understand what she meant, at least. They could still talk, as long as he was very definitely facing away from her while she slipped her vest off and began trying to wash the mud from it.

She wasn't calm enough to make her skin safe yet, but the girl did manage a small glance for her bandcoon friend, and made an attempt at a grin to show him she was doing better. It was a weak attempt, but it was something. A side-long look let her see that the Lark and Snoozy were alright as well, but Lyntael herself was far too ashamed of her earlier actions to initiate a greeting or reassurance of any sort. Still, it was something she needed to say, and she tried to while she scrubbed at herself.

"Um... thankyou. For not hurting my friends. I was scared that you'd attack them, but, they're nice." It sounded like a very strange thing to say, in retrospect. Between that and her behaviour earlier, he was going to think she was crazy. "My heart... it won't slow down." It wouldn't yet, but at least she was present enough to understand that it would, so long as she kept calm and breathed slowly.

For all of Ion's can-do attitude on a normal day, all the cyborg could do while Lyntael fumbled with her skirt was sit in the dank, sticky, gross mud, half-watch the young lady out of the corner of his eye to make sure she didn't...something, and feel more than a little helpless. "Umm...I'd offer to help out with that, but, uhh...maybe not the best idea? Heh..." Ion forced himself to chuckle, to do anything to make his sad attempt at a joke more credible; in the seconds that followed, he added, "You know what? Forget I said that; take all the time you need. No pressure, right? Here's a good, safe place" and forced himself to shut up until there was actually something worth commenting on.

There was a fair moment of silence, wherein Lyntael did her best to search out her clothes, and Ion tried to look everywhere but directly at Lyntael. He opened his map program and, with a few quick inputs, added the hot spring at the end of a long, windy path through the woods. Then he took several eye-captures of the area and attached them to the map. Then he made several notes on the Lark and Snoozy, both resting in the rejuvenating waters, and the Bandcoon that, as far as he could tell, was local to the habitat. He searched for something else to do, realizing his list of busywork was quickly drying out...and then, in a freak accident, he cast around for something to look at, and wound up staring Lyntael straight in the eye.

~"Get away from me!! NO NO PLEASE STAY AWAY STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!!"~

The flashback slammed into Ion with a force he could've sworn was physical. Just as Lyntael seemed to stare straight through him to some unseen thing far, far away, Phase's face overlaid itself atop the actually-present young lady's; yellow vest blended seamlessly into navy sera fuku, green eyes mixed with turquoise, and the screaming the screaming the screaming-

"STOPPIT!" Ion somehow had the strength of mind to yell at himself, and the jolt back to the present shattered the double-image. "Gotta be strong, you've got to be the strong one here. You can have your breakdown later...oh where the HELL is Leif when you actually need him," he silently cursed his Operator's absence, taking his own advice in the form of several deep, slightly-shaky breaths. When he finally got the courage to look back up, Lyntael wasn't staring through him anymore, instead searching again for...something, presumably more of her outfit.

Something in the frantic darting around clicked with Ion, and tentatively, he ventured, "If you're looking for something small...maybe give your pockets and your outfit a once-over? My Operator always loses his keys while they're still on him...or if they aren't, I could help search?" As if to demonstrate, he stood up from his muddy perch and gave the hot spring a cursory once-over. Nothing immediately popped out at him, at least until he double-took at the skirt still floating on the onsen's surface. "That's right, she..." his monologue started, but Ion was already wading out into the shallow pool, reaching down and plucking the garment from the surface. Eying the sodden fabric for a moment, the mechanoid twirled it in one hand for a moment, and grabbed with the other, doing his best to wring the whole affair dry; it might wrinkle as a result, but he figured wrinkled beat waterlogged any day of the week. "I've got your skirt...well, as dry as I could get it," he called, just in case Lyntael hadn't seen it happen. "Just let me know when you're ready for it and I'll toss it over."

He awaited a response, and was pleased to hear a tiny, halting female voice from across the clearing. However, what Lyn was actually saying didn't exactly click with the last thing Ion had said; it took a moment for his virtual brain to connect the dots back to something he'd said earlier, and make up for the communications lag. "That's right, you got away. You're not there anymore," his voice dropped down a few notes, low and soothing as he could manage. He didn't bother to address whatever it was the mysterious 'he' didn't do; whatever it was, addressing the matter would only get her thinking about it more, which was the precise opposite of what he wanted.

Taking a chance, Ion turned his head to regard Lyntael again, and met her eyes once more. To his utter relief, she reacted much more as he would expect a half-nude young woman to react to him: embarrassment had taken front and centre stage, and that was something to be thankful for. "Alright, we're getting somewhere," his monologue cheered, only to quiet the moment Lyn started talking again.

While Ion was touched that she was worried about him, something told him that her dwelling on his little nick could only lead to Bad Things. "Just a scratch, nothing to worry about," he effected a casual tone, doing his best to assure that the attack hadn't done much to injure or offend him. More importantly..."That...electric pulse thing of yours, you can't quite control it, yeah? I work for a company that studies things like power irregularities, viral contamination...whole lotta things, really, but point is, people exist who can help you study your powers. Heck, we could probably help you learn to control it...but I digress, I'll be turning around now."

Ion spun on his heel and smartly stood with his back to Lyntael. Just as reminder, he held her skirt in two pinched fingers, stretching his arm behind him. "Don't forget this; I'd throw it back to you, but I don't wanna risk getting it all muddy. Actually, know what, here," he changed plans, setting the skirt on the grass beyond the mud, and taking a few more steps forward. "Now you can just take it. Let me know if you need anything; I'll just be...you know, standing." The cyborg's job as done as he could figure, he stared up to the navy sky of Yoka Net; the deep, rich blue reminding him uncannily of a certain schoolgirl's skirt, and Ion wondered how his favourite surrogate little-sister was holding up. "Hopefully she's doing better, now that she's got Vincent again," he mused, grinning a handsome, hopeful smile up at the moonless sky.

As Ion thought on, Lyn's Bandcoon squeaked to her from the shore, waving a little paw and flinging mud everywhere. The little guy really had stuck it out with her, through thick and thin, and he was even smart enough to know to stay out of the water while Lyntael was cleaning up. The Lark and Snoozy were in the pool with her, but were sequestered far enough back in their corner to be safe from her static pulses. While the Lark's many scratches and bruises slowly faded in the healing waters, the Snoozy held her larger mate tight in her sleep, whimpering ever so softly into the night. The grandpa-fish looked to Lyntael and burbled a wizened old noise, somewhere between a coo of empathy and a sigh of sorrow; just like Ion, he was doing his best to be the strong one, even as he hurt inside just as much as the inconsolable Snoozy.

=Predators(?)=
Bandcoon: 60HP [Mud] [Hovering around Lyntael]
Lark: 72HP [Onsen L] [Cuddling Snoozy]
Snoozy: 60HP [Onsen L] [Sleeping]

=Hostage(?)=
Lyntael: 150HP [Overcharge: +1] [My Pain is Real: Ready!] [40HP Barrier] [Buster Charge x1] [Onsen L]

=Objects=
Spire L: 500HP
Spire R: 500HP

=Terrain=
30% Onsen [Two large pools, dubbed Onsen L and Onsen R]
10% Coal ['Bridge' between two pools]
10% Mud [Ring around Onsen]
50% Normal [The rest of the clearing]

=Rescuer(?)=
Ion: 190HP [Normal, standing with back turned to Lyntael]

It was one of those times that might some day become a look-back-and-laugh moment; two complete stranger navis, meeting by chance, and each struggling with their own inner turmoils while being more concerned for the other. As she fought to calm herself down, Lyntael hadn't had much chance to notice Ion's sudden freeze up as he dealt with his own unpleasant memories, but she found herself relieved, at least, to discover that this stranger, whoever he was, was being as decent as he could about having found her in the state she was in.

Her heart was still racing an impossible tattoo in her chest, and it still left her hands shaking slightly, but he was looking away from her deliberately, and she felt more comfortable just knowing that while she slipped out of her vest, giving up all hope of keeping any part of it dry, and began to gently work the mud out of it.

A snatch of memory reminded her that, after all the effort she'd taken to dry her skirt off properly the first time, she'd gone and dropped it in the springs again... and hadn't even managed to find her underpants, for that, either. The thought made her wince and fret again, and she pointedly turned her attention back to washing her vest. The other navi had said something to her as well; that was something else she could focus on until her pulse relaxed again. Glancing up towards his back, she noticed that he'd fished her skirt out of the spring and laid it on the grass for her, but stood past it with his back to her. It was only a small gesture really, but it helped.

"I can control it, sometimes..." She hesitated almost immediately. Recent events took most of the value out of that claim. "But I can't really stop a lot of it, when I'm scared, or worried. When I'm afraid, or, or I panic, or... it just happens, you know?" She started off speaking towards him, with her face up, but as the explanation went on, her voice grew softer and more uncertain, and her head dropped down to look back at the surface of the water. Unless Ion had particularly good hearing, making her out was probably going to get a bit difficult unless she spoke up again.

"It's no good though. It hurts me, and I... I don't like it. The more energy I use, the faster it builds up, and if I keep using it, it hurts more and more... and I..." Lyntael clicked her teeth shut, swallowing and taking along breath. She cut the train of thought off and closed her eyes for a few long moments. She could talk about those problems later, when she wasn't so badly on edge.

"Thank you for rescuing my skirt." That was a much safer, clearer thing to say. Her vest was about as clean as she could get it, and she held it up out of the water, squeezing it out, then checked to make sure Ion was still looking the other way. With a sigh, she stood up out of the spring and slipped the thin garment over her shoulders again, only struggling a little bit with getting the clasps done up now. Her fingers had mostly stilled, and her heart-rate was beginning to subside, at last.

The vest felt clingy, but it was better than nothing. She shrugged a little, settling it. Unfortunately as much as she couldn't see the effect herself when the vest was wet like this, the thin fabric became slightly sheer and clung to her skin. While she didn't have much curvature to show for it underneath, any glanced over her front would probably be drawn to two points in particular anyway.

Her mind was telling her he'd asked about what she was searching for, but the hot blush jumped back to her cheeks, and she decided she certainly wasn't going to say that she'd been looking for her pants, and draw attention to that whole problem again. Instead she waded towards the edge of the spring to claim the other garment that she still possessed.

Despite how proper he was being, there was still something silently nervous about the stretch of seconds as she stepped cautiously from the spring, over the mud trail, and reclaimed the strip of fabric from right near the other navi. She vaguely wanted to snatch it up and run away again, but the rational part of her mind tried to force a little more calm over her, and she bent to pick it up, and stepped back again at a more reasonable pace. Even so, it would have been a long few seconds where Ion would have clearly heard the rippling and splashing of her approach, and heard her climb from the water to step up to him, knowing full well the state of undress she was in.

Pulling the skirt around her and getting the catch done up went far more smoothly this time, and Lyntael sighed to herself once it was on and straight. She was still overbearingly aware of her lack of undergarments, but at least at a glance she looked decent again now. She said as much, quietly, and stepped over to the side a little and letting her toes curl in the grassy space beyond the springs and the mud.

"I, um... thank you. I'm sorry I freaked out. I've had a bad few days." She hung her head, holding one elbow with her other hand, and her voice sounded apologetic as she made what was possibly the understatement of the week. "Oh... I haven't asked your name!" This did cause her to look up at him, eyebrows high as her eyes opened wider and she bit her lip, but she had barely made eye contact for a moment or two, before the fairly insistent attention of her little Bandcoon drew her back again. The little creature's concern lead her to crouch down in front of him and try on another smile, closer this time. It even managed to look a little bit stronger, too. A little.

"I'm alright now, little guy. See? I'm feeling better. Sorry I scared you." She didn't let him get close enough to touch or nuzzle her yet; her skin still wasn't safe, but she rested her arms folded across her knees as she crouched by him, trying to make sure the little creature was alright as well.

It was probably a sign that she was feeling better, gradually, but the dubious decency of her position didn't actually occur to Lyntael at that particular moment. It was a fortunate thing for everyone involved, then, that, despite the amount of rough treatment her skirt had been through, its modesty coding still seemed to be functioning properly now that she was wearing it again; where normal gravity might have had unfortunate effects, the skirt managed to hang in just the right way to keep anyone from seeing anything, cute critters and helpful cyborgs included. Once she was sure that her friend was unharmed and ok, Lyntael stood again, blushing slightly for having ignored Ion right after asking his name, and apologised again for doing so. She was doing a lot of apologising, it seemed.

<(Sorry for taking so long with this.)>

With his back turned to Lyntael, there wasn't much Ion could do but look around, and look around he did. The idiosyncrasies of the hot spring were not lost on him; with a code scheme rich in combat routines and viral tracking protocol, sussing out that a battle had taken place not long before his arrival was a simple enough matter. The mud-border was consistent with the behavior Yoka's native Mudfeesh, there was a strange barbell-looking track through the coal divider that screamed 'Heavy', and there, on the other side of the clearing from his own entrance, was a mess of tramped-down undergrowth that couldn't have happened more than a handful of minutes ago. He wasn't entirely sure where the Lark and Snoozy cuddling in the onsen factored in (or, for that matter, Lyntael herself), but he could make a few educated guesses.

This was an onsen of survivors, Ion noted to himself. He was moments away from inquiring on the spring, only to be cut off by the soft, piping child's voice (for even teenagers still looked so very young) that belonged to his charge of the day. "Poor child, like a bird with a broken wing," the cyborg mused, thinking back to Lyntael's gravity well eyes, "but then, you couldn't be a bird, could you, because hope is the thing with feathers." He didn't dare speak a word aloud, letting the little girl squeeze everything out. "That's it, like dirty water from a dishrag," he silently encouraged her; from the outside, he appeared to be merely silent, stalwartly staring off in the direction of definitely-not-Lyntael, perhaps not even listening. His virus-trained audio receptors (for the antennae on the sides of his head could hardly be called ears, now could they) told a different story, catching every halting word and adding them to his mental in-tray for processing.

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"Thank you for rescuing my skirt."

There, he could work with that. "It was nothing, really," he started, voice low with comfort and hot chocolate and all that which made the monsters go scurrying back under the bed. "Like I said, (or at least, I'm pretty sure I said) I'm here to help. You aren't alone here, Lyntael, and you don't have to be." Was that good? Ion hoped it was working; he couldn't exactly check on her with his back turned, but the scared little girl at least sounded more put-together by now.

Keeping his receptors at full gain in case she spoke again, for a long few moments Ion heard nothing but the heavy rustling of wet clothes, and then the mild splashing of Lyntael getting out of the hot spring. It perhaps wasn't quite as tense a moment for Ion to stay as he was, as it was for Lyntael to brave the journey to retrieve her skirt, but the cyborg was fairly sure the almost greasy static charge in the air wasn't just him. Attempting to both make things easier on her, and avoid another potential jolt, he took another few steps away from the skirt. He heard more dampened rustling, and at long last a tiny sigh of relief. "All dressed? Turning around in three...two...one..." and he spun to get his first good, uninterrupted look of Lyntael.

With her clothing in place and the shadows slowly (but surely) receding from within and beneath her eyes, the resemblance to Phase became less pronounced, to Ion's intense relief. The younger body and fresher face made the tragedy (for there surely was one behind those eyes) raw and dirty to think about, but finally the man-made-machine-made-Navi could look her in the eye without his nonexistent stomach turning over itself in flashback. As it was, he still kept his eyes glued onto her face without an ounce of deviation, for while sexuality was a known phenomenon to him, he couldn't look at the confirmation of Lyntael's human-real anatomy without feeling dirtier than the mud underfoot.

And so he simply smiled his handsome, patient smile, about to introduce himself as he'd failed to earlier, only for the Bandcoon to remind both Navis of its presence. Any irritation he might've had with the virus evaporated the moment he noticed the honest happiness Lyntael got from the curious little beast. Any little bit helped, and so there was no animosity to be had, despite what his viral trackers were screaming at him. In the end, he waved her apology aside as though she'd just thrown it at him, and touched a warm, callused hand to his metal sternum. "Ion.EXE, at your service," he made a little bow. "No apologies necessary, Lyntael - that is your name, right? It can be good to let it all out now and then, and I was happy to listen."

The Bandcoon continued to snuffle around Lyntael, keeping a respectful distance of her static charge but doing its best regardless to shower her with affection. The sight of its antics were enough to make Ion chuckle, pointing down to the creature. "Looks like he agrees with me; what's his story, anyway? I've never seen a virus so attached to a Navi before." It was a safe topic, he figured, as they moved into safer waters. Even as he surreptitiously calmed his breathing down, he could let his combat senses relax with the knowledge that Lyntael was back in control of herself, and things would (hopefully) be alright.

=The Survivors=
Lark: 75HP [Onsen L] [Cuddling Snoozy]
Snoozy: 60HP [Onsen L] [Sleeping]
Bandcoon: 60HP [Mud] [Hovering around Lyntael]

=The Fallen (but not Downed)=
Lyntael: 150HP [Overcharge: +1] [My Pain is Real: Ready!] [40HP Barrier] [Buster Charge x1] [Onsen L]

=Objects=
Spire L: 500HP
Spire R: 500HP

=Terrain=
30% Onsen [Two large pools, dubbed Onsen L and Onsen R]
10% Coal ['Bridge' between two pools]
10% Mud [Ring around Onsen]
50% Normal [The rest of the clearing]

=The Helping Hand=
Ion: 190HP [Normal, standing with back turned to Lyntael]

Dressed and ready, finally, Lyntael still felt herself flinch ever so slightly when her unexpected new friend turned about to face her again. She'd said she was ready, of course, but it was still a bit quick and she was still a bit jumpy. The moment after her slight breath catch, though, it was gone; just a reaction of surprise, and not even enough to do anything more to the delicate dance of current just beneath her skin than was already going on. The back of her consciousness, still focusing on little details to help calm her down, made her wriggle her toes in the grass, pleased by the feel of it underfoot, though at the same time she could feel the cooler air on her skin now that she was well out of the water, and the very slight goose-bumping it was starting to cause. She wasn't really cold though, the detail focused thoughts pressed; it was just the temperature difference, because she was wet. The other detail that jumped up clear in her mind was the ache in all of her muscles; it wasn't the scouring burn that had been there before she'd over-loaded, but like an athlete that had worked too hard the day before, every part of her felt stressed, strained and weary. So much for a relaxing rest. By the time Ion actually introduced himself, after her temporary lapse in manners, it recalled her train of thoughts to the situation at hand. She turned the fledgling smile from her little bandcoon back to him and nodded her head slowly, some mix of a confirmation and a polite incline.

"Ion..." She found herself nodding again and taking a slow, long breath, then a shorter, more firm one. "I'm... I'm doing better now." Indeed, her heart had more or less settled back to something of a resting pace, at last and the urge to run screaming away from everything had more or less faded. Some parts of her thoughts were still lingering on the other more recent accidents and tragedies closer to home, and she couldn't hide all of it, even now; as much as the other navi would be able to tell she was recovered from her panic, it would be just as plain that she was still very upset. She just wasn't breaking down any more, but then, even that was a major step forward all told. Attention shifted to her other, fluffier friend... though right now he was no better than her for being sodden. Lyntael looked back down to him for a moment, then back to Ion and her hands came together in front of her, fidgeting slightly.

"I... don't know, really. I mean, I just met him today. Earlier. I was..." she trailed off again, looking down and to the side with uncertainty. The man seemed friendly, and now that she was calmer, she felt like he was safe enough to talk to, but at the same time she didn't really feel like she wanted to talk about everything that had happened in the past few days, either. Rationally, she knew that trying to do so now would just get her worked up again. She settled for a simpler answer.

"I was taking a break, to clear my head? And I kind of fell asleep. I haven't gotten a lot of rest lately." She hung her head softly as she said that bit, her unconscious body language shouting that she treated the admission like some kind of personal failing or fault, though Lyntael herself wasn't aware of this. She looked up again and perked up a little as she continued. "They found me... um, there were some others too, but they left... ah, but they were friendly, and nice, and this little guy seems like he wants to follow me around now. I'll have to go home soon, probably, and I don't know what I'll do then. He can't come with me then, but... well maybe he'll want to go off to the zoo with the others, when I have to go. I'm sure visitors would love him."

At the end of the thread of thought, her voice quieted again. She was aware of the soft breeze chill making certain parts of her body respond uncomfortably, but she ignored it for now; the girl was still quite unaware that the damp was making her vest sheer. Without really thinking, she reached up one hand to brush some more of the water out of her hair, ruffling it and sending a small spray from the wayward strands. A small snap of sparks still came with her fingers as she did, but they grew as her eyes wandered around, and settled across the spring to where the two elderly viruses napped. This time she did flinch, and properly; it started as a slight step backwards from the scene, coincidentally closer to Ion in the process, and was followed by a very visible hunch of her shoulders. Her eyes tried to prickle again as the guilt washed back in, but they were just sore and red; there weren't any more tears to be had, for now.

"I should... I should go. I don't want to hurt anyone else. I..." words caught and she looked sharply away again, shaking her head with her eyes squeezed shut. "I've done enough damage here already. I hurt everyone." Most navis, to a certain extent at least, could compartmentalise quite naturally, and put the stresses of one incident to the next on a shelf while they dealt with whatever else was on their plate. Lyntael was not so blessed, and the fact remained that it had only been a handful of minutes since her own lack of control had cost lives, from her perspective. "Please... can I go... or, or, at least, get away from here? I just wanted to get away from everything, just for a bit. I never wanted to hurt anyone!" She was looked around for the path that she'd entered this spring from. "I have to get back... I don't know what Rogan will think if he calls and I'm not there... I don't even know how long I've been here." It was that path, wasn't it? Probably... faintly, she could feel the direction that the link emulation was from her, like a tickle in her mind if she listened for it, but it was far off now.

Summary ... because we're still in a 'battle', honest.

L1) Stay calm by focusing on the little details.
L2) Deflect on the matter of her lack of sleep and other problems.
L3) Try to chat amiably about Bandcoon and friends.
L*) Be reminded of crushing guilt.
L4) Plead the need to leave this all behind.

On an evening that would've been unremarkable on any other day, two Elec-element, mildly-to-severely traumatized Navis sat on the shore of a muddy onsen, divulging feelings not normally experienced by virtual beings. A Bandcoon with more mud than fur in its coat scurried about the smaller of the two, hyperactive and peaceable as its friend had always known it. The taller Navi, handsome and gentle-eyed, sat and listened to the smaller's tales and woes and tales of woe, nodding and 'hmmm'-ing along in his sympathy. Two elder viruses floated in the murky waters of the spring, holding one another and grieving for lost children. If the atmosphere of the clearing was too melancholic to be truly serene, it was at the very least quiet and peaceful.

Regrettably, such peaceful moments never last, and this one proved no exception. Ion's person sounded off with a strident electronic beep, and all three viruses jumped into defensive stances out of sheer instinct. They relaxed when the Navi showed no signs of attacking; instead, he merely grunted and gestured to the air, opening a comm window to his Operator. "Something wrong, Leif?" he asked the man on the other side of reality.

The consummate nerd shook his head, giving a wan little grin. "Nothing wrong, per se, you've just had a recall request from Cal. He's calling all Vaccine members back to the lab ASAP, dunno what for. Hate to break up your pow-wow, but..." The sentence trailed off and disappeared into the realm of unfinished thoughts, and Leif closed the window down a second later.

Ion released all his frustration at the interruption in one drawn-out sigh, but dutifully stood himself back up anyhow. "Guess I'm being summoned," he addressed Lyntael rather unnecessarily. "I suppose this is where we part ways, then...but hey, just remember, alright? Nobody's ever alone, not in a world this small. Here, I'll prove it." A link flashed into existence between his fingers like a magician's card, and he flicked it towards the smaller Navi. "That's Leif and my e-mail address. If you ever need to just sit and talk something out again, you've got a willing option...and we've got a big lab at Vaccine, if you ever wanted to drop by and have us run some tests, see if we couldn't help out anyhow."

"Something to think about, anyway, but I'll not keep you. Take care of yourself, Lyntael." Ion tapped two fingers to the flat earplate of his temple, and jacked out in a stream of blue light. The Bandcoon watched the bright flash with starry eyes, then looked back to its comrade with the same expression. From the matted ruin of its coat, it withdrew a tiny yellow gem that Lyn might recognize as the link she'd gifted it earlier. At last, it studied the little crystal intently, finally figuring out how to activate it. Its tiny body scattered into a flurry of corrupt-yet-not viral data, and it followed Ion's example in dashing itself to the four winds of the Net World.

The two viruses in the pool gave Lyntael one last, mournful look, and sunk down into the eddies and swirls of their pool, down into whatever dwellings and habitats might loom beneath the surface. The ripples scattered out over the tiny spring; once more, there was peace. Additionally, perhaps another ray of sunshine beaming through the dark clouds that so often clouded Lyntael's life, a faint sparkle from inside the onsen revealed one more nice thing for Lyntael: a mystery data, buoying to the surface. It must have been down there in the onsen all along.

=The Survivors=
Lark: FLED
Snoozy: FLED
Bandcoon: JACKED OUT

=The Fallen (but not Downed)=
Lyntael: 150HP [Overcharge: +1] [My Pain is Real: Ready!] [40HP Barrier] [Buster Charge x1] [Onsen L]

=Objects=
Spire L: 500HP
Spire R: 500HP

=Terrain=
30% Onsen [Two large pools, dubbed Onsen L and Onsen R]
10% Coal ['Bridge' between two pools]
10% Mud [Ring around Onsen]
50% Normal [The rest of the clearing]

=The Helping Hand=
Ion: JACKED OUT

=BATTLE(?) #5: VICTORIOUS!!=
Rewards: 1200z

OPEN MYSTERY DATA?

Lyntael's own urgency to get back to the point where she could access the link to her PET was met almost in the same moment by Ion's call. The small girl hesitated, and unconsciously took a small step back from him with her head down in a sign of privacy for the call. It was more a polite instinct than anything else, and symbolic considering that she was still near enough to hear everything anyway; Lyntael herself hadn't even thought about the action. She looked down at her feet while he handed the call, watching her own toes as she curled and stretched them in the grass and focusing on the pleasant sensation of it.

She had felt a sudden urge to resist, or reach out, when she realised he was being called away again, but it was a small, sudden reaction, and not strong enough to actually make it to the surface of her expression, let alone spur her to act. It was enough, though, for her to realise that she trusted the man, and wanted to think of him as a friend now. Rather than any of that, though, she just nodded her head softly when he made his apologies. She looked up again and managed another faltering smile for his encouragement, one hand still holding tight to her other elbow, somewhere between uncertainty and wanting to hug herself. She did give him a nod to go with the grin though, and did her best to show that she was, truly, comforted by the reassurance, even if a large part of her felt like it couldn't truly apply to her own situation.

Surprisingly, the young girl perked up a bit more, and her head tilted as he spoke about his organisation, and gave her their contacts. A sudden interest in her eyes marked a curiosity that was just the kind of derail that was perfect for distracting Lyntael from her worries. She found herself wanting to answer, to say something about her situation, and the way the charge affected her, show some kind of interest in a group that might be able to help her out at some point... but the words took too long in forming, and Ion was already giving her a friendly farewell and jacking out before she could say more. Even so, she looked at the spot where he'd been, and curled her fingers more securely around the card he'd offered her. Somewhere where they might be able to do something about her problem sounded hopeful, and she found herself planning to make a visit the next time she could slip away from Rogan again without being noticed.

While she thought about this, her little bandcoon friend seemed to take Ion's cue as understanding and managed to activate is own link to the zoo at last. Lyntael suddenly wished he was still there, though; with the departure of the last remaining viruses, she was, once again, all on her own. She closed her eyes, and took a long breath, then looked slowly around the now deserted spring. At least when she was all alone, she couldn't hurt anybody. A few more drawn out breaths helped calm the current under her skin, and she stretched her arms out, then hugged herself soundly for a few moments more. She really did have to get back though. She had no idea how long she'd been gone from the PET now, and Rogan wasn't going to leave it unchecked forever. The foray had been... less than successful, in terms of clearing her head and finding relaxing. Everywhere she went, it seemed, there was just more danger, and more people to hurt, or be hurt by... but at least Ion had seemed nice, and she'd made a couple of cute friends as well, even if they were all gone away now.

About to leave in the direction that she could feel the link from, Lyntael paused as a flash of colour caught her eye in the murky onsen waters. Other emotional issues aside, she identified the object coming to the surface as a mystery data right away, and looked around the spring. There were no more viruses, and no more navis, and really, no-one at all to claim the data, so, hesitantly she waded back into the water, careful not to get her still-damp skirt and wetter than it was, and retrieved the crystal, examining it briefly, before accessing it with only some slight hesitation. Maybe she could bring something nice back to Rogan at the end of all this after all.

((Open data: Y))

And there was accessing of the mystery data, and within it was...probably the exact thing she had hoped for. Surely, even Rogan wouldn't be upset at those contents.

Lyntael GET: 2200z

When the crystal resolved into a sum of zenny for her to collect, Lyntael let out a small breath and relaxed again. There was always a risk, or so she understood, that something that looked like a mystery data wasn't one; that there were viruses that took their appearance just to prey on unsuspecting navigators. The thought gave he a small shudder, but at least this time it had been alright. A movement of the air made the small girl shiver again as it chilled her damp clothes and felt altogether too breezy in places where garments had been lost. Home. It wasn't much of a home, and it wouldn't be warm, or comfortable. Rogan wouldn't care how she felt, until he needed her for something, and probably wouldn't have even noticed that she was gone... but it was still where she belonged, and getting away to clear her head and her heart hadn't really worked. She'd just wound up hurting more people, being hurt herself as well as discovering that no amount of distraction was going to keep the events of SciLab from wrapping her up in their all-consuming terrors.

It occurred to her again that maybe she really was damaged in some way, even if Rogan's scans came up clean. The thought made her look down at the Vaccine contact card that she was holding tightly onto. Her grip had bent it slightly and she took a moment to smooth it with care. Maybe they could help; it had to be worth a check at least. In her other hand, Lyntael was still clutching tightly to the small stone that the little bandcoon had gifted her and she held it up in her hand to look at alongside the card. A tiny fragment of something happy, and a tiny promise of something hopeful. They were things she could take back with her, and perhaps that was enough.

It was still a shaky Lyntael that made her way out of the silent onsen spring, and a timid and cautious one that carefully returned to the point where she'd entered the network. It was more than not wanting to get into another fight, really... the girl felt as though she just couldn't stomach the notion of fighting anything at all; not now, not like this. Rogan would need her to fight things again in the future, she knew that, and even knowing it she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to when the time came. Things might be easier if she never had to fight again, but in heart... she knew there would be no escaping it. Just, not now. Not today.

A small piece of luck saw her make it all the way back to the link point where she was able to pick up the emulated connection again and Lyntael let out a small sigh of relief, before bracing herself for the discomfort of the transition back to the PET. A last fleeting thought occurred to her as she began the jack-out process was how she had thought of the sensation as pain only days ago, but now, compared to everything else... she almost welcomed it.

----------
((Jacking out, Returning to => Rogan's PET))