'O-O ....She can get out, right?'

Stahl finds a market stall selling hairclips and finds a whole set of them in the same shape as Sumia's with the added variance of different colors and buys them. Meanwhile, a man walks into town ↓

Peering back over at the expanding pile of clothes then to the closet, Cynthia leaned over to Lon'qu and whispered "..Not sure. I'm thinkin' we shut the doors and leav–wait. She has to. I wouldn't be↓

bearing a familial resemblance to Stahl and begins asking about him. Stahl then leaves for camp to give Sumia her new hairclips, unaware of the man or the new camp fiasco.

standing here, technically speaking.." She quickly shut her mouth, accidentally biting her tongue hard, and did her best to fight back tears. Karma got her instantly.

The large mass of clothes moved slightly, and Lon'qu wondered if Sumia could breathe underneath the pile. '...Why did she jump in there? ...Is she looking for something?'

Emerging from the closet, Sumia fumbled her way out, doing what she could to stay on her feet despite her eyes covered by clothes. "..I couldn't..find any replacements.." She said in exasperation.

Sumia sighed, pointing to her head. She did look significantly different without her accessory, but it wasn't worth causing a dramatic episode.

'...Your hairpiece? Out of spares? ...Why don't you take this one?' Lon'qu pulled from his pocket an accessory identical to Sumia's. '...You dropped it in my tent earlier before I left for Valm. I've↓

"Sumiaaaa! I've gotten something for you!" Stahl felt like making it a little surprise.

been meaning to return it to you. ...Don't know how it wasn't crushed when Gregor knocked down my tent.'

Lon'qu saw that Stahl was arriving, and figured he should probably leave and let the family be alone together. He handed the hairpiece to Sumia, and waved to the two of them as he left the tent. ↓

'I'll see you later.' *steps out of the tent* '...Hey, Stahl. Sumia and Cynthia are in there.' He pointed to Virion's tent and continued walking towards his own tent.

Before Sumia could even thank Lon'qu, he had left and she immediately clipped it in place. Cynthia stared at her mother, never making her out as the type to need material fashion. Poor Stahl had gone↓

out of his way to get her more, but her problem had already been solved, and Sumia felt a bit of self-confidence returning to her. "Oh, a surprise??" Sumia's face lit up at the idea of being spoiled.

"Sumia, I bought you-" sees the clip in her hair, "Oh." Meanwhile, the man from earlier walks up to Donny while he's on guard duty. "D'ya need some halp mister?"

"Hmm?" Sumia was confused, not following with his train of thought at all. Cynthia blew some of her bangs out of her face, and wanted to point out how dimwitted her mother could be sometimes.

"I thought you'd lost your hairclips so I bought you these..." He pulls the case of hairclips out from behind his back. Meanwhile with Donny, "Yes. I need to see Stahl. Is he here right now?"

Cynthia's superhero senses kicked in, and she felt an odd presence approaching, but instead of being a good girl, she stayed silent. Sumia marveled at the newer accessories, her mouth wide open as ↓

she surprisingly removed her current one, replacing it with a newer, shinier and obviously more valuable one. She felt like she was glowing radiantly, and started to giggle when she imagined Stahl in↓

clothing stores and departments for women. "Oh, thank you so much!" She bounced around elatedly. "I feel lovelier than a queen!"

"I'm just glad you love them." He hugs her and gets squeezed quite tightly. (Donny) "Yesirree, he's here. Follow me, I can take ya to 'im."

Lon'qu had just reached his tent when he saw Donnel and another person heading towards Virion's tent. '...Who do you think that is Peeko? ...A new recruit?'

"I reckon he's in that there tent." Donny points to Virion's old tent. "Thanks for showing me." The man walks in to see his brother hugging a woman, presumably his fiancé, tightly and stays quiet.

Cynthia realized her parents were going to get weird on her again, and she quickly blurted the first words in her brain. "You went in a woman's department and bought woman accessories? Didn't anyone↓

look at y--" Cynthia's creepy inhuman ability had her turn around the second the stranger entered their tent. She easily noticed he liked the color green, and she stared at him for a long time.

(Stahl) "No, it was an accessory store for men and women." The man, noticing the girl staring at him, motions for her to quiet down and quit staring.

Furrowing her brow and placing both her hands on her hips, Cynthia wasn't going to be controlled by some stranger. "You don't tell me what to do." Sumia noticed her daughter was talking to someone ↓

who had steathily made his way into Virion's tent, and she gasped. Her instant reaction was embarrassment from her daughter's rude first impression, and she didn't know what to say.

"Aw, come on kid! I was waiting for it to get less awkward before I let my brother know I got here." (Stahl) "Oscar?! H-how long were you creeping around in here for?"

Bewildered at the use of brother, Cynthia looked up at Oscar, then her father, then at Oscar again. "But..you look like..like..Kellam? What? How come I didn't know I had a real uncle?!" She demanded.

(Stahl) "It must of slipped my mind sweetie and he doesn't look like Kellam." (Oscar) "Whoa, whoa, whoa! How in Naga's name is this kid your daughter, Stahl?"

"Yeah he does!" Cynthia argued, not explaining the situation as to how she was his child at her age. "That thing he's doing with his eyes! That's like Kellam! I'm not dumb. You gotta give me points."

"Cynthia, quit being rude and Oscar, could you please go to the mess tent? You look pretty hungry like you haven't eaten in days." (Oscar) "Fine then. I expect an explanation when you come out though.

"What?? How was that rude?" Cynthia pouted. Part of her knew Stahl kicking out her newly discovered uncle was so he could scold her. "If anything, you takin' offense to that comparison is rude to ↓

Kellam! And I know you think he's ugly." Sumia looked at her fiancé and tried to take everything in. She grabbed his hand as her way of trying to remind him that Cynthia was harmless, and meant well ↓

despite her streaks of misbehaving, talking back, and rudeness. She also believed Stahl shouldn't have to stoop to her immature always-right outlook on life. Sumia was right, and soon Cynthia shut up.

"Cynthia, I'm going to tell you this just once. While we technically have company over, I expect you to be on your best behavior. And besides, your belief that I find Kellam ugly would mean

that you were insulting your uncle." [Must sleep. Good night!]

Lon'qu had left his tent to get some water for himself, but saw that the unknown man from earlier was heading towards the mess tent as well. The man somewhat resembled Stahl, and Lon'qu wondered who ↓

it could be. He avoided confrontation, as he was feeling tired and sluggish, and the man looked even more so. The man appeared malnourished, and in the mess tent Lon'qu could see (and hear) the man↓

gorging himself on all of the available food in the tent. It was easy for Lon'qu to determine that the man must be related to Stahl; for only someone in his bloodline could possibly eat that much. He↓

could talk to the man tomorrow, but for the night he needed to rest. The man didn't seem to notice Lon'qu enter or leave with a glass of water. [I'm going to bed too. Goodnight!]

Cynthia shook her head back and forth. "Nuh-uh. You assumed I thought that Kellam was ugly, 'cause you totally think so. And yeah I'm gonna be my bestest in front of my uncle." She hissed. [night to ↓

you both! wow, what a coincidence that my favorite PoR character would be related to stahl. just wow]

Stahl glares at Cynthia. "And how exactly did you get that idea? Hmm?"

"'Cause one time you were talking to him and you said if you weren't so good looking that you coulda been brothers." She had a good memory when it came to the things her parents had done or said.

"I was only joking when I said that. I know that I'm painfully average and I'm fine with that. That doesn't mean I won't crack a joke every now and then."

Cynthia rolled her eyes, knowing he was bending over backwards trying to be humble in front of Sumia. "Yeah, yeah. You're so busy drooling over Mom all the time that you can't even tell. I mean, just↓

look at ME!" Cynthia gestured to herself, then flopped her arms around like a dork. "If you were 'average', like you claim, I'd be nowhere near this perfect."

Almost completely speechless, Stahl just stood there, mouth slightly hanging open, as his face turned as red as a tomato. "I-I don't drool over Sumia like that!" He knew now that he lost the argument.

"Oh, really? Then why's your face red?" She felt some sort of accomplishment for outwitting her father, and even Sumia froze up herself, wondering if they really were that bad. Cynthia smirked.

"Um, I, uh..." Completely at a loss for words, Stahl buries his face in his hand.

Cynthia decided she'd spare her parents further humiliation, and she laughed to herself for a good minute. Sumia felt like wanting to die.

Stahl walks outside and asks himself, "I don't really drool over her, do I?!" Donny had joined Oscar and both were eating bear meat. "That kid isn't really my niece is she?"

Lon'qu's curiosity of the man had escalated, and felt that he had to know who it was. He had to have some relation to Stahl; the looks, the appetite, and the color green were all tell tale signs. ↓

Lon'qu walked over to Virion's tent to ask Stahl if he knew the man.

"Oh, Lon'qu, this may sound strange but have I ever, uh, drooled over Sumia before?" He felt so embarrassed asking Lon'qu such a question.

'...What do you mean?'

Stahl loudly whispers in a frustrated tone, "Have I ever drooled over Sumia?!"

'...Well... I mean... before you proposed, you were pretty infatuated with her... so... um... maybe?' Lon'qu was afraid of greatly upsetting Stahl.

'....Actually.... "Maybe" might be an underexaggeration...'

'...Probably not so much "might" as it is "definitely" ............. Well, why do you ask anyways?'

Stahl just stands there, absolutely frozen while Donny struggles to explain to Oscar about how exactly Cynthia even exists right now.

'...Stahl? ...Hello?' Lon'qu waved his hand in front of Stahl's face, but he still stood there unmoving and solidified.

"Aw horse pucky! Why don'tcha just ask Stahl? I ain't got a clue what I'm sayin'." (Oscar) "Fine then." He leaves and sees Stahl, frozen, with a man trying to jar him back into reality.

Cynthia forgot that they'd been in Virion's tent, and it didn't take her a lot of time to ditch her mother and see what was going on outside. She spotted her father and uncles, approaching the three ↓

"Okay, what happened to him?" Oscar had always figured that the whole frozen in fear or astonishment thing was a bunch of ridiculousness until now. "I doubt my staff can fix this."

of them pretty casually. "Hey, it's the cool crew! Can I join?" She sounded like she was begging, but masked it behind her smug act. "Wait - is he gonna be okay?" She squinted her eyes at her father.

'Can you help me? Stahl isn't responding.'

"I'm no healer, but maybe if I whack him upside the head with my staff, he'll come out of it."

'Try anything. ...I've never seen him like this before.'

"Y'know, I was kidding there. That would probably make it worse."

"-What!?" Cynthia gasped, a sense of false hope escaped her eyes. "Aww..I was gonna ask if I could do the deed.." She kicked some dirt, trying to contribute to the situation at hand.

Oscar taps Stahl, causing him to fall over. "Well that didn't work. What put him like this in the first place?"

'...He asked me a question... and I answered... and then this.' Lon'qu felt guilty for causing Stahl to be traumatized like he was.

"..Oh…um.." The girl cleared her throat, remembering she had to have her best attitude. "..I uh...made fun of him for practically drooling over his fiancée..I was only teasing, I swear!"

"Wait, you TOLD him that he did!?" Cynthia couldn't believe what she heard from Lon'qu's mouth. She didn't know someone so stoic could be so sassy, and she cracked up badly in front of them both.

"Okay, calm your pegasi. Can you get your mother out here? I've got an idea."

"Tch, do you reeeaally want me to do that? They're conniving and merciless lovebirds! At first it was okay, but now it's just..why." Cynthia stuck out her tongue, disagreeing with his idea. "Explain."

"Fine, if you won't do it, I will." Oscar walks into the tent. "Excuse me, but you're kinda needed out here."

Lon'qu's mind was racing, trying to think of a way to revive Stahl. The (suprisingly helpful) stranger had walked to Virion's tent, apparently having an idea. 'What's your idea? ...Fresh muffins?'

"..He does not know what he's getting into," she whispered to Lon'qu. Sumia, who was still semi-shy from her first impression "Oh, hello, uh, okay.." She timidly allowed herself to be dragged out.

"Yeah, so uh, this kind of happened." He gestures to Stahl.

Lon'qu whispered back to Cynthia, '...Do you know who he is?' He was still dying to know the identity of the man. Peeko stared at the frozen Stahl as he flew in from the distance and landed by Lon'qu.

Sumia flushed, scrambling to grab her recover and help Stahl, but realized he was physically untouched. She looked to the other three, shooting them all looks for not trying to do anything at all. ↓

Oscar walks up to Lon'qu and whispers, "What did I just get us all into?"

"Hey.." Sumia whispered, carefully hoisting Stahl in a sitting position and brushed his messy bangs out of his face. "Wake up.." Cynthia whispered back to Lon'qu; "Oh! His name's Oscar. He's ↓

my real uncl--" She halted as soon as she noticed he joined in on their whispering festival. "You just them at it again. No offense but your brother is so disgustingly mushy. Like way too much P.D.A."

'...Stahl's brother? ...So I was right, then...' Lon'qu glanced over at Sumia who was still holding Stahl in her arms, probably still irritated at the three of them. He whispered back to Oscar, ↓

Suddenly the saliva that had been building up begins to seep out of Stahl's mouth. (Oscar) "All according to the plan." he whispers. "That'll jar him back to reality!"

'...Maybe you shouldn't have-- ...Uhh... won't he end up choking like that?' Lon'qu looked at the pool of saliva that was forming around Stahl. '...We should do something.' It was very likely that↓

"Nah, just wait." Oscar says confidently. Suddenly, the blank look disappears from Stahl's eyes as he realizes he's 'drooling' right in Sumia's face. He quickly swallows what didn't come out and ↓

Stahl's respiratory system was blocked off by the saliva.

Lon'qu saw that Stahl was alive, and breathed a sigh of relief. '...I guess you were right.'

wipes his mouth off before attempting to catch his breath. "*gasp* Oh gods no."

Very slowly and suspensefully, Cynthia's mouth went wide open, and she looked back and forth between her uncles. She could not believe what she had just witnessed, and looked at them to see if they ↓