A man stood alone in the vast openness that surrounds the town of Basenholm.

He had intended to have skipped town by this point, but he found himself entranced by the expanse before him.

The man took a light sip out of his teacup as he gazed out. He'd have taken a bigger one, but he was actually running out. He was going to refill it after this. It was the natural order of things. First comes craters from explosions, next comes tea, next come returning to civilization. Naturally.

The man spent much time really taking all the attributes and aspects of the crater. It was rare to see one of such magnitude, it was best to savor it. And this crater in particular had plenty to savor. As far as craters go, it was most peculiar, for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, the depth was quite suspect. It was oddly shallow, given the sound and size, the layer of baked dirt was only a dozen or so centimeters below the layer of untouched soil around the edges. Furthermore, the depth was wholly consistent all throughout, leaving no further dips into the earth. The only inconsistent spots in the crater, strangely, were spots of foreign color. 

From what the man could tell, there were 9 of these spots, taking the form of seemingly random shapes and lines, seeming almost runic in nature. He couldn't derive any meaning from them. He could barely even make them out. The crater was simply too vast. If he could see the bigger picture, he thought, he might be able to find some sort of meaning, but instead he was left with 2 sets of 3 diagonal lines, equal in length, surrounding 2 equal circles, and in front of those a single, longer line with 2 rounded dips. Strange. 

Lastly, the curvature of the crater was oddly smooth and refined. A consistent rounded edge, abruptly halting at the opposite end, creating 2 lone jagged angles. 

Of course, all of this begged one important question. How might an explosion, as wild as they are, cause something so particular? The depth and intricacy of this design could only have been created by human hands. Of course, the explosion was, presumably created by a human, but magic of such volume surely couldn't be so precise. 

He questioned whether or not this was truly caused by the explosion in the first place, but there wasn't anything else around that would fit the bill, and the singed grass and earth surrounding the design seemed rather convincing. Still, he didn't discount the possibility that this was caused by something wholly unrelated, and that he might encounter a more typical large crater as he travelled back to the city. 

But if not an explosion, then what could have caused this? It would take days for a team of highly skilled earth magic users to create something this massive and intricate, and the man was quite certain that he hadn't seen this when he passed this area not even half an hour ago.

"Unnerving......Isn'tIt?" Came a voice from behind. It was one the man was quite familiar with. 

"Hm. I suppose it is." Said the man, taking a brief sip of his drink. "Tell me, how long have you been there?"

"AsLongAsIs......Necessary......"

"Of course you have... I suppose I should have asked how much you've seen, exactly."

"AsMuchAsIs......Necessary......"

The man sighed. "Of course..."

Another sip.

"Angry about any of it? I don't suppose you're here to kill me, are you?"

"No......NotPresently......"

"Well, that's good to hear. And the rest of them?"

"IShouldn'tHaveTo......DamageWasMinimal......Expected......BelieveTheyAreLeavingAnyways......"

"Hm. I didn't think you were the forgiving type."

"OneHasSufferedEnough......TheOtherShowedMercy......Though......IShallRememberThemBoth......ShouldTheyReturn......ThePinkOne......especially."

"Really? Why her?"

"Indeed......TheySurpassedMyExpectations......IHadMistakenThem......ForComicRelief......OneWasInjured......BecauseOfMyThoughtlessness......"

"Even you make mistakes? That's rather reassuring." The man joked with a sip of his drink.

"MoreThanMost......IJustTakeTheTime......ToThink......"

"I see."

. . . 

"So, what do you make of this?" The man said, gesturing out to the crater.

"IDon'tLikeIt......Terrifying......"

. . .

"Even you, huh."

The man took a sip of his drink. 

---

"Right, that was fun, wasn't it?" S said.

"Uh, y-yeah. I guess." I said.

He's being oddly casual about this for someone who just woke up after projectile vomiting blood everywhere, screaming obscenities, and then passing out. 

"Right. Anyways, how long was I out?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, it's been an odd day, my internal clock's kinda messed up right now. Minutes, I think." 

"Really? I guess," He paused, and peeked down at his shadow. "yeah, it has. That's surprising."

"Yeah. You're telling me." 

Huh. Y'know, I know we already kinda exchanged hellos and stuff when I met him on the mountain, but after he passed out and stuff, I kinda felt like him waking up would be a little more, I dunno, sentimental? This just feels like he woke up from a nap and now we're about to discuss dinner, or something. 

"Man, I feel... Strangely great." S said, stretching his arms a little. "Who the heck healed me? I can't imagine Pat could've done this."

"Oh, uh, Catface did."

"Oh." S stopped stretching his arms rather abruptly. "Really?"

"Yeah..."

"I'm gonna pretend I don't know that."

"Fair enough." 

"Anyways, what's up with the girl? Not good with crowds, huh?" S joked about Sis's present closeness to me.

Hold on for a second.

That's a terrible question. What's someone supposed to say to that? It's impossible for conversation to continue when a question like that is asked. Let me give you a simulation of most of the potential responses.

'Yes', - This means that, yes, they are bad with crowds. Now, what are you going to do with this information? Where does conversation go from here? 'Oh, great, you're probably too irked to be fully cognizant of what I'm saying. Say, what fine weather we're having, isn't it?' No!

'No', - They're probably going to take this as 'No, I am not good with crowds.' See above section.

'I'm fine with crowds, actually.' - Far too formal. Very awkward. This is probably the best option, as one skilled in the art of conversation could potentially keep going from this, but it's gonna be rough for everyone else.

'That's a terrible question.' - Now you're just being reductive, which helps no one. Awful.

'Jump off a bridge.' - Most people aren't going to say this, but they wish they would. Just as reductive as above, but perhaps a little more satisfying.

'. . .' - Empty, uncomfortable staring. The most common response. It communicates nothing and everything at once, especially both of the immediately above options, though with significantly less satisfaction. 

Point is, bad question. Though, in this case, I can forgive S, seeing as he did just wake up after recovering from grave injuries. Still, that's a terrible question with no good responses.

Anyways, we're moving on now. 

Sis lightly shrugged. An adequate response. 

"Uhuh..." S said. A foolish conclusion to a foolish question. 

Though, I suppose he does have a point, actually.

Oh shoot, looks like it's another long-winded monologue already. This'll be the last one for a while, I promise.

Anyway, that is something I was concerned about. From what I can tell, Sis isn't good in crowds. Well, that implies she's scared, and maybe she is, but from what I can tell she just kinda shuts off whenever there's more than 1 other person in the conversation. When we were out running errands, she really only talked when it was just us. Well, it's not like she said nothing otherwise, she still talked a bit, but she barely said a word the entire time when we were with Heremays, for example.

I don't really know why, maybe she's just shy or scared or just doesn't want to talk or whatever, but if we're all out walking around and S and I are yukkin' it up while Sis, the only girl in the group just follows us silently, we'll look like sexists. Also, I'd feel bad that she's not speaking her mind and stuff. I don't wanna exclude her, y'know? 

Anyways, I guess my goal moving forward will be trying to get Sis to warm up to S.

Shouldn't be too hard. S is a rather personable guy.

Anyways, moving on. Again.

"I'm S, by the way." S said. Okay recovery, though he did sound vaguely like the archetypical 'awkward/pervy guy trying to hit on girl at a party in some crappy rom-com something or other.' Still, this is manageable.

"Figured." Said Sis. 

Not really helping.

Still optimistic though.

This'll be fine. Probably.