"Thanks," Thea says gratefully. "Should we attack a few more of these, then? What's... the... um." She stumbles over her words. "What's the not-time...? How long do we have left?"

"Shadows... Are you alright? Tiredness usually can set in pretty fast, but..."

Cynthia pulls out her pocket watch and glances into the gears. "Still plenty... Do you want to sleep the rest?"

She seems a bit surprised. "Nah, I—" Yawn. "– I should be okay. Maybe... attack one more? Then we can stop?"

Brad looks at Thea a little worriedly.

"Probably better to take it slower. I mean, first time usually makes people nearly pass out, even if this is your third time being awake it's the first time you've called him out. Grab the wild change it might've left behind with Brad and take a minute. No rushing."

Brad crouches down and looks for coins, instead of waiting for Thea to do it. Assuming he finds some, he gets up and hands it to Thea.

Dragging it's blobbiness around apparently picked up a nickel and two pennies, left cleaned but slightly scraped against the pavement.

Somehow the thought of Cynthia paying for her earlier takeout with quite a few coins is now relevant information.

Well, that's fine. Might as well profit from this since it's available and they're not actively harming anyone through doing it, as far as Thea knows. She takes the coins, puts them in her pocket (which, while being a pocket on a pair of girls' pants, still actually has enough room for a few coins), and then tries to unsummon Brad because she's getting tired.

He takes a step towards her and then turns into the translucent smoke, quickly disappearing.

"So? Feel like waking up tomorrow at all, or want to go sleep? Could always relax and snoop somewhere. Not going to stop you if you feel like another Shadow needs to be punished for making you run around last night."

Yawn. "Yeah, uh, I think I might just head back and go to sleep."

"No worries. I'll walk you back." A hand motion, to start walking back. Libby stays out, trotting behind them.

"What did you say to your father again? Or was he asleep. I don't live with anyone so I don't have to worry about popping up where I shouldn't be. On that note, you can feel free to crash at my place if you want."

Thea starts walking too. "He wasn't asleep, but he wasn't particularly curious – I just told him I was going out with a friend. He'll probably worry if I'm not there in the morning, though, so I should probably get back. He should be asleep by now."

Friend. It's been awhile! Well, hopefully it wasn't lying.

"Well if somehow you teleport past him to bed or something? Just trying to help. If he's asleep it's all for nothing anyways."

"It should be fine if I just go to bed, unless he's literally been standing by the door all night – hardly likely – but thanks. Ugh. I'm guessing it gets better? I'm feeling pretty wiped right now."

"Yeah. Want Libby to carry you? Or somehow is a bad guess of you being a lesbian sadist correct?"

And the ball goes soaring into left field! Even Libby finds that completely out of nowhere.

"... Lesbian... sadist? Um, nah, I'm okay walking. I'm not that bad."

Not quite. Plus she's a little bit scared by the idea of being carried by Cynthia's tendrilled soul. Uh, no thanks.

"Sure, whatever." She didn't outright deny it!

Libby smacks Cynthia on the back of the head, making her giggle.

Thea looks at the interaction warily, but not being privy to the narration nor having suddenly acquired the ability to read minds, she doesn't actually know what Cynthia's thinking. She also doesn't happen to guess.

Walk walk. "How long until the midnight hour's over?"

Cynthia hums idly until talked to again. "We've been out like... Maybe fifteen to twenty minutes?"

Hum hum hum.

"Oh. Huh. Is that all? Oh well."

Walk walk.

Eventually, they'll presumably get back to her house.

Walk walk through the streets, coffins and noises abound. Nothing bothers them along the way, the one Shadow they do spot keeps to itself. Or maybe Libby stared at it. Who knows.

The layout of the town is the same as it always is, and arriving home is as usual. Even if the street signs may look a little rusted, the words are still readable.

"So, yeah... Do you want to do more tomorrow? Or do you have stuff to do, like homework or whatever?"

Libby walks off. Cynthia doesn't react to it.

Thea glances at Libby, but that's it. "Uh, yeah, I think I might be busy, actually. Monday night should be okay though?"

"No worries. I don't do much other than the Midnight Hour. Speaking of such, I'll be probably around if you scream loud enough. I've had no chance to really look around since the full moon at certain places, though everything seems fine."

Cynthia waves and starts to walk off after Libby.