Beat.

"Right. Sure. Mark two blob. No wonder you were beat up yesterday. Sure that's all you want to do?"

"I mean, we could look for another Shadow and get rid of one of them, too? I'm not really sure of the diversity of things that are available."

"...Sure? If all you want to do is fight things, pretty sure Brad would be able to steer you away from anything too strong. I don't think I'm needed..."

Okay. Ugh. No. She is not going to take offense at that. She is going to realize the error of her actions and actually pay attention to Brad next time.

Maybe.

"Oh. Uh. I don't know, in that case? What sort of thing were you imagining?"

... She should probably read that notebook at some point. Maybe while Brad stabs some things.

"Whole town is empty of people. Nothing that could record you works... Ice cream?"

"... I don't really want to steal anything? Plus I had dinner like two or three hours ago. But I'm up for the company?"

"Sure, why not." Cynthia motions for them to start walking, presumably in the general direction of the nearest Shadow. She'll stay quiet unless talked to, off in thought.

It isn't really stealing if you leave the money nearby... Oh well. I'll just hang around. Take it easy for a little bit. Even if I'm thinking of poking around her things, she'll fall asleep earlier! Might have to wait until tomorrow to check the school records...

I really need to just... Try to talk to her first? Stupid me, of course I need to.. I'll... Later. Walking. Get us comfortable, then try to awkwardly bring stuff up. Or maybe tomorrow, I'm still kinda drained from yesterday... That's worse thinking! Just... Wait until I can try to talk about it? I guess...

Thea walks along in silence for a few seconds, then when she realizes it's going to continue, she decides to summon Brad.

So she looks at that probably-a-thing in her head (which still isn't well defined nor very tangible) and tries to poke it awake.

After a few seconds, there's a "thoom" sound, and Brad pops out of nowhere, mid-stride, walking alongside her. He continues gracefully, not breaking stride.

"That's like... The third different way Brad has shown up... Still makes me nervous thinking about it."

Cynthia turns to Brad. "No offense. Pretty sure you're fine."

"Fourth," he says, grinning.

"Why does that make you nervous? ... Is it one of those things that 'isn't done' again?"

"I dunno what you mean by that statement, but when everyone else did it the same as me and yet you just... Don't."

Sigh. "I should probably talk about them at some point, huh..."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Thea hastens to reassure her. "I was just asking if Brad's appearance was different and didn't fit in with the weirdness of the Midnight Hour, and you answered that, so it's fine."

A shrug to respond about talking about things.

"In the place of Glitter Fish-bones and Blobs, of course I'm nervous of the thing that looks like us. You've seen Libby."

... That is true, she has.

She looks at Brad a bit warily.

He rolls his eyes, then says, "Except that I look male. So I look like you just in that I'm human."

"Which is also weird! I mean..." Deep breath. "We had a kinda sumo-superhero thing. Didn't have a proper face. We also had a, like, animated robe-thing... I still suck at this." Sigh. "Others aside, my point is they may be human-like, but none of them talked or were just A REGULAR GUY. We all had the same kinda fade-in and feelings on stuff too! Nobody showed up during a full moon either."

Brad does a fist-pump and says, "Yeah! I'm regular!"

Then he parses the rest of the sentence, and amends: "Ish."

Cynthia walks close to Thea. "Have you checked if his clothes come off, and if everything is there?"

She looks at Cynthia like she's crazy, then starts, "Wh—"

And here's Brad! Leaning over! Near Cynthia!

He whispers, "No, she hasn't," then skips away. "Not yet!" he trills.

Cynthia stops leaning into Thea's personal space. "Okay, even to me that seemed just, wrong on quite a few levels."

Thea eyes Brad warily. "No shit. Can I be psycho without being psycho? Because he seems psycho."

Cynthia throws her arms into the air in exasperation. "You see what I mean now? Jeez! Even I wasn't that bad!"