Over the course of the night following the 'attack' of the shadow that resembled Haut, Jillian gradually regained her sense of personal sanity, at least in comparison to the cowering, sniveling wreck she'd become shortly after its appearance. However, over the day that followed, it was plainly obvious that something was still not right. The once-confident and self-assured succubus had taken on an air of meek timidness that seemed to showcase in everything she did, and while she carried herself well enough to where it was little more than a subtlety in most cases, her responses to most requests were hurried and stand-off-ish, as if she were afraid of spending too much time in one particular scenario or setting. Perhaps most noticeably, she avoided eye contact at virtually all times, even when (and perhaps especially when) spoken to directly. Despite this, she made obvious attempts to continue her daily recourse in what she perceived as a "normal" way, without commenting on or bringing up what had happened the day before.

That was not something that would work for Haut. While he was many things for Jill, including patient, it wasn't exactly the best feeling in the world to have her avoiding him like that. And while there were a lot of questions to ask about what exactly had happened and what was going on currently, there was only one way he knew to stop the awkwardness that hung over the house.

Said house had been reclaimed. While a pair of weirdos had bought it out from under him prior, he had managed to pick it up cheap again. After all, they had been here long enough that just sleeping in the Inn wasn't really an option. Too many walls with ears. It was nostalgic in a way, being here again where it had all began. He had half a mind to burn the place down, but he found himself short on other lairs to skulk in these days.

All that said, the best place for it to go down was the dinner table. Haut had been with Jill for years at this point and knew a thing or two about creature comforts, one of those being the daily meal. So, he put effort into it. Today, a roast. Tender meat, juicy with a side of whole roast potatoes and carrots. He was proud of it, but for all the pride it was, first and foremost, a backdrop for something more important.

"So, when are we going to talk about what went down?" He slices the roast on his plate, not pressuring Jill by looking at her at the same time. After all, she was having a hard enough go of it. But the dialogue needed to happen at some
Indeed, Jill seemed to find her plate much more interesting than anything else in the room at that time, including Haut himself. In fact, she allowed herself a few bites without offering a response of any kind, and then placed her fork down on the table, looking at it in silence for another moment or two before finally speaking. "Something's wrong," she said, like it -wasn't- the most dang-obvious thing in the world right then and there. "It showed me things. Very bad things. I'm.. afraid?" The last word was spoken at a slightly-higher intonation, almost like she was surprised to be admitting it, herself, or that the idea of her being afraid of something was a new concept that she couldn't fully grasp.

Jillian put her hands in her lap, hanging her head slightly over the table. "You were beating me," she said. "You told me I was worthless, that I was causing more problems than you could handle, that it would be better if I'd just hurry up and die." Her voice trembles a little as she opens up, and she's right, this is very much not herself in any capacity. "I was back with my old masters. Lord Dracula, and all the various demon lords I ever served. I remembered all the torture I was ever put through, all the innocent blood I ever spilled, all for the sake of wanting to be my master's favorite. I was being reminded of.. what I was."

Jillian can be seen slightly sticking the tip of her tongue between her teeth, biting down on it gently in an odd sort of gesture that seems more thoughtful than anything. "I know.. that they are just memories, and some of those things never happened," she said. "But they felt real to me. I can't stop thinking about them. I feel like I've lost something important, but I don't know if that's the best way to put it." She continues blatantly avoiding eye contact the whole time.

Haut is silent as Jillian recalls her experience, allowing her to finish before he sets aside his fork and knife to bring his attention to her. When he does speak, his tone is a soft one, usually reserved for those hurt. "The reality of what you have gone through makes it no more or less hurtful to have to experience. I could not, and would not simply hand wave everything away by telling you it was not real."

He pushes his plate up a bit, giving himself room to fold his hands before him on the table. Everything in plain sight, and no fast movements. "Before anything else; I wanted to apologize for taking hold of your horn. It seemed to have an effect on you that stopped the... influence. Still, it was transgressive. So, I'm sorry for that."

He swallows, and it suddenly hits how much he hates this. How angry he was, not at Jillian but at whoever had done it. It wasn't the fucking rabbit, he was just a catalyst for something else. And he still thinks he knows the issue. A forcibly slow inhale clears out his emotional register enough to return to the situation at hand.

"I know it might ring hollow, but I want to assure you that I do not want you to die, Jill. My time with you has been the happiest that I've had in my long memory, and I can count the number of times you've troubled me on one hand. And each of those occurrences were minor, at most. You have been an ideal companion for me, one of my most trusted friends, and someone I care for deeply." The words started controlled, but he had to catch himself near the end. He didn't want to bury her under his feelings. So, he gives her time to absorb and react.

Jillian looks at her plate in silence for a moment, and picks up her fork again. It isn't clear whether Haut's words actually sunk in or not, due to her lack of immediate response. However, she relinquishes the utensil and sets it back down without actually using it for anything. "I know," she says, with attempted conviction. "A large part of me knows that. At least a small part of me believes that." It may also be worth noting at this time and with regards to Haut's apology, both of her little horns are actually pretty well hidden within her bangs at this time, when they typically poke out just a bit from either side. "I'm trying to figure out how to feel about all of this, but I am... stressed?... because it feels like some of those feelings aren't there anymore. The ones I... need." She leans forward a little ways, hugging her arms over her own chest. "And I'm... confused?... because I was warned, and I ignored it. I thought I knew better. But all it did was put people in danger. And..." Jillian pauses, her thoughts clearly all over the place as she tries to express herself as best she can, in the reserved way she is currently handling it. "I've... spent a long time, now, not wanting anything to do with hurting other people. But when I thought of... decapitating both of those rabbitfolk, and laughing as the blood fountained from their open necks, it made me... happy. Sickeningly happy. Like... I wanted nothing more in the world. But then, after that... all I saw was what I just told you about. That... that shadow brought back all my fears, all the pain I endured and fed it back to me. I felt like it was a... punishment?... for how I wanted to see both of them dead at my feet." She blinks a few times, staring at the untouched food on her plate. "I'm so confused, Haut."

"Am I supposed to be a good person, or a bad person?" she asked, finally looking up at Haut, but with clear apprehension in doing so. "I feel... conflicted. Like I'm somewhere in the middle, but I want... both."

Silent as she speaks, Haut catches the apprehension in her eyes and fights to keep himself from feeling the hurt it brought. It takes him time to speak, his voice still measured in a sympathetic softness that comes from a place of understanding. "My ability to speak about morality is... tenuous at best. You know it as well as I do." What of his past she did know, anyways.

"I do not think a person can be truly good, or truly evil. No matter who, there is a mixture of both within someone. That being said, I have never known someone with as much care for those too young to be able to protect themselves as you. And while I didn't get the entire story, I heard enough of the yelling to know that it started out with that as a factor." Haut lets that hang for a moment before sitting up a little straighter and letting a slightly more serious expression settle into his face.

"There is one more, extremely important factor here, Jill. You were attacked by something. You were not yourself, not the way you were screaming for help." The memory of that cry was another unhappy one settled among the many. "I do not think you can be blamed, nor do I think it is fair to blame you for the actions you took or the thoughts you had. Not when you were a victim as much as the others there."

He wanted to simply embrace her, as if that could make things alright. But the hurt all over her demeanor screams about how bad of a plan that would be. The only thing to do was stay the course. Try to gently tease out the threads. "What can you tell me about what you felt, immediately before that thing showed up? How did it all start?"

Jillian lowers her eyes again, unintentionally intimidated by the seriousness of Haut's inquisition, regardless of its gentle approach. "Something... I felt something really powerful, far to the west. Somewhere in the Fa'diel area. Toby was there, and I..." she trails off, suddenly aware of something and mightily concerned of said awareness. "Toby! Is he okay? Did he get hurt by that thing? Did -I- hurt him?"

Haut closes his eye and raises a hand at the wrist in 'slow it down' kind of way. "The kid didn't get touched. Last I saw he had four people putting themselves between him and anything else. And between you trying to throwing yourself at the sword and me becoming the shadow's number one enemy, he was fine. Concerned about you, maybe. But that makes two of us."

Folding his hands back down, he tries to think about what was over in the Fa'diel region, but there was just too much. "So. Something powerful. And then you made a move to protect the kid." He's looking at her again, trying to figure how lucid she was and remains through the retelling.

Jillian looks extremely relieved to hear that, but the fact that she doesn't comment on his remark about throwing herself in harm's way means she either ignored it or doesn't remember it happening, both of which are equally likely. "I'm so glad..." she says, sound as such. "I was sad because it was... fake, whatever it was. Nothing happened... but I thought he thought I was scary, because I just grabbed him from out of nowhere..." Jillian suddenly stops, her expression flickering between a couple of things before settling on a specific one. "...and that rabbit wouldn't... be quiet. Who uses... language...?" She trails off again, still apparently experiencing conflicting feelings about something. "I wanted to protect Toby... but I was so mad.. I also wanted to rip that rabbit's sister's head off and show it to him while she still had a few moments of life left in her eyes. That's... that's really... awful..." She stops flat at that point, looking really, really confused.

But before Haut can actually react or say anything, she spontaneously picks up again, looking up at him once more. "Haut, why do I care about what happens to Toby? Or anyone? I never did before. I did... what I wanted. I did what I wanted to do, because it felt... good." Her expression changes a little bit, like she was remembering just -how- good it felt. "Everyone was just so... weak, and miserable... I could do whatever I wanted."

The hesitation running through Jillian as she tries to recount exactly what happened told Haut every single thing he needed to know about her culpability in that situation. Something had affected her. Changed her. But before he can dive more into that, she hits him with the question.

He's silent for a moment, and there's a minute tightening of his eye as he wonders just how badly affected she may have been. That wasn't like the Jill he knew. She would have never linked those two sentences so closely together. There's an ebb of anger that runs through him again, a spike of fury that he controls by pinning to a wall in his mind. Someone had hurt her. There was going to be blood.

But first he had to help her as best he could. The question had been answered, once. But how it had been left so much more to be inferred. He couldn't even be sure if it had been her original reasoning or- he was thinking too much. "Because their fear and helplessness weren't something they could control. Because unlike an adult, they haven't had the ability to change things." Because they needed to be nurtured. Because she was fused with a harvest goddess. Because she longed for something she was denied.

A sigh escapes him, and he tries to piece together what he knew so far. Jill had been out, she had felt something wrong from Fa'diel. And then things deteriorated. "After the rabbit. Before the shadow. What happened. I heard yelling, which is why I came down. I assume you were telling him off. Did anything else happen?"

Jillian's expression is blatantly elsewhere for a solid half-minute, as though she were thinking about other things that spawned as a result of Haut's answer to her question. Eventually, though, she speaks up. "I tried... to kill them. Both of them. I got angry much faster than I usually do... because he wouldn't stop. Over, and over..." Her facial features grow terse, as if the memory were starting to get to her. "...and over again. And then when I tried to reprimand him, I was the bad person?" Nevermind the fact that she DID try to outright murder Ruen and his innocent sister on the basis of using foul language in front of a child. "I felt justified. But, after that, I felt... excited. Like I was experiencing something I hadn't in a long time. And I embraced that feeling, and went with it." Her tone seems clearer at this stage of the conversation, at least, partially holding her erstwhile timidness at bay for the moment as she continues talking. "I didn't just want to kill him, I wanted to bathe in his blood. Like... I'd done before. Many times." Jillian is quiet for a moment, and does something for the first time that day, so far; she grins, her fangs gleaming gently as she does. But it's not a pleasant grin, by a long shot. "And that feeling grew.. and I got more excited..." She seems pretty fond of this memory at the moment, but whether that's a good or bad thing in the current company and situation is up in the air.

Jillian blinks suddenly, something else suddenly coming to mind. "Mero... he tried to warn me," she recollects. "Or... I think it was a warning? I got annoyed because I thought he was playing around and distracting me. He told me that the shadow was... Ambience." She makes a slightly perplexed face, her grin diminishing most of the way, like she was remembering someone being dumb for dumb's sake. "But it very obviously wasn't. That didn't make any sense."

There was too much uncertainty. Too much whirling doubt fogged by imperfect recollection. She was reminded of her distant past. Something had reached into her and drawn it out. Given it form. Made it him. Him to hurt her. His teeth are clenched as she's forced through things again and he's almost to the point of telling her to drop it for her own sake when her moment of realization hits.

And then his name is said.

Ambience. Ambience was the shadow? Ambience was missing after the mana fortress. The sinistrals. They had been killed, but what if- could he have been twisted by his time there? Gades had returned after death. Could they inhabit bodies? Were they tied to the kid somehow? Normally it'd be hard but- the kid was mana tribe. Linked to the fortress somehow. That fucking destiny shit all over again. Were they using him to hurt people?

A slow, shaking breath works out of Haut's lips as his mind spins. They needed to find the kid. A part of his mind says to make sure he's okay. He desperately tries to not give thought to the other words in his mind. But it wouldn't be the first time he would have had to do the dirty job.

For all of that though, there was still more to do here. So, Haut turns his attention back to Jillian, and swallows before he speaks again. "Where's Mero now?"

Jillian hesitates at that question. "I don't know," she says. "I can't--"

But before she can even start to explain anything, a small Shade elemental, all of black bat wings and large silvery eye between them, pops into existence right in the middle of the table between the two of them, showering their dinner with a small display of sparkling violet lights. The big ol' eye in its center focuses on Haut, specifically, as if in answering a call.

Jillian looks dumbfounded, like she couldn't believe anyone -but- her could get the mana spirit to come calling when asked. "...Oh. I guess he's right here, now."

Haut looks directly into that eye before him, unblinking as he takes in the sudden appearance of the mana spirit before him. "Right. I know you and me haven't always been on the best terms. But if I asked you to help us find Ambience, could you?" His eye flicks back to Jillian, both wordlessly asking her to help translate if need be, and at the same time talking to Mero. It had to know how bad of a state she was in as well. This was to help.

Jillian just still looks confused at the suddenness of this whole thing, like she was almost taken aback at Haut calling in -her- mana spirit. But that premise faded pretty quickly, because as soon as Haut dropped the question, the spirit bounced around in the air a few times, its eye expanding and contracting in accordance with some unknown manner of what could be presumed as 'speech'. It seems equal parts excited and confused in its aerial dance, though, and Jillian watches it, seeming to understand.

When the spirit slows down a bit, Jillian does offer to translate, albeit with a notable frown. "He can't," she said, with uncomfortable plainness. "Mero said that the... shadow-thing had Ambience's Mana Signature, but it wasn't him." Her frown deepens, enough to where she looks away. "He said that Ambience didn't survive the Fortress' destruction. Mero doesn't know why the shadow had Ambience's Mana Signature, but he said that if Ambience were alive, every mana spirit in every realm, upper, lower, or middle, would know."

The little Shade seems to hover in place for a moment, its eye scanning Haut for a moment before it starts acting up again, and goes so far as to make what sounds like a tiny little hiss. It's cute, almost. In response to this, Jillian tilts her head, suddenly looking less depressed and more confused. Again. "Mero says that he can almost feel Ambience's Mana Signature somewhere near here, though, but it's very faint. But I don't need to ask him to know that this isn't an uncommon thing... people leave traces of their Mana Signatures frequently, especially if they remain in one place for a long time."

Jillian looks like she was going to say something else, but the Shade abruptly flips 180 in the air, so that it is facing her, and does another brief bounce-dance in the air. Jillian's eyes widen somewhat in response to this. "..My Mana Signature is somewhere here, too?" She looks past Mero, at Haut specifically. "He said it's in the same place as where he thinks he can feel Ambience's residuals."

Sinistrals. Sinistrals sinistrals sinistrals. Duplicated mana signature? Was that like a soul? Maybe they were using his body.

That thought stops Haut. Moving slowly, he settles his head into his hands, and sighs deeply. Already dead. All of that and the kid was dead. Some part of him had always just assumed he was lost. Maybe just, amnesiac or something. But, having it laid out like that so plainly was. It didn't matter the thoughts that he refused to give words to just prior, it wasn't a pleasant thought.

He had tried to do everything he could, but the fucking sword just wouldn't work for him.

Ripping himself out of the spiral was difficult. But Mero's translated message cuts through the fear starting to leak in around the sorrow. It gave him something to think about, instead of spinning gears with broken teeth. Residual signatures? Nearby- fear and missing something important? Biting his lip for a moment, Haut's head lifts up as he looks to Jillian. "Jill, I want to try something. But it might be a little dangerous. Are you willing to try it out, knowing that I'll do whatever I can to protect you if it goes wrong?"

If the hairs on the back of Jillian's neck were visible, Haut would see them standing up. Her immediate and prolonged silence, though, seems to be enough of an implication of such a feeling. "If..." she starts to say, the words seeming to stick in her throat. She frowns. "If... you think it's what we need to do, then we need to do it." A simple statement and quite possibly -not- what she actually -wanted- to say, but it came out, nonetheless.

Mero continues to hover in the air between them, offering nothing audible on the idea. If he was saying anything, Jillian wasn't translating it, anyway.

If this was any other point, literally any other situation, he would have stopped here and now. She was clearly worried about it. Terrified maybe. And he didn't want her to just be accepting because he said so. But: this was a different matter. "Just, stay here." With that, he stands up and makes his way over to the adjoining door. There's the sound of cluttered knocking around before he returns to the scene with both vacuum tubes he produced over last night.

Setting both on the table, one to either side of Mero, Haut settles back down in his seat and motions to them both. "I grabbed these, after the fight. Mero, can you help identify if they're two separate mana signatures? If so, Jill, I'd like you to grab the one Mero identifies as yours."

There was a distant worry, bringing these gems out. Contact with them may spawn a shadow once more, but he'd fought one already, he's ready to do it again if need be. And this time, they were on his home turf instead of out on the street.

Jillian eyes the tubes warily as they are set down, but opts to remain in her seat during the proceedings.

Mero, on the other hand, doesn't hesitate even slightly. He floats on over between both vacuum tubes and seems to be considering, perhaps a bit thrown off by their proximity to one another. In the end, though, he settles on the one that is slightly further away from Jillian than the other, physically landing itself atop the tube that conceals it. Jillian looks at it first, then nods slightly. "Mero said that one has my Mana Signature in it. He also confirmed that they are two different Mana Signatures entirely." Though this is confirmed, she does not immediately reach out to take it, as earlier requested/instructed.

Haut collects the other tube, eyeballing it for a moment as if trying in some way to divine any information about it. Sadly, he's not exactly what one would call a gifted mage, and even if he was it probably wouldn't tell him if this thing somehow contained some of Ambience's soul. Either way, he sets it back on his side of the table after a few moments before noticing that Jillian hasn't reached for her own.

A little frown tugs at his lips as one eyebrow goes up. Concern, not displeasure, though she might have problems currently discerning the difference. Softly, he regards her before opening up. "Are you alright, Jill?"

When Jillian doesn't respond, Mero glides on over to the sealed tube and actually proceeds to half-push, half-roll it across the table toward her end, taking quite a bit of awkward effort in doing so. It then rises up and sets itself down atop it, the large silver eye staring pointedly at Jillian as its bat-wings flutter slightly. Something unseen (unheard?) gets Jill's attention at that point, and she frowns softly, her pale cheeks gaining a bit of warm color to them. "I..." she starts to say, then looks up. "...Yes. Yes, I'm okay. It will be okay." It would almost seem as if she were attempting to reassure herself as much as anyone, but she reaches out and takes the tube containing the silvery jewel, as the Shade flits out of the way in doing so. Instead of asking if she -should- open it, she instead just flat-out does so, pulling the sealed tube apart and allowing the small gem to land with a faint -plap- in her left palm. This action and the feeling of the cool surface of it makes her jump a little bit in her seat; as the jewel is removed from its wrapper, though, the Shade seems to grow a bit excited, flailing its wings a bit as it seems more aware of something in that jewel that Jillian is now holding.

Jillian seems like she's waiting for something to happen, not immediately indicative that anything is any different than before. As soon as she feels inclined to ask what she should do next, the jewel in her hand, without any warning whatsoever, utterly and promptly explodes into a dazzling array of sparkling white lights! The jewel itself apparently ceases to exist upon said explosion, but the lights dance and sway in the air briefly, coalescing and coming together to form some kind of shape. This action, and the spontaneity of it, causes Jillian to stand up so suddenly that her chair tips over and clatters backward onto the floor, followed by her backing up to the point where her back is to an adjoining wall where she can't back up any further; sheer and utter terror is apparent in her vertical green eyes, as the lights continue to sway and come together, eventually taking on a very distinct shape: they become a silhouette of Jillian herself, the lights forming a very specific outline of her body, from the hair, to the curves, to her bare toes, and every obvious distinction in-between. These lights do no small job in illuminating the room in its glow, but refrain from being bright enough to be painful to the eyes.

These lights, in their formed shape, simply... reach out a 'hand' toward Jillian, but don't move any further. As if waiting.

Jillian's eyes swivel between the light-silhouette and Haut, as if begging to be told what she should do.

Haut, for his part, reacts to the explosion in much the same way as Jillian, if with a bit more a violent addition. His chair rockets back and he shoves the entire table over to the side, instantly ready to start fighting whatever had showed up in their home. But, when the object coalesces into not one of shadow, but light and also Jillian he pauses. There's a moment of hesitation, but if it doesn't move then he turns his eye back to the flesh and blood woman. Slowly, he nods. "Take her hand. If anything goes wrong, I'm right here. I'll keep you safe."

Mero spazzes out briefly as the table he was hovering over suddenly gets violently upended, but he's quick enough to flutter out of the way to avoid being caught in the aftermath of flying food and everything else that goes with it. The Shade finds a place over atop one of Jillian's shoulders instead, and turns to face the light-silhouette, floating there without any real obvious input there or about.

Jillian looks, for a moment, like she almost can't believe Haut would suggest a thing like that, but, blowly and gradually, she pushes herself off the wall and extends a visibly-trembling hand toward the one being offered by the lightshow. As soon as her fingertip makes contact with the closest possible mote of light, ALL of them shine brightly, all at once, and then immediately wink out as a jolt of something shoots through Jillian herself, causing her to convulse briefly and fall to her knees, clutching her chest with both arms. She grimaces at something, and makes a sound that could only be described as attempting to clear one's throat when there's nothing actually needing to be coughed up.

Mero stays in the air where Jillian's shoulder -was- before she dropped, hovering idly in the air without any obvious concern over the ongoing events.

Haut's eye goes wide as he steps forwards, only holding himself back at the last possible moment when he remembers how she's been reacting for the rest of the day. Instead, he clenches his hands and watches on, ready to press forwards again at the first sign she's taking on more than she can handle. Which by his judgement is basically anything past what is currently going on.

Jillian grits her teeth at something nonspecific, her grimace gradually subsiding as she seems to try and determine... something.

After a few seconds, Jillian speaks up, frowning noticeably. "Ugh..." she grunts, squeezing her chest tightly with both arms. "FUCK, ugh! That was SO AWFUL! FUCKING... UGH." She just kind of... kneels there, throwing a nondescript attitude about... something. Or nothing.

Notably, this is probably two more swear words than Haut has probably heard out of her in at least four years, give or take.

Haut doesn't quite look at Jill as if she's grown a second head, but he does raise an eyebrow at the decidedly more colorful vocabulary. "Talk to me, because right now I'm not sure if that's a good thing or if I've accidentally gotten you possessed by some kind of ghost. And while I will go on a quest to exorcise you, it's still another thing I'm gonna have to get angry at someone about."

Jillian scowls loosely, but it isn't immediately clear as to the target. "An exorcism sounds hot, really, but you know what I think I could use more than that?" she asks, loosening her grip on herself just a bit but still looking a bit upended. "I think a hug would really be the best thing I could ask for, right now. Especially if it came from you."

If there was a magnetic connection between the two it might not have pulled Haut to Jill faster, his embrace as fierce as it had been when he was trying to keep her close during the fight. There's a breathless moment before he laughs, once, and then squeezes her a little harder. "Fucking shit, Jill. Do you know how scared I was there?"

He keeps her close for a few moments longer like that, before pulling back a little so he can look at her properly, relief on his face. "Tell me you're not about to carve my kidney out or something. Because I can get you some more beef instead."

Jillian grins as she is squeezed, and while making it apparent that she is appreciative of the hug and its overt sentiment, she kind of just.. takes the hug, but doesn't really give one back, still in a position where her arms are embracing herself rather than open to do so for anyone else. "I think I'll eat later," she says, adjusting so that she falls back into a sitting position on the floor instead of kneeling. "I'm not going to try and understand what the hell that was all about, but I'd just as soon not go through it a second time. Manipulating peoples' emotions is pretty top-tier, as far as torture methods go. And, believe me, I know a lot about torture methods." Her manner of speech definitely feels a bit... different. Like there's something there a little more that might not've been there before, but for all intents and purposes, Jillian seems to be back to her normal self. She heaves a sigh, leaning her head back against the wall behind her. "Guess I'll let that bunny off the hook for now, too. We'll call it even, and I'll just opt to fuck his day up some other time if he steps out of line again." Her eyes peer upward toward the ceiling, but along the way there, Mero is floating in small circles above the two of them, seemingly content with everything as it is.

"I mean if it's any consolation, I did tase the shit out of him." Haut sits back as well now, loosing the hug enough so he can just sit cross legged before her. "We can discuss lapin violence later, just." A sigh he didn't know he'd holding leaves him, and he takes the moment to just... relax. "Look. I don't know how much of like, all that you remember. But there's, a lot on the table right now." He pauses, before looking over at the table he'd basically thrown off to the side.

"Ok not that table. But, y'know." He laughs offhandedly once again, before just kind of grinning at Jill. "Hi." The cursing was new. The, strange tone was slightly different. But he could get behind it. He could get behind anything if she was being herself again.

Jill couldn't help but grin, too. That dumb look on his face when he was always trying to be serious but sometimes slipped through the cracks was just way too endearing, and it got her every time. "There's always a lot on the table, Haut," she said. "But it's never been more than we can handle." There's a subtle emphasis on the word 'we' in that statement. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to take a day and just... not do anything. Whatever... you know, shit we have going on, maybe we can just push it off until tomorrow."

"Fuck it. Consider the day written." As always, the moment Jill actually asks for anything, that's just what was going on. Pushing himself back up to his feet with a little dad noise, Haut offers a hand to Jill to help up. "So. You wanna have take two on roast beef, or should I go grab us some takeout?" The 'us' has a little subtle emphasis as well, just a little tacit agreement for what was goin' on. His eye also flicks to Mero, checking on the little guy as if asking what his opinion was as well.

Jillian looks up at Haut and his outstretched hand, and the gears could be seen turning in her head. When her expression refocuses, she just grins, and... ignores the hand, instead placing her hands on her knees. She declined him, willingly and with blatant obstinacy, simply because she could. "If you want to grab something and bring it back, I think I'm just going to sit here for a little bit, until I feel like I'm ready to get up. This feels comfortable, knowing I don't actually..." she trails off as Mero finds his way down to her where she's sitting, and kind of... sits on her head, his large silver eye facing Haut. Her grin widens, and she finds herself also looking directly up at Haut. "...Because I can do whatever I want, right?" Her tone is a bit odd, like it isn't clear whether that was a -statement- or a -question-. But, just the same, her grin, and the obvious contentment behind it, is genuine.

Haut blinks, the new attitude of self actualization not lost on him. But at the same time- there's nothing wrong with that. It's one of the things he had been trying to get her more accustomed to for so long. So it's, in no way a bad thing. The opposite. "Yeah, I'll go grab something from Moti's." Where he had been worried about leaving her before, things seemed fine enough now. Taking a second to grab his jacket from by the door, Haut waves at Jill before taking a step out. It was gonna be a roast beef sandwich kinda night.