Haut sits in his house. Sit is a bad word for what he's doing, actually, it's more like an aggressive slump across a couch that he didn't buy. It's one of the things that got left by the old inhabitants that he frankly didn't have the fucks to throw away. Besides, it was comfortable.

The comfort didn't help his mood. Worse than simply standing out, he had fucked up a potential angle. He was far from a perfect guy but some days it was just worse than others. Maybe because Jill was off doing god knows what-

That wasn't his place to think about. She trusted him to not follow, he trusted her to handle her shit. It just meant that, as he sat here, there was another worry sitting in the back of his mind. With a grunt, he stands and grabs the good thing from today so far, that heavy ass case of supposedly nuclear materials. If he was going to be looking for the kid, then he'd need a little more than just skin and bones for the trip.

The thought stopped him. His mind reaches back to what horse-boy was saying again. And then he sets the case down once more. The Sprites didn't really deign to speak with him, at the very least he had never understood any of Mero's antics. But Mero had replied to him once, when it suited him. So, maybe given how pissed off Sylvan was-

Sitting back down, Haut pulls the table close to the couch a little closer and works on emptying his mind for a moment. He wasn't sure how any of this worked but, if there's something he was sure of, it's that having more information was better than not, especially when it came to Mana Tribe, and Ambience. With that in mind, Haut sends a shot out into the dark.

"Sylvan."

It's a pretty acceptable silence, all things considered. And it lingers, probably for an agonizing length of time, if Haut were actually expecting any sort of response. If he wasn't, though, then it's perfectly normal.

However, after some length of time passes, something does happen. It's not what he wanted, but it happens anyway. Amidst a burst of purple sparkles, Mero suddenly manifests in the air, a short distance from Haut, and peers at him curiously through that big silver eye of his, hovering gently in the air with no real gesture-based emotion behind his presence. Almost if he were the one called.

Haut waited for what felt like an agonizing amount of time indeed, caught up between hoping this would work and feeling like a fucking idiot for talking to the air. Just as he's about to get up and start working on any one of these big projects though, Mero appears.

Unexpected, yes. Disheartening also yes. It takes a lot of willpower to not snark at the Sprite, instead Haut just fixes him with a tired eye. "For what it's worth, I was trying to talk to Sylvan. So, please don't take this as me trying to mess with whatever Jill's doing."

He leans back, and sighs. "I'm just trying to talk to her about the kid. Saw her earlier, thought she'd wanna have words with someone who's actually looking."

Mero's eye dilates somewhat, and he tilts himself almost sideways in the air, and... seems to almost 'nod' in the sense of bending his batwinged self half-forward a couple of times. The spirit floats upward a little ways, then turns a quarter-ways around to the space right next to him, kind of... reaching out with one of those little bat wings.

Nothing happens for a good moment or so. But then, amidst a flurry of bright green sparkles, the named dryad abruptly spawns, hovering in the spot Mero was just waving off to. The look on her tiny face is hard to assess, and she looks almost immediately at Mero, throwing one tiny wooden arm in his direction and exchanging some sort of unheard dialogue between them.

Mero, in turn, just self-tilts in a different direction, but his eye swivels lightly in its socket, in Haut's direction.

Haut grins at the little guy. He didn't really know what the whole jazz hands presentation with the bat wings was about, but it was kinda hard not to feel a little kindred with him after all these years. He's a moment away from bidding Mero bye before there's another puff of sparkles.

That one earned Haut's eye widening for a moment as the... There's a moment where Haut realizes he's not actually sure if the Sprites have gender technically before he forges on with the thought regardless ...woman of the hour appeared. Unexpected yes, and maybe a little amusing given just how pissed off Sylvan was.

He could respect that much fury in a small package. "Scuse me, not trying to interrupt." He draws out a tube that might be familiar to Mero at the least, and sets it and the odd crystal it contained on the table before the Sprites. After Jill had her little reverse exorcism return to quasi-normalcy, he had kept the other on hand and within eyesight.

Fuck knows he didn't need another shadow showing up and tormenting everyone with his inner thoughts about the world.

"I heard you're looking for the kid. Ambience. I'm on the same path after his name came up a couple of days ago. Maybe we can be of use to each other."

The little tree maiden does look pretty vexed, and she does look like she's about to turn and take that vexation out on Haut upon that interruption, but as soon as the jewel hits the table, she stops. Wooden arm outstretched and in midair, even. Dryads already have pretty big green eyes to begin with, but hers just got a whole lot bigger, and she immediately hovers down to circle around the weird object and the jewel it contained, her astonishment completely out in the open.

Mero seems to give Sylvan a second or two, before he looks at Haut, his pupil expanding slightly in some sort of, again, unheard expression. He then floats down to join the other one at the tube's edge, and flutters his little wings outward in some sort of silent conversation that only the two of them can likely hear or be apart of.

Haut doesn't take the low road of finding joy in stopping the little lady in her tracks as it were. As satisfying as it would have been, he couldn't understand her anyways. Instead he taps the top of the tube. "Jill was attacked. She claims to have felt the kid's mana signature just before it happened, before manifesting some sort of. Thoughtform or something."

He stares at Sylvan, hoping for some degree of... something from her. "This came out of it after it was defeated, along with another that had Jillian's own mana signature in it. That's already been returned to her." He felt bad. Worse he felt actively worried about sharing information like this, calling attention to Jill and himself from the one group that knew their names and might actually act on it.

His pause ends when he levels a gaze at Sylvan. "If there's something wrong with the kid. If something is using him to attack people, rip out the core of their beings and do what they did to Jillian-" there's too much to say exactly what's happening. But there's a name he can pin down. "Sinistrals may be working here. And if they are, they're near the kid. And I'm going to kill them until they stay dead."

It's not immediately apparent whether she is actively ignoring Haut or just completely taken by the jewel, but Sylvan doesn't pay him any mind whatsoever for at least a solid handful of minutes. During that time, though, the two mana spirits seem to be engaging in some sort of communication-fest, frequently tossing body-language-style gestures back and forth, as well as indicating the gem itself, with only an occasional side glance at Haut before going right back to what they're doing otherwise. Mero is the first one to eventually back off, hovering up and into the air about a foot or so away from the tube, and turning to give Haut a stare that may or may not have anything attributed to it, since he can't speak.

Sylvan continues to fuss over the jewel for at least another half-minute or so, before giving what looks like a sigh, and turns toward Haut, waving both arms in the air in some sort of gesture that, unfortunately, isn't obvious as to what it might mean. The little features on her face, though, look sad, like she was resigned to something that she couldn't do anything about.

And there enlies the issue. Haut states at the attempt to talk, or rather, pantomime about what's going on and he can't understand a damn thing. "Look, the half of the team that knows how to talk good is kind of away at the moment. And your boy didn't want to talk shop. So while I know you can get what I'm saying-" he stops for a moment and applies his mind to the issue.

The result is withdrawing the broken pen from his pocket and shucking the rest of the plastic shell. It'd probably be way easier for her to hold like that. Then a page from the mini-notebook in his jacket pocket, and Haut offers the two to Sylvan. Had someone ever actually just asked a sprite to write before? Who knows.

"Uh, if you need me to open up the tube I can. But also if you're saying there's nothing you can do then-" he sighs at the end, and scratches the back of his head. He's trying, at least.

Sylvan watches as Haut goes about getting out a writing utensil and something to write on, her eyes gradually going half-lidded and her expression taking on something of a "Seriously..?" sort of look, but she just kind of.. floats there, about half an inch off the table, not saying anything. Since she can't.

Mero, offering to be at least a little less pissy and cynical about the whole thing, floats on over to the pen and proceeds to reach out with a wingtip... and phase himself through it, without physical contact. And then does so again. He then turns to look up at Haut, his big eye expanding a bit.

Sylvan glances over at Mero briefly, then up at Haut, putting her hands on her hips without a change in expression.

"Ok well look, in my defense no one's ever tried to grab one of y'all around me." He flicks the pen over into a trash can before sitting back. "Well, fuck." Just goes to figure. He tries to trust people, tries to open up, and he's not even getting actual talking in return. Blowing out a puff of air, he runs a hand over his scalp and tries again.

"Failing that, and assuming you could just pass through the container to grab the jewel if you wanted since you're intangible. You were upset earlier because you've got nothing you can do about the kid." Mero had claimed earlier, through interpretation, that it wasn't the kid's signature anyways. He hadn't expected Jill to be translating wrong or anything but-

Kneading his temples would get him nowhere. He should have tried this when Jill was around. He should have asked her about it later. This wasn't going to come back on them was it? He tries to knead for a few moments later before sighing defeatedly and letting his hands drop.

"Fuck. I dunno. Call it a waste of time then." Standing up, he grabs the jewel's tube and squints at it for a moment. "Tell her I'm looking for him. If there's a mess, it's going to get cleaned up. I'm not done spending time with her yet." He trusted that Sylvan could differentiate the 'hers' should she deign to transmit the message. Either way, unless something else happened it's not like they were going to make more headway than this.

Mero turns gradually in the air, casting his silvery gaze over Sylvan in silence.

Sylvan watches and listens as Haut fusses, and eventually takes her hands off her hips to float up through the air and toward him. She maneuvers to get herself in front of him so he can see her clearly, and then rigidly extends one arm toward the tube he's holding, and then points that same arm at herself. She tilts her head slightly, leafy hair bobbing gently in the air as she does so, as if hoping he might have an idea of what she's getting at.

Haut states at the little lady for a moment. "Aw fuck, this is you?" That. Complicated things. "Why the fuck were you in her? No wait, hold on." Haut pinches the bridge of his nose. "If she was fused with Lillian then that aspect of her might have been formed into something similar to what she was. So, a wood sprite for a farming goddess." His mind is spinning now, possibly running too fast.

"Fuck does that mean she's half of what she's supposed to be? She's be different sure but like- fuck, gods fucking damnit if she's only the half that she was before merger then she might not have the same abilities. But no, she's safe, right? Like she's good, because otherwise I'd need to find her but I can't-" he turns to Mero, eye wide at the moment, worry evident.

"Tell me she's good. That she's who she was before and this isn't some missing part of her."

Sylvan's eyes quickly go half-lidded again, and if one could see a little puff of air come out of the side of the mouth she doesn't have, it would be there. But this isn't a cartoon, so that's just wishful thinking. Slowly, she floats on over toward the end of the tube where the zipper(?) is, and points at it, making a 'straight across' motion, and then putting her arms together then spreading them apart.

The Shade spirit, instead of egging her on, floats on up to Haut and sets himself above his shoulder, in a calm and collected manner. He isn't panicking, at the very least, and it could be assumed that if something was wrong with Jill, he'd know, and he'd be panicking. But he's also a spirit and can't talk, so there's that.

"Right. Yeah, ok. Shoulder sit. That's normal stuff. So she's good." Haut composes himself after a moment, because it really would have been an issue to have to figure out how to help her without being present. Or even know what she was doing.

Reacting on a delay, Haut pulls the tube open at Sylvan's request, sorta keeping it held sideways so the jewel inside didn't fly out and Sylvan herself didn't have to like, awkwardly fly down into it. "So, you guys can't go through things." He has no idea how that works. Couldn't she just have appeared inside or something? Maybe there was too much disturbance in the local mana grid?

Fuck this was hard to try and figure out. He looks over to Mero. "You aren't gonna tell her about that, right? Because I totally did trust her."

Mero tilts his own body from side to side, in the best (and potentially most obvious) way he can manage to pantomime a shaking of the head.

"Aight I'm trusting you on that."

Sylvan waits for a moment... and then kind of slumps, looking like she's really starting to get frustrated, but also trying very hard not to be, and she's coming off somewhere in the middle somewhere. Still, she manages somehow to pull herself together, and then points once more at the jewel in the tube, then at the table down below her. She takes both arms and makes a 'shake shake' motion, up and down, then points at the table again.

"Oh, shit like on the table?" Haut was wary of touching the jewel again after last time, he didn't trust that feeling of courage. Especially now that one of them had been used on Jill. So, he tips the tube over onto the table and spills it's contents. "You uh, need anything else?"

This act causes Mero to remove himself from Haut's shoulder and, along with Sylvan, float down over to the undressed jewel, peering at it with his oversized lens. He looks up and across the way, at Sylvan, then a side-glance at Haut.

Sylvan does indeed float down to where the jewel is laid out, and turns in mid-air, on the way down to it, to face Haut. She bends over, holding both arms out and making a scooping motion toward the jewel, then then brings those scooping arms toward herself. Then tilts her head again, with what could be seen as a "Well?" type of expression.

The shade spirit tries to help, too. Pointing a wingtip at the gem, he then also points at Sylvan, and also attempts to try and 'scoop' in her direction, but uh, bats don't really 'scoop' things, and he doesn't pull it off very well. But it doesn't seem to bother him that much.

Haut's trepidation intensifies. They were both fairly insistent, and Mero at least had been steering him correctly. "Yeah, ok. So-" he reaches down and braces himself. Courage, self assuredness, dread and despair- there wasn't really telling to know what's going to happen when he touches it. Either way, he'll follow the wordless order.

Gripping the jewel, he flips it up, and attempts to try and push it towards Sylvan.

In whatever capacity Sylvan was doing to try to get Haut to understand her, she takes the assumption that he is offering her the jewel to assume that her intent was received and understood, because she doesn't know how to assume any differently, with all the effort she tried to put into it. She floats back a few inches as Haut pushes the gem toward her, and holds both hands out toward it; little green sparkles begin to glow on the tips of her tiny little hands, an obvious indication of a spell being primed.

Mero seems satisfied, as well, and floats back on up to Haut's shoulder to 'sit' and watch what his mana spirit companion is doing.

It's an almost automatic reaction that he has to tamp down. He really really shouldn't runic whatever she's casting, especially not using the jewel as a catalyst. He's also thrown off by the fact that he feels nothing from it. He relaxes the bracing he's done, wondering what Sylvan's up to and when she's gonna take this jewel from him or whatever. Was it not part of her? Did she not want it right now?

For the moment, he resolves to just, wait for a sec.

The lights gradually get a teeny-tiny-bit brighter at a time, over a span of about four seconds, and there's suddenly a dull snap and a burst of green light as the jewel is engulfed and abruptly vanishes amidst the light, which also fades away fairly quickly. Sylvan looks relatively pleased by this, probably the first positive expression she's carried since she arrived, and she turns to look up at Haut (and Mero too), waving both arms toward him in an unspoken gesture of... something.

Mero merely floats there above Haut's shoulder, not really offering anything yay or nay on what just happened.

Seeming to swiftly realize that the arm-waving doesn't do jack without words, she instead switches it up, and puts both her 'hands' together in front of herself, and gives a little bow to Haut, hoping maybe that might be better-received.

"Uh, you're? Welcome?" Haut closes his hands as well, following suit with Sylvan while assuming this is just, part of what he's supposed to be doing? Was the jewel something bad? Was he helping somehow?

He turns his head so he can look over at Mero, as if he'll be able to shed a little more light on what's going on. He'd just have to keep trusting them both for now though.

The Shade spirit turns, still on Haut's shoulder, to wave a little wingtip at him, but in a calm sort of way.

Sylvan straightens, glancing aside at some nonspecific part of the room, then at the empty tube, and then back at Haut. She nods, and then offers a wave that actually looks like genuine appreciation, and then spontaneously bursts into a series of green lights as she departs, disappearing in the same venue upon which she arrived.

Mero floats down off of Haut's shoulder as Sylvan departs, taking a spot somewhere on the table and kind of... glancing around, at everything and nothing, then turns to look back at Haut, his eye contracting slightly. He tilts himself slightly to one side, and all of this conveys very little, unfortunately.

Haut is left staring at Mero with his hands now empty. "Okay??? I guess??" Incredulity aside part of him had kind of hoped that was supposed to make it so they could talk, even if Sylvan had words for him. But now he didn't even have the jewel! He slumps back onto the couch with a groan, trying to divine literally anything from the interaction before looking to Mero.

"Well, at the very least thanks for coming to intercede, man. Hope things are going well for you and Jill out there."

The Shade twists himself back and forth dismissively at Haut's brief quasi-panic state, and at the mention of Jill, its eye gets a little bigger, as if suddenly remembering something. It sort of... buzzes, almost, right before bursting into nothing amidst a shower of purple sparkles, taking itself away probably to go back to where he was summoned from.

Left alone, Haut lets his head drop back. "Aight, cool. Go team. Nice work, G." Another frustrated noise escapes him before he checks the clock on the wall. "Right. Fuck it. Time to get some food and then play with nuclear materials then, I guess."