A Puzzling Encounter

Alexis was not a puzzle person. He thought it was pretty pointless and annoying but Achlys was not of that mind at all. She was clearly leading their team with the puzzle pieces and quickly began sorting though them.

Alexis looked over at the others and noted how slowly and carefully Nyx was working. Alexis squinted and then shrugged. Whatever. "Achlys do you want to split this pile while we look for the edges?" Alexis asked his regalia. And the regalia- no, his friend nodded with the hint of a smile on her face. A faint return smile touched his lips before he grumbled at the massive number of puzzle pieces and began dumping his half into the lid for the puzzle while she took the bottom of the box.

There was no methodical anything coming from Alexis. He dug through his pile, making a mess but still managing to pull out edge pieces and put them on the table. Mostly unable to find the connections the first few times and grumbling even more until he found a few that matched.

It looked to be about neck and neck at the moment. Achlys was pretty good at focusing on the task and Alexis was... well he was doing ok. Not well, not terrible. Just ok. "So uh... you guys do a lot of puzzles?" Alexis asked Ezra and Nyx awkwardly. Were they supposed to make conversation of just do the challenge? It was too quiet for him.

Alexis snorted and gave Ezra the most deadpan look he could manage. "No. I haven't done a puzzle since elementary school. Pretty sure my parents woulda burned one if I brought a puzzle home," he snickered as he turned back to sifting the pieces through his fingers, looking for those elusive edge pieces. Which he was having a hell of a time finding because he was foolishly just sweeping though his pile without being methodical at all.

Achlys shook her head and gave him a little push to his shoulder as she carefully sorted through her half. "Come on, it's not that bad. Just do what i'm doing," she quietly reassured Alexis. Or at least tried. The boy seemed a little too impatient and easily frustrated to really enjoy this type of activity.

"If I want to relax I like to work out until i'm too tired to do anything but lay there or, better yet, spar with someone until you're too bruised up to stand," Alexis grumbled as he pushed the pieces around in his box, spilling a few onto the floor and having to stop to pick them up. "Or I guess sometimes sitting with friends is ok too I guess," he added as he looked over at Achlys and sighed. He knew he was being a dick and he really didn't want to. It just happened, as usual. Should he ditch his emotions for this? No, he told himself, this is just petty shit anyway.

Alexis squinted at Salem. Was that supposed to be an insult or were they seriously curious about a person who liked to be active and fight. On this island, of all places.

"No, not the same thing. No one hits you back in shadowboxing. There's no challenge because you can't lose and there's no one but you pushing yourself," he explained as he separated out more edge pieces for Achlys to fit together. It seemed like every time he tried to start putting them together he got every single wrong fit before finding the right one and he was clenching one fist in frustration. Boy did he wish he was fighting someone right then.

But Achlys seemed to be prepared for that so she shifted where she was sitting again to lean on Alexis a little bit. Not saying anything, just nudging him to remember why he was there and what he was struggling though this whole mess for anyway. To get better. At everything.

Spike was practically asleep he was so bored but upon careful investigation he was still watching Alexis closely.

Why did he like sparring though? Why did he like fighting in general? Alexis was quiet as he actually thought it through. Finally he started to answer, "I guess because i'm a wyvern. It's what I was born to do..." he trailed off as that sort of rang hollow for him. While it was true that wyverns, like other types of dragons, were territorial and needed to assert their strength, Alexis was coming to realize that wasn't the whole story. "I guess... maybe I kind of like getting beat up..." he admitted and then sort of just looked down at the ground. He'd never actually said it directly. Or out loud.

Alexis stayed quiet, forgetting about sorting through the puzzle pieces for the moment. Why the hell was he telling this sort of thing to the random puppet crew over there? He should have just swallowed that thought and waited to tell his closer friends but... oops.

Ezra might not have been phased by the admission but they were the only one that wasn't. Nyx's curious look wasn't the only one as Spike raised his eyebrow and Achlys looked up, concerned.

She continued leaning on Alexis as she worked. Not trying to draw too much attention to things but also be comforting. The exact same thing he had been doing for her as of late. She also whispered to him that they were doing a challenge that he should focus on.

Alexis nodded and then looked over at Ezra. "Yeah uh, it's not something people usually bring up publicly like that. It's kind of weird. Don't uh... go telling people. I'll tell the people I want to know," he grumpily barked as he shoved his hands back into the pile of puzzle pieces.

Their puzzle was coming along ok, but Alexis kept getting distracted or frustrated and they were definitely losing the race to complete it. Achlys was working fairly well but half of her time was spent grabbing his hand to keep him from trying to force the wrong pieces together.

"Grr, I know you like these Achlys and I guess maybe you all do too," he said as he looked at his partner and then gestured at Ezra and Nyx. "But what is the point of a puzzle? You just make the picture that's on the box and then crumble it back up when you're done."

Alexis took a breath to calm himself and keep from doing something stupid in his annoyance. At the puzzle for being tedious, at himself for not being able to do this well, and most of all because he was acting like a child and he knew it.

Alexis nodded at the stuffed cat person. The unblinking eyes were hella unnerving but at least they seemed to get that he didn't want some things spread around. He glanced back at the pile of pieces left to fit into the puzzle he was making with Achlys and gritted his teeth. Even with Achlys' careful and determined focus there were just so many little pieces to fit into it. So tedious. Had it not been something Achlys was enjoying Alexis would have abandoned the challenge long ago.

He slowly forced himself to go back to helping put the puzzle together but each time he tried a piece it was wrong. The stupid little tabs on the sides of the puzzle pieces were mocking him. Alexis grumbled to himself as he was clearly struggling with keeping himself focused on the task. Fortunately a well-timed hand on his shoulder from Achlys drew him back to thinking about the reason he was subjecting himself to this task. To get stronger by earning her friendship.

"I don't think everything has a nice perfectly shaped place. That makes it sound like a kids story. Really sometimes you don't fit right and you have to force things to fit around you," muttered Alexis as he tossed another piece back into the pile for not being one he could fit in the puzzle. He wasn't exactly talking about things though. More like people, and Alexis wasn't exactly good at being subtle.