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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 1, 2019 10:18:18 GMT -5
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 1, 2019 10:28:24 GMT -5
Touka Kirishima blinked into the living room, eyes narrowed in defiance at whoever she’d been speaking to. Most notably, her kagune was on full display, the huge, brilliantly colored predatory organ brandished threateningly over her shoulders in strike position.
“So either get out of here, or I’m going to - “ She broke off, blinking and shaking her head as the person in front of her vanished, replaced by the familiar furnishing of the living room. In response to the change, she drew herself up a little straighter, closed her eyes, and took a long, deep breath, trying to come down from the adrenaline of the situation she’d been in a few moments ago. As she continued to stand there, meditative, her kagune slowly began to melt away into the air, fading and then going out entirely, like fog hit by the sunrise. When she finally opened her eyes, they were blue again, the kakugan colors slipped back away into her bloodstream.
“Dammit...” she muttered, running a hand through her hair.
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 1, 2019 11:37:38 GMT -5
"Exactly," said a voice. Myrnin was perched on top of a table and seemed to be intently watching Touka. From there, he seemed to be looking over the kagune which was slowly disappearing from Touka's back. "I think the last time I saw that, we were trying to kill each other." His tone was conversational, as if talking about the arena room no longer hurt. It did. It hadn't been so long as that. But for the most part they had all moved past that. "Did someone really annoy you?" he inquired. "I could punch them if you like. Would that help?" He straightened, eyes bright and interested. "I haven't seen you recently."
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 1, 2019 13:21:10 GMT -5
Touka jumped, spinning to face whoever it was who had spoken up, and then immediately relaxed when she saw who it was. “Jeez, you scared me,” she said, shaking her head and cracking a smile as the sight of her old friend. She sobered a little as he brought up her kagune, and the arena, in such a casual fashion.
“You know, nobody talks about the gladiator room,” she observed, thoughtful. “It’s like they all want to pretend it never happened. Or that they don’t remember it. It’s nice that you don’t do that - it annoys me.” She paused, taking in his next question.
“Yeah...I guess it probably would help,” she mused, brushing a wisp of hair out of her face. “Bet I’m the only ghoul who’s ever seen a vampire before. They’d probably run screaming, or something. But yeah - it’s no big deal. Just a couple dumbass punks who think they can steal from my store. Real young small-time ghouls, luckily, so if they do try and fight me it’ll be short.”
Myrnin seemed keen to know what she’d been up to before she blinked. She smiled again, amused by her fellow monster’s energy. It seemed, despite her frequent barbs, she enjoyed his nosiness after all. When she’d first met him, she never would’ve guessed that his absence would be noticed, much less missed. But he was right...it had been quite a while. “You’re right,” she said, frowning. “It’s been forever since the House blinked us in somewhere we could actually interact. Weird.”
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 1, 2019 15:51:08 GMT -5
"It's my job to scare you," pointed out Myrnin. "No other blinker is really capable of doing it for long. And visa versa." He considered her statement about how no one else ever mentioned the room were just about all of them had died. Then he said, "Good for them. But I wont. I think it would be a bad idea if people were to forget what I did. What they did. What the House did." This was still conversational. But maybe that was a bit telling. Myrnin wasn't the conversational type. He didn't talk to others like that either. That room had rattled him - maybe more than the people who had only died. But he waved the words away, instead preferring to focus on now. "In contrast, I don't believe any Morganville residents would have such a reaction to a ghoul. Give it a year and you'd probably just be another resident yourself." His eyes sparkled. "Could that happen though? I assume ghoul-hood is not like becoming a vampire." He was thinking, very briefly, of Hange. And that made him nervous. He hoped Touka wouldn't find out about it. Or anyone. They probably wouldn't approve. "Ah," he said. "I rather assume the House is to blame for any shift to the groups. I believe every time it sets one up the only goal it actually has is to cause as much drama as possible. Splitting them, therefor, is probably less about it being weird and more about it annoying us as much as possible. It begs to mind who you have been blinking in with lately." He seemed faintly amused now, as if his theory held water using anything more than speculation.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 1, 2019 18:47:13 GMT -5
“Ghouls are born, not made,” she said, answering Myrnin’s musing about the differences between the two. “Just like humans.” That part was important. That part was what more people needed to hear.
She listened as he went on to talk about the House’s choices, wondering if he was right. Did the House shuffle them around like gladiators, intent on pairing the ones that would cause the best spectacle? Or did it just throw them around with no real goal in mind at all? She didn’t see a way to know that, and she didn’t feel like arguing with Myrnin about it, so she let him continue, waiting patiently until he’d finished speaking completely.
“My blinks haven’t been all that frequent,” she said, shrugging. “They’re been more spaced out than when I was a kid - probably one every couple weeks. There haven’t even been the same people around each time, although it seems like there are a lot of newbies lately, so that’s probably why.”
She finally sat down, leaning back against the couch and heaving a small sigh as the tension started to leave her muscles a little. “What about you? The House been throwing you at anyone specific lately?” She didn’t know about Hange at all - didn’t even know they existed - but her curiosity could easily be interpreted as knowledge. A prod, for him to talk about it.
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 1, 2019 22:34:55 GMT -5
"..." Myrnin stared at Touka for such a long moment that the silence stretched for an uncomfortable moment before ... "You were a kid?" His eyes were just a bit wide. Had he missed something? Well ... he hadn't ... but he actually was that bad at age. Either way, he rubbed at his chin and thought about the newbies. He supposed so? He hadn't really noticed much. "Lately I haven't been blinking in much either," he said carefully. "Not recently, though that doesn't exactly encompass all the time we've been out of each other's radar." He was still crouched on the table, though he was leaning onto the backs of his feet. That wasn't a leading question, was it? Like ... Touka's heart wasn't beating abnormally - well, no more than any different that what he expected from Ghoul Girl. "A couple people," he said. "Person called Loki. They're in Norse mythology or something, don't know if you know them. Likes tossing spells into rooms or at walls to see what it will do. And a ... person ... called Hange." Shoot. He'd stuttered over the word 'person'. Myrnin thought he was a good liar. He was - when it came to people who didn't know him or he didn't like. To his friends, he was like a well-worn and open book. He looked a cross between guilty and prideful. "They're ... a scientist. They're nice. We stuck things under the doors in the hallway." Yeah ... it was clear he was hiding something.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 2, 2019 16:51:21 GMT -5
Touka snorted. “Yeah, I was a kid. What did you think, I just sprouted from the ground one day?” She shook her head, amused. “But if you mean when I started blinking - yeah. That was five years ago for me. I was sixteen...seventeen when I met you, I think.” She didn’t recognize Loki’s name, so she left that as it was, but then she paused, blinking as the vampire rambled on.
Was he...trying to hide something? It was right about the time he mentioned this ‘Hange’ - he’d started acting weird. Shifty and fidgety, like he was nervous she’d see through him. She couldn’t, though - she had no idea why he was acting like he was, although now that she knew something was up, she kind of wanted to. She didn’t want to seem like she was prying, though - she prided herself on being one of the only House members who wasn’t insufferably nosy. So, instead, she decided to take a more subtle approach.
“Hange sounds cool,” she said in a voice carefully modulated to be offhand, once he’d finished speaking. “Although, with two scientists in the House, I give it a week before you blow something up.” What’s so interesting about them, anyway?
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 2, 2019 19:01:12 GMT -5
Touka could modulate her voice all she wanted. Myrnin could still hear that it was a front. Not like he knew exactly what for. Was Touka trying to get him to talk? Admit some guilt - which he felt none of - might be an agenda. Was that Touka's style? He didn't know. He didn't think he had much hope of hiding it, to be honest. "You wouldn't have to give it any time," he admitted. "I think we already tried to blow it up. We had a flamethrower." Which had been fine enough when he had been the only vampire. He was confident a repeat of the incident would only result in the new vampires death. He was *not* getting out of the lessons, was he? Maybe Elliot could talk to them? Then again, Elliot was a flashy, slightly noble-y vampire. Not that one of those words didn't describe Myrnin, but Elliot wasn't exactly a good option. Hange wasn't his problem. They just were. He squirmed again. "They're like me in a lot of ways," he added weakly. He twisted his fingers around each other. In a disconnected way, he could feel the space where the idea of Hange should be. Neither dead or alive. It was the one "off" feeling out of all the vampires he had changed. He couldn't even tell if they were blinked into another part of the House. Time was crazy. "Maybe you'll run into them someday," he said. He dearly hoped not. He looked like he was lying too.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 6, 2019 16:59:35 GMT -5
(whoops sorry for extended poof, my days have been busy lately. I should be online plenty the next few days though!)
Touka narrowed her eyes, clearly quite suspicious now. What had he done? He was clearly dancing around something...avoiding something. Lying, even, but as much as she desperately wanted to know what all this was about, she certainly wasn’t the type to crack open people’s secrets if they didn’t want to share them. She hated when people did that to her, after all. If he wanted to talk about it, he would, but until then...
Her expression changed abruptly, all signs of suspicion gone, and she began to laugh, shaking her head. “There’s two of you, now? The House won’t last a day - I can see the headlines. ‘Timeless supernatural entity brought down by two batsh(oops) scientists and a flamethrower’.” She sighed, amused. “Sh(oops)...it’s nice to see you again, dude. Too many newbies swarming around lately. If I have to give the ‘welcome to the Paradox House’ speech one more time, I’m going to cry.”
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 6, 2019 20:31:19 GMT -5
Very visibly, Myrnin relaxed. Touka had laughed. That was a good sign, right? Did that mean she knew and wasn't mad? Or did she just not know? Because her narrowed eyes had been sending very 'I know' vibes. "Ha ha ha?" Myrnin awkwardly agreed. He still seemed a bit more comfortable than before, even though he had gotten a small helping of confusion now. "It didn't stay burned down for long ..." He tilted his head, then added. "And it might possibly be more accurate to say there are three of us. Loki was the one operating the flamethrower at the time." He couldn't help smiling a little. "And I highly doubt that the three of us will be going anywhere, so I suppose if you see more scorch marks around you could blame us." He sounded a bit proud of this. And guilty. The three of them were far less likely to die now. What with them all being relatively immortal. Then he nodded his head up and down several times. "I missed you as well. Do you think maybe we should write down that speech? I am finding it very tiresome to say it as well. I have never been much good at it." As least he could admit that much at least. "What have you been doing lately?" he added.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 7, 2019 14:20:16 GMT -5
“Oh, I’ll definitely blame you,” said Touka, nodding seriously. “Every single chip off the walls is officially your fault now. Yours and your whole band of hooligans.” Her fake-serious expression fell a little, though, as Myrnin inquired about her own life, and she paused, not quite sure how to answer him. Not quite sure what she thought of it, yet.
“I’ve been...just trying to stay alive, I guess.”
Another pause.
“I think things are about to get bad, back in my world,” she said, much quieter than she’d intended. “If you want the honest answer. I’m not even sure I’ll be blinking in again.” Her throat tightened, and suddenly she realized that she hadn’t said it out loud yet, had she? She hadn’t actually put those thoughts into words. Not to Yomo, not to Uta, not to Kaneki. But here felt...different. She could let her guard down a little, and that was making things more difficult to accept than she’d thought.
Abruptly, she stood up a little straighter, clearing her throat. “Well, anyway. Wanna do a room or something?”
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 7, 2019 17:49:15 GMT -5
Something seemed to drop away from Myrnin. Any concerns about Touka knowing about Hange dropped away from his face and instead he looked at her with something far more serious in his expression. Touka may or may not die between now and her next blink? That's what it sounded like. His heart, previously dead in his chest and still, started beating slowly and quickly began to increase until it was pounding in his ear. He'd lost too many people. The image of Nore - situation unknown - jumped into his head. The never knowing is what hurt him the most. The possibility that he would never know about Touka caused his hands to tremble. Knowing sometimes hurt just as much. Hange and Arlo and others. The people in the Arena Room. The one in ... well ... He couldn't blame himself for Touka, but he hated the helplessness. He liked being in control of his own situation and that was not what this was. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked quietly. He knew there wasn't, but his eyes had already shifted from green to red in response. Then he breathed out slowly and said, "Yeah ... a room." He didn't sound like he could fully concentrate on the words or something. He rubbed a hand over his face. He hadn't been this shaken for news like this before he'd ... well ... killed Hange, had he? He'd offered help and tried to do what he could, yes, but physically aggrieved? He pushed the thought away and tried to focus instead. He straightened and inclined his head toward the hallway, but generally failed to look like he was supposed to because his eyes were still blood red.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 9, 2019 9:35:43 GMT -5
Touka saw the look in his eyes - soon exaggerated by the color change - and felt a twist of regret in her stomach. She should’ve kept it to herself. She shouldn’t have worried her friend just because she wanted an outlet for all the sh(oops) her own life was throwing at her.
She walked with him to the hall, and then past a couple of the first doors - purely out of habit, not out of anything she thought she could change. At this point, she knew perfectly well the rooms were random. She walked a few feet further, then stopped, eyes on the door but a blank look behind her eyes as she contemplated a way out of the uncomfortable situation she’d put herself in.
“I was probably exaggerating,” she said at last, in a bit of a forced tone. When she looked up, she was smiling. “Sorry. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure things won’t turn out that bad.”
It was a bad lie, and even the least insightful among them would probably be able to see through it. She knew that, but still she couldn’t seem to force herself to add credibility to it. She was just...tired.
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 9, 2019 13:57:30 GMT -5
Myrnin inclined his head, looking through his eyelashes at Touka and tried to keep the 'oh really?' expression off his face. He was sad that Touka would try to lie. It wasn't like he needed to tell by her expression. All he needed was the forlorn beat of her heart. He had walked with her to the doors, but then he paused and turned to her. If this were some of his other friends, he might have asked first, but instead he just hugged her. Both of his arms wrapped around her shoulders and he payed only a little mind to the fact he couldn't use his full strength as he squeezed. The hug might have lasted a bit longer than was probably comfortable, but then Myrnin backed up and turned to the doors. There was only a brief glimpse of red before his hand slammed down on a door handle. He opened a door, stepping through it and leaving it open for Touka. The brief step gave him time to wipe at the corner of his eyes. The red - which had been tears, not the color of his eyes - disappeared from the edges of his eyes. It was only then that he could take in the content of the room. He was ... not exactly sure what to make of it, though it interested him. The room was large, leaving a lot of space, but it was cluttered with several ... unusual items within it. "Hum?" he said, looking at the fireplace. The fireplace was normal enough. The items along the edges of it as well as the picture above it was even strange by his definition. Particularly since the picture featured a giraffe wearing a suit. He turned slowly (noting the fact that he was standing on a rug with bright colors and patterns) and looked over the rest of the room. "This is odd," he said, grinning while he did.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 13, 2019 16:51:55 GMT -5
Touka splayed her arms to the side in surprise and confusion as Myrnin came at her all at once, wrapping her in a tight hug that he didn’t immediately release her from. At first, she was stiff, intimidated and caught off guard by his sudden display of emotion. But then, slowly, her shoulders slumped, and her hands left her sides to wrap around him, squeezing him back as tightly as he’d done to her. She screwed her eyes shut, blinking back her own tears as she realized how little she’d ever appreciated the sound of Myrnin’s heartbeat. She didn’t want to never hear it again, dammit.
When he pulled back, she did the same, and, following his lead, readily stepped through the door, making an effort to recompose herself. She cleared her throat and sniffed, wiping at her eyes, and then paused, taking in the room for the first time.
She raised an eyebrow at his laugh, half her mouth twisting into a smile as she watched him. “Yeah. It’s weird,” she agreed, stepping towards the picture and tracing the edge of it with the tip of her finger. “Wonder what the trick is...”
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 13, 2019 22:52:02 GMT -5
"Trick?" wondered Myrnin, considering the option. This place looked like it would include a lot of tricks. A lot of tricks and very few treats. He spun around again, apparently his mind taken off Touka's predicament for the time being. Maybe it was just the odd setting or maybe he was just trying too hard. Even he wasn't sure which. Sighing, he glanced back at his friend. "You wouldn't happen to know, perhaps, if turtles are supposed to have two heads in some universe?" He jumped a couple spaces, dodging around a couple gothic high backed chairs, and pointing to what might have been a statue. It was hard to tell. He stared at it very carefully, eyes searching for details, before he could assume that the House at least wanted him to believe it was real. "Yes, well," he muttered. "Since I think I figured out the answer to my own question, do you see anything around?" He waved a hand around. There was a lunging bear in one corner of the room, paws extended to catch nothing. There was also a bear rug, though Myrnin had to give it a second glance because its eyes seemed strangely ... searching. A cage with a couple birds in it - crows - that cawwed at them, a harpsichord against one wall, and a odd cigar-type box dominating almost every table completed most of the room that Myrnin could see where he was standing. "I mean ... other than all this," he said, waving around. "Might be a bit unusual. Looks like a place an eccentric vampire would live." Then he grinned and winked at Touka, possessing a bit of self-awareness. "I should know." He shifted from his toes to his heals and back again in a rocking motion. "There's a safe on the wall," he added. "Behind that picture." He nodded at the one Touka was tracing the edge of. He'd just noticed out it was outset from the wall a little.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 17, 2019 14:26:44 GMT -5
“Well, they don’t in mine,” said Touka, frowning. “Don’t think anything has two heads in my world, except maybe some really freaky kakuja ghoul somewhere.” She shuddered. Time to move on from that thought. At Myrnin’s prompting, she continued to look around the room, lifting covers off things only to find even more bizarre details to the room - the title of the strangest she firmly gave to the mounted head of a swordfish that had someone’s legs sticking out of it. She hoped they belonged to a mannequin.
She’d been running her fingers over everything, searching for clues, and so she’d just touched the cold bars of the bird cage when the crows inside let out a cacophony of caws and squawks. Touka jerked her hand away, nearly jumping out of her skin, and let out a shrill shriek, apparently nearly scared out of her wits by the creatures.
“Jeez, god dammit, mother of...” She bent over, hands on her knees to steady herself as her heart rate very slowly returned to something resembling normal.
“F(oops)ing birds...” she said at last, face reddening as she finally straightened up, brushing herself off in a lame attempt to recover some of her wounded pride. “F(oops)inf hate the damn things...”
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 18, 2019 2:23:27 GMT -5
The vampire spun around from what he had been looking at, shocked at Touka's outburst and her suddenly wildly beating heart. He searched for an attacker but all he saw were the birds. It took him a couple seconds to connect the pieces. He looked at the birds, then at Touka, then looked around. He found one of the rugs which had been placed on the floor. He picked it up and moved over to the cage of ravens, throwing the rug over them without any concern at all. He didn't actually seem to notice if Touka was embarrassed or not and instead just checked to see that there wasn't any light showing. Could birds suffocate? Could House birds suffocate? He supposed it depended on whether the House wanted them to or not. But either way, they were quieting down. "I don't smell any humans around," he said to Touka, as if nothing had happened. "A couple more animals, perhaps, but I couldn't say what's stuffed or not." He nodded at the picture which had hinges on it. "As I was saying," he added. "Safe in there. There's some other rooms too." He pointed in various directions of the main room. He was pretty sure he could see a corner of an overgrown yard just outside the windows as well. "Or upstairs," he mused, though such musings was cut short by a sound like 'WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP'. Head turning every which way to pinpoint it, Myrnin missed the fact that one of the boxes on one of the side tables opened very quickly, something pushed out of it, and then the box slammed shut as it retreated back again. What it left was a pile of envelops. Myrnin missed this was well, even though the 'WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP' had stopped.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Oct 29, 2019 11:14:32 GMT -5
whoops sorry for the wait on this!!)
Touka was grateful for Myrnin's apparent lack of attention to her reaction to the birds - she didn't run up against her ornithophobia all that often, but when she did, she usually preferred that one didn't bring it up at all, if that was possible. It was stupid, she knew, but the awful things were just so...unsettling.
Shaking off the thought, she returned her focus to the situation at hand, content to take Myrnin's lead at pretending nothing had happened. "Right, a safe," she said, clearing her throat. She frowned at the wall, tuning her Ghoul senses towards it but failing to catch anything out of the ordinary. "Can you tell if it's trapped or anything? This seems like the kind of place that would - "
She broke off and whirled around, startled, as a loud WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP rang out from one of the boxes she hadn't noticed before, which promptly spat several envelopes out onto the floor and then retreated as quickly as it had come.
"The hell..." she muttered, raising an eyebrow, and crossed the distance between herself and the boxes quickly, picking up one of the envelopes and turning it over in her hand. "Is it just me, or is this stuff...weird, even by House standards? It's like a joke room you'd find in an amusement park."
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Oct 31, 2019 0:56:56 GMT -5
"Would you honestly be surprised if it was a joke room?" asked Myrnin. His lips twiched with amusement. Even still, he hung around near Touka's shoulder. He had thought the safe was what they should have been focusing on, but it seemed more likely that these letter were some form of instructions. They didn't look like it yet. They were all packaged and everything. He hadn't gotten letters in ages, to be honest. It was a dying art. "Do you ever get letters?" he asked Touka absently as he reached over her shoulder and plucked one of the ones from her had. He turned the letter over a couple times, then lifted it to his nose and smelled it. It didn't smell of much. At least nothing of interest. There was human - slight fearful human - scent on it. But it was faint. And then a couple others that he wasn't too sure about actually. "Don't really know what to expect from jokes," he added. "I don't usually get them anyway." He found that the envelope didn't even have an address on it, though the envelope itself looked to be old. He ran a long fingernail under the lip of the envelope and opened it. It wasn't technically his mail, but he really didn't care. The paper he took out of it wasn't as old as the envelope. He shook it a bit and held the piece up to the light, just so he could be sure that everything was in order. "Odd," he said. His throat felt a bit dry. He folded up the envelope and hurriedly stuck it into a breast pocket. "If I was to guess, the other envelopes are instructions? To this "joke"? Perhaps in the form of a riddle?" He sounded like he might have a bit of insider information on this matter.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Nov 6, 2019 18:05:23 GMT -5
"I wouldn't be surprised at all," said Touka, rolling her eyes. "It's the House, after all. But this just seems a little...off brand."
As Myrnin moved to the topic of letters, she nodded. "Mmhmm. I get them all the time, actually," she said musingly, cutting carefully into the corner of the envelope. "Most ghouls do - emails are easy to hack, and right now we think the CCG has a guy who can screen them for keywords - "ghoul" and "kagune" and stuff like that. So just to be safe, we use paper letters for everything we don't want overheard."
Finally, she extracted the letter from the envelope, unfolded it, and ran her fingers along the creases to flatten it out. The paper was simple - lined, with the note written in blue ink. It was the message itself that was strange.
"Ugh, House..." she griped, and then began to read aloud, too engrossed to notice Myrnin's odd behavior just yet.
"One step forwards, Two steps back, A door not open will need to be cracked. Then down you will go, very quickly I fear, And catch on the thing that will quickly appear. If you do not let go you will find there’s a way, To fly like an insect outside of your cage. Take the path that’s behind, Go quickly, before, The opportunity closes, Just like the door."
(Riddle courtesy of the amazing Hawk)
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Nov 10, 2019 1:04:50 GMT -5
"Well," said Myrnin dryly. "That totally makes sense. I'm sure we're all aware exactly where we need to go now." The words could have belonged in a desert. "Thanks House, for giving us this easy room." He shook his head and then looked over Touka's shoulder at the riddle. His finger ran down the lines and then shrugged a bit. "I hope it's one of those riddles where we figure it out once we know more." He had shoved his own riddle into a pocket, out of view from Touka. The House would have to see about that one. He was not going to be stuck with something like this if he could at all help it. He really didn't think Touka would have a good reaction ... at all. "I think we should try looking around," he said. He could smell plants off to one side of the room. At least, that's what he thought he could smell. It seemed a bit off. Plus, there was all the weird stuff that was here already. "What do you want to do?" he asked without much hesitation, glancing in the direction of the Ghoul. Then he slowly spun in the direction of the painting on the wall that they had been examining before but hadn't revealed the safe behind it. Other than that, it was the only thing in the room that they had been intending to look at so far. Truthfully, Myrnin thought it would probably take a month to actually explore this place, but he supposed this was all they had. A riddle and not even a rough idea of where they needed to be. He bowed as he stood next to the painting, waving a hand at it while glancing at Touka. "Do you wish to do the honors?"
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Post by <Raintalon> on Nov 26, 2019 16:21:44 GMT -5
"Hopefully," said Touka, with a short shrug. "Because if this is all we've got to go on, we're gonna be in here till I get gray hair."
She nodded her agreement as Myrnin suggested poking around. "Yeah, good idea. Weird smells in here, right? For a house, anyway. Most of them, I can't even tell where exactly they're coming from..."
She narrowed her eyes at the floor, thinking. What was it that felt so off about this place? Was it the birds? The smells? Usually, she wasn't this unsettled by rooms, but ever since they'd come in here, something had been decidedly off. No...she thought, reconsidering...it wasn't since they arrived. It was since they got the letters that the sense had started to creep in around her. Was it her imagination, or was Myrnin being weird? With a start, she realized he hadn't told her what was in his letter.
Trying to shake off her mounting unease, she focused on Myrnin's question. "Yeah...sure," she said, starting towards the safe. She had the picture down in one quick motion, then she grabbed the edges of the safe door firmly in her hands, and, after bracing her feet firmly on the floor, gave it a hard pull. She could pull apart a cheap safe just fine, normally, but if it happened to be closer to military grade, it might be stronger than she was.
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Nov 28, 2019 22:40:01 GMT -5
"I mean," said Myrnin, coming to stand beside Touka. He reached out and lifted a strand of her hair. "Would I notice if it went grey?" He arched an eyebrow and then stepped away, no longer invading her space. "How long is your lifespan, anyway?" He chewed at the nail of a pinky finger, talking as if it was about the weather. The letter had ended up in a pocket, safely away from Touka's eyes and hopefully questions. It was also going to be one of those 'out of sight, out of mind' situations, since for the time being it was all Myrnin could think about. His hand kept going to it too, so honestly what exactly was he trying to do by hiding it? He watched Touka pull at the safe. Myrnin could have probably opened it without much difficultly, but it seemed like Touka had it covered. After a couple seconds, even though it wasn't exactly cheep, the safe door gave way. It fell over with a creek and Myrnin blinked as he peered into what was behind it. Several spikes flew fast so fast that one grazed Myrnin's head. He yelped, reaching up where a trail of blood now dripped along the side of his head. He whimpered a bit, more with annoyance, and hurriedly stepped out of the way. He still clamped a hand to the side of his head. He glanced at where the spikes were now embedded in the wall. "And now there's the traps," he said. "I saw something in there though." Just one thing. A piece of paper on the ground.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Dec 5, 2019 17:12:57 GMT -5
"Our natural lifespan is the same as a human's, more or less," said Touka simply, not seeming to mind his attempt to grab at her hair. By now, she'd gotten used to many, if not all, of his Myrnin-isms, and despite her younger self's insistence to the contrary, found them rather charming. "But we rarely survive that long, honestly. I'd say the average lifespan of a ghoul is more like 30-40 years." If she realized how morbid that was, especially considering her current age of twenty-two, she didn't mention it.
She let out a yelp of alarm and leapt back, landing on her feet hard enough that she slid backwards on the carpet, as several spikes were shot from the ragged hole in the wall where the safe door used to be. Most of them had missed her, but one had ended up in her arm, she realized, wincing as she held it up to inspect the long spike sticking straight through it. "Ugh..." she said simply, then grabbed the end of the spike firmly in her other hand and pulled, gritting her teeth as she yanked it out completely. The wound underneath was already beginning to heal as she tossed it aside, letting it land with a light clink on the floor nearby.
"You good?" she asked, turning to face Myrnin. She could see and smell blood, but he didn't seem particularly bothered, so she assumed the injury must be minor. Still, it was natural to ask.
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Dec 6, 2019 16:27:18 GMT -5
Touka probably knew how much her words meant to Myrnin. His species had been as actively hunted as hers had, many hundreds of years ago. But that was then, when the technological advances of the human race had been minuscule and vampires had been able to slip through the cracks. It wasn't like that for ghouls. He had no idea how large a number ghouls were as a species but he was confident that they numbered more than vampires when it came to their death count. Where vampire hunts had stopped, ghouls probably never had a chance. "I'm sorry," he said. He wanted to ask if there had been any improvements since she had been younger. But he doubted it. Humans were not quick to change. Sometimes he doubted they ever did. But vampires were quick to change either and somehow Morganville had made it. He just wasn't sure he could hold out the same hope for Touka's world. The age thing also was a bit worrying. Unlike Hange, there was no way to make Touka less vulnerable to, say, heavy blunt objects. She was about as invincible as Myrnin could ever see her being. Which wasn't invincible enough. And really there was no way to help her ... All this said while clutching his ear, because Myrnin would never let a conversation be properly interrupted. When he removed his hand, it looked like his ear had been hit, but already much like Touka's arm it was healing up. He hardly noticed the pain. "One would think they didn't want us investigating," he said with a sigh. Then he turned and pointed. "For that." The piece of paper looked ... boring. He just wasn't very trusting that it wouldn't turn into a paper monster and try to eat them. That might be interesting, actually. He moved forward a couple of steps, but there were no more spikes, and reached down, picking up the thin parchment. He turned back to Touka just as the bottom dropped out of the safe. It tumbled about fifteen feet before getting wedged in place, but it had still been a far enough drop to have Myrnin's heart in his throat. "Uhhh," he said, looking around and then up. The roof had come down as well, which meant he couldn't actually see Touka anymore. Oh. Oh wait. "I think this is an elavator," he said, a bit surprised. He held up the piece of paper, more for himself than anything. "And this is a map. How do I get back up do you think?"
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Post by <Raintalon> on Dec 11, 2019 17:05:04 GMT -5
Touka shrugged, acknowledging his reaction to her words but not knowing what to say about it. Her instinct was to make light of it, but honestly, at this point, any way she tried to make it sound less dire would be an abject lie.
"It is what it is. It's why we're trying to change it," she said at last. Could they change it, she wondered, pausing at her own words. Was there really any chance of ever making things better, the way Kaneki said there was? In the end, she didn't know, and for now, she tried to push the thought from her mind. Puzzles. Right. The House was the priority here.
"Careful of the spikes - woah!" Touka stepped back, startled, as part of the room suddenly plummeted out of sight, carrying Myrnin with it. Alarmed, she jumped forward, hands on the roof of the safe, trying to peer around and see him. "Myrnin!" she called, no small bit of panic in her voice. Then, she heard him speak, and relaxed, letting out a breath of relief. Thank god.
"Are you okay?" she asked, still trying to figure out a way to get down to where he was. "Uh....getting back up, getting back up...is there anything down there that looks like you can pull at it? Like a panel or a wall with screws?"
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Post by mintedstar/fur🦇 on Dec 13, 2019 3:57:58 GMT -5
"I'm fine," Myrnin grumbled. More annoyed than anything else by the sound of it. He eyed his surrounding. There wasn't much too it. "I mean ... there's a lever." It was like one of those old-fashioned ones that you might find in a elevator before they got the buttons. "I could try pulling that. The elevator shrieked like a loud, unruly ghost. (And maybe Myrnin had a bit of experience with that.) Then the safe, which was more aptly described as a handy disguise, trundled upward. It was slow, jerky, and Myrnin held onto the wall with a grim thought that there was probably something like an alligator pit underneath him. The elevator creaked to a halt, not completely level with the floor. Now Myrnin was in view of the exit once again, no door or gate in his way (the thing didn't seem to be built with one). "Now," he said, as if nothing had happened. The elevator tilted dangerously to the left and Myrnin hurriedly took a step forward, still clutching the piece of paper even as he completely ignored what was happening behind him. "This seems to be a map." He opened it, showing it to Touka. It was, as he had suspected, fairly useless. There was a very large red X mark somewhere in the lower left hand corner (though it would be in a different position if he turned it) and there was the outer outline of the building, but Myrnin had no idea where they were or even where any of the rooms were. "And the House strikes again," he said with a sigh. "Don't suppose you want to try the elevator death trap?" Then again, there were plenty of other options. There was the staircase and multiple off-shoots on the main floor. He was just going to let Touka pick, however.
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Post by <Raintalon> on Jan 12, 2020 23:56:15 GMT -5
noooooooooo I totally forgot to reply to this)
Touka snatched the map out of Myrnin's hand, looking it over with a critical eye. "This isn't very helpful," she observed flatly, running a finger over the red X as she tried to match the map with the layout of the strange house. "It's too vague. This X could be anywhere. Obviously it wants us to find it though, right?"
She shook her head, growing impatient with the House's games. "Whatever. Death trap elevator it is. Can't be worse than whatever else the House's got planned for us in here."
And with that, she hopped onto the elevator and turned around, offering Myrnin an almost playful smile in the face of the obvious danger they were facing. "Coming?"
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