Character Mansion

[Smoking room]

So Aseyu's ability was, apparently, active. Interesting. A smart enough person could take advantage of that. And she was smart enough to know that Mai had done it. Also interesting. Mai considered doing something a bit more, but decided to wait it out until later, if at all.

Vivi seemed to jump to magic pretty quickly. She said her world was mundane, for a relative value of "mundane", but Mai had a sneaking suspicion she was lying. Too abrupt a shift, and there was something in her body language. Mai could simply be misinterpreting it, but she decided to keep a close watch on Vivi.

[Smoking Room]

"Something's big? Bigger than the ol' Great War?" Vivi gave herself a few seconds to recall what else she could say about her world. Without knowing about any other "real" alternative Earths or timelines out there, it was difficult knowing whatever something was "typical" or "unusual" for her timeline. Except for the obvious. She wasn't going to give the obvious yet.

"Yeah, I was young during the Great War. Nasty's just one word. But I wouldn't be surprised if something worse than that happens."

edited 29th Jan '13 7:43:25 PM by chihuahua0

Agustin gave an absentminded nod to the man with the leg-braces in lieu of a proper greeting. It was impolite, he knew, but he would handle that later. In the meantime, he was busy glaring daggers straight at Friedrich.

He began slowly, but his voice slowly built to something near a shout, ringing with incredulity. "If I had need for an assassin- if I were the kind of person who was inclined to need the services of an assassin, what degree of madness would need possess me that I should consider hiring you? You who, as it has by now been repeatedly pointed out, have admitted- nay, outright bragged about the fact that you are an assassin to two complete strangers. You even solicited me for work! Some random person whom you've never met before, nor knew had need for an assassin! If I had wanted to hire you before, I certainly don't now! One usually looks for cunning and discretion as the qualities of a good killer for hire."

His head fell heavily into his left hand, his white dress-gloved hand rubbing the spot between his eyes. He sighed, and suddenly seemed very tired. "I had hoped not to deal with this sort of thing today. Very well. I suppose the only question that remains is what we're going to do with you. Judging from the general level of competence you've displayed so far, you either aren't currently on contract- that is to say, currently on a mission to kill anyone here- or you are and are simply doing a spectacularly bad job of it. And frankly, right now, given what we've just witnessed, I could believe either. Still, in either case..."

Agustin touched the tips of his white-gloved fingers together in contemplation, thinking silently for several seconds, before folding his arms and turning to regard Friedrich with a cool expression. He sucked in a long, drawn-out breath through his teeth before speaking again. His tone was low, calm and loaded with menace. "How about this: let's just pretend this little incident never happened. You haven't hurt anyone- at least, not yet. And it would be incredibly rude of me, as a guest, to get blood all over our gracious host's fine furniture- especially with the night so young. So. I'm merely going to suggest you leave. Now, and in one piece. It's a good deal, all things considered."

edited 29th Jan '13 8:52:16 PM by Gault

[Smoking Room]

An idea came to Aseyu's head. Maintaining her calm, Aseyu said, "I might just tell you if you're a good little girl. First, just two quick questions. Let's compare notes here? What do you guys call the Eyes and Teeth out in your world? I swear, everyone knows it, but nobody ever names it the same. You almost certainly know the song, though: unspeakably ancient, comes from Beyond with a capital B, that sort of thing?" She highly doubted the Eyes and Teeth was itself directly involved, but by hinting (not dishonsetly, when she considered it) that eldritch horrors were a common feature of universes, Vivi's tongue might be loosened. "And second," she said, deciding for an outright lie, "we both had the Great War, it seems. Who won in your world, the Vampires or the Werewolves?"

edited 29th Jan '13 7:52:09 PM by KillerClowns

Library

Anne walked over and examined the piece of parchment herself. She knew what it was; she'd seen plenty of maps while she still had something resembling a normal life, and even the dwarfs had a crude one they used keep track of landmarks and other things of interest they found. She wasn't familiar with maps that looked like this, however.

"I think this bathroom will do for my purposes," she said after looking at the map for a few seconds. "So, are we going to go look for it?"

[Smoking Room]

Vivi thought on it for more than a little. The Eyes and Teeth was foreign to her ears. This got her thinking. Was Aseyu leading her on?

Well, no point in lying. "No, at least to my know-how, except you're talking about gods, but the religions elude me. As far as I know, the Arabs may have it right after all, or..."

She trailed off. "Now, werewolves and vampires? Did the fairies decide to take a rain check?"

In terms of eldritch horrors, Vivi's universe lacks them, like ours—maybe. Good night.

edited 29th Jan '13 8:09:41 PM by chihuahua0

[Parlor => Hall]

Friedrich stares at Agustin for a few moments, his mouth moves rapidly as if he's chanting something. He seems to disappear for a single moment, flickering like a light bulb.

"What a shame."

In a fluid motion he flips backwards, throws his cloak in the air and takes his crossbow off his back. As he lands he pulls the trigger firing a bolt across the room. It heads straight for Agustin but instead of piercing his chest it simply vanishes. Friedrich pulls a dagger off his belt and stabs himself in the neck, a fountain of blood erupting from the site. His body slams against the floor without a sound, laying there seeming to stain the wood. About ten seconds later Friedrich reappears standing and bloodless by the door to the entry hall, his cloak over his shoulder. The previous corpse has disappeared along with the cloak that had landed near the other doorway. He smiles and blows a kiss over his shoulder as he walks away. To most people nothing appears, but to Agustin instead writing in hot pink floats in the air for a couple moments.

"Loosen up already. Seriously...." The message changes with a sparkle. "Hunk."

Freidrich hurriedly makes way for the kitchen.

Pulled an edit as that was pretty ridiculous and I won't be surprised if someone wishes to pursue Friedrich and basically hold him accountable for pulling that crap. Just for clarification everything past the flicker was an illusion. Anyone capable of seeing through it would merely see Friedrich teleport to the doorway and stand there. It for all technical purposes is basically messing around with minds, not bending light.

edited 30th Jan '13 4:39:38 PM by Aqueos

[Smoking Room]

Aseyu laughed and said, "well, duh. You really think the Seelie and Unseelie courts would stop trying to strangle each other long enough to fight in any other war?" She shook her head, with a bemused expression. "Fairies getting involved in the business of werewolves and vampires..." she sighed. "That's just silly."

[Library —> Entry Hall]

"Right this way," Samira said. "You get washed up... I'll see about getting this map pasted somewhere in the entry hall. Should save us all a lot of silliness.."

-Library-

Yuki, having failed to find an art book, decided to sit back and draw, while listening in on the conversation. "Sorry, guys. When I get to drawing, I get engrossed into it..." Yuki replied.

[Smoking Room]

"And I suppose the hobgoblins stayed out of it too?" Vivi twirled her fingers on the chair arm. "I mean, with their forests and guns and all, they tend to be neutral."

She was drawing into fantasy. Werewolves and vampires? Might as well play along.

Library -> Entry Hall -> Smoking Room

Markus decided it best to head to a different room, considering the fact that he would be running out of people to speak with soon.

Getting up from his chair, he limped into the entry hall, taking a glance into the library before taking a look around. Noticing the smoking room, he shrugged his shoulders as he approached the room.

He knocked on the door, "Anybody mind if I have a seat?"

[West Wing Hall Bathroom]

"Seems whoever it was left..."
-Put up a projection so I can verify.-
The man in black lightly touched his right wrist with the first two fingers of his left hand. A small ping was heard, and a a bright blue holographic map appeared on the wall.


-Whatever was at the door has left, but I can't get a reading on its current location.-
"Whatever? It's not a person?"
-I picked up some sort of foreign signature, and it seemed to be bio mechanical. But that's not the current problem. The current problem is a small group approaching the bathroom, females, I think.-
"As much as I'd love to have an encounter with some lovely ladies in a kush bathroom, I should probably leave huh?"
-That would be my recommendation.-


The man in black opened the door, made a quick sweep of the hall, then ran to the right side, into a far-off room, making squishing sounds as he went.
"Man, I'm gonna have to deal with that."

edited 30th Jan '13 7:34:23 AM by cexadono

[Library]

Anita watched as Yuki took out her drawing implements. She nodded as if she understood. "Maybe we'll meet up again later."

Just then, Markus, the bandaged man, got up from his seat and limped out of the library, casting a glance back at all of them. She wondered if he should be moving in his condition. Oh well. If Samira and Anne were both okay, he should be, too.

Right?

[Balcony -> Master Bedroom]

...*squish* *squish* *squish*

Oracle woke up and raised from the floor. She double checked the last minute of sound.

People talking downstair... more talking downstars... door closing, *Squish* *squish* *squish* *squish* door closing.

Oracle walked back and tapped on the bathroom door again.

"Anyone in there?"

Nobody answered and the door was still unlocked. She opened the door. Nobody in there. She turned left to the master bedroom. This door had a different lock, no indicator like the bathroom door had.

She opened the door and walked in, thinking if anyone wanted privacy they should had locked the door.

[Smoking Room]

Thomas and John said nothing as Aseyru and Vivi talked. Although, they were surprised that Aseyru was from the year 2020; that would make the both of them older than her.

And now they were talking about werewolves and vampires-fictional creatures. Well, on their timeline, they were fictional. Of course, it would be highly disrespectful to say that in front of them. They weren't from the same Earth after all.

Before one of them could say anything, a knock came at the door.

"Come in!" John said.

edited 1st Feb '13 11:43:20 AM by Masterofchaos

Library -> Entry Hall

Anne followed Samira out into the hallway. She merely nodded in response, not thinking it necessary to respond with words. At first, seeing Markus get up made her think that he was also going to join them, but thankfully he just wanted to visit another part of the mansion. She didn't think he would be much interested in what they were doing, seeing as it was primarily a woman's activity, and all they were going to be doing was cleaning up.

That thought suddenly reminded her of something rather important.

"Oh dear," she said to Samira, "I just realized that I don't have a change of clothing on me."

edited 30th Jan '13 8:00:35 PM by Yomegami

[Smoking Room]

Well, this line is useless, Aseyu thought to herself. Fun, but useless.

"Okay," Aseyu said. "Enough swapping bullshit, I'm bored now. Yes, I know what the Great War really was. Give or take. Messy, trench-filled squabble. Between England and Germany, mainly." Her eyes narrowed, and lowering her voice, she said, "Of course, by my era, they're calling it the First World War." She smirked at Vivi and said. "But enough spoilers. Silly, unrelated question: did you know I can sense magic?"

Aseyu decided against actually using that skill quite yet. It seemed like cheating, and she was hoping to convince Vivi she was bluffing. Funnier that way.

[Entry Hall]

After nodding at the man who seemed to be in a hurry to get to the kitchen, Samira frowned and said, "uh... hmm. I think stealing clothes might be pushing our host's hospitality a bit far... if they'd have anything that would fit." She frowned, trying to think. It briefly occured to her that Aseyu would happily let Anne borrow the clothes on her back, but she wasn't that desperate. "I don't suppose anyone had the sense to brings spares," she muttered. She frowned, leaning against a wall as she tried to think of something.

edited 30th Jan '13 4:03:48 PM by KillerClowns

[Library-Entry Hall]

Anita followed Samira and Anne out into the hall, leaving Yuki back in the library. She trailed behind the two as they all headed towards the staircase. It was then Anne mentioned she had nothing else to wear.

Anita looked down at her hoodie still drapped over her arm. She didn't really want to share it with Anne-what if she had some sort of disease!?-but she had already made an fool out of herself once in front of these two. She would be darned if she was going to do it again.

She gently tapped Anne's back, holding out her hoodie. "Um, you can wear this if you want?" Anita did her best to smile sincerely.

edited 30th Jan '13 4:02:15 PM by Tidal_Wave_17

-Library-

Having finished her drawing, Yuki noticed her new friends were gone. "Maybe they went outside?" She pondered. "Then again, I said I would help." She then left the library to go to the Entry Hall.

[Outside —-> Entry Hall]

She clung to the leg of her newfound friend as they approached the building's entrance, finally getting out of the muck after what had seemed like ages. Her grip tightened as her friend reached for the door. "Scared, huh?" Said her friend, softly. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. You stay close, okay?" She merely nodded in response. This place, this mansion especially, felt so strange, so wrong, and she desperately wanted to go home... She held her breath as her friend knocked on the door. They waited a moment before her friend slowly opened the door. "Hello?" She said, spotting a few people in the hallway. "I hope we're not intruding..."

In stepped a young woman, looking to be somewhere in her mid twenties or so, with smooth, pale skin and short, light-brown hair. She sported a surprisingly clean white lab coat with black pants and a matching shirt, though her feet were clad in large, black military boots - now caked in mud - that perhaps looked a bit out of place on her.

As she shut the door behind her, a small figure was visible by her side. A little girl, probably about eight or so, with tanned Caucasian skin and long, black hair. She wore a lavender blouse and dark blue skirt, accompanied by now-practically destroyed black sneakers. She nervously clung to her friend's side, seeming quite anxious, and was obviously dressed for warmer weather.

-Entry Hall-

Hearing the door close, Yuki turned around to see the two newcomers.

"Hi, there! What brings you here?" Yuki asked.

[Entry Hall]

Samira turned to the newcomers. Best to be careful — her face was not a comforting sight for a scared child. She knelt on one knee, and said, quietly, "hello. And welcome. I'm Samira. What's your name?" Then, to the girl's guardian, she said, "and don't worry. You and her can stay here. Don't worry about my friend," she nodded at Anne, "she's not contagious, and quite nice when you get to know her."

[Smoking Room]

Markus walked in to the room and took a seat, easing himself into the chair. He breathed a sigh as he searched his head for a topic to discuss.

He turned toward John, "What universe do you come from?"

[Entry Hall]

Anita turned to the newcomers. A woman who was dressed like a science teacher and a little girl. Samira walked over to greet them.

She smiled as Samira got on one knee to greet the child. Anita strode up beside her and waved at the small girl. Poor thing looked scared to death.

"I'm Anita." She kneeled in front of the child. "Nice to meet you."

-Entry Hall-

Yuki went towards the child, too. "My name's Yuki. I promise I won't bite, sweetie!" Yuki said to the scared child.