|
|
Post by Lucca on Jun 13, 2010 19:13:06 GMT -5
As a spy-in-training (and with a bit of actual experience under her belt now, too! But she didn't talk about that.) Eldy was no stranger to weaseling her way into locked doors. Except...the Corvies had this habit of having ways of making things she'd never seen before, and this door was no exception. But at a guess, she was able to figure out what the numbers were for...and yet, it still didn't help. The key hole was not one of those easy-to-pick ones she could do with her claw, much to her chagrin after attempting.
She could technically use an ability to get in the room, except that she hadn't quite worked it out to perfection yet, and she was wary of testing it in a strange house. She sat back down on her haunches, frowning up at the door, part of her still burning in curiousity. With so many locks and safegards protecting the room, there must have been something really important in there!
But there was still a lot of the house to explore, and purple eyes shifted to the door, and back down the hall she hadn't explored yet. In the end, it was decided by happen stance...she heard a noise from the kitchen and quickly bolted for the hall with all the speed afforded a guilty conscience, and felt rather foolish when she realized the sound had just been one of the cupboards opening a little too quickly.
Eldy looked down at Doorie, ear going back. "Don't you look at me like that," she muttered, and then turned to poke her nose into the bedrooms. She didn't try to break into what was obviously his kid's room (she had some scruples!) but she did look into any of the unlocked rooms she found. Upon finding them not that interesting, she did indeed backtrack and make for the stairs (with a stop to peer down the hall way to the kitchen and make sure Hatter was still otherwise occupied).
|
|
|
|
Post by Vyn on Jun 13, 2010 20:15:27 GMT -5
Doorie did indeed look at her like that. She looked at her hard, and even whirred in a sound that could have been some sort of criticism of her attempt to break into things. However, Doorie was easily sidetracked by exploring and she was soon peeking into rooms with Eldy once more.
It weaseled under beds, sniffed at closets, and eventually trotted back out with her. As Eldy peeked toward the kitchen she would be greeted by the clamor of pots and pans and the cheerful, off-tune melody of Hatter entertaining himself. It was best to move on, lest she go deaf. The mome traversed the stairs easily and waited at the top for Eldy to join her.
Once there, Eldy would be presented with another array of choices. A long hall stretching to either side and rooms everywhere. Four doors on either side and, at the far end of the hall: another set of stairs. This one was long an ominous and vanished up into the shadowy nothingness that could only mark it as the stairway to the attic. Every mansion needs a creepy attic.
(Pick a door, any door! None of them are marked and they're all closed. :3 One is Hatter's room, the rest are unused but definitely not empty. Hatter cleaned up the downstairs so its presentable when guests come over, but the upstairs is a different story. He doesn't expect guests to venture up here very often.
The Hallway looks like this:
d - d - d - d - S^
- d - Sv - d -
|
|
|
|
Post by Lucca on Jun 13, 2010 20:35:11 GMT -5
It was...oddly domestic to hear Hatter in the kitchen, though Eldy couldn't help but wince at the off-key humming. She turned from the kitchen with a smile, however, and took the stairs carefully. No matter how much practice she had at it, stairs were still something her binding made a little difficult.
Her ear perked up as she looked around at all the rooms. Now this looked a lot more promising! The creepy-looking staircase drew her attention immediately, but she wasn't sure quite how far she wanted to venture away from the kitchen. Hatter seemed the sort to not mind if she explored a little, but she still didn't want him to reappear into the sitting room only to find her off at the other end of the house.
With that in mind, Eldy grinned at Doorie. "Well, what do you think?" It was a very rhetorical question, as regardless of what the little mechanical creature thought, the Feline had already chosen which room to check first. She headed for the door almost directly across from her. Predictable, but a good place to start.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vyn on Jul 11, 2010 9:52:42 GMT -5
Hatter would glance slightly toward the hall, struck by an odd sense of being watched, and only glimpsed a tail tip accompanied by a Mome vanish around the corner. The Joker paused, tilting his head so he could hear properly. Footsteps above... She was exploring then, good. The house was big and empty and all the important things were locked away securely where no curious paws could meddle (he knew this because he had managed to keep Kaden out of it all so far). With a delighted grin, he decided he would also make them some snacks.
Upstairs, Doorie hurried up alongside Eldy as she entered the first door. She made a small noise, as if disapproving of entry into this room, but didn't resist or protest any when she actually entered. Of course, the front and center door was the master bedroom and, inside she would find the delightful array that was Hatter's personal room. Personal items adorned the room from wall decorations to trinkets stored in display cases. As usual there seemed to be a maddening amount of items arranged in a cryptic pattern that only Hatter could accurately describe. Despite the chaos it was cozy and the wide bed either suggested a love of space or of frequent company.
Doorie wouldn't shuffle around this room, it was Master's room, but she wandered over to the small door to the right of the room which was cracked open and peered into it as Eldy was examining the room.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lucca on Jul 11, 2010 13:17:32 GMT -5
If Eldy had ever lived or spent any significant amount of time in what could be termed a 'normal' house, she may have been able to guess at the placement of the rooms, and thus would have been less surprised by the odd chaos she encountered. Well, no, that wasn't true; the bed might not have surprised her in that case, but the chaos still would have. How did he ever find anything in this mess? she thought first, whiskers perked forward curiously as she walked in a slow circle around the room. And then, she wondered if this was the way things would look if she could somehow see inside of the man's brain, his thoughts all jumbled up like the trinkets around the room.
It was an odd thought, and the Feline made a slight face, though it more amused her than anything else. She moved close enough to some of the interesting looking trinkets to sniff at them, but she didn't touch; after all, she didn't want to truly invade Hatter's privacy. She also gave the bed a wide berth, mainly subconsciously. Oh, it looked comfortable enough, but there were some things even her wandering mind didn't really care to speculate about.
When her paws had mapped out the length of the room, she took a moment to wonder where Doorie had gotten off to, almost wondering if the mechanical Mome hadn't followed her in...but then she caught sight of it, over near another door.
"What is it?" she whispered (for some reason a louder tone of voice seemed almost criminal when she was, for lack of a better term, snooping) and moved quietly over to lean her head just enough to look in the door, as well. After all, her curiosity hadn't killed her yet.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vyn on Jul 11, 2010 14:58:34 GMT -5
Eldy was surprisingly accurate as to the assumption of Hatter's chaotic brain. His skills with order were askew from the normal processes and instead relied on the crazy methods he had invented. It was a messy place to be, but occasionally he put on a neat front and tried to make it more comfortable for those outside of his brain to navigate through his house.
Proof of his attempt to better accommodate others would be the quaint little bathroom that Doorie had wandered into. It was small and well-cleaned for a bachelor man but otherwise uninteresting. What was probably more interesting to the curious feline would be the next room over connected to the double bathroom.
The door was open on that side too and if one walked from the bedroom through the bathroom, they would find another room much smaller than the master bedroom but notably more organized. This was Hatter's 'guest' room and typically the room he actually flaunted as his own. Small, quaint, and decorated with Hats. The walls were a devoted shrine to Top Hats of every shape, size, and pattern one could imagine (though surely Hatter lacked some and sought to locate them on whatever occasion he had). In all honesty, the room was little more than a glorified closet for his collection, but Hatter liked to bring guests in all the same.
Alas. Nothing unusual in here either aside from the Hats, a bed for two, and a small bookcase.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lucca on Jul 11, 2010 21:33:40 GMT -5
A bathroom? Well, she should have expected that. Again, Eldy, who was used to the cleaning service at the Court of Hearts, didn't even bat an eye at how clean it was, and quickly moved through this room to what was on the other side, moving so that her binding made little noise, even on the tile floor.
Upon entering the other room, Eldy's purple eyes widened and for a moment she could do nothing but stare. Hats. More hats than, if you had asked her previously, she would have thought even existed. She would never have dreamed there would exist so many kinds of top hats, not that she really thought about hats that much anyway, but here they were, nestled into every single corner of the room and hung on every available piece of wall. She shook her head, walking forward in a dream like state, staring at the collection.
"I guess he calls himself Hatter for a reason," she mused to no one in particular. But she had no desire to remain in this room for too very long; she feared she'd go a bit Mad herself, seeing nothing but hats everywhere. So Eldy turned her back on the hats and pushed back out into the hallway to find another door, whatever one was closest. Though her ear was perked forward to make sure she didn't hear her host calling for her.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vyn on Jul 12, 2010 14:32:09 GMT -5
Doorie whistled acknowledgment at Eldy's comment. Yes, Hatter was a Hatter for a reason. If she were to enter his kitchen she'd find that the cabinets reflected his obsession with Hats in an obsession with Teas. Food was scarce, but Hatter wasn't often around to eat at home. Luckily, there was usually enough for tea cakes and some sort of meal and Hatter intended to put that to good use this evening.
After exiting back into the hallway, Eldy would be presented with two options: upstairs to the attic or across the hall to one of the bedrooms. Back to the left was a remaining three doors, but Doorie had scampered forward into the open door across the Hall.
If Eldy followed, she would find a simple spare room. It would appear to have been lived in once but the occupants were gone now. There were many beds occupying the room suggesting that it may have been a servants quarters for the previous owner. Now it was utterly unoccupied and a little dusty. A little snooping would discover the room empty aside from some unusual dolls and stuffed toys. Doorie did the work of poking at the toys, scampering under beds and ruffling through closets, and proved to be utterly bored with both.
She turned back to peer at Eldy and waited with her head tilted as if to say "where next?".
|
|
|
|
Post by Lucca on Jul 12, 2010 15:15:41 GMT -5
Hearing nothing from downstairs but the usual domestic clatter she expected from a kitchen (though the Palace kitchens were obviously far louder, and there was more shouting and less...faint off-key humming) Eldy smirked in satisfaction and, after only a brief moment of hesitation, followed Doorie again. Obviously, the little Mome knew the house better than she could. Hatter had said it was his first creation...how old would that make her, then? Possibly older than Eldy herself. That was a...very strange and slightly unsettling thought, and she discarded it in favor of entering the dusty room.
The Feline sneezed, and wrinkled her nose, watching Doorie nose about as if she'd never been here before, and she and Eldy were conspirators on exploring Hatter's house! Which begged the thought...what, precisely, were they looking for? Eldy had no honest idea, but when she found it, she'd know. Or...no, wait, that was wrong. She was merely passing the time while waiting for tea by indulging her harmless curiosity. Yeah.
Trusting Doorie's judgement of the state of the objects in the dusty room, Eldy eyed the other doors...and found her gaze again drawn to the stairs leading up to the attic. Well...what was the worst thing that could happen? Before her imagination could come up with plenty of interesting answers to -that- question, the Feline loped down the hall toward the stairs and began the careful task of climbing them, eyes narrowed slightly to avoid getting too much dust in them.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vyn on Jul 12, 2010 21:29:30 GMT -5
Doorie, for all of her assumed purpose, was merely playing a pre-programmed game. She had played it countless times with child Hatter, crawling under beds and investigating closets. She was the the fine tooth comb in their investigations, the curious fingers that could locate any hidden passage and odd trap door. Today, years after playing this initial game of discovery, Doorie was enjoying the process of doing it all over again.
At least, as much as a mecha could 'enjoy' herself.
As Eldy reached the stairs to the attic she would find your typical 'creepy old mansion stairs with a freakishly long, dark and all too steep climb to the top'. Doorie sprung up the stairs as if they were nothing and would be found waiting at the top next to a simple wooden door. It would give Eldy no problem and slide open into a dark, cluttered room. The mome scampered off into an isle of boxes, leaving Eldy alone in the darkness.
After an awkwardly long pause of dark and silence, there would be a faint thudding followed by a brief click and a flood of bright light. Somewhere in the clutter Doorie had located the switch to an old lamp and it's odd stained-glass shade cast strange colors on the wall aside from the one pane that was missing entirely and blasting pure Corvie brilliance across the room. At least Eldy would be able to see now.
|
|
