T - Kari, Vyn - Complete

[carcinoGeneticist]

All the hairs on Simun's body bristled with anxiety as he watched the Mouse slip through the tiny door. Sure, he had considered the move himself, but when it came down to the line he just wasn't brave enough for it. Not like his parents, or his brother, or even... Even like his sister.

He took a few small steps back from them and watched as she and Jovan spoke, effectively pushing him out of their circle. He watched as he hugged her, saying soothing things to her. He watched as she went through the tiny door, guided along by them.

Something in Simun felt like a failure.

He hissed at the door softly and stalked away from it, deciding that he needed a moment to regain his composure. What was the matter with him? Jovan was a King, and strong and handsome, and his sister was a girl... But he hated feeling so very ignored in all of this. Once the majority of the group - including his charge from before, the Skunk girl (she also had no need of Simun, at this point) - had gone through the portal, Simun slipped through as well, quiet as a shadow. He listened to Ayden, nodding, then turned back to his sister.

"I'll give you a boost through the window?" he offered hopefully, giving her the cheeriest smile he could manage. "I have a little bit of money from Daddy, we can hire a carriage to get home again soon."

~~~

The closeness of her brother was comforting, especially after all the time that had passed, and Shoshanna let herself be calmed by him. When he spoke about Him, her tail arched subconsciously, ears panning back against her skull. "They - the police - they told me that he wath... dead," she said softly. That didn't mean she believed them, persay, but it might help Geronimo to hear it himself. There was so much to tell him about!

But it would have to happen another time. She looked up at Ayden and chewed her lip, then nodded and, with his encouragement, went through the portal.

Of all the places to turn up, the Lakes was one of the best she could think of. It was a memory of the happier part of her childhood - soothing whites and blues, rather than jagged blacks and oranges. She shook her fur back into order, nimbly jumping through the window and blinking into the breeze. "...It'th nith here," she murmured to no one in particular. Then she looked at Ayden. "Thankth."

[Vyn]

There was nothing like a change of scenery to clear one's head. He took a deep breath once he was through the portal, delighted to be in the clean (though dusty) attic full of neatly labeled boxes and stored furniture. it was a wonderful change from the nightmarish world of horrifically rotted monsters and man-eating blobs of ink.

While they waited for the others to arrive, he chatted casually with Kamina and briefly examined the room. It was neat, in order, and seemed to be mostly used for storage. He lifted up one of the sheets covering some of the furniture and found a lovely whicker couch with airy blue cushions. Very obviously Selkie-inspired designs. A gorgeous silver-framed floor-length mirror in the corner caught his attention and he lightly ran his tentacle over the wonderful metal work as he examined his reflection.

He'd only paused there for a moment before the reflection revealed that the last of the group had made it through. Jovan nodded politely to Ayden's instructions before making his way to the window where Simun was in the process of helping his sister through. For someone so small, he'd done a wonderful job getting her through but Jovan couldn't help but notice the way her back paws scrambled slightly so he discretely gave her a final boost up and out. Ayden and Eurwen seemed to be discussing something so he politely slipped out to join Simun and Kamina on their way down the fire escape.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Geronimo bit his lip in thought, instantly regretting it as his sharp metal teeth nicked his skin. He was letting his nerves get the best of him when he should be the one comforting and protecting Sho! Taking a deep breath, he cleared his head to listen to his sister.

"Dead? They said that?" He felt a small glimmer of hope build in his heart. Could their Father really be dead? Were they free forever? Ger could hear the little bit of uncertainty in his half-sister's voice and almost smiled. He was proud she didn't believe all that was told to her. In fact she seemed to confident that when Ayden reminded him that he was a Selkie and that's where they were headed through the box... it didn't all seem so bad. Of course, the mention of friends waiting on the other side made his heart beat a little faster, but when Shoshanna moved to go through the portal Geronimo had no choice but to follow her. If he could help it they would never be seperated again. At least, not until they were old enough and strong enough to survive anything.

Taking a deep breath, and not all too sure this was the right decision to make, Geronimo followed his sister through the box-door.

Miah was making sure he had everything in his bag that might come in handy when he spied a shiny reflection. He pulled out the object and realized during his rummaging this adorable jade rin must have fallen in with the rest of the supplies! Well, no harm in taking it with him! Thinking someone might object to the ring's new ownership, he decided it would be best not to put it on until after he got home. Miah swallowed hard; if he managed to get home after all of this.

Pushing aside that horrid thought, Jeremiah looked around the room and saw that all the children had already made their way safely through and led himself through the door in the box. The Mouse chuckled to himself right before he felt a very odd sensation. Then just like that, he was through!

"Wicked!" the Mouse exclaimed softly, grinning in appreciation of the magic it must have taken to make such a doorway.

Both Geronimo and Miah looked around. Geronimo glanced over every inch of the room to make sure there weren't any new faces, particularly the kind of faces that meant bad things to come and felt himself relax when it was only the rag tag group he'd become part of.

Realizing she had already made her way out of the attic window, Geronimo rushed over and heaved himself out.

"Suits!" he cried, clinging to the fire escape. Was it just his imagination, or was the whoe thing groaning with the added weight. He turned back and called out to Ayden. "Is this thing going to hold all of us at once?"

Jeremiah could have been born a Feline, for all his curiosity. While the others talked and discussed things he made his way over to the mirrors (of course) to examine himself again. After only a few seconds he meandered over to the labelled boxes.

The Torque Mouse took another look around the attic room and frowned. The room was covered in dust and yet there was a magical doorway here. Miah may not be the brightest bulb in the tool box, but what was something as powerful as this doing neglected in someone's attic?

Wanting to ask Ayden just that he realized almost everyone had already piled out through the window onto the fire escape. With an eyebrow raised he heard the very important question being asked by Geronimo.

"He has a point. Should we maybe take it only two at a time?" Miah shot a worried glance down to the ground below. "Ayden...Whoowns this place? I mean, what is a magical doorway like that doing in an unused attic anyhow?"

[Nathalia]

((Ayden nodded to the group going out the window.
"It should hold without issue, yes. Don't worry, just try to keep it to two people on the ladder at a time, if you please."
Eurwen leaned in towards him and he leaned back to her, a smile playing about his lips as she whispered.
"Bull mix? I don't know any, and as to a Fox with an eye-patch...I certainly knew one once, but I would never have called him a friend. Why do you ask, aside from the fact that they appear to have been stabbed?"
He murmured back, brushing a kiss to her forehead before turning to make sure everyone else was getting out and down with relative safety.
In walking back in to rummage through some of the boxes for anything useful, Victor passed him.
The...the Cat was very kind, for what he was.
He had always been taught that Lowlanders were spiteful because of what was around them in life and denied to them, that they were cruel to other Realms because they envied the healthy bodies they could never have.
He'd only seen this proven to him in the very few he'd met; it was awkward, to say the least, to have that old adage squashed.
"Any time, Victor. Will you be needing help? Or can you manage, you are a Cat, I am aware." He didn't want to encroach on the man's independence by implying that he was graceless, but the Felines in their group all seemed handicapped in some way.
Miah's question gave Ayden cause to shrug. "I know of the Inn on my travels, the "Rising Wing", but I don't know the proprietors. As to the door...I've seen one like it, but not here, if we get the time, I'll take you all there...it should get us all back to a safe point in the Capital, it's how I got to the fountain for my job. It was shown to me by a friend. Come on."

Completely overlooking the little Torque-cat with the wings, he issued Sho with a small smile.
"You're welcome. Tell me, do you and your brother have anywhere to live, any relatives?" He asked. He'd gotten the strangest suspicion from the way her brother acted out and the way she cowered...that they might be waifs.
The day outside was overcast, but warm and light, a small breeze wafting through the deserted grounds.
After getting everyone down and asking for relative quiet, Ayden had grabbed Eurwen and ducked inside.
The place was...disturbingly empty and though he thought he heard voices once, he hadn't wanted to stop and look into it, they needed to move.
He handed Eurwen a small bag he'd pulled from the attic.
"Any kind of food you think we can carry without trouble, don't worry, I can't call it stealing if I pay them."
He pulled out a handful of coins and laid them on the counter with two slips of paper money.
Hopefully it would cover some of their ravaging.
Carrying it back out front with her, their motley crew started off down the road toward the town.

It would take them about 2 hours to reach the outskirts, buildings towering before them, but none so grand as the fanciful house on the hilltop. Grand, perched, and in a small cloud of mist; the Mayor's home was a welcome sight.
"With me now, the Mayor of the lakes is who I need to speak to first, he ought to be at home, then we can move on to my associate." Leading the way up to the marble columns out front, he knocked and waited.))



~Nathalia

[Satra]

[Behold, I have written you all a novel. >> Sorry.]

So much raced through his mind. He knew he had to keep pushing on, but here in this room, he could afford to pause and think.

Merlin... Eyrn, Keitha and Delaney... how were they fairing in all of this? He hoped and prayed they were okay. His mind turned over a few of the words the Selkie-Corvistowne children exchanged before he went in search of a vest. Who was ‘he’? Victor didn’t stick around for the whole conversation. Eurwen and Ayden seemed to be involved in a heavy conversation. He tried not to listen, but he couldn’t pull himself away. He repeated the name of the shop he’d taken money from over and over in his head. He will remember it and he will pay back what he took. Three copper coins and one silver, and a little extra for the tin and the vest. Cinnamon was something of a weakness for the Cat, and having its smell present comforted him (the scent of ink was just from the vest being in the same room as the ink monster, right? Right.). And Miah was... checking himself out in the mirrors.

...

Well then.

Ayden voice jolted him from his thoughts. He smiled and shook his head. “No, but thank you. I’ll manage.” The fact was that it would be a little painful, but his rot always was when he stretched too far in any one direction. However, he knew where his mind would be if Ayden touched him. Eurwen fought to help keep them all safe. He owed it to her to not be receiving any guilty pleasures from being touched by her brand-new boyfriend.

The Rising Wing. Something about it struck a bell in Victor’s mind. Wasn’t there a pub of the exact same name somewhere in the Capital? Eh, not important. It’s just a pub name. The same or similar or not, it was just a coincidence.

Once at the bottom he took in the smell of the new land. The air was so different. Crisp and cool, almost clean compared to the Capital. It was lovely. In spite of himself, Victor was excited to be outside the Capital for once in his life.

He followed where the group went, looking around eagerly. He activated his magic detection ability again, just for good measure. It was a little unnerving how quiet things were, but at least it wasn’t as empty as the Capital. He waited near the back of the group when Ayden knocked on the door.

[Kari Muffin]

"With my luck today I had a faint worry that someone important kicked the bucket," she said after a moment. His words were reassuring though. She sneaked a light kiss on his cheek before he turned away completely. Despite all the weird and horrible things that had happened tonight, he as certainly worth it.

She mentally rolled her eyes at herself for the girly moment before going about her business. They needed to get their act together and she could hardly sit around and faff about. When everyone was down she was taken to the side to be responsible. Food. That was something she had completely forgotten about since she vomited what little was in her stomach during the Lowlander incident. "Thanks for taking care of the bill," she said as she went to gather quick and easy things. No one could complain about sandwiches and bottled water. "You make a charming fearless leader, by the way, I'm jealous," she added before they returned to the group.

Two hours wasn't a very long time. Though it really did seem to drag with the rag tag team that they had somehow become. They finally arrived at the Mayor's house quite a nice place. Totally screamed that he was the most important person in the neighborhood. Eurwen followed him up the stairs, a bit to the side so she wouldn't get in the way.

---

Kamina was grateful for the amount of help she got descending the stairs. She was terribly curious about Jovan's new pet, and that honestly kept her entertained. She tried her hardest to pay attention to where they were going, but as they went her sobriety slowly faded.

She stayed close to her brother and Jovan during the long walk. She had to try to remind herself where she actually was. When they arrived at the Mayor's house she was surprised by just about everything. It was a new and exciting experience, and she couldn't help but poke around.

(( ..... EFF MY TYPOS AND GOOGLE CHROME AUTOCORRECT ))

[Vyn]

The walk through the Lakelands was wonderfully refreshing and proved to be the perfect remedy for his previous anxieties. The lovely weather and relative silence of the new region contradicted the horrors they had just escaped quite nicely and the darling Kamina kept his thoughts from attempting to return to any of his previous concerns. They walked and talked quietly, mostly focused on the strange inky creature he had somehow acquired and Kamina's blatant adoration for it.

When her sobriety faded it was both a little unfortunate and somewhat adorable. Once more the easily distracted little thing, Jovan found himself walking with a tentacle on her shoulder to ensure she didn't try to wander off. The ink creature was also quite helpful as it wandered between sitting on his head or hers via the tentacle bridge.

At last the Mayor's house came into view, grand and mighty from its sentinel point above the other houses in the area. Jovan might have been inclined to worry about the obvious ominous connotations of a mist-cloaked mansion on a hill but Ayden's thankfulness about seeing it again put him somewhat at ease. If something was wrong Ayden would notice, right? He stood off to the side with the others as Ayden knocked on the front door, primarily focused on keeping Kamina from getting distracted by blades of grass or something of the like and wandering off while they waited.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Miah helped those he could own the fire escape and took one last look at the Rising Wing before they set off further into the Lakes. The air was refreshing, crisp and clean and he realized it had been many years since he'd stepped paw out of the Capitol. The only other place he'd ever been was his family's home in Torquehelm. But ever since his parents died when he was only a young teenager, with no other family to claim him, Miah had had to take care of himself. He'd gone to the Capitol were there were supposedly jobs to be had and found he had no qualifications of any kind.

One night a stranger had drunkenly walked up to him and shoved a bag of coins in his face before feeling the Mouse up. At first Miah resisted, then thought about his empty stomach and the last time he'd had a warm bath or a soft bed to sleep in. After that, he dedicated himself to learning the ways of being a professional Companion. Not just a whore, but someone to spend time with, to talk with and whose shoulder to cry on.

The new scenery, fresh air and being around people who didn't want anything from him made the Mouse confused. He thought he'd been truly happy in the Capitol but here, now, he felt as though something might be missing. He had no idea what, but these thoughts took him all the way in almost complete silence at the motley crew made their way to the Selkie Mayor's house.

He did pause his silent reverie once when he found himself walking next to the other Torque in the group. He gave the young man a smile. "That's a nice set of wings you've got there. I'd love to have a pair myself. I think they'd go great with these new feathers. Whadya think?" he asked Simun with a wink.

Just a few seconds later the Mayor's house came into view. It was a garish thing although very lovely. Miah shook his head. People with that kind of money didn't need to flaunt it all on themselves. Although he was a very vain creature, he knew what it was like to be starving and homeless. He saw no reason in hoarding money like so many of the rich did.

The Mouse's new feathered tail restlessly swished behind him as he watched Ayden knock on the door.

----------------------

Geronimo heard Ayden's question to his sister. He had been about to answer it himself, but remembered it hadn't been directed at him. Though he would love to protect her at all times from the world, he had to remember not to cut her off from it... as much as he would like to.

Yes, they had no one but each other and no where to live. Oftentimes Ger would go around the shadier places of the Capitol in order to find abandoned buildings or hiding holes no one would think to disturb. He wouldn't let either of them stay in more than one place for too long. That sort of thing drew attention, and although now he knew Gojirra was dead - so the police claimed - and wouldn't be looking for them, he still knew the Adults didn't like children squatting down in places they didn't belong.

Though he wasn't proud of it the young Feline/Canine mix often had to dig through the trash and dumpsters behind restaurants and cafes just to make sure they'd make it through the next few days. He would do anything to provide for and protect the only other person in this world who understood what he had been through and how it made him see the world.

That's what he thought about, how they were going to survive once this whole ordeal was over with and they were once more left on the streets alone to fend for themselves. The fresh air and clean countryside was a nice change of scenery and Ger felt himself almost believing that things would somehow work themselves out. He was only a young child and already felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, but what was it everyone said? Whatever didn't kill you made you stronger.

Ger vowed, while he watched Ayden knock on the front door of the very large Selkie Mayor's house, that he would become a very strong adult. He would be strong not only for Sho, but for himself.

[Nathalia]

((Ayden Smiled back at the rest of the group, and it slowly slid off of his face as the door swung inward slowly.
"Stay back a moment..."
He slid in the door, and vanished for a few seconds.
A few later he popped back out, his expression dark, wary, and disappointed.
"Something is wrong here...no guards, no servants...I don't like it. Eurwen, Jovan, if you're up to it, Miah? Come with me, please. Be careful. Victor, please watch the children I- Be careful, trust no one."

Waving the others to him, he slipped back inside.
The hall inside the Mayor's home is beautiful, but gaudy. Selkie finery and colors everywhere, amazingly beautiful paintings of the past Mayors lining the walls, large columns, and other amazing items set up all over.
Nothing seems to be disturbed...simply no one there.
The corridors are all dark and empty, save one...that seems to be leading down...

Outside, the sky starts to darken naturally, the sun beginning to set.
A rustling, very quiet and small, is suddenly heard off to the far right in the Mayor's garden...it keeps rustling...and won't let up.
After a few moments...whispering can be heard...a lot of it.))

(Since Kamina is on the Ticket with the other group inside, I think she can easily wander in there while the others are distracted. <3)



~Nathalia

[Kari Muffin]

Eurwen waited quietly, frowning after the mouse disappeared through the door. Of course something was wrong. Everything had been off in the city, why would it be right here. She tapped her fingers on her new weapon. Hopefully things weren't too bad right?

When he had returned her frown grew. She refrained from sighing and simply nodded, slipping into the building after the Selkie. Her nose wrinkled at the sight of the gaudiness. Why did rich people have no sense of taste? Ez had better taste than this and he was hopeless. The paintings were a break on the eyes.

There were no signs of struggle. And no signs of life period. She bit the inside of her cheek as she ran her fingers along the curtains she was close to. There was one place that wasn't dark and dreary, but it could be a set up. A horrible painful set up, but did they have a choice?

"Down is never good," she whispered and reluctantly headed for the the light spot. Corvie labs were down. What if the Mayor had some creepy experiment in his basement? She made sure that her weapon was loose on her belt, just in case.

Kamina flopped down for a moment. Watching Jovan and his cute little pet leaving. She tilted her head as everyone went through the door. Why did she have to stay behind with the nasty Lowlander? Why couldn't she follow the mouse trio and Jovan? That wasn't fair. A small mew escaped her as her ears drooped.

There were funny sounds. Her ears pulled back as she eyed the others. They seemed to be... busy taking care of whatever. She gave a small shrug and went for the door as fast as her legs could carry her.

She slipped through the door and clicked it shut behind her.

(( <3 hopefully this is good ))