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Post by Nathalia on Dec 11, 2010 23:14:15 GMT -5
((An odd, shuffling noise rings out from the far end of the Palace...almost like dragging footsteps.
At the same time an odd-smelling wind seems to pick up, whistling through the halls and causing a cold sweat to break out on the still moving.
It seems to be coming from the higher halls...where the Queens rooms would probably be located.
Find the Queens chambers and search them as best you can...good luck.))
~Nathalia
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Post by Bee on Dec 12, 2010 0:53:37 GMT -5
Zeki stood staring hopelessly at Virtute for a moment longer. The Queens drifted aimlessly through his head, meaning nothing to him. Curse floated by, meaning little more. Then the ideas collided. Of course. Everyone here was under a curse and maybe one of the Queens could do something about it, if they had managed to avoid the same fate. Wulfram had avoided his own palace's strange happenings. His brain finally caught up to where his companions' probably already were, though it had to slog through a mire of fear and worry.
Finding a Queen might be the best shot they had of getting Virtute back to normal. He cast her another glance, reluctant to leave her stiff form alone. She looked so--lifeless, so incredibly unsettlingly lifeless. Even when Vir was going through a particularly bad stretch of illness, she still found something to be animated about. This was galling and wrong.
He managed a nod. "All right," he said. And in the halls, like a herald--
or an omen--
the sound of slow, shuffling footsteps, like a man lamed, followed by a wind carrying a strange scent. Zeki went cold and clammy. The sound seemed to be coming from a ways off. Zeki had never really explored the entirety of the Court of Hearts, but he knew enough of the layout to guess--was that where the Queens were?
Oh, stars and stones.
"It sounds like it's coming from where we need to go," he said. His brow knitted in worry. Coincidences of creepy variety. He had a terrible feeling about this. "I guess it's a sign." Or a warning.
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Post by Vyn on Dec 13, 2010 12:08:58 GMT -5
Perfect. He enjoyed that adorable flustered look and the uncertainty around her as she edged up closer to him. For all of the frustrations this madness had caused, it at least did the work of breaking her walls down so that he wouldn't have to do it himself. In this state of vulnerability, she would become his without ever realizing she'd made the choice.
He lightly touched her cheek, offering her a small smile. "You're very welcome." He too turned to study the statue-esque woman and he frowned momentarily. "I believe so, zhat or a very powerful spell has gone awry... but, honestly, I am quicker to believe zhat zhis is zhe result of a curse. It seems too videspread to be an accident." But this was all speculation, for all he knew the incident here could be entirely unrelated to the one he was facing at The Court of Spades.
Just as Zeki was recovering, the wind hit.
Wind in a building was wrong in the best of scenarios, but the combination of strange scents and sounds that accompanied it only made it worse. The force of it ruffled his feathers and his skin prickled involuntarily and he broke out in a cold sweat. Suits... what was that? He narrowed his red eyes, staring in the direction of the sound.
"Zhe Queens' chambers?" He sighed. "Ov course it is." Because that was just the way his luck had been going. "Let's go. If nothing else, at least ve know zhat something over zhere isn't frozen."
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 13, 2010 12:59:59 GMT -5
She blushed, not like it was visible through her dark feathers, but it was quite obvious that the young woman was terribly flustered. "Ah." Was the only thing she could properly come up to say at his remark. So it could be a bad spell, a curse, or something else entirely. Ultimately everyone was just as clueless as her on this.
When the wind kicked up a small sound of terror escaped the puffin as she moved closer to the Tulgey man. She shivered, and honestly wanted to hide from everything.
And they were going to go towards the creepy sounds?
She swallowed, trying to ignore the cold sweat that she seemed to be breaking out into.
Devika quietly followed the pair. Despite her best efforts to stay close to the Tulgey crow she just seemed to trail behind. Her curiosity got the better of her, she kept staring at the random servants scattered throughout the building. What would happen if someone tried to take something of of them? What if they never went back to normal? What if the Queen was among the people in the hall and they just missed her or something?
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Post by Bee on Dec 18, 2010 15:12:55 GMT -5
The closer they got to the chambers, the louder the noises, but they didn't seem to lead to a person making them--not that Zeki's hearing could pinpoint, anyway. Maybe he had been around too many propellers.
Servants remained immobile, no matter what stretch of hallway they traveled down. He thought about checking out Queen Heilyn's chambers first, if he could remember which ones were hers. He had never really seen much of her, but she was Virtute's grandmother, and he felt slightly less strange about invading her rooms, by virtue of slightly closer association on the web of acquaintance. It was flimsy logic (objectively he would probably be more afraid of her wrath than even The Queen's), but any comforting boat in the psychological storm, he supposed. Besides, if she were unfrozen, she might be the most persuaded to--try to help Virtute first.
He came upon large doors. "Good as place as any to start," he said. He glanced back at his companions. He got the same bad feeling he got when the crow had instructed them to wait in the carriage. Bad things happen when people split up. Nothing terrible had befallen them the last time, but...maybe the universe had just been conserving its hateful energy. Covering ground less quickly seemed slightly more preferable than getting devoured by something lurking in a closet.
He bit his lip, pensively. "We probably want to stay together."
(This post turned out being slightly more useless than I had intended. Wheeeee.)
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Post by Vyn on Dec 19, 2010 23:45:04 GMT -5
Everywhere it was the same. Frozen statue after frozen statue in a morbid mockery of everyday life. He'd have to take a closer look at one of the statues once they discovered the source of this strange noise or located a Queen. Unless, of course, The Queen herself was frozen as well. In that case he'd be getting his chance much sooner than he expected though he hoped that would not be the case.
As they progressed down the hall, the sound growing louder and louder as they went, Wulfram kept a close eye on Devika. She wandered behind, slowed by her binding and curiosity, but he only had to remind her to catch up a few times before they reached the large doors of The Queen's chamber. The noise seemed loudest here, but with the echos in the Court it was hard to properly pinpoint. As Zeki said, this was a good place to start.
"I agree. No matter vhat, we stay together." There was no telling what would happen if they were separated, especially not with magic of this caliber about. Zeki and Devika wouldn't have a chance.
With that said, Wulfram prepared himself for what may lay ahead and pushed the doors open. Nothing immediately happened. He arched a brow slowly as he scanned the room. Nothing had immediately appeared, a good sign -- maybe. He waited until they joined him inside and shut the doors behind them. "Alright. Both ov you, help me search the room. Keep an eye out for anythink suspicious."
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 20, 2010 0:10:33 GMT -5
Stay together and look for anything suspicious. She could do that. She gave an emphatic nod.
Devika was staring in awe at the inside of the room. It was quite large, and well, pretty? She wasn't particularly sure what she should be investigating. Everything was terribly new and she only understood the most basic of things. And what were they supposed to be searching for?
There didn't seem to be anyone around in plain sight.
Curiosity got the better of her as she wandered over to a chest of drawers. Clamping her beak down on the handle she pulled it out. It was filled with a variety of papers that she poked at with her beak. She might as well search all the drawers right? She would stay in plain sight of the pair of them and she would be helping.
She pushed the first draw in half way, pulling out the second one. A random assortment of things. She picked up something that looked like a small sword with the heart seal on it. The puffin gave it a close inspection by putting it on the floor and i and turning it around with her feet. It didn't look sharp enough to do any damage. She glanced back into the drawer. There looked to be a few letters with broken seals, and a book with a rather long title in words she couldn't understand.
This was going to be a tedious search filled with nothing but curiosity wasn't it?
She continued to look through the odds and ends in the chest of drawers.
"How will we know if we found anything helpful?"
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Post by Bee on Dec 22, 2010 20:05:46 GMT -5
Ah, now that was a question a Corvie could answer. Bless his morally impaired homeland. He tried to compile a mental list of things to watch out for. This was somewhat complicated because, generally speaking, everything was something to watch out for. No two objects played by the same rules. Both magic and science had remarkably fluid logic.
"It may give off some feeling of impending doom," he said, searching along the wall near to Wulfram and Devika, trying to find some kind of hidden place to stash something nefarious. He pushed aside a--very heavy, actually--and fancy-looking chest and, finding nothing behind it or under it, opened it. It seemed to harbor--toys. Quite obviously well-loved. He supposed it wasn't entirely out of place. Many people in the Court had, of course, had children. He rifled through them, wondering what child would not be terrified of a doll designed to look like a cockatrice. That was irreparable psychological trauma waiting to happen.
"Or, conversely, you may feel really compelled to grab it. Those are both generally bad signs. If it feels...unnatural, it could be related to what's going on."
There was a slight chance that he merely desperately wanted this to be the case. Some type of evil magical item, cleverly stashed in the chambers of Queens, wrecking havoc upon the Courts. They could find it and destroy it, problem solved. Vir would unfreeze. Everyone would go back to normal. That didn't explain the eerily deserted feel of Esterberry, though. Or, for that matter, a fully grown girl...exploding out of her mother. But it could be a clue, and they were in dire need of clues.
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Post by Vyn on Dec 29, 2010 14:18:41 GMT -5
Wulfram made his way directly to the Queen's desk, eying the adjacent rooms momentarily before settling into the chair and beginning his search. One drawer had writing utensils, extra papers, and the various necessities of work that he was all too familiar with. One near the bottom had apparently been used to stash treats -- either to hide from kids or to pacify them during their visits -- but the middle drawer caught his attention. This drawer seemed more personal and contained a magazine and a couple of books.
He plucked out one of the books, riffled curiously through the pages. The book itself was bland and written primarily in the native Bog language, but a little slip of paper fell out onto the desk. That was interesting. Before he could look at it, however, Devika spoke up. He arched a brow at Zeki's answer before offering him an approving nod.
"Zat is an exceptionally suitable answer. Also, if it seems distinctly out ov place in its surroundings." Not that Devika would really know if it was terribly out of place, would she? What an unfortunate state of being. "Like e dagger hidden among toys." He offered, hopefully for Devi's benefit.
Or a note hidden in a book. Hopefully not written in Bog our House languages. He unfolded the piece of paper, examining it at first in curiosity and then in disappointment. Just casual banter between a mother and her grown child. He folded it up once more and returned it to it's original location before turning at last to the mass of files scattered across the desk. This felt all too much like work.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 29, 2010 14:41:56 GMT -5
"Oh, okay!" Devika frowned. Impending doom and out of place. Those were two very bad things that she honestly didn't want to come across. Her ears drooped a bit as she decided to slip the letter opener back into a random drawer. She doubted something that tiny would help her with the way Zeki and Wulfram were talking.
At least Wulfram was a Queen.
Did that really help them though.
She stared up at the other chest of drawers. It was rather tall and looked like something was on top of it. She balanced on top of her ball carefully, pulling out one of the drawers so she could use it like a set of stairs. After a few moments of struggling she managed to drag the ball into the drawer allowing her a chance to get on top of the chest of drawers.
There was nothing particularly impressive.... She poked at a dusty sheet of paper and what was potentially a broken candle holder. She glanced over at the other two. Well, at least she had a nice view from the top.
"Where do you think the Queen's have gone?" she asked quietly inspecting the broken candle holder. She glanced down at the drawer. They seemed to be a spare set of clothing and a few fancy looking things. She reached down with a foot and pulled out a bit of dress jewelry. Everything could be kept in an office? That or someone put it here when the Queen was gone.
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