T - Lucca, Lauryn, Nako, Harps, Spidey

[Lucca]

Shelby sighed at the answer, although it was no less than he expected. Shutting the drawer again, he turned to the next one and pulled it open too. Inside was a variety of items, everything from a desk lamp to a carefully wrapped set of fine china. He poked around in it, but the thought of stealing anything from the strange Warren, even ransacked as it was, just didn't sit well with him. Well, unless he found something extremely cool.

China didn't cut it, even if it did have a lovely, swirly, Highlands design. He shut this drawer, too, and carefully stood on his hind paws to reach the smaller drawers above. In the first, miscellaneous office items--rubber bands, paper clips, pens, stationary (all of which was topped with an elaborate curly seal. Obviously this Jack was quite full of himself, like many of them were) and tape. He shut the drawer again, sighing. This was getting him nowhere. Everything about this room seemed perfectly, utterly normal, but for the strange lack of Rabbits and the feeling of being watched.

He pulled open the second drawer, expecting to be just as disappointed, and found...his breath caught. It was probably onlt a decorative letter opener, but it was -very- nice looking. It was shaped like a dagger, with golden filigree in the handle and a polished blade. The twisting design of the would-be hilt was lovely, as well, and Shelby felt compelled to take the object out. Just to look at it, of course...he wasn't going to take it! He tested the heft of it, and ran the blade along his paw, wincing as it drew blood. Surprisingly sharp. It could be useful if they ran into something bad; Shelby had nothing to defend himself with, and...

His rationalizing was interrupted by Maeve's voice, and he gave a little squeak of surprise, dropping the letter opener to the floor with a clatter. "Nothing!" he replied, on a nervous squeak. He blinked, noticing Maeve's ear adornment. Had she had that before? Certainly not... "Where did you get that?" he asked slowly, ignoring her suggestion to leave the room. He pawed the letter opener closer again. If she could take something like that, which was surely much more expensive...

[Nako]

Layla had been nosing about objects, feeling terribly as if she was betraying someone by looking through a Doe's belongings. It was not her place, and she was being terribly ineffective at finding things. Instead, she found herself moving things that looked of value into one pile, and anything that was trash or broken into another. Her mental rationalization to her cleaning was to be so they could find a way to open the door faster… but really, she was trying to look busy so the other leverets wouldn't call her out on being useless.

When a leveret began to frantically cry out though, all her hair stood on end.

"Oh dear, oh dear!" Her little paws came up to her face in dismay, having absolutely no idea what to do. "Just stay calm!"

Though at this point, the dark, corvie-looking leveret seemed to barely hear her. And everyone else... they were fixated on this door, digging and worrying over trinkets that they shoved into the door's keyhole in desperate attempts to open it. It was surreal.

-----

Jala's sobs hitched in her throat for what seemed like a brief moment, her body ceasing it's shaking when her mother… said a name.

"M…mommy. Is… that my name? I can't remember. I can't remember anything." Despite any pain.. any feelings that made her feel as if she were to -burst-, she almost smiled. "Did you give me that name, mommy? Did you love me?

[Dark]

Maeve watched Shelby carefully, eyes drifting to the--letter opener? The leveret seemed as bit--jumpy--but Maeve suspected everyone was a bit on edge, and maybe she--Maeve instinctively thought of the leveret as female, but she supposed it was possible that assumption was incorrect--felt guilty about wanting to take the knife. Leverets weren't generally programmed to want things, let alone act on their desires.

"Over there," Maeve waved vaguely in the direction of the cabinets, and added as explanation: "My ears would get in the way, if I have to run. It's practical. So is that blade. You should take it; you never know when you might need it."

Maeve had her tail--and for the first time in her life, she was thankful for the mutation--but Shelby was lacking any natural armament that would benefit her in the situation, and there was no Jack to help; the knife very well might save Shelby's life.

[Lucca]

Shgelby would have, in fact, been quite content to let Maeve think he was female. It was a deception he himself had always been told to cultivate, so that a Jack would take him easier. No Jack wanted a male Leveret, not really. Not unless they were an exceptionally good servant, which Shelby knew he wasn't. At the explanation from the Josiggy, Shelby nodded, slowly. And actually managed a small smile as the other agreed with him that his find was also practical.

He nodded. "After all, not all of us are lucky enough to have a natural one," he said, nodding at her tail. Personally, some part of him found a mutation like that cool. That part was outweighed by his survival instinct, for now, though. He scanned the study, but other than a few more pieces of overturned furniture, there didn't seem to be a whole lot there...

Reluctantly, he turned to Maeve again. "Should we...go find the others?" The words had a sour sort of taste in his mouth. He could hear screaming coming from the other room, and he just knew it was that hysterical Doe again. Plus, there was that smell...in here, it just smelled like tea and cinnamon buns. But there was nothing else in this room to really see, unless they wanted to start looking for secret entrances. Shelby picked up the letter opener, and then thoughtfully used it to lift the edge of the large rug in the center of the room and look under.

[Nathalia]

((Goodness! Leverets aren't supposed to have magic, this is...this is just unheard of.
Still, seems as thought Maeve and Shelby have found a few somethings...))

Twisted Silver Earpiece: A small tingle runs through the new owner of this earring when it was placed on and, within an hour, the Leveret wearing it will become aware that they now have an imbued magical ability. Once a week, they are able to communicate telepathically with three other creatures for up to 5 minutes. The people they are conversing with must be people the caster is already acquainted with and has spoken to at least once. This spell does not work on proper Cards (though it will work on Aces...) and other Leverets can hear, but not respond to their thoughts. Jacks can hear and respond, and Does can respond for the first minute, after that they can only hear.


Letter Dagger: This absolutely beautiful little creation seems like it was made to do so much more than simply open letters. It's handle gives the owner the sensation it's pulsing slightly after being picked up, but that dies away and really, it could have just been themselves...it is awfully nerve wracking down here.
They will, over the course of an hour, become aware of a new imbued magical ability. Once a week, they are now able to cause a bolt of lightning to shoot from the sky, regardless of the weather, and strike an opponent. It will not kill outright, but Cards ranked 8 or lower and Leverets will pass out at once, other Cards and Rabbits might be stunned or rather badly injured.
Using this aspect of the weapon, however, causes half of the bolt to strike Shelby as well, causing him extreme pain in his back and forelimbs for 30 seconds.

((Ye Gads, Alicia! What have you done!? The door swings open a small breeze of old perfume rolls out...followed by a horrific stench. Inside, lying splayed, split open, and horribly gored, are three does; a MidRanger, a Tulgey/Kahmden mix, and a Midori/Morganberry. All look as though their corpses have been there for a while, stuffed into this nook on top of one another...actually, seeing as there wasn't much blood to be found outside of this portal. It's highly likely that they were all dragged in here and dispatched... But, who would kill Does?!
The poor, once-beautiful things have a small glass jar in front of them, emitting the perfume, supposedly to cover the smell. The bodies are in various stages of decay, the Morganberry mix looks nearly skeletal, only patches of hair and jewelry a real testament to what she was...while the MidRanger looks almost...fresh...
As Alicia stands there gaping, an odd feeling descends over her...))

Alicia's Curse: Once a week, Alicia will, without any means to control it, begin to pull up corpses from the ground wherever she is as she walks for a full half hour. They simply seem ripped upward, as though drawn to a magnet, not moving themselves, but yanked by an invisible force towards her.
If there is nothing around her that is recently dead, she will sometimes find scraps of bone or dust form the long,long dead swirling about her features. Nothing can stop this curse from occurring, though it does tend to happen at around the same time every day, at least making it somewhat predictable... After the half hour passes, the dead stop swirling around her or sticking to her and just flop in a pile as though nothing ever happened.

((Out in the hall, the instant Layla accidentally touched Jala...she felt the most odd tingle back along her shoulder blades to her tail she had ever experienced in her life...but it then faded away...wonder what that was all about?
Oh, well. No time to worry about that, is there?
Poor little Jala, nothing can be done for her and after about another minute of twisting horror something sharp punctures her stomach as whatever is inside of her grows to be bigger than she is at an alarming rate. Before she can comprehend more than the terrifying punctures, her entire body will rip forward and she will know no more.
The creature that exploded forth from the remains of the Leverets is very large in comparison and quite obviously a Doe.
Her mutations are many, and though beautiful...somewhat frightening...and this on top of the horrible experience of her birth. Poor thing is rather scary.
At the same time as the little Lev bursts...Brighid starts to feel rather terrible herself...))


ID: SDR
Name: ----
Suit: N/A
Rank: Doe
Gender: Female
Animal: Rabbit
Region: Josiggy Marsh/Mid Range/Tulgey Wood
Dealer: Nako
Parents: Jala x NPC

Notes: This beautiful creature is quite the oddity, and not just for the way she was born. Her 4 ears all work perfectly well and the secondary set can hear as well as a Bat! Her elegant horns are made of solid gold and her long black mane reflects back light with blue and purple tints to it. She was born wearing jewelry that only she can remove should she choose, it causes other Does and Leverets to feel uncomfortable or, if she's angry, unworthy of her presence. She feels absolutely no sympathy for her dead mother and has very little respect for Leverets as a whole, though other Does and Jacks are worthy of her attention and thought on occasion. She is no so much intelligent as she is cunning and she has the basic knowledge and societal know-how of an adult without the life experiences. Her wings are fully capable of as much flight as she builds up the muscle for (though she'll need to learn to fly)...something most Jacks won't appreciate...



Doe's Ability: Once per week, she can stare at a piece of food and focus all of her concentration on it. In her mind, she visualizes it heating, and expanding, and exploding! Within three minutes, it will fulfill her unspoken request and spray outward with the force of a very tiny, and rather colorful, firework. Be careful if it's hot!

[Harpsdesire]

That fresher air that she and Brighid had scented through the keyhole must have been some kind of trick, for inside... no! NO!

Alicia was silent, her breath coming in ragged, painful gasps as she looked into the small space. She was frozen in place with eyes so wide the whites were plainly visible, her ears pinned back and nose twitching furiously while the rest of her body stayed perfectly still. Beautiful does, horribly dead, horribly horribly killed... She was like a statue, fixed in place by fear and revulsion. Alicia remained there, riveted in place before the bodies for what was probably only a matter of minutes, but to her felt like years.

Her eyes seemed to glaze over once again, although this time not in blissful denial. She felt something strange and horrible fall over her body like a freezing rain of blood or drifting spiderwebs on a foul-smelling draft. What had she done? How had she done this dreadful thing? What kind of monster was she!? She felt almost as if she had been the one to kill the does, and a sense of remorse swept through her, painfully strong, dizzying...

Or maybe she was... just dizzy... If Alicia had not already been cowering almost to the ground, she might have swayed on her feet. That smell, blood and evil--! Darkness closed in around the edges of her vision, although her eyes were still open wide, like a she was a baby bunny caught in the shadow of a jubjub bird. Oh, white rabbit, please-- all she could see, smell was the blood, her paws were covered in it, red with it! Had they been so red before the blood? Oh, for all that's good in the world! Could she ever hope to wash away a stain of this kind, this magnitude? She wanted to run.

Run and run and run and run and never look back, never think about the horrible crimes, the horrible events that had transpired here, how she had... had what? She had only opened a door... they were already dead.

The leveret's racing heart slowed somewhat at the revelation, her blood pressure dropped abruptly and so did she. Like the delicate little thing she usually only feigned to be, Alicia fainted away, dropping on to the cluttered floor with a muffled thump.

She lay there, twitching slightly, for only a moment while her overwrought brain fired itself back into working order and her breathing slowed to a more sustainable pace. Golden eyes fluttered open, mercifully finding themselves staring at nothing more than a bottle of shampoo that rolled across the floor from the vanity table. The round door was above her field of view from this angle, and the highlander hoped that when she rose it would be gone altogether... A futile, foolish hope.

((Warning, for reasons even I don't fully understand, Alicia reacted quite poorly to the sight and even worse to her curse, and all manner of emo/unpleasantness may follow... please bear with me. And/or ignore me, if that make it less painful, lol.))

[Nako]

Layla had wanted to comfort the girl, moving slightly closer to the dying leveret… but as the girl pawed absently at the air and caught Layla's paw in an unintentional touch a strange sensation overcame her. Desperately, she pawed at her back, wondering if something had somehow crawled onto her. Strange. It really seemed like nothing. Of course, she didn't have much time to brood over it as Jala's stomach suddenly -ripped- open.

Jala gave one last gasping squeal, her lungs too compressed by the rapidly growing body to be terribly loud at that point. As muscle and skin finally gave way, shock and pain finally did the leveret in. Her eyes rolled back and stared sightlessly up at the ceiling.

In a moment of gracelessness, the strange Doe stumbled over the leveret's exposed ribcage, her wings flaring open for balance as she looked wide eyed at the world for the first time. But.. after that split second, there was no wonderment left in those pools. Just a bitter, cold glare as she took in the sight before her. A shivering… part Lowland, sad excuse for even a leveret. And there was almost an anger in her eyes.

"What… what did you do to her!?"

The Doe's hind right ear gave an irritated twitch, flicking blood and viscous liquid from its tip. "I'm sorry, but just who do you think you are talking to? And what do you think you are? Here... I'll help you; What I see before me is a lowly piece of filth that smells of decay. If I'd been touched by you, no doubt I would have felt a need to die as well. Ah... speaking of which."

Her gaze slid lazily over to the rapidly expanding Torquehelm Doe. "Oh.. you're not going to like this next part, by the way."

Layla took a few steps back, bringing her forelimbs up to wrap them around herself in an attempt at self comfort. That Doe... nobody had ever said such a cruel thing to her. She was not filth. Her father had always told her how beautiful she was. But even her Jack had avoided her affections. How much she wanted to become a Doe for him. But... if he was disgusted by her as this Doe was, would he even want her if she attempted to make the change?

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

"Yes, my baby. I gave you that name," and here the Doe paused, for she truly loved no one but herself, "Of course I love you! What kind of silly qu--," she started to ask, then screamed bloody murder as a spike came busting through the stomach of her little young one.

Throwing her crying and screaming daughter out of her lap, Brighid scrambled awkwardly backwards and away from... from.... What was happening?! More and more protrusions came bursting out of the small body until finally the whole thing exploded, bits of flesh, organ and blood spraying in a 360 degree turn. Brighid felt a few pieces drop on her nose and one even slid down her neck and into the white piece of clothing she wore.

Still screaming at the top of her lungs, Brighid hopped around and smacked her paws towards her face trying to get the bit of her daughter off of her. There was a soft plop as what seemed to be part of a crushed eyeball finally fell to the floor. Stunned beyond all reason, the Doe slowly looked towards where her daughter's body had been and felt her eyes widen at the new Doe in front of her.

She stared, open mouthed, at what she knew was another Rabbit but refused to admit to herself outright. Four ears, and wings?!

Maybe it had been the piece of an eyeball falling on her face, the gut wrenching screams of her daughter or this monstrosity of a Doe standing before her, but Brighid felt something inside her mind snap like a taught wire. None of this was really happening. It was all just a dream. Brighid let out a giggle at the hilarity of the situation. What a strange dream!

She was in such a state of shock she barely realized when the new Doe was talking directly to her. Next part? What did she meant by that?

It stated with a rumbling in her belly. That part of her body had been feeling off for quite some time now, but this felt... different. It a detached sort of way, Brighid ran her paws over the oddly growing mound of her stomach. Wasn't that what Jala's middle had done, right before she'd exploded over everything? Brighid giggled again.

The uncomfortable feeling was replaced by pain. Pain was replaced by excruciating pain, and the excruciating pain finally brought her back to reality. This was really happening!

"Oh, White Rabbit, no!" she yelled, finally realizing what the new Doe had meant. "I'm exploding too! Someone please help me! I don't want to DIE!" The word 'die' was delivered in the most horrific scream of fear and pain the poor doomed Doe could muster.

[Kitty]

Another victim of whoever, or whatever, had dumped the other group in front of this warren had struck again and the golden doe was only now coming to. Her vision was blurry and she couldn't really make anything out or understand what had happened. She heard voices though and.. .was that a door? How did she get outside?

Suddenly a panicked thought struck her, her daughters.... where were they? She could remember something bad going on and.... she had to find her daughters. She was well aware of the fact that she was more attached to her children, her two beautiful little does, then she should be... but they were special to her. They were what, in her mind, locked her into position as Anubis' favorite.. .a position she'd been striving for all her life... and she loved them dearly. She didn't want to lose them, especially not to something horrible.

Shakily she got to her feet and made her way slowly to the door, trying to get herself steady enough to move at a normal pace. She stepped on one of her lop ears before backing up and trying again. When she got to the door she lifted a paw and opened it, peering inside. and that's when she heard a scream.

Instantly a mixture of panic and adrenaline flooded through her veins and she took off at top speed toward where the scream had originated, the only though flitting through her was that the scream belonged to one of her beloved children. She didn't even realize that this wasn't Anubis' warren.

She was most definitely lost for a moment, until she heard another scream and headed in that direction. She had to find the poor girls and stop whatever was happening from well.. .persisting.

aiming to fly round this last corner she stepped on one of her ears again and tripped, slamming into the wall before scrabbling up to her paws again. Ugh, she was even more sore now but she was driven and, oh.... she could hear others now!

Ayanna! Dafina! I-

She paused abruptly when she took in the scene before her. None of these rabbits were her daughters, nor were they the slightest bit familiar. And the 'scenery' was taken in right after. Oh god... this... this wasn't her Warren. And... and .... what was that all over the room? Was that....? Oh.... ugh.... she felt like she was going to be ill but all she could do was sink to the floor and stare in horror as she took everything in with a gaping mouth and wide eyes. Oh.... oh no.... what was going on?

[Harpsdesire]

Alicia staggered to her paws. Had she just fainted? What a terribly useless thing to do! She expected more fortitude than that from herself, but under the circumstances she just didn't have the energy to be appalled at her failings. Gold eyes blinked rapidly and her ears twitched. This place, this whole thing, it was just... so wrong.

After taking a deep breath (that stench was.. indescribable!), Alicia mustered the strength to look once again into the portal where the bodies lay. The Mid-Ranger's body was fresh, and her blue eyes were open and clouded. Although it made her shudder and her stomach did nervous gymnastics within her, Alicia reached up to close the Doe's eyes. It was the least the lady deserved, a little dignity in death... clearly she had gotten precious little up to this point, stacked like so much cordwood with her fellows in some sort of grisly safe.

With the vague hope of finding something, anything, that would explain the reason for this utter travesty, Alicia examined the small space some more. It was no less dreadful or repulsive on second sight than on first, but it seemed the leveret's capacity to be horrified had mostly been exhausted, and she remained reasonably, no, unreasonably calm as she examined the area.

Once she had satisfied herself that nothing more could be found, Alicia closed the round metal door on the ghastly sight. She considered locking it, but it was just too terrible for the Does to be locked away, hidden like they were of no consequence... it would stay unlocked, at least for the moment.

As she looked down at the key in her paw, it struck her how strange it was that the key to the tomb should be on a Doe's adornment. Perhaps that last lady had even worn the thing. Was she somehow complicit in the slaughter, eventually joining the fate of the victims when she became a risky or inconvenient accomplice? Maybe she had never known what the pendant unlocked, and making a gift of the jewel around her neck was some sort of horrible joke by the killer, a mocking cruelty before her violent fate.

Alicia was, above all, outraged. What kind of monster would kill does like that? Those smoke things that Maeve had mentioned? A rouge Jack, his tastes and actions too unseemly to even imagine? She shivered and abruptly wished she was not alone in the room with that round door staring at her like a sightless eye of infinite malice. Quickly, she returned to the hall, only to find herself face to face with more gore and two additional does. That was... Alicia didn't know how to describe the situation to herself. She bowed to the pair out of habit, hardly seeing them. Brigid's screams and the fate of little Jala also failed to fully penetrate the fog of horror that had somewhat clouded her mind.

"I-I found the does." She said in a small, choked voice, "They're... not... alive..."