Kitty, Harps, Lucca, Lauryn

[Harpsdesire]

As the door clicked open, Cal turned, his attention caught by his sisters voice. She seemed to recoil a little at the sight of him, which made Cal's ear-tufts pin back unhappily. At least she didn't look like she was gearing up to hit him again...

At her words, his ears perked back up. ”Not bad Cat. Cat good. Cat always good. We love.” He dared to nuzzled her cheek lightly as the door swung open, releasing a stronger smell of wrong. He wrinkled his face up, distracted by the scent.

Even the idea of foodmeat was not enough to really catch his interest-- the creepy feeling in the shop was making his tummy feel a little too wibbly-wobbly to really be hungry. So the plan was simple: find and eradicate the weird, eat foods. Simple, easy plan.

The room was simple, too, but quite foreign to the child who had never slept on a proper bed nor had belongings to keep in a dresser or closet. He wandered into the confined space cautiously, following Fi. ”Find bads, then eat foods.” He said the plan out loud, confirming that it was sensible. It was.

He clambered onto the bed for an experimental bounce, then poked several time at the feather pillow that topped it. ”Soft thing for sleep. Name 'pillow'. Why have this? Can sleep not with.” He muttered, pulling it out of the pillowcase. He stared curiously into the case, sniffed, sneezed as an escaped feather was sucked into his nares, then dropped it when Fi spoke.

As his brother instructed, he sniffed the air. The room didn't look like a bad place, but it rather smelled like it. ”Blood smell, death smell.” He commented, his hackles rising a little as he watched his brother begin to investigate one of the two boxes in the room. It seemed rather unlikely to Cal hat the bad thing was in the boxes, but if Fi thought so...

Cal hopped off the bed and wandered over to the remaining box. He poked it with a claw warily. ”Should open?” He questioned, pushing against the cardboard to tip it over, hopefully spilling out whatever was inside of it. ”Fi think the bad thing hides in?”

[Nathalia]

((The little group is doing a rather good job of excavating the shoppe.
Eldy found a small book full of notes, as well as a separate binder full of them too.
Many things are crossed out or scribbled on in fury, holes torn in the paper from things gone wrong.
There are also ink blots all over the corresponding pages...as though whoever had written in this had often had to slam it shut to stop someone from looking over their shoulder...
She's also found:

Gargoyle Bookend: This rather scary looking bookend is shaped like a terrifying Rabbit, fangs bared! It tingles when touched and shrinks down to the size of a chess piece, able to be picked up and stowed away with ease now.
The little thing has now become a good luck charm for Eldy!
Once per admin-administered battle or Queenship fight, she is now able to (if the bookend is on her person) add 3 points to a die roll or her Dealers choice!
(For example; if you had rolled a 16, you could make it a 19! But it could not then be used again in that fight or in one relating to it.)

The other writings Eldy has found are discussing curses; Corvies; experiments...and an awful lot of Selkie induced rage scribbled in the margins...
The kids have all scrabbled to that closet...
The cardboard box closest to them is surprisingly easy to rip open, their sharp little claws making short work of the box.
Out tumble a few items, and more of the bad smell...

Tiny Toy Tails x3: These little toy tails look ragged and very old. On little belts they have a very old magic in them that makes them wag a little when belted on. One looks like a Sorgaire Feline's, another a Selkie Wolf's, the last a Morganberry Snake's. How cute! One for each of them!
When placed on:
The Sorgaire tail allows the wearer to breathe a cloud of freezing mist once a day for ten seconds. The mist is bone-chillingly cold and too thick to see through.
The Morganberry tail allows the wearer to breathe a short jet of fire! Once a day, the blisteringly hot flame can reach 20 feet!
The Selkie tail allows the wearer to, once a day, create a bubble around their own head, filled with fresh air. It will last for twenty minutes, allowing for any watery hiding place, or quick escape...just make sure it is rather quick.

Along with the toys are old bed sheets, clothes that an older man might wear, a lampshade, and some books on the lakes and the Benyan.
The other box can now be seen better...and is the cause of that stain on the floor, if the similar one up the side of the box bespeaks anything...inside, there are three pelts and a small number of bones.
All of the pelts look...Selkie-ish in nature and are stained with black goo or red/brown smears. All look terribly dirty and smell foul, a bit like oil or ink, actually...))



~Nathalia

[carcinoGeneticist]

Cal wasn't angry. At least, not anymore. A grating purr rumbled up from the girl and she returned his affection, practically bashing her head against him with excitement. Their words brought her back to the prize she'd stowed away in the back of the shop, and she hesitated for a moment. It was her food, she had caught it herself... But at the same time, they always shared the special food. She had even left the tongue for Fi, and it had looked like a little boy, so Cal would like it too. "Yesss, Cat finds food-meats. Special Cat-love kind," her purr deepened. Her siblings would understand how special an event this was - she'd never really been satisfied by a meal before. "She leaves some for Cal-Fi-Herelies. In cold place with cow-meats. After find bad, go there."

The small room was snuffled around in, but the most interesting thing in the room was certainly the boxes. She dug her claws into the one that Fi was also working at, and the thing came apart in their talons. Once she saw what was inside, the girl let out a squeal of delight.

"CAL! Cal, look! Tails!!" She picked one up, long and covered in shiny little sequins to mirror scales, her eyes shining brightly. "One for each!! Is not bad-thing!"

But there was a bad-thing in the room, she was sure of it.

When she snuffled towards the second box, her fur stood on end and her eyes narrowed. Vague as the memories were, this was... Familiar to her. Deeply familiar. The smell, and the colors of the rings. "Cat sees this. Before. With Lizard-Cat and Wingies and Nose." She spoke quietly, reaching out to grab one of the pelts, sniffing at it. Ugh. "On sick-meats."

This was a lovely place, Sergei thought to himself, lightly running a hand across the top of the counter, watching as the fish darted after his fingers. How long had they been unfed? After a moment's thought, he hefted himself up onto the counter and then over, back to where the workers would be. The register was locked solid, but beneath it was a small drawer. He opened it, rummaging around inside. At the back of the drawer, he found a small key. Probably to a supply closet or something along those lines...

Well. That could be useful. He hurried to the back of the shop, pausing in the doorway leading to the room Eldy was searching. "Eldy?" he called quietly. "I found a key."

[Lucca]

Eldy saw, once the dust had cleared a bit, that what she's just hit her paw on was...a bookend. A rather ugly bookend. She wouldn't have known what it was supposed to be, except that it reminded her of a sketch in one of the books in the Court library she'd skimmed when she was bored. A mythical Rabbit. But...uglier. She would have just left it there, but it had tingled oddly at her touch, which usually meant something was magical, right?

Shrugging, because Suits knew she'd done far weirder things in her life, she picked it up and hefted it a bit in her paws, wondering how...oh. It shrank. "Travel-sized for my convenience," she muttered, remembering something Thaddeus had said to her once. Suits, she missed him. Why had she left him at the Court today? With a sigh, Eldy carefully fit the small, ugly statue in her butterfly barrette as well...taking out the silver key. She'd almost forgotten about it after she hadn't needed it to unlock the door, but...right. The notes.

Eldy withdrew the binder and skimmed it, snorting as it proved to be just as strange and incomprehensible as she'd imagined, though quite a bit angrier. Someone sure hated Selkies! Which was odd considering they'd apparently lived and worked with one. Or maybe that was the reason for it. Heh!

As she read on, her amused expression slowly melted away, and the key slipped to the floor. Curses? Some of this looked serious. In fact it seemed to suggest the Benyan writer had wanted to curse the entire Realm, if she was connecting the dots right. She frowned, rubbing her paw over an ink stain and thinking about the monster. Could it...-could it- have once been a Card? She was violently thrown out of her musings by her name, and she jumped a bit and gave a started mew before turning to see Sergei.

"Sergei? Ah...so have I." She smiled and showed the silver key on the floor. "Hey, uh, Sergei...d'you think it's possible to curse an entire Realm to...I dunno, become monsters or something?" Her tone had that light, casual edge, but her eyes were concerned as she looked at the young boy.

[Harpsdesire]

Cal let out a happy gasp at Cat’s words. ”Cat-special foods?” This was a rare kind of foods that the children had found before. Nearly everything they caught or found had Fi’s special food on it, and he had managed a get a few aces here and there, as they tended to be easy prey that wasn’t often missed by other cards. Even Hearlies managed now and then to get foods to fit his particular taste. Sometimes a store-food called “veal” could be stolen for him if they were crafty enough. This was an idea Cal had hatched after finding a battered text titled “The Art and Science of Esterberry Cooking” which explained in the preface the different kinds of meats that could be found in stores. He considered this idea a great success.

Cat, on the other hand, had never gotten her most special meal. Not until today. She didn’t complain about it, but Cal was sure she must have felt horribly empty before. This, in Cal’s mind, was a momentous occasion, and he was extremely happy for his sister. He bounced a little on his feet and said, ”Oh Cat-sister! This day good day now!” He nuzzled her again and crooned, ”So nice that you share special kind foods!” He was sure that Cat’s special food must be quite amazing. It certainly was rare.

The ripped open box didn’t release anything bad, which caused the boy mixed feelings. On one hand, he was happy not to have to see the bad just yet. On the other hand, the sooner he saw it, the sooner he could stop dreading seeing it. He looked at the slightly wiggling tails and giggled, tried to let that crowd out the bad smells and feelings. Since Cat seemed to have chosen the one in warm hues, he picked up one of the blue ones. It was long and thin like a cat’s tail, and made of tattered false fur in a subdued slate-blue and slightly stained gray. He fiddled with the belt buckle a little, then shrugged and hung the thing around his neck like a fuzzy tie.

And there were—Cal made an uncontrollable little whimpering sound—books in there, too! ”Ohhhh! Books!” He already knew his siblings had little interest in his obsession, so he gathered them up himself, making soft sounds of pleasure. Too many to carry… Anything more than one was hard to fit in his beak. He stuffed as many as he could into the floral purse on his shoulder, then retrieved the fabric bag the pillow had been in for the rest. ”Boooooks.” He crooned into the bag. They were all the extra-good kind, too, hardcover with glossy picture plates in the centers. There were more things in the box, too, but Cal was too busy hugging the pillowcase to his chest to go through the rest of what was in there. ”Special day…” Trouble made a glopping noise that might have been agreement.

There were more important things to investigate anyhow, like the box that Cat was already peering into. Cal let go of the books long enough to poke his beak after her, then immediately pulled back with a snort. ”Bleh! Stinky!” Cat seemed to want to touch the things, ergh! As a cannibal, Cal wasn’t exactly the squeamish sort, but the skins smelled overwhelmingly of sick meats and a sharp smell a bit like the horseless carriages some Corvies drove. ”This bad thing?” He hoped it was, he was eager to see what Cat’s special-love food tasted like.

((Sorry to butcher posting order, but around the time everyone else is getting online I'll be gone for a few hours.))

[Callypso]

((Damn you, Harps! You beat me to the punch, LOL))

With a purely delighted grin, Fi nudged the box over to his sister so she could rip into it. He shrugged sheepishly at Cal; there hadn’t been anything in particular that would make him think there was something Bad in the box. He just liked the box. More importantly, Cal and Cat were talking and everybody was together. Except for Herelies, but he was being a good guard and watching the house.

Special Cat food-meats! Fi added emphatically. Find the Bad and then foods. Very good job, Cat. He beamed at her, nosing through the contents of the box. Cat shrieked happily, pulling out little dress-tails. Yay! Fi likes blue! Helps put on??, he asked, showing his bandages to emphasize his point.

Then he counted and gave a brief if worried frown. Uh oh. We leaves extra meats for Herelies. No tail for him. He couldn’t quite manage true remorse, he was too excited by the prospect of having a pretend tail. Hee.

On top of the tails spilled out books, and Fi looked over eagerly to see Cal’s white eyes gleaming greedily. Books for Cal! Today was better than he thought! Special Cat-meats and books and gooeys. Oh, wow!

The other box held no such wonders. Cat had already made her way over to it, sniffing gingerly, an odd look on her face that had nothing to do with the Other Place. Fi cocked a head at her, and looked in the box. His hackles raised, the nasty prickly feeling darting up and down his spine. He looked at his new play-tail and back at the pelts and bones. The fur was a similar color to his play-tail, except that something had happened to it.

Sick-meats?, Fi asked, frowning. Look sick. Look not good for eatings. He looked up at them, blank eyes serious. This was it. This was what was making his skin feel crawly and uncomfortable. He didn't really know what it was, but it was wrong. Bad Thing. Tell the other Catses and Not-Catses.

Fur still bristling wildly, he twisted his neck around and crooned at the top of his lungs. Eldy-cat!!! Fish-cat!! Cal and Fi and Cat finds Bad Thing!!

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Lariel had followed Cat into the shop. And what an amazing shop it was too! She marveled at all the glass displays and the fish behind them. She even spied a lion fish and smiled at it, flexing her fish fins out and laughed softly when the real fish did the same. "Down boy," she said to the fish, "I'm pretty sure I could take you."

The lion fish followed her as she made her way further into the building, still marveling at the place and wondering how come she'd never heard of it before! There was something off about the place, but since the entire day had been a bit off the Bobcat hadn't really noticed too much of a difference.

She'd been poking her head around, looking for any clues when one of the children called out for her. Her eyebrows went into her forhead upon seeing that all three children were now wearing colorful tails attached by belt. After watching for a few seconds she was shocked to see the thing actually moved!

"What the hell are you guys wearing?" she asked, noticing their expressions all seemed a bit... off. Frowning, she walked further into the room and towards said box. Cat was peering into the thing, obstructing all view.

"What is it? What did you guys find?" she asked, before peering over Cat's shoulder.

"Oh, Suits!" she exclaimed, stepping back and covering her nose. Those were skins! It looked as though someone had skinned Selkies! But what had been that horrible dark stuff all over the pelts? Who in all the world would want to do something so monstrous!

"Nova, Eldy!" she cried, wanting and needing the other adults to come and see this. Maybe one of them could make sense of the horrible scene. She wouldn't admit to herself that she really just wanted Nova to hold her hand again. She wanted this entire horror and freak show to be over with!

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

Bristol watched warrily as Sergei got up and walked over to the shop everyone was heading into. Nodding once at Zhenya as he passed the boy, he crossed the sidewalk and stepped into the shop. The whole thing was so colorful inside! He stood, transfixed for a few moments as he took it all in. What an ingenious bit of imagination this must have taken, not to mention the actual construction!

He tapped a clawed paw on the glass bar, watching the small fish inside swim away from him. Bristol couldn't help but wonder and hope if the glass was magically reinforced. An angry and drunk patron could easily take something hard and metal and attempt to smash out the glass, effectively flooding the whole place. People were unpredicatble. He ran his claws over the top of the bar as he made his way further into the shop.

He turned to watch as the Sorgair BiPed passed him, joining the cannibal kids in a room after one of them yelled out something about a bad thing. Sighing, he headed towards the back of the establishment where everyone else seemed to be gathering. He was so tired, mentally and physically. Couldn't they be done with all of the Bad Things?

The doorway to the room with the boxes was blocked by Lariel, so Bristol poked his head into the other room with Eldy and Sergei. They seemed to be discussing the keys they'd found, and something about putting a curse on an entire race of Cards. He thought about that. Could such a thing even be possible? No one person could have that much power, surely... but if a few people worked together... But why would anyone want to do such a thing!

Deep in thought, his gaze drifted downards until he spied Eldy's silver key on the ground. Frowning, he bent down and picked it up. Holding it in his left claws while he lifted up and held the locked silver box in his right, he compared the two. They looked so much alike!

"Erm, Eldy. Do you mind if I...?" he kind of asked, before shoving the key into the lock and turning it. He heard the small mechanism inside the lock start to move and felt excitement pulse through his body. If something was inside, maybe it could help them all out! And if it just so happened to be valuable goods, well he'd share them with Eldy since she was the one who had found the key!

[Nathalia]

((Bristol could indeed open the box! Inside, he finds:

Grey Heart: This heart seems to be made of stone, though it is oddly...warm. It tingles to the touch, but doesn't seem to do anything quite yet. This item is not automatically assigned and can be used at a later date. PM the Admin with whoever is going to be using the heart.

Moving Bag This small silk bag seems to be holding something...that beats like a heart. It cannot be opened and tingles magically to the touch. This item is not automatically assigned and can be used at a later date. PM the Admin with whoever is going to be using the bag.

One for Lucca, one for Lauryn.))



~Nathalia

[Lucca]

While Eldy was thinking about such horrifying prospects, she heard one of the children calling from the other room, sounding frantic. A few moments later, the @#$%^-cat calling, in much the same tone. Eldy's ear twitched and she frowned. She was about to leave the room to see what was up when the odd half-lizard child (she really didn't remember ever getting his name) rushed in, and grabbed instantly for her silver key.

Eldy's first impulse was to snatch it right back, but she saw he was holding a little box. Oh! "Go ahead," she muttered, the frantic voices temporarily forgotten. Her tail twitched as she watched and the box opened easily, revealing two...very strange items. She blinked once, and then again. One looked like a heart and the other beat like a heart. Good thing -that- wasn't creepy or anything. Still, they were oddly fascinating in a way, and she hadn't risked her life to get that silver key to just...ignore what it unlocked.

"You can choose first," she offered, and would take whichever item the kid didn't. Of course, as soon as it was in her paw, she glanced out the door and recalled...right. "COMING!" she yelled, and walked towards the other room at an unhurried pace. She pushed past Lariel and the door and went directly towards the children, all clustered around a box of some sort with a horrible smell coming from it.

She wrinkled her nose. "Ew. What is that?" She peered inside...and her eyes widened as she just...froze.

Selkie pelts. Horribly discolored. Diseased.

Cursed.

And on top of all of that, smelling like ink.

Eldy swore loudly.

[Kitty]

When his name was called, Nova wasted no time in rushing to Lariel's side to peer at....to.... what were those? Orange eyes widened as he stepped forward, carefully edging his way up to the weird children and staring at the box of.... pelts? They smelt like, like ink.... like the ink beasts before. Could they be, really? Were they connected?

There was really only one way to find out wasn't there? He'd probably curse himself for it later, but he bent down and stuck him hand in the box, grimacing at the feeling as he rooted around in it to see if there was anything in here but furs.

This.... this is too much of a coincidence not to be related to the things we've seen, right? The ink beasts, the names on the store front... a box of inky smelling furs?

Was that, was that something else at the bottom of the soggy box?