T - Gobbo, Satra, Bee, Lauryn

[Old Gobbo]

The shop did not make Amherst any more at ease. Truth be told, he had never really understood art. His father had taught him the ways of efficiency, of effectiveness, not beauty. These tools for an artist's trade were here to make life neither, and so Amherst had no use for them.

"I will try and find the owner," Amherst said with a certainty that he did not feel and he began to move to the back of the shop. The shelves were filled with the nicks and knacks of the trade: paints here and brushes there, so Amherst moved straight past them to a curtain that most certainly must have separated the front of the of the shop from the back.

The curtain was dark blue linen, and constellations, stars, and comets had been painstakingly drawn on it. This, Amherst could appreciate. To know the layout of the stars could help you when alone in the wild. He pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the backroom. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

[Nathalia]

Amherst had walked into what looked, comfortingly, like a normal workroom.
However, a rather abnormal thing was in it.
Or at least, it seemed to be.
A smallish child, maybe 12 or 14, was splayed out on the floor, his feet all tied up in the air with what looked like thick roots, some of which had grown into his paws!
Poor thing looked to be a Selike mix to have survived the great poisoning too! Poor thing.

Geronimo slowly regained consciousness to find Amherst towering over him, his Blobling tucked underneath of him, quivering in fear. The last thing he remembers is being chased down a very foggy street by something hidden in the mist, slithering... He was pushing Sho into a shoppe and turning to face the whatever...and then waking up here.
He feels awful and pained, like he's been beaten somehting awful...

[Satra]

Victor looked around the shop, appreciating the art as well as he could in the situation. It wasn't very much, but this shop always had nice things. Hopefully he could come back later and check out the new works. He put his bag down for a moment and decided screw social comforts, he was going to let Kirby out. He needed the blob's ability in case an emergency arose.

"Amherst, maybe we should stick toge--" Victor began as he stepped through the doorway only to find a very familiar form on the ground. "GER?!" he yelped, rushing in. He hadn't seen this kid since...

He stopped short, staring at the plants entangling him. What was that? Kirby ignored them, immediately finding his blob kin and tried coaxing the other out from hiding. He approached cautiously.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

In the vague distance of his consciousness, Geronimo thought he heard voices. And they seemed to be getting closer. His over-developed sense of self preservation began kicking in, urging his body and mind awake before The Others could get any closer. He flexed his limbs but couldn't get them to move right. Something was wrong...

Little by little, the young Feline began to slowly reemerge to the surface of his mind. He could feel control over his muscles returning and managed to slowly open his eyes. Big mistake.

Seeing a stranger standing over him Geronimo gave a panicked wail and started bucking at his restraints as though his life depended on it. Once again, he was a young kittenpup and the monstrosity of his father was experimenting on him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this wasn't Gojirra, but it didn't matter. What mattered was he had been taken and enslaved again. Where was Shoshanna?! He frantically looked around the small room but could only see the horrifyingly large bird standing over him.

The poor little Blobling had been afraid before, but now as its Master bucked and flailed around in horrible fear, the little thing would have cried if it had the ability to do so.

His screams of terror were cut short when he heard someone from behind the stranger shout out his own name. It was male, not Shoshanna and therefor shouldn't matter, but... it almost sounded familiar...
Ceasing his frantic thrashing, Geronimo was finally able to see around the large Avian and realized he was looking into the friendly face of the adult, male Feline he'd met during the Scary Times many many moons ago.

From his currently upside down view of the world, Ger watched as another of the Bloblings came towards the one hidden as much as it could be underneath his fur. The Inky Blobling stopped shivering and warbled softly in wonderment at seeing one of its own. Fear momentarily forgotten, it rushed out of hiding and bounced excitedly in a circle around the brownish colored one.

Geronimo felt a momentary pang of jealousy that his Blobby be that happy to see anyone other than him. An image of Shoshanna popped into his head, and the stubborn Feline had to admit he really did understand how the little one felt. He would give anything to know his sister was safe, inside the shop he'd shoved her into before he'd.... been.... been what? He didn't even remember what had happened after turning around. Everything was a blur.

"Something was hunting us!" Geronimo shouted, remembering the something in the mists. He urged the familiar Feline to understand how important those words were. There was Something in the Mist. And it hunted.

He finally looked down at his limbs and let out a distressed mewl. Not only was his wrists and ankles wrapped together in vines, it looked... as if... they had grown into his flesh!!

"Get them off me, GET THEM OFF!" he pleaded to the adults.

[Bee]

Tripsei was fascinated by all the little oddities of Card society--but the paintings most of all. The smears of color were enchanting and her eyes followed their lines all over the walls. Sometimes she made paintings too but they were never this good. Her art was very impressionistic. She could nearly forget about the strange aching in her own body when she looked at these things.

But it was more than the objects. There seemed to be nothing in the world anymore except their little building, and the air was heavy with pending excitement. She doubted that every day amongst these giants was so magical, but they certainly lived in a lively world...She thought wildly for a moment that if her disguise held up, she could be a Card forever, covering the world in color for a living, drowning endless canvasses in paint. But the thought was fleeting. Soon enough she would have to find a Jack, or die. Hampered, as always, by biology.

The shouting cut through her reverie. Guardherst and her now her swirly friend had left to investigate. She followed slowly and cautiously, poking her head into the room they had found. A boy, caught all up in vines, yelling from the floor, in a kind of hysteria that was hard to fathom. Two wiggling blobs of oil accompanied them and Trippy didn't like those, the amorphous shapes of anti-color.

"Shhhhh," said Trippy, suddenly a little nervous about these mist-monsters. She had no idea how to handle these...Card leverets...but she figured soothing was never a bad way to go. "Shhhhh. I think we are hidden in here but if you scream you might bring down the wrath of things and stuff upon us. We do not want their stuff. We will get you out."

[Old Gobbo]

Something was hunting them in the mists? Damn, Amherst thought. Double damn. It was good that they had gotten out of it while they could, but it had seemed to close around the shop. Amherst prayed that it didn't come in. Three cards might be too many to defend.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt to calm the poor Card that was in pain right now. Amherst knelt down next to the young Selkie. "Calm yourself, young one. You are safe now. Don't move while I free you from your restraints."

Amherst set aside his halberd and pulled out his katzbalger, the short sword he had strapped to his side. It probably wasn't best to tell the child that it meant 'cat gutter' in the old Mid-Range tongue. Amherst set the sword on the ground and slid it underneath the vines. Then, he pulled up, hard, trying to slice throught the vines.

[Nathalia]

(Just a note: the Bloblings give off a slightly frightful aura...save the owners of them, people ought not to react well to them.)

Fortune is with them, the halberd can easily cut through the vines, though the poor boy will not be able to dig them out of his flesh without serious repercussions.
A slight crashing noise could be heard from behind the group...leading them to what they might have thought was a storage closet, but actually housed a drop-down set of stairs leading to an attic...oh boy...wonder what could be up there?

[Satra]

[Nat: if the bloblings cannot communicate with each other in this manner, do correct me. I'm just going on assumption.]

Being much more viscous than his counterpart, Kirby merely wiggled in the center of the circles the other one was running around it. It then reached out and touched its nose to the other's and began making gestures that looked like a form of sign language... that involved much jiggling, blobbing and blinking. Odd little things.

"Shh, shh, Ger. Calm down," he looked over his shoulder, feeling rather paranoid. "We'll get you out..." he jumped slightly when Tripsei made herself suddenly very present. Oh, good. She was calming down Geronimo. Then Amherst freed the child. Victor wanted to offer to examine his paws, to see if there was anything he could do with his healing ability when there was suddenly a very loud crash from behind them. He spun on the spot to face the noise, claws extended and fur on end. He looked to the other members of his team, then down to Ger.

"Do your feet hurt? Can you walk?" Or run if you have to.

[Lauryn de Vampyre]

Geronimo had continued sobbing hysterically until a female had came up to him and shushed him, soothingly. He blinked at her, confused until she explained why he should be quite. If he could have gone any more pale, he would have. The thought of bringing those monsters back to find him brought fresh tears, though he did remain quiet now.

He whimpered softly as the large Avian pulled out a weapon. His words were soothing, but... he would never trust anyone again! He had been contemplating telling him no or wriggling his way off when the deed was already done! The tug of the vines right before the cut had caused him to shout in surprised pain, but he quickly shut his mouth; the woman's warning still fresh on his mind.

When he opened his eyes to look at what had been done, his limbs were free but there were still bits of the vine growing out from each of his paws. He gnawed a little at them with his iron teeth, but realized soon enough that any pulling or biting was just causing more pain. There was nothing he could do about them, for now.

Ger's little blob, still without a name, began warbling, bouncing and wiggling back at it's kin. You could practically see an entire conversation in those movements! Of course, Ger didn't understand a single thing being said but he guessed his little Blobby was happy to be with it's own again.

The crash from behind them sounded, freezing the young KittenPup and making all his fur stand on end. He opened his maw and hissed through his metal teeth at whatever had caused the noise.

Looking up at Victor he nodded, "I can," he answered softly, somehow understanding what he really meant. His paws were utterly aching but adrenaline calmed the pain somewhat. "Sh-should we, um... maybe just stay here?" he suggested, starting to feel some pain not only in his paws but all over his body. What in the name of the Suits had happened to him? It felt as though who or whatever had tied him up with those vines had taken to beating him too.

He'd felt this way many times before, after all the experiments his "Father" had done on him. He looked suddenly down at his paws. Is that what this was, an experiment?! Terror began working it's way up his spine, forcing his heart into his throat.

"I'm scared," he whimpered, forgetting there were people around him. Feeling helpless was something he never allowed himself anymore, always trying to take control of any situation. But... he just couldn't seem to get a grip on anything!

[Old Gobbo]

Amherst tried not to jump in surprise at the large sound behind him, but didn’t quite succeed. He blamed the icky black things the two children had. They unnerved him, made him jumpy. It was a set of stairs leading up. Perhaps the person who did that horrible thing to this poor child was up there. Perhaps justice should be served. A sense of self-righteousness welled up in Amherst as he took his first few steps towards the staircase and whatever lay beyond, when a small voice stopped him.

“I’m scared,” the child had said, and the words went through Amherst like a bolt of lightning. He turned back to the child and knelt down, tucking his knees and feet underneath him until he was eye-to-eye with the card.

“We are all scared, child,” Amherst began. “To be in a situation like this and not feel fear is madness. But I believe that you can be very brave. For bravery is not a lack of fear. Bravery is being scared and still doing what we need to do.” He unfolded his feet and stood to his full half-emu height. “And now, we need to find a way to get away from this mist. Will you walk with me now? Be brave together?” He took a step towards the stairs and offered the child his wing.