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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 19, 2019 10:30:42 GMT -6
Fiera gave the hole one last go over, just to be sure she hadn't missed anything. It had been a font of interesting items so far, at least. Even Fern had come over, sniffing at the water. Fiera gently moved her head away. "I can't see, ya big dummy." Fern snorted, and laid down next to the gap. Fiera's hand went impossibly deep- was there some sort of cave under the house? Or was this more magic? Regardless, she was about to draw her hand out and abandon the search when her fingers brushed against something on the side of the hole. She nearly fumbled it into the deep water, but managed to catch it again just in time. As she drew out her hand, she realized it was nothing but a shiny pebble. Wait, no... she flipped it over, and found it was a small seashell instead! She couldn't recall the type though- her homeland wasn't anywhere near the coast.
Fiera 13 Fern Lv 12.3/Lo 14.3 13
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 19, 2019 10:34:05 GMT -6
Was it a... cow shell? Fiera knew that wasn't quite right- cows didn't have shells. But she couldn't think of anything else, so she decided to call it that, just for now. All she knew was that it was tiny (the size of one of her knuckles), brown, shiny, and very very smooth. She unzipped her bag, and slipped it into an unzipped side pocket. It was tiny, but hopefully it wouldn't get lost or crushed in the mess. She stood up again, hefting the bag over one shoulder, and nudged Fern with her foot. "You ready to go, big girl?" She asked, smiling. Fern's tail wagged, and the rakai sarane yawned and stretched, her scales standing on end. Finally, she stood up, and trotted after Fiera. She pet the rakai's head affectionately. "Aren't you good and patient." She said. "Don't worry though, I'm sure we'll have a lot more adventure shortly."
Fiera 14 Fern Lv 12.4/Lo 14.4 14
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 19, 2019 10:37:19 GMT -6
Fiera walked toward the next door, ready to move on. Strangely, even though it was further inside the house, there was a window next to it. Like many of the others in the house, it was lead lined and heavy, encrusted with salt and grime, and so thick and warped that it was impossible to see through. Despite that however, she could see the light of a candle flame- or many? Flickering through the door. Granted, this was a magic house, so what she was seeing in the window might not be what was actually in the room, but she wouldn't know until she went to find out. The door itself was nondescript- water warped wood with a tarnished bronze doorknob. The knob was hanging half out of its placing, any locking mechanism long broken. She grasped it and pulled, half expecting it to rip out of the door. Instead, it swung open cleanly.
Fiera 15 Fern Lv 13.0/Lo 15.0 15
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Post by Jack on Jul 19, 2019 10:38:24 GMT -6
A little spotted shell lay on the floor in front of you.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 19, 2019 12:10:07 GMT -6
The first thing she noticed upon entering the room was a little skittering noise. She looked down, and noticed that she had ended up kicking another shell across the floor. She leaned down to pick it up, rolling it between her fingers and smiled. Another cow shell! Or whatever they were called. She was pretty sure it was cow shell. Unlike the first one she found, which was a dark brown, this one was golden brown, with a variety of white spots and a white underbelly. She wondered if those spots were why they were called cow shells. Uh, that is, if they were called cow shells. She dropped her bag again, using it to prop open the door, unzipped the inner pocket, and popped the little shell back in with its kin. If she collected enough, perhaps she could craft a necklace out of them. Regardless, it was hers now.
Fiera 16 Fern Lv 13.1/Lo 15.1 16
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 19, 2019 15:07:19 GMT -6
Finally, she looked up at the room around her. Ah, at least the glow of the candle had been accurate- there were candles on just about every open surface, coating the room in wax. Fiera pulled on her shirt- they made the room about ten degrees hotter than the last one, while still somehow not lighting it up well. Fern seemed to enjoy it at least, though she supposed that was just the nature of rakai sarane. The hound was immediately interested in the room, walking under tables and sniffing and candles, accidentally putting a couple of them out. Fiera made her way through quietly. The less time she could spend in this room, the better, she thought. It was an inferno just waiting to happen. "Ah, Fern! No!" She said, putting a hand out as Fern nearly nosed over a tall, skinny candle. Yeah, that was a disaster averted.
Fiera 17 Fern Lv 13.2/Lo 15.2 17
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 19, 2019 15:12:58 GMT -6
The room also had a variety of horizontal surfaces on which to place the candles. Dozens of shelves and tables were scattered around the room, making Fiera have to pick her way around carefully to avoid knocking anything over. She also noted that the tables were covered in sheets and sheets of papers. She picked one up, half-covered in wax. It was old and yellowed, with words written in a language she didn't recognize. She took a glance at some other papers. Inventories of items she had never heard of. Maps of places that didn't exist, with horrifying creatures lining the edges of them. The room was similar to a mockery of a captain's quarters she realized, stuffed to the gills with paperwork and writing implements. She opened a drawer curiously. As she thought, it was filled with unlit candles, but also (mostly empty) bottles of ink and bedraggled quills.
Fiera 18 Fern Lv 13.3/Lo 15.3 18
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 19, 2019 15:22:53 GMT -6
She closed the drawer, and spent a good ten seconds keeping the precarious candles from falling over. This room was a deathtrap (what with all of the old, crumbly, and dry papers), but at least it was an interesting deathtrap. She didn't want to burn it all down quite yet. She wondered how that would even affect the rest of the mansion. Would the fire be restricted to one room? Could some one else open a door somewhere else into the blazing inferno, without any clue it was there? Or would she end up burning down the whole building? That thought was also interesting. Nobody really owned the mansion, she didn't think, so could you be arrested for arson for burning it down? If a magical, ever shifting mansion burns down in the forest with nobody around, is it really a smoldering pile of ash? ...Probably, but Fiera would be careful to not be there when it happened.
Fiera 19 Fern Lv 13.4/Lo 15.4 19
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 19, 2019 15:28:22 GMT -6
Fiera decided to dig through more cabinets, finding them stuffed with more papers, in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and conditions. Some were filled with holes and faded to the point of illegibility, some got ink on her hands and papercuts on her fingers with how fresh they were. All of them were incomprehensible, however. Some looked like just keysmashes, with no organization or grammar. Others appeared perfectly written, but in a language that she (and likely everybody) didn't know. A part of her wondered if they were in some way purposeful, or if it really was the mansion making things up, copying off of a template that regular people weren't privy to. She shut another cabinet and turned to Fern, who was happily eating some paper under a table. "Enjoying yourself, sweetie?" She laughed. Fern replied by sticking her head under another pile of papers, partially glued together with melted wax.
Fiera 20 (Level up!) Fern Lv 14.0/Lo 16.0 20
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Post by Renathan on Jul 19, 2019 23:50:52 GMT -6
A beautiful seaglass necklace lay nearby, with a cowry shell near that.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 29, 2019 12:25:51 GMT -6
Fiera turned away from Fern, laughing and shaking her head. What a goof! She opened a few more cabinets. Nothing, nothing... oh, what was that? She reached into the back of a particularly deep drawer, and her hand closed around something small, hard, and definitely not the same texture as a candle or ahead of paper. She drew her arm back, brushing against something else as she dragged it into the orange light. Another cow shell! This one was also brown in color, but with the same glossy sheen as the first one. Not a bad find, though she did wonder how it ended up in a drawer. Had the theoretical captain thrown it in there on its own, or was it once part of a bigger structure? Had whatever snail that wore it originally die in there? That was a gross thought, as Fiera remembered where seashells came from.
Fiera 1 Fern 14.1/16.1 21
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 29, 2019 12:50:06 GMT -6
She decided quickly that it would be best not to think about it, as she put the shell away with the other ones. Snails were just kind of sea bugs, and she wasn’t a huge fan of bugs. Insectine pets such as Formica, Weavers, Golossle and Vespa scared her, and even the six little chitinous legs on Zazzle, her seaspray inkrum, freaked her out a bit. Those kinds of animal were just weird, you know? Too far from human to be cute, but they moved in such odd (and frequently fast) ways that it was scary. At least snails were slow, and at least the rest of Zazzle’s body was a weird hodge podge of parts, so there was no use focusing on any one thing. Snails were still pretty gross though, what with the slime. She was very glad that you only harvested seashells after they were long dead.
Fiera 2 Fern 14.2/16.2 22
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 29, 2019 13:15:29 GMT -6
What else to think about so she didn’t have to think about bugs... oh yeah! Didn’t she feel something else in the drawer? She stuck her hand back in, searching around through the papers and wax. Then, she felt a lump under one of the papers. She grabbed it, whispering under her breath. “Please, please don’t be a candle.” She pulled it out, and felt weight shifting, making her smile. Oh yeah, that was no candle. Candles don’t feel like dragging along something on a string. Finally, she pulled it all the way out and beheld it in the light, and she gasped in awe. It was a necklace! And not a cheap one either, with a delicate silver chain and dozens of shards of colorful sea glass making up the intricate pendant, reflecting motes of multicolored light around the room. She immediately put it on, as if possessed.
Fiera 3 Fern 14.3/16.3 23
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 29, 2019 13:23:54 GMT -6
It fell perfectly on her chest, cool on her skin. It reflected the light gently, and brought attention to. Well, assets that she had. It was perfect! Was she really allowed to just... keep something like this though? She knew that The Eccentric’s Mansion was open to the public to scavenge, but so far she hadn’t found anything truly valuable. A few seashells, an interesting lump of ice, so on and so forth. This necklace was different, however. Unlike everything else she had found in the mansion, it had real value and could really be missed if someone just took it. Could Fiera really just take it? ...She was definitely going to take it home with her, but the question was whether or not doing so was stealing. She was fine with being a thief, it was just the general principle of it that she was wondering about.
Fiera 4 Fern 14.4/16.4 24
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jul 29, 2019 13:34:41 GMT -6
Thankfully, Fern was there to break Fiera out of her philosophical mood. Fiera’s tail pooped up as she heard her Rakai yelp and spun around, fully expecting the worst. A table of candles knocked over, resulting in a firestorm that Fiera would have to drag Fern out of by the collar. Instead, the situation was still a shame, but not nearly as bad as her anxiety was expecting. Fern had been sniffing at a particularly large candle that had clearly been lit for a while, and had knocked it over, right onto her own head. Fiera rushed forward as the rakai sarane shook her head, dripping with hot wax. “Oh, you big dummy.” Fiera chided, but couldn’t bring herself to have a scolding tone. She held Fern’s head, and carefully wiped the wax away from her eyes. It was drying fast, however, and she didn’t have anything to get it out with. Fiera sighed. “Fine, lets get you home then. Can’t exactly leave you like that, now can I.”
Fiera 5 Fern 15.0/17.0 25 (Fiera temporarily leaves the mansion.)
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