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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 10, 2019 15:48:03 GMT -6
As the path got narrower, so did the presence of...stuff. Fiera’s hair got caught on a branch, which in turn was caught on the roots around them. She hissed angrily and yanked it out, looking at the offending branch with one hand while rubbing the sore spot on her head with the other. It was quite strange looking, really- almost as if it had a face on it. It was interesting enough, so she slipped it in an outer pocket of her pack. As she did though, she noticed another wax leaf poking from the roots as well. Well, she always had more room for those, and slipped it into her bag as well. Might as well, eh? Victor huffed at her, the tip of his tail wagging- he was clearly eager to move on. Fiera rolled her eyes. “Oh, go on then.” She sighed, waving him forward.
Fiera 11 Victor 4.1/6.1 51
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 10, 2019 16:22:39 GMT -6
The path was getting increasingly small now. She could barely even see the top of the bank now, craning her neck way up. Still, the moon shone bright and white directly over her in the sky, cool, clear and eyelike. The roots brushed the humanish and her pet on either side, the path only two feet wide. At least the leaves weren’t getting any deeper. She was sure if they piled up any higher, Victor would have to swim through them. As it stood, he was acting as a leaf plow, pushing them aside so his owner could walk conveniently in his wake. She appreciated it, even if it wasn’t intentional. The cleaner she could keep her clothes and, more importantly, her tail, the better. As of right now, she was keeping it held high behind her, away from any offending dirty leaves or low hanging tree roots.
Fiera 12 Victor 4.2/6.2 52
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 10, 2019 16:30:47 GMT -6
At least the end was finally in sight. The path got even narrower ahead, such that she would have to shimmy through it and Victor’s horns would scrape the sides. Once she was through however, she could see that there was some manner of clearing beyond the gap. She just had to get through it. It was abundantly clear that this wasn’t a normal foot path by this point, obviously. It was long and straight though, so at least Fiera knew she wasn’t in danger of getting lost. And this month didn’t seem DANGEROUS, just... tricky in nature. If she got lost, it would probably be easy enough to find the front gates again. For now though, the pair of them had to get through this gap. Victor didn’t seem dissuaded at all, plowing through the roots and ripping them from their moorings like they were nothing.
Fiera 13 Victor 4.3/6.3 53
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 10, 2019 17:06:07 GMT -6
Fiera was happy for it- the less dirt they could wipe onto her outfit, the better. Victor kept pulling though, as she tried to shimmy through the gap. As a result, she kept getting dragged into the wall of dirt, scraping up against it. Whatever there was beyond the gap, it was enough to easily excite Victor, making Fiera practically jet ski through the leaves. She heard him growl faintly, something catching his interest. “Alright, alright, I’m coming.” She huffed, and tried to shuffle through without getting her tail yanked off. The roots scraped at her face, and she had to try as hard as she could not to sneeze. She was really hoping that spleen in her backpack wasn’t getting squished. Or that tiny dollhouse. She’d have to check her bag after this, make sure nothing got destroyed. And if it did... well, it happened sometimes.
Fiera 14 Victor 4.4/6.4 54
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 10, 2019 17:45:42 GMT -6
Finally, Fiera popped out from the end of the passage into the clearing, where Victor was waiting quite impatiently for her. She waved his disapproving look away, examining her new environment instead. The mist wasn’t light and airy like in the previous area. Instead it hung heavy, reducing visibility to about twenty feet. There was nothing but low bushes interspersed with trees here, each equally bare and gnarled. Unlike before though, they were coated in huge, thick spiderwebs. Fiera cringed at the idea of how big those spiders would have to be... before remembering that the labs had already made giant spiders. Did weavers live in the mansion? They were smart as far as Fiera knew, so they probably wouldn’t do too poorly here. Regardless though, these webs seemed to be long since deserted by their inhabitant... but maybe Fiera could find some goodies in what they left behind.
Fiera 15 Victor 5.0/7.0 55
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Post by Renathan on Oct 10, 2019 18:36:40 GMT -6
Whispers.
It sounds as though a ghostly child stands nearby, whispering strange phrases. Some of them are nonsensical, some of them are sickeningly sweet, and others are quite disquieting. Eventually the voice peters out, in it's place comes an unmistakable sound.
A giggle.
At first, it was small, and quiet, like a child far away. Then it slowly got louder, and more and more distorted. The sound became faster and slower, higher and lower in pitch, like someone was fiddling with an old record player. Was it just one voice, or many? It was so hard to tell. Soon, all that could be heard was the laughing and one's own beating heart.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 8:15:09 GMT -6
Just as she was going to go look however, Victor's ears flicked up, as if listening to something. She turned, as if to look at what he was looking at... only to hear a single giggle float through the woods. Fiera frowned. "Is someone there?" She said, a challenge as opposed to an inquiry. That was the wrong response it would have seemed, as her question was responded to with more whispers, ones that Fiera couldn't make out but could tell definitely weren't friendly. Victor's ears were flat down now, a loud growl emitting from his throat. Fiera could feel her own ears curl back as well, but kept them facing straight forward, refusing to show fear. "Hey! Who's there!" She repeated. Prankster or not, she wasn't going to just sit there and take this. Victor's hackles raised even further, the flames on his back flaring up and getting hotter.
Fiera 16 Victor 5.1/7.1 56
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 8:19:55 GMT -6
The shout quieted the mysterious voices almost instantly, and the humanish leaned back on her heels, satisfied. It was just more mansion nonsense. Before she could get comfortable however, it returned in full force. More giggles than before, no longer coming from some unknown location deep in the woods, instead sounding as if they were right next to her ear, floating around her. DEFINITELY mansion nonsense. Victor snarled and leapt, clamping his teeth around thin air. Fiera wasn't sure if he could see something she couldn't, or if he was just as confused about this as she was. The giggles only seemed to find his reaction hilarious however, their tone reaching a fever pitch and evolving in guffaws and laughter. It was like she was caught in the laugh track of a bad sitcom, if missing the live studio audience. The voices were no longer those of a small, innocent child either.
Fiera 17 Victor 5.2/7.2 57
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 8:24:36 GMT -6
Instead, the voices started deepening or becoming more high pitched. It was as if they were played on a tape recorder or record player and some shmuck was screwing around with the rewind and fast forward functions. There was definitely more than one voice now, all of them practically screaming in her ears. Fiera saw no way to get rid of them, no way to escape. She highly doubted that running would do anything against ghost voices, and her and Victor would probably just get caught in a spider web regardless. Instead, all she could think to do was to ride out the storm. She sat down on the dry leaves beneath her, the crackles of them breaking no longer audible to hear ears with the volume of the voices. She kept a close grip on Victor's leash as he continued to howl and lash out at the phantom voices.
Fiera 18 Victor 5.3/7.3 58
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 8:29:40 GMT -6
Fiera couldn't even hear her arcane rakai's howling anymore, as loud as it was. He seemed to be having an absolute meltdown over there too. She knew this must suck even more for him than it did for her- she was pretty sure rakai sarane had more sensitive hearing than most humanish did. She was now practically sitting on his leash though to keep him from bolting. She knew he likely wanted to do that more than anything, but Fiera ALSO knew that she'd never find him again if he ran off. Eventually though, he seemed to give up, just lying on the ground and rubbing his ears against it. She couldn't blame him for that either. The voices were practically screaming by this point, sounding like they were more in pain then they were in joy. Just a constant, overwhelming alarm, permeating the air around them with an endless scream.
Fiera 19 Victor 5.4/7.4 59
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 8:33:14 GMT -6
Soon, the 'laughter' had reached a fever pitch, the voices blending together, and all Fiera could hear was the eternal screech and her own heartbeat, pounding in her ears. And then, as soon as it came... it stopped. "Ah, crap." Fiera thought to herself. "I've gone deaf." She groaned in disapproval... and then realized she could hear it. Victor looked up at her, whuffing quietly, as if he had come to the same realization. Then, he surged on the leash again, barking madly at the woods as if to say. "Take that! I can be loud too! That's right, go away!" Fiera let him, just happy that the noises hadn't caused any permanent damage. She snapped her fingers next to each ear... yeah, she was fine. It was as if the voices were never there at all. She couldn't even hear a breeze from the woods- just pure, blessed silence.
Fiera 20 (Level up!) Victor 6.0/8.0 60
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 9:20:20 GMT -6
She supposed it really was mansion nonsense, as she stood back up again. She flicked her ears- they weren't even ringing, despite the assault upon them not a minute earlier. The voices probably weren't real at all, no actual sound waves, just magic tomfoolery. Another trick. She sighed and stretched- well, she'd better get back to it. Victor still seemed a little hesitant to go, however, and wouldn't get back up from his sitting position with a few tugs of his leash. Well, that was fine. She sat back down again. Might as well take a bit of a break anyway, take some inventory of her items. They had just entered a new area, too. Victor probably wanted to sniff around a bit, get used to his new surroundings. Fiera felt like she had gotten the idea already, but pets were usually a bit more sensitive to those sorts of things.
Fiera 1 Victor 6.1/8.1 61
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 9:32:35 GMT -6
Once her backpack was unzipped, Fiera took a dig around through it. She had collected a fair amount of things already. Some stuff she had already dropped back off at home though- she figured it was worth emptying her bag when she brought Escobar back, and that was looking to be a good idea. She had gathered a LOT of things since she had first come to the mansion this month. First was her wax leaves- judging from her inventory list, she had about four of those already. She admittedly couldn't place WHY she felt the need to collect them, but she was. They were just kind of neat, you know? Then, there was the various knick knacks and trinkets she kept finding around the mansion grounds. So far she had found a tiny model mansion, like a dollhouse but slightly smaller, delicate in structure but with interestingly glowing windows.
Fiera 2 Victor 6.2/8.2 62
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 9:36:02 GMT -6
It was interesting to be sure, and could probably fetch her a pretty penny, but she had to be careful with it or else it would break in her backpack. Then, on the opposite end of the scale was... a weird stick she had found in the roots of the embankment. It had some lumps on it that made it look like it had a funny face, but that was really all there was that was special about it. Still, it was cute enough that Fiera felt the need to take it with her. Then, there were the various... pocket pets? That she had found. Pocket pets were a definite thing in the labs- tiny little animals, no bigger than your hand, and untrainable by Lab standards. They were more collection pieces than actual animals, as far as the citizens of the labs were concerned. Fiera liked them well enough.
Fiera 3 Victor 6.3/8.3 63
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Oct 11, 2019 9:42:01 GMT -6
The ones she had found so far though were not your mother's pocket pets. Pocket pets were supposed to be cute, tiny, affectionate and enticing. These ones were... weird. The little bottled shadows seemed outright aggressive, snarling at her from inside their (thankfully, sealed tight) jars and orbs. She was sure she'd lose a finger- and the pocket pet- if she let them out. And then there was the... spleen. It wasn't aggressive, but it certainly wasn't affectionate. Or, really, pleasant in any way. It was a slow, cold and slimy lump of flesh, randomly waving around its blind feeler. She had moved it to a sandwich baggie she had in her bag, and thankfully that seemed to keep it from getting slime all over the bag's interior. It seemed quite happy in there too, not really needing air and just squidging from one end of the bag to the other.
Fiera 4 Victor 6.4/8.4 64
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