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Post by Renathan on Sept 24, 2019 17:35:16 GMT -6
  More squishy plums sit nearby... But it looks like a little goblin has them under the crosshairs too! Better go get 'em! |
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Post by Noa on Oct 8, 2019 19:36:27 GMT -6
“She knows what’s dangerous. She has a whole database about what is and isn’t safe for her to engage with,” Aster said. He hadn’t expected to be back on this point again, but here they were. He didn't say that Rhys lacked the knowledge to make those sorts of decisions, since he didn't think that particular point would go over too well with the Felusine at the moment, but he didn't... not say it either.
{But the creature she’s taking care of is dangerous,} said Rhys.
“Yes,” Aster said. He didn't try to deny that point. The thought of the half breed made him frown. The half breed had taken a shine to Rabbit, for some inscrutable reason; and since it wasn’t causing any more trouble for now, Aster let it be, but... Aster didn't know if he trusted the fragile equilibrium that Rabbit had established there.
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Post by Noa on Oct 8, 2019 19:56:07 GMT -6
{So what's the difference? Why don't you stop her?} said Rhys.
Aster sighed. He was beginning to understand a little what a parent felt like, explaining rules to their kids. "Rabbit... Well, we don't have that much of a choice when it comes to that half breed. If I could take care of it, I would. And Rabbit's... better equipped to deal with that kind of thing, with her database and the metal armor and all." Rhys, on the other hand, was soft and easily crushed--- or crisped, as it were.
Rhys stared at him for a moment, and Aster thought that maybe he would try to argue the point further, but in the end, he seemed to give up on it for the moment. He looked back down, maybe to search for more apples, but it was at that point that Aster, also searching for them, realized that the apples were gone.
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Post by Noa on Oct 8, 2019 20:07:05 GMT -6
In fact, everything was gone. The grass was actually withering right before their eyes. Aster looked up, startled; he hadn't thought... Clearly he had miscalculated the time of their approach, and put them too close to the end of the month. Now they were trapped here on the property while the change was happening, and Aster didn't know whether they would be safe here at all.
And the month that they were in now... This would be October. Aster had been here in October before, and his general memory of it was much less relaxed and idyllic than September. The trees in the courtyard were already a reflection of that, having gone from simply being trees devoid of all their leaves, with a few apples still left hanging on the branches, to gnarled and wizened things that were markedly more crooked than he remembered their having been just a few moments ago.
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Post by Noa on Oct 8, 2019 20:12:29 GMT -6
{What's happening?} said Rhys. He didn't sound alarmed, but he did sound as though he was just waiting for a reason to be concerned. Aster felt that if he panicked, then Rhys was sure to follow his example. Put it another way, it was imperative that he put on at least the outward veneer of calm so as not to unsettle Rhys, if he could.
Which, for the moment, he could. After all, it wasn't as though anything had actually happened to them yet. "It's changing," Aster said. "This place... changes with the months of the year. Before you ask me why, I don't know either. As far as I know, no one actually knows the reason. It just... showed up one day and started doing all this weird stuff, I guess."
{That's...} Rhys inclined his head, looking as though he were thinking hard about what Aster had just told him.
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Post by Noa on Oct 8, 2019 20:14:59 GMT -6
He didn't quite question what Aster had said, but his tone suggested that he felt rather dubious about this whole thing. And Aster didn't blame him for it either. If he had been the one listening, he would have felt that it was strange too. Even now, it didn't make a whole lot of sense to him, but the house had been here for so long, and he had managed to poke around here enough times without any lasting damage, that he had just sort of grown used to the idea of it. It was still strange, but it was a strange thing that he had become acquainted with, and familiarity dulled some of the absurdity.
"We can leave if you want," Aster said. October was hardly his favorite time of year to be here anyway. The place just looked so... unsettling, with even the paint job of the house going dark.
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Post by Renathan on Oct 8, 2019 20:18:55 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Oct 12, 2019 12:23:23 GMT -6
{No!} said Rhys, a little too quickly. Then he seemed to catch himself, and tried again, with a calmer, more even tone: {No, let's not. I want to see a little more.}
"So you're curious about this place, are you?" said Aster. But he didn't refuse either, and he didn't make any moves toward the gate. If Rhys wanted to see more about this place, then so be it. Aster had taken him out on this excursion to give him a little change of pace, after all. He did have his own personal misgivings, but maybe it would be alright to be here only just after the change. Maybe October would be ushered in quietly, without its usual... well...
... They could always leave if things got bad. "We can stay," he said, "but we aren't going inside the house." Being in an enclosed space on these grounds in October was just about the last thing he wanted.
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Post by Noa on Oct 12, 2019 12:26:18 GMT -6
{Alright,} Rhys agreed. {I'll stay outside.} Aster suspected he was curious about what was inside the house, and Aster's forbidding him to go there would make him more curious still, but fortunately Rhys didn't argue the point. And there was plenty for him to see outside too, though frankly Aster wouldn't have called it much to look at--- or at least not much to look at that would give anyone any pleasure, unless your tastes ran along stranger lines. The place had gone from looking merry with fall to looking absolutely dead with it. He'd noticed the way the trees seemed to become wizened earlier, and now the whole place seemed to be getting... darker, somehow. The sun was still overhead, but clouds were moving in...
... Clouds were moving in all over the place. It wasn't just in the sky. There seemed to be a chill fog creeping in along the grounds too.
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Post by Noa on Oct 12, 2019 12:30:30 GMT -6
The temperature in the air felt colder, and it made Aster wish he had dressed a bit warmer, though he was already dressing plenty warm enough as it was, by most people's standards. It was simply that he had never coped very well with the cold, and moreover, he hated it. Fall was his second least favorite season, trumped only by the unbearable gloom and chill of winter itself. Fall wasn't as bad on its own, but it was a season of transition, and the looming specter of shorter days and colder temperatures tended to put Aster in a bad mood from sheer anticipation, well before the true unpleasantness had actually arrived.
Rhys walked on, and Aster followed him, though he did it with his hands stuffed firmly in his pockets, shoulders hunched against the cold. The leaves that now carpeted the grounds crunched underfoot as they made their way along.
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Post by Noa on Oct 12, 2019 12:33:45 GMT -6
On another occasion, the sound might have been crisp and cheery, but something about the current atmosphere about this place robbed it of even that. Aster spared a glance in Rhys's direction, to see if the Felusine was at all affected by it, but for the moment Rhys seemed to be oblivious. Or maybe he was deliberately ignoring it, and determined to make as much of this excursion as possible. Neither option was out of the question, though Aster didn't want to know badly enough to bring himself to ask.
{Oh, I think I see something over there,} Rhys said, indicating one of the trees. Almost immediately, Aster had his guard up. He wasn't sure he wanted to see whatever it was. This time of year, anything they found couldn't be nice or edible, could it? It was probably just some twisted looking little creature rummaging around in dead leaves for bugs.
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Post by Noa on Oct 12, 2019 12:37:15 GMT -6
Nothing he could do to stop Rhys from trying to investigate though, short of barking out a 'no'... He was deliberating whether this occasion really warranted it, but by then Rhys had already gone in for a closer look. "Hey," Aster began, but Rhys didn't seem alarmed by what he saw, so Aster forced himself to stand down a little.
{Look at this! Someone's lost their cloak. It's just hanging here on this tree branch,} Rhys said.
Aster frowned, and followed to where Rhys was now standing. Sure enough, just as he had said, there was a tattered looking red cloak hanging from a branch. It looked as though it had been something fine once, but that had been a long time ago. Now it was clearly an abandoned thing, torn up and moth eaten and stained with mud and who knows what else.
{Can we take it with us?} Rhys said.
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Post by Jack on Oct 12, 2019 12:47:46 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Oct 12, 2019 12:54:41 GMT -6
"What do you want a tatty old cloak for?" said Aster, in a tone that wasn't so much refusal or protest so much as he was just baffled at the prospect of what Rhys was asking for.
But by that point, Rhys was no longer listening to him. The Felusine's attention had been caught by something else, and he turned, ears swiveling about as though to search for the source of what he had noticed.
Aster saw it too, but only after Rhys had stopped moving, and only by following the line of Rhys's sight. Some sort of... spectral thing was there. He'd always thought the place might be haunted, but to see it confirmed...
It was Rhys who moved first, yet again. {Um, hello!} he said, and from the way he pitched it, Aster knew that Rhys wasn't speaking to him. {Do you live here? Are we, er, intruding on you?}
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Post by Jack on Oct 12, 2019 13:19:46 GMT -6
Taking a step back, the Specter tilted it's head, unsure of what to do about these two... Beings. It let out a small bowl, throwing it's head back and then glanced back to see their reaction.
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