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Post by Noa on Apr 29, 2020 16:07:44 GMT -6
Aster hoped this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass, but with the way the Mansion was, who could say? As it was, he had no idea why any of this was happening, but after a while he had learned to stop thinking about things with regards to the mansion. No one knew; there were no real answers waiting for him. All he could do was do his best not to get caught off guard when something untoward happened, which was occasionally the case. That was easier said than done though, especially with a creature with whom he was so unfamiliar.
Still, it didn't seem as if it was dangerous for the moment, just uncomfortable and confusing. So he stepped up to the gate and gave it a push, just to see what would happen. Maybe it wouldn't even open, and then the question of whether or not to go in would be moot.
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Post by Noa on Apr 29, 2020 16:08:55 GMT -6
Would that he would be so lucky. Somehow Aster doubted it would be that simple. It could be, and yet it somehow never was, when push came to shove, in this place.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Malii watching him with interest. At least he thought it was interest, anyway. It might well have just been satisfaction that the bumptious human was finally doing something that he wanted. If the Malii was smart enough to be on par with humanoids, then manipulation was certainly not beyond its scope. Hell, even creatures without quite that level of intelligence learned to manipulate others sometimes, especially if they were social creatures.
Come to that though, were Malii social creatures? He didn't know enough about them to say. He had never seen a great congregation of them, but then he didn't interact with Mali much at all in the general sense.
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Post by Noa on Apr 29, 2020 16:09:23 GMT -6
They looked a bit like cats and foxes, two species that were generally not known for their social habits, but that didn't necessarily mean anything in these parts. The creatures here were all lab made, and this one wasn't even a standard breed that he could look up in those creature guides that got distributed every once in a while. With custom engineered creatures and mixed breed offspring, you could get any number of traits. The only thing he knew for sure about this one was that this Malii had some Foxfire blood in him, and even that was on dubious authority. He didn't have paperwork, only hearsay from the seller, and that had been some time ago, in fact.
Well, if the Malii spoke, that would confirm that much. And if he didn't, then he didn't. For now, the gate swung open, and Aster headed cautiously in, one slow step at a time.
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Post by Noa on Apr 29, 2020 16:09:54 GMT -6
The Mali didn't have the same qualms that he did, evidently. The Mali slipped right past him onto the grounds, taking off at a smart trot with his head held low. Aster watched him go with a dubious expression, but the lawn didn't immediately open up to swallow the poor creature, so there was that, at least. It didn't make Aster trust this place any more, especially with it looking and sounding the way it did, but it was reassuring in the barest minimum sense of the word that stepping in wasn't immediately fatal. Or even immediately harmful, as far as he could see. "You're really going for it, huh?" he remarked to the Malii.
The Mali stood for a moment, looking back at him, one ear angling away at a sound that Aster couldn't hear. That didn't surprise him though. Malii had much sharper hearing than he did. A lot of creatures did.
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Post by Noa on Apr 29, 2020 16:11:10 GMT -6
Human hearing wasn't anything to write home about, and none of Aster's non human features helped him on that front, sadly.
But then again, maybe it was for the best. He didn't know if he wanted to be able to hear all the things that the Malii was hearing right now, or even under normal circumstances. Besides, it wasn't as if he couldn't just train a guard creature to listen for things for him, and let him know if there was anything worth paying attention to.
The Malil's interest quickly waned, however, which wasn't surprising as Aster wasn't doing anything else. Something else caught the Malii's attention almost immediately, and he followed the sound or scent or whatever it was deeper into the grounds.
And Aster, for the sake of keeping an eye on that Mali, followed him in. Whatever his qualms, he felt that they did have to stick together.
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Post by Renathan on Apr 29, 2020 17:09:56 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Apr 30, 2020 18:23:08 GMT -6
There were distractions aplenty even for those whose hearing wasn't terribly remarkable, in the form of little dancing lights and visions, laughter audible to human ears, and gods knew what else that he wasn't even trying to parse. But Aster ignored them all. He felt that if he took his eyes off the Malii for even a moment, the Malii would be lost to him, and he would never be able to track him down again.
He wasn't usually paranoid to quite this degree over the mansion, but its current configuration had him on edge. It wasn't even bothering to hold a coherent shape right now, from the couple of glances he had taken at it earlier, so he definitely didn't trust it to adhere to the concept of object permanence.
He didn’t know if his hunch would prove to be correct--- part of the whole point of following the Malii closely was to make sure he didn’t have to find out.
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Post by Noa on Apr 30, 2020 18:23:18 GMT -6
But he was rewarded for his vigilance not long after, when he saw the Malii bolting off deeper into the grounds. The Malii had been going at a walk or a trot up until now, but Aster supposed something must have really caught and held his attention. Or maybe it was just that whatever he was looking at was moving fast too. There were plenty of little creatures lurking around the mansion most months, and Aster hardly saw any reason for this month to be any different. And they did provide good chase for many of the creatures that Aster had had accompany him here, up to and including Rhys, who at his level of intelligence ought to have known better. If they were good enough for Rhys, Aster figured they were good enough for this Malii.
At this point, rather than curse any more under his breath, he had more or less resigned himself to what was happening.
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Post by Noa on Apr 30, 2020 18:24:06 GMT -6
They were going to do this, then. Aster gave chase, doing his best to keep the Malii in his sights, which was becoming a lot harder now that it was running properly. Aster was fast for a humanoid, but the Malii was certainly faster, and as of yet had no inclination to slow down for his sake in the slightest.
He wasn’t out of shape, but if this went on for much longer he would definitely be out of breath. And then he would have to stop, if only because his body could only be pushed so far. Damn it.
“Wait!” he called out, as a last ditch attempt to get the Malii to slow down. He doubted the Malii had been around people long enough to pick up too much Common, even in terms of comprehension, but maybe the Malii knew some words nevertheless.
But then, even if he did, there was no guarantee he would listen.
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Post by Noa on Apr 30, 2020 18:24:44 GMT -6
“Wait, you stupid---” Aster said, his temper getting the better of him for a moment. If he thought about it for even half a second he would have come to the conclusion that this would hardly help anything. If the Malii understood, then he would certainly be less predisposed to listen to Aster than ever, after this outburst. If the Malii didn’t, well… tone was easier to read than words, and this didn’t paint Aster in the best light there either, did it?
Needless to say, it didn’t work. The Malii kept going, and what was worse, Aster was just fast enough to see the Malii duck into a hedge maze of all things. “Oh for the love of---” he said, and came to a stop at last, breathing hard. There was no point in giving chase now, not when the Malii had chosen that kind of place to run into.
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Post by Noa on Apr 30, 2020 18:25:08 GMT -6
If the Malii came back to him, that was that, but Aster wasn’t going to be able to find anyone or anything in that maze if that wasn’t what the Mansion intended for him. Even as he thought this, he could see the hedges shifting around. The shapes of faces formed on the sides, wrought from leaves, some held in expressions of agony, while others seemed as though they were laughing at him. He watched them and tried not to feel nauseated at the sight of it.
He knew that coming in here would be a bad idea.
If the Malii had his own reasons not to be wary of the mansion, then… Well, they did have magic of their own, so he’d heard. Maybe that would be enough to grant this one some protection from the mansion’s… whatever it was, magic or mumbo jumbo or straight up curse.
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Post by Renathan on Apr 30, 2020 22:52:21 GMT -6
A small pack of cards and a single vial are nearby.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2020 2:24:06 GMT -6
Aster didn't know what possessed him to come back to the mansion so soon after the previous month, and with the same Malii to boot. Their last little adventure had gone... well, maybe 'terribly' was a strong word for what had actually happened, which was not very much, and no one had really been hurt by the end of it. The Malii had, by some miracle, been spat unceremoniously out by the hedge mage none the worse for wear, except possibly for some wounded dignity on the Malii's part. Aster didn't know. The Malii didn't seem any more compelled to listen to anything Aster was saying, nor to produce any words of his own, despite apparently being capable of it.
'Fruitless' might have been a better word, all things considered, especially seeing as Aster still hadn't been able to even determine whether the information he had about the Malii was true.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2020 2:27:12 GMT -6
He hadn't seen any conclusive evidence of either sentient level intelligence nor the ability to speak human tongues. He supposed a ribbon of telepathy would have sufficed to determine the former, and perhaps even to interrogate the Malii on why he chose not to attempt the latter, but to use one on a creature he didn't know all that well... It seemed rude, but also like an invasion of their mutual privacy. For the same reason, he hadn't asked Rhys for his assistance on the matter either.
But, well, maybe he had come out of pity. The one thing that the previous month's outing had made abundantly clear was that the Malii was bored, and eager for some kind of enrichment beyond what he had been getting. Toys were well and good, but nothing beat wandering around the grounds of some magicked and very probably cursed house that had a mind of its own, apparently.
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Post by Noa on May 15, 2020 2:30:00 GMT -6
The fact that the Malii didn't spook even as it became increasingly obvious where they were going spoke volumes about what he thought of the place. Apparently not even being consumed by the hedge maze was enough to dampen his enthusiasm for going there, or at least his indifference to the strangeness of the place. No, in fact, the more Aster observed the Malii's body language, the more he felt sure that he hadn't been mistaken, and that it was indeed excitement that he was reading in the way the Malii carried himself. By the Queen's grace, the disease was confirmed.
... Well, it wasn't the worst thing to come here once in a while. Useful things could be found here on occasion. But Aster still felt a certain unease when confronted with the mansion's gate and outside grounds, even if these things happened to look perfectly normal at the moment, strangely enough.
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