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Post by Morgan on Jan 5, 2022 22:41:18 GMT -6
Over time, Kaodie seemed to get used to the weights more, so Morgan stopped him to give him a treat. "I know y-you'd rather have s-some tug of war, but we don't have a lot of time." Morgan told him. Instead they took the moment to change the amount of weight to be a little less, and to favor the other side. "You're d-doing a good job." They told him, as they stood back up. Kaodie seemed a little happier now, and was able to keep up with Morgan without too much difficulty at all. Morgan glanced away from him for a moment to look back at the windows. They knew enough about being at the mansion to be concerned about the lack of changes that the windows were exhibiting. Things like that were very dangerous, and usually showed that the mansion was trying to do some kind of weird dangerous thing around them.
[14]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 5, 2022 22:47:39 GMT -6
They'd continued walking down the ultra long hallway, every once in a while looking out the window as they walked past one of the repeat stained glass sets that made them up and looking back at Kaodie sometimes to make sure that he was doing well with the weight. He was catching his bearings a lot easier now already. Morgan really could not have asked for better with a creature for this one. He would never be able to carry as much weight as say, an equillion- but he should be able to hold a few important pieces of equipment with work. Eventually they stop again, bend down, and give him another treat and move the weight around again. A few more minutes of walking, and then they did the same thing again, this time adding more weight again. That seemed to bother Kaodie even less than the change did last time.
[15]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 5, 2022 22:51:58 GMT -6
Morgan had a soft spot for the malii. It was absolutely unacceptable; because Kaodie was... Well, he was what he was. An embarrassing figment of their childhood back before the full weight of the world had landed on their shoulders. They hated him. Oh, they could hate him like they hated nothing else- and it was nothing that was his fault. They hated what he stood for. However, they loved him too, and that soft spot made them very weak. Because Kaodie was small, and generally accepting of random strangers, and sweet, and could be so quickly severely injured despite his general will to live and so quickly killed. That was why they pushed him so far and so harshly. They wanted him to be strong enough to stay alive for them. ...Perhaps a little kid version of theirself out there in their past deserved it. Or at least that was what Morgan felt.
[16]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 5, 2022 22:56:51 GMT -6
So they went on, and the mansion seemed to stretch on and on in infinite impossible straight lines that made Morgan feel like they were running out of sense and sanity, and they kept theirself steady mentally by checking the windows for any changes sort of obsessively and anxiously and glancing down at their malii to make sure that he was learning how to carry weight without too much difficulty. They'd stop, change the weight or the distribution, and Kaodie would shoulder it all without complaint. Eventually they even thought about how they were sort of envious for his ability to deal with this sort of thing without any negative thoughts about it at all.
"...I wish I was like you, Kaodie." Morgan admits, as they stop and remove the weight from the creature pack, and then the creature pack itself. "You don't..." They wince. "Catastrophize." Kaodie just looks up at them with his usual blank expression, tongue all out.
[17] - [End of 'Carry Load']
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Post by Morgan on Jan 5, 2022 23:03:54 GMT -6
Morgan practically growls beneath their breath as they go to stand up. "It really is sad when you find it difficult to talk to creatures that can't even understand you. G-gawsh, f-f-f-shit." They continue mumbling after that, trailing off as they walked forward. Kaodie simply stands back up and trots after them as light on his feet as ever, tongue partially hanging out as he followed Morgan blindly to wherever they were going. Finally, the hallway seemed to shorten for Morgan, as if it had decided to stop going forever, and now it felt like they were going much faster than they were before (a trick of the space of the mansion- it had pulled this particular trick on them so many times that they had lost count) so they didn't even freak out when they finally got to the 'corner' and went to turn around it to go to wherever they were going to wind up after this.
[18]
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Post by Nadia on Jan 6, 2022 17:23:33 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on Jan 6, 2022 18:04:51 GMT -6
Morgan really should have turned aside whenever they got to that corner so that they could stealthily look around it, but they did not do that. Morgan had this understanding about the mansion. Sometimes really positive things happened, and sometimes horridly negative things happened. It really didn't seem to be something that could be prepared for with any amount of regularity. Luckily for them (or perhaps, without Morgan knowing, it was lucky for Kaodie instead) they did not find anything of any sort of danger in front of them once they rounded that corner. There was another quite long hallway nearly identical to the other one- save there were no outside windows and there was something that looked like it could be a landing to a great hemi-sphere of a set of stairs made up of marble. Kaodie follows Morgan very closely to their heel now that he wasn't carrying the weights he was earlier.
[19]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 6, 2022 18:09:11 GMT -6
Morgan kept walking with Kaodie by their side until they got to the landing. There was a continued hallway beyond that, and Morgan did consider going past the landing in order to continue to explore on this floor, but they felt something quite distracting once they walked up to that landing. They stop stark still, and look up the stairs to try to see where they go. It was a dangerous risk to take, that far up- because they could not see where it stopped, but the promise of a soul-singing reward was a strong pull. Something else to study, something else to use- a source of power... A crystal, right? Too small to be a node. Kaodie starts up the stairs in front of them. "Hey, where d-do you think you're going?" Morgan follows him at a close clip, but he scrambles up the steps with much more finesse across the slick rock than they do.
[20]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 6, 2022 22:03:48 GMT -6
Morgan tried not to have finished stone in their own home for this exact reason. It was just really inconvenient and made it very difficult to go places faster due to the ever present threat of slipping. Kaodie's sticky paw pads were much more suited to climb these stairs than even Morgan's thick-soled boots. The stairs most certainly went up a long way too. Morgan tried to stay close to the bannister on one side, but it was really just as slippery. It appeared to be fashioned of an ornate sort of very shiny metal. Morgan could guess based on colors or properties, but they didn't find a need to really stop to question it. No, the mansion had a way about it, and there was always a possibility that it would move what they thought felt like a crystal much further away from them if they slowed down. Really, it had the propensity to do such things at seemingly no provocation.
[21]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 6, 2022 23:49:32 GMT -6
Kaodie makes it to the top of the landing first, with Morgan a good few steps behind him. They watch as he lifts his nose to the air, nostrils flaring a little as he takes in scent. Then, he turns in a very specific direction before glancing back as close over his shoulder as he could at Morgan behind him and down the stairs. "Wait up." Morgan says, tone most certainly received by the malii as he stiffens and turns towards the direction he'd been interested in. The bespectacled human catches up with him mere moments later, stepped up onto the top of the landing and casting a last glance down to where they had been before looking in the direction that the malii was. That had been quite the long climb! The area in which they were now standing in was lit quite brightly from a seemingly floating lantern from just above their heads, and then nothing else in all directions- creating an oddly dark atmosphere away from their current standing space.
[22]
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Post by Nadia on Jan 8, 2022 12:55:27 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on Jan 8, 2022 16:41:29 GMT -6
There didn't seem to be anything belying what was beyond the light that was just above their head on this landing, but Morgan got the distinct sensation of being in a large space despite the darkness obscuring their vision. They tapped one of the steel toes of their boots on the tile lightly, and their understanding of the resultant echo most certainly agreed with Morgan's assumption. Kaodie was staring off in a particular direction in the otherwise quite dark area. They weren't entirely sure if he really could see, but he was reacting as if he could. "K-kaodie, what do you see boy?" Morgan asks him. They listen to the resulting echoes and frown a little. Was this a large empty space? What could be lurking within all of that darkness? Surely it couldn't be dangerous- wouldn't it walk into the light to attack them if there was something there?
[23]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 8, 2022 16:49:15 GMT -6
Morgan wasn't certain, but they felt like there was a distinct 'someone's there' sensation beyond them. Perhaps there was a being there, or perhaps there wasn't- usually Morgan's feelings about the situations they got theirself into were correct, though. Kaodie's ears were perked and his body was held stiff as his nose wiggled. He was positioned to their left, so Morgan turns to that direction to, eyes metaphorically peeled on the lookout for whatever it wound up being so that they could surmise what they needed to do as soon as further information was revealed. However, nothing happens. Morgan stands stiff for some amount of time, as does Kaodie- but soon enough Kaodie bwarks loudly and moves off into the darkness to their left. "Kaodie!" Morgan calls out for him. "Come back!" They walk to the edge of the light from the floating lantern above, but they don't cross immediately into the darkness.
[24]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 8, 2022 16:51:52 GMT -6
They hesitate at the edge of the light, and then set their jaw firmly as they make their decision. They attempt to step out into the darkness beyond the lantern to follow Kaodie, but they cannot seem to cross it? They were most certainly moving, they could tell... They had to look back at the steps behind them in order to realize what was happening due to how all encompassing the darkness beyond was. The Lantern was Following them. They were walking away from the steps and further into the darkness most certainly, but the lantern would follow them movement for movement whenever they went to step outside of the lantern's light reach. It was both very helpful and sucked, because Morgan's eyes would probably never be able to adjust to the darkness around them with a light this bright! "Kaodie, where are y-you?" They demanded, hoping that the troublesome little Malii would give them some sort of answer back.
[25]
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Yang
Flea Market Artist
Posts: 1,001
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Post by Yang on Jan 15, 2022 18:44:09 GMT -6
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