[log] yikes all around [closed]

[bloodbiter]

Characters: Adelina and Cassel
Location: House 126
Date: 195
Summary: Post labyrinth shenanigans!
Warnings: Possible description/discussion of injury, but there shouldn't be anything more!

[When she wakes up from that awful scene, it's with a gasp despite herself. It was... Was it an illusion, a memory of someone else? Either way, calm down, calm down. She has other things to attend to, so she doesn't let herself focus on whatever it was she just saw quite yet.

Instead, she's automatically pushing herself off the mattress, looking around to see where she is now - it's where she remembers. She pushes her hair out of her face, giving herself a quick once over to make sure everything is in order, before she stands to look around for her companion.]

Cassel?

Comments

[bloodbiter]

It's not brutal if it's necessary. I did tell you that you should only do so if you don't have another choice.

[Be practical with your eyeball ripping, ok.

But, now that she's done with the box cutter she puts it back in her backpack, shrugging her coat back on as she stands up.]

We should make certain that the rest of the house is the same since our departure.

[theurgy]

[Cassel follows her lead, stretching to try to ease out the cramps from laying on the floor.]

Hey, do you still have that knife?

[bloodbiter]

The one from your hand? [A sigh.] No, I don't. It was gone as soon as awoke here. It's a shame, it would have been very useful.

[She pauses as soon as she enters the next room, looking at the bed of lavender that sits there and the two items on top.]

...Do you see that?

[theurgy]

[He's about to complain, something about how of course he can't even keep the knife he was stabbed with, but then he sees his dad's lockbox sitting on a bed of flowers and he stops short, utterly taken aback. It's so discordant to see something from his childhood, something he associates only with his father and with Barron and their old, musty barn sitting in the middle of an abandoned house in this hellhole. Moreover, the flowers look perfectly fresh, even though he can still see his breath in front of him.]

What the hell is that?

[bloodbiter]

Don't go near it.

[She recognizes her item (a wooden ball, barely bigger than a walnut's shell) immediately, and it makes her worried that this is some sort of trap. It seems like bait, something designed to draw her in.

After a moment, she tosses her backpack carefully towards the patch of lavender - and of course, nothing happens. She lets out a breath.]

[theurgy]

[Cassel glances at Adelina sharply, then locks his eyes back on the box.]

Have you seen that ball before?

[bloodbiter]

Yes, I have.

[Now that it's at least apparent that something coming towards the lavender won't harm it, she takes a few steps towards the two items, bending carefully to pick up the wooden object. When there are no ill effects to taking it in her hand, she sighs as she feels a warmth rush through her. It reminds her of a time that, in some ways, seems much simpler.]

Is the box yours?

[theurgy]

It's my dad's.

[Cassel picks it up. The metal is freezing, but the flowers beneath don't seem to be harmed—at least, until they begin to disappear.]

What is this, a gift?

[bloodbiter]

I don't know. It's strange... Before I came here, I hadn't looked at this for months.

[She glances over at his box, though.]

Is there anything inside yours, do you think?

[theurgy]

I have no idea. My dad used to tell me all sorts of things were inside. Candy, money, video games... I could never get it open.

[He turns it over, the locks clinking against the metal.]

What's yours?

[bloodbiter]

Do you need me to help you open it?

[After a pause, she pulls at the seams of the ball; it twists open, and she holds out a hand to catch the amount of blue cloth that comes pouring out.]

It was a gift. I wonder if it would make a good blanket, though.

[theurgy]

Huh.

[More useful than his.]

Do you know how to pick locks?

[bloodbiter]

No, but I'm fairly sure I could break the lock with enough effort.

[And here we see the differences in their problem solving methods.]

[theurgy]

[That gets him to smile a little again.]

That's cheating. You have to pick the locks or it doesn't count.

[bloodbiter]

Just because it's an uncommon solution doesn't mean it isn't a solution. If the box is opened, does it matter how it was unlocked?

[theurgy]

He was trying to teach us how to pick locks. That's why it matters.

[Which pretty squarely hints that he's Not Normal, but Adelina has put herself square in that category now, too, so it's less strange to say.]

[bloodbiter]

[It's certainly not the first Not Normal thing he's said, but for some reason it piques her interest all the same.]

Your father was? Why?

[theurgy]

It's an important life skill for a growing boy to know.

[This is a little weird, though. At Wallingford, everyone was perfectly aware of who his family was, even if they never talked about it. Adelina doesn't know he was raised by a bunch of criminals, and part of him is tempted to keep it that way.]

[bloodbiter]

It does not sound as though it should be.

[Or at least seems strange from her perspective.]

[theurgy]

[Cassel just shrugs.]

What's the fabric for?

[bloodbiter]

[That was not obvious at all, clearly, and from the look she's giving him she wants to make it clear she noticed the evasion. Regardless.]

It was a gift. I know to embroider fairly well.

[theurgy]

Embroidery and sword fighting. That's quite a combination.

[bloodbiter]

I could say the same for lock picking and having an in depth knowledge of mythology, couldn't I?

[theurgy]

[Cassel gestures dismissively, crossing the room to shove the box into his pack.]

The mythology was forced on me.

[bloodbiter]

So was the swordplay.

[Though she does enjoy it quite a bit now. She follows suit, picking up her pack from where she tossed it before.]

If there's something you don't wish to talk about, you can tell me, you know.

[Instead of skirting around it super transparently.]