He gives her a sidelong glance and then points to what he thinks he identified as a centre of the place of some sort (he found the clinic, so he's not super wrong). On the one hand, he can throw her further than he trusts her. On the other hand she's the only person around to talk to about this right now, and he's run into a roadblock with figuring this out without speaking to someone here.
"But also those who control this place. I don't think the humans do, strictly. Nor the people who walk around among the humans. He's seen one or two that clearly weren't human, but that he can't place otherwise, either. What is Glacius even. "But some of them might be controlled by them, or tell them."
Her mouth tightens as she thinks of Ms. Yin. When she'd appeared back in the school, Ray had assumed that she was in charge. It makes more sense to think that all these things could be happened because of someone rather than the cruel hand of fate. Now as in the school, Ray latches onto the idea that someone could be causing this situation. Someone who maybe could be stopped or escaped.
"So what do we do? There must be some way out. A key or a--" Not a phone to call for help with--she's done with those.
He hadn't even thought about that, but now that she mentions it... It's a weird mix, isn't it? He didn't actually pay any attention to the other people that were around in the place where he found himself first. But with what the general population here looks like... And looking at her...
"You think it's the same thing?"
Maybe that would explain why he got out of that place so easily. It was meant for humans...
But then why was he there? And whatever brought them there, did it notice? And, more crucially, how can he track that being down and take it down? And get out of it how to get out of here, if he's lucky, though he doubts that it will be that easy.
She hesitates, then ducks her head. "I don't know. Sorry, I guess it doesn't matter."
Getting out is what matters, much as she'd like to know what's going on.
"...Where I was before, I got out of the school by following clues. Maybe that's what led me here."
She suddenly remembers Wei's journal tucked into the waistband of her skirt. She grabs it and starts flipping through the pages. Past the leaflets about the lingered, past the sketch of the teeth-dice, and past the blood print of the I-Ching. But no, she can't find anything specific to this new place. She lands on a fresh sheet of paper.
"Maybe if we find more, we can get out of here. Did you see any paper anywhere? Or keys?"
He's pretty sure at this point that she's crazy in some capacity. Maybe something about this or where she was before broke something in her brain, or she's always been that way. Maybe that's even the reason why she seems to be immune to Delirium, and not that she is Kinfolk.
But sometimes there's a system to craziness that holds some truth or use. Climbs-Under in the end almost always turned up with something useful, no matter how out there her words or actions seemed at first...
"What kind of paper or keys?"
The question is of course if whatever she considers a favourable outcome will be favourable for him.
This is encouraging; he seems to be listening. "I don't have the key anymore, but--"
She spreads the journal out on her lap and turns the pages back to the beginning. Her hand hesitates above a woodblock print of a green demon cutting into a child's throat, but then she pages past it to stop on another print of a sallow-skinned, stringy-hair woman digging into a bowl of rice.
"...Papers like these. I'd find them scattered around the place, and sometimes they'd point me to where I could go next. See, this one shows how you can get past the lingered. You leave them an offering."
...Okay that sounds... vaguely like she's a mage, one of the really bad kind. But she's not. He's certain of that, at least. Perhaps she's a - what did Kaisa call it? Hedge witch? Whatever that entailed, but if he understood the explanation correctly, it's like mages that don't have actual abilities but still can do something.
It made no more or less sense to him than when she explained how the stove-top worked, so he just rolled with it then.
Now he wishes he had asked what specifically they could do.
"I'm... not sure. I'd never seen them before today--they just appeared in my school. They must be spirits of the dead, because they like the offerings so much."
She looks down at the people below. None of them are making the gurgling cries of the lingered, so that's good, right? "If you get near them, they'll attack you. Unless you hold your breath. That's another thing I read in the notes."
He knows ghosts. They happen every once in a while, and then you need to find an elder Theurge who can make it go away for you. Sure, he's heard of ghosts that can take a physical form and tear you apart, but he's pretty sure that that is a misunderstanding of some other happenstance.
"Nothing will stop attacking you just because you hold your breath." No ghost, and nothing else. "Maybe unless you do it so well that they believe you dead." He has no idea, most creatures seem to blind to a lot of things. They might check nothing but breath to determine if someone is alive.
Ray's back stiffens. She knows she's no expert in the supernatural, but this is something she knows. Does he think she's some helpless idiot? "Hey now, do you think I'm making this up? It worked with them!
"You hold your breath before they attack you. And if you do, you can walk right by them."
"Okay, assuming that really happened, did they look like anything that you've seen here?"
Different perceptions or different worlds wouldn't occur to him, but there's a much easier concept at hand here: She might have encountered that in another place, or she might be crazy, but if nothing here resembles what she thinks of, it's not relevant.
Well, all his ideas right now are catching someone who came out of what seems to be a gathering house of sorts and make them give up some information. But he doesn't need her for that.
He looks around the place. There's nothing that he could tie her up with to perhaps use her later, and if he disables her from walking she might start shouting for the people below. It might be best to just kill her and leave her up here - the place looks like nobody has been here in ages so she should take a while to be found, and he has the gifts to make it look like someone stabbed her instead.
"Maybe."
He's turning towards her now, still crouching down, his left hand crossing over his feet to in a few moments be placed on the ground on their other side. The look that he is giving her is definitely not pleasant - there is no malice in it, only the look of a predator about to go in for a kill.
"They don't include you, though."
She simply is of not enough use to him to let her run around any more, and even if he didn't figure that killing her would be a good option to begin with, he couldn't let her leave with the knowledge of him being around, and what he looks like. Even if anyone else also witnessed him to remember back in that arrival place, they only saw his Crinos form, after all. She's seen almost all of them, now. And besides, he's hungry, and there's prey right before him. Why would he not?
That last comment is a bit ...well, it's true. "And I appreciate your attempt at helping me." But that doesn't change that she's going to die now.
He's starting to change as he puts the hand on the ground - he'll not need to be in Crinos form for this, so he's aiming further, which will give Ray a bit more time before he's done and lunges at her, a giant wolf multiple times as high at the shoulder as she's tall. As in, she gets three more seconds.
Ray takes another step back until she feels her shoe hit the lip of the surface they're on. If she falls off, she's sure she'll die. It's a gamble, but if she talks fast--
"B-but it wasn't just me! What about everybody else back there? Please!"
A sick, twisting feeling creeps into her stomach when she realizes that he could've done anything while she was unconscious--maybe he did kill everyone on his way here.
No, he thought about that already, and it isn't a valid reason at all to let her live.
But looking at where she stands he could make life a bit easier on himself by just letting her fall to her death. People fall off high places all the time, he wouldn't have to do anything to hide how she died.
He growls, slowly walking towards her. If she tries to escape to either side, she'll find him leaping forward, not quite lunging at her but so that he bars her way and can try to shove her off the top of the building.
That's answer enough. Ray's stomach feels like it's dropping to the ground--she has to do something.
It seems stupid, of course, but the alternative is surely falling off the roof. So she ducks down low and runs toward him, aiming to try and run right beneath him. With his reach, she doubts it'll work, but maybe she can surprise him enough that he won't react. It's her only chance.
It does surprise him, but not for long enough for it to make a difference. It only means that he rises a bit on his hind legs and she's hit by one of his front legs, catching her under the chest and hurling her off the rooftop.
A very observant onlooker might notice that she falls in a strange angle, as if she had a running start into nothingness, but he'll just hope that nobody will look or think that hard about it.
Ray would scream, but the force of the shove and the fall knock the breath right out of her. She hits the ground.
...And wakes up in a temple. It's not like the ones she's seen at home, but the basic idea behind it seems recognizable enough. Waking up
She picks herself up and starts walking. It seems that she has a second chance here, and she should take it. Maybe here she can finally have the place where she can ignore the past and simply live out her life...
A few days later, she's searching the shops for provisions again. She's had some time to get established and start a routine, but there's still a lot about the city that she's exploring. She inspects a strange can as she steps out of the shop; slim pickings, but at least she found something.
The city is creepy and makes him want to growl at it all day, but that's not an option and pointless besides. He knows by now that all the humans, and the few creatures that are sentient but not humans, have been brought here the same way as him, and that that they claim that it has to do with gods that they can sometimes talk to in their little Weaver boxes - cell phones. He's verified the claim that the tunnels only loop back more than once yet.
He knows that the only edible food is to be had from the shops, because the things in the tunnels aren't edible and the humans are a fairly tightly knit community and nothing else exists.
What comes as a surprise is walking up a street at the shops with a box with various cans in his hands, shuffling along in homid form, and coming across someone smelling, and then a moment later when she comes into sight also looking, exactly like the human he threw off a roof the first night here.
Ray freezes when she sees his face. Whatever form he's in, she's not going to forget him any time soon. Her voice catches in her throat, and all she can force out is, "Y-you! You..." You killed me, you jerk!
If she retreats into the store, it'll be a dead end. Ray's not much of a fighter; she prefers indirect means or running away. But she's cornered, and she doesn't want it to end like it did last time--so she throws the can at him.
It falls short, but it's the thought that counts, right?
It's probably for the better that the can falls short and doesn't even register as a proper attack. It's also for the better that he's so dumbfounded by seeing her - smelling her, and that's how he knows that she's very clearly still alive (and that is probably yet another lucky point, that he's anxious enough to activate the Gift that gives him a wolf's senses in homid form).
Her words don't really manage to drive anything home but the realization that yes, she is instead still alive and over there and... Doesn't seem to pose any kind of threat, still.
So that's ineffective. Her eyes flick around looking for another weapon, but she comes up short. At least she knows she'll still come back if she dies, she thinks with resignation. But she doesn't want to do that again!
The thought--and having the person responsible for it in front of her--have her straighten her back and unconsciously broaden her shoulders.
She's scared, sure. She's mad too.
"Yeah, because you killed me! What was that for?!"
At most, he could have imagined her to linger as a ghost. Someone unable to communicate with the people that he's run into throughout the last couple of days, at least.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
finalizes) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
stormaktstiden2017-01-15 05:06 pm
for reference, they're sitting near Spire 3
He gives her a sidelong glance and then points to what he thinks he identified as a centre of the place of some sort (he found the clinic, so he's not super wrong). On the one hand, he can throw her further than he trusts her. On the other hand she's the only person around to talk to about this right now, and he's run into a roadblock with figuring this out without speaking to someone here.
"But also those who control this place. I don't think the humans do, strictly. Nor the people who walk around among the humans. He's seen one or two that clearly weren't human, but that he can't place otherwise, either.
What is Glacius even."But some of them might be controlled by them, or tell them."Thanks!
Her mouth tightens as she thinks of Ms. Yin. When she'd appeared back in the school, Ray had assumed that she was in charge. It makes more sense to think that all these things could be happened because of someone rather than the cruel hand of fate. Now as in the school, Ray latches onto the idea that someone could be causing this situation. Someone who maybe could be stopped or escaped.
"So what do we do? There must be some way out. A key or a--" Not a phone to call for help with--she's done with those.
"What do they want with us?"
no subject
He hadn't even thought about that, but now that she mentions it... It's a weird mix, isn't it? He didn't actually pay any attention to the other people that were around in the place where he found himself first. But with what the general population here looks like... And looking at her...
"You think it's the same thing?"
Maybe that would explain why he got out of that place so easily. It was meant for humans...
But then why was he there? And whatever brought them there, did it notice? And, more crucially, how can he track that being down and take it down? And get out of it how to get out of here, if he's lucky, though he doubts that it will be that easy.
no subject
Getting out is what matters, much as she'd like to know what's going on.
"...Where I was before, I got out of the school by following clues. Maybe that's what led me here."
She suddenly remembers Wei's journal tucked into the waistband of her skirt. She grabs it and starts flipping through the pages. Past the leaflets about the lingered, past the sketch of the teeth-dice, and past the blood print of the I-Ching. But no, she can't find anything specific to this new place. She lands on a fresh sheet of paper.
"Maybe if we find more, we can get out of here. Did you see any paper anywhere? Or keys?"
no subject
He's pretty sure at this point that she's crazy in some capacity. Maybe something about this or where she was before broke something in her brain, or she's always been that way. Maybe that's even the reason why she seems to be immune to Delirium, and not that she is Kinfolk.
But sometimes there's a system to craziness that holds some truth or use. Climbs-Under in the end almost always turned up with something useful, no matter how out there her words or actions seemed at first...
"What kind of paper or keys?"
The question is of course if whatever she considers a favourable outcome will be favourable for him.
no subject
She spreads the journal out on her lap and turns the pages back to the beginning. Her hand hesitates above a woodblock print of a green demon cutting into a child's throat, but then she pages past it to stop on another print of a sallow-skinned, stringy-hair woman digging into a bowl of rice.
"...Papers like these. I'd find them scattered around the place, and sometimes they'd point me to where I could go next. See, this one shows how you can get past the lingered. You leave them an offering."
no subject
It made no more or less sense to him than when she explained how the stove-top worked, so he just rolled with it then.
Now he wishes he had asked what specifically they could do.
"What are lingered?"
no subject
She looks down at the people below. None of them are making the gurgling cries of the lingered, so that's good, right? "If you get near them, they'll attack you. Unless you hold your breath. That's another thing I read in the notes."
no subject
He knows ghosts. They happen every once in a while, and then you need to find an elder Theurge who can make it go away for you. Sure, he's heard of ghosts that can take a physical form and tear you apart, but he's pretty sure that that is a misunderstanding of some other happenstance.
"Nothing will stop attacking you just because you hold your breath." No ghost, and nothing else. "Maybe unless you do it so well that they believe you dead." He has no idea, most creatures seem to blind to a lot of things. They might check nothing but breath to determine if someone is alive.
no subject
"You hold your breath before they attack you. And if you do, you can walk right by them."
no subject
Different perceptions or different worlds wouldn't occur to him, but there's a much easier concept at hand here: She might have encountered that in another place, or she might be crazy, but if nothing here resembles what she thinks of, it's not relevant.
In other words, a dead end.
no subject
She just out her chin and gives him a pointed look. "I'm listening if you have any good ideas."
Aside from shooting down mine is the implied finish to that sentence.
no subject
He looks around the place. There's nothing that he could tie her up with to perhaps use her later, and if he disables her from walking she might start shouting for the people below. It might be best to just kill her and leave her up here - the place looks like nobody has been here in ages so she should take a while to be found, and he has the gifts to make it look like someone stabbed her instead.
"Maybe."
He's turning towards her now, still crouching down, his left hand crossing over his feet to in a few moments be placed on the ground on their other side. The look that he is giving her is definitely not pleasant - there is no malice in it, only the look of a predator about to go in for a kill.
"They don't include you, though."
She simply is of not enough use to him to let her run around any more, and even if he didn't figure that killing her would be a good option to begin with, he couldn't let her leave with the knowledge of him being around, and what he looks like. Even if anyone else also witnessed him to remember back in that arrival place, they only saw his Crinos form, after all. She's seen almost all of them, now. And besides, he's hungry, and there's prey right before him. Why would he not?
no subject
"W-wait, why? I didn't do anything to you!"
She didn't, did she? Even when he attacked her she didn't try to hurt him in return.
(Not like she did before, though the thought vanishes from her head nearly as soon as she thinks it.)
"I tried to help you!"
no subject
That last comment is a bit ...well, it's true. "And I appreciate your attempt at helping me." But that doesn't change that she's going to die now.
He's starting to change as he puts the hand on the ground - he'll not need to be in Crinos form for this, so he's aiming further, which will give Ray a bit more time before he's done and lunges at her, a giant wolf multiple times as high at the shoulder as she's tall. As in, she gets three more seconds.
no subject
"B-but it wasn't just me! What about everybody else back there? Please!"
A sick, twisting feeling creeps into her stomach when she realizes that he could've done anything while she was unconscious--maybe he did kill everyone on his way here.
no subject
But looking at where she stands he could make life a bit easier on himself by just letting her fall to her death. People fall off high places all the time, he wouldn't have to do anything to hide how she died.
He growls, slowly walking towards her. If she tries to escape to either side, she'll find him leaping forward, not quite lunging at her but so that he bars her way and can try to shove her off the top of the building.
no subject
It seems stupid, of course, but the alternative is surely falling off the roof. So she ducks down low and runs toward him, aiming to try and run right beneath him. With his reach, she doubts it'll work, but maybe she can surprise him enough that he won't react. It's her only chance.
no subject
A very observant onlooker might notice that she falls in a strange angle, as if she had a running start into nothingness, but he'll just hope that nobody will look or think that hard about it.
no subject
...And wakes up in a temple. It's not like the ones she's seen at home, but the basic idea behind it seems recognizable enough. Waking up
She picks herself up and starts walking. It seems that she has a second chance here, and she should take it. Maybe here she can finally have the place where she can ignore the past and simply live out her life...
A few days later, she's searching the shops for provisions again. She's had some time to get established and start a routine, but there's still a lot about the city that she's exploring. She inspects a strange can as she steps out of the shop; slim pickings, but at least she found something.
no subject
He knows that the only edible food is to be had from the shops, because the things in the tunnels aren't edible and the humans are a fairly tightly knit community and nothing else exists.
What comes as a surprise is walking up a street at the shops with a box with various cans in his hands, shuffling along in homid form, and coming across someone smelling, and then a moment later when she comes into sight also looking, exactly like the human he threw off a roof the first night here.
WHAT.
no subject
If she retreats into the store, it'll be a dead end. Ray's not much of a fighter; she prefers indirect means or running away. But she's cornered, and she doesn't want it to end like it did last time--so she throws the can at him.
It falls short, but it's the thought that counts, right?
no subject
Her words don't really manage to drive anything home but the realization that yes, she is instead still alive and over there and... Doesn't seem to pose any kind of threat, still.
"You should be dead."
no subject
The thought--and having the person responsible for it in front of her--have her straighten her back and unconsciously broaden her shoulders.
She's scared, sure. She's mad too.
"Yeah, because you killed me! What was that for?!"
no subject
"I thought you would stay dead."
At most, he could have imagined her to linger as a ghost. Someone unable to communicate with the people that he's run into throughout the last couple of days, at least.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
I'm sorry for how incredibly late this is :<
Re: I'm sorry for how incredibly late this is :<
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)