This mess is a place. (Pobody's nerfect) [Open]

[princerat]

(Takes place a few days after this)

Discarded items stream constantly into the sewers, generally in the form of rubbish, creating small isles of filth that build up to block pipes and decay and erode away by pieces. The underground's citizens pay little attention to anything that isn't edible, and the rest is nothing more than landscape. It is not

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Welcome back! :D

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie has been busy giving out Christmas Presents, she’s down to her last few now. Most of the people she knows live in Kashtta, so it’s an easy enough job. For some people, it’s just a hope of meeting them in the street. Although she’s never asked Iris where she lives now, she can find her over the journals, but she’s not really sure what to do when it comes to Saul. She hasn’t seen him in some time, which does worry her. But she knows his rat heritage is a big part of him just as his humanity is. She’s sure she’ll work something out.

She turns the corner to head down a hallway back to her room when she stops suddenly, coming face to face and jumping a little at... she has no idea what that thing is. It just seems to be sniffing and scratching its way down the hall. It’s a.. no, she seriously doesn’t know what. It can’t possibly an actual rat, could it? She’s heard of them being as big a cats, but not dogs. Besides, it also has horns.

Cassie stares for a good long while, she’s not freaking out - a little bewildered perhaps - but definitely not freaking out. She can feel her powers nagging at her somewhere in the back of her mind, the instinctive mechanism telling her to flee because whatever the creature is - it looks utterly terrifying. But now is not the time to spark off another blackout just because she’s seen something that looks a little scary. She takes a deep breath to calm herself and steps forward calmly, no need to spook the thing.

“Hello,” she slowly lowers herself to her haunches, placing her bag down. She rummages around and pulls out a star-shaped cookie from a tub in there.

She offers it with a smile, “Here you go, Merry Christmas. So.. where did you come from then.. huh?” she asks with a very slight frown, “Are you looking for something?”

Thank youuuu :D

[princerat]

There are so many cats in this building that it's hard to keep himself focused on the scent trail he's been dutifully following. The kittens aren't bothering him, but their odors are all over the building, each one demanding his attention so that his nose can properly categorize it. And then a new scent, one he knows well, not the one he was looking for but it's, it's Cassie!

He's so happy to see her that he runs right up to her, stopping a bit short in case she thinks he's rushing to attack. He's just as worried about spooking her as she is about him. He sits, drops the talisman from his mouth and crunches down gratefully on the offered cookie. It's gone in less than a second.

He nods emphatically when she asks if he's looking for something, then unintelligible squeaking follows, and a mad gesturing of paws. Oh, right. Human speech is completely impossible at the moment. He puts his paw on his snout in his best approximation of a facepalm. And then he makes one disgruntled squeak that sounds as close to "Fuck" as he can manage. How the hell is he going to get his message across?

Haha, ready to play the nodding game?

[starryeyed_cass]

And for the tiniest of seconds, she does think he’s going to go for her. She a shiver runs through her limbs, the hand hold the cookie shakes a little: ‘Oh god, it’s gonna go for me. Oh god, oh god it’s going to actually rip my face off.’ But instead it happily sits down in front of her, which she’s a little relieved at. She grins as the creature takes the cookie and reaches up to scritch behind its ear. “Good.. well, I don’t really know what you are,” she says with a laugh. “Sorry, mate..”

She frowns at the sound of something hitting the floor and reaches forward to pick up what looks like a tiny necklace, or a bracelet. Cassie hadn’t noticed it before, but that’s because she didn’t want to look at the creature’s teeth. She examines the little charm on it, trying to work out just what it is.

“What’s this?” she asks, it hardly looks like something in her field of expertise, but she knows someone who might be able to help out, “Looks like something Iris would wear..” she mumbles out loud more to herself than anything else, ruffling the hair on the side of her head in thought.

Cassie looks up at him and frowns again, “... Did you just nod at my question?” she asks, not quite able to believe it. Animals don’t really understand Humans, not unless they’ve been touched by the Rift to change something about them. Uh, what are they called. Shapeshifters?

She grimaces slightly, sorry that she can’t understand. “I’m sorry.. I don’t understand what you mean,” she replied helplessly. She wants to help, so she’s going to try her hardest. “Okay, let me try.. if you can understand me. Nod once for ‘no’ and twice for ‘yes’. Are you looking for a person?”

OH BOY A GAME! :D

[princerat]

He's a bit uneasy when she takes the talisman away, he needs that, and he begins to pace. But then she starts with the magic word 'Iris' so he stops and gives her his full attention. She outlines the rules for a game! He loves games, or at least he's pretty sure he does. Well, he likes puzzles best. Now he's totally forgotten what was making him anxious before.

Oh right, the questions. Is he looking for a person? Two nods.

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie isn’t quite sure whether to be amused or concerned about the creature as it starts pacing. She watches for a few moments, with a smile and a frown. If she’d known the full situation, it would surely be the latter - but she’ll still need to work it out first. And then for a moment, she thinks it’s because she has the little charm. She holds it back out to him, “Here, it’s yours after all,”

She laughs as it nods at her question, “Wow, you really can understand me then!” she comments, tilting her head to the side. “Weird!”

Right, get back on track Cassie. You’ve got things to work out. She claps her hands together as if to regain her focus and nods. “Okay, right..” she pauses for a moment to think of her question. “Umm.. okay, okay.. are you looking for a boy?”

She waits briefly for a few moments for his answer before deciding on her next question. She looks for questions that’ll narrow down the possibilities - there is a lot of people living here in the Tower. “Erm.. right... Are they... an angel?” There’s another pause, “... a Wanderer?”

[princerat]

He takes the talisman back, careful with his teeth near her fingers. It would be awkward to bite off one of your best friend's fingers.

Now he has his focus completely on the game. A boy? One nod. An angel? One nod. A Wanderer? Two nods. He's pretty good at this game.

Thought I'd get her to guess already, give you something more to write than nods. xD;;

[starryeyed_cass]

That would probably be a good thing. As well as awkward, Cassie kind of needs them.

Cassie pauses for a long while this time, a frown at her brow as she thinks. She rests her hand against the side of her face, her fingers lightly drumming her temple as if it would help her brain into finding an answer. A female Wanderer. Right.

She thinks about who's she's met, what people she knows. That way she'd be able to help more. "Well... the only Wanderers there that I would know are..." she counts them on her fingers, "Parker...? Nellie...? Mio....? Martha...? Iris...?"

She watches carefully for the creatures answer and blinks, "Iris? You're looking for her?" she asks, and then she thinks of those Iris would know. And then, it finally dawns on her. She feels like an idiot for her to take this long to guess. It seems so obvious. A giant, white, rat-like creature wandering about the Tower, looking for Iris. And he bolted at her when he saw her. Her jaw drops in disbelief and she just stares, unable to say anything for some time.

"That's... that's just... No. Bloody. Way," she smacks a hand to her mouth in shock, letting out a muffled and slightly high-pitched 'Fuck'. She actually can't believe it, despite living in Chicago. This is just... insane. She moves her hand away and peers at him, "...Saul?"

XD

[princerat]

He responds to the questions with the correct series of nods, and she guesses Iris! That means that they both won the game.

She also gets the bonus round, guessing who he is. It's a little unnerving to hear his name. He gives her the two nods, and waits for her to get over the shock. Explaining anything is impossible at this point, so he'll just have to be patient. He scritches at his ear with one of his paws, acting like all this is normal. He's mostly aware that it isn't, but the time for panic is not now. The time for panicking can occur if at the end of his quest he finds out that this is permanent.

Should be asleep, buuuut...

[starryeyed_cass]

The narration is afraid you might be waiting for a little while for her to get over the shock, Saul. Cassie's due to go in full freak-out mode in three.. two...

"Oh my God!" she exclaims, falling back off her haunches and landing on her backside with a soft thud. She stares for a long time, desperately trying to string together a coherent sentence - but all she seems to say are the tiniest snippets of words mixed in with high-pitched squeaks of confusion and disbelief.

And after a while, failing to get herself to ask what happened - she can only ask: "Where the bloody hell have you been?!" She scrambles forward, wrapping her arms about his neck and giving what would perhaps be the most awkward hug in the history of hugs, ever. "We've been wondering where you are! Ohh, I've missed you, you silly boy!" He's not really, but this is just how she gets. He might be older than her, but she's going to hit worried big-sister mode anyway.

She pulls away, looking at him - the initial shock beginning to wear away and the feeling replaced now with worry. She shakes her head, a rapid fire of questions being fired at him. "What on earth happened? Have you been like this all this time? I mean... Christ.. you've got a bloody unicorn horn thing going on..." She reaches up to scritch just behind his ear, a slight smile appearing at her lips.

[princerat]

The hug is indeed awkward; his paws do not make good hugging arms, though he tries. The questions sail by his ears and make them twitch. He can't tell her where he's been or how things got this way-- he's not even entirely sure himself-- so he gives her his best attempt at a shrug. It's all he can do right now. He knows it won't do much to quell her panic. At least now she knows that he's in here, somewhere. And if someone else knows, maybe he won't have to keep reminding himself. His brain feels like an unused muscle, straining to hold up something heavy.

His eyes get a bit glazed when she scratches behind his ear.

((Late reply is late. Sorryyyy~!))

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie looks at him sadly, she doesn't understand just how he's managed to get like this or even how long he's been this way. She hasn't seen him since the camping trip some few months ago. There's a small smile at her lips as his eyes glaze over a little. She's going to fight back the urge of saying 'Awwwwww..'.

With a deep sigh, she becomes serious. This needs to be sorted out and she must help Saul out in what way she can. He needs to find Iris. Right, well. Ahh. Problem. She winces and ruffles the hair at the side of her head awkwardly. "Iris doesn't live here in the Tower anymore," she tells him. "She lives with her Ward, but I don't know where that is,"

And then the thought hits her. She pulls at her bag and instantly begins hunting through it, yanking various objects out in search for her journal. "Aha!" she pulls out her journal and digs out a pen - scribbling a very hasty and urgent message for their friend. "I'm writing her a message, and hopefully she'll get it as soon as possible, alright?"

Cassie turns to place her journal back in her bag and the various items that have been placed on the floor around it. Her fingers brush against a thin, neatly wrapped and square-shaped present. While she doesn't know that much about Jungle music - she knows that Saul likes it. She hopes he doesn't have this album already.

She smiles sadly and offers him it. "I got you this. Merry Christmas, Saul,"