Nightshift 32: 2nd Floor Kitchen

[tyki_pon]

[From here]

The door slammed against the wall as it opened, resulting in Tyki stumbling inside. If the ramming hadn't been enough noise to wake the dead, then that most certainly was. Straightening, he swept his flashlight around the room. There were various cabinets and drawers lining the walls, along with various items that only led to one

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[gray_gambit]

Lia winced at the noise, searching the shadows for a glimpse of anything that might have heard and come to see what was making such a racket. When several seconds passed without incident, she stepped into the kitchen, taking careful stock of the drawers and cupboards in evidence.

"That must be why they keep the door locked," she murmured. "It wouldn't do to allow us to arm ourselves easily, even with kitchen tools. Or, I suppose, to allow us a chance to tamper with the food." She moved to open the nearest drawer, frowning down at the familiar but utterly mundane implements within. "One of these must have flint and kindling..." Lia had not yet been introduced fully to the concept of electricity, unfortunately.

[tyki_pon]

Tyki had opened a cabinet in the mean time, peeking in, only to close it after realizing there were only pots and pans. He didn't exactly saw himself running around with a frying pan, not to mention the items were rather boring. He turned around at Lia's odd question. People still used those?

"Eh? Why would you want to make a fire indoors?" he asked, not realizing she might need it for light. It simply hadn't occurred to him yet that other people might not be familiar with electricity, even despite the fact that it was still a fairly new thing in his own world. But then again, he didn't knew all that much about Lia, either.

"If you want to burn this place, you'll need something more inflammable." he continued casually, as if he was explaining her how to buy a train ticket.

[gray_gambit]

"For light. It's not terribly difficult to fashion a makeshift torch," Lia explained. Her expression darkened, and she forced her shoulders to maintain an even plane rather than slumping. "I can no longer summon witchlight, and I've not been able to make any sense of the magic they use to illuminate the rooms here."

It had to be magic, she was certain. A simple spell meant to call up light where there were people present during the day, and keep it dimmed at night. That she couldn't sense it at all only added to her unease, and to the lingering worry that she was truly stripped of her powers, not temporarily separated from them.

She gave him a long look, considering and just a little bit wary, then shook her head. "I wouldn't burn this place down. It would be too difficult to make certain that all of the other captives escaped." She hesitated, dropping her gaze to rest on the closed drawer nearest her left hand before admitting, very quietly, "And that those responsible for our confinement did not."

[tyki_pon]

"Magic?" Tyki echoed, amusement showing on his face. "Ah, you mean electricity? There's nothing magical about that." He held up his flashlight as if to strengthen his statement. Lia could hardly claim this lanttern was a wand or something. Or perhaps she could, since her home world apparently wasn't familiar with electricity.

Different worlds...it didn't sound as strange as it should.

He guessed she had a point about setting the place on fire. "You just need to make sure they don't escape." he answered, referring to their captors. He almost grinned at the thought of what he could do with whoever responsible for this if he ever got his hands on them, but he managed to stop himself. He could save the fun for the moment itself. The dreams should be left to Rhode, shouldn't they?

Speaking of which, where the hell was she? He hadn't seen her at all tonight.

[gray_gambit]

Lia flushed, turning aside to make a show of rummaging through the next drawer, careful but thorough. "It isn't flame," she replied quietly. "Nor is it witchlight, but it seemed similar. There are spells..." She trailed off, shaking her head as though to negate the explanation. It was neither necessary nor useful at the moment. "I simply assumed it had to be magic. Spelled torches, something similar for the overhead lights."

She laughed quietly as she slid the drawer shut, the sound bleak, tired in a manner at odds with her obvious youth. "And to find the ones in charge, to make sure they aren't just hiding behind catspaws. No matter their reason for abducting us, I doubt they'll let us go easily. Or at all, if it can be helped."

[tyki_pon]

"So you're some kind of witch, then?" he asked while opening another cabinet. Lia had mentioned this 'witchlight' thing twice by now. Tyki hadn't heard of anything like it before (well, save for Innocence, and the kinds of powers the Akuma and the other members of the Noah Clan had, but hadn't the boy spoke of different worlds? He doubted the two were related).

His golden eyes glanced over the various cooking tools, but aside from the knife he had just found there wasn't anything useful. "I wonder why we're imprisoned here in the first place." If he was separated from both his cigarettes and the Tease, and going to get scolded for lingering here, he might as well know the reason why.

[gray_gambit]

Lia's baffled look lasted only as long as it took her to remind herself that not only was Tyki not Blood, he was likely not even from the same Realm as she. She nodded an affirmative, bending to rummage through a cabinet before replying. "I am, though most of the Blood can perform such simple Craft; it isn't limited solely to the females."

She looked over at him, spending a moment in silent thought. "I don't know that any of us know why. Of those I've spoken to, some have theories, but I've not heard anything concrete. Just one more piece of evidence pointing toward a sinister motive, I suppose."

[tyki_pon]

"The Blood?" Tyki repeated questionably. He didn't knew all that much of witches, only the stuff written in books which wasn't all that reliable. Either way, the subject was still interesting enough to keep the Noah's interest, and it was a distraction that made the otherwise boring search through cooking material a little more bearable. He was already getting bored with the pots, pans and cutlery (not that it took a lot for the Noah of Pleasure to get bored in the first place, but that wasn't the point).

"I guess they won't tell us, either." he answered, moving a hand through his messy black hair. He was somewhat glad he hadn't bothered with slicking it back; his bangs did a good job of hiding the row of crosses on his forehead. Not that he was ashamed of being a Noah, on the contrary, but it'd definitely save him from answering questions about a subject he wasn't supposed to tell outsiders about.

[gray_gambit]

"Those who can use Craft. The magic of my world, I suppose you would call it." Lia forced a smile, weak in the face of the concept which, while not entirely foreign, was still more than a little bit disconcerting. "We're called the Blood. A Jewelled Blood female is known as a witch." She dipped her head, swallowing a weary laugh. "It's complicated, our society."

Raising her gaze, Lia took one last long look around the kitchen. "Unless we want to steal some food, I don't think there's much here that will be useful tonight," she admitted ruefully.

[tyki_pon]

"Is that so?" So in her world, people who used magic were named after body fluids. The very fluid that flowed out of his unfortunate opponents, something that the Noah - or at the very least his black side - had always enjoyed watching.

She said her society was complicated, but wasn't that the case with all of them? Rules, morals, values, standards...people always expected a lot. There was a reason his white side had ended up as a bum, mostly because he couldn't be bothered to put up with those. The few occasions he had to; mostly when he had to visit some sort of ball which happened to be part of his black side, he couldn't wait for the event to be over. Such events were always so tiring. And boring...

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Tyki agreed. Not that he never stole food, but there wasn't much sense when they'd get fed in the morning anyway. "These pans are starting to bore me." At least he had a knife now, but still no smokes.

[ooc; monster attack y/n?]

[gray_gambit]

"It is," Lia confirmed quietly, though she did not elaborate further. The complex combinations of caste and rank would likely be of little interest to one not born Blood, she thought. And even were that not so, there were better times and places to give insight into foreign systems of magic. She raised her gaze, sweeping it over the shadows cloaking a ceiling made distant by the dark, in faint hope of seeing something hanging there that could be used as a weapon. A quiet snort marked her disappointment.

"Possibly there will be something more worthwhile down one of the other corridors? If we can get past the people who were fighting earlier..." Guilt twinged as she wondered how many already lay wounded in the darkened, labyrinthine passages.

[ooc: Definitely y! I am all for monsters.]

[tyki_pon]

"We'll see when we get there, I suppose." Tyki answered, taking another glance around the dark. There was another door, but he figured that would lead to some sort of place to stock food. Common sense told him no one would keep any smokes near any food.

[ooc: I've put up a request, so I guess we should make them stay until a monster attacks? And sorry for the delay in my reply D:]

[damned_monsters]

There came a sound from the door behind them, a quiet scuttling sound of tiny feet as the scavengers were drawn by the scent of food from beyond the now-open door. The pair of cockroaches paused momentarily in the doorway, testing the air, judging the threat posed to them by the humans, instincts warring with their hunger. The the first creature - roughly the size of a large rat - darted into the room on quick feet, heading for the first human in its path.

[Rynn]

[gray_gambit]

Lia's recognition of the sound of motion was not entirely conscious. Instead, she froze, struggling to hear pinpoint the source of the scuttling that had set her subconscious on edge. "Did you hear that?" she hissed.

She pressed back against the cabinets, lamenting the low light that made it difficult to see anything at all. The movement of the creature caught her attention, and her heart leaped into her throat with her immediate, irrational assumption. It could not be a viper rat; the climate was all wrong. Instinct, however, was not on speaking terms with intellect at that precise moment of time, and she let out a low hiss of fear as she tried to track the darting thing.

[tyki_pon]

"I did." Tyki answered, aiming his flashlight into the direction the sound had come from. The beam was thin, which made it difficult to see whatever was hiding behind that door. Did something follow them?

Suddenly something crossed the beam of his flashlight, but before the Noah could make out what it was he noticed it was heading for him. His first reaction was to just make it pass through him, but he was suddenly reminded of the fact that he was still lacking his powers. He moved to the side, instantly turning around to try and track the...whatever it was.

At the very least, he was going to get some excitement...

[damned_monsters]

The first cockroach skittered away from the light, disliking the brightness but not deterred by its existence. It was hungry and the smell of food was strong. It headed straight for the man, moving rapidly on its six legs as it attacked at Tyki's legs. Its bite was by no means the most deadly in the institute, but still very effective and painful, and this pair was hungry.