so I guess the fortune teller's right ((canon update and open rp))

[righteous_pen]

It was the first thing Teru had done in - too long. Months. He'd told himself that nothing was wrong, that in a school full of demonic psychopaths it was only sensible to keep to himself. But that wasn't why he isolated himself, and he knew it

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[beastsouled]

Once they had been allowed to leave the stone room where they had arrived, Firekeeper and Blind Seer began to travel the halls with the intention of finding an exit as quickly as possible. Wolves were not meant to stay indoors, and while Firekeeper may have been human in form, she was a wolf in heart and soul.

But this place was riddled with passages and trails that put Thendulla Lypella, the Earth Spires of New Kelvin which was practically a city unto itself, to shame. Even Blind Seer's nose was eventually confused and lost, though he would not admit it.

"Pride, sweet hunter, does not become you," said Firekeeper, padding lightly down yet another hall.

Blind Seer growled in response, increasing his speed. It did him no good; Firekeeper could usually pace him. They turned another corner, and his nose twitched violently, causing him to sneeze.

"I smell it too," Firekeeper said. Even her dead nose could discern something that strong and rancid, and she wrinkled it in response.

"Like heavily salted butter, and yet none that I

[righteous_pen]

A large wolf suddenly bounding at him wasn't even the worst thing to happen to Teru that day, for all that he screamed and tried to scramble out of the way. There was a corresponding yowl of fright from Masuyo, as she disappeared behind one of the cases at the far side of the room.

Shivering, trying to get himself under control, he looked up at - at the woman. Whose name he didn't know. He'd spent so long with the shinigami eyes, grown so used to them, that now the space over her head seemed empty, unnatural, and he had to look away again.

"It - it happens when you come back, the butter," he heard himself try to explain. "I just came here again, I don't - this isn't normal."

[beastsouled]

Blind Seer continued to ignore both the man and the cat, shuffling his pony-sized bulk through a puddle of fragrant butter. It was not a practical mask, like the scent of a deer corpse or rabbit spoor, but a decorative affectation--the wolf equivalent of putting on a feather boa and spinning in a mirror. His blue eyes rolled in ecstasy.

Firekeeper's brown ones rolled in good humor. "He not hurt," she said. "Unless threatened." She examined the man inquisitively, moving in to look closer. Her nostrils flared out of habit, though nose-dead as she was she caught no scent other than the reek of butter. "No door out, then?" she asked, plainly disappointed and almost physically wilting. She didn't want to have to get covered in butter just to get out of this stone prison.

[righteous_pen]

"Just the popcorn. There are doors, doors everywhere -" in contrast with the cell they'd kept him in, with no way out and everything exposed for them to see "-but none out of this world."

[beastsouled]

"World of stone?" she asked, confused. "We is looking for outside. Ground. Sky."

Suitably perfumed, Blind Seer stood and shook, spattering small flecks of oily butter around him where it did not cling to his thick coat. Firekeeper did not share his enthusiasm for its scent and tried to wipe off where some landed, but only smeared it further into her battered clothing. "Perhaps he speaks more of gates," Blind Seer suggested. "He speaks of worlds, after all, and not simply indoors and out."

"Ah," she said, nodding to the wolf. "Yes. Is like gate?" she asked the man. "Old world, new world, this world, that world?"

[righteous_pen]

"...yes. If I... understand you, yes. I'm sorry, I'm - confused." Confused and humiliated and he should be dead, but one thing was making its way through all that. This was someone lost. Someone who needed help. And Teru might be able to give it.

"You - you want the way out of the castle. I might be able to -" He tried to stand up, slipped, and fell back again, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the wall. "Aah! ...sorry. I - it's hard to stand."

[beastsouled]

Firekeeper exhaled noisily. She needed to take her time and speak the words, not the bare minimum of what she decided would get the point across. Derian's exasperated tone echoed in her head and made her smile fondly as she reached out a hand to the man.

"Yes," she said, with evident relief. She paused and chose her words more carefully. "We have been in here for longer than we would like. Wolves are meant for ground and sky, not stone." With some reluctance, she added, "Though it is good shelter from snow and rain."

[righteous_pen]

Teru took her hand, reluctantly, still conscious of the mess he was making. No worse than the one you made ten days ago, is it...? "I'm sorry," he said, again, managing to stand this time. "Thank you. I think - I know the way, from here. I think I remember. It's this way." He indicated the direction. "I can take you, then I have to get clean."

[beastsouled]

Firekeeper's grip was firm, and very strong. Blind Seer hovered unobtrusively behind, to be of assistance should the man fall, though it was at enough of a distance that should Firekeeper have noted and commented on it he could deny it. Royal Wolves did not serve at the whims of humans--but Blind Seer was a conscientious sort.

"Thank you," she said. She agreed him in regards to getting clean--while her human friends thought her a dirt-coated savage on occasion, she was fastidious, inasmuch as a life outdoors would allow her to be. "Is..." She searched for the right word, taking her time. "Is inconvenient way to go between worlds. Better or worse than blood magic, I cannot say."

Blind Seer snorted from where he brought up the rear. "Ask the one who participates in the ritual rather than the one who benefits."

She reached a hand back at him, and he shoved his nose into it before falling back into pace. "Do you control, or does someone else?"

[righteous_pen]

Teru looked back anxiously at Masuyo, who had crept out from behind the popcorn case again and was following at what she judged to be a safe distance, staying close to the wall. "Someone else. I think. The Hat, probably. I wanted to leave, felt I could, but I don't know how I did it."

[beastsouled]

Blind Seer looked back at the cat, jaws opening in amusement. "I will not hurt you," he panted at it, keeping it in the simplest terms possible. Cousin-kind could get the meaning of what Royal Beasts said, if they kept it simple. Whether or not a small cat would believe a gigantic wolf was another matter entirely.

"So you do not know how it is done?" Firekeeper mused on this. The Hat, if it was responsible, must be a powerful spirit indeed if it could pull beings from other worlds into this place and send them home, all on its own, with no blood magic in evidence. She shook her head. "Is a strange place."

[righteous_pen]

Masuyo made a sceptical mrrr noise. It had been a bad day, and she wasn't feeling especially trusting.

"Strange. ...yes." At the moment, Teru couldn't think of a better word. It was harder to concentrate on finding the exit than he was making it look. "Nothing ever made sense here."

[beastsouled]

She gave a short growl of irritation, a rather more canine noise than one usually heard coming from a young woman. Her movements were likewise not quite as normal as one would expect; she walked like a predator, an easy loping stride that she had to consciously slow down to keep pace with the man, constantly looking around with nostrils flaring as if she expected to memorize the hallways by scent. She would not, unless--like the popcorn room--they had a particular scent other than stone and age.

Blind Seer was having an easier time of it. His trotting pace was downright relaxed, his earlier frustration cheered by the experience of adorning himself with the scent of butter. He increased his pace somewhat until he was just behind and beside the man and started sniffing noisily, wondering what manner of person was leading them around. Had he been thinking more clearly, he would have done so immediately.

[righteous_pen]

Teru tried not to flinch away, wary of causing any offence. The corridors were looking gradually more familiar, and he was sure, almost, that he'd be able to lead them out soon. And then he could get away. Get the butter off himself. Try to cope with the way he'd just died.

"I - I apologise for my... my state," he found himself saying, not quite sure which of them he was addressing. Did desperation have a smell? "The place I was in, before, it was - unpleasant."