Third Floor Hallway of the Dorms [ Mid-Afternoon ]
After finding out about the statue, Alphonse was running like hell back to the dorms. Screw the fact that his sprained wrist was hurting like nobody's business; reaching his room was far too important right then. He was ignoring that he really needed to slow down and catch his breath by the time he reached the third floor, and continued sprinting by.
With Pup in tow, Seras was making her way back down to the third floor. She hadn't been able to get in touch with Walter all weekend. Thanks to the number engraved on Pup's collar, Seras had been able to figure out that either Walter or his room mate owned the small dog.
However, they'd both seemed to be MIA since Friday. She hoped that she'd find either of them there. Pup was getting more and more agitated as the days passed.
Pup spotted Alphonse and whined at the nice girl who was carrying him. He wriggled enthusiastically and tried to get down to go see the boy who might know where his Walter was.
Alphonse didn't pay any mind to the girl in the hallway when he rushed by-- she probably had other things to tend to. However, he did stop in place when he recognized the small, black ball of fuzz being held in her arms; Alphonse stopped quickly in place, staring at Seras oddly. "How did you get Pup?" he asked; and now that he'd finally stopped running, was panting heavily.
Seras stopped in her tracks and hurried over to where the boy in the red coat stood panting.
"You know his name! Does he belong to you?" she asked, noticing that Pup was becoming excited at the sight of this person.
"Me? No, he belongs to Walter, my roommate," Alphonse answered, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. He tried to collect himself better from the long run and looked down at Pup. "I don't know how you managed to get out," he said, then faced Seras again. "Sorry, I hope he didn't cause you any trouble. Pup tends to search for trouble sometimes. I'll bring him back to the room."
Seras wrapped her arms tighter around Pup as the little dog began to wiggle in earnest and his puppy whines increased in pitch and fervor.
"Pup belongs to Walter?" she said, "Where is Walter? I haven't seen him around in three days. Did he go home or something?"
"Well, um..." Alphonse bit at his lip, rubbing at the back of his neck nervously. "Something's happened and..." He looked over his shoulder where the door to his room was down the hall. "S-Sorry, I'm in a hurry. I'll take care of Pup from here if you need me to."
"Has something happened to Walter?"
Seras didn't know Walter very well yet, but he'd been nice to her during her first confusing time in fandom. If there was something wrong, she wanted to help.
She stroked Pup's back, trying to calm him.
"... Um." Alphonse really didn't want to get anyone else involved if needed. "Kind of-- But don't worry about it," he insisted. "Do you know him? I don't think we've met. And-" Alphonse pointed behind him. "Room. I don't mean to be hasty, but there's something I need to find in there."
Right.
So, obviously no one had aquainted this fellow with the fact that telling someone not to worry about it had the exact opposite of its desired effect.
"I'm Seras," she replied, "Walter and I met at the Meet and Greet on Tuesday and a few times since."
Seras shruged, shifting Pup in her arms. "Be my guest," she said, stepping back from door 303.
"I'm Alphonse," he said and quickly opened the door to his room.
The small kitten curled up on Alphonse's bed perked his head up quickly at the sudden noise, staring at him and the new girl curiously. Pup was with them, but Cuddles was in the middle of a catnap. This was far more important than anything else. After staring at them for a moment or so, Cuddles curled back under the sheets and went back to sleep.
Alphonse quickly darted towards Walter's bed, hastily scanning over the area to find where the statue could possibly be. It didn't take too long, since it was sitting very conspicuously on the table by his bed. "Ah! There it is!"
Pup wriggled in Seras' arms, obviously pleased to be back home again. He snuffed the air, trying to catch a hint of *his* Walter's scent. The Cat was curled up on the bed, and ordinarily would have commanded Pup's entire attention, but today he was more intent on searching for Walter. There were no traces of him in the room, however, and a sad low puppy whine escaped his throat.
"I'm delighted to meet you, Alphonse," said Seras, "Now could you please tell me what exactly is going on here? Has something happened to Walter? Is he ill? Missing? What?"
Alphonse grabbed the statue, staring at it warily before sighing. As much as he wished she'd let him off-- because that's what he really, really needed to do-- he had the feeling Seras wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily. "He's in trouble," he started simply, lifting up the statue for Seras to see. "Because of this thing. I'm not really sure how, but we're going to find a way to get rid of it."
Maybe she'd buy the simplified explaination?
Seras was silent a moment as she stared at the statue in Alphonse's hands.
"Right, then," she said, shifting Pup into a more comfortable position in her arms, "What are we waiting for. Let's go. And, on the way you can explain to me exactly what is going on."
She tugged at his sleeve with her free hand.
"C'mon. Walk and talk."
"Urk." Okay, forget what he thought. Seras wasn't going to let him slip away. "Ah-- um-- O-Okay," he timidly replied as she tugged at his coat. He followed her out the door and closed it behind him, hesitantly waving for her to follow. "Walter and Pippi sort of got, say, posessed by... a vampire and a fairy, and apparently these things have to do with it," he waved the statue in his hand. "And we need to find a way to get them back to normal."
Possessed?
Seras was about to ask Alphonse exactly how many scary movies he'd been watching lately when she remembered where she was. Fandom High.
Right.
So, this was par for the course, really.
"So, exactly how do we go about finding a way to get Walter and Pippi back to normal?" she asked.
"Nadia told me these statues can't be easily destroyed," he started, inspecting the statue closely in his hand while he walked down the hallway. "And considering previous events, I'm not doubting that one bit. So, I think I have an idea on how I can fully break this thing apart."
Seras nodded, following close behind.
"Well, that's good," she said, "What's your plan? And, is there anything I can do to help? Anything at all?"
"I'm not sure," he replied. "I'd rather not drag you into possible danger, either..." He turned his head over to her, already starting to feel slightly guilty. "Unless you've got any information on what the heck ever these things are. Until then, these things can't be broken by normal means-- or so I'm told-- so we're going to find out whatever freaky voodoo the statues have, and if we need to I'm going to see if changing it around with alchemy will effect anything."
"You're not dragging me into anything," said Seras, "I'm coming along because I want to. Free will and all that."
She nodded her head.
"Right. That sounds like a plan."
She still really had no idea what was going on here, but Alphonse seemed to know what he was talking about.
"Wait. You said statues. You've only got the one. Where's the other?"
"Molly, Pippi's roommate, is off to get it." Alphonse made what sounded like a frustrated sigh and added wryly, "Only at this place, I swear... Where ever Walter got this, I certainly hope he doesn't decide to go back there."
Seras nodded.
"I think he might be able to make a fairly lucrative lawsuit out of this, actually," she said, trying to joke to relieve the tension.
Everything would be okay. They would find a way to destroy the statues and help Walter and Pippi.
They would.
Alphonse forced through a small laugh at that. Maybe he shouldn't have ran himself so hard all the way up to the room; he was already feeling like falling over. Of course, that wasn't going to happen, since there were much, much more important things to finish. "I'm glad you're willing to help, Seras," Alphonse said. He had to admit, all the help they could get was likely to be needed. "And I don't think I ever said 'nice to meet you, too'."
Seras cast a worried glance at Alphonse. He looked exhausted.
"Here, do you want me to carry that for you," she asked, nodding to the statue as they hurried along, "I can put Pup down. He'll follow us."
"I'll be all right," Alphonse insisted, then gave the statue in his hand another incredulous look. "If this thing decides to pull something off again, I'd rather it be me than you. You've only just arrived, after all."
Seras shrugged.
"From what you've told me, I'm not the one we should be worrying about at the moment."
"I guess you're right," Alphonse sheepishly replied. "It's kind of hard not to worry about everyone involved in this. We need to head to Café Fina, and fast." As soon as he reached the stairwell, Alphonse took no hesitation about walking down quickly.
Seras followed him, one hand on the bannister, the other clutching Pup.
"So, we're going to hold fort there and figure out how to fix this?" she asked.
"Right," he said simply.
[ ooc: Preplayed with union_jane, no further interaction possible. ]