Its Cold Outside [Active/Open]

[allthekeys]

Who: Lock, anyone, everyone
Where: First Floor
When: Day 004
What: He's stationary for the moment, you can ask him questions
Warnings: Some cursing, others to be added as needed.

Comments

[theredchampion]

Niall stands framed in the door of the dining room watching Lock for a few minutes, arms folded as he leans against the frame. He injured arm is still bandaged, held against himself a little awkwardly as he studies the boy. He'd come in from outside, but missing the same confused air as the others. Perhaps the boy who had run across here the other night? Hard to be certain. There's a peculiar air about him, he thinks, but nothing much worse than most of the creatures in this place. After a moment he pushes off the frame, his voice a little rougher than it had been a few days ago.

"I'm surprised you choose to be inside this place, given the choice."

[allthekeys]

"Yeah, well. It's snowing outside and I can't get anywhere else without starting here. Bit hard to run around much when you're dying of frost bite, isn't it?" One hand dropped warily to the weapon, looking like little more than a stray dog unwilling to move from a potential meal.

"You want something, or are you just some sort of asshole welcoming committee?"

[theredchampion]

"Me? Oh, I'm just curious. You can't say you didn't expect curiosity from the house's little pets now, I shan't believe it. Not when you've shown an ounce of intelligence."

He paces closer, careful but deliberate -- ready to stop if Lock decides to make use of his weapon.

"So, I suppose all in all you could say what I want is conversation."

[allthekeys]

The wariness didn't fade - if anything it grew as Niall stepped closer, something odd twisting across his face at the choice of words. "You're hers, then?"

His hand closed around the grip on his weapon, but he didn't seem inclined to move away from the comfort of the fire. His had stayed wrapped the cold iron, but he didn't lift it from the floor just yet.

"People don't just have conversations, they want something from them." His face was young, as was his body, but his eyes were not those of a child.

[umbradraconis]

Shadow had only intended to be passing through. After getting separated from Nina last night and finding that there was more to upstairs than last time, he had wavered between finding the girl and adding to his map of this place.

Eventually he had decided to see if Nina was in any of the places he would have expected. The Organoid moved into the room with ease, body whirring with the movement. He glanced at the child in front of the fire for a moment, planning to dismiss him as not important...then he noticed the snow.

He stopped in his tracks, blue eyes lit up with interest. Snow? He'd been in a desert last he knew...and had the boy been outside? Shadow let out a curious hum, moving closer but not too close. He didn't doubt he could overpower the boy, but he still didn't care for being whacked with anything. How could it be snowing...?

[allthekeys]

The look of alarm from the boy was impossible to miss, grabbing the fire poker and bringing the weapon between them. "What are you?!" It wasn't a hell hound, unless they had started dressing them in armor. It wasn't even properly anything he had a reference for. Some...dragon metal thing.

What was it? And what did it want from him? Were there more of it?

He took a step back, yielding the ground and trying to get something between them.

[umbradraconis]

He stopped as the boy got up, letting out an annoyed snort. Stupid humans. If he'd wanted to attack, he would've done so already.

The Organoid tilted his head, letting out a curious hum. It was impossible to tell what he was looking at, due to a lack of pupils, but the angle of his head was too high to be looking at the boy himself. Shadow was still curious about the snow. Was this place somewhere far from the base? If that was true, Raven was going to kill him. It'd take forever to get back...

At least he wasn't acting dangerous. The Zoid was settled comfortably, in an idle stance. What was the boy going to do now?

[allthekeys]

The look of alarm faded into general wariness and distrust. He still didn't know what the creature was, and he wasn't sure how to react to it. "Are you an animal or a robot? Obviously you can't talk so, two beeps for yes, three for no."

He brushed the last of the snow free of his collar, letting the wet white stuff fall to the ground to melt.

Armored whatever it was, he hoped it didn't give the things any ideas for making hellhounds more durable.

[is_not_number1]

Upon noticing the kid in the parlour, Mello stopped for a moment to stare. He was, by all measure, thoroughly confused.

The fact that he was sitting by the fire wasn't all that strange, as the temperature of the house had become rather unpleasantly cold. It wasn't quite freezing, or even cold enough that simply putting on a jacket wouldn't suffice, but it was still cold.

The fact that he still had traces of snow in his hair, on the other hand, was downright bizarre. The kid didn't look like he was simply sitting by the fire for the trivial comfort of a bit of heat, and though Mello supposed it was possible that he had just arrived here from somewhere cold, he hardly seemed confused enough to have been that new. He looked, instead, like he had just come in from having been outside.

If that was the case, how the hell had he managed it? Was he-- like that girl, perhaps-- not any sort of normal prisoner?

Mello shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, and approached the kid with narrowed eyes. "You've been outside?"

[allthekeys]

"I don't get why everyone is obsessed with outside." The words were a grumble, eyes tracking Mello's path across the parlour.

"There's nothing out there but snow and cold and rocks. Nothing to see unless you like admiring the drop. And I can't take you back out, so don't ask."

[is_not_number1]

So the kid had been outside, and-- though in truth Mello hadn't so much as thought of asking-- couldn't take him back out. The statement implied that, even if he had just gotten outside by unlocking some door with a key that he'd found, it had not remained unlocked after he'd returned.

It implied that he had control over who went out.

"I'd say that's because none of us have been able to get outside," he responded dryly. "People tend to be curious about things they can't see, you know. And I don't suppose it would surprise you that I'm curious about how the hell you're able to leave the house."

[allthekeys]

"Lucky for you. Like I said, there isn't anything out there. Curiosity will get you killed here. So I'd suggest stopping that now." He settled forward on his knees, watching Mello.

"Why? You can't do it. So knowing how I'm able to won't help you, will it?"

[bunny_is_better]

Rukia had, since the night ended, been wandering the house with something just to the left of intent. Somewhere, there had to be answers. Somewhere in this house, there had to be SOMEONE who could, if nothing else, point her in the right direction

[allthekeys]

"I won't fall in." He peered at her for a moment, then settled better onto his knees as thought to prove he had the sense to keep himself balanced.

The guarded look he tossed the woman was slightly less than he would have normally bothered with, she didn't look like much a threat. That didn't mean she wasn't one, but she wasn't one of the normal assholes around here, so it should be safe to keep his focus on warming himself back up.

[bunny_is_better]

"So I see," she said, taking the rebuke as her due. Lack-of-introductions made, Rukia made her way toward the fireplace - or, more precisely, a chair near the fireplace. It didn't really matter how close she got, after all, since she couldn't feel the heat. Personal space wasn't even a consideration, really; the chair was just the most comfortable seat available.

Her manner wasn't in any way threatening, something that couldn't be said for nine out of ten of the other house guests. Perhaps because she, herself, was not a large or imposing person.

For the moment, she didn't say anything else; she was content to watch the fire and not think, not contemplate her situation. For the moment.

[allthekeys]

Lock watched her warily, turning a bit to keep her in line of sight, but he otherwise gave every impression of ignoring her presence, accepting that she wanted to steal some of the heat from the fire as well.

[passed_torch]

He'd been looking for the people who vanished - pacing the hallways searching; he was just coming out of the library to continue his search when he saw someone else - and someone small, and cautious, that he didn't ... think he'd seen before.

"Hello?", he called out, carefully; as much as he could be fairly quiet himself, he was hoping to not startle the kid.

[allthekeys]

Lock froze, one hand on the door he'd been pushing open. So far, his encounters with the new 'guests' hadn't left him with any sort of good will to the group. He considered just pushing on through, ignoring the question and pretending he hadn't heard.

"Yeah, hi." He kept his hand on the door, other hand wrapped around his weapon, as clumsy and ill-suited to combat as the iron poker seemed.

[passed_torch]

Somehow, this one seemed like he'd been here ... long enough to be wary, and he certainly didn't fault carrying the poker, although it made him worry more; it wouldn't do much against some of the things Giotto'd been hearing about here.

"I take it you've been here a while ... are you alone?"

[allthekeys]

"You could say that." He let the tip of his weapon drop in a seemingly casual gesture that implied trust, or at least that he was relaxed and not as guarded as he actually was. "I was born here. No big secret, she'll tell you the same if you ask. Might as well spill that one right out the gate."

He didn't respond the the second question, glancing back at Giotto over his shoulder. "Yeah. I'm alone."