open.

[quackery]

Who: zealouspeter, quackery, and you.
When: Varying times during the day!
Where: Different vents (and rooms) in the city.
Summary: Vent adventures.
Warnings: Children doing things that they probably shouldn't. Will update this if necessary!

Comments

[killerbills]

[Morning finds the scarred surgeon in his bed with a cup of coffee and a pile of papers. He's still researching as much as he can about this weird place he's found himself in; trying to plan out how he's going to make the most of his first week.

The sounds are at first, ignored. They're fairly chintzy apartments to start with, so he suspects rodents are the culprits. As they get louder though, he looks up from what he's reading, eyes narrowed in a mixture of annoyance and confusion.

He stands up slowly, setting his coffee down on his bedside table as he tries to get an idea of the exact location of the sounds.]

[quackery]

[After a moment, the noises stop. A pause, just long enough that he might begin to think the source has gone away.

Then, if he's paying attention, he might notice small fingers curled around the grate of his air duct for a brief moment. More shuffling noises, another pause, and then - muffled voices, of all things, though they aren't loud enough to discern specific words.]

[killerbills]

[Oh, he's paying attention. The sight of fingers causes him to reach into his pocket for a scalpel -- until he realizes how small they are.

And while he can't discern the words, the tone of the voices is most certainly on the young side.

For now, he decides to quietly edge his way along the wall, hoping to stay out of the line of sight of whoever is in the duct.]

[zealouspeter]

["Let's just go in!" is what's being whispered, in what they may or may not believe is a sneaky fashion. if they do notice the approaching man, they don't seem to talking about it.]

[there is a few more clunking noises, a very muffled ouch, but then things grow deathly silent the moment after. they'd make horrible spies, really.]

["It's cramped, anyway," more whispered words, even less concealment.]

just oneeee closed thread.

[quackery]

[Shuffling, shuffling. Jeez, why are these vents so dirty? She pauses, coughing, and looks around the darkened air duct.]

Where should we go next?

[zealouspeter]

... Mm... Should stay on this floor longer? I don't think there's much of anyone around.

[then again, he didn't know the exact way up, either. he sits back on his dirty knees, rubbing a dust-covered hand over a dust-covered face and very tactically not looking at the third dead rat they'd come across. he'd completely forgotten how gross the Towers apartments were.]

[but they had interesting occupants. he couldn't deny that.]

[quackery]

You don't think so? Maybe we should go up, then. [Even if she doesn't know the way up either. She'd prefer not to think very hard about what comes next, because the thought of Gilbert and what he would ask if he saw how dirty she was would inevitably come up.

At least she didn't notice the rat.]

[zealouspeter]

Alright. Let's go... that way. [slightly awkward turn - so narrow! - left, and he was headed off, eyes peeled for any grate that wasn't just pointing toward the hallway.]

[runebladeknight]

[It's the afternoon by the time that Celes manages to fill out the hospital release papers, be returned her sword and her clothing, and find her way to the Tower Apartments. She's been to far more pleasant establishments, but as a soldier, she can't really complain about them. Because she's also been in worse. And often out on campaign. No, the apartment is fine, for what it is, save for those odd noises from above.

[The problem is, it's an apartment in and entirely different world than her own. Where she can't know if the people she cares for are alive or dead. That there is no known way to leave. And that is a very big problem indeed.

[She sets her sword on the coffee table, and reclines on the nearby couch. It's not that comfortable, but the thought scarcely registers. More important thoughts crowd her mind. How she may never see her friends again, never know what becomes of them . . .]

[quackery]

[Fortunately, she won't have to worry about it for long! After a few minutes of her sitting, a distraction comes in the form of a slow shuffling noise overheard. As time drags on, it only seems to get louder...]

[Mid-afternoon at the Newcomer Apartments]

[gavesugar]

Sheila's just gotten off of a rather long shift at work, and her fingers are red and achy from hours of needlework. She had a cup of tea and a small biscuit in her hand when she settles down in her easy chair when she hears a rustling noise over her head - the familiar sound of scampering.

"...I truly should have bought a cat to mouse..." she murmurs, reaching for a broom to strike the wall and scare the mice along.

[quackery]

When the broom begins to hit the ceiling, the shuffling pauses for a short while. However, it doesn't prevent the sudden gasp that comes from the same spot. The voice stops right after that, but now it's plenty obvious that whatever's up there isn't a mouse.

[zealouspeter]

To add insult to trespassing injury, alongside the gasp is either very deep-voiced squeaking (if she was still going with the mouse idea) or a boy's tiny snicker, though the shuffling noises won't start up again just yet.

[gavesugar]

...Well, mice don't gasp, Sheila knows that much about animals. She taps the ceiling once more before calling upward, "what art thou about?" She also knows children shouldn't be crawling about in vents.

Late Evening, the open rooftops of one apartment. One of the vents may lead to them?

[birdthright]

[ There was an odd sound beneath his feet. He first noticed it a few minutes ago, and it stayed persistent. It didn't sound anything like rats. Rats were light on their feet, and the pitter-patter of their tiny footsteps usually came in numbers. This was obviously much bigger than a rat. It was bigger than a cat, too -- a person? There were two of them.

Damian moved closer to where the air-vents ended. ]

Most likely. C:

[zealouspeter]

[there were two of them, but by this time, they were rather skilled in stopping as one. they'd finally hit the top - finally, finally - and then the presence on the other side became abruptly, startlingly obvious.]

[darn it.]

[... maybe they hadn't heard them, and would continue on? Shiroe'd check, but he couldn't actually think much past the ache in his back and knees and what they'd all seen to be safe enough with his telepathy.]

[so. waiting.]

[quackery]

[The noise may have stopped momentarily, but after a second there's the sound of someone shifting, and a nervous cough. She's trying to be silent, but it's dusty and uncomfortable and she was very ready to be out of this vent.]

[birdthright]

[ Damian crouches by the air vent, his eyebrow raised when the sound stops. Whatever was down there had noticed him, as well. Then, a cough, and that confirms everything. ]

I know you're down there.