No Moon For You [Active, Open]

[ineedthumbs]

Characters: Red XIII, Open
Setting: Entryway, Grand Room
Time: Day 001, early afternoon
Summary: Red XIII arrives at Dollsy, is unhappy about it. More people to come?
Warnings: None

Comments

[goblintamer]

Not two seconds after Red called, Courtney appeared suddenly in mid-air, falling forward. "Oof!" she grunted as she hit the ground beside Red, lying on the floor before getting up slowly. "Wh-whuh...?" She looked around warily, barely able to speak out of surprise and confusion.

She had been walking down the stairs in her own home, on the way to the kitchen to get a glass of water, when she had tripped on ... something, and the next thing she knew she was here, in this very strange house.

And right next to her was what looked like a red-furred lion.

"Uhh...!" She started scooting away on the ground, using her arms to propel her backwards from the creature, staring at him. She had faced down faerie creatures before - even Tommy Rawhead, The Worst Goblin That Ever Was - but this creature looked fearsome indeed, so much that being so close to it gave her a fright.

After recovering from her initial thought, staring at the creature warily, she raised her hand, waving a little. "Er. Um... hi?"

[ineedthumbs]

Red XIII leapt sideways when Courtney landed, skidding backwards on the smooth marble after he touched down, his fiery tail whipping around for balance. When he saw who he was facing, however, he immediately reconsidered, feeling guilty. It was just a human girl. He gathered his feet under him and sat, wrapping his tail around himself to look less large and a little more friendly--such as it was, anyway, as he knew he was often quite terrifying to the uninitiated. And for all he knew, she was the owner of this magnificent house, or at least one of its residents. He hoped greeting her back wouldn't startle her too badly, she was already probably terrified. (He was immensely relieved that she hadn't screamed, however.)

"Hello. Are you the owner of this house?" Red XIII's voice was low and full of growl, and his sharp white teeth flashed when he spoke as a natural consequence of his mouth shape--moreso than human teeth did, although he did his best to cut down on it when he could.

[goblintamer]

Although she was mildly unnerved by the sharp teeth she caught glimpses of as he spoke, Courtney was immediately put at ease by the fact that this creature could talk - and appeared to have no immediate hostile intentions. Unlike most girls, Courtney wasn't surprised by animals that began to speak. After living in her Uncle Aloysius' house for so long, where strange creatures crawled about in the shadows of the house and cats could talk like people, she wasn't surprised by much of anything anymore, with the possible exception of teleporting to unknown locations in the middle of the night... like what had just happened previously

[ineedthumbs]

Red XIII blinked a little bit with his one functioning eye. "Unfortunately, it would seem so. If this is your house I apologise--I had no intention of waking up here." The flame on the end of his tail crackled quietly under the sound of his voice. He immediately suspected that this was not, in fact, the girl's house, but it seemed like a good idea to humour her. "There seem to be some strange circumstances, I'm sorry." He didn't really have time to play with this child, but he didn't really want to upset her.

He was, however, quite concerned about where this girl had come from. Unless she had simply dropped out from a hole in the ceiling, there was no sensible way for a child--or early adolescent, which seemed more accurate here--to suddenly land right next to him. And he didn't know of any materia that would let her do that.

[goblintamer]

"Whoa!" Courtney stepped back instinctively as the fire shot at the window. Not only did Nanaki have teeth and claws, but he could shoot flame from his head?! Amidst the shock, Courtney felt a sort of giddiness welling up in her. Even while living among the coven of witches and warlocks, she'd never seen anyone cast an actual fireball before!

Despite her excitement, she realized that the impressive spectacle had absolutely... no effect on the window. No smashed glass, no melted windowpanes, nothing. He might as well have blown as hard as he could at it for all the good that resulted from it.

"Well, that didn't work," she said in a mildly miffed tone of voice. "I guess you don't have a plan B?" She really was getting impatient in their search for a way out. She knew her parents took little notice of anything beyond their newspapers, TV, or the rich folk they tried clinging to from time to time, and so wouldn't even notice if she was gone for prolonged periods, but she knew Uncle Aloysius would be worried - but then again, he had

[ineedthumbs]

Red XIII stared with open suspicion as Zetsu moved to the window. To him, the plant man looked like some sort of horrible combination of a human being, a Ying/Yang, and a Marlboro. He was also, however, aware of how it felt to be judged prematurely, and tried not to growl too loudly. It only smelled of plant and human, no mako, no monster that he could recognise. Of course, sometimes the worst monsters weren't physically monsters at all. The question was whether or not this... thing would tell them anything. It certainly didn't seem inclined to attack. "I don't understand it," he confessed. "The sun has barely moved from its position in the sky and yet we have been here for hours--in the meantime, I can no more break this window than I can break an entire mountain. Actually, I'd probably have better luck with the mountain." He grimaced ruefully, turning his already fierce visage into something rather horrifying, albeit only for a brief moment.

"Now--who are you?"

[weeatbodies]

Zetsu set his jaw in irritation, voice perhaps holding a hint of a growl in it is well; a well-meaning interest certainly was not helped by being asked for his species (again) so quickly after he had showed up. His leaves flicked with restrained dignity, though, willing him to at least keep his patience for the moment. "I'm a ninja. What are you?" Damn right he was peaceful.... Why would he be attacking when there hardly seemed to be a point? He didn't even seem to care about how terrible the lion's visage had turned for the moment. "Time is strange here, though I couldn't say why. This house is, as far as I know, completely indestructible as well."

[goblintamer]

A... ninja? Plant boy was a ninja? This was turning stranger and stranger, though Courtney felt that she could hold off the skepticism for a while until they got their facts straightened out. "So... there's no way out, the windows are closed shut, and you can't even make a dent in the house."

She let out a sigh, as if this was cause for frustration more than any sort of alarm. "So I guess we're stuck here. And if I'm right, plant-ninja here doesn't know where Cosmo Canyon is, and has never heard of North America, either. And I'm betting that he comes from a place that we've never heard of, either." A pause, as if she needed time to assess all of these facts in order to come to a conclusion. "Anybody seeing a pattern here?" she asked, glancing to Nanaki and the newcomer, as if making sure that they were on the same page.

[dead_mans_queen]

Goody, it could talk! Anita felt slightly less ridiculous, although she was still pretty embarrassed. "Yeah, the name's Anita Blake," she said, placing a hand behind her head. She never did know how best to handle awkward situations. In fact, any event that didn't require a gun usually left Anita a bit unsure of what to do.

Now that she was fully situated, Anita could feel two pairs of eyes staring at her. One had to belong to Zetsu ("That damn ninja bastard, he's probably laughing at me right now."), while the other belonged to someone else entirely. Anita looked over and saw a young girl about as tall as an 11-year-old. Her blond hair was a bit messy, and she was dressed rather plainly, though she still looked cute. And was it Anita's imagination, or was the girl looking a bit too intently at her?

"Nevermind that now," Anita thought, turning to glare at Zetsu instead. "You just couldn't leave it alone, could you? No, 'Hey Anita, how are you?' or 'My, so you haven't managed to escape, either?' No, you send a fucking lion

[ineedthumbs]

Red XIII blinked. Or winked, perhaps, seeing as he only had one eye to do it with. He was used to coarse language--Cid and Barrett had taken care of any discomfort he may have had with that--but her vehemence was still a little startling. His ears flattened slightly at her aggressive words and he took a step closer to Courtney out of habit--even though this Anita Blake really only seemed mad at Zetsu, he wasn't going to take chances. Courtney seemed transfixed, which was... worrisome at worst and very strange at best. It could just be a human thing

[weeatbodies]

Zetsu, of course, had seen Anita's weapons before--including the hidden one she'd originally been probably planning to blow his brains out with--and so was unfazed, though he did note Courtney backing up closer to him. He almost laughed; what made her think he was any safer? Or that he would protect her? What kind of world was it where a little girl had to turn to a criminal, murderer, and freak for protection from intimidation and actually thought it would work? What a funny girl, so worldly in some ways, yet so naive in others.... He didn't know whether to smile or pity her

[goblintamer]

Observing enough of the situation to note a conflict between Zetsu and Anita, Courtney carefully stepped out from the space in-between them both. Her head was beginning to hurt from how little she knew of the current situation, and it was frustrating her more than a little - enough to override any sense of euphoria she felt from meeting Potentially Cool Lady With Guns. "Okay, can you guys please fill me in on what's going on? You two know each other from before?"

She was also interested in hearing her answer Red's question, however. As far as she could tell, she was the most 'normal' person she'd seen in this place so far - or at least, most closely resembling the people in her world. Heck, she even referenced a certain savior from a certain religion that she was familiar with. That meant she was from Earth, like her, right?

Suddenly, she felt very tired. All the excitement of the previous conversation was going to her head. She wondered if she could find a way to excuse herself from this developing conflict...

[ineedthumbs]

Red XIII turned to nod at Courtney. "I'll be fine. I'll come join you when I'm done here." He hoped she wouldn't run into anything dangerous on her way, but the house had been peaceful so far and Courtney seemed a capable girl. Personally, he was hoping to talk to more people (as there seemed to be a few here) and investigate the library. This "Jesus" mythos fascinated him

[weeatbodies]

"Have a good rest." That was all Zetsu really could say to Courtney; he had no idea what or where this 'the States' was, except that it was where both Courtney and Anita--and Rorschach, apparently--seemed to live. Odd that one place would get so many people.... Then again, Anita and Rorschach hadn't seemed to agree on what it was like, so maybe it wasn't quite the same place, or same version of it, after all. It was a headache to think about, so he opted not to consider it more carefully than he already was; what would the use be? That didn't really help them figure out how they'd gotten here, after all....

Zetsu turned his gaze more solidly to Anita in interest as she started talking about Jesus; his world, after all, paid extremely little attention to religion as a whole. So little, in fact, that the only one he really had even a basic grasp of was Jashinism--and that only because he'd heard Hidan talking about it. "What exactly is he saving them from that they couldn't save themselves from, then?" He considered the story further;

[goblintamer]

Vampire count? This lady was a vampire hunter? She had to be, with all those guns and knives, right? Courtney hadn't read any accounts on vampires in Uncle A's books - although there had been references to suspicious-sounding ingredients - but she supposed with all things considered, she wasn't completely surprised. She couldn't help getting a dig at her own hometown, however

[dead_mans_queen]

A point in the girl's favor - she certainly had a sense of humor. But that was about as far as Anita got to know her, as the youth was heading off to bed. She waved, then turned to answer Nanaki's question

[ineedthumbs]

"I knew someone like that," Red XIII said soberly, apparently taking Anita's words in complete seriousness. He seemed to have lost the train of thought he'd been taking earlier as well, perhaps abandoning it in favour of something healthier. He glanced at Zetsu. "Some things you have to take on faith, that's what grandfather always said. And experience has shown him to be right, at least so far as I've seen." The bestial warrior spoke contentedly, closing his one eye briefly while he talked. "When you fight as a group, you rely on your faith in others to carry you through. Otherwise... well, there's no hope." He realised he might sound a little ridiculous, but he was trying to bridge a gap here. He was also avoiding Zetsu's question. The problem was that Red XIII was from a world where the supernatural power was tangible and real and part of the planet, so it was difficult to create disbelief in something like that. "And I have faith that Ms. Blake knows what she's talking about, regardless of whether or not it applies to my world or

[weeatbodies]

Zetsu hardly felt as though he were spitting on a religion--on the contrary, skeptical and sarcastic though he was, he was trying to figure it out and see if there was any validation to it at all. Why would she wince, though, did she honestly believe that plants and animals had no souls? It wasn't as though she could speak with them, after all.... He had proof on his side, even if she couldn't understand it. Still though, she would probably find plenty of ways to alienate him all on her own, thank you very much. "Perhaps I'm too suspicious, but I would find it difficult to place my faith in anyone I didn't already know and trust the skills of--whenever I have to accept something without proof, the information comes from a source I already trust, whether it's someone I have to fight alongside, or information I have to act on. Anything less tends to be extremely hazardous to your health." After all, with the amount of deception that could run rampant in his world, you generally needed to be able to trust someone to help you sort through

[dead_mans_queen]

Anita shrugged. Where she came from, most people did get religion from someone they trusted, a family member or a pastor. But she wasn't up to discussing that point, not at the moment. And it didn't help that, on some level, she agreed with his policy on forgiveness. Hell, Anita knew that some people would remain evil no matter how much of a chance you gave them. She often questioned her chances at Heaven because of such beliefs

[ineedthumbs]

Red XIII couldn't help but set his ears back, uncomfortable with Zetsu's words. They reminded him of fatalistic musings of someone else, someone who--while by no means a bad person--was far too dire in terms of his personal assessments of feeling. "I think perhaps it is better to think of love in the objective if we're going to talk about it," he murmured, knowing full well they could both hear him