The Gingerbread House (All Welcome - Open Rp)

[Dys Astyr]

One step, then two. The floor boards squeak softly beneath her heavy boots. The tense air was shattered by the slamming of the door. She whirled toward the sound, a sharp flick of her wrist leaves a spork lodged in the frame. She arches an eyebrow, nothing there.

Hmmmm, something stange is afoot...

She turns back to face the room, idly scratching her neck with the spoon.

[Vivid Shado]

As soon as the spoon left Dys hand Shado was up and moving. He had managed without making a sound to move up behind her. As she turned to look back to where she had been looking before the slamming of the door there stood Shado not mere inches from her. A hidden blade now aimed at her gut.

"I don't know who are you, and because of that, I don't trust you. Now I understand that this is not my home and that you reside here but I have a few questions. I also am going to warn you not to move as this blade is tipped with a poison that will not kill but will allow me to escape here if I need to.", his voice was now chilling to the ears. No longer did he mask his voice as he did before to try and get her to think she was alone. However, he should have known that wouldn't have worked had he paid closer attention to the woman's anatomy.

[Dys Astyr]

Turning to find someone nose to nose with her was startling but far from the strangest thing to happen. She can't help but to bare her teeth in a devilish grin, bemused by the audacity of the shadowy newcomer. Dys shifts her weight, unphased by the mention of poison if things come down to it.

This how you make all your new friends?

[Vivid Shado]

Shado was startled by the statement that came from the woman that stood before him. However, he did not let it surface. "I do not have friends only partners.", he states. His bladed hand relaxes which retracts the poisoned laced blade back into its sheath on his wrist. Shado's shoulders do not relax as he stands there still inches from the woman's own face. His breath which should have been hot cascading over her skin as she speaks is actually cool to the touch.

[Dys Astyr]

It had been a while since someone so strange had happened across her path, Dys wasn't sure what to make of the newcomer. Honey gold eyes gazed unblinkingly into the darkness beneath the hood, whether to see beneath it or just absently was unclear. With a roll of scarred shoulders a decision is reached, for now. The grin widens.

Well partner, you keep the mead pouring and I might answer some questions.

Takes a few steps and falls into a worn chair, sprawling haphazardly

[Vivid Shado]

Shado grins under the cowl of the hood that covers his head and heads from the back of the house. Moments later he returns with two pints of mead. Reaching over he hands one to the woman and returns to the chair he had occupied moments before. Lifting the pint to his lips he takes a hard draw and then lowers it to his knee. Looking over at the woman his eyes still hidden behind the shadows, he judges her for a moment.

"Where are you from?", he asks.

[Dys Astyr]

Accepts the mug, inhaling the sweet scent that was redolent of summer fruit and warm spice before throwing back about half the contents.

From? Nowhere, everywhere, take your pick. Dys chuckles warmly and points one of the fingers wrapped around the mug and gestures at her heavily worn boots I tend to not stay in one place very long. Where ever I lay my head and all that. For now, I am here.

[Vivid Shado]

Shado smirks from behind the shadows that the cowl is producing, both natural and unnaturally. His eyes look into the crimson hues of the content within the mug that he is currently holding. His mind processes the information that Dys had given him.

"So you seem to be as I am. A wanderer of places with no place to really call home.", he states in an as a matter of fact sort of way. "However, I think that you would call home somewhere that interested you enough to stick around.", he claims as he looks from the mug directly into her eyes, without her knowing he was doing so.

His thoughts start to wander as he keeps his eyes locked onto hers. Thoughts of far long past events surface as he watches her.

[Dys Astyr]

The smile fades to a wistful ghost of itself

Perhaps... But any place I might desire to linger would be the less for it. You can't dwell in the temple and not push out the spirits that it was meant to house.

She shakes her head, free hand coming up to rake messy locks away. Then another pull of mead to chase away the question, but watching the shadowy figure move around the room Dys wondered if his words had been directed at her at all. The ghost seemed to have ghosts of his own.

[Vivid Shado]

"If only you knew, Dys.", he thought to himself seeing the look on her face. A look at he had seen on so many other faced both those that still lived and those that would haunt him until his time here was done. "Pray the Lord helps everyone if they find me again." he continued to think all the while listening to what she had to say.

Setting his untouched mug on the small side table to his left he brings his hands together and lays his chin on them as his elbows dig into the arms of the chair. His thoughts dwell on what she told him about how it would be less for that place if she lingered. Opening his mouth he speaks in his icy cold voice, "Pray tell what you mean by that?", His intrigue was taking the better part of him as he listened to her. His intrigue on this woman, a woman that he knew almost nothing about.

[Dys Astyr]

Another drink left her staring at the bottom of an empty mug. Sitting it to the side she stood and walked into the kitchen, letting the question hang in the air while she pulled one of the mead barrels off the rack. Hefting it on a shoulder she returned to the front room, setting the barrel down beside her chair with a heavy thump. She takes longer than necessary to refill her mug, unsure of how much of an answer to give.

What do I mean? Maybe I mean nothing, for all you know I could be quite mad.
But haven't you ever been a place that was... Dys stares into her mead as if the amber liquid would provide the word she was looking for.
Pure? I guess. Some place that engulfed you and washed away... Everything. A wistful smile is quickly hidden by a tipped back mug and is gone when the mead is lowered.
You can't stay in a place like that. Lingering would only taint that strange magic wouldn't you agree? Or am I mad after all?

[Vivid Shado]

Shado thought for a moment as he listened to what Dys had said. As he sat there his right hand slips into the folds of his cloak and brush up against an item. Grasping it he retrieves a golden locket that has seen better days. The locket has a few discolorations to it and from afar it would appear to be tarnished but if one was to look closer the discoloration would have a brownish red hue to it; dried blood. As Shado looked at the locket that now lay in his hands the memory of such a pure place returns to his thoughts. The feelings of pure happiness and joy fill him for the moment as he relives if only through the memory, the laughter of a child looking up at him. Her baby blue eyes glimmering in the sun as she runs ahead of him.

Then as suddenly as the happiness had come it was gone. Replaced by flame engulfed buildings. Chaos. Screams. Terror. All that which Shado had tried to hide from, and was still trying to hide from, had come to that place of pureness and had turned it upside-down. As the memory continued on in his mind he could see his vision flowing from each building and ending up on the now deceased little child. Her eyes glazed over. He could see his hand reaching down to remove the blood-stained locket from around her neck as his vision blurs from the tears that he had spent during that time.

As the memory fades to the background of his thoughts, Shado, removes his eyes from the locket only to replace them back on Dys. A woman who has, as for as he can tell, as many issues with her past. All this he has deducted from her last comment. Still sitting here in silence he ponders his next statement carefully as he continues to think about what she has said to him.

"I would have to agree that beings like us tend to taint and then destroy places that contain the smallest or largest amounts of pureness in them. We then take that destruction into ourselves and punish ourselves for allowing such a place to have felt a pure hatred that follows us.", he states to her. His voice holds a heaviness to it as he speaks out towards her.

[Dys Astyr]

Dys couldn't help but wonder if it had truly been a question he had been intending to ask. There was a heaviness in the room, the weight of words not generally meant to pass between strangers. Though they danced carefully around the bruised heart of it the gravity of old wounds remained.

Surely you didn't come all this way just to claw at wounds that will never heal fully, shadow-that-has-no-friends? For a moment golden eyes burn as she gauges the hooded figure, a glimpse of a former self. It is gone as fast as it happened. The quiet stretched for a moment, then the mead and laughter were flowing again. Though more mead this time and the laughter was subdued.

I thought this was to be a proper interrogation, yet you seem to be going about things in a very odd manner.

[Vivid Shado]

A smile crosses the hidden lips of Shado as he slips the locket back into the folds of his cloak and at the same time retrieving a small vial. Placing it on the side table next to his mug he speaks, "Oh but you see Dys. I am but waiting for the liquid in this vial to take effect which should be any moment now.". A soft chuckle slips from his lips as the clear liquid in the small vial suddenly looks menacing next to the mug of untouched mead.

"You see I have laced your mug with Trapanal and hidden the taste with a flavoring of Strawberry mead. The same mead that you have been consuming rather greedily.", he states in his icy voice. He then picks up the mug that had been discarded earlier and takes a rather large draw from it.

[Dys Astyr]

Raising an eyebrow at the vial she stared for long moments, face unreadable before unceremoniously bursting into laughter. Thumping her mug on the top of the barrel for emphasis as peals of laughter shook her and tears collected in her eyes. Dys makes several attempts to talk, all of which are made unsuccessful by renewed bouts of laughter. She finally managed to stammer something mostly intelligable.

Now y-you must tell me... giggle Tell me what it is you are, heh after... That would war-warant such measuresss.

[Clement]

The door slams open to reveal a gingerbread man looking a little bewildered and more than a little embarrassed.

"I... I must apologize... The... the... the... the door slipped... out of my... han... hand."

The gingerbread man takes a step back and mutters, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." And then he ever so gently and a little too slowly closes the door.

Clement steps to the side and sits down. It seems he has greatly misunderstood what type of place this is. It also seems he has just made the most horrible of first impressions. He wraps his arms around his knees and buries his face in them. Well, I suppose I had best take off this gingerbread man costume; it's far too hot for it, anyway.

[Dys Astyr]

Is woken by a voice, this time sprawled out on the floor cuddling a large tankard and using her coat as a pillow. Sits up blinking groggily and takes a squint around.

Oy, I've gotta stop falling asleep in here. I'm too old for this shit. Spies the gingerbread fellow near the door. I must have drank more than I thought, now I'm seeing gingerbread people. That's never a good sign...

[Normie]

The door opens and bangs closed once again, this time depositing a rather small man--indeed, so youthful in appearance yet that to call him a "man" almost seems questionable--who jumps like a frightened mouse at the sound made by the slamming of the wood into its frame. He is small in more ways than one, not only exceptionally short, but also thin, with the frame of a hollow reed, albeit somewhat obscured by the ample red and white robes that drape his figure. His wavy brown hair flips back and forth as he turns his head from the door, to the strange scene before him, then back again a couple of times, as if unsure of where he is or what he's stumbled into.

".....Oh dear. I'm not..... interrupting something, am I?" Morrin asks, trying not to let his bewilderment show too much at the sight of a drunken woman hugging a tankard and a man halfway out of a colorful costume.

[Dys Astyr]

Blinks slowly at the second stranger, still sitting on the floor holding the empty tankard. The tall female wanderer considered the question for a moment, then raising the tankard and turning it over to theatrically display its lack of contents she answered.

There seems to be nothing to interrupt, unfortunately.

[Pheal]

Pheal looks in through one of the windows and catches a glimpse of gingerbread man running away from something inside this odd looking house.
"How odd" he whispers

Pheal finds the door and slowly opens it in an attempt to not disturb any other strange creatures inside.

[Knownpluto]

After a few days exploring the woods Pluto happened to stumble upon an adorable gingerbread house. In a relatively short amount of time she had seen many people coming and going so this must be open to everyone she thought as she made her way onto the porch and to the door. "The voices inside sounded pleasant enough" she told herself as she hesitated with her slender hand on the door knob.

Finally after walking inside the energetic atmosphere seemed to drape over her. Pluto calmly made her way to a seat off to the side where she could people watch until she became accustomed to everything going on around her.

[Hush]

She flew in through the door on  the rustling wind, choosing to recline by the mead cup and immediately began grooming.
Her cholera laden hands rubbed together, back and forth like a comic book super villain.

She froze, pausing with gravity for a millisecond, she looked around.

All appeared well, perceiving no imminent threat she moved her hands to her head. Stroking and brushing bodily bristles, her beautiful metallic colors glistening in the afternoon sun as it streamed through the window.

After a second or two she switched positions, rubbing first one set of legs and then the next.  It felt so nice to rest and groom after having spent most of the day busy with that decaying carcass in the woods.

[Serpentina]

Enters quietly wearing a floor length black rob, hood covering most of her face with only a few strands of dark hair flying out around the edge of the hood.  She seems either upset, or very cold as she is hunched over, arms crossed over her chest and hands tucked under her arms.  The very large heels of black leather-looking boots can be seen at the bottom of the robe as she slowly makes her way into the living room, taking a seat on the floor in front of the fire.

[Time2rp]

Cello enters the house, dressed in a black robe with a hood over their face. They look around for any sort of authority or welcoming person.

[Azrialdarklight]

*Azrial Enters the large house not quietly but not making any large racket either, his hunting boots tap against the mat covering the wood grain floor as he brushes the dirt off his boots. He lifts violet eyes to survey the room and those within his eyes land on another just inside the door.*
Hello?
*he asks cautiously surveying the individual in the dark robe. his hand with a twitch slips back towards the blade hidden just behind the edge of his dark brown cloak*
Apologies, if I have appeared uninvited. From afar it appeared this place had few visitors.
*he spoke softly to the cloaked figure approaching carefully not knowing what sort of reaction he'd receive from the cloaked person. He was startled when his best friend came crashing through the door after him*
Yo, Azy what are you doing snooping in a random cottage? Look ya see this nice person it's probably there nice cottage in the middle of the woods so let's gooo
*She cried stomping over to Azrial impatiently. Azrial eyed the individual for another moment*
'lu I'm not sure this is their house either, I'm going to have a look around. Leave if you'd like or stay and explore.
*a grin crossed his sharp boned features as he pointed down a hall*
Looks to me like there's a kitchen that way, who knows how stocked it is?
*he said with a touch of teasing in his tone. Alu's storm-grey eyes light up*
okay, but only for like five minutes, then we'll go okay?
*She said before dashing down the hall in search of food, her raven poney tail swishing behind her. Azrial Turned back to the cloaked individual*
I apologize for her, and if this is your place we might want to go stop her otherwise you'll have near-empty coffers. She's like a bottomless pit, honestly, I have no idea where she puts all the food she eats
*He shook his head with a fond chuckle, relaxing as he offered a hand to the cloaked individual*
I'm Azrial, the rowdy hungry girl that just went to raid the kitchen is Alu.
*he gave a slight bow at the hip, silvered hair falling forward to frame his face*
It's a pleasure to meet you...?
*he trailed off not knowing the individual's name*