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She was quickly losing her patience. How long had she spent in the common room and wandering the living area halls, listening, feeling, asking for her friends? It was perhaps the thirteenth hour of however many days that she'd searched, and unfortunately it, like all the rest of her effort, was in vain.

First was Duo. She noticed he was missing the first time he didn't seek her out to check on her and just spend the day doing nothing. Then what he'd said about Haku came to mind and she really began to worry. Next, the younger Duo was said to have never returned from something or another. Drat.

The Earthbender rolled her thoughts around in her head a while longer before she nodded in solidity of her decision.

She quickly downed her drink and rose from her seat and began her stomping trek down the halls. She was on a mission- find her friends, whatever it took.

herotherhalf

Harth sat at the table, watching the few and the proud eat their fill while poking at an empty bowl as if he had eaten himself already. Just playing about, taking note of lingering smells on anyone who past. Namely for anyone who might have encountered the Duo's in passing in the last few days. Wouldn't be hard to tell. There was one other thing though, figuring out and listening to what the feelings of the remaining castle dwellers were. Would they could they accept a leader like himself? That was the plan, naturally. He was the one who would lead, and he was going to get them out of here, and if it had to be one body at a time? If he had to turn each of them and escape in the night? Then that's what he'd do. He'd open those doors and march them right out in the moonlight.

But he preferred a more subtle approach for now. Use what he had in this little game of chess. It was more interesting and useful to him to use them as they were now. Killing them, he learned, would only make another shadow spirit to contend with. Might also erase their unique abilities.

They were better utilized as they were. And for Danny, it wasn't going to be much of an option. For Haku and the Duo's, he may just have to keep them under wraps for a while longer.

___----____

Harth made sure he wasn't followed, even double checking for that woman of darkness he'd met. He opened the door in the pigeon room and stepped inside closing the door behind him. He looks down into the circle at the boys, approaching them both and caressing the chin of the newest addition with his hand.

"So glad you could keep your big brother company." Harth crooned, patting him patronizingly on the head.

double_edged

Oddly enough, he hadn't remembered falling asleep.

His reserves had still been at full capacity, the gentle pressing and steaming of the vents on his back pumping out waste, refreshing his systems and keeping him alert enough to trek along the exhibition. Though here he was, head bowed and eyes closed almost in meditation, metallic arm th-thumping against something dull and thick, with the other following.

Except that one wasn't metallic. And he felt something that was not native to Torren IV, or anything he could remember. The hand moves with urgency, patting the walls, pushing, nudging breaking.

Breaking? Yes. Yes, it was breaking. It just needed some more weight. More force, more energy, and--

CRACKLE!

He was out.

The metallic skeleton in his legs makes the weight reverberate a little more in the dreary, hollow room, echoing through its endless walls, but... he's out. His good ear flattens against his head, breath catching in his throat as he realizes - this is not Torren. This is not home. He might have just taken a step back, to the remains of where he had been--

A prison. Sarcophagus, by the looks of it, and what he remembered from Vullard lore about the technology of olden days. Devices used to kidnap and torture others, and he had just been someone's victim.

Who? Why? What planet was this, and why was he alone? Where were the Vullards?

Where was anything?

stoicperfection

Now that the first Duo had been secured, it was time to capture the younger version for Harth. He had no idea why the younger one was so important when it was the older one causing all the problems. it didn't matter anyway. He had been ordered to retrieve him and he would, making sure he didn't stumble into Toph along the way. She would be able to see right through too easily -- just like she had done with Harth.

Heero decided to wait for the younger Duo by his assigned room, already running through different scenarios in his mind. Find out what the older Duo told him, if anything, and lure him to the Pigeon Room. maybe he wouldn't even have to subdue him until the very end. Exploit their friendship from their world and use it to his advantage here. It would be a lot less suspicious and more efficient that way.

last_lombax

Ratchet had to wonder why the rain hadn't flooded the statue room yet. The rain feel through the hole and onto some of the stairs but it seemed like it couldn't go any further than that. After the first turn, the stairs were dry and remained that way the rest of the way down. The moving platform was also dry as was the Coliseum. The Lombax was down among the statues, looking at each one in turn. There had to be a reason this room was revealed, why it just opened up out of the blue.

Things usually didn't happen without a reason. He'd been struggling more lately, just keeping himself preoccupied with patrols and taking small naps during the day. Bags were forming under his eyes from lack of sleep but he didn't care. His insomnia was getting worse so it was helping; wonderful contradiction that was.

He moved from the statue of a man to one of a woman this time. They both looked so surprised and scared. Most of these statues held expressions of shock and absolute fear. Why would someone carve statues with these faces? Why not still or happy expressions? The thought had come to his mind on several of them. Maybe they all weren't just statues. What if these had been people at one point? Then what would that mean? Did the Queen he'd heard about do this or was it something else? Could it be if you were in a sarcophagus too long you turned into a statue? Too many possibilities and none of them good.

laras_shadow

There was just something about storms that Doppelganger enjoyed. Perhaps it was the fact that it had been raining much like this when she blew the Croft Mansion to pieces for the hell of it, or the fact she had emotionally wounded her original by killing a friend right in front of her. Of course it could have been for a mundane human reason. Whatever it was, she found herself enjoying the view from where she sat near the courtyard, lounging with her legs crossed as a proper lady would while she rested. Those things were never lost, were they?

She was bored, plain and simple. There was only so much she could take of watching human drama playing out in the open. So many of the humans were emotional little things; slaves to their hearts. None of it was ending well for them. The couple she had seen were loosing it, becoming tired and disheartened and doing awfully stupid things. It wasn't enough that they were trapped in an ancient looking place with monsters lurking about. Not that she minded it either. Helheim was pretty much the same, only the fountains there could kill you and the shadows replaced by thralls. But for those silly minded humans, they needed even more to worry about and try to survive from before they were satisfied.

Tilting her head back, Doppelganger sighed and closed her eyes. Perhaps those shadows would lurk around soon and trying to have another go with her. Given her ability, there wasn't much they could do to really capture her at the moment.

warriorswolftail

With his cast finally off, Sokka had taken to doing a little exploring on his own, though he always made sure to not go far unless he had some one else with him. Toph was back, but that didn't stop him from remembering vividly seeing her as a shadow not that long ago. It was an image that had settled in his mind firmly, making his skin crawl and his stomach turn whenever he thought about it. He was trying hard, very very hard to not, and to act as though nothing was wrong, but even that was starting to strain on him as the days wore on in to weeks.

This day he was in the long room, the area next to the stairs that led to the trolley platform, not doing much except wandering about in the open space, looking at the stone work thoughtfully. His thoughts weren't on the immediate area, though the gears were clearly turning in his head.

At least until the thunder outside boomed so loudly he thought his heart had stopped. He turned and headed to one of the windows, having to haul himself up to the ledge just to lean against the glass and watch as the rain came down and the lightening crackled across the sky.

"Whoa..." he mumbled to himself, marveling at the sudden change in weather. It was impressive, but he was more than glad that he was currently under a roof that wasn't open or leaking.

sakedrinking

With the sun returning on Friday morning, Haku had foolishly thought the short storms were done and over with. She hadn't left the common area for quite some time after Duo had found her and brought her back, and though she still didn't believe that she deserved anyone's kindness or protection after what she'd done she had made certain to stick close.

The sun coming out had urged her to at least go in to the court yard, though, taking her guitar with her as she found a nice shaded spot underneath one of the overhanging stone ledges above. She sat on the grass, simply playing her guitar quietly to herself. Being human, it made her fingers hurt much more than when she plucked the strings as an android, but the skill was still there and she was grateful for it. If she no longer had her music she most certainly would have fallen apart completely.

But the tunes drifted out, languid and effortlessly, the sounds carrying in to the rooms and the common area from the open windows for several hours. Eventually, though, it ceased as she took and break and simply let the warmth of the afternoon take her in to a quiet, much needed nap. She hadn't been sleeping well at all since her transformation, too used to having a system that told her when to sleep and when to wake, and with her head resting back against the stone and her arms draped over her guitar she slipped easily in to a nap. All the while she was unaware of the dark clouds that were drifting over, pushed by the same warm winds that had lulled her to sleep.

When she woke it was to the bone-rattling crash of thunder above, and to the very shocking realization that her white skirt was soaking wet, the rest of her very quickly getting there. Rain was coming down in absolute buckets around her, so heavy that the ground had gone from damp to nearly flooding within a short amount of time, the soil too waterlogged to hold it all anymore.

She sat up with a start, clinging to her guitar protectively, staring up past the lip of the ledge that had shielded her from the sun but not the rain. What hit above her rolled off and dripped down the stone in fat dropplets, only adding to the sopping wet ground around her. The sky was dark above, nearly as dark as night, but lanced with flashes of lightening and booms of thunder that made her jump and squeak.

"Nnn--... I have to get back inside..." she mumbled to herself, her soft voice nearly drowned out by the thunder. A breath was pulled in, and she bolted out in to the rain, instantly soaked as she attempted to bolt across the muddy courtyard back to the common area. A particularly soft spot caught one barefoot, sending her sprawling in to it. A splash of mud and water left her and her guitar soaked and dirty on top of that, but she forced herself to her feet and kept going until she finally reached the open doorway.

She stopped and turned around to watch the rain come down, muddy water dripping from her hair, her clothes, leaving her shivering and cold.

"Eeehh..." she whined, rubbing mud out of her eyes with the back of her hand, "I hate this castle..."

stoicperfection

That morning after checking in with Duo, he decided to make his way to the crane. Now that they had decided to do something about Harth, he took it upon himself to look about the castle and see if there was some suitable place to use as containment. Duo had pointed out that they couldn't kill the vampire, not unless they wanted him to return as a shadow, so restraining him seemed to be the best option available to them. If it could be farther away from the other residents, the better. After what happened to Toph and Haku, they couldn't run the chance of anyone else getting close enough to him to get hurt.

By the time it was noon he finally arrived to the old bridge. It was raining, the first time since arriving to the Castle, and it was in heavy sheets that completely soaked everything. The walkway was nothing but one huge puddle and once glance up at the sky told him it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. There was no choice but to cross then.

Heero ran across the old bridge, trying to shorten the amount of time spent in the rain, to make his way to the Pigeon Room. Unfortunately the rain was so heavy he was completely soaked by the time he crossed and ended back inside. It wasn't really much better in here either. A hole in the ceiling allowed some of the water to blow in, making things damp and just a little unpleasant.

stillshinigami

Duo sat on his couch, thankful for the sliders on the legs of it. It took him some effort, but he finally had a nice piece of his property from back in the hanger, complete and in piece except for a tear in one of the pillows. Oh well.

So he sat there, hand against his chin as he watched the rest of the room, watching for Harth. He wanted to see that little runt just to see exactly who he was dealing with. After about an hour of sitting and waiting, drawing with some chalk on the wall he'd pushed the couch against, he saw him. They met eyes briefly and Duo forced himself to have a straight face, deliberately shrugging at the boy who seemed intent to look at him. Look at him like he was his next meal.

Well, there was gonna be none of that.

But as far as who he was, Harth wasn't showing signs of being one of the undead, so once the man went outside into the hot and humid sun he relaxed, laying against the armrest of his couch.

"We're boned... Goddamn... Someone get me outta here."

lightning_and_death

The Night Fury found himself a present! It's just what he wanted, too! His old saddle. The leather even still smells like Berk. He's happy to have a piece of home. But he's also happy to finally have something that can be used to help him find a rider. Flying alone is no fun.

In all his joy, the large dragon is running through the halls, bouncing and leaping over obstacles and approaching fellow dwellers, saddle in his jaws, eyes wide as he begs for a flight partner.

Indulge the silly lizard?

sakedrinking

[Haku had gone further than she'd ever gone in the castle.

Bit by bit, in the days following her transformation and the loss of her sister and Kadar, she'd distanced herself from the rest of the castle occupants. She quietly faded herself out of the picture in hopes that no one would notice how... different she was, and thus not ask all the questions she couldn't answer.

So she kept going further. She avoided shadows, finding places to hide rather than try and fight them off, and it seemed to be working for the time being. Which was how she found herself here, in the graveyard, staring down at the darkness beyond a gravestone that had mysteriously moved.

She stood over it, her now human heart hammering nervously in her chest. Something about it just felt... wrong. Like a sick sensation crawling up her spine. A part of her wanted to go down, to see what it was that had her so afraid, but she couldn't urge her feet to move.

So she just stood there. Watching.

Waiting.

Wondering.]

shadowqueen

If you find yourself in the cemetery today you'll find something new. One of the gravestones has been moved and what it reveals was a massive staircase leading into the darkness. Should one travel down this dark winding staircase of darkness they will find themselves making five large turns as you go down. Soon you find yourself on a large stone platform. Nothing happens for a few moments but those patient ones will feel something begin to move. It's the platform itself.

It beings to lower itself down into the darkness, away from the stairs. It continues down, further and further from the light of the world above. It travels down until the light from the entrance is nothing but a dot in the vast black above. It is then you realize the platform has stopped. You are now in a coliseum of sorts. A massive round structure surrounds you and you seem to be standing on the stage. Despite the darkness you can see clearly and are now surrounded by statues. There aren't any statues, however. All of these statues are amazingly detailed, capturing every crease in the clothes, every wrinkle in the skin. They look to be people frozen in stone in time. You have found the queen's garden. You can explore the coliseum of statues but the only way out is up the platform again.

The coliseum has nothing around it. If you try to go up and over you will find a thick layer of darkness you can touch. It is cold, hard, and seems to sap the warmth from your body. And here shadows are more likely to appear as they seem more at home here and are more powerful.

Good luck everyone~

((OOC: This room is the Queen's Garden. This is where she's made a garden of statues around the coliseum. This room does not take up space in the castle's physical design. It is it's own pocket dimension created by the Queen so other room scan exist over it in the physical realm. Enjoy your featured room.))

tophbeifong

Early morning. The sun wasn't due up for another three hours, at the minimum.

Still, the shadows were up and about, moving around, seeking and searching for the poor lost souls that happened to be caught out at such an inconvenient time. They were easy prey, and the shadows had a quota to meet.

And Toph? Well, Toph had barely gotten the hang of being human, much less being a shadow. Some inkling of her former self remained intact under the darkness and it plagued at her repugnant coating of evil.

As she had been, Toph was hard headed. She didn't give up and was tough as nails, even against something that destroyed her from the inside out AND outside in. Even as more and more of her was consumed by the shadows taking over her being, something kept screaming at her to get help, get better. She was unsure how for the most part.

Then, a hunting trip took them closer to the fountain than most of them willed to go. The water, it burns! they warned, hissing amongst them and to her. Warn the new shadow. Teach the new shadow.

The new shadow didn't listen. The new shadow only remembered the safety and security of the fountain and the magic healing it provided for her and her friends when they'd been attacked. Maybe, just maybe, it could do the same once more. Would it lend a wayward, lost shadow relief?

She ignored the hissing and screeching as they called to her. She didn't want what they had to offer. She wanted healing. When she fell into the water, it was a bit more than she could handle.

Early morning, before the sun was even in the sky, a loud, blood curling scream echoed through the halls and rooms adjacent to the fountain. It was a painful experience for a shadow- feeling the darkness molded to the body and soul tearing away, melting, being cleansed and bleached and cauterized and torn to shreds.

By the time the screaming faded into deep, gasping breaths, the young girl was on her hands and knees in the water. She was dripping, more with sweat than fountain water, and something she couldn't identify. Something heavy, radiating a strange cold heat and nothingness that seemed to evaporate more than it dripped.

She noticed it was silent. No more could she hear the constant chatter, hissing, screeching, roaring and barking of the shadows on their own level of hearing. Had it worked? Had the fountain worked? After all that, it better.

The small Earthbender dragged herself to the solid stone, collapsing against the wall and curling in on herself. Her body ached all around. She couldn't tell if anything was bruised or broken on the surface, but from what she could feel, everything was whole and healthy... just... she could feel the sting in her neck and the ache in her limbs from events she couldn't recall.

She was tired and weak. Without anything left to run her, the girl quickly and quietly drifted off to sleep.

sakedrinking

She hasn't seen Duo since that day in the common room.

She had helped him with the leather he'd gotten from the fountain, helped him with his hair and he had even given her a small weapon - a knife - to defend herself with out in the castle. It had been a good evening. One she enjoyed. One of the few she actually enjoyed in her time there. She really did seem to like being around him, though she couldn't exactly explain why her mechanical heart always felt so fluttery and light whenever he was around, or why she became so flustered and awkward at the drop of a hat with him.

And suddenly he wasn't there. And she noticed.

Haku waited a while, quietly worrying while trying so hard to not outwardly show it. She didn't want to cause undue panic, thinking that maybe, just maybe, she was being needlessly paranoid. He was sleeping more than usual, or had explored further in the castle and was there, just fine and alive with no need to be worried over.

But when a full day passed she couldn't take it anymore. And that's when she did something foolish.

Taking up the knife that he had given her, she tied her long skirt up and did her hair back in a loose bun, setting off without telling anyone where she was going. She had hoped she was wrong, that she wouldn't get very far and find him safe. Sure he might scold her for going out alone like an older brother to a younger sibling, but she wouldn't care so long as she knew he was okay.

And if she got to the end of the trolley - the furthest she had ever gone - and he wasn't there... then she would come back before anyone could realize she'd left. No harm, no foul. Any shadows? She'd run. Any other sign of trouble? She'd scream then run. In her mind it was a decent plan, for all it's holes.

Quietly she headed out to the bridge, past the stair tower and on to the next level, looking around as the wind brought the scent of the sea to her nose and fluttered loose strands of white hair past her face. She tucked some behind her ear instinctively, pausing to look around and strain her ears to listen. There were no sounds aside from the distant cry of gulls flying over the crashing sea.

"Not here..." she muttered to herself, continuing up the next stairwell. That was when she finally took note of the off-colored stairs that led to the broken domed roof over the building next to the upper platform, above the trolley tracks. She paused and strained her ears once again, but the same silence met her.

What if he was down there... what if he was hurt... ?

"Duo-kun... ?" she called out nervously, then cleared her throat and tried again, actually letting her powerful voice carry for once. "Oiiiiiii! Duo-kuuuuuuun!"

Her voice echoed back at her, but she thought that for a moment, just a moment, she heard another voice calling softly back to her...

laras_shadow

There's a new creature lurking about the shadows of the castle, and this one isn't a part of the game.

Finding herself encased in the sarcophagi wasn't really as shocking as it should have been. However, the whole medieval castle nasty dangers thing was something she was rather used to. Or rather, what she was used to thanks to borrowed memories. She was used to old Norse/Atlantian ruins with blue rivers that killed you. Not much of a stretch of course, but still not the same thing. The only downside of waking and escaping was the weakness she felt and the inability to use her powers for awhile. They were returning, but she still disliked it.

Doppelganger stood in the sarcophagi room, looking about it and the same way her original would have. Taking in everything she could to deduce the age of the castle, it's cultural origin, and maybe whatever traps lay hidden around her. From what she could gather none of these things could really be told. There was just something off about this place and not in the usual sense.

Turning her back, she started making her way out of the room to explore a bit. Maybe she could even scale the walls a bit to get a better view of her new surroundings.

stillshinigami

He was at the common table after a meal, working out most of his leather bolt. He'd cut out plenty of the shapes for making the scabbards for the two swords and machetes he had Toph made. Toph, who had disappeared somewhere he was more than a little worried about. He's seen her consistently almost since they met, and now? Where the hell was she?

So caught up in his worry over Toph, his hammer slipped as he hit his hole puncher into the two layers of leather. Hit his thumb, not hard, but hard enough to smart. He cursed under his breath and let out an aggravated noise of frustration. He dropped the hammer and let his head fall onto his arms.

Maybe he needed a break. Clearly he needed one if he couldn't even keep his hand steady. He looked up briefly at his work, knowing how tedious all of it was. He just wanted it all done. Least he got the ones for the scythe blades done. Hell, he made plenty of progress over the last week gutting the tech and using the remaining power cell to fuse the metal. That was about all the juice it had left after all. He now had two scythes for him and his brother. He wanted to show em of, but no real motivation to go get up and go get him either.

He lay his head back down into his arms, yawning into them. Just take a short catnap instead. Let the guys come to him.

tophbeifong

Toph is walking. She's not sure where, or why, only that she is.

Thought processes escape her as the dark creatures move around her. She's walking with other shadow monsters, and they do nothing to attack her.

This makes no sense.

A shadow pauses at her shoulder and hisses. It's almost as if it's speaking with her, and some small, distant piece of her left behind in a storage room is terrified that she can understand it. But now, Toph pays no mind to it and simply follows orders.

They're on a hunt.

The scent of mortal castle dwellers is fresh in the hall. Someone had been through it not very long ago, and they were out to find them, if they could. They didn't know who it was or if they were even still around, but the orders remained.

Hunt. Find. Retrieve. Serve the Queen.

Her head falls back as she moves and she lets out a noise that's half a moan and half a cry of pain to the detectable range of mortal hearing. She's doing her best to obey the order, partially because her non-body is forcing her to do it, and partially because her mind can't stop her.

It's likely to be a strange, probably disturbing sight to see the strong-willed girl meandering mindlessly and amongst the shadows, at least to the people who know her... and there is no question that it's possibly sickening to those who were unfortunate enough to see her lifeless body for themselves. The castle is putting its dead to work, whether she wants it or not.

leekspinning

When in doubt, sing.

It was something that she had always known how to do, and something she had always enjoyed. It was always something that she could do in even the most boring of situations.

For the past several days, all Miku had done was curiously poke around the common area. She had been told by Haku not to go anywhere on her own, and with her hands being in a rather crude condition for a few of those days, there really wasn't a lot she could do. They were fixed now, though, and Miku was back to being able to use them without fearing that they would malfunction.

This didn't cure her boredom, though. As much as she wanted to explore, she had made a promise to Haku not to go too far. This place was safe, and whatever was out there was definitely something that her sister didn't want her to get into. She trusted that.

Many of her days were spent close to the rooms. She was now in the common area, sitting off to the side and doing what she does best. Singing.

How will you react to the voice coming from the common area?

herotherhalf

Harth was stunned.

The sun was bright and brilliant, gleaming off of his glasses. Even as a human he had seen so little of it under the blanket of smog over Haddyn. You had to give it to whoever was in charge, creating the universe, be it god, demon, powers that be, they had a particular poetic ism when it came to beauty. The sun gave life, life that sustained even those who were no longer living.

He walked through the courtyard, clumsily climbing onto a stone slab that seemed to have served a purpose at one point, but no longer. He sits there, enjoying the sun on his face warming his otherwise room temperature skin.

It was so warm.

But that warmth only served as a reminder about how much he yearned to have a decent meal. He he was starved, and no amount of birds or rats would satiate him. He needed a meal. Human. The problem was finding someone naive enough and gullible enough to follow him.

What he'd give to have that witch in his clutches, just now. Watch her scream into his hand before he bit her. Bonus? He wouldn't have to deal with her exposing him. But that would be too easy.

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May 2012

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Castle in the Mist

Recent Entries

07 - Open

The One who Will Lead

001 ☪ awakening

04

Fifth Gold Bolt [Hard monday rain | Open]

02 - hard rain - open

2 | rain rain go away... | open - Friday afternoon/evening

.7th Fantasy Impromptu [Open] - Friday afternoon/Evening

03 - Locked to herotherhalf and stillshinigami

008 | What lurks in the dark.

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.6th Fantasy Impromptu [open]

April Featured Room Post

06 - Open

.5th Fantasy Impromptu [Closed to Harth]

01 - exploration - open

007 | Keeping busy

05 - Open - Shadows

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03 | Gem of Amarra | OTA

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May 2012

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