paixaorpg | Happy Travels? [active]

Entry tags:

Happy Travels? [active]

Character(s): Mao, Raspberyl, and Almaz
Content: Taking a trip to Halloween Town. ...And stuff.
Setting: Starting in the hallway between Paixao and DI and moving to HT
Time: Early Evening
Warnings: Well, there are three Disgaea characters in one place... >3>

To say that Mao wasn't happy would be an understatement. He never said that Princess could go missing like that. He never gave her permission to leave! And then she just had to disappear?! And leaving Ex-Fake Hero, too? Doing that probably meant she didn't disappear on purpose, and Mao had seen people on the journals say that people they knew had gone missing, but that was no excuse! If she ever showed up again, there was no way he was going to accept an apology without any less than a doubling of the reward he was supposed to succeed--or at least the staff being of Legendary rarity!

Though it had taken him awhile to come to this conclusion. Most of his time had been holed away, presumably trying to find a new way to power his Slaystation Portable, but usually scouring the journal systems for any sign of Sapphire. He had already checked the hospital before then.

Getting out of St. Destino for awhile was fine by him. He hadn't really gotten the chance to see the other "worlds" supposedly in this castle and he was admittedly suspicious of the claim. Too many people had said they'd seen these things for it to be a lie, but, at the same time, he had to see it with his own eyes. Besides, there was a pretty good chance that, if he didn't find any new specimens (the Shadows had grown incredibly boring as of late), he could at least find something he could make use of.

Mao hadn't been expecting the stark change in scenery between the hallway and the inside of the church, and he couldn't help but cast a glance back through the door to make sure that he really had just come in from where he thought he had. As he climbed the last step, he looked around the rest of the hallway and frowned at the flower decorations. Was that really the best motif they could come up with? "Why does everything have to be so... bright?"

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Almaz wanted to believe that Princess had disappeared against her will. (Except in the circumstance that she had been kidnapped, or got stuck someplace, or eaten by a monster.)

He really didn't want to believe that Princess had maybe found a way out, and just up and left them. Because despite all the times she would ignore his protests--yes, she can take care of herself, he knows that; he's just worried about her--Princess would say something to them if she found out anything, wouldn't she? (If it was true, well, on the bright side, Princess could be safe at home! On the other hand... she left them behind. Oh, this was so taxing on his heart!)

Almaz wanted to believe that, just maybe, Sapphire had gotten curious and wandered off to one of these so-called worlds. It was partially why he had tagged along with Mao! (That, and he wanted to make sure that Mao didn't bring anything else especially creepy back to the hospital.)

So here he was.

"I don't think it looks too bad." Almaz said, peering over the last few steps. With that out of the way, it was strange. Innocent and kind of normal looking. Moreover... "I can't believe this, is traveling to other worlds really as easy as walking through a door here?" Seriously! What sense did that make?!

Raspberyl was trailing behind, peaking behind any object large enough to hide her. One of the nice things of having a demon ninja for a best friend is you learn all sorts of techniques to keep from being seen. Not that she needed to do it, really. Sure, Mao told her that he was going to check out the new worlds, and sure he was no doubt expecting her -- but what could she say? It was a habit and habits die hard.

She still wasn't sure about Sapphire, though. Was she in paixao? And what's this about other worlds? If this was leading up to a dimensional gate, wouldn't that make it easy to find a way home? She was pretty sure Mao knew this... somewhere inside that head of his. If not she was sure to let him know one way or the other.

Raspberyl's eyes open wide when she manage to trail the two boys into the building. It was simple, and clear that there was some wear and tear, but the elaborate motifs and sculpted stone was impressive. Sure, it wasn't anything you'd find from the Netherworld, and by the sound of things Mao was already irritated by it, but to her self-proclaimed refined artistic sense Beryl knew that this was really something.

She could only wonder what they would find next.

Of course Mao was irritated by it. There was nothing about this place that wasn't irritating. It looked so... So... Clean. How could Almaz stand it? "Looks like it." Even though he couldn't quite figure out exactly how it all worked. It wasn't anything like what he was used to.

He took another look around the room, his gaze stopping on the large, open door on the other side of the hall. Someone wanted to make it a grand entrance, didn't they? Were the other worlds on the other side of the doors really that big of a deal? As long as they weren't anything like the city they had just come out of, it was probably an improvement. "Let's get--"

Mao stopped, a thought suddenly occurring to him, and he quickly turned his attention to the odd, black orb sitting off to the side. Sure, he'd seen it the first time he looked at the room, but he hadn't really thought about how different it looked from everything else until now. All of this white, clean looking, flowery decoration everywhere, and then this dark-looking ball just randomly sitting off to the side? "...Suspicious," he whispered to himself, drawing closer to the orb and slowly starting to lose himself in his own little world as he began to examine it.

"Of... course it is." Of course it was something so stupidly simple after all. Of course. Why didn't he just accept these kinds of things by this point? Almaz climbed the last couple of steps and took a better look around. For a path to another world, it really was a lot nicer and cleaner than he would have imagined. Was there someone that kept it tidy? Was it normally like this?

Almaz stopped when he noticed their leader was not quite leading them anymore. "Mao?"

From the vantage point of the back, Beryl saw everything -- Mao's wandering, Almaz's sputtering. Really it was almost like they had never left school. Beryl would find comfort in this, but she didn't want to go through the effort of rescuing Almaz -- at least not while Mao figures out whatever that black ball was. For all she knew it would summon a meteor to destroy the planet or something!

She flew her way over to Almaz, her arms spread wide like an air plane before a quick stab of her finger jabs Mao in the... hind-quarters. "He went that way. Hurry it up or you're going to lose him."

Mao reached out for the strange orb and was just about to touch it when Beryl seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Immediately he whipped around, hopping backward, his hands placed over his butt almost protectively and his face tinting a slight shade of red. "O-Oi! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Just showing up out of nowhere and doing that... What the hell was that for?!"

Beryl gave a nervous chuckle as her gaze went from Almaz to Mao's rear end. "Whoops, sorry Mao, I guess I wasn't paying attention," she said with a nervous laugh.

And quick to change the subject: "what's that you've got there?"

Oh, so that's where he went. Almaz coughed into his hand and tried to fight back the laughter he felt bubbling in his throat. "Right." A few chuckles still managed to slip out. "Did you find something?"

Mao crossed his arms, still looking a little sour from the jab. "If I knew I wouldn't be checking it out. But look at it! Everything in this room in almost sickeningly white, and here this thing is looking completely different. How is that not suspicious? It has to do something." There was no way his instinct could be wrong. He looked between Beryl and Almaz, waiting to see what they thought.

"Hmm... yeah, it does look a little strange." Beryl raised a hand up thoughtfully. "It is almost a little too strange if you ask me. All I'm sayin' is you should be careful it's not going to hurt you if you activate it."

Almaz contemplated the black orb; it was out of place compared with the rest of the room. "I agree with Miss Beryl." He could understand Mao's curiosity, but who knew what it did? ... On that note, what could you do with it? "Er, but if it does do something, somehow, how exactly is it supposed to activate? I don't see a switch or a button anywhere."

"How am I supposed to tell if it can do that if I don't activate it? I just... need to get a closer look at it first." And it wasn't like he was going to spend too much time on it, either. Sure, the thing had piqued his curiosity, but if it turned out to be useless, then that was that. They'd just go forward and look at something hopefully more worthwhile.

Mao pushed his glasses further up his nose with a confident grin and turned around to face the orb again. "Nothing escapes my evil intellect. I'll figure this thing out before you know it." With that he closed the gap between himself and the orb in a few strides, circling it and examining it closely from base to top. "No switches..." he mumbled to himself under his breath. "No buttons, either." Maybe it was touch sensitive? Cautiously, Mao reached out, and it only took the lightest brush of fingertips against the smooth surface of the sphere for a menu to appear.

Mao jumped back, startled for a second, but quickly recovered, leaning in to get a closer look. So absorbed was he in his attempts to figure out the menu, he nearly forgot that the other two were there. "It lists the different floors," he finally thought to announce fingers twitching with the desire to explore more. It had better not be something stupid like a map. He could find his way around without a map just fine.

"A menu screen?" Raspberyl whispered as she snuck underneath . Well, that was surprising. But given that the things Mao usually got interested in had either did something perverted or blow up spontaneously, this was a pleasant kind of surprised.

After taking a look at some of the options, Beryl look tapped Mao's stomach with her elbow. "What do you mean floors? Like, places we can go to you mean?"

Huh, that was different. Almaz scratched the back of his neck as he leaned over Mao to get a better look. "Whoa, it does something after all." It looked fairly harmless, at least. And that was more than good enough for him. "Different floors where? Here?" Just how big was this place?!

The lack of explosions or anything of significant "flash" was rather disappointing, Mao had to admit, but he wasn't about to give up on this thing yet. He moved back a little when Beryl managed to pop up in front of him, a small scowl appearing on his face as Almaz got closer, too. What was with all this crowding? At least he still had a good view of the menu.

He nodded. "Of course I mean here! If I remember correctly, each floor should lead to a different world. Right now it looks like we're on the second floor." Mao reached out for the menu and pressed a button near the label for the third floor. "Let's see what this does..."

Immediately, the label lit up and the menu disappeared. The room seemed to blur into an unrecognizable mass of white and cream and a dark colored blob he could only assume to be the orb. Eventually, his vision began to clear and the room came back into focus. "What the hell was that?!" The hallway didn't look any different, and he didn't feel any different... To be sure, Mao glanced down at himself. No missing limbs, no mutations, nothing.

It was a little disappointing, really.

So far so good. The transformation of the room was a little surprising, but somewhat expected. Sure, it didn't have quite the same flash as a dimensional gate, and the lack of instantaneous movement pretty much meant that this device would probably not be taking them off of the island anytime soon. But really she shouldn't have been this disappointed, she reasoned: this wasn't quite their Netherworld, after all.

The lack of scenery was also a bit disappointing, but something told her that things have changed -- "But if it's all the same, then what's with that flash, huh? I really doubt that this orb is just a room-distorter."

Her object said, she was giving a closer look to some of the motifs emblazoned on the walls for any signs that this was a different room.

That was startling. Not to mention a little disorienting! Almaz had to take a moment to step back and rub at his eyes. When he opened them back up and saw everything still in place, no noticeable changes that he could see, Almaz blinked and rubbed his eyes again just to be sure. At least he wasn't hallucinating, judging by the other two's reactions. "Wh-what just happened?" He pat down his body too, for good measure, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Did it do something that couldn't be seen by the naked eye?

Not that he was disappointed too, or anything! He was glad that nothing had happened! No traps or surprise boss fights was a good thing! ... well, I guess I was expecting something to happen, Almaz thought.

And then another thought occurred to him. "Hey," Almaz turned back to face Mao. "Do you think you could bring up the menu again? Maybe something about that changed."

Mao looked between Beryl and Almaz for a moment before nodding. It was worth a shot, at least, and just touching the orb hadn't done anything (though maybe he'd get a closer look at one of them when they got home to see if there were any lasting effects from the distortion... just in case, of course). A bit more cautiously this time, Mao pulled up the menu. Nothing looked different, except...

"Third floor," Mao announced. "Guess this thing has some kind of use after all." It looked as though it had saved them a considerable amount of walking time on the way up, and Mao would be more than happy to let it take them back on the way out. Something that quick and easy simply had to be exploited.

"If this is the third floor, then somebody has a very poor imagination." Beryl stated. "This is exactly the same as the last one!"

Still, she had no reason to not believe Mao, but then what was the point of having everything be the same? Pondering this, Rasberyl returned to Mao, a thoughtful look on her face. "So, now what?"

"It really isn't any different at all." Almaz nodded in agreement. "Couldn't they at least hang up a sign?" It was very weird. If the menu wasn't there, how would you even tell you'd made any progress at all? At any rate, traveling seemed easy enough.

He turned his gaze from around the room back to Beryl and Mao. "Right. Is this the floor we're supposed to be on?"

"How should I know? I'm not the one who designed this place." As if that wasn't obvious enough. He glanced up only briefly at the room before looking back to the menu as he thought. Maybe they expected more people to just wander between floors aimlessly. But in that case, why have this kind of teleporter at all? It didn't make any sense.

But maybe if he could figure out how this thing worked--if it was mechanical or magical or some kind of blend of the two--he could find a way to teleport them home.

It was a thought, but now wasn't the time. They had come all this way for a reason, and Mao hadn't brought all the tools he'd need for probing the thing (mostly, he had decided to stick to the dissection basics). "I don't see any more options here..." he mused. "If it's not, it's close enough. Let's go! I want to see this place already."

At this point Raspberyl was getting annoyed. Sure she wanted to discover what the heck this place was all about but Mao was going all Scully on this piece of tech. If they were going to get anywhere, she was going to have to do something drastic. Like reaching for the sphere and finding out what it does from a less-than-scientific viewpoint.

"Okay Mao, you've had your turn with the shiny orby thingy." She shot irritatedly, "now let me see it and maybe we can figure out a way outta this place!" And considering that more than enough warning for her intentions, she immediately made a grab for the sphere in Mao's hands.

"M-miss Beryl!" Almaz gasped, making a grab to stop her himself. What if it wasn't made for multiple people to handle it? "Please wait! We might have kind of maybe figured out what this thing does, but it could still be risky to-!" Though his grab wasn't to much avail, curse her tiny form.

Mao's eyes went wide as Beryl dove for him, and he quickly moved to the side to try and dodge out of the way. "B-Beryl?! What the heck are you doing?!" he exclaimed, taking his hand off of the sphere and stepping back. Did she really think she could get any further with it than he could? Sure, Mao wanted to go home as much as the next guy, but... Well, really it was the fact that his rival might be able to find something he'd missed that riled him up more.

Mao's usual frown shifting into something vaguely similar to a pout, he stepped back and crossed his arms, foot tapping as he glanced to the door and back. "Fine! You give it a try." Despite Almaz's protests, Mao wasn't really worried about the consequences of messing with the object. Even if something bad did come out of it, it was just another opportunity to learn about it, and maybe study the adverse effects. Maybe it was even different depending on the species using it!

Raspberyl noticed the pout and heard the protests, but paid them no mind. Really, the thing that she was a bit disappointed at was the fact that Mao relented so easily. Still, maybe the frustrated gaze he was now giving her would notice something a bit easier as Beryl fiddled with the sphere.

The little demon rotated it a bit to no avail. There really didn't seem to be anything to it really -- just a crystal-clear sphere without any apparently markings on it. But Mao was able to use it, so maybe it was touch-activated? But Mao was looking at it earlier and that didn't seem to have an effect, so maybe it responded to something else?

"Maybe it's voice-activated!" Beryl chirped. And with a dramatic twirl and flourish, she raised the sphere in one hand as she boomed dramatically, "okay crystal-orb thingy! Take us home!"

These guys were too reckless. Seriously! Almaz sighed and straightened himself back up. Either way, the situation was out of his hands by this point--pun not intended--as it usually seemed to turn out with his friends. He watched and waited as Beryl posed with the orb in hand. "I don't think it's that simple..." Almaz mumbled. If it was, wouldn't someone have mentioned this?

Mao could only stare at Beryl's attempt to make it work. When the hell had he ever done that when he used the thing? Then again, loathe as he was to admit it, Mao wasn't entirely sure exactly how the thing worked yet, either. At least he could take comfort in the fact that Beryl hadn't figured it out before he had.

"Since when is anything that simple in this place?" he muttered bitterly. "Anyway... That world is probably on this floor somewhere."

"Well, it was a lot better than anything you were coming up with." Beryl stated testily. But for all of her irritation, stealing the orb away did have her intended effect at least. Mao seemed to have an idea of where to go from here and with any luck this would take them home.

Not that she was going to let her annoyance at Mao go so easily. "So what are you saying? If we look around this floor we'll find another world? Hate to break it to you Mao, but everything looks practically the same." She hoped that this challenge would get him thinking of what to do next.

"Please don't fight, you guys." Almaz muttered. There was no use in double checking the room--nothing seemed to change at all after the room initially got weird, and nothing changed after Beryl tried using the orb herself. But! But if there was anything Almaz had picked up back in the Netherworld, it was to not judge by appearances.

"Well, a lot of people did mention this place over the journals." Well, okay, there was this too. "All of them can't be lying, right? So let's at least take a look around. For... er, for another door? I guess." Hey, if the door in the church led to a place like this, maybe it was true in this case too. But really? Doors?

"We got here, didn't we?" Mao shot back. "You think something this big can actually fit in a closet?" It was odd, and Mao didn't quite understand the magic or the technology or whatever it was behind all this very well. He wanted to know, of course. He wanted to know how all of this worked and how worlds could suddenly appear within this castle, and most of all if he could use it to get back home. Mao was sick of this place. The cleanliness, how boring the people were, how annoying everyone else was... He could go on forever.

Sure, he was probably exaggerating a little, especially as he was getting testier by the day due to lack of video games and comics, but his intent remained the same.

Mao nodded at Almaz's statement and began looking around for a door. While the room was too big to fit in a closet, it wasn't really all that big. It had to be around here somewhere... Was that it? It was open, which Mao hadn't been expecting, with light pouring from it. Was that how these doors worked when they were opened? The dean took a few steps closer to the door, squinting against the light in an attempt to see anything beyond it. "I can't see anything," he grumbled.

"Oi, Ex-Fake Hero! You go in first."

Edited 2010-08-17 02:38 (UTC)

Raspberyl smiled as Mao found this new passageway. And though she was curious to see what was inside, she couldn't miss this opportunity to see true heroine bravery right? Besides, who knows what was inside?

"Okay Almaz, show us how it's done!" Beryl chirped, pat-pushing him the hero out in front of the two demons.

Wait a minute here. This.

"Oi, Ex-Fake Hero! You go in first."

This scenario.

"Okay Almaz, show us how it's done!"

"Huh? I- eh? Ehh?! Me first!?" Almaz screeched, stumbling before the door. Why did things always turn out like this! He squinted against the light pouring out from the door, and even tried shielding his eyes with a hand. No good. Almaz took one last hesitant look over his shoulder, only to see Mao and Beryl's expectant faces looking back.

"... okay, okay, I get it." With a deep sigh, Almaz walked towards the door and leaned against the frame in an attempt to buy a few more precious seconds of internal distraught. He was curious too, sure! But really?

After a few more moments, Almaz finally swallowed down most of his nervousness--even if he had no idea at all what was beyond the door, he had to be brave! You know, Heroes' Oath and all that ("... no matter what danger awaits, a hero must stand, face forward...").

"I-I'm going in." And with that, Almaz stepped stiffly through the doorway and disappeared into the light.

Mao watched Almaz's departure with ever increasing interest. What was beyond that door? What was that world like? What would the effects of this sort of travel be on Almaz? Would he gain extraordinary powers? Any mutations?

As he mulled the subject over, Mao's breathing began to become heavier and heavier, a couple flecks of drool at the corners of his mouth. At this rate, if the Ex-Fake Hero didn't report back in a few moments, Mao was going to have to go in after him.

Oh hell... Beryl had forgotten how bad Mao got when he was getting excited. The huffing and puffing and drooling which would might have indicated a seizure in anybody else.

It was good motivation to follow after Almaz. "Well, we didn't hear any agonizing screams. So I guess that means he's okay. Let's go take a look, huh?" she replied cheerily as she made her way into the room obscured by the blinding light.

The scenery on the other side of the door was pretty different in contrast to where Almaz just came from. Where the hallway was blindingly bright and clean, this place was dark and a little eerie. The way the spindly trees loomed overhead was intimidating, to boot. Almaz found himself grateful that, all things considered, there wasn't any immediate danger--much of anything at all at the entrance, really--and that he arrived in one piece. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all!

... but that thought didn't last long.

It went down like this: Almaz turned around to call Mao and Beryl over, saw that he had apparently come through a door on a tree, boggled over the fact that he just came through a door on a tree ("... Did I just--"), and as Almaz rubbed his eyes in an incredulous manner, he felt something brush against his skin. Or maybe it was his skin catching against something, but that's irrelevant! The big thing was that it was something that wasn't supposed to be there.

Like stitches. Stitches that weren't normally there, crisscrossed around his arm. (Unless there was something traumatic he had blocked out of his memory concerning Mao?) But that couldn't be it, these seemed to be sewn over his clothes! His clothes, which had lost their heroic whiteness and taken also taken a turn for the tattered and dark. This was to say nothing of the staples, the nails, and--was that duct tape around his leg?

"Wh- wh- WHAT IS THIS?!"

What? Where was Beryl going? He didn't say she could leave! Then again... he couldn't say he didn't agree with the idea. His curiosity hadn't finished nagging at him. "Oi! Don't just walk off like that!" Mao shouted, running up the stairs to catch up.

He skid to a stop as the scenery changed to something more... familiar. His mouth hung open a moment as he took in his surroundings. So there really was a change. A change better than he could have ever expected. Had such a wonderful world really been beyond those doors? Finally, no more disgustingly clean and bright surroundings... No more irritatingly happy people going about their business! Finally, somewhere with a suitably creepy atmosphere. He'd settle down in this wonderful place right now if he wouldn't be giving up prime lab space back in the city.

Almaz's sudden outcry was enough to jar Mao from his thoughts, and he looked over at the ex-fake hero irritatedly. What was he freaking out about? It wasn't like Almaz hadn't seen something like this before. It was basic Netherworld--

What the... That was different. Had Almaz's title changed? A wave of panic suddenly came over Mao. Had his title changed?! He didn't feel any different. No urges to spout disgustingly polite conversation or save any princesses... Did that mean it was localized? A localized transformation... Interesting.

Mao was instantly by Almaz's side, looking over every inch of the hero's body. "Hold still," Mao ordered, pausing to take off his glasses and wipe off the fog that had begun to form on the lenses.

Beryl blanched at the new surroundings. Any thought that they were in the same room disappeared with the seeping darkness of this one. The gnarled, curled trees, uniformly groomed ground, and a spine-tingling howling wind that brushed up her back just the right way reminded her of home. After days of perfectly maintained gothic arches and marbled pillars, this was like finally getting the chance to catch her breath. She stared around, expecting that each turn would bring back the blanch luster of light and didn't find anything.

She didn't realize how much she actually missed it.

Her attention was brought back to reality when she heard Almaz cry out. Making her way past some dead brush, she was not surprised to see Mao geeking out over the hero like he always did. What she wasn't expecting was Almaz to look like he was put together just a few seconds ago by Mao.

"MAO, what did you DO to him?!" She accused, making her way over and wondering if this was reversible.

Almaz couldn't help but lean away just a bit as Mao examined him, despite the order to stay put. This was still pretty creepy after all this time! He mumbled something akin to a "please stop that", but it didn't have as much heart or shrillness in it that it could have. The whole being-not-quite-himself thing just barely outweighing any anxieties Almaz might have held towards Mao right now.

But only just barely!

Almaz turned his head at Beryl's accusation, startled, and tried to clear things up. "N-no no! Mao didn't do anything!" Not that he could remember. But, oh god, what if he had blocked out something traumatic? After a moment, Almaz nervously continued, "I-I think. I mean, er, I think I showed up like this." He started to pat himself down, poking and testing the various materials that--this was so strange--that seemed to hold him together. "I don't... feel any different?" In fact, Almaz felt as he always had. Didn't he even not notice this earlier?

But just to be sure, Almaz did a quick check.

Nope. His Hero title was still there, shining like usual.

So what was this then?! And-- "How come I'm the only one that turned out like this?!"

Mao stammered at the sudden accusation and immediately whipped around in the direction of Beryl's voice. Why in the world was she accusing him of this?! ...Okay, so he might have had a pretty good idea why, but he hadn't even had time to perform this extensive a procedure! Incredible a mad scientist as he was, even Mao wasn't that good.

Before Mao could shoot off a retort, however, Almaz spoke up, and Mao instead turned his attentions to the Ex-Fake Hero, listening closely to what he had to say. Of all the times for Mao to forget what this place was called... It might have held some kind of clue!

"A localized alteration of the body, transforming it into something more... fitting to the environment. Beryl and I were left untouched," he mused aloud, scanning every inch of Almaz's body. "No change in title... Looks like a side effect of coming into this world." Mao broke into a grin, hand reflexively reaching for his glasses. "I wonder if there will be any other changes..."

Still incredulous, but trusting Almaz more than Mao's explanation, Beryl puzzled over this new development. "So, you're saying that this place can change people? Where the heck are we?"

Looking around, the faint traces of the Netherworld was prevalent. Yet something was also... off. What was it? It felt subtle and serious, like listening to a violin player out of tune or drinking a cup of coffee with salt in it. The thought had occurred to her that this difference was just the nature of this Netherworld, but like an itch in the small of her back this thought just wasn't going away.

"I don't know if I could handle any other changes." Almaz sighed and gave his clothes one last, careful tug. All of this stuff holding him together wouldn't fall out or unravel, right? That would be kind of... maybe he shouldn't think about it too much. Almaz desperately hoped it wasn't a lasting effect, and focused on Beryl's questions instead, taking another quick look around.

"I'm not sure either." She brought up a good point, where did they end up? It reminded him of home, almost! Just creepier somehow, and that in itself only multiplied the creepy factor. Almaz turned towards Mao. And paused. "C-could you please stop that?" Self-conscious didn't even begin to cover it.

"Erm. Do you remember hearing anything about this place?" Almaz continued. "Like a name or anything other than how to get here?"

Mao frowned in thought. That was a good question. What was this place's name? He knew he had heard it once before. He had to have read it. People were talking about this place all over the journals. He'd looked through a good portion of them before coming.

Damn it, what was it... Ha... Hall... "Halloween Town!" That was it. And that explained a lot, really. "The creepy atmosphere... The sudden change in appearance... Of course it's the only answer!" Or it was now.

"Halloween Town?" Beryl echoed, though her tone was somewhat doubtful. "Are you sure you didn't just make that up just now?" Still, the name wasn't too far off. Sure, she wouldn't be the first to actually name an entire city after a holiday, but who's to say others wouldn't? And they certainly got the theme down at any rate.

Her attention turned to Almaz, checking him over aside from the sudden transformation. "You gonna be okay? You're not going to fall apart on us, are you, hero?"

She meant both meanings of the phrase.

... of course this place was named something like that. "It's almost too obvious to be real," Almaz muttered. He turned to Beryl, and tried to give her a reassuring smile--which, admittedly, probably wasn't all that reassuring. "Y-yeah, I'll be fine. I think."

So long as it stayed temporary, that is. Almaz wasn't about to make any guarantees if they left and found he was stuck like this. Goodness forbid they found Princess Sapphire and she saw him like this!

"So, uh, where exactly are we supposed to start?"

"What, you think I'm lying?" Mao shot back. "It's not like I picked the name out for this place!" Though he sounded more embarrassed than offended. "And if it fits, why choose anything else? It's called Halloween Town and that's that."

He gave Almaz one last look over. No loose threads or anything, though it did make him wonder what would happen if Almaz really were to fall apart. Would the limbs still be cognizant? Would they move around on their own? What would happen if he attached them backwards? Maybe one day he'd manage to talk the Ex-Fake Hero into letting him try something out. Just a peek. An experiment or two. Mao at least deserved that much, right?

"It's called Halloween Town, right? That means there's probably some kind of town around here somewhere." If the Halloween part was right, why not this?

Edited 2010-11-12 23:26 (UTC)

Now she was sure that Mao was making stuff up. An entire town dedicated to Halloween? What sort of weird place would that be? Still, the thought that such a place existed was slightly comforting, and at the very least it would be a good opportunity to explore something other than the elaborate motifs of paixao. She didn't realize it until now, but she was actually very homesick for the Netherworld.

"So, if there's a town, what are we doing around here?" She chirped merrily. "We'd get nowhere fast if we just stay in one place."

Scanning the horizon past the brush and the dead trees, she happened to gaze onto the strangest hill that she had seen for a while. The curl at the end of it was very peculiar, and sort of made her wonder how it was defying gravity. "Look there." She pointed to her two boys. "I bet we can get a good look of the area on that. So are you going to gawk at Almaz's horribly disfigured and possibly mutilated body, or are we going to do something productive?"

"H-horribly disfigured?" Almaz asked weakly. (Talk about a critical hit!) He. He didn't look that terrible, did he? Almaz gave himself yet another quick look over, feeling very self-conscious all over again.

No, Almaz shook his head. Now wasn't the time to be stuck on this! Raspberyl was right--at least, about doing something productive and hopefully not about... not his...

"--It sounds like a good idea to me." Almaz cleared his throat and turned towards Mao. "What do you think? You're the leader, after all."

"I-I never said we weren't going there! I was going to get to it!" Mao immediately protested. Dammit, only Beryl could get him this much off his game! Ugh, and yet as annoying as it was, he couldn't say he hadn't missed the challenge. Especially when the boredom from the lack of it had nearly driven him to visit a library of all places.

But whatever game had been thrown off immediately was returned at Almaz's statement, and Mao drew himself up proudly. Of course he was the leader. And that meant what he said went. "We're checking out that hill," he said as though the idea had been completely his own. "That way we can see if there's anything even worth bothering to look at in that place." Not that he wouldn't mind staying a little longer in this place. It was better than that city.

Miss home? Why would he do that?

Beryl allowed herself a low chuckle as Mao led the charge to admire her handiwork. She then before turned to Almaz with a smile. "Hey, nice job, hero! It's a good thing you said that or who knows how long we would have been standing around."

She took a few steps forward, saying just loudly for both of them to hear. "Well... we should probably not dawdle, or he might hurt himself on the first dangerous whatever is lurking around in this world." Despite her words, there was a note of cheerfulness in her voice, as though half-hoping that something would so they could beat it up guilt-free.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Happy Travels? [active]

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Gahh, it was a busy and distracting weekend, I'm sorry!

It's fine! I was a bit braindead yesterday, sooo... XD

and now it's my turn! ^^;

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urk... sorry guys ^^;

HURGHHH. I'm so sorry too-

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o-oh my god, I never got the notif. DDDDX I'm so sorry

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I'm really sorry about the delay.

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