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[Atres Manor] Everything Stays
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[Atres Manor] Everything Stays
#1Atres Manor was a large, crumbling pile of stone, in the middle of no where. The extensive grounds were terribly overgrown, really nothing more than a mass of twisted trees, bushes, and briars. There had been a small artificially created lake behind the house, but it was nothing more than a fetid black swamp now. The stables were a shattered ruin, damage from a lightning strike years ago going unrepaired. The house itself was little more than a barely recognizable shell, with crumbling walls and holes in the roof. The entire west wing had collapsed in on itself. As far as anyone knew, the place had been abandoned for quite sometime.
But sometimes, the wind eerily mimicked human speech, and the vapors coming off of the black swamp shimmered faintly in unpleasant ways. The sky over the house was always covered in dark, black clouds, even when the skies were clear not two miles away. It was held to be a cursed place. No one went there anymore, save the few curious, foolhardy boys who tried to see how far they could venture in before they got scared, or the thick-nerved treasure hunters, looking to loot the rumored wealth of the Atres family, or periodically the unfortunate strangers who were caught in the omni-present rain around the house. Some came back out again, refusing to speak of what had happened. Some raved incoherently about monsters and ghosts. Some were not even that sane. And some didn't come back at all.
No one went to Atres anymore. But now, there was something... different. Something was going to change. Christopher lit a dusty lantern that he rarely bothered with in the main hall, and peered out into the brewing storm. "Someone is coming." -
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#2Alexandria rubbed her eyes before putting her glasses back on, looking around. She wasn’t entirely sure how or when she’d gotten lost in the woods or when the rain had started. Particularly, she didn’t remember when it got dark. However, being so disoriented and lost, she wandered towards the clearing she saw in front of her. Cleaning off her glasses and squinting slightly, she say a speck of color in the distance. Carefully moving forwards through the torturous underbrush. As she drew closer what was in front of her came into view she saw a huge mansion in front of her. Yes, it looked worse for well, but this looked like another spring storm to her. It would pass soon enough.
Alex hurried towards the front entrance of the door, quickly opening it when she got there and rushed into the building. The Foyer echoed with a loud, resounding boom as the door closed. That surprised her, considering the roof was missing, and what surprised her even more was that she couldn’t anything at al. Not even the should of the rain could be heard. Despite the fact that she knew she would only be here until the storm passed, this was a bit unnerving to her.
“That is certainly a wonderful welcome,” She murmured to herself, the house seeming to answer her with a loud moan.
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#3Uppio was drenched in the downpour, but continued his exploration of the manor ground. "Poor little creature", he said aloud to himself as he stooped to pick up a dead bush from the bank of the fetid pond. "mmm....Huggervine, what a shame". He removed his sickle from its curved sheath and sliced off a piece of the decaying plant. He studied it for a second more and then stuffed it into one of his many pocket-sacks. He was about to continue his study of the dead and dying plantlife, when a booming clap of thunder made him jump. A split second later, a spiderweb-like lightning discharge illuminated the darkening sky. Was that someone running inside the mansion? He thought he saw a person race across the grounds and enter the foreboding house. "Hmmm...mayhaps that is the owner of this place" Uppio said to himself as he was wont to do. "I will have to offer my services as a gardener" he murmured, "The place could surely use one!". Now perturbed, he proceeded to approach the front door.
It was then another bolt of lightning allowed him to get his first real look at the house itself. An unknown, bone-chilling fear momentarily gripped Uppio, a fear he could not grasp or identify. And what was that sound? Was that the wind or a babe faintly crying.."Oh no no no. That cant be HER! SHE only comes when I sleep." Steadying himself, he swallowed and neared the entrance of the great edifice. Swallowing again, he proceeded inside. -
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#4Karen rode slowly up the rutted road. Mud squelched under her horse's hooves, leaving behind swirling puddles of slime behind him. It had been a nice day up until about an hour ago when the clouds had loomed ahead and the heavens had opened up on her. The rain had plastered her red hair against her face and made it cling to the back of her neck. The rain just reminded her of how dirty she actually was. She wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, really just moving the water around rather than off completely. Her wool cloak had already soaked through, and she had sold the old legion oil cloth cloak months ago. Ahead she could make out the hulking form of a house. It was large, but looked like it was in bad repair. She could find shelter under the roof, and if there were any vagrants or hostile locals she had her short sword to change their minds.
That and a few battered and well traveled silver pieces. -
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#5After shaking out her short cut, black hair Alex continued to look around the Foyer. The clothes she had on were soaked, as well. Alex knelt down, ringing out the bottoms of her pants. As she was crouched down she heard the familiar slam of the door behind her and jumped about ten feet in the air. Panting loudly, she turned around, eyes gapping as her eyes searched to see what had made that noise She blinked, resettling her glasses on her face, “Ah…” She realized there was a man standing over her just inside the door. She gave the other person a long, long look, eventually making it to her feet, “Um…Hello…?” She hoped this wasn’t his place and that he wasn’t going to make a fuss out of her trespassing. -
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#6The last town was most entertaining indeed. As ever, Gerwulf was amazed at human avarice and folly. Why, the jeweller was more than happy to offer him twenty silver for a ring he thought to be worth at least a hundred, just because the bard before him looked to be hunry, desperate and totally unaware of the ring's worth.
Well. He deemed Gerwulf the fool - but, in his greed the jeweller overlooked that the ring, while pretty, was fake - the stone a shard of glass, the metal but gilded lead. The fake cost Gerwulf but two silver. He patted his pouch, and produced another ring from it - this one was quite genuine, slipped from the finger of the jeweller's wife when he kissed her hand in 'gratitude' for their 'generosity'.
A flash of lighting send sparkles all over the piece of jewelry. From benneath the brim of his leather hat, he looked up at the sky - grey it was like the lead of the false ring. Then, as if a fairy had waved its magic wand, torrents of rain filled the air, fluid rops connecting the skies and the land underneath.
Gerwulf prompted Freke, his mare, to a hearty gallop. While his leather cloak was more than fit to ward him from ordinary rain, this was going to be a grandfather of storms. He should better reach some sort of shelter before a nasty cold reaches him.
Ahead, a dark structure loomed over the road and the tres around it, as if devoid of colour. Almost... suspiciously dark and mysterious and... "Just the right interesting place to stay" Gerwulf though, and pulled Freke over. The stables were in ruin, but a garden house provided sufficient shelter for his steed. He dried her fur, threw a blanket over her, and strode towards the manor. Even though hell seemed to be loose, he'd be damned if his song wouldn't earn him a bowl of decent broth!
As he approached the manor, footprints in the mud alerted him to the presence of other travelers. "Fine! At least it won't be a lonely eve. 'Tis no inn, but better than naught."
Then, he saw a readhead approaching through the rain.
"Ah, a pleasant place it's to be bound, when such fine ladies stroll around!" -
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#7"Who are you and what are you doing here?" A tall, thin man had suddenly entered the foyer and was leaning against the wall. He was carrying a dusty lantern, with a small candle giving off a pitiful amount of light. His clothes were in poor repair; clearly the moths had been at them. His hair seemed to be dark, but the light wasn't good enough to tell the exact color. He was surprisingly young, though, in his mid thirties. He scowled at the people standing by the door. "I do not like company, particularly company that does not announce itself, or even wait to be let in." -
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#8Uppio was prepared for one person but not four. He looked at each of them nervously, but decided the best course of action was to address the person who just spoke. Spooky fellow, he MUST be owner, Uppio thought. This gaunt man's state of attire, reflected his negligence of the grounds outside the manor, Uppio concluded. "Yes..em..well...my name is Up-p..Uppio Marssh good sir, but I dont know these fine folk", he gestured to the others. "I um..well, I just thought that sometime back you must have had a wonderful garden, sir, and I wished to extend my services to you, if you be needing them, to um...regrow it". Gods! that was a stupid thing to say, Uppio cursed himself. Dont fear, dont fear, his mind raced. You learned how to defend yourself if need be. They will think your weak and old.They always do. Just stand your ground and wait for an answer. -
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#9The man looked at them with undisguised hostility. "The grounds are of the type that abhor order, so your efforts would be for nothing, and I give little thought to them. And as I have no wife nor mother to want them in their original state, I have no need nor wish for the services of a gardener." He looked around at the various people. "And as for the rest of you? If you've come seeking... employment, I have little use for servants, so you might as well go back where you came from." -
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#10"Ah...er..." Alex stammered, made extremely nervous by the man's presence, "M-my name is Alex Phillips," she managed, "I got lost in the woods near by...a-and I just was seeking a bit of shealter until the storm passed. I...I don't mean any harm or need any work." Alexandria backed away from the two men, inwardly fearing what might happen next. -
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#11The man glared at her for a moment. "I suppose I can't very well send you back out into the storm, then. The library has a fireplace and several large chairs, so I suppose you may stay there. The bedrooms are in very poor repair and the furniture is all in storage, so I can't offer you a bed." He didn't sound thrilled. "I would suggest that you go at first light." -
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#12Alex stammered, "Ah...alright...Thank you!" She managed eventually, swallowing hard. After looking around she headed in the direction of the library or at least the direction it looked like it was in. -
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#13"Second door to the left." The man glared at the people remaining. "I suppose I must allow you to stay the night as well. Tell those fools outside to come in if they must. If there is no firewood in the library, you may break one of the wooden chairs." He turned and started back up the hall he had come down, his left leg dragging behind him in what looked like a painful manner. "I don't advise that you go wandering." -
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#14"Second door to the left...."
Alexandria heard the echo of the odd, frightening man's voice inside the walls of the house.
"One..." Her heart pounded as all she heard was her foodsteps. She could of sworn that she saw a shadow shift or a pattern on the wall dance to life as she moved. However, between her bad eye sight and her over-active imagination, she knew that wasn't the case.
"Two!" Though it seemed to take a small eternity to reach that door, she was relieved to get there when she did. Her hand, quivering slightly from the chill of the house and her fear of the mansion's care taker, quickly grasped the door knob and turned it, opening the door she'd been instructed to go in. She knew she could sleep just fine in the library; she'd slept in worse places before.
Besides, breaking appart a chair was something to look forward to, right? At least that's what she thought to herself to occupy her mind. -
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#15Kei was sitting in the library. He sat in this place every day, close to a window so that he could get light enough to read and about half way away from the door. He never used a chair simply because he preferred the floor. He was about half way through the book he'd been reading for the last few days, a thick volume on the history of the surrounding country.
The door opened with an ominous creaking sound and the teen jumped. He looked up, caught sight of a figure standing in the doorway, and screamed. -
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#16First, a scary man in old, ratty clothes and now rooms screaming as one entered them?! This, without a doubt, was a bit too much for Alex as she entered the library on top of the all the general nervousness and terror she had about everything else that had happened to her.
Before she'd completely realized she was doing it, she squealed.
The room grew black. Alex's vision began to fade. Her head ached like nothing she'd ever experienced. The colors her eyes had picked up around the room began to shift to black outlined in red before all the color disappeared.
Her body hit the ground with a resounding thud, and the young woman was unconscious in the middle of the door way. -
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#17The words 'oh shit' seemed to be on repeat in Kei's mind. He ran over and knelt beside the strange person. 'Oh Lord,' he thought, 'what if I've killed them?' He reached out hesitantly to check the person's pulse. They were alive. He pulled back quickly and scooted a few steps away, breathing a sigh of relief. He looked at the person again and visibly started. A woman. He cursed his bad luck.
Deciding to at least do something to help, Kei grabbed his book and fanned the fallen woman with it. 'Why,' he thought, 'why is someone here?' -
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#18"Ah, thanks, good sir, for your kindness. May the gods repay ye" I jovially called, and cleaned my boots of most of the mud before stepping in.
"The library, you say? You must be a learned man, then, a rare kind today."
I left my coat to dry, the bright colours of my shirt coming to the fore, the jingle bells tinkling lightly, and the spangles sparkled in the dim light. "Gerwulf Valthir at your service, keeper of tale and song, and lover of these gentle chords here" I introduced myself, patting my lute packed in oilcloth.
"As who the rest of the merry fellows are, I know not, but I'm sure we'll get acquaintaned soon."
The place was in worse disrepair than I thought, but... the shady, haunted atmosphere was just perfect for some of the more sinister fae to lurk about. I should place some of my fairy traps before going to sleep. -
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#19Karen eyed the tattered man as she shucked her sodden cloak. Having done her share of scrubbing barracks floors, she scraped the muck from her boots before she entered, though the thought of leaving them by the door didnt seem like a good idea. As the others dispersed to where-ever the man had sent them she approached him.
She extended two silver pieces, "For lodging for the evening, and I'll pay another silver piece if you have fodder for my horse. The road has been rather long and the weather unforgiving here." she paused, remembering her manners. "My name is Preceps Karen Kolibri." -
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#20The man turned around to look at the coins in Karen's outstretched hand. "I do not accept payment for allowing travellers to seek shelter from the rain in my library. As for the horse, there are no animals kept on the estate, and so no fodder beyond what can be foraged. I suppose there might be an old feedbag or some such in what's left of the stable, but I shouldn't recommend looking." He continued back along the hall. "And I couldn't care less what your name is." -
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#21Uppio had followed a few of the others into the library. Sitting next to the window, he kept trying to assess the situation he had now found himself in. All these people made him nervous, but ANYTHING would be better than going to sleep tonight. SHE would come tonight, he knew. Hmmm, maybe there were some books on botany, he thought and rose swiftly to peruse the bookshelves. As he rose he cleared his dry throat *might as well get this over with* "Hel-lo everyone. What a night eh?...I am Uppio Marssh, I was just admiring the neglected garden outside when I saw someone enter this house, so I walked in to um..say hello, and well heh heh..here we all are. Does anyone know anything about the place? I was just curious. Our host seems a bit..em...stern." *Damn it! Nothing I say ever comes out right! Just shut up Uppio and go look at the books! No one cares who in the Eight Hells you are!* -
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#22Aher's dark mood had not been improved by the journey through the grey and twilit lands about the ancient manor, nor the tangled skull-wood that surrounded it, or least of all by the lashing rain, which slicked his thin, downy silver hair against his skull with ferocious slaps. Faerie-fire lightning swam through the ceiling of the clouds, followed soon by a leviathan rumble.
Since the rain started, he had been loath to ride his old nag-mule. It was a wily and ornery animal, with a dark temper to match it's owner's dark moods, and it hated to be ridden in mud. Leading her by the reigns, Aher had tramped sandal-shod feet through two or three miles of mud, until he reached the inner wall of the manor grounds.
He paused in the arch of the wall, where on either side, sheets of water splashed a muddy trough in the ground. He opened his saddle-pack, and reached in a hand to feel, and sighed with relief. The vellum was dry, unharmed. To sacrafice The Great Folly to this tawdry rainstorm would have been a disaster.
Passing onward, Aher looked up towards the manse, a heavy, gothic-seeming building, of an old style so far gone that the historian believed it a remnant of antiquity. The front steps were sunken, as if the dirt and masonry beneath the stone had shifted downward. He left the mule standing in a somewhat dry area in the eave of a crazily-leaning portion of the wall, and, taking the saddle-pack on his shoulder, walked slowly toward the huge, blackened doors.
He reached for the door-ring, and as he did, he was seized, as if by a hand; he was filled with a sudden, hideous horror, a deep existential fear that filled him with a feeling of void-like cold. He gasped, recoiled from the door, and clutched the leather case of his manuscript to his chest. His sodden wool robe squelched.
Regathering himself, Aher shook his head. It was only like a worthless old man such as himself, the historian thought, to be fearful. What a pathetic worm you are.
Then, taking the ring in his chilled hand, he rapped twice on the ancient wood. The noise, so usually filled with cheer, was cold, dead, and distant in his ears. -
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#23((OOC: Door's open, no one will answer the knock, and there are people standing in the foyer. Also, did every one just miss the freaked out kid and the woman passed out on the floor in the doorway? Not to mention the kid screaming when he saw her the first time?)) -
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#24"The name is Gerwulf, miss" I stretchd out a hand towards the woman who had introduced herself as Karen. "And I'd wonder if we fail to turn this dreary evening into something nice, given the gents and ladies assembled here! Barring, of course, the unlikely case that the heavens come falling down on our drenched heads!"
Something had to break that iron veil of ignorance from the redhead's side! -
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#25Karen pressed the coins into the man's hands, the look on her face warned him that if he tried to refuse again he would get something less pleasant than money for his troubles. "Gerwulf, is it," She said, the name was not unfamiliar, many of the mercenaries she had previously worked with had come from the northlands and she had heard it before. She refused the bumpkin question of asking if he had ever served under Antillius One-Arm.
"You talk quite fancy for a man with a northerner's name." She said with a bit of a smile. Then she heard the scream from the direction of the library, followed by a heavy thud. She shook her head, all to often she had heard that sort of manless scream, one evinced by a youth who puffed up his chest and preened to be a rooster when he was still just a chick out of the shell. "Well, Gerwolf, minstrel?" She asked. "Might need some song to cover up the picadillos of our fellow ladies and gents." She said with false humor. She nodded her head for him to follow her. -
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#26OOC: Where did it say the door was open? And how is Aher to know that nobody would answer? -
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#27(OOC: They never closed it behind them; it doesn't matter, just come on in so I can make with the plot. :twisted: )
The man jerked his hand away from Karen. "I have already said I do not want your money. I do not know where you come from, or the customs that you keep, but let me warn you it is a very bad idea to offend a titled lord with a trifle such as this. There are other people in this house you may give your money to, if you must, but leave me be." He glanced back at the library. "Fools," he muttered, then strode away down the hall, a door slamming shut behind him. -
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#28Karen looked at Gerwulf, and then back at the direction the old man had retreated in. "Looks to me like he could use every coin he could get. Methinks he is more of a Triffled Lord than a titled lord." She threw the silver coins the direction he scurried away in. "I owe nothing to him." She scowled.
"That being said, where were we Gerwulf?" She said with a slight lilt to her voice. -
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#29(OOC: Ah, since no one's in the library (b/c like it was pointed out before they'd have had to step over Kippen and me to do it) I'm gonna do something a little against my character's personality . . . just to get something done)
Kei looked toward the open library door. He thought he could hear other people in the house. 'What in the name of all things holy is going on here?' he thought. Finding no real options, he decided that he had to at least move the unconscious woman. He cringed a little as he grabbed her shirt and started to pull her towards a couch near the fire place. -
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#30(OOC: Okay, who is in the main room?) -
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#31
(OOC: Okay, who is in the main room?)
(OOC: the only ones that are officially in the library are Alex and Kei, there's one post that doesn't make sense to me somehow, and the two others are in the main room . . . I think.) -
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#32(OOC: Reposting Cap's post, since it was eaten.)
The door swung open under Aher's smart rap, the hinges groaning. The chamber within was large, and echoing with the sound of splattering rain. It had probably once been an impressive great-room, though time and neglect had made it into something more like a wet cavern- a huge portion of the ceiling had collapsed, and the roof-lintel lay sprawled diagonally in a scummy pool of rainwater and old shattered tiles. The dim lighting of the place revealed the state of sagging decay and the mildew and niter that streaked the walls.
Aher scanned the room. The sound of a slamming door approached his ears. On one side, there were two individuals standing out of the rain. Aher strained his eyes in the dark, seeing that both were red-haired; one was a small, pale woman, and the other a large man, probably one of the barbaric Far Northerners, if his crazed dress was any sign.
The two were exchanging words softly, and seemed not to notice him.
Rather than break up their conversation, the historian grasped the sleeve of his wool robe, and began to briskly wring it out upon the floor.
"Goddamned fine hospitality, isn't this?" he snorted sarcastically at the two individuals, disliking the way in which his voice was amplified by the cavernous space.
-
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#33"The Triffled Lord of the manor cannot be bothered with such mundane affairs as hospitality...or waterproof rooms for that matter." Karen said, looking the traveler up and down, a scholor or monk of some sort, she though. "We were just discussing the odd noises that happen here." -
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#34Aher's countenance was dour. His mouth twisted sourly. "Strange noises, eh? I should hope so. I have not braved this," he waved his thin hand at the downpour in the center, "for nothing."
"And what brings you fine travelers to this.. hideous pile?" -
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#35"Hideous pile? Well, I'm the first to admit that the place could do with repairs and and a good cleaning, but hideous?" A woman of indeterminate age had come up the hall way opposite the one the unpleasant man had gone. She seemed to be his antithesis. She looked fairly cheerful, and wore sensible, well kept clothes. "Dear, dear me. What has brought all of you out to this lonely spot?" Without waiting for an answer, she briskly strode to the library and shooed everyone in. "Dear, dear." She noticed the unconscious Alex, and tsked. "Poor dear. Well, she'll be right enough soon." She smiled at the room at large. "And pay no mind to his lordship. Doesn't like being around people. Poor man went a little funny after his wife-" she cut off. "But I mustn't gossip. Now, is there anything Mathilde can get for you?" -
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#36Kei had managed to drag the young woman most of the way to the couch before the others entered. When he saw them he gasped and almost dropped the girl. He composed himself enough to set her down properly before backing up quickly and hiding behind the couch. Not that it would do much good now. -
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#37"Ah,' Karen said with a sardonic smile, "You must be the screamer, and the girl must be the thumper. I assume the date hasnt gone well has it kids?" -
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#38Uppio stared dumbfounded at the strange cast of characters now entering the library. He was one of the first to notice the slumped girl on the floor earlier, and had actually stooped to examine her briefly, but upon hearing aproaching noises, he had stepped over her and hurried into the library, afraid of possible accusations if he was discovered kneeling over the girl. The scream had been disconcerting as well, and reminded him of something unpleasant.
He now saw the lady's slumped form, being carried into the library by the young lad he had noticed earlier. As a few of the gathering folks eyed him, he shyly returned to perusing the book shelves. He wasnt sure of what to say to anyone, in fact he wasnt even sure what he was even doing here.
Ah, there is a bit of sunshine he thought, as the pleasant, smiling woman, who announced herself as Mathilde graced them with her presence. How bad can this place really be, he decided, with such a lovely governess.
"Some tea mayhaps, on this cold, damp night your grace", he managed to exclaim surprising himself. He thought of introducing himself to these interesting people again, but changed his mind quickly. The less you say now, the better Uppio, he scolded himself silently. -
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#39Mathilde smiled indulgently at Kei as he scampered behind the sofa. "Now, you mustn't be afraid, boy." She glanced at Uppio. "Tea it is, then sir. Anything else?" She turned to look at the others inquiringly. -
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#40(OOC: um...I cetainly dont appreciate being told to take my head out of my ass, by someone I dont even know, but ok.)
Mmmm..a spot of tea would steel my nerves, Uppio thought. He glanced in the direction of the young lad, who was half-hidden behind the once opulent but tattered and moth-eaten couches, and the slumped figure beside him. Still feeling guilty for not doing anything when he first spotted the unconscious person, he approached the fearful looking lad.
"There there, laddy, dont be frightened. I am Uppio...Uppio Marssh, and if our kind host returns with some tea and hot water, I could brew you a nice relaxing refreshment, with a few of these herbs I have in my satchel. Would you like that?"
"Now let me look at this poor creature you seem to be so worried about." Uppio turned to the fainted figure. What a bizarre outfit, he thought, I have not seen anything like this before, but then again, the Empire's fashions changed faster than he could ever hope to keep track of. "hmmm...wake up, whoever you are", he whispered as he gently nudged and prodded. " Ahhh..coming to are we?...there we go". As I have just stated to your young saviour here, I will happily brew you something tasty, with Lady Mathilde's help, to banish those pesky cobwebs from your eyes. You should be feeling better in no time". Uppio forced himself to smile, paranoid and hoping quite irrationally, that the person he just revived wouldnt jump up and scream. *HE saw me there and did nothing!*