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 Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 12:54 pm
Things had finally gone back to normal at Amityville, at least for Danny. As well as they could, anyways. She still got the occasional nightmare, but in terms of physical health, she was fit as a fiddle. Most of her cuts had faded into scars, and her burns had eventually faded as well (although watching Danny get into a bathtub of lava with burns had been quite hilarious).
In that time she had been thinking about her tail quite a bit. An odd subject, but a meaningful one. She had only really realized in the battle with Red how much getting burned alive sucked. Though she hadn't been thinking it at the time, Danny now knew why so many undead students were afraid of her.
So she was going shopping.
But first she was going to stop by Rikki's room to give him a Rabo of his own. Well, that was the superficial reason, but underneath that, she also wanted to check if he was okay. In all the time she had spent knocked out, she wasn't sure who made it back alive and who didn't. She sent a silent prayer to Jack that Rikki was okay and then knocked on his door.
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 1:03 pm
Rikki had made out better than most, but he also hadn't faced off against more than a couple small challenges. Nothing like what he'd heard his friends had faced. While he'd wanted to check and make sure they were okay, he found on his return home that he was beyond tired. He was bone-deep tired. And so most of his time was spent in bed.
He was finally feeling a little more up-beat over the last few days, so when the knock on his door echoed through his room, he opened it with a grin; a grin that quickly turned to a relieve sigh. He leaned against the open door.
"Oh thank jack. I'm glad you're okay, Danny."
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 1:07 pm
Even as he spoke, Danny was already wrapping her arms around the boil in the doorway. She was absolutely thrilled to see him ... well not dead. "I'm glad you're okay too!" She spent a moment longer than she should have hugging him, just savoring the fact that he was alive, and then backed up.
"Oh! Oh um ... I have a present!" Danny held out the thin, pink-ribbon-wrapped present for Rikki to grab out of her hands. The package stirred slightly, and then returned to its dormant state.
She stared at him awkwardly and then said, "My mom ... sent too many so uh ... you can have one!" He would like this right? Well Roch had liked his, and who didn't like free things? The little tag on the package read "Lancelot." Danny had spent quite a bit of time combing through all of the boxes, looking for a name that suited Rikki, and she thought this one fit quite nicely.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:49 am
Rikki took the present in shock and turned it gently in his hands to examine it. He could tell that the handwriting on the tag was hers, and smiled at the name. "Lancelot, hm?" he muttered with an air of approval. It was a little tame in comparison to the names of his other pets, but he still liked it. He hooked one arm around her in a second hug. "Thank you."
The reaper retreated into his room, leaving the door open for her, and swept a space clear on his desk for the gift to sit out of harms way. His desk was perhaps the only place he'd managed to keep his minis off of. When he was satisfied with it's location, he turned and leaned against his desk, arms crossed. "What are you planning to do today?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:09 pm
Rikki's room always smelled nice. It wasn't like other reapers' rooms she had visited- they smelled all ... well it was hard to describe, but she definitely liked Rikki's room smell.
She didn't move from her spot in the doorway, as she wasn't intending on staying (as much as she wanted to goof off with her friend, she had things to do and people to see!). With a wave, she said, "Um I'm going shopping, but I have to go, so bye!"
Was she being a bit ... shy? This was weird. Danny was never shy. She chalked it up to fatigue from the Haunted House.
Besides, she had to go shopping, like she said! She was going hunting for a lantern shell to put on her tail, like Toby had suggested so long ago. Danny wanted to protect all the flammable students after being ... well so fully burnt. She shuddered. Time to put that thought away.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:49 am
He had crossed the room and wrapped his fingers around the wrist of her raised hand before she could turn and disappear in a way that was so totally Danny that he'd seen it coming, effectively trapping her in the doorway of the dorm. Well, effectively if you overlooked the fact that a Danny who really wanted to escape was probably stronger than he was. "I'll come with you," he offered. He wasn't yet entirely certain she was unharmed, and he had a feeling it would be easier to stick around her and find out for himself than to try and get a straight answer out of her.
"What are you shopping for?" His head tilted slightly as he released her wrist and tucked his hands into his pockets.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:09 pm
Danny let out a gasp as Rikki's fingers slipped around her thin wrist and jerked her back into the room. This was not part of the plan! He couldn't just do this.
Normally Danny would've ripped her hand out and run down the hallway screaming bloody murder, but Rikki had something so serious in his eyes, so determined that Danny couldn't help but accept. The way he said, I'll come with you, felt more like a demand than a request. Danny shrunk back against the doorframe, a clear "okay" to Rikki's "request."
"A lantern thingy," she said, still looking at the ground. Something about Rikki was making her incredibly insecure, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
As he released her wrist, Danny rubbed it absentmindedly and turned straight back down the hall. She wasn't going to look at Rikki if she could help it. Why was she being so weird?
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:37 pm
A slim smile passed over his lips and he shrugged. "I promised I'd take you to do that anyways," he replied, thinking back on the movie night they'd decided on it. "Can't fall back on the promise now." It was a thin explanation for why he wanted to go, but it would work well enough. He only wasted enough time to pull a dark hoodie over his head before ushering her out of the door frame and into the hallways so he could lock his dorm up.
With a low arc of his hand he motioned her to take the lead, not sure if she already had an idea of what store she wanted to go to, and fell in step flanking her. He honestly had more on his mind than glass casings for her tail. "What happened after we went down the slide? I remember holding your hand, and then you were gone." He could still feel the shock of the soft pressure of her hand just disappearing if he called on the memory; the panic of needing to find her. Failure. The second time he'd failed a girl while on a dangerous field trip.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:44 pm
Danny spoke in a quiet, low tone that was normally never used. Ever. It was the tone best associated with true angry, and true, mysterious sadness. It wasn't a tone that could be placed, but something about it was wrong, very wrong.
"I don't know either. We ... went down the slide ... and then Red..." What else could she say? She really didn't remember anything past that.
Like Rikki, Danny felt like she had absolutely failed this trip. Not so much because she couldn't save Red. She had gotten over the fact that there was nothing she could do- much like the other students she'd talk to. No, Danny felt useless that she couldn't protect her friends like she should've. Oersted would've done something.
Nevermind that. Danny looked down at her hand slowly. That's right, they had been holding hands ... then they'd gone down the slide ... and then there was a darkness ...
Looking down at her tail, she felt a little sad. Putting the lantern over it would protect her friends sure, but it would cage it in too. Like in the Space area? How she'd lit the dark room at first? What happened now?
Danny didn't say much after that. The walk to the store was unusually silent. Finally though, they made it to a small lantern store, filled with all sorts of candles, lanterns and more.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:53 pm
The chill that skated down Rikki's spine at her tone stayed firmly, naggingly in place at the base of his spine as they continued their trek. How was he supposed to respond to that? He didn't know what had happened, hadn't been there, and had no way to scare away the monster that seemed to haunt her. So instead, he did what he did best. He shoved his hands in his pockets and just walked beside his friend. Because they were friends, despite their different personalities, and he needed that.
He opened the door when they arrived. and peered at all the lanterns on display. Some hung from rows of wire running from wall to wall, others were laid with care upon old, worn tables. He dragged a stained finger along the dark glass of one and blinked as it changed colors with the heat of his touch. Interesting...
"We should find you one that's totally clear, so you can still see your tail."
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:36 pm
Danny's heart just wasn't in lantern hunting now. Everything reminded her of the haunted house. All the candles reminded her of the flames in the first room. All of the glowing lanterns reminded her of the eerie glow of the white-coats' weapons. It was too much too much. Rikki moved forward to open the door, and Danny clutched onto the back of his sweatshirt. She leaned into it slightly, taking a moment to calm herself, while looking directly at the ground to focus her vision.
"I don't think I can do this," she said breathlessly.
It wasn't so much that she was physically or mentally weak from the Haunted House itself. She didn't have any events that were particularly traumatizing, nor was her life vastly affected, save for a favorite teacher being gone. Yes, it was sad, yes it took a toll on her, but no more than the average student.
It was more that Danny was feeling incredibly weak after it all. A hunter could burst through this lantern store and kill them both dead instantly and permanently. Worse yet they could turn them into a reaper... weapon? .... It was a strange paranoia Danny had never felt before.
Not to mention her parents had called a few days ago claiming that Oersted was coming back in to town for a visit, and they wanted to see her as well. She wasn't sure if she could take that too. She loved her brother, she really did ... it was just ...
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:55 am
Rikki turned and took Danny into his arms in a gentle and caring hug at her words. He wasn't sure what was happening, why she seemed so upset, and it made him glad he decided to come. This was a Danny he hadn't seen before, one that needed to be treated with care, and it sort of terrified him.
"Hey," he murmured, taking her face between his hands, "You can do this. You're Danny jacking Fitz. You can do anything you jacking well please, yeah?" He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and let her go, once again tucking his hands in his pockets. "We'll just get a lantern and get out, and you can start to wear it whenever you feel like you should."
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:30 pm
Danny shrugged out of Rikki's short-lived embrace, in an odd limbo between wanting to be comforted and wanting to be left alone because "she was fine." This was really weird! Never had she ever felt so vulnerable like this.
It wasn't a feeling she wanted to keep around, either.
Pushing it away, Danny stepped out of the little bubble they had formed and waltzed into the shop. "Yup! Just kidding! Let's go find a latnern!" she said with false enthusiasm. She wasn't going to be the weak little sister of Oersted, nope.
The shopkeeper poe did nothing to acknowledge their presence, nor did he seem to care that they had just walked into his personal store. He continued cackling and tinkering with his lights at the back. Well at least they wouldn't be pestered for a while, right?
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:22 pm
Just kidding? Nyyrikki snorted as he followed he further into the store, bowing his head in what he counted as a greeting. Kind of. Yeah not really. More like an acknowledgement of existence. He dragged his finger along the ornate patterns of the lanterns as he went, intrigued by some. He swore one looked like it had been crafted together from the pieces of an old scythe.
"What kind of lantern do you want? Seems like there are some with weird shapes and colors in here." Though could he picture Danny with a cat shaped lantern on her tail? No... Okay yes, but was it a respectable image? No.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:13 pm
Just because she said it didn't mean she meant it. Danny sorted through the lanterns with a sort of lack-lustered pride. One of these lanterns was going to be clipped onto her tail ...
Danny looked over at the cat-shaped one that Rikki had his eye on and giggled. She picked it up and started petting it, only to realize that it was a transforming lantern. It really was a cat. The black cat shot her an angry look, and then resumed its lantern form. Well that minipet was a tad grumpy.
There really were all sorts of lanterns. One was as big as her head! Some of them could fit her head. Some of them were so small that she couldn't even imagine them being useful (though certain some fae folk would probably disappear).
Danny was horrible with decisions. "Umm ... you pick." She tried to smile, but it all came out rather dull.
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