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 Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 10:01 pm
who | Solo, Raz, Vesna, and Lorenzo.
when | Late afternoon.
where | A new Escape Room in Durem called Close Encounters.
weather | Hot, sunny, and humid.
__________________
Lorenzo wiped the sweat off his brow as he stepped into Durem's newest attraction, Close Encounters. The temperature outside was well in the nineties, and so his tradtional cloak had been replated with a light summer model, and his dress shirt with a short-sleeved look, but the heavy black trousers and many layers involved even in warm-weather necromancer outfits were punishing in the heat. He looked enviously at Vesna, floating freely in a cute loose-fitting t-shirt. He didn't necessarily want to wear a pink scoop-neck tee covered in Japanese mascot characters, but it probably felt better than a dress shirt right now.
"Cheer up," said Vesna teasingly as he caught his breath. "At least the room we're escaping from is air conditioned."
The escape room had been her idea. She had seen a commercial for it on television one day while he was meeting with clients, and had nagged him to go ever since. He hadn't thought much of it, but then recently he had remembered that he had met a Lab guardian he wanted to introduce Vesna to while he was buying her ukelele. He and Raz hadn't made proper plans to coordinate when they first met, but he invited her the last time he went to the shop to pick up a new lesson book for Vesna, and things had solidified over text after that.
She floated around curiously as he wheezingly checked his phone again. "Do you see them yet?"
He looked up. "Not yet. Raz is very... recognizable. She has pink hair." Not that it was that unusual on Gaia, but even in a country where pink and blue hair were natural colours, they still stood out in a crowd. Still, he supposed that as a necromancer, he should be the last one making comments about people sticking out in a crowd.
"Like an anime character?" Vesna seized upon. "What does her raevan look like?"
"I don't know," Lorenzo admitted. "But I think he's a boy...?"
Vesna mimicked checking things off a list on her palm. "Anime lady and a mysterious boy. Gotcha."
"How about I just text them?" Lorenzo asked, finally rallying as the A/C revived him.
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 11:52 am
“The hell’s an escape room anyways?” Solo asked as Raz drove to their destination, squinting at the road before them despite being given a helmet to wear for protection. The guardian let out a hum as she kept her attention on the ground, and signaled to turn left at the establishment known as Close Encounters. To say that she had an answer for her Raevan’s question would be lying, but they were going to find out soon wouldn’t they.
Parking the car in an empty spot, Solo was immediately off the bike and removed the helmet. It was warmer than he had thought, but Raz seemed perfectly fine. Perhaps it was because she was just used to it…
It barely took a minute for the two to make sure everything was in order, and that Raz’s precious bike wasn’t going to be stolen before they stepped into the building. Immediately the guardian kept her eyes out for Lorenzo. He had been the one to organize this meet up, and Raz was definitely more than excited when he proposed the idea. Solo would get to meet more people, and she got to see all the different Raevans that were the same as her baby boy.
Not to mention she wanted to meet Vesna properly.
The girl sounded adorable, and not to mention she might have brought a little bag with her that had a couple of books on playing the ukulele.
“Is that them?” Solo’s voice broke through her train of thought as he pointed at the direction of the two. Raz nodded with a bright smile before leading the both of them toward the other guardian and Raevan, “Lorenzo! Hey! And I trust this is Vesna! Nice to meet you there, darling. And here, a little something from me.”
She held out the bag to the two while Solo nodded in greeting. While Raz seems to be just excited in general for meeting people, Solo was a little different. He floated up closer to inspect the other Raevan before making a small sound of acknowledgment.
“Nice hair. The flowers look cute on you.” He paused, “So do you know what an escape room is? Because I have absolutely no idea what it is.”
He felt Raz’s eyes on him as he shrugged in response, “What? I’ve been asking since we left! I’m curious!”
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2016 9:53 pm
"Ah, Raz!" Lorenzo said, putting his phone away. "Good of you to make it."
Vesna looked Raz up and down, and when Lorenzo cleared his throat, she stuck out her gloved hand mechanically, and said, "Hi, I'm Vesna!" She wasn't quite sure what to make of Raz- She'd never met an adult that Lorenzo called by a nickname, although Raz certainly didn't look much like someone who you'd call "Miss". She didn't look like the pink haired girl Vesna was expecting based on shoujo manga, either. It wasn't bad, it was just different. Vesna had never seen a guardian that looked, well, cool before.
As the bag was thrust towards her, Vesna snapped back into the moment. "Oh... Oh! Thank you so much!" She took it eagerly and looked inside, her ukelele was still new enough that the prospect of practice books was exciting. "Wow, this is so nice!" she gushed. "You helped Dad pick out my ukelele, right? Do you play music, too?"
The practice books were nice, but Vesna was still not constitutionally inclined to practice things, so her attention drifted over to Solo. Unlike Solo, Vesna decided they were friends immediately. While Raz was a fairly mysterious adult, Solo was a fairly mysterious looking Raevan as well. She was pleased to note that his skin was a strange color like hers, or at least like how she perceived hers to be. His skin didn't look undead, but he was the first Raevan she'd met who didn't have totally human looking skin.
She noticed him inspecting her in return, and self consciously grabbed at her t-shirt sleeve, pulling it over her arms a little. When he gave her a compliment, she relaxed.
"Thanks!" she said hesitantly. "I like your cool hair."
When he turned the topic to escape rooms, all her nervousness seemed to fly away. Her face lit up and she said, "An escape room is like a game where you're stuck in a super dangerous situation like in a spy movie or something, except it's all just pretend and you have to get out of it with, like, puzzles and teamwork and drama." She pointed at a board near the receptionist which listed the different types of rooms they offered. "They have a spy room and an alien abduction room and a sunken ship room and a haunted crypt room so far!"
"The haunted crypt room is off limits," Lorenzo insisted.
"Awwww, but you'd be so good at it!" protested Vesna.
Lorenzo flashed Solo an apologetic smile. "It's nice to meet you, Solo. I'm Lorenzo, Vesna's guardian. I'm a licensed necromancer, which is why Vesna seems to think I'd have experience with haunted crypts, but actually I only deal with the corporeal undead." He turned to Vesna. "Anyway, that haunted crypt was made by living people."
"So you can critique it for accuracy!" Vesna argued. This seemed to sway Lorenzo slightly. If Vesna knew her dad, she knew he Loved To Complain.
"What do you want to do, Raz, Solo?" deflected Lorenzo, determined not to be beaten so easily. "We already chose the venue, after all."
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 4:07 pm
Raz took Vesna’s hand with a grin before pulling the girl into a brief hug. There might be a moment of sparkly eyes directed towards Lorenzo as she mouthed the words, “SHE’S SO CUTE HOLY s**t!” before returning to her usual and let go of the Frei in her arms. “Oh yeah! Just glad I could help! And I play the guitar, both electric and acoustic.”
When Solo took the attention of Vesna, Raz headed over towards Lorenzo. Allow the children to acquaint themselves, though she kept an eye on the two. “She’s a darling, Lorenzo. Makes me want to spoil her some more.”
Solo, on the other hand, was feeling very much at home. He had excepted to feel at least a little awkward, but Vesna felt familiar. Maybe it was because they’re both Raevans, but Solo was completely fine with the Frei. Actually, more so then that! She complimented his hair!
“Thanks! Gotta look my best if I’m going to meet up with people are nice as you and your guardian.” he thanked before watching Vesna come to life as she explained what an escape room was. Solo looked deer in the headlights for a moment, before making a small noise of acknowledgement. A game to escape from a room? That seems like a weird thing to make into a game. However, he could only assume it’s thrilling in that it makes one feel like an escape artist. He listened to other list of the varieties they had to offer, though Lorenzo’s insistence to avoid the crypt room had him raising a brow.
On the other hand, Raz shuffled a giggle before patting Lorenzo on the shoulder. “She’s not wrong. You would be really good at it…though perhaps we shouldn’t since that would make us feel like cheaters no?”
Solo stared at his guardian for a moment before blinking a little at Lorenzo’s introduction. He nodded at the male guardian before holding his hand out in response, “Like wise. Though, what’s the difference between a corporeal undead and one that’s not? Is it like ghosts and zombie differences?”
He stopped for a moment.
“Also I vote for Sunken Ship. Was thinking of Alien Abduction, but I doubt they’d put in actual slime."
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Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 6:54 pm
Vesna squeaked as Raz pulled her into a hug, looking excitedly at Lorenzo and mouthing "MY FIRST HUG!!!!" Lorenzo grinned helplessly at both of them, glad that he himself had avoided a hug.
"Well, thank you for spoiling her so productively," Lorenzo said with a chuckle as Raz peeled away to join him. "That lesson book might encourage her to buckle down and practice." So far, at least, the ukelele practice had been attended to more diligently than the Russian tutoring, though it was still early days yet. Lorenzo held some faint hope that Vesna would stay interested in it after it stopped being new, and the more people she met who were musical, the more, he hoped, she would feel incentivized.
Vesna grinned. "Nah, you don't have to dress up for us. And don't think Lorenzo's dressed up. He looks that weird all the time." She wrinkled her nose at the short-sleeved summer-model necromancer cape and added, "Well, more or less."
Lorenzo laughed uncomfortably at Raz's joke and turned to Solo. "Well, you're right," he said, "But we in the necromancy field tend not to use the, uh, Z-word. The undead are people too, after all! Necromancers can raise the kind of mindless undead you see in movies, but an ethical necromancer never would."
"Anyway!" Vesna interrupted. "All that stuff is kind of boring. Dad's never gonna raise an undead army so we might as well choose a room, right?" She pointed towards the Sunken Ship room. "I'll be good at that one because I'm a water nymph." She glanced pointedly back at Lorenzo, trying to n** the undead talk in the bud. The last thing she wanted was to let people who called her nice and said she looked cute know that her soul was exactly the kind of undead monster that was in the movies that used the Z-word.
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 12:01 pm
“It’s the least I can do.” She laughed as she watched the Raevans interact, “It’s hard to get the kids to settle until they see a reason to. Or you force them but then they would always have that salty taste in their mouth regarding it. Better off trying to perk their interest then force it.” Personal experiences aside, she would know this with how some students play specific songs much better than others she had asked for them to practice. But what can you do, children have their own priorities.
Solo, on the other hand, grinned right back at Vesna’s response. He felt Lorenzo’s cape was pretty cool, though wasn’t it hot under that? Then again, this was coming from him…the Raevan who wore his jacket in the summer sun, and Raz pointed out he was literally radiating heat like an overheating car engine. “Nah, I think I need to. Got to make sure I match up to you in some way.” He responded with a teasing wink, though that look quickly became a startled one as Z—Undeads didn’t like being called that?
Not to mention, apparently it’s unethical...
“Raz always told me the movies like to simplify or lie about things, but this just sounds like disrespect now.” He huffed slightly, still a little hung on the new topic as it was a new thing to learn. Though, despite the fact he wanted to ask more, he could see Raz was helping Vesna with urging them to pick a room. The look on her face told him to bring it up later instead. He had to fight back the urge to pout as he felt like he was learning something interesting, and questions just kept popping into his head. It’s not every day you meet a necromancer who would tell you about the undead.
“As interesting as the undeads are, I think Vesna’s right in that we should probably pick a room before we end up forgetting why we were here in the first place.” She joked as she headed over to gently urge the children (mainly Solo), to make a decision. Raz did throw Lorenzo a glance as if saying “kids” before turning back to say it once more, “So you guys ready to pick something?”
“I think we’re good with Sunken ship, right?”
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 3:07 pm
"It's a complicated history," Lorenzo said, latching onto Solo's show of interest. "Certainly, necromancers shoulder some of the blame, but the sad thing is that the undead themselves are mostly blamele--"
"Sunken ship sounds great!" Vesna interrupted.
"--And I can tell you about it later if you're interested," Lorenzo relented, "Or we'll never even get into the escape room, let alone escape from it." He smiled weakly and went over to the desk, coming back with the assistant in tow.
"Four for the sunken ship?" she asked. "This way, please."
She led them to a room and explained to them,
"You'll have one hour to find the four keys necessary to escape the room. The story is that you're passengers on a sinking ship, and the longer you take, the more the room will fill with water-- after an hour, it should be up to your waists. Please leave all electronic devices and personal items at the front desk for safekeeping and if for some reason you need to stop before your allotted time is up, press the button on the inside wall here." She gestured to a red button at eye level. "You also have three hint questions you can ask by speaking into the tube near the ship's wheel."
Vesna was practically bouncing with excitement and happily handed her bag over to the assistant. Lorenzo fished his bag out at well, and folded his cape neatly on top of it, rubbing his arms uncomfortably.
"Are you ready to begin?" the assistant asked.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 1:45 pm
Vesna’s sudden interruption alerted Solo, and his attention regarding the matter of the undead was halted for the moment. A look of ‘I’ll hold you to that’ was sent at Lorenzo before the Raevan grinned at the final decision and slapped his hands together in excited glee. It was his first time at an escape room, and he really couldn’t help but jump into the game at hand. Raz looked just as excited though a lot calmer if only because she was trying to be an adult. The pink haired woman only laughed at Lorenzo’s comment regarding never going into the escape room and hooked an arm around his shoulders.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine, hun. We might be faced with frustrated screaming though.” Whether that’s Raz’s promise of her own personal frustration or Solo’s, that’s up for debate. However, she only grin before letting go of the other guardian and threw the assistant with a thumbs-up when she double-checked their request. “This is going to be good.”
The instructions to how the escape was straight forward. However, Solo’s eyes were already darting left and right to check the place out. And while he might not have legs, the Raevan was minutely bouncing in place, much like Vesna was, as he rubbed his hands together in thought. Raz, on the other hand, was taking the instructions in mind and looking for the button and the now dubbed ‘hint tube’ just in case. Once she was certain she had the important bits memorized, she threw the assistant another thumbs up and a grin. The only thing she had to put away was her jacket, and the things within the pockets of said jacket (including her phone). However, she did see Lorenzo rubbing his arms uncomfortably, and went to see if everything was okay as subtly as possible. She didn’t want to rain on the children’s parade if possible.
“You alright there, Lorenzo?”
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 7:59 pm
"I'm all right!" Lorenzo said brightly, putting on a smile that was at least a bit more enthusiastic than he was feeling. "Necromancers just tend to get a little jumpy in these kinds of situations. Generations of bad experiences with angry mobs and etcetera." He cleared his throat, conscientiously adding, "Though times have changed, and now there's a very strict licensing system and social outreach programs."
Vesna waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah, necromancer stuff," she said dismissively. "Let's get out of this sunken ship!" She grinned at Solo and began to examine their surroundings with him. "I bet that there's a clue in one of the treasure chests," she said. "Or, like, in the bony hands of a pirate skeleton!" Gallantly, she offered, "If you're afraid of skeletons, I'll look, because I see them all the time."
"I don't have a whole skeleton lying around," Lorenzo protested.
"Skulls, skeletons, same difference," Vesna said flippantly.
"Yes, that sounds like the kind of precise investigative attitude that'll get us out of this ship," Lorenzo joked drily in retort. He rejoined Raz, who was looking at the hint tube. "Should we ask for a hint already?" he wondered. "We might as well look around a bit first."
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 3:23 pm
“If you’re sure.” Raz responded with a small huff of concern, though she might had slapped a hand on Lorenzo’s shoulder in attempted to comfort. “Well, just know if anyone tries to start s**t I’ll kick their a**.” Definitely not a great adult example, but she’d be lying if she said she was one. A chuckle escaped her when she saw Vesna getting excited over the escape room while Solo attempted to follow suit, and immediately he beeline for the skeleton. And while she suggested the possibility of a clue in the skeleton’s hand…
Solo might have other thoughts in mind.
“Well, her excitement definitely covers up for the precision.” Raz joked in just, “I think we’re still good for now. I was just making sure I knew where it wa—“ her words were cut short as she caught sight of what Solo was doing from the corner of her eye, and immediately she turned around. “Solo!“
The Akhlut Raevan stared at his guardian like a deer in headlights as the skeleton was hoisted over his head. He had originally had a face of I-TOTALLY-AM-DOING-THIS but it had become more of a UM-THIS-IS-NOT-WHAT-YOU-THINK, and Raz could’ve sworn he was sweating bullets. The two stared at each other for a short moment before Solo slowly and gently placed the skeleton back on the ground. Solo threw Raz a nervous smile as he was caught red handed, but he immediately bounced back as he caught sight of the chest. “I-I’m going to go look through the treasure chests. Maybe Vesna’s on to something…? N-not like I’m going to throw them into a wall. Ahahaha…” The monochrome Raevan slowly moved away from Raz’s accusing stare, and by the time he was working on what he’s said, Raz just sighed and gave Lorenzo an apologetic look.
“Sorry about that. Solo’s…a little excited.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2017 2:59 pm
"Thank you?" Lorenzo said hesitantly.
"Yeah," said Vesna, following Raz's example. "I'll help! I'll have to wait until I can kick stuff, though."
"Don't kick anything," Lorenzo implored, and, trying to divert Vesna's attention, he began to examine some of the items in the room for a clue to set her on.
He heard Raz call out, and turned to see Solo lifting the decor. "N-no worries. I can't believe they let you pick that up in the first place..." he observed, but as he said it, his eyes trailed to the wall behind where the skeleton had been resting.
"Look," he said, gesturing over to Raz as the raevans got to work on the treasure chests, "There's a symbol scratched into the wood here."
Vesna was suitably distracted by Solo coming to help her with the treasure chest. "I tried to open it, but it looks like we need a key or something," she huffed. "I saw them open locks with bobby pins on TV, but I don't really have any of that stuff, because of the flowers growing in my hair..." She scratched her head. "But I think there's definitely something in here, I mean, why else would it be locked??" She glanced surreptitiously at their parents and leaned in close to Solo, asking, "Maybe you could throw it at the wall...?"
"No throwing things at the wall!" reprimanded Lorenzo, who was not sufficiently embroiled in the mystery of the hidden symbol to ignore his charge's machinations.
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2017 7:50 pm
Raz was squinting very hard at Solo, but eventually let it up as she placed her attention elsewhere; Solo’s relief of not being squinted at could be seen with the slope of his shoulders. Perhaps he should’ve thought that through, but what if there was something in the skeleton? Well, it seemed like there was as there was a symbol scratched into the surface behind the decoration. However, that was not what Solo was strictly now focused on. Instead, he furrowed his brows at the chest in his grasp.
On the other hand, Raz was thankful that neither of the raevans had feet at the moment. If they did, the guardian was a little concerned for the destruction of property they might see…Hopefully that doesn’t happen in the future. “I’m surprised too…Let’s just hope there are no wires actually keeping it in place that Solo might have broken.” She tried to joke, but the notion obviously bothered her as property damage was never fun. There was a brief pause with Raz before she squinted at the symbol Lorenzo spotted, and moved closer to take a better look. “…A triangle? Or an arrow?”
“I don’t have any bobby pins, Vesna.” Solo replied while shaking the box not-so-very-gently. He was tempted to take the other raevan’s suggestion at throwing it, but well…Lorenzo heard and obviously he shared Raz’s sentiments in regards to how they handle the stuff in the room. “And, you heard the warnings. No throwing…” Solo commented with an oddly professional expression…but that quickly dissolved into a sarcastic grin as he silently muttered, “Despite how tempting that sounded.”
He gave Raz an innocent face when she turned to check up on the two, before shaking the chest some more. “What do you think is even in this? It sounds like…parts. Was there something near the chest to provide a hint?”
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Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 8:37 pm
Lorenzo winced. "I'm sure that if any... issues emerge, we can deal with them," he assured uncertainly. Vesna was fairly impulsive, but she wasn't strong as Solo. He wasn't used to having to deal with the possibility of property damage, and he briefly considered that he should be more grateful for how Vesna had emerged after all.
"Arrow..." One part of living with Vesna was finding her, and her favorite hiding place was up near the ceiling. His eyes automatically trailed upwards, and he stroked his chin, squinting. "Do you think there could be something in the beams up there?" he asked. "It'd be difficult to check if Vesna and Solo weren't here, but it ought to be simple enough for them."
"Even if you did, I don't know how to use them to open a lock, really," Vesna pouted, waving the thought aside. "Breaking it would be easiest, but Dad doesn't let me do anything the easy way. I guess doing things the easy way would beat the point of escaping, though..."
She considered Solo's suggestion and floated around the chest but didn't find anything particularly noteworthy. "Maybe the key's hidden somewhere less obvious," she sighed, "Or maybe there's a lock pick or something around here?" She floated over to Raz and asked, "Do you know how to pick a lock??" Unlike Lorenzo, Raz seemed pretty cool. She had already promised to kick peoples' butts, so she probably knew other cool, productive ways to escape rooms and deliver justice.
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Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 1:07 pm
“Yeah, we could. Probably safer than me trying to climb up there.” She laughed with a slight scratch of her head. And while Raz seem perfectly content with either method, Solo just blinked at Vesna before shrugging.
“That makes the two of us. Raz, ironically, owns these weird puzzle games…but we’re both so bad at them I have to wonder why it’s not returned yet. Like, the puzzle says to open it but why can’t we just smash the lock? That’d still open the chest right? Why can’t we just do that in a video game?” Solo grumbled as he tried to finagle with the lock once more before promptly giving up. “Honestly, I prefer fighting games and such. They’re more fun…Like movies!”
The monochrome Raevan watched the other float towards his guardian with a small sigh at the annoyance that was the chest in his grasp, but raised a brow at the pink haired woman’s suddenly freeze. Caught red handed? About what though?
Raz sweated a little as she tried to figure out if she should answer honestly or not. On one hand, it’s bad to lie; on the other, it was also not such a good idea to teach children how to pick locks when you don’t know what type of trouble they could get into. Skills of her not so good deeds will haunt her for the rest of her life wouldn’t they she mentally joked before holding up both hands in surrender, “Well, I could…but that would ruin the game wouldn’t it?” Perhaps that answer would be satisfactory? Hopefully? “Ah, that’s right, Vesna? Would you be a dear and help us check if there’s anything in the beams up there?”
At this point in time, Solo had floated over as well and was staring at the location Raz was indicating. He squinted before promptly asking, “Can I break it?” and Raz responding just as promptly with a, “No.”
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