[event] welcome to other ashdown

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Amnesia," she said softly to Shun. "-can resolve itself as suddenly and as inexplicably as it occurs. There's not to say it doesn't feel weird, but everything here has felt weird." Then louder, she called down to the voice.

"What kind of a barrier is it?" If it was just wood or something, they'd find a way.

blade kuroda

ashdown whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

"I can't remember my name! I know other things!" There was certainty to the voice. "It's shiny! The barrier is shiny!"

The room below was about the size of a large living room, the floor wooden and covered in dust. Whatever air circulated in the room was not stale, however, and clearly there was activity there if the footprints left in the dust were anything to go by.

Against one of the walls was an old vending machine that read n** NOPS along the front of it. In smaller text under that it read 'put 'em in your mouth hole!' with far too many exclamation points (and a stray question mark).

Little populated the room aside from the machine, a door that was closed, and, of all things, a small table with what looked like a hamster cage complete with a water bottle and food tray. There were even little plastic tunnels that traveled the outside of it.

show spoilerhide spoiler

PeanutButterpies

KitsuneAura

happy bonsai

Smerdle

Blade Kuroda

The Semblance of Unity

Kolina

AMItotic

Seussi

 

[happy bonsai]

As was decided, Al had been the first to descend. He frowned at the room that was revealed to him by the light of Temperance's phone. It took a bit, but his eyes eventually adjusted to the basement's dimness and he could further explore the room and the tiny details that were littered within it without having to move at the same shuffled pace as the woman.

He frowned at the vending machine, took another long look around the room, then frowned at the vending machine again. n** NOPS. Weird. He walked forward and, without much thought behind the decision, pressed a random button on the machine. He had his wallet on him, but he didn't have any small bills and he suspected whatever snack was inside would be as tasteless as the candy at the concession stand. Still, he wondered what sort of snack would be in this godless hole.

All the while, he kept the door in his peripheral.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The machine whirred to life, light illuminating the room, and a small package labeled n** NOPS dropped out.

Within the package were small cookie shaped edibles that, if Alister decided to eat one, tasted like rather plain fruit loops. They may have also all been various skin tone colors.

No reason why.

None at all.

happy bonsai

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Despite what Temperance and the voice said, the detective still wasn't completely convinced.

In any case, as he said he would do, Shun kept an eye from the back until they reached the room at the bottom of the stairs. Once there, he took a quick look around and immediately took note of the prints on the ground. He went to investigate those first and foremost, before everyone's movement in the room contaminated it.

"Try not to walk around too much," he muttered while he crouched by a set. He tried to see how many different sets there may be, as well as general size and shoe type to hopefully get a feel for who may have left them (if they were even human prints). Also to see where they were headed. Basically, he tried to get as much info as he could from them.

ashdown Whale3r

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The footprints made absolutely no sense. They crossed over one another, faced the wrong direction, and in general looked as if they couldn't have been made normally with something human.

Not with all the odd angles and the ways they were paired together. The sizes of them were not varied, though there were two sets of footprints that were quite larger than the others.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun furrowed his brow as he studied the prints. It was hard to make heads or tails of them. Since he did notice the two sets that were noticeably larger than the rest, he decided to focus on those for the time being. He had a feeling they wouldn't make much more sense than the rest, but maybe he could gain something out of them.

Ashdown whaler

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"So do we just, um, go through the door, same formation?" She was loathe to just walk up and try it alone, despite her need to help the person trapped. Temperance walked over to the cage and tapped along the plastic tunnels idly. She hadn't seen anything moving, but it was weird to think a pet might have been kept down here. Maybe she should get a hamster.

She glanced up in time to see Alister peruse the vending machine. "Uh, I dunno if I'd eat food from that...."

happy bonsai

ashdown whaler

 

[Kolina]

Juniper walked behind Temp as the descended. Her eyes remained fixated where the light piled, and she was thrilled to find that the room was bigger than she anticipated. She still felt claustrophobic, but not to the point that she was going to freak out. Just uncomfortably so.

The prints in the dusty floor were interesting, and Juniper tried to see if maybe she could get an idea of how many different prints that were. As Shun observed them up close, Juniper studied them from standing position, but it didn't help her at all. "These must be from the glowy people the voice mentioned. "

Then get eyes landed on the hamster cage. "Ok. That's weird. " She walked over to it, trying to take care not to mess up other prints on the flute in the process. Carefully she looked into it, tempted to open it to see if there was anything inside.

ashdown whaler

at an amusement park. Hope I got the bold stuff right. Lol

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

They were simply larger than the rest, the footprints that Shun looked at. Perhaps from that taller pair of mannequins from earlier. No one wants to see that pair again but apparently they had been here.

It was food for thought.

The cage was closed and, as soon as Temperance tapped a finger against the plastic, something slid out of the tunnel and into the cage itself. Juniper would see a small adorable chipmunk. His tail was frizzed up because he got startled.

"Hey! You came down here!" A rather deep voice for such a small thing but he sniffed at the air, his tail twitching, as he came up to the cage bars.

show spoilerhide spoiler

PeanutButterpies

KitsuneAura

happy bonsai

Smerdle

Blade Kuroda

The Semblance of Unity

Kolina

AMItotic

Seussi

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Y-You're a talking chipmunk!" Temperance exclaimed. Regardless of its animal status, it was indeed the voice they'd heard previously. Or similar enough to be quite trouble. "Were you... were you who I was talking to before? I, uh, I'm Temperance." This was wholly unexpected.

Glancing around the cage, she tried to find the latch to set it free. She'd promised, after all.

ashdown whaler

 

[Kolina]

Juniper stared at the chipmunk in complete surprise. "Whoa. Whoa, whoa! You can talk?" Then it clicked amongst her surprise. "You're the one we've been talking to! Hold on. Let me help you."

Carefully she attempted to open the cage up so she could lower her hand in to help the little talking chipmunk.

She had to admit. He was pretty damn cute.

ashdown Whaler

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun sighed as he straightened up from staring at the prints. The manneqins may have been down here. He had to keep this in mind. When the voice spoke up again, he glanced over to see that it came from a chipmunk.

Well. His earlier guess that the voice wasn't actually human was right but he didn't quite expect this. The detective didn't trust the furry critter any more though, but the girls were already in the process of breaking it free.

He didn't like this.

"Careful," he warned. Juniper had dismissed his warnings far though so he doubted it would get anywhere. He just had a feeling that they shouldn't be so quick to trust things in this world, even if they were cute and seemingly harmless animals.

Looks could be deceiving.

"There is a chance that creature is what caused all the damage to the theater and manneqins. Small chance, but it is something to consider. "  

[Kolina]

Juniper looked up at Shun. "It's a chipmunk? How could he possibly have caused all the damage upstairs? Plus, I think he's fairly stuck inside the cage, I mean, if he could get out on his own I doubt he'd still be in there. Unless you found proof that it was him?" She raised a brow in question.

Juniper was, like many girls, an animal lover. Anything cute, small, and furry was a bonus in her book at the chipmunk covered all of those categories. Plus, he talked. What more could a girl ask for?

"So, how did you end up down here in this cage?" She questioned as she continued to try to open the cage with Temperence.

Blade Kuroda

Ashdown Whale1r

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun placed a hand to his forehead.

"Yes, and in this world, mannequins can move on their own and turn body parts into plastic. There is nothing to say that a chipmunk cannot grow much larger than what is considered normal. From what it stated earlier, it sounds as though it had been captured. That could have happened after any damage was done. For all we know there could be something about the cage that keeps it in check," he huffed out.

Assuming anything was harmless right off the bat seemed highly dangerous to him.

"It could be an actual ally, but it could easily not be at the same time."

Kolina