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 Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 9:22 pm
Power was down. Why didn't that surprise her? Everything seemed to always go wrong when something big happened - and something big had definitely happened. Clerise...Clarice.....that tear that let them see the sky for the first time in a year. There was a good thing and then there were just sad and bad things.
Then there was work and that was the part that was extremely not fun. Cass, after a few days of sitting in a dark house, had decided to go spelunking - sort of. It was more like an adventure through the empty houses that were out in the town to see if there was anything in them worth digging out while she was out there. With that in mind, Cass had grabbed her survival pack, a flashlight, and headed out with it.
Okay, so the flashlight wasn't 100% necessary, but it made her feel official to have it, somehow. She'd always taken a flashlight with her in the past, so it had made sense to do that now too.
After making sure she was completely prepared, Cass headed out towards the houses that had been (apparently) empty since she and Marcus had moved in to start her venture - this was going to be a long day.
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 10:28 pm
The last few days had been filled with ups and downs...or well, no, that wasn't entirely true. It was probably more accurate to say that the last few days had offered her one happy thing--the return of Reine--which was both prefaced and followed by a number of not-so-happy things. The happy to sad ratio was something like 1:10 so far.
Although she had been spending much of her time with certain people, she found those rare few times that she wandered off alone to be excruciatingly boring. She couldn't use the portals, she couldn't practice her cooking in the kitchen--she couldn't even read at night, what with the power being down and all.
Finally deciding that she had enough of lying around and doing nothing, the young woman decided that it was due time for an adventure, and where better to explore than the emptied town on this very island? For good measure, she packed a small bag with everything that she thought she would need (aka whatever she learned that she needed to explore abandoned houses in horror games, like a rope, a flashlight, and even a thin piece of wire) before making her way out.
Upon reaching the path that would lead her to the town, the first thing that she noticed was that she was not alone. Up ahead, she could spot a vaguely familiar figure walking along the same path. It was...a girl, a very familiar girl. Her name was...
"Hey, Cass!"
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Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 6:13 am
"?"
Cass stopped in her walk to look back behind her at the sound of her name being called. It wasn't a usual voice she heard calling her, so she'd required an extra little bit of processing to take in who it was.
"Eva! Hi!" she waved, pausing in her step to wait for the death hunter to catch up with her, as it appeared they were doing the same direction anyways. "Taking a walk through our less-dark-than-everything-else town today as well?" she asked as she adjusted the pack she wore around her waist to rest her arm on it.
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Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:41 pm
She jogged to catch up to her, lips spread into a wide grin. "Yeah! Or well...honestly, I was bored out of my mind, so I thought it was due time to do some exploring or something." It wasn't as if there was a whole lot of things to do around Deus Ex ordinarily, so the power cut off just made things a hundred times worse.
As she adjusted her bag, she finally noticed the pack that the other girl was wearing around her waist. Tilting her head, Eva stared at it for a moment before her gaze flickered up to Cass's face, her blue eyes abruptly round and hopeful.
"...Are you going on an adventure too?"
It was such a childish question, but not an entirely unexpected one coming from Eva.
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Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 6:45 pm
"Too?"
That meant that Eva herself was going on an adventure. Cass hadn't actually considered what she was doing to be an adventure herself, but putting it in those terms seemed to make it sound that much more fun.
Holding up her flashlight, she clicked it on once, then off again. "Was gonna go search through some of the houses I know haven't had anybody in them for a while to see if I could dig up anything interesting. All's fair at this point and hey, if I can pick the lock to your house you deserve to get it broken into, right?" Cass laughed then quietly hoped Eva didn't suspect her of just breaking-and-entering all of the houses and dorms and everything.
"Haven't gone through a house in a while, so it's pretty close to an adventure!" she grinned. "What kind of adventure did you have planned?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 8:31 pm
Oooh. Ooooooh!
Maybe it was just because a part of her was desperate to drown out and temporarily forget all the bad things that had been happening lately, but Eva seemed even more excitable than usual (which was pretty impressive in and of itself). Upon seeing the flashlight and hearing that Cass had intended on exploring the houses, Eva immediately began to dig through her bag, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth.
After a few seconds passed, she finally whipped out her own flashlight. Beaming, she switched it on and off a couple of times before emitting a little laugh.
"Pretty much the same as you, apparently! Mind a tagalong, maybe?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 8:46 pm
Cass clicked her back at Eva again. It was like they were playing Journey and their flashlight flicking was actually dinging. Ding ding!
"Hey, I might need an extra pair of arms for sure. Never know if they've secretly hidden Pyramid Head in one of these houses and he's now on the loose without the barrier to keep him in." Cass looked around once before leaning into Eva and whispering, "Not that I have ever used the Pillow of Temptation on anybody."
..Oh she might have just shown her inner horror-genre fan a little bit there. Maybe Eva would think she was crazy. Maybe it was stock standard for this island.
"Plus I do get lonely by myself. And y'know, someone needs to be able to dig my body out of the rubble if the houses collapse."
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Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 10:26 pm
When Cass flashed the light at her in response, Eva decided that this was a totally overdue opportunity to hang out.
...Which was only emphasized further when the other young woman agreed to her request and name dropped a certain creature. Lips spreading into a wide grin, Eva grabbed her bag strap and pretended to look nervous, her gaze flicking back and forth. "Oh man, can you imagine? I'm worried that he might have some Bubble Head Nurses around with him too..."
Oh, no. It was clearly way too dangerous for either of them to travel alone.
Looking solemn, Eva lifted a hand and set it over her heart. "I promise I'll dig you out and bring you back to the main building if something like that happens." There was a pause, and then she suddenly frowned, brows furrowing as she dug through her bag again. "Drat it, I forgot to bring a camera. What are we going to do if we run into ghosts?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 11:20 pm
Oh. This was a beautiful friendship right here. Cass grinned. "Well, I should hope we're able to outrun the damn thing at least." She suggested hopefully. "Better stock up on ammo just in case, though."
Not that they were going to use ammo, but it was still worth making the joke. Never the less, Cass motioned with one arm for the pair to continue walking. "Shall we, then? Two pairs of eyes are better than one, anyways."
The little vow made Cass giggle a bit as she mimicked the gesture, putting her hand over her own heart. "And I will dig you out if it's you too and if I have to, I will nurse you back to health." Looking through her own bag, she added, "And maybe we do need to make a stop for a camera, don't we?"
A pause.
"But only if there are butterflies..."
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Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 11:33 pm
Two years. They had had two years to talk to one another but had only really decided to do so now.
There was clearly so much time they had to make up for now.
"Gotta remember to pick up all of those health drinks and first aid kits too!" She added before cheerfully falling into step with Cass, "And yes, let's!" In her head, Chara was sighing rather loudly at her wielder's almost childish excitement, a fact that Eva was used to and cheerfully ignored.
She seemed delighted as the vow was returned, but her expression shifted into a mock grimness. "I'd hate to slow you down though, you know. I mean, having to protect an injured sidekick character..." The young woman sighed, and then hummed thoughtfully at the mention of butterflies.
"True...though I guess even if we went back to grab a camera, it's not like any camera would do..."
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Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 11:58 pm
Nicodemus was facepalming very hard at his hunter's antics. As long as she was enjoying herself he guessed......
"Psht. You're not a sidekick character. The brightside is that at least we're not twins, eh?" Cass elbowed Eva lightly in the side. "And if we find a bed and sleep in it all wounds will magically be healed, yeah?" Video game logic!
How does that even work...
"But in all fairness, I don't own a camera outside of my phone and I'd rather keep that battery alive just in case." Plus her phone was only used for pictures of her husband. Oh, she could have turned into a puddle of happiness if Marcus was ever mentioned. Coo.
"Which means clearly if we need something we'll find it while snooping around!"
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 2:17 am
She couldn't help but giggle, rubbing her side at the gentle nudge as a grin spread over her face. "True! That's definitely super convenient. I'm sure there will be some beds in those old houses." Dusty, broken, dirty beds...but that just added to the horror game ambiance, right?
...Even better if things looked rusted and there was peeling wallpaper!
Although Eva was genuinely tense when it came to dealing with real threats and creepy places, it was a whole different story when they were fabricating things like this...especially when they were going about it in a horror game and movie way. "Hhhm, yeah. I wouldn't want to waste my phone battery either." Her lips tugged into a little frown as she fiddled with the phone in her pocket. Just when were they finally going to get power back?
Ah well, she could worry about that later! There were more important things to attend to now!
"But of course! We'll have to pick up any keys, of course, and metal pipes might come in handy too--oooh!" She suddenly lifted a hand, shielding her eyes from what little light there was to stare at the houses that they were approaching. "Almost there! Which one do you want to check out first?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:31 am
"Keys, pipes, anything that is less dusty than anything else or has more color to it because clearly that's the only thing we can pick up. Let's not forget we can't break down doors for some mysterious reason."
Or jump or climb unless allowed for plot reasons or try to set everything on fire or make wrong choices with puzzle items...........
Unlike Eva, simulated or not, dangerous situations were a lot easier for Cass to handle than they should have been, the only real reason she had that benefit was because she had just adapted to it over years and years of being required to adjust. Perhaps that was the only reason why she'd handled it so well when she'd actually met a Pyramid Head.
Looking at the houses that littered the edges of the town, Cass 'hmm'd thoughtfully. "Well, I'd say we should pick the one with a door that actually opens because clearly the other houses have keys in the other houses for no logical reason, but let's just start with the closest one and I'll pick the locks as needed..."
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 6:48 pm
It was so nice meeting someone who understood her. "Right. And if we happen to find a long hallway, most of them will be rusted shut except for one or two...and the odd locked one that we deem more worthy to open than any of the other locked doors."
Such beautiful logic at play here.
Nodding in agreement with Cass' plan, Eva went diving into her bag once more until she pulled out that little piece of wire she had brought with her. "Just in case, you know? Because sometimes even the littlest thing is the most important." Even if there were more practical ways to achieve a goal that didn't involve running through fifteen rooms to collect items needed to solve one puzzle.
But pffft, practical. That just wasn't as fun.
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Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 7:13 pm
"And that room that was locked will naturally have some horrible awful monster in it that makes us realize that the door was locked for a reason." Cass couldn't help but laugh. Someone else really appreciated her video game humor. Kindred spirit, where have you been.
"But naturally we won't be able to open the door to make a hasty escape again."
Cass nodded at the piece of wire that Eva had. "I actually have a lock pick kit. Got it after Aria taught us how to pick locks." Cass shook her bag and it jingled a little bit. "Try to keep myself all stocked up on goodies which would never be put to use in a video game." Because practical. Clearly.
Walking past the rotting, peeling fence of the first house, Cass took a moment to tap on the door (just in case) before wiggling the rusting handle of the door. It didn't budge, however, until Cass threw her body weight into it, making it splinter open as she fell to the floor with a loud 'OOMPH'.
"I solved the first puzzle!!"
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