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 Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 3:17 pm
In which Tiffan, an excito lost in the labyrinthine hallways of Trisica University, runs into a significantly less lost Caduceus.
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Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 3:45 pm
Tiffan had left Terrowin sitting in his new 'spot' at a relatively busy intersection, playing his music for small tips. The enjoyment of sitting around with him all day and watching the world pass by had dimmed after the third day of doing so though, so she decided that exploring the city would be more beneficial. Terrowin had reluctantly agreed, especially when she pointed out that she'd just go off anyway even if he told her no. Off she went, dodging the various feet and wheels that were in the street, following the general flow of traffic.
And that was how she found herself where she was now, in the seemingly endless hallways of Trisica University. They seemed endless to her, at least, for she had absolutely no idea where she was or how to get out, and had been wandering around aimlessly for the last couple of hours. Granted, she had come across some interesting things, peeking in at some of the lectures and sneaking around cabinets of various specimens and notes. But she could see that the sun was getting rather low in the sky and Terrowin was likely to start worrying his head off if she was gone for much longer. However, all of the exits she had found thus far led to places she had never seen before, and she knew she had even less of a chance of finding her way around a whole city rather than just a single building.
A quick glance around showed nothing very extraordinary, she was in a currently empty hallway that led to some currently empty rooms, and there was little she could climb up to reach the windows to see the view outside. She eventually decided to crawl her way underneath one of the doors at random, in the hope that she could at least get a better idea of where she was.
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:26 am
Caduceus lay, his stomach flush against the wooden seat. His feet kicked the air idly. The cold seeped through his robes, distracting and uncomfortable, but he was far too engrossed in his book to move. A student must have left the book behind; it had been perched precariously on the bench seats in this lecture hall, and it had been so easy to push it just so it fell open just so that he could read it. The book, a rather dry discussion of fencing, was fascinating, although Caduceus wondered at the author that could make such an action-based subject so bland.
Just as he had scribbled a note about the type of sword he would require, a scuffling noise broke his thought. His golden mouth turned down in a frown, but he continued to read. Fencing was a true sport, he thought, ultimately he had been dissatisfied with his forays into the realms of rats and spiders. While Praetor had been a good companion, it now lay buried in a drawer somewhere. Caduceus had moved on. Fencing now, if he could find a partner, was all about sport and competition. The scuffling noise came again and reluctantly, Caduceus stood up, snapping his robes dramatically.
He peered down at the door, just in time to see a tiny servos wiggle her way in. She was cloaked in red with golden trim all around. He snorted. Rude interrupter, shabby, little servos. His voice rang out, haughty and dry, irritation writ in every tone. "Who," he said rather imperiously, "are you? And what are you doing?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 4:27 pm
Tiffan slowly pulled herself the rest of the way under the door and slowly levered herself to her feet with a huff. She gave the room a slow glance, frowning as she tried to find the source of the voice. A small flicker of movement caught her eye though, and she turned to face whoever had spoken. The light filtering in through the window glinted off of his laurels and the gold embroidery of his robes, something that would have been a rather dazzling sight if she had been in a slightly better mood.
Unfortunately, trekking aimlessly around Trisica University for hours did not do much for her disposition, and rather than answering the other Plague automatically she started to brush bits of dust off of her clothes with a bit more vigor than necessary. "I could ask you the same thing," she said crossly, giving her robe one final shake before looking up at him again. "I'm Tiffan," Her attention was pulled away from him once again as she looked around the room, eventually making her way over to a bookshelf. "Who are you?" This time her tone was merely curious, though her attention still seemed to be on the room at large rather than him. The bookcase was given a long look when she got to it, and a moment later she was scaling the shelves in an attempt to reach the window.
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:22 pm
The servos' tone was rude, he decided. They had just met, or rather, she had just bungled in without so much as a warning, yet she was speaking to him in cross tones? Him, of light and laurels! Just because she also possessed a bit of gold trim did not make her better. It was not to be borne. "As you can clearly see, I was reading before you barged in." If he had been possessed of the orbs most people called eyes, he would've rolled them wildly. Instead, he sighed and tilted his head, watching the girl. The common folk were really beyond his understanding. And he had long ago decided his personal hierarchy of plague types. It was , of course, a list with three categories: himself, followed by Claune (he had grown to enjoy the jester, oddly enough), and lastly, every other plague.
"I am Caduceus," he said gravely. With one golden hand, he dog-eared the page he had been reading and began to move towards the little servos. She seemed intent on scaling the bookcase for some unknown reason. Ugh. "Stop that. You will fall, fool." His voice was sharp and commanding. A hurt plague would be far to annoying to deal with. He tapped his foot a few times. then swung down to the ground in a flurry of gold and purple. "What are you even doing?" He would aid her., he decided, if it meant she would leave. But first, he had to figure out what she even wanted.
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:41 pm
"Oh." Tiffan paused mid-reach to glance over her shoulder at the other Plague, which left her dangling precariously on the edge of one of the shelves by one hand and foot. "It's nice to meet you," she sounded somewhat dubious of what she was saying, though, her expression slowly turning sour the more he spoke. His commanding tone of voice grated against her, reminding her too much of her previous life in Anica. With an irritated sniff she turned her back on him and continued to climb.
"I haven't fallen yet, you know." Her words carried the snappish bite they held earlier, though they were rather muffled as she was speaking into the bookcase rather than at Caduceus. And, as if to prove a point to him, she scurried the rest of the way up to the top shelf without another comment. Once she had reached the top shelf she perched precariously on the edge of it to peer down at him. "I'm going to the window," she called down, pointing to said window that was just a quick jump away. "To see where I am."
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Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:28 am
Of course it was nice to meet him. Why would it not be? He hmphed. He was a glorious creation. He watched her climbed curiously. She was deft and tiny, a spot of red against the dull spines of books. Caduceus snapped his robes and climbed to the floor, walking briskly to the foot of the bookcase. "You know," he said from near underneath her, "yet is such a... perilous word. It implies a future of falling."
He stood there, quite prepared to catch her falling body. After all, a dead plague would be inconvenient. Caduceus decided, rather abruptly, that 'inconvenient' was the perfect word for Tiffan. He paused at her next words. "Are you lost or something? If you come down, I can tell you where you are or show you the way to go. It is unsurprised that one such as you has gotten turned about." He folded his arms. Taptaptap went his boot on the stone floor. He suddenly wished someone with a more silver tongue that his was here.
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Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 4:14 pm
She had disappeared from the edge of the bookcase after she had spoken, though her face slowly appeared again to peer down at Cadu. "I might be," she said slowly, pushing herself a bit further over the edge as she stared at him. "Do you know your way around here?" Her voice held a hint of desperation as she asked, a small frown starting to form on her face. There was a gusty sigh from her, and a moment later she flipped herself down from the top of the bookcase and began to scale her way back down to the floor.
It certainly wasn't the most graceful descent in the world, and consisted mainly of dropping from one portion of the shelf to the next, but she reached the ground without any harm. Once safely back on the floor she straightened her cloak and looked up at the other Plague. "And what do you mean by 'one such as you'?" Her arms crossed in front of her defensively, though she tried this time to keep her voice from sounding overly irritated.
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Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 9:33 am
Caduceus watched Tiffan's descent with a critical eye. Her singular lack of grace was... annoying, for lack of a better word. It wasn't an awful bungle, merely undignified. He waited, silently, until she had reached the floor, luckily without incident. She shorter than him, a little white and red servos, like snow or blood, or both. Caduceus shrugged, robes pooling heavily around his feet.
"Oh," he said fairly, sweeping one hand in front of him. "Just that you seemed.... new, for one." His actual thoughts had been much less flattering in tone, but for now, Caduceus was curious. He rather liked new things, new people. He could only hope that she proved actually interesting. Things were not looking up. "I, however, am not as new. If you are in fact lost, which you quite look it, I can help you find where you're going, I suppose. It's likely out of my way, but better than you comically falling to your death and making a mess." Plus, she would owe him if he helped her, and Caduceus kept a strict tally of favors. "Well, do you need help then?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 6:35 pm
"Oh," was all she said at first, her eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion. The slight note of condescension in his voice made her wary about trusting him, and in any other situation she would already have wriggled her way back under the door and be well on her way down the hallway by now, but she was lost, and as much as it stung to admit it, she did need his help.
"New to here, yes," she finally added, looking around the room once again. When she finally looked back at Cadu she frowned. Did she look like she was going to fall to her death? Climbing a bookshelf was no matter to her, she had climbed far worse with equal degrees of success. "Yes," she finally said with a sigh. "I do." The moment she spoke those words she felt a small pang of regret that she had, but it was too late to take it back now.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:00 am
"I figured." Caduceus gestured again expansively. "Luckily for you, I can assist." He gestured again, this time indicating that Tiffan should him. With a dramatic swirl of gold and deep purple robes, he turned and walked toward the back wall. A door stood ajar. Caduceus was hardly going to wriggle under a door like some irritating pest. He pushed it open a little further, the hinges creaking. "This are," he said to Tiffan, "is out of the way, generally speaking. You must be quite lost. Come. Let's walk and talk."
He stepped into the chilly hallway, confident that she would follow. The afternoon sunlight streaked in through arched windows as they walked; his boots scuffing quietly. Suddenly, a door swung inwards and a gaggle of students burst out, talking animatedly. None of them looked down. Caduceus quickly grabbed Tiffan as an unwary boot crashed down near them. He pressed her up against a wall, making them as small a target as possible. Her face was muffled near his chest.
Caduceus' golden eyes narrowed. "New students," he spat. "First years in the oncoming blush of education. Too stupid to look around them." The sounds of feet faded, and he eased his weight off of the other excito. Caduceus hmphed, snapping his robes straight once more. He did not except thanks from the serves, although technically he had just saved her. "Well," he said flatly. "Where were you trying to get back to?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:26 am
There was the slightest of hesitations before Tiffan began to follow, keeping a step or two behind the other excito. "I figured," she mumbled, keeping cautiously around the door frame before stepping out into the hall. She would have said that this hallway looked familiar, but each hall looked exactly the same for the most part. The next comment that she was going to make trailed off into an undignified squeak as she was pulled against the wall and suddenly found herself with a face full of Cadu.
She froze in place, hardly daring to move a muscle as she listened to the sound of feet and saw only a wall of purple and gold in front of her. She remained that way for a moment after he stepped back, staring at him with a small frown before stepping away from the wall. "The main entrance," she said, not thanking him as expected.Granted, she didn't think she needed to, as she felt perfectly able to dodge feet by this point in her life. "It's where I came in and the closest to where I'm staying."
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 3:20 pm
Caduceus would have rolled his eyes if he had been. In the possession of any. He wondered if Dr. Jannisari had an eye collection. It would somehow have been fitting. Instead, he turned to Tiffan. "The east or the west entrance? Why did you wander in anyway?" He began to walk briskly, after all, there was no point in 'going' if one did not go efficiently. Turning quick;lay, he looked back to make sure the servos was following. In his short existence, he had already walked these halls a multitude of times. In the absence of Jannisari, for she left him behind more times than he cared to count, he had wandered.
Suddenly, he darted away, avaricious eyes gleaming. Deftly, he bent and scooped up a glimmering golden coin. Caduceus' face lit up with a pleased smile as he tucked it inside his robes. Without a word, he returned to Tiffan's side. "You know," he said, almost jovially. "You plebeians are all the same. Wandering in and out without thought. I wonder what it's like."
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 5:30 pm
"I don't know! I just wanted to see what was in here!" She had no trouble keeping up with him, having already been used to trying to keep up with the pace of a human with rather long strides. Even still, she kept herself a pace or two back from Caduceus, as she didn't trust him fully and at least wanted the slight head start she would get if she needed to run off. The faint smile she tried to keep on her face disappeared, leaving a small scowl-like frown in its place.
Her frown only grew as she watched him scurry off, taking an unconscious half-step back as he returned. The small red spots on her cheeks glowed faintly at the insult and she crossed her arms, fighting to keep the scowl off of her face. "You plebeians?" she repeated, her tone a dark contrast to Cadu's.
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 12:55 pm
Tiffan's dark tone of voice stopped him in his tracks. He turned more fully towards her, his golden-toes boots scraping gently on the floor. One aurelian brow arched high on his forehead. "Need I procure you a dictionary?" His voice was haughty, and he reached one graceful hand out, fingers tracing the yellow trim on her cloak. Caduceus tugged one one wrinkle straight. "Plebeian," he recited. "A commoner, unrefined, coarse. Not of royal or noble blood. In short, you." In a way, it was refreshing to press this plague's buttons. His own Grimm made him feel small, less than what he was. But Caduceus was a laurel wreath: winner, ruler.
"It's not bad. Just.. not as good. It's not your fault, of course." He shrugged elegantly, and the heavy folds of his robes shrugged with him. Caduceus was the perfect picture of dismissive condescension. Some Plagues were just better than others. Nonetheless, for the moment, he found her amusing and a tiny part of his mind gleefully smiled. "Where are you staying? With others?"
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