revenance_rpg | What's this, what's this?

Nightmares could be counted on to make an appearance most places here. At least this bit of exploration looked like it would be as profitable as Xion's usual round of hunting. After making sure she had everything stowed away, she was free to look in the mansion herself.

So far, nothing seemed too different from other time she'd been there. Unlike Emizel, she wasn't worried about traps as much as Nightmares, but it was good to be cautious. While he stopped Val from escaping, she carefully moved closer to the front of the group. "It doesn't look any different than I remember, but we should still be careful. Do we want to start down here and move upstairs?"

Jack's eyes wandered around the place and he had to resist the urge to immediately fly up to the second floor. Right, the whole point of tagging along was to travel with a group. No fun in exploring by himself, right?

Still, he didn't have quite the same apprehension as Emizel and Xion and started forward, eyes wandering around and crossing over to the nearest of the glass cases to examine it. He wondered why this vase had been left behind. Maybe it was worthless or something. Snowball fluttered overhead but unlike Val or Jack she didn't seem very interested.

"Working our way up makes sense I guess." They might as well explore this ground floor first."

"Sounds good to me," Val had been flailing once Emizel had finally caught him and finally just now was let go after calming down. The bat seemed a bit bummed though, he just wanted to play with the shiny stuff. Maybe after the mansion was secured they could leave with a few little souvenirs.

Checking the bottom floor might've been a better plan anyway. It's closer and it might've been much easier to navigate, what with only one other room so far. Considering he didn't know if they should be looking for anything in particular, it didn't hurt just to take things easy.

Really, it made the most sense to clear the first floor of any potential danger, then move on. Better to do that and be sure of a safe path out of the mansion. Xion herself wouldn't want to take anything from here, but she had her own issues with the mansion. Nothing that would prevent her from exploring it this once, but this would be the only time unless an emergency came up.

Maybe that was why she was a little more businesslike and didn't seem to want to stop and look at things the way the others were. Once the others had cast their votes, so to speak, she went to open the door that wasn't blocked. "Okay. So we'll start back here."

The door didn't give her too much trouble. Once it was open, she stuck her head in the room.

This room is an absolute wreck. The buffet and china cabinets against the wall and the table and chairs in the middle of the room make it obvious that this was once a dining room; however, the cabinet is run down and nearly empty, china is cracked and cutlery is bent, the chairs are broken and scattered about the room, a handful of crayons is scattered across the top of the buffet, and the table is smashed in the middle and lying in pieces in the center of the room. One of the largest intact pieces of table seems to have a small symbol drawn on it in white chalk.

Jack was right behind Xion and quickly passed her into the room. "You know, I'm really starting to wonder what happened in here to cause all this destruction."

He'd seen abandoned houses before and he couldn't think of many that looked like a battle had taken place inside. If he didn't know better he'd attribute most of the broken pieces to that. Jack stepped carefully into the room, careful not to step on any broken glass or china with his bare feet. Spirit or not he could still feel pain.

Jack's eyes drifted over to the table and he noticed the drawing. "What's that?" He jumped over to the table and landed on top of it. Sure it was probably rude to stand on furniture, but it's not like anyone was going to be using the table any time soon. "Any idea what this means?" Jack brushed his fingers over it with a frown. The symbol was foreign to him.

"Maybe the Nightmares did it," it seemed pretty reasonable anyway, considering it had been established by now they had been here first. So they could have torn it up before anyone had even gotten inside... Then again, if Xion really had been here once before, it seemed likely that she would have known a difference too. Comparing to the shape it was in now.

And yes, this place really had seen better days. It must have. Broken glass and china was kind of a pain even with shoes, although it didn't stop Emizel from nudging one of them with his foot anyway.

"... Huh?" his attention moved over to Jack once he heard him find something. Had to practically skip over broken pieces just to see the table too though. And as predicted, he couldn't understand what it was supposed to mean either; although he did spot the crayons. Was that what it was used to draw it?

Welp, Xion was the only expert they had about all this. Maybe she knew what was going on.

"Maybe--it was a mess before, but I don't remember the broken dishes." Which was unsettling, considering how you wouldn't think a world would change that much just because it was sleeping. Then again, the fourth and fifth districts in Traverse Town hadn't been part of what Xion knew of Sora's memories. Maybe this was something similar; different, but not in a bad way.

Whatever the case, there was no way of knowing at the moment. Maybe she could talk to the others about it later. For the moment, she was very glad of her boots; the soles were so thick that the broken glass didn't bother her as she walked over to where Jack and Emizel stood looking at the symbol.

Her brow furrowed when she saw it. The set of three circles, two filled in with drawings and the third empty, was something she'd seen when looking for Namine in the real Twilight Town, but... "I thought this was on the table in the library upstairs." First she gestured towards the drawing of a heart separated into four pieces by jagged lines that filled one circle. "This is the symbol of the Heartless." Next was what looked like a cross set on what looked like an inverted top half of a heart drawn in the second circle. "This is the Nobodies' symbol. I don't know what goes in the last circle."

Maybe it was meant to be empty.

"Well...I guess someone could have moved it? Although why you would go through the trouble of moving a broken table..." Jack mused, tilting his head to further study the drawing. It didn't make any sense from that angle either.

Jack straightened up. It appeared that he was resting on his heels, but that would have been nearly impossible to balance on the table. Jack made it work somehow, his bare toes curling ever so slightly as he listened to Xion explain two of the symbols. "Never heard of Heartless or Nobodies before. Hmm...but if it's a symbol...don't some of the Dream Eaters and Nightmares have a symbol on them? Do you think that might be the third one?"

He leaned forward and placed a hand on the table. Immediately frost began to form along the wood and Jack shaped it into the appropriate symbol.

Nothing in the room changes with the symbol's completion.

"They do have slightly different signs though, so who knows which one it might mean," could have tried drawing the other one, maybe. Though Emizel was kind of thinking this might just be a waste of time. There was still other rooms to check out and who knows what else to find.

"Oh, the table hasn't changed. The one in the library is whole. But the picture was drawn on that one, not this one." Which, like the addition of broken dishes was odd; Xion would have to be on the lookout for any other differences as they looked through other rooms.

Heartless and Nobodies were familiar territory, though.."When a person succumbs to the darkness in their heart, that darkness creates a Heartless that consumes that heart. A Nobody is the shell left behind after a Heartless is formed; if they had a strong heart in life, they'll still look human.

"I haven't seen any here yet, though." She continued. "Maybe they can't come here. Since this is the realm of sleep, maybe the Nightmare symbol would work..."

It was a guess, and Emizel had a point. The two symbols were slightly different. Xion could be patient for another attempt or two more, but with not much to go on for what symbol they needed, after they ran through ideas, it was better to move on. After she took a better look at the frost Jack was making.

Emizel had a point. Although wasn't it mostly a difference between the sharp, pointy symbol and the softer edges of the Dreameaters? Jack didn't have a Nightmare to look at so he couldn't be sure.

He shrugged and stood up, balancing on the table and standing over Emizel and Xion. "Maybe there will be something else in the other rooms to explain it. We're here to explore, right?" He was just as ready to move on as they were. "Well Xion I think we should check this library out next then. Is that upstairs?"

Succumbing to darkness? He never heard of a demon being entirely lost to it, obsessive sure, but still self aware for the most part. Although if it was something that spawned from someone's darkness that sounded all too similar to Fear the Great and the Malice. Was it the same kind of thing? They never had any kind of symbol as far as he knew though.

"I was thinking the same thing," Emizel added on. "And even if the answer isn't anywhere else, at least it would be more time to think about it."

For the finer differences between symbols, they'd need Namine here. She seemed to be the sort to remember that kind of thing, with how much drawing she did. Even then, if it wasn't the right symbol, that wouldn't be much of a help except to rule out the possibility.

Xion couldn't speak much to the differences between humans and demons. Maybe demons were so close to the darkness that they weren't as affected by it. Chances were good that was the case, if they had names like Fear and Malice.

"Yeah, the library's upstairs." She nodded in agreement with their suggestions before leading the way back into the hall.

Jack followed the other two out of the room, floating a bit before landing once he was past all of the broken dinner ware. Even with his light weight the floorboards seemed to creak when he stepped on some of them. No wonder Roxas had said the house was haunted though, if Jack wasn't a spirit himself the place might even give him the creeps...though it wasn't likely.

"So, Xion, right or left to the library?"

Emizel didn't exactly think about waiting up. Not that he still wasn't keeping his guard up, but it still was only stairs. At least he could get a better look see what was on the next floor before Xion said which way to go.

The first step did make him slightly nervous though, the fact it creaked and bent under his weight anyway. Val had it easiest since he could just fly up, but it wasn't until Moxie attempted the steps that the demon noticed something wrong. Or rather, something seemingly off. At least the suspicion was confirmed pretty quickly when a couple of Jestabockys emerged from the stairs. "... Uh oh."

He quickly shot one of them with ice, freezing it in place momentarily. Effective enough, though Emizel had to be a little extra careful with what elements he was using or else he might accidentally burn the whole building down.

The mansion was creepy, no way around it. Xion wasn't particularly heavy, but, like Jack, her every footstep seemed to make the floorboards creak, aside from sounding particularly loud thanks to the building being so quiet. Was anyone else here?

"It's to the right," she called back to Jack as she hurried to catch up to Emizel on the stairs. She was just in time to help him with the Jestabockys. After quickly casting Blizzard on another to freeze it for the moment, she went after the remaining one with her Keyblade.

Jack was about to fly up to the next landing when he heard the weird cries of the Nightmares attacking. It was just a pair of Jestabockys and even before Jack could follow them up they were dispatched by Xion and Emizel. Jack alighted on the stair's railing, "Are you two--"

And was immediately tackled by a Nightmare Meme Bunny and went falling backwards. A few stairs above Xion and Emizel a few more bunnies popped out of the stairs with little angry chirps, clearly trying to block their way.

Jack, meanwhile, grabbed the rabbit by the ears and flung it off. He twirled his staff around to shoot ice at it but instead his own Me Me Bunny, March, came running down the length of the staff and launching herself at the other rabbit with a ferocious display of bunny fu. The nightmare bunny burst into dream pieces and March dropped down amid the other bunnies. Her ears twirled as she went on with her attack. Jack, by this point, managed to recover from his surprise and swept forward to help as well, freezing several of the bunnies with blasts of ice and then knocking them off the stairs with his staff.

Once they were out of the way, March leaped back onto Jack's shoulder and hung their like a strange backpack. She nuzzled him once, seemingly not bothered by his cold.

That actually had been rather impressive, the way the remaining Nightmares were destroyed. It kind of made Emizel consider after they finished exploring that maybe he sure consider some new Spirits, although he still was concerned about having too many. "Good work.."

Once Emizel made it to the top he glanced around to be sure no more Nightmares were going to pop up, and paused. "To the right, you said?" because if so, he carefully wandered in that direction.

At the appearance of the Me Me Bunnies, Xion had her Keyblade held at the ready, prepared to fend them off. Jack fended them off before she could even try to attack one or do anything else to back him up, however, leaving her blinking in surprise for a moment. Then, she relaxed her stance and smiled. "Yeah, thanks."

Even that moment's delay had given Emizel a head start to the top of the stairs. She hurried to catch up. "Yeah, it's the door on the right."

Jack couldn't help himself and scratched at March's ear. The bunny might be a pain sometimes but darn if she couldn't kick some serious butt. Jack hovered for a moment before following Xion and Emizel towards the door on the right.

"Well, let's see what's behind door number 2."

This is a wide open room, distinguishable as a library only by the bookshelves that line the walls, filled to the brim with books and, in one corner, a golden vase. In the center of the room, there is a small, rectangular table with a strange symbol drawn on its surface in chalk. The symbol looks to be incomplete, however.

Nothing too out of the ordinary here, though.. wait a second. Emizel hurried to the table as soon as he saw something white on top of it.

"Another one?" Good thing this room wasn't as trashed up, making the table much more accessible than the last one. Although, he sort of look disappointed once he leaned down noticed that it wasn't complete. "... It doesn't look finished."

He straightened up again and surveyed the rest of the room. There must be chalk in here too, if they could find that it could be an easy fix.

The room really didn't look much different, though the vase was something new. It was nice to see it wasn't a mess.

'It wasn't when I saw it here, either, but this is the same place I saw it in the Twilight Town that was awake." Xion followed Emizel to the table to have a look. If it was here, too, why was it on the table downstairs?

Following Emizel's gaze, she guessed what he might be looking for. "I don't remember there being anything to draw with in here, but we can look."

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Trying to keep things moving here, hope that's okay?

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think we'll need a mod again shortly? also nightmares on the stairs right?

Up the stairs we go~ o7

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Probably gonna need a mod again

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