Oh no. If he thought that specific group of military trolls were annoying before, he now knew that they were all out of their minds. Pretending to be rebels looking like that? Really either they thought Awassi was stupid or they really had a bad concept of what rebels were. He... didn't dress like that, no one did. But he surely wasn't correcting them. He just needed to keep an eye out and try to stop them from getting anything useful out of this without earning himself another trip to the van.
Pfft, he'd looove to stay alone at the hell house but, he wasn't following orders or helping any of them to be honest. Instead, Cynril took a deep breath and followed the others to the revealed chamber. Hopefully the ghost wouldn't recognize him.
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:00 pm
Inside the little chamber is a small music box. It's the closest troll handicrafts get to 'delicate', with more attention to detail put into the metalwork than is usually seen in the machine-manufactured goods that make up ninety percent of modern household goods. In the center, a small troll spins slowly on the spot, one hand upraised in the air, the other held tenderly to their chest. Stamped in an elaborate font on the front are the worlds THE ENCHANTER. Turning the box over reveals another stamp, bearing the name of a troll, presumably the creator, and accompanying timestamp of the date of production, which predates the current empress's reign by a good forty or fifty sweeps. There is a hole in the front for a key, presumably to wind it up, but no key can be found inside the hidden cupboard, and the lid is stuck and refuses to close.
Underneath the music box lies a small stack of aged papers, so dry and delicate that they need to be unfolded with care, otherwise they will fall apart. Tying them together is a threadbare green ribbon.
Paper 1
this paper has been torn up then carefully taped back together, and has writing in two blood colours on two different sides. front side: I've done it. Cut my ties with the lot of them, just like you hoped I would. From now on, I'll be with you. Wherever that is. I think you will regret it though, I'll only drag you down. You're a genius, you know that? You could captain a ship, or lead an army. If you respond with a pet name, I will scream and tear the letter to pieces. But you needn't be afraid of me getting in over my head anymore. <3 E back side: Turn me over! Are you reading this? Excellent. Bit short on paper at the moment, everything's being snapped up by some sort of burrowing creatures that are nesting in the walls. We're supposed to get fumigated soon, but until then anything tearable lying around ends up in shreds. Anyway, my curly haired nuzzlefluffer, I'm counting the days until you arrive. Don't talk that way about yourself, you'll see there's a place for you here, where you'll blossom. <3 P
Paper 2
the words on this letter are smudged, as though water had been dropped on the page. So you've decided being a greenblood is enough for you, is that it? As long as there's rustbloods to talk down to, you can overlook what those above you are doing. It figures you would give up and run on home to your lusus as soon as you realized that you might have to bleed a little for the cause. Shame, at one point I thought for a moment you had something inside that gaping hole you call a think pan. Have a good life. I'm sure it will be comfortable, irrelevant, and short.
Paper 3
A photo, faded to the point of being black and white, shows an unknown troll and ... Erilyn? They look sweeps younger, and rather than being elegant with a rich mane of hair, they look gawky, nervous, and with an uncontrollable frizzy mop that obscures most of their face. Both are in military outfits, and are standing cheek to cheek.
Paper 4
this letter has handwriting familiar to the aggressive goodbye. Oh, now you want to reach out again? After seeing what happened to them? Are you scared people will see it on your face, and realize what you were? It doesn't matter what nice little position you've got now, you know that they'd treat you just the same as the lot of us. Besides, what's the point of 'helping' when everything you have is mooched off that highblood friend of yours. Get back to me once you have something real to offer, not just nice words.
Paper 5
this letter is machine typed, with only a few details filled in by hand. YOU ARE RECEIVING THIS NOTICE DUE TO YOUR NAME BEING LISTED ON Vivald, Pietaa'S EXPIRATION CONTACT LIST. IF YOU WISH TO NOT RECEIVE ANY MORE MESSAGES OF THIS TYPE IN THE FUTURE, PLEASE MAIL US A NOTICE, INCLUDING YOUR FULL NAME AND ADDRESS, AT THE BUREAU OF POST-MORTEM COMMUNICATIONS.
ON THE n/a OF n/a, WE REJOICE TO INFORM YOU THAT Vivald, Pietaa BROUGHT GLORY AND HONOUR TO THE EMPRESS AND ALTERNIA IN n/a THAT BOTH STRENGTHENED AND PUSHED FORWARDS OUR EVER EXPANDING BOUNDARIES. REGRETTABLY, Vivald, Pietaa WAS CULLED VIA n/a DURING THE COURSE OF her MISSION. HAVE A GOOD NIGHT, AND sorry.
Quote:
If a troll attempts to force the music box shut, or when all the papers have been read, or when a troll tries to exit the room, give me a quote.
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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:43 pm
"Oh, this is..." Lorata reached in to carefully pick up the music box, watching the little troll in the middle spin a moment in quiet wonder. She turned to hand it off to the next nearest troll after a moment. "Put it with the other items, but be careful with it." As soon as it left her hands, she turned her attention back fully to the papers that had been beneath it, content that her orders would be followed.
It was even more important to be careful with these, as there was a very real chance they could crumple into nothing. She considered the first one, frowning, then shuffled to the next. The further she went, the more sad a picture they painted. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. With a little sigh, she turned away from the compartment and knelt to spread the papers out for everyone to see.
"And do not tear these." It shouldn't need saying that this was important evidence, but honestly who knew with some trolls.
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:51 pm
Wow. What it would be like to know how to read properly. It probably felt good. Cynril was starting to read a little more night by night, but even if he could read off texts, it was still hard for him to understand their meaning. Cynril really wasn't expecting to hold the box... He was sure not to drop it. The mutant stared at it for a moment before wondering if the troll spinning was supposed to be Awassi. "O-okay..." He said to the seadweller.
The teen tried looking at the picture with the box in hand. Awassi sure looked different when they were younger.
The source of the music - a musicbox, kind of predictable, but interesting - was removed from the cabinet. The hemoanon teen took it from the seadweller, and Acteon looked over at it. It was fancy, like something their dad would get them as a present. Actually, they kind of hoped their lusus would get them something like that, though it looked ancient, likely whoever made it long dead or something.
Carefully, they looked through some of the letters, passing them to other trolls when they finished. Love letters, break up letters, and then finally, a notice of the culling of Erilyn's matesprit. The other letter must have been from the kismesis, the one who was a rebel. Erilyn was going to go straight, it seemed, cutting off all ties to the criminal rebels. But with the death of their matesprit... did they go crawling back to their kismesis?
Adult relationships were strange.
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 9:03 pm
Hemera had wondered, for a long, long time, why Erilyn had fallen off the path and committed such heinous crimes. Why they turned away from duty they had signed up for, and worse, assisting terrorists. For the longest time, the only connection Mera could make was that following a self-focused path slowly led them more and more astray until eventually they let themself be corrupted.
Never would she have ever thought it had been for this. For heart-break and regret. Important notes she could gleam: Erilyn dropped the rebellion for a matesprit in the military. Their rebel liaison... Someone else important to them. Hard to tell quadrants from a glance, if there were any to be found. Erilyn dropped the military when their matesprit died.
But that's how it worked, didn't it? You die for Alternia. It's what one did, was supposed to do. And Erilyn apparently wasn't strong enough to deal with that. They put personal relationships over their duty.
Very simple, very easy to write off. So, Mera had to wonder, at why she found herself shaking upon reading the information.
Trying not to shake too much, she pulled out her notebook and put down the name before stowing her notes again.
She looked away, keeping a vigilant eye on the room while everyone else looked at the ghostly items, but also in an effort to keep anyone from noticing how rigid she was keeping herself, just to avoid reacting any further to the new information.
Floren leaned in to look at the music box- the craftsmanship of it was very interesting... not at all what he was used to. As the letters were passed out he took his time reading through them, sure to handle the delicate papers with as much care as he could. It was probably nothing short of a miracle that they'd survived. He didn't know much at all about Erilyn, but it seemed they'd been misguided in their crimes...
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 3:58 am
It was simple to care for the jewelry box and the letters, that much Ely could do. What she couldn't quite do was properly sort out what it all meant, other than making her very sad. So they joined a cause... left the cause for their matesprit, and when she died, tried to go back to the cause and failed? Woah. That was fifteen layers of sad. Constantly trying to make up for what you've done. While it was foolish of them not to plan on their companion dying (for it came swift and sudden for alternians), that sentiment was understandable. Nobody liked to think of their loved one dying. Goodness, if Chaeng ever died...
As Ely moved the items to the next troll she mused "It's really got to stink, hunh? They tried so hard and in the end wound up with nothing. Maybe they just want us to understand them better... sympathize... something..."
"It's so pretty!" Scorpa reached to take the music box from Cynril to have a look as well. Admiring the detail work, she was amazed to see it had survived the fire in such pristine condition. It must have been really important to Erilyn to treat it with such care. It also must contain some kind of secret to have been stashed away with the other letters. Scorpa had never experienced a real relationship coupled with a break up but she understood that it would hurt. The fact that no one here was commenting on having known about this before made her wonder if it had anything to do with the rebel sympathizing part of the singer's life.
"Why is it still playing?" The yellowblood squinted at the sight of a keyhole for winding the music box. It'd been a long time since anyone had been here so presumably no one had been around to wind the music box up for this. Was it the ghost's doing? But... why would Erilyn want to show them this in the first place? It seemed like the kind of thing you'd want to keep secret.
"How could it wind without the key?" Scorpa wondered if possibly the music box's mechanics didn't use the key after all. She wasn't knowledgeable in how things like this were built but was it possible? There was the possibility that instead of a music box, this item was used to store something inside it. Perhaps the missing key was used to unlock it.
"Hmm..." Briefly she considered trying to lockpick the thing open. She decided against this though, worried that any attempts to force the box might break it and ruin whatever contents might wait inside. Perhaps they could track down what had happened to the original creator's workshop and see if there was a way to replicate the key from a similar music box.
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:37 pm
"Intriguing." Flydra murmured to herself as the group looked over the letters and the music box. It was very strange that the machine had started to play music if they were missing the key. How was that possible? Who wanted them to find this and why? There hadn't seemed to be any major spiritual reveals or tricks played on them. The tealblood wondered if this was because they'd never actually recovered Erilyn's body. Did that mean they were still alive? A seance would most definitely fail if so.
"Be careful with those papers. Lay them down so I can copy their contents." Flydra began to hand write the contents of the letters in her own notebook. It was a medical journal for her experiments but she could make space for something like this in it. These could be useful for the military in finding leads tracking down Erilyn if they were still out there. It didn't matter if this Pietaa Vivald had been culled already. They could look into them further and find where the web of information led from there.
"I think we should take the box into headquarters for further analysis. We might find identifying finger prints or DNA on it." It was a long shot but still a shot worth taking. How lucky to have discovered something like this! It was making the trip to this derelict mansion worth every needle they had stepped on.
Hivestuck
i think the letters have all been read now!
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:42 pm
The gentle tinkling of the music box is overridden by a blood curdling scream, that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. The room bursts into searing hot, burning, melting flames, that cover every inch of hive and troll alike in their intense heat - and then vanish, along with a presence that was not noticeable until its departure. The music box now is a black and twisted cube of melted steel, broken and boiled beyond repair. The papers too, are now simple piles of ash - and the inside of the safe lies blackened and sooty. Apart from that, and the broken chair that was flung aside, everything is as it was before the summoning began.
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:25 pm
the summoning of t̸͍͝i̴̘̔g̶͈͐ẅ̶̺y̵̩͝ñ̷̲ ̴̲͂i̴̙͘ô̸̥y̸̛͔ä̸̯́n̴͈̋a̸̫̔
Aconan was going to be much more careful this time. Schrad's seance....had been an eye-opener to how powerful psionics could be, and Tigwyn had been a powerful psionic before he died. But then again....Tigwyn had sacrificed himself to save them, last time. He wouldn't - couldn't - be another Schrad, right? Aconan hoped not....but hope wasn't enough. She clenched her fists, then let out a quiet yelp as the motion hurt her injured left arm. The cut had been deep from Schrad's knife, and whilst the wound had been tended to now, it was still painful.
It only reminded her further to be careful.
So carefully, she set up the items in the center of the block, and then retreated a little to a safer distance. Loupsus was also on alert after last time, all four ears pricked and fur fluffed, and he stood protectively almost over Aconan.
He wouldn't allow some ghost to hurt his pup again.
Aconan patted her lusus, and spoke.
"We should be careful, in case this turns into a fight again."
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:10 am
Hemera supervised Aconan's actions, watchful and wary. She didn't know intimate details about the Schrad seance, but she was sure the report later would bring to light more than she really wanted to know. And what Mera was aware of still was rather alarming. The Awassi seance was a nice little walk in the park in comparison.
And maybe this one, too, would go calmly enough. She had the communicator. She was on some level partly responsible for the outcome. Mera took some mental notes: she should coordinate with Lorata, who ranked highest both caste-wise and rank-wise among them. Work out a game plan with the military trolls present, even.
Tigwyn Ioyana wasn't a threat like other suspects, but he did smoke power suppressants and he might be somewhat bitter about dying. Even so, Mera had to wonder if they would even see him... With Awassi, they hadn't, and reports of other seances sounded like the ghosts were not manifesting much.
As her thoughts continued on, she nodded at Aconan. "I have my doubts that we will end up in such an extreme situation, but vigilance is important in any case. I think, if possible, we should use take advantage of the time we have to utilize the buddy system, as well as deal with any lingering questions anyone may have."
"I hope we can bring you peace." Elidae murmured, staring wistfully with a facade of a smile at the shriveled flower placed beside some items that vaguely reminded her of the troll focused on. In her hand she held a much more fresh and alive flower. Just in case.
Overhearing the words from a nearby greenblood, a knot in her bilesack formed. She knew the other saunces' held had become quite violent. The state of some of her friends deeply concerned her. She'd have to catch up with them about it later.
"I don't think this one will be as dangerous." She assured, giving the troll a smile. At least- she hoped. Tigwyn had defended them and been on their side. But after the experiences they've had in the hive.. well, who knew what could happen.
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