The Castle [02] (Remba, but don't let it stop you)

[Sunblink]

Before Keaton could so much as open her mouth, Mel was already on her feet and advancing towards the recently-entered Cubi, an uncharacteristically malicious, fanged smile on her muzzle. Judging by her reaction to his invasion of the slumbering spider-woman's mind, she obviously didn't approve of any sort of "mind-raping". To an extent, Keaton somewhat agreed. She was never the sort of person to simply smash through meticulously-crafted mind-shields and snatch up information--she had been a victim of that in the past, and had compromised very personal memories and knowledge to certain curious Cubi in the past. Learning from her mistakes, she now guarded her memories with layer upon layer of magical barriers, ensuring the safety of her precious secrets.

"Never mind him, Mel, we've got a bigger problem on our hands," Keaton said, folding her arms and frowning, completely incapable of ejecting the panic from her voice. Beneath her, her foot drummed a curt tattoo onto the floor. "If your hypothesis was that we've got a limited amount of time before this effect becomes permanent one way or another, then you were absolutely damn right. We need to tell everyone else and fast, and figure out how the hell to stop this."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Prof B Hunnydew]

The ferret listened intently at first, but after a while her eyes sort of glazed over and she looked as if in a daze. She slumped back against the pillows and sat, empty eyes staring at nothing as Bambi told her story. When the cat had finished, she just sat like that for a while. Then she looked at the wine bottle and sighed.
   "Give me some of that... I need..." she said, tiredly.

"Oh Gosh, Lovely, If you want to make this a real party, we may need more wine." says PBH as she hands the ferret the last 3rd wine in the bottle. PBH was just feeling tippys enough to be on the edge.  A feeling, she knew well, where just a little more wine and then she would be really drunk.  Yet, she would be wide awake, in party mode. and demanding more and more wine, until she passed out which would be some time this next evening.   Damn the situation or the dangers of the castle, It would be party girl time.

After a moment of watching the ferret take a deep drink from the bottle, the girl offers the wine back to her. PBH says, "No, love, you finish it, if you want.  I am ... I am fine. But It is my turn for a question and I will try to make it an easy one.  Can you tell me If I am right, that you carry many souls of this haunted place.?  And if you can tell me some of your names, that you know? or if you like girls.?"  PBH looks shock and shy about that last question  "oh ah sorry I didn*Burp*" burps PBH and then giggles a moment. "aarg *sign*" groans PBH as she falls to her pillows and then shyly looks across to the ferret from deep dent of hers pillows.  PBH looks flush but is it from the wine or embarrassment?  The Ferret can't tell.

PBH

[Cogidubnus]

 The Wolf gaped in satisfaction as his blow connected with the dark woman's face, and he would have grinned had he the capability any more. As he fell forward on to his now-bloody paws, he tried to leap at the woman, but fell forward and tripped. His still-twisting body was trapped in torn cloth. He shook and struggled, popping stitches and ripping cloth and finally writhing free of his restraints.
He looked somewhat similar to the Fenris beasts that had prowled the castle, but yet different. He was as large as the dogs had been, but he was yet not as lumbering as they had been. He was lithe, strong, and The Wolf was still unnaturally fast as Cog had been. His fangs were long, and they gleamed wetly in the moonlight a eldritch blue, and his claws were ragged, and dark with blood. It snarled, and launched itself at the dark shape dripping blood, intent on killing the woman and ripping out her throat, and his mouth drolled at the thought of drinking her blood.

[Gareeku]

With a start, Gareeku woke. Blinking in the dark, he thought he had heard noises coming from nearby to the room he had been sleeping in. Jumping up from the bed, the wolf gripped the katana at the side of his waist as he left the room, glancing left and right down each sides of the hallway.

Starting to make his way down the hall, Gareeku then stopped dead in his tracks as he saw something out of the corner of his eye as he passed one room in particular, the door of which was open. Looking in, the wolf's eyes widened as he saw a wolf-like beast, sporting similar if not identical clothes to those Cog had been wearing.
A Fenris?! No...it seems different somehow... he thought to himself as he summoned magical energy.

With a sharp wave of his arm, Gareeku shot a well-aimed bolt of fire magic at the creature, causing it to be thrown off of it path as it neared its prey, namely the female Sebastian.
"I don't know what the hell is going on here, but there will be no bloody murders or devourings on my watch." the wolf snarled as he quickly unsheathed his blade, the metal of the sword glowing menacingly as he kept his eyes locked on the form of the wolf-like creature.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Ignoring the young cubi Mel returned to her conversation with Keaton. "That was one of my conclusions, yes. But my main hypothesis was that the curse is parasitic, powering itself with your emotions. That is why you turn into what you hate and the more you hate what you have become the stronger you make the curse and the faster it overtakes you. I think we need to figure out if we can stop or block the emotions and starve it out. I'm good at minds and memories but not with emotions. You're the cubi, the emotion expert. Do you think it's possible?"

[Stygian]

"No need to worry..." came a voice. The bat was slowly getting up. But it looked like she was being lifted on something too. Her head was still bowed somewhat forward, her forehair keeping her eyes out of sight. It was too dark to see clearly, but Gareeku thought he could see her skin rippling in places, as if things were crawling under it...
   "I will take care of this!" she growled, as her eyes came into view. They glowed like fire, shifting between orange and blue like tongues of flame as they caught the moonlight. Behind her, a whole host of writhing darkness ripped itself out of her back, and immediately a thick tentacle, black and glossy and crowned by a three-fingered clawlike hand that could easily have gripped and crushed a man's head, snaked out against the werewolf with mercurial speed.
   The were was fast indeed; Cog's practiced speed merged with its fearsome strength meant that it could have mauled most swordsmen in a heartbeat, and if it could regenerate as well as certain lycanthropes were rumored to then one might wonder what Gareeku was thinking he could do with his sword. In a fair fight it might have been stronger than Stygian as well, if pure strength and endurance was what counted. But Stygian had no intention of fighting fair. And the tentacles he used were many times stronger than mere arms and legs. The wolf was cornered, with nowhere to go except out the door or left, out through the window, at where the tentacle was coming from.
   The hand gripped around the lycan's neck, and then the rest of the long tentacle followed as it made a full turn and snared like a whip around the werewolf's throat. The girl was advancing on it with snaking movements, her skin already turned ashen and her features starting to distort. She was chanting something, flames dancing and forming mystic symbols and circles around her black, clawed hands.

   "Inside a mind there is a place; where dreaded secrets lie.
    A place to which no thoughts could chase, far and deep away.
    Still this heart, and seal this soul, behind deceitful eye!
    Take him to that dreadful hold where only nightmares stay!
    May he sleep 'til he's not told;
    In shallow grave so deathly cold;
    Until the shadows let their hold;
    Or 'til his dying day!"

   It was a potent spell, one of the most potent that the bat knew of, and the usage of a proper incantation made it very nearly a perfect sure-fire. The fiery symbols the bat had invoked flowed out and disappeared, and the hex's power sank in. Wisps of shadow and dim fire seemed to snake through the air against the wolf, seeking out and seeping into his chest.
   It was essentially a perfect stasis spell, although merely made to contain a subject, not preserve it, as could be discerned from the incantation. It would still the werewolf's body, lock away his soul and mind in darkness and leave him as if dead, until it was dispelled.


   The ferret blinked, and then blushed too, once she really got the question right. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it and leaned over and looked down at Bambi. At first her eyes had been just surprised and almost skeptical in their appearance, however that was possible since there was nothing to read save her expression, but now, as she kept blushing, they had a sly look to them that went very well with the face.
   "I don't know. Maybe you'd like to show me..." she said, the moonlight gleaming just a bit in her look down upon the feline.

[Rloa]

all he knew was given to him from his sister  she was older then most but he knew it take time to get his powers stronger all he was going to do Kerag mutter some things and leaves the room he knew better from many fights with his sis that you should never fight anything with more experience but he still want to show Her a 2,4. But he need something to do...Borddrum is the killer of all Kerag thought.

[Aisha deCabre]

Heedless of the unfolding dramas of the rest of the castle as the minutes wore on into hours, the sleeping panthress was alone in the dark, in a world created from her own imagination...fantasies, fears, and memories.  She could never fall asleep too deeply, however, for she was either trained to be, or innately sensitive to the real world.  As loud as her dreams were, they were only dreams.  Her ears soon caught a few, faint noises far off.  The visions ceased immediately, sounds and all, as if a projector turned off to leave only black color of her inner eyelids.

She opened an eye and sat up, glimpsing curiously about the dark and peeking out of a window to just guess what time it was.  She could see the moon from that angle, a large and perfect orb with slightly sun-kissed colors on the usually opaque surface.  It was most likely nowhere near dawn yet...some hours.  But she pricked her ears again, turning towards the closed door and listening.  The huntress knew even from a little far away the difference between peaceful sounds and chaos.  This was akin to the latter.

With a curious hum, Aisha slid her hand beneath the pillow and retrieved her boomerang, getting up from the bed with fleet, careful steps and opening the door to hear voices coming from another room on the bottom floor.  She followed them in a loping run down the corridor, braking and sliding in front of the room whence she found it, finding Sebastian, Gareeku, and...a feral wolf?

"The hell's going on?"

[Cogidubnus]

The Wolf yelped as a magical missile slammed into his side and knocked him into the wall. He stood and shook himself, and the yelp faded into a menacing growl as he gazed at the newcomer. He bared his fangs: there was little intelligence left in the Wolf, and therefore little cunning, but he had instinct. This wolf could hit him in the air - don't leap. He shot towards the swordsman on the ground, crossing the distance with surprising speed, and was prepared to dodge and weave his way around his magical bolts.
However, he would never get to taste the other wolf's blood - he yelped as something dark and cold slammed into his face and lifted him off the ground, and continued to whine as she wrapped a tentacle around his neck, choking him. He struggled in it's grip, but to no avail. Eyes wild with rage and fear bored into the woman's own flaming eyes, meeting her gaze as he bit and writhed in her grasp.
The Wolf was, however, oblivious to her chanting, and ignorant of what it might signify. It was caught completely off guard when her hex settled into his brain, dulling and suffocating his senses - darkened his gaze, paralyzing his limbs. He attempted to growl, or even whine pitifully, but to no avail. He found himself placed into a box of sorts, a mental cage inside his mind where there was no light, no sound, but merely the darkness and himself.
Trapped once again, the Wolf howled, and the walls of his prison shook with his rage.

[Boog]

Now that danger was over, Jeremiah was likely to get up. A discheveled apperation with a tweed coat draped over it sat up from his makeshift bed of chairs in the library (on the basis that he wasn't about to go off on his own to find a bed, and didn't trust the beds around here anyway) and made a noise not unlike "Mrufgalab." Blinking and throwing his coat on properly, he looked around for the souce of the noises that had woken him up. He turned to the nearest person, Keaton, and yawned.
"Whuttappened?" He asked sleepily.

[Stygian]

The feral's eyes glazed over rapidly, and then the creature went limp just as quickly, falling to the floor as the tentacle's grip released and slid away, and slowly began to shift back into Cogidubnus. His chest didn't move, and his face was as if caught in shock. Not a twitch came from the wolf as he lay.
   The tentacle snaked back among the many others slipping and worming around the bat from behind her, under her shirt. Slowly, she turned against the door, her glowing eyes fixing on the adventurers dead steady.
   "Thank you. Please leave." Her tone was formal, her manner reserved, but the look on her face and in her eyes told them one thing; she was absolutely furious.
   And with right, she herself thought. Again, she had ruined everything by letting even the slightest feelings out. She mentally scolded herself, as she turned against the bed, slowly walking up to the side of it. This settled it. She was going to sleep until dawn, and hopefully past that as well, and no one was going to ruin that. She could add to the spell and make sure it released the wolf once sun had been up an hour or so.
   The bat's right hand went to her collar and neck a bit. Then, she looked at the two worried adventurers still in the room. Right then, she was just too angry to be anything but short with them. She considered slamming the door with a tentacle, but they were inside, so...

[Sunblink]

Keaton nearly laughed bitterly at Mel's comment about the curse acting as an emotional leech. If this curse was really dictated by her loathing for something or someone, it would certainly have quite the repast on her unrepentant detestation of Angels. How ironic. After hundreds of years she had found no contradiction or reason against her prejudices, but now it could prove to be her downfall.

Shoving this spiteful tangent aside, she cupped her chin thoughtfully in the cradle of her hand, staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. Certainly she had come across people who had such seasoned control over their emotions that they were nearly entirely unreadable, maybe even unfeeling puppets at most, but maybe the group could manage to restrain themselves just enough to prevent the curse from dominating their bodies.

"I think we could. I've run across people who have done that before," Keaton's head slipped so that way her face was partially buried in her hand, excluding her muzzle. "I don't think there's any sort of mental block that could completely barracade someone against emotions, though. It may just take discipline..."

Just as Keaton was about to continue, Jeremiah started to stir in his cozy little nest of chairs, murmuring a rather incoherent string of jargon beneath his makeshift tweed coat sheet. Blinking, Keaton turned her head around so she was looking at him, her ears pivoting upright.

"Oh, there you are," Keaton said. "If you need a summary of what just happened, Sebastain stormed off in a huff, Cogi followed him, Aisha and Gareeku left..." She started counting off the members of their party on her fingers. "The good professor left with the ferret, and..." Crystalline blue eyes followed Kerag as he made his exit, muttering something inaudible under his breath. "And there goes Mister Anonymous." Keaton clasped her hands together pleasantly, smiling. "So that leaves you, me, Mel, and spider-chickie."

Suddenly, Keaton froze altogether, her ears flattening as an irresistable, erratic pulse of lightning raced through her body, turning her blood to ice. Pupils pinpricking into azure dots, she turned around slowly, staring in horror at the door. An incredible burst of dark magic had rushed through, saturating the area above with its vile, encroaching presence. "...Did any of you feel that?" Keaton asked slowly.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Boog]

"Heard summin', yes. Felt, napes," Jeremiah was a bit closer to being defined as concious by now, and tried harder to get the rest of the way there when he heard Keaton's exclamation, "It something Bloody-Goddamn-Castle specific? Oog, where's me hat?" Eventually locating the liberated garment somewhere in his coat, he stood up, "Never fails, summat always happens when yer tryin' t' sleep..."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

   The ferret blinked, and then blushed too, once she really got the question right. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it and leaned over and looked down at Bambi. At first her eyes had been just surprised and almost skeptical in their appearance, however that was possible since there was nothing to read save her expression, but now, as she kept blushing, they had a sly look to them that went very well with the face.
   "I don't know. Maybe you'd like to show me..." she said, the moonlight gleaming just a bit in her look down upon the feline.

PBH looked surprised at the girl, and then grins at her sly look... PBH sits back up and leans in for kiss the ferret girl's cheek, and her lips while PBH removes her own bra.  She pulls the ferret's shirt out, gives the girl a deeper kiss and then holds the girl by her shoulders and looks into her eyes.

"You maybe tipsy and I am nearly drunk, and who is taking advantage of who, I am not sure. *giggle* Oh, I will please you and tease you until you cry for me stop, my love.  All *kiss*I want *kiss on the cheek* is your *nibble on the neck* Name *pant * mmm " whispers PBH in the ferret's ear

PBH

[Mel Dragonkitty]

"The burst of magic?" questioned Mel. "I felt it. My best guess would be that Sebastian and Cog are working on a cure separately, rather than return to working in here with me." She looked rather sour at that statement. "Perhaps Cog was wrong, perhaps I should leave rather than duplicating efforts."

[Gareeku]

Gareeku could look on with the odd blink of his yees as he watched the female Sebastian and the wolf creature battle it out. Hearing Aisha's voice beside him, the wolf shook his head slightly.
"That's what I'd like to know..." he replied, not taking his eyes off of the scene in front of him as his facial expression turned to a grim one. It was then however, that once the creature had been subdued, it turned out to be none other than Cogi.

Seeing Sebastian turned towards them, Gareeku stared right back, his gaze unwavering as he looked into the bat's eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere until someone tells me just what the fuck is going on here." the wolf replied, his temper beginning to flare as he did so. It could be seen that he was in no mood to play around. "I want to know just what caused Cogi to turn into that thing and why."

[Sunblink]

Turning her head towards the direction the burst of dark magic had originated from, still sensing the faint ripples oscillating through the electrified air, Keaton frowned slightly, her brow furrowing. "Either way," Keaton said, sounding audibly perturbed, "I think I should go check it out. I don't think this feels... well, right."

She sighed, deciding she sounded far too superstitious, and said, "I'll be right back. I'm just going to make sure they didn't kill each other."

With Mel's confirmation, Keaton turned away and walked towards the door, heading where the still-active pulse emanated from.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

It was stupid and undeserved, but Stygian's temper was much too heated to mind much, so she just turned against the adventurers and scowled, her words low and scathing as they came at them.
   "He said he was getting drunk, and something about the moon. Can you please leave?" she said with growing irritation. She had not known entirely what was going on herself, and if they didn't draw the werewolf conclusion themselves then she was not about to try and explain it all in the middle of the night while pissed off like a cornered cat.
   Then Keaton showed up, seemingly with something urgent on her mind and trying to bustle in. Sebastian snarled.
   "This is not the common hall!" she shouted. The next thing a large spined and handed tentacle swept out from under the bed and shoved the others out the door, then proceeded to slam it shut and lock it from the inside.
   With the adventurers out, the bat wasted no time. She quickly altered the meaning of "darkness" in the spell she had cast, deconstructed the clothes she was wearing as they would dissappear anyway and set out new ones from the wardrobe in the room, fixed things up and then went to bed without further bothering, falling into angered and pained, yet deep sleep.


   The ferret flushed all over, and leaned into Bambi's tender attention, murring softly. Again she seemed to be trying to speak, but she lost herself amid the words and just slipped nervously out of her shirt and bra, her hands going to the cat's back. She too began to slowly strew kisses, tender pecks that grew deeper as she went, stroking Bam's back with her hands and claws.
   Then, with a heavy draw of breath, the ferret moved in and held close to the feline, looking up at her.
   "I... am Inescia," she said, the name sounding like a revelation of sorts. She kissed the cat deeply, and then drew her along down into the white, silken sheets...


   Cog woke from the sun hitting his face, feeling warm enough but still somewhat dizzy and numb, as the alcohol in his body had not been processed during his stasis. The golden, glowing orb outside the still somewhat open window shed its light on him through the slightly billowing draperies from a position a bit above the horizon, meaning it was probably an hour or so after dawn.
   Looking down, he could see that he was sitting under a bedsheet in an armchair against the wall of the room, opposite to the bed. His torn clothes and shoes lay on the floor to his left, under his still somewhat intact coat, with his glasses atop it. In the bed, difficult to separate from the pale golden-yellow silk sheets under the blue cover, lay the bat, sleeping soundly with slow, long breaths. The room was slightly cold and the air crisp, the morning breeze blowing in through the tall window just a bit.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha lowered her weapon, curiously witnessing the captured wolf's transformation, and uttering a light gasp as soon as she saw that it was Cogi.  She stood next to Gareeku in the room, looking against the bat with as determined a demeanor as his on what could have happened.  Her ears pricked somewhat curiously, though, when she had mentioned the moon.

Though before she had time to say anything more, she and Gareeku were shoved out of the door, alongside Keaton whom the panther only noticed right then, with such force that she had landed on her back in the corridor while the door slammed shut.

Slowly getting back up again, she growled with frustration.  "That shouldn't have called for rudeness," Aisha muttered and brushed the dust from her shirt, staring at the door with a bit of concern for their comrade on the other side of it.  "A Were..." the other two heard whispering from her, though the panther shook her head with disbelief.  "More surprises."

Looking out of a nearby window, dawn looked to only be thinking of coming.  With a slight shake of her head, Aisha nodded to Gareeku and Keaton, and started back to her room...she had planned to get a little more sleep in.  But with the disturbances, she was now wide-awake enough to just watch the light rise over the horizon like a beacon of hope against the dreary shadows of the castle interior.

[Boog]

Jeremiah rubbed his eyes and nodded to Keaton, "Right. G'luck with that." He streached and looked around, as if finally realizing he was in a library. With a glance to make sure the spider woman was where she'd been left and a polite nod to Mel, he immediatly began looking though the shelves for something interesting. Admittedly, it was probably rather unrealistic of him to expect to find any interesting sci-fi, but whatever the search did turn up was bound to be interesting.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

PBH feels the magical burst as well, but she is too drunk, or too distracted, to do anything more than look toward it's direction for a moment..., But the ferret says her name, and PBH quickly looks back to the beautiful ferret with joy in her eyes.  

PBH smiles a sweet smile and pushes herself on top of Inescia and says, "Well, my Inescia, prepare to be love as only a female can.. as one who loves you can.  and then "we" and I can sleep and see the 'others' over breakfast"

PBH hugs and loves the ferret girl, bring her joy first before letting Inescia to do the same to her.  PBH and Inescia love many times.  and the Sun finds them cuddle together each other's arm...

PBH

[Gareeku]

Before Gareeku could reply to Sebastian's obvious outburst of anger, he and Aisha, along with Keaton who had arrived at the scene, were rudely escorted out of the room, having the door slammed in their faces.
"Fucking asshole." the wolf growled angrily, before turning to the others. "I'm going to bed. But I will say one thing; I don't trust him, and I'm going to be more wary around him. Think of him what you want."

With that, Gareeku left for his room, clearly irritated by the events that had just unfolded. Collapsing back onto 'his' bed after closing the room's door, the wolf trying to get back to sleep, but the thoughts running through his head made it difficult to do so. Opening his eyes and glancing to the side towards the window, Gareeku could be the night sky beginning to lighten. The sun would be rising soon, and the wolf most have liked to be asleep by then. With that thought in mind, Gareeku closed his eyes and concentrated on getting back to sleep.

[Sunblink]

The moment Keaton stepped outside the threshold separating the library from the hall, she instinctually broke into a run toward the magical palpitations resonating through the air. She didn't think so much as she followed; letting her feet carry her in the direction desired. It didn't take long for Keaton to approach the room where the rest of the group had congregated, her feet twisting slightly as she skidded to a halt among the gathering of adventurers. Urgency clear in her features, she sidestepped the closest person nearby and entered the room, about to say something before she stopped in the midst of her first syllable.

"Seb--buh?!"

The first thing she noticed was the transmogrified wolf. Not immediately recognizing him, Keaton's jaw dropped, her eyes locking adamantly onto Cogidubnus's body, utter shock seeping into her reeling mind. "What the FU--" she started, but found herself unable to finish her vulgar sentence. Instantly, Keaton whirled around to face Stygian, pupils pinpricked and her entire expression twisted into a mask of incredulous confusion mixed with a slightly unhealthy amount of surprise. After all, it wasn't every day she came across an enormous, bestial monstrosity of a lupine leashed to a shadowy tentacle like some morbid (albeit suffocating) pet.

Next came the revelation of the darkened atmosphere surrounding Stygian, who was orchestrating the tentacle wrapped 'round the lycanthrope's throat. It became painfully obvious to Keaton that HE was the source of the dark magic she had sensed before, as the frantic quakes orbiting him testified. As Stygian released Cogidubnus, his effeminate appearance reminded Keaton about the seriousness of the situation and the information she had stored in her mind, forcing her to kick aside her disbelief for the time being.

She barely got past the first "Sebastian--" before everyone was anticlimatically ejected from the chamber.

Keaton managed to stop herself a little before where Aisha had landed unceremoniously, heels dragging into the ground and feathered wings splayed for balance. "Woah!" Nearly stumbling over, she grabbed the wall and steadied herself, glaring daggers at the now-closed door. The dark vibrations had not ceased--in fact, they had intensified, proving that Stygian had utilized those tentacles of his to shove them outside.

There was a very bitter silence over on Keaton's end as she stared at the door.

Then, with a frustrated sigh, she slapped her gloved hand over her forehead and shook her head, throwing her pallid hair about her face. "GREAT!" she hissed, "Just GREAT!" Turning around and clenching her fists, the thoroughly-peeved jackal started to storm out of the room.

Keaton spent the last few moments of the night sulking in the library, storming in without so much as a word with arms folded and her teeth grit, a thousand curses boiling under her breath.

And it was after the first glimmer of daylight rained upon the castle that Keaton realized how absolutely starved and exhausted she was. Maybe she couldn't feast on emotions after all, she realized as she temporarily removed her lopsided glasses and massaged the bridge of her nose.

'Damn, do I ever need a beer.' Keaton thought, collapsing in an armchair beside Jeremiah and allowing her chin to rest in her hands.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

When Keaton had dashed from the library Mel had sunk back into the soft chair, hoping to claim a few more minutes of sleep. But it seemed if her eyes had no more than closed when a very angry jackal had returned. But there was no demand to resume the research, Keaton claimed a chair of her own and sat, obviously fumingly mad. With a shrug Mel closed her eyes. She'd steal what sleep she could while the girl was distracted. Keaton would probably simmer down and want to resume work quite quickly.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog sat up with a slight groan, holding his head in his hands and sitting for some time in silence. His head was pounding, and he let himself settle for a moment before trying to even think about why he was naked. He quirked an eyebrow at his ripped clothes on the floor, and breathed in sharply. His head jerked out of his hands, and his eyes widened.
"Oh, fuck."
He turned to Sebastian, and his face fell. All along the wall there was spattered blood, and he then knew for certain. The Wolf. He stood and shuffled to the bed, and almost shook Sebastian violently, when she groaned in her sleep. He froze, and took a delicate step back.
Thank god. She's alive...somehow, he thought.
He stared at the wall for a long time, then slowly moved out of the sheets covering him and grabbed some of his clothes silently. He grimaced. He'd been afraid of that...they were completely ruined. His jacket could be salvaged, but everything else was in tatters. He wrapped the sheet around himself, and sat back down in the chair.
Not for one hundred years had this happened, and he found himself without excuse. He should have run, should never have drank that much. How could he have forgotten it was a night of the full moon?
He sat by Sebastian, berating himself for his stupidity. His only consolation was that she was still alive. He waited for her to awake.

[Stygian]

The bat awoke not by stirring or getting up. Rather, Cog just heard her slow breaths stop, only a moment or so before she spoke, in a voice made somewhat dim and coarse by sleep.
   "Why haven't you left yet?" she muttered, just audibly. Slowly, she turned over, and grabbed the sheet on her to cover herself as she sat up, leaning against her knees and laying her hand forward, her head on her arm as she looked at him. Her eyes gleamed slightly as she sat in the half-darkness under the bed's canopy, her face sad and wearied. She sighed, rustling a bit as she felt the morning breeze, and then turned her eyes against the window for a second. The shadows moved almost imperceptibly, and it closed, the draperies pulled before it and shutting out at least a bit of the sun. That done, she muttered something into her arm, and then looked back to Cog. She didn't seem to be in any pain, and what he could see of her skin bore no bruises or cuts. There was a little redness on her face, but it was so little it might have been her blushing.
   "You..." she began, then sighed again and looked down. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done what I did yesterday." She seemed to be scolding herself. "I got carried away, and whenever I don't keep my head clear of feelings, I always screw things up." She looked up, her mouth not visible. "You seemed angry. As did the others. I understand."


   Down in the library, the first hour of light had passed quite without incident. Only one tall set of windows was open, the others concealed by long, deep blue draperies that were thick enough that they closed out all of the sun. The kitchen was empty, all the occupants having gone elsewhere. In the sofa, the spider kept sleeping, her chittering breath still steady in between the occasional whimper that didn't disturb the dragon in her chair. And in their rooms, the adventurers still seemed to be sleeping it out, waiting until they had gotten their rest. Time would pass slowly and patiently until they did, and woke up as they pleased.
   At the passing of ten o'clock though, at least the residents of the library would be stirred, as a ringing sound could be heard from somwhere off through the open doors.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha had sat on the edge of her bed, watching the sun make its way slowly up the horizon and banish the shadows of night, the rays coasting across the landscape.  As usual, any sunrise that the huntress was lucky enough to see, she certainly felt blessed to be able to do so.  Especially when the scent of her clothing reminded her of the hellish night left behind, for were it not for Sebastian she and her comrades would have been taken by the castle, or who controlled it more precisely.

She fell back on the covers and thought for a moment...by now everyone must have had a bad start to their day.  Looking at the rising light in the window, Aisha smirked, thinking how if she were back at the monastery, her mentor would have kept her awake by now to do a bit of working or training, and by herself the panther kept up with the regiment.  But today, it seemed, there felt an opportunity to take a deserved moment to relax and sleep in.  Sorry, Mistress, not today, Aisha thought and turned over on the pillows, falling back into a bit more sleep as dawn passed by.

But after a bit of time passed, the panthress had awoken could be heard walking down the corridors, carrying her clothes off to be washed while wearing some older things she had found when poking in the room's drawers.  There was a little hesitance in again borrowing something that wasn't hers...though certainly none of the previous owners needed them anymore.  She listened for any of the others, passing by the kitchen eventually and briefly looking inside, wondering about breakfast, before moving along past the library where she noticed a couple of people still stayed.  Heh.  No rest...  She bade them a good morning before walking off again.

[Boog]

"Morning Aisha," Jeremiah replied distractedly as he continued along the books. Yanno, if I just stayed in here, this castle probably wouldn't seem so bad...

The ringing reached Jeremiah's ears just as he was about to work up the courage to open a malevolent looking tome labeled simply "Knowledge." Feeling as though he'd just dodged a bullet and not knowing why, he looked around for the source, which turned out to be the doors. "Who would be ringing bells? We're too far away from town for it to be the church..." He mused aloud, setting the book down.

[Stygian]

It wasn't a churchbell, but rather a much smaller one that rang, and it seemed to be coming from the kitchen. Or rather, upon inspection, it came from a room close to the kitchen, the sound getting through since the doors had not been closed properly. It came from a small, ornate box, hung on the wall, which contained a roughly hand-sized silvery bell. There was no text or label on it. Most likely, that meant it was directly connected to the front door.
   The bell rang again, three chimes this time, more urgently.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog kept silent as Sebastian spoke, expecting her to let out with an angry tirade or a hysterical accusation, or simply forgoing the dramatics and trying to kill him outright. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd had to fend off someone trying to 'slay the beast'. This was, however, one of those times he wished that maybe one of them had succeeded.
When she finished, Cog hung his head and spoke. "If you wish me to leave, I can." he said, staring at the floor. "But...what do you take me for?" he said, his voice inflecting with a little heat. "I maul you, and leave without saying anything?" He shrugged. "I thought you might want some sort of explanation."
He looked up at her between greasy bangs. His eyes were soft. "As for you, my dear...you did nothing." Cog seemed to get lost in thought for a moment, then continued. "You didn't get carried away with anything. It wasn't your fault at all. I knew I was in danger of...that." he said, clenching his fist. "If it had been any other day...if I hadn't drunk that much..." He let go, releasing the tension in his hand. "I was in full knowledge of my state, and I should have been more careful. I got cocky and the Wolf bit me. I was lucky that's all it bit."
He leaned forward, again taking a look at the floor. "The problem wasn't you, my dear. It's that damn wizard's fault. Another reason I hate magic..."