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

[Boog]

Jeremiah didn't need to be told twice to get away from the cold. In fact...
"G-Gareeku!" The frog hurried over, looking as though he was checking Gar over for particularly obvious spiders, "You a-all ri-ri-right? Any of the c-creepy crawlies get on y-y-ya?" Jeremiah's oversized (for a being) teeth were chattering, and there were places on his usually slick skin that were starting to crack and flake. The cold was really doing a number on him. Naturally, at Mel's question, he raised his hand.

And the interloper thoughts continued to find their way around...

[Stygian]

Stygian stopped, turned, glanced at the frog and rolled his eyes, and then took a look at Mel.
   "The wolf seems fine enough. Mr. Amphibian here doesn't seem to have that anticoagulant in his blood, so he's the only one to worry about..." he said boorishly, making a reference to a certain species of frog that could stand being frozen down, "...and to get rid of the spiders, all you have to do is flash-freeze the house. Nothing lasting, mind, just something to frost it down and clear the little creeps." He said that as if it were no big deal. "There's plenty of water to be found, and silver and mercury..." Slowly, he resumed his walking.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog gaped as Sebastian simply left them there, a tiny spark of anger in his eye. To just...go. Leave them there. It wasn't callousness, he knew, but...even so. He lurched to his feet, and held on side of his stomach that had cramped. He spoke to the retreating bat.
"What? Just freeze the entire castle, like that?" Cog said, his voice somewhat edged. "But of course! Leave it to us, yet again. Wouldn't want to disturb the lord of the manor. He's not in a very good mood right now!" He said, his eyes narrowing. "I know you haven't asked for any favors, sir, and I fully realize you'd really rather us just go. Even so!"
He took a lurching step towards Sebastian. "Can you stand our presence for just long enough to clear your own damn castle of an infestation of mind-eating spiders?!" he said, his voice rising. "Are you such a damned coward that it takes disaster for you to just be with people?!"
Cog growled in his throat, and quickly restrained himself, snapping his jaw shut and turning round, heading for the library. There was much more he wanted to say, but he feared he'd said too much already. He began walking down the hall, stepping around his fallen comrades. "C'mon Mel. When you're done here, I mean, we have some research to do. Unless you know some way of cooling this entire place, because I sure as hell don't."

[Stygian]

There was a clack of a heel as Sebastian stopped. Slowly he turned, his eyes darkened and intense, and his face incredulous in that way that just speaks for itself. Then he made no noise.
   Before Cogidubnus had a chance to pass Jeremiah, someting snared his neck from behind and he was lifted like a ragdoll into the air. Fingers clenched his throat, keeping him from taking anything but the most desperate of breaths, and claws at their tips rasped his skin.
   "You bloody...!" the bat growled from behind him, his speech between his teeth and his face twisted in fury. "Calling me coward...?! You don't need me babysitting you! This isn't my place. You are quite obviously not my friends. And I kill people!" he snarled, his grip on Cog's neck constricting. "It doesn't matter what I do but I either hurt, kill, offend or ruin! You've seen it yourself!" he hissed, and for a second Cog felt as though his claws were going to rip into his throat.
   Then, the wolf dropped to the ground, the grip on his neck released abruptly. The bat's face wasn't angered anymore. It had shrunk back to that self-loathing and mournful expression, with a bit of dissappointment mixed in as he looked down on the man before him, then over Gareeku, Mel... For a second, his gaze was present, clear and both filled with sorrow, hatred and pain. Then, it hardened again and his face settled, his gaze again on Cog's neck.
   "You're adventurers. Deal with it!" he said in as scathing a tone as he could manage, and then turned, walking off.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog coughed a few times, and clambered back to his feet slowly. He stared at the retreating bat, and simply kept silent until he was out of earshot, turning back towards the others and heading back towards the library. "That's right. Keep running, coward," he said, suddenly stopping. Ignoring the stares of the others, he turned again towards the stairway and followed the bat, walking calmly.
He'd forgotten to get his sword. Again. It was still upstairs.
He kept silent as he walked behind the bat, not saying a word, but rather simply ascending the stairs without comment. He passed the bat's quarters on the way up, walking past and into the room where he had changed. There on the couch was his old jacket and sword - he emptied the former of his charms, placing them in his new clothing, and placed the sword into his belt, adjusting it for a comfortable fit.
He exited the room, walking down the hallway and heading back down to the library.

[Boog]

The spat between Cog and Sebastion spooked the hell out of Jeremiah, but it was useful for one thing. He was right, he had seen this sort of mindset in his students before. Usually demonic ones, but angels are really just the other side to that selfsame coin. Useful...
And more importantly, it was a divide in the group. Those two were that much more likely to avoid one another. Useful indeed.

[Sunblink]

Keaton didn't notice the effect the dark-woven tentacles she had launched in Stygian's direction had, as she was too busy trying to grab Gareeku to bother to witness the side-effects of her attacks. All she needed to do was snatch up the wolf and leave, whether or not Aisha was safe or not, then contaminate him with the spider's presence--that was all. Common sense and coherent thinking had been entirely eliminated to make way for brutal bloodlust and the panicked shrieking of the spider nested in Keaton's back. The arachnid had rapidly been layered beneath the darkness caking her body, securing it for now, although the contours of its outline was concealed by the black-wrapped locks of Keaton's hair.

Then she couldn't move. Keaton twitched where she stood, still trying to resist the paralysis that crippled her muscles. She felt her body tense and her limbs spasm slightly as she tried to push, but that was all. What was going on? Why couldn't she move? Still incapable of forming or registering anything akin to normal thinking, Keaton struggled and strained, teeth grit and vicious screams stifled in her throat. If she hadn't been going to such lengths to keep herself from shouting, she probably would've been screeching death threats like there was no tomorrow. The bat had to be behind this. He had to be.

She couldn't sense the darkness anymore. Normally Keaton would be able to reach out to its algid, clammy touch, fuse her mind with it and shape it to fit her will, but she was suddenly alone. She could... not... feel it! Why? The cloak enshrouding her body was still there, but she couldn't manipulate it. Once more Keaton tried to move, fingers twitching as her glowing eyes shifted towards Gareeku.

Then it started to move, but not on her own accord. The darkness had become almost fleshy, organic, rough and prickling, writhing uncontrollably atop her skin. Keaton toppled forward, landing unceremoniously in a crumpled heap on the ground, the shadows coating her body still twisting and shaking even as she felt the pressure on her back, squishing her against the ground and making it difficult for her to breathe properly. It was still impossible for Keaton to make any sounds other than tiny groans and protests, suddenly stopping in her throat as she noticed the claws snaking along the ground.

Before Keaton could comprehend it a head, seemingly forged out of darkness itself, appeared beside Keaton's own, leering into her eyes, eldritch glow against glow.

"Bad choice, little girl!"

Then the spider hidden underneath the darkness shattered into thousands of tiny crumbs of rubbery chitin, triggering a choking cry from the jackal, who stiffened instinctually on the ground. With the cold life of the spider seeping away from her, Keaton accidentally released what little control over the darkness she still maintained, the shield encasing her body dissolving. It oozed about her body in a syrupy puddle, slowly retreating back into its proper, slanting position along with the remnants of what had tried to stab itself into Stygian, restoring the original position of the shadows cast about the ground.

Keaton remained still for a moment, struggling to regain relative thought. By the time she had willed herself awake to the sound of shouting, Aisha was unconscious nearby and Stygian and Cogidubnus had departed, apparently in foul moods, if the yelling was of any attestation. Groaning, the white light died from Keaton's eyes as she lifted her head, trying to climb to her knees. She clutched her head, hissing angrily as a mother of a headache pounded away at her brain, likely from the stress that plagued her before.

"What... wha' happened...?"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Gareeku]

No sooner had Gareeku's hand formed a flame of white energy had Sebastian gotten there first. Standing there alert, the wolf looked on as the possessed Jackal as well as Aisha were dealt with. Once the pantheress was knocked unconscious and Keaton was knocked down, the wolf relaxed a bit, the flame disappearing from the palm of his hand. He was still alert, however, as he had virtually no idea what they were dealing with. The only thing Gareeku did know was that the spider-woman was almost certainly behind.

She would definitely be dealt with, Gareeku decided in his mind.

Watching as Keaton came to, the wolf wasn't surprised to find her memory of the recent events a little foggy; such a side effect was common in possessions. Having not known the whole situation, Gareeku decided he would let someone else explain what had happened to her, as the others most likely knew more about the situation than he did.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel shifted her attention from Aisha to Keaton. "Slow down and tell me if you're hurt Keaton. As for what happened, we're having spider problems, again. Only these are small and take over your mind. A parting present from the spider demon. You've been possessed for a while."

She helped the jackal to her feet. "Are you hurt anywhere? It was quite a fight to get the spider off you."

[Aisha deCabre]

In a way, Aisha had certainly seen the counter-attack coming.  An air of satisfaction made itself known to her ragged and tired face as her flames sheared one of the bat's arms off...but it wasn't at all long-lived.  There was no time, nor way, to defend from the shadows that bound her feet and wrenched her arms back.

The blade's handle dropped from her grip and clattered next to her...with the mixture of cold in the room, and the tight hold upon the possessed felid, she had no hope left of fighting.  And yet the spider in its throes still pushed wave after wave of insane anger through her subconscious.  Aisha's own mind pushed its way through the suffering, and simply awaited the inevitable.

The last thing that she felt then were claws piercing her back.  Her face showed more pain than there truly was, and the scream...it was the spider's, but it came through her voice.  Then it was gone.  Blinded by darkness, Aisha's body fell limp to the ground.

She felt very few sensations after that, floating somewhere in a recess between reality.  Her adrenaline was ebbing and the cold growing.  The feeling came back to her nerves...her nerves, once again...slowly until she was awakened fully by wincing at the pain on her back and the sensation of ice upon it, now comforting and soothing.

Aisha's eyes opened slowly, and looked upon the others in the room.  Keaton was in the same state as she was, delirious and confused.  The panthress did not remember the past few moments either...like they were seen through someone else's eyes where it should have been hers.  Then Mel's explanation was caught by still-sensitive ears, which were ringing horribly at first.  Then her eyes widened.

Spider...  The memories came back.  She was herself, but not truly.  Leading on by deception...and almost had spread the monstrosity to her good friend...

"Ugh," the felid protested and started to her knees, reaching a hand around to her back.  Nothing there.  Her neck, nothing.  Head...hers again.  She took a deep breath and almost fell down again, taken by euphoria.

Then, as if in reply to the events, Aisha hissed lowly.  "Whoever did this to us...is dead."

[Stygian]

Sebastian went up to his room before Cogidubnus, smelling of indignation and loathing, a strong, stickly and itchy scent that mixed ill with his regular one of ash and blood and discomforted anyone sensitive enough to feel it. When he arrived at his room he passed in through the doorway determinedly, and it closed on its own behind him. Well inside he just threw himself on the bed, only bothering to kick off his shoes before he laid down and sighed into the pillows. Anger still boiled within him, but it was becoming increasingly drowned in sadness, dissappointment and weariness.
   He chuckled bitterly at that, making an attempt at seeing things from some sort of positive perspective. Weariness, after being free at last from a century and a half imprisoned? Of course, he failed to cheer up the least. But there was still some humor to it all.
   Still, he could not make himself go back to sleep, however much he rested. He never had been the one to sleep much, and there were so many things going through his mind that it was virtually impossible to really relax. But he could not go out there again. He would not go out there again. He had said thanks, and he had tried to be reasonable. And the wolf had hit him below the belt. So, if he actually did not want to be with people, what of it? Did that jerk think he could put himself in his situation?
   That ritual really had made him realize. He never really had hated women. He had just hated anyone he actually felt something for, be it hatred, fear, familiarity or love. When he could distance himself he was allright. When he actually felt, bad things happened. He got hurt. Others got hurt. The deal with Cog, and with Mel, who he couldn't stop thinking of as 'the dragon', proved that. As did how these people saw him as an asshole.
   Perhaps it was better that way? After all, he was calculating, often evil and perhaps even a bit insane. He had no problems seeing that. He shouldn't burden people with his presence if that was all there was to him. Maybe that could be his only grace...?
   The bat turned and laid on his back, staring into the roof. They were adventurers. They should be capable of fending for themselves. If they wanted his help, they would have to ask for it. Not grovel or beg, but just simply ask, because that was fair and enough. And if they didn't want him around, well... then that was the way it was.
   But why couldn't he stop hurting?

[Sunblink]

Keaton listened to Mel's explanation with half-lidded, dazed eyes and a face partially obscured in shaggy blonde hair, expression still muddied and confused for a great deal of her clarification. Gradually, clarity began to sink into her features, a hand reaching up to slip her glasses, which had fallen off of the bridge of her nose and were dangling haphazardly from the gilded chain anchoring them to her ear, back onto her muzzle.

Confusion remained quite dominant in her expression for a while as she struggled to recall when she had ever been taken over by the spider. All she could remember was taking a bath, relaxing quite peacefully for a moment, and then everything going dark...

Keaton's ears shot upright, the myriad of piercings festooning her lobes jostling, as revelation came to her. The memory of the slight, pinching sensation she had felt before her unexpected blackout became clear to her, as did everything else preluding that moment. Ears lowering and her lips twitching in a broad snarl, Keaton reached up, massaging her forehead with her palm and growling low in the pit in her throat.

"Fucking fantastic..." she hissed. It was apparent that she didn't enjoy the fact of her ever being someone's or something's puppet, even a psychopathic spider's. Enfolding her chest with one of her arms and still cradling her head, Keaton's growls deteriorated into angry, quiet curses and incoherent grumblings as she struggled to remember everything which had happened during the moments she served as the spider's vessel. Unconsciously, her hand wandered to the back of her neck, feeling for any bites or traces of the aforementioned, infernal arachnid.

To be certain, Aisha wasn't the only one who was furious at whoever was responsible for their possession. Keaton wasn't going to put up with that form of personal violation--and she never would.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Seeing that the two formerly possessed were upright and upset Mel concluded that they were healthy enough for the moment. "Let's get back to the library. If you want to share the fun of squishing spiders I strongly suspect that Bambi and Gina have been overtaken. At least one more spider is loose on the premises. We need to figure out how to make sure this castle is spider free." She sent yet another apologetic look to the shivering frog, "So we can get Jeremiah warmed up and healed up."

[Boog]

"Th-thanks," Jeremiah said, still not to eager to get too close to Mel. Awful nice of her, but it's freaking cold... He was used to interacting with those he didn't trust, and appreciated the help. Still was going to help the spiders get her too, but appreciated it.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Behind some of the bookshelf in the library, Bambi's comatose body, glowed green with fae fire burning around the base of her neck.  Bambi's battle for her own mind was at statemate in which time was on the spider's side.  She had send out little copies of herself has fireflies into her mental image of her tree with many webs and threads thoughout the branches of her mind.  The fireflies burn the many linking threads of the spider to control parts of brain and body.  Too many were spread in her lower lobe area to burnout completely.  But she had kept most for her upper mind from it.  Her time was limited by her strength, and she was tying.  The spider knew it.  Yet, She send a fresh squad of fireflies to clean the webs from her mind's Tree.  Each fly was a copy of herself with a virus to change the spider.  And the spider love to eating her little fireflies

PBH

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog slowed and stopped as he approached the door to Sebastian's room, pausing to stare at the door for a moment. It was uncomfortably silent in the hallway, the sound of his own breathing audible in the space. No sound emanated from the room.
  Taking a deep breath, Cog knocked on the door and opened it, not waiting for Sebastian to respond. He doubted he would get one from the bat again. He left the door open, and spoke to the reclining bat.
"I understand if you want to keep to your...get some rest." he said, mentally checking himself. He was still quite angry with him, and he needed to be careful. Words spoken in anger seldom did any good. He took a breath, and continued. "Neither Mel or I know how to cool down the entire castle."
He stayed silent for a moment, and spoke again. "We...could use some help." he finally said, inclining his head before leaving and closing the door behind him.
He'd not apologize for what he said, although he was perhaps sorry he said it. But apologies accomplished nothing here, and he hadn't said anything untrue. He instead walked down the stairs and to the library, joining up with the others in a few moments.
He kept silent, keeping to himself and his thoughts.

[Stygian]

Sebastian did not look over at Cog. His back turned against the wolf, he kept his eyes on the wall. And he stayed like that when the wolf walked out, his expression solid. For quite a while he thought, laying there in the darkness that he knew so well.
   Then, with a groan, he shifted and got up. He straightened his somewhat rumpled shirt, and then got his shoes on again. And then he walked down to the library.
   The sun was still blocked out of the place, thankfully. No one had pulled the curtains aside yet. And at least Cog and Mel were there. He thought that he could smell the cat from before somewhere too, but she wasn't that much of a concern to him.
   "Right. What is it that you need me for here now?" he muttered, walking in and parking himself in one of the leather armchairs of the place, not too comfortable with being around Mel or Cog as he imagined they did not enjoy his company either. He didn't smell or see or hear much from them at all, but...
   "The spiders aren't my concern. Neither are they yours either, it would seem..." he said, looking at Mel. "And so far we've rid ourselves of seven of them. Now, I would be surprised if there are so many here that we really need concern ourselves. And if we just stick together, those of us who are vulnerable with those who are not..." he muttered, giving Cog just a bit of a glare.

   In another part of the library, the spider on Bam's neck wasn't having too much success with its host. Gina sat beside the cat, looking down at her with a strange and concerned expression as she glowed. Things were really becoming strange...
   The spider on Bambi decided that it just couldn't hold out longer. It would have killed her off, but it didn't think that it had the strength or the opportunity any more. Neither could it leave her as things were. So, it did all it could; it sent out a warning for its siblings, trying to pass on as much knowledge to them as it could before it drifted off to go unconscious, hopefully to die...

[Cogidubnus]

 Walking down the bookshelves and ticking off various titles, Cog pulled one down to start on while he listened to Sebastian speak. Yordin the Strange's Teatise on Elemental Saturation, it said, and the language inside wasn't much less opaque. He sighed as he sat in a leather-covered chair, and began flipping through pages.
He felt Sebastian's glare, catching his nasty look, and it took some willpower not to respond in kind. He merely nodded his head, and chimed in his own suggestion.
"We could wait for the spiders to come to us, yes." he said, resting his head in his hand. "However, getting Jeremiah near a fireplace and flash-freezing the castle, like you suggested, eliminates the possibility that one or two keeps to itself, only to bite us in the ass later. From what you've told me, this Sal probably has enough brains to wait for our guard to drop."
He looked around for Bam. "We need to free the cat too, when we find her. It would be unfortunate to be possessed again after getting so close to freeing all of us."

[Stygian]

"Well, that is all understood," Sebastian said, making a disregarding gesture with a hand and looking to the floor a bit before taking a look at the strangely appropriate book Cog had grabbed. Was the wolf taking to magic that well? Ah, well. If he was, then that was his own business. He had power, perhaps, as all weres did. But he would need practice to match the knowledge...
   "The problem, as I see it, is that I certainly do not have the power to freeze down this whole castle without some serious preparation. Possibly even not then. Elemental magic isn't exactly my... speciality," the bat commented, and then shot a meaningful look to Mel. "Well, maybe I should put it another way; I have the knowledge, but I can't, because of certain circumstances. I had thought that certain others would be better in that department."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel was leaned back in a chair, staring up at the muraled ceiling four stories above, complete with the smears of bat where she had smashed the creatures earlier, and thinking about cold. She spoke slowly, more thinking out loud than responding. "Air is quick to cool, other things less quick. The walls and the items in this building will keep the cold from moving outward." She paused and scowled as she calculated. "It would be faster to wait for winter and open all the windows. What we need is a way to get cold air around the castle rather than waiting for it to move on it's own." She closed her eyes and sighed. Modern buildings were full of pipes and at the push of a button hot or cold air traveled from place to place, but this building wasn't modern and had stood empty for a century and a half. Without much hope of a positive answer she asked, "How do you move air around this place?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Ohohhmrow" Bambi groans as the spider is finally asleep or dead.  Pulling the body of the spider off her neck and throw it far away from her, which just happens to be into the main study area of the library were Mel and the others are talking...

Bambi flops back down on the floor and groans again after the effort to throw the spider away.  Hearing the others, she is not sure if she should be disappointed that her friends didn't come looking for her, or check the library, the last place she was in.

PBH opens one eye to see Gina was safe and somehow glowing.  She smiles a small smiles before she closes her eyes tight against the aches and pains of her neck and body. 

"Grroan" PBH

PBH

[Stygian]

Stygian looked up again, glancing over the ceiling as if one might see the air running through the place, or perhaps the ventilation, with one's bare eyes.
   "The place has central heating, as far as I know. I guess that's how the spiders crawled to the top floor so fast..." he muttered. "If we could imbue some water vapor with the right magic and properties and send it through the ventilation, we could use it as a conduit to channel away the energy and chill down the whole place, like a large icebox. That would let us trap the bugs and frost them down." He tapped his temple a bit, as seemed his habit when thinking. "I suppose that would require a complex circle too, but really, all we should need that's of any significance is elemental expertise with water and cold. When we're done, we can turn the water back to vapor instantly. It's not a hard alchemical reaction."
   The bat traced a finger over the arm of his chair, drawing an imaginary magical circle with the claw of his index finger.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog sighed and nodded at Mel's words, his expression nonplussed. He'd expected as much, but such things could not be avoided. Short of truly epic ice spells, it was the best they could expect.
As Sebastian spoke, however, his expression brightened, and he nodded at his comments, standing and returning to the shelves as he continued to peruse his book. "That might indeed work...it would cool the castle relatively quickly, too. Wouldn't require a very much power..." he said, nodding his head. "Brilliant. Nicely done." he said, making a very shallow bow to the bat. He was still quite irritated with him, but the bat was participating. No matter how much it felt like pulling teeth to get him there.
He placed the book back on the shelf and began walking down the stacks again, addressing Mel. "Do you think you can do that? You are our resident master of ice, after all..." He turned again to Sebastian. "We do have all the goodies needed for alchemical processes, yes? Mercury, truesilver, all that good stuff?"
Taking down another book, he flipped through a few pages and muttered under his mouth. "Let's hope none of the reagents need to be fresh..."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel thought again about the sheer size of the castle. Even if it was just air they had to chill it was still a lot of cold air. And there were places without ventilation that spiders could hide in. They were going to have to overshoot the spider's fatal temperature by quite a bit to make sure all corners were saturated. "It's still more than I have ever tried to cool at once. I'm not sure."

[Stygian]

Stygian snorted. He looked around at all the books in the library, the sketches of magical circles, a piece of intricate brass-like equipment standing on a table, the candles, the magical books opened and laying over tables and floor...
   "Well, that's really understandable, from an elemental specialist," he said so sarcastically that it sounded as if he really meant it. He had noticed that she had gotten quite a lot of what these books had said earlier. "How old did you say you were again? I thought dragons were meant to be powerful." He sighed a bit, and then moved over to a table, getting a paper and a book, and then going over to start writing down some starting calculations for the spell in the doorway.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog raised an eyebrow and slammed his book closed, a little dust flying into his face. He stared holes into the Bat from where he stood, his gaze hidden from behind his shades. He has the nerve to criticize Mel, when it took near death to get him here?, he thought, finding himself growing yet more irritated at the bat.
"You're hardly in a position to criticize. At least she's willing to try." he said, his voice tense.  "She does what she can. Hardly that much could be said for you."

[Stygian]

"I know my limits, wolf. And I try not to push those of others, unless it's needed. You could perhaps use a lesson in that..." the bat commented back, deceptively coldly. "I know I'm not the most likeable of people, but at least I try not to let my temper get the best of me. If I didn't..." He clenched his hand a bit, then looked back to his book. "I don't know if your vaunted swordsman's calm is holding up. You seem to be demanding things of me that you neither have the right to ask, nor I the obligation to fulfil," he murred. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with me at all."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Goh ah Gohess!!" shouts Bambi as she walks using the bookcases for support   PBH slowly comes out from behind the books into the front of library.... Bambi looks like death warm over.

"Sop Sop pit" says PBH and points a finger at the Wolf.   "Oh Grrr"... Bambi is breathing hard and looking angry and frustrated..  After a moment, Bambi goes to Mel and takes her hand and flats it between her own hands and then moves her bottom hand over her top one with an air space between as she pushes Mel's white hand down so that Mel's hand is one floor down.  PBH repeats this hand sandwhich but keeps move Mel's hand lower each time.

PBH looks into Mel's eyes, to see if she understands.

PBH

[Boog]

Jeremiah finally entered the library, having spaced out for a bit. Something was odd. His curse was being quieter than he was used to. No matter. He noticed Bambi's frantic motioning, remembering right before he was about to comment that something had messed with her ability to speak which makes it easier for her to lie, don't you forget. They'll lie just like the frog did all the time to protect himself.
"Erm... Something about kindergarden? Patty cake?" Jeremiah hazarded, "No. Something about Mel and... Layers? Ice and layers. You want an ice cream sandwich? No, wait..." He continued to guess. He had an idea of what she meant but for some reason knew it would be a bad idea to betray the spiders and couldn't tell them.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog frowned and paused for a moment, opening and reading his book to buy a few moments of time while he digested what the bat said. After a while he responded, speaking softly as he continued to read.
"I see. So, you just want to be left alone, correct?", he said. He struggled to keep the edge off his tone. "Understandable. Perfectly fine, in point of fact. I usually like a little solitude myself, for the most part. Nothing wrong with that, by any stretch." He continued, and looked up from his book, his eyes gazing over his shades. "But you are lying."
His voice grew terse, and though he was trying to keep a level head, his calm snapped. "You don't want solitude. You don't want to just be 'left alone'. This isn't your place, like you said. Why not leave? No one is stopping you. You kill people? You haven't killed us, despite your 'logic' to the contrary."
He rubbed his neck meaningfully, and his speech began to get caustic. "If you hated us so much, you would have killed me before. You want to be with people. But you won't." he said, practically hissing his next words.
"Because you're afraid. A coward. Afraid of people, because you, or them, would be better off without you."