Musa's House

[scarplo]

Scarp coughed and resumed picking at the pancakes.

He picked at them. And picked some more... and a bit more...

When all was done, the bacon was gone, but about half the pancakes remained, albiet in a semi-chewed form from all the picking.

"Guess I'm just not that hungry, Musa."

[Musashi]

The kitty sighed and patpatted Scarp on the head. "Okaaaaay, I'll let it go for now. But you gotta eat more later."

Musa cleared the table, then skittered back to Scarpy and held his hand.
"Are you ready to go?"

[scarplo]

The vagabond nodded and rose. "Yup."

[Musashi]

"Okay, this won't take too long~"

Musa held out his free and closed his eyes. After a few moments of silence, a swirling purple and black portal appeared before them. Whoo, convenience!

"Let's gooooo!" The ninja kitty stepped through, dragging the vagabond with him. It was a bit of windy ride, with much swirly-ness, but it went by quickly. In about a minute, they found themselves standing in a dark cave-like laboratory, full of the typical creepy laboratory-type gadgets and vials of liquid and PARTS of.. THINGS in jars.

A chair at a desk twirled around, and out of it hopped Yukimaru.

"Well, this is a nice surprise. What can I do for you, Musa and Musa's-future-husband?"

Cue blushing and stuttering Musa.

[scarplo]

Scarp stuttered for only a moment. "Wha--no," the vagabond shook his head and snapped a solumn gaze on the fae, "that question can wait until the real reason has been taken care of. You can help Sca?"

[Musashi]

"Yes, we can talk /plenty/ about that later~"

Musa went from stutteryblushy-ness to looking as though he would very much like to kill Yuki. And Yuki ignored this, as if it was perfectly normal. ...Which it probably was. >_>;

The dragon-winged bishi began walking a "omg he's totally checking you out, man! :O" circle around Scarplo. Musa's kitty ears twitched annoyedly.

"Sca.. that's the cute little cow girl, isn't it? The one using you for a house?" He stopped in front of Scarp, giving an approving sort of nod. "If she's looking to move out, I do believe I can help you. But I'll need you to allow me into your mind, you hot biscuit~"

And TWITCH went the kitty.

[scarplo]

Scarp's eyes flickered a green and rippled a bit as Yuki went through his speach. By the time the bishi completed his circut, the vagabond was almost glowering.

Still, he didn't lose his temper. Although it was more than a bit of a growl. "Why?"

[Musashi]

Musa leaned closer to Scarp and whispered, "Sorry I didn't warn you earlier. He's kind of... well.. frisky."

Yuki took a seat on the edge of a nearby table. "Becaaauuuse, snugglebunny, that's how I get her out. My assistant and I have to go in and get her, and do some sealing to make sure nothing else comes out, like last time. Don't worry, I won't do anything bad in there, I promise~ Your boyfriend would kill me if I did."

Musa uuunnnleaned and blushed and fiddled with his tail.

[scarplo]

Scarplo relaxed a bit. "I suppose that's about as good of an answer I'm going to get. Understand it's no where near as neat as I left it. Whatever happened to me shattered the order of the place."

[Musashi]

"Oh pish-posh, we'll be fine without order~ And now my lovely assistant will help set you up!"

A light rustling noise came from a corner behind them, and another bishlet walked up to Scarplo. He had apparently been there the whole time without being noticed. The bright white hair and red eyes might have been noticeable if he hadn't been wearing a hooded, totally body-covering pitch black cloak. But one might wonder how they missed the huge scythe he was somehow able to hold up without a problem.

"This is Hitaru, my right-hand man. Isn't he precious?"

The creepy bishi pointed to one of a series of flat stone tables in the middle of the room. "Lie on one of those, please."

Meanwhile, Yukimaru was ushering a worried-looking Musa out the door. "He will be FINE. Go hang out in your room. This is a secret process, you know that~"

[scarplo]

Scarp raised an eyebrow at the scythe, but squeezed the ninja's shoulder. "If I don't like what's happening, you'll hear it."

And then he made his way over a dias. "Besides, after all that, a scythe seems downright quaint."

[Musashi]

Musa seemed a little relieved at the shoulder squeeze and Scarp's words, and allowed himself to be scooted out.

"Oh, and go stop by Hisami's place before you go to your room. I had him make a new outfit for you~"

The bishi turned, knocking the door shut with his dragony tail, and headed through a steel door into another room.

Meanwhile, Hitaru lied Scarp down onto the stone table. Once settled, bands of light appeared from the table and over the vagabond's wrists and ankles.

"A safety precaution, in case of involuntary body movement."

He walked away for a few moments, and when he returned he placed a blindfold over Scarp's eyes. It had a nice smell, too. Like.. aromatherapy stuff. "Please relax now."

A door opened and closed, and Scarp could hear something being set up on a table next to his. Then wet fingertips touched his forehead and began painting. First a few circles, then things that were too complicated to figure out. Finally, something large seemed to hover over him, and the very tip of cold metal touched his forehead, pricking once, just hard enough to cause a very small amount of bleeding.

"And now we're ready! Hope you're ready too, cuddlekins, cause here we go~"

Two hands, one from each bishi, rested on Scarp's head. There was some faint chanting of some spell or other, which attempted to open some nifty mental path of some sort to allow them into the vagabond's mind.

[scarplo]

Scarp tensed at the binding, flinching as he was secured in. The blindfold earned a twitch. The prick clenched his teeth.

Bad memories danced behind his eyes, and as the bishi pair slid though the material boundries to the mental ones, the shadows clung to them like tar.

Frustration. Imprisonment, the cure laying before you, dripping in venom. Wolves slavering at the door. A single broken man before a mountain of corpses. An eye hanging from the skull of a dead man, judging without possible reprieve...

Then the metaphor tumbled away and they fell into a sandstorm.

Scarplo began to shake.

[Musashi]

"Veeeeery interesting, Mr. Biscuit... Hitaru?"

The creepy bishi began tracing shapes in the air with his scythe, cutting through the storm. When he finished, glowing seals surrounded the pair, shielding them.

"And onward we go! We should have brought a lunch with us, you know? This might take a while."

And so on they walked into the sandstorm.

[scarplo]

The sandstorm parted before the sigils, momentary specters of faces, forms, and places shattering against the protective magic and turning back into wind thrown sand. The wind howled obligingly, occasionally carrying some hint of a tune or a half spoken word.

The pair walked in the sandstorm for a time, but with no directions to go by, no landmarks to follow, and very little assurance they were even moving at all, it could be quite some time before they made any progress.

Fortunately, there was a very loud explosion nearby.

Elsewhere, Scarplo's shaking continued. "nnnot... rrreal..."