Avatar of Roundabout
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    1. Roundabout 9 yrs ago

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Is this still active? I'm def interested, if it is!
”Voos.” The strange being suddenly said, then pushed the letter it was holding close to Tova’s face, ”Voos!”

Tova squinted at the letter trying to read what it was showing her. Good? The creature then went over to Goroth and did the same thing, repeating the word, before returning to her. It spoke a long sentence, sounding almost desperate. It was clearly trying to communicate something. Voos and good were keys to solving it, of that she was sure.

”Voos…?” She repeated, uncertain, ”Is that your name? And you are...good? What?”

Tova felt a bit sorry for the ceature, not being able to communicate, but she was honestly lost.
Tova did her best not to lose sight of the creature when it suddenly started moving, first disappearing under the large soft chair, then over to the table where it grabbed something - a piece of paper she hadn’t noticed when she and Goroth had first entered the room - before closing in on the bookcase. Tova made a small ‘eep’ sound as the creature came to a stop in front of her, now carrying an armful of books from the floor. The creature was definitely among the weirdest things Tova had ever seen, with its flowy shape and weird skin, and...eyes? Maybe? No matter what they were, she got the distinct feeling the creature was looking at her. She held her breath, remaining just as still. Then the creature suddenly surged forward, and Tova instinctively put her arms up to cover her neck and face. No fatal injury was delivered, however, and Tova only felt a slight tug on her belt as the creature stole her letter. Tova released the breathe she’d been holding in a slightly hysterical gasp, followed by several more. The creature was gesticulating to Tova’s letter, once again speaking in its strange language.

"You act like you don't understand us, but you seem to understand the letter." Goroth said, "How about write something out?"

Tova quickly glanced at Goroth, who seemed to have relaxed some, apparently deciding the creature wasn’t a threat. Tova wasn’t so sure, but then again she was also close to hyperventilating, so maybe she wasn’t the best judge of character at the moment. Taking one breath and holding it, she counted to ten in her head before releasing it again. Okay. Okay, nice and easy. The creature hadn’t killed her - though it had stolen from her. Rude! - so it was probably fine. It might even be just as scared as she was.

“Y-yeah, that’s-” She nodded and cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure, “That’s probably a good idea. Do you have something to write with?” She asked Goroth, then turned back to the creature, “Um, write?” She gestured with her hand as if she was holding a pen and writing in the air. Now that she’d calmed down a bit she thought the creature actually looked nervous rather than threatening, “Safe, okay? Letter buddies.” She tried to assure, despite still being a bit shaky herself, pointing at her letter in its hand and then made a thumbs up.

“...-to claim bedrooms...apparently!” A muffled, distant voice suddenly sounded from behind one of the closed doors. Tova was barely able to make out the words, her ears twitching, “Supposedly the kitchen is stocked, if any of you are hungry!”

At the mention of food, Tova’s stomach made a loud noise, and she put a hand over it as if that would make it settle down. She hadn’t eaten much of anything while she’d traveled to the manor, other than roots and the occasional mushroom she’d found along the way. Even before that, food had been a constant struggle, never knowing what or when her next meal would be.
Tova winced in response to Goroth’s answer. She should have known family would be a sensitive topic to bring up - it’s not like any of them would be here if they had family to turn to. She sure as hell didn’t want to talk about hers, ”Ah, sorry, I-”

She was cut off when something - or someone? - flew into the room, bumping straight into the wall, before scurrying to hide behind one of the soft chairs. The sudden movement caused Tova to throw herself back against the bookcase with a loud yell, books toppling to the floor around her. Then Goroth stormed fully into the room, sword and presumably murder at the ready, which made her yell again.

"Jwih oce qeagh ijh hub'boch acs heeyh jhe bahjeg ot jwe wouhe'wozs." The thing behind the soft chair rasped in a strange voice, which made her hair stand on end. It also waved a familiar letter.

"The hell is it saying?" Goroth asked.

”How am I supposed to know!?” Tova said, still plastered against the bookcase and doing her best to push down her panic. Managing a full deep breath, she then added, ”It - it seems to have a letter, though. Like us. Um...Hello?” She said to the creature, ”Are you...Friendly? Do you understand us?”

Goroth, apparently lacking any sort of self-preservation, started to approach the creature.

”Stop it! It’ll bite your head off!” She urged in a low voice. She would go and try to physically stop him, but if he wanted to act stupid he was free to do so on his own. She felt more safe trying to become one with the bookcase.
"You like exploration?"

The orc - Goroth - asked, clearly indicating for her to go in first. Tova fidgeted for a moment, indecisive. In her heart, she did indeed like exploration, more so than what her village had deemed wise. But that inclination had also been what had gotten her burned in the past. Who knew what lied behind that door? Only one way to find out, her heart said, while her mind insisted on poisonous gas or faun-eating monsters.

Then again, she already met an actual faun-eating monster, and the worst thing he had done was act a bit gruff. With that in mind, she nodded and answered, "Sure." Trying to come off as more casual than she felt.

The doorhandle was cold and didn't make a sound as she carefully pulled it down. She paused to throw one last look at her companion - making sure he didn't ditch her - before inching the door open and peeking inside. When nothing immediately jumped out and tore her face off, she opened it further and let it slide fully open to allow Goroth to also see inside. She took a few steps forward, her hooves clacking on the polished wood floor. Past the door was a spacious room - larger than a room had any right to be, honestly - with a table, chairs and a few other strange chairs that seemed to be clad in some kind of fluffy, soft material. She walked further inside, taking everything in in awe, "So this is what human houses look like inside, huh." She said, mostly to herself. She walked to the strange chairs, pressing her hand into the soft material, and was fascinated by the way the fabric almost swallowed her hand whole. It was like a straw stuffed mattress but formed into a chair. Leaving the strange furniture, she was drawn to the bookshelf, studying the different colored spines of the books, all adorned with a neat row of letters. She traced one with her finger, sounding out the letters carefully. She could read passably well, but the education in her village had mostly been verbal though tales and songs passed down from generation to generation.

She turned back to Goroth, giving in the to the need to fill the silence by saying something, less it turn awkward, "Looks pretty neat, don't you think? And no signs of humans yet! Or, well...other than those other people. But they can't be human, can they? The letter was pretty clear on that, right? Maybe they're hiding their fur under their clothes. Oh, or maybe they're tiny orcs! Your long-lost cousins or something." She said the last part with a slightly nervous laugh, hoping Goroth would take it for the joke she meant for it to be.

@Conscripts
My cat seems to be on the mend, so I'll try to get a post up asap! Sorry for any inconvenience!
My cat is sick so i won't have the energy/focus to post until she's better. Hopefully it'll only be a day or two. Just wanted to give you all a heads up.
@Cotton How much can we freestyle about the interior of the manor? For example, if Tova opens the door they're in front of rn, can I go off of what you've said of the interior before, or should I wait for you to describe it? I'd be more comfortable leaving it to you, but then there's only so much I can do to push the story forward with each post while we're still at the exploration stage. I assume shorter posts are acceptable in these kinds of situations?
@RedXIII
I'm basing the part in my post that adresses Marrok on that animals feels a kinship towards him. Tova isn't an animal, but she has strong animal instincts, so I thought it would be fun to play around with that :D If you don't like that concept I can remove that part.
@Conscripts @RedXIII

It was true that Tova wasn’t particularly keen on spending the night out in the rain. Not that it would’ve been the first time she’d been forced to sleep without shelter in the last two years that she’d been living on her own. She’d been lucky enough to find a dry cave to stay in for the first few months of being alone, but after an unfortunate encounter with a bear she’d been forced to leave. Since then, she’d slept wherever she could find and never stayed in one place for too long. The prospect of having roof over her head had been one of the reasons why she’d decided to go to the manor, so turning back now when nothing bad hadn’t even happened yet was indeed kind of stupid. The orc’s advice of staying was her best bet, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

The orc left the main entrance and started walking down the side of the building. Tova hesitated for a moment, wondering if it would be better to just go inside, but then looked inside the now unobscured door and was reminded that the foyer was still filled with what to her looked like a bunch of humans and a giant lizard. And let’s not forget the walking dead who had disappeared somewhere further inside the building. No thank you.

Though, as she swept her gaze over the occupants of the foyer, it caught on one of them – the man with dark hair. Friend, her instincts whispered, to her great surprise and dismay. Oh hell no. No human was a friend of hers and she’d learned that the hard way. She’d thought that was one thing she and her instincts agreed on, but apparently not because it was insisting that the man was trustworthy. Based on absolutely nothing. Tova glared at him, concluding that he must be casting some kind of spell.

That definitely sealed the deal on not going inside, so she instead hurried after the orc. Who she was getting tired of calling ‘the orc’, so once she’d caught up, she asked, “So what’s your name? Mine’s Tova.”

As they walked, she kept a watchful eye through the ground floor windows.
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