[IC] The Collector (2) [Closed]

[Scarifar]

Conna'Cel performed an aerodynamic maneuver, turning his body sideways, and flew downward to avoid the blow. The creature was abnormal, just like everything else in the mansion. However, that was only to be expected. He then turned around to face upward and fired another volley of laser fire. "Calculating movements," Conna'Cel said. "Determining course of action." That action was to save his wings from unnecessary damage and gather more info about its fighting capabilities.

Deconstructing his wings, Conna'Cel dropped to the ground and fired another volley of lasers, aiming for the same spot as last time. However, he only fired from his left arm at first. Conna'Cel had calculated the creature's capabilities based on what he had seen so far and set his right arm to fire a second later, aiming for where he believed the creature would move next.

[TheWendil]

Marianne’s one eye of scarlet twitched dangerously at Faira’s words, a sight to behold in on itself. A harsh purple glow emanated form the girl’s hands until something new formed. They looked like a pair of clawed gauntlets, the claws made out of miniature scythes. Each claw crackled with a dark current of power.

The dark dressed girl stood in front of the human with barely a heartbeat registered. She set her mismatched gaze on Faira, eyeing her like up much like a hungry predator. One eye purple, the other red. They peered into the girl’s soul mercilessly and curiously.

“Hmm, perhaps you’re right. Maybe I should help you,” Marianne mused, reaching over and resting a claw on the human’s throat, watching her reaction carefully. “But don’t ever talk down to me again, alright Faira dear?”

The girl gave off a light smile, as if nothing had just transpired, before turning away. Scarlet watched this all, a chill going down her spine. As a vampire, she could attest to how cold this Marianne person made her feel. Gripping her knives, she ignored the sensation that girl gave her and leapt into the battle to give Conna'Cel some support.

The puppet-like creature leapt and bent its body backward, seeming to move around the robot’s gunfire like plastic. It did this for some while before a ray of bullets made contact with its abdomen, creating several smoking holes. Knives were followed next, as Conna'Cel’s prediction proved to be correct, giving Scarlet enough time to react.

The creature shrugged off the projectiles, leaping into the air and spinning its arms in a deadly arc at rapid speeds. It was emulating a buzz saw now and Scarlet leapt away before tossing another line of knives.

[Riven Wight]

Faira gasped as Marianne moved with impossible speed and stood in front of her. The humming ball of flames flared, then shot forward--missing Marianne by a couple inches--as Faira took a slight step back, careful to not step on Rosaline.

She clenched her fists and forced herself to return the woman’s unsettling stare, willing herself to appear fierce and confident, but her face gave her away. She suppressed a shudder and looked away.

She inhaled through her nose and closed her eyes, expecting the worst for a “but” when Marianne placed a scythe-claw against her throat. Her free hand twitched as she resisted the urge to grip Marianne’s wrist. The power crackling on the blade brushed unnervingly against Faira’s skin.

“But don’t ever talk down to me again, alright Faira dear?”

Faira opened her eyes and blinked in surprise. “S-so you’ll help?” she whispered, then exhaled heavily as Marianne turned away.

She felt like she was going to melt into the floor in relief, the sensation of her overeager abilities rising as if to gladly offer that option.

No, she scolded, trying to push the desire away as the other two women joined in the fight. There's gotta be something I can do!

Not wanting to leave Rosaline--and not entirely sure how much of a help verses a hindrance she would be against the morphing beast in close combat--Faira took a deep breath and raised a hand toward the thing. Her brows knitted together as she concentrated on the shadow the creature cast, willing it to obey her. A portion of the shadow darkened and twitched before the black portion pulled from the ground, forming a dark, mist-like sheet that wrapped around the beast in an attempt to blind it as it went after Scarlet.

[shi12]

Rosaline’s eyes narrowed as Marianne threatened Faira once again. This woman was making her furious, and though she knew it was a bad idea she wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. It would put her at risk but she had to get her point across to the darkly dressed woman who seemed to think she was above it all.

A muttered stream of latin left her lips as she focused on conjuring up what appeared to be a large skeletal hand from the ground below Marianne. The fingers were sharp, and looked almost like spikes around her while the palm remained below where Marianne stood. She knew it was probably unwise to threaten her, especially if her hunch about her identity was correct, but Rosaline hated seeing someone threaten the human’s life.

“It is quite unwise to threaten those I wish to protect Marianne. I don’t care if you see me as your enemy or turn on me instead, just stop threatening Faira.” She growled, her glass eyes flashing dangerously as she stared her down. Rose knew it was useless to try killing her, she had seen that the woman could not die. It made sense to her, but nothing was untouchable… and she had a few ideas on what might affect the woman.

The nebula wasn’t paying much attention to the fight, she couldn’t help much in her state. Alexandra though rushed forward, hoping to help. The shapeshifter’s body bent and creaked as it took on a much more useful form. Where she once stood was a dragon, it’s black scales glinting in the light. It roared, charging at the creature with her teeth bared to bite.

[Scarifar]

Conna'Cel quickly backpedaled away to avoid getting struck by the arms of the creature. It was becoming more and more dangerous with every passing second, it seemed. Still, Conna'Cel was not willing to give up just yet, especially since there were others who were still fighting. Conna'Cel continued firing laser bolts while back pedaling, calculating where and when each volley was fired.

Conna'Cel stopped firing as other forces began attacking the monster, including its own shadow and a dragon appearing out of nowhere. Conna'Cel stopped to observe the resulting fight. Some useful information might appear, and Conna'Cel was intending to not miss any of it.

[TheWendil]

“Oh look a skeleton,” Marianne commented with amusement, glancing down below her before looking back at Rose. “How ironic. No, I don’t think I will cease in my meddling with young Faira. I do ever so find it amusing. Now I suggest you stop wasting your powers on me before I go back on my word and just kill you all. And I do mean all of you.”

Alexandra’s sudden actions made the dark girl pause and a knowing grin crossed onto her features. She directed the grin in Rose’s direction, pointing at Alexandra just briefly.

“And if you threaten me again, I’ll make sure you end up like her. Okay?”

She was gone after that, no longer caught in Rose’s clawed trap. Meanwhile, it seemed that the battle against the crooked creature was going well. With everyone coordinating their attacks now, it was beginning to lose both interest and strength in this conflict.

Its buzz arms proved useless as the shadows blinded it from its prey, leaving Alexandra’s dragon form to snap through it with razor teeth. Combined with the onslaught of lasers and hurled knives, the creature hissed out bitterly before something began to drag it asunder into the darkness.

Several ghost-like hands wrapped around its struggling form before forcing it into the ground which now hosted a dark crimson portal. It howled once last time before melting into the floor. A moment later, Marianne appeared once again, smile on her face.

“There. I helped you.”

[Riven Wight]

Faira inhaled as a skeletal hand sprouted from the floor, then looked to Rosaline as she made the connection between the two. Careful to keep most of her concentration on the shadow that succeeded in its purpose, she gave Rosaline a faint smile as the woman defended her, glad to have Rose on her side.

She turned a dark glare to Marianne, biting back an irate retort. She would think messing with me is “amusing.”

She shouted and took a couple frantic steps aside as a dragon barreled past. She gawked a moment at the animal that charged ahead in Alexandria’s place before Marianne threatened Rosaline. Faira held her breath, her glare returning to Marianne as she took a step to stand between the two women, but Marianne broke free of Rosaline’s skeletal hand and disappeared.

Before she could fully register what was going on, ghostly hands pulled the beast down into a portal, the various whirrs and buzzes of its chosen weapons coming to a sudden halt as the portal disappeared, leaving the room in a short, almost stunned silence in the monster’s wake, only a portion of its shadow still lingering on the floor.

The silence lasted naught but a couple frantic beats of Faira’s heart before Marianne reappeared. She let her hands fall limp, and the shadow twitched then flickered from existence as she released her hold on it. She took a deep, shaky breath, and looked to Marianne’s feet, actively avoiding the woman’s gaze.

“Thanks,” she muttered, then looked to the others. “You guys okay?” She called as loudly as her voice would let her. She stepped to the side and glanced to Rosaline, trying to address everyone at once.

[shi12]

If Rosaline had any blood in her doll like body it would have gone cold at Marianne’s threat. The nebula tried to look unaffected though; she knew that showing fear would only embolden the woman before her. Her glass eyed gaze never looked away, completely unaffected by the dragon barreling across the room to join the fight. She was more worried about the terrifying woman in black whom she had just openly threatened. The minute she disappeared though Rosaline relaxed, casting a glance to Faira to make sure she was alright. It was rather confusing how she had tried to step between them, she was merely human yet she stood up for a being that was clearly hard to kill. She smiled politely at her, sort of a quiet thank you for her bravery. Rose would never let her take a hit for her though; she could take a lot more than she could.

Rosaline was rather shocked that Marianne had helped them, free of charge, but she wondered if she did it to thwart Joshua. That in her eyes made the most sense. “Thank you for your help.” She said politely, looking dead on at Marianne.

The nebula glanced around the room, checking on the others and also seeing any potential directions they could go to find the key out of here. That’s when she noticed something. Little Ann was nowhere to be seen, completely and utterly gone. “We seem to be missing Ann.” She almost gasped, wondering what had become of the young girl. Rosaline looked down to the unconscious little Marianne in front of her before attempting to stand. Her damaged legs cracked loudly, but she didn’t let it stop her. Suddenly she fell back to her knees, the cracks more extensive than before. She didn’t know if she could repair them fully yet, she still might need the magic, but she knew she couldn’t walk on them long in this state. It made her feel useless. “Great… I’m worse off than I thought.” She sighed, running a finger over the deep cracks in her porcelain legs. Luckily she could not feel anything lest her entire form would be writhing in pain. “Anyone else want to make the ‘Collector’ suffer?” she practically growled. She had hated Joshua a long time ago, still did, only now with current events and transgressions added to her hatred the man would be lucky if he lived to see the next sunrise. He would pay… once she could walk again that is.

Alexandra had reverted back not long after her initial transformation, just after the disappearance of their foe. She skipped about the room with a childish demeanor, her teddy bear gripped tightly in her hands.

[Scarifar]

Conna'Cel was about to fire another barrage of laserfire, when the creature suddenly disappeared into the shadows. Conna'Cel also noticed strange hand-like apparitions that had emergied from the shadows to drag the creature into the darkness. At first, Conna'Cel was confused. Eventually, though, Conna'Cel marked it as another unexplainable event of the mansion. Conna'Cel also noted that that particular folder was getting rather large, even with how much information was being compressed, and made a reminder to delete any unnecessary information within his memory if his storage got too large.

With the immediate crisis over, Conna'Cel noted what he had learned. The mentally unstable female seemed to possess the ability to shapeshift, though how that was possible was unknown. The creature everyone had fought possessed a variety of deadly abilities, ranging from sawblades in its arms to being much quicker than what would normally be considered possible for just about any currently known animal species. Conna'Cel also made the realization that most of the information he had been gathering, while plentiful, was of limited use. He noted that he had not been facing the same creatures, or even the same obstacles, more than twice, save for the unusual Marianne. If that would be a regular occurance, what was the point? Conna'Cel, despite trying to get answers to his questions, only received more questions. After a brief moment of dealing with the internal crisis, he said out loud, "Error, error. Internal conflict detected. Resolving.... error, unable to resolve. Rebooting." His green visor, which had been lit, dimmed, and he was still for a few moments. Then came the words, "Error. Reboot failed. Unable to resolve conflict with current systems... switching to secondary personality."

Conna'Cel was still as a stature for a moment, then turned his head to look around. "Well, it looks like I'm finally out," he said. Making a spin on his left leg while raising his arms in a cheering position, Conna'Cel said happily, "Ha haaa, it's good to be in charge of this body again. Pity I had to awaken in this hellhole, though."

[TheWendil]

“Fine. Just a little bit shaken,” Scarlet replied to Faira’s question, walking over to join them. No more than a few steps did she witness the dragon that had assisted them just now turn back into the mad and raving girl from before. A shapeshifter then? It was a little disturbing to ponder how a powerful creature such as that could succumb to madness through a mere series of events.

Before she could comment on what to do with Alexandra, the robot begin to short out. No, it wasn’t exactly like he was breaking down, but more like he was changing, shifting somehow. When Conna'Cel spoke next, Scarlet raised an eye at his different speech style and overall changed persona. Wait, could robots even change their personalities?

“Well, uh, it’s not quite the best place to take a nap in,” she answered to the new and improved Conna'Cel. “But at least we have some allies on our side for once…where did Marianne go?”

Indeed, where had Marianne wandered off to? And Little Ann as well? Once again, it was a remainder that things in this place were not as they seemed. A small coughing drew the maid’s attention back to Rose and Faira. The younger Marianne was waking up, blinking awake eyes into this darkened world once again.

“Oh…hello everyone. I heard a funny robot voice just now. Did you hear the funny robot voice too?”

[Riven Wight]

Faira gave a humorless chuckle at Scarlet’s answer. “I hear that.” She glanced to Alexandria, the amazement of her ability of shapeshifting dulled by the fatigue lurking about her body from the mix of excessive adrenaline and frequent use of her powers.
“What?” Faira blinked at Rosaline when she made note of the missing girl before frantically looking around in search of her. She inhaled through her nose and scowled, scolding herself for not noticing it before.
What’d that wretch do with her? Her hands clenched at the thought of Marianne doing something to Little Ann, for once more concerned at Marianne’s absence than presence.
The loud crack of the nebula’s legs made Faira jump and spin around a moment before Rosaline collapsed to her knees.
“Rose!” Faira hurried to and knelt down beside Rosaline, her eyes widening at the unnerving sight of the cracks spreading dangerously through the doll-woman’s legs. She placed her borrowed sword on the floor and moved to place her hand on Rosaline’s shoulder, but hesitated. “Is… is there anything I can do?”
Her fingers balled into fists again and her concerned expression turned to mutual hatred at Rosaline’s question.
“More than anything,” she snarled, flames flickering involuntarily to life and wrapping around her fingers.
Her attention snapped up as Conna’Cel began to speak, declaring an error before rebooting.
What the… His secondary…? She forced her reluctant legs into a standing position, watching cautiously as Conna’Cel looked around. She startled back slightly as the usually stoic robot mimicked a cheerleader, and even laughed. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it.
“Great,” she muttered after a moment. “Another person with a multiple personality disorder.” Hoping the relative cheerfulness of Conna’Cel’s “secondary personality” would hold, she let herself sink back to the floor beside Rosaline with a quiet groan.
With the conscious demand, Faira banished the small flames and glanced around the room. Her gaze settled on Alexandria. “Don’t suppose you could lead us to that--” Her words cut off as the little Marianne began to cough as consciousness returned to her.
Faira scowled, just the sound of the child’s voice making the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.
“You must be hearing things,” she muttered darkly with a hint of sarcasm. “Might want to get that checked.” She took a deep breath as she looked from young Marianne to Rosaline. “We need to find somewhere to rest, I think. Just for a while.”
She quietly hoped that the others would agree, her own aching body begging for even just ten minutes without running for her life or fighting off monsters… if such a thing were possible in such a madhouse.

[drallinix]

Adrian had been thrown into the shadows from the creatures back sustaining a lot of damage. He had fallen unconscious and the two halves of him sat talking once more. Finally it was decided that the angel was to proceed with the group...for now. Standing Adrian emerged from a corner of the room looking scratched, but mostly alright his flaming sword in hand and wings on his back. Nodding to the others he apologized for his disappearance and readied himself to continue their journey wherever that might take them in this hellhouse.

[TheWendil]

“O-Oh.”

Marianne frowned and tore her gaze away from Faira, looking at the ground instead. Unconsciously, she moved over towards Rose closer and sighed. It didn’t look like they would be moving for a long time, or at leas until Rose’s legs healed. So she might as well make herself comfortable now and she did just that, sitting down and bringing her knees up to her chest.

“Hey Miss Rose? Why does Miss Faira hate me? Did I say something wrong?”

The young girl looked up at the porcelain figure with wide, red eyes. Genuine confusion and maybe even a little bit of sadness was there. She didn’t know what she did to always get on Faira’s bad side, even though they had only just met an hour before. Scarlet watched the exchange from the corner of her eye, unease crawling up to her.

For some reason, she felt anger at the way Faira was treating the young girl…but she didn’t know why. Shaking her head to clear herself of such thoughts, she looked to Adrian and crossed her arms. So, he had finally decided to show up again. Well, there wasn’t much that could be done about that she supposed.

“Glad to have you back. We’ll be resting here for a while I guess. Mind helping me search for some supplies? I imagine everyone else is near close to exhaustion.”

[Scarifar]

Conna'Cel started to move his arms and legs, as if testing them to see if they still moved like normal. Conna'Cel was enjoying the feeling of being in control again, especially after having been stored away. Flexing his fingers a bit more, Conna'Cel said to himself, "Yup, definitely back in action."

He then heard a voice asking if anyone had detected a "funny robot voice". Knowing he was the only robot around, as far as he knew, Conna'Cel turned to see who had said that. His gaze fell upon the small girl that was going over to the girl with the cracked legs, while another girl looked a little grumpy. Come to think of it, there were a lot of girls in this group. Not that he cared much, anyway.

Going up to the little girl and the girl with the cracked legs, Marianne and Rosaline if his stored memory was correct, he raised a thumbs up and said, "I can help. I don't feel tired at the slightest." Then Conna'Cel looked up and put his hand on his chin as if reconsidering, and then added, "Well, my battery level is rather low, but that doesn't really correlate to what exhaustion is, does it? At least, the way you guys feel it." Conna'Cel turned his head left and right, then asked, "Where should we start looking?"

[shi12]

Rosaline shook her head at Faira. There wasn’t anything that could heal her legs other than magic which was not the human’s forte. “I just need enough time to regain my strength. My magic is rather limited nowadays.” She sighs. It would not take long, probably just enough time for the rest of them to eat, take a short nap, or look for supplies.

A look of confusion and sympathy crossed her porcelain features when the young Marianne walked over to her. She had not thought of Faira’s comment as mean but it seemed the girl had taken it that way. “Shh, come here.” She hushed, pulling the girl gently into an almost motherly hug. “It’s ok, she wasn’t trying to be mean. We’re all a little edgy right now, I’m sure she did not mean it little one.” She coos. Rosaline tries to cheer her up, unable to do much else.

Alexandra on the other hand looked around before approaching Scarlett and the robot. “The kitchen is just through that door, it’s the safest room in the mansion. There should be plenty of food and maybe some first aid supplies… there’s nothing you could use as a weapon though….” She answered.

The nebula was just about to, politely, order some of them to go get those supplies when a sound startled her. Whatever it was emanated from the staircase. Voices floated down to the room they were in, she was not sure who it was though. Friend or foe?

“Come on! This way, I think I heard others!!” a voice chimed, followed by footfalls. She could only hear one pair of feet, was this person talking to themselves as well? Suddenly a young boy, no older than 19, appeared at the top of the stairs. In his arms was another teddy bear, but this one seemed strange compared to the one the shape shifter carried. Alexandra turned around just as quickly, her eyes widening in shock and utter confusion. “M-Mr. T-T? B-but….” Her eyes shifted from the bear in her arms to the other, unsure if she was seeing things or not.

[rocketrobie2]

Mr.T had arrived back in this house of horrors pretty recently and had gotten aquianted the boy who now hauled him down the stairs. There had been quite a rush to quickly find a way out that the two hadn't even aquianted with eachother. He was about to introduce himself when the boy noticed the sound of voices below. The duo descended down and they encountered a... Interesting group of people to say the least. Before the bear could make any comment on the group he noticed a familiar face "Alexandrea!" Mr.T exclaimed as he leapt from the boy's arms and ran towards Alexandrea with glee but slowed down as he noticed the other bear in Alexandrea's arms. "Whos that?" Mr.T said timidly and slightly saddened.

[Riven Wight]

Faira looked over to Marianne as the child spoke, the emotion in her eyes making Faira scowl. She ran a hand down her face, muttering unintelligibly against her palm as Rosaline soothed the child. Her thoughts again wandered to the missing Little Ann.
The sound of the robot’s footsteps drew her attention, and she quickly sat up. She scooted away slightly, her brows raising in disbelief as he gave two thumbs-up.
“What exactly do you need to… um… recharge?” Faira asked slowly.
She looked over at the mention of food. As if the word was a magic spell, a gnawing emptiness in her stomach called for its notice. She tried to recall the last time she actually ate. But who knows how long I was out for… Her hand clenched at the thought.
Before she could dwell on the topic, footsteps and an unfamiliar voice echoed from somewhere on the upper floor.
She suppressed another groan, gripped the sword, and got to her feet. She raised the sword in front of her defensively as the masculine voice grew closer, declaring he heard others. She stepped closer to Rosaline and Marianne in case the need to defend the wounded woman arose. A lick of flame reluctantly burst to life and traveled down the blade.
She shifted her weight uncertainly when a boy who looked not much older than her stepped into their view, a teddy bear clutched in his arms. She spared Alexandra a quick glance when she addressed the newcomers, Faira’s jaw dropping slightly when the beat-up stuffed animal responded.
A homicidal teddy bear, maybe? Faira’s grip on the sword tightened as the animated bear hopped down the stairs to Alexandra.
“Better question;” Faira began, “who’re you, and what're you doing here?”

[TheWendil]

“You’re so funny now,” Marianne said with a giggle as Conna'Cel approached her, confirming that he was the source of the funny new robot voice. But that brief glimpse of joy was only fleeting as she caught Faira’s scowl. Immediately her confidence shrunk down as she curled closer to Rosaline, avoiding Faira’s gaze for fear of further invoking her wrath.

“But Miss Faira will always hate me,” she said in response to Rosaline’s soothing words, trying to keep from sniffling. “I can see it in her eyes. She hates me…and I don’t know what I did for her to hate me. But she hates me Miss Rose…”

Scarlet had just caught onto the bare bones of Alexandra’s conversation with her, her red eyes focusing in on Faira. For some reason….she didn’t like the way she was treating the young Marianne. For the life of her though, she couldn’t figure out why…turning slowly, she nodded to the manor resident’s words before taking a step towards the kitchen.

Unfortunately, she sensed the presence of yet more people coming towards them and she immediately swung around with a knife ready to hurl. Scarlet’s eyes widened as they were met with a rather young looking boy holding a teddy bear that looked eerily similar to the one held by Alexandra. Lowering her guard down, the maid wondered why there were so many young children in a place like this.

“Mr. T!” Marianne called out excitedly and suddenly, moving away from Rosaline and skipping over to the teddy bear. “Oh it’s so good to see you again! I missed you so, so much Mr. T! And…who are you?”

Marianne looked right at the boy carrying Mr. T.