Sorry, I've been busy preparing to move and pack, I move in a week in a half. Sorry again about that, I try to get a post up tomorrow or at least this weekend!
Ai has seemed to have calmed down. Which was a relief for Ryoma, he couldn't handle an angry or stressed out girl, he could barely handle his own stress. But Ryoma noticed the subtle fragility to her smile. It's a show, but Ryoma will not pry it off, a smile no matter how forced is better than dread.
"Y-your not the first person I made scream like that..." Ryoma quietly joked, but it was true he made classmates scream by surprising them and them assuming he was going to kill them, Ryoma hated it. Ryoma nodded at Ai's insistences of helping her up, Ryoma placed the bow over his shoulders and let it hang off him.
He gave Ai a firm yet gentle hand and helped her up. He was as slow as Ai needed him to be to get back up. Once she was up, Ryoma let go and awkwardly stood there as he waited for her to say something. But he decided he needed to talk first for once as a question arises from his mind which took awhile to filter from all the emotions he is feeling since he arrived here.
"How did we get here?" Ryoma asked Ai, "D-do you think it has anything to do with the robots people were talking about?"
The arrow struck true. But instead of a blood thirsty growl or a howl of a beast, Ryoma heard the scream of a human. A feminine scream at that, it stood out from the passive yet prevalavent screaming in the distance. Ryoma studied the shadow in a rising panic as he realized he gambled the safety of a person's safety. It made his already heavy stomach even heavier with guilt alongside his sense of dread and fear.
Ryoma ran towards the shadow, seeing in better detail that it's actions are too human to be a monster or ghost. When Ryoma was standing above the fallen shadow a few feet away, Ryoma realized it was a follow student, Ai Hanazawa, a follow third year. Once Ai seen that it was him, she calmed down slightly and asked if it was him her tone seemed to carry a hint of a plea in it as if asking if it was really him, that tone made him realized she might not be the real Ai Hanazawa. Nobody is ever happy to know he exist, maybe the demon is trying to trick him by pretending to be human. But for now Ryoma nodded his head, even with his worries of her being a demon in disguise, he still feels guilty for shooting an arrow so close since she's acting so human.
Her fearful energy started to die down and annoyance seems to takes its place, which he couldn't fault her in. He'd be mad too if somebody shot an arrow at him as well. "S-sorry." Ryoma meekly apologized. "I-I thought you were what was causing that screaming..." Ryoma added in, while it was an excuse he didn't expect to be forgiven so easily. Ryoma awkwardly shifted from foot to foot unsure of what to say next, "D-do you need help getting up?" He decided to ask if she needs help since he made her sprain her ankle from the looks of things. A demon would be easier to deal with than talking to a classmate he nearly shot, he underestimated his social anxiety.
When Ryoma turned the corner, and seen no monster nor spirit, he let out a small sigh of relief, but yet his stomach was twisting and turning and his mind was clouded with an aching pain as the dulling yet endless screaming went deeper and deeper into his head as if it was driving an ice pick into his ears and twisting it around violently in his head.
Ryoma lowered his bow and loosen his grip on the arrow and bowstring. A chill went down his spine as Ryoma could feel a small breeze blew past him from the hallway he just left. Ryoma let out another worried sigh and made his way forward with the bow and arrow ready for any possible dangers.
Suddenly, Ryoma seen a movement of shadows ahead of him, he held his breath after he let out a small yelp like noise and pointed his bow and arrow at the direction of the shadow. It looked like the shadows was by the classrooms, if Ryoma stays quiet they might not sense him, but in ghost stories, the shadow will notice him nevertheless even if he stays quiet, Ryoma out of his best judgement, decided to let loose an arrow and aim at the door frame it is by. If it's a person he can say he thought they were something else, but if it's not, well, he's wants to make the first move.
Ryoma lifted his bow to eye level and pulled the arrow and string back and launched it forward and it aimed right and true at the nearby door frame, the sound should be loud enough for the shadow to notice it, Ryoma secretly hopes its a person, at least a misunderstanding better than the source of the screaming, just slightly.
Mikhail was surprised when the cat understood each and every word that escaped out of his mouth like the bulls in Running of the Bulls, normally the people trampled in this metaphor are people's ears, but it would seem cat ears are immune to vocal bull trample. The cat anwsered his question about how the water stays on the ceiling with a rather obvious answer to the cat themselves, but was contextless for the boy as no such machine existed back in his world. Well Mikhail thinks he in a different world since no such machine existed and if such a machine existed the laws of physics would be different ever so slightly, also the fact that there's a talking cat was in front of him which is biologically impossible for a cat to even mimic human language and to such a degree that the cat spoke helped with his theory. Or he could be dreaming, or in his case hallucinating from hitting his head from the fall. But that last thought didn't sit well for him, so he just going to say he's in a new universe where the laws of physics are different and where cats can cat freely. That somehow sits well with him, but never mind all that, the cat said this place is the water reservoir for the other districts which might explain all the bronze walling, but he's not sure about all the pillows.
The cat spoke up again, this time asking about his hair, which to the cat looked like cotton candy, Mikhail giggled a bit at that, he gotten that a few times at class. "heheheh, it's not cotton candy! It's just my normal hair, my mom helped me changed it to this color!" Mikahil laughed, half his laughter was from Howl's goofy smile, it reminded him of the Cheshire Cat, but yet he had Howl's name, maybe the cat is a wizard like his name sake?
"Uh, Howl? You wouldn't happen to have a moving castle would you?" Mikhail innocently asked the cat. This place was already strange so a moving castle wouldn't be too strange for the cotton candy haired boy right about now. And honestly Mikhail was always jealous of young boys and girls who got to go and have mystical adventures though strange lands and meet fantastical people and beasts.
Mikhail smiles broaden at the notion of going on a magical adventure though this land of talking cats and floating water held in place with science defying machines! He could do without the damp pillows though Mikhail could barely contained his excitement at the prospect of a grand adventure!
The air felt like smog as he breathed it in, it made his chest heavy physically and mentally with anxiety and fear. With closer inspection of the blood like substance oozing down the walls like freshly coat pain, luckily it hasn't rained down from the roof as of yet, but he should keep that to himself or else that fear will be proven reality .
Ryoma pulled his free hand closer to the bow string after he pulled a lone arrow out of the quiver. The constant screaming made him feel anxious and sick to his stomach as each new scream start up again. With the constant noise and heavy air, it made him feel sick and was giving him a headache. But he has to keep moving. And hopefully there's others here with him, at least for his sake, he didn't like the idea of others being here, but even a kind heart will ask for companionship in hell.
Ryoma glanced down both ways, making a quick judgement call. He decided to go to his left. Everybody picked right and if a demon is hunting him down, of course they would be waiting down the path their victims would most likely go down of. Ryoma took in another heavy breath and made his way leftwards and went down the damned hallway alone trying to ignore the constant screaming, but he couldn't, it was driving him mad with fear. When Ryoma was close to the corner he pulled at his bow string and readied it in front of him, preparing for the worst for whatever he should face from that corner. He hoped for nothing, he wishes it another prisoner of this place like him, he dreads if its the cause of all that screaming.
Ryoma was deep in thought when the world around him suddenly changed. It looked like something out of a horror movie, with the darken atmosphere and blood like splatters on the walls, when Ryoma scanned the field in greater detail, the targets still had the arrows Jin and himself had shot into them, the red liquid seems to ooze out of it like a piecing wound. Ryoma felt nauseous looking at it. Ryoma felt fear and dread at the pit of his stomach.
Suddenly, shrill screams could be heard from somewhere from within the school, Ryoma's spine tingled and his blood turned cold. His legs were stiff and unable to move to even shift his weight around. Ryoma's hands tightly gripped onto the bow so tightly that his hands and knuckles were becoming numb and white.
Ryoma stood there paralyzed with fear and confusion for several minutes, or it felts like minutes it's impossible to tell time in this strange place that looked his school. Ryoma has heard of ghost stories where victims are trapped in a nightmare version of a place they knew and must escape by tricking the spirit or demon into letting them go. Ryoma would say such stories are silly nonsense but right now when he suddenly appeared in such a place, he couldn't help but believe in those stories. It's more believable than a prank or a hallucination, to him anyways. He has to leave, since in some ghost stories, they're said to hunt down the victims until they trapped themselves in a room without any escape routes, and the archery field lacks any such escape routes besides the entrance.
Ryoma let out a long sigh which finally his legs relaxed ever so slightly and were finally able to move. Ryoma grabbed several arrows to refill his quiver and he checked his bow, which seemed to be in good condition, at least good enough to defend himself if some monster comes out and attacks him. Ryoma walked to the door to leave the room, yet his hand hovered over the handle for a few moments, before steeling his nerves and pushing the door out of the way and he walked out of the archery field.
The hallway didn't look any better. Ryoma started to regret his decision to leave the archery field. But it's better to be out here and able to escape than the archery field where he's trapped. But that didn't make him feel any better.
Mikhail was resting on his top bunk bed after a long day at school. He had exams all days and he felt pooped, exhausted, enervated even. But that last one might just be an exaggeration. But he really did feel sleepy as his eyelids tried their best to stay open, but they felt heavy like an ocean of pressure are keeping them shut. And the dam that was his consciousnesses was being crushed under the immense force of his sleepiness. Mikhail let out a huge yawn as he sat up, the young boy looked around his room. It was still early evening as the sunrays were slipping though the curtains hanging over his window, and the digital clocked was shining 5:56 PM at him with it's LCD blue lights. Mikhail let out another yawn, which caused his eyes to water, which he promptly wiped away with the palms of his hands. Mikhail after wiping his tired tears decided to see his mother, who should be relaxing in her bed about now after picking him from school, Mikhail crawled to the ladder of his buck bed, he turned himself around and slowly made his down each ladder, half way down Mikhail let out another yawn, but suddenly the loud sound of something crashing into his window shocked the young boy, which caused him to lose his grip on the ladder and as he was falling backwards he flings his arms all around to find something to grab onto something... anything. But his flinging around caused him to lose his footing on the ladder and he was falling off the bunk bed. In a moment Mikhail could only let out a soft confused "Oh no."
Mikhail let out a soft tired groan as he felt himself awaken from his scary dream. He dreamed he was falling off his bunk bed, maybe his dad was right about not keeping it. Mikhail turned to his other side as he felt that the side he was sleeping felt cool and wet, he does while sleeping in the summer. But yet, when he turned around the other side felt just as damp and cool, which caused himself to let a confused murmur before patting the bedding in front of him, but it didn't feel like his bed, it felt like a large collection of throw pillows, Mikhail opened his eyes slowly and he sat up, finally getting a good look around the area he found himself in. It wasn't home he knew that that much. It was a small room with copper walls which had strange symbols on it that he never seen before, Mikhail couldn't locate the light source, as there was no lamps or any windows. But strangely enough the roof of the room was covered in a thick layer of water, as if it was a puddle, but stranger still was that there seemed to be no glass or plastic keeping the water from falling down on the pink haired boy and the damp pillows surrounding him, Mikhail couldn't help but let out a soft gasp at the sight, a million possibilities of how that's possible is running though his mind, his mind was so preoccupied that he barely noticed the black cat. But yet when the Black cat spoke up Mikhail's attention focused on the black feline tenfold compared to the lake on the ceiling.
"H-hello...Yeah, I think so...Nice to meet you Howl...My name is Mikhail Fox, don't worry about my last name I'm not really a fox." Mikhail spoke politely holding back his questions until the cat was done talking, it's rude to talk over somebody else, even if said person is a cat and that should be impossible. But once Howl was done talking Mikhail's curiosity took over. "Wow~ I neverseenatalkingcatbeforeitshouldbeimpossibleduetohowyourlungsandvocalboxesaredeveloped differentlycomparedtohumansorevenbirdswhichsomecanbothmimicandunderstandthesoundsthey'remakingalsodoyouknowhowthewaterisfloatingontheceilingmagically?" Mikhail was speaking so quickly that his words were running into each other and amazingly he did it all in one breath but yet he took a sigh then he talked again. "wheredidyousaywe'reatagain? compassdistrictoneright? ... Where is that?"
1: "I never seen a talking cat before it should be impossible due to how your lungs and vocal boxes are developed differently compared to humans or even birds which some can both mimic and understand the sounds they're making also do you know how the water is floating on the ceiling all magically like?"
2: where did you say we're at again? compass district one right?"
"Salutations, I am exhilarated to make your acquaintance!"-Mikhail Fox
Name: Mikhail Fox
Age: 6 and three fourths
Hometown: Vancouver, Canada
Description: Mikhail is a boy of average height for his age, standing at 42 inches, and he weighs a paltry 44 pounds. He's Japanese American, and his hair is fluffy and cotton candy pink, his bangs reach just below his eye brows and the back is down to his neck, it is naturally dark brown. Mikhail's eyes are dark brown. He wears bright colors picked out by his mother every morning. He's still a child so while he's not the strongest or fastest, he has energy to spare which most of the time he spends on reading books or climbing on school desk. One segment of hair is especially curly due to him playing with it when he's tense or stressed which has been a problem lately so it's almost as curly as sheep wool.
Personality: At a glance Mikhail seems like a regular child, he's amiable, excitable, kind and curious. Yet, he shows a distinct lack of social awareness, which is stemmed from his young age yet very high intelligence. Mikhail has the intelligence of somebody twice or thrice his age and it shows which how he speaks, he uses big and complex words which he feels convoys his feelings better then more simple but general words, he also has the problem of speaking as fast as he thinks, which is pretty fast. But's he still a child albeit a smart child. He's naive, lacks emotional development, easily scared, and lacks world experience for emotionally complex problems and dilemmas. While his words are complex, he is an exceedingly simple person, he acts how he feels, he tells how he feels, and he doesn't hide how he feels. Mikhail values friendships and family more than anything else, but yet he has a hard time forming bonds due to young age and intelligence. Mikhail is a kind child, he'll help classmates with work, he'll take care of a baby bird that fell out of it's nest, and even help his mother to bed when her illness acts up. His kindness is as prevalent as his intelligence, but he still has his moments of selfishness, especially when he's thirsty, hungry, tired, or scared.
History: Mikahil is the only child of the Fox family. Even as a baby, his mother's health of failing, and his dad was often away off at work to pay for his wife's medicine. Due to his mother's inability to leave the house for very long, Mikhail was home schooled. But he showed intelligence beyond his years, by the time he was four he could read at a college level and by five he could do high level math and chemistry. Mikhail's mother wanted him to go to school because she felt she lack the ability and resources to truly develop her son's potential. So when Mikhail was six, he took a test to see what his school level is, which was 11th grade. After a month of meetings Mikhail was allowed at a prestigious High School. Mikhail was worried when he first started out at high school, but many of the students and teachers were nice and polite, as many of them were curious about how such a young child started near the end of high school. It's been half a year since than, and he's now comfortably at High school after students and teachers cooled down from the excitement. But sadly Mikhail's mother's health is starting to fail. So Mikhail has to both help take care of his mother and do well at school, which the latter is easier than the latter. While Mikhail loved his mother and going to high school, he has been feeling stressed out due to his worry for his mother as well as the daily grind of going to school and then coming back to help take care of his mother. He wishes he could take a short break and have fun like he did before all this happened.
