Tale as Old as Last Wednesday [Maid IC]

[Lycan 01]

Yuki drags her suitcase into the room and places it next to the bed at the far end of the room. She opens it up, and begins riffling through it. First she takes out a pair of black combat boots, followed by a full-face gas mask. Then she pulls out a serrated combat knife, the sort you'd expect a commando or something to carry.

She studies the knife for a moment, then looks at the other maids in the room, who are probably staring. "......cooking," she deadpans, before returning her attention to the contents of the large suitcase.

[Trobby]

"..." Says Ante, who is the only other maid in the room who is awake. And she's a bit thankful that her little sis was not awake for the very dangerous...."cooking knife".

She sighs, and sets her own bag down beside the bed. It's a small bag, and even then it appears to be fairly empty, but she begins unpacking it anyway. She very quickly puts whatever clothes she has away before Yuki can see them, as well as what appear to be a few pictures. She does not put any of her pictures on any shelves or hang them from any walls.

"So, um...Yuki...since we're going to be rooming together, perhaps you could tell me a little about where you're from?"

[Deme]

Benson

Spoiler

There is a skeleton in the wardrobe.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki continues to shift through her suitcase. "No." Her statement is aloof and factual, not rude or standoffish; it sounds just the same as someone telling what time it is or something akin to that.

She then pulls out a small black box, and pops it open. There are two matching flintlock pistols nestled snugly into the box, along with over a dozen lead bullets and maintenance tools. The handguns are rather high quality, with the wood parts polished with a nice finish, and the metal pieces covered in fine engravings. She studies the pair of weapons for a moment, before snapping the box shut again and setting it on her pillow. "Did I forget the throwing knives?" she mutters to herself as she resumes digging through her suitcase. "No, that's underwear..."

[Benson]

Meridith

Ooh, a skeleton, lots of those back home, mostly used in home decor. She smiled and touched the skeleton in the ward robe. It was just like home.

[Deme]

The skull rattles its jaw around, making clacking noises. While before it was a simple, pure-white and cleaned-up skeleton, now that it has moved, it's clearly more than that...It is some sort of animate skeleton, and it lives in your wardrobe for everyone (Read: Lune as well as Meredith) to see.

[Atreli]

Lune glared at the skeleton. If it would've been just a decoration that'd be fine with her. But an animated one? No thank you! She whirled around to face it, hands spread out in front of her. It only took her thinking of his name to summon him to life.
Rivarian.
A large, very angry, aquatic looking scorpion sprang to life from thin air. It was entirely black with what looked liked ancient writing down it's back and large red eyes. It clicked it's claws togther threateningly and readied itself for attack on the skeleton.

[Benson]

Merry herself was distracted with the moving skeleton and toothily grinned at it. It looked like her old pal Skelly from home. Her eyes were glued on the skeleton that she had yet to register an aquatic scorpion, since Benson is assuming this is happening simultaneously.

"Heya there, do ya have a name?" She asked the skeleton, expecting for a shake or nod.

[Deme]

The skeleton just clacked his jaw a bit. It's not as if he had a tongue or lungs or, in fact, most of the organs needed for speech. He did, however, see the giant beast and scootched himself back further into the wardrobe, cowering in fear.

[Benson]

Well, she wasn't expectin' him to talk, hence the expected head nod or shake. She frowned seeing the skeleton react that way, she didn't think she was scary, in this form at least. It was then Merry turned around and saw the aquatic scorpion. "Hey, you're scarin' the little fellow, shoo your creature away." Then something occurred to her. "Wait, ya can summon monsters? Oh."

[Lycan 01]

Yuki finally finds her throwing knives - three small serrated blades - and sucks them under his pillow. She then finishes unpacking in silence. Once she's done, she takes the combat knife and slips it up her left sleeve - it disappears into the fabric, and a series of mechanically clicks and whirs are heard. After that, she turns to the other maids in the room and flatly states: "Do not touch my things."

That was not a request.

She then decides to head next door. "I wonder how our aquatic associate is doing...?" she idly muses aloud. Once she gets to the other maid quarters, she raises her right hand and knocks on the door, rapping it a few times with her knuckles.

[Trobby]

Ante watches as Yuki walks out of the room, standing up at her bed to straighten out her sheets.

She then walks over to the other side of the room, bends over Yuki's bed, and begins straightening hers out as well, taking care not to touch the knives under her pillow. She then looks over to Hani's bed, which is currently occupied, and therefore cannot be made more tidy.

With everything tidy without touching things she cannot, Ante finally turns her attention to the large wardrobe at the far end of the room.

Curiosity bites hard at her, as she carefully wanders over to it, takes a hold of both handles, and pulls it open.

Spoiler

My luck is zero. Do your worst, storyteller.

[Deme]

The wardrobe's doors turn into wood-fanged jaws that try and snatch at her; the carvings take on the look of an angry face...It appears that rather than a wardrobe, what we have here is some sort of wardrobe-mimicking monster. It wants her inside of it.

(1d6x3)[15]

[Trobby]

Not wanting to be on the menu today, Ante attempts to jump back out of the Wardrobe before she becomes a splinter sandwich.

((Athletics: (1d6x3)[12]))

[Deme]

Ante is now inside the wardrobe. It seems to be saving her for later.

[Atreli]

Lune pats Rivarian on the head and it makes a strange sound that would be seen in the same light as a purr.
" Well at least that musty old skull knows not to bother me from now on unless it wants to ash. "
She said with emphasis to the skeleton.
Upon hearing the door she yelled over her shoulder " Come in!"

[Lycan 01]

Yuki opens the door. She takes one step inside, and immediately pauses upon seeing Lune petting a giant scorpion thing, and Meridith standing next to a wardrobe with a skeleton in it.

"I'll come back later," she flatly states, before turning on her heel and walking out.

Returning to her own room, Yuki immediately pauses once again, after only two steps into the room. Ante was gone. She hadn't followed her out the door, and there were no windows for her to clamber out of. So that meant she was either trying to play Hide and Seek, or something was amiss.

And considering that the other room had skeletons and monster scorpions in it, the latter option seemed very likely right now.

"Ante?" Yuki asks aloud. "Ante, where did you go?"

[Deme]

The Two-Person Room
The skeleton nods in terror.

The Wardrobe

The inside of the wardrobe is very dark -- it appears the back is relatively flimsy, and could be pushed through. There's a bar to hang clothes on above Ante.

[Trobby]

Well, for lack of wanting to physically damage the prince's property, Ante decides to take the relatively flimsy backside as her means of escape, attempting to push on through to the other side.

[Deme]

Ante ends up...In another wardrobe. This one spits her out, ripping her skirt on the way to a much shorter skirt, though still serviceable if she's very careful with her legs...

She is also in a strange and decrepit room. There is a large cauldron in the center, and a long table. Around the room are mysterious items and there's one of those Tesla coils and some odd Rube-Golberg devices and various odd clockwork doohickeys... And a large metal cabinet of some sort, with runes on the outer edges of the door. No one has been here for a long time.

[Lycan 01]

"Ante?" Yuki asks, growing slightly more concerned. She begins to pace the room, looking under the beds. She ignores the sleeping catgirl - she doesn't want to interrupt her sleep, especially since she might freak out about her missing sister. She then checks each of the chests in front of the beds, just in case Ante is hiding in them.

Once she has determined that the other maid is not under a bed or in a chest, the assassin slowly turns her eye towards the wardrobe. "Ante?" she asks, cautiously approaching the large piece of furniture. "Are you in there?"

[Trobby]

As Ante's skirt rips off into a much shorter affair, her long, spaded demon tail pops out from underneath. She looks down, and curses inwardly to herself. Not only is this terrible form for a Maid, but now part of her disguise has been ripped right off!

She tugs the tattered part of her skirt out of the Cabinet door, hoping to salvage it later, and begins wandering around the Lab. Rather than taking a chance with the Wardrobe again, which may or may not be magical as far as she's concerned, she is going to seek out another exit.

[Deme]

The Room

The Wardrobe hungrily opens and tries to nibble at Yuki's hand.

(1d6x3)[15]

The Lab
There is, in fact, a door. It's a fairly ordinary-looking door, and does not appear to be locked.

[Trobby]

Deciding not to take any more chances in the secret lab, Ante takes her exit and runs with it! Er, out of it, rather. You get the point!

[Lycan 01]

Yuki pulls her hand back, and arches her eyebrow. "Oh," she aloofly observes, looking up and down at the apparently sentient furniture. "You ate her, didn't you?"

A few ideas and facts briefly flicker through Yuki's mind. Stabbing it, shooting it, or other violent methods might work, but they'd probably also get her in trouble. Running away was simply not an option - she wasn't a coward, and she wasn't going to leave that poor little catgirl here to be devoured. She also hated the idea of calling for help - she was a bit prideful. But she had one idea she felt would almost certainly work.

"Oh. Oh my," she suddenly steps forward, actually getting closer to the beast. Her eye goes wide, and she begins to almost obsessively look the wardrobe over. "How fascinating. Are... are you mahogany?" A smirk spreads across her face. "I love mahogany."

"And... your finish..." she purrs huskily, raising her left hand towards the side of the wardrobe. "Your lacquer is simply so... alluring..." she purrs huskily, before lightly tracing a fingertip down its side.

"Oh, the things I could do to a piece of furniture like you," she whispers, an almost predatory grin on her face. "Or rather, the things I could do... for you," she winks. "Why don't you give me back my associate Ante, hm? Or at the very least, don't try to nibble on me. If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you..."

She then leans in very close, and whispers seductively: "After all, I've got to change clothes somewhere. In front of or inside of a wardrobe seems like the best place, does it not...?"

Spoiler

Cunning to seduce the wardrobe.

(1d6x3)[18]

[Deme]

Ante
She finds a dark and winding passageway on the other side of the door.

If She Takes It

Spoiler

She eventually comes to a small cellar-type door leading upwards. Assuming she goes up that, she comes out... To what appears to be the outdoors, in a beautiful garden full of roses. There are hedges everywhere, and it appears to be...Forming a maze.

Yuki

...Welp. She has just seduced a wardrobe monster. It wiggles and turns away shyly, and then opens up...To reveal its backing opened and the lab, presumably with Ante about to leave the door, unless my timing is wrong ((Troby's call.))

[Trobby]

Ante is not going to take a chance with the wardrobe. Not now, not ever again. She hurries up the stairs, closing the door behind her. Her spaded tail swishes through, it being the only thing Yuki sees upon entering the lab before the door closes.

Spoiler

Once she reaches the top, and spies the hedges that surround her, she takes a moment to reconsider the merits of being swallowed by a wardrobe.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki smirks. "Thank you," she says to the wardrobe, before leaning in and giving it a quick kiss on the side, which should hopefully be the equivalent to a peck on the cheek.

Her expression then grows very grave and stern. "It seems a demon is pursuing Ante, wherever she is," she mutters to herself. "I should probably stay here, but I can't just leave her to a potentially gruesome fate."

She then looks back up at the wardrobe and smiles innocently. "Hold this portal open for just a moment, please."

She then scurries back across the room, over to the storage chest in front of her bed. She opens it up, and begins to dig through it - making sure that she bends over with her butt facing the wardrobe, giving the wardrobe a reward for its niceness. She even gives a nice shake.

A short moment later, she pulls the pair of dueling pistols and a matching holster from the chest. She quickly straps the holster around her waist and slips both pistols in, before running back over to the wardrobe. "Please don't eat the catgirl, or any other maids who come in. They're my associates," she factually states. "Be back shortly."

And with that, she leaps through the wardrobe portal, and promptly gives chase.

[Deme]

Ante

She hears a voice a hedge over, where the top of a gazebo can be seen over the hedges. The voice is male, pleasant and warm... And in song, at the start of a refrain.

"I have found her, she's an angel
with the dust of the stars in her eyes..."

It drifted out over the roses.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki strides through the lab, intent on pursuing the pursuer.

But then she slows down when her eye falls upon the rune-engraved cabinet.

"Please have some sort of magical anti-daemon weapon," she flatly asks no one in particular as she walks over and flings it open.