#asksunkori

“Would you still like help in finding that fox plushie?”

"Ah?" The mage paused in her reading and looked towards the source of the voice, blinking blankly at the blue-haired elf opposite her before she realized who she was talking to.

"Oh! You were the music box, right? Sorry I couldn't understand you, earlier." Lyca smiled cheerfully as she adjusted her glasses, before flapping her hand with a laugh when the girl's partner offered to stay back. "It's fine, it's fine -- it shouldn't be too hard to find a toy fox now that most of the other guests seem to have turned back. Thank you, though." There was a short pause before she stuck out her hand with a slight grin.

Uro's savior gazed at him before it started chewing the top of his head. Quickly, Uro pushed the ghost away in response.

"P-please don't do that. We h-have only just met."

He turned around, looking at his savior's round empty eyes.

"B-but if-"

"..."

Uro took a quick glance at his savior. He was very confused at the sudden change. It appeared much smaller.

That is strange... wasn't it much bigger before?

He also noticed he had his clothes back on.

"Oh. It seems I must have changed back. It felt rather chilly being a toy."

Uro wondered what could be the cause of him transforming. A paper wasn't used, so how was it possible for him to go back to normal? His questions were soon answered when a letter had appeared in his hand. It addressed the next event and his new partner, who went by the name 'Cuan'.

"I see.. we can return to normal... so there must have been a time limit to how long we were transformed."

He sighed with relief.

"Well it would be inconvenient to be stuck as a toy for the whole time.. but if I was changed back due to a time limit, then that must mean a paper from a partner was not used."

He looked back at the ghost.

"Ah.. I must apologize then, it appears you turned out not to be my savior after all."

He felt a bit disappointed. This had mean his actual savior had not come to his rescue. He was abandoned by the real one.

The ghost lightly tapped him.

"bye"

Right.. now that I'm not a toy anymore, it's time to get out of this dark basement.

Uro still had some questions as to why this ghost had came over to him, if it wasn't his partner. But he appreciated that he wasn't alone during this turmoil.

He leaned over and lightly smooched the ghost's head.

"Well, thank you for keeping me company. That was very thoughtful of you. I suppose you are still my savior, in a way."

He bid farewell to the ghost and went on to look for his next partner. How would he go about this though?

Maybe I should ask if anyone knows a person named Cuan. Some people have already introduced themselves to others, maybe they'll know.

Of course, her problems were solved for her when the marionette was suddenly picked up. Tori reeled back in surprise, before letting out an indignant bark-squeak as she bounced forward, invisible hackles raised. It wasn't until the giant spoke that the fox calmed down, tail lowering as she shifted out of a combative stance.

After a moment of observing the woman, Tori padded to the stranger's feet, hoping she'd be able to help Ferghus. She certainly sounded like she knew what she was doing--

"This has got to work. I hope it does."

--then again, maybe not. At least she untangled the poor puppet from his wires.

- oOo -

While awaiting a reply from the toys -- she wasn't exactly sure what she would be waiting for, since she couldn't understand them even if they spoke -- Lyca started in surprise when a voice suddenly spoke up from beside her.

"Pardon me,"

"Ah, sorry," she managed out, shifting to allow the newcomer some space -- before realizing there was another toy nearby. "Go ahead..?"

"I can also help you find yours, if you’d like,"

The mage's eyebrows rose at his offer. "That'd be wonderful, thank you," she replied, grinning in return as she nodded her head.

Seeing how much care he was taking in supporting the multi-colored marionette, Lyca couldn't help but wonder if he was a puppet-user, too -- Tori certainly seemed to act the same way towards her own puppets -- before blinking as a couple people came from out of nowhere and gave scraps of paper to the snowman and music box.

Well, it was certainly getting a bit crowded over here -- and it would be especially so when the toys transformed back into their normal, not as small forms.

Uro observed the other toys from a distance. He seemed more sure now that most of the toys here were indeed transformed guests, after witnessing some.. changes. He wondered if he could be able too as well, but he wasn’t sure when. Apparently, the non-toy guests had a piece of paper that they would put on top of a toy to change them back, which had happened a few times.

But what were those papers?

He didn’t know for sure.

Were there specific requirements? Did every non-toy guest have one? I did notice them pass by some of the toys… looking around the room as if they were searching for something specific…

He had a feeling that a toy was connected or partnered up with someone who had a paper for them, and that it can only work for that specific toy. So there’s someone out there that had a paper for him. Someone out there who could be his savior, but they haven’t showed up at all yet, so he wasn’t sure who it could be. It had been many hours and some of the toys seem to have found their saviors already.

Close by, he noticed a ghost was staring at him. The ghost seemed familiar, he had seen these around mostly with Millitians, but this one had accessories.

What was it doing here without it’s owner?

The ghost suddenly came up to him and patted him a few times. Uro started to worry, wondering if the ghost was going to spin him like that spinning thing. Maybe if he stood still as he had been doing, it will go away.

"Soft"

The voice was small and quiet, he didn’t know these things could talk. At a closer look it did seemed pretty adorable, he could see why people had these around.

The next moment was surprising for Uro. The ghost had decided to hug him. 

"Cute"

"E-excuse me!? mE??? CUTE???" Uro had said this abruptly aloud, he even shocked himself a bit because he thought he couldn’t even speak. Could the ghost be able to hear him though? The non-toy guests couldn’t communicate with the other toys from what he observed, except for that one interesting pair, that wyvern girl and block set.

He turned towards the ghost, feeling flustered. After a moment of recollecting himself, he wondered why the ghost had suddenly came to him. He saw it playing around with a spinning thing for awhile at the other side of the room, yet it came all the way here. It wasn’t technically a transformed toy either… 

Wait….

Could it be?

Uro carefully took one of the ghost’s nubby hands and asked,

“Oh.. Finally someone is saving me!” she looked at the girl, but the girl walked right past her, without even looking at her. She finally reached a miniature locomotive, and crouched at it. All of a sudden, the locomotive turned into another girl! “What!?” yelled Yasu. “These toys are, HUMANS?” she thought to herself. “Does that mean that I’m.. also a toy..?” This would explain greatly why she couldn’t move.

  She looked around, more people were coming in, and toys were turning human. She yelled, for someone to notice her, but no one did. Everyone kept walking past her, as if she didn’t exist. “I don’t know what I am so far.. but I need to get out of here..” She kept yelling, and yelling, “Help! Hello! Someone!”

  After the strange occurance of seeing a lady disappear before his eyes, Haru decided to seek out for his so called “locket partner”. Wrapping the veil around her arm, she reads the paper once more. “Basement.. hmm,” she had no idea where to look for a way to reach the basement. Suddenly, she heard a loud explosion, she looked around and saw a little girl made a hole into the ground, Haru tried to reach it, but the hole was closing itself.. She heard a second explosion, which looked closer to her, she ran once again, to reach that one. Once there, she jumped down into the hole, making it to the basement.

    After a rough landing, Haru looked at the surroundings. There were a lot of toys, but nothing quite like a locket. She could see a Golem being nibbled by a ghost.. Two puppets and some plushies. She could see people other than her walking around, picking up some of the toys and seeing the toys transform before her own eyes. Now all she had to do was to find the locket. She kept looking around, where she heard some music, she went to look, but it was only a music box. That was no where close to a locket that plays music.

    While walking around, she almost stepped on something shiny. She stopped and picked it up. It was the locket! “Oooh, what a pretty locket!” she exclaimed out loud. She put it around her neck, all mesmerized.

Finally, a young woman with navy hair picked her up. “Oooh, what a pretty locket!” said the navy-haired woman. “Locket, huh.. so that’s what I am?” She tried to talk to the woman, but she did not seem to hear her. She just kept touching the locket, looking at it. “She can’t hear me it seems..” Yasu thought.

    Suddenly, the woman took the locket and put her around her neck. Yasu, confused yelled at her “What do you think you’re doing! Be careful, I’m a human just like you!” Obviously not hearing Yasu, the woman looked surprised for a second, grabbed a piece of paper and stuffed it atop of the locket.

    Yasu felt her body changing, was she returning to normal? She felt her locket form float a bit and then she started feeling her arms and legs again, but wait.. she was in midair. She collapsed over of the navy-haired woman, finally in her human form. “What did you do?!” promptly asked Yasu to the woman underneath her.

  “What did you do?!” yelled the orange cat, after she fell on Haru. She had suddenly transformed as Haru put the paper on her. Well.. that was strange. “I didn’t do anything,” Haru responded. “I simply helped you get back to your human form.”

  Haru froze for a moment. She took a good look at the person who just materialized from the locket. It was HER! It was the girl who KISSED HER AT PROM! HER VIRGIN KISS! “Oh my god oh my god oh my god” Haru repeated in her head, jumping up on her two feet. “YOU, YOU!! YOU’RE THE---” she stopped and panicked around for a little bit, making weird screeching noises. She saw Yasu stare at her with the weirdest look on her face. She took a deep breath and calmed down. She wouldn’t know who she is right now, given that she transformed to a female. “Oh.. I’m sorry” she cleared her throat before speaking again. “I, huh.. I mean I saw you upstairs, our eyes met before you simply vanished into thin air. You gave me quite a fright!”. Haru gave a hand to the lady, who was still kneeling, to help her get up. After helping her get back on her feet, Haru realized she had the lady’s veil around her arm. “Oh, right! This must be yours,” she expressed, as she lightly put the veil back onto the cat lady’s head. “There, now it’s back where it belongs.”