#breezieskies

"If you’re looking for a fox plushie, I think my partner is holding him..or her."

Blinking out of her amused stupor, the elf tilted her head towards the winged Milletian with a grateful smile. "If that little fox turns out to be my partner, you just saved me from digging through that," she commented cheerfully, gesturing with one hand towards the pile of plushies as her other drew out a slip of paper.

"Sorry for the delay," she murmured towards the fox, gently placing the paper on its head with an expectant, bated breath. She wasn't disappointed when the stuffed animal disappeared in a cloud of smoke, though she /was/ surprised to find the familiar image of her friend when it dispersed.

"Tori?"

- oOo -

The Soul Star raised a hand to her cheek, sighing in relief as the familiar feel of her mask met her fingers.

"...Caen," the younger female greeted softly, hand falling to brush against the control bars holstered on her hip. Once she was sure both items were in place, the girl sighed again before relaxing.

"Glad to see you again, partner," the woman returned, stifling a laugh as she turned her gaze towards the two behind her. "And thanks for finding her," Lyca said appreciatively. "I owe you guys one." After a moment, she elbowed the puppeteer discretely.

Oh, gods.

Stiffening slightly, her blush hidden beneath her mask, Tori turned to face the girls who had been kind enough to help her out, nervously fiddling with her bracer as she did so.

"Th-Thank.. you.." She swallowed heavily, nerves already frayed to the point where she just wanted to leave the entire event altogether. Interacting with other.. /people/ had never been a strong point of hers. Her friend's comforting presence and cheerful demeanor made it a bit easier, though, and the reassuring smile sent her way /did/ help.. slightly.

- oOo -

If she could, she'd be blinking in bewilderment as Sari transformed from puppet to person, stumbling back a couple steps to avoid being squished as she'd been right below the doll.

That's definitely not Ferghus, Tori thought, somewhat stunned. He'd been familiar, which was what had given her the push she needed to interact; now that he turned out to be someone /else/, she felt somewhat uncomfortable being in the stranger's presence -- the fact that there was another person nearby didn't help the fox with her anxiety, either.

Before she could really make a move to escape, though, she found herself being picked up. Her legs scrambled for purchase in the air for a moment, before stilling when the girl spoke.

"I wonder if you’re like me… or just a toy"

Tori stared at the female for a second, ears flicking back in slight worry. Not knowing what else to do, the fox called upon her new-found powers of communication and squeaked.

Shortly afterward, her ears flicked forward again as a faint shout in the distance reached her ears.

“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.

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.

After a moment's hesitation, the plushie padded over to the fallen figure, noticing with bemusement that he wasn't actually a doll at all, but a marionette. And he seemed a bit entangled within the wires. Sweatdropping a little, Tori mustered up the courage to talk to the puppet, only to deflate when she realized she didn't exactly have a voicebox to do so.

After nosing at the wires for a second before giving up -- it would be difficult to detangle the poor soul in her current form -- Tori released a mental sigh before poking her nose at Ferghus' stomach, crouching down onto her own belly as she did so. While she couldn't untangle the marionette from the wires, the least she could do was carry him where he wanted to go.

-oOo- "Tooorii~" the blue-haired elf called out, hands cupped around her mouth. "And fox plushie? I feel kind of silly." The woman muttered the last part beneath her breath, stepping around the cluster of toys delicately, not really wanting to accidentally tread on one. Years of spending time with her friend's puppets had instilled a sort of respect for the inanimate objects -- especially when they grew to inflict heavy damage over the years... and with the sight of some of the toys transforming into the vanished guests, she didn't want to injure any one of them in case they weren't actually.. well, toys. Shivering slightly at the memory of the time the marionettes gained the ability to move around on their own, the mage continued her search, bright ball of flame orbiting her body for light -- before jumping when a chair clattered in her path. "Holy Eweca--" Holding a hand over her heart, Lyca looked down to see the strangest sight of a snowman controlling a marionette, with a music box tinkling away. "Uh.. You guys didn't happen to see a fox plushie around, did you?" she asked, bending down to right the chair.

“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.”

...Definitely interesting, Lyca nodded to herself, folding up the slip of parchment and sliding it into her pocket. Now, where's the entrance to the basement...?

She barely managed to finish that thought when an explosion rocked the room, sending the woman stumbling a bit in surprise. Her eyebrows rose in bemusement when she spotted a gaping hole in the floor that hadn't been there before, which was visibly closing in on itself as she looked at it. That works, too. How clever.

Lyca shifted to begin weaving her way through the throng of people, intending on reaching that opening before it disappeared, before her eye was caught by movement ahead of her. Another female seemed intent on reaching the basement through the newly-made and rapidly vanishing shortcut, as well, though her.. wings..? seemed to be stalling her progress.

Mesmerized by the unique appendages, the mage blinked as the girl let out a groan of frustration -- before releasing a groan of her own as she realized the hole had closed up and she'd missed her chance to jump through it.

The sight of the woman summoning a hermit staff -- she was a mage? -- made the elf's eyebrows raise again, before she instinctively braced herself as the familiar casting orbs appeared.

A highly accomplished mage, Lyca thought, impressed with the skill the woman displayed, before her eyes widened at the enormous explosion that followed the released Fireball. 

Druid-level, even, she amended, eyes lighting up with excitement and more than a little wonder. Rarely in her travels did she come across someone with that much power in their control.. the fact that she could be near one now made her almost giddy.

She started when she realized that a new shortcut to the basement had been made, and the elf quickly weaved through the crowd before jumping down the hole after the mysterious woman, ecstatic grin in place.

An interesting night, for sure.

-oOo-

W-Where /am/ I?

One moment, she'd been protesting her stubborn friend's 'make sure you socialize tonight', and the next.. darkness. The atmosphere certainly /felt/ different.. but she couldn't quite place it enough to know where she was.

Tori blinked to help her eyes adjust to the change in brightness, before realizing she /couldn't/ blink. At all. That was certainly different.. and her body felt off, as well.

She shifted to push herself to her feet.....

..... And realized she didn't really have those, either.

Were those.. /paws/? The previously-an-elf didn't think she'd transformed into anything.. to her knowledge, anyway. She moved her limbs a bit, to get a better feel for what she was, before pausing.

...a stuffed animal. She wasn't even a live one -- she was a /plushie/. Of what, she couldn't quite tell at the moment. She was strangely curious about her form, but the thought that really locked in her mind was that Lyca wasn't here, and she was expected to socialize -- or else.

She wasn't really sure what that 'or else' was going to be, but knowing her friend.. the plushie shuddered, before looking around.

There was music playing, and some kind of NOIP noises repeating over and over in the background -- what even /was/ that?? -- and..

Fergus?

She stood up, eyes locked on the lone figure in the distance. She knew him, of course; while she hadn't trusted him with her equipment for years, he was something like an uncle to her.