The Itsy Bitsy Spider (Semi Open)

[111]

It is several bells into the night, and Evangeline looks over the empty cage for the tenth time, and tears apart her room for the fifth. All was to no avail, it was gone. The cage door was unlatched, swinging freely, its resident lost. Evangeline groans loudly.

 

"Vaughn is going to be so mad..."

 

Finally she steels herself, and bolts out of her room in her bathrobe. Winding the hallway before she stands before the indimidating door of Vaughn and Jaques's room.

 

"Vaughn! Jaques!" She pounds on the door loudly. "I need your help! It escaped!"

[Antain]

Vaughn stirs from his light sleep, groaning lightly as he looked at Jaques, who was already awake. Confusion crosses their features. What could possibly have gotten loose? What did Evangeline bring into their home this time?

 

Vaughn leaves the bed, reaching for his purple silk robe and tying it tightly around his slender form. Bits of the purposeful scarification peak from the left side covering his pec. He looks in the mirror and untangles his hair. "I'll ask."

 

Jaques gets out of bed himself and pulls on a pair of loose pants before Vaughn can get the door open. He leaves his scarred torso bare as he crosses the room to see what the commotion was about. His right side purposefully scarred from just under the armpit to just above the hipbone in what looked like a banner. His left pec and side having an old burn scar from a significant burn. His left upper arm having a simple red and black armband.

 

Vaughn opens the door to find Evangeline and raises a brow, still tired from lack of sleep. He speaks softly, "What do you need, Miss Evangeline?" Jaques smooths the hair of his beard from laying down while he listens to whatever Evangeline had to say.

[111]

Evangeline seems haggard, her hair frazzled and her eyes dark. "Salisbury! He escaped!"

 

She peers into their bedroom, "Have you seen anything scuttling around?" She attempts to enter and look around, "Dark, Furry, about the size of a cat?"

 

"I just don't understand why he left. I took such good care of him." She frowns, turning to Vaughn, "Anyway, I can't find him!"

[Antain]

Vaughn frowned, looking to Jaques as the taller man approached to be behind him, blocking Eva's entrance. Vaughn turned back to her with a confused look. "Salisbury? Who's Salisbury?"

[111]

"Who is Salisbury...? Err... you could say he's something of a pet? I purchased him in the Bazaar."

 

"All part of my new foolproof plot to destroy the syndicate!" She nods, suddenly proud of herself, "I was to sneak him into their meeting room, where he would give them a dreadful fright."

 

"After which they would be too scared to meet, worried that Salisbury might reappear."

 

She keeps peering around the room, "However, now he has escaped. Truly a major setback for the revolution."

[DreamedReality]

Frowns slightly at the description. Before turning and scanning the -mostly- empty room they'd claimed as their own. Most of their belongings still needing to be moved from the old place in Ul'dah. "Size of a small dog, that scuttles, and is intended to scare. What -is- it? A young antling soldier?"

[111]

"It's a..." She looks away nervously, "Just a miniature giant desert tarantula."

 

"Named Salisbury."

 

She turns, almost pleading, "But he's very gentle, ok? I gave him a collar with a bell, he can't be that hard to find."

 

"He's domesticated, he'll hurt himself if he's left on his own." She clasps her hands together, "Will you help me find him? Please?"

 

"Pleasseeeeeee."

[Antain]

Vaughn raises his brows in surprise. "A...spider?! I...wait, what?!" He looks to Jaques with uncertainty. "A...collared and belled spider... Wh--" He shakes his head, rubbing his temples. Finally, he looks to Eva. "What possessed you to bring a spider here? Why not leave it with...wherever you were planning to scare?"

[111]

"Well, I tried, but he gets lonely without company. In fact he might have just crawled into someones bed, he likes the warmth."

 

"I'm worried someone might squish him, Salisbury is a lover, not a fighter. He wouldn't hurt a fly. Actually that's a lie he loves to eat flies. But you get the point."

 

The faint tinkling of a bell can be heard down the hallway. "There! That's his bell!"

 

"Don't discriminate based on his species!" She starts to dart off down one side of the house, "You check the other side. I'll make it up to you later."

 

And with that, Evangeline vanishes.

[DreamedReality]

Tilts his head slightly, hearing the bell, "That or. . . the kitten. Lets hope we find this thing before the cat does. . ."

 

He looks to Vaughn, giving a light shrug, "You want to take the floor above? I'll take the other side?"

 

Meanwhile... Outside Angora's room, there is the sound of jingling.

[Loe]

What was that jingling noise...? He had heard it for a while now... Leaning up from the sofa he had been laying in with a book open, Loe stood, closing the book and tucking it under his arm as he moved to walk down the hall towards where the rooms were. The young Miqo'te stopped when he caught sight of Jaques and Vaughn. He hesitated before approaching them, as if unsure of their identity in the darkened halls.

 

Loe looked up at them with his large amber eyes, shifting down to the floor quickly. People didn't like being looked at, or at least, that's what he was taught growing up. He kept his shoulders down and his presence meek, not wanting to disrupt anything. Rubbing the back of his head, Loe shifted from foot to foot. "Er... I keep hearing a jingling sound... it's different from the usual sounds of people here at night as they... er... do things..." He'd quiet down, glancing up for a brief moment. "Do you know what it is?"

[111]

As Loe speaks, he suddenly feels something furry and soft pressing and rubbing against his leg.

[Loe]

Upon feeling the fur pressing against his leg, the young boy would turn in a panic, his leg raising to... well, kick the cat away viciously as he staggered back into the wall, pale and looking like he just felt death touch him. He wouldn't even notice it was a cat. He'd slump against the wall and sink down, clearly terrified by the simple act of something touching his leg. Both his eyes were open, amber orbs wide in terror as he breathed rapidly and shallowly. He didn't scream though.

[Lavi0623]

Quiet nights had become rare at The Rose. Angora was a light sleeper, so she wasn't exactly pleased to hear Eva yelling and banging on doors in the middle of the night. She'd learned to try and ignore it though so she just rolled over and curled up in her blankets in hopes that things would calm down eventually...

 

Hope being the key word. She sighed and pressed her face into her pillow once the yelling stopped and prayed that'd be the last of it for the next hour at least. Angora's ears perked up and twitched a bit when she heard a strange ringing near her room that she didn't recognize. She groans as she forces herself to leave the warmth of her blankets, rubbing her eyes and sleepily shuffling around her room to turn a light on. Running a few fingers through her hair to try and fix her bed head, Angora opens her door with a tired and grumpy look on her face. 

 

"What in the world is going on out here at this time in the evening...?" 

 

Angora yelps and jumps back into her room a bit as she sees a small cat sudden fly by her room.

[111]

*purrrrr* *purrrr*

 

The housecat rubs up against Loe's leg, enjoying the sensation of a warm body when suddenly it feels itself sailing down the corridor.

 

*Mrowwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........*

 

Vaughn and Jaques see a furry orb sail past them and down the corridor, meowing all the way, until eventually a soft thump is heard.

 

As Angora jumps backwards into her room she feels a different soft and furry thing brush against the back of her head.

[Lavi0623]

Angora blinks in shock, then freezes when she feels something against the back of her head. Her fur stands on end and she slowly turns to face the giant spider currently hanging behind her. After a few seconds of silent shock, Angora lets out the loudest screech she's made in a while before she falls backwards and scrambles around the furry thing.

 

"W-WHAT IS THAT MONSTROSITY?!" 

 

She scrambles for her staff so she could burn the damn thing to a crisp. When she spotted that the creature had a actual bell on it there was only one place it could have come from. Angora lifts her staff and holds it at the ready to exterminate the pest. 

 

"EVVVAAAA!" 

[Antain]

Vaughn hesitates slightly at the sudden commotions. The excitable kitten mewling and running around like...well, like the kitten's father. Loe jumping and cowering as the furball rubbed against his leg. The screech from Angora's room...

 

Wait. Screech. He immediately reaches for Jaques's hand to drag him with toward her room. He calls down the hall, still trying to be quiet for the others to sleep, but announcing his approach to Angora's room. "Angora... Are you alright, sweetie?"

[111]

Salisbury starts screaming as much as a miniature giant desert tarantula can scream. In truth it is more of a soft *Meeeeeeppppp* as his legs wiggle in panic.

 

Salisbury's eight eyes seem to widen in fear as he drops off the ceiling and attempts to scurry under a nearby bookshelf, belled collar jangling as he does so.

 

Somewhere at the other end of the house Evangeline winces as her name is screamed out. "Oh. I wonder if they found Salisbury."

[Lavi0623]

Angora freezes and has a look of utter confusion on her face when she hears the giant spider...scream?? She lets out a much quieter screech and jumps away when the creature falls from the ceiling and scuttles away to a hiding spot. 

 

By the time she sees Vaughn and Jaques at her door, Angora is perched up on the back of her couch with her ears flat against her hear and her staff pointed at her book shelf. 

 

"T-There is a GIANT spider...THING under m-my bookshelf! It has a bell on it??" 

 

Angora shudders a bit at the thought of the spider having been in her room most of the night. She gives Vaughn and Jaques a panicked and pleading look, jumping a bit as she hears the spider moving around.

[DreamedReality]

Jaques had started to head to Loe, to see if the boy would be all right. Poor kid was white as a sheet and breathing much too quickly when Vaughn caught his arm and started dragging him off. He makes a noise of protest before they reach Angora's open door, peering inside to see the girl perching on her couch.

 

He heaves a sigh with the missing spider found afterall, "Yes... that would be Eva's. Salisbury."

 

He glances to Vaughn, "See if you can coax it out and I'll go find Eva... and make certain Loe is all right."

[111]

There is a furious combination of jangling bells, and frightened spider meeping underneath the bookshelf, before suddenly it goes quiet.

 

The bookshelf is dark and low, hard to see underneath unless one brings their face level to the floor.

[Lavi0623]

Angora blinks and lowers her staff when she hears the commotion under her bookshelf go silent. She looks at Vaughn nervously before slowly moving down off of her couch and onto the floor.

 

"D-Did it keel over and die or something...?"

[Antain]

Vaughn frowns but nods at Jaques. "Make sure Miss Evangeline gets here quickly?"

 

He turns to Angora with a sigh and a smile. "It's probably just hiding. Spiders like the dark and quiet and...it seems under there is is the most of both." He tilts his head as he kneels a few fulms from the bookcase. He starts to lean over to look for 'Salisbury', but thinks better of it. He turns back to Angora with an embarrassed smile. "Maybe...we should wait for Miss Evangeline to collect her 'pet', hmm?"

[111]

The portly and rather annoyed housecat pads down the hall, feeling sore where it had been launched bodily down the hall. Turning a corner it casts a baleful eye upon Loe, who was still recovering in the hallway. How dare he strike the majestic fur of Pounce Fluffington, lord of felines. Of course these foolish tall ones could not even get his name right, what sort of savages do not understand the subtle poetry of catspeak?

 

"Mrow..." says Pounce at Loe, an elegant insult that would be lost upon the foolish beast. Padding forward he enters Angora's room, who, while as dumb as the others, at least did not launch him down hallways. The room was unusually full, and he could read the tension on their inelegant features.

 

Suddenly, he hears a single jangle. A bell? Could that be his favorite mouse toy? The one with a bell on its tail?

 

He casts a disapproving glace around the room, how dare they toss his beloved toy under that dingy looking bookshelf. With an annoyed "Mrrrow." He begins trundling over to the bookshelf to retrieve his property.

[Lavi0623]

Angora sighs and nods in agreement, tossing her staff onto the couch as she crosses her arms. She'd have to try and "Eva pet proof" her room after this. 

 

"I suppose so...why in the world does she even have a creature like this in the house- " 

 

Angora pauses and her ears twitch at the sound of another bell. Oh gods...did Eva have two of those things?? She peeks over the couch and raises an eyebrow when she spots the spoiled house cat. Angora only relaxes for a moment before she sees where the cat is headed. 

 

"U-Uh Vaughn...you might want to grab the kitten."