Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » The Orphanage For Wayward Youth

With a soft sniffle and a shake of her head, Anna was off, too overwhelmed with everything. She didn't know what to do, what to say, but all she knew was that she wanted to be alone. So she did as she always did when things got bad: Annaliese ran. The small child pushed past Edd and darted out of the room, past Liliath and down the stairs. She didn't want to leave the house, since it was dark out and cold, so she just ran until she was out of breath (which admittedly wasn't long) and ducked into a room with large double doors. Once she got inside, her eyes widened.

There. Were. So. Many. Books!

The white-haired girl tilted her head to the side as her fearful sniffles subsided in order to gape at the absolute majesty that was the manor's library. "Woah..." she breathed out, closing the door behind her and started looking around. Though as she got to one shelf, she saw a fluffy white tail hanging down from it. Huh? Curiously, and with no thought that it could be a bad idea, she poked at it, standing on the tips of her toes to reach it. So... soft...

Liliath was still very mad, since nobody came she decided to go back to the room where she was first. "Don't be to happy that I am back, that betrayer isn't picking me up. I don't want a bath and I also don't want to wash my face, I wan't to go home." The child complaint and then the child started crying again. "i want mommy." she cried

Ziktias had been far too wrapped up in her sleepy thoughts of vicious beasties to notice the white-haired girl coming up to her.

When the little hand tickled the sensitive fur, the young vulpine jumped, fur suddenly bristling in surprise as she sproinged into the air. Her landing was less than graceful, but she kept on top of the shelf, though it looked for a moment like she might fall, one leg going over the edge.

Her heart raced as she looked down silently from her perch at Annaliese, eyes wide with surprise and nervousness. Her ears trembled and her nose twitched at the end of her snout while she stared, just in case the girl reacted dangerously. She had no idea what to expect from such a different looking creature.

Anna always had a love of animals, so when she had seen the tail, the child immediately assumed that she was yearning to pet an animal, some sort of fluffy cat or something.

Not another child.

She jolted back when Ziktia jumped, pulling her hand back to her chest, staring right back at the silverfur kitsune. She looked... afraid. What was she supposed to do when an animal felt threatened? Though this creature looked more intelligent than a normal fox or dog or whatever she was, she must still have instincts, right? So, slowly so she didn't startle her, Anna sat on the ground, legs crossed and hands lightly resting in her lap. "I-I'm sorry... I didn't... mean to scare you... Your tail was just really fluffy..."

Ziktia trembled worriedly as she watched the girl. Slowly, though, she put her book back in her bag, put it on, and hopped down to the floor to sit down in front of Annaliese.

Then, she curled her tail around in front of herself and scooched closer, offering the fluff for petting. It was a lot less stressful than talking, even though she knew how protective she should be of her tail. The other girl had pretty hair and seemed nice, though, so it seemed like a safe thing to do.

She glanced down and to the side, not really confident enough to keep eye contact. For all of her internal bravado, she really didn't have any idea how to deal with things like this.

Anna was worried that she made the wrong choice and that the creature was going to run away or attack, though she wouldn't hurt them back, even if she could. Why would she? The other did nothing wrong.

But as Ziktia hopped down and came closer, Anna offered her a kind smile, the first one she had made in a long while. It felt odd to smile, so she dropped it quickly. When the tail was moved closer to her, offered out, she reached for it and began gently petting it, not wanting to pull any of the silver fur out. She wanted to be as gentle as possible.

Her own eyes rose from the tail to the fox's face, and seeing as they were looking away, she focused back on the floof in her lap. "I-I'm Annaliese... Thank you for l-letting me pet.. your tail... Its very soft..."

The brush of pure-white fur twitched slightly under Anna's fingers, another sign of the lingering nervousness.

Eventually, quietly, Ziktia got herself to look up at her and say, "thank you. I-I think your hair is pretty, and you're really gentle with my tail."

She had that shy, happy look, shoulders raised and brought in tight, head slightly lowered, a bit tense and breathing a bit quickly, but with eyes full of joy and the start of comfort.

Another dozen or so seconds pass before she quietly adds, "My name is Ziktia."

Annaliese could feel the twich in anxiety, and she understood that this stranger was just as nervous about her company as Maxy was her's.

Her sappire eyes widened as the kitsune spoke. Ah, so she was right. This stranger was basically like her! But with ears and a tail! "You're w-welcome... Though I think your f-fur is nicer... Very soft.."

She gave the tail another long, gentle stroke, brushing it smooth and untangled, though it hardly was before. The petite girl looked up as her new friend spoke again. "Zi.. tia..." she started, finding the name hard to say. "Ziktie...a?" No, that wasn't quite right. "Zik..? Can I u-um... can I call you Zik..?"

Edd pauses. All this because she didn’t want to wash her face for 20 seconds at best? He knelt beside Liliath and hugged her gently. “I’m sorry I’m not your mom but I’m kinda trying my best here... I never really had any siblings either-“ he smiles gently at you. Tho it is true he always wanted a normal family, he wanted the children here to feel comfortable, even if they hated his guts he would still care for them. He cleaned your face with a warm and moist wash cloth and smiled. “See? Only took 10 seconds, now go get on your pajamas and I can play with you if you want-“ before he could finish his sentence he counted to heads in the room. Someone was missing. He knows exactly who it was to. He stood up and looked at Liliath and the others with a kind smile. “I’ll go get Anna real quick and then we can all do something nice together-“ he left the room in a hurry tho, checking the rooms around it. He didn’t call out for her since he was scared it would startle her more so he quietly searched until he came across the library where he opened the door slightly. “Oh, there you are I was worried!” He let out a sigh of relief and then he noticed the little one next to you. “Who’s this?” He walks up to you two and kneels down smiling gently. “Are you the thing the owner of this house was so scared about in the library? Are you lost little one?”

"I did had a sibling, Bella but they don't really know where she is currently. Otherwise she would have been here too, maybe she will come here soon too." Liliath giggeld when he washed her face "yup only 10 seconds." She laughed "Ok!" She got in her pyamas and sat down waiting for Anna to come back.

After a while she got bored and decided to play hide and seek on her own. She decided to hid in the laundry basket and coverd herself with a pile of clothes.

Ziktia giggles a little bit before replying, "Tia works. Zik sounds too sharp, I think. Your name is so smooth and nice, though. Did... did you want to read with me?"

With the continued petting, the tension in her tail and body overall began to fade, the gentle touch just feeling right somehow. Safe. Good. Even the whispering in her head was quiet for now, which was nice no matter how helpful it was sometimes. Either way, she liked this enough that she was willing to call Annaliese a friend, and she liked the idea of reading with friends. Also, she kinda wanted to get a chance to touch the girl's hair. It looked soft, too. Maybe not as soft as her fur, but it still looked really nice.

Unfortunately, that was when someone else came in and immediately came up to her, putting her on the defensive. She unfolded her legs and leapt back from sitting in a surprisingly quick motion, landing a few meters back, a hand reaching into her bag as if ready to draw a weapon. Which... in a way she was. Sometimes if she was in danger, her book did cool things and protected her with its magic, like when she got here and the nasty gliding thing had tried to attack her. Was that the owner? It had disappeared, so it might have told on her....

"I-I got here f-four hours ago, and I know I need to be here! If you're going to try and throw me out for that bitey thing, I'll.... I'll...." She began to threaten, still no louder than before, before realizing that she actually had no idea just what she would do. Wait....

The whispers had started up again, and what to do was obvious now that they'd explained it. All she needed to do to make a threat was say what she wanted to do, not always what she could, as long as it looked like she might be able to.

"I'll feed you to a shoggoth!" she decided. The one time she'd seen a shoggoth, when she found the way to get from where she had been to where she was now, everyone was afraid of it, even though she liked it a lot. All of those mouths and eyes looked funny, and the things it said made a lot of sense and were very nice to her. If even the gun people were afraid of a little five-meter diameter ball of ooze, this guy might be afraid of the idea of it, and maybe he wouldn't take her away from the books.

Jason was simply standing in the playroom by himself. He didn't what to do, so he played with his tail. "Is it my turn?" he muttered, looking around. "What if I do it wrong? Mr. Edd is gonna be mad.." He sighed, sitting on the ground. "I gotta wait for him..." He sat on the floor and huffed. "Why am I always the one alone? That's so- weird!"

Edd couldn’t help but giggle like a girl. Yes. It was immature for a 19 year old to be laughing. He patted your head softly smiling gently to rye and not scare you. “You have a nice imagination, did you use to live here? Sorry for the noise, I have a lot of little ones running around who can’t afford homes, would you like a room and a bed? It must be cold in here.” He looks at Anne and pats her head. “Lets get you a bath before you get into your pajamas, and you can wait for your own with Jason in the waiting room, but I won’t force you to come with me if you want to stay here.” Edd stood up and took Anna’s hand. “We shouldn’t keep the others waiting as well.”

Ziktia's reaction to having her head pat was not pleasant; a vicious electrical shock surged from her body. It was nothing that would cause serious harm, but enough to be painful. Following that, she quickly brought out her book. It was fairly large, ornately bound with rich inscription along its spine, and bore wooden covers engraved with a strange image of some kind of slithering entity creeping around the edges, small semiprecious gems set into the eyes which adorned its aberrant form.

She brought her other hand over to grab the cover, ready to open it, and the book.... pulsed. It didn't move, it didn't glow, it didn't even make a sound, but it definitely changed for a moment in a way that books definitely should not.

She glared at Edd before growling in her little voice, "Don't touch me."

When Edd got shocked he sent another shock in defence, it was just his mind and body reacting to being attacked. It deflected most of its power but still made Edd flinch a little bit. He let out a cough as he wiped a strange green substance from his eyes. "I'm sorry, did I offend you? I won't do it anymore but would you like a room still?" He licked his fingers and straightened his bangs that got a bit fizzy. He didn't like that he left the other children alone for 7 minutes now, Jason was probably still waiting to take a bath. "I'm very sorry but we can't really stand here long since I need to prepare a few baths... You can have a room next to Anna's if you would like." He still smiled softly even tho his hair was kinda sticking up a little bit due to the shock.

The counter-current rushing back at her coursed across her body. Harmless, sure, her subspecies was evolved to channel electricity in all kinds of ways, and some of it would even convert into mana (though she couldn't do anything with it yet), but it was noticeable.

And terrifying.

Ziktia backs away, not even listening to what he's saying at all. Maybe if she'd gotten the chance to train her body more, or if she'd been one of the ones who picked up magic easily she'd be less scared, felt more able to protect herself from a scary person she couldn't hurt back so easily, but she hadn't and she wasn't. All she felt good about doing was getting as lost as she could among the shelves and making sure her special book could defend her if she needed it. The small, already frayed rational part of her brain knew she was fine, that he was probably harmless, but it was far too quiet compared to her noise of her fear.

As she ran, she manages a quick "I'm fine alone" before she's out of sight, again lurking among the books.

She'd have to keep an eye on him...

Edd watches as the girl disappears. He clenched his hand looking at it, he wasn’t used to that before actually. He didn’t blame the child from running away, it was very rude on what he did, especially to a child. He sighed and looked at Anna, taking her hand gently in his. “Lets get you a bath and you can play with her tomorrow if you would like.” He smiles as he left the library with Anna to the play room. He’ll come back to the library later, after everyone’s asleep when it’s quiet to hopefully apologize. He took Anna to the bath and after everyone got a bath and went into there Pajamas Edd told them they have an hour left before they have to go to bed. But he stayed behind to keep his promise on playing with Liliath and eventually found her in the clothes bin. He played with everyone for awhile, playing a few rounds of hide and seek, before he let them have 20 minutes to play with each other.
He left the hall where there bedrooms were located to get some dough he had to preserve for later and made some cute shapes out of it. 10 minutes later he was back at the library with the basket of fresh bunny shaped bread and he started a fire to warm up the room since the shut doors blocked out the heat from the house. He was careful to not burn himself, and let the bunny bread spread its scent around the whole library.

Jason was simply sitting in his room on his bed, smiling as he digged through his bags. "It's in here somewhere...Uncle made it special for me..I can't forget about it..." He soon took out a knife, making sure nobody would see him as he played around with it. He sighed. "I'm not tired.." He stared at his bruised and scarred arms with a frown. "I can't sleep..." He shivered, looking around. "I'm alone..I d-don't wanna be alone! Not again.."

A sound begins to permeate the library as Edd returns: ritualistic chanting from unnatural mouths in a language that shouldn't be speakable.

Ziktia had hidden herself away in a back corner, and was kneeling silently in front of her book. It always made her feel better to just.... be near it and listen to it. She eventually caught the scent of warm grain, but wasn't interested. She'd taken some food from home before she left, and the dried meats were much tastier than grains. Also, she wasn't very hungry. It did tell her that someone was probably trying to lure her out. Very suspicious.

Edd left a note on the basket before leaving. The note just had a room key and instructions on where to go to find it. He left the bread near the fire so it could stay warm, he couldn’t really stay here much longer since the children’s 20 minutes were up and he needed to make sure they were asleep. He let out a sigh, maybe he was pushing her too much and she just needed to know he meant no harm, it was just a reaction shock since his body automatically does it when he gets attacked. After saying goodnight to Anna and the twins he had to read Liliath a bedtime story since she wouldn’t fall asleep. Soon he opened the door to Jason’s room and let out a nervous gasp when he had a knife. “Ah-! I’m don’t play with that!” He grabbed it from Jason before letting out a sigh. “You could harm yourself... I wouldn’t like that...” He saw the knife was a custom one, it was different then the kitchen knife so he sat it on the table. “How about I read you a bedtime story? I read Liliath one and I thought you would like one to. He sat next to you on your bed and pulled out a thick big book of fairytales and sighed dusting the dust off of it.