Ahhh... Looks like Babs would be busy for a while. Though, Ashley was starting to feel better with the heat on her, feeling more like her chipper self. She did catch bits and pieces of what others had said (and eyed the extra blankets someone got with envy; they looked like they might actually radiate some type of heat!), and she noticed some new faces (she'd have to introduce herself later, and learn all about them!), but it was the words "take-out places" that caught her eye. Perfect! That was EXACTLY what she needed! But, then she heard the word “pizza”! It was very quiet, but it was there! Ahh, who to go with?

However, it was then that Babs came by and dropped something in her lap. It smelled sweet; probably human food. It wasn’t a part of her normal diet, certainly not coming from an animal, but she was pretty famished! She ended up quickly ripping into it, having become very used to the different wrappings of human things, and dug into it, practically devouring it in one gulp. Ahh~! So good! Though, by the time she finished, it seemed most everyone had left, including the three people that could help her with her hunger. After all, a candy bar was good, but wouldn’t satisfy her for very long.It all changed when she heard a blood-curdling scream, though.

Now, there are many people brave and confident who would rush for the sound, hoping to do something about it.

Neither At'ula nor Ashely was that type of person.

Instead, she screamed out herself, tumbling face-first onto the floor before curling up under her robe. What in the world was that!? What was going on!? She had no way to deal with something like that! She was just a kid, no magic powers, not even any weapons! Her main defense was being on Earth in a mostly populated area, which meant that the most dangerous things would be other people, and if need be she was bigger and stronger than most humans. But, if this scared a human, that meant it had to be stronger than them, and that could be anything!

What in the world was she going to do!? She felt like crying, if she had tear ducts like a human!

Diana jumped out of her seat when she heard two horrible screams, dropping everything on the floor and rushing to the door. Panic coursed through her veins as her heart pounded in her chest. She looked around the area trying to see if she could find anything. She gasped, holding back her own scream seeing a monster outside of room 1. She was about to follow Mara and Riley when she hear another scream coming from the lobby. "Oh goodness!" Diana rushed back inside her room to grab a blanket and rushed over avoiding the beast, getting wet herself. She threw open the door and glanced around, her eyes landing on Ashely curled up on the floor. She draped the blanket on top of the girl and sat down with her, rubbing her back. "Hey. You're Ashley right? My name is Diana if you didn't know that. I want you to know that you'll be okay. Whatever that is out there, I will protect you from it. I promise. I will do my best." She continued rubbing her back hoping what she said will calm down the girl next to her.

Covie stood up, ramrod-straight, when she heard the screams. She felt this chaotic energy pushing at the side of her head, insistent and growing stronger with every passing moment. She had been feeling it before, of course, but now, it was angry.

She turned in circles, looking for the source, probing in every direction to try to obtain a read on it. Finally, she pinpointed it - on the outside of the building, the outer edge. She rushed to the side of the roof, readying herself to use the water in her pool defensively. She saw it, and to her horror, she realized that it was little more than beast - so little rationale remained to it that she was worried she wouldn't be able to reason with it.

Coventina raised one hand to the sky, drawing on the powers that her origin afforded her. She drew the clouds in closer, pouring down the rain in sheets, changing the atmosphere from the almost cheery drizzle it had settled down with into a torrential downpour, her strength radiating in waves off of her. If this show of power didn't get the beast's attention, she would have to resort to force, and the rain would only help her if that were the case.

"Stop where you are," she said, instilling her voice with the echoing powers of the greats. "Cease this battery." Thunder rumbled in the distance as she waited for its answer.

OOC; I should've explained more clearly, but in my mind the front of the rooms looked something like this. For the sake of continuity though, let's say that the ground floor has a corridor, but the second floor does not. I couldn't find any images to clarify what I mean, but I think everyone knows.

Feel free to fight, hurt, or seriously injure Tim.

IC; Tim was absolutely delighted to hear the car roar to life, but jumped back in surprise nevertheless. He clapped appreciatively and gave Jackie a big thumbs up and a burble. The car roaring to life was one of the things he'd learned to watch for when hanging around in the car park and knew to step out of the way. He moved to stand in front of the reception, waving in return. Humans were delightful, he decided, watching the car pull away and Babs and Lee following it. He let out a content sigh, watching as a creature loped past him on its way to the motel rooms.

Babs had pointed out the room to Jackie and was on her way, walking briskly through the light rain. She'd bundled up in a thick blue parka today, which she was glad for, but it resulted in her face turning red from exertion. She puffed quietly to herself and hid the room form under her coat to stop it from getting wet. Room fifty was the best idea for the siblings, she was sure, but it was a good three minute walk, and she was not the most fit of people.

"So, you and ya sister travel a lot?" She managed, turning to glance at the teenager. "If ya ever need a place to hole up for the night, we always have spare rooms, ya know? Odd guests, but they're friendly." She said this while ignoring the screams coming from behind them.

Screams were not uncommon at the motel. Typically they were the result of one new guest meeting another new guest, or perhaps Tim had wandered too close to the road again. She snorted to herself.

Ahua had been preening. The rain water bounced easily from her otter fur, which was nice. She'd never been an otter in the rain before. It was much less miserable than being, say, a pigeon or a cat. She was dwelling on this when the scream rang out. Immediately, she popped back into her squirrel form and scurried, moving to hide beneath a loose brick. She could see Covie standing, hear the rumble of thunder as the sea goddess called out, and for the first time, curiousity got the best of the shapeshifter. She scurried to the opposite wall, where she could see down to the car park below.

The newcomer looked terrifying and, even from her high vantage point, Ahua could hear the stranger whispering about being hungry. She mentally took note to avoid him. "Monster" slid nicely into place below "Tim" on her list.

Speaking of Tim. The lovable idiot had heard the scream ring out and had, to no one's surprise, found himself standing beside the Wendigo. The Marshman simply watched for a few seconds. The stranger was insatiably hungry, it seemed, and was trying to get into the corridor to... What? Return to his room? Had he been locked out?

It was only when the creature let his head fall forward and smash the glass that Tim began to grow concerned. Something warm and red lit up inside of him. He had a short temper, but it took specific things to get him mad. People hurting his home was one of these things, and he knew that Babs would need to replace this window. She'd complained about vandals throwing stones in the past. Tim frowned, another delicate manipulation of his facial folds, and reached out, shoving the Wendigo. The Marshman's thick skin would protect him from any rebuttal, he decided.

"No break!" He snapped, shaking his head in an exaggerated manner, just in case the creature also spoke English poorly. He shoved the Wendigo again. "Babs are sad if break!"

(I'm a little confused at the layout now, eep. I had assumed a layout like the image you showed from the start (I've been to many motels tbh), so now I'm not really sure how to visualize the corridor. Is it like a break between the rooms? I could see that if that's the case. Maybe like a pathway between them with vending machines?)

"Yeah. We're almost always on the road doin' a little of this and that, following car shows. It's not cheap; lemme tell you. She's a beast to keep fueled, and we use a lot of our award money to keep her in good shape. We're chasin' something, dunno what. Neither of us can stay in one place for long even if we tried. Thanks, though."

Lee whipped his head around when he heard the scream. Chevelle seemed unperturbed until she heard the third scream. "Woah, woah. Somethin' ain't right out there." She slowed to a stop and opened the door. Something felt wrong, and she turned her attention to Covie, still on the roof. The car goddess could feel power in the air, radiating from her. It only took another second before the rain came pouring down. Not thinking, she tried to run towards the source as well, but was halted several feet from her true form, the tether between the car and human running thin. "Lee, stay outta this, it ain't right." She said, running back to herself and jumping in. "Ch-Jackie-!" The water goddess was powerful, but if she was worried enough to show off her abilities like that, maybe something Chevelle could deal with had followed them through her jump. Reason enough that they hadn't been exactly truthful to the other residents. It had happened before. Word traveled on open roads like the wind, and they had enemies. Lee looked to Babs and shrugged, ducking under the cover of the second story walkway from the sudden downpour. Chevelle didn't want to distract Covie, and so didn't call up to her to ask if she needed help, but she could see Tim apparently fighting with some kind of horrible monster on the other side of the corridor. Jesus, what was it? It almost looked like something the roadkill god would slap together. But no, this thing wasn't from the between place. The hell's goin' on? Lee asked her. I don't think this thing belongs here, not if this goddess is bringin' down the rain like this. Shit, it's times like these I wish I was smaller. What is it? I don't know. The only thing she could think to do was summon one of the exhaust spirits, given she couldn't go much further ahead. The Marshman might think he was strong enough to go up against this weird abomination, but everything about it was wrong, wrong, wrong, and she wasn't even a nature goddess like Covie. Great, breaking cover already. Well, only if people saw her. She inhaled, with blackening lips and fumes itching at the linings of her fake lungs, and she spoke it's name on the exhale. A cloud of smoke poured out of her mouth, causing her to cough violently, and the vague shape of a horse charged forward and impatiently stomped its hooves in front of the creature, snorting. It would probably be best if they scared it off. Letting Covie unleash all hell, while amusing, would probably leave a sea in its wake (at least to Chevelle's reasoning), and cars couldn't swim (unless you were one of those aquarius cars, but she obviously was not). Lee perked up and stood watching beside one of the supports when he felt her summon the spirit. What're you doing?! He asked, but she didn't respond.

((In which the ones who have never been to motels royally screw it up for the ones who have... Sorry. >_<'))

If the Wendigo was angry before, then the arrival of this... walking fish carcass swamp smelling thing and the shoves it gave them made them all the angrier. The sudden increase of the rain into a downpour, the booming thundercrack, and the shouting - the shouting that made their head pound with the noise - just pushed that anger beyond fury into pure, incandescent, apocalyptic, berserker rage. All trace of human sense completely vanished. The Wendigo was confused, scared, angry, and hungry, and there was only one way their feral mind could think of dealing with that. They let out another inhuman wail in reply to the Marshman's chiding, a sound like a dozen foxes screaming while a dozen wildcats yowled and a dozen crows cawed - a horrible, cacophonous din.

Raising their claws and baring their teeth, the Wendigo leapt in to the fight.

Lashing out, they caught the Marshman across the side of the head with a clawed hand. Luckily for Tim, the thickness of his skin prevented the wounds from being overly deep; still, blood ran out and it hurt. The Wendigo's claws were not only sharp but filthy, after all. He responded with a grunt of "Stop!" and another shove that sent the Wendigo staggering back a few steps. They crouched a little, wings wide and red eyes glowing like flames. A low, rumbling growl escaped their throat.

Then the smoke horse charged forwards, stamping it's hooves and snorting. Both the Wendigo and Tim turned to look, clearly puzzled by the apparition. The smell of car exhaust smoke filled their air around them, causing anyone with lungs to cough. Anyone standing very close might hear the Wendigo grumble something like "Urgh! Moya glotka!" under their breath.

And here it seemed Tim's luck ran out: though he was tough and strong, the Wendigo had the mind - or minds, rather - of a predator and over a hundred years fighting in the wilderness. They were tough and strong, too, as well as fast and completely merciless. The Wendigo pounced again, tackling Tim and sending him crashing to the ground. They snapped and clawed and punched in a frenzy. They rained blows down on every inch of Tim they could reach, seemingly unaffected by the Marshman's return punches. A claw sliced down Tim's face, straight across an eyeball, and he let out a cry of pain. The Wendigo clamped their jaws down on Tim's shoulder, shaking their head cruelly before letting go again.

"Ya ub'yu tebya! I kill you! Kill you! Kill you!"

Meanwhile, the amount of thoughts of pain and fear and rage - not the mention the screams, the horrible, horrible screams - had become too much for Jervis. Powers he couldn't recognise or understand boomed and crashed around him like the thunder that had almost made him jump out of his skin in fear. His head was full of noise, drowning out his thoughts and making it impossible to think straight. He'd staggered back against the wall half in a swoon, his face deathly pale and hands trembling.

Now, half out of his mind with panic, he desperately scoped around for somewhere safe to hide. And he spotted one: Selphy's room. With a yelp he dashed forwards through the door, quite abandoning his manners and sense. If Jervis had his mind about him, he'd hesitate to enter a young lady's room uninvited. But needs must when the devil rides and it seemed the Moondrop Motel was full of devils today.

He scrambled underneath the covers of her bed and curled up in foetal position, not even pausing to take off his shoes. Tears ran down Jervis' face and he was trembling like a leaf. “B-beware the J-j-jabberwock, my son! The j-jaws that bite, the c-claws that c-catch!" he choked out in between sobs. "B-beware the J-jubjub bird, and sh-sh-shun the frumious Bander-(sniiiff)-snatch!”

-viola

Ashley panicked at first, not knowing what exactly was being put on her (or was touching her), but after hearing it was another motel resident, she calmed down a little... before the action outside picked up, with sounds to match. She cried out again, trying to reach out for her form for comfort. She peaked out from under the multiple wraps covering her, showing her teary-eyed, frightened face. Even if the tears were fake, her terror was real. "This..." she hiccuped. "This was just supposed to be a fun vacation." That was all it was supposed to be! And now she was scared, and worried about dying! She was just a kid, she shouldn't have to worry about dying at her age!

((I think it works if you go like this [-viola].

EDIT: It doesn't. Um. Ignore me.))

Mara had taken a few deep breaths in order to calm herself down, "A wendigo was trying to get in." She told her roommate. Mara had shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if she was fast asleep. She held Riley and petted him in hopes of calming herself down.

Andrea's eyes widen at what had startled the girl. It was strange that a creature like this was so close to society. When it started to downpour she knew that this had to be the goddess's doing. Andrea turned to Selphy and saw Jervis running inside her room, "You should probably get inside. Is it alright if Mara and Riley go with you?" She asked the girl. "What about you?" Mara asked Andrea "I'm going to help." Andrea told her, "I just need something silver or iron in hopes of getting this thing away." She added before the roommate could protest or in Mara's case tell Andrea how stupid she was. "This isn't a tv show. You could die, Riley wouldn't be happy if that happened." Mara looked to Andrea in hopes of using her dog against her. "I'll be fine." She reassured the girl.

"Shit!" Tim had gone down, the creature furious at his shoving, screaming like a thousand dying animals. Chevelle tried to force herself forward some more, but she couldn't. Her human form began to fade.

She ordered the horse to try and envelop the thing; maybe she could choke it? God she wished she was smaller! And going all the way around would probably be too late.

Chev! There's a woman running to you tryin' to help!- NO. Do something. Intercept her, it already has the scaly-man down!

Lee ran out into the rain. "Wait! Wait hold on! Don't go over there!" He screamed to Andrea, splashing across the parking lot.

If she could reach it, there was a chance she could phase it out into the between place as a last-ditch resort. But watching poor Tim get ripped to shreds made her ANGRY.

"Sorry lady, hope you got good insurance!" The car sped forward, busting a pillar and smashing its front end against the wall, taking out the headlights (just a scratch!), but it allowed Chevelle to get that much closer like she needed. Even being unsure with how those nasty claws would work against her human form, she put all the torque she could muster into a savage punch, the equivalent of being hit by a full-speeding car. Or rather, herself. "Get off him!" She snarled. Now she really hoped Covie would let loose, even considering the consequences. The poor Marshman had seemingly lost an eye and was bleeding everywhere despite his thick skin.

((OOC: I hope I hit everything, I tried to be thorough! If I missed something big, point it out and I'll edit it in.))

Selphy's mind was blank.

Her thoughts had, moments prior, become a total rush. Oh no, Buttons scared Jervis! We were just getting along, I need to apolo--Oh!! A scream?? Her head had snapped to the side so fast that she got a crick in her neck. Who screamed? What should I-- Then the inhuman screech had echoed through the motel, and what little color was left in her face had left it. She'd heard sounds like this before, on trips with her mother...she didn't turn, she didn't want to know, didn't want to see...whatever belonged to that scream was nothing she wanted anything to do with.

The appearance of a woman, Selphy thought it was Andrea's roommate, holding a dog, which also didn't help Selphy's mental state, and she was finally overwhelmed. The noise stopped. Her usually panicked brain shut down, and she stared blankly down the corridor, mouth slightly open in a noiseless scream.

"Seeeeeelphyyyyyy...?" Buttons moaned, concerned, but before he could say anything more, the situation seemed to overwhelm Jervis, as well. The man burst past the pair of them, into Selphy's room, but still the girl didn't move. Buttons turned towards him now, just in time to see him lunging for the bed. "Mr. Jeeeeerviiiis...?"

"You should probably get inside. Is it alright if Mara and Riley go with you?"

Selphy, now somewhere else, didn't hear her. Through the fog, one word, one thought, was finally pushing through: run. She turned abruptly, bolting into her room without a word. Buttons had heard Andrea, however, and he was eager to be helpful.

"Of coooourse they can...the more the meeeerier, as they say..." He was content now that Selphy had returned to the room, since his grasp of the situation was not great, and he floated out of the way to let Mara and the cute little four-legged person inside. "I'm Buttooooons~! It's nice to meet yooooou..."

Meanwhile, Selphy, head still swimming, was trying to find the best place in her room to hide, when a new sound (one from inside her room, no less) finally caught her attention and made her jump out of her skin.

"B-beware the J-jubjub bird, and sh-sh-shun the frumious Bander-(sniiiff)-snatch!”

"W-What?!" she gasped, whirling, wide-eyed, towards the lump on her bed. For one horrible moment, her mind supplied plenty of suggestions as to what monster it could be (the course of that terrible noise?!), but then she remembered the blurred shape of Jervis darting past her and into her room. She held her head; there was just too much to process, too much that was freaking her out...but... She tried her best to grab onto any clarity available to her as more horrible sounds, the sounds of feral combat, broke out from across the courtyard through her open door. Whatever was going on out there...she couldn't do anything about. And Jervis was in a bad way...

"Um...Mr. Jervis..." She walked slowly over to the side of the bed, shaking in terror. It was odd to see someone other than her or Buttons in the room. Those lines he was saying...oh! Alice in Wonderland...of course... She recalled him quoting it earlier, as well, when Buttons had startled him. A coping mechanism, maybe? She pulled her chair up to the side of the bed and sat.

"Um...do you l-like to read...? I do, too..." Could he even hear her? Was that even a good thing to say? She knew that she didn't like attention drawn to her when she was in full-panic mode (which she really ought to be in now, but it seemed that seeing Jervis as scared as she was had somehow pulled her out of it, for now at least). Her hands were still trembling, and so she clasped them together. "I think it's really impressive...how you remember so many lines..." This was probably useless, he didn't care about books right now! But Selphy was still Selphy, and Selphy never knew what to say, much less what to say when someone was going through a total breakdown.

OOC: It's cool. Thank you for trying to help though! :) EDIT: I realized that I completely misunderstood what you were doing. :p If it doesn't work right away, there's no need to worry. I subscribed to the thread because people tag another user on accident and it doesn't go through. That way I know if there's a new post, even if it doesn't involve my character. :)

BIC:

Diana listened to the rain outside, noticing that it picked up some and thunder now accompanied it, knowing that Covie had stepped up to help. She then jumped in fear and let out a squeak as the sound of fighting broke out. She glanced down at Ashley and saw her teary face filled with fear. [I]"This... This was supposed to be a fun vacation."[/I] When the girl said that, Diana started to chew on her bottom lip glancing around the room. "We'll be safe. I promise. Covie is out there right now and I won't leave you until all is safe. I promise."

The sound of the fight really started to get to her and she hopped up to go to the window. She let out a gasp as she started to close the blinds. "Oh mercy me. I hope Tim will be fine.." With the blinds now closed, Diana returned to Ashley's side as she made count of all of the plants in here and outside, remembering that she set hers out earlier. She looked over at Ashley again and got up to get a tissue box, returning to wipe her tears away. She gave a small smile at the girl, hoping it had helped some.

((Yeah, I can't figure out what the deal is. :( Sometimes it does, and sometimes it just won't. Ahhhhh))

((OOC: I've noticed that sometimes when I post and tag them, it shows up like it didn't work, but then when I refresh it actually did. Maybe that lag is happening to you two? Because it looks like your tag did work.))

OOC; Dang, it's all kicking off over here. I'm going to try and write my response as eloquently as possible, but I'm sorry if I skip any details. Remember that all of my characters, with the exception of Babs, are flexible. Thank you for playing Tim in your response. (And don't worry about the layout of the motel. I think you and the others just got confused between the stereotypical motel and the stereotypical hotel.)

Also, as a note everybody, I'm going to be working a lot over the next two days, so if I'm slow, please feel free to play any of my characters if you need to move the roleplay along.

Magnus and , if you put square brackets around the entirety of Viola's username, then it will ping her. :) [-viola]

Have you played The Sims before? It's like if you have the original motel layout, and then just added an extra wall in front of all the ground floor rooms. Essentially creating a corridor between the rooms and the outside world. Windows, doors, etc. would be in the extra wall too.

IC; There were frequent uproars at the motel, so Babs didn't pay attention to what was happening behind them until Jackie reacted. There was something calm and collected about Lee's older sister, and despite being much older, allegedly, Babs felt that the young woman knew more. She had a wisdom and authority beyond her years. Babs was still in charge though, so when the rain started coming down, she didn't follow Lee to the shelter. Instead, she pulled up her hood and began a steady march back towards the commotion, even as a black horse roared past her. She just put her chin down and continued wading through the wet weather, muttering about Covie and her powers under her breath.

It was only when the Wendigo began to call out, when Lee began to call out to Andrea, and when Tim's usual burbles turned to strangled screeching, that Barbara finally looked up and realised what she was walking towards. The room form that she had been carrying beneath her coat dropped and floated lazily to the ground, immediately soaking through with rainwater. Now that wasn't a typical guest. The blonde woman decided that maybe, just maybe, Lee had had the right idea after all.

As she ducked into the corridor, she watched as Jackie surged past her and crashed the old car into one of the supporting beams, barreling through the outer wall and damaging her headlights against the inner wall. Barbara cringed and glanced over her shoulder at Lee, wrinkling her nose in distaste. Paying for the repairs would be worth the cost of saving Tim, she knew, but it still hurt to look at.

Tim, meanwhile, had a hand over his damaged eye. He was instinctively curled with his knees to his chest and his back to the creature, now that his new friend, Jackie, had intervened. The Marshman's dorsal spines had lifted to protect him. His fingers were sticky with thick brown blood. His shoulder, where the beast had bitten him, hurt the most, but it was the damage to his eye that was the most concerning. He'd managed a few punches before Jackie had brought the car to them, but there was no damage on the creature. Tim continued to wail, though his crying sounded more like a stick being dragged through gravel.

The Wendigo stopped their assault on Tim when the smoke-horse enveloped them, hacking and coughing for air; they pawed at their own muzzle in a panic as if trying to tear the smoke out of their airways. They whined and coughed, eyes and lungs both stinging. Tim carried on wailing but the Wendigo had apparently forgotten he was there, more concerned with the choking smoke than the Marshman.

When the car suddenly roared forwards and hit the pillar, they froze entirely in shock. They could do nothing but stare as a woman suddenly darted forwards, raising a fist. They realised too late what was going to happen, raising their claws to protect themselves just as the fist hit them like - like nothing they'd ever felt before. It was like a falling tree, or a lightning bolt, or the impact of the explosion that had... That had killed the man he used to be. All the animal souls and Dr Jacobi's soul screamed at once. There was a snap of breaking bone as one antler came entirely off.

"Get off him!"

The Wendigo rolled off of Tim and away like a ragdoll, coming to rest about two metres away. They moaned, all the fight leaving them, and curled up into a ball with their wings wrapped around their body. They wanted to run away but they just couldn't. The pain was too great; all they could do was lie there uselessly, trembling and whining softly. They looked up at the woman with fearful but resigned eyes, fully expecting the next blow to be a fatal one. The Wendigo blinked and let out a little sigh. Maybe it was for the best.

"Go... ahead. Ubey menya... K-kill... me..." they rasped, their head dropping; a thin trickle of blood ran down the side of their face from where the missing antler had been. "P... Prosti menya. Mat' Mariya, prosti... menya. O moyey... zhene i synov'yam... Prosti menya..."

((OOC: Google Translate 2: Return of the Bad Russian! Rough translation: "Kill me. Forgive me. Mother Mary, forgive me. Oh my wife and sons, forgive me.))

"The J-j-jabberwock, with eyes of flame... (sniff) C-came whiffling through the tulgey wood (boo-hoo!) and b-burbled as it came!" recited Jervis, his brain not quite registering that someone was talking to him. The information took a while to trickle through the layers of panic that clouded his mind, but he eventually grew silent and still as he realised that he had heard a voice. A few seconds later and he had a rough idea of what had been said.

He wiggled a little in the bed until he was lying almost in the proper way with his head on the pillow, pulling down the covers so he could peek out at the world. Jervis was a little embarrassed that someone had heard him break down like that, but a larger part of him was simply too scared to care about that right now. He peered at Selphie like a frightening little mouse, sniffing as he considered his answer. "T-thank you." he mumbled eventually, wiping his tearful eyes with the back of his hand. "I do... I do read a lot, actually. Maybe t-too much. My room is all books. But, um, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland has always been my favourite. Every since I was... tiny."

"But you probably guessed that already." He added, managing a wet little giggle as pushed himself into sitting position. "So, ah, um... What do you like to read?"

Selphy watched, at a loss, as Jervis' babbling continued, but was pleasantly surprised when his head popped out the top of her covers. Her pity also grew a sizeable amount when she saw his face; poor guy! She was sure her own face had made that expression many, many times, and she knew it always made her feel embarrassed, so she tried to act as normal as possible to avoid making him feel (any more) self conscious.

She gave him a tiny smile in return to his giggle, glad that he seemed to be calming down some. "Yeah...I thought it might be," she said in quiet agreement. He sat up, and she had to reflect on the absurdity of it all, that after an afternoon full of panic and misunderstanding, they were finally having a normal conversation when an actual crisis was going on right outside her room.

She considered his question, head tilted. "Well, that's tough...when I was growing up, I never really had much access to books, so...I guess I always just read whatever I could get my hands on. ...but I like books with happy endings." She glanced back at him, a little embarrassed. "I guess that's pretty childish." She cleared her throat, trying to shake it off. "Oh, but I don't think you could ever have too many books. Maybe you can show me your collection sometime...?" Oh, was that too forward?! She didn't really know...

Andrea looked over to the boy who was stopping her. "I can help. I know what it is and how to stop it. Well I think I know how to stop it." Andrea told the boy. She turned to look to Mara and gestured her to go inside. "At least I can form some kind of plan." Andrea suggested to the boy.

Mara went inside with Riley and shut the door behind her. She leaned up against it as she saw a ghost. At least it wasn't an evil creature trying to eat you. It was kind of cute and Riley was staring at it, curious. Mara was surprised that he wasn't barking at the being but maybe Riley didn't see him as a threat. If the girl was living with the ghost that had to of mean he was pleasant and not evil in anyway. Though looks could be deceiving...Mara had learned that the hard way a long time ago. She shook her head to rid herself of any thoughts or memories of her past. This was not the time to think of the past but to Mara no time was good to think of the reason why she shut herself off. Hopefully this situation would pass quickly without anyone being harmed. Mara listened quietly to the two conversing as her roommate was still outside. She hoped that Andrea wouldn't do something stupid.

Jervis nodded understandingly (is that a word?). "That's not childish at all, I think. Or if it is, then where's the shame in being childish? There's too much grief and pain in the world without making yourself miserable by reading sad stories where everyone dies in the end. And yes! I'd love to! I haven't met anyone who loved books as much I do for an age and a half, so feel free to borrow as many as you'd like... Perhaps we can talk books over tea sometime..." he said cheerfully, his fear melting away like snow now he had somebody to talk to. "Oh, I do hope you don't mind mice. I have a pair of sweet little white mice called Tea and Cake. I..."

He paused as he realised that he might have to talk about his past now, but pressed on. "...I rescued them from the lab I used to work at. Couldn't bear to leave them."

((OOC: I meant to say earlier, with the timing of everything I took it as Andrea's conversation with Buttons getting interrupted, and he'll remember/be eager to answer her questions the next time they talk. c:

It's totally a word! C:))

Buttons, not at all put off by the new girl's lack of reply, floated down right in front of Riley, who was staring at him. "Oooh, hellooooo!" The ghost found himself wishing that he had arms, and could touch things; this tiny person looked rather soft. "I'm Buttooooons~!" he announced for the fourth time that day, that being the only greeting he knew.

Buttons also seemed to notice something off with Mara, and he floated up to her. "Are you alriiiight? I'm sure everything will be okaaaaay..."

Selphy found herself slightly overwhelmed by the sudden surge in Jervis' level of talkativeness, but not in a bad way, since it meant that he was definitely feeling much better (and that she hadn't crossed a line!). Plus, she enjoyed the way he talked; it was like having a conversation with a character right out of classic literature, and she was content just to listen.

She smiled at his defense of her taste in stories; while she didn't try to interject, she certainly agreed, and it was nice to hear that someone felt the same way she did. She looked at him curiously when he paused suddenly, but didn't press, instead continuing their conversation as normal. "Oh, no, I don't mind them at all. In fact, I think mice are very cute. And I like their names," she added, still smiling. "I think that all sounds very nice...I would be happy to." It would be great to be somewhere where she could relax...after all, Buttons was very kind, but it was an uphill battle for her to get adjusted to living with a ghost.

At that moment, part of what he'd said finally clicked with her, and she looked at him curiously. "You worked at a lab? That sounds very interesting..." Would it be inappropriate to ask more questions...? Despite how much she'd moved around, she really hadn't interacted with many people, and that made her very curious. However, it wasn't in her nature to pry. "I'm sure that Tea and Cake were happy you brought them along." She decided to leave it up to him if he wanted to tell her more about it, though she wished he would.