THE SKULL IS IN

[skulltasm]

WHO: Eshal, Haku, Laura, and anyone else!
WHAT: Catch-all threading
WHEN: During this heat wave, of course! But not during Monster Madness.
WHERE: Everywhere!
NOTES: Bad advice.

I. ESHAL

It is an ongoing mystery how Skull ends up where he does. He is frequently decorating some surface in the Seneschal's office, in the library, in the dining hall, or propping open doors, or being a perch for some damned raven, or being used to crack open hard-shelled nuts.

It's all very demeaning. Particularly when it forces you to depend on the kindness of morons.

"YOO-HOO, OVER HERE!"

II. HAKU

This time, he's in the storeroom, right next to a jar of pickles. Leering would work so much better if he weren't on such a low shelf.

"YOU'RE A LONG WAY FROM HOME."

He says it to a set of ankles. It's a safe enough assumption even for one who isn't fairly sure those ankles came from a different world.

III. LAURA

And then there's this one, with knives for bones and all the trappings of a feral child.

"AN ODD DUCK, THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE."

IV. OTA - WILDCARD

[[ Feel free to godmod where Skull ends up. He's bound to turn up literally anywhere. ]]

Comments

II

[thekohakuriver]

And Haku, exploring with only sidelong purpose, passes right by that comment with the disdain it deserves. At the end of the shelf-row, he hesitates, curious despite himself.

This is stupid: he shouldn't be indulging the whims of random yokai hiding on shelves in the dark. That much is true, even if he's not doing much better himself, by skulking around. Haku is always skulking, these days. He has no choice.

But he does have a choice in this; he turns around, coming back into Skull's view, and then crouches to stare directly into his eyesockets.

He stays like that for a few seconds, considering. Haku doesn't seem surprised by what he sees, or alarmed, only curious in the same way one might be to see that a sock has gone missing in the wash, or a package mislabeled.

"So are you," He says, finally, quite as if he knows exactly where Skull belongs, and isn't concerned that it might not be somewhere pleasant, "Though as it happens, I don't have a home right now."

Not strictly true. But he's not sure he'd call what he does have an actual home, at any rate.

I(t me).

[saam]

She's paging through the library, trying to find books with more pictures, or maybe some maps, and then-

Eshal's scream is loud and bellowing. She stumbles backward a step, but refuses to be afraid-- anger is easier-- and immediately picks the skull up. Qunari are afraid of magic. She is not qunari.

"What the fuck is this?" She groans, and slides the jar under her arm, intending to find the prankster.

iv

[limier]

Crack —

Coupe sets the jar back upon its perch: Today, the window of a watchtower. They’ve been nominated to guard duty.

A responsibility that she is, of course, treating with the solemnity and vigilance it’s due. That's why she’s reclining, wet cloth across a sweaty brow, amid a growing pile of walnut shells.

“Whose head was it?”

[justashotaway]

The corridor is dark, and Laura hears no footsteps. She has been assuming she is alone.

But then there's a voice, unfamiliar and deeply strange: the stone echoes, but she doesn't smell anyone there. She freezes into a fighter's stance, claws giving off a deceptively soft glow. It's only after they come out that she realizes she brought them out.

"Who's there?" she demands, her voice a hiss.