LOG

[patissier]

Sumaru City was a hustling metropolis, full of men and women moving from point a to point b without a glance side to side. Particularly, in Konan, in a shopping mall not unlike most, a tiny door had appeared. With a blue velvet covering, a small moon-shaped window, and a frame that tiled ominously to the left, a soft piano melody echoed from it's

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[ace_pirate]

Sumaru City was a hustling metropolis filled with THINGS WOLF HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE. No, the last thing he remembered was everything around him exploded, and then, this. No Wolfen, no Leon or Panther, no space, what were these things and why were they staring at HIM. They were the weird-looking ones!

But apparently, one of these... people had a strange communicator too, and they were going to talk. Something like that. Crossing the street, right?

Were they just going to have a nice chat in front of this building [S-something? hard to read from here] and then go on their merry ways? Fuck. This world was strange.

[shouryuu]

It was eerie, this city.

It looked so much like Tokyo, but it was so unlike it. It felt... even more spiritually strange than Tokyo had. His conversation with that young man over the device hadn't really enlightened him to more than the absolute strangeness of the place.

And as if it wasn't strange enough already, there was this wolf in human clothing.

Not that he hadn't met his share of strangeness (BlankacoughcoughBlanka) in his day, but this was uh, a little beyond the usual.

Ryu stopped a healthy distance from the uh, wolfthing. "So then..." how awkward. "I cannot tell you much. Except that this place is called Sumaru City, and apparently it's a city where only words count. Though I'm not sure exactly what that means."

[patissier]

Without a human hand to guide it the door to the Velvet Room swung open. Through it a blast of sound; piano and voice: "Enter, my darlings, to the catacomb of your insides, to the darkness that plays between our soul's strings~"

[ace_pirate]

So the hairless one was wary? Well, he was wary too. Everything seemed to be on edge-- he'd hate to be a permanent resident of this place. Sumaru City, huh? "Where only words count? Hah. Sounds like a place I know--"

And then the door opened. Wolf quite literally jumped into the air, turning and snarling on pure reflex.

There was no one there.

What.

[shouryuu]

One of Ryu's eyebrows rose. He was about to ask the wolfman something when he heard the door open, reacting just as quickly as the wolf, but not quite as... feral, would be the term?

Ryu tensed, and though he let his guard down a little, he was alert. A door opening on its own was bad enough, but the sounds and the words that came out made things so much worse.

Ryu glanced at the wolfman. "Seems like this place gave us one more obvious question." Which would be WHAT THE HELL?! "And perhaps our answers will follow?"

Ryu strode purposefully towards the open door...

[patissier]

"Ryu," Igor greeted, his lips breaking into an enormous smile - rows and rows of teeth, an impossible amount of teeth. The gnome was hunched in his high-backed throne, black with curling claws on the end, coated in purple and blue velvet. His bell sleeves of the same velvet hung from his thin wrists, as his white gloves, impeccable, wrapped against each other in a timed rhythm. On the end of his nose a wart was reflected by the spinning disco ball on the roof, the floor beneath him appearing to be a blue dance floor of matched dyed mahoganey - as if the Velvet Room would double as a night club

[ace_pirate]

He was going IN? Wolf's first reaction to a combination of creepy words plus open door was not to CONTINUE ON.

... Well. When in Rome...

Sure, walk in the door. His entire body was rigid, right up to the little pointy ears. Really-- it seemed bad on the outside, yeah. But on the inside?

IT WAS WORSE. It was the sort of place that would be called classy, if it weren't for the, well... everything. Wolf glared around. Blinking when you only had one eye made you miss a lot, after all.

[shouryuu]

The fact that Ryu walked in didn't mean he wasn't taking this seriously. And his tension increased al the more when the strange gnome who knew his name (that somewhat reminded him of Oro about, oh, a hundred years in the past). However, Ryu seemed more drawn to the man sitting at the piano. There was something about him... beyond the fact that he had a bandanna and was wearing it around his neck.

Ryu looked over his shoulder at Wolf, noting him to, well, behave somewhat like a cornered wolf. He hoped that this wouldn't be a problem.

"I suppose he did after all." He turned to face the gnome, glancing at the piano-playing man once. "You have us at a disadvantage. You know who we are but we have no idea who you are."

[patissier]

"My associates are all here to help you discover the truth worth of your soul." At this, the piano player rose, untying the bandana from his neck. "Nameless, the piano player, plays the keys to help rejuvenate your tired minds, and Belladonna," And soon her microphone slipped from in front of her, her lips pulling into a taught, seductive smile. "She sings to awaken the spirit that lies within. The Painter lies to paint you your true calling."

And now, the Sun card floated before Ryu, a set of gold dust flaking from it's edges, and the Justice card found it's way before Wolf. "Your true soul lies ahead, but first,"

Igor smiled, a wicked smile, and soon, an echoing, cackling laugh emerged. The pure empty eyes of Nameless rolled over their bodies, and dropping his bandana to the ground, it began to smoke black around the edges.

"The issue of your heart."

[piercingswords]

AH. Some very... colourful language sprang to mind. He took a few steps back, snarling all the way-- animals didn't take kindly to being surprised, so why would animal-people? In fact, for the first time in... a while, anyway, Wolf was unsure.

Scared, even. Maybe.

"What do you want from us?" he hissed, never taking his eyes-- eye-- off Igor. Times like this he could really use a ship, y'know?

[shouryuu]

Ryu's fists came up instinctively. He did not attack, he merely went on guard, backing away slowly from the smoking bandana. "Heart? What do you mean?"

[patissier]

"By heart, I mean -" And from the bandana, a small creature began to rise, it's antenna pointing in crooked indecision. "Yours."

Igor's laugh echoed through the entirety of the velvet room as the door slammed shut, and from the shadows of the luxurious room the black shapes slipped themselves form the walls. All short, hunched creatures that could flatten against the walls as shadows, and from Nameless' black flat eyes a reflection of their golden pupils began to dance.

"We will feast on them! Our freedom is so divine, you crusaders think you will come so fast?! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA -"

and so Belladonna began to sing, finally able to hear her own voice, a shriek both beautiful and insane: "May you know your pain is gone for now the depths of you are ours to keep our song to reap we sow our seeds our time of need is here your hearts your hearts I sing for them your hearts your hearts -The Painter, wanly, dropped his brush to the floor, and that too globulised into a tiny black shadow, and now the four were behind the piano, staring out

[ace_pirate]

FUCK SHIT SON OF A BITCH. Wolf swore long and loudly, reached for a blaster, immediately taking a shot at the nearest little blobby shadow thing whatever it was.

Whatever... it... was. SHOOT FIRST ASK QUESTIONS LATER BYE. Thank Providence for small blessings like guns! Pause. Was the door safe? He looked. No, just black. Black like the... the... oh shit, son, this was gonna be a rough ride.

[shouryuu]

Ryu didn't hesitate. The sense he got from the black creatures was certainly unwholesome. So he did what came naturally.

He fought.

He balled his fists and pressed them together at the wrist, taking a deep breath and gathering his chi like his master had taught him so long ago. The hadou came to him instinctively now. He brought his hands down to his hip, his eyes scanning the room.

He threw his fists in front of him, releasing his breath and the spirit power into the midst of the black creatures. "Hadouken!"

He was so focused on surviving this that he was only mildly surprised when a spectral key appeared in his hand after his Hadouken exploded outward.

[patissier]

"A key?! Here?!" Igor cried before Nameless strode before him; it seemed, even in their state, the three had created a shield about the tiny gnomish creature. The shadows disappeared in the face of the light, but soon more began creeping, and Nameless dropped to one knee.

"Your heart and your light cannot defeat, the darkness is what will offer retreat - from your sadness, from your pain, here your heart we will have slain!"

However, even as Belladonna sang, Igor threw his knobby gloved covered hand to the side, a set of three golden butterflies flying from his fingertips. "Out! Out!"

And bam, the door to the Velvet Room slammed open.