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Home, Smelly Home. [M] [Glob!]

Started by Rhindeer, March 17, 2015, 01:15:30 PM

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Rhindeer

Mei still couldn't quite figure out what she'd said to catch the tavern patrons' ire. In retrospect, she should have perhaps been more careful talking to them. After all, she was unmistakably Thanati, from her skin color to her hair color to her very clothes, and Thanatos and Serendipity still weren't on the best of terms, but...

Mei kind of tended to forget little details like political tension.

In any case, whatever happened, whatever nuance she'd misinterpreted or missed, she'd wound up chased out of the pub by some very peeved off men sporting some wicked looking knives. Maybe she hadn't even done anything at all! Maybe they just had a thing against Thanati, as old beliefs ran deep, and she had a feeling maybe that had something to do with it as they yelled things at her, calling her a demon-worshiper and such. Which didn't make a lick of sense to her, but whatever! Hatred wasn't always rational!

Or maybe...well, this wasn't really a great part of town, come to think of it, and she hadn't seen any women in the tavern, which had struck her as a bit unusual. Maybe she should have taken that as a sign, though Serendipity's gender politics were still mystifying to her!

She ran as fast as her sandal-clad feet would carry her--which wasn't fast, because she wasn't a runner! She didn't do exercise! She was a scholar! But no matter how she shouted back to them that she was just a scholar and meant no offense, they kept on coming!

And soon, her lungs on fire, she found herself at a dead end, pinned between the angry men and a wall, and for a second panic struck her as she thought she was doomed. She stared across at them, eyes wide, and backed up further. "Ah. Hello, friends!" she said, laughing nervously, and she looked back to the wall as though it would be able to tell her what to do--

...Which is exactly what happened, when she noticed the small, barred opening near the bottom, with a gap beneath the bars large enough for a young child.

Or a small person.

The men came at her, and Mei dove for it in desperation, flinging her haversack through first before squeezing her way beneath it even as putrid water soaked her fine clothes. The bars caught on her robe, and one man grabbed her by the ankle, but she kicked with her other foot and got him in the face, and then she slipped from her sleeves and left the robe behind as she wriggled under the bars and into the dark tunnel ahead.

She heard the men cursing behind her and shouting their threats, but she ignored them as she climbed back to her feet and grimaced, because she was covered in...

Something she didn't want to know the source of.

In any case, with the men lurking out there, there was no place to go but forward. She left her robe behind, for it was torn and ruined now anyway, and strode onward, dressed in her sandals, cut-off pants, and sleeve-less shirt. As she walked, she checked her haversack for damage--or rather, the things inside it. Her book was there, and she would die if it were damaged! Luckily, though, everything looked dry. Then she removed her dry headscarf and tied it over her mouth and nose to try to fight against the stench.

Well then. Time to push onward. Though Mei knew she should be frightened to be in such a dark, mysterious place, especially a place that reeked of unspeakable things, her logical brain kicked in. If there was a way in, there was a way out. She just needed to stick to the wall and walk, and pay attention to the air. Air would flow where there was an opening, so she'd just need to go toward that.

And anyway, this was something of an adventure, wasn't it? Exploring a place few people could likely say they'd been!

Though Inima help her, she couldn't wait to get out and wash herself, and she didn't want to think about what was squelching beneath her sandals and between her toes!
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DaGlobster

"Please sir, anything helps..."

Another plead, another soul who ignored him. Daersen looked spitefully at the man who took a few steps away from him as he passed by. Huffing a breath out through his nose, he leaned back against the stone wall of the building corner he was occupying today. Normally, the homeless weren't allowed to loiter on corners like he was, but he had an agreement with the area's guardsmen.

They don't throw him out, and they don't get attacked by rats. It's not like he was harming anyone by begging anyways!

There was a commotion a few streets down, some people running out of a tavern for whatever reason. Daersen paid it no mind, and returned to the task at hand. He had another hour before going back home, and he'd only accrued enough coins for a few days of food, at most.

His abnormally large white rat, Prince, perked its ears up, and hopped off Daersen's shoulder and onto his lap. Daersen pet him, smiling.

"What is it?"

Prince hopped off Daersen's lap and scrambled into a gutter opening, and Daersen frowned before he returned to the business at hand. Across the street from him, a few alley rats were staring in his direction. A frown from Daersen sent them scattering back into their trashy nests.

Just one more hour...

Rhindeer

Mei didn't know how long she walked. It probably wasn't long, because she wasn't especially hungry or thirsty...but then again, the smell wasn't exactly conducive to that! Still, it was hard to tell with very little light beyond that which filtered down through small grates in the ceiling here and there, far too high for her to reach or--

Crunch!

Wincing, Mei looked down, and gagged when she saw a wave of cockroaches skitter away from her, one of them crushed beneath her sandal. More were on the walls, making it look like an almost living, breathing thing; Mei had learned very quickly that touching the walls was a bad idea!

"Eugh...sorry, little roach," she said, for though she hated the things, she wasn't a fan of killing even bugs! She'd always been the sort of person to rescue spiders and other insects from the indoors before other people came at them with their sandals.

With a small shudder, she pushed onward and rounded a bend, arbitrarily choosing to go left instead of continuing in a straight line--

And sucked in a breath at the sight that greeted her beyond.

There was light coming in from above. Not a lot of it, but enough that she could see the...home?...in front of her. That was the only thing that could describe it. It was a home! In a small chamber in the sewer. No, maybe home was the wrong word--it was more like a bedroom one would find inside one's home. From a distance, it looked rather fancy, but as curiosity drew her nearer (because what would a fancy bedroom be doing down here?--she saw it was all...trash.

It was all made of trash, from the elaborate, four poster, canopy bed to the mirror to the...was that a sore attempt at a chandelier?

Wait. This was someone's home. Someone lived here.

"Hello? Ah, hello, is anyone here?" she called, looking around the area as she approached, but when no one answered, she got bolder. Well, if no one was home, they weren't around to mind her looking around! And so she stepped inside the "room" and started to poke about.

"How odd..." she murmured to herself as she picked up a broken knickknack, a little statue of a knight that was missing an arm and a nose. Someone's trash that was this person's treasure, she assumed.

How long had this been here? Was the person even still alive? Were there other people down here? Was there an entire sewer population that dwelt below? Intrigued, Mei put her haversack on a makeshift dresser, pulled out her book and a piece of charcoal, and sat on the bed to scribble down some notes and a quick, rough sketch of the room.
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DaGlobster

It was the end of the day, and it was time for Daersen to pack up. He picked up the small pouch he kept his earnings for the day in, and stowed it inside his bundle of ragged robes. Prince hadn't returned yet, so Daersen assumed the rat must've returned to his home.

Boy was he right.

------------------

Mei wouldn't be alone in the chamber for long. Almost about the same time she finished her sketch, a meek little squeak came from the foot of the bed. Standing there, beady red eyes locked onto Mei, was Prince, in all his abnormally large albino rat glory. Although Prince wasn't particularly fierce looking (he was actually pretty cute), he still looked big enough to win in a fight with a house cat.

Prince bared his teeth, hissing at Mei as a warning.

Rhindeer

When Mei drew or wrote, she tended to forget the world around her, so wrapped up in her own thoughts and ideas that nothing else existed. It was a squeak near her feet that snapped her back to reality, and when she looked down...

"AH!"

THAT WAS A HUGE RAT!

...A very pretty rat, what with it being white and all, and her having never seen a white rat before, BUT IT WAS STILL REALLY BIG!

And it was baring its impressive teeth and hissing at her!

With a squeak of her own, Mei jerked her feet up onto the bed and scooted back into the center of it, snatching up her book in the same motion. "Nice rat! Pretty rat! Don't bite me!" she said, because she did know rats carried all sorts of diseases! What if it was rabid and that's why it was hissing at her?! Rabies was a death sentence!

You die of thirst even as it makes you terrified of water... Mei thought, cycling through the facts she knew about rabies--before remembering she should probably be thinking about the rat problem she had right now!
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DaGlobster

Prince continued to hiss, yellowed fangs glinting in the light as he took a tentative step towards her. His tail swayed behind him, though, something not usually seen with an animal acting this aggressive.

The purpose made itself known.

A series of squeaks sounded off in the hallway, and dozens of beady little eyes became visible. Prince hissed, and actually began to scurry towards Mei, cutting off to the side to come at her from the right.

Of course, Prince had no desire to actually bite her, just run her off of the bed.

Rhindeer

And then, suddenly, there were more rats!

Rather than run off the bed, Mei leaped to her feet with a cry and bounced back away from the rat--and grabbed a hold of one of the posts. "Back! Get back, you...you rat!" she squealed, and did the only thing she could think to do in this situation!

She hopped up and wrapped her arms and legs around the post, clinging to it for dear life and hoping those things didn't know how to climb!

"Go on! Shoo! Scat! I think I saw some cheese a ways back! It was kind of green but you know, some mold is actually okay to eat! You just kind of have to scrape it off a little, I promise!"
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DaGlobster

Prince stopped a foot away from the post, snapping at Mei like he was a dog or something. The rats hiding in the corridor began to spill out, and it was a veritable pack! Squeaking, gnashing, snapping rats, all surrounding the base of the bedpost, which was threatening to give out under Mei's weight.

At first, it looked like all she had to do was hang on, but then the worst happened. The rats began to climb on top of each other!

Rhindeer

"No, no, no! Go away!" Mei cried as the bed post creaked and cracked, and she couldn't help but think that if she survived this, this would make one hell of a story for her notes! Intelligent rats that problem-solved! It was utterly fascinating...

...If they weren't trying to eat her.

And then, the worstest of the worst happened.

The bed post cracked, leaned, and toppled over, sending both it and Mei crashing to the bed.
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DaGlobster

With the bedpost, came a quarter of the canopy, now hobbled by a lack of support. It fell, pinning Mei beneath its weight as rats flooded up onto the bed.

Their sharp, filthy fangs were inches away from Mei's flesh, when they abruptly stopped, and went silent. Prince, who'd hopped up onto Mei's chest, sat up, looking down towards the doorway to the chamber.

Daersen was there, looking absolutely mortified. He remained at the doorway, clutching a grubby shiv in his hand, his only weapon.

The rats backed a few steps away from Mei, although she was still very much surrounded and helpless.

"Who the hell are you? The hell are you doing in my home?"

Rhindeer

Mei shrieked and thrashed, all scholarly interest replaced by instinctual fear and disgust of the creatures that were swarming her! But she was trapped, tangled in the canopy and pinned beneath the post, and she thought maybe this was it! Maybe this was how she would go, eaten by rats! What was the likelihood! Well, not very high, unless you were a criminal in some countries being tortured by that method, because rats would eat literally anything, so some of the more barbaric nations liked to--AGH NOW WAS NOT THE TIME SHE WAS GOING TO DIE BY RATS!

She was still screaming and flailing and clutching desperately at her book, crying out, "Don't eat this! Eat me if you must, but not this, this is how they'll know it's me!" when...

Suddenly, the rats drew away.

And over the din came a human voice.

Panting and pale, Mei froze, unharmed but very rumpled with her white hair spread out all over, having come free of its elaborate ponytail. The white rat was still on her chest (was it their leader?), so she didn't dare try to sit up, but she turned her head to look--and sucked in a breath when she saw the wild and dirty looking man, clutching a shiv! Ah! that must be one of the wild sewer people!

"Do not fear!" she said quickly, holding up her hands slowly to show they were empty, her book resting on her belly.

"I come unarmed and in peace! I'm Mei Yi! Thanati scholar, traveling the world for the sake of knowledge and learning! I found your place because some men were mean and scary and chased me out of a tavern and I wound up in the sewer and I was wandering around until I came upon your home and--" She paused to suck in a breath before continuing. "--And I was curious so I looked around and hope I wasn't intruding but then the rats came and attacked me and I'm sorry I wrecked your place!"
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DaGlobster

"Okay! Just shut up! I get it!" Daersen said, putting away his shiv, which was little more than a sharp piece of steel with one end wrapped in string for easy holding. He sighed, pulling back his hood while muttering "Kia give me strength..."

He looked at her, all filthy and surrounded by rats, and he shook his head. He motioned behind him with his thumb, and the rats all jumped off of the bed, scurrying back into various grates and crevices within the room. Prince lept off of Mei's chest, and bounded up to Daersen, climbing up his robes and settling down on his shoulder.

"You're very lucky I came by when I did. Those rats almost turned you into their next shit."

He stepped up to the bed, shaking his head at the damage she'd caused.

"Did it ever occur to you what could happen if somebody caught you here? There's some really crazy people down here, lady. People who would've killed you. Or raped you. Or both."

He set about lifting the post off of her, grunting with effort as he picked it up and dropped it to the side.

Rhindeer

...Were the rats obeying him?

They all withdrew with a motion of his hand. That couldn't be coincidence, could it? Not to mention the white rat's strange behavior, and that it was...was that his pet?

Mei was drawn from her thoughts as the man approached and began to remove the post--and lecture her. And her face colored first in embarrassment, before paling as he listed off what could have happened. With a deep breath, she sat up as soon as she could and raked her hands through her hair, repressing a shudder.

"Er...well, no. It didn't occur to me," she said with a sheepish smile. "I was more concerned with the men who were chasing me with their knives! I sort of came here because I had to, and then I was just looking for a way out, you see. I didn't actually know anyone lived here! Or that there were hordes of rats that wanted to eat me! That's certainly new!"

But then she flashed him a bright smile, looking for all the world like she hadn't just almost been eaten by rats. "But none of those terrible things happened because you found me first! Thank you. I really am sincerely sorry for wrecking your home! It's quite a nice home, for what it is!"
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DaGlobster

"Damn straight it is. Put a lot of effort into making living in a sewer comfortable."

Daersen looked at his ruined canopy, and set about putting the post back into place. He groaned as it fought him for a second or two, before it snapped back into place.

"What the hell did a nice looking girl like you do to get chased into a sewer by a mob, anyways? You don't seem the instigating type," Daersen said. Prince hopped off of his shoulder and clambered onto a nearby table, curling up in the middle.

Daersen stretched his back when he was done, reveling in the few pops that sounded off.


Rhindeer

"I..." Mei opened her mouth, finger raised, and then let her hand drop.

"You know, I don't actually remember now?" she said, watching the rat scurry from the man's shoulder. "But I suppose it was rather bad, judging by their reactions! Completely unintentional, of course! But you Serenians can be rather prickly about Thanati, so I'm sure anything I said to that particular bunch would have been taken poorly! Some people just can't be reasoned with no matter what you do! Now do these rats listen to you?"

She launched straight to business without much transition, speaking as quickly as her thoughts came to her. "It was a rather odd thing, that horde of rats leaving as soon as you motioned them off! And this white one, its behavior has been pretty atypical of what I know of rats. Now, admittedly, my knowledge is not firsthand, but rather through books and secondhand accounts, but its behavior was still oddly dog-like by my observations! Not to mention the rats that climbed themselves to try to get to me! These beasts are smart. Is that specific to this strand of sewer rat, do you know, perhaps an adaptation to survive in this environment, or is that common in Serenian rats?"
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DaGlobster

"What? Lady, just who do you think..."

Daersen looked offended. A little mad, even! Nobody had this much gall! Yet, even as his speech trailed off, words failed him.

I swear, the nerve of some people...

Then, he smiled.

"Tell you what. I can tell you all about these rats and little old Prince over there," Daersen said, motioning to the snoozing white rat.

"If you can get me a shaving knife and some food. I don't give out freebies."


Rhindeer

Mei blinked at the request, and then beamed.

"Oh, sure. That's easy," she said, as she found the fallen hair picks and ties and started to pull her hair back up. Though she quickly stopped, remembering the filth on her hands, and grimaced, letting it fall back down. "I can have you all that in two shakes of a rat's tail. You're just going to have to show me how to get out, and how to get back in, without encountering..."

She lowered her voice. "Murderers and rapists?"
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DaGlobster

"Come along, I'll guide you out," Daersen said. He patted his side, and Prince scurried up onto his shoulders.

"My neck of the sewers is pretty safe, relatively. People down here know me, and they know not to mess with me."

Rhindeer

Mei slid off the bed, and grimaced as she once again stepped down into grossness. But she scurried to keep up with the man, even as she thought she really, really needed to bathe when all this was done and over.

"Why do you live down here?" she asked as they walked. "Don't the fumes get to you? And the waste? And the insects? It's rather filthy. You could catch a lot of diseases, you know, like rabies or plague, to name a few! Not to mention the fleas and infections and respiratory issues. And that's just barely scratching the surface!"
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DaGlobster

"I got used to it, I guess. Funny thing is, I haven't gotten sick yet. Apart from the obvious issue of food and water, I've been pretty healthy."

Daersen stretched a bit, glancing over to Mei, who was covered in muck and other less desireable substances.

"You staying in an inn?"

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