=========-< << Rose Court Tenements - Hansa Suite >> >-=========
The suite is a spacious affair, bright and airy. The ceilings are carved plaster, the walls papered in satin stripes of creamy white and pale sage green to complement the warm woodwork and polished floors. Curtained windows overlook the grounds outside, and being on the first floor, the roses' scent is a lovely perfume from late Spring until well into Autumn.
The first room, a sitting room, offers antique loveseats and a chaise longue, small mahogany tables placed to best convenience, and opens onto a small, but fully functional kitchen and dining room. On the other side of the sitting room, a well-appointed bedroom with a king-sized canopy bed and, attached, a spacious lavatory with a marble tub and, contrary to its old-fashioned charm, a fully modern shower head.
It's a bright sunny morning. Birds chirp. The air is crisp and clean after some rain over the night. There's puddles gleaming in the sun outside on the street, casting light across the windows. There's the occasional splashing sound as a car pass over the puddle.
There's nothing odd about the bathroom. It's exactly as she left it last time she was there, but that sibilant pleasant near-chirping voice coming from in there is definitely not normal. "Hey hey, anyone in there? Mrrrreowlo? I mean. Hello?"
Zephyr's seated in the front room, a bit of cloth trapped inside a circle of wood to hold the cloth taunt for some embroidery. There's a distant look to her mismatched eyes, a faint smile curving glossy, pink lips while she works. The needle plunges into the fabric and pulls back through faster than a human should be able to do, but Zeph is clearly lost in her own thoughts.
That is until she hears someone speaking without the distant sound of being outside. The needle plunges one last time into the fabric and she looks up, and around. Did she hear that, for real? Or just imagining?
"HELLO?!" That mreowing voice gets signifantly louder and is /definitely/ coming from the bathroom. "I'm in a bit of a hurry here. So if you're there, please come talk to me. I got five minutes, and that's even depending that time goes the same way where you are. But, I was assured this would work, that there would be the exact right person on the other side. It better be," the voice chatters on, sibilant, pleasant and half hissing at the same time. "Meow? Meow... meow..." The cutest kitten meows you ever heard. "Surely you can't resist this. I'm adorable."
If the door is open, she can hint - there's something blurring up the mirror above her sink.
Zephyr sinks her teeth into her lower lip. She's enchanted things in her day, but her bathroom mirror in a rented apartment isn't something she remembers doing. With some trepidation, the Fairest puts her sewing away and stands up, padding down the hallway towards the bathroom to peer at the mirror through the open doorway. She doesn't go in, she doesn't look directly at the reflective surface, but she tries to glimpse it from outside. "You sound cute as fuck," she says from her place in agreement. "But why are you in my mirror?"
Without looking directly, but out of the corner of her eye, she can hint whiskers. And adorable cat eyes - their color is faint though so hard to tell if they are green, yellow, or some other color. "Oh there you are. I can't really see you that well. I'm looking through a metal bowl." Someone, somewhere - a cat by the looks of it?! - is peeking right in. But they can't see that well, and their reflection is rather bad too. "It's a long story, but let's just say: I'm trapped. And so are many many more animals. I did a pledge with a hob that guards us - he's rather dumb." The cat talks fast and has lowered his or her voice now. "Honest, the conditions here are atrocious. Barely get any food. And... one by one we disappear as that nasty big one comes in and takes us out. Don't know where they take us. But I'm too cute and smart to be treated like this." The cat does a cheshire grin and that is seen in the mirror. "Can you come get us out? Are you a giant with a big sword? Seems like that would come in handy."
The Fairest edges her way into the bathroom, coming to stand before the mirror and study the cat that's apparently talking in a bowl. "Where are you?" she asks, rather than answering about whether or not she could be a giant or has a big sword. "How many of you are there? What's the big nasty one?" So many questions, but she doesn't want to go anywhere without some knowledge of the destination!
"Mreow..." The cat sounds hopeful, as questions follow. Least that suggests an interest and not immediate discarding of this odd event. "I was taken near the Evercaverns. I'd heard rumors of a hob collecting smaller animals, and then... well. I didn't pay that much attention, cause I would not be taken, surely." A sigh. "How wrong I was. I was ambushed. It threw a sack over my head. I'm sure the hobs in the Evercavern might know more. We are in a cavernous basement of sorts, and there is only one entrance that I can see. I was carried in the sack for about two hours, so it can not be /that/ far from Evercavern. There is another smaller hob here - the one I made the pledge with. His name is Firk. The big one, he is called simply Boss by Firk."
Zephyr says, “And who are you?" Zephyr asks, trying to work out where the Evercaverns are. She'll have to ask around the locals, but that shouldn't be an issue. A hand comes up, pushing her hair back from her face. "Is Boss the only one guarding you, little one?" she tacks on another question, staring into the mirror, looking for details in the distorted reflection.”
There's very little to discern beyond the smudged face of this cat hedge beast. There's the hint of bars, like on a cage. A dark wall - stone of some kind. The hint of a large door. And disturbingly, sounds from other animals come through, chirps, mreows, barks. "I am," the cat declares proudly, "...uh." He or she pauses. "I should be careful with a name. You can simply call me Pepper, for now." The voice lowers. "I have to go. There are two hobs guarding us. Boss. And Firk. Please, help us!" And the mirror image winks out and Zephyr finds herself staring at her own reflection.
"Well, shit," Zephyr says, watching her mirror return itself to normal. She leans in, checking her eyeliner while she's there. "Can't crush its hope now. Guess I gotta do my part," she steels herself for... AN ADVENTURE!
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