Of kings and cuddle piles [open]

[notagiraffe]

Characters: Taiki and open
Setting: Room 2-20, room 3-20 and floor 38
Format: Starting in prose, feel free to switch
Summary: Gyousou has disappeared again, cue sad Kirin. Also demons are warm and Kirin/demon snugglepiles happen, come and be warm!
Warnings: crushing despair



[Room 2-20] The fire went out suddenly, one moment Taiki could feel Gyousou's presence in the tower the next it was gone and the tower became a colder, darker much more frightening place.

Taiki paused in what he was doing; painting wrapped tightly in his cloak, and began to cry. He should be stronger he knew, adult kirin didn't burst into tears all the time. But he couldn't help it, Gyousou disappearing like he had ceased to exist was jarring and like a weight crushing down on him, because he was gone and Taiki didn't know if he was coming back. Sanshi was at his side in seconds wrapping him in her arms as he cried.

[Room 3-20] Of course there was a way for Taiki to know for certain if Gyousou was ever coming back... And so anyone who happened to be in room 3-20 would be interrupted by a small child falling through the ceiling. It has happened before, usually in the middle of the night when he has woken from a nightmare and wanted his king.

This time he rushed to Gyousou's trunk after stammering an apology to anyone in the room and opened it. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Gyousou's belongings. He would come back...

It didn't make the darkness any easier to bare though...

[Floor 38] It was cold, even for Taiki who as a kirin had a higher resistance to cold than humans. It was getting colder, Taiki had no idea how to help anyone... People were ill as well, Taiki wondered if the heal spell that Aqua had taught him would be able to help them... But he was too nervous to ask anyone if he could try.

Floor 38 was safe, or as safe as anywhere in the tower was and it was somewhere where he could summon Gohran and Sanshi, so he did and changed forms himself, it was warmer in his kirin beast form and he laid down in one of the corners. Anyone passing through this floor would be presented with a kirin, a wolf and a woman who seems to be a mix of creatures curled up talking quietly.

Comments

Floor 38

[glitchinprincess]

Tap... tap... tap...

Vanellope's footsteps were slow. In all fairness, it wasn't surprising - bitter cold had a way of slowing down even the most energetic. The little girl had bundled herself up in the cape she'd had made for her, which gave her even more reason to keep from running around at full speed: If she ran too fast, her cape might open, and then she'd be even colder.

She'd been up and down the staicase today. Up, down, up, down, from one floor to another, and she hadn't found anything particularly exciting to do - and nothing that really kept her mind off the cold, either.

Cold was a funny thing, wasn't it? She'd never really noticed it back in her game, and now...

She was shivering, but seeing as she was coming up from the thirty-seventh floor, that wasn't surprising either. That floor just gave her the creeps. She paused on the staircase as she came into view of the lounge and took a look around. There, in the corner--

Were those the monsters people had warned her about? But it wasn't the time that they usually came out, was it? She shrugged. This had to be better than just wandering around aimlessly.

"Uh... hello?"

Her voice was just the slightest bit hesitant, and she stuck close to the staircase. If worst came to, she'd make a break for it and head for a couple floors up. But if everything was okay, well, who wouldn't want to befriend creatures as neat-looking as those ones?

Floor 38

[notagiraffe]

Taiki looked up from where he lay and saw the little girl. If Kirin could smile he would have but instead he moved slightly, "Hello... Are you cold?" She looked cold despite her cloak, it wasn't as long as his but that wasn't surprising since his was made for Gyousou who was much taller than Taiki.

[glitchinprincess]

"...yeah."

Being cold still surprised her, perhaps a little more than hearing a relatively human-sounding voice coming from the Kirin did. She took a few steps away from the staircase and wandered towards him, nodding to the other two creatures he was snuggled up to (because pointing would have meant making herself colder for a moment, and even that was unacceptable).

"Are those your friends?"

[notagiraffe]

"Yes," Taiki nodded towards the woman, "This is Sanshi and," he nodded towards the wolf, "This is Gohran."

Despite the fact it was warmer like this Sanshi picked up his cloak and threw it over him so Taiki could shift forms. A moment later a human boy's head peaked put under the over sized cloak. "Sorry... I'm Taiki, what's your name?"

[glitchinprincess]

Vanellope's jaw dropped as Taiki peeked out from under the cloak. "You changed!" The last time she'd seen someone do that was... well, he hadn't been a nice guy. But the circumstances here were totally different so it should be okay, right?

She crept a little closer, studying him intently. "I'm Vanellope. Nice ta meet'cha! What're you doing all the way up here?"

[notagiraffe]

Taiki nodded, "Sorry... yes I did..." He wriggled under the cloak pulling on his clothes before standing up, "It's nice to meet you Vanellope... we were just keeping warm..."

Feel free to ignore this super-late tagback D8

[glitchinprincess]

"It's waaaay chilly in here, so I can see why you'd wanna keep warm!"

She's thankful that her default outfit has her with a hoodie, and thankful that Tohko had been nice enough to make her a cape earlier. She watched Taiki's cloak wriggle as he put on his clothes, then smiled.

"Nice t'meetcha too! So, how d'ya do that changing thing, huh?"

Never!

[notagiraffe]

"You can come and sit with us if you want." Taiki didn't want anyone to be cold! He sat back down and Sanshi wrapped her arms around him. "Oh... sorry... I'm a Kirin... So I have two forms."

Yay! ^^;

[glitchinprincess]

"Okay!"

That was all the permission Vanellope needed - she skipped right on over and made herself comfortable in the pile of warmth.

"Oh! That's cool! So you've always been able to do that?"

Floor 38

[isthatashortjoke]

It seems your peace will be shattered soon, that is unless you don't mind a short mage taking out his frustrations on the glass walls...

After a few consecutive sneezes and a frustrated scream, Veigar conjures up large meteor-like objects that hum dangerously in dark magic. He hurls them at the impenetrable glass with a thunderous impact that seems to be able to shatter an entire continent but much like the rest of the tower, the walls remain intact at any assault.

"IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED YOU BUMBLING CRETINS?! TO TAKE MY POWERS AWAY?! ARE YOU THAT COWARDLY THAT YOU REQUIRE TO NULLIFY MY ABILITIES?!"

He sent out another blast at the wall in frustration. "Yess, I see now. You NEED to take them, you are AFRAID! You KNOW I can destroy you all!"

[notagiraffe]

The moment the meteors appeared the giant red wolf stood growling getting between the angry mage and the kirin. The kirin stood as well and watched fearfully.

"Calm down," that was the strange female creature, "Getting angry will not bring your powers back."

[isthatashortjoke]

Veigar immediately pointed his rod at the creatures and raised an eyebrow.

"Calm down? How is that going to help any? These cretins are too cowardly to face one in combat so they rely on these parlor tricks to play with everyone! I for one will not stand for it!"

Just as he said that it seemed like he caught something out of the corner of his eye and turned to face it quickly. After a few moments he turned back to the creatures looking mildly annoyed.

[notagiraffe]

"Being angry wont help either." Sanshi told him calmly before Taiki spoke softly.

"They are cowards... but you wont find a way to stop them if you are angry... sorry..."

[isthatashortjoke]

"I'll bring this tower to its knees if I have to." Veigar replied dangerously, but his fury seemed to be settling down somewhat.

"Everyone who stands idly around for them to toy with us are even bigger cowards."

[notagiraffe]

"There's a difference..." Sanshi began angrily but Taiki whimpered at her tone and she stopped.

"Sorry... I think there's a difference between not being violent and being a coward..."

[adorably_evilish]

"And tell me, what exactly has not being violent yielded in results towards leaving this tower hm?" Veigar asked in what could have been a vicious tone if it hadn't been for the sneezes that followed.

[notagiraffe]

"Um... none... sorry..." The kirin beast spoke quietly but the wolf interrupted.

"Exactly the same results as your violence has brought."

Floor 38

[knightime]

Dave was wandering through the floors. He tried to avoid the dorm floors in an attempt to not get others sick. He knew it was impossible at this rate, but he still tried.

He was shivering a bit, but he was a little warmer in his cape and with Missy, his recently acquired Ninetales. Ninetales spotted Taiki, Gohran and Sanshi though and made her way over, sniffing at them curiously. "Missy, come back and stop fucking with everything you see." He sneezed into his cape and kept his distance. He never had actually seen Taiki in his kirin form, so it hasn't even occurred to him it might be someone he knows.

Floor 38

[notagiraffe]

Taiki blinked at the strange creature but was happy to see Dave. Not that he could really smile in Kirin form but he stood up and moved towards him.

"Hello Dave..."

[knightime]

Dave jolted a bit. Woah. It spoke and it knows his name and...what. Missy bounds back over to Dave's side, noticing the slight tenseness Dave was exhibiting. "How do you know my name?

[notagiraffe]

"Oh... sorry..." Taiki changed forms, Sanshi threw Gyousou's cloak over him so he could stand wrapping the cloak around himself. "It's me... sorry..."

[knightime]

...What.

Give him a minute too... "Is this a dream? Am I dreaming?" He's not sure what just happened. "Don't apologize. I...yeah that wasn't what I was expecting. That's...cool. Awesome. Thumbs up."

[notagiraffe]

"No... sorry... um... I'm a Kirin..." He had thought Dave knew, but he supposed they rarely met when they weren't dying or victims of experiments or in the aftermath of horrible things. There had never been a reason to tell him.

[knightime]

Dave thinks that Taiki mentioned being a Kirin. However, he didn't know being a Kirin included doing that. "Yeah. Well...I didn't think Kirin was the definition for what just happened I guess. I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't that."

[notagiraffe]

"Oh... sorry..." Taiki shuffled his feet and smiled shyly, "I can change forms... I can also fly and move through walls and things when I'm in my beast form..."