Adventure! Part Two [Castle, Elrick, Lillian]

[Castle]

Well, they weren't too impressed, but whatever. It was a personal victory. He followed them inside, looked around, and then decided to go up the ladder after Emi.

The place was pretty empty. He heard Elrick call up to them, and Emi decided to dislodge the chandelier by... jumping on the roof over it. Castle felt a little uneasy, but before he could protest, she crashed right through the floor.

He didn't think about how much that startled him until he looked down the hole (two holes, actually, as she was below the first floor now) and saw that she was all right. By then, he noticed how fast his heart was beating and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

She's fine. Hell, she's done this before, right? Way back when, during the construction work, he reminded himself, standing up and running a hand through his hair.

He hurried partway down the ladder, jumped the rest of the way, and then went over to the hole and jumped down that, landing next to Emi. Without thinking, he offered a hand to help her up.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked, even though she obviously was. Now that he was mostly sure of that, he had to smile a little at how ridiculous it all was, falling through floors to find treasure and not getting hurt...

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Ready the next reaction command...
--

She took his hand and nearly toppled him over in pulling herself to her feet. She dusted off her shorts. "Yeah, I'm fine. My butt's a little sore but that's nothing,[/color]" she told him. Then, she looked him in the eye, suspiciously. Why did his sudden concern for her physical well-being put her off? "Are you okay? And where the hell is Elrick...[/color]"

She trailed off. Her eyes had gotten used to the dim light down there and she'd noticed something in a corner. Something with vaguely metallic details, which was the only reason she noticed it in the first place. The light from above barely reflected off the metal, otherwise, she would have never seen it. It was situated in the darkest part of the room.

Emi carefully picked her way across the basement room, trying to avoid slipping and falling again on the wreckage. She made her way as quickly as she could to the thing in the corner, anticipation making her heart pound.

It was a treasure chest, locked up tight with at least four padlocks and a chain. "Oh, this is going to be a problem,[/color]" she muttered, kneeling down next to it and shaking the chains a bit. She called out to Castle, and Elrick, who she assumed was nearby. "I think I found something interesting but...[/color]

[Lagunamov]

I apologize in advance.

Emi seemed to have got more inspired by his request, causing not just the chandelier, but herself along with some of the upper floor to fall and crash through the wooden floor at his level. The opening revealed a secret chamber, as expected.

Following right after Castle, Elrick descended calmly by using his hook to as a sort of rope, landing close to them. "I'm sure your butt can take a pounding or two," he joked, overhearing what Emi had told Castle. He then immediately realized what he had just said, blushing. "... I am so sorry," he said as he covered his mouth, trying not to snicker himself.

Only moments later she found what seemed like a chest, severely locked up. "Let me have a look at it," he approached the chest, inspecting it. Yep, it was very much locked and almost tied down with that chain, and they didn't have any sort of key or anything.

"I got an idea..." he smirked, a shadow forming behind him, giving rise to his demonic inner self. The large creature walked forward, picking up the chest, but not able to remove the bindings itself. As such, it turned around with it and held it in place on the ground as Elrick morphed his sword into the Gungnir spear, hitting the chain and the padlocks, breaking them apart. With all of them gone, he stabbed the spear on the ground next to him as the creature released its grip on the object, standing back.

"If you would do the honors," he gestured towards Emi for her to open it. She had been the one to see the chest after all.


The Other Self and Gungnir activated.

[Castle]

The suspicious look wasn't lost on him, and he resisted the urge to avert his gaze sheepishly. He marked the whole incident as number two on the list of awkward things that had happened today, and he still wasn't sure what the first one was about...

Before he could conjure some kind of brush-off comment, Elrick made a remark that earned him a warning glance. However, it was broken immediately when Castle turned away to smirk at the shadows in spite of himself, only to feel his face get warmer a second later when it really sank in. Awkward moment number three.

Luckily, Emi found the treasure chest, and their quest moved right along. Elrick seemed to have an idea of how to open it... and it involved something that Castle really didn't see coming.

The sight of the dark figure immediately put him on edge. Firstly, he had to resist the powerful urge to attack it, beating it into oblivion like so many Heartless. Then, it quickly registered that the thing was part of Elrick and most likely meant them no harm. Castle clenched his fists and took a few steps away from it, his teeth clamped together, and watched it break the chain and locks.

Dammit, don't mess this up. It's fine. It's cool. It's with Elrick. Whatever, he told himself, gradually relaxing. Hell, even though darkness was more of a turnoff to him now than ever, he had to admit it was pretty damn impressive.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Scratch that, Elrick got it. Damn.
--

"Not...funny...[/color]" Emi growled, crossing her arms. Her face was burning, probably because she knew that was true out of experience. Flustered, she went to take out her keyblade and beat it until it was open like she had done Kagabu's memory chest, but whatever Elrick summoned up worked, too. It also served to freak Emi out, and she backed away from Elrick and his shadow. What the hell!? she was thinking, but didn't say anything out loud. And then she decided to just not ask questions. She didn't even want to get dragged into that, but made a note to try extra hard not to make him angry.

Her gaze shifted from Elrick over to Castle, who looked like he was about to jump out of his skin. For a moment, she wanted to tell him to relax, but then it was all over and she was being called forward to open the chest.

"Well, I guess since this was my idea and I'm the one who found it,[/color]" she said, smiling a little as she walked back over. She'd backed up farther than she thought, but it was only a few steps anyway. She reached out to open the chest, then hesitated. What if it wasn't what they were expecting? Oh well, they didn't come out all this way just to bail at the last second. She heaved the lid open and looked inside.

Then, she grinned. A genuine smile, something very rarely seen on her face. She laughed a little, too. It was more like a giggle. "Heh... look at this![/color]"

Gold. A lot of it.

[Lagunamov]

You may not be able to see it, but he's smiling there.

Elrick leaned above Emi from the side, taking a look inside the treasure chest. He already had a good feeling, if only cause the demonic warrior there had already taken a glimpse. Them being connected and all that jazz. It was gold. A lot of gold. Elrick grinned and took a step back, rising his arms into the air for a second as if victorious. So did the demon, completely breaking the menacing look it had up until then.

"So... we take the chest out and split it three ways back at the ships? Should we search more in case there's something we are missing?" he started wondering aloud, taking a couple of steps around.

[Castle]

Castle finally approached them once the chest was open, and most of the trepidation about Elrick's demon was forgotten.

"Whoa," he said, impressed.

As far as he was concerned, their mission was a success. He hadn't seen that much gold in one place since... ever. It made him wonder how his mom would react if she saw this. Some of his share would definitely go to her.

"You can if you want," he told Elrick absently; he was too busy kneeling down and picking up one of the coins, examining it in the weak light.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

I'm a little slow sometimes.
--

Emi just sat there, smiling and feeling quite proud of herself. "Yeah, let's do that. The question is... how do we get it out of here and back to the ship?[/color]" she said. It was possible they could carry it, but not very probable. Plus, they might start a riot if they just carried it through town.

She looked up at the first floor and sighed. Searching for more was tempting but she felt like they were running out of time, somehow. The map didn't indicate there was anymore around, so it was probably pointless anyway. If they ever got bored again, they could come back. Right then, what she wanted to do was make sure it was real, get some munny out of it and then use that munny to buy some food. Mmm, real food.

"Let's just take what we found and go... well, once we figure out how to go.[/color]"

[Lagunamov]

And you thought he was scary.

Almost as if understanding their plight, the demon closed the chest and picked it up with easy, holding it in its arms. "Well, he can carry it. And he looks the part so that the angry villagers won't get close to us, I think," he commented, walking back to where the chandelier had dropped, after returning the spear to its original form, and climbing on it. Once at the top, he fired his grappling hook, getting caught into something on the second floor, all the way up there.

"You know, if I were a bastard, this would be where I left on my own with the treasure and left you guys here to starve to death. But I'm not," he joked as the demon jumped to the first floor, waiting over there with the chest. "Either climb through the line, or hold onto an arm or leg of mine so I can pull you up."

[Castle]

Castle flinched and moved back when the demon closed the chest. He wasn't exactly afraid of it, but he was definitely wary. If that thing made one wrong move, he would pummel it. Or Elrick. Or both of them.

He pocketed the coin he was holding and walked back to the hole in the ceiling. Hearing Elrick joke about leaving them behind made him smirk darkly, but apparently the guy wasn't that much of a jerk. Even so, neither of his options seemed necessary or appealing to Castle (especially the second one), and so after a brief calculation he high-jumped toward the opening.

He caught the edge of the floor and hoisted himself up the rest of the way, and then turned around and looked down at Emi, which wasn't something he got to do very often.


[High Jump] used.
Cooldown: 2 posts.
Passive.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Okay, that works, too.
--

And so, she was the last one left down in the secret room. She had actually forgotten about Elrick's little demon friend, so of course she felt stupid for not figuring out they could just get it to carry the chest. Of course. She had to take a minute and slap her palm into he forehead for that oversight.

In the end, she decided to "climb through the line" but upon further examination, she decided there was no way to actually do that and Elrick was just crazy. Rolling her eyes, she grabbed on to Elrick's arm.

This day just kept getting awkwarder and awkwarder.

[Lagunamov]

And this is the closest I'll get to some booty for months...

Castle had managed to make quite a spectacularly high jump, if only high enough to grab onto the broken edge of the floor to pull himself up. Emi, on the other hand, seemed to lack such ability. Elrick looked as she got close, clearly considering her options carefully... before grabbing his free arm and holding onto it.

It was then that Elrick realized that the movement may cause her to slip if she was just to hold onto that, so he freed the arm and held onto her by the waist, probably making her feel uncomfortable, but it would be over soon. The grappling hook then pulled them upwards quickly, freeing itself midway between the first floor and the second one, letting them land on the floor with a fall of only a couple of feet.

"Ok, back to the ships now. He can only stay out for so long," he commented as he removed his grip from Emi, quickly making his way out of the building, demon... carrier following after him.

The Other Self active... as a delivery boy.

[Castle]

For some reason, seeing Elrick put his arm around Emi made Castle frown a little, but he brushed it off. The point was, they were all ready to leave now, and the chest would be under the protection of... something that would probably make every townsperson on the street stay away from them, to put it mildly.

That assumption was correct. Their journey out of the city was uninterrupted. Seeing the weird looks cast at them (or, you know, the surprised screams), was kind of odd, but Castle kept his eyes forward and just kept walking like nothing was wrong. It was sort of fun, actually.

He thought about what they would do once they had their share and returned to the gummi ship. Specifically, he wondered if he would actually dare to question what happened that morning... no, he probably wouldn't. He didn't think he would actually get an answer if he tried. Maybe he was better off forgetting about it.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

This is the end.
--

It was hard to resist the urge to hit him and run away, but Emi stayed in Elrick's grasp until they reached their destination. After that, she was gone, getting away from his as quickly as possible. It wasn't anything personal, it just felt... weird.

The walk through the desert town and back to the ships was interesting, to say the least. Emi had to admit she got an odd sense of superiority from the natives' reactions. She didn't know why but she found herself smiling smugly when they finally made it back to the ship.

Her share of the gold was a decent amount. More than enough to do what she wanted with it. It wasn't very apparent but Emi could be quite stingy with money. She'd gone without more times than she cared to count so she knew that money was gone quickly. She would try to make it last as long as she could.

They said their good-byes. Knowing their luck, they would probably run into each other again in the future. And that was okay with Emi. As they returned to Radiant Garden, she found herself smiling. She was content, for once. Things were better now. She had friends. She had a place to live. She had food to eat. Nobody was trying to kill her.

And, she had Castle. That was more that enough for her.