[ CLOSED ]

[blackscales]

WHO: Wrathion, Anduin, Kaneki
WHEN: Early March
WHERE: Ke-Waihu
WHAT: Investigating wells and trying to make friends with a spooky snakey friend
WARNINGS: Potentially some discussion of child kidnapping, harm to children, and if a snakey lady friend might be... eating children.

Dead ends.

Nothing but dead ends.

Wrathion paces by the well, turning over everything he knows as he waits for the others to arrive.

Kaneki had said she was a mother looking for a child.

Children had gone missing, three daughters one son. No common location. All over the last ten days.

His theory about the dark water, too, may be amounting to nothing. It seems their slithering friend predates it by around a year -- divine punishment.

Frustrating.

She hasn't been witnessed eating these children, so there's a chance they are still on the right course, but neither have they any proof of anything else.

Frustrating. Wrathion handles frustration poorly. He likes to make clear progress, to plan, to work towards a goal -- but the goal is still unclear here. The path is forked, and he knows not which one they are taking

Are they helping a creature, or killing a monster? Are they going entirely down the wrong path, and will they imminently find out she knows nothing and has simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Will children keep vanishing, all the while?

Having no solid lead is agonising, especially when time... continues to grow short.

He can only hope they don't run out.

Comments

[chosenbylight]

Anduin hums slightly at the suggestion. Wrapping the illusion around more sensory cues.

"If she smells the child on the shawl, sees the child you have created, and hears the heartbeat of the animal you have built the spell around... It just might be what we need to entice her out."

He glances toward Wrathion. "Is that something you can do? Weave the illusion around something else, that is? Something -- living."

Anduin is familiar with Wrathion's magic, but only to some extent.

[blackscales]

"Something smaller and I might," Wrathion suggests, "I cannot put the animal to sleep."

Rabbits are large and reasonably strong, and could chaotically hop around even hidden in a box until the box tips over. That would somewhat ruin the whole affect, the animal breaking free and running around.

[enucleation]

So there are limitations. Fair enough, if everything was easy they wouldn't be stuck in this world.

Smaller? Then- "A frog?" it could still hop but it wouldn't be something very drastic. "A small reptile could work, but I have a feeling those would be harder to catch." kaneki has zero experience in catching any of the two, though, so does it matter?

Which he admits to, a bit more shyly "I can't say I'm good at catching animals." he probably would be too rough with them.

[chosenbylight]

Anduin glances aside at Wrathion at the suggestion, though he doesn't seem to object to the idea of a frog. And they are on the edge of a forest. It shouldn't be too difficult to find one.

"Right," he says, determinedly. "You two, don't move. I'll be right back."

True to his word, it doesn't take him too long to find the small creature in the undergrown of the trees. He gently Soothes it into a state of calm then reaches to scoop the little thing up into his hands, hurrying back to where he has no doubt left at least one of them very confused.

"Will this do?" he asks, the question directed more to Wrathion this time, since it is his magic. He scans the room for something they might be able to trap the creature under, as the spell begins to wear off and the frog begins to struggle in his grasp. "Here, hand me that box."

[blackscales]

Wrathion isn't suspecting such quick decisiveness after the long period of slow meandering thought. Perhaps Anduin is anxious about the result, so speeding things along. Admittedly, he is also likely the best person for this. Kaneki has admitted he isn't good at catching animals, and Wrathion himself lacks in easy non-lethal methods. Anduin has a gentle touch, and far more patience about it all. He glances over at Kaneki and lofts an eyebrow, then begins to re-arrange the room. Moves a chair to the very back, far away from the door so any visitor will have to come all the way in to engage, and unpacks the shawl he lifted from a previous family. He thinks a moment, then drapes it over the seat of the chair to conceal anything he hides underneath it should things go awry.

"Let us hope she is open to negotiation."

He patrols the house, checking doors and windows so she has only one way in and out -- better not to be snuck up on. He's just bordering on starting to generate impatient energy when Anduin comes back.

"Ah," he says, and moves to grab an old box to offer to Anduin. "I had no idea you were a talented aquarist. Come, tuck your new friend out of sight and I'll recast. I suggest we then move ourselves into the shadows to see what comes of this."