deercountry | (open) you're looking at me like you don't know who i am

Who: Ange, Ruby, Break, and anyone who knows any of them.
What: Corruption turned Ange into a true Umineko witch who decided the best way to keep the people she loves safe from this town is to drag them into a pocket dimension.
When: For a while in March.
Where: Ange and Ruby's house-turned-small-pocket-dimension.

Content Warnings: Potential violence if anyone acts particularly antagonistic. Potential talk of violence or gore. Other warnings will be added when things pop up.

Perhaps you have seen Ruby's odd network post and decided to check things out. Or maybe you're just wandering around Trench and notice that Ange and Ruby's house suddenly looks.. different.

The house has been completely overgrown by way oversized roses, big thorns growing out of all the stems, completely obscuring the structure that's supposed to be underneath it. If you get close enough to the cluster of roses, you may feel your connection to any of the three people inside suddenly pull you in. (Please note: only people who know either Ange, Ruby or Break will be able to enter the pocket dimension because of this!)

If you give in to the sensation, everything around you might go black, and when the light returns, you seem to find yourself in.. a hedge maze. A rather odd one, though. As you stumble through it, you may suddenly find yourself in random rooms, and then back out of them into the hedge maze once more. The Moss King's wild plants seem to have even invaded corners of this place, so you might want to watch out you avoid having those snap at you. Retracing your steps through the labyrinth feels impossible, like the way is changing up behind you with every step. Some rooms make perfect sense - like a neat and elaborate kitchen, or a library - and others seem to consist of nonsense with stairs leading upside down or to nowhere, or gravity not working in a specific room at all.

Flying throughout the entire maze are golden butterflies. They seem to fly with direction, and if you follow them, you might find them leading you to one of the people you were looking for..

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No, this was definitely not normal. She'd finally investigated Ruby's place somewhere along the line after that creepy af message that she and the whole network had seen. This was kind of a serious situation, wasn't it? Of course, Neo had no intention of actually interfering if the two of them were safe, but she was feeling a lot of weirdness right now, and she wasn't sure if it was her paranoia or she was actually feeling it through the bond.

The fuck was up with this whole situation? She had just seen Ruby slice through a naughty little plant and was cocking her head when the snack was offered. Oh right. that expected a reply didn't it?

Sure, uh, you sure everything's ok?

Part of Ruby was perhaps a little surprised that Neo had actually been able to travel to this world. But perhaps that was a sign of how things had truly changed between them.

She floats there unbothered by Neo's staring at first, then gives a little smile as she flicks her scythe to clean it of any left over plant juice.

"I'm doing just fine. A little bit of gardening.

I can't have anything cause any problems for Ange here. I'm sure you understand."

The bond might have helped a little, but it probably did mean a lot that she'd been able to be drawn in here. Certainly she wasn't perceived at the moment by the world as a threat. She nodded at the gardening comment. That, at least, didn't seem so bad.

Yeah, naturally.
You're going to protect her, no matter what.
Along with your friends and family, right?

Good way to test things. she wasn't going to mention she'd talked to Penny, or tried to anyway, before getting here. She was a little worried.

"I'll protect Ange with all that I have, yes." There is a notable pause as she considers her next words. There doesn't seem to be much care but she is finding a more polite way to say it.

"Anyone else so long as they don't cause her any trouble will be granted safe passage too."

That was... Maybe a little concerning.

A little? Neo wasn't one to widen her eyes that much, but hearing her say that when 'anyone else' might have included people like Qrow or Oscar. No, now she knew something was seriously fucked about this situation. However, she shook her head once and got it back under control, keeping her facial expressions concealed by the ever playful face she wore. Thank the brothers it wasn't a mental bond.

Say, Red, do you know where Blake and Qrow are, Penny?
They'd probably be around here and I want to check in on them too.

She wasn't currently putting as good an odd on her winning a matchup right now, and she figured she needed backup.

Ruby stared at the question briefly. Tapping his chin in thought.

"I'm not exactly where Qrow is. But last I checked Penny and Blake are safe. We could take a look around to see if we can find them, if you'd like."

Was that what she wanted to hear? Not quite. She'd wanted to just be told where they were so she could go and plot with them, but if she could find the three of them all in one place? That could work. Maybe they could knock some sense into her?

A quick nod and she motioned with one hand. Lead the way!

Ruby leads Neo along the path. Unfortunately she had actual intention of showing her exactly where any of them were. At least not Penny, and Blake. They had been stashed away where they could be better protected for the moment.

She wasn't exactly sure where Qrow was but if they found him that would at least put Neo's worries to rest for the moment. Keeps in along the path and at first it doesn't seem like there's anything to note happening. Except they do come across another one of those doors. There's the faint sound of fingers raking down it from the other side.

Ruby doesn't react in the slightest to it though.

yeaaaah, she was going to pick up on that eventually. However, for the moment she was trying to be cautious about what was happening. Directly confronting Ruby wasn't going to help because she didn't put money on the odds against a powered up Ruby as ...whatever the fuck furniture actually was. That was still weirding her out. So, she'd be easy to at least keep busy.

The sound of scratching nails made her raise an eyebrow and she glanced back.

You got a monster locked up in that room for later?

Ruby hadn't actually considered how she might stack up against Neo in a fight herself. Partly because outright fights were not something that occupied her thoughts at the moment (Which was weird in itself). But because she knew her abilities were just plain old different at the moment. She was better at different things than she had been before.

But she catches the next comment come up- And she smiles innocently.

"Something like that-

Just someone who tried to cause a bit of trouble and needed to put in time out. I'll check on them a little later."

She was a little nervous at the thought of that. Obviously it wasn't one of the girls, but she wasn't willing to take a shot at figuring out who it was, not yet anyway. She did, however, start counting turns in case she got away to go back for them. A quick nod followed and she typed as they went, keeping her face as innocent as she could. Nope, she definitely did not want to test this fight, at least not solo.

You had a bunch of those so far?
Betting a few folks are a little weirded out right now.

Or what if it was one of the girls? Or someone else who had said just the wrong thing to end up on Ruby's bad side. At the moment that wasn't exactly the hardest thing to do. On the right by side Ruby's sense of observation was dulled- So she certainly wasn't about to catch any ruse in Neo's behavior. This was certainly normal.

"A few. Enough that I have to keep an eye out for spare doors at this point. There isn't an infinite supply of them." The next question did get her confused.

"Maybe? They shouldn't worry though. And if they do- Well they're probably the type to cause problems anyways. And I'll either ask them to leave or put them in a time out to cool their head.

I wouldn't want any of them to get to Ange and upset her."

Well, you don't need to worry about me.
I'm not here to cause any trouble for Ange, after all.
I only came over to catch up with you and the girls.

And honestly? That was mostly true. she didn't dislike Ange, but it was eternally awkward to talk to the girl so close to someone she'd spent most of the last two years trying to stab to death. So, she didn't actively try to hunt Ange down under even serious circumstances. She figured her friends would help her.

But don't worry too much.
Friends are always worried about something or another.

Just... trying to keep her calm here. Hell, maybe she'd buy little miss scratches on door enough time to get out by chatting her up.

(open) you're looking at me like you don't know who i am

A lil Prunin

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