"It helps that I stay in regular contact with the person who did it so I can continue to remind them of their sins." He finally got a handle on himself again and leaned back, arms folded behind his head to give his neck a rest. He was so ready for those antlers to drop off so he could make something with them.
For a while, JW was content to sit in silence with his smuggled goods but his good eye kept wandering back to the corner where Ginko said there were mushi.
He wondered.
James sat upright again and put his empty cup down. "Lemme show you around. If you see anything, let me know."
He stood and waved for the mushi master to follow him. The House of Twisted was very old and very cramped but still felt empty. You didn't have a lot when you were just a man and your not-quite-a-dog living on top of a hill. The majority of the things left behind by the previous owner had either been burnt or sold at a yard sale. To the right of the kitchen door was a staircase going up. Directly in front was a living room dominated by the ugliest green sofa in existence, a clock, and a fireplace. And to the left, which was where JW turned, was a closed door that looked older than the house itself.
"If this house does have mushi, I know one place they'll be."
If Ginko had ever seen a haunted house film in his life, he'd know that the door sounded exactly like the doors that led down to a mad scientist's lab or a torture chamber or a serial killer's body freezer room when it opened. It was dark and the steps were made of ancient, eroded concrete.
"Watch your step."
JW descended into darkness, having the advantage of the muscle memory of the whole house. He knew when to step clear and where to reach for the string dangling from the one naked bulb.
The air swam with mushi. Most of them harmless, a few with the tendency to live in ears and open wounds, but the ceiling was plastered with the slug-like ones that fed on anxiety.
Ginko nodded and stood up to follow JW, examining the door in quiet curiosity.
Of course, he hadn't seen any such films, or any movies at all, but something about the door certainly struck him as significant. In a way, it almost reminded him of the door to the Karibusas' records - maybe it didn't really resemble it, objectively speaking, but there was the same sort of feel to it.
"Got it." He stayed a bit behind James, and at first he did make a point of watching his footing, making sure to step carefully. Eventually, though, as they got further down the steps, it got harder to ignore the little glowing forms flitting about all around them.
Ginko hummed thoughtfully, waving a couple of mushi away and making a mental note of the slug-like ones on the ceiling. "There's quite a few mushi down here... a lot more than upstairs. Might be enough to qualify as an infestation, unless they haven't actually been causing you any--"
He really should have kept watching the stairs. Maybe he just took a step at the wrong angle, maybe slightly too far, but suddenly, where there should have been concrete under his foot, there was nothing. He made a quick effort to regain his balance, but, of course, it didn't work too well. "Shit--"
JW managed to turn on the light in time to see Ginko hit the ground.
He never did get around to installing a handrail on that staircase. He never imagined needing one with only him and Deuteronomy in the house. Nobody came into the basement.
"Ginko!" he rushed over but paused, hands outstretched but reluctant. Oh god! What if he made it worse? "You okay?"
The basement, meanwhile, was a mix of all of the things the door made it sound like. There were long freezers, there were shelves full of jars, there was yet another closed door crisscrossed with chains. The floor was concrete with a central drain and long shadows played on the walls as that naked bulb swung.
The only response JW got at first was a pained groan. Which, on the bright side, did mean Ginko was at least conscious.
He shifted to get a hand under himself and sit upright, but winced and dropped again when he tried to put weight on his shoulder. "--dammit. I'm-- yeah, I'm fine."
"It's alright - my own fault, anyway. Wasn't watching where I was going." He took JW's hand gratefully, making sure to use the arm that didn't keep sending shooting pain through his shoulder.
He wobbled a little upon making it to his feet, but managed to stay upright, rubbing his forehead. "...Might've hit my head. I don't think it's too bad, though."
"If you say so..." He didn't see any blood. Thankfully, with hair like Ginko's it was hard to hide. Problem solved (or so he thought) he looked around the room with his hands on his hips, quietly proud of his macabre little hole in the ground. It was ridiculous and campy and once he was no longer afraid of the things in jars coming to eat him in his sleep, he felt like he was in on some big, really great joke.
"Whacha think? Hey, check this out." He reached for one of the jars--a big one with some kind of snake spider hybrid floating in it--and held it out. "Deuteronomy said they pulled this out of a guy."
"It's... pretty impressive." He looked around thoughtfully, his eyes drifting between the jars all around them and the mushi floating about.
Ginko took a couple steps toward JW to examine the jar in his hand, wincing a little as he moved and keeping his palm pressed to his head. "...Huh. Is it some kind of parasite, then?"
"I think so. Or the guy had one hell of a weird hobby." Another one of the jars caught his attention."Here, hold this, I wanna show you this lamb Deut says grew outta a plant." Ginko would find the jar thrust at him and JW turning away to reach up to a higher shelf.
Ginko fumbled to take hold of the jar, wincing as he initially tried to use his injured arm. He managed to catch hold of the jar with his good hand in time to keep from dropping it, but he was starting to suspect he might have hurt himself worse than he thought. He had kind of hoped he had just hit a nerve or something when he first hit the ground, but maybe that pop wasn't his imagination after all.
"--'S that so." Time to keep pretending nothing was wrong and hope he could ignore it until later!
"Internet says it's called a Vegetable Lamb." JW turned with the jar in-hand. Indeed, floating within it was a fetal sheep with its lower end buried deep in what looked like a cotton bloom. "She never said where it came from though..."
He tilted his head. Wow, what was with that face? He never took Ginko for a squeamish man.
A few moments' examination would likely make it clearer that Ginko's expression had little to do with the macabre specimens surrounding them. He held the jar in his hand easily, now that it was situated properly, and examined the preserved Vegetable Lamb with genuine interest (even if he was a bit distracted). In fact, besides his pained expression (which he was gradually working on hiding), the only sign that anything was wrong was the way he kept shifting uncomfortably, the fingers of his free hand curling and uncurling.
He put the jar away and held his hands out for the first. The show and tell continued as he held up books that quietly hummed, instruments with sharp edges that glowed just so, and a rubber duck that showed up in the house one day and neither he nor Deuteronomy had any memory of it.
"Could show you the attic. That's another place I'd probably lurk if I were a mushi."
He started up the stairs again and paused anxiously near the top. He wasn't going to patronize Ginko by holding out his hand but he was going to eye those steps. They really needed resurfacing.
Ginko listened curiously to each explanation and description, asking occasional questions about where they were found, if they had shown any other odd qualities. Injury aside, he was honestly glad he came down here (not to mention pretty sure that Adashino would kill to see this place).
"Sounds likely." He nodded and followed JW back to the stairs - then hesitated at the bottom. After a moment, he braced his good hand against the wall to balance himself a little better, his other arm still hanging unused by his side as he made his way up the stairs, trying not to let it move too much.
Luckily, the next stair case JW led him up had a railing, which JW kept his hand on out of compulsion. At the landing to the right was a small bathroom. Dead ahead and to the left were three different closed doors. A string hung from the ceiling and it was this string that he grabbed to let down the ladder.
Cold air rolled over them from above and JW ascended into darkness as easily and as quickly as he'd descended into the basement.
"I gotta warn you, though, don't walk off up here. It's a lot bigger than it looks."
The last thing he wanted Ginko to deal with after busting his ass on a stone floor was to stumble into the Boxlands and have Lost find him.
Click!
Another naked bulb shown down and haloed JW's antlers like a small, flickering sun.
If he could get up there at all. Ginko stared at the ladder uncertainly for a few moments before making an effort to grip it with his good hand and step up. It was a little awkward, but maybe he could do this...? Though he wasn't sure how to keep the fact that he still wasn't using one arm from being BLATANTLY OBVIOUS. "...Hang on."
JW peered around the attic for what could be the most mushi-infested area. He eventually became aware that he was still alone. The antlered head appeared before the 20 watt sun again and JW lifted a brow. What was he doing?
"Um... just having some trouble." Way to be vague, Ginko.
He made another effort, trying to grip the side of the ladder instead of the rungs, leaning forward a little to keep his weight closer to it. He slid his hand up the side to hold on higher and started to take a cautious step up, only to wince and let out a quiet, pained hiss when his injured shoulder bumped against the other side of the ladder.
This wasn't working. He sighed and stepped back down to the floor, this time letting himself set a hand on his shoulder to stabilize it a little. "...Sorry, I... don't think I can get up there."
"It didn't seem that bad at first." For about five seconds, and after that he was just planning on hiding it until he got back to the village. O O P S.
He stepped back to give JW room to get down, hesitantly moving his hand away from his shoulder. "I can't move it - think it might be dislocated, but I'm not sure."
At the bottom of the ladder, JW found himself in a pickle. As anybody who often let their mind wander when daydreaming about a crush (and it was nice that he let himself have them again these days), he'd be lying if he ever said he hadn't imagined sweeping in to Ginko's rescue.
But now Ginko was actually hurt and JW wasn't entirely sure how to go about touching him. His brow furrowed and he felt along the man's shoulders with an ever-growing grimace. The last wound he treated on another person was a huge gash on Shirley's side.
She'd been wolf-shaped then. It had been different. And patching up Deuteronomy didn't count at all.
"It's not good. Shit, this is my fault, I should have warned you."
"No, it's alright - you told me to watch where I was going, and I didn't. Kind of brought this on myself."
He grimaced a little, trying not to flinch too much as JW checked the injury. It shouldn't surprise him that it hurt so much, or that it was feeling worse as time went by, but he guessed it had been longer than he thought since the last time this happened.
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theattic2015-08-13 03:59 pm
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He wondered.
James sat upright again and put his empty cup down. "Lemme show you around. If you see anything, let me know."
He stood and waved for the mushi master to follow him. The House of Twisted was very old and very cramped but still felt empty. You didn't have a lot when you were just a man and your not-quite-a-dog living on top of a hill. The majority of the things left behind by the previous owner had either been burnt or sold at a yard sale. To the right of the kitchen door was a staircase going up. Directly in front was a living room dominated by the ugliest green sofa in existence, a clock, and a fireplace. And to the left, which was where JW turned, was a closed door that looked older than the house itself.
"If this house does have mushi, I know one place they'll be."
If Ginko had ever seen a haunted house film in his life, he'd know that the door sounded exactly like the doors that led down to a mad scientist's lab or a torture chamber or a serial killer's body freezer room when it opened. It was dark and the steps were made of ancient, eroded concrete.
"Watch your step."
JW descended into darkness, having the advantage of the muscle memory of the whole house. He knew when to step clear and where to reach for the string dangling from the one naked bulb.
The air swam with mushi. Most of them harmless, a few with the tendency to live in ears and open wounds, but the ceiling was plastered with the slug-like ones that fed on anxiety.
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Of course, he hadn't seen any such films, or any movies at all, but something about the door certainly struck him as significant. In a way, it almost reminded him of the door to the Karibusas' records - maybe it didn't really resemble it, objectively speaking, but there was the same sort of feel to it.
"Got it." He stayed a bit behind James, and at first he did make a point of watching his footing, making sure to step carefully. Eventually, though, as they got further down the steps, it got harder to ignore the little glowing forms flitting about all around them.
Ginko hummed thoughtfully, waving a couple of mushi away and making a mental note of the slug-like ones on the ceiling. "There's quite a few mushi down here... a lot more than upstairs. Might be enough to qualify as an infestation, unless they haven't actually been causing you any--"
He really should have kept watching the stairs. Maybe he just took a step at the wrong angle, maybe slightly too far, but suddenly, where there should have been concrete under his foot, there was nothing. He made a quick effort to regain his balance, but, of course, it didn't work too well. "Shit--"
Aaand there he went.
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He never did get around to installing a handrail on that staircase. He never imagined needing one with only him and Deuteronomy in the house. Nobody came into the basement.
"Ginko!" he rushed over but paused, hands outstretched but reluctant. Oh god! What if he made it worse? "You okay?"
The basement, meanwhile, was a mix of all of the things the door made it sound like. There were long freezers, there were shelves full of jars, there was yet another closed door crisscrossed with chains. The floor was concrete with a central drain and long shadows played on the walls as that naked bulb swung.
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He shifted to get a hand under himself and sit upright, but winced and dropped again when he tried to put weight on his shoulder. "--dammit. I'm-- yeah, I'm fine."
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"Shit, sorry. I wasn't even thinking about there not bein' a railing."
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He wobbled a little upon making it to his feet, but managed to stay upright, rubbing his forehead. "...Might've hit my head. I don't think it's too bad, though."
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"Whacha think? Hey, check this out." He reached for one of the jars--a big one with some kind of snake spider hybrid floating in it--and held it out. "Deuteronomy said they pulled this out of a guy."
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Ginko took a couple steps toward JW to examine the jar in his hand, wincing a little as he moved and keeping his palm pressed to his head. "...Huh. Is it some kind of parasite, then?"
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"--'S that so." Time to keep pretending nothing was wrong and hope he could ignore it until later!
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He tilted his head. Wow, what was with that face? He never took Ginko for a squeamish man.
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A few moments' examination would likely make it clearer that Ginko's expression had little to do with the macabre specimens surrounding them. He held the jar in his hand easily, now that it was situated properly, and examined the preserved Vegetable Lamb with genuine interest (even if he was a bit distracted). In fact, besides his pained expression (which he was gradually working on hiding), the only sign that anything was wrong was the way he kept shifting uncomfortably, the fingers of his free hand curling and uncurling.
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"Could show you the attic. That's another place I'd probably lurk if I were a mushi."
He started up the stairs again and paused anxiously near the top. He wasn't going to patronize Ginko by holding out his hand but he was going to eye those steps. They really needed resurfacing.
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"Sounds likely." He nodded and followed JW back to the stairs - then hesitated at the bottom. After a moment, he braced his good hand against the wall to balance himself a little better, his other arm still hanging unused by his side as he made his way up the stairs, trying not to let it move too much.
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Cold air rolled over them from above and JW ascended into darkness as easily and as quickly as he'd descended into the basement.
"I gotta warn you, though, don't walk off up here. It's a lot bigger than it looks."
The last thing he wanted Ginko to deal with after busting his ass on a stone floor was to stumble into the Boxlands and have Lost find him.
Click!
Another naked bulb shown down and haloed JW's antlers like a small, flickering sun.
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If he could get up there at all. Ginko stared at the ladder uncertainly for a few moments before making an effort to grip it with his good hand and step up. It was a little awkward, but maybe he could do this...? Though he wasn't sure how to keep the fact that he still wasn't using one arm from being BLATANTLY OBVIOUS. "...Hang on."
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"What's up?"
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He made another effort, trying to grip the side of the ladder instead of the rungs, leaning forward a little to keep his weight closer to it. He slid his hand up the side to hold on higher and started to take a cautious step up, only to wince and let out a quiet, pained hiss when his injured shoulder bumped against the other side of the ladder.
This wasn't working. He sighed and stepped back down to the floor, this time letting himself set a hand on his shoulder to stabilize it a little. "...Sorry, I... don't think I can get up there."
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"Well why didn't you say something!" He shook his head and turned off the light before backing down the ladder. "Let me look at it."
He was no expert, but he'd had his own share of bumps and bruises on his journey through the multiverse.
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He stepped back to give JW room to get down, hesitantly moving his hand away from his shoulder. "I can't move it - think it might be dislocated, but I'm not sure."
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But now Ginko was actually hurt and JW wasn't entirely sure how to go about touching him. His brow furrowed and he felt along the man's shoulders with an ever-growing grimace. The last wound he treated on another person was a huge gash on Shirley's side.
She'd been wolf-shaped then. It had been different. And patching up Deuteronomy didn't count at all.
"It's not good. Shit, this is my fault, I should have warned you."
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He grimaced a little, trying not to flinch too much as JW checked the injury. It shouldn't surprise him that it hurt so much, or that it was feeling worse as time went by, but he guessed it had been longer than he thought since the last time this happened.
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