54/Something about a Lock

Something about a Lock
Date of Scene:	09 July 2023
Location:	Club Building
Synopsis:	Amu gets lost in a haunted part of the Club building. She encounters Ikuto and Tadase. Also something about a Lock?
Cast of Characters:	54, Tadase Hotori, Ikuto Tsukiyomi

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Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
Well it was bound to happen eventually. Amu is lost. She managed to enter an entirely different building and is left roaming around. "Amu-chan, Its this way out!" Ran exclaims to Amu as they wonder the halls of the club building.

"Its not that way, We just came from that way and it lead to the stairs!" Amu responds as she looks around. "We didn't go up or down any stairs." She states trying to not get angry at the chara.

"But its this way!" Ran takes off flying back the way they came. "Come on, Amu-chan!"

Amu blinks a few times and is left chasing the little chara. "Ran come back here! Its not that way! We just came from here. See right there is the Music club room. We went past it not more then two minutes ago.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Yoru's ears twitch. Then again, and he perks up a bit. "What is it?" the boy sitting on the roof of the club building asks the little catboy Chara. "Another Chara, and Eggs!" Yoru shouts as he seems ready to run off on his own. The boy's eyes narrow and he stands up. A Chara Bearer? This could be the breakthrough he's been looking for.

Ikuto stands up, cat ears and a tail sprouting from him as he stretches and begins prowling around the roof. "Go scout for me Yoru. We need to find out more about this new piece in the puzzle before I make any moves." As his Chara scuttles away on tiny paws, Ikuto smiles for the first time in a while. "I'm so curious as to who this could be, though. Surely not him..."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase is moving from one place to another, doing Student Council business in the club building, when Kiseki spots, or senses, something out of the corner of his eye. Tadase notices his little hovering friend-self stopping, but he's currently engaged in talking to a group of girls about their club - and the needed people in it to actually be a club so he can't really turn around and see what's going on. Kiseki tugs on the back of Tadase's shirt.
Eventually, Tadase finishes up his business and walks a little bit out of earshot. "What?" He asks, and Kiseki seems to just... float, agitated.
    "I think I saw Yoru." Kiseki replies.
    "Yoru? Ikuto's?" Tadase asks.
    "I mean, maybe. Should I go look?"Kiseki asks.
    "We should go look. If it's Yoru it might be Ikuto, and if it's Iktuo, that automatically means it's trouble." Tadase says. And Kiseki leads to where he thought he might have seen Yoru pass by, but maybe he saw something else, entirely, and it's just coincidence...

Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
Amu is still chasing Ran. "Ran! where are you going! I told you we didn't go up or down the stairs!" Someone pokes their head out of the reading club room and shushes Amu. She looks at them and comments, "Mind you own business, bossy." She snaps. Ugh! She did it again. The person's eyes go wide, knowing the rumors about the pink haired girl and they quickly duck back inside the club room.

Ran keeps flying. She goes right to the stairs and starts flying down. Not one set but two. Down into the very basement of the club building.

"Ran, where are you going? This place is creepy. What if its... haunted?" She shudders at the idea of a haunted part of the school. Her heart starts pounding as she walks down a hallway. "What if there is a ghost of a teacher or something down here."

Ran blinks and quickly flies behind Amu. "I think I went the wrong way." She is definitely scared.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Yoru sneaks into the basement through an old, cracked window as he gets closer to what he's sensed. Eggs, and they're just...there! Why! He spots the girl and the Chara near her, ducking behind a cabinet. Then he has a mischievous idea...Ikuto didn't say he wasn't allowed to cause a bit of trouble while scouting, after all.

     Ikuto knew better than to just send Yoru ahead and wait for him to come back. The little Chara was bound to find some way to misinterpret what he was asked to do, or simply get bored and get into some form of mischief. Ikuto tracked his Chara's movements to the basement, and carefully snuck in through a side entrance. Just as expected though, there it came. A low, echoing "NYAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAAAaaa~" from further inside. "Yoru you little..." Ikuto muttered as he sighed and looked for somewhere to hide. This was going to get complicated, for sure.

Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
Amu sighs, "Scaredy cat!" She continues down the hallway trying to be brave for her would be self. All of that comes crashing when she hears something moaning. As soon as she hears Yoru's gest, She lets out a shriek! She isn't the only one that reacts that way. Ran as well screams out in fear. Amu takes off running away from the direction of the moaning chara.

After a few moments of running Amu and Ran duck into a room and close the door. Amu holds the door shut and Ran, well Ran decides now is a wonderful time to explore the room. She flies around it and then, "Amu-chan! Look!!" She flies over a small case with a rather cute lock inside on a necklace. A lock with 4 connecting hearts.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase and Kiseki are... actually looking in the wrong part of the building, at first. Either Yoru took a different turn, or whatever Kiseki saw wasn't actually Yoru.

He doesn't hear Yoru's moaning literal cat-call, but he does hear a short snappy shriek that sounds like a girl's. Tadase and Kiseki exchange a look before running down there. But... Amu's already gone into the room, and closed the door. Tadase looks around and happens to pass by the door, casting a spooker-than-it-should-be shadow into the room when he passes by the window.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto has elected to make a hiding place out of a cardboard box just big enough for him upon hearing two screams, one of a girl and one of...a different girl? The box is too close to the center of the room, though...

"You can do this, just move slow. Just like that animal guy from those XXXXstation games. What was his name...?" Ikuto thinks to himself as he carefully tries to shuffle towards a corner in the box. This is harder than it looks!

Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
Amu is just about to turn her attention to Ran. That's about the moment that Tadase walks by the room, casting a much larger shadow into the room. Amu can't hold back a shriek, her imagination is running wild now and she really doesn't know what to do. She backs up away from the door, moving backwards.

As she is not paying attention to where she is going, she backs right into a cardboard box containing a certain catboy. She doesn't know that though. She is preoccupied with falling down and knocking down the the box holding the lock! It goes crashing and the lock goes sliding across the floor.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
"Oh no." is all Ikuto has time to say as the younger girl stumbles into his hiding place. "Ack!" he shouts as there's suddenly the weight of another person on the dusty old box as it collapses, leaving an annoyed catboy with his tail swishing under it all as he tries to crawl out.

Yoru hears Ikuto shout and rushes over as fast as his little paws will carry him. "I'll save you Ikuto! NYA!"

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Well, that's about all the noises Tadase didn't want to hear back-to-back. First, a girl shrieking in the basement. Then, a dude shrieking. Then, Yoru.

So it takes him about as much time to fumble open the door - which lets Yoru rush in through the open crack. "YOU!!!" Kiskei says as he blurs past.

"You! What are you doing, Tsukiyomi-san?" Tadase asks as he walks in and sees a toppled over Amu, a destroyed box, the lock on the floor between the two of them, and Ikuto crawling out from under a box. If it wasn't Ikuto the whole scene would look ridiculous, but it is Ikuto. And there's a scared Amu and...

"Are you trying to scare her because she caught you trying to steal from us... AGAIN?!" Tadase asks, jumping to conclusions about Ikuto once more.

Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
If she wasn't freaked out before, she is now. Amu most certainly wasn't expecting a catboy in a box that she just tripped over! "Oh my God WHAT IS GOING ON!!" She is completely at a loss. "HOTORI-SAN? Why are you scaring me?!" She winces a little.

She looks at the catboy curiously. Who in the world is he? Something about him makes her nervous. It could be some of what Tadase was saying. She frowns and just stands up and dusts herself off.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto lays on the floor, looking up at the girl in front of him and tilting his head before giving an annoyed glance to Tadase. "Hotori. Shouldn't you be going home to play with your toys or watch cartoons? I'm not here to steal anything or scare anyone. Yoru just sensed someone interesting and I was nearly as curious as he was, though apparently he was also in a mischievous mood." He glares at Yoru and the Chara whistles and looks away.

"Still...this is yours, I think. Cute trinket. Perfect for a girl like you." He picks up the locket, gets up and holds it out to Amu, his expression one of curious interest.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase sort of stops mid anger because... he gave the lock to Amu. "Oh, so now you're all about putting things back where they belong? So are you going to give the key back too? I mean you can't do anything about Betty... but you could maybe start to undo some of the damage." Tadase is actually... just being in Ikuto's presence around the lock seems to be actively making him mad. Madder than Amu has ever seen the 'prince' and maybe up there with as mad as she has ever seen anybody. "Probably not, you're just covering up a bad attempt at stealing it, right?" he asks.

"Don't trust anything this mangy alley cat says. He's a thief, and he gets close to people only to hurt them." Kiseki adds as Tadase now has his scepter in his hand. Like he's going to fight Ikuto in this tiny space, as he tries to - well, it's hard to tell if he's trying to scoot Amu back to protect her... or just squeeze between them to get in the slightly taller boy's face.

Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
Amu is at a complete loss. When Ikuto offers her the lock, she hesitates a moment before accepting it. Her face goes a little red as she holds the humpty lock in her hand. "Th-thank you." She stumbles over her words. She quickly collects her thoughts and regains her composure.

Then there is the fact that Tadase is irate! He is much madder than anyone she has ever seen. The whole thing is overwhelming. "Amu-chan?" Ran flies close to her and just seems to want to keep her bearer safe. The fight is making her anxious. Very Anxious. "Stop... please..." She whispers, not liking that this whole thing is escalating. What's more, she feels like she is between the two boys. It makes her feel like there is going to be a lot of trouble. Especially when she sees the Prince looking a lot more regal now with a scepter.

Suddenly the lock begins to glow in Amu's hand. It lifts up floating out of her hand and to her chest. In a flash it starts glowing pink and Amu's physical appearance changes. Ran is missing and Amu is dressed like her Chara! "Just stop! We don't need to fight here okay! There is no harm done right?" She exclaims as she tries to understand what just happened to her. She looks around, "Ran? Where are you?"

"I'm here! We Transformed!"

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto is just starting to reach for the Key in anticipation of a fight when he instead turns to stare at the glowing Lock and then at the newly transformed Amu. Something about her...she's different. He backs away a few paces and smiles. Why was he smiling in front of this girl? He didn't even know her, but already he felt...fine with this.

"See, Hotori? She's p- IT'S perfect for her. You...what's your name? That locket...don't ever let it go. And...don't show it off to people. Especially not adults." For a moment in that last sentence there's an uncharacteristic seriousness in his tone and a look in his eye.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase is also... trying not to lose himself? Kiseki is actually helpful in this. Somewhere the little king, despite being offended at the presence of the mangy cat, is helping Tadase keep something like decorum.
But then Amu transforms and Tadase turns back to look at the blast of light, and maybe for the first time between the two of them, a flush comes to his eyes. She's pretty like that, he thinks.
Oh right, there's a jerk cat in front of him. He visibly shakes his head for a moment. "Yeah, perfect for her, and NOT for you." Tadase says, turning back. But Amu asks him to stop, and Kiseki is telling him it would be undignified to start stuff in front of a girl when she does that, and undignified to fight in a basement.

"I'm not fighting, I'm just making sure he doesn't cause any more trouble than he already did." And then Tadase looks over and... "Tsukiyomi-san, were you hiding in a box?!"

Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
Amulet Heart says, "What do you mean we transformed?" Amu starts to panic a little and the transformation breaks. She quickly blinks a few times as she is back to normal. "Was that your doing Ran? I don't like when you change me like that!"

Ran shakes her head, "No! You did that! That wasn't a change, That was a transformation! Its when you use 120% of our power! It was so cool! Amu-chan we should do it again!" She flies around shaking her pompoms.

Her attention goes to Ikuto, "Oh, um, My name is Amu Hinamori. Nice to meet you?" She states though the meeting wasn't exactly nice. She did trip over his box after all. "Shouldn't the lock stay here where it was?"

She looks Tadase and shakes her head, "You were really about to fight. Also how did I transform? I barely handle getting changed by Ran!" She asks not really expecting an answer. The whole thing has her kinda freaked out."

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
Ikuto looks away upon hearing Tadase's remark. "Yes. I was hiding in a box. There wasn't anywhere better. Besides, it's a proven technique in tactical espionage action," before shaking his head at Amu. "Nope. You can transform with it; that means it's yours."

Yoru points at Kiseki. "We would have kicked your butts anyway if you'd tried to start a fight, nya! Standing there looking all high and mighty!"

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase grumbles and grouches. "Look, just go slink back to whatever alleyway you crawled out of, Tsukiyomi-san." Tadase replies. "Plenty of cardboard boxes there." He sighs. "Well, at least we stopped him from stealing that, and I wanted you to have it anyways - because of the prophecy."

"I guess if he wants to play Solid Cat in boxes we should leave him to it." And Tadase does something he wouldn't do if not chara-changed - he puts a hand on Amu's back and pushes her a bit, trying to urge her to leave with him, rather than the more normal waiting for her to leave. It's a bit unlike him, but. Ikuto makes him mad.
And sad, too, if he stops long enough to think about it - which is why he tries to not.

Amu Hinamori (54) has posed:
Amu blinks and looks at the lock. The whole thing is strange. Both boys want her to have the lock. So she does what anyone in her position would do. She puts the lock in her pocket for now until she can actually wear it.

"Thank you. Ummm Both of you."

Then Tadase is guiding her out the door. She doesn't fight it. "Come on Ran. This time, come with me and don't go wondering off, please?"

"Why the last time was fun!" Ran comments and catches up with her. A pair of blue eyes peek out of her bag...