[Open] What an extraordinary child...

[doorkey]

Who: Coraline Jones & OPEN TO ANYBODY!
Where: The Grounds, Your Bedroom Door, The Halls, The Dining Room
When: Early November
Rating: PG
Summary: Being a mansion busybody, and sampling sounds for spooktunes
The Story: (But first, mood music...)

Out and About

The grounds feel extra chilly these days, air crisp with all the pleasantries of autumn, and the forest edges along with some of the garden is shedding crunchy leaves this way and that. There's a distantly smokey smell too, that's impossible to pinpoint the exact source of, but it pleases Miss Jones immensely.

She wanders the grounds with a sense of open-minded purpose, wearing a slouchy wool cap and a cozy sweater underneath her bright yellow coat. It's not quite cold enough for snazzy gloves, which is just as well- easier to carry a handheld tape recorder, pointing it at scattered leaf piles just before giving them a hearty kick with her wellington boots. Coraline walks hard along the cobblestone pathways too, trying to put a little more deliberate weight in her footsteps, occasionally bouncing from foot to foot rhythmically as if playing on invisible hopscotch boards.

She bothers the vendors for a bit, knocking on empty turtleshells and strings of pretty glass beads, bowls of jangly trickets, poking about at their wares with absolutely no real intentions of buying or bartering. Once the faceless merchants have realized this, and she's had quite enough of their cold shouldering, Coraline moves on quickly, finding a branch with some leaves still attached (not poison oak!) to run along the fences, making a glorious racket. On the review playback, it's not quite as satisfying as she'd hoped. Maybe she should have thought to arm herself with fancier microphones.

Soon she spots someone else out here, probably minding their own business, or lost in their own thoughts, and hurries over wth the branch dragging behind her on the grass.

" 'Scuse me?" The girl pipes, waving mid-approach. "Hi there, uh... Are you busy, right now? Would you mind, um... holding this up for me, for just a second?" Turning the branch around so the leafy ends are facing her sound recorder, she smiles hopefully and makes a flimsy, demonstrating gesture. "Yeah. Give it a good rustle?"


Door to Door

There's an eerie sounding disturbance in the hall, off and on during the day. Maybe you've just been too tired or preoccupied to investigate it's source. But that's okay. The sound machine's about to come to you!

(Knock-Knock-Knock.)

Yep, that's the sound of smallish knuckles on your bedroom door. Did you perhaps forget to put the No Solicitations or Please Do No Disturb sign on the door handle today? Or is a mild distraction a most welcome visitor, right now?

This one might be a little impatient, piping up before you can quite make your way to the door, or yell at the drop-in to go away

"Hello?" Sounds precociously girlish, and not with any particular panic. Like there might be a wagon of Girl Scout Cookies involved? And there's the knock again, repeating. "Is anyone home?"

No cookies in the wagon, alas, though it's rigged with some kind of dated recording equiptment, wedged in alongside a tangle of wires hauled out of her closet, along with one too many odds-and-ends noisemakers. In front of it stands Coraline Jones, a blue-haired girl in a silvery soft sweater that's a couple of sizes too big and stripey neon leggings.


Hallway Sound Effects

Sounds like someone with far too much free time on their hands has raided the music room's percussion and hand-instrument cabinets.

And it sounds like that someone has assigned you a few of them, and has been innocuously tailing you for as long as you can bear to dismiss your shuffling footsteps accompanied by the rattle of maracas, or every turn of your head punctuated by slide whistle. She follows at just enough of a distance to duck into an open doorway or lean up against the wall beside a mirror, examining a chip in her clipped painted nails.

But Coraline's harmless mischief can probably only continue on for so long, before she's called out for being a general nuisance. Or until she can get one of her victims to crack a smile.


Wish to Table

It's on the later side of suppertime, and Coraline has just managed to snag herself a seat in the dining room, staring down at her plate with the usual sigh of indecision. Pepperoni Pizza sounds like a great idea, but she's already had that three times this week, and that annoying naggy voice in her conscience that sounds like her well-meaning father is reminding her of food groups and variety.

She heaves a sigh, and quietly grumbles 'Okay, Dad' under her breath.

"Hmmm..." She strums her fingers on the fancy tablecloth and peeks up and down the long table for some inspiration. "What do I want, what do I- Oh! A...Chicken Pot Pie?" Coraline requests, remembering a microwaved one that she used to help herself to on nights when her father made stuff like Creamed Kale with Goat Cheese, or Seafood Paella. "With no mushy peas, please." She adds, before the magic can complete it's thing. "Ooh, and extra crusty crust!"

Yum. That's perfect, and perfectly sized for her appetite with room for dessert, too.

But after a second marveling sniff of the air, her face pulls a grimace of disgust. Gross. Where is that coming from?

Her attention goes scurrying a few places down in curious horror as she stabs a fork into her pot pie, steam rising from the pierced crust.

"What are you eating?!" Coraline exclaims, eyes wide with revulsion.

"That looks, um..." (Gosh, don't be completely rude, Coraline. Even if that smell is turning your stomach) "...Different?"

Comments

[doorkey]

"So... you're a warrior, sort of?" Coraline squints- it seemed a shame, to use magic mostly just for attacking people, or keeping yourself in one piece, when there seemed like so many cooler things to do with superpowers.

"I think I get it? I haven't got any spirit powers." She adds a little sheepishly, feeling far less cool by comparison. She sets an adderstone from her pocket on the table beside her napkin. "Just a lucky stone that's useful for seeing your way through bad stuff... or for finding lost things."

[noreason]

"I wouldn't really say 'warrior'." That makes it sound...organized somehow. It also gives him an image of someone in armor, and he didn't even have a shirt on most of the time - something he's very happy to have in Wonderland.

He leans forward to look at the stone. "Is it like a charm or does it always work?"

He knows the kind of charms they sell at shrines and temples, which are only really effective if you believe they are.

[doorkey]

"I'm... not too sure, actually?" Coraline admitted, tapping over the hole with a forefnger. "The ladies who lived downstairs at home gave it to me. They're retired stage actresses, so... very superstitious." She adds, as if that's the only wisdom she has to go by on the matter.

Little by little, the pot pie seems to be on its way out.

"Hey.... Naoki? So what's your favorite dessert?"

[noreason]

He nods slowly at that explanation, accepting it at face value. He doesn't question the correlation between "retired actress" and "superstitious," because he's never met one.

Naoki's pot pie is on the same road to demise as Coraline's and rather than finish it, he props his chin on his hand, elbow on the table, in the same pose she'd taken earlier.

"Dessert?" He considers, but not for long. "Pretty much anything strawberry flavored."

[doorkey]

"Shortcake?" She suggests hopefully, mouth stretching to a wider grin. "Hm, or maybe cheesecake..."

You really couldn't do much better than strawberry cheesecake. Or could you? Drumming her fingers on the tabletop, the girl contemplated her endless possibilties. It was really easy to spoil yourself silly, when the mansion was so readily accomodating... but she had finished everything on her plate this time!

"If it was summer I'd say strawberry ice cream, or a strawberry soda float, but I think warm and gooey's better for now, so... should it be rolled pancakes, with hot strawberry filling?"

[noreason]

"I guess we could have all of them, but that's probably going a little too far." Naoki grins, too, fangs visible, but not bared. He leans forward over the table a bit. "But if you get that and I get cheesecake, we can split it."

It's not as though the Mansion wouldn't give each of them both, but it's more fun to split things than to ask for half-portions.

[doorkey]

"Yeah, you're probably right." She sighed with grudging warmth, both reluctant and grateful for Naoki's moderation at the same time. Going overboard on desserts was way too easy without parents around to insist otherwise, so it was good at least one of them was looking out for potential tummyaches.

She didn't want to end up like that other kid Dustin, who ate himself sick on junk food.

"Sounds good! One strawberry blintz pancake for me, then!" ... "(Strawberry A La Mode)" She adds with a quick whisper, because one scoop of ice cream to share with it is hardly overdoing it.

This had to be some kind of record time, for fastest she's ever gone from total strangers to divvying up dessert with someone.

[noreason]

Naoki follows suit, asking for strawberry cheesecake. This request turns out right, if a bit bigger than he'd intended. He doesn't think anything of that - they're splitting it after all. He finds a knife among the utensils and snags an extra plate so that he can portion it out for the two of them.

"What's your favorite? Let's share that next time."

Naoki makes friends pretty quickly and doesn't even question that they won't be sharing dessert again in the near future.

[doorkey]

Coraline happily divvys up the treat on her plate, spoon sliding right through the strawberry ice cream scoop to bisect it neatly, nudging the sliiightly larger half toward Naoki out of generousity. Also because the cheesecake looks enormous. And delicious.

She eagerly swipes the first bite, trying to decide on her own favorite while she chews and sweeps her gaze along the chandeliers. Shrugging as she swallows, Coraline can't really come up with a stand-out.

"I like all kinds of desserts- Milkshakes, Brownies, Snickerdoodle Cookies..." She trails off with a dreamy sigh, fork already poking at the cheesecake. "Peach Cobbler?"

[noreason]

Naoki takes care to get ice cream and blintz on his spoon at the same time, despite the tendency of the former to melt right away, and keeps himself busy with that while Coraline considers. He's never had this particular dessert and is finding it wonderfully strawberry-y enough.

As she gets to the end of his list, he points his spoon at her. "I've never had that one."

[doorkey]

"Never?" Coraline might look a bit scandalized, eyes round. "It's especially good with lots of crunchy topping, hot, in a little skillet...more ice cream, too! Well we'll have to try that next time, then!" She announces at once, with a decisive nod.

"And I guess you can think up a dessert I've never had before. Um... as long as it's better than whatever you were trying to eat before the pot pie. (No offense.)"

[noreason]

"Whatever that thing was, it was not a dessert."

He taps the top of his cheesecake with the edge of his spoon, leaving little divots in it.

"Hm...the things you probably haven't heard of that I know aren't as sweet as this kind of thing. But you might like them anyway."

For all he knows, red bean paste is an acquired taste and he only likes it because he grew up with it.

[doorkey]

"I... guess I could give it a shot?" Coraline shrugs uncertainly- so it's not a sugar bomb. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a gross dessert, right?

Wouldn't dad be proud of her, broadening her food horizons! Usually she's not that brave when it comes to eating something completely new, but when the person offering is interesting, even the pickiest girls can be tempted to try.

"Do you like it here? In the mansion, I mean... compared to back home."

[noreason]

"You can always stop eating it if you don't like it, too." Naoki wouldn't be offended in the least. It would be easy to replace a dessert she didn't like with one she did.

He doesn't have that problem at the moment - it turns out that strawberry blintz a la mode is not something that needs to be replaced.

"Mm..." Pensive, he drags his spoon through some melted ice cream on his plate, drawing zigzags on his plate. "There are a lot of things I need to do at home." For a moment, probably for the first time since he sat down, his expression is solemn.

"But I like it here, too. It's like a nice vacation." Well, nice between events.

[doorkey]

"Yeah..." Coraline nods distantly, softening a little somber too as she breaks up her half of the cheesecake with her fork. "It's only a vacation."

That gets harder and harder to believe, the longer time goes by. If what other people say is true, it'll seem like no time has passed back home... but she also wonders if Naoki's heard about the girl called Alice yet.

"I guess it's a good break from hard responsibilities? (I mean, I'm just a kid and I wasn't in the middle of school or anything, so it's not like I had a job or any real-) But it's nice. You can do whatever you want? And it's hard to feel bored, ever."

[noreason]

"That's true. There's a lot to do."

He can still run around, if he wants, but there are other things to do for once, too. There's good food, for one, and the events, which are interesting if nothing else, and the Mansion itself is pretty decked out with people and places. Which reminds him of something.

"Hey, do you go to the library much? I don't really know how to find anything in there."

[doorkey]

"You mean... with the Dewey Decimel system?" Coraline grins and shakes her head. She learned about card catalogs at school, but who actually wastes time on that? "I don't really use that all that much. Mostly I just wander around the shelves look for books that have interesting-sounding titles."

Which means she judges a lot of books by their covers, probably, but... it's not like anyone's ever lectured her for it?

Last she heard, someone had wrecked the place pretty badly. Some adult who set a fire. She hadn't swung by to see it with her own eyes since it was Hogwarts' extravagantly magical library, only a few weeks ago.

"Were you looking for some book in particular?" She asks, curious why Naoki seems so lost about it. "There's usually someone playing librarian that can probably help you?"

[noreason]

"Yeah, I'm looking for a particular book. And that place is huge. I don't even know where to start."

It doesn't help that things seem to move around in there. But he hadn't heard that there might be someone who looked after all of it, and that would make a huge difference.

"I'll ask around to see if anyone had a better handle on it. There's got to be someone, right?"

He scrapes his spoon across his now, unfortunately, empty plate. Looking down at it, he makes a face that's almost disappointed and almost indignant.

[doorkey]

Coraline perks a bit, reaching for her adderstone.

"Well, you're lucky, 'cause I'm actually pretty good at finding things?" Her face splits into a tenatively confident grin. "So maybe you could tell me what you're looking for, and I could help you keep an eye out for it?"

[noreason]

Naoki had forgotten about the Adderstone, and he seems to perk up as well. It might not work, but it can't hurt to try it.

"That would be great." He leans forward on his elbows. "I'm looking for a book called the Scripture of Miroku. Which sounds weird, and I don't know a whole lot about what's in it."

[doorkey]

Scripture was really the only word that seemed to leap out at her, and in a way that earned a strange sideways glance. Weird was no joke.

"So you're looking for... like a bible?" She squinted, a bit confused why anyone with tattoos on their face would really need something like that for. "And you don't even really know what's in it- Did somebody come to your door and try to recommend it, or something?"

[noreason]

"Nothing like that." Naoki shakes his head, raising a hand at that look as though to fend it off. "It's got some kind of prophecy in it. If I could read it, I might be able to understand what's going on in my world better."

[doorkey]

Uh-oh. That doesn't sound too good. Like this Miroku thing is the crazy rantings of some doomsayer.

"Why, what was going on back in your world, exactly?" She asks, with the kind of terrible curiousity that half suspects she's better off remaining ignorant.

Oh well. Too late to take back nosy questions. Hopefully the answers won't give her an upset stomach, just after finishing up dinner.

[noreason]

It isn't lost on Naoki that this encounter took a turn for the serious very quickly. He almost wants to suggest they eat more dessert, but that ship has probably sailed.

"The world ended."

He takes a moment to try to calculate just how old Coraline probably is. Is this something he should be talking about with a kid? Not that he's not legally a kid at home, but he's older than her for certain.

[doorkey]

"Oh." She frowned in sympathy, expression shifting to alarm.

Maybe it was a good thing Naoki was here in the mansion after all, able to keep enjoying the good things in life, like strawberry cheesecake.

"What happened?" Coraline asked, voice a little hushed, in rapt morbid curiousity. "Were there a bunch of natural disasters? Did aliens attack? Was there a big war?"