Transcendental (Request-only; NPC Soul Hunt)

Ever the early riser, Leila was ready to go before Randy or Ceri even considered the possibility of alarms or daylight. Favoring room service over trying to drag the boys all the way downstairs and back up again for breakfast, she had food delivered to their room just as Randy began to stir. Doning a sleeveless crop-top, jeans, and running shoes, she tied her hair up in a messy bun at the top of her head. By the time Randy had even begun getting dressed, she was already on her laptop and researching the area. Opening the blinds and curtains forced Ceri into the land of the living, despite every protest to remain otherwise. Food nonetheless coaxed him into wakefulness, and after breakfast, the three departed. Expecting to be in weapon form the majority of the time, Randy remained in a t-shirt, button-up over shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes, casual but comfortable. Not knowing what he was in for, Ceri just wore his normal clothing: a graphic t-shirt, hooded jacket, cargo pants, and boots. Arriving to the castle on foot, with Leila practically skipping and gazing at everything in awe and Ceri largely glued to his phone, headphones in his ears, the partners found out just a hint of a taste of what the locals were concerned about.

Centuries old, time had not been overly kind to the long-abandoned building, leaving large chunks of it's top in ruins, weathered by storms and overgrowth from the surrounding plant life. What was once articulately carved stonework now lay in washed-out shambles, supporting the building by innovative construction alone. The energy was off here, a trait that Leila picked up quickly, mood not quite souring but certainly dropping several paces. Concern welled up in her partners, nowhere near as sensitive as she was, and Randy's hand went to envelope hers. Pulling the earphones free and shutting off his music, Ceri pocketed the device and walked over, hand on her shoulder.

"You alright there, Angelface?" He asked, the nickname developed ironically upon learning about her soul, and sticking despite her utter cluelessness to his flirtatious advances.

Leila paused, silent, her gaze soon seeming far off. Quickly moving to support her weight, the weapons waited as she attempted to project herself, but she quickly retreated back into her form. Face construed in frustration and cautious confusion, she stared at the building with mounting inner conflict. "I can't read anything," she explained, a fact that set Randy on edge in seconds, "Everything is jumbled. It's just all... energy. I can't even tell you if anyone else is here." Randy moved to start forming his armor around her, but she held up a hand, shaking her head as she gestured for him to stop. He obeyed, reluctantly.

In contrast, however, Ceri did not, at least... not fully. Transforming his left arm into the ice-affinity barrel of his weapon form, the weapon nodded towards the castle, ignoring Leila's protests towards entering armed. "You can't see anything, or whatever, Bandages over there is nervous, and none of us have any idea what the fuck is going on. I'm going in loaded, whether you want me to or not." Not giving her a chance to say another word, he set forward, now taking the lead of the group.

Leila and Randy followed behind him in silence, Leila slowly steeling herself back into a calm, combative demeanor, with Randy quickly and easily following suit. Glaring almost angrily at the door, Ceri tried several times to force the handle to turn, before finally kicking at the rusting hinges until they broke free, the door collapsing outward. While Randy mentally muttered something to an ignoring Leila about subtly, the zero-soul weapon proceeded inside, holding his transformed arm like a normal person would a carried gun. Eyeing each room they passed by, finding many of the first ones to not, apparently, connect to anything else, he moved ahead of them, scouting.

A few yards into the hallway, something sped through the intersecting hallway between them. Leila made a startled sound, immediately ready to fight, but Ceri barely had time to turn around before the entire building seemed to shake. Bracing themselves on different walls, the partners were shocked to find the ceiling above them caving, each diving for cover away from it. Several minutes little, with rubble, dust, and debris permeating the air, they found themselves separated, Ceri at one end of the intersection, Randy and Leila on the other, the center filled to the top, rather specifically, with convenient debris. On one side, Ceri released a string of curses. On the other, Leila tried to call around to him, but the shouts seemed almost exclusively to echo back. Between the blockage and his cursing, Ceri couldn't make out a word. Frustrated, Leila closed her eyes and began tapping at his consciousness, finally getting through to him after a while. Groaning, he allowed her in, waiting for the meister to speak to him in her strange way.

We'll double back and see if we can find another way around. Be careful? There was a pause before, sighing, she continued, I won't bother telling you to stay put.

"On it," he said aloud, the thought processing through to her. She tapped back out of his mind, walking off as he took to treating the situation like a solo mission, working to verify that each room he passed was clear and didn't hold any sort of trap or hidden doors...

Ceri, rogue thief that he was, was perfectly content to operate in stealth, though without the other two behind him, he seemed to be taking his time. With each door that he approached, he cleared the room in its entirety, checking every nook and cranny for hostiles, clues, and, of course, valuables. Sticking more to worthwhile trinkets, he stuffed his pockets as best he could do so without making noise. Still, it was strange that, after all of this time, the place appeared to have not been looted. If it had been abandoned for so long then surely at least someone would have come by for that express purpose by now... The fact that no one appeared to have done so almost worried him, but only almost.

Room after room, he did this. Occasionally, sounds could be heard on the floor above: shuffling, movement, the random footstep. No one, however, ever approached, and he had yet to find a way up. Leila and Randy had not tried to contact him again, or rather Leila. What was Randy going to do, after all? The pickpocket scolded himself for bothering to think that 'Bandages' would be able to contact him, without some way of him being able to see-

That brought up another point. Where were the windows? Outside, they could clearly see windows into the place, but Ceri had not once found one after they passed the initial rooms, and some of these later ones seemed expansive enough to reach the outer walls. Slightly put off by the realization, he found himself idly wondering what happened to the windows that were clearly visible from the outside. There didn't appear to be any sections of the far walls boarded up --- Ceri picked up a trinket, examining it before setting it down, finding it to be of little value to himself --- yet, he couldn't see out of the area at all, relying on light trickling in from the hallways, holes in the roof and-

Was that hallway torch always lit? Abandoning his looting, he lifted his left arm, holding the forearm of the weapon with his main hand. A sort of cold mist begin to slide from the barrel, his focus entirely on the area around him. Nothing had entered the room, this he knew for certain, but it seemed to be that something had been wandering the hallway while his back was turned. The fact that it had slipped by him so easily was a worry in and of itself, but knowing that the whatever-it-was had managed a silence rivaling his own made him focus more heavily on his other sense. A chill raced up his spine, completely separate from his weapon, and a sort of heavy cold slowly began to permeate the area...

A pearly white form slowly slipped out of a room, followed by two more. "You seem to have upset the triplets, young man,"came a calm voice from behind the forms that were now taking on humanoid shapes. The beings that were once shapeless had formed into triplets with Victorian era clothing. They appeared to be about sixteen years old. Their faces were horribly contorted into scowls. "Pardon," came the  voice again. The triplets parted and a man in a butler's outfit came into view. He had grey hair that sat in a shaggy mess, and was reasonably tall. He smiled at Ceri, two small fangs peeking out. "May I ask your name?" He said with a polite bow. The triplets however, didn't seem to want to be as polite. Two closed their eyes and vanished, leaving only one who was grinning widely. Without a warning, the one left charged at Ceri. Instead of hitting or punching the weapon, the specter simply snatched a trinket from his pocket. It was then that the other two triplets appeared, panting like they had run a marathon. They turned to each other, making a little half circle so that they could glare at Ceri occasionally. They grinned when the one mimed wrapping the necklace around their throat. Slowly, they advanced on Ceri. "Now now, is that any way to treat our guest, boys?" The grey haired man asked them. They backed off and acted ashamed. "They're mute, or else they would apologize ," he assured Ceri with a grin.
OOC: sorry for long box o text. Wrote this entirely between periods on my phone .3.

Curiosity peaked in the weapon, but he kept his gaze level, moving to break free of the triplets' circling and glaring slightly upon the removal of his loot. "Friends of yours?" He asked, a hostile edge unmistakably tainting his voice as he watched them move away, keeping his sense otherwise peeled for the strange, fanged man.

"Quite hostile friends of mine, in all honesty," the vampire stated as he watched the three ghosts play with the necklace. "The one holding the necklace was wearing it when he died. There are matching ones about somewhere, although I suggest not looting our home. The last fellow who did, well.. Let's just say he was quite a nice meal. I am Allen, pleased to make your acquaintance," the man grinned, finally getting around to noticing that Ceri's arm had transformed. "Cute," he mused, stepping right through the triplets. "You come into /our/ home, steal /our/ valuables, and then are trying to act like you're the victim?" Allen took a few steps closer to the weapon. "How dare you," he growled in an undertone

His eyes narrowed, weapon moving to center on the man's head. The chest would be the easier target, of course, but he was more than just good at headshots, and it was a more guaranteed kill. "What are you, some kind of Twilight motherfucker?" He asked, eyeing the teeth and wondering if he could shoot them out of the old man's yapping jaw. It didn't appear to particularly bother him that the man was becoming slowly hostile. If anything, he might actually be enjoying it.

This only seemed to infuriate Allen even more. "Boys, have at it," he said dryly. "When you hang him leave him for me. Haven't had a nice meal in a while," the triplets grinned, one darting away and bringing three long, bloody lengths of rope. "The triplets are what you would call vengeful spirits. Their deaths were set up to look like suicides, and so now they guard this castle, basically hanging anyone who enters with the same ropes they were killed with," Allen explained as the triplets advanced on Ceri yet again. The vampire took a step back and watched with a smirk. "Good luck trying to get away from them, boy. They control pretty much everything in this house. And boys.." He gave the triplets a pointed look. "Don't bother your mother. You know how she gets when someone has come to steal from us," the triplets nodded quickly before they enclosed Ceri in a tight circle. 'You won't make it' one mouthed, although there was no sound except for a light breeze that hit the weapon. "No, you won't,"came the faintest hiss from the one who had grabbed the locket, who seemed to be the most powerful. 'Fresh meat,' the third mouthed as they started to pace circles around Ceri.

A slow smirk spread across his face, crooked and cocky as the phantoms moved, his expression seeming to both darken and increase in both intensity and seriousness. "Let's see who the better ghost is," he said, all confidence and bravado as his right arm began to take the shape of his remaining barrel. Concentrating a measure of his wavelength, nowhere near to the intensity that a meister could muster, he fired the opposing bullets at one another. The action forced a cloud of thick steam, and where the man was previously, there was only vapor. Damp footprints lead through a gap in their circles and out of the room, fading into the stonework shortly there after. Several rooms down, he ducked inside, eliminating the area lightly with the blazing end of his right barrel, a warm, almost torch-like glow emitting from the fire within.

The triplets stared at the empty spot where Ceri had been for a minute, looking intensely confused. "What are you standing there for?Go find that insolent weapon!" The ashy haired vampire shouted, it echoing through the house. The three ghosts were gone within instants. They zoomed through all the walls, looking for the boy that was trying to steal from them. After a good ten minutes, the strongest triplet noticed a glow coming from the middle of a room. He tentatively floated to the glow, poking the air with a curious face. When he wasn't going all psycho murderer, the strongest looked simply like a misunderstood teenager. He made a chattering noise, which summoned the other two of the triplets to his side. They all looked at the light with the purest of innocent expressions.

Their hesitation gave him a moment of reprieve, though it ran the risk of the undoing for the two weaker ghosts. Charging up the barrels once more, he fired one of each of the bullets, one through each of the weaker triplets. Upon striking and passing through them, the bullets met, setting off another steam cloud and granting him cover to leave the room. He didn't see behind him to know if the attacks were successful.

The two weaker ones vaporized into the air as well, simply becoming steam clouds with eyes while the other one closed his eyes. Before Ceri could leave the room, the door was slammed shut and bolted from the outside. The two of the weaker ghosts slipped through a crack to go find the vampire, still in their cloud form. Moments later, the smooth voice of the vampire could be heard outside of the door. "You chose the wrong room to go in, my dear friend. You see, this is the mistress' room, and she should be returning from her walk mm.. Right about now," There was a heavy clunking sound coming up the stairs as soon as he finished speaking.
"Good luck with her! The mistress was a scientist until her husband slit her throat! She loves to slit other throats on her spare time~" the vampire chirped as he moved aside from the door. A glowing red figure floated through the door. "BOYS!" The red ghost shouted as she took the form of a stout old woman holding a bloody knife. She charged at the remaining triplet, gripping his neck. He screamed in a hoarse whisper, and then disapeared in a flash of blue light. A pearly white soul was left floating there. The stout woman cackled, leaving the soul sitting there. Her eyes suddenly turned kind, and her aura of red died down until it was a weak pink. "I'm sorry you had to deal with my boys, dear. Would you like some milk and cookies? I have some made in the kitchen!" she chirped, smiling kindly at Ceri. The door unlocked and there was the vampire, grinning like he knew something Ceri didn't. The two other ghosts appeared suddenly, and her aura turned a violent red. "You bitches!" she howled, charging at them. The vampire dodged her nimbly, but the other two ghosts weren't so lucky. With a blue flash, another two cloudy looking souls were left.

Ceri stared in confusion, taken aback by the interactions. Unsure of how to respond, he approached the nearest soul, taking it and the trinket it left on the ground. Turning the soul over, he thought back to what he'd been taught thus far about souls. Having learned nothing about monster souls, he assumed that, between the triplets' intentions and the fact that their souls were very clearly not blue, that they must naturally be Kishin Eggs... Right?

Knowing nothing different, and seeing as the woman seemed clearly far more distracted with the annoying Twihard that had ordered some ethereal hit on him, Ceri took the soul by it's tail. Tipping his head back, he popped it into his mouth, swallowing it whole. He made a bit of a face as it slipped past his tongue, the taste foreign and seeming almost to burn; he had shots softer than this. Shaking his head, the soul hit his stomach, and immediately began taking effect. Pain rippled through his body, and he doubled over for a second, the trinket dangling from his hands as he held his gut. Every nerve in his body began to alight in pain, the monster soul mutating his DNA in moments. Still, he held himself together fairly well, shaking but remaining on his feet, though his eyes were shut tight.

The pain came and went just as easily, and he was straightened back up and watching the pair's confrontation. With any luck, they hadn't noticed...

The woman stared at the vampire blankly for a moment. "Allen, why did you let this one inside? People are not allowed in-" She sensed something was wrong and turned around to see one of her sons being devoured. Her expression stayed slack, but her aura flickered a couple of times. "Very well. Having fun with the pain of my eldest?" she chuckled softly. "Come now, Allen. You know I cannot get the cookies ready myself," "Yes m'am" The vampire bowed obediently before she disappeared and he walked down the hallway. "I'd come with me, unless you would like to make the mistress mad," he called.

The weapon's eyes flashed towards the vampire, pausing for a moment. Gritting his teeth quietly, he followed, hands grasping the other souls as he passed by and shoving them in his pockets. After the pain of the first soul, he imagined that such would become a theme for soul consumption, if only for him, and wasn't about to debilitate himself further --- not around these two. Annoyed but able to save face --- con artist that he was, --- Ceri followed the butler and mistress of the house. With any luck, he might be able to find a way out.

They approached an old, fancy looking dining room. It was sparkling clean, and there was one plate of steaming hot cookies sitting on the crystal table. The old woman beamed, her translucent image almost glittering as she was so excited. "I haven't had a guest in such a long time!" she chirped, floating over to a refrigerator, which looked highly out of place in the victorian era kitchen. "And I have a special treat for you, Allen." The vampire's eyes widened when she pulled out a chilled glass of a dark red liquid that looked a lot like blood, handing it to him after sticking a straw in it. "You are very kind, mistress," he murmured before he took a sip of it, stepping back and leaning against the cabinets as he observed Ceri. "Mouse?" Allen asked softly as he sipped the blood. "Yes, my dear. I do apologize. I've not been able to find you anything fresh in years," the ghost replied with a sad shake of her head.

His face contorted, however briefly, into one of disgust before he steeled it once more, handing beneath a pleasant mask of a poker face, seeming wholly unfazed by the situation. All the while, his eyes seemed to subtly search the room, taking it in as a whole and working to calculate his next move. Somewhere, either inside or outside these castle walls, his roommates were searching for a way to get to him; Leila would see him well enough, he knew, though he had yet to grasp this... "Perception" nonsense that she was always going on about... He'd made the mistake of contributing it to her being psychic, once (and contributing that to her being some sort of witch, and that was a horrible, horrible mistake), but that had landed him on the porch for some time... but somehow, he knew, she would be able to find him... she would just have to figure out how to get to him, and he would have to stall, in the meantime...

"Perhaps.. Some blood soon." The ghost grinned, beaming at Ceri. She bent down and pulled a tray out of the oven with lumps of moldy cookie like things and offered them to Allan. He smiled, taking one and nibbling on it delicately. "Would you like one, dear?" The ghost asked as she gestured to the plate. The cookies were laced with rat poison.

There were two things of which Ceri had no doubt of, regarding those cookies: first, and foremost, one does not accept food from strangers, especially when it is clearly molding and probably older than one's self; secondly, denying a friendly 'gift' offered by one's captor was a sure-fired way of getting oneself killed, and quicker than the mold would do him in. Though, he noticed, probably more painful. With few other option, he nodded, forcing some level of politeness that melded with his suave, cocky nature enough to not seem faked. Besides, they were old enough that he could simply crumble them in his hand when the attention was not focused on him directly.

Allen watched him take the cookie and smiled again, a bit of the mouse blood dribbling from his mouth. "Problem, sir?" He asked in a mocking voice, crossing his arms and finishing off the glass. Then, the vampire yawned, rubbing his eyes as a sudden bout of drowsiness overcame him. The remaining ghost smiled warmly at Allen, patting his shoulder. "Go sit down, sweetness. Don't worry about it.. A little nap won't hurt." She soothed. Allen slowly nodded, moving for the kitchen table. Before he got there, his eyes rolled back in his head and he hit the ground. "He's not dead or anything, don't worry. I just laced the blood with enough sleeping pills to knock out an elephant. I love the man to pieces, he just gets on my nerves." The ghost chuckled, floating over top of his unconscious body.

A sort of alarm went off at the back of Ceri's head, and he couldn't catch himself before a facial expression that crossed disgust and panic painted itself. Shaking his head, he made like he was eating at the cookie, letting the crumbled pieces fall to the unkept floor beneath when she was not looking. "Any particular reason or just a 'I see your face too much to like it' kind of dare?" He joked, watching the knocked out form with a raised brow.

"Oh, you didn't like that very much did you?" The ghost chuckled, her auras color starting to deepen. "Allen is a friend. We keep a mutual agreement. He protects my house from thieves, drinking their blood and catching those who do enter. In return I offer him lodging and friendship. A co dependent relationship, I suppose you would say." She noticed some crumbs on the floor and bent to pick them up. At the presence of her near his body, Allen groaned and rolled over. "See, he's not even completely knocked out." She reassured him.

"Impressive," he said, surprisingly managing to contain his repulsion. Seriously, what was with vampires? Immune to sickness and disease but totally vulnerable to normally lethal doses of glorified tranquilizers? No, thank you. Shaking his head, he crossed his arms, looking about, "Do thieves often come through here?"

"Quite often, actually." She replied cheerfully. Still, her aura grew darker. "Another issue with Allen..he seems to have grown quite selfish. With my boys at his side, he could have easily slaughtered you. However, he chose to allow my sons to chase after you and wreck my lovely decor. What angle he is working at.. I am quite unsure. I'll just have to slaughter you myself." She grinned, her knife materializing in her hand again

It took moments for his arms to move to his sides, shift to their respective barrels, and aim at her. "Ma'am, I'm going to have to protest that chain of action." His voice was cool, almost gruff, and calm as can be, with just the barest hint of humor ---no, amusement --- behind it.