"Box"

Oliver Tanuki

It felt like it was around that time of day again where everyone usually settled down for sleep. There was no way of telling the time or whether it was day or night around here. The electricity ran constantly, but it could be shut off and on in any of the rooms like a normal house. Not that this could ever be considered "normal," although lately, it was beginning to seem that way. Maybe not normal, but more...common. Dull. Uninteresting. The fad had passed and Oliver was completely over it. Before anyone could go to their respective rooms for the night--or whatever you could call this, that's just what he called it because it was easier that way--he'd called everyone to a meeting in the living area. Because he was the leader and he could do that whenever he wanted, no questions asked.

When he got there, he was actually a little surprised by the turnout. He demanded for it to be everyone, so of course that meant everyone, but that didn't usually... Huh, well, no complaints. Puffing himself up like usual when around the others, Oliver walked as calmly as ever to the round table they usually used to eat snacks on when watching movies on the television. He pulled up a chair and sat down without a word, taking his sweet time to do everything because it wasn't often that he got what he asked for, so yeah, of course he was going to milk it a little. He looked each of them over, a neutral expression on his face, before clearing his throat and sitting up in his chair. "I hereby start the official meeting! I've asked you all here today because..." He glanced at Kanari and sighed, losing his 'official' composure. This is stupid. "Because we need to have these things on a regular basis so we all don't go fucking insane and blow our brains out. I mean sometimes I lose sight of some of your for days and I have no idea where you go, but then I start to lose count, and it's really not great because anything can happen and none of us would know. You could be lying in a puddle of your own... Uh. Right." He'd been rambling again.

Clearing his throat for the second time, Oliver decided to start over from the beginning. Again. Unfortunately, one look at everyones' faces told him this was even stupider than he'd originally thought it was going to be and they were probably just waiting for him to tell him what he had to say so they could get this over with and go to bed. But, honestly, he had nothing. He called the meeting because he thought this should be a regular thing just to keep up a headcount and make small talk or something. They needed that closure, right? It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now it was starting to suck. He bet he was just boring them. It was rare when he got any of their attention at all, and now that he had a small sliver of it, he was wasting his chance.

It wasn't like he could tell them he had no reason to call them here. ...He glanced at Kanari again and sighed, getting an idea. A poor one, but it was better than the nothing he had in mind. "So from now on, we'll have these meetings on a nightly basis. We'll gather here before going to bed. Understood? Great. We'll use these meetings to discuss any issues anyone has or clear up an argument or just, I dunno, talk or whatever. Be friendly. Because we're stuck together. And that's boring. So I have an idea of what we can do tonight, but don't get used to me coming up with everything all the time." It wasn't his idea. It was Kanari's idea. "I suppose we use tonight to do that thing people used to do around campfires and junk. You know. Telling crappy ghost stories." He was so against this idea that it wasn't even funny, but Kanari kept giving him that look, and when the poor, girly thing had asked him if they could do it a few days ago, Oliver said he'd think about it, so... Here it was. Great.

Humming under his breath, Ri held a small cat stuffed animal in his lap, his legs criss-cross applesauce. He was happy Oliver had called the meeting as he was super excited for everything to start. Scary stories were the best thing ever! Giggling he looked around and saw the rest of the group, with various looks of disinterest or something boring on their faces. Totally clashed with his happy go lucky awesome manliness, if you asked him. Like…god. Was it really that hard to…he didn’t know. Be happy and show non-boring emotions? Hmph. Well they’re just poopheads then! See his bestest friend ever walk into the room, Ri waved happily to him, though it was just a small one and he went back to petting the stuffed cat’s head contently. “I hereby start the official meeting! I’ve asked you all here today because…” Ri looked up with a raised brow and smiled knowingly. Bad Olive-chan. He shouldn’t be trying to get away from this! Scary stories weren’t real. Only the unknown were real to him. And they tormented him every chance they got. Blinking his gray-blue eyes, Ri fought a gasp when he saw the shadow move. Or…he thought it moved. He didn’t know. Pouting, he hugged Koko-chan to his chest and listened back on Olive. “Because we need to have these things on a regular basis so we all don’t go fucking insane and blow our brains out. I mean sometimes I lose sight of some of you for days and I have no idea where you go, but then I start to lose count, and it’s really not great because anything can happy and none of us would know. You could be lying in a puddle of your own…Uh. Right.” Ri just shook his head and smiled happily. Olive was so weird sometimes.

He began humming again and when the elder cleared his throat and looked around the room. When he caught his eye, Ri smiled brightly and waved. Olive was the best leader ever. Ri mentally nodded. He was strong, and while he was a little weird and freaked out over things that didn’t happen, like scary movies, he let him sleep in bed with him most times. Mainly when the Unknown scared him a bit too much and he couldn’t sleep because of it. Uncrossing his legs, he let out a huge yawn. Speaking of sleep, he was tired. But of course, he wasn’t too tired to miss a scary story session. He had been bugging the leader for days and finally he gave in. He was so excited about this and everything! It was like…like…a kid in a candy store. No…better. It was like him in a room full of stuffed animals, strawberries and bananas while he watched scary movies all day! The best thing ever! Olive managed to get his attention again and he pouted, a knowing and slightly annoyed look in his eyes. He wanted to tell stories! Yes yes yes! But he didn’t want to be first. No, no. He wanted to laugh and giggle at everyone’s stories before he told his!

“So from now on, we’ll have these meetings on a nightly basis. We’ll gather here before going to bed. Understood? Great. We’ll use these meetings to discuss any issues anyone has or clear up an argument or just, I dunno, talk or whatever. So I have an idea,” Ri huffed and rolled his eyes. No, he didn’t have an idea. Ri had the idea. Olive was stealing Ri’s idea! Bad Olive. He would share and extra scary story just for that. Meanie Olive-chan. “of what we can do tonight, but don’t get used to me coming up with everything all the time. I suppose we use tonight to do that thing people used to do around campfires and junk.” Oooo, a fire sounded nice! With gooey fluffy things called marshmallows and choclate and if they melted a pot of chocolate he could have chocolate covered strawberries and bananas! Oh god yes it sounded perfect! “You know. Telling crappy ghost stories.”

The young boy let out a loud cheer, “Yay! Scary story time everyone!” he threw Koko into the air and missed catching her, wincing as she landed a few feet away, “Ri-chan is super exicted about this, you know!” he tried to grab her with his toes but ended up having to roll over and crawl to get to her, ending up closer to Oliver, “Oh and Olive-chan. Can we make a fire? A fire sounds cool. Because then we can have sweets and I will melt chocolate and have strawberries covered in bittersweet awesome chocolate so can we? He smiled and looked up at the leader, before pouting and glancing at everyone else, “It sounds like a good idea right?” he sighed but quickly changed topics, “Okay! Who wants to start telling stories first!?”

Pandora

Pandora didn't sit at the round table. It was rare for her to even be around the group, much less sit at the table with them. Instead, she stood in a nearby doorway, half-hidden in the shadows. Most of the time, she usually didn't show herself when a group meeting was called. She'd always be lurking somewhere close so that she'd hear what was going on, but more often than not she wouldn't make it known that she was there.

However, despite being half-hidden, she decided that she'd try joining in today. Why? While she was anti-social by nature, even she knew that prolonged periods of being alone could be harmful to her mental health. She had to be strong for everyone, after all.

Pandora listened carefully as Oliver started the meeting.

“Because we need to have these things on a regular basis so we all don’t go fucking insane and blow our brains out. I mean sometimes I lose sight of some of you for days and I have no idea where you go, but then I start to lose count, and it’s really not great because anything can happy and none of us would know. You could be lying in a puddle of your own…Uh. Right.”

Pandora knew all too well that one of those people was her. After all, it was very likely that she was one of the most hard-to-find people of the group. However, she found the thought of anything happening to her quite ridiculous. If anything, she knew how to handle herself. She didn't work out every day for nothing.

Oliver stopped, looking around the room. When his eyes met hers, she stared resolutely back, knowing that she would look angry. She always looked angry; her red eyes gave that impression every time. Then, after a few moments, he began again.

“So from now on, we’ll have these meetings on a nightly basis. We’ll gather here before going to bed. Understood? Great. We’ll use these meetings to discuss any issues anyone has or clear up an argument or just, I dunno, talk or whatever. So I have an idea,”

Fair enough. Maybe we can get Drew to stop cooking completely. Pandora thought to herself.

“of what we can do tonight, but don’t get used to me coming up with everything all the time. I suppose we use tonight to do that thing people used to do around campfires and junk. You know. Telling crappy ghost stories.”

Wait, what? For a moment, she was confused. Shouldn't the leader use the first one to ask about any issues? Looks like it'll be Drew's cooking for a bit longer.... She thought rather resignedly. She sighed. She didn't really see the point in telling ghost stories.

Pandora watched as Ri threw his toy in the air and then failed to catch it in his excitement. At least someone was excited about it.

“Okay! Who wants to start telling stories first!?”

Pandora was surprised to find that Ri didn't want to tell the first one. She knew he liked that sort of thing. Oddly, she found herself wanting to tell one, just a little bit. But, what would she say? She didn't know any good stories, and the ones she did know all had gore and just weren't really appropriate. A little bit disappointed, she shifted uncomfortably.

Cassius was always early. It was just a part of him, the pre-punctuality that he always exhibited. Time had even less meaning to him than the others boys. The absence of light, artificial or otherwise, made it hard to tell if they were in day or night mode. He just slept when he was tired, and he had gotten The Box to make him an alarm clock that, when the fourth button on the top was pressed, would announce the current time in a tinny female voice. Pushing that button was the first thing he did when he woke up, because for all he knew he’d only caught a few hours and everyone else would still be in bed… or he’d slept ten and he was late for breakfast.

As a result, he took his time with things. Getting around wasn’t all that hard, not anymore, but it tended to be slow. Counting steps in long hallways required concentration even after the months of practice he had with the more common to’s and from’s in their strange metallic home. He’d probably been the first to arrive for the meeting, crossing the sixteen steps from the door to the round table and then feeling around for a seat. No one had greeted him, anyway, so he was pretty sure he’d been the first one, but then again Pandora might have been there the whole time and not said a word. The quiet boy was funny that way, but Cass could usually tell when he was around. It was just… a feeling. That weird prickling of the mind one got when they were being watched, even if they couldn’t actually remember what watching felt like.

He’d put on his earphones and some Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. He’d been on a classics kick for the last couple of days. Much though he loved music, the boy never, ever sang along. He sang in the shower, when there was no music accompanying him, but with his headphones on he could never tell when someone entered the room, and he didn’t want to annoy anyone with his kind of breathy, inexpert voice. Sighted people could spot an interloper and hush up, but whenever the urge overtook him, he thought about all five of his friends gathering around him, listening without tapping him or anything to let him know they were there. It made his cheeks feel hot to think of that, and the urge to sing usually went away very quickly.

Someone had prodded him when the meeting was about to start. He wasn’t sure who. Oh well. He reached up and pulled his headphones away from his ears, using one finger to kill the tiny sounds coming out of them once they were off. He was slouching, like he usually did, so he sat up. This was a break in the routine, this meeting. Maybe it was something important? He had no idea, and he’d been pondering about it all day, ever since Olly had called for it. He heard a chair scraping about, and then Olly clearing his throat. He did it in a pretty distinctive way, at least to Cass’s sharp ears, so he knew immediately that their leader was sitting to his left. He turned his head so that he was facing him, and got ready to listen.

He blinked his wide eyes when the other boy went on about people blowing their brains out or vanishing. Was that really something he worried about? Cassius found reasons to check in with Olly every chance he got, so it couldn’t be him that Olly was talking about. Probably Pandora and Drew. Mostly Pandora. He wondered where the solitary boy was. Probably away from the rest of them, maybe leaning against the wall.

When Olly looked at Cass’s face… well, Cass’s face could be pretty hard to read. Eye-contact was obviously out of the question. Even though he’d turned himself to face Olly, he was still staring through him rather than at him with those vacant eyes of his. Cass could smile, sure; he did smile, and laugh, and frown, and pout, but more subtle, less natural expressions were alien to him. He’d never seen them, so how could he know how to make them? He heard him sigh, and almost frowned. He hated when Olly was upset. Instead of frowning, he smiled, as encouragingly as he could. At least, he hoped it looked encouraging.

His brow creased. He had that one down, too. Ghost stories? He didn’t have the usual run of fears, so horror movies or creepy stories had never really interested him. That sort of stuff was only dangerous to dumb people anyway. They always wound up breaking the rules, then the bad guys got all of them but one, and it was just stupid how they all separated and got lost and picked off one by one. Maybe that was the point of it? To scare them into sticking together? No… Olly wasn’t that subtle. His heart was in the right place, but he couldn’t have come up with that.

He didn’t really know any scary stories, but he decided to speak up, remembering Olly’s sigh, his exasperated tone of voice. ”I think it’s a really great idea, Oliver.” When he spoke aloud, he always called him Oliver. In Cass’s head, though, he’d always be Olly, who fretted over him so endearingly. Olly, who… well, he liked Olly, and it was a good idea. The meetings were. He turned his head to smile a little more weakly at… well, he wasn’t sure where everyone was, but he probably got most of them before he panned back to Olly. ”I’m all for spending more time together. It will be fun. I don’t… know if we should start a fire… but we could have it make us s’mores and melted chocolate and all of that. I mean, maybe we can start a fire, I don’t know. What if there are sprinklers that just come on? I…” He realized he was doing that thing where he just kept talking. That happened, when Olly was around, more than any other time. He slouched in his seat again. ”I just think the meetings are a good idea, is all,” he finished quietly.

Drew Reinhart

"This is unfathomably stupid."

Drew struggled to keep the thoughts inside. It was late - or at least "box-late" - and Drew found himself more than ready for bed and less than thrilled to be attending a meeting. Especially one run so mind-numbingly slow, and by the far too excited Oliver. He should have known better than to show up, even if he did arrive more than fashionably late, to something Oliver organized. Having all of them in one room and knowing that it was his will that brought them there was obviously too much for his ego, and it soon became apparent Drew wasn't going to bed any time soon. Tuning Oliver out entirely, he closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, stretching as the boy rambled on. There was no point in listening; if it had been something important enough to interest Drew surely he would have said it straight out. He was probably just laying down more rules no one cared to follow anyway.

There was a short pause as Oliver stopped to clear his throat, and Drew's ears perked up, listening for Oliver to bring his little meeting to a close. "So from now on, we'll have these meetings on a nightly basis. We'll gather here before going to bed. Understood?" Drew's eyes snapped open and he fell forward in his chair. "Every night?" He pushed his glasses back onto his face as a small frown settled on his lips. The thought of spending every night before bed with everyone doing God-knows-what and talking did not sit well with Drew at all. "I suppose we use tonight to do that thing people used to do around campfires and junk. You know. Telling crappy ghost stories."

Kanari of course flipped the fuck out like usual, tossing his doll around and squealing as though Oliver had just offered him something of actual value. Though what was of value in a place like this? In a place where anything you wanted was at your fingertips, did anything really have worth? Did anything matter? He dwelled on this thought, mulled it over in mind with a light sort of amusement, a smile playing across his face as he lost himself in his own brain. Though if one can lose oneself inside oneself, who are you, really? He planted his elbows loudly on the table and rest his head in his palms thinking as the others put forth their two cents. Their chatter became a sort of background noise, a dull buzz that lulled Drew's thoughts closer toward the more abstract realm of dreams. As they continued to talk, Drew fell a little closer and a little closer to sleep. It was silence that ended up bringing him back to reality. Normally the quiet was his welcome companion, but this was the loud sort of noiselessness, the kind that was full of the near tangible thoughts and emotions of the others as they waited for someone to speak up. He yawned loudly, filling the expectant silence that had built most disappointingly.

"What's everyone waiting for, hm? Oliver, this was your idea, though it sounds more like something Kanari would come up with; why don't you go ahead and start us off, Boss?" Drew snickered lightly to himself, leaning back and closing his eyes again, hands behind his head and feet on the table. Oliver wasn't one for scary things. Kanari always insisted on watching horror movies and Oliver would frequently find some excuse to leave during the most climatic scenes. He doubted Oliver had really thought any of this through, and hopefully he'd be able to get to bed after a quick, likely harmless tale. "Come on, I'm..." Drew broke his sentence with a long, overdone yawn, "...tired as hell."

Ivonne Stratsky

Thought that it was too late be having any meetings. He was sleep as hell and he wanted to go back to sleep he was usually the one to sleep first. But, now no one was sleep listening to Oliver rambling about having a meeting every night before going to bed. Plus, he didn't know if everyone else was sleep but, he was already closing his eyes to sleep. Ivonne was pretty tired he kept rephrasing to go to sleep during all of this.

Oliver would never come up with a idea like that. Who would have him bring that up? Kanari was the first person that would ever bring up scary things so it would defiantly be him to tell Oliver to even have a meeting about talking about anything scary. But, before bed? Out of all the different times that people wasn't sleep, why choose before bed. Shrugging his shoulders when Oliver stated sharing any complaints or question would be fine too. Ivonne thought that it would be fine for that at least.

Searching for scary stories in his mind he has heard of some but, he just can't remember them. Sighing he stared blankly at the wall and nothing else. That is what he did most of the time he was sitting down somewhere and thinking. He laid his head on his hand blinking slowly he was really trying not to sleep or anything. Sighing he sat back up and looked at Ri and then at Cass, he then looked back at Ri agreeing with what Drew had said,"Ri you are the one for scary movies and other things like that. You could actually help us think of some things with a story or something." He nodded to himself and Kanari in agreement.

He smiled at Ri and he wanted to jump out of his chair and call him a girl just to annoy him. But, he didn't want to at the moment, he was very tired at the moment and wanted to get some sleep but, he could not with everyone waiting for someone to start a story. "Do we have to do this scary stories thing every night?" It would get boring to him sooner or later, but that was just him. He looked over at Oliver and back at his old friend, the wall. He usually looks over at the wall a lot lately, it calms his mind and it's a wall that can't talk to him. Well, that does not bother him, it was non living anyway.

Ivonne looked back at everyone in the meeting thingy or what ever it was for. He listened for Ri's and Oliver's response. He would be able to tell a scary story if he had any clue on how to start one. Ivonne really wasn't a person to even talk about anything that was even apart of being scary. Though he was pretty random so he wouldn't remember if he even did say anything or not. He probably did he just couldn't really think right now since he was getting tired every time he tries to think of something.

(Fail on my part!)

Kanari Tikoto

“I think it’s a really great idea, Oliver.” did Ri-chan smell cuteness in the air? He was sure he did. Cass-cass was always so cute. The kind of cute that makes you want to snuggle up to them and pinch their cheeks…and. Well yeah. Cass was a good friend of his, other then Olive-chan. But Olive and him were…err…what was the word that ‘thugs’ used all the time before he was stuck in this horrid, but surprisingly nice, place. Tight. Yeah! What was…oh! Right. Cass and Ri-chan were really tight, but not as ‘tight’ as Olive and him. Because Olive was funny to talk to. He was their leader, of course he wanted to be best friends with their leader. Even if he was sort of…an…an…unorthodox kind of leader. “I’m all for spending more time together. It will be fun. I don’t…know if we should start a fire…but we could have it make us s’mores and melted chocolate and all of that. I mean, maybe we can start a fire. I don’t know. What if there are sprinklers that just come on? I…I just think the meetings are a good idea, is all.” See!? See what he said about cute? Of course, Ri-chan was just a little cuter, but he would share that cuteness with Cass. Both of them were cute in a manly way of course. Of course.


A new voice spoke up and Ri fought a small frown. Frowns didn’t look well on him. Made him look…dare he say it? He shook his head. No. He wouldn’t. It would sound stupid, even in his head. So…just. Let’s stick with the fact that frowns didn’t suit his baby face and he was fine with it that way. Totally fine with it that way. “What’s everyone waiting for, hm? Oliver, this was your idea, though it sounds more like something Kanari would come up with; why don’t you go ahead and start us off, Boss?” A soft snicker could be heard and Ri fought the urge to throw Koko at him, just to make him shh-it! Ri-chan did not like people making fun of Olive! Olive was his make-fun-of toy! And if he was nice for a day, when he was really scared Olive wouldn’t be a jerk about it and just let him into the room so he could sleep with him. Stupid Unknown pestered Ri everywhere. See? Did you see that? They were right there, staring at him. He shivered. He could fight them today. They were just being creepy as always. Nothing…nothing he couldn’t handle. It was when they were being nasty Unknowns that they started to mess with his sense of dream and non-dreamy like things and he had to get out. This could be a dream. He didn’t know. Actually…he pinched himself to make sure. And yeah, it hurt. Real. “Come on, I’m…tired as hell.” a large yawn broke the elders sentence and in hearing the yawn, Ri did the same. Yawns were contagious things!

Eve-chan was the last to speak up, aside from Panda-chan, but he never really talked much. Never…talked much at all! Totally the opposite of Ri, but he was a-okay with that! Panda was nice to him and he was nice to Panda and Panda gave him food and…well Eve. Eve, Evey-chan! If Olive kicked him out, he went to Eve. Because bothering Cass was like…kicking a puppy into a street and watching it’s eyes widen as a monster truck ran over its body and left it dead. And alone. So…he didn’t ever bother Cass. “Do we have to do this scary story thing every night?” Ri wrinkled his nose. No, silly! Of course not! As much as he would love to, Olive would try to kill him if he begged more than every once and a while. He would take it easy on the elder man. Elder because…he was small and therefore he just considered himself to be the youngest. In honesty, Panda could be younger than him and he would not know. Because…he was taller and therefore he had to look up to see him. Hence…older.

Glancing around the room, the perfect story formatted in his mind. It wasn’t a story actually. He remembered this happening in his town. It was kind of cool to him. He wanted his friends to go with him to check it out…but they didn’t want to and called him a macho girl and ran off. Of course he didn’t talk to them for a while because they called him female, but the point still stood of…it was real. Really real. He giggled at himself. “Okay, okay! Since no one wants to go first,” he pouted, “I’ll do it! Of course it was my idea. Duh. Why would like…Olive-chan do anything worth…doing…about the supernatural. He’s just…not amazing like me in that sense!” he giggled and leaned over to pat Olive’s shin, smiling. “But enough chit-chat guyyss! It’s scary story time~”

He hummed for a bit and settled down, crossing his legs once more and moving his recently collected, from the horrid place called the ground, stuffed cat into his lap. “So like around the late 1990’s, or the early 2000’s, there was this really nice amusment park in my town, or city, whatever. It had rides for kids of all ages, from like 2 to like…16 or something. I don’t even know. It was amazing and I loved to look at pictures of it before it closed. Of course I never went there, because I was not alive. My grandmother was. And this really…it’s what she told me happened. It’s why…I don’t have a great-aunt, or something equally weird and creepy. Anyways, when they were younger, they used to go all the time right?” he paused and dropped his smile. He hated that he couldn’t tell scary stories…scarily. But whatever. He loved this tale. It made him…tingly inside, “When they were around the age of 9, there was a new ride. All the little kids seemed to love it, is what she said. It was a nice ride too. A large happy smiling face for a mechanized head, and roughly around 4 little train carts following after it. Sounds really cute right? Well that’s what I thought too! Well it seemed that after a few months, children started to disappear on the ride. She showed me records. Deaths and disappearance. There were cases in the double digits. For one year. Just for the ride. Not including anything else. Those that disappeared from the ride itself, seemed to always be gone after the short tunnel, about 10-15 feet long, and even if the parents stood at one end and watched their kid, sometimes they still managed to be snapped away into thin air. Those…lucky, unlucky?” he tilted his head slightly and licked his lips, “Souls that didn’t vanish sometimes went into comatose states. One was just found dead, various shades of blood red on her pretty dress. Other children killed themselves. Razors, wires, they even went ahead and killed other kids before killing themselves. There were several reports of decapted heads on farms, children’s bodies smashed to almost the point of no recongizicon, anything you could ever think of, there were records of it.”

“It was safe to say that not only did that ride shut down, but the whole park did as well,” he smiled, “Actually, just a few years after Grandma told me this story, a group of scientists and other volunteers went to the now over grown park site and found that the ride, while run down, was in perfect condiction. In fact, other than a few spots of rust, that collect no matter what, and the happy smiley now washed into a demented snarl-grin, the ride worked. So, stupidly, they put a scientist on the ride with a video camera and ran him through the whole 2-3 minute ride, thinking that the townsfolk were just making it up. The first one disappeared, the camera showing only what they could see from their own eyes. As soon as he entered the tunnel it turned into static and the only thing they heard was the laughter of small children. The second…both him and the camera remained, the man covered in blood, and not all of it his own, and his throat slit open. The camera…well they couldn’t even hope to recover it. It was smashed.” Ri smiled brightly and giggled, “Well? That’s it really. They haven’t gone back. I guess. I don’t know. But yeah! My creepy story!”

Pandora

“Well? That’s it really. They haven’t gone back. I guess. I don’t know. But yeah! My creepy story!”

Pandora had been listening intently to what was going on. It was obvious that everyone was tired, but Kanari's energy made her have a little energy too. Plus, she liked the story he told, although it wasn't all too scary. Maybe.....maybe she could give it a try, too? After all, Kanari's story had blood and gore in it. Why couldn't hers have it too?

Pandora took a step away from the doorway, no longer half-hidden in shadow. Just a single step. She stood tall, her hands in the pockets of the coat she was always wearing. The hood of the coat was up like it always was, showing only her face and some of her hair.

"My turn." She said softly, her thick Russian accent making it sound like 'my tern.' She probably looked angry as hell to have to tell a story, but that was the way she normally looked anyway. She looked around the room, her strange blood-red eyes surveying the room.

"The Black Curtains." She stated simply, meaning to tell them the title of the story. "A folk tale from Mother Russia." Knowing her accent sometimes made it hard for others to understand her, she spoke slowly and enunciated as best she could.

"There once lived a father, a mother, a little girl and her brother. One day, the mother sent the girl to buy curtains. She told her, "Do not buy the black ones." With this in mind, the girl went to town. She went to the store, which only had black curtains. Her mother's words forgotten, the girl bought the black curtains and took them home.

Her mother put the curtains up on the window. That night, the curtains came to life and choked the father to death. The next day, he was buried. The next night, the mother was choked to death by the curtains. So too, was the mother buried the next day. Then, the night after that, the curtains choked the brother.

After burying the brother the next day, the girl went to the police and told them everything. That night, the police hid under her bed. When the girl went to sleep, the curtains wanted to choke her, but the policemen shot at them. The curtains spewed black blood, and soon died."

Pandora smiled. The story was simple, but it had morals to it. Listen to your parents, don't wait until the last moment, and call the police immediately. Although she was smiling because she thought she told a good story, it might have seemed incredibly creepy in the current atmosphere. Done with what she had to say, she took a step back to the doorway, half-hidden in shadows once again.

Oliver was not very appreciative of the not-so-subtle comments thrown in his direction, but he kept his mouth shut--for once--and chocked it off as a mental note for later. Most of it was coming from Drew anyway. That idiot was the very bane of his existence. Well, all of these idiots were, really, but Drew had to be the worst of a bad situation. The bottom of the barrel. The bug in his pie. But it was alright. He'd remember this when the guy was ever lost somewhere with no one to look for him because nobody thought he was even missing. Yeah, this whole meeting every night thing was sounding pretty good now, wasn't it smart guy? Yeah, that's what I thought. And your food sucks, by the way. So. Just keep that in mind. Not that you can hear this. But just know that I'm thinking cruel thoughts about you. When it seemed like Drew was ignoring his glaring, Oliver turned his gaze away with a short, silent huff under his breath. Kanari seemed to have a story anyway and it would be rude not to listen, even if he really didn't want to.

...Oh jeezus. Blood?! What kind of horror story was this!? This was awful! It was like...like watching a movie and for a second Oliver swore he could hear the laughter of children behind Kanari's already childish voice. He shook it off, though, shuddering when he realized just how dark this place seemed when the lights were off. They weren't off completely, but they were dimmed for the atmosphere and because it was close to bedtime, so it would just be annoying to have bright, blaring lights in their faces. “Well? That’s it really. They haven’t gone back. I guess. I don’t know. But yeah! My creepy story!” By this point, Oliver was biting down on his tongue to keep his teeth from chattering. What was wrong with this kid? Kanari looked like an innocent, girly type of guy, but he was really sick in the head sometimes. He made another mental note to thoroughly inspect all of the horror movies Kanari watched from now on before letting him watch a minute of them. No wonder he had nightmares all the time. Oliver was pretty sure he was going to have them now, too. This was a terrible idea. Yeah, great, he had his fun, time to call it quits now, haha.

"My turn." Oliver jumped involuntarily at the sudden sound of Pandora's voice. Her face appeared eerily from the shadows and he swore he was going to pee himself before she even started. He managed to maintain his bladder as she went on with the story, however, her accent thick, but not so bad that it was hard to understand. He got the jist of it. Unfortunately. He was suddenly glad that there were no curtains in the Box. He would of jumped from his seat right then and there and tore down every single one of them, black or not. He would of ripped them up thread-by-thread and tossed their hellish forms to the fire! Oh, god, was he shivering? What a baby. When Pandora was finished with her story, Oliver ran his hands over his arms to suppress a shiver from the cold he suddenly felt. Maybe setting fire to this place wasn't such a bad idea after all. No, wait, no, it was still a terrible idea and Kanari was an idiot for ever bringing it up, but still.

He looked around at the group again and subconsciously scooted just slightly closer to Cassius. Why? Not because he was scared, of course. He was the leader and the leader wasn't afraid of anything. It was like a rule. The point was, if he was feeling chilly, then Cassius, being blind as he was, must be scared out of his mind. Right? Right. Definitely. Oliver was convinced that it was his duty to protect the one who couldn't see the way the shadows seemed so thick. A sick feeling in the pit of his stomach told him it was his turn now. With a sigh, he wiped a hand down his face and tried to pretend he wasn't ready to run out of his room and hide under the covers for all eternity. "Alright you buttsniffers, those were good and all, but let the real leader show you how it's done. I'm a natural. I'll scare you so bad, you'll be running to the boogeyman sobbing and begging him to change your urine-soaked pants!" Yess, yess, good start, good start.

"Alright, so there's this thing, right? It doesn't have a name and nobody knows what it is. It's like...some sort of stitched-up shadow thing. Like a monster that was sewn together from the shadows of other monsters. Nobody's ever seen it head-on to describe it any better than that. Nobody who's lived to tell the tale anyway." Oliver cleared his throat, wondering if any of this was even good enough to pass as a genuine horror story. He considered stopping in there, but he felt compelled to continue. "They say this monster feeds off the negativity of people. You know, like when you got mad at your parents and you'd run to your room? It loves that. It's eaten so much negativity that when it's around, they say you can feel it without even seeing it. You know it's there, but you don't know what it is, or where it is, or if anything's there at all. The mistake most people make is saying it's just their imagination."

Ugh, he felt sick to his stomach just talking about it. Since when did he scare himself? But he actually had their attention for once in his life, so he couldn't just leave them hanging, even if he felt like his mouth was moving on its own. His hands were cold, so he twisted them nervously together, not really looking any of them in the eyes. "So this thing, monster, whatever, starts getting cocky, right? It knows that you know it's there, but it knows that you also don't believe it's really there. So it thinks, that's not gonna happen. It wants to be known. So after a while, it'll start leaving you...presents. Things that suddenly went missing ages ago start showing up in weird places. But most people still brush this off, so the monster goes further than that. You'll start waking up to folded up notes in your pocket with your handwriting. Notes you never remembered writing. Creepy shit, too. Fucks with your head."

Oliver ran a hand through his hair. Was his hand shaking? Lame. Idiot. This was stupid. Stupid, stupid. He was just re-creating his own dumb imagination. "Anyway, after a while, you start realizing this thing is like in your head. Once it gets familiar with you, it'll start showing little slivers of itself. You'll be looking in the mirror and you'll see it pass the doorway behind you. All this negativity builds up. The victims push away their friends and families. They lock themselves in their rooms. They think people are screwing with them. They start getting scared and paranoid and...

"And before they know it, they go insane. And the monster takes them. They're never seen again."

With that unsettling statement, Oliver decided he was done whether the others liked it or not. "Meeting dismissed. I'm going to bed." He brushed himself off, turned on his heel, and quickly headed past Pandora down the hallway with the hopes that nobody knew just how scared he really was.

It really did seem like it was Kanari’s idea. Every so often, Drew’s prickliness hit the mark, and the idea was only confirmed when Ri admitted as much. He frowned, though it had nothing to do with children dying at an amusement park; he frowned because he realized he had just felt a teensy, tiny, miniscule pang of jealousy. He knew that Olly and Ri spent a lot of time together, time apart from the rest of them, and apparently they spent that time planning meetings and filling them with ideas that Ri would enjoy. The monster that Olly would go on to describe a few minutes later probably would have enjoyed feasting on what Cass was feeling right then very much, but after a few seconds of fuming, the blind boy only felt guilty for getting so cross about his friends’ friendship. It was only friendship, right?

He tuned back in. Understandably, Cassius was a listener par excellence. If anyone bothered giving out awards for being a listener, he would have swept the competition every year. He had to be good at it. He couldn’t tell what sort of looks people were giving, how they were standing or sitting, whether their arms were folded across their chests or hanging at their sides. All the little visual cues that made up the very diverse catalogue of human body language were almost entirely lost to him, so he had only words, tone of voice, and the occasional interaction with the environment to go by.

Ri’s story wasn’t really all that scary, not to him. He never would have said as much (despite, just a moment before, feeling not-so-kind regarding Ri), but… well, he’d never been to an amusement park. He’d never ride a roller coaster in his life, especially not the one Ri was talking about.

The step that Pandora took caused Cass to give his attention that way. The mysterious boy’s story was even less scary than Ri’s. Killer curtains? And the girl who’d gone and bought them like a dummy had survived thanks to the police. Her entire family had been killed by her stupidity, though, so maybe that was worse than being choked to death by curtains anyway. Besides, where they were didn’t even have windows, so death by curtain was pretty much the last thing he’d lose sleep over.

He started thinking up his own story, one that he was making up in his head without even realizing it. It was a story about a boy whose parents hated him. When he squalled, they decided to sew his mouth shut so that he couldn’t wake them with his crying. When he grew older and got upset at the nasty things they said about him, they plugged up his ears with wax. When he picked out the wax, they bound his hands behind his back with scratchy twine and sealed up his ears again. When he cried silently and they got tired of seeing his tears, they got a spoon and used it to scoop out his…

His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of shuffling foot-steps coming closer to him. He wasn’t sure who it was, and he braced himself for something. A tap on the shoulder, a nudge, or even a random hug like the sort Kanari was so fond of giving him. He was glad it wasn’t any of those things, particularly the lattermost. When he heard Olly’s voice, so close, he realized that the bigger boy, their leader, was the one who had come near. He couldn’t help the shy smile that tugged at his lips, the faint crimson that touched his cheeks. Something inside him wanted him to reach out and take Olly’s hand, but he couldn’t. He’d be groping through the air for it, probably look very foolish, and make Olly look foolish and weak… so, no, that was out of the question.

He listened to their leader’s contribution to the non-existent campfire, and began to frown. The creature he was describing… now that was scary. No, not just scary. There was a better word from it, a word that Cassius knew because of all the books he’d listen to or read with the tips of his fingers. Insidious. That was the word for this nightmare thing that Olly’s voice seemed to conjure. Something that didn’t strangle you or stab you or bite out your liver. Instead it drove you crazy. Insanity was something that scared someone who spent as much time just thinking as Cassius did quite a lot. He could imagine such a monster moving things around in his room. He could imagine it leaving him little bits of paper with raised bumps on them that said terrible things.

He swallowed, and his lower lip became caught in his teeth while he pondered about the shadow-sewn horror. The really scary thing about it, he decided, was that it didn’t really need to exist at all. He might just forget where he put something, but now that he’d heard this… well, what if it was some extra-dimensional thing that fed on negativity? What if someone said something that hurt his feelings (which happened quite a lot), and he decided that it might be because they were having weird stuff happen to them to? Olly’s monster was a perfect metaphor for the fear that affected him most acutely of all: the fear that he might one day be very alone, even with his captive friends still around.

Olly interrupted his thinking again when he abruptly put an end to the story that wasn’t a story so much as a description and the meeting in one stroke. He heard him move away, and sank even lower in his seat. He didn’t want Olly to go away right now, especially not to bed, because that meant… No way, shadow-monster. If you are real, you’re not getting to eat any jealousy tonight. ”Good night, Oliver,” he called lamely after the departing boy. He remained sitting, waiting for the others to say something or depart as well. He needed to wait, or else he might walk right into someone, and really… he didn’t want to be alone right now. The story session had unsettled him. He sat very still, very silent, listening for footsteps and hoping, for once, that someone might offer to help him to his room. He laid his hands on his CD player, his head phones, making sure they were still where he thought they were, and waited.

Drew Reinhart

None of he stories particularly impressed Drew. Of course, that could've been because he only half listened to them. Kanari couldn't really make anything sound scary when he was so damn bubbly about it, and Pandora himself with his shady smile and lurking in the dark seemed creepier than his actual story. Oliver on the other hand seemed to have scared himself right out of the room. He brought the meeting to a close so abruptly, it took Drew a moment to realize that it was actually over. "He must be off to look for the boogeyman," Drew muttered aloud to no one in particular. Drew certainly would not be wetting himself, but he had to admit there was… something about Oliver's story. It was the kind of tale that sort of hung in the air, lingered gently within one's mind, waiting patiently for the perfect night, the right kind of darkness, the moment you were eerily alone to creep back out and frighten you. Drew removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with the other hand, swinging his head lightly as if to physically dispel the thought.

Cass also seemed to be rather rattled calling out after Oliver so weakly. The others still hadn't said anything, though that was really only strange for Kanari; he hadn't expected much of a reaction from Ivonne or Pandora, even after Oliver had nearly pushed him out of the way to get back to his room. "Well…" Drew stood up and stretched, trailing off with no real intention of finishing the thought. He settled his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and gave a final glance around the table as a "goodnight" to everyone. Hands shoved into his pockets, Drew walked off toward his room whistling lightly. A surprising amount of time had passed (or at least it felt that way) since the meeting had started, and with each step Drew's feet grew a little heavier.

He finally slumped into his room fell into his bed. He yawned and stretched his arms up hard, arching his back on the still made bed. He knew there was no real point in making it, but still he did every morning. Something about leaving it made him feel as though he'd given up on something. What that something was he wasn't sure, but it gave him a little empty pit in his stomach to see it a crumpled mess all the time.

Drew managed to pull himself up for a moment to toss his glasses onto a nightstand, peel his t-shirt off, and wriggle out of his pants, then fell straight back down and almost immediately to sleep, face down, sprawled atop his covers, one arm dangling off the side of the mattress.

Pandora

"Meeting dismissed. I'm going to bed."

As Oliver rushed past Pandora, she could practically smell his fear. Did he really just scare himself? Well...it wasn't unlike Oliver for something like that to happen, but still. The way Pandora saw it, if he's the leader then he should act like it. For a brief moment, she considered going after him. A split second later, she made her decision. She turned silently on her heel, following Oliver to wherever he was going. Luckily, she made her decision quickly enough to be able to see where he was going. However, he had quite a bit of distance already. Pandora still followed him silently, hoping to all that was good and holy that he wouldn't mistake her for the entity he just described.

Pandora didn't know why, exactly, she chose to follow him. Maybe it was because she disliked cowards? Or, was it because she was actually worried about him? Perhaps even a mixture of both. Even so, Oliver was her friend....right?

When Oliver stopped, Pandora hid herself nearby, watching him. Wait, of course Oliver was her friend, why was she hiding? She wasn't a creeper, there wasn't any need to hide. Was it just because she had no idea what to say to him? Yes, that must be it. After all, it wasn't every day that she randomly trailed people just because she was worried about them. Er, angry with them. No, wait.....

"Oliver." She called out to him softly. Her accent made it sound like 'ohl-ee-vur.'

Kanari Tikoto

Panda-chan had spoken up after him, and Ri let a little giggle out at the end of her story. It was funny, in a weird way. Of course it was just a tale, and curtains never ate people. It was silly. And it had a moral to it too. He wasn’t sure if he liked that. Morals were for…tales. Not scary stories. But whatever. It didn’t scare him. Olive’s story…it stuck a chord with him. A very large chord. A chord that made him want to roll into a ball and cry because it actually terrified him. See it started off okay. It was good, the story. Until about the third sentence. Then, for Ri, shit hit the fan. “It’s like…some sort of stitched-up shadow thing. Like a monster that was sewn together from the shadows of other monsters…” Ri had been frozen, the smile gone from his lips. Koko had been in his death grip, and he fought not to scream. To scream at Olive to shut up, because they were listening to him. To not continue due to the fact that he could see them, he saw them, right next to him. Listening to every single word. Instead he just squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, begging them not to be there. When they opened, the shadows were gone. But he could…he felt them. There. Next to him. Turning he saw their devil eyes staring directly at him, not even 5 feet away. He wanted to cry.

“So this monster thing….It knows that you know it’s there, but it knows you also don’t believe it’s really there.” No. No he knew. He knew they roamed the house. He came to the conclusion that they…they lived on the 6th level. And they were waiting for someone. Someone to kill. Someone to…to hurt and torment. They wanted one of them. And he would do his dammest to make sure that everyone stayed together. They were his family. He would do anything to keep them safe! Maybe not get himself killed or something, but if it came down to Olive or him. Or him and Cass, he would do it. He would take the blame. “So after a while, it’ll start leaving you…presents.” Ri frowned at this. Presents? They hadn’t done that yet. Maybe because he believed in them. He knew they watched him. But of course he saw the good in everything, so at first he thought they were lonely. And they are. They are lonely. But…they are dangerous too. And that’s why he was scared. He didn’t want to become their puppet.

Ri sat there, ignoring, but not actually ignoring at the same time, the shadow monsters that danced across the wall. They taunted and teased him, but he focused on the lull of Olive-chan’s voice, trying to pretend that they were not in this room. It didn’t work, but it was nice to think and hope that it would. “….Notes you never remembered writing. Creepy shit too. Fucks with your head.” They paused at that and turned their red soulless eyes toward the human who was speaking. Ri guessed it was something they didn’t think of. Possessing a human. One of them. Controling them to write things they didn’t. And after a while…he guessed, if he was one of them, he would slowly start to control their actions as well, making them do and say things they didn’t remember because they didn’t do them. Truly frightening. “And before they know it, they go insane. And the monster takes them. They’re never seen again.”

He sat there for a while, barely hearing the rest of them begin the leave. After I while he scowled in the direction of the monsters and hurried off, stopping when he reached Cass. “Cass…” he whimpered, wrapping his arms awkwardly around the boy, “It’s okay to be scared, right?” he squeezed the elder, or so he assumed, and before Cass could get a word in he laughed, “Duh of course it is! Like…I’m talking about you. Of course. I would never be scared. Scared of something so weird and silly. I mean, Olive’s story was awesome! It gave me chills. But he’s just pulling our leg, they aren’t real of course! Well night Cass! I’ll see you in the mornnning!” he darted down the hall and ran into Olive-chan, who was conversing with Panda. Smiling he hugged the tall, silent boy, before tackling into Olive, a grin hiding his fear. “Oliveee-chan! You’re so weird! Telling a scary story and scaring yourself!” he giggled, dancing down the hall toward his room, ignoring the shadow’s following him. Or trying. But he failed. “Kanari…” they said to him. Or was that Olive? He turned and gave another wave before disappearing into his room.

“Stop it.” He whined, pulling off his shirt and climbing into bed, his stuffed animals already taken off and the chosen ones on his bed. Koko joined them and he buried his face into the pillow, willing sleep to come.

Oliver Tanuki

It felt like someone was following him, but Oliver didn't hear any footsteps. Probably because he was breathing so hard, like he'd ran a marathon. He was being stupid, though. Acting irrationally. That was a stupid thing to do--breaking the meeting so suddenly and storming off like an idiot. Great, just another thing to beat himself up about. How many things did that make? A hundred? A thousand? Who could keep count? Although, he wouldn't be surprised if they were all back there laughing about it. What a stupid story. Figures, coming from a stupid person. And who was he to deny it? He only proved their point when he walked off like he'd seen a ghost. And who knew what he saw. Okay, so now this train of thought was getting a little...haywire. He hadn't seen anything. Not yet. But he just felt off. He felt it more lately than usual. More aggravated. More uptight. More nervous.

But he could handle that. "Oliver." He nearly screamed. Oliver jumped in surprise, spinning to see the face of who, or what, called his name. It took him a moment to make out the shape in the darkness, but it was familiar, and he knew he had no reason to be afraid. Letting out a shaky breath, he halfheartedly glared at the Russian boy in front of him. Pandora must of followed after him. It would explain why he felt like someone was trailing him. He looked the other boy over for a long moment, just trying to gain back his delusional senses. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He'd done enough stupid things tonight already, he didn't want to screw this up too. Yelling at Pandora would get him nowhere. Pandora was the only one he could really believe wouldn't laugh at him for his stupidity. He needed to keep as many friends around here as he could.

"Hey," Oliver finally replied, his voice steadier than he was expecting it to be. He casually moved to lean against one of the cold, metallic walls, but misjudged its distance and ended up flailing and stumbling back a step before actually reaching it. At that point, he knew this was all over, so he just smacked himself in the face, wiping it down until he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Yeah, sorry, Pandora. I know, that was stupid. You're probably here to scold me or something, right? Get to it if you're gonna do it." He removed his hand from his face and looked tiredly at the other boy. He felt like he could let down his guard around Pandora. That guy saw right through him and Oliver knew it would only be insulting him to keep up the facade when they were in private like this. Surprisingly, he didn't mind. It was sort of a relief to put away the defenses. "But I'm fine. I'm over it. I wasn't scared or anything, but, you know, actually..." He bit his bottom lip, nervous, as he avoided eye-contact. "Actually. I kind of think I should...tell you something--"

Something ran down the hall, stopping Oliver from saying anything more. He looked past Pandora's shoulder, tense, then relaxed when Kanari came into view, squeezing the other boy before practically running into him. “Oliveee-chan! You’re so weird! Telling a scary story and scaring yourself!” Defenses back up. Oliver scowled down at the shorter boy. Kanari was no more than a year or two younger than him, but he looked much younger than that. He opened his mouth to go on a tangent about he was most definitely not scared in any way, shape, or form and how he was offended that Kanari even assumed that he'd been afraid in the least. It was an insult to his title. The only people around here that had anything to be afraid of were the others. But not Oliver. Oliver was the strong one. Or, that's what he liked to tell himself.

"Kanari," he sighed, knowing the name probably went by unheard as the shorter boy bounded down the hall. He better be going to his room, Oliver thought with a snort. It took another beat of silence to remember he wasn't alone here. And that he'd just been about to tell that person something very important. Something he wouldn't tell any of the others. Maybe Cass, because he trusted Cass. But he liked Cassius too much to scare him like that. Pandora could handle the information. He looked up at the other boy for a good moment before losing his nerve and running a hand through his hair. He'd gain the nerve back to say it. Maybe he was just over-thinking things anyway. Maybe he was just being screwed with and acting ridiculous. Those notes he found in his pocket after last night's "nap," could of been written by anybody. "You wanna come with me to do the rounds? I'm gonna check to make sure everyone's in their beds." And maybe I'll tell you then. Or not.

He heard Drew’s remark about Oscar and thought about trying to throw something at him. He heard his retreating footsteps as well, and had nothing to throw other than his precious CD player, so… well, it was just another thought for Oliver’s monster to snack on. Maybe that was why the bad feelings he had never lasted so long? As soon as he had them, some creature gobbled them up. It made a little too much sense for his liking.

He heard someone else leave as well. Pandora, since the footsteps were so quiet. Next came rapid movements that could only be Kanari. Cass… and then a very appreciated hug. It was hard to stay mad at Ri, even harder when his long hair wound up sweeping across Cass’s face, tickling his nose and forcing him to smile. He leaned into the hug, and then wound up looking puzzled after the gatling-gun one-sided conversation, unable even to open his mouth, never mind get a word in edgewise. He’d been just about to ask Ri to walk to his room with him, but then the energetic boy was scampering off to assault someone else.

”Good night, Ri. Good night, Drew. Good night, Pandora.” None of them were around to hear it, but he gently said the words anyway. They’d all run off so fast that he was starting to feel more mopey than uneasy.

He sighed, but then remembered that he’d only heard four of his friends take their leave. ”Eve?”. He called out the other boy’s name softly, not even sure he was actually still there. He might have gotten it wrong. ”I don’t… would you maybe… um, if you’re still here, would you maybe want to… walk with me back to my room?” He placed his hand on the table and got to his feet, listening for a response to indicate that he wasn’t just talking to an empty room. In the meantime, he gathered his CD player, tucking it into a pocket of the jacket he was wearing, and then hung the headphones on the back of his neck.

Pandora

Pandora almost chuckled as Oliver's mouth opened and closed like some kind of fish. She knew he'd be fighting the instinct to yell. That's just how Oliver was. However, what amused her wasn't that he was going to yell, but at the fish face he was making. It was just too....cute. However, the look on his face quickly quelled her amusement. There was something about the look on his face that concerned her.

"Hey. Yeah, sorry, Pandora. I know, that was stupid. You're probably here to scold me or something, right?"

Pandora watched silently as Oliver misjudged where the wall would be, seeming to get exasperated by it. He was right when he said she was going to scold him, because that's exactly what she planned to do, but then he surprised her with what he said next.

"Get to it if you're gonna do it. But I'm fine. I'm over it. I wasn't scared or anything, but, you know, actually..."

He seemed so...tired. Not just sleepy, but as if he was getting tired of hiding something. Pandora could just smell the bullshit in the air when he said he wasn't scared. Who runs away from their own meeting, if they're not scared? Pandora may not know what fear was, exactly, but she sure as hell knew how it made people act. Even so...especially since he was scared, it was kinda nice to know that he felt like he could put his guard down around her. He didn't have to be the 'boss', or tell her what to do. She was kind of glad for that.

"Actually. I kind of think I should...tell you something--"

Several red flags went up in Pandora's head. By looking away and biting his lip, he looked exceedingly nervous. He got very scared after telling his own story, and now he seemed to be hiding something, regardless if he was about to reveal it. No...it couldn't be. Was...that story he told, was it real? No, it was just a story. It can't be real, those sort of things don't exist.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt something hugging her. For a split second, she had to resist the murderous urge to throw Kanari off as she saw Oliver's defenses come back up. But, she didn't, waiting patiently until he let go of her. Oliver had been so close to revealing something, too...what had it been? It worried her. As Kanari bounded off, Pandora couldn't help but glare a little bit after him. Who knows what kind of information Oliver had been about to give her? I could have been very important. When Kanari was out of view, she looked back to Olive to find him practically staring at her, then running a hand through his hair.

"You wanna come with me to do the rounds? I'm gonna check to make sure everyone's in their beds."

Silently, Pandora nodded. It wasn't likely that she would sleep tonight, anyway. She usually didn't sleep until she passed out, quite literally. There was always so much to do, and too many strange things about the place. Too many unknowns and too many questions. It often bothered her, not knowing anything about the place that was keeping them all alive. Even after a year, she still didn't know a damn thing, even after researching night after night.

Oliver Tanuki

In the end, Oliver never got the nerve to say another word to Pandora about the things going on in his head--because, really, that was probably all there was to it and everything was probably literately all in his head and he'd only bug her with his stupid, irrational paranoia--and they parted ways, both heading off to do their respective things. Sometimes he would be wandering around the Box at this time and catch sight of her doing the same and sometimes he wouldn't see her at all. Sometimes he wouldn't bother going out wandering at all and just opt for staying in his room to watch cheesy romance films or the occasional craptastic action thriller that he would hate to admit that he actually might like unironically. He checked the rooms and ended up feeling too off-set about the possibility of the steel walls around him caving in on him, so he went back to his room and read a bit of a book he'd only ever read a hundred times already.

By the time his internal clock told him it was morning, his eyes opened to a blaring light that he was surprised he didn't wake up to earlier. Unless they were just coming on. At one point early on in their first few weeks there, he'd managed to convince someone to mess with the tech on the fifth floor to turn his lights on automatically when he felt was a good "time" for morning. Not that anyone in their right minds knew what time was around here aside from how long it took for the microwave to heat their food or the oven to heat their meal, since clocks and watches were all but useless, stilled things when magically transported here by whatever source of suspicious black magic was being used to provide them with whatever they basically desired. But that was all besides the point. The point was Oliver had some sense of false time and if people weren't up already, he was going to make sure they got up.

He walked past the backside of a mirror--one that used to be facing the right way until he decided early on that he hated his appearance and turned it the other way, not willing to get rid of it completely, mostly since he didn't know how--and into the bathroom to get his morning routine through with. This consisted of brushing his teeth, taking a shower, drying out the hair that never wanted to fall the right way for him, and then getting dressed in clothes that were probably too relaxed for his own good as a leader. At one point, Oliver considered wearing something dressier to accommodate his imaginary position, but tossed that idea to the side when he realized it would probably only earn him more open-faced mockery than he would swear he already received. Moderately satisfied with his attire, he decided to head to the door only after shoving a hand into his pocket. At the crunch of folded up paper, he winced and shivered, looking around the room that his eyes said was empty, but his mind said was not.

Oliver swallowed and decided to just pretend he hadn't felt a thing at all, walking out of the room to inspect the others down the other array of unnecessary hallways. Everything was so spread out around here, it took forever to get used to. But after a year or so, it was basically all you had to do. First came Pandora's door. He knocked lightly without spending much time there. Next came Ivonne. Another door that he passed by after knocking on since he didn't want to meet the morning face of that guy. Not that he was intimidated or anything. Following that, Oliver made his way over to knocking on Drew's. "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty! No amount of sleep will ever fix that face of yours!" he called through the doorway, knocking a few more times for good measure before moving on. He knocked on Kanari's next, shouting a quick "Wake up, bright-eyes!" in a sarcastic tone before quickly moving on to avoid whatever early-morning terrors Kanari might put him through.

Last came Cassius's room. Oliver knocked twice before letting himself in without waiting for the say-so, because he automatically had the authority to do so, that's why. Cassius came last because he got special privileges. And although he'd proved plenty of times in the past that he was fully capable of dressing himself, and getting himself ready for the day, and accomplishing tasks any four-year-old on his first day of Kindergarten could do, Oliver still felt the over-annoying urge to just make sure of that fact every single morning and periodically throughout the day. "Get up. You're lucky I'm not pulling the curtains aside to show you the bright and shiny sun outside your window while singing You Are My Sunshine in a pretty floral morning gown." He reached down and pulled the covers away, frowning down at the boy who couldn't even see it. "Or maybe I am, you wouldn't know." That might of been a little rude. Crap, throw that one to the pile too. "I mean, sorry. That was too much. Sorry. You got enough sleep, right?"

Cass hadn’t slept very well.

The walk back to his room from the meeting had been long and fraught with thinking. A few times he’d become so absorbed in thought that he’d lost track of the steps he’d counted, but fortunately, he knew the main hallways well enough to find a landmark and soldier on. His mood had turned pretty sour. It only figured that the one time he actually wanted a hand, some company, no one was around to give it. When he was doing perfectly fine, that was when the offers to help came.

He managed to crawl into bed after putting on a pair of pajamas… blue and white striped, though he didn’t know that. He’d just chosen them by feel from the drawer. They were very light cotton, quite comfortable. That was what really mattered. There were few things that felt as good as slipping into the sheets in a set of really comfortable PJs.

He toggled his alarm clock to chime in the “morning”, then made sure the volume was on full blast. It would need to be to compete with the music he’d be leaving on. He rolled across the bed to fumble for the small stereo on his other nightstand and started up his Magnetic Fields CD. He endured that for about a minute before deciding it was way too creepy after the evening he’d had, then running his fingers along the Braille labels he’d made for the CDs that were stacked near the stereo. He went with the original cast recording of Les Miserables, then shuffled back to the middle of the bed to fall asleep.

Except he couldn’t. Not immediately. He kept worrying. What if someone (or something) had changed his alarm? He double checked, which was actually quite a process for him, since he had to test to see what time it said it was, and so on, then push the buttons for minutes and hours the right amount of times. Satisfied, he laid down again.

He thought about Oliver and Ri curled up, about how Drew was probably sleeping like a log, like he always did, about Eve and Pandora, how they’d been so quiet at the meeting. He tossed and turned, finally managing to grab a few fitful hours before the alarm went off. He turned off the alarm, then his music, and then heard the knocks on his door.

Lack of sleep made him grumpier than he might have been. He rubbed at his face when Olly swept in, then fell back into his pillows.

”Do you have a pretty floral morning gown, Oliver?” he asked a bit sarcastically, poking fun at the fact that the boy had implied as much. Usually he managed to restrain himself from taking the easy shots that Olly provided, but without much sleep and with the insensitivity that Olly had displayed, it slipped out.

He felt guilty and slightly afraid immediately. Not afraid of reprisal, but that he’d upset Olly and he’d take off. ”Sorry,” he mumbled, echoing Olly. ”I didn’t… sleep well at all.” He wrestled out of his sheets and slid to the edge of his bed before standing up and stretching. ”I don’t understand how you get out of bed so early and get ready and everything.” Something of a compliment, hopefully to soothe his ego if the morning gown comment had hit home.

It would have been rude to just head into the bathroom, but then again, if he stood around Oliver might decide he needed help undressing. It had happened before, and Cass’ cheeks flared crimson just thinking of it. ”Can you pick out some clothes for me? While I get ready?” He’d gotten pretty good at handling the other boy. Give him something to help with, that way he wouldn’t feel obliged to help with something more embarrassing. He tottered forward, still groggy, then took the ten steps toward his bathroom, brushing his hand on the doorframe to steady himself.

Kanari Tikoto

That night was not his night, was it? Ri wanted to scream, to cry, but one look at the darkness told him that the second he opened his mouth he was dead. And he didn’t question them. Sometimes the dark was funny, but it was rare, and it was only when he was truly terrified. They were dangerous, it was dangerous. He didn’t like the dark one bit. But he understood them, sort of in a way. They were lonely. At least that’s what he thought. They were…not nice. Nor did they tell him who brought them all here. Ri was from Japan, having his younger years on his home soil before moving to the States. Olive seemed to be from America too. Panda…well he was either Russian…or…Russian.

Back on topic, it was safe to say that Ri didn’t sleep well. But it was okay, he was getting used to it. Running on 3-4 hours of sleep a day was nothing. He would be fine. With a bright smile, the younger hopped off the bed and ran into the bathroom, giggling at Olive’s shout at the door. He was so cute sometimes. The laughter and smile stopped the moment he saw the mirror though. Tears welled into his eyes and he smiled at his reflection a bit sadly. Glancing down at his body, he saw the fabric of his pants had been ripped off and there was markings of blood on his legs. He wasn’t harmed, or so he thought. Turning on the water, he washed off the message, sighing. When it was gone, all of it, Ri went on to pretend like it didn’t happen and continued with his morning routine. Brush teeth, wash face, brush hair. But today he left it down, fingers running though soft locks. He had a sinking he might not have his hair soon. But! That wasn’t now and he would not fret about it!

The short boy skipped to the kitchen as happy as could be pouting when he didn’t see a single bright soul in the area. Quickly the pout turned into a frown, then a sneer, and he turned his head to the side, seeing the remains of a shadow scamper out of sight, “Guys,” he whined softly, though there was a cold edge to his voice, “Leave me and the others alone.” a whisper came back, but like most times, he just shook it off and went back down the hall, seeing that Cass’s was open. Cass was awake? How awesome! “CASSSSSS~” the young boy flew in and paused, not finding him in the room. He did however find a puzzled Olive-chan. Even better! “Olive? Olive~!” he giggled and launched himself at the taller male, sprawling them across the floor within seconds. “Olive-chan did you sleep badly too? I slept bad.” He pouted on top of the elder, his hands running through pink locks, “And my pants got ripped too! Are you okay? Um…Olive-chan?” he tilted his head and moved off the male, shrugging. Maybe the dark didn’t bother him. “Ya can talk to me, you know right!?” he smiled, though it fell and he pranced off to find Cass in the bathroom, doing something.

He didn’t care. “Cass-cass-chan~” he sang out, wrapping a tight hug around the blind boy, “Did you sleep good? You…don’t look well. Are you okay? Do you need help or something, I can help you know, if you need it!” he paused in his ramblings and bit his lip, “but of course if you don’t that’s fine too cause I know you are fully capable of doing it yourself!” he smiled, though he made sure it showed in his words. It was sad Cass couldn’t see his face. He would have loved to see the reaction.

Pandora

Disappointed that Oliver never gathered the courage to tell her his big secret, Pandora had gone that night to do research. She would often get books from the circle on various things; electrical circuitry, computer programming, factory machinery, how-to books, etc. Basically, any sort of book she could think of that might give her some clue about the box, she asked for and read. That didn't mean it ever gave her any clues, but she did learn quite a lot.

Other times she would go to the fifth level, always targeting a certain, special room. This room had a live video feed of hidden cameras throughout the box; while she was pretty sure this infringed on people's privacy, it also gave her the ability to see what was happening everywhere at once. However, she didn't often go to this room simply because she respected people's privacy. She only went when she was feeling particularly paranoid. If she wasn't in the Surveillance Room, (as she called it), she was in the Computer Lab- a room full of computers, as it's name would suggest. From the books she read, she had learned quite a bit about computers, although again it never really helped her learn anything about the box.

However, last night she hadn't gone to the fifth level- instead, she had gone to the top level, the attic. It was also used as a storage room for things they asked for from the box but didn't need.

How did we get here, and why? Why can't I remember anything that happened before this box? How did this box get here, anyway?

These were all questions Pandora wanted to answer. She hoped that something, anything, in the attic might joggle her memory or even just give her a clue. But, as she rifled through the various assorted items, nothing came to mind. As the hours passed on, she yawned more and more, until she passed out there. She hated to sleep. There was always so much to do....

~~~~~~~~~~~The next morning (current time)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn't any surprise when Oliver didn't receive any sort of acknowledgement when he knocked on Pandora's door. He almost never got an acknowledgement in the morning, simply because Pandora was hardly ever in her room. This is because she never slept until she passed out from exhaustion, which meant she never actually went to her room to rest. She'd always just end up sleeping wherever she fell. This explains why she would be around for a few days, then suddenly disappear without any notice.

This time, she passed out on the top floor. When she finally woke up, she shook her head groggily, trying to remember what she had been doing. She couldn't remember. Why am I in the attic? What was I doing here....? Wait. Suddenly, it all came rushing back like usual. Ah, I see. It didn't work....

Dusting her dirty, dusty clothes off, she left the attic and went down to the third level. Pandora liked to call it the 'Living Level'. The name just seemed to fit to her. Her stomach rumbled loudly as she shuffled into the kitchen, making sure her hood was up as it normally should be. She didn't need anyone even thinking she was a girl. She went to a nearby cabinet, and grabbed a slice of plain white bread. Just as she only slept when she passed out, she only ate when she had to sustain herself. She didn't trust the food the box gave them, even after a year. Not only that, but Drew's cooking was just plain horrible. She always avoided it when she could. So, with these things combined, she would often go for days without eating.

Feeling tired and weak, she sat down at the table for once and silently ate her single slice of bread. She didn't drink anything with it. While she ate, she stared at the wall, thinking. What topic concerning the box should she research today?

The sixth level....no ones gone to explore it. Do I feel adventurous today? No, wait, that wasn't the right question. Do I feel well enough to do that today?

Oliver Tanuki

”Do you have a pretty floral morning gown, Oliver?” Oliver frowned at the remark, but the expression was brief. Even though he knew he didn't have to watch his expressions around the one who couldn't see them, he did it anyway, compulsively straightening out his features until he looked as passive as he hoped to. Only he was wrong every single time and generally just absolutely sucked at hiding his emotions. He was like an open book ninety percent of the time; the other ten percent was just when he got lucky. And he rarely ever got lucky. The remark wasn't all that insulting though--he did sort of have it coming anyway--so he brushed it off with ease, not even offended. Besides, it was a little obvious to see the lack of sleep, or lack of a good one, Cassius had. ”Sorry, I didn’t… sleep well at all.” Oliver nodded slowly, wincing when he realized, again, that Cassius couldn't see it. "I don’t understand how you get out of bed so early and get ready and everything.” He almost smiled, taking it as the compliment he was sure it was intended as. Of course he didn't enjoy getting up so early, but if he didn't wake them up, who else would? Some of them would sleep the day away. And it wasn't like Oliver slept anyway. He was lucky to get through an hour or two on a good night. ”Can you pick out some clothes for me? While I get ready?”

Oliver nodded again, eager to help. "Sure," he said aloud to go along with the nod. He almost turned to where Cassius kept his clothes, but ended up hesitating when he saw just how tired Cassius really seemed to be. The other boy leaned against the bathroom for support, looking downright exhausted. Had he stayed up last night? No, no, he was sure he saw him sleeping well in his room last night. He checked on everyone. But just because he'd seen Cassius in his bed, didn't mean the blind boy had been sleeping, or sleeping well even. "Are you--"

“CASSSSSS~” Oliver almost jumped at the sudden noise, head swiveling to the doorway where an overly enthusiastic Kanari came bursting in uninvited. He supposed he should of shut the door, but too late for that now. The pest was already in, sights locked and targeted on...him. “Olive? Olive~!” Great. There was no chance of avoiding the tackle, falling back to the ground with a thump and an "oof". He stared up blankly at the ceiling, wondering if nonchalance would be enough to get this heavy weight off him. “Olive-chan did you sleep badly too? I slept bad. And my pants got ripped too! Are you okay? Um…Olive-chan?” Too? Oliver realized he was frowning, thinking back to all the sleepless nights, becoming less with the worry of finding notes in his pockets, and the fret of finding another long-lost object in his medicine cabinet, and wondered, briefly, if Kanari was experiencing the same. “Ya can talk to me, you know right!?” Kanari got off and Oliver drowned out the rambling, sitting up and blinking at the cold, steel wall. If Kanari was the same as him, then what about the others? Surely, they'd tell him. They could trust him with... Wasn't that hypocritical? He didn't trust them enough to...

This wasn't the time to think about this. "Kanari, Cassius is tired and you're loud," he chided, maybe a little softer than he meant to, which felt weird for him. He cleared his throat and tried a little too hard to put on a scowl as he got to his feet and crossed the room, frowning down at the pink-haired boy. "It's too early in the morning for your screech-giving headaches, so go get something to eat to shut up your vocal chords." He flickered a worried glance over at Cassius, hesitating. "I'll be down when Cassius is done getting ready." Something was off about Kanari, too. Something small, nearly undetectable. But his eyes were just a shade less bright and his tone just a hint more frantic. Maybe he was just imagining things.

Oliver shook his head and went to find Cassius a fitting pair of clothes, turning his back on the two of them. "I'm sure Pandora's up. Go bug him. I'm sure he'll appreciate it heaps more than I do."

He stepped into the bathroom, not bothering to turn on the light for obvious reasons. There would still be light pouring in through the open door, enough to see him by. He ran his hands along the counter, and then turned the cold water on in the sink, letting it run. Once upon a time he would have been more conservative with his water usage, but that didn’t seem to matter as much. He had no qualms about letting the water run while he went about his ablutions, or taking extremely long showers, or better yet baths. If the place they were in could materialize whatever they wanted, he doubted there was any risk of ever running out of good old H2O.

Oliver had agreed to pick him out an outfit, and had been about to say something before Kanari charged in. Cass recognized his voice, of course, and his rapid footsteps, and he definitely recognized the sound of two boys falling to the ground in an awkward post-tackle tangle of limbs. He’d been on the receiving end of those tackles often enough that it wasn’t remotely hard to discern what had happened in the adjacent room.

While Kanari rambled, Cass was only paying half-attention. He was more focused on getting his toothbrush out of the little holder. His fingertips brushed the bristles as he tried for it, but then he had it in hand. Opening the medicine cabinet, he reached for the tube of toothpaste. He kept it dead center on the bottom shelf so it would be easy to find. He’d just gotten his hands on it when suddenly, something grabbed him. He let out a yelp of surprise and wound up knocking the tube of toothpaste down onto the floor; it sort of bounced, and wound up near the corner where the wall met the bathtub.

It was hard to be mad at someone when they were hugging you. Ri’s warmth was familiar, and he relaxed quickly enough. ”I’m fine, I’m fine. You shouldn’t just run in and hug people in the bathroom, Ri. What if I’d been-“ He cut off. He didn’t want to say any of the things that would complete that sentence, not with Oliver in ear shot. With Kanari he wouldn’t have held back so much, just to get his point across. He’d found that he had to be pretty blunt with Kanari when it came to anything to do with personal privacy. That was when Oliver told Kanari to go, and Cass couldn’t help but feel… well, whatever the opposite of the jealousy he’d felt last night was. He didn’t think of it as a competition at all. It was more that there was only so much time, and Oliver spent a lot of it being prickly, so Cass valued what moments they did have without the more eccentric boys around.

”It won’t take long, Ri… I don’t need to shower or anything. Before you go though, can you grab my toothpaste?” He’d been too surprised to listen for where it had fallen, and it could have taken him many minutes to locate it. In the meantime, he touched his fingers to the hot water knob then moved his hand to the left until he found the soap he kept there. It was a face wash, something meant for sensitive skin. His pale flesh didn’t react well to harsher soaps, but fortunately, he could get whatever kind of soap he wanted. This soap had a clean, medicinal scent rather than any kind of fragrance. Squeezing a dollop into his hands, he worked up a lather, dipping his hands beneath the stream of the faucet for just a second to add some water to the equation. He started washing his face, actually closing his eyes (it wasn’t something he did often while he was awake) to avoid getting any suds in them. He rubbed his face vigorously, and washed his neck as well, then tilted his head to either side to wash behind his ears. He got a little out of breath doing it, or rather, he’d held his breath, not wanting any soap in his mouth or nose, then reached out with his right hand, managing to grab the clean towel that he hung there each evening after his nighttime rituals. He wet it, giving his face a cleansing wipe, then used the dry part of the towel to finish up. By then, he should have had his toothpaste again.

Oliver would find plenty of clothing to choose from. Cass favored short pants on the baggy side, so there were several pairs in a few different colors. He usually wore short-sleeved button down shirts over an undershirt, and the same was true of them; many colors, patterns, styles. He’d had the machine spit out whatever. Color really didn’t mean anything to him. So long as it was comfy, he would have worn hot pink all the time. Even so, he hoped that Olly would pick out something that he liked Cass in. Underwear and socks would be the easiest part. The top drawer had nothing but clean tighty-whiteys and ankle socks. He didn’t like crew or tube socks. They felt weird on his calves.

Kanari Tikoto

“Kanari, Cassius is tired and you’re loud,” Ri pouted at the older man and only edged a few feet from the blind man, standing his ground. Olive might be the leader, but he didn’t have to listen all the time! “It’s too early in the morning for your screech-giving headaches, so go get something to eat to shut up your vocals chords.” What. What. No. How dare he?! How…rude. The younger rubbed his eyes and kept his bright smile, though for a few seconds it did show the actual hurt that Olive’s words had left. It didn’t help that the unknown had played their dirty tricks and used him to write messages on the mirrors again. In someone’s blood. If it was his he didn’t know where it came from. Maybe he would find out later because he had no idea where that awfulness had come from. “I’ll be down when Cassius is done getting ready.” When did Cass-chan actually need help getting ready? When? He had proven many times that he was just as capable as the rest of them and Olive wanted to baby him. Did he always baby him? This was stupid. Cass was like them, why treat him like an invalid! “I’m sure Pandora’s up. Go bug him. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it heaps more than I do.” Yeah. Sure. Whatever, Oliver.

Ri turned back to his new favorite person ever, and on days where Olive wasn’t a bag of suckiness and douches and took that spot Cass took the second favorite spot, and smiled brightly, not really paying attention to the words he was saying “It won’t take long, Ri…I don’t need to shower or anything. Before you go though, can you grab my toothpaste.” The boy nodded and grabbed it with ease, gently taking the sightless boy’s hand and curling his fingers around it, “There ya go Cass-chan!” his voice stuttered for a moment and he pranced out of the room, giving his leader a slight glare as he passed. Stupid Olive-chan. Stupid heartless, cold, ass of a leader. God damn Olive-chan! His mind screamed horrible things at him, and even though the lights were all on in the magical house, he could feel them.

Gripping at his clothes. Pulling his hair. Whispering things to him that he would never repeat. Things he would lock away in his mind and never think of again. Pandora? Was he even up? Apparently yes, he was. “Morning Panda-chan.” Ri muttered as he walked into the room, the usual smile gone as the darkness was trying its hardest to break him. “How’d you sleep? I slept bad.” Ssay it Kanari. Say it and see what happens. several sneers were tossed his way and he tensed. “I…um…I didn’t sleep well. I think I slept walked and wrote on my mirror. Again.” In someone’s blood.