Be it ever so badass there's no place like home

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

It had taken months of wandering the city.

Hundreds of different tubes taken to reach different sections.

More then a few bumps and bruises from exploring rotted out husks of buildings.

But Ruffnut was positive that THIS! This building would be the perfect place to call her own.

She fell in love with it the minute she laid eyes on it. While it didn't look particularly wicked or dangerous on the outside (at least not to her) it had an aura about it. A sort of pulsing sense of foreboding doom that sent pleasurable shivers down her adrenaline loving body.

She would claim this tower as her home, and the castle Thorston would rise up as a mighty middle finger to anyone who doubted her potential.

She was dressed in casual clothes again today, a t-shirt with the words baconstrips& printed on it multiple times and a pair of torn up rockstar jeans she adjusted her trusty helmet and began her "peaceful" takeover of this new territory.

Comments

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Hana was already located inside the building.

Unlike Ruffnut, he wasn't here for any takeover. He'd passed this place on his wanderings, feeling an odd calling as he walked.

Immediately, the first time upon finding the place, he'd investigated, feeling the buzz of spiritual energy the moment he's stepped onto the grounds.

It was now part of his daily routine, entering the house around dusk and relaxing there until it became completely dark, listening to pleasant hum of energy and trying to engage any sort of spirit-like inhabitants the building held.

It reminded him of sitting upon the hill back home at night, listening to the spirits chatter, to him and to each other. It was a place where he belonged.

Today was no different. So, he sat halfway up one of the buildings many flights of stairs, eyes closed as he tuned himself into todays gossip. Something about some strange fashion-challenged girl coming to visit.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

WHAM!!!

Ruff kicked the door the lobby open with a crash and noticed that it fell off it's hinges crashing to the floor. That was the first thing to be replaced then. A good lair needed sturdy doors that could withstand much kicking!

"OLLY OLLY GONNA BLEED!" She roared and then stood savoring for a moment how her voice boomed and echoed throughout the building. "I CLAIM THIS BUILDING IN THE NAME OF ME!!!!" She added making sure that if anyone was already living here they understood they were under attack.

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Hana felt a surge around him of spirits, some confused, some angry, some excited, some scared, some irritated at the loud intruder.

Although he couldn't really make out the voice this far and high into the building, he could feel the vibrations of the shouts.

He contemplated going down to see this noise maker himself but then decided that it would be too much hassle to walk that far and instead opted for staying sat on the stair and seeing if the person found him instead.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut was satisfied that no one was answering her (Though it was impossible not to feel the chills racing along her skin. She just enjoyed that)

"Not bad not bad." She chuckled to herself strolling through the lobby and making her way to the grand staircase. The place was coated in a layer of dust and the wood was rotted away in places.

It was perfect.

"ALLLLLL HAAAAAAAAAAAIL RUFFNUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!" She roared again and listened to it echo back like a choir of demons in the dark.

Speaking of dark...it was hard to see in here. No worries though Ruffnut had learned a thing or two in her time on the ship. She plucked an old funny looking lamp from the desk and let her electricity pulse through it bringing it's ancient bulb flickering to life.

With her newfound light, dim as it was she continued padding through the dark dusty former hotel picturing flames mounted on the walls, skulls, weapons and more decorating her home.

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

The call hit his ears and bounced all around him. He blinked a few times before bursting out with laughter.

Hana laughed loud and long, the sound traveling down the halls towards Ruffnut. Beating from all around her like a ring of drums.

His hearty laugh eventually died down into chuckles and giggles that turned from cheery to creepy as they covered the distance down the stairs. It didn't help that the spirits decided to use this to their advantage in their invisible states, echoing the giggles feet away from the viking in the dark.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruff froze hearing the Giggles and looked around curiously, "Whoa...creepy!" She grinned excited and began dashing about to find the location of giggling spirits. How does one fight a spirit anyway? Ghosts and the like were something of stories that Ruff had never dealt with but there had to be some kind of punch she could use right?

"Come out come out whatever you are...SO I CAN PUNCH YOUR FACE OFF!"

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

"We'd like to see you try!"

The Shaman and his possé chimed back. The word 'try' echoing after her.

Hana and the spirits just continued to chuckle and giggle until he spotted the light dancing about at the bottom of his flight of stairs.

Grinning, Hana raised a hand in greeting as he sat at ease on the step. "Yo."

[morganknight]

Wait, had he actually seen someone going into that downright dangerous-looking building?

Morgan figured he had better go investigate before someone got hurt...

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut in the coarse of her exploration had found what appeared to be an old looking elevator, alot like the ones she'd seen back on the clone planet.

"I wonder if there's any power..." She mused pushing the up button, and delighted to find that the button lit up.

She waited for the elevator and picked up a dusty looking vase with dead flowers in it. "Junk." She declared pitching it over her shoulder and waiting to savor the smashing sound it would make.

[morganknight]

It smashed, sure, but there was also a startled yelp. Morgan had just barely managed to swat it out of the air.

"Hey!"

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruff whirled on him defensively, "Oh sorry dude...wait is this your tower?" She balled her fists ready to instantly fight if he tried to claim what she now believed was rightfully hers.

[morganknight]

"No, this isn't my tower!" he said, more amused than anything. "I just saw someone coming in here and wanted to make sure the place didn't collapse on them or something!" Like it seemed to threaten to do any second!

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruff's eyebrow cocked and she tilted her head, "Who'd you see? I haven't seen anyone." She looked around as if to confirm this fact.

Meanwhile the elevator doors opened.

[thewunderkind]

Talk about a chance meeting! After coming back with a bill of clean health from all the dumb healing they subjected her too, Lash spied the exact same building on her ride there.

The top looked like unused neon lights! She could use the liquid inside to make so many things...

The vehicle was suddenly changed directions as she arrived. Most of it looked broken and pretty dangerous to go into...which is why, just after she was perfectly healthy and fine to move around, this would be the PERFECT way to start doing some experimenting again.

Unlike Ruffnut, however, Lash chose the path less traveled and kicked in the door that was labeled "Employes only." That usually led to the most useful stuff she could grab.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruff was inadvertently making her way towards Lash as she picked her way through the kitchens. While there was no rotting food the place was still a sty. "Junk." she declared and began flinging rusty pots, pans and broken plates at what appeared to her to be a trash chute.

[thewunderkind]

Lash, on the other hand had found the remains of what might be industrial-strength chemicals, and a floor buffering machine.

Wondering if it still worked, she looked around to find the panel that would light up this entire place. Probably something leading to the baseme---oh there we go! Using a tiny pocket torch she had with her ever since she'd helped with Hoshi's stadium, Lash made her way downstairs to a lot of dust and rows upon rows of electrical cords.

"Ha! This thing must cost a fortune to power up."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruff was hearing voices and that annoyed her. "HEY!" She declared hearing her voice echo in the kitchen in a different ringing manner then it had in the lobby. "This is my place now you hear?"

However in the darkness she had gotten turned around...and she herself was pitched down the trash chute crashing and banging and getting stuck halfway through.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" She roared in anger, which boomed about in the metal chute and spread throughout the hotel.

[thewunderkind]

Oh great, she had obviously taken someone else's place.

"HEY!" she called out, about being afraid of anything screaming as...well as Lash could be (so pretty low.) She already had her raygun out, holding it on the side as she used the flashlight in fast bursts to make sure to stay hidden while looking around.

Then she heard a loud Owwww and suddenly that person didn't see that dangerous. Still couldn't make it out, however.

"SERVES YOU RIGHT!" she called out. With a laugh, she went back to the more important thing...finding the switches at least for part of this massive generator.

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

"I'll kick your ass!!!" She shot back, the tunnel of metal distorting both their voices so she didn't recognize who was taunting her. Assuming the person must be above her she began to scale the inside of the chute, arms and legs spread wide, her helmet horns scraping the sides of the trash disposal unit.

The hotel despite it's age appeared to have massive amounts of switchboards hidden under it. Generators and machines that looked long since dead. Rusted switches and buttons that were likely to stick upon first push.

Perfect for someone like Lash. Not so much for a technologically fail individual like Ruff.

MEANWHILE...

[thewunderkind]

As Mindy and Ruffnut made their way...somewhere, Lash was busy practically prancing around the huge building. The fact she could actually run around was something she was appreciating right now.

"Come on, come on! Stop being so slow!" It was both a playful jab at the Overlord's lack of legs (and knowing he could float just fine) and, well, Lash being Lash. No matter how high she could think of someone, they'd still get their dose of teasing. Even when just a few days ago she'd been screaming at him for getting angry at her for being out in space.

Most of the corridors were pretty boring. It wasn't like hotels looked good, and considering a lot of the buildings in the city looked rotting or under-built, it was better to tread carefully.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"My speed stat is higher than yours by like a thousand times, damn it!" Zetta roared as his minion hustled along behind. His words had no real vitriol behind them; Zetta was loud for the sake of being loud. She kept up surprisingly well in most areas, compared to the Overlord; he could allow her a little smugness.

[thewunderkind]

And she'd take it, of course.

"Certainly doesn't look like it right now!" she yelled back just as loudly turning around just for a few seconds to stick out her tongue at him. For being made of dusty stone and wood, the place echoed pretty well too.

"So! Any guess what we'll find around here? It's a pretty big place after all!"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Probably stuff that's less interesting than we'd like," Zetta said, realistically. "So we'll probably have to blow up something to make it interesting."

[thewunderkind]

"I dunno if Ruffnutt would like that! But considering this place has an amusement ride, I wouldn't just think it's got nothing to offer just yet" Lash answered unrealistically. "But I'd never say no to having to blow something up if I can!"

With any luck, there might be giant spiders or something she could fight. Slowly but surely they made there way to the front desk.

The place was a mess. The crystal Tiffany chandeliers flickered in and out due to the light bulbs barely functioning. One of them had fallen to the floor entirely. The wood, still surprisingly in good shape thanks to the wood polish had some cracks here and there and what looked like a herd of elephants had pass through it. Paper was scattered everywhere in various states of decomposition. The pots for the plants were empty, sometimes holding that looked more like dry bouquets of flowers than anything else. In the back, covered with more dust and mold was an antique mahogany cabinet that held all of the keys for the rooms. And, as Lash has hoped, there was a back door there too.

"Here's hoping that the backroom is in better state than this!"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Hold on," Zetta said, as his minion trucked him around the counter to the cabinet. He stared at the keys behind it with a frown. "Ruffnut'll probably just kick in all the doors anyway, but it'd be good to have a master key. If there IS one."

The minion shifted the book to one arm, yanked open the cabinet, and began rummaging through the keys behind.