Riches to Rags (Ffraid)

[Toa]

The more Toa learned about the world the more it became obvious that it was a living nightmare.

At first she’d been optimistic about life, mostly due to a belief that it could not possibly get any worse than waking up face down in a bank of mud, but the more time she spent traveling the more that outlook seemed terribly flawed. Often the terrors of life were small things that could be dealt with, like how sometimes it rained, but other revelations were so horrific that still struggled to fully comprehend them, like how sometimes it rained on her. In fact it was precisely this chilling reality that had led to her current predicament for if rain had been content to simply happen to other people she would not have been forced to seek shelter.

And to be honest that shouldn't have been so bad. Sure, she didn’t relish the idea of letting others know she was not impervious to rain but she was still confident that her winning charm, incredible wit, astonishing intelligence, natural charisma, devastating good looks and general superiority would allow her to solve the problem with relative ease. Unfortunately things were not progressing as planned.

“I have to pay you money?”

Admittedly the innkeeper had not said this, in fact he had said nothing at all, however pointing at a wooden sign with pictures of coins seemed to suggest as much.

“Why would you want money? What are you going to buy? Do you even eat? Do you buy clothing? Aren’t you dead?” she continued, sounding more incredulous with every word spoken.

The spirit made no reply, it’s finger still pointing at the sign. In previous disputes Toa had found staring intently at the other person until they relented to be a tremendously effective tactic however as she didn’t feel she could wait the requisite one hundred years that it would take the spirit to blink she decided against it. Instead, after one minute of stony silence, she gave a pained sigh as she grabbed a handful of coins from the pouch on her waist and dropped them on the counter.

“There, money.” said Toa acidly “Now can you please give me a room. A room I hasten to add that you have no personal use for because you’re dead and so the fact you’re trying to sell them to people who do need them is very predatory and you should feel bad about it which you won’t because you’re dead and don’t have the capacity to feel because you’re dead.”

If the spirit had been affected by Toa’s scathing diatribe he had hid it well by silently removing a key from a drawer beneath the counter and sliding it towards her while she spoke. Toa snatched the key off the table, gave the spirit one last sneer and then stalked off defiantly. Admittedly this defiance was somewhat undercut when she failed to open several doors on the ground floor but once the spirit indicated that her room was up the stairs she felt her ascension of them was at least “sassy”.

Eventually, after several more attempts, she finally managed to find a lock the key at least fit inside. She had to hunker down for a moment to try and persuade the key to actually turn but after a brief struggle the lock clicked and the door swung slowly inwards. Taking a moment to breathe a brief sigh of relief Toa quickly rose to her feet to enter the room. That was when it hit her.

“Argh!” she shrieked as she stumbled forward into the room, grabbing her head where it had smashed into the door lintel.

It was not the first time that Toa had been the victim of architecture designed for lesser beings and it would almost certainly not be the last. She stumbled blindly into the room, her eyes shut tight in pain as she muttered a few choice curse words under her breathe. Toa was tired, damp and injured and yet as she groped for something to catch hold of to steady herself one thought managed to rise above the splitting headache she was now experiencing.

At least things couldn’t possible get any worse.

[Ffraid]

Ffraid arrived practically falling apart at the seams, staggering through the crowds haphazardly as they greeted the ghosts with a familiar grunt and jerk of the chin, collapsing against the counter. "Wait," a graveled voice rasped from behind the leather mask, a heavy gloved hand pawing at their waist, working open the cordage that tied it shut and spilled several copper onto the counter and dropped the pouch in the fumbling. "I'll get it later," the rag bundle wheezed as a key slid into gloved fingers, the ghostly host staring dispassionately beyond the slumped figure of the Sock's most recent patron for the night. "You too." Despite their apparent physical suffering, the rag bundle made a scoffing sound as though finding humor in the exchange.

Far too wrapped up in whatever damages and bodily harm their latest venture seemed to have net them, Ffraid was none too observant of their fellow Inn-goers, their vision tunneled into points tinted red by the lenses of the goggles as they struggled up the stairs down the hallway at a sluggish pace, counting the doors as they passed, periodically using the walls to stop from crumpling to the floor entirely.

With a name like Heartbroken Socks Inn, it was no surprise the degree of melodrama that appeared on display for the night as Ffraid came upon Toa in the throes of her own suffering, dramatically stumbling into the very room that the ranger held a key for. Drawing upon a well of internal strength Ffraid did not complain but instead roughly ordered the long-ear menace to 'get in the room already' accompanied by a bodily push in and toward the single beds separated by a night stand, a candle and space enough that with Toa's height they'd surely be rubbing knees if they woke up on the wrong side of their respective beds.

After such a rude greeting, the stained ragged pile of leathers and rags didn't so much bother to even address Toa, instead collapsing on one of the mattresses with a grunt before falling entirely motionless, as if dead.

[Toa]

Toa stared at the floor, unsure of why it was now directly in front of her face.

Of course she knew how she’d gotten there, someone has pushed her, but unfortunately that piece of information only raised further questions. With her head spinning after the violent, unprovoked assault of the door frame she almost wanted to think she had simply tripped and yet no matter how hard she tried she could not quite suppress the memory of being roughly shoved forward. About a dozen questions vied for attention in her mind and yet even in that chaos one thought rose above all others.

“Rude...!”

She was angry, so angry in fact that it took her several seconds before she even realised she hadn’t actually hit the floor and instead was hovering about an inch above it. Unfortunately, as with every manifestation of her magical talent the moment she became aware of it was the same moment it failed utterly. With a very muted thud Toa’s body hit the floor but barely a second passed before she leapt to her feet with such energy that she came within a hair's breadth of smashing her head against the ceiling.

With an enraged scowl Toa scanned the room for her assailant. A moment passed. She scanned again. After another three more unsuccessful scans her scowl had become somewhat uncertain. In the silence of the room Toa began to wonder if she’d been wrong, if the unexpected blow to her head had resurrected some memory of a previous indignity suffered in ages past. She had to admit this was possible and considering she’d hit her head hard enough to shake her teeth it seemed possible that she’d knocked a few memories loose as well. She dusted herself down slowly and once again took in the room. Nothing seemed that out of place, admittedly the fact the room had two beds was odd but considering the entire enterprise was run by an ethereal capitalist it hardly warranted mention. With her head still spinning Toa decided that the best course of action was to take a moment to collect herself and so without further thought Toa walked towards the more comfortable looking bed and fell back onto it.

Again it was odd that the room had two beds, odder still that one of them would have so many more blankets than the other.