13th Contract - [accidental video/action]

[conesoldstober]

[The camera in Howl's device flickers to life, showing the wizard in question in his workshop. He's dressed down from his usual, his shirtsleeves showing and suit jacket flung over the back of a chair. He even has his hair tucked behind both ears as he measures out a few strange coloured powders and sands into a weight scale. He makes notes as he works, muttering under his breath.

He adds a new ingredient into his bowl and it sparks violently, letting off a plume of smoke. Howl pulls back with a yelp, sucking his burnt fingers into his mouth.]

Twll dy din di bloody HELL bugger! SOPHIE!

[He walks his way out of the room, nursing his fingers and swearing loudly in Welsh and English. As suddenly as it starts, the speaking ends, and the camera tips off the table to reveal an empty hallway. The feed ends.]






[ooc: Howl's been sent home for a canon update! He'll be back by the end of the month, so don't miss him too much. Howl won't be answering do to being in Ingary and preventing himself from being kidnapped by The Witch of the Waste, but feel free to interact in the comments.]

Comments

[mrsnose]

[She hears a sound, not unlike sounds that usually come from Howl's lab, but she also hears her name being called. She stops what she's doing in the small garden with a sigh, taking her gardening gloves off, and heads back into the house.]

What? [Gardening boots get taken off as well, then she's up the stairs.] Howl? Don't just shout my name and then not answer!

[She's reached the top floor by this time, and notices the smoke and the lack of Howl. First, she rushes inside the room and opens the windows widely, and then she turns around.

Quiet. Eerily quiet. There's something on the floor but it can't be his device because it can't be his device it just can't be his device because then he might be - no he might've dropped it or left it behind.] Howl?

[She crosses the room again.] Howl? [Louder. She picks the device, because that's what it is, his device.

It's still so eerily quiet.] ...Howl?

[candothat]

[Sophie's yelling convinces Chekov to leave his room (an accomplishment, as he has been very busy sulking as only teenagers can sulk) and venture into the lab.

This isn't going to be good.]

Sophie?

[mrsnose]

[The voice snaps her out of a reverie, almost, and she looks at Pavel, distraught for a few seconds.] He called me, and -

[He's not here.] Help me look for him.

[candothat]

[It's immediately obvious that Howl isn't here. Russian fatalism and an already dark mood don't allow for any hope that he's still in the City.]

Sophie, there is nowhere to look.

[mrsnose]

Of course there is. There are a lot of wheres to look, Pavel, he's a wizard - they can disappear! Reappear!

[Don't you even.] I looked with you when Peter -- when -- don't.

[candothat]

[He doesn't say that it wouldn't make sense for Howl to disappear like that, and not only for Sophie; Chekov doesn't want Howl to be gone, either. Denial, of course, doesn't change reality, but it can soften the blow.]

Where should we look?

[mrsnose]

[Whatever it is, lifeline or salvation, she grabs onto it. She isn't ready to deal with the possibility, not yet. Maybe she's just overreacting!]

All over the house. And if you find animals - if he's turned himself into a mouse or something...

[candothat]

If I find so much as a mouse, I will tell you.

[And now to search the house. Chekov isn't going to find anything--he knows this before leaving the lab--but it doesn't hurt to look. He has been wrong before.]