It's late-night, winding down for bed, and El's just tidying things up a little bit. She's basically been running a contraband swap meet out of her room, and it looks it. The junk that was strewn around her room has been carefully stuffed into boxes and shoved under her bed. The closet's still a mess though - walk-in, and high-stacked with goods. The only light on is the closet bulb. El's standing in the door, rifling through the junk, a mug filled with water in one hand, brushing her teeth with the other. Her hip's slung against the frame, bare footed, stripped down for bed in a light blue camisole and tight cotton Tom & Jerry pajama bottoms.

*Mingling with the sound of the toothbrush on her teeth, the faint sound of whirring reaches her ear, almost like a tiny engine running. The sound seems to be coming from within the pile of things haphazardly stacked in the closet before her. After a moment, the whirring stops, followed by a muffled, tinny, voice.*

"Hello...wi-..-ou be m-..-riend?"

She gulps, gargles, then spit-takes into the mug. It's all she can do from just dropping the cup right there, but she manages to set it down, her voice a careful razor, curious, but certainly suspicious. Anything strange and magical in this place has a tendency to try to stick things in you. Her brow is furrowed, kneeling down to dig through the piles to see what's talking to her.... It's probably just some stupid battery-operated talking toy.... or some sort of freakish, voiced sex toy, 'Danny The Friendly Dildo'. "I don't know, buddy. What are you gonna do for me?"

*The whirring sound comes from the pile again as she digs closer, stopping as the voice comes through again, clearer this time.*

"Hello, will you be...frien-"

*As she continues to dig toward the tinny, emotionless voice, a battered old teddy bear is dislodged from the pile, rolling down the slope of things to settle between her feet, single black button eye looking up at her cat and mouse print panties, stitched smile seeming almost a leer above the four crudely stitched black x's on its chest.*

Sunk to the floor, she digs on hands and knees, until finally the little bugger comes tumbling out of the pile. She picks the little teddy bear up, sinking to a cross-legged seat. She holds it at a distance, like she's worried about what kind of diseases she could get from it. She turns it over in her hand. "You're a frightfully ugly little bastard, aren't you?" But there's a sweet, girlish sympathy in there. Nothing like a sad little toy to spark the estrogen. She smiles at it.

*After a moment the doll vibrates slightly in her hand, whirring for a moment before the tinny voice emerging again, clearly this time.*

"Hello, will you be my friend?"

*The voice lends a plaintive air to the careworn doll, almost a sense of the former owner's sadness at its loss. As she turns it in her hand, she hears a soft popping noise, seeing that one of the four x's on the chest had broken, frayed ends of string dangling from the raggedy brown doll. She can feel other stitches on the doll, just as crude, two on the back running on either side of where a spine would be, if the soft little thing had possessed such.*

Despite herself, she feels affection for this little, raggedy thing. She holds him up to face level, big blue eyes locking with the little button he uses to see out of. Fingers feel up the broken seams in cloth, measuring the severity of the damage. She finally grins down at him. "You're not so bad off. I mean, we can't be friends. I have a reputation to keep, and you're an ugly little teddy bear, but I'll tell you what. I'll stitch you up in the morning and find you some nice, dumb little bunny to take you in. Would you like that?" She can't believe she's talking to a teddy bear. God, this place is driving her crazy. She squeezes the little bear against her chest, smooth silk on warm skin. She picks up the mug to dump out the window as she heads for bed. "First thing in the morning, k?"

*As she holds the bear to her chest, she can feel something move within it, perhaps the motor. The whirring sound rises again, the whole doll vibrating slightly. It stops, the tinny voice rising once again, tho the volume seems to trail off and the voice change near the end.*

"Hello, will you be my..-ey?"

*The thought strikes her suddenly. Don't dolls like this usually have a string? Or some other button? Why does it keep talking? She gets a chill as she realizes the teddy bear has no string, no button.*

She frowns. Fuck, that gives her the heeby-jeebies, yeah? But it's just a teddy bear, right? She's seen plenty of monsters in this place, and this little fella doesn't really meet any of the criteria. Still... There's a sourness in her stomach, a quiver of her heart, a brief, tremulous precognition of terror. Her fingers toy with the seams and the holes on the little bear, trying to find some sort of mechanism. No dice.

Maybe she'll get lucky and this will all just be hysterical delusions. Or maybe the teddy bear will turn out to be some adorable Disney-esque helper familiar who leads her to victory in comedic song matched with stunning, imaginative vistas. Okay, so maybe she is delusional. She holds the bear up, eyes narrowed into a squint, staring it down, face-to-face. "Is there something you're trying to tell me, Paddington?"

*Akki felt the terror spread through the girl in a thin web, her heartbeat stuttering for a moment. He drank deeply of her fear, using the energy it gave him to push against his seals. Her fingers felt the stitches start to break under their gentle touch. The long crudely sewn shut gashes on the bears back unraveled, her fingers sliding over what felt like leather beneath the cloth. The bear whirred in her hands again, the voice changing, becoming less tinny, more organic.*

"Hello, will you be my...-ey?"

*The whirring seemed to catch, a grinding sound coming from the bear as it shook in her hands. Perhaps the mechanism had broken?*

She jumps, despite herself, and flings the bear away. There's a slight trembling now, her mouth almost a pout. For a while she just stares down at the little bear, before punting it squarely back into the closet with a bare foot. She stands at the passageway, staring down to address him. "Maybe if you weren't such a creepy little bastard you wouldn't be in such bad shape, huh?" She slams the closet door shut. Shaking her head, she leans over her bed, emptying the mug out her window.

*She has spirit, this one! I must see what it takes to break it... Akki lay still in the closet, using the jolt of fear he had pulled from her to burst the second seal on his chest. He slid his claws through the cloth of his paws, bringing them to razor sharp points at the end of slightly curved lengths. He stretches his senses into the pile of contraband, seeking other dolls, toys, anything he could corrupt to his will.*

*The closet sat silent after a few moments of the grinding noise, the voice not emanating for the time being. Though she could hear a....scuttling...ripping sound. As if rats had made their home in the walls of her room, and were just awakening.*

"Christ!" She jumps at the noise from the closet, almost loses the mug out the window, but quickly recomposes. "Chill girl... It's just all the stuff shifting around from that creepy little toy you kicked in there..." Remember the little bit of yoga you know. the Pranayama, or whatever... She works a few moments to control her breath, to steady the balance in the room. Then she flicks out the lights and crawls into bed, oblivious to the creature squirming around mere feet away from her.

Then the second noise comes, and she hugs herself under the covers. She squeezes her eyes shut, hoping that when she reopens them a minute later, she'll be able to see a little better in the dark. She doesn't dare get up, doesn't dare make that run to the light switch just yet, and despite sitting right under the window, there doesn't seem to be a moon, no stars to lighten the shadow. So she cowers.

*Akki silently curses as he finds no minions among the store of items the girl had squirreled away. Just a rather impressive collection of sex toys...perhaps he would test the girl's merchandise on her.... The click of the lights being turned off was sweet music to his clothen ears, his stitched smile breaking open into a fang filled grin. He slide quietly to the closet door, pulling a small paper doll from the air. He slid the flat shikigami under the door, focusing briefly to animate it, sending it skittering across the floor and up to the handle of the door leading out of the room, wrapping itself around the handle with a faint sussurus of sliding paper. The demon doll then slid one rapidly thinning claw into the slit of the door, dragging it upward slowly, tripping the latch and opening the closet slightly. He made the soft whirring sound again, rising the volume and echoing it through the shikigami, causing the sound to seem to be coming from two places.*

A gasp! Jesus! She jumps in place. There's something here. There's definitely something here. Just count down calmly and go make a break for it.

Five. The blanket wrapped around herself. Her breath hitches, but she catches herself, slowing it to a crawl.

Four. Squirming toes under the sheets. Then legs, loosening herself in the bed, a warm girlish wiggle under the heavy bedspreads.

Three. Her knees raised, her heart racing. Her eyes comb the room, looking for some semblance of shape in the dark.

Two. Dainty, smooth feet slipping out from under the covers. She's a sleek, white silhouette in the pitch black. Muscles tensed, all sinewy smooth curves, ready to spring.

One! The ball of one foot hits the floorboards, then the other. She drops to the ground with a catlike grace. She locks, straightens, and dashes for the door, feet hitting carpet quick but not forceful. The thin cotton of the pyjama bottoms is tight, clung to skin. - you can see the blush of her skin through the flimsy material, clinging to lean girlish muscle as she makes a sprint for the door, fingers closing over.... paper....? Fuck. It takes her a split second to realize something's wrong here.