[INTRO; OPEN]

[bokor]

The tall thin man was standing more or less near one gathering of gravestones in the evening dusk. Most people would be avoiding a place like this, and truthfully so should Facilier have been, if defiance hadn't temporarily overridden his common sense. He reasoned that the place wasn't so frightening even to a man who'd so mightily pissed off the spirits and so deeply overdrawn his finances that they'd dragged him off when he'd made the mistake of blurting that he couldn't pay them.

Maybe this was payment, or punishment, or maybe it was a third thing altogether, but Facilier knew second chance when he saw it and he knew landing on his feet when he had to. He could flourish in the sidewalk cracks like a weed, or he could... spend his time outside the castle assessing it nervously from a graveyard in which he paradoxically just felt more comfortable. That was right. Plenty of room around here to see anyone coming, plenty of space to escape if he felt uneasy, and no bokor had anything to fear from the dead that they didn't owe.

When he'd calmed his racing heart enough to actually pretend to be casual, he decided to make his way closer to the castle proper. Maybe there'd be a newspaper. Creepy Gothic Herald, with a date, which was about all he was interested in. He bothered with nothing like brochures, and this was far from New Orleans, but the same rules applied. Talk to people. Get friendly, pick up whatever unbiased, usable information presented itself and pick up the biased stuff too, but it might be harder to sift through that here.

He'd have to hope folks here were friendly enough to avail himself of their hospitality, a fish completely out of water as he reluctantly left even the shadow of familiarity with the graveyard and went people hunting.

And what that meant was lurking in shadowy halls, shuffling his tarot deck and keeping a look out for people who looked like suckers. Or at the very least like they wouldn't just attack him.

Comments

[dustless]

He'll eventually find...someone.

Who probably doesn't fit any of his criteria, because said person seems to be a stereotypical demon. They're pacing through one of the halls, hooves clattering and tail lashing side to side like a scaly sort of cat. Smoking, too--literally, little plumes bubbling up from the corners of their mouth.

They're too busy glaring at nothing to notice him straight away.

[bokor]

This was not quite what he'd been expecting, and at first Facilier actually did have to fight down the real concern that somehow he'd ended up in Hell. But the impulse disappeared as quickly as it had come, and a number of other possibilities suggested themselves: that they had a really really good costume (all right, that one was almost certainly can't-even-fool-myself-BS), that they were some kind of other-dimension being that looked like a demon and maybe had even inspired medieval stories to that end, or... They might be an actual demon, but hopefully not the kind that would cause him any grief.

Unable to believe his most optimistic appraisals were so dire, Facilier risked a few steps closer, not yet quite within striking distance he hoped, and addressed the - demon - with only a little incredulity. "Hello, friend. Are you from around here? Or--someplace hotter?" Maybe leading with a joke wasn't the best idea, especially with how irate they looked, but he suspected asking what they looked so hot under the collar about - even if he phrased it in a less flippant way - might be seen as prying, and be even more unwelcome.

[dustless]

They thought they would've noticed somebody coming. When a voice pipes up behind them they twitch and whirl, fangs flashing--but their irritated expression actually drops once they catch sight of him. "...You're very tall," they say, mouth smoking a bit less. A pretty obvious thing to mention, but Frisk's already quite small, and this person looks like he'd been stretched about a foot higher than he should've been.

Right, that's not...an answer. They're not sure if that was a joke, so they decide to address it as if it's not. "No. To both of those, actually. I'm not usually..." they stick out a hoof. "like this. That's just sort of what's happening right now."

With that, they shoot a dirty look at the nearest wall.

"...an' you're super new." Unless he's been lurking for a while and managed to miss everyone.

[bokor]

"Guilty as charged," Facilier remarked to the observation of his height, but he did stop his advance. Neither did he retreat, but he didn't want them to feel as alarmed as he initially had at someone too close. Sometimes having a scary reputation was a benefit, but that was when it came to human clientele. And he had no idea at the moment that they were only temporarily demonically disposed.

"I'll stop guessing if you let me in on what happened to you, there. You look kinda like you got yourself cursed somehow." Facilier observed, without the slightest inclination to offer to help them. After all, he wasn't sure he could, and Frisk's next comment more or less called out why.

"Oh. New, yeah." He tugged at one jacket sleeve, shiftily. "That obvious, huh?" Well that was no good. Advertising weakness and ignorance was like asking for someone to take advantage of him, and the idea that someone could and wouldn't was completely alien.

"You can call me Dr. Facilier," He offered as an afterthought, though he didn't offer a business card along with the name.

[dustless]

Frisk didn't really expect help, anyway. Or want it. The hooves were troublesome occasionally, and the actually-burning-stuff-when-mad thing kind of sucked, but the wings made up for it. And the teeth. And the horns and tail. They looked cool.

"This...the whole castle's got cursed a little while ago, I guess, and...changes're happening to almost everybody. Humans are turning into weird stuff, and the monsters that already lived here are human now." As far as they knew, anyway. And the fact he didn't know telegraphed how new he was. "Dunno why. Don't be surprised if you wake up looking weird."

Dr. Facilier. Guy doesn't look like a doctor, but they'll take his word for it. There's people from all sorts of weird worlds and times here, after all. "An' I'm Frisk. Anyone tell you about...anything...yet?"

[bokor]

Now he'd had a chance to actually take in Frisk's form and observe them better, Facilier had to admit they did look striking, if fairly teeny. He felt a little foolish for being so startled of them at first, but that was probably owed to their explanation. A sorely welcome explanation, one that visibly smoothed Facilier's metaphorical feathers about the whole situation.

"Right, I got you. Guessing being a human is just as strange for monsters as the reverse." He tried to bite back a smile but largely failed at the thought, there was just something amusing to him about the idea, but it was always easier to grin at other peoples' misfortune, wasn't it.

The grin faded at the reminder that it could happen to him. "Ugh. Noted." He didn't quite thank them, but he did pull a hand down his face as if to more physically wipe the amusement away.

"Not yet," He admitted, "But I learn fast, so don't you worry about me. And if you do want to give me any advice for avoiding problems..." He trailed away, thinking their current state was not high endorsement but not wanting to say that outright, ending with a roundabout, "I'll hear you out, anyway. That can't hurt. And - I tell you what, I'll even sweeten the deal for you. I'll owe you. One small favor."

/belatedly adds a detail i always forget whoops

[dustless]

They are striking...although the clearly hand-knitted green scarf might take from the image somewhat.

The amusement's ignored--by now, they're used to people who smile when they're anything but happy. Showing up in a new place where everybody's suddenly changing and you might too must be pretty stressful.

...They wonder what he'd turn into. Nothing's off-limits, as far as they knew, although they've seen pictures of scarecrows before. What with how tall he is...well. Hopefully not. Frisk knows by now how lucky they are with just these changes; they're not forced to listen to peoples' orders or stuck in small areas.

Favor? No idea what that might mean, but they accept it with a shrug. They would've just told him stuff without it anyway, but they're not going to worry about it much. "Problems...problems...don't start FIGHTS with--well, most everybody's a monster right now, and doing that with anybody's sorta dumb, but when we're turned back--" because everyone had to be, eventually "--especially try not to FIGHT monsters. They're nice. Except--except be careful with Killer Croc. Dunno if he's a croc monster right now, but he's got a big scar down his face over his eye, you'll know him if you see him. He'll probably try to eat you," they explain, lip curling. "Just run."

Then they pause, tapping their chin with a finger. What else could 'problems' be...?

"Um... oh, be careful with the cakes in the ballroom. They're good, but a lot of them have jewelry inside. For some reason. So be careful not to choke or break your teeth. Don't try to get off the Edge, 'cause there's no way down and you'll probably die if you can't fly..." Beat. "...an' that's all I can think of right now."

[ojisankink]

Barnaby doesn't look like he's going to attack Facilier. He doesn't really look capable of it, in fact. To strangers, he may just look like a very detailed, life-sized toy. He's been painstakingly carved out of wood, his joints screwed together, and dressed in a fairly plain pair of pants and a t-shirt that doesn't cover the sponsor names carved into his arms.

It's probably odd then, for such a carefully put-together puppet to be abandoned in a hallway. But that's where he is, crumpled on the ground, staring sightlessly down at the ground while blue strings fan out from his limbs and attach him to two pieces of wood, glued into a cross.

But hey, if no one's playing with it, that means Facilier is free to grab the strings. Or just trip over them. Either way.

[bokor]

When lingering in the halls proved less than effective, after a little while, Facilier took to wandering, and prying where he wasn't asked to. Nothing bred confidence like a lack of authority, and it didn't seem like anybody ran this place. As weird as the dusty throneroom and candy bone room were, not a single person challenged his right to wander and pry just as he liked.

So he was bold enough to come right on over and investigate the puppet, having only the barest experience that this entire castle, grounds and all, might be magic and that anything unknown was dangerous. "Well, look at you." He mused, eyes tracing the words of the sponsors without any comprehension. Amazon.co.jp, Crusade? Maybe they were incantations, or... well, they almost sounded like recognizable words, but he was completely without the context of Bunny's era.

No way to find out anything else without the obvious tack of actually taking hold of the puppet's strings and giving an experimental tug. So that was exactly what he did.

[ojisankink]

Most people just give the strings a casual touch. A full-out tug gets Barnaby to not only lift his head, but immediately jump to his feet. There's actually life in his eyes now but that doesn't make his grinning any less creepy and odd.

"Barnaby Brooks Jr., corporate tool and professional puppet at your service. What can I do for you, sir?"

He's already trying his best to use the clues in his surroundings - and any thoughts that Facilier has that might be discerned as orders, due to castle magic letting him read whoever holds the strings - to find some sort of guidance for how he should act. All he can really tell about the stranger is that they're curious and a little threatened, so he makes sure his hands are visible and open so he doesn't look like he's going to attack.

[bokor]

That response was definitely not what Facilier had been expecting, and he dropped the strings - but his shadow thought faster than he did and snatched up the shadow of the strings against the wall, which had the same net effect as if Facilier had maintained his grip. The bokor tried to regain his poise with some difficulty, unnerved by the introduction.

Barnaby Brooks Jr., huh.

That offer of 'assistance' was too tempting, although the suspicion of a catch was ever present. Everything cost something.

"Right now I want a little information, Barnaby." Yes, he was definitely on a first name basis, he'd just decided that himself, thank you. "First off..."

He tempered his instinctive desire to push this new advantage as far as it would go with extreme effort. It was okay to want information. But was it free?

"Anything gonna cost, this service of yours? And--while I'm at it, what do those words mean?" He gestured to Bunny's closest arm.

[ojisankink]

Barnaby doesn't even blink. Lots of people have been shocked by his words and appearance so far. He doesn't mind if he needs time to get used to him like everyone else has had to.

...As long as he isn't left to his own devices again.

He nods eagerly. Information is easy enough to provide, especially since he seems to be asking such simple questions right now.

"Of course it won't. I used to be paid to be like this, but there's no real currency in the castle." Besides, in the years up to becoming a hero, Barnaby was still toyed with and didn't get paid.

He raises the arm Facilier is pointing to. "Oh, these are the logos for my sponsors. They're companies... this one is a card game, and the other is for a shopping service. There's also one on my chest." He'll neglect to show it off, as most have already been bothered by the Ouroboros symbol.

[bokor]

There was something really oddly mournful and strange about the puppet's demeanor, but Facilier folded his arms and let his shadow continue to hold the marionette strings while he thought as quickly as he could about what to do with this advantage.

"No currency?" Facilier repeated, stunned, "How about that. Now I know this place is a magic fairy tale."

He eyed the indicated arm, reasoning that he'd as much granted permission with his curiosity for Barnaby to lift it, and then frowned faintly at the explanation. "Makes sense." Of course there was Sears & Roebuck, so he understood the concept, and it was mildly creepy to him.

"Come with me, Barnaby." He said absently, waving his shadow to pull the cross along as he walked down the hall, "And I hope you don't mind that I'm still trying to figure this thing out, y'see, I'm new here myself and it'd be nice to get some answers, even if it is only from a doll. But you seem almost like a real person." He added, lightly.

[ifyoumustblink]

Follow the sound of music, would you? Sounds like a very foreign instrument indeed.

He'll be met with the guise of a red paper puppet--an origami kid. It looks like his only posession with the grace of not being paper is the shamisen he plays.

It's not a fast tune by any means--slow, even, a lullaby. Maybe a little chilling.

Doesn't seem to have noticed Facilier yet.

[bokor]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained - in this case, something like music was innocent enough, even desirable, to track. It wasn't like following creepy laughter or chain rattling or anything else one might expect to find in an ominous, cobwebbed castle.

But nothing in this place could be normal, and he had to admit there were a lot more humans back in America where he'd come from. Kind of creepy music, but at least the shamisen didn't look like it was made of human bones and skin or something. Standards were fast dropping in Facilier's mind about what he could deal with, by necessity.

He listened politely to the music for a bit, only so he didn't immediately interrupt, but soon enough his nerve demanded he actually figure out what this being was, and risked speaking to him, "'Scuse me?"

[ifyoumustblink]

He looks up a little quickly, having not been expecting company. Much less company so… strange. The lullaby has come to an abrupt end on a wheedling, fading note.

It probably looks weird on Facilier's end, an unmoving expression facing up to see him. Which is exactly the problen--it's not exactly easy to tell if he's curious or irritated, or maybe something else. Or both.

[bokor]

"Oh. Didn't mean to interrupt you, just couldn't miss you playing. Never heard anything like that," Facilier pointed with his cane at the shamisen, as if that was the most peculiar thing about this situation, but then he outright admitted, "Or seen anybody like you, truthfully. Now don't be alarmed, I don't mean to hurt you."

That last comment was more of a covering-his-bases than anything. The paper puppet's expression was indeed almost impossible for Facilier to guess, but he'd sooner not open with intimidation anywhere but his home turf - it always worked much better when he actually knew what was going on.

"You do speak English, don't ya?"

[ifyoumustblink]

Don't confuse the boy, he thinks everyone here is speaking ancient Japanese.

He can't say Facilier isn't intimidating (oddly tall, strange voice, necklace of bone?) but he doesn't seem to bent on harming anyone, at least. He must not be from around Kubo lived... or his world, actually. He's been told of the interdimensional qualities of the Castle. Which would explain the lack of recognition of the shamisen--to Kubo's knowledge, it should be quite popular, but hey. He hasn't really left Sun Village or the area around it.

Kubo puts a hand over is mouth, shaking his head lightly. He has a hole there, but no voice.

[bokor]

Facilier might apologize if the obvious fact occurred to him that demons and skeletons and origami folks should probably not be speaking American English, either. Whoops.

"Oh, I see." Facilier considered the hole in Kubo's throat, then shrugged, "And even if they got sign language where you're from, I don't know that. But at least you understand me, somehow." Magic was definitely looking like it had more to do in this place than he'd assumed, or hoped, given that he didn't understand it very well.

"Well, good of you not to be a bloodthirsty monster." As if that were a conscious choice. Really Facilier. "I'm guessing a one-sided conversation's not very attractive to you." But, with the knowledge that Frisk, the first person he'd met in the castle, had given him, he guessed suddenly, "Wait a minute. Did this only happen to you after you got here? Were you human before?"

[itstheend]

Chara likes to think they're no sucker, but they can be lead by the nose by their own curiosity more than they'd like to believe. They won't attack him either, unless he makes himself a threat. Their days of unprovoked attack and hunting down to kill are over, they're reformed. Or at least they're trying to be.

None of this detracts from the fact that they are also a skeleton at the moment, watching the shuffling of the deck with bright white dots in somehow narrowed eyesockets. The cards are interesting; they seem slightly different from playing cards even from their angle. The lurking in shadows is suspicious, but they're one to talk.

They don't speak. There's nothing they want to say to him, at the moment. But neither do they make any effort to hide.

[bokor]

Chara had the dubious honor of being the first skeleton that Facilier ran into, and they took him visibly aback in a way that he hoped wasn't obvious but almost certainly was. Even dealing with the gede lwa, he didn't expect that the great majority of his interactions would be of a supernatural or otherworldy nature. And yet here was someone whose appearance was that of the dead, but whose demeanor was thankfully nonthreatening.

He drew himself out of the meager cover that the shadows provided, though his own shadow remained static and 'normal', it was always alert and good to have someone watching his back (even if that someone was himself), deciding to treat them like he would anyone, which was easier to decide than to follow through on. He was already adrenaline-flush from the castle's mysterious and sudden introduction, but it seemed populated mainly by, no offense, actual monsters. Well, 'treat em with respect and be ready to run real fast' was a good rule of thumb for the living and the dead both.

"How y'all doing today?" How's being dead treating you? All right, maybe it was too much of an elephant in the room, "You, uh. Recently deceased?"

[itstheend]

Chara grins at his reaction.

Well, they're always grinning now. Since skeleton. But it definitely becomes more mischievous somehow, maybe subtle movements in the bone. It's not straight up fear and they'd be suspicious if it was, but it feels good to be treated with caution. It's the closest people get to respect, with them. It earns him a point.

'Y'all' has them wondering for a second if he realises Frisk is here, and then they remember that Frisk isn't here, and then they just mentally skate past that confused tamgle entirely.

"Same ol', same ol'," they say, shrugging. "Considering what killed me is still here..."

It's technically not a lie, but it is a half-truth given purely to mess with him. A height has killed them even if it wasn't one here, and the Castle is responsible for their current state.

[bokor]

The way their bone structure actually moved to indicate a different expression was more unsettling than actually seeing the sanitized calcium scaffolding moving at all, somehow, but Facilier tried to put that aside, if only because it was giving him more of a disadvantage in the conversation.

Their comment about 'what killed me' made him look quickly over one shoulder, effectively concerned about the safety of the place all over again.

"Well, uh. Wow. Sorry to hear that. You mean still here... in the castle? I kinda noticed there's not a whole lot around besides the castle and the grounds." But Facilier didn't realize yet that the castle was much bigger than it appeared, so he was even more nervous about their alluding to being killed.

Chara was a terrible troll in the best possible sense. "Well, it's probably too late to do a ceremony for you," He didn't quite apologize, "Especially seeing as how your bones are walking around and all." If he'd been anyone else it would have been much harder to be so swiftly okay with that sentence.

"So are you sleeping in the graveyard or what?"

[itstheend]

Chara has to stifle the urge to cackle when he quickly glances over his shoulder. This is just perfect. All according to keikaku.

"Oh yes," they say, just a little bit gleefully. "And you have noticed there is not a whole lot because there is not." They spread their arms. "Welcome to the castle you'll spend the rest of your life in." A deliberate, thoughtful pause, pulling them back in. "However long that is."

They blink blankly and a little suspiciously (somehow their bone can make eyelids? Don't think about it) at the mention of ceremony, because the only ceremony they can imagine someone doing on their death is a celebratory dancing on top of their grave. They'd rather not be buried or burned like this; someone has already thought about that last one.

It takes all their willpower to keep a straight face when he asks that last question. "Wow," they say, doing their best to seem utterly offended while trying not to laugh. Is this what Sans gets all the time? Pfft. "How stereotypical! Just because I'm a skeleton doesn't mean I live in a graveyard, the nerve. I prefer under beds."

Actually it's Frisk who prefers under beds, but they oblige them sometimes.

[bokor]

"Aww, come on now, you're just trying to scare a fella." He hoped. He really, really hoped. "Anyway you're mighty upbeat for a dead person so you'll excuse me if I don't dread even the worst outcome as much as all that."

Satisfying himself about 20% with that logic, he took a deeper breath and then evaluated them more closely at the blink, trying to read their face properly. It was both easier than a regular skull and weirder/more distracting than a fleshy overcoat.

"Don't fret." He said with a quiet, but growing amusement of his own, "I only do that kinda service for a fee, I ain't never gonna do it for free."

He raised an eyebrow at their answer about graveyards, folding his arms with the cane tucked under one elbow. "I ain't been here myself but a few hours, so maybe you do things different, but where I come from most of the time the dead only pop up uninvited during the Fête Gede, and that's not gonna be til November." As an afterthought, he informed them, "You ain't welcome under my bed when I get around to getting one. I'm gonna have trouble enough sleeping after you doing your portentous demise routine on me."

Though he did seem more relaxed the longer he talked to them, and the more he got the sense that he could handle at least the immediate challenges. "Never did get a name from you."