Panophobia (IC Thread)

[RacingeR]

Jill Dumont
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:05 AM

“Hmm…” Jill huddled on her trenchcoat, looking both annoyed and spooked. The place was chilly, and humid, and miserable, but so was the rest of New York during this time of the year. She had never liked the state much, and one of her ambitions was to go to a warmer, or colder place. She didn’t care which, as long as it wasn’t this humid.

“This place really is scary~” It really felt wrong somehow. Perhaps too wrong. She shuddered inside her coat, and stared sharply at the insides of the house as she grabbed her bag. She sent a stare towards Bright, and before she could…

“This ain’t no place for a delicate girl like me, I’m going with the teach!”

[Katie]

Gwendolyn Bright
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:05 AM

Seriously, that detective girl was the pettiest woman she’d ever seen. Was it really her fault that her boss didn’t tell her anything that would be relevant to a crackpot supernatural, paranormal investigation case. Seriously. Nobody had to wear their heart on their sleeve, but you know, this was the kind of unfounded spite that would make people angry at you.

“Ah, whatever.” Her voice wavered for a moment, because she had to think fast. Her options were bad, awful, and worse, and she had to pick the least evil of these. That simplified it down to two choices—the sleeping girl in the back, Parker, was it?—or Gabby who was more Christian than her Mormon cousins back west.

Thinking about it, she didn’t want to be lectured about the power of faith, and she was used to doing all the work in a project anyway, so…

Parker it was.

Walking up to her with a brisk step, she made her intentions clear.

“Wanna come with?”

If she was any smart, she’d gotten herself a partner who’d do all the work for her, and Gwen could get some peace of mind.

[Airen]

Sarah Parker
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:05 AM

"...Sure."

Having had no real intention of picking a partner of her own, Sarah was a bit surprised at first that someone had wanted to partner with her of all people. But remembering where they were at, and who they were with, the pieces eventually clicked in the girl's mind, and she understood why the girl had come to her. It was a bit funny, that she had become the only tolerable option for Gwen, but with a shrug of her shoulders she had simply agreed, the girl reminding her a bit of her younger sister, the smart type, easily bulliable...

"I'll hold the flashlight..."

Speaking up more than she had since showing up in the van this morning, the dark haired girl silently agrees to the unspoken terms.

She could be lazy, and she would refrain from picking on the girl, which weren't hard terms to keep, seeing as how she wasn't really the bully type anyway.

...Kinda.

[arkturus]

Katina "Kat" Auburn
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:05 AM

"Hmm..."

The brown-haired girl slumped a bit when she remembered that she actually had to do work. But she wasn't going to let that get in the way of picking a good partner to push all the work on. Or at the very least pull their weight. Kat glanced around the room to survey her options. Only the perv, the goth, the good christian girl, and...the punmeister. She'd kill herself if she was left with him.

"Well I guess I'll go with the girlyman for now." Kat grabbed one of the industrial garbage bags and started down the hall in a random direction before glancing back at her declared partner.

"Coming?"

[Tobias]

Tak Johnson
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:05 AM

"Absolutely!" Tak said, grabbing another bag and deliberately striding towards Katina before Jacob could respond.

"now, normally it's 'lady's man' not girlyman, but don't you worry your head about it, kitty, everyone gets tongue tied every now and then!"

Of course, he was very well aware of what Kat had meant of course, but he couldn't resist the opportunity for a quick one liner, and besides, one place was as good as another in his book, and he thought it would be fun to try and force a few guffaw's out of the partner he had just cut in on. Surely soon she would be giggling her head off!

[Bloble]

Jacob Hopeman
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:05 AM

"Sorry, Johnson. Auburn's too polite to say it, so let me translate: You're too man for her."

Jacob followed lazily after Tak. He didn't try to get past the larger boy, merely kept approaching until he'd well and truly passed the boy's personal space, getting too close and then going even closer.

He licked his lips. "But not too man for me."

[Tobias]

Tak Johnson
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:06 AM

Tak looked a little puzzled for a moment as Jacob came up and for lack of a better term, nuzzled up against him, his head cocked to the side almost birdlike for a moment. After just a moment though his eyes visibly brightened as if he had suddenly come to understand one of the fundamental truth's of the universe.

"Oh, I get it!" Tak said, smiling broadly. "Hang on a sec, you are facing the wrong way!"

Tak stopped to think about what he said and then, if possible, grinned even harder.

"Hey, did you catch that, unintended innuendo!" At that Tak turned slightly, placing his cheek near Jacob's and grinning as if for an invisible camera.

"Special CG screen grab! now we just started, so its probably like, 1% full right now, but gotta start somewhere!" Tak separated slightly and pointed in the direction Gwendolyn and Sarah had wandered. "See, I had been trying to place the scenario for a while now, I didn't think it was just horror or mystery. Y'all were talking in the car about it. Very meta, I love it by the way, but I kept feeling like something was a little off. You were all missing something. Now I get it. My half sister sokuko loves this type of game, its an eroge right?!"

Tak pointed again, indicating even harder. "Look, you got all the classics, serious blond hair, braniac detective, lazy girl, religious girl, bet she goes crazy and kills someone unless you start her route quick, teacher's pet...its just like that Key game that just came out, Kanon! I would have figured it out sooner, but I was having trouble placing you."

Now Tak swung back to look at Jacob with that same look of epiphany as before.

"Token gay option! Very progressive! BL girls will go nuts, the doujins will fly of the shelves! Now all we need is to run into a random, inexplicably 18 year old girl who looks and acts nine who will start calling me onii-chan, and we will check all the boxes! Don't worry, we will get to your route, gotta get all the CG. How do you feel about threesomes. I mean, I just selected a girl from a multi stage choice thing so I think I just got one of those point thingies!"

[Bloble]

Jacob Hopeman
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:05 AM

"...wow."

Jacob didn't even have to pretend to be surprised.

"And here I thought you were just dumb muscle. Man, I have no idea what the hell 'eroge' or 'BL' are, but more power to you."

Jacob backed off. There was no unnerving the crazy dude. He'd pegged Tak wrong from the start. The guy wasn't a dumb jock, he was a full fledged schizo. It was a positive development at least. The latter was much more interesting.

"But yeah, I'm with Auburn. Sorry man, I prefer my dudes more brooding, less cartoon-y."

Jacob skipped past Tak, settling beside Kat.

[MasterSeth]

Erik York
Entrance Hall, First Floor
8:05 AM

Spooks and scares, flirts and arguments, jobs and boredom if there is one thing this day hasn't been it's boring. if anything all this just made the boy happy he got caught smoking around the school cause now he gets to go to a ghost house. He starts to wonder if he'll be getting his smokes back after all this is done, those things don't come too cheap...

"Right then, grab a bag and buddy up, we got a big house to clean, and who knows what kind of garbage a bunch of UniCorp stiffs have been dragging around."

Now that they're here the real fun begins he thought to himself; The gang's gotta split up to clean clean clean the spooky house! The set up as is so far is detective princess on her own with teach, quite girl and the teacher's pet together and then a chaotic comedy trio unfolding in the halls.

"Uhhh ha, well I guess if the gang's gotta split I guess this is a good set up. Leon, Gabby either of you got a plan for set ups? I figure if we do a team-o-3 we can probably bus it out a bit faster then the other scoobies." The boy makes a sweeping gesture towards the others. "Who knows, maybe we'll find a ghost or two and they can give us a hand with the cleaning!"

[Mormarth]

8:05 AM
Entrance Hall

The brief flurry of chatter caused your poor, unfortunate teacher to rub at his eyes tiredly, Tak being left groupless after Jacob's power play backfired in his counter-assault.

Leon stepped forward, a hint of strain in his usually cheerful expression, "Nah, no thanks Erik, gotta go back a brother up, not gonna be a third wheel. Good luck, ah?"

He patted Erik on the shoulder and made his way across the dusty hall, standing beside Tak, "Don't worry brother-man, I gotcha, always gotta be a wingman to the less-successful main guy, right?"

He winked.

Mr. Remmington nodded in assent to Jill's request, then spoke up, his voice echoing in the long hall, "Right then, Dumont and I on the right, Bright and Parker on the left, Hopeman and Auburn can take the last door on the left, and Lombardo and Johnson get the right."

He tossed a few extra over towards Erik, "You two get the upstairs, it's set up in a circle, so go from the left or right and move through."

"We meet up at 8:35, so be back here then, alright? Okay, let's get to work."

He grabbed the doorknob of his chosen doorway and creaked it open, clumping on through in his sturdy boots, the light-footed detective padding along behind.

The rest of you made your way to your chosen doors and entered, beginning your weekend community service in earnest.

Jill Dumont w/ Remmington
8:07
Gallery, 1F, West Wing

After making your way through a particularly dust-ridden hallway that was empty of all but a few stray bags, you entered into a large, circular room, stately portraits cover the wall, accompanied by busts and occasional statues, faces worn by time or obscured by the thick layer of dust. This is some manner of relief, as the vapid gaze of the stone visages are unnerving. Why haven't they been taken away yet?

As you gamely bustle along after Mr. Remmington, who seems completely unphased by the creepazoid nature of the old house, you notice a bust that seems odd while you are cleaning up the assorted trash. Its face is twisted, as if in mortal terror, stone teeth gritted in a rictus of raw fear.

"Think Miss Nettles might get a kick out of that one," grunts your teacher. "Think it's Barque or something?"

Charming.

In addition, among the portraits, one of them stands out to you, considerably more recent than the others. Maybe a picture of the family that lived here?

There are two rooms besides the one behind you, one to your right, marked 'Library', and one straight ahead of you, slightly ajar.

Sarah Parker & Gwendoline Bright
8:07
Dining Room, 1F, East Wing

Moving in from the foyer, you are greeted with the sight of an ornate, half-shattered chandelier, drooping its ornate trappings over a long, wooden table, adorned with a single candlestick in the center.

Cobwebs drape from the shattered chandelier, dragging their spidery nets across the room, flanking the table to either side, in the corner of the room, there is a mirror, covered by what appears to be some old tablecloth, it is tapped firmly down by some duct tape, clearly the worker's doing.

Still, you're morbidly curious.

A doorway leads onward to you left, judging by the faint gleam of ceramic in the flashlight's glow, it's some sort of kitchen, a closed door is ahead of you, past the cobwebs.

Katrina Auburn & Jacob Hopeman
8:07
Game Room, 1F, East Wing

You get a bad vibe just by coming into this room, heads of various animals dot the walls, an eyeless lion chief among them, beneath them are various tools and model swords. A saber here, some sort of hatchet there. An old television stands vigil against the left wall, screen smashed inwards in some horrible struggle, beside sits a door to a closet, ajar.

This entire room is filled with a sense of dread, like something terrible happened here. The feeling gnaws at your mind and draws your attention to that lone door, leading to the darkened closet.

A glass door is to your right, the sweet, cloying scent of rotten plantlife brushing against your nose, ahead of you is clearly some sort of storage room.

Still, you don't think you could turn your back on that door so easily...

Tak Johnson w/ Leon
8:07
Study, 1F

"Wonder if Teach is trying to tell us something."

It certainly wouldn't make sense to you, you knew lots of things! It's not your fault people don't get your sense of humor, philistines, all of them.

You're greeted by a small, quiet room, dotted with plushy armchairs and bookshelves that stretch upwards to the ceiling, small candles dot equal small tables. This is clearly some manner of reading room, various bits of memorabilia dot the walls, awards here and there. Knick-knacks and curiosities dot the shelves where books do not reside. Small statuettes and figures bearing animalistic faces and old tribal markings.

Could be from one of the native tribes that hung around?

There's a pair of worn wooden doors ahead of you, adorned with a crucifix, the image of Christ one of the few things in this house that seems free from the ravages of time and tragedy.

Some light is streaming in through a glass door to your left, looks like a path outside to an outbuilding of some sort.

"Gotta say man, for all my bluster, glad I got the chance to make a quick exit out of that group. Gabby's uh, well she's a good girl, and I mean that in a non-sex way, y'know. One of the good ones. But, well, don't really want to hang around where I'm not wanted, yeah?"

The rhetorical question hangs in the air, Leon chuckles awkwardly and you set about your business.

The pair of you amble around for a bit, clumping up bits and pieces of various trash, idle chit-chat here and there.

And then a book falls off one of bookshelves with a loud 'clump', it lands open, pages spread across the floor face down, the title is eligible from where you stand.

Erik York w/ Gabby
8:07
Gymnasium, 2F, West Wing

Picking a direction at random, you meander gamely along, the pale-haired girl beside you, eyes watchful.

You open a door upon some sort of exercise room, some weights are placed in the far corner and a pull-up bar is afixed to the far wall, a window, one of the shattered and poorly repaired ones, is next to it, a chilly breeze seeps in from the spring morning outside.

Trophies and other sports-related objects dot the walls, a case of various awards is the centerpiece, a bold plate of some sort standing out among them.

There's only one room ahead of you and to the right, a circle, like the teacher said.

Gabriella trails along the right side of the room, working diligently, eyes fixed on her work. You could make some kind of conversation, maybe?

Or perhaps see about investigating some of the things about this room.

[Bloble]

Jacob Hopeman
8:07
Game Room, 1F, East Wing

"Nice."

Jacob didn't waste any time. He strode over to the display cases, grabbed a nice-looking rapier out of a broken one, and shoved it into a poster tube that then went back into his backpack.

"Here's the deal, Auburn," Jacob said as he flicked on the flashlight and licked his lips, enjoying the chilling atmosphere. "Whatever happens here, it's all junk and it's nobody's gonna miss it. Might as well have some fun with it, you feel me?" Stealing was wrong. Stealing from the dead was even more wrong. And the more wrong it was, the more right it could be. Besides, he wanted a sword. Swords were cool.

Jacob then turned the flashlight to the closet, and started approaching to get a better. He could almost smell the wrongness in there... or perhaps it was just the decaying corpse of some rodent.

[arkturus]

Katrina Auburn
8:07
Game Room, 1F, East Wing

"You're dumb Jakey." Kat followed the boy over to the the display cases and looked them over before scoffing. "Are you up to date on your shots?"

Kat didn't have a great love for the rules either but trying to smuggle out a sword seemed like too much effort and dumb. Besides she didn't have a poster tube. Hell, she didn't even have a backpack. She stuffed the rest of the weapons in the trash bag then wandered around the room, looking first at the busted TV, which seemed too heavy to reasonably think they could walk around with, then at the stuff lion head.

"I'll play that game with you though. Seems like a waste to throw away perfectly good trash if someone else wants it. It'll be like recycling. Or going to a run down thrift store or whatever."

She gazed around the room looking for anything else she could stuff in the trash bag before her eyes fell upon the closet door. Rather than only noticing it then it was more accurate to say that she had been avoiding it until now. Something about it bugged her, she didn't know what. Maybe it was that sixth sense of hers.

Or maybe she just wanted to get done with one room before moving on to the next one.

"C'mon girlyman! We don't got all day!" The girl strode boldly past her partner and flung the door open.

[Tobias]

Tak Johnson w/ Leon
8:07
Study, 1F

"You don't like hanging around when you arent wanted? That must be a horrible feeling fellah! can't say I understand it though myself, everyone loves having ole Tak around! They don't admit it, but I know the truth." Tak chuckled rather jovially, seemingly unconcerned with his recent rebuff.

"Come on, lets get to work, You want to be the main character, you always have to put in effort, even when you aren't being watched. At that, Tak started on the clean up. He had a certain steady pace that showed practice as he strode about, gathering up the worst of the rubbish and even organizing some of the leftover relics that might still have some value to the side of the room.

...Observing him, one could easily make a guess that it wasn't the first time his mouth had gotten him stuck on cleaning duty. Tak even ran his pocket handkerchief over the mini figure of Jesus hanging on the door to what appeared to be the interior.

"Dude has been hanging around for a while, least we can do is a quick pol..." Tak started to explain to his companion, but was interrupted when a book seemed to pull itself of its own accord out of a nearby shelf and fall to the grown with a paper crumbling chunk! sound.

...

Tak glanced at Leon to see if he had a quick explanation, but neither were particularly close to where it had fallen, therefor it was unlikely that either of the two had been the ones to disturb the shelf.

"...Whelp, only one explanation. Nerdy ghosts." "Tak joked after a moment. "No judging though, not everyone is a jock, am I right? wait, I know what the right move is!" While saying that, Tak reached over and removed the crucifix from the door, brandishing it like a wand at the now immoble book.

"The power of price compels you!" Tak intoned dramatically. "Ok, ill keep doing this, you go get a young priest and an old priest before someone throws up on me!"

After a moment though, it did seem a little silly to be threatening a book with a crucifix...even Tak knew he was stretching the limits of irreverence. Finally, he walked in closer and poked the book with one of the arms of the crucifix.

"Gotta say," Tak started up again. "Just dropping one book? I mean, kind of a lazy poltergeist. Though, hey, gotta give points for originality, I mean, it was a novel approach!"

[Airen]

Sarah Parker & Gwendoline Bright
8:07
Dining Room, 1F, East Wing

"..."

Eyes slowly scanning the room from left to right, Sarah's expression remains more or less unchanged in spite of the fact the residence was quickly becoming more and more of an ideal haunted house, at least, from a visual standpoint. Never much of a fan of spiders, the girl quickly discards her original plan of just finding an out of the way place and napping through the cleaning, and instead just continues to look everything over with a disinterested eye.

It was all the usual stuff, cobwebs, broken chandelier, probably some rats hanging out in the walls, likely poisonous spiders lurking in the corners, the works. The thing that draws her eye the most is the mirror in the corner, one that seems to have been purposefully covered, probably to protect the surface of the glass, to keep people from scratching or breaking it.

In essence, it was like that to keep people from seeing it.

Horrendously bored, and contrarian by nature, Sarah soundlessly strides over to the side of the mirror for that reason alone, and without hesitation peels one corner of the duck tape off, wanting to get a look at what was being hidden, purely because it was being hidden... Although she made sure to stand in such a way as to keep her partner in the corner of her eye; she didn't really care too much about what the girl did, but she just seemed like the type that would get scared easy.

Like when a rat inevitably jumped out at one of them.

[MasterSeth]

Erik York w/ Gabby
8:10
Gymnasium, 2F, West Wing


A few minutes pass as the boy tries to clean and think of a conversation topic, chatting was never his forte, but he figured since he dragged her along he should start the talking. He kinda wonders what landed her of all people in this sort of gig, but that's a different question for a different time, probably should start a conversation with prying after all.

"Soooo uh, see any good movies lately? Some kind of sequel to Carrie of all things comes out tomorrow, oh oh, and I heard some crazy scifi movie is supposed to be coming out this month, something about people in computers or something, looks cool but not sure it'll be that big with people."

He looks over at the girl who persists in her cleaning with laser focus, probably not a movie fan or something, that's fine, he can come up with another topic, maybe. That's when he noticed the display case, that looks cool and mysterious, maybe that can be a topic, people like mysteries and ghosts right, or maybe that's just him?

"Oh hey, look at this, someone in the house must've good at something, they've got quite the collection," the boy wanders over to get a better look at them all. "Maybe one of these has a clue to the mysterious disappearance, like, I dunno, them being walking champs or something?" He brushes off some dust from the plate as he tries to at least get a response from Gabby.

[Katie]

Sarah Parker & Gwendoline Bright
8:07
Dining Room, 1F, East Wing

Almost immediately, she turned her brain off, preparing herself for another day of menial task work. This was a decently useful talent she had honed from a myriad of odd jobs she had done to power her ever more ridiculous spending sprees, and here she was, brainlessly shoving all sorts of garbage into her bag. It was almost relaxing, really, with how… easy it was, how…

Jesus what was Sarah touching, that had to have been covered in duct tape for a reason. Taking a rather nervous look around the place, she had to her name was fairly accurate. She liked it bright. She hated the dark and all this dust so the faster she tossed crap into her bag all the better.

“…Is it really wise to touch that…?”

[Mormarth]

Jacob 'n Kat
8:08
Game Room, 1F, East Wing

The sword slips easily into Jacob's poster tube, the makeshift sheathe then resting comfortably in your backpack, if this was some sort of Tomb-of-Horrors type scenario, this would be the moment where you explode with some manner of horrible curse, or the sword is possessed or something.

This does not happen.

[Gained Rapier, it's a fuckin sword. Whattaya want from me? You can prolly stab duders with it.]

After that, the pair of you stalk towards the ominous-looking closet door, the strange and otherworldly aura compeling you to fling it open and reveal its secrets.

The darkness of the closet is suffocating, yet you feel as though something is dwelling in the darkness, that ever-present human fear of what lies beyond our sun-suckled eyes.

Something shifts, an animal, perhaps?

You peer closer, your flashlights bringing the light of human curiosity onto something foul, an awful, cloying scent, one of rotted meat curls out out of the door, your stomachs roil in apprehension, your gag reflex curls up like some terrified animal, gorge clawing at your throat.

[Willpower Check: C. Both Pass!]

But both of you are not normal sorts of people, are you? Divorced from the common reality of mankind, by choice or by birth, you've gained a mental toughness beyond most people, and so you do not look away from the thing in the closet.

To Jacob, it is as if an invisible giant had come barreling out of the closet, rushing past the pair of you, he staggers, off balance for a moment from the horrible strength of what was hiding in that deep darkness.

But Katrina remains steady, and her third eye, weak, but still there, awakened by vague teachings and a bloodline of seers and mediums, looks upon the form of what lurked in the shadows.

[Enhanced Sixth Sense Activates]

You see if for scarcely a moment, but you will swear upon your soul that it was the truth.

A horrible, tumor-ridden limb, covered in void-ridden maws, scurried into a corner and vanishes from sight.

There is something lurking in the shadows of the Carter Estate.

[Partial Clue Gained, Monster? Tag: Supernatural]

Something is shining in the depths of the closet, the obfuscating shadows caused by that... thing, vanishing with its passing.

Jacob, eyes on the look-out for anything out of the ordinary, snatches it out of the detritus, some manner of foulness upon it, but you can still make it out.

It's an ID badge of some sort, belonging to one Kepler, Carl. You don't recognize any of the designs on it, nor is there any sort of company label on it, most of the card blotted out by some black crust-like substance that refuses to give way to a stern rubbing with a sleeve.

A pattern that draws your eye, however, is some sort of swirling pattern around a single, tall pillar.

[Carl Kepler's ID Badge Gained. There's a magnetic stripe on the back, like it could be swept though a scanner or something]

Tak w/ Leon
8:07
Study, 1F

The book remained immobile at your prodding, any sort of demonic or supernatural presence within it clearly not caring about such a trifling thing as a cross.

[Crucifix Gained, The Powder of Chris Compels you! Tag: Holy Symbol]

Or it's not there.

Either/or.

"Hey now," Leon remarked, "Careful with that, if some sort of Beelzebub comes flying out at you, you've only got yourshelf to blame."

He peered over your shoulder at the spine of the book, then his eyebrows drew together, expression twisting in confusion.

"The hell kinda book is 'Knittng with Dog Hair?' Gross."

He delicately picked the book back off the ground, no evil legion of spirits oozing out from its pages of canine clothing tips, thankfully.

But when he turned towards the bookcase, he stopped dead, "Uh, bro, there's somethin' back here."

You unbend from your crouch lazily, turning over towards the bookshelf in question, and, to your surprise, there is something that was hidden behind the book.

It's a button.

Sarah and Gwen
8:07
Dining Room, 1F, East Wing

Sarah stalks over to the mirror, already terribly bored with this affair, and yanks at the tape holding the drape over the curtain like some sort of human-shaped cat.

Obligingly, the tape peels away, and the drape falls to one side, greeting her with a sight she did not precisely anticipate.

For what she sees in the dust-covered mirror is not her own reflection.

It's a girl, she's crying.

She must have been maybe a couple of years younger than you both, she's wearing a dress, pretty finely made, you suppose.

Her hair is askew, as if its been torn at, and horrific gashes mar her delicate-looking face, she looks horrified, but begins motioning frantically once you meet her eyes. She's mouthing something, but due to her agitated state and scarred face...

[Knowledge Check: B, fail, Pass]

Sarah can't quite make it out, luckily, Gwendoline has swept up behind her, and due to her nature as a chronic overachiever, the teacher's assistant can piece together some of her panicked cries.

"Help... me.... It's... coming..."

She begins pointing to herself once she spots Gwendoline's interpreting, mouthing slowly, deliberately, eyes still darting around the room as if being stalked.

"Lucy... Carter... Killed.... Monster... Help... Please..."

[Clue Discovered: Lucy's Ghost! A terrified child-specter, she's evidently terrified of some sort of 'monster', and is requesting aid.]

Erik + Gabby
8:10
Gymnasium, 2F, West Wing

The pale-haired girl jerks up from where she was crouched over a bundle of unidentifiable trash, "Oh, uh, my older sister took me to see this one pretty funny movie last month, I think it was called, um, Office Space or something."

She seems sort of embarassed, and shifts about in the silence that follows, "I, uh, I'm sorry if I came off as kind of mean on the drive over, that-, um, Leon, I mean, he's, he just really gets under my skin."

She mutters under her breath while you brush away the dust of years from an old award, most of these are pretty old, must've been before the Carter's moved in, but you find one that stands out in particular, a small picture of two young boys looking at the camera, holding up a small medal.

'Ethan and Johnny, honored recipients of the Fairfield Marathon Participation Award.'

You frown, noticing something about the photo, then you step back, hands twitching-

[Willpower Check: C, Pass]

But you don't drop the photo, you stare in horror at the picture of the two boys, one of their faces is twisted in a rictus of terror, and the other's, the other boy doesn't even have a face, just a blank void where features should be.

[You gained a Clue, Spooky Photograph. It contains what are apparently Ethan and Jonathan Carter, you can't tell which is which, however. One of them doesn't have a face, this is alarming.]

"Erik? Is there something wrong?"

Gabriella looks over at you in concern.

[RacingeR]

Jill Dumont
8:07 AM
Gallery, 1F, West Wing

“I don’t think so, doesn’t seem to be in tone with the rest of the mansion.” Jill answered vaguely as she picked up some random trash in the floor and threw it in the bag. She didn’t think there were clues left to solve the mystery, if any at all, so her interest had dwindled slowly. She had only gone with the teacher to take a playful (for Jill’s standards) jab towards Bright, but now she was thinking that perhaps the girl had taken it worse than she intended. Well, she’d make amends with her later.

Passing her stare through the portraits, trying to get an idea of the features of the occupants, she finally examines the terrified bust closely. It was really quite the creepy thing; she couldn’t think anyone would ever want this as a decoration, much less expose it in a visible place.

“Really, its like someone actually went out of the way to make this place as scary as possible…” She says out loud. And she has no problems in admitting its working somewhat, she’s creeped out by the whole place, indeed.

But all that it accomplishes is making her more excited, like she could almost smell a case that needed solving.

Jill wastes some seconds examining the scared bust and trying to match it with the portraits. Whether she succeeds or not, she’ll examine the bust closely, and then move on to stare at the most recent portrait, the one apparently showing the family.

[Bloble]

Jacob Hopeman
8:08
Game Room, 1F, East Wing

"Whoa!"

Jacob fell back on his ass as something blew past him. He'd barely gotten a glimpse of the blur, too fast or perhaps just too unexpected for him to make out. He slowly got to his feet and looked again, but only managed to scavenge some form of ID card from the closet.

"I expected a skeleton, but this is even better."

He wasn't at all intimidated. Far from it - Jacob's eyes were shining with childish fascination. "Kat, did you get a better look at it? I can't believe we some guy was actually hiding in a closet to spook us! Maybe the house is actually haunted!" Giddy, his mind jumped to various awful things that might have happened there. Perhaps some child had been locked up in the basement, or stories of past evils were hidden in the attic. How delightfully wrong.

"C'mon, let's look around some more!"

Excited, he eyed the rest of the room, trying to think like Jill would have. Instantly the broken television caught his eye.

"If it's little miss Sherlock, she'd say something like... 'There it is, that's the scene of the crime! The struggle happened in that location. If it was strong enough to break the screen, there must be evidence remaining!'"

Peering closer, Jacob tried to see if anything remained in the television's broken screen. Perhaps some cloth that had caught on the jagged edges, or maybe blood. He shined the light inside, looking for anything out of place. A key, a treasured item, hell, even a rat trying to bite his nose off would be fine.

[Mormarth]

Jill 'n the Teach
8:07 AM
Gallery, 1F, West Wing

You examine the bust with the face twisted in terror and compare it carefully with the portraits on the wall, to your satisfaction, you do manage to find a close match. A portrait of an middle-aged man with receding flaxen hair, expression sober, but, as you examine the portrait further, you find the eyes vacant, unseeing.

Not too out of the ordinary for a painting of the time, but still, you find it off-putting.

The name under the portrait is one Nigel Hawthorne, painted in 1806, which, if you remember your reading correctly, was one of the wealthiest people in the small, frontier town of Fairfield back in its early days.

Perhaps he's the one who built this place to begin with?

Curious.

[Screaming Bust identified as Bust of Hawthorne, Tag: Screaming Image]

Following a hunch, you trace a path across the room, picking up bits and pieces of fallen marble, some busts having been knocked over by inattentive or malicious workers, eyeing up each painting in turn.

Indeed, almost all of the paintings share Hawthorne's image's vacant, blank demeanor. From Elizabeth and Harold Willingston (1830), to Margeret and Richard Defenbach (1890), and others as well, who lack a helpful placard underneath.

The unique one among them is the recent one, The Carter family, you blink as you examine them again.

You could have sworn they were smiling as you came in, an ordinary family picture, now, however, they seem terrified, grins turning into grimaces of horror, smiling eyes blank mirrors of horror.

[Horrified Picture identified, analyzed, why is this picture unique from the others? This picture shows fear, the others show nothing.]

And for that matter, why are the paintings different from the busts?

Mr. Remington sees your examining of the painting, "Damn shame what happened to them," He grunts. "They were good people."

He speaks as if he knew them.