Panophobia (IC Thread)

[arkturus]

Kat Auburn
Ruined Bedroom, 2F
8:14

THE FUCK IS THIS

Kat could only stare as the monstrosity that possessed Erik revealed itself, alien tentacles spreading outward as if to grab them. Before she caught only glimpses of them but this was the first time she could see one of these things--something so Other--so clearly. But she wasn't here to sightsee, she was here to save Erik!

Except Erick was dead.

So the best next thing was to avenge his death or something. So long Erik, you...you certainly were a guy.

God Bless.

Kat glared at the monster-inhabiting-dead-Erik and sunk into a fighting stance, her goal now plain as day. But she suspected that it take a really big hit to hurt it, this wasn't just a wimpy teenager she was fighting. This was a monster possessing a wimpy teenager. A really big hit, nothing less.

Suddenly Jill dashed forward and swiped at Erik-but-not-Erik's eyes and Kat's trained eyes caught the glint of metal. Did that chick have a knife?!? Not that she was in any position to talk, as a person who was currently walking around with a goddam sword.

But Jill's attack had given her a precious opening. Holding the sword in a reverse grip so it wouldn't get in the way, Kat gave herself a running start, jumped, planted both of her feet on not-Erik's face, and kicked him towards the hole in the floor. A perfectly executed dropkick, much like the kick that got her banned from "helping" the boy's wrestling team practice.

"WELCOME TO FAIRFIELD BITCH!"

[Mormarth]

Teen Girl Squad (Ark + Racin)
Ruined Bedroom, 2F
8:15

With a wordless signal, you begin your purgation of this foul puppeteer with all due haste, Jill palming her knife and lashing out at the thing wearing your classmate's body, the thin blade slicing towards its eyes.

[GO FOR THE EYES]
AGI B (C + Knoife)
vs
AGI C (D + ???)
PASS

COIN FLIP... TAILS
[Unbalanced inflicted]

The sharp steel cuts cleanly across the dead flesh of Erik's body, a foul greenish substance seeping from the cut as you draw it away, but as you retreat, your foot catches on the ruined floor of the bedroom and you stumble, your fear and inexperience having sabotaged you.

[Inflicted with UNBALANCED, Lose 1 AGI until next turn]

The corpse-shell, for its part, hissed in some terrible parody of human pain, that foul ooze creeping down its stolen face, its eyes are alight with a terrible fury and glee as it watches you stumble. It gathers itself, like a predator beginning to pounce forward, when Katrina's sudden flying assault rams into it from the side.

FROM OUTTA NOWHERE
[MGT B+ (modded by Ace]
vs
[MGT A (B + ???)]
BARE FAIL

Her dropkick landed expertly, a fine showing from her time in the Wrestling Club, even if it was more suited to "Professional Wrestling" than the typical mat wrestling you'd find in a High School. Erik's shell stumbles backwards toward the hole, but he catches himself after only a few steps.

Your foot aches, like you've just kicked a brick wall, his movements are weird, inhuman. The stumble more like the skittering of some large and ungainly bug, he straightens, the gash in his face widened slightly, a strange, ethereal glow lighting from within.

"Thanks for the love tap, sweetie, now come on over and give me some real fun!"

He's grinning madly, too widely, you can see the muscles straining, it looks like it hurts, but of course, the body is dead, why should it feel pain?

He lunges at Katrina with a violent overhead swipe, the nomad athlete ducking away smoothly, far too experienced to let an easily telegraphed move like that catch her.

The fist continues its descent, smashing yet another hole in the floor with a violent crashing noise.

He wrenches at it, tugging his wrecking ball of a hand out of the wood floor, fingers twisted and broken.

You hear the faint creaking of the floor around you, you'd have to make this quick, or he's not going to be the only one going down.

[Katie]

Gwendolyn Bright
8:13
Servant's Quarters

There was a seal on the door to this room, of course, but why was it there? If this was just the head of the household, why would he need to be locked up alongside everything else? Even that ghost girl that they had met earlier seemed to exhibit the ability to move between rooms without much restriction, and from a guess she could be construed as innocent, so…

“Was there any reason to keep you in here, Doctor? Do you know who did it?”

Her curiosity piqued and her courage starting to return, Gwendolyn clutches the knife just a bit tighter, like a stress ball.

[Bloble]

Jacob Hopeman
Upstairs Corridor, 2F
8:14

"Well, while the cool kids are over there kicking ass..."

Jacob had no intention of endangering himself. Not when Jill could take the heat for him.

"Keep talking, Mr. Remington. I'm sure nothing else is gonna go wrong."

[Mormarth]

Tak Johnson & Jacob Hopeman
Upstairs Landing

Your teacher visibly took a moment to compose himself, "Right, so, this is going to be quick and dirty, but think of the current situation like this: This world, all you see and everything around it, is like a boat going through this unthinkably large ocean. That ocean is, well, it's had a lot of names, The Spirit World, the Other Side, the Moonlit World, Dreamlands, The Never-Never, even the collective unconscious in more scientific terminology."

He gestured angrily, slamming a hand against the wall, "We just got yanked off the boat and into the water, like a deep-sea fisherman on something way bigger than him."

His leg is shaking, an old injury, he once told you in class.

Leon, quiet during all this, spoke up, "So why don't we just, y'know, cut the line?"

Remington was silent, then stared at him, eyes deep-set, "Yes, what a brilliant idea, can't believe I didn't think of it. Pop Quiz, What is the line connecting us to our catch of the day?"

[Tobias]

Tak Johnson
Upstairs Landing

Tak's stomach had begun to roil unpleasantly. Something he hadn't realized...and would never, ever admit outwardly, was he had apparently never quite realized was that scary movies are scary. You never knew what was going to happen or who was going to die. And hell, Tak was a male. that alone gave him a better even death of dying just to give the actual female protagonist a good rush of fear right before the climax.

"I...don't even know whats happening anymore..." Tak said, resisting the urge to sink his head into his hands. Lee kept flicking his ears off towards what distantly sounded like it might have been a struggle, but since nobody else was reacting, Tak had to figure either he was imagining it or the situation was handled. Right about then, Remington decided to haul up his own death flag and start with the cryptic mentor bit.

"Yes, what a brilliant idea, can't believe I didn't think of it. Pop Quiz, What is the line connecting us to our catch of the day?" The man intoned, presumably unaware that Tak was silently hoping Remington had really enjoyed his last birthday cake.

Interrupting his thoughts, a loud bark brought the troops to attention.

"What really? That seems kind of..." Tak started, before an answering bark cut him off.

"Hey if you say so," Tak responded, before turning to Remington and the others. "Lee says that the difference between the living and the dead is that the living are alive. So he thinks the only way to "unhook" ourselves to would be for us all to kill each other, then we could leave."

The general proceeded to bark once more, a sharp crack that echoed through the large manor.

"He also would like me to add that if thats what we decide to do, he is totally ok with it because TV taught him that All Dogs Go to Heaven. For the record though, let me be the first to say fuck you dog..." Tak eyed his erstwhile friend. "I ain't dying a virgin."

[Mormarth]

Tak Johnson & Jacob Hopeman
Upstairs Landing

He switches his gaze to Tak, the deep pits revealing nothing, then switches his gaze to the General briefly, acknowledging his statement.

"No, in fact, given some evidence, that may be the worst thing we can possibly do."

"Yeah," pipes up Leon, "Didn't that ghost in the chapel say something about he couldn't believe people were still here?" He looked towards Tak, askance.

"You're the one who had the conversation with the stiff, what'd he say?"

[Tobias]

Tak Johnson & Jacob Hopeman
Upstairs Landing

"It was a jo..." Tak began, rolling, his eyes, when once more the general yipped, and then hunched down, growling, both ears poked up like satellite dishes twirling towards the burgeoning commotion from down the hall.

"...Jill? and the others?" Tak said responded, his expression darkening quickly. The young boy shot an incredulous glare at the crew around him.

"No, awesome, you guys take five. You are working to hard." He said sarcastically, clearly setting himself up to begin sprinting...when all of a sudden the general's head whirled around at his master, and he let out an uncharacteristic deep growl that thrummed through the hallway.

"The floor..." Tak said, thinking hard. After a second';s furious thought, he nodded at the massive animal, and said a single word.

"Go."

That was enough to send the General running towards the sounds of the fight, a trail of drool sloshing out between bared fangs marking his passage along the way.

Tak did not follow. Instead, he cracked his neck and shook out his arms, turned away from the other members in the group. After a moment, he drew a very audible, shuddering breath in an apparent attempt to calm down.

"H'ok." He started, his voice still shake. "For the sake of my own sanity I am going to assume you lot somehow knew what Lee just told me, that the floor in there is cracking and a bunch of extra bodies might could cause the whole thing to collapse. That would explain why you are here and not there, though why you aren't getting out a medical kit or rope or something I am still working on. For the moment, I figure you deserve the benefit of the doubt that you know what you are doing seeing as how I was to quick to judge a second ago." Clearly trying to recollect his thoughts, the boy went on.

"Anyway, that ghost from earlier, he talked my ear off and had plenty to say, so get out a memo or something."

After that Tak sketched out everything he could remember from his conversation with Casper, though the worried glances he kept sending off towards the sounds of the fight implied he was clearly still not paying much attention to the conversation at hand.

[RacingeR]

Jill Dumont
Ruined Bedroom, 2F
8:15

This asshole monster…

Jill’s mind goes blank for a moment as her body hangs in the edge of balance, about to fall over but not quite, blood staining her knife. It is not the first time she uses it, she clearly remembered when her mom had given it to her and forced her to train in using it. After the loss of her father, Jill’s mother had grown too scared of losing her too, and had insisted in her having a way to defend herself.

She had proven surprisingly proficient with it. Despite her looks, Jill was athletic, and over all things, quite fast, with good reflexes and a lithe, thin body. Had she ever been interested in improving herself physically, she’d have made quite a good runner.

But it seemed there was a gap between practice and the real thing, and using the knife to spook a thug with too many ideas or to stab a crazed murderer in the hand when he had tried to strangle her weren’t good preparations for an actual fight.

All these thoughts passed through her head, before a realization erases them, a realization that changes everything. Seeing the monster’s attitude, what it had done to Erik, what it had attempted to do to Kat… there was one thing that was very clear.

This monster was a criminal.

All fear and terror is immediately erased, substituted with the nearly psychotic glee that invaded Jill whenever she worked on a case.

And this mansion, this monster, had made the mistake of becoming her case.

Her mind calm and clear, she analyzes the situation, and immediately understands that defeating the monster is impossible. Too many unknowns. There are chances that the opening on the back of its head is its weakpoint, given its pained reaction to being knifed in the face but then feeling no pain when breaking its arm apart, but there are no reasons to know so and she has no idea of what will happen if she sticks her knife there. That option is discarded, and retreating is no good either. In this open room, they had better chances of dodging its attacks, but in the hallway, it’d be much, much harder to do so.

However, the floor is about to break apart, this fight can’t go on, they have to deal with it right now. Which means the only option available, the single way they can deal with this situation is the hole in middle of the floor. The monster’s standing against it, but it has somehow avoided falling into it yet. And as far as she knows, it is the only way they can get away from it.

She looks towards Kat, then her eyes go to the mattress at the side of the room. She prays her impromptu partner understood the message, and then puts her plan into action.

From her unbalanced stance, her knife is unleashed in a single diagonal slash, a slash that is already destined to fail. Jill doesn’t aim to injure the monster, but instead misses on purpose, even using her unbalanced position to better her act and justify her failure. No, what she aims for is to cover the most ground possible with her attack to force the monster to dodge, to allow him to dodge, and leave him only one direction to dodge to. Which should leave him unbalanced and unable to dodge Kat’s follow-up attack, which should throw it to the hole.

Hopefully.

This is not an attack realized with Jill's knife or her body.

It is an attack unleashed with her mind.

[arkturus]

Kat Auburn
Ruined Bedroom, 2F
8:15

The fuck was up with this guy?!

Kat swiftly dodged not!Erik's swing and scrambled to regain her footing on the rickety floor.

He just took that drop kick to the face and all it did was make him stagger a little. We were going to need something bigger. A lot bigger.

But where could she find something big enough?

She looked around frantically, at a loss for what to do next.

It was then that she noticed Jill had been trying really hard to make eye contact with her. The girl then glanced pointedly at the bed before attempting to slash at the monster again.

The bed? What could she use the be- OH.

Kat hopped over to the ruined bed and picked up its mattress. It was a pretty old mattress, the kind with really big springs and heavy with dust from years of neglect.

Plan "Big Hit" ended in a failure so it was time to bring out the contingency plan: Operation REALLY Big Hit (football ver.).

Propping the mattress on her shoulder, Kat rushed at the monster, her body familiar with the action from assisting the football team practicing tackles.

Only this time, a hole was there instead of solid turf.

[Mormarth]

Teen Girl Squad
Ruined Bedroom, 2F

There is a beat, a humming in the air, dotted only by the drippings of whatever foul ichor that the 'Thing' puppeting your classmate's corpse has instead of coppery lifeblood.

And, of course, the ever-present creaking and moanings of a rotting corpse of a house.

Realizing that desperate moves need to be made, and now, the two of you make your move, Jill darts in first, unsteady feet scrapping against the rotting wood of the bedroom floor.

The corpse-puppet snarls, a sound so deep and inhuman it rattles your bones and rakes at your ears, the primal growl of a phantasmal predator.

An arm is lashed out at her, the limb stiff and uncoordinated from the creature's reckless abuse of the host body, a maul more than an arm, a predator lashing blindly out.

Something that is on the cupse of becoming mere prey.

Dodge Check
AGI - C (Attacker) - Reckless
AGI - C (Defender) - Off-Balance

Secondary Check
INT - A

Success!

Knife Check: Success!

Jill's leg is allowed to buckle beneath her as she slides across the floor, the feigned strike now lashing upwards in an opportunistic gash across the torso, more not-blood dribbling out like spoiled milk across the dust-ridden floor.

The creature howls in pain, retreating away from the cunning knife-

And right into your trap-!

A battering ram peaked with a moldy mattress barrels into the fleeing form of what was clearly now your quarry, baited into exposing himself into the proper position.

Katrina barrels into the monster, an errant spring clatters to the floor as the mattress groans in discomfort, the monster shrieking in alarm as she tackles it directly towards the hole in the floor.

A foot touches a tad too close to the edge-

With a crackling groan, you feel the floorings last gasps of life as the monster is pushed into the hole, successfully.

However, momentum far too high from her vicious charge, the half-mystic falls after him, mattress first. But, seeing a sudden opportunity from another sports-related aspect of her long career of being thrown out of clubs, Kat adjusts her elbow and falls, a cushioned guillotine.

You heard a muffled crunch behind your shield of fluff and padding, and rise, slightly gashed from upjumped springs, but mostly unharmed.

The mattress flops to the side, revealing the crushed form of the Silhouette, a spidery, translucent form protruding from Erik's neck, his actual face, as you hesitantly look at it, looks somewhat at peace.

You have won.

Katrina looks around her new environs idly, a Den of some sort, a blocky, old-ass TV on a shelf, a gramaphone, some picture frames on the walls, some reassuringly stable floor.

Katrina New Locale: Den, 1F

Wise-Up!

Silhouette
A Phantasmal ambush predator, puppeting corpses of its human prey to lure more unlucky morsels into its grasp. Feasts on the still present soul of the body in question.

Statistics

BODY - Host Body + 1

MIND

INT - C
WIL - C

Trait - Reckless Hunter - While the Sillhouette is cunning enough in luring prey, in practical combat, it is a flailing incompetent, drastically overusing its host body's own capabilities, allowing for an admittedly powerful burst of effort to capture prey, but as a battle drags on, it begins to reduce its own capabilities by wounding itself.

[Increased BODY, attacks lower BODY per turn]

[Mormarth]

Tak Johnson & Jacob Hopeman
Upstairs Landing

Remington rubbed at his forehead irritably, "Yeah, okay, fine. We don't have a medical kit, genius, nor do we have any rope. I was about to explain why exactly going off alone by yourself in this shithole is the worst idea in the world, Mr. Doolittle, so don't get snippy with me."

He sighed, shoulders slumping, "Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, this... situation is not going the way I wanted it to, in many, many ways."

"The situation has changed," He said, looking at you directly, "We're not in the normal world anymore, we're in its world, and things like space and time shift around rapidly. This is easier to do with one or two isolated people, as a group, we have more weight, which is why I wanted to wait a moment to make sure everything was alright before we run off half-cocked."

"Call it the currents of the ocean we're in, if you want."

He stood back up straighter, "We should all stick together as much as possible, which is why now, we are 'all' going, together. Then, we're going downstairs and going to pray we find Parker and Bright."

Leon murmured a bit more in her ear, and then Gabby stood up straight, feet a bit unsteady, but her eyes clearer.

"I-I'm ready."

Off in the distance, you heard a great crash, then a feminine cry of victory.

Remington nodded, "Alright, let's go."

The group then began moving steadily down the hallway.

MEANWHILE...

Gwendoline Bright and Sarah Parker
Servant's Quarters

"I died in here."

The shade-doctor says this very bluntly.

"No one sealed me in here at all, I was going to sort the room a bit for the night, my brother was coming to town and I wanted it look a bit less..." He pats the air, "Like I was looking down on him."

He shook his head mightily, "Right, right then. Yes. Eh-hem. I was trapped in here by accident, that seal on the door, it's been there since before I bought the place, found a book on it in one of the old libraries. It's supposed to be a sort of spiritual seal, keeps things from crossing the barrier it sets. So, while I suppose it's kept me from being..."

He sort of shuffle-shivered, "Something'd, it's kept me trapped in here, unable to leave."

He paused, spectulatively, "I suppose one of you young ladies could take it off, although I'm not sure how, exactly."

"Think there was a knife with the same marking on it, could be a lock to the key, as it were."

He squirmed about, "Could you, if it isn't too much of a bother, please get it? Think you have to cut the seal with the knife, or scrape it, or something."

All at once, there came a great crashing sound, as if the roof had caved in further in the mansion.

Carter twitched in alarm, "Jesus! Must've been one of the old floors caving in."

[Airen]

Sarah Parker
Servant's Quarters

"...Sounds kinda sketchy."

Having listened to everything with the usual expression, tired eyes staring calmly at something that nevertheless embodied quite a few of her childhood traumas, the dark haired girl just runs a hand through her hair as she says what most people would say.

"Kinda feels horror-movieish you know? Just break the seal, I'm sure it's harmless."

She knows it's a little mean, the specter doesn't seem like a bad guy or anything but...

Come on now.

They always seemed that way.

...Although, if she was being fair.

...She probably should have been a bit more suspicious of the kid, but...

Well, children were more innocent.

"...Besides," voice taking on a bit more of a compassionate tone, but just a bit of one, the young woman's eyes remain emotionless, "There's some serious sounding stuff hanging around out there. It's probably better for you to stay locked in here, much safer and all that, no danger of your soul getting eaten, or whatever happens to shades."

Still...

She wasn't the one with the knife.

A sigh.

"Though it's up to you Gwen, your knife, your call."

[RacingeR]

Jill Dumont
Ruined Bedroom, 2F
8:16

Retreat was probably the best policy.

Jill glared down the hole where Kat and the monster thing had fallen to, and wondered if she should call out to her or something. But her instinct warned her against producing so much noise, and either way there was no way to help her up, if she was still alive, or if she wasn’t busy still fighting that monster.

The floor creaked under her as she stood up, making a pained expression at her scrapped knee. Then, moving with the weight of accumulated fury and adrenaline, as well as the determination that had always characterized her during her detective work. She kicked the door away, and stepped into the hallway- omigosh it is so cute wait a moment.

Acquired General Lee

She finally moved down the hallway, meeting the group halfway through. The image she presented was certainly sinister, her hair messed up, black ichor dripping off her knife, and an angry expression on the face. The combination was perhaps ruined a bit by the confused german shepherd she was holding.

“Oh, there you are, you manly useless wastes of space.” She spat out, annoyed. “Well I guess the floor was gonna go down if any of you fatasses stepped in but at least you could’ve changed into cheerleader uniforms or something.”

“Kat fell down with the nasty. We’re going down to get her.” She declared, and kept walking onwards through the hallway without giving the others time to argue. Not that it mattered. Nobody argues with the girl with the cute doggie.

[Bloble]

Jacob Hopeman
Ruined Bedroom, 2F
8:16

"Go, Jill, go," said Jacob helpfully. "You're just so awesome. If one of us had gone we'd have panicked and died in like, a flash."

Despite his earlier cowardice, Jacob followed after Jill without a word. He even drew the rapier he'd stashed away. Now that Kat was gone she'd need someone to back her up, and the dog wasn't cutting it.

"So," he said. "What was it?" He glanced at the black blood on Jill's knife. "I'm guessing zombie or mad animal."

"By the way, Teach says we ain't in Kansas no more. Think if I paint your shoes red it'll take us back home?"

[Katie]

Gwendoline Bright
Servant's Quarters

“You never mentioned how you died,” Gwendolyn says, eyes narrowed. Much like Sarah, she had her own suspicions, and the sudden change in topic did not help. She would have loved to help him, of course, but if this was merely an affable act, then, well, they would be totally screwed. For the sake of… for the sake of being safe, she had to tread as carefully as she could. Doing a rushjob always made things break in the end. Slowly, carefully, with precision.

“Was it your brother then?” It’s an accusation thrown out based on the snippet of information the alleged owner had given them. Brother feels his sibling looks down on him. Murder driven from rage and jealousy. Classic murder mystery motivation.

“Besides, it didn’t occur to you to simply remove the seal when you were alive?” Something like that would be odd and most certainly outlandish. There wasn’t even a way to spin it off as mysterious spiritual décor. If she was the owner of this house with old as sin sensibilities, that seal would have been gone in a flash.

Then again, she didn’t believe in ghosts until now, either.

[Tobias]

Tak Johnson & Jacob Hopeman
Upstairs Landing

"I was about to explain why exactly going off alone by yourself in this shithole is the worst idea in the world, Mr. Doolittle, so don't get snippy with me."

"Hey, Hey! its doctor doolitle! Do I come over to your house and diss your degree, huh? I didnt spend 8 years on my doctorate to get bad mouthed by someone who skipped out and went into teaching."

Tak's riposte was sharp, but lacked a little flair. It was pretty obvious not having the General around was making him a little edgy. It was the young boy's nature to turn anxiety into a joke.

Tak listened as the teacher explained some of his thinking on metaphysical weight. If Tak was being perfectly honest, most of that shit went right over his head. There was no way a boy who 24 hours back had no idea ghosts were a thing could process this kind of information so suddenly.

He walked with a somewhat numb feeling as they started off towards the sound of combat and what was presumably a friendly victory. Tak felt relieved that either Lee had solved the problem, or he was not needed in the first place.

As a result, there was only one thing to do.

"So," Tak said, looking at Leon, "Did you hear the one about the boy ghost who loved his girlfriend? ..."He though she was just boo-tiful!"

Tak chuckled entirely to hard at the lame pun. He seemed to recover a little of his zest as he playfully elbowed the other boy in the ribs.

...But you know, the best commanders were the type who could also act as a regular soldier. And one such general had no qualms with doing a rescue operation himself. Tail fluffy and wagging, The mighty commander brought back two of the troops after tak had told him to lend a hand..

...Jill had seen some better days. Specifically, she was holy hell holding a bloody knife stained with something Tak could smell from where he was standing. Token gay option was behind her, and he didn't look much better.

"Honestly, Jill, looks like you could use a little cheering up but I dont have any pom po..." Tak's joke was cut short when Jill strode by stiff legged. Well, it was hard to blame her. Honestly with a bunch of folks standing around while she had apparently been fighting for her life, it was easy to see what had set her teeth on edge. Beside Jill, Lee cast an eye between her and Tak, and then tilted his head.

"Nah," its cool." Tak said, answering the unspoken question. "Keep an eye on her will you? Little lady seems like she has been through a lot."

In response Lee yipped and fell into heel beside Jill once more.

"So," falling in beside Jacob. "You all right? No injuries? Bruises? Penetrations except for ones you wanted to happen? You wanna tell me what happened back there?"

[arkturus]

Kat Auburn
Den, 1F
8:16

"Owwwww~"

Kat rubbed her scratched leg. The cut wasn't deep or anything but it sure stung.

Still, it beat being dead.

Poor Erik. His only crime was diligently attending his detention punishment. Although, maybe he wasn't so diligent if he had to go to detention in the first place.

Glancing around the room, Kat weighed her options. She fell straight down directly to the room below, a den it seemed. She could either find her way back to the lobby through this floor or see if she could somehow climb back up to the second floor.

It was then that she remembered the makeshift rope she made. Since she attached it to the floor, it must have fallen down when the ground gave way. If she found it maybe...

She dug through the pile of rotten wood until she found it. Luckily it seemed unbroken. Quickly she swung it above her head and aimed it at the floor above her, drawing from her experience rock climbing.

She could do this.

[Mormarth]

Gwen and Sarah
Servant's Quarters, 1F

The specter listened to your retorts to his request gamely, grimacing slightly, shifting in some ghostly fashion your brains still managed to interpret as 'awkward'.

"Well, you have to understand, I don't particularly like thinking about d-, what killed me. I try to avoid it, if I can. But, I'll try and give some details."

"We didn't get rid of the seal because of, heh, my mother, she is... was, I suppose, old-school, into mysticism and symbology, I never got it myself, but the girls went crazy about it, luck charms and such. Harmless phony sh-, er, stuff."

"She said the symbol warded off spirits, kept things 'solid', nothing from the world beyond could pass beyond the bounds of Solomon. It's one of the few times she sounded damned serious, so I let it set, I thought it looked pretty cool, too."

He closed his eyes for a moment, his incorporeal form flicking a bit, nervously, "Er, sorry about changing the topic to the crash. I get a bit side-tracked when things happen, haven't been outside since, well, I died."

"It came from behind, it wasn't human, I know that much, it was strong, really strong," He waved a ghostly hand down at his still-bleeding wound, "Took a chunk out of me, like a shark. It was, I think it was trying to pull me off my feet, I was working on the door there," He nodded behind you, "Sprucing things up, you know. It grabbed me, so I, in a panic, grab at the door frame."

His form flickers a bit more, his features looking strained, "I tried to look what it was, but I couldn't, I didn't see anything, it was like being pulled by an invisible man or something. It still had a hold on me, so I keep pulling and pulling at the door, clinging for dear life, and I must've pulled myself past the door, because it stopped, took part of my leg."

He opens his eyes, they were filled with pain, "I bled a lot, I cried out, no one answered, I knew my daughter was in the organ room so I tried to warn her, but I didn't, I-"

"Sorry."

The phantom patriarch slumps in his chair, he waved a hand at you, "Got a little lost there for a minute. You're right, I just, I got so eager to see what was outside, I didn't worry about myself. But I- I just want to know..."

He shook his head, "Go. It's through the other door in the kitchen, down the hall, last door on the right."

You hear another great crash.

Kat Auburn
Den, 1F

You twirled the length of rope up and over your head, tossing it upwards to the room above, hoping that it would catch on something, anything.

Maybe Jill was still up there!

The rope slid back down, apparently not.

You repeated this a few times, angling your toss towards the bedspread that bore your ad-hoc weapon against the insidious whatever-the-fuck that was.

Finally, you seemed to have gotten some good luck, as the rope catches, probably on one of the knobbed ends of the bed, and, with astonishing core strength, begin to pull yourself up.

Unfortunately things begin going wrong rather quickly, the floor (well, roof) above you creaking ominously under your weight, splinters cracking off from the supports.

Then the knobbed end snaps off, the rope carrying it back to your position blindingly fast, however, thanks to your well-honed reflexes in the sport of [Dodgeball], you jerk smoothly out of the way, the knob crunching against a wall behind you.

Then the bed crashes through the floor, leaving you coughing in a roomful of dust and shavings.

Well.

That could've gone better, you suppose.

However, as you turn and survey the wall where the knob landed, you spot a curious deformation in the wall, like something had been papered over and hastily covered up.

There is a tear in the wallpaper where you could possibly figure out what this is.

Or you could go find the others, you knew there was another group downstairs somewhere.

[Airen]

Sarah Parker
Servant's Quarters

"..."

Listening to the story in silence, Sarah listened to the story without changing her expression, hands still in the pockets of her pants. It was the expected story, sprinkled with sadness and tragedy, but while a part of her certainly feels bad about being so blunt, so pragmatic with her words...

She's not a fool.

This was the best path for both parties.

"...Maybe when the monster is gone, you can come out," the words aren't meant to instill confidence, or even a false hope, she simply says them just because it might be possible one day, "You won't be risking being eaten that way. It's for the best."

One hand raised in farewell, she marches straight for the door.

Might as well figure out what happened to the others...

Or figure out if they got left behind or not...

"I'm going, Gwen."