WHEN: 17 Feb 1943, 2pm
WHERE: Eumenides Sanitarium, Mercer House
WHO: Alex, Odette, Delilah, Hector, Hirose, Su Hyeok, and some ghosties
[14:36] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The room was not typically that cold. The chill happened suddenly, settling past the skin and into the bone, accompanied by the quieting of the sounds of the hall beyond. The sky outside felt dark, murky for 2pm in the afternoon, clouds having rolled in to cover most of the sunlight. Outside, the hallway light flickered.
[14:43] Alex was curled up on their bed, leaned against the wall with their legs pulled against their chest and a tired look on their face. Their gaze lingered out the window at the darkened, rainy sky as the doctor who'd come in to check up on them finished zipping up his trousers and locked the heavy metal door behind him on his way out. Once he was gone, they turned their head to hide and wipe their face against the sheets, before shivering when they felt the sudden chill filling their cell. They didn't notice the flickering outside, but they could definitely *feel* that *something* was off, more so than usual anyway, leaning their head up again to glance around the dreary chamber anxiously.
[14:47] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The doctor's footsteps stopped suddenly, far too close to Alex's door to be a natural place to pause. His soles squeaked against the tiles as if he were pivoting... only instead of more footsteps there was the sound of a strained gurgle, a pause, then a heavy impact. The light in the hallway shut off entirely with a soft click.
[14:51] Alex blinked, and finally glanced up towards the small, barred window nearby when they heard the sudden heavy thump of someone hitting the floor in the hallway outside. Their brows furrowed, worry deepening as the light clicked off almost immediately after, squeezing back against the wall towards the corner of the room on the mattress. "H-hello?" They called out meekly.
[14:53] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): There was no verbal reply. Usually, Alex could have gotten any sort of response - noise from other patients, an orderly or a nurse, a doctor... but there was nothing, just silence and dark. The chill moved in along with the smell of something sweet and pungent, like decay... followed by something rank and fetid, like sulfur. Alex's door unlocked with a scrape of metal on metal and slowly crept open.
[14:57] Alex's lips thinned and eye widened as they not only didn't hear response from outside the cell, but truly didn't seem to hear anything at all. Dead, cold silence, which in and of itself was terrifying as it should have been impossible for them in this building. They coughed at the terrible stench that suddenly flooded the room, then went rigid with terror as the door unlocked and began to open slowly. "W-wer ist da?!?"
[14:59] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): Nothing stood in that empty doorway. What little Alex could make out of the hallway beyond was unchanged, simply cast in darkness. It was lit only by what vague light streamed in from the windows, every electrical light having been shut off. There was the rattle of something like one of the gurney wheels shifting slightly off to the left from their door, as if it had pushed away from the wall a bit.
[15:07] Alex just stared out in fearful silence at the dark, empty hallway for a long moment. It felt in their mind like several minutes had passed before they worked up the courage to slowly, tentatively slide off the bed and up to their feet. They crept over to the door, cautiously leaning out to glance up and down the hallway and see if anyone was there, or if there was any clue to what was going on.
[15:09] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The hallway was empty, all the locked patient rooms shut and dark. The doctor's body was nowhere to be seen. As Alex got past the edge of their own open door the swinging door to the morgue that sat to their left thudded shut, quivering a little from the momentum. It had either been open... or had been pushed, just a little bit, to make the noise. Vaguely, the sound of a quiet whisper could be heard from that direction - barely audible, the words impossible to make out.
[15:13] Alex was practically trembling at this point, jumping and swiveling their head at every little sound from around them and wondering if they'd wandered into a nightmare somehow without realizing it. The scent they'd smelled just moments ago had already set them on edge as it reminded them terrifyingly of the dreams of the rotting woman they'd been suffering lately. For now, they honed in on those whispers, wandering their way towards the source of the noise by the morgue and leaning up on their toes to peer through the round window into the room.
[15:19] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The lights in the morgue turned on abruptly as Alex peered inside. The familiar figure of the doctor stood at the table, illuminated by the harsh surgical lamps and blocking the view of anything that might've been laying on it. He was a psychologist, that one. There was no business he'd have in that operating theatre, even in that day and age... and from the looks of things and the forward and back movements of his hips, he was certainly not operating anyway. Soft sobs could be heard from the table in front of him, from whatever unseen figure was the object of the doctor's attention. If Alex listened long enough, they'd hear a quiet, shaky voice ask, "Help me."
[15:24] Alex's eye widened and their heart clenched in their chest as they saw what was happening and heard the plea for help from inside. Their jaw clenched tightly and a nauseous feeling came over them, glancing back over their shoulders as they debated what to do, afraid of getting caught, but... They tried to reach for the door, only to be reminded of their current bindings as they arms tugged at the straps holding the sleeves of the straitjacket behind them, so they slowly, carefully nudged the door open with their shoulder instead, trying to enter he room as quietly as possible.
[15:28] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The doctor seemed too enthralled by his current affair to notice the door opening, allowing Alex to enter quietly. Next to them, the morgue drawers were in disarray. One of them sat open, another ajar, both of them empty. The room itself was as frigid as Alex's had been. As quiet as the rest of the place was, the sound of skin on skin, the wet noises of entry were practically deafening. Despite that the whimpering was audible- "Hurting me. Please. Help me." Loud compared to the near-silent sound of the straps and clasps of Alex's straightjacket coming undone.
[15:40] Alex felt a shudder of vengeful, indignant wrath rippling through them as those uncomfortably familiar sounds grew louder in their mind amid the otherwise unnaturally deafening silence of the Sanatorium. The sounds of helpless pleading tore at their psyche like ragged claws to the point that they barely questioned it when their bindings came undone, freeing their arms. Their trembling fingers slipped out from the end of the long straitjacket sleeves, reaching out to wrap around the handle of a scalpel laying by the edge of the sink to be washed from a previous operation. Their body shivered from the unbearable chill of the room, but their mind remained single-mindedly focused as they continued to creep up towards the doctor from behind silently. Once they were finally in position, they lunged forward, aiming wildly to shove the scalpel into the flesh of the offending phsyician's shoulder or neck.
[15:46] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): As Alex neared they could see the nude lower half of a pale, slender figure on the table, their top half bound as Alex's own had been only moments ago. The doctor's thrusts jostled them painfully, the unforgiving angles of the table's raised sides likely to be causing issues. The scalpel's blade hit home, however... sinking into the doctor's neck and severing the jugular that ran up the side of it. He grappled at it, gurgling before toppling over sideways, leaving the poor, quivering figure to curl up in a ball on the table itself. They looked familiar... long blonde hair and pale skin, their face covered by the spill of pale yellow tresses. The doctor's body hit the floor and both morgue drawers slammed shut immediately, the lights in the room immediately cutting out and leaving Alex in inky blackness with the other patient's sobs for company. The whisper began again. "...help me. Will you help me? Leave here? I have to get out of here."
[15:57] Alex: 's jaw trembled and they stumbled backwards away from the psychiatrist as he toppled to the ground with a gurgle and a heavy thump, their stark white clothes sprayed with a fresh splattering of blood in the process. Something about this echoed in familiarity with the sounds they'd heard in the hallway only moments before, and they stood there in stunned silence, watching the doctor bleed out onto the floor, taking deep, shuddering, gasping breaths until the voice from the table snapped them out of it. They glanced up in time to see a figure very much resembling their own, in a vulnerable position they were all too familiar with,though they jumped as the lights cut out starkly before they could see the other patient's face. "Shhh, sh sh... y-yes. C-c-come on... w-we n-need to go..." They whispered as panic over what they'd just done began to sink in, reaching out for the other patient in the darkness and helping them up to their feet, hastily tugging their trousers up to restore some semblance of dignity for them before offering the support of their shoulder and hurrying towards the door.
[16:03] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The patient leaned heavily against Alex, their own frail-thin body so cold, barely any weight as they moved. Once Alex reached the other set of swinging doors the weight moved away entirely and the doors pushed open into the blackness of the hall beyond. There were footsteps audible this time, coming from upstairs where the pharmacy and max security wing was, sounding frantic as they approached. "Hurry - hurry!" hissed the voice, much closer to Alex's ear than was logical, accompanied by the sensation of a tug to their wrist by a chilled hand in the direction of the stairs.
[16:08] Alex panicked for a moment when the frail body of the other patient slipped away from them, feeling out into the darkness through the oversized sleeves of their straitjacket as they hurried after. The pounding of footsteps rushing in their direction from upstairs sent another jolt of panic rushing through them and they bolted down the next flight of steps, practically leaping two or three at a time as the voice urged them onward ever faster. At the bottom they wasted no time and stopped for nothing, following the tug of the chilled hand to burst out the front double doors and make a break for the gate.
[16:11] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): Outside the asylum the world rushed back in in color... and sound. The afternoon was certainly brighter than jet black, the sudden rush of (albeit cloudy) sunlight assaulting Alex's eyes. Still, the chill remained with them, tugging at their sleeve and heading for the metal gate. "Hurry! Don't stop!" hissed the voice, the glimpse of another figure in the same straightjacket stumbling forward ahead of them, clinging to Alex's oversized sleeve. Their pull was stronger than the frail body Alex had seen ought to have been able to accomplish. Behind them, the noises of running footsteps and security guards could be heard along side the call of the front desk receptionist over the facility intercom informing the staff of a patient elopement occurrence.
[16:28] Alex gasped for air as they were slowed just enough to slide down the side of the hill without cracking their skull open on the hard earth at the bottom below, their heart racing in their chest like a pounding drum. The next cliff was much too tall and much to steep to slide down though, so they reached out quickly to grab hold of the other patient's arm, dragging them along as they bolted down the winding ramp this time. All the way down their mind raced for where they could go, where they could hide. Surely people would be sent after them now...
[16:32] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The arm Alex gripped was rail thin and the other patient followed them readily, stumbling along as they ran. "Hurry. Hurry, they're going to catch us!" shrieked that voice, breathless and afraid, vulnerable and small, always so very closeby to Alex's ear despite the 'patient' being dragged along behind and slightly to their side. Not that anyone else on the street could see the spirit latched onto the escapee unless they had the talents for such things... in fact most seemed... aghast, or bothered. They whispered amongst themselves or skirted around Alex as they ran.
[16:36] Hector: had stepped out of Murphy's for a smoke break. He was pale, tired, but dressed nice today. He'd had himself a few baths over across the bridge and since he didn't do much with his money he got himself some new duds. Plus a few people he'd saved from the curse had given him 'tips.' He didn't like being 'tipped' in that way, but he also couldn't say no to such a thing. He's just minding his own business, about to light a cigarette when a wave of ghostliness hit him and he sighed. He turned toward the sound of voices, not surprised that it was coming from the path that led up to the Asylum. "What now?" He mumbled to himself.
[16:41] Alex allowed themselves to be tugged along by the cold grip of the figure in front of them as far as they could go, still oblivious to the idea that what they might be seeing was anything other than another panicked patient, in as much trouble as they were. Their mind was far too lost with fear and the screaming rush of adrenaline to question what they were seeing and hearing as they rushed down the cobblestone streets in their bloodstained, unbound straightjacket, looking every bit the violent escaped lunatic that the wary pedestrians likely saw them as at the moment. Their breathless questioning of someone who wasn't there as they fled likely didn't help their case either, their lungs and muscles burning as their thin, out-of-shape frame struggled to keep going. "W-where? Where!?" They glanced around frantically for some alleyway, or other dark, abandoned place they could flee into to hide, failing to notice Hector nearby just yet.
[16:45] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): The spirit was pulling, tugging, hauling Alex toward that abandoned house at the end of the street, whispers of "HURRY" and "HIDE HERE" in their ear, goading them along. That place... was so full of the dead anyway it was likely not to be noticed among the others, especially considering there were a few steady, permanent inhabitants that seemed staunchly unwilling to leave. Faces, if Alex looked at them, seemed to sneer or grimace - offering no comfort, no welcome, no friendliness if the escape were to look for it in a person nearby. To Hector Alex likely looked like they were shrouded in a shadow... something latched to their back and hunched over them, oppressive and heavy and altogether unpleasant.
[16:49] Hector: absolutely facepalms as Alex goes running by with what looked like an absolute leech of a creature on their back. He looked around, trying to make sure that things were, mostly going unnoticed for now. It occurred to him that likely only him and others like him could hear the 'shouting.' Alex's voice was the only one that was human and audible. His shoulders shrank and he gave a whistle. Something Illusioned seemed to leap out of the window (with the individual's permission). It landed against Hector's back, a glimmer of something on him now too, like a creature clinging to him in a similar way, only it wasn't as oppressive. It was like an extension of him. He was at Alex's heels, headed for that big haunted house. Ooooh that BIG haunted house. He really needed to learn Telepathy or something because being without a means of sending quick messages was a bummer. Plus, who could he even tell?? The only person he knew that was Alex's 'friend' was that Odette lady and he had no idea how to find her. Should he...contact Roesler? "Fuck..." he'd try to do this himself for now.
[16:54] Alex did exactly as guided, reason still blinded by panic, and fled straight for that old abandoned house on the corner of the street, away from their pursuers, and away from the leering, unsympathetic faces of the onlookers around them. They shoved open the gate and rushed inside, throwing open the ancient wooden doors with an ominous creak, and still they didn't stop yet, hastening their way up the stairs on their shredded socks and aching legs in search of someplace secure to hide...
[17:01] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): That big old haunted house creaked and groaned but the metal gate seemed to ease itself open as Alex pushed on it. The wooden ones to the house itself though almost resisted, as if something or somethings on the inside were very much against another resident... especially that kind of resident. It wasn't until Alex saw their little 'friend' run up to the door and start POUNDING on it that the door itself flew open to admit them. "They're AFTER you!" it whispered, swiftly attempting to close the door behind Alex and shut it tight.
[17:07] Hector: didn't want to call too much attention to the scene. After all, it was very obvious that Alex just absconded from the Asylum. He hissed and took off at a jog, reaching behind him through that shimmer to come down with...a scythe. Yep, there it is, in all it's glory. Or there THEY are. That scythe has a very clear energy of a soul, of a person, of...more than one person kind of...it's made of bone and magic, but there's a presence about it. That's some High Level Necromancy right there. He's taken a dead person and twisted them up into a tool. Not something that can be done easily. Perhaps there's something more on that island to fear than leech ghosts, ghouls and Gods who won't let people cross over. Hector has been...busy. "Alex...Alex can you hear me?" He watched two ghosts fleeing further up into the haunted house, narrowing his eyes at the fear in their faces. "Oiy...you, you hanging on my friend's back there. Didn't your mother ever teach ya...supposed to have a coin for the Reaper..." His voice dipped low, vibrating, like the growl of a man in a metal band.
[17:11] Hirose Nao || All Nao had wanted was to get himself a damned drink after failing to get the job he'd been hoping to get. That was the only thing the man had wanted. Not a damned thing more, but no - weird shit had to keep happening to him.
"Why the fuck did I come here..." he grumbled to himself. Callisto. Of all the places to go, he had to come to the place where all the weird shit happened, because of course he did.
Ultimately, the man just sighed, his eyes tracking the 'kid' who just ran straight into the locus of... Well, probably half the weird shit on the island happened. Should he help? He didn't really WANT to. That meant getting more involved with all the aforementioned weird shit and that wasn't what he wanted to do. No, Nao wanted to live a perfectly normal life. Whatever that meant. It certainly didn't mean chasing after someone who ran into the very NOT normal house looking frightened out of his mind.
"... Fuck," he said again, seeing the doors swinging open and shut on its own. His eyes flick over towards Hector, who seemed to be running after the person who'd just fled into the Mercer house from... Something.
He just stands there for a moment, then turns to make way to the pub across the street, takes one, two, three steps in that direction; and then turn around, just shaking his head and sighing.
He sees Hector walking up into the manor, pulling out a... Fuck, is that a scythe...? Where did that even come from...?
Why is he even surprised...?
Nao groans. He pops open his briefcase, opens a hidden compartment, pulls out one of his revolvers.
He walks up towards the gate, staying behind the hedge for now, considering his options. Should he maybe just...? It wasn't too late to leave, either... Or maybe...?
[17:16] Alex groaned and shoved and tried to force those unwelcoming doors open to no avail until the other 'patient' rushed up to help them, and the heavy wooden barrier finally gave way, before slamming sharply shut again behind them once they'd rushed inside. Their fear of being caught by the guards from the Sanatorium after what they'd just done was driving them further away from potential aid from Hector as well in blind terror. Hector might also notice as he approached the house that where the sleeves of their straitjacket had touched the gate and doors of the house, smears of blood had been left behind. Wherever those crimson stains had come from, the blood was fresh, and very real.
Alex meanwhile heard the shout of their name from the door that had just slammed shut behind them and in front of Hector, but since they hadn't seen the man and didn't immediately recognize his voice in their current state, their panicked mind assumed it must be the Asylum guards still right on their tail, especially as their invisible 'friend' warned them of such. They bolted up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms, still in search of somewhere to hide until their gaze landed on an old chest in one corner, running to try and throw the dusty container open.
[17:25] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): As Alex reached the top of the stairs and made for the bedroom with the dusty chest the cracked door on the floor flew up and smashed into the top of the doorframe. It slammed back down onto the floor then flew, fast and dangerous, out of the way so the door itself that was still attached could slam shut. The entity latched to Alex evidently did not want to go into that room... in fact, Alex saw their 'friend' darting along the landing toward the room with cracked tiles beyond - the bathroom? Perhaps they meant to hide in a closet or tub? "He's going to get us, we can't let him get us, please!" said that voice. Now if Alex chose to go in there anyway... it was probably like running at the top of a very high mountain. Hard to breathe - suffocating even. And they could certainly feel eyes on them, watching their every move.
[17:28] Odette di Benedetti hated having to walk up the path to the asylum. It was so unnecessarily laborious. If she could have been sure she was not seen, she'd have used her vampire speed to just...appear at the gates without being concerned she'd muddy her boots.
It was her day to visit Alex, and the last time she'd seen them, Dr. Morsus had been tending to the deep and less-than-healthy chest wound.
Odette had just left the bookstore, a new drawing pad tucked in the crook of her arm for her friend, and wandered along the lane toward her cottage, intent on changing her boots before she headed up to Eumenides.
As soon as she reached the door to Murphy's, though, a small girl about eight to ten years old, pigtails bouncing as she ran and dressed in a pink frilly dress, hied toward the diminutive woman. The look on her little face was seeking, and she stared right at the woman.
Odette's steps slowed, only to have the girl dash up to her and whisper, "Hector says to tell you that they ran into a haunted house. The one called Alex. Go quickly! That way!", she thrust out the arm not holding the stuffed bunny and pointed toward the gates of a decrepit looking place...
Oh, hellfire and damnation...what now?
Nevertheless, Odette moved toward the gates.
[17:30] Hector: gets a door slammed in his face. "Oh Hell no! You did NOT just shut the door in my face!" Almost got his nose snipped it was THAT close. This is that moment in any ghost fight when he gets hit in the face with something and sees red. Normally it's a rock to the cheek or...that one time it was a literal trash can upside the head. This time it was a door to the face. He raises the scythe over his head and is just about to slam it into the door with the scythe itself stops and seems to vibrate as if talking to him. "Huh? Ah...mmm, I suppose you're right. I'm sorry Darling." Yes, he just called the bone blade 'darling.' Clearing his throat he takes a step back and inspects the door. "Blood...fuck...please don't tell me they killed a guard or something." The blade pulsed. "Or yes, you are right. They could be hurt." He breathed out heavily. "OK, Hat-Man, circle the building...try to find another way in. Back doors, open windows, balconies...even a large chimney if it's clear. I'll fucking Santa Clause this shit." He reached up to unbuckle his collar, letting his glamour drop and black wings unfurl behind him. He wasn't too worried about flying around this particular spot. Most wouldn't be caught...heh...dead there. He didn't know there was a man behind him, else he might have hesitated, something slammed and he gasped, flaring his wings out and slamming himself into the doors, popping them open and tumbling inside, eating dusty carpet and looking up to quite a few ghosts rolling their eyes at him. "Ow..." He waved a hand. "Sorry, not here to bother any of you...just after that shadowy thing attached to the human." Wait, did he just hear Odette?
[17:36] Hirose Nao strongly considered just popping off a few shots into the sky. It'd cause the constables to swarm the area, no doubt, and then he could just get on with his day. No more of the weird abnormal bullcrap that had come to define his life.
Gods, he really just needed a drink. Well, maybe not, really - he drank too much, he knew it, and hated that too - but well, at least that was a NORMAL problem. Not a 'someone just ran into the very paranormal house that people sometimes just disappeared in' kind of problem.
Of course, constables swarming the area probably wouldn't be great for 'normal' either
It was a pretty major internal conflict, and the man ultimately seems to decide... Whatever's going on honestly probably isn't his problem. He sets his briefcase on the ground, putting away his pistol and just sighing as he sees someone ELSE coming up to the gates. This one he can only really describe as, well, -white-. Everything about her was white, and that SCREAMED weird to the 'definitely, absolutely, totally very normal' man.
"... If you're looking for the two who just went in, good luck. Weird shit's happening in there and I'm not getting involved," he offers perfunctorily. "Just try not to explode the pub." He turns to make his way across the street, to Murphy's. Dammit, he's getting that drink if it's the last thing he does. Probably could be, knowing how many of the other 'weird' ones seemed to have a propensity for turning the air itself into fiery bombs. He'd know. he had far too many experiences with those. Well, one really, really big one. Or maybe many really really small ones?
Shit, he didn't want to think about that.
He starts walking towards Murphy's.
[17:36] Delilah Shaw was doing her usual: aimlessly wandering around town. Smoking, drinking, getting agonizingly little from either thing despite being through half a pack of one and over half a flask worth of the other. It was around when she spotted a familiar spot of pure white on the horizon that she saw fit to focus her wanderings a bit. Rapidly focus, apparently, because the ginger revenant was there one moment, gone the next. When she reappeared she was directly behind Odette, looking up at a positively huge house beyond a gate. "What're you doin' there, love?"
[17:40] Alex stopped sharply with a scream of fear, hands flying up with a flapping of oversized sleeves to guard their face when the doors suddenly sprang to life and slammed the way they'd been trying to run shut in front of them. They turned, following their fleeing 'friend' around the upper landing to the bathroom in the far corner, wincing as they felt a sharp piece of shattered tile jabbing into their bare foot through the thin, torn socks they wore. "I-I won't... w-won't let him get us..." They panted out raggedly, trembling, and having no idea the 'he' in question was Hector and not the guards... or the doctor. They reached for the illusory other patient's hand and turned the corner, climbing into the ancient, rusted tub in the corner of the room. They curled up inside it to hide from their pursuers, though it hardly did much to make them feel any safer. Surely they would look here?
[17:45] Odette di Benedetti cast a sidelong glance to the man holding the pistol as she broached the gates, an oddly steeled expression on her doll-like features as she halted just before entering.
The voice behind her should have startled her, but it did not. She supposed she smelled Thorn before she actually heard her, her free hand reaching back to touch the woman's hand as she murmured in hushed tones,
"A little girl told me someone named Hector meant for me to find Alex in this house, then this gentleman...", she canted her head to the gentleman standing to her left and holstering a pistol,
"...offered the same information. Alex must be in trouble.".
Succinct, and she'd quickly release Delilah's hand and step toward the gate, intent on finding out what the hell was going on.
[17:50] Hirose Nao || Another one. Yeah, that's another of them. That broad wasn't there a moment ago, and now she very much is. Plus she seems acquainted with the woman in white, which, well... Yeah, dead giveaways on all accounts. Fuck. Where was he going to find a normal job? Just pushing papers. That's all he wants!
He groans again. [I miss the homeland,] he mutters in Japanese whose vernacular seems to be at least a decade or two behind. Was the homeland any better? Well, probably not, if he was really honest. Between the land gods and the house gods and all the other 'weirds' that wandered his homeland, it was probably equal in the 'weird' factor as Callisto - but of course, at least back then he'd known nothing, and most of them pretended to be like humans.
That stopped being the case once he stopped being as mortal as he'd like to have been.
Well, he wanted nothing to do with either Odette or Delilah or anyone rushing into the building at that point, and into the bar he went.
[17:54] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): Alex's friend was curled up with them, so familiar and yet - distinctly smaller, frailer, longer-haired. "They're going to come up... we have to stop them," they whispered at Alex. "You CAN. I believe in you. Use the pipes." They reached out to touch Alex's shoulder gently, the straightjacket on their own rail-thin frame somehow... undone now that they were free of Eumenides. Alex was given a vision like a flash of images - showing the pipes and the exposed places in the house, twisting valves and knobs making them spray at people - sometimes in not so pleasantly hot temperatures.
To those with Sight or some connection to the dead, the place was a hotspot. The little boy had fled back down to the first floor and was crouching beside Hector, staring at him with innocent, wide eyes. "Are you friends with Hat-Man?" he asked before poking in the direction of the scythe. "My sister hates him. She thinks he's creepy. I think he's fun." His 'sister' was lurking in one of the corners of that first floor sitting room, hanging from the ceiling, the rope around her neck tight enough to make her voice a rasp. From the cellar door in the kitchen came several loud THUMPS, causing a few of the newer ghostly inhabitants to scoot from that side of the house to the other. Big nope for that cellar.
The door upstairs directly facing the stairwell was shut tight and that dark, shadow of a thing that had been clinging to Alex's back was palpably in the front left corner of the house (if you're facing the house, or standing just inside with your back to the front door).
[17:58] Hector: shuts his eyes for a moment and calls out. "Alex! Alex it's Hector! I need you to think about what I taught you!" Pushes himself to his feet and starts to sort of tip toe around. He thought he'd heard commotion from upstairs, so he starts to try and walk carefully for the stairs, but all the broken bits made it less than quiet. He hissed faintly. "The dead don't react like the living do. They'll do anything to gain our attention. They repeat the same words...like a parrot. Their expressions are limited yet exaggerated. This house is filled with ghosts Alex. Just take a breath and do your best to truly see..." Hector would do anything to just, lay hands on Alex and let them 'see' but the mechanism wasn't as easy as all that. It was a skill like anything else and either you figured it out, or you got lost in it. Much like a savant that could work with numbers, either you could explain to others how it worked, or you just stood at the chalk board mumbling to yourself while you scribbled numbers.
[17:58] Hector: Sure it LOOKED miraculous, but what good did it do you, if you otherwise couldn't make your own meals and pissed your pants? A wing gave an angry FWIP! and he made a little choppy motion at the air. He didn't want to be angry, but he didn't think whatever that was that was attached to Alex was particularly benevolent. He wrapped the scythe neatly around himself and then rubbed his hands together, forming that five point star gifted to him by the monk of Abe no Seimei. Then the little boy appeared and he smiled down at him. "I am. He's like a father to me." Then he looked to the hanging girl and nodded. "Hat-Man can be creepy, but won't hurt anyone if I tell him not to. Have you met Agatha and Maria? I think they may be stuck outside for the moment." He furled his brows. "Can you do me a favor little one? Can you find the human and tell them not to be frightened? They are my friend, but something or someone has them scared half to death." He winked. "I don't think any of you want ANOTHER roommate do you?"
[18:00] Delilah Shaw responded to the hand with a gentle squeeze, one that tightened as she listened in. The expression on her face had gone from soft and affectionate to.. one that could only be described at alert. Not quite alarmed, not panicked. But suddenly, fully, alert. From rest state to threat state in a blink of her corpse-pale eyelids. "I'm going to find out, then. I can get in ahead of you, make sure there's nothing dangerous waiting on the inside." The main to Odette's left got a cursory glance-over, and the only thing sparing him from the full brunt of Delilah's skin-flaying scrutiny was Odette's word that he'd apparently tried to help. For now, at least.
[18:00] Delilah Shaw lets a warning about his gun dies on her lips as the man promptly speeds off, so she instead looks up to get an idea of where to land. Merely a moment later, she's gone, reappearing on the second-floor landing, outside a window. let her voice call out into the house as she began walking up to the glass. "ALEX? Mein Herz?" She starts to walk carefully up to the window she'd landed outside of, body tensed up as she makes ready to run into a fight. "It's Delilah! C'mon out, I wanna take you home."
[18:06] Odette di Benedetti knew without doubt Thorn would be on her heels, or leading the advance as was her normal path, given she still forgot on occasion how strong and agile the littlest vampire actually was.
Odette felt certain it was simply in Delilah's nature to protect, vehemently, what she deemed precious.
Alex was firmly in that category.
She nodded mutely when Thorn did exactly as she expected and started through the gate. However, Odette flinched the tiniest bit when the woman just...vanishes and the smaller of the two can hear her voice lifted to call to Alex.
Odette, on the other hand, slipped through the gate and shut it firmly behind her, the brolly closed with a quick flick of her wrist and she cleared the steps in a single hop, moving through the front doors with her umbrella across her torso as if she intended it could do some damage if needed.
Black eyes darted around the main room...
"What the....."
[18:08] Alex worried over their fellow patient protectively in the rusted old tub, nodding quickly when they urged them to do something to stop their pursuers from getting to them. Pursuers they still thought were the guards from the Sanatorium, come to drag them back and lock them away and make them pay for what they'd done. And with that in mind, their psyche was locked in fight-or flight mode as their new 'friend' showed them flashes of the pipes and exposed valves around the dilapidated house. They weren't sure what their friend expected of them, but they tried to focus on those images, focus on the idea of turning those knobs and unleashing a spray of scalding hot water and whatever else was in those ancient pipes, at the ones outside and below pursuing them, while they stayed hidden down in the bath upstairs. The shouts of familiar names though did distract them slightly and threaten to pull them out of whatever mental pit they'd dug themselves into, glancing away from the other patient curled up beside them for just a moment. "D-Delilah? ...Hector?"
[18:13] Kim Su-Hyeok (zero.thane) had been napping happily in the bush and Su was pretty good at ignoring the chaos of the ambient ghost activity and noise as well as So's occasional stomping upand down the stairs. Su could sleep through a lot. One long rabbit ear twitched and then twitched again as the number of people increased as did the noise level. His eyes snapped open and a small bunny with moonlight fur bounced out from under the floor boards of the house to land on booted feet as he transformed fluidly from bunny to man. A shake of his head shook away the remnants of long ears until they were just a memory though the blue tint to his hair remained. "What. Is going on," Su wanted to know, blinking at the much busier than usual hallway. "What're you all doing in our house?" Yes, it was ours. What So owned, he could expect at least one sibling to claim co-ownership of. He blinked sleepily at the people in the foyer. "Dont'cha know its haunted?"
[18:27] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): "They're upstairs... but I don't wanna go there... they're with something bad..." answered the little boy, shrinking away at the idea of even heading up there where that entity was. The girl in the corner though... she slid slowly up into the ceiling as if pulled by her noose. There was an awful rumbling and creaking from the walls of the house as water flushed through the piping, forced through aged and rusted metal and into the walls.
The ghostly little boy on the main floor talking to Hector gasped and said, "Watch out!" Hector and Odette were treated to a burst of scalding hot water spraying through the gaps in the floorboards, almost as if to bar them from getting upstairs. Another spray erupted sideways at Su Hyeok from the hole in the floor.
Only Delilah, standing outside the second-floor window, wasn't sprayed by something. Instead she found herself treated to the sight of a young woman, neck bent in the grip of a noose, rising up out of the floor, her sunken eyes bulging as they stared out at her. Alex's companion shrieked, tucking in against Alex in fear. "I'M SCARED! THERE'S SOMETHING HERE! MAKE IT GO AWAY!" they screamed, making some of those jagged tiles rattle as the vision of them flying through the air at the hanging girl slipped into Alex's mind like a not so gentle suggestion.
[18:32] Hector: blinks looking up at...a living person. "What the heck are YOU doing in a house of the dead??" Puts a hand upon his hip great black wings giving a flip and the scythe around his body pulsing. "Don'tcha know it's haunted?" Droll expression back. "After all that commotion and you only just now think to look up?" Holds up a hand. "I don't even care. Just let me get this fucking leech off our friend, get our LIVING friend off your property and we shall be on our way." He truly just didn't give a gobshite anymore. He just wanted to get back into his lane and live his best life. And then...he's blasted with scalding hot water. He lets out a scream and turns, flaring out his wings trying to shield Odette as best he can. When he water stops he turns, face absolutely ablaze with a greenish skull over-laid across his features. He started to speak and it was in Latin. /'And so it be that the dead that linger may not inflict pain upon the living, those that do can and shall be judged. Let their actions be seen and sensed by the Reaper and to the Beyond the guilty to be cast.'/ He gave a great THWAP of his wings and shot up in the air. Who needs stairs when you can fly. "As living Reaper, I judge this one...guilty. Come out, or be forced out." To, Rin, Tso, Tsai, Tsin...He's serious, but it's also clear he has only one target and he's not paying a lick of attention to anything else. Just in his lane, living his best life. Doing HIS job, not above or even to the side.
[18:38] Delilah Shaw walked herself up to the window and started to tug at it, looking for any kind of 'catch' to open it from the outside. But old as it was, the handles were on the inside and looked.. dodgy. It's around then that she heard Alex's voice calling in from the room beyond, and the previous method of 'just blink into the room' went out the window. "Sod it." She stepped back a bit and reeled back an arm, then punched straight through the pane of glass right above the handle. "Cac!" Her hand started to bleed profusely from a dozen little cuts where the glass had shattered on impact, but she got hold of the bit of metal and turned. Pulling the window open, she slipped herself into the room. "Alex, it's me! Where ya at? I just wanna get you out of here, somewhere sa-" She came eye-to-eye with.. a girl? Floating, noose round her neck jerking her neck off into an unnatural angle. "Oh, feck off." She snapped in response, starting to chase after the thing before it. She caught a tile to the head, eliciting a quick swear, but she pressed on into the room to find Alex in the bath-tub. "Alex? Alex, c'mon. Let's go."
[18:44] Odette di Benedetti did not startle when the door slammed to behind her and she nearly plowed right into the winged Hector, one leathery and feathered pinion nearly smacking her in the face and taking her booted feet out from under her.
Ducking under it, Odette skidded to a halt and peered at the little boy in front of her talking to Hector, whose head turned. Following his gaze, she shifted to peer into the next room, Hector speaking to a young girl. The girl with vacant dead eyes, clearly noosed and strangled, swung several feet above the floor before ascending as if pulled by her rope to disappear above.
She barely registered the blue-haired indignant man. Clearly they did not want to be here any more than they were wanted. Her eyes slid up to Hector's heckling before fixing on the stairs.
If she were running from something scary, she'd want to get as deep into the place as she could. Upstairs.
In that instant, a blast of steam and scalding water shot up through the ragged seams between the floorboards, and Hector's wing snapped, clearly trying to protect her.
Odette did not escape unscathed despite leaping away from the blast and toward the stairs. Her bare skin beneath her dress skirt would be burned, and a ragged hiss seeped through parted lips as she gripped the now-dripping tulle and vaporously destroyed coat to hold it away from her burned thighs.
Fuck, that hurt! It was going to take at least an hour to heal, though now she was more irritated about her boots being ruined.
Hector's words were lost to her, her voice instead lifted to yell upward, "Thorn, look for a closet or something. A place for them to hide if scared."
[18:46] Alex's momentary distraction by the sound of voices outside of their immediate view was quickly ended, their focus recaptured by the entity disguised as another patient in front of them when the figure tucked in closer and screamed out again in fear. "I-it's okay... I-I've got you..." they whimpered out softly, wrapping their blood-stained sleeves around the fragile form that wasn't there, even as the entity pressed deeper into their mind and practically forced them this time to focus on the tiles, which indeed would rattle and rise from their place on the floor, the shattered ceramic shards shooting like the spray of a shotgun towards the spectral figure of the hanged spirit, only now Delilah had just stepped through the window and directly into the line of fire as well.
[18:51] Kim Su-Hyeok (zero.thane) spat out several choice Korean curses as his speed pushed him out of the steam not quite fast enough to miss the burn. "...sonova.." Su hissed through his teeth. "Living with my brother means living with the dead but usually they're not so damned riled up," he stared blankly at Hector and his latin as he swung his weapon around. "Ah. Fuck. Exorcists. That'll do it." Su assumed as that was usually what wings and latin meant in his experience. His gaze slid around to Odette as she yelled upstairs and where the apparent source of the issue was. Su cast his eyes up towards the stairs before launching himself with unnatural nimbleness to soar over the railing and land nimble on the lower step as he offered one hand to Odette. "We're gonna wanna avoid Soso's bedroom. You don't wanna get near the tear, trust me. Always makes this shit worse."
[19:00] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): With Delilah so close at hand and others on the approach, the little figure huddled against Alex stopped screaming and went deathly still, going limp against Alex's chest. A blink and that figure was gone, nowhere to be seen. The whisper was audible though - as if they were hiding behind Alex, curled up as they were in the tub. "Cover us up, you can protect us. They're so close. She's going to grab you.... bring you back." The vines rustled, moving as if they had a mind of their own.
From behind Delilah, the hanged girl came around and faced the tub. Apparently she was trying to help... as she lifted a pale and shaky hand to point at Alex and rasp, "Doooonn't... be'fraaiidd...." as if that were in any way comforting. Hey, she was trying.
Downstairs, spirits were milling about in a circle, watching the 'show' that was the guests to Mercer house making their way upstairs. Once it became clear Hector was not in fact there to exorcise the lot of them they were curious sorts, the little boy especially lingering at the bottom of the stairs. "It's gonna throw things," he called up to them. It was a decent enough warning, considering how much time it took for the pieces of one of the fallen doors to come sailing at
[19:12] Hector: is scalded to Hell and back, and wet, and soggy and has lost a few feathers. They go twisting and twirling to the floor below as he grabs onto the rickety banister and vaults over. He landed in a crouch, just in time for tiles to go slinging in the bathroom. He put his wings over his face, watching the Korean man land beside him. "The WHAT!?!?!" If 'what the fuck' was a face, there it is. It is the birth of W. T. F. Hector held up a finger, looked like he was about to lose his shit, closed his eyes, pursed his lips, knit his brows together and breathed out literal green mist. "Mother. Fucker. I am going to pretend...for my sanity...that did not just come out of your mouth. I am going to pretend, because I have been around this house...at least a dozen times due to the shear volume...of ghosts. I am going to pretend, because I work...across the street, I LIVE...across the street and have for...couple months now." He shook his head and then started to draw the star of Abe no Seimei on the wall opposite where Alex and their little 'friend' were huddled in the tub. "Nope. Nope. Pretending to not have heard that, so I can simply do my job. Just going to..." Blows that green breath on the star, it lighting up purple. "Who needs doors when you have this?" Places his hand flush against the wall. "Time for you to go Home." He didn't think he had to tell any ghosts nearby that if they weren't interested they should move, but if they WERE interested, they were free as cats to leap into the quick exit. He planted his feet, and concentrated, intent on not getting caught off guard like he was the last time he tried this. And here came a door coming right at him. The scythe lifted from his shoulder and spun in the air, attempting to slice a piece off of the door, or at least deflect it from braining Hector. It depended upon if Su-Hyeok dodged or not whether the thing would get split or merely smacked away. Either way it was probably going to send a bit of shrapnel. A hunk of sharp wood hit Hector in the chin, spilling blood sharply down, sending crimson all the way to the floor, but he barely paid attention. He'll feel that later.
[19:13] Delilah Shaw had served long enough in the war to know exactly what it felt like to have your abdomen suddenly riddled with small, high-velocity objects. The tile that had managed to nick her face earlier had only been a warning shot, apparently, because a scattershot of the shite slammed into Delilah's gut coming from the direction of the tub. The energy of it send her stumbling backwards for a step or two, and she looked down for a moment to see the a deep, dark red stain already soaking through the front of her vest. "Mnnnnnnootherfuckerthathurts." She hisses out to herself, managing to stay upright on sheer unnatural strength alone. Delilah pushes a hand /into/ herself a bit, feeling to make sure there was enough flesh left holding itself together to keep her internals.. internal. When she confirmed it, she walked back on over to the bath-tub and sort of just.. bend down and set a hand onto Alex's shoulder. Her voice drops down into soft-voiced, mostly fluent but Irish-accented German. There was a distinct, compelling echo that overtook her voice as she exerted her control a bit, not quite enough to overpower but enough to try and break through to them. <"Alex... mngh. Alex, it's Delilah. You're alright. Just breathe, open your eyes for me and take my hand, I'll take you out of here. Not to that shitehole of an asylum, but to where I'm staying. We'll figure this out.">
[19:28] Odette di Benedetti glanced up as the blue-haired man vaulted the stair railing, thinking to follow him, but when he offered her a hand, she accepted it and gripped the proffered appendage, darting up the stairs and nodding mutely.
She had no clue who Soso was, but this person obviously knew more than everyone else about what was inside this place.
"The tear?", she'd ask, the hand that clutched her brolly gathering up her steaming and destroyed skirts as they climbed upward.
Another, more violent commotion sounded from upstairs, with lots of unearthly chattering bleeding through as the ghosts curiously investigated what was going on and the strangers in their home.
Odette, for one, had a realization of how animals in a zoo might feel, though the realization did not last as a door was...flipping through the air toward them. Or rather chunks of one. It careened past her head to embed a jagged corner into the wallpapered plaster of the wall before continuing its descent down the stairs.
Hector fumed, Delilah swore, and Odette wondered where the hell Alex could be and what had happened that, even though people they knew were calling to them, they were still in hiding.
[19:30] Alex hugged the other figure as close and protectively as they could as they went limp in their arms, before blinking when the other patient vanished entirely from their sight, though their voice lingered in their ear. Still confused and frightened, they curled in on themselves as the vines around the tub stretched out to try to cover and hide them, enveloping their body like a cocoon. To Alex's credit, they didn't seem nearly as frightened by the appearance of the hanged spirit as they were by the thought of being dragged back to the asylum now, just staring up at her uncertainly as she spoke. It was Delilah's sudden appearance that caused the vines to stop before they managed to cover them though, their bleary eye focusing on her face as her voice rippled through their mind like a wave, dragging them along with her words. They took a deep, shuddering breath and reached out to take her offered hand through one of the bloodstained sleeves of their straitjacket. They practically flung themselves at her, and unfortunately out of the way of Hector's circle as he was struck by the shards of door, wrapping their bloody arms around Delilah tightly and burying their face into her shoulder as they sobbed and stammered in German, utterly breaking down now. <"PLEASE, please, you can't take me back there. They'll, they'll- a-after what I... I did... no... I... It really was me this time... I can't go back... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."> They devolved into a muttering mess.
[19:37] Kim Su-Hyeok (zero.thane): "By your leave," Su murmured with a surprising degree of manners for his course speech habits usually and telegraphed his movements to make his intent clear before he lifted her with an ease that was not suggested by his lean frame. His boot hit the rotted wood with an oddly lapine thump before he sent them up into the air, Odette tucked carefully against his chest. He landed nimbly on the railing before bouncing down next to Hector. Now that he wasn't half asleep and was aware of the ambient threat of flying objects, including errant shrapnel from the wood hitting other things and people. He dodged around them with almost lazy ease that suggested he wasn't hitting anywhere near his top speed. Su felt that would be rude to do with a passenger in tow. He gave one doorway a wide berth, with his movement over the railing. "Just leave the lady behind, why don't you?" He drawled at Hector as he went to lower Odette to her feet near the doorway. Once Odette was down, he straightened to watch for more errant debris and hopefully smack it out of the air before it did any more damage to the living. His expression creased with compassion as the new figure and apparent source of all of this trouble started sobbing. "Ah. Poor kid."
[19:49] ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma): That star was like the vacuum. Once drawn, once powered the thing glowed and called to the spirits roosting in the house that wanted to be free. They rushed the star, jamming themselves into it, squeezing spectral limbs and torsos past each other in a mad rush as if afraid.... worried that something would close their only escape. And something tried. There was a rumble from the bedroom that had closed itself to them, a house-shuddering shake as the tear on the other side or its door door wretched and groaned. Nothing new appeared by Alex likely felt the surge of urgency to get the fuck out of dodge as the house shook. Alex did not, however, see another vision of that patient. They seemed to have disappeared, their voice quieting too as Alex hugged Delilah and the screech of souls through the star Hector had drawn on the wall drowned all else.
[19:52] Hector: didn't know what Alex was saying, but he could guess. He hissed, bleeding but not caring. He looked back to Odette as the other missed being bashed by the same door. "There was blood, and I don't think it was Alex's. They very well might have killed or maimed someone on the way out of the Asylum this time. Get them and get the Hell away from here. I can take care of the spirit. But you have to promise me...we'll all get with Kyuu. We'll have him weave a piece of clothing with me helping. We can make something that will stop the ghosts from taking Alex like this. They HAVE to gain some semblance of control over the dead...else they might succumb to possession rather than just manipulation." A wing wrapped around his body and rubbed at his chin like it was an extra hand. He went back to concentrating. Then Su said he left the 'lady' and Hector snorted, giving an almost cheeky grin. "Something tells me that this 'lady' could rip me to shreds if she got the notion. Besides, I'm not a gentleman and I do not think Miss Odette would fault me for that." Gives her a wink and goes back to concentrating, trying to draw out the darkness, the intent to harm from that was the spirit who had been latched onto Alex. The rest in the house were fairly innocuous, but this one meant business so he could at least track the taint. "Their name is Alex..." He mumbled with a heavy sigh. "Sent to the Asylum for 'hallucinations'...only their visions aren't the kind Thorazine will aid." Then the house shook. He blinked and looked to the star as it was just a bunch of limbs as ghosts dove for freedom. He sighed, not even sure if he got the one he was after. "Son of a....I have to shut this off......" He rubbed at his chin again, gathering some blood and then smearing it across the star to quickly close it. Hopefully all those who wanted Home got there. "Bugger."
[19:54] Delilah Shaw let out a loud groan when Alex threw themselves into her mid-section and pressed /right/ against the wounds in her torso. <"Eaaaasy, eaasy my heart."> Her voice is slightly straining from the pain lancing through her torso with each moment of the entire interaction, but she wraps her arms tight around them and hold them still. <"I need you to calm yourself. I assure you nothing you did.."> She looks pointedly down at the blood on Alex's sleeves, then back up. <"..so much as pales in comparison to my past. So do us a favor and breathe now, love. I'll fight off as many of them shite-eating orderlies as I have to if it means I keep you from going back, so settle down for me.. and we'll get you downstairs to talk to Odette."> She tugged them into her wingspan and, if allowed, started walking them on out. "Odette!" She called out. "Rose, love, we're gonna need to get to your place on the double! This one needs a calm-down and my gut needs patchin'!"
[20:04] Odette di Benedetti squeaked, though nodded when Su lifted her against him as if she were nothing, then bounced them up and over the railing to land with nary a jolt beside Hector. He did get an eyeroll for his admission of not being a gentleman, and while she appreciated his honesty, he was not wrong in his summation of her skills.
The house began shuddering, spirits darting past them to dive into a star that was clearly taking them the hell away from this madness, and Odette could not blame them. There were so many things happening at once that she'd almost missed what was going on in the next room.
Odette blinked owlishly, hearing Thorn's voice call to her, the sound of Alex's sobs slowly quieting just a bit. It was the part about Delilah herself needing patching that had her moving past Hector as he smeared blood around.
Peering around the gaping door frame, she saw Delilah, torn open at the midsection and bleeding into the waist of her belted trousers, with a terrified and equally bloody Alex tucked up under her arm.
"And here's me without a bib. Come. Let's go home."
She'd lead the way back downstairs, turning briefly to say to Su and Hector both, "Find me about town. We can talk."
And she descended, waiting for Alex and Thorn to join her.
[20:08] Alex just nodded quietly sucked in deep, ragged breaths, too drained emotionally and psychically to do anything but follow along as Delilah tried to calm them and guide them out of the house. They could feel whatever terrible thing was looming elsewhere among these rooms, and it made them nauseous with vertigo, fingers clinging weakly to Delilah's lapels as she was their safe haven in the storm right now. They noticed Hector, and the blue-haired stranger on their way out the bathroom door, but were still far too disoriented and mentally absent to do more than whisper stuttering apologies in German as Delilah helped them along after Odette towards the stairs and the exit.
[20:09] Kim Su-Hyeok (zero.thane) snorted at Hector's comment about not being a lady. "Even if they can kick the ass of the sun, the moon, and everything in between, you don't tell them that they're not a lady unless they make it real clear they're into it. And even then, you make sure that the moment is the right one for that kind of talk," Su shot back only to side eye the star and then scowl as the whole house shook. He widened his stance a little against the roll and shake and his eyes narrowed at the sudden drop in activity. "Ah, fuck. The rift." Su muttered, turning away from the crowd to look towards So's bedroom and squint his eyes. First one ear, then another peaked up from his pale blue hair until his long rabbit ears were twitching towards the sounds. The Korean man began to hum softly under his breath, a low wordless murmur that sounded like a lullaby as Su gathered up what was left of the remnants of his moonlight magic and tossed them out to settle over the house. It was a calming sort of magic that he wielded. Like being tucked in with a warm blanket and coaxed back to sleep. He nodded once, rocking on his heels slightly to show he understood and one ear flicked towards Odette when she spoke though that humming he was doing seemed to be very focused. Su would brave the path towards the bedroom he had warned Odette away from, putting his body between the guests and whatever he considered 'dangerous' enough to warn them about.
[20:12] Hector: just nodded as Odette said to find her later. There was blood and death and Hector was just plain exhausted. He made sure that the star was gone and all remnants of it dissipated. "There...dammit. At least I know where it is, now. I can lead spirits away from here if I must." Mostly it was said to himself. His knees were weak, arms were spaghetti...but he was trying to remain upright. When bunny ears appeared, he just blinked and shook his head, watching the man put himself like a guard in the way. "I have no intention of even looking at it. If your 'brother' is who I suspect he is...let him have it. He's made it quite clear that he doesn't need any help from me." Shrugs and watches Alex and Delilah make their way out. He squinted at Delilah, looking for any signs of the Curse, but he saw none and boy howdy fuck was he grateful to whoever fixed her. He truly did not think he had anything left in him just then. "I need a drink..." He mumbled, turning to look out over the house again, seeing who had deigned not to leave. It had been so full earlier, now it felt...almost a little empty, but...that was a good thing. He was glad. Hector truly wanted nothing more than for the dead to rest peacefully.
[20:14] Delilah Shaw just, simply tugged Alex close to her by one of the jacket's straps, holding onto them as she gingerly descended the stairs past both Hector and Su, grunting out an acknowledgement to both. <"C'mon, love. We'll get you to Odette's place where I'm stayin'. Take a night or two to calm, figure things out. You'll be okay."> And with that, unless stopped, they would both head on out the front door after the diminutive vampire in question.
[20:21] Kim Su-Hyeok (zero.thane) just gave a little shake of his head at Hector, still humming so he was unable to correct the assumption about what he was protecting. He was much more concerned with protecting the people from the rift than the other way around but there was no way to explain that without stopping the soft humming he was currently engaged in performing - whatever THAT was about. His ear flicked towards the rift occasionally before he let out a slow breath and slowly stopped and huffed out a low breath, poised lightly on his feet. The house certainly WAS emptier though the spirits that hadn't wanted a fast escape still lingered. Still, it seemed for the moment it settled. "I'm not worried about the rift," he finally muttered with a sigh. "More worried about anyone getting too close to it for their sakes." One of those long ears flicked again
[20:28] Hector: realizes that he's tired, hurt and in a pretty shitty mood, but he's not angry at all at the little bunny boy. In fact, he was kind of cute. He turned to look at the rabbit and just sighed before motioning to himself. "Hi, hello, I am terribly sorry for trespassing. It was not my intention. Hector Graham, Reaper, at your service. Born this way, as I imagine you were 'created' with quite the lovely set of ears. And though it is true...I am mortal, I am mortal charged with caring for the dead. As such...a tear in the veil is..." Purses his lips thoughtfully. "That is something one such as myself would find worrisome. Though, I suppose, at least at present, I do not know much of what to do about such a thing. I can, however, track down whatever has already come through." He tapped the blade of the scythe. "I have the means to cut down, most things...and the power to send that which is meant to not be..." Opened his palm to reveal the seal of Abe no Seimei. "...to the other side, circumventing opening the Gates which might bulge or make such tears larger. I have no desire nor intent to make anyone's immortal 'job' more difficult or less so either. What I know, is that I was...magicked away from my home and dropped on this island and so I take that as a sign that I am meant to care for the dead here, whom are suffering, and that bothers me greatly. I love ghosts...with all my heart and I take...their soul desires, very seriously." Offers a deep bow and starts to limp for the stairs.
[20:34] Kim Su-Hyeok (zero.thane) blinked once and then gave a slight nod of his head, "Yeah, none of us are happy about the rift but the rift, the dead... that's not really my balliwick so 'fraid I can't give you much advice about it. I'm Daltokki, not a Joseung Saja. My power set isn't really suited for much but-" Su cut off as a terrible noise cut through the house. A shriek that was all anger and rage and pain, distorted as it shredded its way out from another world. "Ah, fuck. That's what my power is good for. I gotta see if I can settle her back to sleep again. Like pissing on a goddamn inferno.... I'll... I'll talk to Soso!" the man called over his shoulder. "Su-Hyeok. That's my name." He added, and then Hector would hear the daltokki's voice raised in song, an ancient lullaby in his native language as the blanket of Su's power tried to settle back over the house and the rift, in specific. ((bed time for me too! ))
[20:36] Hector: shakes his head and starts down the stairs. "Bandaid, after bandaid, after bandaid." He mumbled, but that was not his circus and that shrieking was not one of his monkeys. "Good night, Su-Hyeok and good luck." He mumbled all the way out the front door about needing a drink and maybe a blowjob.