Difference between revisions of "Log:The Wailing House: Part Two"

2017.09.04

The Autumn Court goes back to the Wailing House to discover more of it's curiosities, where they meet Eddie.

The Wailing House

The last time the Autumn Court and their Goodwillers had traveled out to this place they'd encountered a little weirdness, but nothing that came right out and poked any of them in the eye or pushed them down the stairs.

In the following weeks they'd heard stories of teens coming out here to investigate and one of those 'investigators' ended up in the hospital with a broken shoulder. Not a fun way to start off their labor day weekend. And now the Autumn troop is back. Standing in the open doorway to the massive house.

Poppy peers through the open doorway carefully, hands on her hips. She still hasn't bothered to find any practical shoes yet, today wearing a pair of stilettoed boots. "Well, clearly we fucking missed /something/ last time," she mutters, the odd harmonics to her voice giving it a choral quality. In some small measure of self-preservation, she seems disinclined to be the first through the door.

Rumor has it that there's a Teagan present. One can't be sure: there's no visible sign of the Autumn-Goodwilled Summer. There is, however, a strong, almost oppressive Summer heat, the distant crackle of radios, and if one looks very, very carefully, a scattering of black sand on the ground. No footprints.

"Well, we weren't here very long last time," Tristan points out, "Just a cursory glance around the place." He'd pulled the cloths off a couple of pieces of furniture and there were some shadows but.. He is dressed for poking around in the old house, in a pair of faded jeans and black boots with steel toes in them, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of gloves tucked into his belt along with a flashlight. This time he is alone, Grey having other business to attend to, it seems.

The Ogre brings up the rear of the party, as per standard Changeling investigative procedure, 8-pound sledge at the ready. Because you never know when there are going to be nails.

And to Allen, on these types of trips, almost everything has been a nail.

Logan and Dross arrive together, the former once again dressed for adventuring in what can only be described as fashionable camping gear, like he probably bought out REI. He's wearing a navy blue windbreaker and hiking pants, an LA Dodgers baseball cap, and a small backpack. No need for a flashlight, naturally. He smiles over at Dross like this is just a regular sort of thing they do, and goes back to pulling sheets off furniture as well. Just like last time! "Help me with this one, Dross," he chirps to the Darkling.

The house sits silent like it did last time, but this time as soon as someone approaches, there's a noise inside that echoes. Much like the noise Tristan heard last time. It seems like the house is coming to life in some way. The sun sinking into the clouds is also making the house grow dimmer by the moment.

"Point," Poppy concedes to Tristan. "Of course, 'we didn't look hard' is sort of a shitty reason, even if it's accurate." She gives him a wry look before returning her attention to the room on the other side of the door. As Logan heads past her into the house, she gives a shrug and glances back at Allen and his sledgehammer. "Hello again," she says cheerfully. "What are your feelings about being a meatshield?"

Teagan, with their shadowy self can notice more than just the noises. They can see that there are two shadows that seem to float across the wall of the entrance hallway and they appear to be approaching the front of the group...but none of them seem to notice...

Without a word, Dross takes the other end of the sheet, as suggested, and lifts. There's an awful lot of dust built up in here and it wells up in clouds whenever a sheet comes off a piece of furniture. Unlike some of the others, he doesn't have any special outfit for exploring; just the usual long, thin blue-grey coat with the sleeves rolled up, open-necked white shirt, black trousers and boots. He glances up at the door from time to time, tracking the others' movements as they enter and walk about the room.

"Heads up," comes out of ... literally nowhere. Does anyone here actually know Teagan's voice? "Shadows coming at us." And they move to the side, circling around the incoming shadows, the Squire's dark pits of eyes narrowing.

Tristan shrugs a shoulder at Poppy when she says its a shitty reason for not finding something, "Sure." He doesn't seem to be about to argue with her. There's a glance around when Teagan gives the heads up, trying, perhaps, to catch sight of what they were referring to. He moves away from the piece of furniture that he was poking at and stops moving, just listening, recognizing the noise from before.

"Tends to be a thing I do," deadpans Allen to the siren. If the first two faces of Allen are painfully shy and happily sociable with food, then this is the third: Hammerman.

Then the disembodied voice shouts their warning and the Ogre darts his head around, though it's unclear whether he's looking for the source of the warning or the thing being warned about.

Logan glances up at the sound of the voice as well, though he doesn't look terribly alarmed. He wipes his hands off and stands a little bit straighter, radiating out light from the area of his palm -- to illuminate the dark areas. Perhaps the will illuminate any shadows as well? Or make them disappear...

Poppy flashes Allen a grin, gesturing for the ogre to go ahead of her. At that unfamiliar, disembodied voice, the siren blinks, looking about for a moment, but doesn't waste too much time on locating the source, instead peering after the subject of the warning. "Literal fucking shadows?" Perhaps she's hoping for an equally disembodied answer.

The shadows stop in their tracks when someone calls them out. One looking to the other shadow almost comically as it tries to decide what to do. Since Allen is the closest, a toothbrush comes flying through the air, but misses the big stone man by inches. They apparently can't throw very well. Then they are skittering off. The sound of snickering trailing after them.

Watching that beam of light travel over the floorboards as a toothbrush rolls into its circle, Dross just raises an eyebrow and yanks the sheet off another chair. So far, nothing but dust in these things. While he's moving around, his pale gaze travels over each of the others in turn, familiar and unknown faces alike. Waiting to see what they'll do...

Logan giggles -- just a tad, when the toothbrush misses Allen. "Oh, boy," he says, primarily to Dross, looking at him with a slight grin that glints in the light he's giving off (although his aura is mostly shadow at the moment, to fit into the setting). "Looks like we've got a few tricksters here." He doesn't necessarily sound like he considers this a bad thing.

The toothbrush clatters quietly on the floor. Almost mockingly. Because seriously...what person, alive or dead, throws a TOOTHBRUSH?! Apparently dead people. It's easy for the Autumns and their friend to see that they are dealing with a haunting. But these ghosts seem a bit more intelligent than just an echo or an apparition. They seem playful as well. But, most of them know that ANY haunting can definitely go wrong in short order.

Teagan knows a thing or two about ghosts! They even remember a tale of a situation almost identical to this one. The ghosts felt like their territory was being invaded and wanted to just talk with the people trying to move in or investigate. But that takes a special skill set. Wonder if anyone around here has anything that can help?

"Pretty standard haunting," offers the voice from nowhere, as Teagan circles 'round the ghosts. The Squire unsheaths their machete from the ring sheath at their hip, and absently twirls it. Not, uh, that anyone can see it. It's a sort of absent gesture. "Anybody here who can talk to ghosts? Not really a Summer thing, per se." Droll, Teags, v droll. They don't visibly react to the thing with the toothbrush, but then, they're not visibly doing anything.

As the toothbrush goes flying and one of the shadows snickers, the siren blinks again. "Haunting by fucking high school delinquents?" Poppy looks more amused than terrified, although still a bit wary, and definitely uninterested in stepping around the large ogre with the sledgehammer. She glances towards the voice, and still not seeing anything, says, "Unfortunately no, invisible person who is not a ghost." A smirk.

A toothbrush. Hammerman Allen snorts derisively, something that the Shyest Ogre in Vermont or Sociable Glutton is unlikely to do. Giggles and disembodied questions don't get answers, since the Giant is now on the lookout for nails.

"I'm Teagan," answers the voice from nowhere. "And this isn't likely to kill you, so you don't need a Squire. It's just an annoying little haunting." There's a subtle sound of footsteps, and the scattering of black sand on the ground, back toward the door. "Good luck," from back by the doorway, and then, no more voice from nowhere.

"There must be someone here who can talk to ghosts," Logan says confidently. That someone is not him. He tilts his head in the direction of the Teagan-who-was-there, then shrugs as the voice disappears. "What about you, Dross?" His bright blue eyes stare at the Darkling next to him.

Tristan glances over his shoulder and glances at the toothbrush lying on the floor, one eyebrow arching. There's the slightest flicker of amusement to touch his lips before the glossy star-filled black eyes turn in the direction of the sound and snickering. Turning, he begins to move in the direction that he heard the snickering coming from.

Poppy tilts her head at the sound of retreating footsteps, squinting a bit at the scattering of sand, then shrugs and turns back to the others. "Well, they're gone, whoever that was. Now we just have the real ghosts, who seem to be enjoy acting like assholes." She glances towards Dross, waiting for his response.

When Logan addresses him and gives him that look, Dross meets his gaze and holds it in silence for a moment or two. Watching the light in those bright blue eyes and the way the Fairest's normally sunny mantle has its vein of shadow wrapped all the way through. Then he nods, and looks around at the others, pale stare pausing on each of them and seeking to hold their gaze, too. Tristan, Poppy, Allen. Like he's calculating something... how much of something he's going to need, maybe?

Dross takes a knife out of his pocket, opens it, and cuts a long, thin line into his left palm. Blood starts to roll up from the cut, so that he carries his hand folded, palm-up, to keep too much of it from dripping to the ground as he walks around the room and daubs a spot of blood onto each person's forehead with his thumb. Nearest to farthest. When he's finished, he touches his own forehead and then takes his hand away, letting both of them fall to his sides. "You can see and hear it now," he says to the others. He speaks quietly, but clearly enough to hear. As for the ghosts... well. Dross diverts his gaze back to where the sounds came from before, and waits.

A few minutes later, a head peeks around the corner. The ghost manifested appears as a younger man. Holding a hat in his hands, "We didn't mean any harm really." he tells them. Then he steps fully into the room. And now that he's there, they can see a huge chunk of his head is missing. The blood and brain matter staining his jackets shoulder. "I'm Eddie." he introduces himself.

Logan leans forward to accept Dross' blood, bright grin in place. "Thanks, Dross. Here." He's pulled out a small first-aid kit from his backpack. "Patch yourself up." Then he's waving cheerfully to Eddie, seemingly nonplussed by the blood and brain matter. "Great to meet you, Eddie. What're you doing here?" Like this is actually Logan's house, and Eddie is the one who's intruding.

The Giant Stonebones watches Dross goes through his, well, it's a ritual, he supposes. When he's approached, Allen bends down and allows the Leechfinger to daub his forehead with blood. And then stand quietly as Eddie of the Brain Splatter introduces himself and conversations commence.

Honestly, it might seem surprising that the Ogre doesn't gasp or react strongly to the sight. Hammerman must be made of pretty stern stuff.

Poppy tilts her head at that gaze, expression inquisitive. She doesn't seem overly concerned at the daub of blood on her forehead, although she does roll her eyes upwards as though trying to watch him make that fingerprint, regardless to how comedic it may appear. As he backs away, however, she also turns her attention expectantly in the direction of the last audible presence of the ghosts. Once Eddie introduces himself, she arches an eyebrow. "Broken shoulder?" she asks, but then falls silent, apparently waiting to see his answer to Logan. If she's bothered by the state of his head, it isn't obvious.

Tristan watches as Dross cuts his hand, studying him as the blood is applied to his forehead, though he says nothing, merely giving a slight dip of his head in thanks, perhaps. And then there is the ghost coming around the corner. His attention focuseson Eddie and one brow creeps up a bit. He gives a dip of his head to the ghost as well and asks "Who is we?" He glances behind Eddie, as though expecting to see if there is another behind him.

Eddie gives Logan a look, "Well, it's my house." he tells him. He fidgets with the hat that's in his hands, because it's rude to wear it in front of guests. "My wife, she's the other one." he motions towards the hall to where the other went. "We just don't want no kids in here messing around. If someone wants to come in and use the place...well, we'd be happy to cohabitate. But it's our house." he states solidly. Then a look to Poppy, "I cheated on my wife. She blew part of my head off." he tells her with a half smile. "So, you guys looking for a nice place to buy or squat in with a few ghosts that sometimes cause mischief?" he smirks at that.

"Not very neat," Dross tells Tristan when the other Darkling looks at him. Then Logan is talking to the ghost--to Eddie--and so are the others. He accepts the first aid kit and steps back to let the others speak. Looking up from time to time to keep an eye on what's taking place, he digs through the box until he finds, not gauze, but a small container to drain the blood into. Once it seems like there's nothing left to wring out, seemingly, he unrolls a bandage after all and stands there watching the goings-on in silence as he wraps up his left hand.

Logan glances briefly around at the others, tapping his manicured fingers against his forearm as he folds his arms confidently. "Something like that, yeah," he says to Eddie, laughing, "if you don't mind. I'm sure we could put it to use, and wouldn't that be better than letting it stand around without care?"

"Fucking around usually never ends well," Poppy says to the ghost, smirking, although it's clear she finds it more funny than anything else. "So where /is/ your wife?" Opalescent eyes flicker past Eddie. "I'd be curious about /her/ opinion. Particularly if she likes solving problems via liberal application of firearms."

"How much does security cost," asks Allen. Because, honestly, let's get right down to it. "Sharing the house is fine, but what do you get out of it?" He indicates Eddie with his hammer like it's just a laser pointer.

"She's around. I guess whatever your blood did only hit me. Which ain't bad. She gets fussy sometimes." Eddie tells them. Then there's a chuckle to that. Bitch was crazy to take a man's head damn near off his shoulders! Ahem. "She's had about...eighty years to get over it though." he adds. "And we get essence from it. Energy. We need to eat too." he sniffs a bit. Just like Changelings had to take Glamour from humans. Who would have thought that? "And what woman doesn't lose their head sometimes?" he muses. "If we've got people in the house she likes, she's in less of a snit." he adds.

Logan laughs appreciatively at Eddie's wit and humor. "That makes a lot of sense." He elbows Dross with a smile, less toothy than he's been giving. "Don't you think, Dross?"

"Essence," Allen mutters to himself. Whether he considers The Care and Feeding of Ghosts to be a decent trade for another Autumn house is something he keeps to himself for now. At any rate, others who have more to offer to the converstaion will likely have more important and intelligent things to say about that.

He's just here for the nails, and there don't seem to be any obvious ones here.

Tristan considers Eddie from where he stands, listening to his story with a slightly arched brow and a small smile that touches the edges of his lips and then fades again. He glances to the others, watching some of them more than the ghost at this point, and their reactions to the story. He then glances over to Dross at his comment and murmurs, "No, not very neat at all."

Eddie tilts his head when he hears something, definitely not from the group in front of him. "Umm...could you guys come back another night. I think I need to talk to her and make sure that she's going to be alright with house guests. Don't want anyone tripping down the stairs accidentally or anything like that." he chuckles nervously and looks to the side real quick. Because that's super reassuring, right?

"How long has it been since you had someone here that you gave a shit about?" Poppy asks curiously, apparently letting the comment about women losing their heads slide. Allen's echoing of the ghost's mention of essence garners a thoughtful look. At Eddie's request, however, she purses her lips thoughtfully, then simply gives a brief nod. "Sounds like staying will be asking for a short drop with a quick stop, so yes." The siren starts towards the door without really waiting for much of a reply.

Dross hands the first aid kit--which is full of blood now--back to Logan. He raises his eyebrows in response to that question, that smile, then looks at Eddie, addressing him for the first time. Focuses on the ghost's eyes, if they can still be seen; studying his face like half of it isn't missing. "You want company," he says. Is that a question? Didn't sound like a question, somehow. Maybe he's just that certain he's right. But then Eddie suggests that they go, and after a moment longer, his gaze cuts away; skittering over the others, Poppy, Allen, Tristan, starting to leave, and then back to Logan, whom he waits for.