World of Darkness: Glimpses of Darkness - Chapter Two: The Mystery Begins [Complete]

[SalmonMax]

"Guys," Lily said quietly, urgently. "Shut up for a second." Her voice lacked any trace of anger or humor; she was all business now, and intently focused on whatever she was looking at in the gloom. "There's something else in here."

She started moving slowly, stalking the movement she'd seen, and rotated her cupped hand so that it focused the light more "forward" away from her, piercing the shadows a tiny bit more while not being reduced to a tiny pinpoint.

[Kylie_OOC]

Ian, on the other side of the door, couldn't necessarily hear Lily's instructions, but the quiet sound of the hairpins clicking in the lock were muted enough not to disturb the bounty hunter. Fawkes' barking, on the other hand, was more than loud enough to bother anyone, but a frightened Krystal issued a sharp command, hushing the dog through the door. On Ian's side of the door, Bob focused the flashlight on the doorknob, as if somehow being able to see the dull surface of the rusty metal would be enough to magically help Ian deal with the mechanics inside. The professor glanced around idly for a key, but in the darkness of the basement there was none to be found, and an uncomfortable silence had descended upon the group at the sound of Krystal's sharp direction from the other side of the door.

Once all was silent save the careful movements of hairpin against tumblers, Lily could make out a soft sound. It reminded her of the soft tumble of tiny pebbles, or perhaps the sifting of sand through an hourglass. It was so faint that the attractive bounty hunter almost wrote it off as a rat, or some other such pest.. but it was too steady, to constant to be explained away by mere vermin.

She dared to move closer then - no more than perhaps a foot away - and as she did, the dim glow of the penlight reflect against the earthen wall of the basement. The movement there was faint, but she could see it clearly now. It was the tumble of dirt falling to the ground. Her hand moved just slightly, casting the light at just a slightly different angle, and then she saw the cause. Across the wall, as if someone were dragging the tip of a knife through the dirt, lines were being drawn. She could see it, a distinct and steady movement, the lines straight and precise as they formed seemingly from nothing right in front of her eyes, tracing out letters that she couldn't quite any sense of with the less than impressive glow of her penlight.

[SalmonMax]

Lily stared, her eyes wide, at this apparition. Dimly she was surprised at how little fear she felt. Mostly what she felt was...something like awe. Here in front of her was something extraordinary, something that scoffed in her father's face. Small and quiet and completely irrefutable.

"Hey," she whispered. She needed someone, anyone, else to see this too. To tell her it was really happening. "Krystal. Come here for a second."

She directed the flashlight directly at the carving spot to get as clear a view as possible on it.

[Krystal]

Straining to hear the faint scratching of the hairpins in the lock, Krystal almost missed Lily's whisper. Her breath caught in her throat as she spun around, her back against the door. Green eyes widened, the colour muted in the pale light, as she saw where the penlight was directed, short shadows thrown by the shallow characters. Krystals heart rate rapidly increased as did her anxious breathing, her gaze inexorably following the unseen hand writing on the earthen wall.

"It's...it's a trick," Krystal said in a soft quaver between unsteady breaths. "There's something - has to be something - hiding behind that wall. We probably set it off when the door closed behind us. It's some... sorta... gimmick. It's a trick." Krystal pressed herself as far away from the wall, her voice full of a desperate conviction.

[SalmonMax]

Lily, on the other hand, drew closer, squinting as she tried to make out the letters as they etched themselves in the earth. "Doesn't look like a trick...tricks are flashy. Hard to do a subtle trick..."

"What's it saying, can you tell from back there?"

She moves sideways a bit, keeping the light on the letters to give Krystal a view even as she herself paid more attention to the actual spot the letters were coming from...as if trying to discern the invisible presence making them.

[z-Ian]

Ian wasn't sure exactly what was being said, but he didn't like the tone of Krystal's voice as she spoke. Quickly, he began to work harder, trying to get through the lock faster.

Click to reveal..

Dexterity + Larceny: 1 sux

1d10=9, 1d10=4, 1d10=5, 1d10=4

[Kylie_OOC]

Ian turned the hairpin, felt the slight pressure against the metal, and knew that he was making progress. He was pretty sure he almost had it, he just had to keep focused...

Lily, on the other hand, wasn't having as much success. After a moment or two of trying to catch the letters at the proper angle, she realized that it was the size of the writing that was the problem.. the letters seemed to large to be getting a good view of with her current technique. Maybe if she tried starting at the beginning and followed the lines, she could figure it out...

Click to reveal..

Ian, you need one more success to unlock the door. Lily, I'll take one more Wits + Perception roll to try and figure out the writing. Krystal, you can roll too if you have the guts to get up there and try and figure it out with her, but if you stay pressed against the back wall then it's all on Lily.

[SalmonMax]

"Next time, we're bringing a bigger light," Lily muttered as she swooped the penlight back to the beginning, and started moving it along the letters, trying to get a picture of what was being written.

(OOC - There's no such skill as "perception" in nWoD...I'll assume you mean Investigation, since that's what she was rolling before. )

Wits 3 + Investigation 1 = 10, 10, 6, 4

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2582589/

10 pop = 2, 8

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2582592/

3 successes

[Krystal]

Originally Posted By: Lily

What's it saying, can you tell from back there?"

"No, uh... the light, the shadows, I can't..." Krystal said in a bare whisper. "Bigger light, definitely." She took a hesitant step forward, then another, peering at the wall from around Lily's back. Her fingers lingered on the locked door as long as possible, wanting to cling to a potential exit.

Her empty hands looking for something to do to quell her anxiety, reached into her purse, pulling out her palm sized sketchpad and a pen. Trying to read the 'writing' on the wall, she unconsciously began to scribble, the scritching of the pen eerily loud in the breathy silence.

Click to reveal.. (Perception)

Perception in NWoD is Wits + Composure or Wits + Relevant Skill. Not sure what the relevant skill is trying to read something in the dark, so using Wits + Composure.

Perception (Wits+Composure): 5d10.hitsopen(8,10) = 2 successes)

[z-Ian]

"Fuck ya!" Ian suddenly crowed as the second tumbler slid into place. "I am the mother-fuckin' king of locks, baby!" Part of him was aware that his success was largely dependent on the age and lack of craftsmanship of the lock, but he be fucked if he'd admit that to Krystal. He was the god-damned hero of the day! Even as he grasped the knob, twisted and pulled, he wondered if this would finally earn him access to Krystal's honey pot. And then he was wondering that if it wouldn't work on Krystal, maybe it would earn him a pussy-pass with Lily.

Click to reveal..

Ian's Dex+ Larceny: 1 sux

1d10=10, 1d10=7, 1d10=6, 1d10=5

[Kylie_OOC]

This theory seemed to work well, and as Lily traced, she could begin to make out what the writing was telling them, as Krystal, trying her best not to freak out, zoned into the feel of her pencil on the pad of paper she was carrying.

"G I V E.. I T.. B.."

Suddenly, Ian let out his triumphant crow from the other side of the door, and it swung open. Bob's light filtered in through the opening, significantly brighter than Lily's pen light. It highlighted the wall across from him, and as they all watched, the last of the letters formed in front of their very eyes, scratched slowly into the dirt as if by some invisible tool.

GIVE IT BACK.

Click to reveal..

LOL - Max, that would be an, um.. correct assumption. Well done. Kyrstal, I'll take a Composure + Craft roll please.

[Krystal]

Krystal spun around with a high-pitched yelp as the door swung open to the sound of Ian's shout of success, bumping into Lily then landing on her ass - making her stifle another pained moan - as her pencil slid sharply off her sketchpad.

Fawkes bounded in, almost bowling his mistress over with doggie kisses. Krystal chuckled softly, burying her face in the thick ruff of his neck, then slowly climbed back to her feet, giving Ian a small, self-deprecating grin, deep-green eyes squinting in the brighter light. Nuzzling his snout under her hand, Fawkes earned himself scratches behind his ears.

"Thanks, Ian. With the dark and the door surprising me, I may have been almost on the verge of panicking," Krystal admitted ruefully, beginning to turn around to offer Lily her apologies. "Maybe there's a gas leak down here or something? Cause I swore I saw-"

The sentence went unfinished as Krystal's eyes widened, seeing that she hadn't been imagining things. Under the brighter glow of Bob's flashlight, the writing on the wall stood out in stack relief... and everyone seemed to be seeing it. "It's a trick..." she whispered without conviction.

She felt Fawkes shifting beneath her hand and looked down, glad for an excuse to look away from the wall. It's a trick, somehow, pressure plates triggering the door, triggering... something on or behind the wall, some sort of acid or solvent, maybe... She cocked her head, frowning, as she watched Fawkes nudge her sketchpad with his nose. What she had drawn or written was indistinct with the shadows thrown across the floor.

She bent over, short cut-offs stretching across her shapely behind, picking up her sketchpad and tilting it, turning slightly, to get what light she could. What the hell?

Click to reveal..

Composure + Craft (Drawing): 7d10.hitsopen(8,10) = 2 successes

-If Drawing Specialty isn't applicable, just drop the last die, which still leaves me with 2 successes

[SalmonMax]

"Nice timing," Lily said wryly to Ian. "You just missed the fun."

She gestured at the words on the wall with her flashlight.

"Anyone have any idea what it's talking about? Anyone take anything?"

[Kylie_OOC]

Though Krystal's intent had been to try to capture the words on the wall - or at the very least to pretend she was doing something other than practically climbing the wall with fear - it wasn't writing of any sort that she found on her notepad. Instead, when she picked it up, she found a drawing.. a simple sketch, but with an eerie, life-like quality not reminiscent of her usual artistic style.

The drawing was of a woman's face and shoulders, angled slightly away from the observer. Her shoulders were bare, the drawing ending in the slight ruffle of what appeared to be an off the shoulder dress. Her features were delicate and refined, the corners of her lips turned down in what appeared to be a slight frown of distress. Her hair was swept up into an elegant coif, though a few pencil strokes gave the impression of wisps of hair that had fallen around her face and neck. And last but not least was the faint trace of a tear, running down and over the smooth skin of her cheek, only hinted at with barely a brush of the pencil.

Behind them, Bob spoke up, a slight tremor in his voice as he spoke. The light shook slightly, as if he were trembling with nervousness.

"I'm.. I'm gonna go step outside.. this is kinda freaking me out. H-Here."

With that, he shoved the flashlight at Ian, and hurried out of the basement and up the stairs. Father East, looking a bit rattled himself but doing his best not to show it, glanced at the rest of them for a moment before making his own way to the door.

"I'm going to check on him.. make sure he's alright. Please excuse us for a moment."

Then he headed up the stairs, at a slightly less frantic pace, following after Bob and leaving the rest of them downstairs together, with Krystal's mysterious drawing, and the writing on the wall.

[z-Ian]

Ian sighed as he took the flashlight and scooped up the camera. His valiant rescue hadn't earned him quite the acclaim he'd hoped it would gain. "So... what's everyone so excited about?" he asked, wandering over to the others. He was mostly zoning in on Krystal's ass, to be honest - she was making it really easy with that sexy bend she was doing. She stays like that and we won't need to remove clothing to fuck. My hard-on will cut right through our clothing.

Something was up, but it was clear to poor Ian, who finally checked the camera and found it had been recording the whole time. "Wonderful," he muttered as he zoomed in on the words on the wall and then on the drawing, since people seemed worked up about them. "Evidence of my criminal skills, captured on tape. Let's just... edit that out later."

[Krystal]

"Whuh? What?" Krystal stammered, barely hearing Ian's words as she stared at the woman she had drawn. It was done in her own hand, if not in her usual style. It seemed more like a practice piece, but she had drawn it with the same effortless ease as she would have drawn a character she'd drawn a hundred times and more. She had never drawn this person before. Why did I draw her...? All I need was something to keep my fingers busy, this is too... distinct for an idle scribble.

Krystal took a step back, then another, suddenly craving sunlight. On her third step back, she bumped into something, and whirled around with a hand to her chest and an 'eep' in her throat, which died when she found herself looking up at Ian.

"I think I cracked my head something fierce when I crashed down into the basement through that stupid pulley-and-plank thing," she said with a laugh that was meant to be rueful, but came out shaky. "Some writing just... just appeared on the wall and when I meant to copy it on my sketchpad, I ending up drawing this instead."

Krystal flipped the sketchpad that had been pressed to her bosom around so Ian could see it clearly under the flashlight that had been thrust into his hands. "I'm sure there is a completely logical explanation for all this. I'm not sure how the trick was done to make the writing show up on the wall, but I probably just saw this woman somewhere before and this creepy basement simply influenced the picture."

She tried to sound blasé, but her face was pale under the glow of the flashlights. 'Give it back'... This is nuts. It's like one of those murder-mystery games where everyone asks everyone else questions, trying to find the 'killer'. Suddenly suspicious, Krystal glanced up and around, trying to spot hidden cameras, cameras placed to capture their reactions.

"I've had enough stumbling around down here," the curvaceous artist declared, then clucked tongue. "C'mon Fawkes, we're going upstairs." Fawkes gave a low growl at the wall, then spun around and trotted to his mistress' side.

Krystal laid a small hand on Ian's forearm as she began to walk stiffly towards the door and the stairs. "Thanks for getting the door open so quick, Ian." Ian could see something in her green eyes that said her gratitude was more than just for getting the door open, it was for an escape from something that had freaked her out, that she couldn't rationalize away, though she tried.

[SalmonMax]

Lily let Krystal go, and glanced at Ian with a noncommittal shrug.

"Check it out, these words wrote themselves into the wall while I was watching," she said. "I dunno what's up with the picture...I thought she was just writing shit down."

She shone the light around the rest of the room, checking to see if there was another way out, or if the room was a dead end. The dime sized circle of radiance settled back on Ian's face when she was done.

"I'm gonna keep looking around. You in, or do you need to go wipe her eyes?"

[z-Ian]

Ian merely nodded to Krystal before she fled, noting how shaken she had been. Of course, being locked in a dark room would freak most girls out. Her hand on his arm combined with the look in her eyes causing the first stirrings of an erection, which he tried to ignore.

"She's a big girl," Ian answered Lily, not really feeling the urge to run after her. She was going to be all emotional and want someone to hold her hand and Ian wasn't really up for that. "I still have no idea what you guys mean by the words 'just appeared'. Can you describe it for me?" Lily ran through it, and Ian nodded. "Well, ok. I have a suggestion. We take pictures of the writing, then dig into the wall, see if something's under there." His eyes studied Lily's reaction to that as he added, "Sound like a plan?"

[Krystal]

Krystal took the steps slowly, pausing every few to let her aches and pains subside, hating feeling like an old, terrified woman, though Fawkes at her side was a comfort. Upstairs, she made her way to the sitting room, taking a seat on the couch, watching the rain slide down the windows as she scratched Fawkes behind the ears.

She lived her life with a concrete set of expectations, and the supernatural had no place in it. Dealing her mother's set of beliefs and nonsense had been more than a trial and partially the reason she had moved out as soon as she could. Trying to reconcile her own beliefs with what she had witnessed downstairs was something she didn't want to do.

She looked down at the pad in her hand, at the woman she had drawn, the tear sliding down her cheek just like the rain drops sliding down the panes of glass.

[Kylie_OOC]

Click to reveal..

Assuming Lily agrees to the idea, I'll take another Wits+Investigation roll from both of you, and Ford if he's around/participating.

[Logic1]

Ford walked into the room his eyes fixed on the wall. He squinted arms hanging lank at his side. Bending slightly at the waist he made his way past the others. He'd never seen anything like this in any of his study or practice. He lifted his glasses to his brow.

Click to reveal..

wits+investigation 1d10=10, 1d10=9, 1d10=4, 1d10=4

popping 10 1d10=9 3 sux

[SalmonMax]

Lily nodded. "Sounds good."

She let Ian take the photos, wincing against the light of the flash, then nudged in and started prying at the wall.

(Wits + Investigation = 6 dice)

Result 4, 4, 5, 10, 9, 9

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2617719/

10 pop: 5

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2617723/

3 successes

[z-Ian]

Ian remained back, aiming the camera at the wall where she was digging. His gaze bounced back and forth between screen and the wall, watching Lily expose more and more area.

Click to reveal..

Ian's crappy Wits + Investigation: 0 sux

1d10=7, 1d10=7, 1d10=2, 1d10=3

[Kylie_OOC]

As Ford watched, and Ian taped, Lily continued to dig into the wall. At first she assumed that if there were anything, it would be close to the surface, but as she brushed away from the tightly packed wall, she felt nothing. She became more persistent, and after a few moments, she began to dig her nails into the dirt, scraping at it in order to dig deeper. After the first few scratches she pulled her nails back, and both she and Ford realized that the gouges she had made in the dirt near the beginning of the writing created ridges in the dirt identical to the ones that formed the actual writing. The only difference was that the grooves created by Lily's fingernails were wider.. but the way the dirt gathered at the sides was just like the writing, indicating that something had indeed carved this from the surface.

In order to be thorough, they scraped away quite a bit of it anyway. By the time they were done it had been a half an hour. Their clothes were dusty from the amount of dirt they'd stirred up, and they'd created a space almost an inch deep behind the section of writing they'd exposed. Still they exposed nothing other than more dirt. If there was a trick in the wall behind the writing, they had yet to find it.

[z-Ian]

Ian was finally ready to admit defeat. Thirty minutes spent digging away here, and all they'd really accomplished was pissing off their benefactor. Or at least Ian assumed he'd be pissed when he saw the wall. "Well, there's nothing here," he said, pushing himself upright. He didn't mention the possibility - though it was strong in his mind - that the others were in on it and shitting with him. If they were, he'd catch them sooner or later, and he would be watching for it.

Turning, Ian headed for the door and anywhere that wasn't a moldering basement. He left the camera on, just in case. "Let's book before we get black lung. Speaking of, I'm going out for a smoke." He grinned, full of black humor, before pausing at the door. "You guys coming?"

[SalmonMax]

Lily was silent for a moment after Ian's request, just looking at the hole they had dug and wishing they'd left the words intact...photo or not. She nodded and said, "Yeah, be right there." Done was done, after all.

She turned and followed Ian when he left.

[Logic1]

Ford brushed himself off and began to clean the dirt from beneath his nails. This job had just proven itself not to be a hoax or so it seemed. Even if they hadn't discovered the source. No matter it would be revealed or reveal itself in due time. The professor followed behind Ian and Lily an almost imperceptible grin on his face.

[z-Ian]

This, Ian thought as he dug a soda can out of the recycling and stepped out onto the porch, is so fucked up. His thoughts were only half-on his unsettled ruminations; he was more focused on getting the top of the soda can off without cutting himself. When the mission was accomplished, he went to the porch outside - which was no doubt called the 'vaah-randah" - and kicked back on one of the wicker chairs. He shoved the can into an upright position between the legs of his chair and its neighbor. With a satisfied sigh, he lit up and let the chemicals he was inhaling relax his body.

Staring out at the steamy Southern morning, Ian wondered if he'd be told when they restarted their investigation or just left behind. He wondered if he cared. Shrugging, he let the thought go. No point in dwelling on it.

Bored, he propped his feet up on the railing and pulled the camera onto his lap. As twin plumes of smoke rose from his nose, he began to watch what they had already recorded.

[SalmonMax]

Lily dragged her heels a bit as she headed up and through the old house, looking around as she went. She wasn't sure how she felt about all this. Writing in the dirt. Weird pictures in a journal. Uncle liked to jabber about spirits, but she didn't really believe any of that. There again, she didn't really disbelieve, like her dad. That whole question was simply outside the boundaries of her life. It meant nothing.

But now that had changed, so she had to come to terms with it.

The smell of tobacco greeted her as she came out onto the front porch and sat in the wicker chair across from a little round table from Ian.

"So..." Lily said after a second. "What do you think?"

[Krystal]

"Okay, enough moping around," Krystal muttered to herself, as the raindrop she was watching disappeared beyond the bottom edge of the window. "Let's go find out who I based this woman one on, okay, boy?" Fawkes glanced up at her with his blue, blue eyes, than clambered to his feet, helping his mistress to her feet by shuffling backward with her hand on his collar.

Krystal ruffled Fawkes' head then left the Sitting Room and crossed the Entry Hall to the front door, keeping an eye out for any family photos or portraits that may shed light on the identity of the woman she had drawn. Outside on the front step, she swept her auburn hair over her shoulders and looked up at the sky, finding it a bright, white-grey, the sun struggling to shine through, but that the rain had stopped.

Good. She worked her way carefully around the edge of the house, wedge-soled sandles sinking into the moist ground, intent on reaching the stables-come-office and asking Mr. Robillard if he recognized the woman.

[Kylie_OOC]

Lily, Ian, and Ford

Ian loaded up the video and the screen flickered to life, showing a slow pan of the attic as he heard his own voice began to describe the scene. He didn't see anything unusual, but after a few moments the camcorder flickered, and the screen went black.. even though he was sure he'd charged the battery before coming.

Krystal

She made it to the stables and knocked briskly on the door. She could no longer hear Mr. Robillard on the telephone, but after a moment he opened the door politely and smiled at her presence.

"Ms. Johansson.. how is it going? Is there something I can help you with?"

[Krystal]

How much do I say? Hello Mr. Robillard, an invisible ghost wrote 'Give it back' on the dirt wall of you cellar. Riiight... Everyone else already thinks I'm a flake or something, I don't need Mr. Robillard thinking that too.

Krystal summoned up a smile as she looked up at her employer, giving her head a toss to shake some of her auburn hair over a shoulder. "Oh, it's going fine, we went over the house, getting our first, um, impressions," She said airily, then smiled self-deprecatingly. "Well, I did tumble through the trap-door in the big pantry, so I'm a bit stiff- No! No, I'm fine, honest, just a bit sore," she insisted when Mr. Robillard's eyes widened with concern.

"But there is something you might be able to help me with," Krystal amended, pulling out her sketchpad and flipping the pages. "I doodle when distracted or antsy - Mom was always saying something about idle hands being the devil's playgrounds - though she didn't make that sound like a bad thing... Anyway, I drew this and figured it was 'cuz of something I saw in your... venerable home, though I couldn't find out what."

The shorty, busty co-ed found the drawing she was looking for and turned the pad around for Mr. Robillard to get a clear view. Her engaging smile grew a bit tight, recalling the circumstances under which she drew the picture. "Does this woman look familiar to you, Mr. Robillard?"

[z-Ian]

"Oh, what is this bullshit?" Ian's outburst seemed an awkward way to answer Lily's question. The pretty woman could see him messing with the camera, which was doggedly showing him a black screen. "Oh, this is bullshit! Fuckin' piece of crap!"

The cherry on his cigarette bobbed and bounced as Ian dug a battered laptop with an X-files sticker on the case out of his bag. Muttering and growling to himself, he hooked the camera up to the computer and began to work on recovering anything he could from the visual.

"I know this," Ian said suddenly, glancing at Lily for a moment, "there are a lot of reasons for someone to pretend to have a haunted house. And if they fucked up my camera trying to prove it, I'm going to be pissed."

Click to reveal..

Int + Computers (1d10=2, 1d10=6, 1d10=1, 1d10=8, 1d10=4) = 1 sux

[Kylie_OOC]

Charles took the pad, studying it for a moment or two before recognition flickered across his features. He smiled at Krystal then, handing the pad back to her.

"Of course.. that'd be my great-great grandmama.. or is that supposed ta' be three greats? Anyway, her name was Marie.. Marie Robillard. I didn't recognize her at first, bein' that you drew her lookin' diff'rent than her portrait. It's hangin' over the fireplace in the ballroom.. that must be where you saw it."

For a moment the thought set the attractive artist's mind at ease.. until she realized here was only one problem.. Krystal had never gone anywhere near the ballroom.

-----------

Ian had slightly more success with the laptop... at least at first. He transferred the small SD card to the laptop, and once loaded he saw that the video and audio seemed to be fine. Nothing unusual happened for the first several minutes, until his screen dimmed for power-saver mode, and a message flashed warning him that the computer was about to shut down because the battery was low.

[SalmonMax]

Lily rolled her eyes, but smiled. "For a true believer, you make a good skeptic. Even so, when would anyone have had a chance to mess with your stuff? You've had it with you pretty much all this time."

She leaned forward, trying to get a glimpse of what Ian was doing.

"What's wrong anyway?"

[z-Ian]

"Apparently," Ian grunted, "anything that can." He grabbed the computer and the bag and went inside, hunting for an electrical socket. Once found, he sat on the floor next to it and plugged his computer into it. He'd forgotten about his lit cigarette; with a grimace, he dropped it into a nearby vase.

Lily had followed, and now Ian answered her. "Look, being a believer doesn't mean I'm blind to someone deciding that a ghost can make them a quick buck. Personally, that kinda stuff makes me wanna punch the ass in the face. I believe, because I've experienced. Now, to get the rest of the world to quit laughing at me, I have to wade through the bullshit like this and try to find something to show the world. Shit like this is why people laugh at me when I tell them what happened to me."

[Krystal]

Krystal opened her mouth to explain the problem with his reasoning, then paused. What could she actually say without sounding nuts... though after what she saw - what she thought she saw - maybe she was. She closed her mouth with a snap and hid her anxiety behind a weak smile. ... Give it back...

"Yeah, that must be it..." Krystal brushed some of her auburn hair out of her face and glanced at her sketch again before meeting Mr. Robillard's gaze again, her emerald eyes intense. I can't believe I'm gonna ask this... "Marie looks... melancholy, like... like she lost a lot in her life. Did she have a rough time, way back then?"

[Kylie_OOC]

Click to reveal..

Ian, can I get a quick Wits+Investigation roll?

[Kylie_OOC]

Despite Ian's concerns, once the laptop was plugged in it ran smoothly, without any further sign of tampering. He started the videos up again, and was able to watch them all the way through this time. Whatever he had been expecting, nothing about the videos taken upstairs in the attic implied anything supernatural.

Then he watched as the video version of himself heard the downstairs door slam, and the sound of the dog barking. Both were picked up faintly on the video, and then the picture went dizzyingly out of focus as he ran down the stairs, followed by the other two men. Once he made it downstairs he could see little on the video other than blackness, though he could hear the interaction that had occurred between them.

Then he'd gotten the door open, and picked up the device. He watched anxiously as the camera swung up, caught up in the tension of the moment despite knowing that this was all some elaborate hoax. But it wasn't the words themselves that caught his attention - nor, unbelievably, was it Krystal's ass (which had been the first thing he zoomed in on in the first place). Instead, it was a brief moment of light, followed by a flicker of the image. Not a shaky "someone's holding this camera in their hand" sort of flicker - but a moment where the camera seemed to have blinked off for a brief moment in time - less than a second. Then the image was back, and the rest of the video played out uneventfully.

Click to reveal..

Roll results for Ian: 4 suxx, well done!

_____________________________

Charles shrugged slightly, and offered her a faint but resigned smile.

"I suppose you could say that. Marie lived through the Civil War, Miz Krystal.. not many of us Southerners had it too good back then, as ah'm sure you can imagine. Her husband died in th' war, leavin' her a widow with a little baby boy. She never married again, just stayed here with her Ma' - who was sick - and tried to keep the place runnin'. Lost a lot a' land, but between her an' her little brother, they managed to keep the place from bein' burned t' the ground.. let the Yankees use it for a field hospital an' treated their wounds, though I imagine she woulda rather spit in 'em. They weren't run out as a result."

He glanced down at the picture in her arms, and smiled again sadly.

"I imagine this is what she woulda' looked like durin' those harder years. The picture in the ballroom, she's a bit younger, before the war broke out. I imagine her Daddy must've had to chase the suitors off with a stick."

[SalmonMax]

Leaning over behind Ian, Lily squinted and pointed at the screen, getting her hand in the way from his point of view.

"What was that flash just there. Was that a camera? Did someone take a picture? Go back and look at that again."