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

[Krystal]

"Oh." Krystal gave her employer a small, regretful smile, apologizing for bringing the subject up. She was also disappointed, if not surprised, that a reason for her unintentional rendering didn't strike her like a bolt of lightning. "I know what's it like being on your own, but I can't imagine what it would be like, raising a kid and running a place like this way back then."

Krystal was about tell him about what she'd seen in the cellar - what she thought she'd seen - but instead, shook her head and gave him a small shrug. She could bring herself to be one to tell him about the writing on the wall, as if were. Keeping her eyes on him, looking for any reaction, Krystal said, "I should get going, the others are investigating the cellar, they think it might hold promise for some reason and I don't want them to think I'm not doing my part. Talk to you again, soon, Mr. Robillard."

Krystal turned around in the doorway, giving Charles a wave over her shoulder than began heading back to the main house. Fawkes stuck around just long enough to press his head against Mr. Robillard's thigh and beg a scratch behind the ears before moving in a loping trot to reach his mistress' side once more.

On the veranda, Krystal decided on her next course of action. Admonishing Fawkes to stay there, the pretty Vegas native strode purposefully into the manor, sandal heels slapping against the hardwood as she strutted for the Ballroom.

Let's try some of this investigative stuff and check for differences between my drawing and the portrait of Marie Robillard.

[z-Ian]

Ian choked back an angry retort. It didn't do to piss off the pretty bounty hunter. He wrapped his hand around her wrist and moved her arm. "I don't know what that was," he said, with what seemed like an infinite amount of patience to him but was really thinly veiled irritation. "I have to go back and pause it to see."

Ian eased her hand back over her personal space and let it go. "Watch the master at work," he told her with a mocking grin. It was stupidly easy to go back and pause - but she might not know that. He hoped she didn't, and could be impressed by his expertise.

Click to reveal..

Ian's Int + Computers (1d10=5, 1d10=10, 1d10=2, 1d10=10, 1d10=7)

Ian's poppin' 10's (1d10=8, 1d10=10)

Ian's poppin' 10's (1d10=3)

Total of 4 sux

[SalmonMax]

Lily grinned to herself as she pulled her hand back, enjoying her little dig.

"Wow, you can go back and pause?" she asked with faux astonishment. "Your moving picture-box full of spirit magic!"

When he glanced back at her, she was still smiling her wry, lopsided smile. "Eyes on the screen, master at work, or you'll miss it."

[Logic1]

Ford watched intently as they scanned through my video. The abrupt stops were disturbing to say the least. He was more than a little eager to discover what was causing them.

He chuckled softly as Lily sarcastically countered Ian's come on. "Don't worry, I'm watching for everyone."

[Kylie_OOC]

As Ian navigated the image, down to a frame by frame review of the scene, the small group made some joint observations. The flash itself seemed to lack an origin - no one had been holding a camera or anything else reflective, save the video camera itself, which wouldn't have effected the image since it was the one capturing it. Second, the light didn't seem to grow from a small point.. it just seemed to appear all of a sudden and flash very briefly across the screen before it went black. The blackness lasted only about two seconds real time, before the video camera flickered back to life. It was, eerily, about the size of a person, though it lacked any definitive shape.

And what bothered Ian the most as he watched was that he couldn't find any flaws. No traces of photoshop, no visible defects in the image, nor any of the hyper-perfection that usually accompanied the more well-faked versions of these types of hoaxes. It wasn't that it couldn't have been faked.. it was just Hollywood quality if it had been, and not in a low-budget kind of way. Nor, when he did some brief security checks to his system, could he find any evidence of tampering or infiltration. His computer was locked up as tight as a nun's panties, just like always.

___________________________

Meanwhile, Krystal made her way back to the house and back towards the previously unexplored ballroom. It was an impressive room, with beautiful weathered hardwood floors that the remodelers had been intelligent enough to leave somewhat scuffed and scarred from years of exposure to dainty dancing shoes. There was an old piano sitting towards one side of the room, and on the other there was a grand fireplace, carved out of what appeared to be solid marble. Windows lined the walls, covered in heavy draperies that were in too good of a condition to be originals, but that a small plaque informed her were designed after descriptions of window treatments in one of the Robillard family journals.

And there, above that grand marble fireplace that appeared to have seen many lifetimes of use, was a painting of the woman from Krystal's picture. She was, as Charles had stated, younger than the image Krystal had drawn by perhaps a few years, and less sad. This young woman looked demure, yet pleased with herself in that way only women in old photographs or paintings seemed to be able to be.. like the Mona Lisa, or perhaps that picture she'd seen once at her aunt's house of her grandmother as a young woman. She wore an elegant, deep red dress with creme lace along the neckline, and what looked like matching cream gloves. Around her neck was a beautiful pendant necklace, with what looked like a large ruby in the center and several diamonds surrounding it. Matching earrings dangled from delicate, porcelain-pale earlobes, and her hair was pulled back in a careful, elegant coif. But the features were unmistakably those that Krystal had somehow managed to sketch.. without ever having looked at this painting before.

[Krystal]

Krystal stared up at the antebellum portrait, lips pursed in a nonplussed moue. That she managed to draw the same woman went beyond the bounds of coincidence, but she stubbornly refused to rule it out as a isolated incongruous event. Or... you know, maybe she had caught a glimpse of the portrait reflected from glass or through a window. Maybe an unconscious extrapolation from Mr. Robillard's features...

Despite herself, she couldn't stop her artist's eyes from comparing and contrasting the portrait to her detailed sketch. The features were distinct, the passage of time in the set of her shoulders and around her eyes natural and flawless. Taking in account the apparent change in time and emotion, the most glaring difference between the two was the omission of the pendant necklace in her drawing, a treasured and extravagant piece. Something like that would have to be an heirloom.

Krystal found herself on the cusp of the massive marble fireplace, hands supporting herself on the high mantle while she strained for every inch of her five-foot-two height as she studied the minute details the portraitist had managed to evoke. She dropped back to her heels, the thick wedge-soles of her sandals clacking on the hardwood as a sudden urge ran through her.

Telling herself it was just because she had seen in too many movies and comics to pass up the chance when it was presented to her, Krystal reached up, small hand scrambling for a grip on the elaborately carved frame. She quickly looked over either shoulder to make sure no one was looking, then took a deep breath as she levered the portrait away from the wall so she steal a glance behind it.

You're being silly, there's just gonna be wall and canvas...

[SalmonMax]

Lily was quiet while Ian worked, knowing the difference between humor and just being a pest. After a few minutes she sat down and leaned her head back, resigning herself to a wait.

Finally, when she realized he was just re-running the same bits of video over and over, she called, "So what's the verdict? Any idea what's going on? Mugshots of Casper?"

[z-Ian]

"Well shit," Ian sighed. Lily lifted a curious eyebrow and Ian explained, "I can't find a reason for that light and darkness."

"Aren't we supposed to be finding stuff like this?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, finding it and then finding the rational explanation for it," Ian grumped. "Shit without an explanation makes me look like a naive asshole ready to swallow anything so long as it supports whatever theory I happen to be giving the figurative blow job. So I really don't like shit like this. I prefer entities that give the straight shot - you know, right into the camera, as it were."

With a grumpy sigh, Ian started it again, watching for other anomalies.

[SalmonMax]

"Well look, I don't think you're going to see anything new in that right now," Lily points out. "Why don't you make a copy or two, and put it down for a little while? What we've got there is just one piece of something bigger, whether it's real or phony. We won't be able to see the big picture by looking at one piece, no matter how many times we replay it."

[Kylie_OOC]

To Krystal's embarrassed chagrin, the wall behind the portrait did indeed seem solid. The only thing her carefully prying fingers managed to reveal was the fact that the wallpaper was a reproduction, since there was no visible fading surrounding the portrait.

In the sitting room, she could hear the muted voices of Ian and Lily, though she couldn't quite make out what they were saying. She glanced up again at the painting of the youthful Marie, and for a moment Krystal felt as if she were glaring at her disapprovingly for bothering the portrait. The feeling sent a cold chill running down her spine. Maybe it was time to check on the others and see what they were discussing.

[Krystal]

Convincing herself that the shiver was just her telling herself she wasn't disappointed there hadn't been something behind the portrait, Krystal carefully replaced the painting, making sure the frame was level. Regardless if the place was cursed or not, there was no reason to disturb the furnishings.

She stretched her back, aching from straining for the portrait and her earlier tumble, a groan of relief passing her lips as vertebrae popped. Tired of padding around the place alone with nothing to show for it, Krystal crossed the Entry Hall and knocked softly on the doorframe before joining the others in the Sitting Room.

"Sorry about the earlier spaz-attack, guys," Krystal said, lips curved in a wry grin, but otherwise not acknowledging what had appeared to happen in the cellars. She tossed her sketchpad down on the table next to Ian's laptop, the melancholy woman facing the others. "Found out who I drew though. That's Marie Robillard, Charles Robillard the Third's great-great-" She counted out the 'greats' on her fingers. "-great-and-maybe-another-great-grandmother."

[z-Ian]

"Huh." Ian sounded utterly bored by Krystal's revelation. He also didn't look particularly impressed by her apology, either. In fact, he just looked annoyed. More mysterious shit. I assume she's going to tell us that she's never seen this woman before in her life at any moment. This sort of thing made him wonder if she were in on it; now their getting to work together didn't seem as much like a coincidence as a set-up.

He glanced at Lily. "Alright, I have more stuff to listen to," he said, closing the video and opening the audio recording. "Do you guys want it on speakers? I only have two headphones and one splitter."

His eyes returned to Krystal, lingering on her face for a moment before looking past her. "Hey, where'd Fawkes get to?"

[Krystal]

Krystal's eyes narrowed to slivers of emerald as she caught his annoyed look, almost hearing his skepticism. She tossed her head, waving vaguely outside with one hand, the other propped on a hip. "I left Fawkes outside after I talked to Mr. Robillard. His feet were a little muddy."

The co-ed flipped her hand with irritation, pointing negligently at her sketchpad. "I know what you're thinking, you know," she said, miffed. "And even though I don't recall seeing her before, I must've - there's a portrait of her in the ballroom, after all, though I didn't even go in there until after..." she finished under her breath, sounding lame even to herself.

She leaned forward, peeking down at what was on Ian's laptop. "Speakers," she said in reference to his previous question. "What are we listening to?"

[SalmonMax]

"It's the latest reality show," Lily explained. "Gossip Ghost. We'll get the dirt on what Robillard's great great great great whatever grandmother thought about that bitch who lives next door."

Her eyes flicked to Krystal's sketch pad, and in a more serious voice she asked "When did you draw that anyway?"

[Krystal]

Krystal arched reddish brow, cute nose scrunching up, a dimple appearing as she frowned at Lily's oh-so-witty-reply. Before she give her a miffed sniff, Lily turned more serious and she let it die. Krystal glanced at her sketchpad, lips twisted in something like disgust, but not quite.

"I drew it when we were locked down in the cellar and the wall was doing... whatever it was doing," the curvaceous artist admitted. "I doodle when I'm nervous."

[z-Ian]

"Hey, guys," Ian said softly, his hand hovering over the keyboard, "if we're going to hear this audio - and I mean listen to it, not talk while it plays in the background - you're gonna need to shut up." He added a smirk as he popped an unlit cigarette into his mouth. "Or I 'n Ford can leave. Ya know. Whatever works for ya ladies."

Ian slouched back in his chair and waited for the two women to make up their minds. He hoped they'd know what they wanted. He also hoped they stayed. They were a lot nicer to look at then Ford.

[Krystal]

Krystal pursed her lips in a dimpled-cheeked moue of annoyance, then straightened up, folding her arms beneath her jouncing breasts. Her pout slide into a small smirk as she arched a brow, as if to silently say, 'Aren't you going to get on with it?'

[SalmonMax]

Lily just twirled her hand in a circle, making the gesture for 'go ahead.'

[z-Ian]

He tried to stay miffed. But with the first flounce of those delicious breasts, his anger rolled over on its back like a scared puppy and his lust took the mental wheel. Oh, baby, look at that milk shake.

However, the motions of Lily's hand did make a play for his interest as well, and Ian smirked as he thought, Mmmm, look at that wrist turn. I bet you can do the French Twist, can't ya, babe?

"You got it ladies," Ian replied generously instead of venting his sexual desires. "Let's see what spoOoOoOoky shit we hear this time."

[Kylie_OOC]

It took awhile to listen to the audio, starting from when Ian had initially pulled it out in the attic, and going through the entire series of questions he'd asked in both the house slave's quarters and in the other bedrooms on the second floor. As he'd expected, there was no activity on the audio recording during his inquiries - yet more proof in his mind that they were being paid to help set up another historical, 'haunted' plantation meant to suck up the hard-earned money of gullible Anne Rice fans and tarot card mystics that came to visit the swampy hellhole of Louisiana.

He was about to flip the audio off after the question and lack-of-answer session ended in the master bedroom, when he heard his own reaction to the sound of the door slamming downstairs, and Fawkes' barking.

"What the fuck?"

It dawned on him then that he hadn't remembered to shut off the audio recorder yet, that him and the other two men had still been talking when they'd heard the noises downstairs. They all listened quietly as the computer speakers played back to them the sounds of that frightening encounter - the pounding of Ian's shoes as they hurried down the stairs, the muffled sound of Krystal calling out for Ian to try and open the door. They listened as Ian gave instructions to the other men, and as he fiddled with the lock.

"Fuck ya! I am the mother-fuckin' king of locks, baby!"

The door swung open after Ian's pronouncement, and they heard Krystal let out a startled yelp at the sound. However, they never got to hear the sound of Krystal thanking Ian, or the pronouncements following the sighting of the mysterious words that had been etched into the wall. Instead, right after Krystal's frightened exclamation, they heard something else. It was a shriek this time.. but not one that sounded at all startled or frightened. Instead, it was full of rage and frustration, and had an odd, unearthly sound to it that gave those listening goosebumps and made the hair on the back of their necks stand on end. And then, the audio just died, as if someone had clicked the power button.

It took those who'd already watched the video a moment to realize that the sound of the eerie scream and the ensuing silence coordinated perfectly with the flash of light they'd seen on the screen in the previous video. And that was it. There was nothing else on the recorder except the frustrating sound of silence.

[z-Ian]

Now Ian was a little freaked out. Two bouts of oddity at the same time on two different pieces of equipment was unlikely. Ian also knew that no one had tampered with his equipment, mostly because he knew no one had had a chance. No one had touched it other than him. But some things could be done at a distance.

Setting his jaw, Ian ran some diagnostics. He needed to be sure the equipment was fine, and this time, he went over it carefully.

There were scientific things that could explain what had happened. Ian took a moment to scour his brain for what they could be. After a second, he opened up a file and began to open documents, scanning them and rapidly closing them. Anyone looking could tell that they were lengthy descriptions of various scientific and ‘scientific’ phenomena. He was clearly looking for something.

Click to reveal..

First, he's doing diagnostics like with the video; then he's starting to try to determine what could have caused those phenomena. He's blowing a WP on the diagnostics check; he really wants to be sure.

Ian's Computer + Intelligence + Willpowe...1d10=2, 1d10=8)

Poppin' the ten (1d10=2)

Three sux on his computers check.

Ian's Intelligence + Science roll (1d10=7, 1d10=10, 1d10=5, 1d10=10)

Poppin' tens (1d10=10, 1d10=7)

Poppin' ten (1d10=6)

Rolled the die for Speculative Science specialty separately (1d10=10)

Poppin' the ten (1d10=7)

Three sux with just Intelligence + Science; four if Speculative Science counts.

[SalmonMax]

Lily drew her fingers down her cheeks and off of her chin in a slow motion. She glanced behind her, found a chair, and promptly plopped into it.

"Well. That was..." She trailed off, not sure what to say.

If her dad had been there, he'd have been able to convince her it was something ordinary, she thought. But a part of her heart had always leaned towards her uncle, and his endless stories, and his talk of spirits. She'd never really expressed it, but it was there.

Even so, it was one thing to wax nostalgic over a crazy old man's stories; it was something entirely else to experience the presence of something unseen.

"Give it back," Lily muttered. The signs of forced entry. The angry ghost. "Someone took something."

[Kylie_OOC]

Krystal tried to stifle a surprised gasp at the noise, but the other two seemed too absorbed by the shriek to pay much attention to her failed attempt at suppression. As Lily sunk down into a chair and Ian began researching, she found her attention drawn involuntarily to the portrait she'd sketched. It sent a shiver of fear through her, so she forced herself to look away, turning instead to the information Ian had pulled up on his screen to try and distract herself from the image for now.

Ian scrolled through several documents, but it didn't take him nearly as long as he'd expected to find something relevant. He almost missed it, but a few brief words caught his eye, and he went back to the beginning of the paragraph and begin to read, interest piqued. It was an excerpt from a page he'd scanned from what was considered in the field to be a highly reputable paranormal investigations newsletter. He'd scanned the page for the article next to it that covered information regarding the discovery of a small piece of highly advanced technology. It was, in the author's opinion, a possible example of extra-terrestrial communications mechanics - but it had been confiscated by the CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) before he'd had an opportunity to investigate it as thoroughly as he'd liked. Included in the article were several drafted diagrams of the outside of the object that Ian had wanted to study, which was the primary reason he'd saved the story in the first place. But now it was the last several paragraphs of a different story that caught his attention.

"...a more challenging spirit to investigate than some of our past experiences. Though we have no definitive proof, D.N. theorizes that some spirits can affect the magnetic field of areas they inhabit. Timekeeping was next to impossible, as none of the investigator's watches could hold a charge for more than a few hours. We also had to deal with multiple equipment failures due to loss of battery life or some sort of interference that caused cameras and other recording devices to randomly turn off or - even worse - erase chunks of recorded information. In one investigator's case the hard drive was completely wiped, and we were careful to leave our electronics at a safe distance from that point out. Nonetheless, two of us had to replace the batteries in our cell phones after the completion of the investigation, for the lifespan of a charge had been reduced by a couple hours just through repeated exposure, despite the cell phones remaining in an 'off' position most of the time we were there.

What the difference is between this haunting and others were our mechanical instruments operated properly is, I don't know. Ultimately, most paranormal investigations can be aided by the use of EVP and other electronic surveillance and communication attempts. But there are apparently some situations where the use of modern technology may inhibit your investigation. Next week, I will detail some of the alternate paranormal investigative techniques that you can pursue in these types of situations..."

[z-Ian]

Ian immediately glanced down at his icons. "Fuck!" he growled, rising to his feet.

"What?" Krystal asked.

"No internet connection," Ian snarled. He started to pack up his computer, wrapping the cord around his laptop. "I need one. I'm going to town, or whatever passes for that in this area."

He headed for the door only to pause in the entrance. "Anyone coming with me?"

[Krystal]

"I'm coming," Krystal quickly confirmed after one narrowed-eyed glance around the house. She didn't believe in all this ghost and spirit rubbish, anymore than she believed in Ian's aliens and junk. It was just... she didn't have an explanation that would hold a thimble full of water. She needed to get out of here for a while.

Krystal walked briskly towards the front doors, placing a thumb and forefinger in her mouth as stepped onto the veranda and blew a sharp whistle. A moment later, Fawkes came bounding around the manor, almost crashing into his mistress in his eagerness for a scratch. Krystal laughed softly and obliged, then started walking towards Ian's car. Beggar that he was, after Krystal finished scratching him behind the ears, Fawkes trotted at Ian's side, looking imploringly up at him with bright blue eyes.

[SalmonMax]

"I think I'll stay here," Lily said easily, giving Krystal a wave as she took off. "See what I can find out about the break-in, and if anything was taken."