Bea walked with the others, no weapons drawn, eyes peeled not just for signs of movement, but for the strange pit that had been dug along one side of the house.
Bea with activate Heightened Sight and Hearing, as well
Bea walked with the others, no weapons drawn, eyes peeled not just for signs of movement, but for the strange pit that had been dug along one side of the house.
Bea with activate Heightened Sight and Hearing, as well
The house emerges from the rioting vegetation: a cyclopean monolith cut off from the world and completely forgotten by it.
Once, it could be surmised that it stood in the middle of a large clearing but that has since become overgrown. It was a large house with a verandah out the front that slopped dangerously on crumbling stumps. Dessecated vines, snap frozen by drought, clung to the railings like a second wall. The front door which faced eastward, and the windows, were boarded up.
For Ale and Bea, whose hearing had been pushed to a razor point, the sound of crushed leaves, dirt and brittle grass was almost too much. As they drew closer, these sounds were intruded upon by noises from the house: the scuttle of rats; the settle of old timbers; scraping and disjointed moaning; conversation but blurred into seamless noise by the shape of the structure and its timbers.
Bea, her sight filtered by the Blood, saw the circle of stones as well. Polished hemispheres of white arranged around the house; they poked up through the scrub here and there. Where they didn't, her sharp eyes detected the tell tale bump or warping in the grass. Bea could not see the fan of earthy waste materials her contact had described. But she could tell, roughly, where it should be. Shadows on the north side of the building changed as the invading jungle fell back under the rocky pile.
New tracks cut through the vegetation around the clearing, spiralling around to the south and the west.
A hint of loam, dirt and cement still hung in the air. Repressed now by the pungent aroma of the overgrown scrub.
Nothing moved.
Jesse walked along with the others, for now keeping his mouth dutifully shut in order not to cause suspicion if they were being watched by unseen eyes. He cast his gaze around with mild interest. With the blood coursing through his veins and making his organs work proper, he breathed for the show of being one of the living as well. Just looking rosy and alive didn't do it all the time.
Call him a perfectionist, but he didn't go and heighten no senses. Wouldn't do to be surprised by some sound or light and hiss like a startled Kindred.
Of course, it did put a hamper down on actually sensing what the others might, but they all had their burdens to bear, and etcetera. Didn't need to justify himself to no one.
Jesse figured he might as well be the first to break the silence, speaking for the others to hear but doing his damnest not to do so in usual volume to startle anyone. Friend or possible foe. His hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans as the proper image "Anything interesting out there? Other than green and more green. And dirt." He was only partially playing a role here.
With the question, he also looked out to where he saw Emma take flight to, though he didn't see just where she actually took off to beyond general direction. Hope she wouldn't get in no trouble in there all by her lonesome. They went and separated after all.
Alice wanted to grit her teeth at the sound of their walking, but the Haunt refrained. She knew that she'd have to get used to this. Her lack of sight would only make her enhance her hearing more and more.
"Wasn't there supposed to be people?" asks Alice, the sound of her heart beat echoing in her ears, "You said there was a party." it seemed like Ale and Bea didn't want to drag her and Jesse along as scared and unwilling kine offering. Maybe playing it like they'd been tricked into coming willingly would work.
Emma took in the surroundings. The rag doll caught her eye. Was this a place where a little girl was hidden away from the world? Emma stored the images and flew deeper into the house.
Emma was finding it harder now as the confined nature of the house closed in about her. The ceilings were high, the corridors were narrow. Plaster mouldings wept from the ceiling. Detritus, heaped up over the years, filled odd corners and gave mute testimony to rooms which at one time or another had not been as sealed as they were today.
Empty doorways and walls smashed right through gave Bat-Emma a wonderland to play in.
Graffiti was splashed everywhere. It ranged from simple name tags to elaborate pictures, fading with age. Here and there, stranger things: sigils and signs. Some old. Some new. Some very new.
At the stairwell leading to the ground floor, a hand convulsed from the wall, frantically clawing at the empty air.
Other sounds - distorted by the building and the foetid air: a conversation from the ground floor.
"It did not work. We failed."
"Don't be so hasty, we learned much."
"Nothing is ever wasted."
Psychangel
Turning her head slightly towards Alice, voiced lowered, “Oh, there is, they’re just in the basement. Cops never look for the parties down there!” She replied to Alice with a shrug and a smirk.
“I just don’t remember which way is quicker to get there.” If she remembered right, Bea mentioned starting in the basement. “Do you remember?” she asks towards Bea, maybe the Daeva saw something she didn’t. There wasn’t much to hear, just what you would expect in what was supposed to be an abandoned house. Hope was that they could look around the basement before moving to the upper levels and getting the jump on the Brood. That last part almost made her laugh out loud, getting the jump on the brood, like it would be possible.
"I think it's this way," Bea replied after a moment, starting to walk towards the new tracks that went off toward the west and south. That looked like the most recent disturbance, and that likely meant it lead to the people disturbing the empty property. Or, it hopefully did.
So, a little confused. If the new tracks that go off to the south and west lead toward the house, that's where Bea will go. If they DO NOT lead toward the house, then Bea will ignore them and head to the front door.
Emma decides to hang from the ceiling or something appropriate. She continues to listen in and tries to see what the convulsing hand is attached to from her upside down pose.
Listening for the other's steps Alice orientates herself that way, trying to prevent herself from drifting off in the wrong direction, and trying not stumble her way across thecrunchinggrounds.
"Okay, okay. Fine." faux-huffy. Had she eyes they'd be rolling for effect. "But it better be as amazing as you said."