Haunting House

[Saber Sloth]

Sorry for the long, long wait!!

Sonnie wait for final confirmation from Sera, who picks up the watch to show to the ghostly girl, waiting for...something as time resets.

As the watch is physically shoved into the ghostly girl's face, the girl's eyes widen and she breathes out, "...Papa's....watch..?" before everything resets, the Lost are by the door, the tick-tocking fetch repeats its motions. The watch back in it's place, the ghostly girl returned to her work.

Everything is exactly the same....except Sera is still holding the watchmaker's tools.

[Sonnie Wu]

It was still jarring. To be wrenched out of space and time and set down someplace else, even it was only a few feet and a few minutes away. It was disorienting in a way she couldn't really describe. Shaking her head, as if shooing away an annoying fly, Sonnie found her sea legs quickly enough and examined the room. Everything was back to the beginning, with only herself and Sera remembering anything, it seemed.

Except... they'd learned something this go around. Was it useful information, though? Only one way to know.

"Hey, so," she said to the Darkling, not even bothering to try and re-explain the situation, "Tell us about your papa and his watch." The Beast was out of patience and got straight to the point. Tact was for Fairest.

[Seraphina]

Was she expecting the girl to actually see the watch this time? No, but quite frankly, she wasn’t sure what she expected.

But she DID see it. This was progress, a step towards getting Rhodes back and getting out of this place.

And then came the weird time thing, placing her back where she started.

But…with the tools?

Looking at them in her hand, she wasn’t sure what to do with them. Working on or making a watch was most certainly not something she could do. Not even for a second. So why was she holding them?

Her mind works over the new events, pulling information from everything that happened.

Maybe…

Walking back up to the girl, she repeats the process of kneeling in front of her. But instead of holding out the watch, she held out the tools. Would it have the same effect? Could the girl mess with the watch? Or…did she know she could?

Guess it was time to find out.

She heard Sonnie asking the important questions, but the Nix was focused on offering the tools to the girl, curious.

[Saber Sloth]

The ghostly girl absorbed in her work, like the times they'd seen this scene before, except this time she startles as Sonnie speaks. Unlike before when it took them messing with the pulpy head to get her attention.

Shaking her head to clear it from a fog, she turns and blinks up at Sonnie first, bewildered, "Papa...but - " Then to Sera who's suddenly there and handing her tools. At first there is the expected confusion, which clears suddenly "Oh!" she breathes, looking around her as she takes the tools, "Papa's watch. It broke when he died." Her head turns to the opposite side of the table she had been working on, to see the gleaming once hidden from her key. "He was a watch maker, the best. He tried to teach me. But. I wasn't a good student. I'd have given anything to learn to work like he did. So I could fix his broken watch, but I couldn't - I - " The watch draws her like a women possessed, until she takes out the tools and starts tinkering.

With quick efficient movements the ghostly girl works, in time with the tick-tocking fetch, who's repetition of the words grows quieter the more confidant the girl's motions become. Until the verbal tick-tocking silences entirely, and the girl's ghostly visage doesn't quite fade away, but gains colour and vibrancy and life.

Around them, they can now hear the mechanical tick-tocking of a proper clock, larger now then the pocket watch, after a timeless moment they see the girl, stand from her hunched pose over the watch, let out a little "huh" before picking it up from the work surface and everything jitters and clicks, like the circular repetition of gears working away, the light flickers, fading and then -

- it's not the same work room the Lost find themselves in.

They're back on the first floor. With the obviously rich and well maintained furniture and the store bought Halloween decorations, the only blood Sonnie can smell is hers and her Queen's.

Behind them, the front door clicks open.

[Sonnie Wu]

The Beast could only watch in silence as the scene transpired. Something clicked with the ghostly girl... and the watch was fixed? And she wasn't ghostly anymore? Something else clicked in her head.

"Oh, her desire to fix her dad's watch must have drawn... the wrong sort of attention. But here she gained the skill she needed!" Sonnie was like 80% certain she understood now.

The click of a door caught her ears and she spun about to look. Was that... the way out?!?

Instinct caused her take a step towards the exit, the animal in her eager to escape this place. She took back that step, however, and looked to Sera. The Queen's safety was paramount. Sera had to be safe first.

"We can go, I think?" she said, glancing down at herself. Was the gore from the Pursuer gone? The Steepscrambler didn't smell it anymore.

There was still the issue of Rhodes, of course. She looked and sniffed about for the missing Autumn King.

5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-07-16 15:28:46	Sonnie Wu rolls 10 to Perception: Wits + Comp + Contract (10 Again)	9, 3, 1, 9, 8, 7, 2, 10, 6, 9, 5	5 successes

[Seraphina]

Things were happening that she honestly didn’t expect to happen.

The girl could see the tools. She acknowledged the watch again, claiming it had been broken.

But whatever memory the tools had sparked, it seemed to have done whatever needed to be done.

Sapphires watch the girl work, this time on something that isn’t a bloody mess.

As things seem to come together, the girl becomes more…well…life like, not as ghostly!

Turning as she hears the tick tocking, eyes looking around the room.

Blinking, surprised as the room changes and they are back at the start. But still without Rhodes.

Spinning, frantic eyes look for Rhodes, for any sign of him, “Rhodes!” she calls out, desperation in her voice. He had to be here! They found the front door, he HAD to be here!

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-07-16 17:16:11	Seraphina rolls 5 to Rhodes?(Wits+Comp)-1 Clarity (10 Again)	2, 8, 4, 4, 5	1 success

Hearing Sonnie, “We have to find Rhodes.” Her pain and exhaustion briefly forgotten. But she didn't want to keep Sonnie, her best friend, in this house and risk it taking them again. It was a tug, to keep her friend and Court safe...but wanting to find her love.

[Saber Sloth]

There's no secrets hidden from Sonnie's nose, especially now when they're no blood, gore or even excrement in the area to block other scents from her!

Taking her time to thoroughly scent the area Sonnie's knows that despite everything looking like how it was when they got here, it wasn't quite. Everything smelt like dust and disuse. Like it had been a long time since anyone else had wandered through here. And, Sonnie can, under that smell the Rhododendron fragrance so unique to Rhodes, but it too had faded. It trails through the obvious pathway they'd once gone, though this time there wasn't any spatial shenanigans, through the halls, and kitchen and then out, into the back yard. Sonnie's nose couldn't tell her if Rhodes had suddenly found a way out and didn't have time to tell the others, or if the House itself and whatever fae magics lingered had thought the Dread King would be the one to solve the watch-riddle and through him out the first chance it got.

What Sonnie knows, is it's no longer Halloween, and it hasn't been for sometime.

While Sonnie follows her nose, Sera trusts her eyes. Whipping her head back and forth, she can't find her any sign of her husband, until she looks out the opened door. One of Rhodes' flowers, wilted, laying gently on the stoop. He got out of the House.

[Sonnie Wu]

Sonnie was no bloodhound, but sometimes her simian sense of smell was just on point. Tracking someone by smell was not easy, either, but following the trail lead her to a conclusion she had not expected.

"I... Sera, I think he's already out." She turned to looked at the Fairest, "The only scent of Rhodes is old and faint, like he left the house. I dunno if he found an exit or the house tossed him out, but he's gone. Seems Halloween is over." She took out her phone to check the time, just to confirm her suspicion. "The nothingness isn't there anymore, either. I think we can go now. He may be waiting for you outside."

Yeah, the Beast was egging Sera on, to get her to run out of this hell house and find her wayward husband. The Queen's safety was still her priority.

Her eyes shifted to the (Partially) Ghostly Woman, as her hands checked her pockets to be certain she had everything, "How about you, ready to leave?"

[Seraphina]

Once her eyes land on the flower, outside, there is a mixture of relief…and anger. When had he gotten out? Had he been trying to get to them?

“Sonnie!” she calls over her shoulder, pointing to the flower, “Looks like he found a way out.”

A bit of confusion as the Beast speaks, “Halloween is over?” pulling her own cell out, she looks to see the date, “What the hell happened?!” she knew in the Hedge time got…weird. So had this place had been part of the Hedge? She had questions. But now wasn’t the time to ask them.

They needed to leave before the house changed its mind or they set something off.

Touching her own pockets again, she felt her keys, “You’re welcome to come with us if you want. I can put you up somewhere safe.” Already walking towards the door, eager to see if Rhodes was indeed, waiting outside.

[Saber Sloth]

The not-so ghostly women turns to answer the Springs, her face and eyes, running through the gamut of emotions that come from being Free, she nods and goes to answer but before sound can escape her lips, her form flickers, sputtering until she's gone.

Exactly where she had been, a polaroid picture drops from a shelf from the displaced air. Showing the women. Her face, strange with her Mask, but recognizable to the Lost. She's sitting on a blanket out in some green space, with scruffy looking person grinning toothily at the camera. The Not-So-Ghostly Women is grinning up them, though not as widely, and showing off her pocket-watch. Hale and whole.

Written on the back in neat and clock-work perfect handwriting.

'From Spring to Springs.
Thank you for not giving up on me,
All my love from yesterday.
~Hope'



Through the door behind them, the Summer heat blazes.

And, finally after much, much too long we're good to wrap. We have one more round of post, and I"m going to close out the Scene