House in the Middle of Town (nWoD, Changeling)

[spectralent]

The gentle cry of gulls heralds another lazy Sunday morning on Wrey Island as the sun rises on the centre of town.

In the middle of town, just past the corner shops, but before the terraced houses, is a dilapidated mansion. The paint is flaking off the walls, and almost all the windows are smashed. The garden is an overgrown tangle, beginning to encroach on the path and walls of the mansion.

To the residents of the island, the morning was nothing exceptional. But to those who could see such things, there had been a subtle shift in the Wyrd, a small change, which like the flap of a butterfly’s wings, were causing a ripple to run across the town, and echo within the musty, dust filled halls of Wrey Island’s grandiose manor house…

Okay, this is the point where everyone's going to need to write their arrival to the house, I'll try and have the next post up when everyone's done.

[Lord_Gareth]

The (girl? Woman? It's been so long - which is it?) who now calls herself Knives bursts through a window, shattering the glass with the violence of her arrival. Her breath heaves in half-screams, her depleted adrenalin stores giving one last push. One knife rips across the face of -

A portrait.

All the fight leaves her body, which slumps with pain, exhaustion, and a pent-up mix of rage, sorrow, and fear. This didn't feel like home, but it didn't feel like the Madlands either.

A ragged cough escapes her poor, abused throat, the wounds around her neck aching with the effort. Slowly, the killer begins limping through the halls, occasionally croaking out, "Hello? Anyone here?"

[Ecalsneerg]

Jack lay on the grass, weeping and laughing in relief. "I'm back!" he shouted. "I'M BACK!" Somehow he made it to his feet, looking around. He was in some overgrown garden beside an old battered-looking mansion. Guess I'll need to get shelter of some sort... "Is it really abandoned? I mean, if it isn't, I'll look quite bad trying to break in..."

After some wandering and forcing through grass and plants, he found the door and hammered on it. "Hey! Anyone live here!?"

Please say no. I just escaped, I want somewhere warm and dry. It's been a while since warm and dry.

[nick012000]

Jillian stretches as she blinks herself awake, and then rolls out of bed. Sounds like a window broke; the security company's probably going to alert the cops, and she wouldn't be surprised if a cop car turned up soon. Her house might look a bit run down, but she sort of likes it like that; it's nice and cozy and mortal. Not like the sterile perfection of Arcadia at all.

In any case, she fumbles for the light switch for a few moments, before slipping into a fuzzy white robe that's barely decent. She turns towards her bedroom door for a moment, before reconsidering and turning back for a moment to swing her purse over her shoulder. A few moments of fumbling produces the hand-forged iron hatchets she keeps in it, and with them in hand, she sets off to find whatever broke her window, tail swishing behind her and flowers springing up everywhere she steps.

It doesn't take her long. A rather pretty Changeling, by the looks of things. A rather pretty Changeling who is barely wearing much at all. Naughty images bounced through her head, and she promptly crushed them. Well, for now, anyway.

Not the time for that. Maybe a little later.

Keeping her eyes on the girl, she deposits one of the hatchets in her purse before reaching out to offer her a handshake.

"Hi! I'm Jillian. If you bring no troubles here, you mean the household no harm, and you're not working for the Gentry, you're more than welcome to spend the night here."

She looks like she just escaped. She's hurt, and those clothes are torn to bits. Shopping to get her a wardrobe might be fun, though.

Then she heard someone banging at the door; she supposed they'd have to wait a few moments until she got an answer from the rainbow-glass girl. Can't have her wandering around before she gets a pledge of non-hostility out of her, after all.

[Lord_Gareth]

Knives hears the cat-woman before she sees her. Despite being scared and desperate, the other woman is dismissed as a potential threat the moment Knives sees her, and her obsidian blades lower from their defensive places in front of her torso.

It takes a couple of seconds for Knives' brain to register that someone else is speaking English to her. Her reply, when it comes, is halting. She hasn't spoken to another living being in a long time - not really spoken, in place of battlecries and screams of pain.

I...serve no Gentry. Not any more," she croaks. Her throat is so dry."Where - where is here? Where am I?"

[nick012000]

She smiles.

I'll take that as a yes, then.

"Then by rule of three, so mote it be."

With that, they both feel the cold constriction of a Pledge forming between then.

"You're in my house. Will you be all right to take a seat while I answer the door?"

[spectralent]

As the two women talk inside, a police car draws up outside the building, perhaps drawn by the man hammering on the doors. The two policemen inside exchange a word before one steps outside, a tall, lanky man in his early forties, smiling cheerily. He leans on the top of the hedge (not yet grown to obscure the garden and calls out to Jack.
"Hey there! You 'avin' a bit of trouble with that door?" he says in a tone that's friendly, but not entirely free of suspicion.
Meanwhile, his partner shrugs up his/her coat and turns up the heating inside.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Oh, hello officers," said Jack, trying to smile as he walked towards the one greeting him. "I came to visit my friend, although it appears they don't seen to have heard me. Apologies if my hammering was disruptive, it's just... well, some people enjoy a nap slightly too much if you catch my drift?" As he yammered on, he tried to look around the officer to see his companion in the car behind.

Perception [Wits + Composure]: [roll0] [roll1] [roll2] [roll3] [roll4] 2 successes!

Getting These Guys Outta Here [Manipulation + Persuasion?]: [roll5] EDIT: Erm... why did I add them up, remind me?

[nick012000]

Jillian glances out the window and sees the cops talking to another Changeling she hasn't seen before. He's not bad looking, either. She looks back at the changeling girl in front of her, and gestures towards a plush couch.

"Will you be okay by yourself for a little while? You don't look so good."

[spectralent]

The officer looks at Jack funnily, then shrugs.
"Alright, I guess. Well, we'll just be doing the rounds, if yer don't mind." he says, tipping his cap, and heading back to the car.

The person in the car is hard to get a clear look at, but as you stretch, getting an off look from the policeman as you do so, you see that whoever is inside that coat is clearly too big for it, and has leathery, wrinkled hands...

Not to mention the unmistakeable feel of the hedge.

[Ecalsneerg]

Crud. Oh crud. No. No. "Best check through the windows. Maybe I'll be able to see them if they're in," said Jack, just loud enough for the police officers to hear.

With that, he stepped from the front porch and went around the side of the house, looking through windows to try and find out if it was empty or not.

Perception again? [roll0]

[spectralent]

You have a peer inside, and clearly see two further changelings inside; one carved of glass, and the other half cat. Both are female.

Looks like you're surrounded.