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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 18:45:10 GMT -6
Linyü
Encounters: Off
Rei Level 167, Loyalty 106 (4/5, 3/10)
Stamina: 1 Strength: 0 Resistance: 0 Dexterity: 3 Mentality: 1 Special Abilities: Gleam, Fly, Speak, Empathetic Link Moves: Sparkling Dust |
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 18:46:01 GMT -6
The house, when they reached it, looked perfectly ordinary. San gave the grounds a once over, his face impassive, though there was no one else here to see it but Rei. In theory, with her, he shouldn’t have needed any pretenses; they had been working together for long enough that she could tell most of what he was thinking, about the job itself at least. But lately he felt… unbalanced, out of sorts, and it was hard to fully let down his guard, even around her.
… No, perhaps that had been true ever since he was first taken by the Watchful Ones. It had certainly become true by the time he had turned into San, and he had been San for years by the time he had met Rei. When had he last been relaxed, really?
The things he worried about now were simply different, and perhaps more dire too.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 18:46:37 GMT -6
The fact of it was funny, in its own way. Back then he hadn’t imagined that things could be very much worse, though to be fair, at the time he hadn’t had much room for such useless musing. Now, with more time to himself than he had had in an age, he found he cared little for the room it afforded him to think.
Either way, he didn’t trust the tame outward appearance of the property. He had heard the rumors. There were too many of them for all of them to be false, though he didn’t doubt that some of them were indeed tall tales. They would have to take care as they ventured in.
“Are you ready?” he said to Rei, but he could tell from her posture that she had merely been waiting on him to give the signal. Still, she nodded, and he nodded back.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 18:46:51 GMT -6
“Let’s go, then. Stay close.” He didn’t have to tell her that they didn’t know what they would find in there. The good thing about Rei was that she already knew that much. It was nothing like working with that Seveth, for whom everything had to be spelled out in painstaking detail.
He had never thought of himself as having been spoiled by having the teammates he had had, in his time with the Watchful Ones, but… There was something to be said for a system where the useless or incompetent were culled. Everything else about the Watchful Ones’ methods and operating strategy had been… difficult, but everyone operating as an agent had been competent at their roles. The ones who began giving disappointing performances didn’t last.
Still, he was glad to be away from it. He was glad. He had to be. It was what he had dreamed about for so long, wasn’t it?
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 18:47:29 GMT -6
And Rei was here now, free from the threat of being drugged or subjected to whatever it was they had done to her, so long as they didn’t find her again. And so long as she was still with him, he would make sure of it.
… It was the only thing he could do for her. To make up for… everything else. It was the only thing he was good for anymore, really. Even this, this heist on the haunted magicked house, was just a means to secure more funds, so he could improve their living situation some.
To that end, he said, “Whatever we find today, don’t tell Seveth about it.” Seveth had a propensity for spending beyond their means; it was the most aggravating thing about him, which was saying something. From what San had seen of him thus far, Seveth's redeeming qualities were few and far between.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 18:48:17 GMT -6
If he found out that they had any money to spare, never mind whatever San intended it for or even who had earned it, San was sure that he would wake to find it spent toward some frivolous, self-serving purpose. Generally, not even San could make use of whatever Seveth had purchased, even though Seveth had bought it for 'himself'.
Rei nodded. San sighed, then stepped back from the fence that marked the boundary of the ‘Mansion’ grounds. He sized it up for a moment, then took a running jump at it, grabbing onto the top while his feet pushed off further from the side of the fence, half momentum and half friction. He got just enough lift that he was able to vault over the top and land on the other side, though he had to roll to soften the landing. He muffled a groan as his shoulder hit the grass.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 18:49:25 GMT -6
He knew the technique, knew exactly how best to fall to mitigate the impact; he had taken so many falls during the course of his training that his body remembered the technique of it even now, after his muscles had atrophied. But memory could only do so much in the face of physical weakness, and he still couldn’t move the way he had before. His limbs burned with the exertion, and even his bones felt more brittle than he remembered.
Before, he wouldn’t have had to roll at all.
Rei had no such concerns, of course. She flew neatly over the fence, easy and silent all at once. He could tell from her expression that she was concerned about him, but he merely stood and dusted himself off. Wordlessly, he surveyed the yard. It was as unremarkable now as it had been when he had merely been looking in.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 19:23:34 GMT -6
Normally this wouldn’t have surprised him, but based on what he had heard while researching this place, he had half expected it to transform as soon as he found himself on the grounds proper. Into what, he couldn't have said, but still.
But no, it stayed as it was: a grassy lawn, well manicured trees and shrubs, pleasant looking paths of pavement and stone leading to the house itself and further back, presumably into an equally manicured back yard.
He wasn’t… disappointed, exactly. It wasn’t that he had come in here looking for danger for a lark. He wasn’t so much a fool that he missed the life risking aspect of his old job, especially now that he wouldn’t have been up to its physical demands. But after hearing so many outlandish tales, it did feel a bit like an anticlimax to see something so mundane.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 19:23:49 GMT -6
The architecture was unfamiliar to him, but in much the same way that all the architecture here was unfamiliar. He was a stranger in a foreign land, after all. But its opulence was clear to see at once, and he knew that the front it was presenting now, at least, was the sort of home that only the very wealthy could hope to own.
But still, he had seen properties enough of similar make in other neighborhoods. Many of his courier runs were to such places, and even the far flung addresses with partially overgrown grounds often had well maintained homes at the heart of them. He wondered whether this community was a popular choice for retirement, or perhaps for vacation homes.
“Do you hear anything?” he asked Rei. Her ears were sharper than his own, and in the years since they had begun working together, he had come to rely on her senses over his own when they were together.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 19:24:00 GMT -6
Rei paused for a moment, her ears moving back and forth, but eventually she shook her head. Nothing. They were alone, as far as she could tell.
San considered taking a detour into the back yard and getting a perimeter on the property, but as hard as he tried, he really couldn’t sense anything amiss. It was beginning to feel as if he was merely delaying the inevitable by staying out here. Whatever goods were worth finding here were going to be inside the house, and if there were no immediate threats waiting for them out here, then there was no reason not to go inside.
Habit tempted him to go in through one of the windows, but he resisted the temptation for now. There were rumors that the property had a mind of its own, and he didn’t know what would be waiting for him if he attempted to break in rather than entering politely through the front door.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 19:24:11 GMT -6
And that was assuming he could get in at all; it was entirely possible that the windows were all just for show, rather than functional, or even made of glass.
It still felt odd to enter through the front door, but not impossibly so. When he had been working as an agent, sometimes it was simpler to infiltrate as a servant or some other similarly unobtrusive figure. Generally speaking, that tended to happen in crowded places, where it was easier to blend in among the others who had more legitimate reasons to be there, so it still didn’t feel quite right to enter like this… But San took a deep breath, knocked on the door, and waited.
Nothing happened, at first. San and Rei were both on high alert, waiting for any sign of… well, anything, really. But after some time, when it became apparent that nothing was happening, San reached for the door.
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Post by Linyü on May 3, 2020 19:24:50 GMT -6
It swung open just before his fingers brushed it, with a soft, barely audible click.
San frowned. There was no one waiting on the other side, though this lined up with everything he had heard about this place--- that there was no proper owner, that no one lived here, that it was quite possibly haunted. But it was just enough of a strange little coincidence that he didn’t quite trust it to confirm or deny that something stranger was waiting for them deeper in.
He glanced at Rei, signalling wordlessly that he would be taking point. When they operated, they switched according to the situation, and San generally went first if he expected trouble. Rei, being smaller and faster, with sharper senses, was better at reconnaissance, but San had no illusions about her durability. If she was caught, then barring evasive maneuvers or San coming to her aid, her chances of surviving weren't very good.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 4, 2020 16:28:33 GMT -6
Distantly in the mansion, you hear what sounds like footsteps... and then silence. How mysterious. A person, or one of the building's many illusions?
[Nothing happens.]
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Post by Linyü on May 14, 2020 0:47:18 GMT -6
She knew it too, if only from the constant emphasis on it in her training, before she had been fully cleared to work with San and the rest of his unit. In retrospect, it had not been a terribly empowering message, especially for someone who had already been subject to so many things against her will. But the Watchful Ones were not kind, and if she did not survive, then any question of how she felt about all of it would be moot.
In the intervening time, she had sometimes exceeded even San’s expectations, and he had expected the most from her when the rest of the unit had written her off. But the system still stood for reasons of practicality, for her weaknesses were no imagined thing.
San waited a moment more, to see if he could detect anything else from within the house. But all was quiet, and he saw nothing.
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Post by Linyü on May 14, 2020 0:47:57 GMT -6
He pushed past the door and stepped inside.
San took two steps into the space before he froze in his tracks. At first he thought, wonderingly, that he must have been dreaming. It was not possible. He knew that what he was seeing before himself was not possible. It had been so long--- And yet---
And yet.
The foyer was exactly as he remembered it. The shoe cupboard here, to his left; the tiles in their patterns, that he used to count sometimes, on long slow afternoons in the rainy season. Here was the place where an ornamental table was chipped, when he had played too rough; how his mother had scolded him when she saw. Here and here and here… Everything was exactly as it had been, as it had always been, before everything had----
"---an."
Something buzzed at the periphery of his senses, but he couldn’t quite make it out.
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