Current Timeline
<@Fabian> Fabian stopped his car, parking just a bit away from where they were actually going. "We'll be walking the rest of the way, not far." He explained to Clarice with a smirk, slipping his keys in the bag he had brought. "Shall we?"
<Clarice> Clarice nodded, slipping out of the car, "You know ... sometimes it feels odd to not just ... teleport everywhere," she admitted, looking around them. It seemed kinda ... foresty, she wouldn't have thought that was really Fabian's thing, "but if we'd 'ported that would have spoiled the surprise, right?"
<@Fabian> "Well, sometimes I imagine it'd take the fun out of getting places, yeah?" He asked, shouldering the bag and stepping out on the sidewalk with her. "Spoil the surprise and sometimes you have to enjoy the journey too." Okay, so Fabian might be partially in love with his car. It was back, he was allowed to be overly excited about that.
<@Fabian> "Anyway, not much further now." He assured her, offering his arm to lead her on.
<Clarice> Clarice took the arm with a small smile and let him lead the way, "Sooooo ... am I allowed to know what's in the bag yet?" She asked, though she didn't quite sound as enthused as usual. The incident in the coffee place had shaken her more then she'd tried to let on.
<@Fabian> "Supplies just in case." He shrugged. "We won't use half of it for where we're going but it's always nice to have, plus extra water." His brow furrowed, however, as he glanced back to her. "You're all right, yes?"
<Clarice> She gave a small shrug, "I will be, it's just ... y'know," and Ankka still hadn't woken up ... "stuff ..."
<@Fabian> "Well, if you want to talk about it." Fabian shrugged to complete his offer, leading Clarice to the gate to the place. "Well, here we are then."
<Clarice> "What's there to talk about? The Herald killed his family," she sighed, "it's just so mess-ooooh ..." she stopped and stared at the building in front of them, a great, overgrown ruin of a mansion house, "... Wow!"
<@Fabian> "Yes but that's just misdirected anger. There's enough people to be angry with without getting the wrong people involved." Fabian replied, taking a moment to look over the place as well, putting his bag down to dig flashlights and gloves out.
<Clarice> Clarice watched Fabian pull the stuff out, "You really are serious about this sorta thing, aren't you? How did you find this place?" She peered at the empty windows, checking for angry ghost ladies.
<@Fabian> "Hey, you don't know what all has been done in there. Gloves are always a good thing." He pointed out with a laugh, holding out gloves for her. "And I think it's safe to say that I'm not serious about pretty much anything. I was around this area once when my family was in the city for something, it was a while back, can't actually recall why."
<Clarice> "What were you doing around here? There's not an evil scientists laboratory in the basement or anything?" She pretended to give him the stink eye as she took the gloves and pulled them on.
<@Fabian> "I was ten...so no comment." Fabian teased her right back, laughing and throwing the bag over his shoulder again. "Father was buying something I would imagine."
<Clarice> "Ten? I'm amazed you remembered it after so long ... though it is impressive ... and a bit scarey," they began to make their way down the overgrown path, "though I warn you, first sign of a woman in a black dress or a magic circle, I'm portaling back home, okay?" There were stinging nettles growing amid the weeds, and she was glad that the cooler autumn air had lead her to wear cargo pants today rather than jeans.
<@Fabian> "Oh, I will be right there beside you...at least, I assume you wouldn't leave me to run back to the car. If it makes you feel any better I've yet to come across anything too bad doing this so far...though, won't lie, some people do weird creepy things in abandoned places but they're just leaving that kind of stuff to mess with the next people."
<Clarice> "Worst I saw was a disemboweled cat hanging from the ceiling this one time," Clarice shuddered, "no way was I sleeping there afterwards, rain or no," she deviated from the path to inspect a lichen encrusted lion statue, "awww, poor guy, he looks so sad now," she patted the lion on his mane.
<@Fabian> "...yeah, that is not a kind of ceiling cat I would be on board with." His nose wrinkled and Fabian tired to not think about that but that wasn't going to stay out of his mind. "I can't blame you there, I wouldn't have either." He smiled at the lion statue though. "I don't know, I think it makes him look distinguished."
<Clarice> "He's a matured statue, like a fine wine? Or cheese?" She patted him again, "Don't worry, I'm sure Aslan will be along any day now to breath you back to life, okay?" She glanced at Fabian, "Did you bring a camera?"
<@Fabian> A camera was passed over to Clarice with a nod. "Oh yeah, part of the fun is the strange pictures you can get." He explained, also digging out snacks because of the mention of cheese.
<Clarice> "Awesome! I always wanted a picture of this!" She scrambled up the lion statue and sat on it's back and took a suitably heroic 'CHAAAAAARGE' pose, "Take my picture!? Take my picture!?" She pleaded.
<@Fabian> Fabian dutifully took the picture, chuckling. "I should have brought a tripod so we could set up that while the lion prepares to maul me underneath, shouldn't we have?"
<Clarice> "Next time?" Clarice giggled, clambering down, "Oooh! And snacks too," she grabbed a juice carton, "So where first? We gonna explore the grounds or the creepy mansion first?"
<@Fabian> "Of course snacks, they're not fancy but they're appropriate for what we're doing all the same." He laughed, breaking off a bit of cheese as he glanced about the yard. "Well, I'll leave that up to you. Your choice."
<Clarice> "House," Clarice said after thinking for a moment, "otherwise I'll think about it too much and then be scared to go in."
<@Fabian> "Aww, the house actually isn't too scary, just old. Unless it's really went downhill since last I was here."
<Clarice> "Yeah, but it's an old manor house, I'm pretty sure it's like the law that there has to be at least one ghostie in places like this?" She bounced up the steps to the entrance and tried the door, locked, but the lock wasn't so good.
<Clarice> A slight thrill ran through her and she looked shiftily about before opening a tiny portal within the locking mechanism, teleporting some key parts away, and with a pink flash the door swung open.
<@Fabian> "Well look at you, all ready getting in on this whole breaking and entering shenanigans, hmm?" Fabian laughed, stepping on in. "So, do you believe in ghosts then?"
<Clarice> "Hey, sometimes you don't want to draw too much attention to yourself before laying the smack down," Clarice peered around the door, "Wow ... this place is a wreck ... ghosts ... well, sorta. How about you?"
<@Fabian> "I hadn't really thought about it. Though, I suppose considering Teagan the whole thing can't really be written off, can it?" Fabian shrugged, testing the floors to make sure they were okay. "A wreck but still stable."
<Clarice> "Not really," Clarice took a few steps in and inspected the wallpaper, wrinkling her nose at the rot, "I wonder how many people she gave crises of faith to? I mean, if she could bring someone back from the dead like that ... did their souls come back too?"
<@Fabian> "I would doubt it." Fabian answered, not sure he wanted to go down that road of thought. "Though I imagine a lot, just for the sake of the zombies."
<Clarice> "Yeah, I gave myself a headache trying to work out how the zombies worked, it had to be some kind of like ... specific telekinesis," she sighed, "but at least that's the last of the zombies though, zombies scare me." There was a still mostly intact chest of drawers there! Time for a rummage!
<@Fabian> "I had read over the reports about how her powers worked but...well, I didn't work with her." Fabian cringed, wishing he hadn't really mentioned any of that as he was sure neither of them wanted to talk about any of what had been. "Anything good?" He laughed, walking along the hall a bit.
<Clarice> Clarice pursed her lips, hadn't she been like those zombies when she'd killed that poor man's family? "They just look like old papers, mostly rotted away," she passed them over for Fabian to have a look as she pulled another drawer open, "let me know if you find a treasure map."
<@Fabian> "I'm surprised there's actually anything left of that sort of thing. This place has been empty for a while apparently." He leafed through the papers before abandoning them in favour for nosing through an old roll-top desk.
<Clarice> "Guess no one's bothered when they see it's just papers, oooh! A key!" She pulled out a rusted, iron key from beneath a stack of papers, "Now I need to go hunt and see if I can find a walled garden," she giggled.
<@Fabian> "We're going to go all Secret Garden? Damn, and I'm most like the kid who thought he had a hump on his back." Fabian groused at the idea of being like that kid, shaking his head and laughing, opening the desk up.
<Clarice> "I'd be more likely to be the maid I think anyways, I don't think I've had a temper tantrum fit like ... ever," she pocketed the key, it would make a good souvenir, "and I'm not pushing you around in a wheelchair, either."
<@Fabian> "Even if we stole one of Xavier's? We could have wheelchair races." Fabian offered, actually finding that to be quite an enjoyable idea, filing it away as a 'next time, when drunk' idea.
<Clarice> "If, and only if, you had wheel chair jousting as well," Clarice added, shutting the final drawer, "shall we attempt to venture upstairs?"
<@Fabian> "...oh yes, wheelchair jousting must happen." He turned his attention to the ceiling. "Looks stable from here, we might as well."
<Clarice> "Take comfort in the fact that if the floor starts to creak worryingly I can 'port us out," Clarice said, making her way to the stairs and testing them carefully before slowly starting to climb.
<@Fabian> "I'm always thankful that I go places with people who can save me from impaling myself." Fabian laughed, making his way up as well. "Much creakier than I remember it."
<Clarice> "Is that why you brought me instead of Lukas then?" She carefully made her way along the landing, staying close to the wall just in case, "I get the feeling he would bounce up and down on the creaky boards for the lols."
<@Fabian> "He absolutely would...has as a matter of fact though not here." Fabian laughed. "Skinny bastard isn't enough to break the boards either, he'd just be loosening them up for the next person. But now, I wanted to cheer you up some."
<Clarice> "Really?" She glanced back over her shoulder and smiled at him, "Well, it's working, this is actually kinda fun when you're doing it for the heck of it and not to find a place to sleep," she peered through a door, "... There's a bed still in there with a mattress ... is it wrong I wanna jump on it?"
<@Fabian> "Who's going to stop you? Part of the fun of this is being free to do what you like. This is all ready illegal as it is. Just be ready to port if it goes." Fabian laughed. "And I'd imagine it's a good deal better." He pulled a face, not really wanting to think about doing this out of necessity.
<Clarice> Clarice pondered this for a moment before scuttling carefully into the room, "Just make sure you stand back, I don't want you falling down a hole either," she grinned before clambering onto the bed and giving a few gentle, experimental bounces.
<@Fabian> "I'll just be over here." He laughed, walking the edge of the room and exploring, glad to see her getting into the spirit of this.
<Clarice> Once she was sure the thing wasn't going to collapse under her right this second she got a bit more enthusiastic, giggling madly and trying to see if she could do a drop turn.
<@Fabian> Fabian leaned back against the closet door, smiling as he watched her bounce about and squeaking as the door fell open.
<Clarice> Clarice pointed and giggled at the very unmanly squeak, still bouncing, "Are you okay!?" She called over, whooping to herself as she managed a drop sit 180 degree turn.
<@Fabian> "Fine, fine. I'm fine." Fabian laughed, catching himself on the closet wall, glad the floors in here were still okay as well. "Right then, don't trust the doors. They're tricky."
<Clarice> "You should be okay so long as you don't open a door and land in some snow," Clarice suggested, letting out a squeak of her own as she landed and the bed made a crunching sound. She vanished in a flash of light and reappeared next to Fabian, "Eep! Killer bed!"
<@Fabian> "You're right, I'd be easy bait for the White Witch." Fabian laughed, blinking at the flash of light and frowning as something caught in the light. He took a few steps away picking up a necklace from the floor. "Well, look at this, our excursion is complete with gifts for you."
<Clarice> "Gift?" Clarice frowned, then gasped as she looked at the dusty thing, "Ooooh," she rubbed some of the muck off to see the sparkle of gold, "how did something like this get left behind?"
<@Fabian> "Who knows? Could have been a lot of things happen. Probably just lost, though. I'm surprised nobody else has happened onto it though. We'll consider it our luck."
<Clarice> "Yeah, I guess if it was dirty enough no one might notice it, it's gonna need a lot of cleaning though," she rubbed it a little more.
<@Fabian> "We can take care of that." Fabian assured her, giving her a genuine grin. "If you're this much good luck we're going to have to do this more often."
<Clarice> "Am I your lucky charm now?" Clarice giggled, "I'd like to do this again, especially since it seems to be sans dead cats."
<@Fabian> "Well, lucky charms are magically delicious." Fabian considered the nickname...yes, that was going to stick.
<Clarice> "Just like me then?" She quirked a purple brow at him.
<@Fabian> "Are you magically delicious?" He asked, leaning against the wall of the closet...carefully this time.
<Clarice> "You mean you don't know by now?" She mock pouted.
<@Fabian> Fabian pretended to consider the topic, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "I'll just have to have a taste and remind myself." He explained before leaning in and kissing her.
<@Fabian> "Yes, I'd say that falls under magically delicious."