Miasma
| Miasma | |
|---|---|
"That is not right. //No// thanks." | |
| Players
Faith, Javi, Darwin, Solomon, Haliburton |
Dunning The gang pokes at some ephemerally haunted items and man they are /nasty/. |
It's after dark, obviously - the night outside is warm, the sky tinged a pale red thanks to all the light pollution. Solomon has come across...a situation. And so he's sent out texts to Javi, Haliburton, Darwin, and Faith, asking if they're free tonight for a little academic exercise. He's even given his home address, which leads to the top floor of a nice, relentlessly middle-class brownstone in Dunning. It's the sort of neighborhood that's got a nice mix of young and serious professionals, and retirees, with few families or children. Quiet streets, and neighbors who are content to not know anything more about their neighbors than maybe a name and that they are gainfully employed. Solomon has already fed his bugs for the evening, so some of them are active and skittering. For those who eat, he's got deli sandwiches from a local place, along with some soda and beer, in the kitchen. His living room table has a few old, moldy books on it (and the smell of mold doesn't improve the smell of chitin or meat), as well as a yellowed and folded paper that's big enough to take up a corner of the table. Sol himself must have been teaching today; he's wearing a tweed suit, with a button down shirt. The jacket has been casually tossed over the back of a chair, and he's rolled up his shirt sleeves to his elbow as he waits. Hal drove himself and Faith here in that Daimler he's been tooling around town in lately. Parking outside, he makes smalltalk all the way to Solomon's door. "I can't help but wonder just what this is about, but I'm not about to disregard the chance to find out." he mentions to Faith, finding a way to Solomon's Door to rap upon it. A situation! So Faith's come dressed for handling situations. Really, all this means is she's swapped her usual, expensive jeans for black cargo pants. Hands in her pockets, gaze slightly lowers, sunglasses, hood up, it's Faith alright. She moves along with Hal. "It's just enough to make you curious, isn't it?" Darwin had stared at the list of names included in that text chain for a long, long moment. Long enough that the train door closes behind him and ends up chasing it like a lunatic. Eventually, however, he makes it to Dunning, following the familiar path back to Solomon's place. He's dressed lightly! By comparison anyway, beige slacks and a tucked button-up and he's brought his leather binder like a nerd. "Shades," he greets Faith when he nears. "Hal." And when invited in, "Penelope," he coos to the flower mantis in her terrarium, because she is a huntress that deserves respect. Solomon lets each one of them in, with a tight little smile. "Hey." Despite the fact that he invited all of them, he looks a bit nervous about having them here. Or at least having them here together. After the last of them comes in, he stands there and stares at the empty hallway for a moment longer, before closing and locking the door. "Javi's invited, too. If he's available." He gestures at the comfy, overstuffed leather seats. "Uh, get comfy. Thanks for coming. I wasn't sure--well, thanks." A thin smile towards the three of them. It turns warmer, even fond, when Darwin makes time to greet one of the bugs - a flower mantis in glorious, spiky color. She's perched high up on a branch, doing nothing in particular, and thoroughly ignoring what the walking trees outside her terrarium are doing. Elsewhere, there are skitters and scratches as various bugs go about their lives: vinegaroons, walking sticks, a couple of tarantulas, a large scorpion, and so forth. "Good evening Darwin," greets Hal genially, offering the wolf-man a pleased smile. It's not until he comes into Solomon's Home that he looks around and gasps in actual appreciation at the wide variety of arthropods "Solomon Jessup." he murmurs, folding hands behind the small of his back, "what a fascinating menagerie. May I examine the scorpion? Do you mind? Faith, look..." It's like he just can't imagine Faith WOULDN'T want to see the scorpion. "Darwin," Faith greets lightly, tilting her head slightly. "I've earned a nickname have I?" Once she's invited inside, a moment is spent considering the place. There's all the bugs. It checks out, really. "Evening, Solomon." Darwin's greeting of the flower mantis does draw her attention, and she stares into that terrarium from behind her shades for a while. "Who's Javi?" She wonders with an idle curiosity. Her attention is then naturally drawn to the scorpion! She's not really surprised by Hal's focus there. "You have! I dunno', thought it sounded cool," Darwin reasons. He is, admittedly, looking around for a vacuum to examine and judge the damage he's done. He doesn't need to /see/ the food set out, he merely follows the scent of deli meat to the kitchen and grabs a sandwich. Then just one more. And a soda. A passing glance for the scorpion-- the curling tail with the stinger is just a little too much for him, so he slinks to the living room with his meal and drops onto the couch. Solomon blinks, then offers another warm smile when Hal shows interest in the scorpion. "Yes, that shouldn't be a problem. Cali's an emperor scorpion, so he's safe for me to handle, usually." He moves over to that enclosure, and opens the top. He's clearly experienced in bringing the creature out - it only takes a moment before he's straightening with a black scorpion resting in his palm. It's not even in threat posture, although its large black claws wave back and forth as Sol brings him close for Hal and Faith to examine. He's careful to not get the creature too close to the couch. To Faith, he adds, "Javi's a friend. Smart, good at investigating, got some useful skills." Hal's regard for the scorpion is obvious. "It's larger than the Egyptian variety but they look very similar. Where are these from?" He looks like the opposite of afraid of the animal, holding hands up with palms flat in case Sol will allow it to walk onto his hands. "I believed ever since the cartouche of King Scorpion I was discovered that the Khemetic Empire must have had a special regard for them, but the symbology was more primordial to the civilization. It's all been such a recent group of discoveries that I lament my retirement." It's the third mention of Javi that finally shakes him a little out of his interest, and Hal says to Faith, "I've met Javi once and he's texted me a few times with some problem he's had. He's...very friendly." "I can be Shades. Why not!" Faith decides for Darwin, giving him a nod before it's time to examine the scorpion. She's certainly not got as much interest in Hal, naturally, but she does peer at it, and there's a real smile given as Hal starts talking. "I have no idea how the predatory aura of a vampire effects creatures like this?" She wonders with a vague interest, glancing sidelong at Hal before eventually tearing herself away from scorpion watching. "Well then, I can't wait to meet this Javi," she decides, moving around and towards Darwin. Darwin stares at the bug exchange and talk of Javi with growing tension, and proceeds to eat his muted unease, tearing off a big bite of his sandwich. Then he tugs at the yellowed paper on the table, just a few inches closer, as Faith heads over. "What's this, Jessup?" "West Africa, originally, although I got this one from a dealer who breeds them responsibly, in exchange for some consultation work. He's about three years old. I named him Caligula," Solomon adds, with a smile. He considers Hal's hands, before saying, "I would normally never recommend handling any scorpion - even Cali - with bare hands, but I doubt you're susceptible to the venom." He gently urges the scorpion forward, and it walks delicately onto Hal's hands. It doesn't even seem to acknowledge that Hal is a creature, just moving tentatively as if in a new enclosure. Sol doesn't let it stay too long, before carefully herding it back onto his own hands. Not quite carefully enough; the scorpion reaches out and pinches one of his fingers with a large, black claw. Solomon doesn't even twitch, although he does hiss under his breath. Otherwise he stays calm and returns the animal back to its terrarium. "It's a blueprint. I think. A contact I have in the neighborhood came by and dumped this stuff on me. She thought I'd be interested, and there have been...worrisome signs that mean that I am. The books seem to be a diary or a journal, and a medical manual of some sort." He says 'seem' and 'of some sort' because if anyone picks one up, they'll find that both books are handwritten...in Latin and Greek. The thicker volume also has extensive sketchwork of what appear to be autopsies or anatomical studies. The yellowed paper unfolds with a crackle, and has a very, very faded sketch of what might be a blueprint of some sort. Most of the notations are missing, and the few that remain are - again - in Latin and Greek. "Oh nonsense, the larger the scorpion the weaker the venom, most times. Anyway they customarily sting what is in front of them." See! Hal knows something about scorpions at least. He opens his otherwise photophobic eyes wide to regard the tiny beast as Sol escorts it into his hands briefly, then cooperates when the keeper takes his pet back to its durance in the terrarium. A look of quiet thanks goes offered to Sol before Hal directs his attention silently toward the thing their host is showing. Hands folding once more behind his back, he stands next to Faith and stays silent in thought. Faith stares at Darwin for a few moments, and where once she may have shown some quiet amusement at that tension, instead now she asks, "Are you okay, Darwin?" Before her attention is turned towards Sol when the big explain comes. "What kind of worrisome signs?" She doesn't read either Latin or Greek, but a sketchbook full of autopsies and anatomical studies? That gets her attention for sure, once she finds it and begins to flick through it. "Yes, I'm fine, s'fine," Darwin assures Faith, reaching for the journal to carefully flip through. "...I can't read a lick of this," he realizes, but only after staring for a solid minute. So he tries something else, holding the parted journal in his palm and drawing a bit of focus to the weight, the scent, the emotion... and the shadow of Shadow that may surround it. "What's your story," he murmurs. Javi was, indeed, invited -- and so he shows up! Fashionably late, but with a prior text to Solomon that he would drop by after his class. Which is apparently right now. He knocks on the door, and once he's let in -- since presumably he is -- he has an apologetic look on his face and a six pack to offer the apartment's usually bipedal resident. "Hey," he says, "sorry about that, had to stay a little late. Here." This as he hands off the beers to Solomon. "Nightmares," Solomon says to Faith. "Which isn't exactly...unusual among a mental hospital's population, but these are night terrors in patients who haven't previously had them, and my contact became concerned when the patients seemed to agree on certain details of the nightmares--even the ones who were not allowed contact with the others. Their concerns heightened when one of the patients broke out of their room and made their way into the basement. Instead of trying to escape, they found some discarded materials from the old Dunning building and...those." His voice shades dry. "The patient then ate one of the books before the orderlies could get it away from them." Around this time, Javi knocks. Solomon turns and checks the door before opening it. "Javi! Come in, please." He waves him inside, checks the hallway behind him, and closes it. Javi is probably the only one who is gonna notice the black and red _miasma_ that's choking the room in the ghost-Shadow, seeping from the books and blueprint in the center of the living room like some sort of poisonous gas. "Nightmares..." echoes Hal quietly in thought. From where he stands he seems to grow more interested in this affair the more he hears. When Javi appears he looks up and gives the young man a knowing look. Once he gets one of those moments of eye contact with Javi he asks simply, "Did you bring it?" Faith is flicking through the book of medical sketches, her pale lips set into a thin line as she regards the pages from behind her mirror shades. She uses a finger to mark one page, flicking to the next, and the next, and then comparing back and forth. "Well, if patients are being vivisected, no wonder there's nightmares," she notes, as though it's just so obvious. She does glance up from her examination to glance at Javi! She hasn't met this person, she he gets kinda stared at by the woman in her sunglasses. Darwin very nearly drops the damn book for how heavily visions hit him. He unconsciously snaps its closed and grips it tight, his awareness flickering and out of the present. His features scrunch, lips curling as the seconds drag on. And on. And eventually, the book falls out of his hands, thumping against the coffee table. "God, /fuck/," he hisses, sinking back against the couch and aggressively rubbing his face. "Fuck that book!" is all he can think to say in this moment. "Sorry, give me a moment." After a short pause, Darwin reaches for his binder, flipping it open to hastily draw a symbol. It looks roughly like a caduceus at first, but with lampreys with scorpion tails rather than snakes, and an inverted Omega symbol as the "wings". "Alive," he mutters to Faith. "While they're still alive." The details of whatever he'd seen rattles him so much that not even Javi can pull a smile, and that's really saying something. "Hi Javi," he manages. As he steps into the apartment, Javi's already turning toward the terrarium with his very favorite //six//-legged resident to say hello -- look, a man's got to have his priorities -- but before he even makes the full turn, he's hit with that noxious cloud. He does not say hello to Penelope. He does not say hello to anyone else in the room, not even to return Darwin's greeting (he's missed the stuff that the man has said before it, for better or worse). Nor does he answer Hal's question, at least not immediately. He doesn't even seem to notice Faith's stare, which he //definitely// would have under normal circumstances. Not that she would know that, but apparently it bears mentioning. No, what he //does// is come to a very abrupt halt, eyes widening as they follow the vapor to the source. "What the //fuck// is //that//?!" He takes a few steps back, enough so that his back actually hits the now-closed door as his hand lifts to point at the pile of books and blueprint. "Do you know you know you got a fucking death cloud in here coming from that?" It might be directed at Solomon, since it is his place, but he's still not looking at him. It's an exciting time - Solomon blinks as Darwin thumps the antique book on the coffee table, shaking off a thin layer of mold that smudges the _polished_ wooden table. Before he can answer either Faith or Darwin's comments, though, Javi is coming in and suddenly there's talk of _death clouds_. The Lost hisses. He shows no skepticism about anything anyone's expressed, obviously. He does immediately go to the closet and brings out a small box made of pale wood. He hastily dumps the books and the map into the box, and closes it. "Ash wood." It doesn't actually help. Nice thought, though? "Vivisection happens while the subject is alive." agrees Hal gently to Darwin's words, and he seems completely cool about the Uratha man's reaction to his reading. It's Javi's reaction that really gives Haliburton pause. He frowns, looks to the symbol Darwin draws, then with a brief moment closes his eyes and opens them again. His eyes go completely black, as if coated in black oil. Immediately he gasps in realization and says, "Well. You've certainly had quite the active situation dropped into your lap, Sol. I'm very sorry but you've allowed some badly infested objects into your home. No no no..." Gently he taps a finger on the wooden box. "This is inadequate. Best to get them out of here before they cause any harm or attract something worse." He points at the symbol Darwin drew and remarks, "Those monstrous people are certainly a blast from the past, as they say. Do you recognize it, Faith?" Faith is just kind of caught up in events. Darwin is throwing the book down, Javi is making his exclamations (and for a moment she may have thought his question was directed at her! Typical Nosferatu). But now there's talk of death clouds and an even more ruffled Darwin. There's no hesitation in giving up the sketchbook to put in the box. She glances aside at Hal, noting his eyes. There's only one part that's in her area of expertise, and that's Darwin's little symbol. So she focuses on that. "Oh, I've seen this," she does confirm, with a nod, glancing around the group. "This is an offshoot of -- well, suffice to say a group of people that decided medical experimentation shouldn't be crippled by tiny things like 'ethics', and any progress was worth basically any sin you could imagine." Darwin doesn't seem particularly receptive to Haliburton's corrections. He's downright prickly about it, mustering a glower, though it doesn't last long. "Death... cloud?" he asks Javi. And as Solomon gathers and dumps the possibly haunted objects in a wooden box, Darwin just blinks, oblivious to the intentions there. "They were opened up. They had... symbols branded into their exposed muscles, on their f--" Darwin cuts off to at least /try/ to censor himself, even if everyone here has likely witnessed a number of horrors. "I dunno' if it helps, but the vision I saw, the emotion I felt... it was somewhere around a hundred years old. Pain and hunger." Solomon grimaces, but he doesn't actually seem surprised. "Well, I knew they weren't children's picture books," he admits. "Infested?" He looks first to Hal, then to Javi. "Ghosts, then? What sort of ghosts? Or--" Because Darwin _also_ reacted, his gaze swings in that direction. "Spirits?" His gaze twitches between each of the people who he dragged into this, "Can they be exorcised? And does anyone read Latin? I only know taxonomy, which is less helpful in this situation than you might imagine." "Yeah," Javi agrees readily with Hal, "that is all kinds of fucked up. Hell no." He also shakes his head when Solomon brings out the box. "Maybe if you got, like...a ash bunker." This is not a joke. He seems to mostly miss the back-and-forth between Hal and Darwin, because he's still staring. "Ain't a ghost," he replies to Solomon, shaking his head. "I mean," he clarifies, "maybe it was once. Or, like, a bunch of 'em? Honestly I don't fucking know. Just pouring out of it. That is not right. //No// thanks." He starts to edge around it (not that he actually can) and toward where Darwin is, but it's really only then that he even seems to notice Faith. He blinks, looking briefly around at the others as if to check whether she was always here. Well, probably. But it does at least break him out of the stare. "Oh. Uh...hey. Sorry. Javi." A beat. "Nice to meet you." Look, he tried. Hal looks between Javi and Faith and remarks darkly, "Where are my manners...Faith, this young man is Javi, a mortal Accorded gentleman of the city. Javi, this is my dearest friend Faith Wilson, who is a member of my community." There, a brief introduction! He watches a wall behind Javi as well as fixing the empty space near him with those black-on-black eyes, then gives the barest shake of his head before taking his attention away from the Nothing that he notices. It's to Sol he speaks next, "The thing that concerns me is...watch my hands." He then holds his hands away from the box and describes the approximate presence of the ephemeral stuff flowing from the journals and things. "It's an emission of non-sentient ephemera, like the remains of one or more ghosts or even spirits perhaps, feeding from the emotional resonance of these objects I think." Faith gives Darwin a look, considering, "These people are an offshoot of the Kappa Lambda Society, and they were experimenting with some occult theories as well." She pauses, and frowns. "But they were largely discovered and destroyed in the 1810s. But if what you're saying was only one hundred years ago ..." she trails off a little, considering that implication, half listening to the explanation of the Death Cloud. It's only when Javi's right there and talking to her that she's forced out of her thoughts, the pale undead woman in shades looking at the human again. Hal gets to make the introductions, and it causes a smile. "Ah. Another Accorded mortal. Delighted to meet you, Javi. You may call me Faith." It's polite, her tone even becomes a bit professional, a bit formal. Despite the situation going on around her, there's apparently always time for proper civilities to be observed! Darwin shakes his head at Solomon. "I don't see anything." He's not eating his poor sandwiches anymore, nor is he sitting, and the moment Javi edges over, he steps beside him to bump shoulders. "Sorry," he says to Faith, "Lemme' clarify, it felt /at least/ a hundred years old. So." Introductions are made and it's obvious how closely Darwin watches this exchange, and the politeness surrounding it. He's less prickly now, at least. "Okay, so, maybe it works the same with everything else that's ephemeral. A bane, a ban? ...I guess you probably don't want this in your house, Jessup. Can these things just be... destroyed?" he asks no one in particular. Solomon catches sight of Hal's changed eyes and his own widen with fascination. Sadly, there's distraction in the form of the occult poison that everyone might be breathing in RIGHT NOW - although the two who can see such things might notice that the miasma shows little interest in Faith and Hal...it might even avoid them a little. But it does seem to reach out for Javi, Darwin, and Solomon, as if it wants to wrap oily black tendrils around them, or creep up towards their mouths and noses. At least Solomon has the grace to wince. "Sorry. I should have done introductions." But he didn't, did he. "Thank you, Hal." Instead, something Faith and Darwin have said catches his attention. "Dunning closed about a hundred years ago. For a single day," he adds, voice dry, "before being reopened under a different name. 1912." A rueful chuckle. "My grandmother used to tell me that if I was too much of a pain in the ass, I'd be dragged off to Dunning." A grimace towards Darwin. "I'd hate to destroy them. If something is...stirring, this might be the only way we know what it is." Javi gestures toward Hal at the explanation, nodding in agreement even if he hadn't been able to articulate it. Instead of trying to add anything to it, he latches firmly onto that very proper introduction, and while something about it does seem to put him a //bit// on edge, since he was already //very// on edge, it's almost better than it was. More a general wariness, instead of the edge of a real freakout. "Hey, Faith." It's also polite, and friendly enough, too, if quite a bit less formal. He can't quite muster the same smile -- which is also really saying something -- but he does try. It comes out more of a grimace, but it's at least not directed at //her//. "Uh." Back to the task at hand. "I mean..." He cuts a look to Darwin, nudging him briefly back, though at least one eye is still on that cloud of death vapor. "Maybe don't, like...breathe too hard." Whatever that means. Hal does watch the ephemera as it seems to strive for the three living persons in the room. He looks to Javi, watching to see how he reacts to this. Interestingly, with his eyes all black like that, it is not obvious at all when he glances around without moving his head. The interplay of iris and sclera is a small cue that most take for granted. That is why it's probably not obvious when he looks around and past Javi some more, or at least exactly what it is he's watching. What he does do is shake his head slightly to Javi and mouth the word 'no'. Then aloud he says, "The items shouldn't be destroyed, but they shouldn't stay here. In fact I'm afraid as your friend I must insist they NOT stay here, Sol. With your permission I will take them with me and promise to you to make them available again to you at your request. I don't know that I could contain what they hold, but I am sure that they're no threat to me at least." "So, we've got a bunch of doctors, occultists, and scientists all doing medical experiments on living people, terrifying them, and now it's created ... something." Faith nods slowly, as though putting the pieces together. It doesn't last long: it just ends with a rueful smile. "Well, I'm out of my depth." She shrugs, stepping towards Hal, perhaps a little bit surprised at his offer. She turns to glance at the others then, "Maybe we need to go to Dunning, figure out what's what." "Yeah, I think... you're probably right, Faith," Darwin murmurs. "In that case, take good care of those blueprints," he tells Haliburton. When Javi suggests not breathing too deeply, Darwin immediately bats at the air in front of him. "What's-it-doing," he asks, voice tight, hands held as if he can somehow karate chop the miasma. Solomon wants to protest. They're his BOOKS. They're in LATIN. They certainly are going to have cool things about the occult...and vivisection...but the OCCULT. But he doesn't read Latin, and the way Javi says _don't breath too deep_ has him grimacing...but taking more shallow breaths. He stares at Hal and his black-on-black eyes, then gives a curt nod. "Fine. Your promise is witnessed." As he says it, there's a shiver of Autumn chill in the air, the faintest scent of rotting leaves and ripe fruit. "But translate them, if you can. It might tell us what they were working on." He smiles, thinly, at Faith. "I'd say that we only have proof that someone _once_ did those things...but honestly, Chicago-Read is a hellpit and has been for more than a century. I'd believe there was an evil doctor cult operating out of there. It might be worth taking a look around. It's a secure facility, though, and getting caught would have some unpleasant consequences." Javi may not notice Hal's eyes on him, considering their state and the fact that he's mostly paying attention to the cloud, but he doesn't miss the little head shake. His gaze lifts, and then his eyes narrow as they settle on him for several seconds, moving over the man as if he's seeing something //else// that isn't visible to everyone. Or at least, looking for it. However, whether he finds it or not, ultimately he shakes his head and reaches to lay a hand on Darwin's shoulder. "Nah," he says. "I just meant, like...in general." He is not exactly the world's best liar -- but it's not a //lie//, per se, and maybe the general aura of horror that's radiating so obviously from him it might as well be another physical presence will obscure things enough that no one will ask any follow-up questions. Of course, that's up to them. "Fucking gross. Secondhand death." And he absolutely does not argue with Hal's offer to take them. In fact, he might be about to agree when Solomon looks like he might argue. The acquiescence stays his hand -- or mouth -- and he lets out a little relieved breath even as he shivers a little in response to the chill. With a curt nod, Hal tells Solomon, "I will have them translated. That you may rely on." He adds after a beat, "In my experience, wicked cults do not die out easily. There is at least a fair chance that these Sinners have left inheritors who would very much like to have these documents." Oh Hal very much means something by calling them Sinners. He's got thoughts about this old-time evil doctor witch cult. For now though Hal scoops up the box with its contents, which he carries toward the door and away from everyone else with a pulse. He doesn't seem eager to leave just yet though. As he approaches the door he mutters quietly as if to himself, "You. Move." "You're right, someone 'once' did these things, but if there's some lingering ... whatever this all is, still there?" Faith shrugs, nodding on Hal's words, "I do understand some medical curiosity of course, and back in the day they had to learn somehow, but there's lines that shouldn't be crossed." She does give a grin for Sol though, "It is lucky then, that I'm very good at being invisible." A pause, and she ponders, "Well, to be specific, I'm good at making people not realize I'm there, but it's basically invisibility." Darwin seems to trust Javi implicitly! So he takes his word for it, but he's so on edge that even the new scent of rotting leaves spooks him. He half-pivots, staring fiercely into nothingness, until Javi's hand on his shoulder settles him. Partially. "Mu-se za nam-erin," he growls into the empty space. Then he blinks at Haliburton. "...Do you need to be invited /out/ of a house, Hal?" Solomon runs a hand through his hair. Apologetically, he says, "I didn't expect quite such an...acute issue. I thought it might be an amusing little mystery to explore. Thank you all for coming. I would understand if no one," although his gaze flicks to Javi, and there's worry there, "wished to be further involved. This could be dangerous. Even with invisibility," he adds, although he sounds impressed by it. When Hall mutters to himself, he looks in that direction. Darwin's question draws a snort, but he asks, "Is everything all right?" Javi's mouth twists at what Hal says, but a second or two later he lets out snort, a //little// amused despite the unease that's still very clear. It's timed closely enough to Darwin's question that it might be in response to that, though. And he doesn't reply to any of the questions about whether Hal can leave -- but after all, why should he? -- and instead turns to Faith when she reveals this particular talent. "That's pretty fucking cool," he says, and despite everything else going on, he can't help but sound impressed. However: "I'm definitely gonna be further involved. Bringing a damn death cloud into your house." //Solomon//. "Right as rain. Just telling a ghost off." remarks Hal simply, black eyes watching everyone in the room from his temporary post by the door. He hefts the box lightly and explains, "This shouldn't be near any of you. It seems uninterested in Faith or me though." And at last, to Darwin he pleads in a light mocking tone, "...oh please let me out. Don't leave me trapped in here..." Faith's shades stare at Solomon, and she definitely -doesn't- suggest that this is just an amusing little mystery to explore. "No, it very much could be dangerous, by the sounds of things, I have no idea what to actually do about spirit or ghost like death clouds. But, my curiosity is piqued and I've got medical knowledge that might come in useful in a variety of ways, especially if it gets dangerous." She shrugs, grins at Hal for a second, and looks to Javi, her amused expression just passing over Darwin a moment. "Thank you. It -is- pretty fucking cool." "No way," Darwin insists to Solomon, steely-eyed. "I don't fuck with ghosts but you and Javi didn't really fuck with spirits so now I guess I'm fucking with ghosts or whatever the hell this is. I'm absolutely helping. But I'm finishing my sandwiches before I do anything else." He shudders /deeply/ when Haliburton pleads. "Okay okay! Wish I had a maglite to burn your ass." "I didn't know it was a death cloud," snaps Solomon at Javi - although it seems as much _embarrassed_ as it is angry. His cheeks are even stained with ruddy color. "But, fine. I wasn't going to try to stop you. Just wanted you to know that you didn't _have_ to." Grumble grumble. Then he's pointing at Hal, then Darwin. "Knock it off, both of you. And please, eat the damn sandwiches. I've lost my appetite." He looks all of them over, then nods. "Fine. We'll figure out what's going on and put a stop to it." A pause before he adds, "Thanks." Javi doesn't comment on whatever ghost Hal is referring to, though he does look between him and Darwin a time or two before he shakes his head, still with at least a little amusement. What he //says//, in response to Faith, is, "Yeah. Seems like it'd come in handy." He might have said something else, too -- but Solomon's curt words, embarrassed or not, cause him to flinch. His smile drops off as a wince flickers across his face, and he holds his hands up quickly, palms facing outward by his shoulders in a placating gesture. "I know," he says. "Just saying." And then he just shuts up, though he does glance briefly toward the sandwiches. Maybe he'll take some to go. Curiously there is a moment of emotion that flickers in Hal's countenance. It's a sudden and intense rage, but he tamps it down in a moment of schooled silence. Tightly he speaks, "Faith, perhaps we should put this somewhere safe so that it doesn't contaminate the good professor's home." He reaches behind himself then to quickly open the door and duck outside. Apparently it's time for him to leave, according to himself. "In more ways than I bet you're thinking of. I'll pass on the sandwiches." Faith says with a tilt of her head, glancing at Darwin and perhaps about to say something before she's very quickly snapping her gaze to Hal. She moves over with a nod. "Alright. Perhaps we should. What's going on?" She looks at the rest of the group, but moves to follow Hal! Darwin remains a little caught in the headlights between the various reactions and just shrugs at Faith. "See you guys soon...!" Then he retreats to exorcise Solomon's home of sandwiches. | |