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Seren popped out of the portal, knowing Rhys would be right behind her. She had no worries about him not being right there, when he was needed. She looked around the front of the abandoned old mansion that they'd been asked to investigate. The place certainly looked creepy enough, so she wasn't exactly surprised that there were rumors of this place being haunted. Creepy a** old buildings ALWAYS had rumors like that, especially when abandoned. However, since this one had caught the attention of their superiors, it fell to Rhys and herself to go verify nothing overly problematic was going on.

She moved a little away from the portal exit, and looked at the... blatantly open front door. Her eyebrows rose, and she studied it with suspicion. Either the last gang of idiots who were investigating in hopes of proving that Ghosts Are Real! had left it wide open, the latch was busted, or some one was trying to lure people in through the obvious route. She did not approve of that door at all.

Once Rhys emerged, she glanced at her tall... friend, and said "I do not think we should use the Blatantly Obvious Wide Open Door, what do you think? It just screams 'trap' to me." She paused, then added "I mean there could be other things going on, but since there were hints of activity, I just feel it would be a better idea to find a less obvious entrance into the building. Don't you think so?"

Sure enough Rhys popped out of the portal after Seren, heaving a rather bored sigh as soon as he saw where they ended up: a haunted house. Of course. It was October and this was Deus, haunted houses were a must-visit. Hell, haunted houses were a must-visit for the organization year-round, really, so he wasn't sure why he expected this time to be any different. It was a mission, after all, however minor.

The brunette shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped forward to see the door for himself, a brow raised suspiciously at is as well. "Probably safer to take a different entrance, yeah..." he replied despite squinting and approaching the door anyway. He wasn't about to go through it, but inspecting it probably wouldn't do much damage.

Probably.

Zephira was screaming at him not to, of course, because that was just what she liked to do when she thought he was about to do something stupid. And maybe he was, but even if the place was haunted they were well-equipped to handle most supernatural type situations so he wasn't that worried. So he reached out and prodded the latch, hard enough that the door creaked, its old hinges protesting the gesture.

"Seems harmless?" he said, looking back over at Seren before turning his attention to the door again. This time he took the handle and swung the door wide open; other than the loud, echo-y creak of its old, about-to-fall-apart hinges nothing really happened. He gave it a good thirty seconds before he looked over at Seren again, a little grin on his face.

"My bad. Easiest way in so you know I had to check it."

Seren watched him go up to the door, her eyes widening in disbelief. He agreed that it was safer... And now he was walking right up to the door, like a completely insane person. "RHYS. What are you DOING?" She moved towards him, her eyes huge with worry. When he prodded the door the first time, she winced, visibly. "Rhys..." And the second one, that earned her covering her ears at the noise, because screechy old rusty door hinges make horribly painful sounds, while staring at him in utterly appalled shock.

"Rhys! Are you trying to make me go grey before I am even 20?" She said, dropping one hand to clutch over her heart a bit. "Please do not risk yourself, Rhys?" Her voice might have been a little louder then necessary, just shy of yelling, but he had scared the living hell out of her. "Rhys, if you HAVE to test to see, can you at least use like..." She glanced around and found a long, fairly sturdy branch. "THIS? You can jab at the door, and the entryway, all you like with it, and the odds are if a trap is triggered, you will be ok, even if the branch bursts into flames, because you can always drop it."

Her eyes were imploring him to be careful, because she worried about him, when she heard the voice from inside. It sounded young, and female, and possibly scared. She paused, looking at Rhys, considering what to do. "That voice sounds kind of familiar, don't you think?"

"OH THANK G--I mean, hello! Oh my. I am so glad it is you. And not a murderer. ...For some reason, I think I've felt this way before..."

It seems her luck has held! Toki rushes over to the two humans, very glad indeed to see friendly faces. No dissipation for her today!

"Rhys! Ohh, and Seren! What a coincidence. How have you two been? Are you on vacation as well? I am taking a break from classes. I wish you could come visit - the whole town is very festive. ...Unlike this place."

She turns her head and looks back at the dark, dusty, altogether unwelcoming interior of the mansion.

"I was just about to explore, but it looks like this house has been abandoned for such a long time. I wonder if there's anything interesting left...well, even if there is nothing, at least we got the chance to meet! Come! Explore with me!"

(She doesn't say it out loud, but the idea of having two people with actual weapons around makes exploring the mansion a much less intimidating activity.)

Rhys sort of just waved in greeting, not sure what to make of finding Toki on her own in a haunted house. It was a little too on-point, considering they referred to her kind as "Halloweeners" and...well, haunted house. But they were on duty and he actually kind of liked Toki, so he didn't let it bother him much. In fact, much like Seren it felt like a good two-birds-with-one-stone opportunity, getting their job done and making sure Toki didn't go and get hurt somehow, so at the suggestion of exploring together he nodded.

"Sure, sounds like a good plan to me."

With that he took Seren's hand and stepped into the mansion, nose wrinkling immediately at the old, musty smell that hit them like a brick wall. He didn't even need a light to know that there was dust all over the place, and who knew what else. "If you're looking for shiny stuff I'm just gonna say that anything left here is probably not gonna be too shiny until you dust it off and give it a good polish."

Seren followed him in, content to keep it to hand holding for the moment, since they were on duty, and each of them might need to be able to fight if something went badly. She rather hoped it wouldn't, because frankly this would be way more enjoyable a duty day if all that happened was she got to hang out with their adorable oddball Halloween friend, and explore a ridiculous old abandoned house. Honestly, if there wasn't a chance for things to turn out to go badly, it would almost be like a date, in her head, though she wouldn't say that out loud.

For several reasons.

Including not wanting Toki to feel like a third wheel, or whatever term Halloweeners might use.

She blinks as Toki walked into the door, and glanced at Rhys, bemused. "You got a flashlight on you? Might help prevent any accidents. If not, we can always use our phones, I guess. I just don't want to run the batteries down too much." She looked on at Toki, her eyes gentle and amused at the young woman's accident... She really was very eager, wasn't she? Seren found herself thinking sadly, for just a moment, of an eager and inquisitive younger brother, a face she never was likely to see again.

She hoped. Because otherwise...

She refocused on the situation, though, and reached around Toki to open the door. "Yes, let's see what's in here. Given how close it is to the entrance, it might be a closet."

It was unusually clean in there, for an old abandoned house, and it did seem to be a hall closet. There were old coats and hats.

Seren looked at them curiously, and found herself pulling out a coat and a Hat and pulling them on for a moment, laughing in an almost childlike fashion. "How ridiculous do I look?" She said, turning to face the other two and posing in a silly fashion.

Toki picks up the medals, very happy indeed.

"Oh! You remembered! Thank you! It was very nice running into you in the forest. I hope you liked the polaroid of SeeeeaaaANYWAY LET'S HAVE A LOOK AROUND SHALL WE."

Someday. She'll master the art of "think before you speak" someday. She follows them over to the closet and rummages through it, grabbing an oversized coat and something soft...is that a mustache? Do humans wear fake facial hair? Is it...not fake? Well, either way. How curious.

"Look at the two of you! So dapper. We should take a picture! Come, come. Yes, we will have to squeeze closer, my arm is not so long, you know--"

The camera flashes, somewhat blinding in the dark room, but it seems to have turned out just fine.



"Marvelous! Here, have a copy. I have plenty of film."

"No problem," he said, giving Toki a grateful smile. It faltered when she nearly let the secret slip--though even if she did he wasn't gonna get mad or anything, just...maybe a little embarrassed--but came back in a more amused form when she redirected their focus to the rest of the room again.

Seren's compliment had him grinning quite brightly, and playfully he tipped his hat to her. "Thanks," he got around to replying. "You look pretty good in that coat and hat combo, too." The brunette nodded and looked down at Toki, who found another coat and...some kind of mustache. His brow raised in question, but he didn't have much time to ask. His focus was pulled away when Toki gathered them for another picture.

It took a moment for the flash-induced-brightness to go away, but when it did he took his copy, gave it a very approving look, then tucked it away.

And then he leaned down and poked at Toki's temporary mustache. "Not sure this is actually a mustache...they're not supposed to be removable..."