Welcome to Gaia! ::

Bran arrived by foot. Cassi had offered to give him a lift to the location but he much preferred to enjoy the solitude of the moment, just Abyss and himself. There was always something drawing about the night, in particular dusk and occasionally dawn - at the moment dawn suited him just fine. Everything felt fresh and smelt wonderful.

[This is dumb, why do we have to do this again? Did she even tell us?] Abyss was aggitated about the whole situation, she would have much preferred to stay at home and sleep than be out heading toward 'the house'.

Bran only shook his head, reaching up to stroke Abyss' forehead before letting his hand drop once more. He jangled slightly as he walked, decked out in full decoration of feathers, leather bits and bobs, beads and bells and even a few paper made.. things... tucked away on his otherwise formal looking person - maybe he was being a little vain for Sonya's sake but what did it really matter? "There it is." His voice was crisp in the graydawn of morning.

He lifted a hand to wave toward the pale girl in the distance. "It'll be fun."

Hyacinth is so excited for this day, she even wakes up earlier then normal. It isn't even sunrise yet when the alarm goes off. She quickly hops out of her bed and runs to her desk to turn it off. Komba was still sound asleep on the little bed he made for himself on the desk. Hyacinth had gotten too tall for him to safely sleep at the end of her bed any longer.

"Wake up, but be silent. Nobu is still sleeping." Hyacinth whispers to Komba as she shakes him a little. He yawns and slowly opens his eyes. He was not ready for today, and in fact would have loved to miss it entirely. He never has and never will like the house, even if Hyacinth found it intriguing.

Hyacinth looks around for some clean clothes. She finds her favorite brown dress, black underwear, white training bra, and sandals. She grabs them and her belly bracelet then heads out past the main room to the bathroom. Komba follows her out of the room and goes to the kitchen. He sits on the table and eats an apple that was there. He begins to worry. Hyacinth is taking too long. He then realizes the shower was running. When Hyacinth comes out she is clothed and has a towel on her head.

"You must really want to impress them." Komba notes. "You took a shower early yesterday. And now one this morning." She just ignores him, although it was true. She wouldn't normally bother taking a shower so soon, but she wanted to make a good impression. There are going to be two boys she doesn't know very well there and she wants to seem at least a little normal for once.

"After we eat breakfast, I will pack some food. Should I get some for the other's too? How long do you think it will be? Probably all day." She continues on, not giving Komba any time to answer. After she finishes her breakfast and packs a backpack with food, she grabs her helmet and the keys to her moped. She walks over and lets Komba get on her shoulder, where he pulled at the towel on her head. She smiles a little, she would have forgotten all about it and left in on under her helmet.

"Be more careful this time. I still think you should wait for Harunobu to wake up and take use there."

"I'll be careful, I have better control of the thing now. And if I waited for Nobu, we'd have to walk there and I don't want to be late." She tells him the goes outside forgetting to lock the door. She puts Komba in the basket in the back of the moped, which she had made a little set with a seatbelt for him the day she got it. She buckles him in the puts on her helmet as she gets on and starts it up.

She gets to the house right after Laron steps up to the porch. She almost looses control as she slams the brakes on in the gravel, but is able to get enough control not to tip the moped. She moves off the moped while putting up the brake then unbuckles Komba, who quickly climbs up her arm to her shoulders and wraps his shivering tail around her neck. "You still go too fast." He complains as she puts her helmet in the basket and heads up to the house. She smiles and waves a bit as she sees the others then tries to fix her still damp hair a pit.

Bran nodded and waved back to Laron, his hand was still lightly bandaged, a reminder of their last meeting, but... friends were friends and he liked being around Laron. Abyss, fluffed her tail at Laron - a sign of greeting or aggrivation, it was hard to tell. [This is going to be a disaster...] She was relaxed, however, more than usual. Semi-familiar and familiar figures as well as the House set her more at ease.

Bran smiled pleasantly to Sonya and Laron as he stepped up onto the porch, noticing the stranger and nodding to her in a pleasant greeting. "Hello."

[Bran, a prize.] Abyss sat upright on his shoulder, one paw resting on the top of his silver clad ear in the epitome of interest and attention. A prize... prizes were always interesting, and just enough to pull the squirrel Daemon just closer into interest. For once Bran might not have to force her to join in on the fun.

Bran tilted his head slightly, eyes lighting up as well. "A prize? What sort, do you know?" He leaned over to jostle Laron slightly with his elbow, knowing his competative friend would enjoy something like this. "Are we working together to find all of these items or are we working against each other?" He was sure to keep eye-contact with Sonya as he spoke. Abyss bussied herself with glaring toward Renewed. She couldn't decide which was worse... him or Curse.

At least Curse could be fun sometimes, she supposed.

As Bran came closer, Sonya frowned. "Bran, are you alright? What ever happened to your hand?" She asked in concern, examining the bandage with her eyes. "And no, silly," Sonya chuckled at the Autumn boy's comment about competing against each other, fwapping his wrist gently with the list. "We're in this together! That's the point, to be a team." She smiled knowingly to Hyacinth. Boys. "We should stick together, at least at the beginning. You never know when this old house will act up. It terrified me more then once as a child..." She didn't look pleased at the memory. "It's good to pool resources." The girl finished with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

Renewed crouched lower on Sonya's shoulder as Curse's one red eye slipped out of the knapsack. The vaporous daemon had always terrified him. He caught sight of Abyss's glare, and turned his attention momentarily on her with a supremely indignant expression. Did she mind? He was trying to be wary of Curse at the moment, thank you very much! Abyss would get her turn in a moment! Similarly not sure of who to be more disapproving of, he continued to turn a look of distaste upon the squirrel and the cloaked miasma in turns, looking almost comical as he toggled his head from one to the other, chuttering to himself in displeasure until Sonya reached up a hand to her shoulder to still him by gently covering his face in her palm and mumbling. "Oh, hush, old friend. You'll need to cooperate as well."

The girl relinquished the paper up to Laron willingly, catching a vibe from him, but not enough of one to become immediately suspicious at his comments about boys versus girls, for she was inherently trusting in general and was often oblivious to certain ulterior motives. When the boy's lips came close to her ear however, her pallid cheeks flushed with blood as realization washed over her. Slightly flustered, a spring of confusion bubbling up in the pit of her stomach, her eyes widened slightly and she moved a step away, swallowing a feeling in her throat before nodding her head, pretending he hadn't come so close.

Renewed, however, seemed perfectly aware of the other's actions. Keep your boy away from her. The Pine Martin managed to send to Curse darkly in reply to her encouragement, his drive to protect winning through momentarily in its battle with his fright.

"Uh... I guess it's as good a place to start as any other." Sonya said after a beat. "Unless someone objects? I don't know if I've been downstairs. At least not in a while. You'd have to point out the way."

[I'd just like to point out that Laron isn't totally retarded. xD He just...doesn't notice subtle changes in people. Or...well, think of how they'd feel too much. >.>;]

Laron watched as Bran demonstrated his ability to still use his hand to Sonya. It was just a little...burn. Sort of. But the way the female Forgotten watched, Bran might as well have lost a finger.

Sonya was blushing. Good. Meant she had to be at least a little interested, right? Right. At least, it's what he told himself. But if they stayed in a group like this, it would be much harder to keep her attention focused firmly on him, where it should be.

Going off just the two of them had painted pictures of dark corners, small frights, and maybe even a stolen kiss? (That she really wanted, of course.) Now...well he'd just have to be doubly outrageous, he supposed.

That thought brought a swift smile to his face, gold eyes looking particularly liquid and bright in his excitement.

Curse ooozed on out of the back to slither up his pantleg and drift into his hand, making him hold her.

Am grateful! Very! If Curse had had a mouth, she would have been smiling. As it were, her red eyes opened very wide, and her demeanor actually appeared both pleasant and innocent, for a change. And am very sorry 'bout hand. Very sorry.

"Well, it's been a long time since I've been here too," Laron admitted casually, cradling his Daemon while eyeing her quizically. He choked back memories of that last time. Feet thumped across the foyer, his stride purposeful, almost cocky. He opened a small door to the left, and sure enough, the narrow stairway still faded into blackness below. The house had moods, it changed, shifted...but after how many years, this staircase was still the same.

Chills crept up his spine in little shivering waves as he stared down the treads. Darkness had never frightened him, even as a small child. But this place...

Don't want to go down there, Curse told him, clearly distressed. After all, he'd almost died; and if he died, so did she.

Laron had fallen into step behind Sonya, determined to stay as close as possible to her to facilitate...whatever. He couldn't immediately recall the word he was looking for, and so, characteristically, quit trying.

The wavering light Renewed cast made Curse squint, and did nothing to increase his desire to decend. It hadn't been what might be hiding in the darkness that caused it's unease; he'd known for years it was the house itself he had to fear.

And then, between one blink of his yellow eyes and the next, there was a disgruntled squeak; one more startled blink this time, and the banister had snaked itself around Sonya like some grotesque, varnished walnut tentacle. He was in motion before she shrieked out two names -- Bran's name first, he dimly registered. Dammit!

Leave Laron to come up with a diplomatic policy, and you'd end up with nuclear fallout. But ask him to react, to move in an instant, and he was brilliant. One strong hand gripped the snaking wood just above where Renewed scrabbled at it with a vicious intensity. One more sure-footed step and he'd be able to reach Sonya's hand.

His size 10s met the tread with his usual aggressive panache, but the house's tricks hadn't ended with the banister. His footing dipped and swung treacherously. "s**t!" The teen flapped his arms in an awkward gesture, but it did the trick; his balance was regained, though Soyna's outstretched hands lay out of reach now.

...at least, he had regained his balance. The treads pulled away from the wall, imitating a hungry mouth, as Renewed's lights swung and shimmied in dizzying confusion. Laron's stomach lurched, gold eyes wide as he teetered at the edge of the abyss.

Curse let out a high-pitched, wordless screech. For a moment, her smoky body looked as though it were actually boiling. She swelled and grew and, before everyone's eyes, changed. Rather than an incorrigible wisp of smoke, she was now a large black hound, red eyes burning and alight.

Still etherial -- though not to her Forgotten -- she bounded forward, teeth clamping into his arm. It was painful, but at least she drew him away from the edge.

The mouth snapped shut, taking Sonya and renewed with it. Curse and Laron both fell then, but remained on the staircase. The house was eerily silent, and completely dark save for a the dim glow from the foyer that sneaked through the open doorway at the top of the stairs.

Laron felt his friend's hand. He hadn't really moved since the staircase had snapped shut, breathing hard. But his face, when he met Bran's eye, was neither shocked nor horrified. It was angry.

"s**t Bran," he said, swearing again. "Did you see that?? I hate this house. I hate it." He pounded a fist on a tread before springing to his feet. He was a bit banged up and -- he looked at the arm where Curse's teeth had torn his sleeve -- bleeding? Damn. But it wasn't serious.

The tattoos on his friend's arm blended eerily into the blackness below, creating an odd effect, almost as the pieces of skin between floated on their own, disjointed from the rest of his arm.

The gold-coin eyes narrowed, dismissing the illusion. Bran kept such a cool head. He inteded to look for Sonya, of course. It lay unspoken between them that neither would leave till it was done.

"Can you actually see where you're going? Don't want the house to eat you too," Laron muttered, as they neared the bottom of the staircase. Those last few treads creaked ominously, but Laron scored the landing without incident.

Looks just like before, Curse quivered in his ear, back in the form she was most comfortable with. And Laron, of course, knew what she meant: like before, when the house had trapped him here.

The brown-haired boy had almost forgotten her presence, per usual. He licked his lips once before opening his mouth again. "Thanks." His tone was grudging; he'd a long history of Curse doing nothing but harm. Still, she seemed different today...

Clearing his throat, Laron spoke again before Curse could respond, but she snuggled up to his neck none-the-less. "Do you think Sonya's...you know..." That trace of anger still marred his handsome features.