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 Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 10:19 pm
It was time.
They had arrived on schedule, and Lizzy's mother had welcomed both of them home warmly. Dinner wasn't anything special - she had warned her mother beforehand that Mot didn't have much of an appetite, even more so than the last time they were here - just pasta in blood tomato sauce, and they were allowed to go prepare for bed immediately after. She had casually asked for her mother's schedule, and found out that she was going to head out early the next morning...
Which was why, still a little groggy at 7 in the morning, she was outside Mot's room, dressed in a simple dress, and her detective's hat; she didn't get much sleep... Too many things going through her head, too anxious about what they were going to find.
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Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 10:27 pm
Luckily, his wishes had been respected, and Mot was able to eat his small portion of a meal fairly decently. Sent off to bed, Mot spent most of the night whittling a piece of wood into a pipe. Why? To match the hat. Duh.
After it was crafted, he made a second one to match for Lizzy. While they were purely decorative, he thought it was a nice touch. Lucky for Mot, the trip had tired him out, and he managed a few hours of sleep after he was done his task.
When Lizzy came a knocking, Mot had only just gotten up. His teeth were brushed, and his hair combed. He was in the process of braiding it back. "Coming." Mot called softly, the half braided hair hanging over his shoulder, tying it in place with orange bindings. He got up and opened the door, smiling softly. "Here." He reached into the pouch on his belt and handed her one of the pipes.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 8:24 am
"Mooooorning Mot!" Lizzy greeted him with a bright smile - probably too bright, considering how early it was for a weekend morning - the moment he opened the door, feeling happy to have him in her house; it reminded her of a year ago, where Mot came over too, although they had others with them. When he held out something towards her, she blinked, intrigued by the object. Once it was in her hands, however, it did not take her long to realize that it was a pipe.
"Ohhhhh!" Her eyes widened, and her smile grew larger as she looked up at the boil, "Thank you! Did you make this yourself? It'ssopretty." She held it up, handling it like it was some precious, fragile object, "... Can it go into the mouth?" It felt like it was made of wood, after all... What if it was not supposed to get wet?
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 8:30 am
Mot chuckled and gave Lizzy a mock salute. She was sure perky in the morning. It made it all a little brighter.
His smile reached his eyes as Lizzy praised his handy work, securing his own hat on his head and bringing out the pipe he made for himself. "Yes, I don't see why it can't. One day I hope to get good enough at this that I can make it blow bubbles."
He popped the small object between his teeth and patted Lizzy on the shoulder. "Shall we?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:02 am
"Bubbles..." Lizzy echoed with a faraway look, eventually sparkling a little as she brought the end of the pipe to her mouth. The sparkles vanished when she felt him pat her on her shoulder, and she was reminded of why they were in this get-up in the first place. She nodded, her expression turning serious, "Let's go."
Although her mother wasn't going to return till late at night, she wanted the search to be thorough, which meant that they were probably going to be there for a long while.
She stopped briefly at her room in order to grab a small bag of supplies, before leading Mot up a flight of stairs, to the top floor of the house. At the end of the corridor was a small flight of stairs leading up to a door. She tried the door knob, frowning when it refused to turn; then again, she imagined that it hadn't been used for a long time... So maybe her mother had locked it.
"... Can you pick locks?" She asked, tapping the keyhole with a finger.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:11 am
Mot laughed at Lizzy's sparkling, now better motivated to figure out the mysterious bubble pipe mechanics.
The house was huge, just as big as it had been the first time he'd been at Lizzy's. It screamed of rich and posh. To think Lizzy grew up here was like some sort of gremlin tale. The stuff story books were made of. Upon arriving at a locked door, Mot knew they were stumbling closer to something mysterious, and maybe even forbidden.
"I do.. though I'm not entirely comfortable breaking into a closed off door..." He looked at the pink haired demon while scratching his chin. "But I'll give it a go." Because it was for Lizzy.
Now he just needed tools. The reaper rummaged through his pouch, looking for something to help him pick a lock. He had a couple of thin metal tools for wood carving, but he needed one other thing. "Do you have a hair pin?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:44 am
"Aw... I'm sorry..." Lizzy poited her fingers, looking down at her feet; she didn't want Mot to feel uncomfortable, especially since she was the one who asked him to help her, "I appreciate it though!" She had learned how to do it from Amrita, but she wasn't very good at it; besides, part of the agenda of this trip was to make Mot feel better... And it always made her feel better to know that she was helping!
Maybe empowering Mot would make him more confident about himself.
"I do!" She nodded, digging into her bag, before pulling out a whole pack of black hair pins. Taking one out of the packet, she then held it out towards him.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 10:10 am
"It's okay." So long as this didn't come back to bite him in the a**, he would cooperate. Besides, this was helping Lizzy.
The reaper smiled and took the hair pin, using that and another pointy object to pick at the lock. He kept his ear close so as to pick out the sounds within, until he heard the tell tale click of victory. "We're in." Mot murmured proudly, opening the door.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 10:38 am
Lizzy watched quietly as Mot got to work, breaking into a smile when he managed to get the door open. She gave him a quick hug as thanks, and then passed him a flashlight; the attic was old, so she wouldn't be surprised if the lights no longer worked.
The room smelt musky, and there were several abandoned Skitter webs along the ceiling. A layer of dust covered everything in the room, from the windows to the floor; disturbed by the opening of the door, the once stationary dust flew into the air, caught in the beam of light from the flashlights. There wasn't a lot of things in the attic, although it might just make their search easier.
At a corner, there was a dollhouse Lizzy remembered playing with as a child. She had enjoyed it so much that she had refused to toss it out, even when she outgrew it. At the other corner was a worn out desk, although it was hard to tell if it was worn out from overuse, or from being stored up in the attic for a long time. Apart from that one toy and the desk however, everything else had been stored in boxes of various sizes, all of them stacked up and pushed against the wall, leaving the middle of the attic empty.
"There are..." She took a quick glance around with help from the light from her flashlight, "Two stacks of boxes... Do you want to check the left side or right side?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 10:45 am
Mot coughed a bit from the unsettled dust flying in the air, his flashlight catching all the tiny particles flying about. It was strange to be in someone's attic, their old memories tucked away in boxes. He wondered for a moment if his mother kept anything in the attic as well.
"I'll take the left." Mot assured her, staring at the boxes. That was a lot to go through. He figured he'd just have to look for paperwork or something. Filter the relavant evidence from the irrelevant stuff. He walked toward the stack of boxes, holding the flashlight under his arm as he pulled a box down to the ground.
Box the first. With a heavy breath out, he started to sift through the contents of one of the many boxes he'd have to investigate.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:29 am
"Alright!" She walked over to the pile of boxes on the right, and begun working her way through them.
--
In Mot's stack, there were a total of 4 boxes; three were stacked one on top of the other like a totem pillar, while the remaining box sat at the side. The ones he had to pull down were relatively light, but the two boxes on the floor were nearly too heavy to move. All of them had been taped shut, and while the tape had turned slightly yellow, it was still relatively difficult to pull it off the boxes.
The first box, the one at the top of the pile, contained... Nothing. Nothing but a single black and white photograph of a grinning man - probably in his late 20's - standing in front of a small Bogeyman station. He was dressed in what could be a Bogeyman cloak, although it looked like an older version of what Bogeymen wore nowadays. The back of the photograph has the following caption, written in cursive, "Raymond's first day! ♥"
The second box contained what looked like stuffed toys; most of them were damaged in one way or another - a teddy bear was missing an eye, a Skitter plush was missing part of a leg - but all of them had something scribbled on their tag. The ink had faded with time, but most of them clearly read 'Lizy', probably a spelling error from when Lizzy was a scareling.
The third box, at the bottom of the pile, contained photo albums - which explained the weight of the box. If Mot ever wanted to know what Lizzy looked like growing up, he would know now. Some photos had both Lizzy and her mother in it, although she looked a lot younger, and had short hair cropped above her shoulder. Other photos contained Lizzy and the man from the black and white photo, although he looked older. There were also several photos in the various albums picturing all three of them together.
The last box, the one that was at the side of the pile, was holding another photo album, although this one was empty. With it, in the same box, was a relatively small wooden chest.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:50 am
Mot didn't proclaim his discoveries right away, piling them to the side as he went from one box to the other. Lizzy's childhood plushies were met with an amused and warm smile. It was like he was going through her history. He was, actually. The photo albums shone a light on her early life with her family. It was bittersweet, seeing all three of them in a photo, knowing her father was no longer around.
The last box was met with puzzlement, an album with no pictures, and a small wooden chest.
"Lizzy. I might have gotten something." He paired the old photo and the contents of the last box and took them to the spider demon.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 12:16 pm
Meanwhile, Lizzy had stumbled upon several files in the first box that she opened; she then spent time flipping through every single one of them, trying to spot anything that might be familiar or important. However, most of them were old receipts, yellow with age - down payment for the house, renovation charges for the boutique, water bill, fear bill... There really wasn't anything out of the ordinary, although the fact that such old receipts were still around probably meant that her mother was someone who liked things neat, and in order.
The second box she opened contained old books and magazine, most of which were still in relatively good condition. However, they were mostly about epony racing, and carriages, and... Alcohol. She had to make a face at the ones talking about alcohol; after the whole Hel and Mac thing, Lizzy's disapproval of drinking had increased tenfold.
The last box contained even more books, but these looked like journals. After a quick flip through some of them, she realized that they were her mother's, and that they dated back a long, long time ago... As much as she wanted to find out more about her father, she didn't feel comfortable reading the contents of these journals, even if some of the more "recent" journals might be able to provide them with a clue.
"Oh?" She closed the journal and placed it back into the box before looking at Mot, eyeing the objects that he was holding, "What did you find? I, uh," She looked down at the boxes around her, "Nothing important... Although I think these books belonged to father... And these journals definitely belonged to mother... Not sure if I should read them though."
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 7:02 pm
"I found a picture of your dad on his first day of work. At least I'm pretty sure it's him. He was in a lot of photos of you and your mom too." Mot's eyes scanned the box of journals and paper work, wondering if anything she found pointed to what happened to her father.
"Well.. I guess it's up to you. I didn't find anything that pointed anywhere but I did find something strange. A chest and an empty photo album."
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 9:00 am
"Ohh?" She actually recognized his face from photos, rather than from her own memories; she was still young when he passed away, after all, so her own memories of him were fuzzy at best. She peered down at the box filled with journals, and decided to flip through the newer looking ones, picking out those written in the year of her father's passing, "These might help... I feel bad though, because if someone read my diary without permission, I would be pretty upset."
She had tried convincing herself that she was doing this for a good cause, but...
"A chest? Does it contain anything?" She looked up, a single journal held in her arms, "I wonder why the photo album is empty... Maybe it was empty to begin with?"
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