World Tree MUSH

    People go missing all the time in a big city. People just get lost sometimes, and nobody misses them. The homeless and walking derelicts of the San Francisco Bay area are used to being invisible to the well-paid white collar workers of the city, and when they go missing hardly anyone notices. Or cares. But word on the street is that the alley off of Demetrius Street, between the adult video store and the Walgreens, eats people.

Eddie was familiar with missing persons. Tracking down what happened to the Homeless and Destitute is what lead him to Venom after al. 

<Why are we here Eddie?> Venom Groused as Eddie rounded the corner of a Walgreens. <Just because the interview got pushed back does not mean we must play 'Hero.'>

Eddie looked down at a wallet photo of a collage aged girl and shook his head. Girl was probably strung out on drugs or worse since that smiling picture was taken. "Nah Vee. I'm not trying t oplay Hero." His voice was quiet as he looked down the Allyway, not sure what t oexpect and mentally bracing for-

<It's an Allyway. What were you expecting? Some kind of 'it came from beyondthe stars' horror from those weird japanese cartoons to try making a grab at us?>

That one got a chuckle out of Eddie as he stood there, grabbing for his camera t otake pictures, "Just happened to be in the neighborhood, and frankly we could use all the good press we can get."

<Bah. We're fine.>

     What might be a strange sight in this area is a massive black bear in a purple martial arts gi and an eyepatch over his left eye, leading around a small pack of scruffy-looking men in dirty clothing and scraggly beards. Well, maybe not the last part, since they could just be regular homeless folk, but the bear, definitely. Especially with that huge iron club he carries over one shoulder as they approach this mysterious alleyway and peer into it.

"So, boss, what we doin' here for anyway? It's just an alleyway that eats people, ain't it?" one of the men asks the bear, who gives him a toothy grin in response.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But if it is, then I'm gonna show it who's the real boss around here. Maybe even convince it to leave behind people's wallets or something."

The men all give the bear, apparently their leader, awestruck looks as the one who spoke up nods understandingly. "I see now! Wow boss, you sure are smart!"

An auburn-haired woman with glowing purple eyes strolls down the street towards the alleyway in question, dressed in what appears to be a cheap, tacky black cocktail dress made out of preposterously-expensive silks. Emily Nyx has heard the rumors, and they sounded interesting (no, she's not some kind of hero, why would you think that!?), so here she is, smiling that amused and faintly smug smile she always has.

She raises her eyebrows as she catches sight of Drogo and Eddie. She stops and chuckles to herself at Drogo's byplay with his crew, but says nothing yet, simply hanging back for the moment.

    Amusingly, Drogo was NOT the only bear like creature walking around the vicinity, even if the pink, black and white creature did look more like a costumed person than an actual, feral bear. It even waved back at any children that assumed it was a theme park mascot or something!, next to the bear is a young teen that seems kind of unremarkable otherwise!. The duo making their way to the so called 'man eating alley', with the boy being closely followed by the very cautious looking bear, once they get close enough. As they caqtch up with the others, the boy waves happily, recognizing Eddie at least, and Emily!, while the Bewear seems to take a moment of pause upon noticing another bear, looking curiously at Drogo.

If the police aren't going to looking into an alley where people vanish then the supernatural is likely involved. Which gets the Beacon Society's attention and they sent someone out, it looks like Benedicta drew the short straw. The giant humanoid bear with the club instantly gets the rabbit girl's attention, she wouldn't be surprised if he's involved some how. She also notices Luke and Eddie, did Beacon contact them for back up or did they arrive on their own? Then again she did meet them in San Francisco before.

    The first down the alley is the odd couple of Eddie Brock and Venom. There's a moment when they are there, and then, as the others may notice shortly, they are not. They're just not there anymore.
    It may take a moment for Eddie and Venom to notice they're not in the alley either, depending on how wrapped up they are in their internal conversation. The space they find themselves in looks like an entryway, with a glass door and a coatrack with too many coats. It seems normal so far. Like somebody's house, assuming that person was living in the 1950's.

<Eddie!> Venom caused Eddie to look about while making a short sidestep. His head twisted about, searching for obvious threats. Eddie's nostrals flaired as one of his hands went to examine the coats.

<It must be like that sanctuary, except why would this work without a key or token or whatever?>

A snort from Eddie as he tried examining the roat rack, "Maybe whoever owns the place went to get milk and forgot to lock up."
    he pair would then try walking through the spot they landed on to see if that would allow them to leave.

     As others start to show up, the men surrounding Drogo begin hastily reaching for their weapons, only for the bear to stop them. "Now, now, we don't have to start a fight here. Everybody's just curious, that's all. Tourists, probably. Once I wrangle this alley monster, we can use it to take their wallets and save us the trouble of mugging them."

Another resounding chorus of "wow you're so smart boss" from the group, and then Drogo turns toward Luke and his Bewear, stopping momentarily to stare back at it. "Oh, it looks like we have uh... a fan? Haha, I'm actually a little embarrassed now. Why's the costume pink, anyway..."

Shaking his head in bewilderment, he ignores the rabbit girl and the gathered humans to instead turn his attention back to the alley... and the man who disappears in it right before his eyes. "Wha- hey! That guy's gonna beat me to it! Come on men, let's get in there and set him straight!" And with that order, they all charge right into the allyway after Eddie.

"Hey, Luke," Emily nods in greeting. "Hi, Bewear. You guys here about the alleyway shenanigans?" She looks over at the rabbit-girl, and nods in greeting ...

... and then suddenly whirls around to face the alleyway again as Eddie vanishes, evidently sensing it without having to see it. "Welp!" She holds her hand out, and a staticky portal briefly forms. "... hm, that wasn't like a Vine, I can't portal through it." She pauses. "I'm Emily Nyx, by the way, I'm a magical shapeshifting robot." She says this so matter-of-factly.

She glances around the group, then pauses to watch Drogo simply charge forward recklessly. "Hmm ... Releasing capacitor seal three." Three distinct auras flare up around her, one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent; the silver one seems to shatter, and the other two fade. Almost immediately, in a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter, she grows a second pair of arms, and a falchion sword materializes on her back. "So who else is feeling as reckless as the boss?"

     Luke was distracted by Drogo, so he misses Eddie's vanishing act, even if his Bewear does see, nad does a somewhat comical double take, tilting it's head, letting out a surprisingly sharp noise and trying to point Luke, and Emily at the alley, waving arms. Luke just does not know what teh bear wants, so he pauses to talk to Emily, "Heya!, yeah, I heard rumours about it, so I wanted to check, and Bewear is out because he is worried about my safety and.... what is it?" he pauses, to see to the alley, after the pink pokemon furiously points and tries to nudge the boy there, watching Drogo charge ahead, "What... what is that?" he asks, seeing the portal Emily makes more visible.

The bear and the crowd of thugs going in makes Benedicta a bit hesitant to step inside. For all she know she could be walking into some kind of ambush. "Wait...a magical what?" Was Emily another one of the Cabal's projects? She's going to have to do some background checks one she's done here. Her sudden shapeshifting was certain strange enough for them.

 Her horn starts glowing yellow as the woman transforms, she was certainly magical alright. "I guess we better go inside..." She sticks her fur covered hands in her pockets as she carefully enters. "Did we just step into a sitcom or something?" Benedicta looks around for a studio audience.

    Eddie doesn't seem ot get any result of examining or standing where he cam in from. The place is well kept but dusty as heck. Sets of footsteps can be seen on the floor.
    Drogo and his cronies come barreling down a stairwell at Eddie suddenly, sucked in by the sanctum's magic. Then Benedicta would emerge from the coat closet amidst the hanging outerwear.

"OHGODWH-" Tendrils sprouted from Eddie's black yanking him onto the Ceiling. Several spreading out and away frhom his body to provide bracing as Venom attempted to pull Eddie away from the Drogang.

Then he spotted Benedicta and, as he triedcatching his breath made an attempt at smiling. "So... Any idea how we get out of here?"

     The alleyway suddenly giving way to a stairwell is a bit of an abrupt change for Drogo and his men, who one by one trip over the stairs, themselves, and each other and all come tumbling down to the floor, rolling right under Eddie and Venom and crashing into the coat rack. Amidst a lot of pained groans, Drogo sits up with a paw to his head, mumbling, "Oof... must've been a... trap door?"

A brief moment of silence follows, then one of his bandit followers speaks up, "That makes sense!"

Emily closes the portal. "Just one of my usual Dimensional Fields," she says to Luke. "I typically use them to hitch a ride on Vines."

She shrugs, and follows Benedicta. "Shapeshifting robot!" she says, raising her eyebrows at the girl's obvious suspicion. "I'm from another Blossom called the halcyon remnant. Had all kinds of advanced magitech before the world ended six hundred years ago, the glitter is nanomachines. So, probably not whatever it is you're thinking."

She looks around, grinning widely. "Good lord. This is certainly a change of scenery!" Her grin widens even further as she looks up at Eddie's new state. "Hmm. Well, I can't just teleport us out, since I have absolutely no idea where we are. I can hitch a ride on a Vine, but ... that ain't one of 'em."

She can't resist another snicker at Drogo's underling. "Buncha yes-men," she mutters.

Benedicta hears something rather loud coming down the stairs and her instincts kick as she flees back into the closet. Only for her horn to hit a wall with a loud thwack. "Ouch!" One of her hands comes out of her pockets as she rubs her forehead. "It looks like we're not going back in from the way we came. I'm not sure, maybe try the front door? Unless some bratty kid booby-trapped it or something? Do those nanomachines work on other people?" She figures it couldn't hurt to ask but tries to keep subtle.

Luke Gray nods a few times, "Sounds great, heard of experiments on that back at my world, but only very rare pokemon can do stuff like that." he says, before waving to the bunny girl, smiling and making sure his pokemon waves as well!. Finally, after Emily goes inside, (and after his pokemon goes first, because safety!) Luke finally joins the rest in the very curious old school house, looking around in confusion, "Huh... somehow expected something different." he mumbles. Meawhile, his Bewear takes the chance to approach the other bear, letting out a curious, and clearly not ursine, noise at the talking one, just greetings. "I mean, not htat I am mad this is just a house..." Luke comments, before glancing up and blinking at poor Eddie clinging from the ceiling.

    Emily and Luke seem to emerge from the front door where Eddie, Drogo, the Drogang, and Benedicta are all at. It's the entryway to the house. The house is weirdly quiet, with the main source of noise being the new guests. The kitchen is straight ahead, with a living room to the right. Up the stairs seems to lead to... not a trap door but a kind of hallway.

    The decor is old, dating to the 50s at the earliest. Photos of several people are on the walls, implying a family at some point. There's dust carpeting most of the place, thick coats except for where the current guests have moved around or touched. There's other places where the dust has been disturbed, though these are not from any of the people who just entered.

     Drogo and his gang manage to find themselves back on their feet in due time, looking around at the house in confusion. "Okay, maybe not a trapdoor. Magic? Probably magic." Drogo finally decides, noting the hallway at the top of the stairs. A moment later, he sneezes from all the dust being kicked up. "Ugh... I hate dusty old houses."

Then, he finds himself face-to-face with Luke's Bewear, which is making... very not-bear-like sounds at him. Tilting his head and giving it a quizzical look, Drogo asks, "Okay, what's your deal? Can't talk? Are you a broken mascot robot or something?"

"We should take it with us, boss! Replace the old one!" one of the bandits pipes up, only for Drogo to give him a death glare.

"Nobody could replace the old one, boys. Nobody." he grumbles, but then gives the Bewear another look, and glances to Luke. "Hmm, but now that you mention it, having another one around might be handy..."

<Annoying.> Venom grumbled.

"You're telling me man..." Eddie slowly lowered to ground level just before the tendrils started retracting into Eddie's body. Black almost tar-like appendages receeding as Eddie looked about.

Then he looked at Drogo and tilted his head this way then that, "A. Bear." Flat statement. No questions. 

<Wonder if this beats Gwen's cartoon pig.> Venom mused.

"OK So front door is no-go." Eddie looked about, seemingly unphased by the strangeness of Benedicta or Emily, much less luke's pokemon. Deep breath as his eyes shut. "OK. we're going upstairs. Going to suggest Sir Bearington over there tries organizing his flunkies to act as lookouts. I've seen enough horror movies to not like what's going on here, but unless any of you are able to survive getting stabbed and or decapitated. Better to stick wit hthe tour group."

Says the guy making moves towards the stairs.

Emily gives Benedicta a Look, and puts her upper pair of hands on her hips and crosses her lower arms. "They don't 'work on' anything, I'm just made out of them," she says, and there's a mixture of amusement and sharpness in her voice which suggests that she doesn't think Benedicta's attempt was subtle at all.

One of her lower hands reaches over and ruffles Luke, and she nods to Eddie. "Okay, got it, surviving stabbing and decapitation it is!" She glances around, and notices the dust. "We aren't the only ones who've been here recently," she remarks. "There's disturbed dust around here ..." Without another moment's hesitation, she rises off the ground and starts floating towards the kitchen.

So much for that idea, Benedicta sighs a bit as hears Emily. "I can stab and decapitate, suriving it on other hand not so much." She's good at dodging, not so much at take hits. "Hopefully, whoever else who went inside didn't suffer that fate." She follows Emily letting her take the leading in-case there's any traps waiting inside for them.

Luke Gray chuckles a bit when ruffled, and seems a bit uneasy at the mention of decapitation and suhc, "Maybe i should get Pangshi, he might be good at inspecting." he muses softly, before he sees Eddie and Emily start to move ahead. Of course, his attention is taken back by literal bear talking about his pokemon, and decides to approach him adn the gang, even if he is a bit awy still, "Hello!, he is Bewear, one of my pokemon." he says, while hte pink creature nods and moves back to Luke's side, "He is not a machine or a mascot or anything." he explains.

    It was sunset outside, in what one presumes is ordinary reality. Here in the house it seems much later, feeling much like the witching hour is at hand. Or perhaps it feels like the space between the end of one day and the beginning of the next, a sense of overwhelming anticipation or suspense from not knowing what comes next. The eyes seem to play tricks, that the shadows are moving out of the corner of your eye only to be nothing when you look. Anyone or anything with a sort of telepathic sense or can sense ghostly emanations can hear whispers everywhere in the quiet spaces between breaths.
    The footprints in the dust lead into the kitchen as well as up the stairs. And alas, should anyone try the frosted glass door that should lead out, it remains firmly closed and locked.

    The boy decides that maybe a tall bear with a knack for accidentally breaking stuff just by touching it, might not be the best in a random house, so he motions Bewear to get closer, "Bewear, you should return." the big 'bear' gives a concerned look, after the talk of beheading, and tries to protest, "I promise I will call you if something happens." he reassures, before he 'recalls' the worried pokemon back. 
     "I think Pangshi might be useful, he is a ghost type!." Luke says, reaching for another of his small monster transportation capsules, and unleashing its contents!. Another bear appears!, this time a fairly smaller one... it looks like a panda in a 'Jiangshi (chinese vampire/zombie) costume, including a 'spell' tag attached to it!. The critter lets out a cheerful noise and hovers over the ground for a moment, "So, Pangshi, we are in a weird, spooky..." the boy pauses as the small panda begins to look around, ears twitching as it clearly seems to hear something, or at least, maybe sense it, tilting its head. "Is something wrong?" he asks the little guy.

mit "Well, this certainly isn't odd..." Her bare feet follow the footprints leaving paw prints in the dust as she tries to figure where they lead. While she does have sensitve hearing she doesn't automatically sense the supernatural, just the presence of magic. Her attention then turns towards Pangshi, figuring if there is anything out of the normal the ghost panda should notice right?

Emily pauses, then reaches her lower left hand into a staticky portal and tries the door's handle. "Darn it!" she says, though her tone suggests that she kind of expected that, then resumes floating towards the kitchen, upper hands on her hips and lower arms crossed.

    The tracks are all around the refridgerator and the little dining table. There's a pantry door near the fridge, as well as a door that seems like it would lead to a basement. The decor is very 1950s, with crisp white linoleum with a fancy knot pattern at the center of the 'tile'. The wallpaper (who the heck uses wallpaper these days?) is pretty typical; vertical stripes of color with those weird little 1950 stars. The black and white cat clock on the wall is pointing to 12:00, though it's not clear if it is midnight or noon. 
    A window with a patterned curtain drawn across it would have probably looked out to the backyard (if there was one). A cabinet holds ceramic plates and cups, though these are more Spartan in decoration than one would expect a stereotypical 1950's homemaker to pick; they're closer to the kind of dishes a blue plate diner would keep in stock. There's the usual appliances; the stove, a toaster oven, dishwasher. No microwave though. There's also the distinct sensation that the house itself is watching Luke, Emily, and Benedicta.

    Luke is ok following Emily and Benedicta, checking on the footprints now and then as they move, "Pangshi, do you... feel something?". The small panda pokemon keeps near Luke, giving an uncertain nod, certainly there is something in the air, as one might say. As they arrive into the crisp, and fancy retro kitchen, the small pokemon floats towards the fridge, "Hey, better don't, we don't know if there is any food, or how old it is." he calls out as the small 'vampire' ghost panda was reaching for the fridge door. "If you are that hungry I have snacks!."

"Okay, we either entered some kind of time distortion or there's likely a pile of dead bodies in the basement." Benedicta tries to open the window to see if it's a possible. "Unless there's honey in there, I don't think there's anything edible that you would be interested in little guy." Then again she's not quite sure what undead pandas eat? Undead bamboo?

     In the midst of all this, Drogo's gang has been more interested in poking around for anything that looks remotely valuable. Jewelry, silverware, appliances that aren't nailed down and on fire, the works. Drogo himself, in the meantime, is following the others curiously, keeping an eye out for whatever monster supposedly lives in here. "Very, very strange. Maybe it's a ghost? I don't know how I can fight a ghost, but..."

Emily hmms. "Well, a stopped clock is right twice a day," she says dryly. "I'd lean towards midnight, given, y'know, all the general spookiness and dimness."

She follows Benedicta's gaze to Pangshi, but ... yeah, the girl's handled the warnings. "I have experience busting ghosts myself," she remarks to Drogo. "It's just a matter of hitting 'em in the ..."

She stops, and floats over to the little table. "... right way," she says slowly, peering down at a still-smouldering cigarette. "Hm. Someone was over here smoking, verrrry recently!"

She looks over at the basement door, then floats off to one side so that she's out of its line of sight, and beckons the others over to her. Then she opens up a staticky portal by the door, and ... a hand which doesn't seem to be one of the ones currently attached to her body reaches out and pulls it open!

    Luke begins to root on his backpack for something for his apparently not genre savy pokemon, who sees a fridge, and assumes 'food inside'. It does pause when Benedicta tries to reason with it, and seems to consider that. Luke's attention gets drawn by the mention of 'how to battle a ghost' "Well, in my world we can fight them, they can be just a bit trickier, some stuff flat out doesn't work on them..." he begins, "It's pretty much what Emily says, yeah it's a matter of hitting them with the right stuff.". 
    Luke follows to the table and the cigarette, "Maybe someoen got drawn here before us?" he especulates, while his pokemon finally seems to have finished weighting the pros and cons of opening the fridge, and decides to go for it, now that no one is paying attention to it!, and pulls on the handle.

    The fridge opens, revealing... well. Not what was really expected. It's not empty but it also doesn't look like it was left to rot for decades. The groceries within are modern, fresh, and likely edible. The meat drawer even has a package of bacon. It'd be incredibly inviting if not for the general atmosphere of emptiness the house exudes.
    When Emily opens the basement door, the lights flicker and stutter. In the dark spaces between, one sees unfamiliar faces; most of them are weeping inconsolably, while a few seem to be contorted with anger or anguish. There's a profound sense of loss and loneliness in the empty spaces.

    The basement stairs are lit by a lone light that seems to swing very slightly, lending a strange sense of motion to the entryway.

Benedicta looks a bit digusted as she smells bacon, even if it's still fresh. Her attention turns back towards the clock, "Okay, my money's on time distortion now..." She pauses as she hears the crying, "We're going to have to go down there now aren't we?" She's assuming they won't be able to leave otherwise.

     Drogo grumbles a bit at the answers given. "Yeah, what do you hit them with, though? My club gonna be enough, or no?" he asks a bit impatiently, his fur standing on end from the chills this place is giving him. At the smell of bacon though, he heads over to the fridge and kneels down next to Pangshi, poking at the package for a bit before pulling it out and trying to tear it open so he can just eat the strips raw.

He's a bear, he don't care.

Emily regards the faces a moment, then nods to Benedicta. "Yeah, prolly!" she says, reaching through another staticky portal and attempting to close the fridge door in Drogo and Pangshi's faces.

She regards the swinging light for a few more seconds. "Well," she says, and then stops. "Eh, might as well just head down now, right?" Without waiting for anyone else's response, she does just that, floating several centimeters above the stairs.

    Pangshi is seen reaching for the food, seeming drawn to the bacon, out of all things, but makes sure to let Drogo grab it, when the big guy rushes to settle near him. The small ghost panda does try to grab a tiny bit. Emily closing the door does not deter the ghost, now that it knows there is food inside, and decides to just ignore manners, simply 'phasing' through the door to root for any fruit, or sweet thing lying around. Luke seems certainly surprised, "Is someone actually living here?" he asks outloud, before letting a sigh, "Most walls or doors are optional to him, Pangshi, please... don't eat much, you know we have snacks...", before glancing back at Drogo, "Hmm, I mean, if your club can produce fire or electricity, maybe." 
     The boy thankfully missed th eghastly sights from the basement, but... he finally catches on with the weeping, shuddering visibly. He wrests Pangshi back, and decides to follow Emily down, the bear holding whatever bit of sweet food it might have found on the fridge and eating casually.

Benedicta follows the others down, hoping they won't get attacked by vengeful ghosts for disturbing this place. She just wants to find out what's going on here and why people have kept disappearing.

    There's the faint sound of music that grows as the erstwhile ghost hunters descend the stairs into the basement. Slightly scratchy, like the playback on a vinyl record player. 
    "o/` We'll meet again~. Don't know where, don't know when~. But we'll meet again~, some sunny day-. o/`"
    The basement actually resembles some madman's shrine. Along the walls are photos of what are likely the same person across decades. Trophies and mementoes of somebody's life clutter the place. Long exhausted candles probably lit this room at some point. The eagle-eyed amidst the group would note the name of the man enshrined is Richard Cory, and the psychically sensitive hear grief-striken sobs and an overwhelming sense of loss. But even the ordinary people can feel a presence watching their every move like a hawk in this basement. The music will loop if they stay long enough, with no obvious source.

     Drogo does share a little bit of bacon with Pangshi, but eats most of it himself. The Pokemon can have the fruits and veggies though. When Emily shuts the door on them, Drogo shoots her an irritated look, a strip of bacon still hanging from his mouth. "Hey, I'm trying to calm my nerves here." he grumbles at her, then stomps off toward the basement with the others.

The Drogang, as they've come to be called, are in the process of grabbing everything they can, be it that toaster, or the clock on the wall, or any silverware in the drawers, plus everything else they can conceivably carry in one or both hands. As Drogo heads downstairs though, they all convene behind him, carrying their misbegotten spoils and glancing all around fearfully. "B-boss, I don't like the look o' this place..." one speaks up.

"It's probably nothing to worry about. The little guy said we just have to use electricity or fire on these ghosts, and I'm sure we can find plenty of both if we look in the right places." Drogo growls, trying to pinpoint the source of that music in frustrating vain.

"I got matches!" comes the voice of another henchman, lighting one and holding it aloft to demonstrate.

Drogo lets out a small laugh. "See there? We're fine."

Benedicta notices all the photos on the wall of the same person, "I hope this is his parents' house or something otherwise it's kind of creepy. Then again I doubt that would be there would be ghosts unless if he was murdered or something. Hey, put that stuff back! We don't need pissed off ghosts attacking us!" Her attention turns towards Drogo and his crew. "Besides we might not be able to leave otherwise..."

    As Luke follows the party down the stairs into the badly illuminated basement, and hears the song, plus the other noises, he is understandably uneasy, looking around nervously and moving closer to Emily, "I really don't like this place." he mumbles. Meanwhile, Pangshi pauses mid eating and starts to squirm, letting out a whimper, trying to look around at all directions at once. "Pangshi?" the boy says softly, petting the pokemon who clings to him a bit more tightly. "Ok, something is definitely bad here.". One hand is reaching down to his belt.

Eddie stopped at the sight of the shrine. A deep sense of uncomfortable familiarity creeping along long neglected memory.

<What obsessive madness is this?> Venom growled questioningly as Eddie shuffled through his thoughts.

"OK..." He took a deep breath as he looked about. Frowning at the apparently single-mindedness of the stalking that this shrine has ben edicated to. His eyes focused in the gloom as he took in the horror.

Deep Breath. He then looked to Benedicta, his voice firm. "This isn't a killer's shrine." He gestured to seemingly random details. "Look at the timeline here. The way the person's presented. Camerawork says a lot about the photographer's intent. There isn't lust here."
5rHe paced the basement. Memory tickling at the back of his mind. A roadside shrine to a daughter killed by drunk drivers. Family morning the loss of a son in Afganistan. Husbands lost in the lien of duty. All these felt similar to this. "Whoever this place belonged to lost this person... and maybe wanted to keep them from moving on. Maybe wanted to bring them back, bu..."

<Go on Eddie,> Venom encouraged. <you seem to be onto something.>

"Any of you ever lose something? Someone?" eddie cast about looking at all the baubles and photoes. Touchstones of a single life all around them. "Something so important you felt hollow when it was gone? Unable to focus on anything but that emptiness? How far would that grief run for someone with magic?"

Emily regards the shrine. She can kinda sorta feel the anguish. "The late Richard Cory," she says, responding to Drogo's annoyance with nothing but a sweet smile. "At least, I would presume 'the late' is what's going on here. Hmm. It ..." She pauses. "Is that Johnny Cash?" Another pause. "How the hell do I even know who Johnny Cash is? -- Eh, probably just ... y'know what never mind, I probably heard his name in a couple worlds or whatever."

She frowns at Eddie. "... I've never had that kind of loss, since I've never given a sh--" She glances at Luke. "... never given a darn about anything except myself --" (Though she does give enough of a darn/shit to at least try to avoid swearing in front of a kid.) "-- but yeah, that does not sound good to me."

She regards Pangshi. "Okay, y'know what, if even the ghost-type is panicking, I think we don't need to stay here anymore." She opens up a staticky portal leading back to the entryway they first arrived here, and floats through without another word, leaving it open for anyone else who wants to follow her.

     "But we stole it fair and square!" one of the bandits protests at Benedicta, though one or two do drop what they're holding without a second thought. As they try to argue the merits of taking stuff from an obviously abandoned house, no matter how haunted, Drogo himself makes his way further into the basement, sniffing at the air and listening for any other strange noises.

"A shrine to a lost loved one? Never went this far, but when the mascot robot was killed, we dug it a little grave. This is a little crazy though." he remarks, reaching out to pick up one of the photos.

Luke Gray lets out a loud yelp when Eddie suddenly talks, he had forgotten that hte reporter was around!. He is as curious as anyone, but with his pokemon being so freaked out, he has to get out of th way, because he is worried about Pangshi of course, he is not scared, nope, not one bit!. He politely nods to Emily and begins to follow through that portal, leaving the others to keep poking around the basement at their leisure.

"I meant more that he was murdered and his parents never got over it...but you might be onto here something here. My dog was hit by a car when I was kid, I mean it's not quite the same but I guess I understand." Benedicta can be kind of a jerk at times but she's not a heartless monster. "Yeah, it might be a good idea to get out of here while we still can..." She facepalms as Drogo grabs one of the photos and hops through the portal, "You're on your own, big guy..." She's not getting paid to deal with this.

    When Drogo picks up the photo, the basement's lone light goes dark and the entire house shakes as feeling of rage washes over everybody. The sense of somebody walking over your grave accompanies this anger, and anyone still left in the basement is not there. The Drogang member drops his lit match, setting the basement rug alight, which precipitates even worse. The place shudders, and screams for help can be heard from upstairs. Quickly and suddenly, the house seems to be collapsing in on itself as the basement burns!
    Drogo and his gang will find themselves suddenly in what looks like a large bedroom, sans their loot, and with a number of ordinary people who look like they've been here awhile. The house seems to be on fire and screaming. The people are pounding away at the bedroom door yelling for help.

Eddie twists his head to look at Drogo, neck perhaps moving a little too fast and bending perhaps too far to be natural human his eyes wide, all white, and rimmed by veins of black as a bestial warning growl came from his throat. Then he spoke. Except it wasn't his voice. The voice was a deepr baratone, and angry as it addressed the Bear, "You just HAD to start knocking things over."

Eddie's body expanded, covering in black as Venom manifest more fully, towering over everyone else present as Venom's inky black fists hammered against the locked door. "WE REFUSE TO DIE BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPIDITY!"

Emily nods to Luke and Benedicta. She's about to say something ...

... when the screaming begins.

She looks towards the stairs, then back through the portal, then closes the portal and flies upstairs at top speed, not waiting for the other two. She sees the door with the banging and noise on the other side, and then repeats the trick she did with the basement door: she moves out of line of sigh, opens a staticky portal, and attempts to open it using an extra hand.

     Drogo and the Drogang find themselves in a bedroom with a lot more people, and most of the bandits seem confused more than anything, unsure what's going on. The house is on fire, and screaming at them, and people are pounding at a locked door, and Eddie's turned into a black giant monster also trying to break the door down...

"Uh... anybody here still have their wallets?" Drogo feebly asks, but his gang all join the rest of the people in their attempts to escape, most of them crying about not wanting to die or wishing their mommies were here. With a sigh, the bear grumbles, "Alright, alright. EVERYBODY MOVE!"

Whether they do or not, he hefts his massive iron club, draws it back, and lets loose with a mighty overhead swing at the door, aiming to simply smash the damn thing to splinters.

"Oh great, now the house is on fire! One of these doors or windows has to lead out!" Benedicta doesn't handle the heat well at all and starts pulling on the front door again, "Open you stupid piece of garabage!" She doesn't want to be covred in singed fur.

    Pangshi seems particularly affected just moments before the screaming starts trashing, "What's..." then the anger and screaming happens, and with a sudden effort, it suddenly slips out of Luke's arms to tap onto one of the pokeballs, dissapearing into it. "That is not good, arceus that can't be good.". He reaches for his pokeballs and curses a bit, looking up at the screaming, "Bewear!, come out!... we need to make a way out!". He calls upon the previously seen pink and black pokemon. "See if you can break the door open! or something!". The pokemon joins Benedicta at tugging at the door, before it begins to punch at it.

    The house's magic is weakening, meaning that all that pressure on the door bursts it open just as Emily is trying the doorknob. The collapsing bedroom pours the people out, which would look like a hilarious clown car if the situation wasn't so dire. The dimensions of the place are rapidly shrinking as the house dies an agonizing death from burning, eventually shoving everybody into the entryway in a somewhat comedic manner before Benedicta is ejected out into the alley by the bulk of the bewear behind her as the front door gives. Everybody else kind of just falls out of the house as it finishes collapsing. Something else goes flying out as the spatial distortion that marked the entry to the house finally collapses; a slightly glowing pearl the size of an American quarter lands in front of Bendicta.
    Whatever loot the Drogang had before things went bad in the basement, they still have. The silver ware, plates, the clock, the toaster oven... Oh, and the erstwhile ghost hunters also managed to free all those people the house had trapped inside!

Venom screamed, flailing as its sense of space shifted, a tendril grabbing for the pearl-like object as the rest of its sensory inputs told it they were now in the middle of a pack of people.

Then another tendril snaked out and another, and another, all attempting to extract Venom from the pile as the black mass shrnak back into Eddie's body.

"Creepy haunted house and your first thought was 'loot the place'?" He glowered at the Drogang as several tendrils helped him to his feet. "Really? I mean we're out which is great, but... /REALLY?!/"

     The door abruptly opens, everyone's shoved through the hallway and down the stairs and out the front door, and they all collapse in a heap. Drogo, still mid-swing, loses his grip on his club at the same time he loses his balance, sending the massive piece of iron careening off across the street and bouncing off a car, shattering its windows and leaving the roof caved in, before continuing to spin off through a shop window. Needless to say, alarms are blaring now, just to add to the confusion.

Thankfully, nobody in the Drogang seems to notice the pearl, as they're all groaning in pain and clutching whatever riches they've managed to make it out with, including the miraculously unbroken plates. Drogo himself, in the meantime, is laying facefirst in the concrete, snuffling dazedly until Eddie starts shouting at him and his bandits.

"Mmmrrrgh... It worked, didn't it? I set the place on fire, and I broke the door down. I'm a hero, obviously." he rumbles as he picks himself up again, dusting off his clothes. The bandit who actually dropped the match starts to object, but a quick glare from Drogo silences him as the rest of the gang all praise their glorious, intelligent, and oh-so-strong leader.

Emily regards the destroyed suddenly-destroyed door as everyone starts to clown-car out of it. "Well, that worked!" she says dryly.

And then everything's exploding and collapsing, and her eyes go wide as she's forcibly ejected. She's able to sense the strange distortion around her, and she regards it with interest, even as she twists around and struggles before she realizes she's carried to safety. She rockets out and lands next to Benedicta, left hands raised and right hands down in a four-point landing.

She peers at the pearl, eyes going wide. There's a swirl of glitter over her face, and now she has six eyes. "... three guesses as to whether that thing is partly responsible for all this, and the first two don't count."

Luke Gray is a confused boy, but he is at least relieved and stops letting out panicked screams as he find shimself back in teh alley!, even if he does find himself in the middle of a pile of people. Bewear is very fluffy and soft to lay on, so whoever lands on teh bear has a good landing spot at least. The boy just wriggles away and cheers, "We are out!, we are safe!, we made it!"

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> (Closeup of Miles's eyes as he sees through the spider-verse dimension) + "The better to see you with, my dear!"

>> SUMMARY[Drogo Peaudouce] >> Taking all the credit, and also accidentally sending the club through a car and a shop window. Alarms and stuff now. Yay.

Thankfully Benedicta has quick reflexes as she manages to land on her feet after getting shoved by the Bewear and avoid getting crushed. She looks at the pearl that Venom grabs at curiously before picking it up. "Beacon might want that, after all they might be able to study it and explain why this whole mess happened to begin with." She then looks over at Emily and her horn glows yellow before several eyes appear on her forehead as well. "Nice trick."