[Crack Plot] Attack of the Vampire Melons!!!

[gardenwarlock]

A hot night in July, the kind of night when the air hangs heavy and still, not a breath of air to stir the leaves of the trees, or the curtains of windows left open in the Mansion, to let in what fresh air there might be. A full moon shines through the treetops, silvering the drowsy land and trees, painting every leaf in blue-white light

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[regency_twihard]

Cathy was dozing on a couch in the library, a copy of the first volume of "Varney the Vampire", draped over her chest. She was dreaming of a pale shadow leaning over her and said shadow was about to begin licking the hollow of her throat, when something startles her awake. She sits up, hearing something outside. Have the wolves returned?

She runs to the window, where she sees something rummaging about in the shadows, and hears something growling.

"EEK! The melons are alive!"

[only_paul]

Paul was out in the library too, burning the legendary midnight oil. When he hears Cathy's scream, he comes out, already brandishing a cross on pure reflex. "What is it?"

[regency_twihard]

She points a quivering hand at the open window. "Th-th-the melons... they've come to life and they're g-growling."

[only_paul]

Paul stares. "--- if my lore is anything to go by, so long as we don't invite them in..."

[regency_twihard]

"How could they understand the invitation, even if someone were to invite them?" she asks. "Have they ears?" Even still, she backs away from the window.

Just in time for the thing to start bouncing against the window screen...

[only_paul]

"Who knows," Paul says, frowning. He leans a little bit forward, though, to examine it better, the cross in front of him, in case.

He's basically experimenting.

"They seem to behave more like rabid dogs than anything else," he notes.

[regency_twihard]

Cathy skitters aside, then gets behind Paul, thinking of him as her Jonathan Harker or Quincey Morris.

The melon bangs into the window screen harder and harder, finally breaking through the wire mesh and bouncing onto the window seat below. It hops back and forth on the cushions for a moment, then bounces to the floor, rolling towards Paul's feet.

[only_paul]

Paul utters a swear word, and he'll just.... remember his days of college, and kick the melon, trying to send it back outside.

[regency_twihard]

The melon will emit an angry growl as it ricochets off the sill and back outside...

Where it hits the deck with a smash and a squish. The pieces might quiver a bit for a few seconds, then lie still as death.

Cathy emits a yelp of surprise. "Is it dead?" she asks.

[only_paul]

"I sure hope so. We should barricade the window before more of them come in. Help me," Paul says as he wanders to the closest bookcase, to try and move it against the window.

[regency_twihard]

"Let me assist you," she says, seeing herself as his Mina, and putting one hand and one shoulder to the bookcase, helping him to push it toward the window.

[only_paul]

And he could well be her Jonathan, if he were honest about it. So together they push the bookcase, then, and that done, Paul leans against it, a bit short of breath.

"Are you quite alright, Miss Morland?"

[regency_twihard]

She's also breathing hard, and she's sweating a bit and quivering. "Yes, only a bit out of breath," she says. "What do you suppose caused such a strange thing to happen?"

Something thonks against the window, and the noise might transmit through the bookcase, but nothing comes through.

[only_paul]

Paul is glancing around, looking for other windows that need to be secured, though for now he's not leaving Catherine's side.

"The only explanation I can think of is demonic activity, mad as it sounds," he says, frowning.

And glancing at her, he whispers, "it will be alright, Catherine. I promise."

It's the first time he uses her first name.

[regency_twihard]

She notes that, and she can't help but blush and drop her gaze. "Mister Paul," she replies, modestly, but still a bit wibbly. "I pray that you are right and that it cannot harm us now.

"Have you... have you heard of such a thing happening before? Do you think that there could be anything in any of the books here about it? Would anyone here know what could have caused it?"

[only_paul]

"Perhaps -- someone might," Paul replies evasively.

But he hasn't seen Muraki in so long....