From now on this'll be where you're from... (plot part II)

[chstoryteller]

Characters: Abby Scuito, Damon Salvatore, Mike Gambit, Alex Drake & Loke
Rating: PG (for now)
Time Period: Modern
Location: Inside the Grotto
Relative Date: Not backdated - current time
Status: Closed

A cryptic cassette tape has been found

Comments

[loki_innocent]

What had called Loke there was nothing particular, really. It was no fantastic cassette, a calling voice, or even a mental image. No, it was a beetle. He had chased it for quite a while, and where he had gone, well, he could not remember. The big beetle was simply way too interesting. he had not even noticed that he had moved towards the grotto, and it was only as he picked up Alex's scent, he looked up, and heard the echo of voices.

He whined a bit, laying down, the beetle forgotten as he peered around with his horrible sight. It was hard to pick up sounds due to the echo, so he would have to reply on his nose. "Hello?" he called out mentally. Be was unsure if anyone heard him thought. His speech was not sound after all, it had a limited range.

"I am.. afraid, where are you? A-Alex?" he thought it was her name. He was not completely sure, to be honest He smelled others too. But he did not know them.

(ooc: im jumping in as it said open for one more. If its not Loke you want here, I can delete it and make the room for someone else <3 )

[idontdobored]

Damon remained by the door, hidden in the shadows as he awaited for the others to arrive. It wasn't long before they did, he caught their scent way before they even reached the door. Still, he waited for them to go down, never know if there was a trap down there, plus, then he could play hero and save them if there is. Then no one would suspect his true nature. He liked that game; pretending to be the good guy and gaining the trust of the others.

Once Abby and the new girl made it a good way down the stairs, Damon finally started to follow; slowly. He listened as another called out, "great, even more," Damon mumbled to himself.

Damon sped up some and finally reached Abby and Alex on the stairs, "seems we have some others," he said in a cool voice. He really wasn't so happy with that. It worked better to fool a few at a time, but not a whole group. Then again, Damon thought he was good at what he did, so maybe this would be nothing.

[mikegambit]

Gambit hurried into the grotto when he heard Abby's reply. It wasn't exactly reassuring, but he figured it was as good as he was going to get in this place. He had his firearms for the reassuring part.

When he made his way to the small group, his hand automatically went to the holster on his hip, and his eyes scanned the others. "Mike Gambit," he said as an introduction. His eyes fell on the wolf, and looked more than a bit confused at it's presence, but figured it had come along with one of the other members of the group.

"So, what the hell is going on here?" he asked, already sounding authoritative, but his hand had moved back from the holster, instead folding his arms over his chest for a second.

[forensicjunkie]

"Oh hey mystery guy!" Abby leaned over to Alex and whispered "This is one of the two people I told you about that helped me find the key."

She was just about to go on further with an introduction of Alex when a new face arrived. When he spoke, even before he finished his name, Abby made the connection. This was the Mike Gambit voice she'd heard on the phone!

"Well, um, we don't actually know?" she offered. "I know that's not super helpful or anything. I found this tape and the tape led me and mystery guy over there and one other person who seems to not have joined us into the library. Found a key there, put the pieces together, and, well, here we are!"

Despite the lengthy explanation, Abby smiled. It was all perfectly logical and hopefully not too weird for this fellow. With a cool name like Mike Gambit though, he had to be pretty bad ass. Or at least, that what she'd decided in her own head after just a second of consideration.

[poshmouthytart]

Alex hadn't heard Loke call for her yet - he was too far away still, and her mind was still preoccupied, churning with what Abby had told her about the tape and the key and this new mystery that had been uncovered.

And she certainly hadn't been expecting a party. But, it was better than the complete emptiness of the grotto; the more people around the better, especially if they were investigating anything potentially dangerous.

"I'm Detective Inspector Alex Drake," she introduced to the two men. "I don't know anything about what's going on either, besides what Abby told me about her finding the tape."

[loki_innocent]

Loke had moved towards where he though the voices came from, following the scent more then the sounds. he was scared, but he did not realy know where to go, when the voices closed to him, he moved faster, nearly bumping into them as he arrived. He raised his tail and wagged happily by the scent and voice of Alex, bouncing over to her and did his wolf smile.

Alex!" He was proud he had remembered her name, and now he was excited by all the people. Except one.
He carried an odd smell which made him uncomfortable. But he seemed to be friends with the others. It made him nervous still, like an old fear deep inside him, instinctual. But he pushed it away. If his friend Alex was his friend, then he was Loke's friend too.

[idontdobored]

"Yep, that's me, Mystery guy," Damon didn't sound too thrilled by his little nickname, but whatever, he'd go along with it. "Ah, a detective," Damon moved over to Alex and looked her in the eyes, picking up her hand, "pleasure," he placed a kiss on her hand. If anything, Damon was good at charming the police, best way to find out information.

Soon Damon caught the scent of something that wasn't human; it was an odd scent; human and animal mixed together. This should be very interesting. “So this is where the key lead us, wonder what’s down there,” Damon perked up his brows in excitement.

Damon turned around when he saw the wolf enter, "that..." He looked down at it, was that a werewolf? Not good at all.

[mikegambit]

Gambit was more than a little confused by Abby's explanation, but the excitement she showed was refreshing. He was reminded of Peri for a second, but quickly pushed the painful thoughts from his mind.

"A tape as in a recording?" he asked, mostly rhetorical, as he pieced the story together in his head.

He turned to Alex when she introduced herself, relieved to see a member of law enforcement involved -- although he didn't have the best track record when it came to police. "Nice to meet you all, by the way," the suave grin he gave Abby assured he was telling the truth.

When he heard someone call Alex's name, he turned sharply, but only saw the wolf padding happily toward the woman. "Does he belong to one of you?"

[forensicjunkie]

"Yeah! Like the mixed tapes I used to make in middle school. You know, recording stuff of the radio or whatever. Except this guys voice was mondo creepy sounding. Not really the greatest reason to go into a scary catacomb but I was hoping maybe we'd find some clues about why we're all here?"

Abby addressed the whole group but her attentions were mostly on Gambit since he'd been the one to ask. She was about to go on further when her eyes caught sight of what appeared to be a very friendly...wolf?

"Whoa cool!" Abby gushed, kneeling and reaching out to the creature without hesitation. She loved animals and if she got the vibe they were friendly, it didn't matter the type - she wanted to pet it. And so she did, reaching out to gently scratch behind the wolf's ears, if he would allow it.

[poshmouthytart]

Alex shot Damon a flirtatious smile when he took her hard, and then turned to look down at the wolf as he bounded over to them. "Loke? What on earth are you doing here?" she asked, her voice tinged with concern.

She knelt down, giving the wolf a friendly scratch beneath his chin, hoping to show Abby - and the rest of the company - that he was completely safe to have around. Well, maybe not very safe if you were a table. Or anything breakable for that matter.

On second thought, Alex would have to keep her eye on him.

"This is Loke, he doesn't exactly belong to anyone," she explained. "One of my colleagues and I met him here, near the grotto a few days ago." She looked up at the people around her. "Abby and I listened to the tape last night. It's not exactly pleasant. But, if anything, it might help us solve something about what we are doing here. Or, at the least, who was here before."

[loki_innocent]

Loke wagged his tail hard, the huge wolf licking her cheek affectionately, before turning to Abby who was also scratching him. He spun around in energy, sensing instinctively her friendliness, and almost launched upon her, licking her face.

He stopped after a while (or if she pushed him away) and looked at the others. "I followed voices and smell. And a beetle." He looked at the others, except a bit hesitant at Damon, but it would not be noticeable unless you really was studying the path of his eyes.

"What is a tape?

[idontdobored]

Damon almost laughed with what Abby said, of course this place may be scary and dangerous, but hey, maybe he was the thing that they should be scared of.

This was a bit ridiculous, really, a wolf!? And, everyone seemed to be ok with it, "you don't think this is the least bit strange? Big wolf, talking in our heads?" Yea, he had to be a werewolf, something Damon was not pleased with. Though at least now he could figure out what everyone knew of the supernatural realm. If they knew of werewolves, then maybe they knew of vampires, maybe even the ones that he was looking for.

"A tape is this thing that you record messages on, do you understand that?" Damon addressed the wolf, "fuck I'm talking to a wolf." Yea, he was going to play dumb at the moment, as if he never experienced anything like this before.

[mikegambit]

"Did that wolf just--" Gambit was momentarily distracted by the rest of the conversation. Because he was pretty sure he just heard it speak. He looked toward the rest of the group, who seemed so casual about it. He quickly chocked it up to electronics or radio waves, something he could at least grasp at in order to move on with the conversation.

"Okay," he said, trying hard to keep his tone neutral and calming. But it was obvious he was struggling. "Okay, so the tape led you here, key, got it. Well, only one way to find out what's hiding down here..."

[forensicjunkie]

At first Abby had hardly noticed the voice echoing in her head. She was far too fascinated by the beautiful creature. Though it might have been out of place elsewhere, with all the other bizarre creatures roaming the castle grounds Abby couldn't help but find the wolf to be almost normal by comparison. The licking wasn't from Loke wasn't unwelcome and Abby laughed a little as she tipped backwards onto her butt from his insistence.

It was only when she realized that the supposed wolf in question appeared to be talking in her head that her bright expression shifted to one of confusion. She stood, dusting herself off in the process, and stared down at the wolf with wide green eyes.

"Ummm did anyone else just hear that?" Abby was a little worried that maybe Alex's crazy was contagious. When Gambit and Damon appeared to be befuddled by the same phenomenon, she looked to Alex for answers. "What is going on with that wolf friend of yours Alex?"

For the time being, Gambits suggestion of finding out what laid beyond where they stood had to take a bench on the sideline. Abby Scuito was pretty sure she'd just heard a wolf psychically and until that could be explained she would remain fixated on it. The scientist in her left her with little other choice!

[poshmouthytart]

Alex sighed, her voice taking a slightly patronizing tone. "Listen to me, lovely constructs. We live in a castle surrounded by unicorns, a monster in a moat, a room with time-traveling buttons, and people come back from the dead. Also? Yes, the wolf talks." She took a moment to examine the confused faces surrounded her. "Thank you, brain, for your endlessly amusing creations."

The last note was an aside, and her tone quickly transferred back to business as usual, as she gestured Abby back to standing position. "Now, shall we move onto priorities, such as finding more about this tape?" She glanced down at Loke, her voice adjusting again to the tone of a mother explaining something complex to a child. "A tape is a device that can record sound. Abby found one in which a man had recorded his voice, a message, to someone else named Winston. We're hoping, by exploring this area, we may be able to better understand what that man was doing."

She left out the bit about his comment of having "disposed" of everyone. She had a fair idea of what that meant, and she didn't like it one bit.

[loki_innocent]

He licked Abby's cheek a bit more for good measure, before Alex again caught his attention, ears perking. "Record sound" He mimicked, and oddly enough, he understood what she meant by recorded a voice. His ears twitched a bit,and he though he heard something further down, but he brushed it off for now. There was a familiar scent in the air, but he forced himself to try to focus on what Alex said, despite having trouble to understand some.

He nudged Abby affectionately again, and moved to sit down, ears perked and listening. "Loke will do what he is told to do. " he stated.