Be Prepared [Active, Open]

[inkblotjustice]

Characters: Rorschach, Anita Blake
Setting: Greenhouse
Time: Night 002
Summary: Rorschach and Anita make preparations for survival, decide their next course of action.
Warnings: Rorschach utilizes household products as creative weapons of mass destruction. Don't try this at home, kids!

Comments

[dollsy_npcs]

Perhaps the two of them were extra vigilant, considering the task that lay ahead of them, and the sense of unease and feeling of being watched that permeated the greenhouse, which somehow seemed wilder and more overgrown than it had in the daylight hours. Or perhaps their guard was down, as they gathered themselves and prepared their weapons for the difficulties that lay ahead. Either way, whether they realized it or not, they were not alone.

There was a ghost in the greenhouse. He seemed to be a young man, from what looks one could get; he flickered in and out of visibility like the picture on a bad television set, and had a hazily vague, translucent appearance that suggested he was hardly there at all. He was wandering around the greenhouse aimlessly as though lost, or so dazed as to be completely unaware of his surroundings, and was approaching them through complete accident. The faint but pungent scent of smoke and fuel accompanied him. Anita, being the more spiritually aware of the two, would be the only one to hear him--he had a soft, plaintive voice, difficult to hear clearly without focusing on it, and sounded rather understandably frightened. "It burns...."

[dead_mans_queen]

The attic sounded like both a good idea and a bad one. It could very well be a nice fortress, but if the monsters got in, there was nowhere else to go. Still, Anita couldn't think of anything better, so she nodded her head. "I'm thinking initial distractions are the way to go. If they're not looking at us, let's keep it that way by giving them something else to look at."

She paused momentarily, hand going to her ribs once more. They were still tender, though much better than the beginning of the day. Anita shuddered involuntarily; the fear that she would not survive the night crept back once more.

"Hate to say it, but I'm gonna need you to-" Anita stopped abruptly, feeling something else in the room. "Ghost," she said bluntly. "There's a ghost in here." She looked around, noticing that there was also some sort of burning scent. Her eyes widened. "There's also a fire," she said inaccurately; she was not expecting a ghost with a scent. "Or the smell of one, anyway. I'm thinking once in the kitchen, we should grab some water. Just in case."

The animator moved as she spoke, approaching the ghost tentatively so as not to frighten it. Most ghosts were disoriented, lost being without souls. She didn't want to confront it, exactly, but she did wonder why it was there and wanted a closer look. The closer she got, the stronger the scent became. It was only when she stood a few feet away that she heard the words.

"I think....I think he died in a fire...."

[inkblotjustice]

"Hrrm. Molotovs would be useful, then. Also, could separate, take positions in rooms, draw them with noise so that other can sneak past." He paused, thoughtful, scratching his chin. "Would have to be smart. Know of a couple of rooms with more than one doors, that could be used." He listened to Anita speak, perhaps about her infirmities from last night. Rorschach knew of them - he had taken her injuries into account. But now - they were being watched? By a ghost?

The masked vigilante tensed, but stayed motionless, unsure of how to react or what to do. He couldn't fight what wasn't alive, could he? Not if they didn't have a body. "Water good for drinking. Would need hose or extinguisher for any fires," he added, attempting to be helpful despite the peculiarity of dealing with a spirit. He saw the ghost, then - a young man, it seemed, flicking in and out of existence. Very strange... it reminded him of Dr. Manhattan, in a way, although the ghost appeared much less solid than the superhuman that Rorschach had met.

"Careful," he intoned as she approached the ghost. He didn't doubt (much) that she had experience with these kinds of creatures, but who knows how things worked here in this mad prison?

[dollsy_npcs]

The ghost looked up suddenly as Anita approached, seemingly only now realizing that he wasn't alone. "Wh-who's there?" He called out; the sound was still quiet--he probably couldn't have managed much louder even if he had tried to shout, from the looks of it--and tentative, but there was a definite measure of fear and alarm mixed in. His head turned, as though searching; finally, his eyes came to rest on Anita, as though for him the surrounding house was as unsteady and difficult to see as he was himself.

Meanwhile, Rorschach might have been able to feel a presence of his own watching him. A little girl--she couldn't possibly be older than eight--in a dress was partially hiding behind the trunk of a nearby tree as she watched him, dark eyes wide. Her eyes roved from Rorschach and Anita periodically to the dark glass walls of the greenhouse, and she shivered; clearly, she didn't like the darkness and gloom of the room they were in. She was considerably more solid--you couldn't have told she was a ghost just by looking at her, in fact--seeming than the boy ghost Anita had approached, and obviously very aware of her surroundings, which seemed to be making her nervous.