[For the Winchester Brothers] Not Doing a Lunatic Dance Yet...

[77th_earl]

Continued from Here Titus tilts his head a bit and rises as Dean stands up. "Your brother knows much about this matter of trouble? He would not think me mad once I described to him these frightening circumstances?" he asks. Considering the kind of hereditary madness that seems to run through the Groan line, it's likely something he's concerned

Comments

Sounds good to me!

[surfaceshine]

"Family business." Dean smiles, a bit tight, but Titus would probably have to know him better than he does to notice it very easily. The elder Winchester has been false-facing 90% of the time for years, and he does so now as he begins to walk - first stiffly, and then more smoothly as his muscles loosen back up - towards the door. "C'mon, he's probably in our room, or the library. We'll see what we can do once we're all in the same room."

Dean will take Titus straight up to the room he shares with his brother, and only because he has someone with him does the hunter bother to knock on the door a splitsecond before he opens it.

"Sam? You home?" It's not his joking voice, not the high-pitched yoo hoo! tone he would've used just to rankle Sam a bit. Instead, there's a little bit of an edge to his speech that will probably advertise that he thinks he's hot on the trail of something important to anyone who knows him as well as Sam does.

[precognitioning]

Definitely chewing on his lip now, and Sam makes a brief move as if to get up and pace, but it's quickly aborted with a slight wince. Not the time for pacing, perhaps. He doesn't want Dean to get worried about anything, not if he wants to make a campaign for getting out of the house at all in the near future.

Sam watches Titus with one eye, and mouths at Dean, Some kind of spirit manifestation? Vague, but it could be somewhere to start. Maybe.

[77th_earl]

He pauses, thinking for a long moment, then shakes his head, lifting his hands in a small shrug. "Nay, I smelled nothing out of the ordinary, nothing except the damp of that night, since it was a rather close and muggy one."

[surfaceshine]

Dean doesn't look at Sam, not directly, but he both nods and gives the signature worth a shot shrug. More obviously, he nods to Titus and mentally ticks off the box beside the next question on his Find Out What This Is list.

"How long you been in that room?" If he hasn't been there long it might be a thing with the room; if he's been there quite some time, that's not as likely.

[precognitioning]

Sam, meanwhile, goes for both a notebook and a book, flips the book open and starts writing fast in the notebook, though one eye is still on both Titus and Dean, clearly listening to the answer to this question.

[77th_earl]

"I have been dwelling in that room since this autumn past: I had been dwelling in a dim room on the north side, but a kind girl helped me to move to my present lodgings because my room at the time lacked fresh air, which had made me ill," he replies. "I have been there perhaps some eight or nine months and I have never noticed anything strange there until this night."

[surfaceshine]

Dean glances over at what Sam is doing, but doesn't interrupt Titus. Instead, on the end of the kid's answer, Dean tags a clear aside to his brother - "Anniversary?" - before returning full attention to Titus.

"Was there anything in the room when you moved in? That you kept, I mean? Or did you bring it all with you?"

[precognitioning]

Sam jots that down, and asks, "By the way - where is this, in the house? What floor, what wing..." Because whatever it is, they're going to need to go look at it. And adds, to Dean, "What kind of a night was it, that..."

[77th_earl]

So many questions, but Titus is only too willing to answer them if it helps him to find a cure for this situation. "There was a chair, a desk, a bed and a wardrobe in the room when I arrived. When I was well enough to remove my things from my old room, I brought in the same clothes that I had had in my old room.

"My current room is on the third floor, in the southern wing, and the window faces due south: it is quite well-lit in the daytime and at night as well, if there is a full moon."

[surfaceshine]

Dean, perfectly capable of carrying on two conversations at once as long as one of them is with Sam, flicks one glance to his brother - "Dunno." - then smoothly transitions back to Titus.

"Mind if we take a look? We might see something you didn't notice at the time. What with the aborted stabbing and all."

[precognitioning]

Sam jots something down. "I'll find out," he says, and then sets the notebook aside. "Might be important, who knows." He examines Titus, and after a nod to agree with Dean's suggestion, asks, "Just to be clear - nothing like this has happened to you before?"

[77th_earl]

"Nay, I do not mind in the least: the more pairs of eyes to examine this, the better," he says, stepping aside and lifting the latch on the door. "But, no, this has not happened to me before: there were no demons nor spirits nor gods nor angels in Gormenghast, and so I have had no experience with anything of this nature."

[surfaceshine]

Dean lets Sam take point on the questioning for now, focusing instead on carefully levering himself back to his feet. He never stops smirking, but it's a more laborious task recently than it has been most of his life, and he only tunes back into the conversation once he's ready to start walking forward.

"Lead the way, kiddo." Dean prompts, reaching to take over holding the door open so the trio can pass into the hallway.

[precognitioning]

He was mostly making sure you weren't mental, Titus. Or that something followed you here, that is true. On the other hand...for the moment, he'll put the notebook down and stand up himself. "I think that's it, without seeing the room itself. We should...do that."

Another one of those slightly odd glances at Dean.

[77th_earl]

"Very well, if you gentlemen will follow me," he say, stepping through the door and beckoning them to follow him. He'll lead the way down the hallway and around a corner, then down another hallway, leading to his room. He'll open the door and step aside to let them enter first.

The room within is comfortable, but not lavish, and a bit untidy in a lived-in way. A few clothes hap-hazardly draped over a chest and a pair of riding boots dumped over under the bed. There are a few books scattered on the desk, as well as an ink-splattered sheet of paper. A quill pen is lying on the floor where he dropped it, and the chair is tipped over.

[surfaceshine]

Dean flips a hand idly at Sam's glance, and tails the two of them down the hall. When he slips past Titus and into the room, the change is immediate, and most akin to some kind of hound searching a field for a scent trail; if he had mobile ears they'd be perked up and focused forward, his eyes bright and intent, and he is actually sniffing the air - though subtly. He moves forward and mentally separates the room into a grid, and begins poking around opposite Sam.

Since the typists already know what actually happened, it's safe to say there's nothing to find; no sulfur in the air, no marks on the walls or floor, no hexbags hidden behind a book or under the bed. Dean does his best to turn the room upside down, though, putting things back where he finds them for the most part unless or until Titus protests. Dean has never been the one with finesse.

If Titus doesn't stop him, though, he'll end up standing next to the discarded quill, wishing he could crouch down to examine it, and looking for the knife that had been mentioned