Scene 2: Cursed blood

Roderick turns at the voice calling him, the movement costing him a great deal of effort, as if parts of him were heavy weights to lift.

"Oh. It is you," he says to Alexander, making sure his disappointment transpires in his tone. "I thought you would come. I cannot say I am very pleased to see you. Very well. I will endure your presence here if I must, but... you stay out of my way," he says in no uncertain terms, coldly, laying down some clear boundaries for the fortune-squandering fool.

" Who else has arrived with you. I know as little as you, about this reunion," he then adds.

As Elias stands there, in front of the door, he raises his hand as if to open the door. Hesitating for a moment, Elias falters a bit finds himself unable to decide if he wants to open the door.

As he stands there, Elias finds himself and his thoughts drifting back to the lavish parties that were held in the very room he's thinking of entering. Steeling his nerves, Elias makes his mind up. Reaching out Elias grabs the doorknob and throws open doors. Moving with a purpose, Elias strides into the room as only a Rookwood can.

"Alas, it seems that dear Grandmother wanted my attendance as well. I shall work to make my presence...bearable for you." Alexander responds, his already growing irritation tinging his words but there was control in there as well. These were strange circumstances that had brought them together and perhaps, maybe, something better could come out all of this. Brushing his hair back, he gestured down the way where Nathaniel had walked off to.

"Cousin Nathaniel is here from his clinic. The front door was left ajar, I do not know if any others have arrived." His brow furrowed for a moment as he walked a bit closer. "What brings you here to the cemetary, Grandfather? And have you seen Gunther recently?"

@Squadfather44 Elias strides confidently into the room, only to find a big empty space, completely immersed in silence. He notices the wall candles are lit; the chairs are neatly placed in a circle around the room, and the floor is polished so well it mirrors the elaborately painted ceiling. The man continues walking until he stops under the old chandelier; his steps lazily echoing across the room. The way the room is set reminds him of the lavish parties he witnessed during his younger years. So lost in his memories, he can almost hear the faint humming of an old song coming to an end.

However, the more Elias looks around the room, the more he notices the small out-of-place things. The instruments are in the musicians corner as expected, but the violone is just... too upright for something laying on a chair. The air feels colder, but there all the windows are closed. The candlefire seems to be a shade bluer than when he entered the room...



And then, there is that old wall painting. The colors so vivid it is almost as if it is trying to get his attention. It's not that he isn't familiar with the Dance Macabre; after all, it used to be a well-known artistic subject across the realm...
No. It has always been about those strange writings in a language he could never identify.
And now, he can just read it as if it was written in his own language...


The dead long for the day they will dance with the living

"Ashes dipping the Rose. Beautiful isn't it?" an echoed voice asks from nowhere. Elias turns back, surprised to see a faded woman next to him. All around him he hears the chattering of the dancers; some he can see as insubstantial shapes; others only as shadows or reflections on the floor. Elias can even feel some through their lingering joy, or just somehow follow their invisible footsteps. The musicians return and take their place in the corner, slowly warming up and tuning their instruments. The woman bows as the music starts to play.

"May I have this dance?"

---

@Dr_B, @KingHotTrash, @crazybirdman

Roderick comes to his senses only to notice that Alexander has arrived for the Ceremony… with Nathaniel. The good news is that it seems someone else may have arrived before them. Maybe he will get to see Claire and Elias soon, instead of having to put up with these two for too long. Alexander, used to the old man’s mood, mostly ignores him and tries to direct the conversation into some neutral ground, hopefully avoiding more unpleasantries. As he points out Nathaniel not too far, the two men can see him moving closer to the tall, shambling and sickly pale shape of the Caretaker.


The Caretaker looks surprised as he hears someone talking to him. He drops his shovel and looks back to find Nathaniel. "Oh! Lord Nathaniel. You have arrived! Wasn’t expecting you… this... soon" he greets Nathaniel, looking around. "A black cat you ask? Mmm that bloody creature still around? The thing must be hiding a litter in the graveyard, but I can’t seem to find where"



Suddenly, you are all heard the yelling of a young woman from inside the Manor…

---

@Cettish

Claire runs down the stairs, panicking after her strange experience with the mirror. She has never seen or heard about anything like that. None of her books ever mentioned anything remotely similar… and everything can be found in books, no?

Someone. She has to find someone! Someone must know something!

"Sorry, but the cat hunt will have to wait" Nathaniel says as he runs off toward the sound of the scream

Claire rushes down the stairs.

Elias.... Grandfather... Anyone... Nathaniel!

As Nathanial runs towards the scream, the scream runs towards him.

Without saying much Claire just rushes towards Nathaniel and wraps her arms around him in a hug in the hallway.

"Nathaniel!" she says. "I think I am going insane!"

Nathan braces for the kid rushing towards him, but still recoils a bit with the impact; "Oh, uhm, Hello Claire. It's okay, I'm here, with Alexander and Grandfather just outside."

Claire looks suddenly a bit nervous. "Alexander has come too?.... I, I am sorry. I must look completely weird. I have just seen or not seen... uhm.... Hello Nathaniel!"

"Well, I've not been in town long, but so far, Alexander mistook a stranger for me, there's odd reports of wolves in the woods, a cat let us in the manor, and grandfather was standing on a gravestone. So If you say you've seen something odd, I'm inclined to believe you. Is your brother here? Maybe he can help us investigate." He stands back to get a good look at the cousin he hasn't seen in a while, and then he looks around for Elias. It wasn't like him to leave Claire in danger, if there was danger.

"Ajar you say... What is going on in this house?.."
He disregards Alexander's questions and walks up to the Caretaker. He notices Nathaniel running inside, but decides to stay behind and ask the Caretaker for explanations.

He addresses the man in a hushed, but terrible tone.
"Would you care to explain what the devil is happening, here? There were three strangers in the grounds, three women. The front door to the House was found open. And, last but not least, you knew of this blasted family reunion, and you didn't care to inform me?! Did you write those letters we all received? Speak up at once, old man, before what is left of my patience runs out! "

Claire had certainly grown into a bit more refined young lady the last few years. But she was still Claire, with a bit of a nerdy look and feel and her big round glasses. She seems to be catching her breath for a moment.

"Wolves? And a cat?" Claire says. She can't fully connect it with what she has seens. "I have seen grandfather talking to some strange women. And I have seen the ghost of a man in my bed. And I have seen mom in my mirror. But when she was gone, I did no longer see myself... It is so creepy."

She doesn't mention her olderself killing the man. That was just scary.
Nor did she mention teddy. That was just childish.

"I came here with Elias. He should be around sonewhere. Lets go find him shall we?"

His grandfather's silence to his questions was as irritating as it was expected. There was little time to consider as the scream of young girl erupted from within the manor itself.

"Claire..." Alexander murmured to himself, turning on his heel and forgetting his grandfather for the time being as he rushed inside a few steps behind his cousin. Getting lost for a moment in the labyrinthine hallways, he could hear the echoing of his cousins talking before he finally turned the corner and came across Nathaniel talking to his little cousin.

An honest smile spread across Alexander's face as he pushed back his hair, revealing the simple yet exquisite eyepatch upon his face. Stepping closer in a more controlled pace, he would quirk his head.

"Alas, who is this vision of beauty before me? My remaining eye must be going bad, it surely isn't the inquisitive girl with glasses like an observatory? He teased at first, his smile softening as he stood beside his cousin. The shortness of her breath was noticed quietly. "Are you alright? Where is your...brother?" There was no chance that Claire was here without the pride of the family being far behind.

Just as Claire had suggested to Nathaniel to find Elias, she hears a familiar voice.

"Alexander!" she yelps. She forgets Nathaniel for a moment as she rushes over to him and nearly knocks him over and wraps his arms around him in a big hug. A waterfall of words comes out of her mouth quickly. "How have you been? Are you okay? Are you looking after yourself? You are doing okay, aren't you? Please tell me you do."

Then she quite formally retakes herself.

"I just suggested to Nathaniel that we go find Elias."

There is that same charming laugh that Alexander had when he was younger, the kind that would make a crowd around him erupt with him at a sly joke or a witty comeback to an impetuous nobleman trying to make a mark on the Rookwoods. His arms wrapped around the excited girl, squeezing her as she nearly bowls him over with the tightness of her hug.

"My goodness! You would think my Mother had been reborn in this one, eh Nathaniel?" Alexander joked, patting the girl reassuringly on the back. When he was finally able to untangle himself from her hug, he would crouch down until they were both level. It was almost the same face that she had known years ago but time had done its work; the angles were sharper and more shallow. His skin, once porcelain and beautiful, had become a pale pallor that showed all was not well. Most strikingly was the eyepatch over his one eye, leaving him with a blue eyes that was glassy and just barely bloodshot. Alexander was not well.

"Life has not been kind but there are moment of sunshine even on a cloudy day. You are a bright ray, Miss Claire Rookwood. I am so happy to see you. Don't...mind the eye." He teased, standing up and brushing himself off. "I suppose we need to find your brother. Did you see where he wandered off to?"

Elias smiles as he hears the woman speak. Turning Elias smiles as he bows and offers the woman his hand. Moving with a practiced ease, Elias leads the way onto the dance floor, soon Elias and his companion are moving with the music.

@Dr_B

Mostly ignoring the presence of the annoying cousins, Roderick focuses on the Caretaker, the man he has been hoping to find all day. The family servant bows to greet him when he notices the old man approaching "Lord Rookwood, it is wonderfull to see you again. I'm afraid I am not sure what is happening here", he points at the open grave with his shovel. "It's strange. Grave robbers, maybe? They have been coming here for some time now but I never seen to find anyone suspicious on the grounds. So far, only Town's folk graves, the family is safe in the chainyard." He sounds almost proud that whoever is doing this is staying away from the family. The Caretaker seems to be mostly worried about his own little mystery, not paying much attention to Roderick, but slowly the old man's words start to hit him "Did you say three women? Here? Are they from the Town, maybe?"

"Oh the door is open? It was the young lords, maybe? You know how distracted they can be" he turns just in time to see Alexander and Roderick disappear around the corner. "Still running around like the old days I see" Smiling, he adds before looking around, searching for something, his eyes stopping briefly at one of the crows that landed on top of a grave stone. "Letters? Oh, I see. That's why the family is back, maybe? I have seen no letters my lord. It was a little bird who told me you'd be here soon and I prepared for your arrival. I hope your lordship is finding everything is to your taste so far. "

---

@KingHotTrash,@Cettish,@crazybirdman

Was that someone yelling from inside the Manor? Alexander and Nathaniel immediately knew that the odds were, being a girl, that it was Claire. Unless Roderick was hiding a secret lover, but no one would believe that right? Both men rushed back to the building to find out what was happening, quickly getting away from the moody, perhaps somewhat demented, grandfather. Who was either deaf already, or didn't seem to care much whoever was yelling.

They run from hell to heaven as they meet the "not so little Claire anymore", one of the few cherished moments they manage to take back from any family meetings these days. Nathaniel tries to reassure the poor girl, and he briefly shares their knowledge of the strange rumors in Town. But it is when Alexander arrives that his old charms seems to dissipate young girl's worries like the sun-rise cleansing the world of the shadows. As if premeditated, when Alexander asks Claire about her brother, they all fall silent, just long to hear the faint echo of a door closing coming from the corridor to their left... The corridor that leads to the Hall of Arms, a place you all know Elias used to spend a lot of his younger days admiring...

---

@Squadfather44

Elias takes the woman's hand and it feels... warm, real, human. He looks at her, and she looks flesh and bones now, not the strange insubstantial shape he thought he saw before. But of course she does! What else would a person feel and look like? As they start to dance, the voices around him became louder, deafening almost. Distorted sounds overlapping, gossip, rumors, politics, the weather... The room itself feels as if it is somehow slowly fading, a claustrophobic sensation of the walls' shadows closing in, the candlelight frequently flicking, failing into instants of darkness.

But he barely pays any attention to it; his mind is on the unknown woman. Such a skillful dancer like no other he has met before. The music gains momentum and she flawlessly keeps up the pace. She smiles, clearly impressed with him as well "Have you been practicing recently, dear Elias".

In fact, he hasn't. Not much dancing is done in a military training camp. Though one could consider the army drills, somewhat similar. The exercises, the coordination... maybe he could even see the gracefulness of the company's planned movements. But he soon finds himself struggling to keep up. The floor has been perfectly polished to be almost friction-less; it is like dancing on ice, and his army shoes are definitely not suitable for such a floor. Elias wonders if he can keep up with such skillful precision if they don't slow down soon. If only all those distracting voices in his head would give him a moment to focus ...Players Waiting:

"Oh no! Alexander," Claire says in a little shock as she looks closer at him. "What happened to your eye? Are you okay? Will it heal?"

She hasn't finished asking it yet or she hears the echo of the door in the hallway to the left.
She turns and looks instinctively at the sound.

"The hall of arms is that way, isn't it? Would Elias be there?" she looks at her feet for a moment. "Or, well, he could also be upstairs. But I am not too sure anymore of all the things I have seen or heard in my room."

Elias does his best to keep up with the his dance partner. Despite being a skilled dancer, Elias finds that, in this instance, practice makes perfect. Refusing to give up, Elias pulls from a hidden reserve of energy he developed from spending hours on the drill field.

Despite concentrating on his partner Elias can't help, but to hear some comments from the ghostly spectators.

I say...young Rookwood is not giving up. Reminds me of myself all those years ago.

Are you comparing yourself to him? Now who's getting delusional in his old age...