Participants:
Scene Title | Skeletons In The Wall Cavities |
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Synopsis | Sable comes over for some destruction, and they discover the body behind the wall in the basement. Now, what to do with it… |
Date | April 27, 2010 |
This is a medium-sized two-story home, and one that, in its better days, was no doubt a very warm and welcoming home. Now, however, it's succumbed to time, looters and squatters. There is graffiti on the walls, and trash litters the floors. Most of the light fixtures no longer work, and the plumbing, while updated, is more of a joke than anything else. There is dust on everything, and the windows are so dirty that they do almost as good a job at keeping out light as curtains would.
However, the structure of the home is still nice. There are large bay windows which let in plenty of light, and several of those windows are really French doors that lead out onto the back patio, or onto a small square balcony on the second floor. Even the attic has a few windows which normally would keep that space from looking dingy or even creepy.
The first floor consists of a foyer, large kitchen, living room with a fireplace, bathroom and what must be a sort of laundry room. When there are any appliances in the house. The second floor has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, one off of the main bedroom. These rooms are all rather decent sized, though there are doors missing, and broken windows, but for anyone with a vision, this house has something.
It's time. That skeleton has got to get out of Mel and Kendall's house. It's just creepy! So she made some calls, and alas, no help. At least not from those she expected to help. Damn busy people with their damn busy lives. At least Sable is coming over! And Mel knows her…sorta.
The dog, Jerry, is snoozing in a corner, and Melissa is all dressed for destruction in some old black clothes, and she's gotten a couple of sledge hammers from who only knows where. "I still have no idea what we're gonna do with that damn corpse. Specifically," she grumbles.
Sable is in her usual tanktop and cargo pants, her most faded and miserable set, and they lends no reassurance of her sanity, something sorely needed as she beams madly, strange yellow eyes peering out from behind plastic safety goggles. A filtration mask hangs around her neck, more accessory than anything else right now, since it's not shielding her toothy smile.
"This is so fuckin' cool," she say, rubbing her hands and glancing to the hammers, "Thanks for asking me to help!" as if it were an invitation to a party instead of a request for manual labor. She winks to Melissa, "I'll be sure to remember, sweetheart, do you a good turn sometime."
"Well since Colette isn't here anymore freaking out over it, uh… how about we just give it to Jerry? I'm sure he'll chew 'em up before anyone finds out." Kendall is joking, to judge by the innocent smile on his face. He's wearing semijunky clothes, but it's not like he has enough spares to replace them if they get torn irreparably. He has claimed one of the sledgehammers, although he seems to be struggling a little with lifting it. But since there are not one, but two ladies present, he can't give in to its heavy weight and admit defeat!
Melissa gives Sable a curious look. "You do realize that we're just gonna be bustin' down a brick wall so we can move a skeleton from behind it, so the cops can find it somewhere not here, yeah?" Kendall gets a shake of her head. "Nuh uh. Though…I am sorta worried about him being traced back here. Maybe it would be better if it disappeared," she says with a grimace.
"'course I realize," Sable says, with a snort, "And how is any of that shit 'just' anything? Jesus, how often do you get to write in your fuckin' diary: 'tore down wall, retrieved gruesome remains'? Not too damn often…" she steps up to Melissa and bows, extending a hand, "May the gennelman and I take the first swings, or would you like to christen this bastard?"
"I want first hit." Kendall speaks up, showing he's not that much of a gentleman. Then again, he is pretty much a kid, so he's excused. 'Ladies first' indeed! "Maybe we can dump it in the river? I mean, it's not completely frozen over, and it's not like there's many people on the streets who'd witness us dumping something. And likely no one would find it for months. Or ever, if this weather never clears up."
"I'm worried about them finding him ever and maybe he lived here, yanno?" Melissa points out, before she smiles and waves a hand grandly towards the stairs heading down to the basement. "Be my guests. You guys have a blast. I can always just…yanno…supervise. With a beer."
"Tch…" Sable says, taking the hammer and kneeling so she can heft it up using her shoulder. "A shame. I'd like t'see you in action," she says, speaking to Melissa, "Bet you make rock-powder mixed with sweat look good." She motions for Kendall to follow her, as if /she/ were somehow leading the expedition, and heads downstairs.
Kendall raises his eyebrows at Sable. Is she hitting on Melissa? Regardless, he follows her downstairs, then looks over at Melissa. "Can I have a beer too? Someone told me you get used to how it tastes."
Melissa laughs and follows after the other two. After grabbing a couple of beers. "Hey, I got some aggression to work out. I could always take a swing or two." She smirks at Kendall. "Why not. You're doin' man's work, you should get a man's drink. Though if you drink too many and end up worshippin' the porcelain god, I'm just gonna sit back and say I told you so."
"I'll work up to my thirst," Sable growls, already pumping up for the challenge to come. The hammer is clearly a liiiittle too big for her, but what she lacks in size she makes up for in crazy. She sidles so as to clear the way for Melissa and Kendall, "Jesus, please, no more of that for me. Had enough pukin' for the damned week."
Kendall isn't quite sure what Melissa means by 'worshippin' the porcelain god', but the context and Sable's words connect the dots, and he files away that saying for the future. The hammer is equally too large for him, but he's more or less required to be able to swing it. It's a guy thing, and what's manlier than a sledgehammer? It's practically the epitome of a phallic symbol.
He reaches the wall and hefts the hammer, almost falling over as he lifts it up. With a slight grunt, he swings it up, staggers a step back, then lunges it forward, hitting the wall. Alas, it does not crumble into tiny pieces, and he looks crestfallen. Where's the destruction? Oh wait, there's that tiny little dent, maybe some crumbled mortar.
Melissa tries, hard, not to laugh when Kendall nearly falls over, then she's nodding to Sable. "I'm not fond of it either. But he'd learn. We all gotta drink ourselves sick at one point in our lives. Better he go ahead and get it over with now." She perches on the next to last step, watching as Kendall attacks the red brick wall that is clearly different from the other three walls. A beer is cracked open and sipped, and why not? Since the furnace was fixed, it's nice and toasty down here. A little damp from the thawing pipes, but it's progress!
"What a positive thinker /you/ are, huh?" Sable says to Melissa, grinning. She watches Kendall's first attempt, shakes her head, "I wanna say that, like, I'll show you how it's done. But I know how the script of /that/ fuckin' movie goes. So… here goes nothin'!" She takes a wide stance, hefts the hammer like some old school Soviet propaganda poster, and swings it down. It takes out a small chuck of brick, at best, before the metal head clatters against the floor.
"Well I don't feel so bad, at least I didn't drop it." Kendall replies in retaliation for the teasing. "I don't think I want to." he adds to Melissa. "I'd rather not."
Melissa does laugh now, and shrugs as she leans back, propping one elbow on a stair behind her. "No one wants to drink themselves sick, honey. It just happens. And you guys aren't doin' too bad. I see a couple of cracks in the brick. 'Course I could always get some drums and yell Swing, swing like some slave driver though, if you really want."
"Not gonna go there…" Sable says, with a snicker, readjusting her goggles and readying for another swing. She brings the hammer down in a tall arch, hacking at the bit of wall she's started on. The mortar shifts visibly in places, and another bit of brick comes loose. "Think we just gotta pound away at it, shake it up. Should get easier…"
Kendall hefts the hammer up again and pounds at it, and one of the bricks falls into the other side. "Hey, did you see that?" he tells them excitedly, then peers into the hole. "I can't see anything." he complains. Well, duh. There's no light in there.
Melissa grins and shakes her head. "'Course you can't, dear. You gotta get a bigger hole so light can get in. Or one of the lanterns. Either way. But seriously, you guys are doin' a good job. Besides, do you really want to see what's behind that wall? Me, I'm worried about just smelling it." And there is a whiff of death and decay from behind that wall with the hole opening up. Ewwww.
A whiff that occasions Sable lifting her filtration mask over her mouth and nose. "This ain't gettin' any prettier…" she says, and hefts her hammer once more, slamming it into the wall. A brick cracks in half, one half spilling into the room beyond, and a crack runs in zig-zag between nearby bricks.
"I know, I know, but I've never been near a corpse before." it's just one of those things people can go their entire lives without doing: Breaking a limb, getting infected with smallpox, finding a dead body. Kendall hits the wall again, not falling over when he lifts the sledgehammer anymore at least. Another brick falls!
Melissa shakes her head and takes another swig of beer. "Just so long as no more undead body parts come out of the wall. And no gettin' sick on my shoes either. I really like this," she says, extending one leg and turning her foot slightly so she can examine said footwear. "I feel sorta lazy, sittin' here while you two do the work. It's…kinda nice," she says, letting her foot drop and grinning up at them.
"For none…" Sable growls, as she pounds the wall, the sound of cracking stone punctuating her words, "Less fair…" One mighty swing, and three bricks tumble in. Sable stumbles forward, leaning hard on the hammer's haft. "/Jesus/, Mary and Jospeh. I… think I need a drink of fuckin' water or /somethin'/"
"Maybe Melissa can take a turn then." Kendall suggests, eying her, then swings the hammer again, knocking a good portion of the wall down. "Oooh, let's see!" is it enough to see the body?
"Jesus, Kendall. You're so morbid!" Melissa says, shaking her head as she rises to her feet and motions to the beers she set on the stairs. "Help yourself, Sable. Or there are sodas and stuff upstairs in the cooler," she says, moving over to Sable and reaching a hand out for the hammer.
The hole is big enough to peer inside, yes, but alas, it's not in the right position to see…well…anything, really. Not yet.
Sable makes a face. "Guess I'll look stupider keeling over tryin' to come off tough, huh?" she rationalizes, and hands the hammer over to Melissa. She moves over to grab a beer, and tips it back, taking a long drink.
Kendall hasn't actually gone for a beer despite his earlier question, he just keeps knocking bricks off the wall, opening the hole wider. He wasn't able to see anything when he looked, and why yes indeed, he's pretty morbid.
Melissa laughs and nods, hefting the big hammer up to her shoulder. "Probably, yeah. Besides, gotta share the fun, right?" she tells Sable, grinning before she adjusts her grip, her stance, eyes the bricks, then swings! It's a little awkward just like Sable and Kendall's, but she does connect with a satisfying thawk of sound. And thanks to their earlier efforts, she dislodges a brick! Success!
Sable takes the position of overseer now. Not a bad gig, actually. She takes drinks from her beer and watches as the wall slowly crumbles. "So… how'd you find out about whatever godawful thing's hangin' around back there?"
"Magnes told us about it when he came to help clean up the house and stuff. He used his powers to find out what's behind the wall." personally, Kendall doesn't understand the hows of that, but eh. He's sweating, and likely should take a break soon since he did just get over being EvoFlu'd a week or two ago. He'll work until he drops at this rate.
"Yeah, he said that bones had a certain feel to them," Melissa grees with a nod, drawing the hammer back, and swinging again. "Not sure I wanna know how he knows that, but he was pretty damn certain."
Sable laughs, "I bet he felt pretty fuckin' cool getting tell you about him. Bless his heart," she takes a long draught of the beer, then sets it aside, "You got a flashlight mebbe I can grab, give us a look at what's in there?"
"I dunno, he nearly shat his pants when I played a little trick on him." Kendall smiles innocently, then ponders. "Shat? Shitted? Shit? What's the right way to say that?" ahh, expletive conjugations 101. He hits in one last time, knocking away another brick, then tries peering in again.
"We're not in England, for god's sake. It's shit. And he just seemed freaked," Melissa says with a shrug. "Flashlight…Yeah, there's one upstairs on the table. Next to the pile of books. Has fresh batteries in it too."
Sable snickers at the revision of the Magnes tale. "Even better…" she says, and heads up the stairs to search for illumination.
Kendall shrugs at Melissa, ceasing the knocking down of the wall until Sable brings back the illumination. "Well I didn't know the past tense of it." he replies defensively, sitting crosslegged on the ground.
"Ah well. I'll educate you," Melissa says, grinning and setting the hammer down, waiting for Sable as well.
It takes a /wee/ bit before Sable returns, but she returns triumphant, flashlight in hand. She twirls it, offers it to Melissa, "Do the honors?"
Kendall gets to his feet again when Sable returns, and he looks pale, likely from the exertion. He wants to see though!
"Gee, thanks. I get to peek inside the hole with the smelly corpse first," Melissa says with a dry tone and wry grin. She flips the light on and moves closer, shining it around in the hole. "On ewwwww. Yeah, definitely a dead guy in there," she says, nose wrinkling as she steps back so the others can see.
The room made by the wall is perhaps ten feet by ten feet. There's a man, very decayed, wearing a faded pair of jeans and a sweater. There's a few other incidentals in there, a radio, canned food, bottled water, but the corpse is clearly the main attraction.
"So what's his story?" Sable wonders aloud, peering into the now-lit darkness.
Kendall also peeks in. "Looks like he mighta walled himself in there." he points out. "Maybe he felt that the apocalypse was starting or something, and ran out of air."
Melissa shrugs. "I've got no idea. Don't even know who he is. But I'm bettin' Kendall's got the right of it. If someone else had walled him up, I doubt they would've left all that other stuff in there. Or that much room."
Sable quirks her lips to one side. "Guessin' your not interested in piggish attention, huh?" she says, referencing the earlier legal concern, "Still, seems like he oughta make his way back to his people, if he's got any…"
"Well we could just bury him in a snowdrift, people can find him when or if it melts." Kendall suggests. "There's plenty of snowdrifts in the city." he wobble a little. "I think I worked to hard, I'd better go lie down or something." he's not used to physical exertion, especially being weakened by the flu.