Lieutenant Nera Ay - Ghosts of Greville
Jonathan
((Greville House, Holosuite 3, Lar’s Parlour, DS14))
Having found themselves shut within Greville House, the brave explorers were temporarily plunged into darkness as the candles in the antechamber were snuffed out by some otherworldly draft. After relighting the candles, all mysteriously fresh and unburned, the group advanced through a now open door into the dining room, where they were met by a steady thud thud upon the kitchen door.
His attention snapped to the far door as the rattling thumping sound from earlier started up again, this time much louder and much closer. It only lasted for a few seconds before stopping.
Another few seconds of silence…followed by a solid thump against the door, then another, then another, the wood shaking in its frame with each impact.
Nera: Soo…who wants to go and look first?
Following his question, Ay looked towards both of his companions, gauging their reaction. Haunted House programs, as it turned out, were scarier than malfunctioning holodecks with spotted elephants trying to charge you down.
Promontory: Not on the ship, not an away team, I’m not in charge!
Vharo: Excellent save, Captain. Does anyone see a weapon?
Internally giggling at her dry remark and the Captain's elegant dodge, Ay began cataloging their options as far as weapons went. Cutlery seemed like a good option, and one of the few things available to them.
Promontory: No weapons that I can… oh wait… ::grabbing a dusty dinner knife:: I got this!
Promontory hefted a rather dusty, and upon closer inspection, slightly rusted knife from the table, apparently following Ay’s line of thought. Vharo seemed less than impressed and advanced towards the door, hefting the candle holder like a makeshift bludgeon.
Vharo: I'll manage just fine actually, you can keep it Captain.
Wanting to do his bit for the team of thrown-together ghost hunters, Ay snatched an empty carafe from the table and followed along. Testing the weight, he concluded that he’d have been happier with a beer bottle; they were easier to swing.
Nera: If the candle holder fails, we can try the carafe.
Did glass work on ghosts? Did metal?
Promontory: I’m right behind you!
With Vharo out in front, she got the full force of the dramatic end to the ceaseless thumping of the wooden door. An extra loud thump caused the wooden object to explode outwards, engulfing them in a shower of splinters and dust which likely hadn’t been disturbed in Prophet’s knew how long. Covering his mouth as best he could, though still coughing from what he’d managed to inhale, Ay squinted through the dust cloud towards the open doorway.
It did seem to be a kitchen, from what he could tell. More concerning, however, was the floating man in the doorway. Quite transparent, and coloured that indistinct white with a greenish glow around the edges that ghosts always seemed to possess.
He looked like the man in the family portraits, the same angular face and perfectly slicked hair, neatly trimmed goatee, just a few years older. And missing a hand.
The apparition stared at the trio for a few moments before it retreated into the kitchen, floating out of sight. With the wandering spectre out of sight, a pair of soft, warbling wails started up somewhere behind them, either from the antechamber or one of the adjoining rooms, Ay couldn’t quite tell.
After a few seconds had gone by, where Ay stood and dusted himself off, the wailing began to grow distant, as if the source had relocated to another part of the house.
Probably a good thing.
Vharo: Now that I've dealt with the threat, you two brave explorer's can venture forth. ::She shifted off to the side with a snort as she started to dust off her dress between picking errant wooden splinters from her hair. Quiet coughs and inaudible mutterings quickly followed.::
Was she calling them out? It felt like it. Taking it as a challenge of a sort, Ay stepped towards the now explosively opened kitchen with his carafe gripped firmly and held aloft.
Nera: I'm very brave…usually on a Tuesday and a Thursday
Promontory: Response
He advanced through the door, fully prepared for something to jump out at him, so much so that he quickly pivoted left and right the moment he was over the threshold, brandishing the carafe in front of him. Vharo would, no doubt, have performed the move with much more grace.
A sigh of relief, when he found that the kitchen was devoid of floating spectres waiting to grab him.
The kitchen was as deplorably kept as the rest of Greville House, though some of the dust had at least been blown out when the door gave way. No other means of exit he could see, meaning the ghost had wafted through a wall. Or a ceiling.
A sink piled with dishes he didn’t want to go near, a large blackened stone oven, plenty of work space, and cupboards and cabinets galore. As well as the faint smell of food left so long it had grown fur, and become part of the decor.
And a small central island, that once upon a time might have been used by the cooks for their own meals. Now it served as a grotesque display, for the single hand that had been propped upright atop it, no doubt belonging to the ghost they'd just seen.
Nera: That is…disgusting
Summoning up the doctor within him, Ay approached the hand, bent slightly, and examined it as best he could, using a pair of soup spoons he’d found nearby to lay it down. Visually, it had an almost leathery, dry appearance, with a golden signet ring still on the thumb. There was a crest of some sort that he couldn’t quite make out.
Nera: Almost looks mummified, which can happen naturally in very select environments. Usually, somewhere incredibly dry, incredibly cold, or with an unusual chemical composition. And you see how clean the..uh ::remembering that he wasn’t talking to a pair of doctors:: I’ll stop.
He did, however, spy a rather large cleaver near the sink.
Promontory / Vharo: Response
Taking a step back from the hand, Ay did a cursory once-over of the kitchen, finding nothing particularly tantalizing. He’d just stepped back into the dining room when he heard a light thud from the kitchen, almost like a potato rolling off the side.
He turned around, curious as to the source, looking around for a moment, before his eyes came to a rest on the central island, which now did not have a hand on it. Nor was it on the ground.
Nera: It’s gone. The hand’s gone.
His next thought was to look straight up at the ceiling. No…no mummified limb attached to the ceiling like some sort of spider waiting to drop on him.
Promontory / Vharo: Response
Stepping further into the kitchen, which he knew was likely a bad move, he continued the search. Part curiosity, part a faint inclination that it would trigger some trope that would terrify him, but also add to the experience.
The quick tap tap tap, like fingers drumming on a surface, from his left. He spun around, saw nothing. The same from the right, and again, nothing.
Tap, tap, tap. Slowly and methodically, from above him.
Swallowing, Ay took a second to consider if he really was fool enough to look up. The answer was yes, yes he was.
He tilted his head up, suspecting more than anything, what was about to happen.
The hand dropped from the ceiling, latching onto the doctor's face, sending Ay stumbling backwards.
Nera: ::muffled shrieking::
Cold cold hands wrapped around his ankles, causing him to fall flat on his back. More hands, spectral things, reaching up through the floorboards, dragging him through them, as a cabinet in the kitchen swung away from the wall, revealing a set of stone steps descending into the darkness beneath the house.
Promontory / Vharo: Response
[END SCENE FOR NERA]
((OOC - leaving it on a little bit of a cliff hanger, if we want to return to this in the next shore leave))
Lieutenant Nera Ay
Acting Chief Medical Officer
USS Thor
G240106NA2
He/Him/His (Player/Character)