Light B&E in the Dark

[demigoth]

Who: Nico di Angelo demigoth, Dr. Strange rehandle, could be open if you come up with a reason to involve yourself
What: Nico has been told that there's a malevolent dimension in Dr. Strange's basement. You can't just tell someone that.
When: Today
Where: Will-o'-the-Wisp Walk, Sunset Falls.
Content Warnings: If needed



[ Nico got up early for this pre-dawn break-in. He tiptoed around, dressing in as much grey as he could find (everything but the shoes, sword, and jacket, which are black). He considered his phone - he didn't need it, but, if he left it behind and something happened, Solace would definitely make That Face, probably with his arms crossed. Gross.

The phone gets shut off, and Nico shadow-travels, oozing out from the cold shadows in Sunset Falls. The back of Will-o'the-Wisp Walk looms in the near distance. It looks... quiet. Strange will be asleep or off doing sorcerer things which are hopefully not best done at home. Nico thinks this is the best time for a break-in - nite owls are in bed, morning people are too. It's perfect.

From his place just outside the property line, he can't feel anything. There's no sense of the Underworld, no pull of the pit. That's what he's been worried about when Dr. Strange called it a "malevolent dimension."

He'll be quick. In-check-poof. He doesn't even have to leave. Just teleport back to Will's room at the Diadem. Easy.

Outside, property line.

Nico doesn't waste time outside where the neighbors might see him. He walks far enough to each side to check 270 degrees of the house. When the coast is clear, he'll start a mad scramble through the grounds for the house.

Outside, back wall of the house

When he reaches the house, Nico flattens his back against the house and waits. Listens while he holds his breath for a door or a window, for any sign of someone waking up and coming to see. After 45 seconds, he has to breathe. It's fine.

Nico crouches down and follows the foundation of the house around, looking for cellar doors or a window, something that will fit a skinny fifteen-year-old. Finding one, Nico draws his Stygian iron sword and thanks Hades that its purple glow isn't too bright. He'll cut the wood free of the hinge and prop it back in place once he's inside. Dr. Strange won't notice for weeks.

Comments

[codicies]

Dylan's no stranger to sneaking in and out of houses — How else would he have gotten past his rotten, crotchety old grandpa? He follows close behind Nico, staying perfectly quiet when needed.

As Nico works the hinge, Dylan extends a thin tendril and starts chiseling underneath the frame, where the wood meets the stone foundation. Age, weather, and grime have caused the frame to stick to the foundation, so once Nico gets the hinge free, he won't have to waste any time (or risk any noise) trying to pull it off.

[demigoth]

"Be careful," Nico says in a quiet voice. There's something. He can feel it more and more the longer they stay here. He's been to Sunset Falls before, and it's never felt like this. Spirits, yes. The nearness of the Hellmouth, yes, but there's a heavy presence that Nico could only describe as darkly vibrant. "I don't know what's going, but this place feels like death."

He's freed the hinges and waits for Dylan to finish up. "You don't have to come with me."

[codicies]

[ With the kind of leverage unlimited tendrils can provide, Dylan snaps the windowframe away from the foundation with nothing more than a soft clack.

When Nico speaks, Dylan whispers back: ]

Nah, I'm coming, too. I know death is kind of your specialty, but it doesn't hurt to have a little backup.

[ Besides, he... kind of knows Dr. Strange? A Dr. Strange, anyway. Maybe it's this one. Either way, if they get caught, Dylan's got a talent for giving authority figures the slip. ]

[demigoth]

[ Willing backup for something that Nico is only curious about is a rare occurrence. There's no quest or end-of-the-world situation upping the urgency. Dylan's pretty cool. ]

How do we want to go in? I don't know what's in there, so I'm not sure we stick our heads in for a look. I've got to go feet first, so I wouldn't be able to fight until I was on the floor. You could do your thing and go in head first, but it's probably better to lose a foot than a head.

[ And it's Nico's idea, so it's his risk. Making his backup go ahead of him seems like a bad friend. ]

Move over, I'll go.

[rehandle]

[ Whoever goes first will face the expected drop from window to ground, find the house still and dark as expected. No threats emerge from the quiet, nothing taking advantage of the shadow of pre-dawn to strike, no sound from further in to indicate they've sprung an alarm.

But as eyes adjust to inside, it comes clear that the space in which they land is— incorrect. Not wrong exactly, with the many and varied connotations of that word. The place they are now matches up with the house they've entered, belongs here, bares no immediate malice. It's just not what you'd expect to find when dropping in through the window they'd chosen.

It's a wide corridor. Antique rug over polished floorboards, lined with a few closed doors and a couple of tables for lamps and trinkets, a couple of books on one, a plate with a few leftover crumbs on another. One door closest to the window stands open enough that some dim moonlight gives away the shine of tiles. A bathroom?

There is a shadow that moves in the dark, framed once again by the soon-to-depart moonlight: it moves as the intruder moves, because it's their shadow, lit from behind by that same natural light. Light which is crossed with the frame of a... window. Turning around will show not the empty frame of the window anyone entered through, but the large bay of a fully intact window that overlooks the grounds from where they'll now find themselves standing on the second floor.

As if by magic. ]

[codicies]

Hold on, just a sec.

[ Dylan extends a hand and sends a tendril back out, snaking through the opening. He knows Venom can do this, and he knows Doc Ock can do this, so if he closes his eyes and concentrates...

The vision is fuzzy at first, a litte blurry, but as he gets used to the sensation he starts to be able to see though the symbiote matter. The range of vision is absurdly huge, like staring through a fisheye lens, and it's... a little disorienting. But its enough to see there's no one in the room. He retracts the tendril. ]

Okay, coast is clear. Do you want me to try to lower you down?

[demigoth]

With a tentacle?

[ He’s trying to not sound uncomfortable, because his discomfort has nothing to do with Dylan or tentacles. Nico just prefers to limit who touches him and why, but… it’s not actually hugging. Besides, it makes sense.

Nico sits on the ground, with his knees bent and lower legs inside the basement like he’s dangling them off a dock. He holds his arms up at shoulder height- his elbow is at an awkward angle, because he’s holding his sword in the window as well in an effort to have it at the ready but keep it safely away from Dylan. ]

Can you grab me around the stomach and slide me in?

[codicies]

Yeah, I can do that.

[ He braces himself against the foundation, then extends his tentacles to wrap them around Nico's trunk and slowly lower him inside through the window. ]

Just gimme a tug when your feet reach the ground.

[demigoth]

[ When Nico’s feet hit the floor, he immediately braces himself and looks around quickly to see if there’s anything that presents as an immediate threat. The basement is dark, but nothing jumps out to eat his face. It’s only when he’s certain that he’s not about to get sucked into whatever a malignant dimension is that he tugs on Dylan’s … tentacle. ]

I think it’s OK.

[ He says it in a whisper, probably not even audible to someone outside. They are breaking in to an occupied house after all. He’s not an idiot. ]

[codicies]

[ At the tug, Dylan retracts the tendrils and slips in after him, lowering himself with the symbiote tendrils in the same way.

When his feet hit solid ground, Dylan retracts the tentacles completely, brushing himself off to turn and glance back up at the window —

— except there's no window, just solid wall. ]

...That's not good.

I guess the only way out is through.

[rehandle]

[ The second floor corridor they find themselves in is quiet with the early hour, lit dimly with moonlight from a tall window that certainly isn't the one they entered through.

They have options, but they're all doors: several closed doors lining the hall, behind only one of which hides the staircase which offers a route down to the first floor. ]

[demigoth]

[ Oh no no no no no. Disappearing and Appearing windows are not a good sign. Yes, he was warned that this was a magician’s house, but an enchanted house is not like Lou-Ellen throwing a pig ball. They haven’t even seen the wizard yet; he might not be here. ]

Did you see the windows change too?

[codicies]

I didn't see the change in real time, but I turned around and it wasn't there anymore.

[ He looks around, gazing up at the other window and down the door-lined corridor. ]

What do you think? Start opening doors at random?

[demigoth]

[ If the way out were still apparent, Nico would suggest they leave. There's no prophecy compelling them to be here, just his own curiosity and concern. Now they're stuck. ]

Left-to-right, I guess, so we don't forget which ones we opened.

[ Nico puts his hand on the first door knob from the far side, so that when he opens it, the door will momentarily provide him some cover for whatever might charge out of it. He gestures for Dylan to get out of the way before yanking the door open. ]

[codicies]

[ Dylan follows Nico's gesture, ducking beside him behind the door and bracing himself. ]

[demigoth]

[ The door whips open, and...

and...

and...

silence.

After a couple of seconds, Nico tentatively looks around the door. It's some sort of broom closet, with a ramshackle mess of bottles and tools. Maybe they're magical, maybe it's containers of Tidepods. It's all the same to him. ]

That was anticlimatic. I'll try another one.

[ The next door is also a closet. And the next. ]

This has to be a trick.

[codicies]

Okay... maybe I can speed this up.

[ He closes his eyes and takes a second to clear his head, then holds out his arms and extends two tendrils from each. The four tentacles snake across he floor, pooling at the threshold of the next four unchecked doors before slipping underneath so Dylan can get a look inside.

It's still... very new, trying to make sense of four visual inputs completely separate from his eyes. But his physiology is built for this, he just... needs to get used to using it.

If there's anyone on the other side of any of those doors, all they might see is a little tendril of goo slip under the door and crane upwards a few inches, turning to and fro as if looking around. ]

[rehandle]

[ Of the four doors Dylan spies under, three more are closets - the fourth, furthest on the left and otherwise indistinguishable from the rest, hides the top of a downward staircase.

Or so it appears. Actually opening that door will tell a different story, the door opening onto a grand old library, dimly lit with well-spaced lamps on a couple of side tables. Through that library, on the opposite wall to the entry door, another door stands open a crack. Light glows from within.

Going back into the hall to test any other doors will present them with yet more closets. No matter how many times Dylan spies under the closed library door, it will always show the staircase, and no matter how many times they open it, it will always be the library. ]

[codicies]

This one.

[ Dylan retracts the tendrils and moves to the staircase door, pulling it open with little fanfare.

It's not a a closet! That should be a victory, but as Dylan gazes upon the library he just looks confused. Before Nico can even respond, Dylan shuts the door. He extends a tendril once more to peek under the door. ]

This was a staircase. Looking at it like this, I still see the staircase. But...

[ He retracts the tentacle and opens the door again, frowning at the sight of the library. ]

Wow, I hate this place.

[demigoth]

[ The eye tentacles are certainly useful, but Nico would greatly appreciate if they could stop pushing his boundaries for ten minutes. They being not only Dylan and his tentacles but this stupid house as well. ]

So - when the door is shut, it's a staircase. When the door is open, it's a library.

[ Nico opens the door and steps into the library carefully, half expecting the floor to drop under him. ]

What if you shut the door while I'm inside?