#6 Main St.

[Owle Isohos]

Kelsey raised an eyebrow at the kid from under her pinstriped hat. Her purple wool coat was too hot to this weather, so the investigator had it tied around her waist, leaving her in just a beige tank top and pinstriped pants. A simple medallion adorned with one of Solomon's keys hung around her neck, and a green canvas bag with a medical services patch rested against one hip.

The medic bristled a bit at the insult, then shrugged it off. Teenagers.

"Kelsey Graham," she introduced herself. "Red Wolf Investigations. And he's right." Kelsey nodded at Sally. "A lot of girls around your age have gone missing around here. Now, I'm not going to say what you should or shouldn't do - you're as capable of making your own choices as anyone. But this place is a lot more dangerous than most, and you'll notice the locals stay indoors at night. They've got good reason for it.

"So if you're going to go tromping around the woods by yourself, be aware you might be getting into something nuts." She offered Victor a smile. Then she glanced to Sally and Alice.

"Say, you think we could take her with us?" To Victor, she added, "It seems like you're looking for something to do, and..." The next bit is addressed to her companions. "Another pair of eyes couldn't hurt."

[Madrigus]

Listening to the snap and crackle of forest, Madrigus identified, categorized, and theorized about what would greet them from the woods. Footsteps, unhurried and regular, no obvious attempt at sneaking. Must be someone who either doesn't know we're here or doesn't care. Can't be Liberty as she's trying to run away, so it's hopefully someone new. And it was.

Madrigus grunted, just as confused as Sally about whatever it was the girl said. But they all had good points. "We're burning daylight," he growled, and then "I think 'nuts' is an understatement, but aye, more eyes never hurt. Unless they were surgically implanted by an amateur." The corners of his mouth turned up at his joke.

[kimp]

(Pooh - the narrator just realized you were still moving towards the boathouse thanks Kelsey for that reference! So with no further delay:)

The boat house location offers a great many opportunities for hiding. The building, crouching near the water. The short dock that runs out into the water for boat launches, with its pylons digging into the water and providing a convenient space between water and dock for a stalwart individual to use for air supply while they keep the remainder of their body hidden by the water. The canoes that are flipped so they don’t fill with water provide excellent hiding potential.

Flipping one of the canoes releases a swarm of chipmunks that had been nesting there. Someone unprepared might find themselves knocked back on their butts by the movement – swarming chipmunks are freakishly fast with spastic movements that could best be described as ricocheting pool balls.

So many places to look… but none of them are right. No Blue for you. Just some crazy chipmunks. Which have taken a liking to Madrigus for some reason. Do you think that Madrigus has birdseed in his pants...? (Uh, dress...? Uh, I mean - what a handsome robe!) That chipmunk about to run up his leg sure does!

While Madrigus is dealing with his new friends (I see zapping in someone's near future!) does anyone think to look closer to where the road leads to the water? A little to the left of the road? Because... if they do then they will see:
Where the ground gets muddy along the edge of the water there is a single boot print, right around size 8 woman’s; just the front half, like the heel is up, like maybe there was a lot of weight put on the ball of the foot, and its pointing in the direction of the water.

[vVv]

victor slowly turned in a half circle to take in the introductions. buncha dorks, sure, but pretty surely not boring.

to the hillbilly military man who'd first spoken, she shot a sly half-grin; he was obviously a dupe, but he seemed like a decent one. she'd have to play nice if the time ever come to pull one over on that guy, though on first impression he looked like such a promising target that her uncontrollable penchant for mischief would find its way 'round to that at some point..

the tattooed girl she largely ignored, as she generally did with the standoffish - pretty used to that. things much, much worse a person could do than ignore a girl.. and she knew how it was with those body-modification weirdos, thought they were all in some kinda secret clan of cool or something. victor fingered the hunk of heavy silver plastic jutting vertically through her own lower lip (thank gosh there was SOME kinda jewelry that didn't make her face swell up like some kinda sketchy alien gourd - allergies sure are DUMB)- those dupes at the body mod place back in portsmouth had been cool to let a stupid kid like victor hang around, and had in truth been the closest things to friends she had in that dumb, stinky city, but when victor'd caught on to what they meant by sellin' "silly herbal teas" alongside their main service, she hadn't hesitated to call in favors. they'd been cool about it, and probably even knew she wouldn't've really gone to the Feds, but the hardware and a couple wrist tats were a fine prize for a thirteen year old girl's first dabble into Blackmail, and she had developed a thirst for the art. it was fun! man, she even kinda missed those guys, though she doubted they still thought about her..

victor's half-circle swung 'round - well, sort of shuffled on pigeon-toed hightops - to face kelsey. "you! are cool as hell, i don't care if you dress weird. i like you. and yeh, i'll take nuts over boring any day, haven't found anything but the latter 'round here so far and i am goin' outta my gorramn skull.. you're smart, too, 'cause i probably CAN help you - i got a pretty keen eye for clues, it's kinda what i do." stopped for a moment, looked a little embarassed..

"..outside of school, i mean, obviously. whatever."

the other guy who'd spoken up, kinda scary lookin' dark lord type from the looks of him (WERE they DnD types? they all seemed a bit too serious for that, but they sure were weird..) was clearly itchin' for business, and victor was feeling better than she had in days, so she let out an appreciative belly-laugh at his sinister humor (o, her favorite kind!) and flashed a wide and dazzling grin that hadn't been seen in some time.

with a newly lit sparkle in her eye, she nodded in agreement, and bounded nimbly (and much more lightly) after the odd group as they made their way toward the boathouse. this town was starting to look a LOT cooler.

[Madrigus]

Madrigus cast an appreciative eye over their new group mate. "My name is Madrigus," he said conversationally. "Right now we're paying a game with a friend of ours. We're hunting her, then when we catch up we tag her with a bean bag."

He didn't get to elaborate beyond that, however, as the chipmunks began to swarm him. He stopped, confused, looking intently at the creatures swarming him, feeling their little feet climbing through his clothes. This wasn't a new sensation, although he was used to other rodents.

Frowning, he pulled out his collar and peered into the dark depths of the robe. "What do you all want?" he growled.

[Sally]

Sally's exasperation at the pint-sized little monster, as she seems to bubble about Kelsey is swift,

"All right, ya little Bug-a-boo, we ain't got time to es-cort you back to whatever fine residence you call home, an' we ain't leavin' you in these golldarn woods, not with-" Sally starts to expound on just what creeps through the woods, but recalls the plight of Winn and Tam and {Teenage Girl That Shall Not Be Named} and Adam Campbell, and... and their parents... and stops himself, "we jus' ain't leavin you 'lone, so you ken tag-a-long wit us. Though, you go tanglin' yoself underfoot, and this here Chickadee might string you up by them there... keychains... in yer face," Sally says, cocking his head at the young, young lady's' piercings, and gesturing to Alice.

Sally Lautner is roughly 20 years outside of talking to teenage girls with any kind of impact, however, and can do little more than shake his head and try to keep on point.

As they get to the lakeside, he keeps his eyes to the treelines, to the distances, trying to find any sense of movement. If that provides nothing, he glances about the dock, as Madrigus had earlier suggested, looking for any sign of bubbles. For once, he seems to move slowly and smoothly, scanning around. Folks of the bed of Alice or Mellie Walker or Liberty herself might be inclined to infer that Lautner is about 3 and half seconds from diving into the water under the bridge to scope out the pylons, when the rodent apocalypse occurs.

"Shit, Mad-ri-gus, you got a whole pot pies werth a them thar varmints!" he says, stepping right over the footprint without noticing. His own size 15 boot dwarfs the more nimble impression.

Sally immediately jerks away from Madrigus, looking again to see if this 'trap' is being viewed by its possible trap-set artist.

[vVv]

victor, being of a rebellious ilk but also keen enough to know when to shut up and make herself useful, scampered about the outskirts of the party as it spread out along the lakeside. she found no cause to argue with the moniker of "bugaboo", though she resolved to take a stand on the matter later, for the sake of contrariness if nothing else. she did feel a bit of relief at the scary guy's apparent approval - he looked like the kinda guy who'd be a useful friend, but maybe quite a baaaad sort of enemy - and victor, in typical teenage fashion, wasn't scared of much.

the curiosity-driven and impish young woman's second foray into the art of Blackmail, livin' in some backwoods town that barely had a name (that "home" hadn't lasted long - family had boring kids of their own, weren't so keen on that bein' pointed out), had involved the local "mountain man". that's the one lives out in the woods a bit, don't come into town much, and of course nobody normal and sane's got cause to go to him. if the truth be told, it hardly counted as blackmail at all, as the ol' grizzly took quite a fatherly liking to vic's tough lil fightin' spirit, and easily agreed to some formal lessons in tracking in exchange for keeping the "secret" of his unparallelled and delicious recipe for squirrel stew..

thus, victor kept her eyes mostly to the ground as she went, hoping none of these clumsy-arsed dorks saw fit to ruin things. her head came up to cock for a moment at madrigus' strange antics, but snapped quickly to the ground again in staunch concentration. as sally's monstrous boot came crashing into the mud 'long the lakeside, her keen eye catches one such detail that would've made Ol' Grizzly Man proud indeed. as sally starts to stumble backward in addled surprise at the chipmunk scene, she musters all the strength of her thin voice to cry out:

"SALLY, YOU BIG DUMB TWIT, HOLD STILL AND DON'T PUT YOUR GORRAMN FOOT DOWN NOWHERE ELSE!!"

[Owle Isohos]

"I dress weird?" Kelsey glanced down at herself, checking to make sure her clothes hadn't been magically transformed into something else. (Hey, around here, that could happen. In Whisper Hill, she wasn't prepared to rule anything out.) Then she shrugged. "Thanks, I think."

She would've said more, but then someone flipped over a canoe, and everything happened at once. Kelsey hastily darted out of range of the chipmunks swarming Madrigus. She grasped her shoulder bag tightly in both hands, just in case she needed to swat any of the little creatures away.

When Victor shouted out, she finally noticed the clue, and added her voice to the teen's. "She's right, Sally! Not about you being dumb, I mean, but there's a footprint right between your legs!"

[Sally]

Sally, ever obedient, freezes in place at the order, then cocks his head some, "Da' fuck didju jus' call me?" he says, under a furrowed brow, only to look to Kelsey's face, then down to the span between his boots.

"Huh," he says, starting to move so that he can hunker down and look at the track- but, stops himself. The only tracks he was ever responsible for looking after were those of bucks, snappin' turtles, and the occasional rabbit, and he was always better looking through a scope than making like some sorta half-ass'd Footprint Whisperer. Feet planted, he pivots at the waist to see if there should be any safe ground to step.

Shit.

Remaining still, Lautner starts looking to the distance again. Liberty HAS to be watching them, HAS to be doing that little flick-of-the-corners-of-her-mouth smile of hers, HAS to near some kind of laughter.

"Tell me this thing is pointin' to the water so I can dive in there lookin' fer her?" Sally says. Many a snapping turtle had thought themselves safe in the banks of Harlan's ponds, and many a snapper was proven wrong by a particularly tenacious lunk that would dive into the murk after them.

[vVv]

victor's entire face lights up at kelsey's affirmation, then turns the full radiance of that grin upon sally, drawing on all of the vast curse of charisma she'd been burdened with, to project her extreme gratitude at his obedience.

this is starting to get really fun!! a faint glowing in her spirit as the burden of her long stretch of hiding in the name of self-defense begins to fall away - this might actually turn out to be a crowd she could afford to relax around.. she'd always been an all-or-nothing sort of child, and the strain of holding back so much natural enthusiasm has been so much the opposite of fun..

young vic does know when to shut up and let someone else take the lead, though, and so turns her eyes back to kelsey, and then to wander 'round the rest of the group, eager to hear what might lie in store..