Insanity

[Rezantis]

"I'm not going to tell you get out of here," Nathan responds, sounding surprised, "I'm not that, well . . . you can stay as long as you want to.  You tried to jump in front of a gun for me."

There's a brief pause, before he continues into the even-more-awkward part.  "This is horribly tactless, but I was serious that I don't remember much at all from before . . . I don't know your name."

[Brian]

"I'm Molly," the ghost replies, with a weak smile.  Then she brightens.  "Oh, Master Shuker!  I could remind you of things, maybe?  Do you remember where your study is?"

[Rezantis]

"I . . . not really," Nathan says, scratching his head.

[Brian]

"This way," she says cheerfully, going back up the stairs, but this time turning left.  Down the hall, she indicates another door, though this one is still closed.  Like all the other wood in the house (walls, floors, other doors), it's dark, and free of dust.

[Rezantis]

"Thanks," he says, walking up the hall.

"Oh.  This is probably something of a silly question, but after I came back through the gate, I think I brought something back with me - and I think that's what the thugs were after.  Would you have any . . . idea what that might be?"

[Brian]

"Your study?" she says, almost questioningly.  "When you came back, you were ... well ... ravening, and insisted that no one should go into your study, or your father's."

The door is solid, closed, and imposing looking -- kind of like the entire house, really.

[Rezantis]

"Hm.  Maybe . . ."

Nathan opens the door!

[Brian]

Nathan finds that Doctor Shuker's study is fairly severe.  There's a clock in one corner, unmoving (the weights need to be pulled to get it running again), a pot of dirt that was probably once a potted plant of some sort, a desk, a chair, and many shelves.

This room does host an unhealthy amount of paper, however.  There's papers crammed between the books lining the shelves, covering the desk, littered liberally across the floor, filling the chair behind the desk, sticking out of the desk drawers, lying on top of the pot of dirt....  The only thing that's not covered in papers (though, it's on top of a stack of them) is an overly large, too-complex looking typewriter.  And the single painting directly opposite the door (it's a young looking woman -- probably twenty, if that) in a very nice yellow dress smiling brightly at the painter.  She's wearing a pendant of some sort, and her hair is bound up with a ribbon that matches her dress -- from the doorway, Nathan can see that the picture is quite detailed, though the distance is too great to make out more.

[Rezantis]

Nathan walks carefully into the room, trying not to step on any of the papers - glancing at the ones on the desk and on the chair briefly, just to see what they are.

Once he's taken a moment to assuage his curiousity on that front, he takes a closer look at the painting.

I wonder if this is the fiancee?  Or maybe the sister?

[Brian]

The detail on the girl doesn't reveal anything new, except that the girl has blue eyes, and her pendant appears to be a falcon grasping a wrench in one talon, and a hammer in the other, with wings flared, but curling together overhead.

A small plate on the bottom edge of the painting reads, 'Mme. Maus'.  Probably not a sister -- unless she married into a different family line.

The papers -- at a glance -- seem to be anthropological studies.  Descriptions of 'pre-church society'.  They look more like theory and conjecture, rather than any solid fact.

"I do wish you'd let us set the room to rights," Molly frets, peeking in through the doorway, but not stepping inside.

[Rezantis]

Nathan chuckles at the maid's suggestion - "-but if I know where it all -is- then putting it away will just confuse me, right?"

Well apparently he and his other self had that nuch in common . . .

His eyes narrow as he catches sight of the name plate.  Maus . . . that's  Tim's name.

"Molly . . . who's the girl in the painting?"

[Brian]

"That's Madame Margaret Maus," Molly says hesitantly, not quite able to meet Nathan's eyes.  "She was your fiancee, Master Shuker.  Shortly after your father passed on, or so close as to make no nevermind, her house burnt down in a fire.  She and her brother were never found."

[Rezantis]

Nathan nods at this.  "I thought she might have been.  What's bothering you?" he tilts his head, looking carefully at the ghost's face, "That I don't remember, or is there something else?"

OOC: Damn, I forgot to reset my influence!

So: +1 to all skeelz, 2 cp of conversation and 3cp of persuasion!

[Brian]

"N...nothing," she stutters quickly, her eyes going elsewhere as she blushes slightly.  "Er, anyway, I was just thinking their disappearance was a might convenience, leastwise.  Not for you, but the timing....  You out of Anabara on your journey, your father, rest his soul, dies before you come back....  Not long after, the only other person with a connection to your family has her house burn down, and she and her brother vanish.  Don't seem right, if you don't mind me saying.  You get home through the gate, without your partners, rest their souls, and as soon as you do, you're committed?"

She pauses, then furrows her brow, looking down at herself.  "Though, come to think of it, I suppose it's a foregone conclusion that there's foul play afoot here, isn't there?  Oh, well.  Doesn't matter now."

[Rezantis]

"Oh, I know.  It's already been pointed out to me," Nathan says bleakly, "And it was also mentioned that if I hadn't set foot in this house before tomorrow my ownership would lapse."

"Those thugs said in the office mentioned that Hathoway told them that 'they'd know it when they found it'," he continues slowly, "but it's just my word against theirs unless the police can make them admit it."

He starts poking around the room, trying not to disturb the mess too much.  'They'd know it when they saw it, huh?'

While he searches, he asks another question.  "Was Margaret's brother's name Timothy?"