No Place Like Home

[tatterpixie]

The address wasn't immediately evident from the street, but Dusty easily recognized the tidy Victorian house from the photo on the flyer he'd spotted downtown. He parked his motorcycle (sidecar-free, he'd left it at the shop for some welding work) at the curb out front and killed the engine. Removing his "skid lid" helmet in the now-deafening silence, he de-helmet-headed his white hair as he took it all in. "Duuuuude," he breathed to himself. "Sweet." It must be complete luck, he thought, that there was actually a room to rent here. And with more luck, he'd get to meet the girl with whom he'd spoken on the phone -- she sounded cute.

Dusty muscled the big old Indian onto its kickstand and dismounted, then made his way up to the house. Between the cars parked in the drive and lights in several of the windows, someone was definitely home. He climbed the steps to what he gathered was the front door, hesitating before ringing the bell as he heard voices inside; reflexively he checked the sword across his back, tucked into its sheath in the lining of his long leather duster, the top of the hilt hidden by his hair. Shrugging it off as excitement or something, he pushed the doorbell and rummaged through his pockets for the flyer as he waited for someone to answer.

((And off we go! XDDD Tag whomever!))

[Kol]

On the other side of the door, Mara's hand jerked away from the handle. She stared at the door for a long moment, jaw muscles tightening as she fought to keep the startle off her face.

What were the chances it wasn't a potential renter standing on her doorstep, right as they were about to take off for a Hunt?

"Stash the hardware," She hissed over her shoulder before struggling her features into a poor imitation of normal college girl. The battle ready fierceness was too powerful to be so quickly bled completely from her face. It lurked beneath her eyes, the set of her jaw, and the fists clenched at her side. "Of all the times! Okay, just act normal."

As if any of their lot could be, even without their powers.

Mara stretched a polite smile to her face and opened the door. "Hello?"

[tatterpixie]

Dusty looked up as the door opened and flashed his most charming grin at the girl who greeted him. Purple hair... hee, looks good on her. "Hi! I'm Dusty -- I don't know if I spoke to you or not... I called earlier about the room you have for rent here?"

He glanced around at the others inside, and a little warning alarm went off in his head. Something was clearly up -- the tension in the air was so palpable he could smell it. "Um." Looking back down at the girl, he caught a fierce glint in her eye, the kind one sees in the eye of a warrior about to go into combat. What's going on here?

"Uh..." he started again, not letting his own warrior instincts, now kicked into high gear, show on his face. His grin softened into an apologetic smile. "I haven't come at a bad time, have I?"

((Kol -- I assumed this takes place after Mara gets her mojo (and purple hair) back -- if that's not the case, let me know and I'll fix it! <3))

[BrennaLaRosa]

Jane cringed as she peeked around Mara. Fine time for this guy to show up. Though, she had to admit, he was cute. The white hair was a striking look. Then again, she was probably just being boy-crazy.

((Will add more later, I'm exhausted))

[Kol]

Mara's eyebrow raised as she took in Dusty, trying not the read too much into his striking hair color. It isn't impossible to go prematurely white in their twenties, Mara cautioned herself. She didn't want to assume anything-- the last time she'd assumed someone with odd hair had been a Hunter, it hadn't ended well at all. Lips twitching as she remembered vividly the bruising the woman's bag had left against her side, Mara leaned against the door, hoping the movement sheltered the rest of the gang from view. She hadn't missed Jane trying to sneak a look.

"Something has come up," She allowed with a slight shrug, all that her awkward posture could allow. She used her hand, hidden by the door, to wave at those behind her, her hand pointing back towards the kitchen door, thumb curling as it moved towards to beach. Hopefully they'd realize she wanted them to go out the back and leave without her. "There's... a friend who got herself into a bit of trouble at the beach. You know how these things go." 

Squeezing past the door, she gently shut the front door behind her. The guy was seriously tall-- well, it wasn't so much height, but the way he carried himself that gave Mara the impression he was much taller. She tried not to let that intimidate her. After all, he wasn't giving off a threatening aura and she'd gathered nice vibes off of him on the telephone. And it would be nice to have new blood in the Fortress-- she was tired of always being the one to grab the take-out.

Stupid Daemons ruining renting schemes.

She started moving. "I don't suppose you would mind if we reschedule? It could be a while." 

[tatterpixie]

"Oh, sure, no problem. I totally understand." Dusty's smile became a grin again as he stepped back to allow the girl to move by. There was no doubt in his mind now: something was definitely up. Now, whether it was really a friend in trouble at the beach or something else, he couldn't say. Didn't matter, really -- he'd already decided he was going to find out, one way or another, and lend a hand if need be.
 
As his purple-haired hostess made to slip past him on the porch, something else started tickling in the back of his mind, something he'd felt a few times, mostly while playing "thunder dude." His nose caught a sharp, inexplicable tang of ozone -- inexplicable because it was clear as a bell out. The hair on the back of his neck rose. What the hell is going on? Now he had to get to the bottom of this.

"So," he let just the tiniest bit of disappointment sound in his voice, "how's tomorrow sound? Hopefully your friend's problems will be taken care of by then. I can give you a call in advance, um... I didn't catch your name..."

[Kol]

Mara paused, twisting to look back at Dusty. She was sure she had given him her name over the phone. Why was he stalling?

He seemed normal enough. And it wasn't like a Daemon was going to want to know what her name was. The guy was just one  of those easy going types, which meant he probably just didn't know when to stop chattering and let her exit in a hurry. Well, every boarder had their faults, but if he paid on time, remained oblivious to the daemon hunting going on under the roof, and occasionally used those muscles to open up the more stubborn of glass jars, they'd get along just fine.

Mara was simply reading too much into the situation, going paranoid in her old age. She shook off the suspicions and smiled a little more honestly. "Mara. Mara Thompson. And tomorrow sounds wonderful. I'm sure the situation will have, ah, resolved itself by then. I'll look forward to showing you the room tomorrow, see you then!" With a bob of her head, she took off, walking as fast as she could without raising suspicions. She bypassed the Volvo-- it wasn't like the beach was that far-- and was very careful not to turn her head back.

No sense risking offending him, and it wasn't like he could have gotten into the house anyway since the front door had snapped locked the moment she shut it.

The farther she got from the house, the wilder her smile got. This was her first official Hunt back, and Mara's body was aching to hurl down some serious pain on the daemon was stupid enough to wash up on her beach. By the end of the street, she'd all but forgotten about Dusty the potential boarder.

[tatterpixie]

Dusty waved at the back of Mara's head as she made her exit. "Sweet, Mara, see you then!" He made his way leisurely off the porch and down the driveway to his motorcycle; kick-starting the big bike, he pulled away from the curb and drove down the road -- to just past the street that led down to the beach.

Quickly pulling the motorcyle up on its kickstand again, Dusty took off down the street, hot on Mara's trail. He caught sight of her ahead of him and immediately allowed his Marine Corps training to take over. Dropping into commando-mode, he kept tight to what cover there was and just far enough behind her to avoid detection while not seeming suspicious to anyone who might see him. Now maybe I'll get some answers...

[Fly]

Lynn ducked behind the convenient decorative shrubbery that lined part of the deserted walk down to the beach. She had hung back while Jane and the others headed toward the beach, knowing that if Mara walked, this would be the way she would come. Sure enough, her cousin didn't disappoint. Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Mara stormed onward in the direction of the beach, unaware that Lynn was tensing up to spring in front of her in full Guardian mode. Lynn hadn't the heart to terrorize her cousin while she was trying to refocus her powers, but now that Mara seemed mostly back to normal, a scare was fair game again.

When Mara was within five feet of her hiding place, Lynn leapt straight up in the air and over the hedge with a, "HEY MARA," and landed in a crouched position in the middle of the sidewalk.

[Kol]

"YEAAAHLCH!" Mara screamed, jumping a good three feet in the air. Heart caught in her throat, Mara flailed with her arms as her feet struck at the wet walk, struggling for purchase before they slid right out from under her and she landed heavily on her butt.

Wheezing, she could only glare at the false rabbit above her and growl in a voice that could slay a daemon from the pure awfulness: "Lynn."

Her cousin was so lucky Mara couldn't move, because Lynn could have ended up a very dead rabbit if Mara still had her skewer. 

[Fly]

"So who was the guy?" Lynn asked, standing and offering Mara a hand to get to her feet.

[tatterpixie]

From his position, Dusty tensed as this... fuzzy girl-thing with teal-blue hair jumped out of the bushes at Mara, causing her to shriek and fall over. What the hell is that? He ducked down behind the cars parked alongside the road and went into a crouching stealth-run to close the distance between himself and his potential landlady. He wasn't about to let her get eaten by one of those random monster-things he'd beaten up in the past. For one thing, who'd take over the house and rent him a room there?

Dusty got close enough to leap to Mara's defense and was in the process of drawing his sword when the fuzzy teal-haired girl helped Mara to her feet. He froze, eyes wide. Now he was really confused. To top it off, now half in "thunder dude" mode, he was picking up some really wacky vibes off both girls. Making himself as compact as possible (no small feat for a big guy like him), he stayed frozen in place, watching them like a hawk. More shit to get to the bottom of...

[Kol]

(Oh Dusty XD)

"What guy?" Mara grumbled as she dusted off her legs. She should have known Lynn was going to pull something like this-- it had been a while since her cousin had scared the willies out of Mara. As if she didn't get enough of that nonsense from Deon.

Straightening, her eyes widened as she reasoned out what Lynn was talking about.  "Oh, him." Mara waved her hand dismissively, then gestured for them to continue on. "He's just that renter I was telling you about. Seems like an okay guy, and I was able to brush him off easily enough. Hopefully he's going to coming back tomorrow to check out the house and sign the papers. I think he'll work out just fine. We have all that room in the house, you know, and it would be nice to have some loose income around to pay for all the grocery bills."

Mara squinted into the distance, eying the cutaway path to the beach they were rapidly approaching. Her excitement about her first battle was returning, adrenaline bubbling at the edges.  "Are you picking up any daemon vibes yet? I've got nothing, as usual."

[Fly]

Lynn shook her head. "Nope, nothing specific yet. Of course, it could just be everyone else - I can't really tell the difference. I'm not Peter." She fell into step beside Mara, and uncharacteristically refrained from digging more information about the new renter. "Speaking of which, is he with them? I just want to know how careful we're going to have to be so he doesn't fall in the way of our... um... yeah."

She casually glanced over her shoulder, checking to see who it was she felt following them. As she was helping Mara to her feet earlier, she could have sworn she heard something like footsteps, but had dismissed it. But once Mara brought to her attention that she could slightly sense daemon vibes, she realized that she felt something following them. Lynn wasn't worried - between herself and Mara, they could handle themselves with a single daemon - but she would rather not be ambushed. She didn't see anyone, but kept glancing back just in case.

[BrennaLaRosa]

Jane scurried along into view and fiddled with her old fountain pen. Gran had handed it to her two days ago with a wink. "I had to park a little ways down. Hi, Lynn," she added, shyly.