Louie shook his head at Rodger's remarks, "No. I think this Sasha guy is paranoid and has a ton of money to throw around." Louie didn't complain beyond that. It seemed agreed by everyone that the money was a steal. He would not pass this up. His thoughts led him to think perhaps there were cameras installed in the house to watch them as the night went on. Maybe Sasha and his friends were making bets on who would last all night while "demons" haunted the apartment. These "demons" would be yet more paid people by Sasha to scare the family. Louie smiled dimly at his thoughts which reminded him of some old movies. He tossed his entertaining thoughts aside and turned to Justin. Even though Louie didn't believe in demons he wanted to get a better understanding of Justin's mindset."Are these demons dangerous? Let's say that a demon does appear tonight. What then?"

"Are they dangerous? Of course they're dangerous," Justin murmured, "Demons come in four ranks... from the sound of it this demon would be a pretty high-ranking one given what Sasha was saying to me... but... I don't know.... the schedule doesn't match up. Demons normally operate on a pretty strict schedule on when they appear. So we may be dealing with some kind of demon that's trying to throw us off of its trail... or there may be nothing at all.. It'll be a good experience.."

"You all ah bein' morons." Henry called from the couch, "Theuh ain't no demon, nevah was no demon, nevah will be no demon. Weuh heuh on behalf o' some rich asshat and weuh gonna get paid tons. That's all theuh is to dis. Got it?" Henry was annoyed at how worried the family was getting over a college kid saying there were demons in an apartment with no substantial evidence regarding this.

_________________
These are a few of my favorite things

While both sides had made convincing arguments (one saying there were dangerous imaginary creatures about without any solid proof, the other saying the former was stupid), Chester decided to suspend judgement, at least until the demon was supposed to appear. He tossed his gym bag on the ground and took off his coat. "You said this thing will show up tonight, right? I'm going out for a while, be back by sundown. Save a bed for me. Oh, and I'll get some holy water while I'm out, or maybe garlic. Heh." The old man turned and walked out the door, waving as he left.

With a few minutes of walking, Chester reached a small patch of greenery, fringed by small shops and restaurants. It was about noon, so there were quite a few people in the area. A good place to do a little magic. Chester pulled out one of his decks of cards with a flourish. "Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please!"

((Attempted roll: Stage personality. Result: Failure))

The magician spent the next hour trying to gather a crowd, but to no avail. The passers-by were too interested in eating lunch or buying things to stop and watch. However, Chester persisted, since he had nothing else to do. ((Another roll, this time a success)) Finally, as people got settled at tables outside the restaurants, Chester got the attention he was looking for. With plenty of eyes on him, he began his act, a routine of his most practiced tricks. ((Third roll: Sleight of hand. Result: Success)) He went through his paces well, eliciting smatterings of applause and even a few oohs and ahs. More importantly, he started to make a little money ((apparently about 5 dollars)). While not the biggest pot he had worked for, Chester was satisfied with how the performance was going, and continued for most of another hour.

Toward the end of the next hour, a few heads began turning away from Chester, noticing a group of people gathering some streets over from Chester's current spot. The noise seemed to become louder and more heads turned as a large crowd approached. Around the area Chester performed in, the normally impenetrable rain-clouds of Spring District began to clear and crepuscular rays shone through them. Normally these rays are a sight to see indeed, they beautify and highlight portions of the Earth above others, and however brief these rays, they are able to illuminate that in nature which is normally overlooked.

This man, however, who now had sunbeams shining directly on him, was no stranger to them. Wherever he went, the Sun favored him above all others, and others had taken note of this, and often referred to him affectionately as the "Shining Beacon of Samhain" or "The Lighthouse of Summer District", it was not unusual for this man to walk about the other Districts, for even though he made his home in Summer District, and had no official political power, he was a king in his own right, able to crush seeds of worry and doubt wherever he marched. Within his castle, within his domain on the island of Lunasa, some had taken to averting their eyes in his presence, and it was rumored that his office was constructed in such a way that it was impossible to look directly at him, and to do so was an offense while there. This man was named Victor Snell, and though he was all but the leader of Summer District, his presence was welcomed in even the most resentful halls of Winter's rule, for with him came the Sun, and the lightless locales were happy once more.

Victor stood in the forefront of his crowd, he was immaculate in appearance, or what could be seen of him, for as was always the case, a portion of him was obscured by sunlight beaming, or else it was impossible to take in all of him in some way. However, what could be seen of him at that moment, whether it were his teeth, his hands, his eyes or his hair, they were all perfect.

Let me take time aside as your humble narrator to describe some aspects which you may find confusing, to the people of Samhain, Snell was a known individual, and his strange relationship with the Sun was not unknown. At one point he was taken with him by the CIA for what many suspected were tests to be done upon him. Nothing conclusive was ever released, though Snell, a fairly religious man, said that he had simply been blessed so that he was never without Gods light, whether it manifested in the Sun or in some other form. Some people regarded Snell as a messiah, a title he always refused, and some said he was a superhero, though he assured them that there was nothing in him which made this power work, and that it was the Sun which behaved oddly about him. Nevertheless, by this point in time, Snell's light had been accepted as something of an oddity that could even be said to be supernatural by some.

Snell approached Chester, who, having worked in Summer District prior, would have known him better than most. Snell stood directly in front of Chester, and though the light obscured his vision, Chester could see his beautiful teeth shining in a wide smile. Make no mistake, Snell's teeth and in fact the rest of his body were not necessarily beautiful, they bore in them much of the same light yellow tinge that the teeth of any other will have, but to all who looked on them, they were still perfect. The wrinkles on his middle aged hands were perfect, the half-centimeter of disparity with which his eyelids were mismatched was perfect, and though his naturally strong black hair was bleached light by his solar companion, this was perfect too, and made his hair at times seem ablaze in a crown of sacred fire.

"Well sir," He began, smiling at Chester, his voice was a deep resonant sound and he emitted no smell of breath at all, his words carried the Earth in their timbre and his odorless breath arrived in a manner more pleasant than a cool summer breeze welcoming the study-weary student. "Let us see some of your tricks. We're big fans of magic shows up in Summer District." He stood above Chester, looking down at the man, his smile at once conveying both regal and humble natures.

_________________
These are a few of my favorite things

Chester's eyes would have widened in surprise, if he hadn't been squinting and blinking in the light. "Wow! Mr. Snell, a pleasure to meet you! I would be honored if you were to pick a card." He offered the deck up to the living legend, fanning it out before him.

((Attempted roll: Establishing allies. Result: Success))

Chester went on to perform his trick (approximately this, without the accent), not only pulling it off but doing so as well as he ever had in his life. He beamed widely: between the reaction from the crowd and the warmth of the sun, he was suddenly in quite a good mood. "Thank you, thank you! Mr. Snell, I hope you hadn't already seen that one before."

"This entire trip is making for horrible motivation. Honestly, who would want to read a book about a gang of misfits fighting demons or ghosts in a haunted mansion. You might as well add in a talking dog with a funny accent. Ridiculous," he sighed, unwittingly referencing Scooby Doo. "At least the money is good I suppose. Still I wish there was a bit more....inspiration....to be found here."

Anthony drummed his fingers in the little waiting room. He hadn't been able to find Sasha anywhere, and the people around here were absolutely useless, if not downright incompetent. They were lucky he wasn't in charge of them or half of them would be out on the street and the rest would be on unpaid overtime until he'd replaced the lost ranks. But, different houses, different rules. He could accept that. At least there was a window in here, give him something to stare at while he waited. He was there to get Sasha to supply art and critique for him, maybe even send a few painting his way. Anthony needed a few feet in the art world, if just to get some pictures to grease wheels with. Clerica was quite found of it, particularly the Macchiaiolis works. They were good, but weren't Anthony's sort of thing, he was a bit darker with his private collection. One of which he was willing to part with as a gift, once they began. Small enough to not seem too much, but not too bad to be insulting, so Anthony felt anyway. He was a little sad to part with it to be honest.

_________________
“One day you wake up and realize the world can be conquered.”

"A pleasant trick indeed, sir." Snell spoke with a heavenly voice that whispered of warm breezes over sunny fields of grain. "We may wish to see it performed some time in Summer District. Until then though, adieu." He tipped Chester a small coin which glinted in the remaining sunlight before clouds once again coated the sky as Snell moved on.

((Going to skip a bit))

Night came and went, and Anthony had managed to meet up with the other members of the Family and had joined up with them for the time being. The next day was also fairly uneventful, with the Family primarily spending time getting to know Justin, the new member. It wasn't until that night when strange phenomena began to finally make themselves known throughout the apartment. Noises had been heard by the family throughout the night and Henry had managed to gather them all in the main room. "Listen, it's probbly jus' some animal or some shit like dat. Find it and t'row it odda heuh."

Thirty minutes prior, a strange noise had begun to manifest as Justin cleaned dishes from that nights dinner, linguine alfredo; as he washed the remaining food away at the sink, the noodles seemed to move on their own and stayed in the sink, fighting against the water which pulled them into the drain. Shortly after this odd behavior, a series of scratching noises similar to that of a small rodent could be heard throughout the apartment, though they oftentimes made themselves sound off simultaneously and from angles which would prove difficult for rodents to reach. Finally, to complete the strangeness, was how these noises seemed to disrupt the electronic devices of the apartment, with many of them beginning to glitch during the waves of noise which began to appear at ten minute intervals, shortly manifesting and then shifting away.

_________________
These are a few of my favorite things

Rodger seemed very uneasy given the unexplained and foreign events. When sitting, he tapped his feet nervously, when standing, he paced whatever room he was in. Sleep was a fleeting pipe-dream with the onset of noises in the walls and electronic disturbances.

After feeling his silence has been to much, he addressed the family. "Ok..." he began, nervously pulling at his sleeve cuffs, "I ain't a specialist, like our friend Justin here, but am I the only one here that sees that we are in textbook horror territory? The Exorcist, Poltergeist, most of us are old enough to see the horror films when they first came out. These noises and happenings are lining up rather well with what happens in those movies and those like it."

He began to rest against the nearest wall but jumped away from it, remembering the noises behind it prior. "So, are we going to come to grips that something, supernatural or otherwise, is going on here?! Or, are we content until one of us gets hurt?" Rodger exclaimed. He decided to pull a chair from the dinning room table and sit down, in attempts to settle his nerves.

"Maybe they're lining up too well," Chester said from his seat. He toyed with one of his decks while he spoke, clearly not half as bothered by the noises as Rodger. "If a demon was really going to show up, why would it imitate a movie monster? They probably don't have many theaters down in hell, or wherever."

He shrugged. "I'm gonna to put it on record right now that I think this is all just one of those stupid reality shows. That way, if I'm wrong only you guys will know I was wrong, but if I'm right then everyone that watches will know I was right." Chester looked around, finally pointing at Justin. "I figured it out, so I win, right? Do I get one of those huge checks?" He grinned as he asked, but he was not completely joking.

Rodger easily followed after him, and determined to arranged up discussion. "Hello, unfamiliar person." Rodger known as out gently, "Little Jeremey really put his center into this one. You should use kid-gloves for evaluations, yes?"