Start Ups Paranatural

[Heroic Sociopath]

((Sorry its taken me so long to post. I was a little busy yesterday.))

Nick stared at Ray. That was probably the most he had ever heard his glory-eyed friend speak. He was impressed. Enough so that it took him a moment to get the Paranatural Encyclopedia from the shelf.

"It says here they...What Ray said, more or less." Nick said. He had to remind himself that while quiet, Ray was no idiot. Well, that was what Nick thought, at least. "Everyone has some PSI ability. When someone dies, that PSI leaves an imprint. And if enough people are thinking about them, that causes their latent PSI to add on to it. Living memories, more or less."

"And my museum is absolutely full of them." Dr. Washington said, looking down. "As happy as I would normally be to have an animate statue of Abraham Lincoln wandering the halls, it's simply unacceptable for him to attack guests. If you guys can figure out what's going on and stop it, I'll...Well, I don't know how I can reward you. What would you guys like?" The Cedar Peak Museum was quite elaborate. It had exhibits on Paranatural history, natural history, and normal history.

"I think we should ask for that antique motorcycle they have." Nick said in a hushed tone.

 

[Infinity Storm]

"Nick none of us have a license. What good would a motorcycle do us?" Jett replied as he stood up, shaking a bit of residual frost from the shoulder of his jacket as he did so. Granted, his experience with the Cedar Point Museum was fairly minimal, but he did know about the sections dedicated to Paranaturalist history. After a moment of thought, he looked to the others, suggesting "What about unlimited access to the museum and its exhibits, including borrowing some indefinitely for research?"

 

[Flaze]

"And free unlimited snacks," Ken added in, a big grin on his face. "Those chocolates you guys have are awesome."

 

[Peaceful Giraffe]

Lilu pouted. "I can't have pure chocolate. It's poisonous to me. Can I have some of those old bones instead? You guys have got a lot of those, don't you?"

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

"I can't give you the motorcycle. It doesn't work anymore anyway. I know. I've tried." Dr. Washington said. He turned to Jet. "Done." He turned to Ken. "Done." He turned to Lilu. "Technically they're plastic molds of bones, but if you really want one, done."

It was a schoolnight, so they couldn't perform their stakeout then. So they waited until Friday. That night, they had arrived at the museum. It was a huge complex, perhaps a bit out of place in a smallish town like Cedar Peak.

The entrance led into a large atrium with a big skylight, which usually situated whichever exhibit the museum had most recently gotten. In this case, archaic weaponry. The atrium held several display cases with ancient swords and spears and other weapons. It branched into many different wings, from a museum of pop culture, to one of American History, to a World History Branch, to a Paranatural Science wing, to an Ancient History Wing. Tourists often came to Cedar Peak just to see the massive museum. Nick himself had been there several times. But at night, it was a bit eerie. The lights had been turned down, and without the crowds that normally filled the halls, the echoes of the club's footsteps could be heard. Through the skylight, he could see the light of the moon just barely visible through the curtain of fog that covered the sky.

"I think we should split up into pairs. Um..." Nick looked around, and turned to Victoria.

"Victoria, you should come with me." He said, picking seemingly at random. He held a hand up to his head, and the hilt of a sword popped out of his forehead. He grabbed it, and wincing ever-so-slightly, he pulled a shining claymore out of his head. "I call dibs on the World History exhibit." The museum often got new additions to their exhibits, and he'd already seen the Paranatural History exhibit's newest additions.

((So yeah, feel free to make up whatever you want to be in the museum. This is your chance to alter the history of the game world if you want.))

 

[Peaceful Giraffe]

"Jett, wanna pair up?" Lilu asked as she was already dragging him away, towards a section labeled "Ancient History."

"Ya know, I've always thought that name was sort of redundant. Doesn't it have to be ancient in order to be history?" Lilu added as they entered a rather musty-smelling part of the museum.

 

[Infinity Storm]

"Not necessarily. If you wanted to be a smartass about it, anything that happened in the past could count as history" Jett replied, rubbing his arm a bit as he looked around. He'd had little time to answer her question before she'd pulled him along, and as a result, his arm was a little sore. Plus to be completely honest, a lot of the stuff in the exhibits held no interest to the problematic teen.

"Out of curiosity, are you still completely conscious when you transform?" Jett asked after a bit of walking, admittedly curious about how much control one could exhibit when reverting to a primal form.

 

[Taengoo]

There was the shadow of crimson-hooded figure in the distance. Umbra, the transfer student as of late, was watching the group of students. Ra was studying them, her crimson gaze unnerving. The half-demon made no movement as of the moment.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

Nick felt like he was being watched. He turned around, and there was a cloaked figure with red eyes gazing at him.

"G-g-ghost!" He yelled. He dropped his sword and made a cross with his index fingers, backing away. The sword disappeared in a flash of light after a few seconds.

Meanwhile, in the Ancient History wing, there was an exhibit on Ancient Egypt. There were many reproductions of Ancient Egyptian wall paintings, and a map of the Nile. There was also a coffin in the center, with the real mummified remains of King Ramses! Except it was open. And empty. Jet would feel a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey guys, do you have any water?" The desiccated corpse asked. It had gold jewelry on it, and was loosely wrapped in bandages. "My mouth tastes like dung beetle butt."

 

[Taengoo]

"Ghost is wrong, fella." Ra replied, prodding Nick in the side. Upon seeing her would reveal her horns, toothy grin, and clawed fingers. The crimson eyed female gave a small laugh, revealing her sharp teeth.

"You're on the right track, though. Not a human."

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

Nick suddenly felt very subconscious. Like many upper-middle class young men, having people think he was racist was one of his greatest fears.

"Oh! Uh, sorry. Um. Are you causing this place to be haunted?" Nick asked. "I-I mean not because you're horny or anything! But me and the rest of the club are trying to fix it, and..."

 

[Flaze]

"I guess it's just you and me then bud," Ken said towards Ray, scratching his chin as he tried to decide where they should go. "Eh, let's go to the Paranatural exhibition," he replied with a wide grin as he led Ray towards the exhibition in question. Of course he had mostly picked that side because of his own interests, which pretty much cuased him to forget the whole reason they were there as he kept glancing at all the different showings of influential individuals and famous events in Paranatural history.

 

[Infinity Storm]

Jett jumped a bit at the sound of the voice behind him, causing him to leap back once he had turned around to view the unannounced presence. He began to freeze the moisture around his hand, intending to make his usual spear, but stopped when he recalled Lilu's concerns for his actions with the bullies earlier. Resisting the urge to immediately attack, he realized that, at least for now, the figure wasn't visibly aggressive, so fighting wasn't the answer. At least not yet.

"Afraid not. I can't really carry any mid-temperature liquid with me, seeing as they'll freeze solid almost instantly once I touch them" Jett responded, struggling to regain his composure as he spoke.

 

[Taengoo]

She rolled her eyes at him. "I may be half-demon, but that doesn't mean I can control spirits - so your answer is no."

 

[ME Grimlock]

Sid had finally arrived in the museum parking lot. He had figured that a PSI powered teleporting card would be a time saver but all the darn thing did was send him to the middle of nowhere and made it take 10 times longer to reach the destination! Oh well, lesson learned.

He was not afraid of the dark but this place looked creepy. The faint glow of occasional street lamps and the moon provided the only real sources of light. A disembodied yet familiar voice echo's out of an open window, "GHOST" Sid almost screams zoinks but manages to hold his mouth shut with his hands. Another voice from a different direction starts laughing ominously. It is much deeper and louder than the first one, "Muhuhahahaha!"

As Sid considers running away and letting the rest of the club handle this one, he spots an old lady walking several cats across the path he had taken to get here. "Oh gosh, one of the cats is black!!"

There was no turning back now...

 

[JakkuEbansu]

Ray stares up at a large statue of a Paranaturalist of old, their mouth a little dry. Half of their attention is constantly fixed on Ken, making sure they stay in sight of him. Coincidentally, at exactly the same time Sid experiences the spooky phenomena, they shiver.
They look around, wide-eyed, their pale hands, bare for a change, out in full view from their furs.
K-ken.
They whisper, turning back the way they had come.
N-not... this way.

 

[Peaceful Giraffe]

A shudder ran through Lilu's body on hearing the spectral laughter. There was something wrong about it that set her on edge, and her wolf ears and tail materialized in a heartbeat.

"To answer your question, Jett," she managed through rapidly sharpening teeth, "there are times when I've got no control, and stuff like this... scary stuff... can sort of set me off. So if you see me freaking out... well, maybe back away."

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

"Damn." The mummy said. "Then you'll watch my dance, right?" The undead pharaoh began to pirouette and get his groove on and shake that desiccated booty.

"Oh. Well, this place is haunted. It's dangerous to be alone." Nick said. He was honestly a little afraid she was going to eat him. But he also knew that it would be wrong to leave her alone to be eaten by ghosts. "You can cone with us if you like."

The Paranatural Scoence exhibit had wax models depicting several famous Paranaturalists. There was "Eight-Arms" Asura, the first recorded human to use PSI. There was Nikola Tesla, founder of the GPI. There was Doctor Victor Frankenstein the first, who had pioneered the study of Paranatural illness, such as Vampirism and Lycanthropy. That one was not in his stand. He was wielding the chainsaw he was known for using, and running at Ken and Ray.

"More test subjects? How grand!" He yelled. The man was clad in a black lab ost, and swung his chainsaw at Ken.

 

[Flaze]

"What is i-" before Ken could ask Ray what was going on he was taken by surprise by he Dr.Frankenstein exhibit, Ken screamed in pain as he turned around and felt the chainsaw cut his arm off, only for the boy to grab it beore he went to far and step back. "You son of a bitch," he gritted his teeth as he glared at the exhibit. "What the hell! wasn't that supposed to be one of the exhibits!" he yelled in fury and shock as he put his arm back where it was, allowing his regeneration ability to restore the arm to its former state. "Looks like we're right in the middle of the case huh Ray?" Ken grinned as he assumed a fighting stance.

 

[JakkuEbansu]

Ray was too busy flinging themselves at the approaching exhibit, burying one of a myriad of small blades they carried into them.

Spirit.
They hiss.
Talk to me.