[ CLOSED ] Smells Like Teen Angst

[sulahnan]

WHO: Athessa, Jenny Lou, Matthias
WHAT: Some light B&E
WHEN: Post-Abomination (that night or the next)
WHERE: Hightown
NOTES: potential cw for rape mention because of the location, tags will ofc be labeled

Nobody has moved into the Devigny estate.

To claim that as the only concern with breaking in to lay waste to whatever remains within those walls would be only mostly true, with the remaining however-many percent belonging to Athessa's mind alone. (She never saw the body; how can she know without seeing for herself?) But since the doubt is far outweighed by the certainty of darkened windows, a notice on the front door, and the evidence of prior misdemeanor, the only reason not to pursue this to its hopefully satisfying end is the possibility of arrest.

The kitchen entrance at the rear of the manor is open but aside from broken glass from the window scattered over the floor, it seems to have suffered very little for being so exposed. Perhaps a cupboard is open and bare, perhaps a bottle of wine left out next to a stained glass.

"Careful," Athessa whispers, pointing to the glittering shards on the floor as she navigates around them. Funny, how a place that has haunted her for so long can feel so lifeless at last. Empty, entirely.

Comments

[sulahnan]

Athessa is having the same course of thought, minus the image of Devigny listening for them. It feels respectful to whisper, like they'd done back in the jungle at the campfire, reticent to wake anyone else with idle chatter. This place isn't deserving of respect.

"It's a long story," she says, listening for the sound of anything bigger than a rat in the passage just outside the kitchen. It's dark, not only because of the hour but because any light from the street outside is blocked by boards on the windows. Looks like whoever started to put them up only got halfway through the job before deciding it just wasn't worth it.

"I had a run-in with the owner when I was around your age. Probably a year...maybe two years younger, actually."

To her memory, there are only two chandeliers in this place. One in the dining room, and one in the great hall. She steers them right down the corridor, towards the former.

[windyvoice]

"He sounds like a piece of shit," Jenny Lou says. Because teenagers having run ins with rich fuckers usually only go well for one person and it's never the kid. Her voice is likewise pitched quiet, half expecting to see a security camera when she glances around at the ceiling out of habit.

Rich fuckers always have security cameras, but of course, this guy wouldn't. "How long has this place been abandoned?"

[sulahnan]

A pause, in which Athessa counts back. "Six months."

[inkindled]

"Definitely a piece of shit," Matthias agrees, thinking along the same lines as Jenny Lou. Athessa is walking ahead of him, so he's free to study her without trying to be surreptitious about it. People carry a great deal with them. He knows that much.

He scruffs his boot against the floor with his next step. It's not quite on purpose--his burned leg was well-healed, but it carries a stiffness with it that has yet to be worked out. The drag leaves a long mark in the thick dust that has gathered on the floor, wipes clean a narrow section and shows the fine floorboards beneath. Matthias decides that he likes that, and drags his foot again, really putting his heel into it. Like ice-skating, a little. He thinks of demons, the way they drag through the earth like wading in thick water, and drags his other foot.

"Six months explains why it looks fucked," he says, with a grim cheerfulness. "Hasn't he got anyone that wants to inherit the place? I thought that's what all nobs did, waited about until someone old died and then come in and take all their things."

[sulahnan]

Were she aware of the scrutiny, Athessa wouldn't be able to guess at what Matthias sees. He might see the quiet, impassive prowling of a jungle cat, waiting to pounce. Or he might see the twitch of her fingers, the unconscious flex thereafter, a nervous tick she's had since last Harvestmere. Perhaps the muscle in her jaw working as she turns every corner is particularly noteworthy as a sign of someone with an unhappy history within these walls.

"I dunno that he ever had anybody," she ventures, glancing back at the scuff on the floor. "Or if he had children, he never claimed them."

It isn't a new thought; that any of the other girls like Athessa might have been so unfortunate. But it's not one that she wants to dwell on.

The door up ahead, to their left, is slightly ajar. She pushes it open with a soft ah, as it gives way to the dining room. "Well there ya go, Jenny Lou. Chandelier number one."

[windyvoice]

"Guess we better finish the job then."

And Jenny Lou is all bright hot rage tipped with a wide, manic grin. This feeling she knows. The same feeling as the first time Kev tossed her a spray paint can. The same feeling as the first time she slammed a skateboard through Izzy's shitty step-dad's car window. She finds the rope holding the chandelier in place and considers it for a minute.

"Real quick, how much do we need to worry about neighbor hearing shit and calling the-" Cops. "Guards."

[inkindled]

Matthias stops shuffling when he senses Athessa looking around, and he hurries double-time to catch up and duck into the room with them. The room is big and spacious, and the chandelier twinkles overhead like a little cluster of stars in the dark ceiling. There are boards on the windows in here, too, but badly done, half-covered and letting in the moonlight at the tops. It makes them look shuttered.

Distracted by the chandelier and by marking out its fall--it will be a far fall, how good--he looks around at Athessa again to see what she will say. Now he can see her in profile, the tight winch of her jaw.

There's an itch in his fingers. He sidesteps so he's closer to Athessa, but gives his attention back to the chandelier.

"Everyone house here has grounds and gardens and walls and all. There's no way we'll be heard, right?"

[sulahnan]

"We won't be heard," She's confident of this. Matthias has the right idea, in a general sense, but she's also fairly certain that anyone who would be able to hear wouldn't care. (They didn't care back then.)

"This is the small one. There's an even bigger chandelier over the great hall, just through there—" Athessa gestures to the other door in the room, to their right and sitting directly opposite the fireplace. It looks like someone, in the past six months, had a nice little picnic in here, and left the scraps for the rats.

Looking up at the glittering spectacle they're about to destroy, she smiles, eyes gleaming. "Mind the shrapnel, yeah?"

[windyvoice]

"Nice. Let's get this party started." And she yanks on the rope anchoring the chandelier, pulling it off the hook and letting the rope go.

It falls and Jenny Lou wishes they had a camera or something, but it falls and lands on the grand dining room table. It hits and the sound is cacophonous, wood splintering and crystal pinging off the marble floor. The silence in the aftermath is even more stark.

"And now we got firewood," Jenny Lou says, stepping towards the remains of chandelier and table to stomp and yank and pull one of the table's legs free.

[inkindled]

Even prepared for the crash, even battle-hardened and used to loud noises at close quarters, Matthias still jumps, a little. It's an innate sort of thing, isn't it, like your eyes tearing up when your nose gets punched or starting to feel an itch when you see someone scratching their arm. Can't be helped.

He's grinning when the noise goes away, and he darts forward to kick at a clump of crystal. It sprays off like ice, smatters on the floor in smaller pieces. Pleased, he does it again, kicking the largest bit into a smaller bit, and then smaller, kicking again.

"Let's have a fire and drink whatever wine is left."

[sulahnan]

Athessa laughs, and it feels good. Maybe this really is what she needs; to see that this place is just a place now, not a nightmare. To see for herself that Devigny is dead.

"Now you're talkin'!" She fetches up a fistful of crystal and throws it against the wall, smack-dab in the middle of a painting over the fireplace. "Do we even wanna use the fireplace? We could just set the fuckin' table on fire."

The entrance to the wine cellar is back the way they came, just beyond the kitchen door beneath the stairs. She'd cited that as the place she most wanted to destroy, but now that she's here, she wants to go through that other door, into the rest of the house.

She turns to head back towards the kitchen. She can wait. "The wine's back this way."

[windyvoice]

Now this is how you vandalize property. Jenny Lou uses her makeshift club and booted feet to break apart the chandelier a bit more before she jumps out of the wreckage.

"Be a waste of a perfectly good table if we didn't use it," she says, kicking around some of the loose crystals herself. Shouldering her club, she follows Athessa, pausing only to lift her club like a bat and send some vase on a decorative table flying. "Bet a rich fucker like this had some nice wine."

Not that she would know the difference. Not that it mattered.

[inkindled]

Matthias is briefly left behind, too focused on kicking clumps of crystals apart. It takes the shatter of the vase to get his attention. Pleased, he laughs, and dashes over to them, making sure to run directly through the fallen chandelier and crunching the crystal underfoot.

"The minute we're back, I'll have the whole thing burnt up," he promises cheerfully. "And if we still want to have another fire when that's done, we can use the fireplace then. This is brilliant."

[sulahnan]

The stairs down into the wine cellar are steep, and dark, and judging by the undisturbed dust on the stone, it's been a while since anyone ventured down into the depths. As Athessa leads the descent, she focuses on the sounds of Jenny Lou and Matthias behind her, trying to consciously drown out the sound of her own breathing and the drum of her heart.

She can smell it. The wine. The bitter bite of it in the stale air, a sharp vinegary scent hinting at just how long it's been undisturbed. Someone broke a bottle down here, Athessa sees the severed neck of the bottle with the cork still inside, connected to the underside of a storage shelf with cobwebs and more dust.

On the bottom step, she hesitates. Takes a deep breath, and when she steps down — it's just a step. It's just a dusty cellar floor, bordered with tall racks of dusty wine bottles. A bundle of garlic hangs on the wall, some dried rosemary, a spare cheese board on a hook. Relief draws that breath back out, and she steps around the broken glass to grab an unbroken bottle.

"How many shall we spare?"