Evans, hearing the sudden shouting, ran up the stairs. "What fresh new hell is this?" He asked once he got to William.

(BTW, that was William's 'Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction' moment...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLESwFqDm9k&t=117
)

William runs his hand through his hair, then points at the trail of ash and blood.
"Marina survived the fire long enough until the stake was burnt to cinders... then, she was apparently able to move again. She's out there. Again."

"huh.. " Jake said with a slight shrug as nothing came of his willing power into himself. He put the coin away and went to see what was going on with the fuck-fuckity-fuck-fuck brigade. "Who's Marina?"

"The mother of most of the vampires in this area, ready to spawn more."

William has returned to is cool demeanor, having fought down his anger and frustration.
"She'll be weakened right now... we need to find her before she had a chance to feed and recover."

Hank sighs and trudges back down the stairs as Jake comes up.

The folk talking to Jake (particularly William) notice a distinct smell of singed cotton.

---

Back in the study, Abraham straightens papers as best he can one-handed. "At least it doesn't sound like they're shooting again," the butler sighs.

There's a distinct "Go away, you impertinent contaption!" and - oddly - Mrs. Bruebaker's laughing from the living room, before the clank hastens in as if shooed or pushed.

"They were both doing kissing at the same time!" it announces, then patters over to the desk and picks up a document curiously. Abraham is just a little too slow to stop it 'eating' the paper, clip and all.

"No, no, no- stop that!" Abraham tries to remove the maps from Alouette's easy reach. The clank tilts its head at him.

"A thing is not damaged if it has gone to Heaven, My Man Abraham," it tells him.

"Huh ... random ... anyone else smell that?" Jake asked

A thin trail of smoke rises from the darkening patch at Jake's pocket.

Jake promptly removes the coin from his pocket and lobs it into the nearest fireplace or thing that might hold an item which is on fire.

There being no such receptacle for the object burning into Jake's hand in the upstairs hallway, the huckster  has to resort to throwing it down the stairs.

Hank catches it out of the air on the ricochet and gives Jake an odd look, clearly not understanding why the crazy guy just lobbed the coin back at him. He shrugs, flips it and goes back downstairs and into the kitchen.

Jake was utterly confused how he got upstairs when moments ago he was in the kitchen. "The house is stranger than I thought." he muttered to himself. He goes in search of a place to hold up while this whole load of craziness works itself out as his current issues with the lovely snake spirit are obviously causing him to lose what little sanity he already wasn't sure he had. Jake made sure to take the axe he'd found with him.

Despite a large hole by the door, the dark master bedroom appears quiet, mostly intact and unoccupied. The hall bathroom (bath recently upturned by William) is also dark and quiet, but it's mostly taken up by a dead cow. It looks like there's a further bedroom down the hall.

Beside him, a chill breeze blows from the room with the broken window he jumped through earlier, and behind him are the stairs to the attic and the well-lit and not at all quiet library.

[[I presumed, since Jake "went to see" what William was doing and started talking to him in a normal right-next-to-you voice, that Jake had gone all the way up the stairs...Ward certainly has a wardrobe for him to hide in if he likes.]]

Jake picked up the nearest chair he could find and put it out of the way then promptly sat in it. Leaning the axe he'd found downstairs against the wall beside him, he remained quiet and listened to the insanity which was going on around him. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a set of cards, old and battered and began dealing out hands of black jack to himself.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:43, Thu 26 Feb 2015.

In reply to Hank Miller (msg # 256):

Evans rests his hands on Abraham's shoulder. "No no, it's alright. Let her work...she processes information quickly this way, and can recreate the material from memory, provided we get her paper to work with."

He looks over at William. "Well. It would seem we have a chase on our hands. Let Alouette absorb the information...we can follow her lead as to the best places to go. And we'll need to corral Hardin and take him with us...I have no intention of leaving him here."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:04, Sun 15 Mar 2015.

Pierce nods.

"Ready if you are. We need to hurry, too."

"We need some venom too. And a way to deliver it. And some liquor. Abraham, is there any liquor in the house?"

"Should self continue to consume information?" Alouette queries, clearly getting mixed signals here.

Abraham tries to smooth the internal distress of a butler faced with disorder and a paperwork-eating clank from his voice and features. "Certainly we have, sir, but a creature of the size described...there's a cask of brandy in the cellar, but that's as much as I can offer for concentrated spirits."

Upstairs, Abbie leans over the rail to frown at the floor below. "I hope they're gathering their powers down there or something," she remarks.

In reply to Abigail Bruebaker (msg # 268):

Jake paused in his dealing to glance at the young girl , "Probably, snake in my head would LOVE me to be there so it could learn more." He dealt the girl into his game of black jack even if she didn't notice.

"Er...right," Abbie says, a touch confused, but is distracted by goings-on in the library and drifts over there, then out of sight of the doorway. Percy goes back downstairs to the kitchen, agitated. In Jake's head, the rattling rises to a deafening blur of sound.

A weathered hand falls on the cards and picks them up. "You don't mind?" the old man asks, in a voice you could listen to forever.

[[all right, I'll give Jake a separate thread presently.]]

"Alouette, you can learn the information, but please do not eat the documents." He was pretty sure that if it was told to consume the documents, it might do that just literally.

Alouette starts making that high, glassy sound it does when given immediately conflicting commands; Adrian realises he's never seen it read anything normally.

"Alright alright...consume it however you want." He tried to get a good look at things before Alouette ate them, so that just in case the clank went caput they wouldn't be totally lost.

---

OOC:

Some kinda roll?

The clank sets to 'consuming' every piece of loose paper in easy reach.

[[I'll just give you a memory roll (Smarts w/modifiers, depending) if it comes up. The're mostly maps here.]]

"Ah, splendid, glad you were prompt to rejoin us," Evans greets the Mayor, who simply glares at him. "Deputy Vega, would you please fetch that cask of brandy out from the kitchen cellar and tell Mrs.Bradshaw it would be best if she stays here in case - God forbid - there are any other supernatural occurences in the vicinity."

"Mr.Lazarus, if you are still content...I heard there was a steam wagon about somewhere; please go and secure it. I will go and obtain our dubious bandit friends with Mr.Bruebaker...Alouette, please stay in this room until we come and fetch you."

"Okay!" Aluette chirps.

"Right!" Evans claps his hands decisively. "Let's see if we can't trick some venom out of a tipsy snake wizard! Or at least distract him a bit. Onward!"

Adrian nods, and goes to do the Marshal's bidding, going to get the cask of brandy.