[HALLOWEEN] The Graveyard Shift [Team VOWL]

Going to the Graveyard was normally not anyone's first choice. But... Here they were, investigating a place like this. Vaneera wasn't really sure what Vanta was expecting to find here. It was true that it was uncovered in the previous investigation, but surely if anything was hiding out here of all places, the village would be aware of it.

Still, part of it was because of the staggered approach they were taking as well. They couldn't have too many show up in a single location -- particularly the Village. Though Vaneera was not expecting to turn anything up here, it was two birds with one stone right now.

"Though, it really is an unpleasant place after all..."

She commented.

Places like this tended to soak up a lot of negative emotion. It made sense, when you considered the purpose of a Graveyard. It seemed to be enough to put basically anyone on edge, but it was doubly true for Arcana.

... Vaneera was keeping it pretty well in check, all things considered. And she was keeping pretty close to Motet too.  As far as anyone else was concerned, it would just be that they were uncomfortable being alone in a place as eerie like this. One might think that odd, especially out of Vaneera of all people, but...


... A thick fog. Light had a hard time penetrating here, and all the brush and trees only further obscured it. The grounds were cared for, but it didn't seem to be the biggest priority for the village. The weather just seemed to want to add onto that.

"Well... Any idea of what we're supposed to be looking for here? I'm not seeing anything immediately stand out."

Vaneera asked of Vask Vanta, the one currently in charge of this operation.

Why him, and not Veronica? Well...

Right now, Veronica was standing even closer to Mauve than Vaneera was to Motet... Veronica was trying to put on a brave face.

Emphasis on the bolded part.

That and it was true that this was Vanta's idea. They would need an idea of how to proceed. At the very least, Vaneera could feel only faint traces of Grimm -- probably drawn by that previously stated negativity. Not that she could confirm such a thing without seeming very suspicious.

... Save for one oddity. She could feel some sort of presence. It felt like a Grimm, but... Unlike them, too? It didn't strike her as an Arcana; neither a Minor or a Major one. But that was all she could determine.

But with the way this place was filled with negative emotion, it was difficult to pin-point. That, or maybe it was a stealthy type? Those did exist. Vaneera was trying her best to hone her focus on it. But it wasn't easy, especially since she had to keep up her cover while doing so. That and pay attention to what the Team was doing.

At the very least... It should be fine since it can't approach without her noticing, maybe? She didn't like keeping them in the dark, but this was neither the time or the place to get into what she was.

It would be a long time before they were ready to learn about Arcana.

But that feeling... Warm and sickly. It wasn't quite hot, but felt like being soaked in humid bogwater.

She hadn't felt anything like that from Grimm before. A place like this, you'd expect it to chill you to the bone. It was such a weird contradiction. Like... Maybe it wasn't meant to be here? But even with that in mind, she did notice that as she carefully moved through this space -- that feeling was most noticeable near the gravestones.

It was no use trying to figure all this out with such limited information. On top of it all, she also had to keep an eye on Motet, there's no telling how she was handling all of this right now.

"How are you doing, Motet?"

She queries, hoping that she was having a better time of things...

"No kidding, this place is damn gloomy. If you weren't my teammate, I'd be getting  the creeps between that and your outfit."

She nested, referring to the cloak that Vaneera liked to wear. She looked over at Veronica, who was pressing close to her. Of the situation wasn't so serious, she would be relishing this close contact they were having right now. She shrugged.

"I ain't ever seen or heard about dead people coming back to life. And I've been to cemeteries before."

Mauve suspected now wasn't quite good time to mention that she had run into some nasty things while patrolling cemeteries. She winced when Veronica cried out, her head looking at Vanta briefly. She held in a snicker, instead opting to reach out and pet her girlfriend's shoulder a couple of times.

"Comeon Veronica, you've dealt with scarier things than this."

Mauve didn't close her eyes. She didn't have to with the experience she had. She let Veronica focus on it. She instead looked over at Vanta.

"Yeah, I feel it. But whatever has been hanging around here isn't coming out in the open right now."

Fortunately, Veronica's mind seemed to be in the right place, even though she was scared. Mauve didn't interrupt as she and her teacher talked. The two of them were really close, and she wasn't going to interrupt an experienced hunter. At least not when it came to giving Veronica good advice.

Mauve looked over at Vanta, scratching the back of her head.

"Nothing savory, I can tell ya that much. We don't know jack about who or what is behind this, but some basic things are the possibility of tunnels, privacy, things like that. Without knowing more, all I have are ideas."

Mauve looked over at Veronica, and could tell she was getting scared. Mauve sighed, rubbing the back of her head.

"Yeah, crypts and mausoleums are the only places you could hide here. Should be easy to tell if someone's been in them or not. Those places aren't disturbed often. Maybe we'll get lucky and find tracks or prints."

Mauve glanced over at Veronica, then gave Vanta a look. "Maybe Veronica and someone else can stand guard as we investigate those places. Not everyone has to go exploring crypts."

Veronica seemed really scared of the idea of looking inside a crypt. Maybe Vanta would take pity and not make her walk into one.

Motet was perhaps the only one unphased in one way or another by the graveyard, at least on the surface. This was just how her brain was wired. It wasn’t that she was an idiot, or that she was just fearless. It was a mix of several things, she was innocent, mixed with a logical mind. She was free as the wind, yet also gifted with the determination of that same wind to go forward, no matter what. This graveyard was just a place for her. For her, if ghosts were real she’d cut them down, same of zombies or anything else. But none of that was teh case right now. Right now this was an investigation, and she was Vaneera and Veronica’s, team VOWL's hunting dog. Well, mainly Vaneera’s of course, but Veronica was nice and she was doing pretty good as the team lead so far. She didn’t even mind following her orders most of the time! Vanta sadly did not have this benefit. Oh she did teach him like a teacher, sure-but the leadership benefits Veronica and Vaneera had just wort there… poor mr vanta.

”Is it Vani…? It doesn't seem that bad to me! maybe smells a bit though….”

Bat rested against her shoulder she pinched her nose with her free hand shaking her head.

”Yuck!”

She was enjoying being close to vani however, it was just like when they were on the road! The two were partners, this was no different in that regard. But there was more to it than th. While he graveyard itself didn’t put Motet out any, the emotions behind them did. Of course all Arcania would be affected, given there make up. But Motet was particularly in touch with her grimm nature, her more feral side.  Her team mates had seen that fact a few times now, Veneers was more used to it than anyone. Because of this she and perhaps a certain other berserker tended to get the worst effects from these sorts of things-that was her part of staying so close to veneers, who would here her growl every once in a while, her hands, which held Vaneera’s own. The red hooded girl would notice her tensiness, but also an inkling to pounce at…. Anything, such was the power of places like this,  where it could heavily influence her. Places with a high pool of emotions were like that. Vaneera however? Veneers could reign her in even in moments like this, such was the strength of the bond they shared-even as the red hooded girl likely dealt with her own issues as well. Motet’s body would twitch at times- but she’d not lose control… not with Vani there. Motet’s situation meant that she didn’t cat, up to certain cues those around her were making, such as Veonica’s brave face routine, or her being just as close to mauve. Or in fact a lot of Vanta’s words though she tried to keep herself tuned in, vaneera would likely be doing the clear listening for the pair, given her condition compared. Motet put on a strong smile for Vaneera, one the fellow Arcania could likely see through it with ease. Though it wasn’t overpowering her, she was struggling with the flux of negative emotion. Like Vaneera she felt this negative emotion. Like Vaneera she could feel something.. But she couldn't quite place it. Maybe if she… the team was used to her acting more wild of course, and she could…exercise just a little of this out of her system, maybe… but it would wait. She turned to Veronica and smiled.

”Silly Veronica, dead people go in the ground they don’t walk about!”

Ooooh Veronica could jump so high! They should have a contest some time!

Veneers would probably try to stop Motet from focusing to hard, for obvious reasons, but well…

”Right teach”

Ah…. This time the growls would be clear for the rest of the team to hear, if they hadn’t before, a flinch in Motet’s eyes, for a millisecond, the briefest of moments a flash of red was there as she gripped Vaneera’s hand to steady herself. This resulted in her not participating in the talk about the graveyards, as she brought herself back to center. Still when she focused… She was fuzzy like that, it was murky… hard to not just give in and let her instincts guide her but… if she did some she… could help Vani.. and help Veronica.

So, at least for everyone else it was time for another wardrobe malfunction as Motet got on all fours once more, letting go of Vaneera’s hand she looked to her.

”I…. Can do it”

And then… she let it flow, and she took off on all fours down the graveyard, eventually stopping around a set of gravestones she turned to the team members who had likely followed her, trying to think how to communicate what she had found. Her first thought was to make herself bleed, and so she opened her mouth to clasp her teeth around her arm before she caught sight of Vaneera. The murkiness became easier as she shook her head.

”Blood…not beast, Human… or… Faunis… wait.. More, more!”

She took off again just as it seemed she calmed down, this time towards the crypts,, she circled them, sniffing up at the air, this time there was no… extreme measure being seen. But as the teammates came up she’d make herself over to Vaneera, curling up by her feet and looking up at the group.

”I smell… perfume, it’s that trashy expensive stuff Vani, the lavender is… in the air, it’s gross… does that… help? You could… find that type, maybe… I could tell if we saw….. it…

She then curled right up up to Vaneera’s feet, not moving from that spot as she seemed to glare around. Vanta and Muave got a low growl though a notable difference was that the fericness of Muave's was not nearly as much as Vanta's., while Veronica got a wordless smile of contentedness. Well… the team had seen Motet’s more feral side, to the extreme already, near the beginning of the year. Though this time wasn’t as extreme and perhaps even… useful? Still Vaneera would be the one best equipped to handle Motet when she was like this, before they continued on. After all, we woudn't want Motet to stay in her feral fog the whole time would we?

The exchange between Vanta and Veronica... Vaneera wanted to say something about it -- but revealing anything about Devil right now was likely to cause more problems than it was worth. Besides, she had a real knack for showing up the second you start talking about her. She'd prefer to think that Devil wasn't coming back from that beating; but it was foolish to assume that was the case.

More importantly though, he mentioned that the Grimm hung around places like this, and typically got more active at night. It only made sense. During the day people were more confident, things felt less eerie to them. But the night itself was like an attractive beacon for the Grimm. Doubly so in a place like this.

"Yeah, I've noticed it for awhile now. Keep your eyes open, there's no telling if they'll take an interest in us or not."

Vanta continued talking about the kind of opportunities a Graveyard presented to shady people. While she could understand the thought process, the reality was a little bit more difficult than that. More or less like she thought as well, Motet was having a hard time keeping things under control; but she was really trying, too. But conversations pretty much weren't going to be her strong suit right now.

That meant Vaneera would be handling it in the meantime.

"There's a problem with that theory, if we're running with the idea that it's people abducting persons of interest.", Vaneera begins. With her free hand, she then gestures to the Graveyard around them.

"Imagine trying to make trips in and out of here. Especially while carrying someone. It's impossible for a single person. You would need at least one other person backing you up. Probably more to make it a lasting operation."

Vaneera pauses for a little bit, then adds; "None of the investigations suggested new or unknown faces around the village. I... Suppose a cult of some sort could be related. But nothing was found to suggest that either."

It just didn't add up. A hideout here presented it's own risks, then there was the concern of the numbers being easy to spot as far as the Village was concerned -- there should have been ANY number of things pointing to activity here, or leading to here.

"Still... As far as secret hideouts go, I have to admit, this is probably as secret it could get."

It was about then that she could feel Motet starting to pull away. Vaneera stopped talking and gently tugged her back -- only for Motet to reassure her that she can do this. Reluctantly, Vaneera lets her go, and watches Motet closely.

It's difficult for her, that much is very obvious; but she was already starting to reveal information that could be easily missed. She was about to say something as Motet drew her arm to her mouth -- but the visual exchange between the two prompted Motet to halt that action and speak instead.

Vaneera had been following along, keeping up with Motet surprisingly well. Eventually the 'chase' comes to an end along with Motet's investigation. She immediately retreats towards Vaneera, and the girl in the red cloak takes the time to kneel down and gently pet Motet's head to comfort her.

"You did well, Motet."

She was using a soothing tone. This was difficult for the both of them -- but especially so for Motet. Vaneera had to lend her aid right now... But even so, she'd look to the others on her Team.

"Looks like there has been activity here. I'll need a little bit to calm Motet down, but we will need to follow up these leads."

This was sure to raise questions from Vanta's perspective... But there was no use worrying about that now. Motet was the priority, Vaneera could figure everything else out later. So for now, she kept her attention on the girl lost in a feral fog.

"Stay as close to me as you need to, Motet."

It looked like this might take a little bit of time. So that left the others a chance to consider their options here.

Mauve's mechanical ears were more sensitive than even her organic ones had been. Even if she hadn't felt her girlfriend's heartbeat against it, she heard it. She smiled at her as she felt it slow down.

"Of course it's creepy! We're in a graveyard on a mission. You'd be a weirdo if you weren't uncomfortable here. It's why grimm can get drawn to them."

Mauve kept close to her girlfriend, moving with her as she inched away from Motet. She glanced at Professor Vanta as he talked about Grimm.

"Grimm that ambush others tend to wait in enclosed spaces or wait for the cover of darkness.we should be okay during the day if we keep our wits about us."

Which of course brought them full circle back to the crypts. Mauve looked back at her girlfriend, letting out a chuckle at her statement.

"I bet you've got plenty of secret passages back home in your Mansion. It isn't as glamorous as they make it in the storybooks Veronica."

She pat Veronica's shoulder briefly, looking towards one of the mausoleums.

"Truth is people can come out to a graveyard for a lot of reasons. Most of jt ja graverobing. But if you wanted a place to hide and do shady stuff, crypts are a good place to do it. Especially if you know the structure inside and out. Old places can have all kinds of passages."

Mauve scratched her head, looking over at Vanta. "So basically if we're dealing with a perk doing shady crud, they would stand out in some way. Guess we should ask around if some villager has a semblance that allows for something like that."

Mauve looked over at Vaneera. She gave her teammate a smirk. "I didn't take you to be a horror junky. Crazy cults are boogiemen out in places like this. Secret hideouts and cults: wouldn't that be something?"

Mauve kept pace and followed both Vanta and her girlfriend after Motet.

"She does this kind of stuff all the time teach. I hope you don't get high blood pressure."

Mauve frowned as more information came to light. Things were getting weirder and weirder. "Perfume? Who's there to impress out here, the undertaker?"

Mauve nodded at Vanta. "Be right there teach! She smiled back at her team leader, bumping her fist against Veronica's shoulder gently.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be back in a jiffy Roni. I gotta go slay some Zombies real quick."

Mauve winked, then followed Vanta to the crypt. She helped him push it open. She looked around as they went inside. Rays of sunlight filtered through? Illuminating the crypt.



Mauve walked over to one of the coffins and ran a gloved finger over one. She pinched her index and thumb together, frowning.

"Not a speck of dust anywhere. This place is damn clean for a crypt."

Mauve looked over at the far wall, taking a few steps and putting her hands on her hips.



"Pretty ornate place for a small town. Somebody's taking care of this crypt. But if you're doing nefarious stuff, why bother to clean the place?"

It probably looked weird to others, the sight of one woman leaning down to pet the other, like they were some sort of pet. But it wasn’t like that for Motet and Vaneera. Motet, in her feral state was more akin to an animal and so this was her way of showing the girl care. ‘Treating her like a pet’ was showing her affection, and it was how to handle Motet in this state. In response to that petting Motet gave off a purr, well, you could call it a purr… if Grimm purred, that is. But it was something Vaneera was used to, along with Motet rubbing her head head against the hooded girl’s leg in appreciation. Such a thing showed the connection the two shared, their bond. There was no one Motet trusted more, even when she went wild, or in this case into simply a feral state. Motet didn’t really understand the other people around her like this, it was as if they spoke a forign language, with her paying more attention to their bodily movements. But she understood Vaneera, she always did. She didn’t need to understand her words clearly to know what he wanted. When told to keep a close as she wanted she did just that. On all fours she he curled right up to Vaneera, her head trooped a bit with the energy in the area, causing her to pout, but staying close to Vaneera was her light in the darkness.

”Va…ni…”

Her words would come off as a growl, a series of Grimm like sounds to most people, but Vaneera in her experience would be able to make it out. The Arcania was winding down, slowly but surely. She was becoming content, or as content as she could be.

”Any..thing.. For Va…ni”

She gave another pout as she rubbed up against the hooded girl, more of her grimm speak coming out.

”So..rry… for… all…”

As Vanta and Mauve proceeded into the crypt Motet looked to to her team leader with another pout, giving her grimm like muel

”Help….ful….?”

She would then lean against Vaneera once more, briefly grimsing, showing the struggle she's going through, even though she was getting better at it. This was but a small glimpse of what Vaneera had gone through in earlier years, and why she was so good at handling her now. A simple hand touched Vaneera’s playfully with a smile, another invited Veronica to come over with them.

Motet was simple like this, in thought and action, but perhaps that simpleness had its own charm?

When it came to the debate of using the Graveyard as a potential hideout... Each member had their own thoughts on it. Vanta giving a reasonable response, and Mauve mostly poking fun with the 'horror junkie' comment.

"Hmm. I only suggest a cult because even with a Semblance that lets you move through the Grimm, new faces would still stick out in the village. It's not like back at Vale. But I also don't see anyone in the village doing something like this without a reason. Plus there's the fact that it's only started happening recently."

If there was a long history of this, it almost assuredly would have come up. Everything going on right now had to be happening recently -- and in that case, that makes anyone in the village an unlikely suspect... Unless you have a cult. Then all bets are off.

"Either way, we don't have enough information yet to determine anything... So, the investigation continues."

Though what became even more pressing as a discussion was the 'outburst' from Motet, with Vanta naturally asking questions about her being like this.

"Yeah. We've had a pretty complicated past. We're working on it, though.", she explains briefly. "It's a long story, so there's no sense going into it now. Don't worry, though. I can handle this."

Vaneera DID shoot a look at Mauve over her particular explanation of Motet, though...

Some might have thought that the headpat from Vaneera and Motet's behavior implied a "master and pet" type relationship between the two. But this exchange between Motet and Vaneera was sure to put such a thought to rest. Whatever happened to the two of them was obviously complicated, and it meant that Vaneera was shouldering a lot of responsibility. Always going out of her way to look after Motet.

Though it hardly came across as an imposition in the present circumstances. She gives a nod as Motet's words come out in a growl -- though not out of hostility. Merely out of a struggle to contain the feral urges.

"That's right. I'm here."

Vaneera continues to smile softly. Motet's next words came out with the same level of struggle; but Vaneera had no troubles understanding the words nonetheless.

"You don't have to push yourself so hard like that... But I am proud of you, Motet."

Vaneera catches sight of Vanta and Mauve heading down to investigate further in the Crypts. Veronica opted to stay behind at the moment -- which was probably for the best, and not just because she was understandably uneasy right now. Vaneera and Motet needed an extra pair of eyes right now, and Veronica could do that.

Motet then asks if she was helpful, and to that Vaneera gives another calm nod.

"Of course you were. You found us some very useful leads."

When Motet's hand playfully touched Vaneera's hand, it prompted the red-haired girl's smile to become more noticeable.

If anything happened... Vaneera would protect Motet and Veronica. They also had to be sure to cover Vanta and Mauve right now. When Motet gestures for Veronica to come over, Vaneera glances at her.

"Looks like Motet wants to help you too, Veronica. You can count on her if you're still feeling uneasy."