Oakcrest House

Tristan smiled and gave a friendly wink to Annette as she suggested a game of truth or dare later, and then watched as she and Saizo pranced off upstairs to take their tour. Ellie, who had been sitting next to Tristan although he had barely noticed her, had gotten up and headed upstairs as well. He wasn't sure if it was to join Annette's tour or to go to her room. But from the kitchen, he overheard Livana talking about her powers. This immediately piqued his interest and he got up from the couch and slipped himself into the kitchen to listen to her story as well. "So you're NOT the only one with powers..." he spoke as he got a moment to chime into the conversation. "You can do your shadow thing.. Annette is obviously psychic; Jason, do you have any powers?" he raised his brow, turning to Jason. He took another sip of his tea as he eagerly awaited his response. He could still hear the voices of Saizo and Annette upstairs echoing down to the rest of the house.

"Yeah..." Annette blushed, "Or something like that, anyway. I wish I knew who it was." She gave him a special grin that told him she knew he had given her the rose. "So, I showed you mine, now you show me yours." She nudged her head in the direction of his bedroom next to hers. While doing so, she closed her bedroom door and locked it from the inside again.

Downstairs, Jason listened with careful intent while Livana explained her discovery, making all the right faces at the right time. When Tristan came in and pointed out the abilities of everyone else, Jason jumped. He had been enthralled with Livana. He knew about Annette's ability, of course, and she of his. But now the biggest thought was what Saizo's ability was. He barely heard Tristan ask him about his.
Jason turned to Tristan with one of his infamous smart-alec grins. "I'm only the strongest man you'll ever meet." He said passively, and before he was threatened to prove so, Jason waltzed over to the dining table and lifted it with one hand completely off the floor. "Oh and you have that weird ability to... I don't know, calm people down or whatever." For once, Jason didn't say it in a mean way, but he generally did not know how to describe Tristan's ability besides that. It had kept Annette from ripping his eyes out earlier.

"As you wish," Saizo said in a polite manner, a small grin on his face, turned around and strolled towards his bedroom, only turning around to the sound of the young blonde haired girl running up the stairs. He turned back towards his room and stopped dead in front of it, before slowly oppening the door, saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to present . . . . My room." He opened the door, turned around and faced Annete, awaiting her reaction. Saizo had left his acoustic guitar sitting out on the floor nest to his bed, his easel was halfway set up, and the bedsheets were messy and uneatened.

Tristan was genuinely impressed with Jason's power as he witnessed him single-handily lift up the kitchen table. The table didn't look particularly light, either .. it had a really fancy carved, marble top. Tristan wouldn't get anywhere near lifting it up with even two hands.

"Oh and you have that weird ability to... I don't know, calm people down or whatever."

"How did you know?" Tristan asked, cocking his head. Had he been unintentionally "calming" people ever since he got here? And if so, how could Jason tell it was his presence? He could tell from Jason's expression that he had no idea how to describe Tristan's power. "I don't really know the ins and outs of it either." he replied in tandem to Jason's thoughts. "But that's not all .... check this out." Tristan reached inside his pocket and pulled out his diamond. "I found this when I was 13, a psychic had visited my mother and I a couple years before that; she told me that diamonds would play an extremely important role throughout my life. This one is worth a couple million." Naturally, Tristan expected Livana and Jason's eyes to widen; he let out a small laugh. "Don't even bother trying to steal it though; many have tried, and zero have succeeded. This little sucker has a way of finding his way back to me, whatever the case." Suddenly, and completely unexpected to Tristan, the diamond began to "glow" and emanate rainbow lights on all the walls of the kitchen. He was thoroughly confused, considering there was no sunlight shining in from the window for the diamond to refract .. it was still raining like nobody's business, and it was well past sundown. Jason, who had still been holding up the table (Tristan figured he must have forgot) suddenly lost all strength and slammed the table down to the floor. Tristan jumped, nearly having a heart attack at the loud noise and unexpected occurrence. At that simultaneous moment, the rainbow lights of the diamond had entirely dissipated. "Whoa ... that was crazy.. are you okay?" he asked, approaching Jason. "That's so weird.. that's never happened before. Where was that light even coming from??" Tristan looked entirely puzzled, and he looked back and forth from Livana's face to Jason's, in search of an answer, even though he doubted he would get one.

Indeed, when Tristan pulled out the diamond, Jason's eyes immediately saw red. The second to last time he saw a diamond was when he bought Annette diamond earrings. She had flushed them down a toilet after he confessed to cheating on her. He had bought her a lot of diamonds, all of which she pawned and kept the money for, after he confessed to cheating on her, except two. He bought her a diamond necklace as incentive for her to stay with him, and she shattered the gem from the inside with her mind.
With. Her. Mind.
Diamonds and Jason had a long, negative history.
Jason frowned, his arm hurt when he temporarily lost his strength. The force of the table falling caused him to also come crashing to the ground. Muttering angrily to himself, Jason stood up. It was that diamond, he knew. It had a neutralizing power. Jason didn't like it. Had Tristan not looked so puzzled himself, Jason would have throttled him right then and there. Instead, Jason kept his frown fixed and rubbed his humerus. "I'm fine." He lied. His ego was heavily bruised, and there was only one way to fix that. And chances of that at the moment were slim to none. "What the hell was that, though?" Jason could not keep the angry tone out of his voice, try as he might. "It like, took my strength away."
Hoping to prove himself wrong, he lifted up a chair and the table with one hand, and he felt his strength was back again. He jokingly glared at Tristan, "Well, if I'm ever holding a house that's about to come crashing down on someone, don't suck my powers away, because that would suck." He forced a smile.
----
After taking one look around his bedroom, Annette turned and looked at him, "Don't like to make your bed?" She teased before stepping into his room and looking around. It was so vibrant and red, it made her excited. She had to keep moving and smiling, it was like some kind of effect the room had on her.
Just then she spotted the vase of red roses on his window sill, and wandered over to count them. She counted eleven out loud, then turned back to him, "So what happened to the twelfth rose?" She asked with a tone of genuine curiosity. I know it was you, She sent the thought into his mind, knowing that the house echoed and didn't want the others downstairs to hear what she was saying.
Just then a loud crash echoed up the house to her and Saizo, and Annette couldn't help but run out and down the stairs to make sure everything was okay. When she heard Tristan stammering an apology, she returned back up stairs, convinced that whatever Jason got, he deserved.

Saizo smiled at the comment about his messy bed, and reached for a song book by his bed which he used to keep the door propped open as Annette explored his room. He took a seat on his bed where he left his Shakespeare book and watched as she walked about the room smiling. She stopped right in front of the rose vase on his window sill, where she counted out the roses, which made Saizo's heart beat faster and faster with each consecutive count. She knew, and when it came down to the missing rose, he would have nothing at all to say in reply. Suddenly, she turned around to him and said, "What happened to the twelfth rose," before he heard her also say, "I know it was.you."

But, strangely, she didn't move her lips at all to the words he heard, wich puzzled Saizo even moreso than the earlier occurances and mentionings. That didn't matter at all right now, Saizo thought, just say something and see what happens. Don't Blow it, Saizo stood up from his bed, a psuedo-puzzled look upon his face as he said, "I don't know. It dissappeared not too long ago. Maybe you have a clue as to where is went?" He began to approach Annette,only to be interrupted by a loud crash down stairs, which sent Annette downstairs in a hurry. Saizo began to pace around, muttering to himself, "Damn, did I blow it? What to do! What can I do?" He looked over to his belongings, and as he heard Annette rushing up the stairs, he quickly spritzed his ocean cologne on his neck and tosxsed the bottle onto the bed.

When Annette came back into Saizo's bedroom, she apologized for rushing out. She slowly made her way back to the window where the roses were sitting, "I don't know where the twelfth one could be. Maybe you gave it to somebody? Someone you admire?" She suggested with another smile, running a hand through her white-blonde hair. Before things got too carried away, Annette pushed herself off the wall and slowly made her way back towards his bedroom door, "I still have to show you the attic and the basement." I don't kiss on a first date, dear, she thought to him again as she turned into the hallway to the left, opposite the way of the stairs.
There was a door on the wall perpendicular to where the rooms were that was covered the same as the floral wallpaper, the only distinction was the brass door knob. "This leads into the attic," she turned the doorknob and opened the door. There was a staircase that led up to darkness. Fortunately, though, there was a series of lights that lit up the way with just a flick of a switch. Annette did just that, gathering that Saizo did not care much for suspenseful situations like she did. Well, not the ones related to horror movies, at least.
After a moment, she grabbed his hands again, "Come on!" She couldn't contain herself as she started climbing the stairs.

When Annette "questioned" him on the missing rose, Saizo replied, "I believe you already know who has it," with a small smirk, leaning agaist his walk-in closet casually. In the middle of the moment, Annete abruptly told him that she still had to show him the attic and the basement before he heard her say in his head, "I don't kiss on the first date, dear. " His mind raced with countless thoughts, one about why he was hearing her voice inside his head, and one about the two of them. She had used the words first date, which obviously meant the feelings were mutual, which made him tense. He didn't realize Annette's departure from his room until she was halfway down the hallway, so he quickly threw the songbook back onto his bed, slowly closed the door, and silently caught up with Annette as she rounded the corner.

He felt his heart pound yet again as they approached the door which gave off a mysterious air just earlier, stopping suddenly as Annette did in front of the brass handled door. She told Saizo that this door led to the attic, which was pretty obvoius because they were on the second floor, and opened the door, flicking on the lights for the staircase, which made Saizo feel a little bit calmer than earlier. Suddenly, she grasped ahold of his hands, yelled to him, "Come on," and pulled him up the stairwell towards the attic.

Ellie jumped and practically rolled out the bed with a soft thump. "Ow..." She frowned and peered around her room trying to remember the last few moments before she fell asleep and what had caused her to awake. She stood gingerly then moved over to her window to look out in digust at the rain. How could it still be raining? She needed sunlight! She was going to wither away like the flowers who got too much water. She turned her mind back to her previous thoughts. When she had been dreaming there was this warm, nice sensation then a crash. A loud shattering kind of crash. Ellie turned away from the wet and dark scene of rain to stare at her bedroom door. "It came from down there."

Ellie was heading out of her room and down the stairs to find what had awoken her. She had passed Saizo and Annette once more and had paused to apparently watch Annette lead the boy up to the Attic. Ellie didn't feel like saying hello or anything too cheery seeing as her mood wasn't exactly in a good shape. It was more like under the weather. Literally.

She stepped into the living room and looked to Tristan who was sitting on the couch in all his cute glory. Ellie stopped mid-thought quite shocked at her mind. Cute? When had she began considering him cute? That was something she hadn't been expecting. Ellie stood at the base of the stairs for a few more moments before snapping out of whatever daze she was in to smile. "Hello Tristan. Hey Livana." Ellie waved then looked to the other man struggling to come up with a name. She tapped her lips then an image of the roster flashed to mind. "Oh hello Jason." She smiled and bounced over to him to give him a gentle hand shake. "It's nice to meet you." She moved away from the others to fix up a cup of hot cocoa if it was possible. As she was searching the cupboards she glanced to Livana. "Do you want some tea or do you already have some? I'll make you tea if you would like." Ellie grinned pleased with her offer. Helping someone with anything at all was always a way to cheer her up.

"It's lovely," Livana peered through the diamond, feeling a kind of emptiness toward it. Diamonds are... transparent and pure, but gave off a sort of shallow vanity that didn't suit her well. She liked precious gems as much as the next girl. However she would say none of this to Tristan, who seemed to draw strength from it.

The floor beneath them was aged oak. Everything was dusty, but not enough to be a pest. It settled over neatly organized labeled cardboard boxes that were stacked against the whole perimeter of the rectangular room. There was a sofa and a coffee table in the middle of the floor, both with white covers speckled in dust. "I think that maybe once, this was someone's bedroom." Annette commented, ignoring the low frequencies bouncing off the walls. It had been a bedroom. The old resident died. And now, he haunted the room.
"I wanted to go through all the boxes just to see what I could find, but..." There were a lot of boxes. Most of them were unlabeled. The room also had a musty scent about it, but she had assumed it was just from age. She was not going to show him the compartment under the white-sheeted coffee table. Annette had a sinking suspicion that it would scare Saizo away from her for good. "This whole place is kind of like my little secret." She commented, turning towards him and holding both of his hands in hers and staring at him in the eyes sincerely. "Please do not bring any one else here." Of course, such a promise was futile- she kept the door locked at all times, he wouldn't be able to open the door unless he found the key.
After she had his word, Annette let go and plopped down on the couch. On the coffee table sat two books- photo albums. They were empty. "It's like a little hang out place or something. It doesn't even get too hot or cold up here; I've spent hours just sitting up here." Sitting up here avoiding Jason, she added to herself.
In the back of her mind, she began to wonder if it was a good idea at all to show him the basement.
"I think it's time for us to get ready for the evening gathering," She commented passively, standing up and stretching.
---

Jason, after the issue with the diamond had been cleared, saw that there was approximately half an hour left until this supposed truth-or-dare-slash-movie-watching event was to occur. Scowling to himself, he opened a cabinet and pulled out a bag of microwave popcorn. "Well, wanna go gather some people up? The gathering is about to begin." He commented passively to Tristan and Livana.

Saizo's golden eyes wandered around the room, feeling at peace in such a homey, little place, but also felt a creepy air about the room itself. Its as if someone had died in this room, and they were watching him, waiting for him to be the least vulnerable. If i knew i was going here and that this place was haunted, Saizo thought to himself while viewing the room, I would have brought my giant container of sage and burnt it all around this madhouse.

"I wanted to go through all of the boxes just to see what I can find, "Annette said and trailed off, which made Saizo anxious to know what she was about to say, but then lost that thought when she gripped his hands in hers. She explained to him how this was a little secret of hers, her eyes staring sincerely into his. He had to admit that the room had a mysterious air about it, but the moment he was sharing with Annette was romantic.

"Please do not bring anyone else in here," She requested. Saizo just couldn't speak right then and there, and just nodded in confirmation. She had let go of his hands and ploppped down on the couch, and he turned to the right to find a few photo albums sitting on a dusty, little coffee table. He reached down and picked one up, opening it and flipping through the many empty pages. He found a small piece of paper sitting loosely in the album, which he slipped down the sleeve of his dress shirt casually so Annette would not notice. He set down the book as Annette was telling him of the convienences of the room, which made this room seem like a small little paradise aside from the general creepiness of the room. His eyes travelled the room again, and he saw a peculiar little coffee table under a white sheet, feeling rather tempted just to check it out. He felt a little entranced by the little table, but quickly snappped out of the funk to Annette telling him that they should be leaving for a group gathering, to which he replied, "Alright. Is it fine with you if I come up here a little more often? I really like this little place. Very cozy and peaceful."

Tristan nodded to Jason's comment, and walked into the living room to wait. He mentally counted heads to himself "1, 2 .. myself makes 3. Saizo and Annette are upstairs, where's Ellie?" he thought to himself. He had come up with the perfect idea to suggest, suspicious that this house might hold some "strange and unusual" secrets..... he waited for everybody to gather before he would open his mouth.

Livana nodded as well. She took her cup of tea into the living room and pawed through a few drawers to find a coaster. Finding nothing, she set the cup on a playing card that had bee left out. The Queen of Spades... that sounded about right. She folded her hands in her lap, not so much a prim motion, but one engrained into an inane habit. She waited for the others to start appearing.

"Just tell me, and I will unlock the door for you." Annette smiled genuinely, standing up and offering her hands to him to help him get off the couch. She headed over to the stairs, and made her way all the way to the entrance-floor to meet with everyone else for the gathering. Once downstairs, Annette leaned against the railing, exchanging a girlish smile with Livana.

"Are more people coming or is this it? With Truth or Dare it's usually the more the merrier." She commented, looking at Tristan who seemed to be paying attention to people.

"We're going to try to gather some people." Jason answered in place of Tristan. "If people don't want to show up, it'll work out with a smaller group just as well."

Saizo grinned when he was told that all he would need to do is ask, and quickly followed Annette out of the attic, panic begining to settle in his mind. As he left the attic, he quickly fished out the paper he found in the photo album from inside his shirt and unfolded it, being suprised at what he saw. It was a portrait of an aged old woman who looked alarmingly familiar. He felt a chill down his spine, and quickly ran towards the down stairs, attempting to find sanctuary with the rest of the people, no matter how much he didn't like them. Saizo put on a small grin as to hide the fright he had just experienced.

Malio sat on to the back of the yellow taxi, not sure whether to be happy, or sad that he had leave home and live off with a bunch of strangers for a year. One thing was for sure, he swore he was never going to fly on a plane for as long as he lived. Reminiscing about the last few painfully fruserating days, flying from Italy to America, being rerouted to Spain heading to Germany, Germany to Britain, Britain to Peru, then Peru to Canada, and Canada to the U.S, then take a helicopter to the floating island... Malio rubbed his head against the window of the taxi, then held his head up with the palm of his hand, thinking of the days he had to stay awake in terminals and airplaes. At least it was fun to tease some of the passengers on some of the flights with some simple, surprising, and "dirty" illusions.

The yellow taxi slowed as approached the mansion, a extremely large one at that. Enough to hold more then 8 people he thought to himself. The taxi then stopped as it reached the front of the house,

"Here's the end of the line." The fat taxi driver bellowed out.
"Thank you."

Malio gave the man a generous tip before leaving out the door, popping up the trunck and grabbed his heavy bag out of it, which consisted his entire library of books, three spare suits and a couple of fedora hats. He waived over to the taxi driver as he drove off, walking up to the front door of the mansion. Well, time to put on a show! He knocked on the door, awaiting an answer from one of the people inside, anxious to unpack and take a nice cold shower first before he decides to make any major moves.

Annette looked at the door when it knocked. Raising her eyebrows, her eyes scanned the room. "I guess we aren't the only ones." She muttered.

"Speaking of more people..." Jason unlocked to door and swung it open. "Welcome to the fun house, I'm Jason." He moved aside so the new member could come on in and join the group. After the brown haired and fedora wearing kid came in, Jason shut the door a little too hardly. The house trembled just a little bit. "Sorry," He muttered.

"Well, hello." Annette smiled at him warmly. "Welcome to the rest of your life, possibly. I'm Annette, this is Saizo and those two are Livana and Tristan." She pointed to each person correctly, then brushed her hair out of her face. She wanted to help the new person, but didn't want to leave Saizo's side. "Oh and that's..."

"Jason." Jason answered for himself, only barely giving Annette a scowl. "And, you are?"

Malio was greeted by a wide swing of the door by a brown haired guy who looked as if he spent few years working out.
"Welcome to the fun house, I'm Jason." he said.

I walked in the spacious house eyeing everyone else that's gathered, right before jumping as door slammed shut and the house shook. "Sorry," I hear from Jason. Damn brute... One of the lovely ladies introduced herself. "Well, hello." before she smiled. "Welcome to the rest of your life, possibly. I'm Annette, this is Saizo and those two are Livana and Tristan." she said pointing to each individual. "Oh and that's..."

"Jason." he said. Annete looked at me once again. "And, you are?" Malio snapped back his mind as it was wandering and quickly introduced himself. "I'm Malio De Luca but all of you can call me Malio. I flew in from Italy on a couple of planes and I'm glad to finally be here. It's nice to meet you all." He smiled at Annete and gently pulled her hand up, gently kissing the back of it. "It's a pleasure to meet you too." It was the way he was raised, to be a gentleman afterall and this was his customary greeting.

Annette couldn't stop her face from turning bright red at Malio's kind and alien gesture. It was almost right out of an old movie. When he released her hand, she turned her head away from everyone to get her girlish giggles out, then let her hand wrap around Saizo's arm with an affectionate squeeze.

Jason crossed his arms and leaned against the door, locking it. Not that it really mattered- it was a freaking floating house. No one was going to come sneaking in in the middle of the night. "You're just in time for a house-wide game of getting-to-know-each-other truth or dare." He smiled, then moved over to sit next to Livana.

"Oh I have to get those movies," Annette smiled and locked eyes with Livana, "You should come with me, we can chat on the way." She squeezed Saizo's arm again before beginning to head up the stairs.

Saizo made a small freindly wave to Malio as he was pointed out by Annette, but then felt his blood boil at the sight of him kissing Annette's hand. Calm down, Saizo. It's just a friendly gesture. If anything else happens, initiate psychological warfare immediately. Saizo's anger fueled thoughts were soon calmed when Annette squeezed his arm affectionately. When Annette left for the movies, Saizo walked up to Malio, saying, "Welcome to the Oakcrest House, Malio." He outstreched his hand for a friendly handshake, trying to at least be on good terms with this new person.

Annette walked up the stairs silently with Livana, but when they got to her bedroom, she couldn't stop the girlish laughter from escaping her lips. "I think we have a fun time ahead of us." She unlocked her door and opened it, revealing her classically-designed black and white room. The rose was still on her bed. Annette wandered over to a black bookshelf and plucked the two movies of choice off their appropriate shelves.

"It was from Saizo." Annette grinned, catching Livana smiling at the rose. Annette flopped down on her bed and picked it up gently, "You know how Tristan and Jason figured out that everyone here has some kind of... ability? When I saved Saizo and revealed myself?" She waited until Livana nodded in recognition. Annette twirled the rose in her fingers and stared at the spinning petals. "Saizo has no idea. I don't think he has an ability."