Nocturnum - Chapter I

[Majin]

"Sure, go ahead," Kris motions towards the scaffolding. "Just be careful," she adds. "The frequency of it happening hasn't really been determined. It's just something everyone notices from time to time. Robert is generally around doing this or that. I don't have his phone number or anything if that's what you mean," she explains as Roger gets set to climb the scaffolding.

Gabriel walks out into the lobby and up one of the grand staircases to the landing. As he ascends the stairs, he can make out the very faint playing of music somewhere. He recognizes it he believes, that it sounds like an orchestra playing the popular classical tune, "Carmina Burana," familiar from the soundtracks of numerous movies, including Excalibur.

As Gabriel gets to the top of the landing he notices a row of doors against the north wall. Two sets of double doors which look to lead out to the balcony of the theater, two doors labelled 'Storage' and a single door in the center with a window that looks to be the projection room.

 

[hippocrachus]

Gabriel wasn't one for movies, including Excalibur, which as he would recall was a horrible rendition of the Arthurian myths that he loved so much. He did however recognize the piece of music, considering O Fortuna one of the most popular if not the best modern choir pieces. Modern compared to Mozart.
Gabriel went out onto the balcony first to enjoy the view.

 

[ae1vart0n]

"I was more hoping he was around somewhere now. Thanks for letting me do this."

Roger set the recorder to start recording and began to climb the scaffolding with the wireless mic held sideways in his mouth for easy access. He also wanted both hands on the scaffolding. If what this girl heard made her fall, it could have messed with her vestibular system. If that was the case Roger could start feeling dizzy at any time.

When he got near the top he started looking for a safe place to set the mic. A ledge or a crevice would work well.

 

[Majin]

Gabriel starts to heads to look over the balcony. Looking down he notices something peculiar. The pattern of the carpet below from this height resembles intertwined, naked bodies. Suddenly, without warning the lights flicker from what Gabriel imagines must be a power surge, and in the flashing light the bodies seem to writhe and shift. [sblock]Sanity check - Passed (0 Sanity Lost)[/sblock] The lights come back on full, and the carpet pattern just looks like ordinary carpet. From another room, Gabriel hears another Metro volunteer call out: "Hey, somebody get Robert to check the wiring again!"

Pausing in his ascent up the scaffolding during the power surge, Roger continues again once the lighting has righted itself and reaches the top a few moments later. Finding a suitable spot for his microphone he sets it up, taking the time to examine the carvings in the ceiling. He notices that they are similar to those in the lobby, figures from fantasy and mythology, however, the ones here are much less pleasant. The faces are leering and unpleasant. Some scenes suggest the aftermath of rape and torture, but never clearly enough to be definite.

It is then that he also notices that he can hear the hum that Kris spoke about as well. It does indeed sound like breathing and it's very faint. It seems to be coming from beyond the ceiling in a general sort of way. Perhaps the ceiling itself has the source among it, he wonders.

 

[Velmont]

"Hey, what happening?" tells Steven as the light flickered. "How do you want to see a movie if the electricity isn't good. That could have stop the movie... bah, it's not my rpobblem. I'll go take a look at the projection room. I've always wanted to see those big roll for teh projection." On that, Steven leave Dun as he finish to take the picture and go into the projection room.

 

[hippocrachus]

This place needs a professional electrician in here... he thought to himself, giving the carpet and lights a wary look. Gabriel never really got into lighting design in school, but he was sure no lawful inspector would pass this place in its current state, and was pretty certain getting this Robert fellow to "check the wiring" again wasn't going to fix the problem. I wonder how much Metro is willing to spend on this insurance nightmare.
Gabriel glanced one final time at the floor below and shook his head. If the pattern was intentional, someone took the mythical sex-god theme too far for a public building. He left the balcony for the projector room and came across one of the students from before. Steven?
"How's it going?" Gabriel asked politely, noticing the kid's athletic build and easily placing him as a football goon.

 

[Velmont]

"Fine." replies Steven.

Is he working here? Maybe he could answer some questions for my work.

"I was looking for the projection room. My friend and I have a paper to write for our art history course. We thought to do it on the Paradise Theatre... Are you familiar with the building or his history?"

 

[Insight]

Somewhat dissappointed at Gabriels lack of interest, Roger stopped to address Vincent before continuing to his car:

"I'm going to try to figure out why this girl thinks this place is haunted. I have some recording equipment in my van. If you're interested, it would be helpful to figure out where she fell from. If not that's fine too, but I'm getting paid so forgive me for not waiting around."

Looking back at Gabriel. "I've got many different types of recording equipment, including an infared camera, a film camera with various lenses and a tripod. If you could use anything let me know."

With that Roger continued toward his car.

Vincent follows. "So, haunted, huh?" he asks as they go. "I've lived in this area for most of my life, and I haven't heard of this. Wouldn't surprise me though. This place is... strange."

 

[Insight]

The female on the scaffolding notices Roger and climbs carefully down to meet him. Rubbing paint on her coveralls and extending a hand to him she introduces herself as Kris Nichols.

"Right up there where I was painting just now," she answers. "She was in here working with Robert, but he was cleaning up down here when it happened. Mary did use to complain about a humming noise she heard occasionally up there that was rather distracting. She said it made her feel dizzy. I hear it sometimes too but no one knows what's causing it. It comes and goes in a cycle, like an air conditioning system we figure, but there's nothing in the theater that should really make that sound."

The elderly gentleman who was vacuuming returns for a moment to wheel the device out of the theater and adds, jokingly, "It sounds almost like breathing to me," he laughs. "Prolly just old building noises, you know the sort. I'm Jack by the way," he adds, shaking hands with Roger before returning to his business.

Vincent looks at Roger, but says nothing initially. He examines the upper area carefully, looking for any signs of weakness, an empty space where something might have fallen, or anything else out of the ordinary.

After Roger has made his ascent, Vincent speaks up. "Anything i can do to help?" he asks.

 

[ae1vart0n]

Looking up at the ceiling it is no surprise this girl thought something strange was going on. Seeing the lights flicker, he was glad his tape recorder, like his alarm clock had batteries as well as an electrical plug.

If the noise was coming from the ceiling, it probably wasn't electricity. Maybe wind? It could be an echo off of something too. In the shape this theatre was in, Roger doubted that the walls would dampen echos.

"Anything i can do to help?"

Looking down at Vincent. "Sure, there's a digital camera in the bag there. It's wrapped in the yellow towel. Could you get a picture of this ceiling for me? I'm not surprised this girl thought this place was haunted." Roger had had trouble finding items in a pinch before, so the towels he used for padding were different colors.

From the scaffolding, he started to look around for other images. Getting a good look at the theatre, and noting anything on the ceiling and any odd artwork before going back down and changing his note on the girl to add "Breathing sound from ceiling" to the Nature column. Then he'd have to investigate the ceiling.

Before going back down he asks of Kris, "Is there an attic to this place, or is that coming from the roof?"