The setting sun cast a low, reddish light through the window of Startling Developments Detective Agency. Tycho was relaxed in a recliner, reading a small novel; soft music playing from Div. Gabriel occupied himself with punching the speed bag that he had set up, so he could practice even when they were a little low on work. Tycho gazes at Gabe from over the edge of the novel, glasses slipping to the bridge of his nose. "Gabriel, you've been beating that poor bag senseless for the past three hours. Don't you have anything better to do with your free time? Why don't you pick up a hobby?" Gabe stares at Tycho for a moment, before answering.

"Why would I want to do something else? If you haven't noticed, I kinda like punching stuff. Anything really," Gabe answered

.
"Yes. I have noticed your love of... Punching things. But, honestly, it's all that you do. Why not try painting or reading or thinking?"He pushes the glasses back up his nose, and goes back to reading. "Actually, nevermind about that last one." For a moment, Gabe seems to actually be considering the options Tycho has presented him with.

"Well, what if I painted a picture of a guy punching stuff? Or maybe there are books about punching stuff…?" Tycho only gives Gabe a blank stare.

"I- I just... You know what, just keep punching that bag, Gabriel. It's probably better for your health than thinking," He sighed. Before Gabriel could retort, a loud rapping on the door drew both of their attention. "Hm? Looks like we have company, Gabriel," He observed, before bookmarking his page, and then sets his glasses atop his novel.

"H-hello?" A voice from the other side of the door calls, before knocking again. Stepping away from the beaten bag, Gabriel opens the door. The lady was about to knock again, and instead accidentally raps her knuckles against Gabe's chest. "Uh, oh, I-I'm sorry, s-sir…" She once again glances around herself, obviously unnerved by something.

"Greetings, ma'am," Tycho stands up, and walks over to the door, and gives a curt bow. "Is there anything we can assist you with?"
"I-is this the S-startling Developments office?" She asks.

"Yeah, it is," Gabriel nods.

"Then, I am in need of your services…" Once again, she glances about before speaking again. "May I come in?" She whispers.
"Sure," Gabe steps out of the doorway, allowing her to come in.

"Thank you…" She stops momentarily, to remove her feathery hat. "M-my name is Francesca Cadberry and I request... N-no, plead that you two help me..." She opens her purse, pulling out a billfold, and then holds out a small stack of bills. "I will pay up front." Tycho's eyes widen a little at the sight of the bills.

"What do you request of our services- Vampire slaying? Demon expelling?" He inquires, before he begins to pace back and forth, averting his eyes from the cash. Gabe, on the other hand, stares at the money for a moment, then looks back to the woman, curious of what task she has for them that she has deemed so important.

"N-no. I don't know what it is... B-but it lives in the forest behind my house." The open window catches her eye, and she freezes. "C-can you p-please close the b-blinds on the window..." She begs, becoming noticeably even more upset. Gabe gives her an odd look. While most of their customers are usually eccentric, he hasn't seen someone this paranoid before. But he grants her request anyways, pulling down the blinds. "T-thank you…" She takes a moment to calm herself, before she continues. "I don't know what it is... But it stands at my windows late at night... It doesn't have a face a-and..." She hugs herself tightly, before continuing. "It whispers things to me in my sleep..."

"Hmmm…." Tycho puts a hand on his chin, as he contemplates what kind of otherworldy spectre could be the source of her terror. "Have you had any deaths in your family recently?"

"Yeah, because this sounds a lot like a ghost. They like to do creepy stuff like that, especially if they're angry." Gabe butted in.

"Actually, y-yes. My father passed away a few months ago, but it couldn't be him... He loved me very much," The woman sighs. "But this thing... It isn't my father. It has been following me around for a few weeks now... I-I wasn't too worried at first..." She trails off. "Until..."

"Until what?" He asks, turning to face her.

"I found Alphonse dead on my front porch..." She buries her face in her hands, trying to hide the tears that trickled down her face as she quietly sobbed.
"Oh, uh, I'm really sorry to hear that… Who's Alphonse?" Gabe asked.

"He was my pet Lemur..." She sniffed, wiping her face with a hanky. " And I just know it was that... That thing... Because it told me it was going to do it."
"Can you describe the creature in detail? It's quite difficult to tell if it's a malevolent being or just a psycopath." Tycho requested, showing no interest in what had happened Francesca's exotic pet.

"Yeah, it could have been, like, a hobo. Those guys are crazy as shit, man. Or maybe somebody who just had something against lemurs. Or a hobo with something against lemurs..." Gabe stops himself, realizing he is rambling when Tycho shoots him a quick glare.

"W-well... It's tall. Not like, tall like either of you men- like, really tall. Probably about nine to ten feet... It has a white face and... Well, no face... Umm... It also wears a black dress suit and red tie..." She explained as well as she could. Gabe raises an eyebrow, to show his interest.

"So I guess Hobo is out of the question now," He comments. Tycho is absorbed in his own thoughts, his brow furrowed with concentration.

"Where have I heard that description before..." Tycho walked over to one of his shelves, pulling out what seemed to be a very old bestiary from the shelves, and began flipping through the pages, as to stimulate his memory.

"So, like, seriously 9 foot tall? That's like, a lot taller than me. Wait, you said it doesn't have a face? So like... How does it watch you? Because it would be really hard to see much of anything without eyes..." Gabe comments, trying to avoid an awkward silence.

"I'm not entrirely sure how it works... But it followed me here today... That's why I asked you to close the window... So, c-can you help me?" Tycho was still busy flipping through the book, mumbling to himself.

"I'm sure it won't be a problem, right Tycho?" Gabe nudges him in the ribs, earning an himself an icy glare from Tycho. He was not one who like having his train of thought interrupted.

"Hm? Oh, yes, yes. But until we know exactly what we are dealing with, we won't know a price," Tycho informed.

"Money is not an issue." She places the money from before on the desk "Will you be able to start now?" Gabe looks pleadingly at Tycho, his eagerness to finally punch something that might fight back very evident. He eyes Gabe back, slowly smiling.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"So, where do we need to go to take care of this thing?" Gabe asked, cracking his knuckles.

"My home. I will also provide residence for you, if need be," Francesca said.

"Sounds good. Just give us a little time to get ready," Gabe informed.

After a ride to the edge of New Arcadia, and a somewhat long walk, they arrived at the front gate to an impressively sized mansion, which was set against the backdrop of a large forest. Francesca opened the large gate, and its hinges squealed as it moved. She closed and padlocked it, then lead them up to the front porch. Gabe is shocked by the size of it, especially compared to the dingy office/apartment he has been living in since he'd been hired at Startling Developments. "This place is huge… What do you even do with this much space?"

"Um, live?" She answered, unlocking the double doors. "Please, feel free to make yourselves at home."

"We won't need to. Can you show us the woods where the creature in question lives?" Tycho asked. Gabriel frowns at this, somewhat dissappointed at not getting a chance to poke around the large mansion, but quickly forgets it upon remembering the prospect of fighting some crazy demon thing.
"Y-yes, it's just out back." She leads the men through a main corridor, that splits off into several other smaller hallways.

Gabe walks a considerable distance behind the group, taking in all of the fancy decor and whatnot. The doors on either side of the hall tempt him, and he stops momentarily to open a door and peer inside. A cat walked out of the door, and glanced up at Gabe. He leaned down to pet it, but the cat doesn't even give him a second glance, instead walking away, being all "fuck you, I'm a cat" like. Before Gabe can even contemplate whether to get genuinely angry over this or not, Tycho glanced back at him, noticing Gabe was at the other end of the hallway. "Gabriel, what are you doing?" He inquired. He looks up, his attention drawn away from the cat.

"Um… Looking for clues?"

"I highly doubt a creature can get into the house if it is nine foot tall," Tycho replied. "Now come on." Gabe rejoined the other two as they continued down the hallway.

"We're almost at the backdoor," Francesca informed.

"So, this thing lives in the woods, right?" Gabe asked.

"I'm not sure, but I see it standing in the woods when it's not at a window..." She answers. She opens the back door for them but doesn't step out, like an invisible barrier forbade her from doing so. "I-I'm sorry, men, but I refuse to go any further than this..." She apologized.

"That's okay. You ready Tycho?" He asked, turning to his companion. Tycho positions the rifle on his back.

"Let's do it." Gabe adjusts his spiked brass knuckles, before they stride out of the front door, and across the backyard towards the forest whose gnarled branches spanned out over head, and were grown so closely together all they saw when they looked into the forest was a swirling blackness. When they stepped inside of the forest, it was noticeably cooler, and damp. Even with the oil lamp that Gabe had brought , they could only see a few feet around them, due to the thick canopy. They stepped lightly through the woods, and Tycho was attentive to every single noise, right down to the breaking of twigs underfoot. He scanned the area warily, keeping an eye out for any motion. Gabe walked beside Tycho, his fists raised, ready to start punching the first thing that they came across.

"Man, these trees are everywhere. I don't know how we're supposed to be looking for this thing if we can barely see already," Gabe complained.
"I feel almost the same way, but we were paid up front. We have to at least act live we've done some kind of work before returning." Tycho suddenly stopped, glancing behind Gabe. He squints his eyes, searching the darkness behind him. Giving Tycho a quizzical look, he stops.

"What, something wrong?" Gabe asks. Gabe looked behind him, and the only thing he could see were trees, trees, and a few more trees. "I just see a bunch of trees. And sometimes trees move whenever there's wind. So it was probably just trees." Tycho casts a suspicious look into the forest, as he was too certain about what he saw.

"Trees don't move like what I saw... Let's continue on..." He said, after he finally dismissed the incident. Gabe shrugged and followed after Tycho, not thinking much of what just happened, since Tycho can get really paranoid over stuff like that.

More wandering aimlessly around the dark forest ensued, as they searched for what they weren't sure was even a real creature. Tycho hadn't lowered his guard yet, but Gabe had become absorbed in thinking about going back to the mansion, and couldn't help but feel really excited about getting to stay the night. In the middle of his thought, something had brushed against his shoulder. His immediate reaction led to him swinging and yelling like a mad man. Tycho whipped out his gun, aiming at where Gabe was punching.

"GABRIEL! What? Why are you yelling?" Tycho shouted. He stops, realizing he's just punching at thin air.

"Something kept touching me, and I know it wasn't a tree."

"Are you sure? There are quite a lot of trees around us."

"Yeah, but- it didn't feel like a tree. But whatever, it's gone now," Gabe said.

"If it is that creature, it doesn't seem to be doing any real harm…" Tycho observed.

"Yeah, so far it looks like it just likes hanging in the woods and fucking with people. Maybe he's just being an asshole because he's angry about not having a face," He said, kicking a stone in his path.

"I agree. Let's go back to the house. Maybe we can stay for the night and try again in the morning," Tycho suggested.

"Sound like a plan," Gabe agreed. The two men turned around, as to go back the way they came.

"But, there is something bothering me…" Tycho said, placing a hand on his chin.

"Like what?"

"The way she described it... I've heard of a creature like it before... I just can't seem to remember where."

"Maybe it's just some sort of demon? Those can take on a bunch of different shapes, right?"

"It's possible. I'm sure a week from now I will remember where it's from."

"Yeah, probably…"

Once again, Tycho came to a sudden stop, looking around. "What now?" Gabe asked.

"...Which way did we come from?" Gabe opens his mouth momentarily to reply, but quickly shuts it upon realizing that he also had no idea of where they were.

"Shit."

Another noise catches both of their attention this time; whatever had been following them seems to have stopped trying to hide itself, and is circling around them, just out of the reach of the light their lantern casts. "Okay, I'm really, really sure that's not a tree now,"

"Yeah…" Tycho tried trailing his gun on the creature following them, but it was moving swiftly, and the darkness only made it harder to aim. " Damn it, I can't see anything!"

The creature was obviously agitated now, as it swiped at Gabe with what looked like some sort of tendril. Spotting it just in time, he started to swing at it, trying to hit it. "What the fuck?" The creature jumped back, now swinging at both men.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Tycho yelled, firing at the tendril.

"Okay, so yeah, this is DEFINITELY not a fucking hobo. Also, I think we pissed it off." Gabe said. Tycho ducked, avoiding a swipe from one of the tendrils.
"What tipped you off?" He shouted, before firing at the creature's torso. The bullets seemed to just go right through him, and the wounds quickly disappeared, as it seemed they were filled with a thick goo, before becoming a dull black to blend with the suit this thing wore. It stopped moving, and instead swept in closer, so that the men could finally see this thing's lack-of-face.

"Okay, if bullets don't work, what the hell do we do?" Gabe shouted.

"Have you tried punching it? That worked on the devil!" Gabriel nods, lunging at the monster, and unleashing a flurry of punches at its gut. While Gabe was distracted, the entity snaked a tendril around Gabe's ankle, yanking him into the air.

"Fuck! Get this thing off of me!" Gabriel screamed as he swung back and forth, trying to get close enough to punch the being again. Tycho steadies his aim for long enough to shoot at the tendril, making it disappear, and drop Gabe. He reaches down and yanks Gabe up from the ground by his shirt.

"Let's go. NOW," Tycho commanded. Gabe nods fervently, and the two dash off in a random direction, hoping it will lead to the mansion. They both can hear the creature following after them, it's bizarre, long strides slowly catching up with them. They continue running, not daring to look back. Tycho spots the lights from the mansion, dashing to the middle of the backyard before stopping abruptly. Gabe, who was right behind him, found difficulty in stopping, and nearly tripped over Tycho. He was breathing heavily, but still readied himself, in case whatever was in those woods still wanted a fight. The creature approaches the edge of the woods, but stops, and continues to stand there for a moment. Tycho stares down the creature as it lingers at the edge of the forest, before it turns away, returning to it's territory. A few moments passed as the men stared at the edge of the forest, speechless. Tycho then turned to Gabe. "I call bathroom first," He said.

"Dammit." Tycho then turned back around, and headed up to the mansion. Gabe followed, after throwing a nervous glance over his shoulder towards the forest.

Shortly after, Tycho leaned against the headboard of the plush bed, with another one of his mythological creature books in hand, this one being titled "Dwellers of the Forest". With a sigh he closed it, still finding nothing like what they encountered in the woods. "So, what do we do now? We still don't know what that thing is, or even worse, how to kill it," Gabe said as he laid on the bed that was next to Tycho's.

"Gabe, remember that 'no talking if we're going to share a room' rule? You're breaking it right now," Tycho reminded him. When they returned from the forest, and requested a room from Francesca, Gabe insisted they share a room, as a safety measure. Of course Tycho knew that meant he was being a pussy.

"Well, I'm just saying…" Gabe retorted. A thought seemed to come to Tycho, as he set the book on the nightstand.

"Tomorrow, we're going on a trip," He said. Gabe's expression lightened up.

"To the fair?" He asked eagerly.

"No, Gabriel- to visit a few old friends of ours," He replied. Gabe paused for awhile, as the gears turned in his mind, trying to recall if Tycho had ever even had friends.

"Oh! You mean Sonja and Chrissy?"

"Yes." Tycho holds his hand up before Gabe has a chance to speak again. "And no, you don't have to wear the dress this time."

"Oh thank god."