[hr][center][img]https://txt.1001fonts.net/img/txt/b3RmLjEwNi5kYWE1MjAuVTNWc2JIa2dUV05RYUdWeWMyOXUuMA,,/roughsketch.regular.webp[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/xHVRvPV.png[/img]
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 [right][b]Interactions:[/b] Adora [@Shin Ghost Note] Clancy [@Zombiedude101] Luca [@Fernstone] 
[code]The House on the Hill [/code][/right][hr]

Sully exhaled a deep sigh of relief as Luna apologized to Drake and Drake was grateful enough not to light her up like a Christmas tree. He leaned against the wall, absentmindedly making a drinking motion with his hand before realizing that the Chalice was in Sloane’s possession. He hoped that she’d hurry up with whatever magicky crafty thingy she was doing. There was a part of Sully that resented his role in the Coven just being the dude who carried a cup around, but at least with the cup he had some kind of importance. Without it he felt like little more than the mascot—technically part of the team and helped with lifting spirits, but ultimately a nonfactor in determining the outcome of the game.

Sully slipped behind the bar. Others had already started to help themselves to the dusty spirits that still haunted the closed down establishment, so it wasn’t like he was doing anything uncouth by helping himself. He shuffled through the glass bottles, recognizing none of the names on the labels and unable to determine if that was a good or bad thing. He took a tentative sniff of a random whiskey and gave it a sip, reeling back and gagging at the taste of turpentine from what had probably been the cheapest, saddest, dustiest handle of bottom shelf whiskey that had been gussied up by being poured into a nicer bottle. Sully could taste the plastic. It suddenly made sense as to why the bar shuttered as well as why nobody took the bottles with them. Only the deprived, debased, and desperate would dare drink something as god awful as this. 

So naturally, Sully dusted off a rocks glass and poured himself two fingers. He was inadvertently saved from making an awful mistake as the door burst open and the glass dropped from his hands, shattering on the ground and stripping away some of the finish on the wood. The Kid, as Sully had come to identify Clancy as despite already having a frontrow seating proving that Clancy was well deserving of a more sinister moniker, stumbled into the bar. Whatever was left of him, anyway. The sight was sickening and Sully had to swallow back some bubbling acid of his own as Clancy retched up something akin to motor oil. Sully gripped on to the bar to keep himself steady as his legs grew weak  and he stared wide-eyed in horror as what was left of the Kid called out for help.

What happened next felt disconnected and disorienting, like Sully wasn’t watching the events unfold before his eyes but rather witnessing a film student’s failed first attempt at making a stop motion movie. People crowding the body, others reeling back like they were ready for a fight, Adora tripling, Luca moving forward to put his hand on the crystal in Clancy’s chest. Sully tried to call out for him to stop, out of fear for Luca, out of fear for Clancy, but his voice was trapped in his throat and all he could do was watch as Luca and crystal began to rot away bit by horrifying bit. 

[b][color=silver]“SULLIVAN!”[/color][/b]

Something was slammed against his chest. Sully looked down to see the Chalice, suspended in air, a faint orange and blue glow radiating from beneath the base of the goblet. He didn’t reach for it immediately and the glow stopped, the Chalice clattering on the bar top as he saw Sloane violently shake her head in frustration, stop channeling her Hexmark, and start moving towards one of the Adoras, a staff identical to Auri’s staff in her hand. Sully stirred from his stupor and grabbed the Chalice as he moved towards the injured two.  He was pretty sure he heard Sloane say, [color=silver]“Get that idiot away from that thing.”[/color] 

By the time he made it to the pair, Luca had been shifted so he was face up and separated from Clancy. Sully had the Chalice in one hand and a freshly filled squirt gun in the other, his stupid little bit proving to actually be beneficial. Sully kneeled down beside Clancy, set down the Chalice,  carefully propped his head up against his knee, and picked the Chalice back up with a trembling hand. He moved it towards Clancy’s mouth and pressed the rim of the cup to it, encouraging him to drink from the Chalice while trying not to think of how over half of the Kid’s mouth was some spooky shadow demon bullshit that could probably rip his hand clean off in one bite.

[color=goldenrod]“It’s gonna be okay, Kid, I got you. H-hey, Luca, reach for the sky,”[/color] said Sully, trying to break the tension with a dumb joke as he leveled the squirt gun toward Luca and fired off a spray of elixir. The color drained from Sully’s face as Luca did not move to catch it. Bracing himself for what was sure to be a painful experience, Sully gently set Clancy back down on the floor, scooted on his knees over to Luca, pushed the tip of the squirt gun into his mouth, and pulled the trigger. Sully caught Sloane staring at him, her typical annoyed look seemingly amplified by what he assumed she would believe to be pointless antics. 

[color=goldenrod]“It only works if he can drink it, and the Rot could destroy the Chalice,”[/color] said Sully through gritted teeth as he shifted away from Luca, Sloane’s unblinking stare compelling him to explain. She didn’t respond. She didn't even look at him. He realized that Sloane hadn’t been staring at him at all. She was watching Luca intently, her hand tightening on the staff.