Alouette, gentille Alouette
Who: Bartleby, a handful of NPCs, and his animal buddies Where: Bart's home primarily When: Starts very early, goes on to more midday Why: 'Cause this is what he does on his days off
It had not been the best of weeks for little Tommy Welsen. He'd lost one of his best action figures to a battle with the neighbor's dog, he had to dress up in a suit, and to top it all off his Grampy had died. Tommy still wasn't entirely sure what that meant precisely, only that when he asked what it was it caused his mommy to cry and his daddy to say that he'd tell him when he was older. Tommy hated that. It wasn't as if he wasn't gonna see him or anything, they'd gone to visit him at some new place yesterday! Though it looked like Grampy was pretty tired, all he did was sleep in a cubby the whole time.
Still, things were definitely looking up, because right now he was smiling and walking with his Grampy again through the woods just like they used to. It was still pretty early though, mommy and daddy hadn't woken up when Grampy had visited, but when he started tapping on his window Tommy headed out there and felt right as rain again giving Grampy a big hug. Tommy was still trying to work off what was odd about his Grampy though, he felt a little stiffer than normal.
And cold. Grampy was definitely colder than the last time he'd seen him.
And he was so quiet, Grampy always had something to say when he last saw him. He liked to sing in the woods, he used to sing all these fun songs about bugs and birds and flowers. Maybe Grampy just wanted Tommy to start singing for him? That could be it, that had to be it! So Tommy opened his mouth and tried very hard to remember some of the songs that Grampy liked to sing, and look at that, Grampy was happy again! He was so happy that Grampy picked up little Tommy while he was singing and started giving him a great big hug. Tommy stopped singing so that he could giggle when Grampy put his hand on his head, ruffling his hair like he always did. And then Grampy held down on the top of Tommy's head, really really hard. The jerking motion was so quick that as the snap reverberated off of a few nearby trees Tommy's face didn't even have time to register pain, only confusion.
And then, with his hand still holding onto Tommy's head, Grampy dragged the limp body on the ground through the woods.
"Alouette, gentille Alouette."
It had been three stations before Bartleby found something other than the demons, and even then he didn't particularly enjoy the music that was playing. The radio didn't play anything other than loud mechanical robot noises as far as he was concerned, and all the classic rock stations that were coming in were being used for emergency broadcasts. So Bart had decided to just sing a simple song while he worked, harvesting anything possibly useful from his new little guest.
"Alouette, je te plumerai. Je te plumerai la tete..."
He sang as he gently used his scalpel to remove the eyes from the small skull in front of him, placing each one in their own tiny jars. He wasn't entirely sure what he could use them for, but at the very least he knew there would be something he could get out of him other than blood. The little body had been drained of that almost immediately after he'd arrived. Now that he knew would be useful to his studies.
And then he heard the sound of his door kicking in. He swiftly headed to the other side of the room and made sure that the metal door he'd installed for his little laboratory was shut and sealed. Then, his eyes went completely black as he focused for a minute and gazed through the eyes of the creatures he'd kept in his house. According to the squirrel by the doorway, a large and slithering thing had just entered his home. The creature was no doubt some sort of demon, and he was reasonably sure that this thing was drawn to the scent of his little friend on his operating table. Boy would that thing be depressed when it found out the little man was already gone.
Still, the creature had just invaded his home and was getting some form of ectoplasm all over his hardwood flooring and that simply wouldn't do. So, with eyes as dark as pitch Bartleby continued to focus his will...this time instead moving it to the various other animals that he'd kept stuffed in his home. The poor Abyzou demon really did not see any of what was about to go down coming at all. Searching the air for the scent of the boy, the creature wandered into the living room and surveyed its surroundings. It slowly scanned the room from left to right: couch, stuffed bear, coffee table, and television. Slithering in a little further it went to turn around again when something seemed a bit off, turning back it took another gaze and confirmed everything: television, coffee table, puma, stuffed bear, and couch. Shaking its head for a moment it sniffed the air again, nothing alive here and so it turned to go back into the hallway and it noticed that the way was now suddenly barred by a stuffed lion.
Snarling the demon swatted away the furry corpse and slithered through the entry room towards the kitchen...only to find the same bear now at the other end of the hallway. The demon screeched in fury, someone was playing a trick on it. Someone with the ability to cloak themselves against her ability to smell life itself. Turning towards the bear with as much fury as she could muster the demon raised its claws to strike...and then heard something shuffling on the floor behind her. Swiftly she turned around only to find the puma and lion from the previous room placed there. Staring at her with dead, glass eyes and bodies as still as the grave itself. Then her eyes carefully took in the room around her, processing her current surroundings. It was a simple hallway, just a well decorated passage leading from the entrance foyer around to the kitchen in back...with shelves. A long shelf adorned each side of the room, and looking down at her were all manner of squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, ravens...the room reeked of death. For a moment she just stood there, gazing at the furry creatures as if their presence was something of a mystery, one which she was inches from solving. Then she heard it, a door being swatted open with a loud thud and then a gentle shuffle coming from the entrance foyer. A few moments later a crocodile slowly, ponderously, labored itself into the room and with one swift shake of its mouth loosed the umbrellas that were kept in its mouth. Of all the things the creature had seen in its time spent in the underworld, it had never seen attacking furniture. It was nothing short of a moment after the crocodile entered the room that the rest of the zoological horde advanced, and if they could make a sound there was a possibility it would have drowned out the terrible death screech of the creature they simultaneously tore apart.
The bolt of his reinforced door slid open with a thud and happily Bartleby returned to his work.
"Alouette, gentille Alouette. Alouette je te plumerai..."
His singing continued, even as he delicately placed a small unmoving heart in a little jar labeled 'Tommy'.