Light of May ::: an original roleplay

Who: Charlotte, Helena, Lily, Rico, Niamh, Max
When: Who the hell knows
Where: St. Dymphna's Home for the Holy Shit We're Screwed
What: Ghosts and fuckery


Lily woke slowly, much like she did most mornings because whoever thought making school start so damn early in the morning was a monster who didn't take the needs of growing students into account. What was weirder, however, was that she was in a position to wake up at ALL, given that she didn't remember leaving the dance or going to sleep. The last thing she could remember was bouncing around gleefully because her best friend had won Homecoming Queen and her date had won King. She'd given Charlie a push to go accept her crown because she'd looked like she was about to bolt. Then they'd had their dance - to a kind of shitty song, but oh well - and after that... nothing.

Opening her eyes, Lily had a brief moment to stare in confusion before she was bolting upright, adrenaline slamming into her like a freight train. Because the room she was currently in looked way too much like the stone basement where she'd spent time as a kidnapped, unwilling blood donor, and it was freaking her the fuck out. She frantically checked both arms for needle marks and, finding none, was able to calm down enough to realize she wasn't being restrained nor was it actually a dungeon - it looked more like a bunker designed to keep things out than a dungeon meant to keep her in.

Breathing deeply to calm herself, Lily didn't spend much time looking around - nor did she pay attention to the soft murmur of voices in the background. First order of business was waking the people she could see sprawled around her. Distressingly familiar faces. "Oh, shit," she said, going immediately to the closest and most familiar form. "Guys, wake up." Kneeling, she reached down to lightly shake her best friend. "Charlie? Can you hear me? Wake up!"

WHO: Micah, Evelyn, Bryce, Mason
WHEN: Who knows?
WHERE: Middle of the ocean in a parallel dimension made by psycho faeries (AKA Feeding Frenzy!)

SPLASH.

A movie trope insists that splashing someone with water in the face will wake them up. Micah had no idea if this trope was 100% realistic, but it certainly applied to this very moment. The impact of the water hitting him at full force jolted Micah awake from...from...Micah struggled to remember as he struggled to keep his head above water. Being California-born, one would think Micah was a stellar swimmer. This was not the case. He could swim in the sense that he could kick and flail his arms to get from point A to point B, but staying afloat in water was not something that made sense to him. Someone had once said to pedal your legs like you were riding a bicycle. Micah didn't get that. And it didn't work. Kicking his legs as hard as he could, Micah tried to get his bearings. He'd happily just been passed over for Homecoming King (not that he'd expected to win unless Carrie!blood was involved), Hyemi was pouting at him for losing, and he'd tried to think of something to placate her when even thinking had become difficult. He remembered hitting the ground and looking at Hyemi's feet and then her face as they both slipped into unconsciousness. Speaking of...

( Tell them I'm going fishing. )

Who: Angeline, Jack, Bunny, Cole and Locke
Where: They're coming...
When: Nobody's wearing a watch so your guess is as good as theirs.

Waking up in a dirty old basement midway through trying to come to terms with coming in second for Homecoming Queen was not ideal by any standards. And yet, this was what Angeline Moriarty found herself doing, only with a sharp pain on her back from lying in an awkward position to boot. The heaviness took long to wear off and minutes went by before Angeline even moved or opened her eyes properly. It was like waking from a wonderful heavy peaceful sleep, except with none of the wonderfulness. Or peacefulness, to be honest. Once Angeline moved her Ancient Greek style headband (fit for winners, which stung a lot more than it would have had it just been digging into her scalp and not her pride) so it wasn't hurting her head, Angeline raised her head from the floor and looked around.

"Fantastic." She murmured. Not only was she waking up somewhere completely foreign that was in no way part of the school that she remembered, she was also waking up with a boyfriend she had been seriously considering dumping and his two pedestrian friends, the blue haired boy and the feral weirdo girl. Oh and there was another one, but this boy she had no recollection of ever having seen. A deep sigh later, Angeline moved to sit on her side with her arm holding her upright. "Um...Is anybody dead?" That would make things slightly better. "Hellooooo?" Angeline briefly considered throwing her shoes at people to make sure, but she could swear she'd seen one or two stirring. Which was too bad, really.

WHO: Gabriel & Victoria
WHERE: Hotel di sei Ali
WHEN: Late evening

( And you were born for leaving. )

WHO: Max & Niamh
WHERE: The Landers home -> Homecoming
WHEN: Evening of Homecoming, Pre-chaos

If he were the kind to admit things, Max would admit that he was just a little nervous. Niamh had continued to be fairly reticent when it came to tonight, which was the root of Max's anxiety. If the evening didn't go right, he was going to throw a ridiculous fit. Internally, of course. There was no other kind to have. He'd seen the dress; he'd helped as much as she'd let him with the dress, but he hadn't seen the whole outfit. He didn't want to micromanage...oh, hell. He'd wanted to micromanage, but he'd also wanted her to offer so he could say yes. Not push himself on her. Max resisted the urge to chew on his thumbnail. Sighing to let out a breath, he did a yoga release just as they rolled up. He'd rented a limo, not a ridiculous stretch one that Russ had rolled out all his jock friends in, but a tasteful black number that gave his smaller group just enough seating. Was it ridiculous for twins to have rented two different cars for Homecoming? Perhaps in another family, but certainly not the Normandins. Max wouldn't be surprised if Russell actually rented two for his friends.

( Tonight is gonna be a night like you've never known. )

Who: Linnea, Isolde, Hiro, Valterri
Where: GOOD QUESTION AMIRITE
When: See above

The air was scented with dirt and grass and crisp autumn leaves. All good smells. Valterri must have left his bedroom window open last night. Only, no. That wasn't right. The light dancing behind the cells of his eyelids was all wrong. As he started to force his eyes open he felt strange. Disoriented. It took several long breaths of staring at the branches above him that he realized what was so wrong. It was like living inside of a black and white movie.

Things started to come back to him. He'd still been at the dance. He'd never admit to it, but he'd been honestly surprised at at least not getting on the court. He laughed it off and watched Rico and that SOAR chick dance, and then. . . and then . . . ? He remembered standing next to someone who was up one minute, and down the next. He'd turned to see what the hell had happened, and realized he was losing the fight with gravity himself. That had been it. He forced himself to sit up. He felt more or less okay, but stilll. . . slow. Like something was working its way out of his system. The lack of color was disorienting, but he still knew his mother's shape. Linnea Niemi crumpled on the ground was a familiar sight to the Niemi children, and even though his father was dead it still made Valterri's heart catch in his throat. He crawled over to his mother, for now willing to not deal with the blank and what insanity. He could deal with that after he confirmed his mother still had a pulse.

Who: Lily and Rico
When: Pre-Homecoming
Where: Starting at Lily's house

The dance being cancelled on Saturday had been kind of a pain, but Lily had been able to get her hair appointment moved to the next day and so in the long run wasn't all that put out by it. Better to reschedule than have to worry about getting into and out of cars and the like in a downpour. She didn't consider herself to be overly girly, but if she was going to commit to hair and makeup and dress for the night, she'd be damned if it was going to get ruined before she could even enjoy any of it.

She'd spent the latter half of the afternoon getting ready; her hair was freshly done in a messy braided chignon, makeup done in smoky, warm neutrals to complement the pale gold accessories and dress she was so in love with. Pale gold heels finished the look, though she was definitely slipping a pair of roll-up flats into her clutch. She intended to do some serious dancing tonight, and highly doubted the heels would stay on the whole time.

The sound of the doorbell sent her in a rare flutter. "Mom, can you get that?" she yelled down the stairs. "I'm not ready yet!"

Who: Dalila, Darklis, Lumen & Pancho
Where: The Family That Slays Together
When: After homecoming/wakey-wakey...

( They were moving. )

Who: Harper and Josh
When: Afternoon
Where: Sherry's Bakery

( He would hate for her to think that he was avoiding her just because she had gotten a little tipsy (and a lot undressed) )

Who: Rico and Charlotte
When: Right before the shit hits the fan
Where: Homecoming

When they called her name, Charlotte entertained the idea of running in the opposite direction - for all of about ten seconds, until she felt a sharp push at her back. She never looked to see if it was Helena or Lily, figuring it was about 50/50 either way or perhaps even both of them. She just took a deep breath and headed towards the stage. She got her crown and sash, all the while feeling like this had to be happening to someone else. A year ago she didn't have a single friend here. Then she met Lily. And Ransom. For a long time, that had been it. Yes, she started that club last May, but how did that put her at homecoming queen status?

They were expected to dance, and Charlotte felt a little bit like throwing up at the idea. Her face was a million shades of red. Charlotte Angel was not the sort of person who liked being the center of attention. She wondered if Rico being here with Lily made that better or worse. Better, probably. Okay. She could do this. She put on a shakey smile and allowed herself to be ushered down to the dancefloor by one of the members of the court.

Who: Jack and Bunny
Where: Bunny's house
When: Morning

Jack had been feeling unbelievably strange for days now, a sinking feeling of uneasiness he couldn't quite place but that wouldn't leave him alone. It turned his stomach and made it hard to concentrate on anything, and the worst part was, it got stronger with each day. He wasn't quite able to pinpoint when exactly he had realized this was one of those feelings he got, but the point was that today, right now, as he was lying in bed shortly after waking up, it was stronger than ever. Jack had no idea how this worked or even what this was, but he knew that he had felt like this before and what had happened next had been a humongous tragedy he felt guilty about.

The more clarity he gained, the strongly Jack felt that whatever horrible tragedy was about to happen would happen to him. That wasn't too bad, he was used to unbelievable amounts of shit happening to him, it was a matter of taking it in stride and hope for a quick death. The kicker was that once he let that bit go he knew, just knew, that it was going to happen to Bunny too. And that he couldn't just let go.

Jack jumped off the bed as fast as he could, running up the stairs into the main floor. Then he ran all the way up to Bunny's room, and there he pounded on the door urgently. "Bunny! Bunny open up! I gotta talk to you!"

WHO | Farren & Sam
WHERE | Summers' home
WHEN | early afternoon

( Come give me a hand in the zombie apocalypse and I'll make you lunch. )

DATE: Sunday, September 27th, 2009

BIRTHDAYS: None

WEATHER: The rain lets up sometime before sunrise, but things are still damp and dreary. Temperatures are hovering around 50 degrees fahrenheit.

EVENTS: Power is returned to all homes and businesses that lost it by about 8:30 in the morning. Which means the homecoming dance is clear to go! Hurray!

SOHS wins the homecoming football game despite a lower than hoped for attendance due to the weather. Either way, spirits are high leading into the dance. The dance starts at 7 PM, and at about 7:30 or so a chaperone notices a kind of weird light in the sky above the high school. There is a good chance that their eyes were playing tricks on them, or that it was just lightning... buuuut the woman calls it in to the police anyway, thinking you can’t be too careful. What with all the random events and weird balls of light, an officer comes to take a look, but the clouds are heavy tonight and he doesn’t see anything, so the whole thing is dismissed as nothing.

Huge mistake.

At 8 PM, the homecoming court is announced. First go the runner-ups of the freshmen, sophomore, and junior years (who are known as dukes and duchesses). Isolde Landers and Darklis Tinka are announced into court as duchesses, and Russel Normandin as a duke. They each get brought up on stage and are given simple red sashes. Next the princes and princesses of the court (winners from the freshmen, sophomore, and junior years) are announced. Max Normandin and Bunny Digby are made prince and princess of junior year, and they each get a somewhat grander, sparklier sash. Then it’s time to crown the homecoming king and queen. First the runner-ups are announced, and they are Locke Hartley and Angeline Moriarty. They are given their duke and duchess sashes, and the king and queen are announced and crowned. They are... Rico Palminteri and Charlotte Angel! They each get crowns and sashes, and are escorted by the court back to the dance floor for their spotlight dance. Aww, isn’t it all so corny and beautiful?

Or at least, it might have been. Three minutes into the song and things get weird. Not teacher getting drunk on spiked punch and hitting on a student weird, but funhouse mirror and psychedelic experience weird.

The song playing is Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love (which many can probably agree is just a little bit inappropriate with all the ACTUAL blood shed by the student body in the past six months). The song is just a little over 4 minutes long, and three and a half minutes into it the weird stuff starts.

First people will just feel heavier. No way around it. Movements will begin to drag, lifting limbs will take concentration. Eyelids will be heavy. A tired feeling begins to set in. As each person fights to keep their eyes open (not to mention, fight to keep on their feet), it will seem like their eyes are playing tricks on them. Certain things seem sparkly, certain things seem shiny... certain people in their vision will be completely in black and white, and some colors change altogether. In the last thirty seconds of the song, every person in the building will lose consciousness and drop to the floor, one by one. Once the last person in the building loses consciousness, the property is on lock-down.

No, seriously. It might as well be as if a forcefield is slammed down on the property. No one’s getting in. Hell, no one’s even capable of stepping foot off the sidewalk and onto the lawn. There is a giant invisible wall and you couldn’t knock it down with an A-bomb.

The dance was supposed to end at about 10 PM. At about 10:30, when parents try calling their kids’ cellphones and get no answers, the police start getting calls. A police officer arrives on scene at 10:52. And by ‘arrives’ we mean ‘actually crashes into the invisible barrier and has to call an ambulance.’ The second police car shows up ten minutes later, and after one of them walks into the barrier and almost knocks himself unconscious, the last officer standing has a reaction something like ‘ohshitohshitohshitohshiiiiiit.’

Within five minutes of that the property is SURROUNDED by the authorities, and within a couple hours of that the national guard is on scene. No one can figure out how to get in, and spoiler alert: they won’t. Ever. What’s worse, they cannot communicate with those inside, and have no way of saying if anyone on the inside is alive or dead. No one’s answering phones, and that’s probably a bad sign. Families are informed of an ‘incident,’ and asked to come down to talk with an officer to be updated in the ‘situation.’

So what is the situation? Inside the school, anyway.

The situation is that pesky group of faeries. Not just an elderly looking couple anymore, but an entire group of them, channeling a rather elaborate spell eighteen ways (literally) for a week straight. Everyone inside the school is going to experience something like being sent to another dimension.

And they didn’t all go together. They’ve been divided. And wherever it is they’ve gone, you are absolutely guaranteed that they are not happy.

( The groups and scenarios. )