mother_of_god | Midwich Elementary School (Nightmare World)

[Monsters: Faceless children, ghost babies, a few roaches]

[Tasks: Wander around inside. The walls and floors are now made of chain link and grating, and covered with blood and similar organic goo. Chains hang from the ceilings, and in several places, strange cloaked statues are displayed in inaccessible rectangular gibbets. The exit doors in the lobby are replaced by a giant set of sharp-bladed fans- trying to get out would result in slicing and dicing.
-There's a pair of the cloaked statues inside the school office, flanking a strange door with no handle. It does, however, have a slot in the center, and a conveniently slot-sized card on the ground in front of it. This door leads to the rest of the school; all the others are jammed or blocked.
-In the first floor girls' bathroom, the sound of a child sobbing breaks out. There are no children to be found inside.
-Upon exiting that bathroom, the characters find themselves on another floor. Reentering will put them in a different bathroom. This time, the stall door opens to reveal a decayed corpse, strung up with medical equipment. "Leonard Rhine- the Monster Lurks" is written on the wall behind it in blood.
-There's a classroom with only a table full of telephones and scattered cards. One telephone may ring and lead to an NPC conversation.
-The library has shelves stocked with religious-looking books. One shelf has a book of fairy tales, open to a relevant page [which I'll put in when the time comes]. Another, more out of the way, has less-relevant but vaguely interesting info [which I'll also put in].
-Depending on how things go and player preference, there may be an NPC encounter and boss fight.]

It's the courtyard again. The snow has turned to a steady, warm rain, and there's something "off" about the whole place- the building looks more distressed, the hedges thornier. The sharp smell of burning bites the nose.

In the concrete in the center, a mysterious occult symbol has been burned.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's what she thought.

weird.

"Hello, Steph's House of Creepy Weirdness, how can I help you?"

A child's voice on the other end, frightened.

"Lisa, no! Don't leave! Don't! He'll-"

click

The dial tone hums across the line.

... well, she's had jokes fall flatter than that before.

Maybe.

Possibly.

Seriously disturbed, she puts the phone down and turns to leave again.

This time, nobody calls her. Perhaps they're not into prank answering here.

The hallway is as empty as before.

And as creepy. Those statues, for example, would totally not win any Better Homes & Gardens prizes.

The gibbets don't help. Or the gratings. Or -- the goo, which Steph is trying valiantly not to think of as goo.

She manages to retrace her steps far enough to find the giant fan blocking the entrance, and -- kind of stares at it for a few moments.

"This is so not cool."

Okay. Iiiiif she goes back to the clocktower, Steph decides, ignoring the fact that logic isn't working in this place, she'll go back down the thing, and come back up in the normal world. Right? Maybe?

Maybe.

Oooooor maybe the door will be locked now.

Don't you just love this place to death, Steph?

"I," Steph announces loudly, after kicking the door several times and making no impression, "Just. Love. This. Place."

See, if she talks very loudly and cracks a lot of wise-ass comments, it helps convince her that she's not as utterly terrified as she is.

With a loud, irritated sigh she turns around and starts methodically trying every door she comes across. One of them has got to lead somewhere. Even if it's a door to a toilet.

This one's a door to the office.

Got more statues, plus a Mystery Door.

With a pair of dark rectangles marked on it.

In the same arrangement as that card she picked up.

And no handle, but a slot in the middle of the door. That's just the right size for a card.

One might almost get the vague impression that there's some sort of ephemeral connection here.

Steph's eyebrows crawl together like fuzzy caterpillars wriggling down her face.

She pulls the card out and stares at it. Stares at the door.

Put it in? Or be cautious, ignore the signs, and forever wonder what would have happened?

Come on, now. She's Steph

(And she jumps back as fast and as far as she can as soon as the card's in, which is really quite far. Who knows what'll happen?)

What happens is that there's a click and the door creaks open.

Well, now she can go to that hall on the other side. That's something, right?

Is that an improvement on here?

... Steph glances back behind her.

Yeah ... even if it's not, she'll take it.

Hello, hallway!

Well, it's the only way that might possibly lead out, for a given value of "out."

This particular value involves a hallway truncated by a chainlink fence stretched ceiling to floor. A footlong roach skitters along the floor on the other side. On this side, there are only a couple of bathroom doors- one for boys, one for girls.

Well ... Actually, that's kind of useful.

It is a scary school and Steph hasn't had a break for a while, and she's been drinking a lot of water!

Carefully she ventures into the girls' one, her fingers crossed that it's at least usable.

"Jesu!"

There is a very recognizable shout from the boys' bathroom.

One of those footlong roaches skitters out from under the door and is shortly followed by a young man trying to smash it with his club.

Oh, thank God.

Steph's club gets the roach first, and then she flings herself at him, clinging like a mad thing. A mad, much-beaten-up, bleeding and bedraggled thing.

"Trust you to be in the toilets oh my God please be real."

Sokka gasps when she's on him, hands up to grab and tear her off -- and abruptly realizes who she is.

And clings just as madly.

"Steph, Jesu, where have you been, where is this?!"

"I don't know, I don't know where we are --" She pushes him back to look him over, anxiously. "Are you okay? Did anything get you? How long have you been here, how did I miss you?"

Sokka shakes his head, holding her tight by the shoulders to keep her close, looking her over, too. His clothes are ragged and dirty, a few minor scrapes - his t-shirt is ripped near his ribs but the line of blood is thin and shallow.

And the second he sees that Steph is all right, he's crushing her into another hug anyway.

"I don't know, I've only been here a few hours, I don't even know how it happened."

Steph may not ever let go.

Well -- presumably when the next monster thing comes along. She'll let go then. But not until then.

They can just bleed on each other for a while.

"Me either -- it was this perfectly normal town, and then suddenly fog, and creepy dogs, and children -- I had to hit them, I think -- I think I killed them --"

No, Steph. Panic later. Get out alive now.

"-- do you remember the way out?"

He hugs her even tighter for that little admission, breathing hard with panic as much as release - he's been panicking since he arrived. "I think so," Sokka replies quietly, glancing back down the hall. "I've been trying to get there, those fucking roaches..."

"God, they're terrible," Steph agrees, burying her head in his chest for a moment before remembering to be the Girl Wonder and not the Girl Wimp. This place has nothing on Gotham.

... nothing.

...

...she'll just keep trying to convince herself of that.

"At least I can kill the roaches, though." Beat. "... don't wanna break up the moment, but I kinda really need to pee."

Bravado, Steph has it!

Edited Date: 2008-09-01 11:09 am (UTC)

Also timing! Sokka laughs and lets go of her with one arm, renewing his grip on his club. "Okay, um..."

It's amazing, after a full day in this place, he still manages to look nervous about nodding toward the girls' room. "...how creepy is it if I want to guard the stall so nothing in the toilet eats you?"

"Only a little bit creepy," Steph promises him, squeezing his arm. "Mostly it makes me want to propose to you on the spot. I do not wanna get caught with my pants down by any of the things here."

How creepy can one bathroom be, anyway?

It's been a long day - Sokka is a little giggly with the 'caught with her pants down' line.

"Hurry," he demands, giving her a little push toward the bathroom, still holding his club tight.

"I'm hurrying," Steph promises him, edging the bathroom door open with her makeshift wood-and-nail club -- now reinforced with fabric that was once the midriff of her shirt -- held high.

She's checking the bathroom out before using it, plz.