Just before curfew tonight...

[peckishmods]

outside central classrooms tonight

what's up?

It’s Spirit Week! As is tradition, Peckenpaugh’s cheerleaders meet after dinner to decorate Central Classrooms in the lead up to the big game this Sunday. It’s not all hanging banners and throwing glitter, though. There’s music and snacks and time flies by fast as the kids get distracted from dressing up the lockers of the school’s quidditch and quodpot players. By the time they’re done, it’s damn near curfew, and they all decide to leave in one big group to ensure everyone makes it where they need to go on time.

Leaving the well lit school halls behind the squads step out into almost total darkness. The streetlights that usually illuminate central campus’s cobblestone paths are dim and flickering, their usual golden glow somehow a sickly yellow-green, as though something is sapping them of power. It’s far too still, too. No wind. No sound. Just darkness and silence, or near silence.

Armani is the first out the door, and they come to a skidding halt at the bottom step. Several of their squadmates plow into the back of them and they almost topple over, pointing straight ahead and shushing their friends.

There’s something by the statue of Yalldive Peckenpaugh. Somethings. Two forms, crouched at her base, fiddling with the bricks while she flails and complains. They don’t seem to notice the gaggle of teenagers spilling out of the building before them, too focused on their work.

Thinking they’ve found two Malstrom students pulling a prank again, Willow approaches with their wand drawn, but it quickly becomes apparent that those are not students at the base of the statue. Each step Willow takes is harder to complete than the last, and whatever spell they were about to sling winds up caught in their throat. Hearing footfalls, one of the two figures looks up, gaze flashing with the eyes of a predator. Under that gaze, not a one of the cheerleaders can move.

The form at the base of the statue stands, slowly, wrongly, and steps out into the sallow light, moving as a spider moves. She is a woman, or a girl ⁠— the age is hard to pinpoint. Human, but wrong. Deeply wrong, as though plucked from the uncanny valley. Her clothes are dated, worn and patched, but clean. In her arms there are clumps of vines and purple flowers and after what feels like an eternity of silence, she makes a sound.

At first it sounds like she’s popping her shoulder, then cracking her neck and knuckles, but she’s not moving. The snapping and popping continues, coalescing into more complex sound. Words, though her lips are still. “Wood from the West... he... has gained. Three keys... yet remain.” Snap, pop, crack. Like tumbling pebbles. “_Tell… her. ^Warn her. Tell... her. Tell the thread that sews shut the maw. Tell the tailor. His garden… is... growing.”

The second figure, still fussing with the statue, stands abruptly and takes a step away, disappearing into the shadows down the path. Two silvery eyes blink from the darkness and then are gone, and suddenly the air seems lighter for it.

“Tell her,” rattles the woman. Is it a warning? A threat? Hard to say, but it’s difficult to feel as though her presence could mean anything good, the way she skitters back toward the dark like a bug, disappearing suddenly as her companion had.

Once they’re gone, each student feels starkly as though they’ve just surfaced from a long dive in cold water. Lungs burning, heads clearer, and each feeling acutely the desire to return home to their beds. Within seconds, all the lights buzz, burning brighter suddenly before returning to their usual golden glow. Adrian, startled, lets out a loud shriek that scares the hell out of everyone around them. With the paths lit again, the coast seems clear, and no sign of those two figures remains.

Now what...?

how this works!

⬥ This event is open to House and school cheerleaders, but is not mandatory. If your cheerleader sat this one out, that's fine, too!

⬥ Feel free to thread or search/investigate under the "LATE: NOW WHAT?" section. For the next couple of days, a mod will get back to you if your comment necessitates a response.

⬥ Students left Central Classrooms at quarter til 10PM.

locations!

⬦ EARLY EVENING: IN CENTRAL CLASSROOMS: The music echoing through the halls of Central Classrooms ensures the academic building is slightly less eerie than a mostly empty school can be after sundown. Club Room 1's doors are thrown open and snacks and drinks have been set out besides the materials you'll need to decorate halls and lockers tonight. You haven't been spooked yet. Why not enjoy it?

⬦ LATE: NOW WHAT?: The two figures are gone and that oppressive feeling with them. Standing outside Central Classrooms, what will you do?

⬦ LATER: BACK HOME: You've made it back to your House, but can you get to sleep?

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Comments

LATER: Elijah + Senior Mothgirls

[bigyikes]

"Hi everyone," he says, and then adds separately: "Hi... Val," still a little hesitant to address an animal like he would address a human being, despite the fact that he talks to actual animals all the time.

"So, uhm..." he shuffles his feet awkwardly as he tries to decide where to begin. He didn't fully think this through. "I was just out at the classrooms with the rest of the cheer squad, and on our way back we saw something kind of unusual." Should he be conveying more urgency? Is this urgent? "Well, really unusual."

LATER: Elijah + Senior Mothgirls

[themurderbird]

"Mhmm," Trudy says, totally open to the idea that something strange happened. "And?" she prompts, when he doesn't immediately lay out the details. "Tell us what it was!"

LATER: Elijah + Senior Mothgirls

[bigyikes]

"I'm not exactly sure what it was," he says. "We thought it was some Malstrom students at first, but when we got closer we saw they were... one of them looked like a girl, but weird?" Very descriptive, but the best Trudy is likely to get out of him. He's no wordsmith. "And when they saw us we all got... stopped."

LATER: Elijah + Senior Mothgirls

[themurderbird]

"OH! Did she move all... weird? I saw someone like that in the hell town!" Trudy says, with the sort of excitement usually reserved for teen girls talking about pop stars.

LATER: Elijah + Senior Mothgirls

[bigyikes]

"Yes! Like an insect or spider," he says, also sounding excited, for no reason other than Trudy being excited. "And it said something to us, too. Something about the west woods, and three keys remaining, and, uh, a tailor? And a gardener?" He should've taken notes.

LATER: Elijah + Senior Mothgirls

[andpoke]

"Keys." That's all he really had to say to grab Audrey's attention. "I've been looking for keys. To set him free."

LATER: Elijah + Senior Mothgirls

[themurderbird]

Trudy starts pacing back and forth, tapping her wand against her hip as she paces the floor. "More puzzle pieces but how do they fit together?" She sounds as delighted as she does frustrated, and she quickly rounds on Eli again. "What else? Before you forget. Any little detail could be important."