(no subject)

[themurderbird]

Bowling alley Break In

what's up?

Several intrepid idiots students have planned a break in. After ducking out of Pocket's Party early, they make their way over to Elflock Lanes with the intention of going down into the basement where the missing students were found to do some investigating. Maybe even open a portal to hell, who knows?

how this works!

⬥ This event is open to: Trudy, Lionel, Viola, Mary Grace, Eddy, Audrey, Merlin, Armani, and Maisy.

⬥ This bad boy is moving in real time. Once it's posted, you may begin threading, and mods will begin replying where appropriate. We won't wait until everyone has tagged in, so get in there!

⬥ Are you ready to die? :)

locations!

⬦ WHAT’S UP?: It’s Friday night and you’ve opted to leave a Pocket Party to break into the local bowling establishment and attempt to open the locked secret hatch in its basement. What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What are you wearing for the occasion? How drunk are you? And most importantly, what items do you have on your person?

⬦ ON THE WAY: The rain comes down steadily as students make their way from Peckenpaugh into Elflock Falls. Everyone slips off the main road, traveling parallel to it in the woods so as not to be detected. A place for scenes between the Pocket Party and the investigation, when everyone thinks they know what tonight has in store, but before they actually do.

⬦ ELFLOCK LANES: Same as it ever is, only silent and dimly lit. Students make their way past the lanes and questionable hotdogs and rigged claw machine toward the door that leads down to the basement. Trudy unlocks it and students descend. It’s about as creepy as you’d expect: big, dark and packed with old bowling alley equipment, pins and broken bowling balls, smelly old rental shoes and setter parts. There’s a broken Snoop Crupp-themed pinball machine amid shelves and shelves of old decorations and boxes of flyers and ads for past events. And tonight, with students from all four houses willingly present, a hatch appears in the center of the concrete floor.

⬦ END OF THE NIGHT: TBD, as we don’t know what is going to happen. But a place for scenes on the way home or for back in the dorm rooms.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Comments

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[andpoke]

"No, wait." Is not something that Audrey never thought she'd be calling after a bored Mary Grace, but there it is, clear as day. She's the only Wildgulch, after all. "We just...have to know what he's doing here."

She agrees with that, and turns her attention to Pouch, expectant. She only trusts one bug.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[quidditched]

Pouch's unexpected appearances are almost becoming expected. Eddy doesn't startle this time, at least. In the short time he's known him, Eddy's built an awkward sense of camaraderie with the magimagicicada. Pouch's sudden arrival earns a hint of a smile, and maybe some exasperation, but Eddy moves closer to the hatch when instructed.

Perhaps Lionel and Viola's skepticism would have been wiser. "Ain't an unreasonable question," he agrees quietly, hovering near the hatch, but not quite taking his place in the line.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[peckishbeings]

When Pouch grins, it's so wide and high up on one side that his bright red gleaming eye squints shut. Maybe, upon closer inspection, it's closer to a wince than a grin. Shifting his weight, he stands arms akimbo, and for a moment he does look a bit like a Peter Pan, but then he tips his head to the side, hair falling in his face.

"Ah, see, I gotta fix a mistake I made a long time ago," he offers, glancing back up. "And even though I thought we were gonna keep yinz out of trouble this time..." he gestures at the hatch, now, cold and quiet, glyphs unlit. "It seems your predecessors or something ensured you'd need to get into the thick of it. I can go down there alone, if you're all scared—" he says 'scared' like 'skeert', just so you know "—ain't really your problem, anyhow, huh?"

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[crowhop]

Mary Grace folds her arms and raises her eyebrows at the others. She's made it pretty clear how skeert she ain't. It's the rest of y'all gotta prove it now.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[quidditched]

Eddy nods at Pouch, and steps up to the hatch. "Want to help."

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[teratophilia]

Armani cares less about Pouch's intentions and more about the social repercussions of going against the group. But if Eddy's back in then so is Armani and he's not waiting to see if more people back out.

He steps over what he presumes is the Mothgarden glyph to the right side of the hatch, just to briefly entertain what could have been, before joining Eddy to the left and reaching for his hand.

"I'm going down there, too. I want to see."

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[peckishbeings]

With Eddy and Armani standing side by side at the hatch, the glyphs on that side light up red, again.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[crowhop]

Mary Grace steps up to what she's gonna assume is the Wildgulch side. She was under the impression this was a suicide mission, and every person hesitating is going down in her esteem with every passing moment.

For whatever that's worth.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[tristfully]

Mary Grace's opinion of her cowardice or valor means less than nothing to Viola. She is scared of a great many things—antibiotic resistance, lightning strikes, loveless marriage—but her overgrown sense of impending dread has never stopped her from acting before. Being scared and, subsequently cautious, is just part of her nature and she doesn't even consider the possibility of not being this way.

She does, however, consider Pouch's answer to Lionel's question. It's predictably unsatisfying but likely the most they will get from the magimagicicada. And there is really no stopping him from joining, considering he can disappear and appear at will, apparently.

"We love trouble, you'll find," she deadpans and takes her place across from Mary Grace, which by her estimation must be north.

Re: ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[themurderbird]

Unlike Mary Grace, Trudy isn't the only member of her house here, and she isn't about to miss the opportunity to be the one standing at the hatch. She rushes forward again like this is a game of red light, green light. "Where does this hatch go?" she asks Pouch. She doesn't care, she'll still go.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[peckishbeings]

"Oh, y'know," Pouch replies with a one shoulder shrug. "A place like, ehhhhhh."

He gestures vaguely around the basement, as though that illustrates anything.

Meanwhile, with Wildgulch, Deeplurk, and now Mothgarden represented the glyphs on each side fill with colored light. Blue and green and pink meeting red at the very center, an outline like a cicada.

"Aw, cute," Pouch comments, admiring the design while, at each edge of the hatch, a ghostly form appears.

An old man with an extravagant beard on the bottom, a hawk-like woman with big shoulder pads on the left. Up top, a man that some of the kids will recognize as Mr. Woodrow, the old Transfiguration teacher, and on the right is one Mr. Caleb Qualls. Armani will recognize all four of these people additionally as the four Heads of House at Peckenpaugh in 1989.

"You ready, Caleb?" says the man with the mighty beard.

"As I'll ever be, Iggy," Mr. Qualls replies, looking like a man preparing to join a wake.

The four of them point their wands at the hatch and begin to chant. The light filling each glyph seems to dance in time with their words, growing brighter and brighter until...

Click.

The hatch is unlocked. The ghostly figures fade. Who will be the first to enter?

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[teratophilia]

"So that's why..." Armani murmurs cryptically as the four Heads of Houses begin to fade. He releases Eddy's hand and steps closer to the hatch, lighting the tip of his wand to prepare to illuminate the entry.

"After you," he tells Trudy, making a sweeping gesture toward her. He'll follow along close behind her.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[lionellovelace]

Lionel has seen the ghostly figure of Mr. Qualls every day since he arrived at Peckenpaugh, yet his appearance here -- now -- knocks Lionel back onto his heels. Looking at his teacher, he wonders when his expression is from. Is it the memory of a man setting this barrier or a spirit aware that he's now opening it?

Lionel, who had not taken his place at the Thorntrail side in order to help open the hatch, now nods at Trudy, then the others. He's in. He's coming.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[quidditched]

The ghosts are just ghosts to Eddy, but his gut twists a little when Armani releases his hand. He's still concerned about him, after everything that's happened in such a short period of time, and without Chanel here, he's self-appointed himself to watch his back. Whether Armani needs it or not.

The thought does spark another question from Eddy as he awaits his turn down the hatch. Now that things had been decided, he'd prefer to take the rear. "Sister know you're here?" he asks Pouch, curious. Last he knew Pocket didn't want them messing with any of this.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[andpoke]

Audrey had been standing by Trudy, when the doors opened. Unnecessary. Maybe. But she exhales once, when they do. In the worst part of her mind, there were going to be vines just twirling out, grabbing them, rendering this choice stupid. Instead, there are ghosts. She'll follow. Not first. Not last. But Eddy's question sparks a wry little smile, grabs her attention back. "She doesn't. I bet." She murmurs, to no one in particular, only looking at the cicada for confirmation. "Thinks she's handling it. Alone."

But that's impossible. No one could do everything alone forever.

Re: ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[peckishbeings]

Pouch's reply, when it comes, is little more than a fond smile leveled at Audrey, then a lift of his brow in Eddy's direction. Apparently, she isn't wrong.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[themurderbird]

"No time like the present!" Trudy announces, glancing around the assembled group before she throws open the hatch.

Re: ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[peckishbeings]

Whatever magic bound the hatch falls dark and silent as it's thrown open. The musty smell of a frequently flooded basement wafts up from the opening, filling the basement with the scent of cool damp earth and green growth.

The students are not greeted by dark, but a sickly gray lights, flickering faintly, weakly, as though their magic is almost spent. A set of old, crumbling stone stairs lead down into a long hall of poured cement. The walls, the floor, the ceiling are all cracked and broken. Moss covers almost every surface, even the heatless magic lights lining the walls.

Overhead, dead fluorescent lights hang at regular intervals, some of them broken and dangling by a single wire. Though the light of magic lamps does illuminate the hall, you cannot see its end.

This place is instantly recognizable to Audrey. She's been here before: that somewhere gray. Eddy may find he remembers this place to, as part of a memory that isn't his.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[andpoke]

She gasps a little. Soft. So. This would be a reunion after all. "Nothing but weeds, down here." She repeats what Pocket said. And then, because even she can understand that's too cryptic, explains aloud, "This is where I went. On Halloween. Where the boy was whispering." The old fear pops up again. Maybe they are a key. But there's no place to go but onward, now.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[tristfully]

Standing close enough to hear the evidence of Audrey's revelation, Viola turns to observe her curiously. Perhaps she was simply too distracted by the frivolities of teenage life but she doesn't remember ever hearing Audrey tell this story, at least not in a way that had registered with her. Strange that the door in the library would bring a student here while others went to a 'hell.' But not the strangest thing they've encountered, tonight alone. It's all connected somehow.

"And this is your cement hall? Viola looks to Eddy and raises a gently arched brow.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[themurderbird]

"When we went to Paw Paw," Trudy says in answer to Audrey. "So is that boy here? Lionel Qualls?" Trudy asks, glancing around as if he might wave hello from the shadows. "Have you seen this place too, Eddy?" She's not confident his answer will be understandable, so she keeps pushing down the hall, not allowing the group to dawdle.

Re: ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[peckishbeings]

Pouch moves like a breeze from the back of the line to somewhere in the middle, effortless and somehow never seeming to take up all that much space in the cramped hall. "Ah, yeah. Zel's memory, right Eddy?"

Pouch had seen it, himself, after all. Given freely by Eddy and then returned to him. He offers the Thorntrail junior a reassuring grin. Whatever feeling he's had about it isn't betrayed in his expression, attention focused on the thick lichen coating the walls. He smiles at that, too. Always smiling. "They used to use this passage to get to the other—er, what's the word?—Settlement? Back then, it was a much quicker walk. Few seconds, maybe? Seems the spellwork's changed since then."

Ahead, the darkness seems to stretch endlessly. It looks like the group has a bit of walking ahead of them.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[lionellovelace]

"Lionel is somewhere... between," he says, recalling the cryptic message on the planchette. 'Between' could be many things, he realized. Maybe 'between' Elflock falls and this settlement.

He reaches into the pockets of his coat. His fingers hover over his wand and settle instead on his flashlight. He clicks it on and shines it down onto the lichen-covered walls. "Okay, then. Let's uh-- let's go." He heads in.

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[crowhop]

"Well if we're walkin' all the damn way to that place, then we better get a move on," Mary Grace says with a huff, wrinkling her nose at the idea of making that twelve-hour hike in these boots. She wastes no time brushing her way in, holding her phone up both for light and for pictures. She'd rather keep her wand free for, like, defending her damn self. "That place was miles off."

ELFLOCK LANES: Down the hatch! (Open to all ⛓️)

[teratophilia]

Monkey see, monkey do. Sort of. Armani pulls out his phone as well, but sets it to record. He's still using his wand for light. If he puts it away, he's afraid he'll forget to use it when the time comes.

"It's good exercise," he says chipperly from the front of the group, continuing to lead on. And, just as chipperly, he adds, "Did Wizards ever use asbestos?"