EVENT: Snowed In

[the_npcdo]

[Early Monday afternoon, the snow starts. At first, a charming novelty glimpsed through the classroom windows, but within minutes it becomes a veritable blizzard. Any classes being held outside are urged to bring themselves inside. Within half an hour, the power's cut out and the snow is piled high enough to make entry/exit from the buildings difficult. Within an hour, it's impossible. Snow is piled halfway up the first floor windows, and most of the doors have frozen shut. The second story windows seem to be working just fine, though, as are any rooftop access doors.]

[The blizzard finally calms down, but students and faculty are trapped inside--or outside, if they managed to be on the wrong side of the doors during the storm. The power's out and the cold is starting to seep in through the insulation. Worse, there seems to be some kind of unseen presence in the buildings, an eerie cackle echoing through the empty halls or an unsettling sense that you're not alone.]

[Someone's going to have to restart the generator before we end up with a school full of studentcicles. It wouldn't hurt to clear some pathways out of the buildings, either.]

Comments

[hair_guitar]

Athrun?

[Oh, that's a relief! She thought she'd hit a ghost in the face with a book but she'd only hit Athrun in the face with a book.

....

Oh no, she hit Athrun in the face with a book!

This time she lets out a cry that's more dismayed than terrified.]

Oh no! I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you! Are you okay?

[infinitejustice]

I'm fine, I'm fine. I ache a bit, but nothing that won't go away soon.

What about you? I never expected to find you so, ah...frightened.

[He's moving around as he says this. Specifically, he's climbing back up to his feet and putting everything back in order.

[hair_guitar]

[She'll take this chance to get to her feet as well, feeling her face heat up as she does. It's bad enough that she'd been jumping and feeling from shadows and noises in the dark, but nailing him in the face with a panic-hurled textbook didn't really leave her any room to play it off either. Even if it is a relief just having somebody else here with her again.]

I'm fine, it's just.... [She hazards a glance back over her shoulder the way she came.] I-I thought I heard something.

[infinitejustice]

You heard something? Like what?

[Athrun didn't hear anything. It's entirely possible the source of those sounds was only audible to her. Or maybe she was losing it in the dark.]

[hair_guitar]

It... it almost sounded like somebody laughing, but not a normal person. It sounded, like....

[And that's when the unnatural cackling sounds out again, echoing down the halls from the direction she just came from. Giving a yelp, Ellen dashes forward and reaching out to grab hold of Athrun's sleeve and hide behind him out of sheer reflex.]

Th-there it is again!

[infinitejustice]

[Oh, good grief. Sure, it's creepy, but that's overreacting.]

OK, that time I heard it. I'm willing to bet it's someone playing a prank. We should probably check it out.

[hair_guitar]

[This is clearly the exactly correct level of reacting.]

What? [That may have come out sounding a little squeaky.] Ch-check it out? But what if it's a....?

[She doesn't even want to finish that sentence. There are no words for the ghoulish terrors Ellen can only imagine awaits them down that hall]

[infinitejustice]

We won't know until we find out. And I'd like to get to the bottom of this whole thing so we know how to deal with it.

[He's not the type of person to just leave things to other people and hope that somebody else sees to it. he wants to take action.]

[hair_guitar]

[Neither is Ellen! ... Usually. Most of the time. Under normal circumstances, she'd probably be at the front lines of trying to solve this thing but. This is different. She just wants to be out of here, but... what if he goes off and something happens?]

O-okay... [Gulp.] I'll go with you.

[Internal screaming intensifies.]