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

[worldcup]

[ Ha, ha, ha... very funny. The fact that Illya was outside to walk between buildings during her lunch break which is why she's buried knee deep in snow. But she doesn't do anything about it because there are people who don't have powers around here and she doesn't want to get into trouble for using them.

So instead, she frowns, shaking her arms angrily before yelling: ]

Someone come help me!

[all_onis_are_true]

[Hiroshi is in his room, huddled under some blankets and reading more science books when he hears someone yelling outside his window. Seriously? He has a brief moment of cognitive dissonance between "They're probably somebody supernatural, can't they get out themselves" and "Wait, we're trying to pretend supernatural stuff doesn't exist" before finally sighing and going over to his window, opening it. Thank God it's not frozen shut.]

Who is out there?

[inchesofevil]

[Duncan is in the middle of his Special Health and Anatomy class, trying to teach some of the finer points of treating concussions, when the snow starts. He notices, but goes on undeterred, because his classroom is generally kept warm enough that the weather outside is a nonissue.]

[And then the lights flicker and die and the background hum of electricity in the modern world goes silent. That is when he freezes up and turns to stare out the window like the apocalypse has hit.]

...Shit.

[hair_guitar]

[Well, this is a pretty awful situation already. Ellen had been between her room and one of her classes when the power cut out leaving her in the dark. Well, that's still okay... even if it's dark, she still knows her way easily enough and although her steps are a little more careful, she's not worried.

At least until the first peel of cackling laughter echoes down the hall, stopping her in her tracks and sending a shiver down her spine. She turns in place, looking out into the shadows, swallowing.]

... H... hello? Is somebody there?

[And... nothing. Nothing except the sounds of wind outside and her own breathing... except for the terrible sense of something else there with her. She gulps again and backs up a few steps.]

Th-that isn't funny! [More silence and then she starts moving again. It's just some student playing a joke or something. Somebody must think it's fun to try to scare people, that's all.

Still. Her steps are a little quicker and she keeps looking over her shoulder. She's not... entirely watching where she's going either.]

1/2

[duckduckdeux]

[ NO THIS IS CREEPY. Creepy and dark and Duck can't see where she's going AT ALL. Why did this happen?

She's walking slooowly, ever so slowly, trying to squiiiint enough to make out the shapes of the corridor in the shadows.

Wait. Is that a- ]

[duckduckdeux]

[ WHAM face-first into Ellen ]

[ofsevenseas]

[Cold. It's too damn cold! He instinctively wanted to adjust himself to a shape more appropriate for this weather but that was dicey even with the Glamor.

Sinbad immediately stopped in the middle of explaining what is genre fiction and lets out a low, aggravated sigh as he glances outside]

All right. I know you're not going to pay attention to a thing I say, and it's looking pretty bad. Class dismissed, and please head straight to your-

[The lights flicker]

...figures.

[Then the power cuts off, a second later a huge, rattling sneeze can be heard]

[ofsevenseas]

[After making sure his students got out of his class and towards their dorm, he made the appropriate adjustments as not to freeze his ass off - those who can't see the supernatural won't notice a thing, those that can - it's unmissable - and started to roam the building to see if anyone was getting to the generator or any students lingering.

Oh right, Duncan hates the cold even more then he does. He better make sure he isn't frozen solid and ducks his head through the door]

Is everyone all right?

[hair_guitar]

[Okay, okay, she can do this. Just a little bit further. Everything's fine, that laughter and that eerie feeling is just her imagination. It's not like there's a... a... a gh-gh--

And then something runs right into her andOHMYGOD OHNO IT'S THE GHOST ITSHEREANDITSGOINGTOGETHER NONONONONONONO!!!!]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

[Oh, sure, she could run or fight or... or something but let's face it when you're dealing with ghosts the most effective course of action is to stand in place and scream your stupid head right off your shoulders.]

[duckduckdeux]

[ Duck has, of course, fallen to the ground. Because Ellen is bigger than she is.

And now there's screaming! So, naturally, Duck does what any other duck girl would do in this situation - also scream. ] AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

[worldcup]

It's me!

[ Illya waves her arms in the air frantically. She may be powerful, but her familiars aren't big enough to carry her. ]

Are you going to help out or not?

[hair_guitar]

[AND NOW THE GHOST IS SCREAMING AT HER! Which makes perfect sense because that's what ghosts do they scream and wail and all that, she read all about it. There's still clearly absolutely nothing else she could be doing in this situation so she's just going to keep on screaming and screaming until the sound starts to trail off into a sort of even more pathetic sound before stopping altogether.

She'll keep trying for a few seconds though, until she remembers she needs to actually have air in her lungs to do it properly. She'll just stand there for a little while with her eyes squeezed shut and her books held up in front of herself defensively before she starts to wonder what's taking so long. She's quite sure she should have been gobbled up or something by now.

Ever so carefully, she'll open one eye to dare to take a peek at whatever gruesome horror may await her in this hallway.]

[all_onis_are_true]

[Ah. Her. Yes.

He toys, briefly, with the idea of saying no. She's supposed to believe in magic and supernatural stuff, let HER figure it out. But politeness and empathy finally win over, and he has to admit she DOES look cold.]

Hold on. I will see what I can procure.

.[He ducks back in and looks around. Hmm, the sheets might...]

[cant_breathe_no_heir]

[Snow... such an odd, alien thing. As a Troll, Equius had never experienced such a phenomenon. So, while the rest of his Track and Field class had moved back inside to avoid the storm, he had stayed outside to investigate it. He'd show those lowbloods how a highblood rolled.

And then he discovered that it was basically frozen water. So now was a good time to go inside... except he was now trapped in knee deep snow, which was still rising.]

....Fudgesicles.

[Quickly, he tried to clear a path to one of the school entrances, large clouds of snow sent into the air by Equius's strength.]

[inchesofevil]

[The classroom temperature hasn't dropped near freezing yet, but it's steadily decreasing and it's going to get there soon enough. Duncan's already snatched up his coat from the back of his chair and put it on, but it was intended to get him through the weather outside this morning, which was significantly less frigid than the current weather. He has a heavier coat in the infirmary, not to mention blankets, but that...is in a different building entirely.]

[Despite what his actions may have implied to others, Duncan does not hate the cold. He fears it. The cold has teeth and he knows what mouth they lie in.]

[He is curled up in his chair, still staring at the whiteness out the window, when Sinbad pops in. His head snaps up, he answers a little too quickly.]

Yeah, no we're fine. Everyone's fine. We're just all going to die of hypothermia but otherwise yeah, great.

[ofsevenseas]

[He tries not to roll his eyes at the sarcastic quip, but he did bring up a good point - no one was prepared for this storm and the temperature was plummeting at an alarming rate. The ears of his ice-form twitched]

I'm trying to track down the janitors to see if they can get the generators running, least it's early enough that we're not in total darkness.

Fire Alarm! Fire Alarm!

[thirdtenkaistar]

[Thomas was in his dorm writing a letter when suddenly-]

BRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-BAAAABREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! BZZZZZZZZ BZZZZZZZ

Auuuugh!

[The young man leap up so quickly that he tripped over the legs of his chair as he bolted out of the room, yanking his coat - he thinks it was his coat at least, he was too busy panicking to check - and threw it on as he ran downstairs with other students. As he starts to head outside, he could feel it being rather cold]

oh... dear.

[duckduckdeux]

[ And there is Duck, lying on the floor still.

Huh. The screaming's stopped, at least. ]

Ummmmmmm.... are you all right?

[hair_guitar]

[Right off the bat, Ellen's first thought is that this ghost isn't actually as terrifying as she expected it to be. Also, why is it lying on the ground?

... Oh. This isn't a ghost at all, is it? It's just... a regular... student.]

....

[A beat passes and she coughs, clears her throat and she's suddenly the absolute picture of calm composure.]

Of course I am. Here. [She steps forward, offering a hand out to Duck.] I'm sorry if I startled you.



[Yep.]

[inchesofevil]

[his eyes go wide at that last part, and he's silent for several seconds before letting out a nervous, high-pitched laugh.]

[BECAUSE GUESS WHAT ELSE DUNCAN IS AFRAID OF: THE FUCKING DARK.]

[He's been too busy worrying about the current cold to consider the potential darkness. but Sinbad's got a point, the later it gets the darker it gets, and if those lights aren't back up by the time the sun goes down Duncan is going to be a nervous fucking wreck.]

[ofsevenseas]

[He nods to the advance class students]

I suggest you should return to the dorms quickly if the paths are still cleared, they'll prioritize the dorms for getting power and heat back on. Dunc-

[Given this is a school, he should use surnames in front of students]

Jackson, want to come with me to hunt the maintenance down?

[inchesofevil]

Hey, you can't dismiss my students.

[he turns to the class, nodding toward the door.] Go do what he said.

[he stands, wrapping the coat a little tighter around himself, wishing he'd brought a scarf.] Yeah, that sounds better than sitting in here waiting to freeze. Let's go.

[infinitejustice]

[Athrun, meanwhile, had come to a complete stop. He's still new here, and hasn't fully gotten used to the layout of the campus. He pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and is in the process of turning it on when--]

What the--

[Something smacks right into his back. Instinctively, Athrun leaps forward and whirls around, arms raised in a combat pose.]

What was that? Who's there?!

[hair_guitar]

[Every time she stops, she hears that cackling laughter again and again always just somewhere off in the darkness, along with that feeling of some... thing in the hallway with her. But she's fine... it's got to be her imagination, or somebody playing a trick, she'll be okay if she can just shut it out until she gets to class and other people. She'll be fine just as soon as she's not here all on her own in the dark with... with who knows what.

Needless to say her pace picks up considerably, which just makes it worse when she runs right into something. Immediately, she gives a shriek, certain she'd just run headlong into some drooling monster!]

No! Leave me alone!

[She raises her hands, trying to throw her books at whatever it is... but fortunately for Athrun, she's already off balance from the impact and her feet tangle up... aaaand over she goes.]

[losingherhead]

[Celty nearly forgot to put the helmet on her stump as she raced out into the hall. She doesn't remember why, but she feels an odd association of fire with angry mobs. Both sound painful and terrifying.

Distracted by her thoughts, she finds herself accidentally stumbling into Thomas. And then feels her helmet start to slip as she fumbles to keep a steady grip.]