Destiny - Creepy School/Log

From Masq

Beginning at Jason's house - at the garage
Hopefully no one was expecting any sort of a professional meeting place or office or anything of the sort, for all there is is this house with a sign duct taped to the front door step railing saying "P.I.G. IN GARAGE" This may be a warning or an invitation, you never know. The garage door has been rolled up though and there's no sign of penned up swine, just a skinny white boy with blue hair standing around playing 'Play That Funky Music, White Boy' on the bass and drinking a beer. Just, you know, not at the exact same time.

Well then. SOMEONE is out of place. In her heels, coiffed hair, and conservative suit - Alysanna steps out of a cab at the end of the drive. The driver is tipped, and tipped well to judge by the amount of teeth shown on his face. The woman turns and gives the garage a careful look over, standing back and opening a leather covered legal pad. She takes some notes with an expression that screams skeptic.

Petra actually shows up somewhere at the correct time for a change! Assuming, that is, that there even was a set time for this. She's even a bit early, with her camera out of its usual tote and slung around her neck. She pauses at reading the sign, then heads straight for the garage, watching Jason play in silence. While she isn't really sneaking around, she doesn't do anything to intentionally call attention to herself, either.

For time reference, we'll call it none too far past dusk, so we don't screw a whole sphere out of play.

Dawn is the next one to arrive. She's walking down the street, blowing a few bubbles with her gum and making them pop loudly. She makes her way to the house and stops to read the sign, then she walks up the drive with a jingling of the silver chains on her boots.

Jason was about to try out some neat little footwork, give a dramatic little rocker spin that'll set all the imaginary ladies swooning at this concert he's putting on in his head, but there turns out to be *actual* ladies here, and they're not swooning! He gracelessly trips over his amp then and tries spilling his beer with a squeal screech of cords, "OH HI!" he blurts out, having a little Austin Powers difficulty with the volume of his voice. He tries to regain some composure and set his stuff in its proper place with one hand and sop up a small beer puddle with the sleeve on his other hand. "Come in! Yoooou... can't possibly be here for the thing, you're not nearly fat and nerdy enough. Is it my birthday?" he asks, hoping this is all a lead in to a sweet stripper-gram.

Alysanna walks up the drive, closing the binder with a little snap after watching the spectacle of Jason. She looks down at the beer, and then at the young man's face with a prudish purse of her lips. Reaching into her pocket she pulls out a pair of wire rimmed glasses and slips them onto her face, giving the bridge a little poke to seat them into place. They accentuate the very dark circles under her eyes, covered only somewhat by the makeup. "Is meeting for paranormal investigation?" he asks Jason with a crisp, thick Eastern European accent... then nods to Petra and looks over at Dawn.

"Jason, we've totally met several times, and several times I've said I was coming," Petra explains patiently, giving Jason a broad smile. She glances over to Alysanna and chin-juts at her in greeting, then tucks her hands into her pockets. "Sweet guitarin'. I really gotta learn to do that shit." Joaquin has arrived.

"Hi," says Dawn, then makes a particularly large bubble with her pink gum, sucking it in to pop it with her teeth. "I'm here for the paranormal thingy too," she says in her husky, southern voice. "I'm Dawn."

Joaquin, a ridiculously good-looking young man in an over sized black sweater, comes wandering up the driveway, squinting alternately at the garage and the printout directions in his hand. He knocks on the side of the open door, saying redundantly "Knock knock."

Jason's awesome investigation outfit is run out of his garage, apparently, just follow the sign duct tape to the front's stair railing that says 'P.I.G. IN GARAGE'. At said garage, Jason is doing his very best to make a complete ass out of himself by hoping that the three women that showed up are strippers, because there's no freakin' way they're here for nerdy conspiracy theory shit. Jason stares at Petra for a moment and then seems to click on the memory. "RIGHT!" he blurts, climbing past his band stuff to come over and greet Petra, Aly, and Dawn who are at the rolled up garage door, with a recently included Joaquin. "Holy shit, you guys are actually here for this. Um. Come in! Come in! The uh, the regulars haven't dropped in yet but uh.. Yeah, hopefully it wont be disappointing! You guys want a drink or... somethin'?" he asks, his mad host skillz pretty rusty. "This is it, yeah." he says to confirm that they're all in the right spot. "The fuck did I manage to get all the hotties in with *this*?" he mutters to himself. It's like wearing a storm trooper suit and somehow bagging the prom queen level of weird.

Joaquin steps on in, handwaving Jason's honey-centered mutterings. "Don't ask questions or they might go away again."

A tight smirk plays out across Alysanna's lips, as much in response to Joaquin's reply as to Jason himself. She peers around the space, gaze lingering on the titles of reading material as her shoulders roll, then settle back into that uptight posture. "Beer, is good." says the tall German in her heavy accent.

"Yo," Petra greets Dawn, then grins rather toothily as she hears Joaquin. "Hey, J! Nice, somebody I know." She waggles her fingers at him, then turns back to Jason, still grinning. "I'll take an ice water, if you don't mind." She seems highly amused at all the talk of the quality of the participants' appearances, but doesn't comment on it herself. For her part, she seems more interested in the titles of the DVDs and VHS tapes than the books.

"Beer is good, thanks," Dawn says, lazily. She looks around the garage with her heavily-lined eyes, slipping inside to find herself a seat in that easy way of people who feel at home anywhere.

Jason snaps his fingers at Joaquin's wise words and says, "You speak the truth, man." An inviting wave inside and he knocks open the mini fridge for people to help themselves to beer, sodas, and cold bottled waters. Other people filter in as well, just a few, the 'regulars' probably since they seem to make themselves at home pretty easily, and while other people follow their lead and settle, there's some exchange of cds and VHS tapes, getting tonight's focus into, uh, focus. For those interested in that stuff, a lot of the disks and tapes are unlabeled, probably porn or something, while others are labeled Musty gigs. And also the Matrix, cause you have to have that one. Books tend towards music, and are awfully dusty.

Joaquin replies "'Course I do! Hey, Petra," he veers off in that woman's direction, taking in interest in the stuff she's looking at.

Alysanna takes a bottled water from the mini-fridge despite giving thumbs up to the beer and finds herself doing a hip-against-the-couch beside some guy trying hard to grow a goatee. She looks down at him with an unwavering stare that is usually reserved for the students who've cheated on exams.. listening to the rest of the room.

Petra also grabs herself a cold water, and cracks it open before taking a seat. After she's looked for a bit at the various DVDs and tapes, her attention turns to the newcomers, who are eyed with interest. "How ya been?" she asks Joaquin, after she's gotten an eyeful.

Dawn is sitting quietly with her second beer, the first was drained and the empty can left by her feet. She's staying silent, just listening.

"Okay, so uh.." Jason begins after a few minutes of idle chatter, not interrupting but still going on while people talk a bit, standing near the television set and addressing mainly the New People. "So uh, welcome guys, real fuckin' awesome to have you guys here. We're just some locals that like poking around at weird shit and seeing if it's actual weird shit or just.. hallucinations. My therapist says it's okay to dive into this kinda stuff if it makes me feel better, but it's good if there's some other people around to ground everything. So that's, like, you guys. Typically what we do is hang out a bit, swap stories and BS, but we do try to bring in something concrete when we can, so that it's more than just 'I saw this weird thing'. I think we got a video in today, so that's awesome, little somethin' to look over and see if it's worth going off to poke around at. Looks like uh.. school? Yeah, some old school." A tape he was handed is shoved into the VCR, and he spends a couple minutes arguing with the machine to make it work for him. "So like, you guys ever been chased down by the Chupacabra or anything?" he asks while fighting with his stuff and banging on it a bit.

Joaquin grabs a beer for himself. "Oh, it's cool. Little bit of this and that, y'know?" He turns his attention to their leader for a minute, drifting in the direction of the mysterious video of strange mystery. "I'm just surprised nobody's done anything like this sooner. This town's weird."

"Having been to hundred of most brutal murdering site in world, Auschwitz, Nuremberg, Zone. I am seeing nothing but proof humans are greater Evil than storybook monster." Alysanna tips her water bottle to Joaquin. "But having open mind to possible, Jah?"

Petra takes a sip of her water and smiles faintly at Joaquin, nodding. "It is a weird fuckin' town, alright. Probably other people have done it and we just haven't heard, maybe?" The smile fades at Alysanna's words, and she arches a brow, shrugging. "Yeah, people aren't exactly puppies an' sunshine, that's for damned sure." She turns back to Jason and the video screen, tilting her head. "Your therapist's a wise person. Long's you keep shit real, doesn't matter what you get into."

Dawn takes a sip from her can and sits back, crossing one leg over the other. "What the fuck is a cupacabra?" she asks. "And d' you mind if I smoke in here?" She doesn't wait for an answer, taking out a cigarette and slotting it between plum-painted lips. She takes out her lighter a moment later, and flicks it on at arm's length, then draws it close to just touch the end of the death stick before flipping it quickly closed. "Sounds like y'all have been playin' too much Dee and Dee but I'm willin' to keep my mind open a l'il bit."

Joaquin says, "No, but I have an uncle in Mexico who says he knows a guy who had a cow that totally got chupacabra'd. They're not interested in people. If they were, they'd call 'em gentecabras. They're just a pain in the ass."

<OOC> Joaquin says, "also, chupagentes because I am less fluent than Joaquin."

"Evil nuthin, man." Jason says while stabbing repeatedly at the Play button, "People are evil, other shit's just weird. Sometimes bad, but mostly just fucked up." He rattles something off in German in response to Aly and waves the okay to Dawn for smoking. With an 'AAAARG!' he punches his stupid VCR and the stupid thing actually starts working, a generically crappy cam corder view of a pudgy guy dancing in his underwear popping onto the screen for half a second before getting to what over-wrote the previous recording, a night time view of a beat up, graffitied on and generally run down abandon building whose build seems standard for most elementary schools. "I hope I never get mistaken for a goat." Jason muses while getting back away from the tele.

Alysanna smirks as she fixes her eyes on the television.. and says in a foreign language, ".. ...... ...... . ......... .. ...... .... ... ....... ....."

Petra glances over at Dawn as she speaks, then looks back to the television set. And then, after a moment, she looks back to Dawn. Back and forth, but in the end, the television is more interesting than the smoker, and she fixates on it. "Mexico, eh?" she asks as an aside to Joaquin. "Yeah, wouldn't surprise me. Chupacabras, I mean."

"I can prob'ly fix that for y'all," Dawn says, languidly. She takes a pull on her cigarette and lets the smoke curl from her lips before she takes another swig on her second beer. It's probably best not to ask where her bubble gum ended up. Her blue eyes rest on Petra as she looks back and forth, then she turns her attention to the TV.

Joaquin smiles a truly lovely smile at Petra. "Yeah, me being Mexican and all." He laughs at the poorly-overwritten tape, but then he leans in with some interest to watch the school on the screen, paying no attention to skeptics!

Jason grins a 'touche!' look at Alysanna. He attempts to give a narration of what they're watching, "Oh, dude, I know that school! I used to walk by there on my way home from classes when I was a kid. Creepy fuckin' place.. This place got shut down years ago but they never bulldozed it, it jut kinda sits there gettin' drawn on, pretty harmless kinda teenage hangout mostly but there's *always* been rumors going around about ghosts, shit in the boiler rooms, people getting lost in there.." The footage would be good for any shakey-cam horror movie, filming from the outside and getting all that sweet street art on film. A light in some upstairs classroom flicks on and then off really quickly as the camera pans past, the view jerking back to those windows and pausing, though nothing new happens.

Alysanna watches the screen.. sipping her water and granting the image on the screen her undivided attention.

"Yeah, I was just thinkin'-- I've never been to Mexico," Petra says with a shrug. "I should totally take a trip down there." She glances over at Dawn as the woman speaks, and then back to the screen, watching fascinatedly despite the shoddy camera work.

Joaquin keeps his eyes on the screen, running a hand through his hair to push it back from his eyes. "Oh yeah? Let me know if you go and maybe I can hook you up with the nice parts."

Dawn just sits and enjoys her beer and her smoke. Bad habits? Certainly! She lightly twitches her raised foot, eyes fixed on the TV.

"When'd they put the power on in there?" Jason asks the guy that brought the tape, who says, "They didn't, as far as I know. I thought that was some asshole messing with a flood light or somethin', that's why I brought the tape at all, otherwise it's just cool footage of a building. But I rewound, dude, it's even room lighting, and I didn't *see* anyone in there or running out, you know? That's all that's really on the film, but. It's *on* the film." Jason rewinds to the not particularly amazing part with the lit classroom window and pauses. "I can't.. tell. Anyone else?" The camera work is just crap.

Alysanna flicks her thumb up and down over the cap of the bottle. "Call to fire marshal, report suspected fire hazard. Is liking to be residual emergency electric for fire alarms. Fire Code is requiring these remaining active even in closed buildings." Party pooper!

"Yeeeah, I'm gonna have to call bullshit on the fire thing. I mean, I'm not saying it's ghosts, cuz man, it could be almost anything. But that just doesn't seem likely. But it could totally be a new owner, or maybe some hobo started to light a fire, or who knows, man." Petra pauses, then asks the one who brought the tape, "So... did you actually go inside and try the light switch yourself?"

Joaquin ignores the skeptics. "Cooooool. But that's tape, right, not film?" Cause maybe that matters.

"It's probably some fuckin' teenagers messin' around," Dawn drawls, "You're gettin' your panties into a bunch over that? Sheesh." She's shaking her head with a roll of her heavily made-up eyes.

The guy that brought the tape spreads his hands and says, "I dunno shit about fire code stuff, man, but I didn't go in. I needed some background footage for a school project and thought the building front would look neat so I was just doing a walkby on it." Jason nods and says agreeably enough, "Could be just about anything, or nothing at all. But you never know till you look, right? So, Creepy Fuckin' School With Busted Light, on the table for possible inspection. Anyone else got anything?"

Alysanna glances down at her watch and tightens the cap on her bottled water. She walks back ove to the fridge and drops a five dollar bill there with a business card, before giving the gathered a slight raise of her hand. "Is late, must being to going. Thanking you. Leaving me shout if needing anything."

Joaquin sighs. "I wish I did, but unless a vague sense of unease counts, then I got nothin' today."

"Yeah, I'm up for checking the place out. Seems like we could eliminate a lot of possibles if we actually went in. Like if say, the light switch totally works? BAM. Mystery solved." Petra then shakes her head. "I got nothin' either, though. Haven't heard anything cool in awhile."

"Sure... I'll come along to check it out," Dawn adds. "I think it's a whooole load of nothin' but I got squat else to do." She drains her beer and sets the can down next to the other one.

A guy that looks and sounds almost exactly like the comic book geek from The Simpson's raises a finger and says, "I'd like to bring to your attention a minor urban legend of sorts that may interest some." Jason gestures just after waving at the fleeing Aly, and the guy continues, "My father owns some land just past that Swanson's Ranch place heading out of town, and hasn't done anything with one of the fields. There's no tape or anything to offer, bit it's a fact that the man that killed those kids from his neighborhood in the 70's used that field to do it, had a play room he built underground there. He was caught, bodies were found, the room dug up and destroyed, but there's a lot of people that have thrown a tent there or gone playing there saying some kids keep messing with their things when they're left unattended. Might be just kids but I'm sure it's those murdered kids still running around." Jason looks skeptical, but asks, "Show us on a map?"

Joaquin perks up a little. That, at least, he can check out in local records. OR THE INTERNET.

Petra turns to watch Dawn as she speaks, then the Comic Book Geek as he offers up his alternative. She also perks up a little, and points out, "Nothing saying we couldn't check out both, is there? I'm all for creepy lights and creepy kids and creepy creepy." She takes a sip of her water, watching Jason for a moment.

"Don't tell me... don't tell me. We're gonna go sneak into the school at night. And we're gonna go campin' on the field. At night!" Dawn shakes her head and stubs her cigarette out on the arm of her chair.

Jason turns out to be the guy that has to get up and go find a map for Mr. Geek, who sure as hell isn't gonna do it, and with use of a pen he marks where you lot can all see the location of this field, and rattles off his dad's address for Googling purposes and the like. Jason shrugs his shoulders and answers Dawn, "I'd have preferred noon, but if we're gonna go getting into shit like mystic time periods and fluctuations between barriers between worlds and dimensions, then yeah, probably stuck with going at night. S'how that shit works. Hell of a lot better reason for going camping than just being bored. Okay, so Possibly Haunted Killing Field, also on the table. We can look into whatever we want. Go as a group, split up, whatever."

Petra draws her iPhone out of her pocket and taps the address into it, then saves it to memory. Dawn's words make her smirk, and she tells the woman, "Even if there wasn't all that thin barrier shit or what the hell ever, stuff's just cooler at night. This way if nothing's there, at least it's kinda creepy, and maybe somebody'll accidentally snap a twig and we'll all freak the fuck out."

Joaquin finishes his beer. "I vote school," because he's cute /and/ chipper.

Jason grins broadly at the stupidly attractive Joaquin that he's totally not checking out, and says, "Hell yeah, that's the fuckin' spirit! What about you two? You wanna do school or field?" Jason also apparently pose jumps Dawn, but she was askin' for it anyway.

"Haven't you ever seen Scooby Doo? We shouldn't split up," Dawn says. "'Sides... if somethin' cool happens at one and not the other, the ones that weren't there would be all fucked off that they missed out."

"I'm with Dawn, here. Splitting up means I don't get to go to both places. And I'm SO fucking going to both places. Which, for the record, is my vote: fuckin' BOTH. Cuz, like, the field's got a cooler story an' better ambiance, but the school's got a video o' random lights turning on, plus it's easily proven false if the light turns on normal-style." Petra shrugs. "But if I gotta pick one? I go with field. Ambiance wins."

Joaquin has internalized his own physical gorgeousness to the point where he sort of lives his life assuming everybody is checking him out pretty much all the time. The sad thing is, he's usually not wrong. Accordingly, /should/ anybody be checking him out, he doesn't really notice. "Well, /obviously/ we do both, but we can only do one at a time. I say it's too cold for fields but awesome for like... urban exploring."

Jason bobs his spiky blue head like a heavy metal smurf while votes are cast, a few of the not-player-folk have votes too, but fuck them, if they wanted to be important they'd be played by actual people. "I'm thinkin' dudercoff's logic is sound," he says with a gesturing finger at Joaquin, "Save the field for after we get turned off the school by it being bullshit or otherwise thoroughly busted? I'l second the vote for doin' the school first. Aaaaaand... I even got an address here for that place..." His own smartphone comes out then and he taps around on it looking for the information, and then shares the phone around so other people can get the address for the school for their various researchy needs.

Dawn takes out a surprisingly battered-looking phone, although it seems to be pretty functional. She puts the details into it. "School's fine by me," she drawls. "When we lookin' at goin', then?"

"Okay, school works, then. J's got a point about it still bein' kinda cold. And it does make sense to get the easy place outta the way first. Savin' the best for last an' all that." Petra taps the school's address in and saves it for posterity's sake.

Joaquin says, "So, you guys wanna check it out now, or later? I've got a car."

"I... lemme see." Jason says, and checks his schedule on his phone once he's got it back. "Okay, I gotta gig tonight, looks like, but it's at this shitty little roach club, probably gonna finish up around like eleven, and I sure as hell ain't hangin' around to drink their nasty ass swill. So I'm good for tonight if you wanna." Naturally from all the other NPCs there's a round of 'oh I can't's for various reasons, so he spreads his hands at looks to the three noobs, "I'm game if you are. Probably wanna spend the few hours until time getting whatever you think you might want, and I actually would suggest a few, like, tools and shit too, since it's all run down. Some gloves maybe, a pry bar just in case we hit a stuck door. It's a condemned building so I'm not feelin' too bad about property damage at this point. Sound alright? ...And can I get a ride? My sister's going to yell at me like crazy when I try to take off so I'm gonna need someone else driving so she'll lay off. Like I haven't been good about taking my meds all week." he rolls his eyes. Yeah that's right, you're gonna go ghost busting with a dude that's not only in therapy but is also medicated. Way to go guys!

Dawn doesn't seem too concerned about the therapy, or the lack or a ride, or the meds. YOU guys are going into a creepy building with a potty-mouthed goth chick. And that's all she is. Honest. Way to go! "I need a ride too," she says. "I sure as hell am not going in there sober."

Petra seems far more interested in Dawn and her weirdly beat-up phone than she is in Jason and his medication. Though she does smile faintly over at him at his talk of taking them, encouragingly. "Yeah, honestly I should probably ride with you, JQ. My car's not really the kinda thing you wanna drive into that neighborhood. I've already had two fuckin' cars stolen, and I'm not keen on making it a third. But I'm totally in."

Joaquin rubs his hands together cheerfully. "Well, it'll seat 4. 5 if the ones in the back squish." He, for one, is darned excited about this, medicated leader or no. "I gotta get my camera."

Jason claps his hands together and beams, "Shit yeah, mother fucker!" he says for the situation at large, and gets up to tack the map to the wall amongst a lot of other crap pinned up there, and pops out the tape. "In that case, here, here.." he passes his phone around again to give the address of where he's playing tonight, "I'll be the angry guy yelling at the angry girl outside. That's pretty much the standard way to end a show these days. Pick up at eleven, bust this investigative shit around midnight! Good thing you guys came or I'd be wandering around there all by myself. Aaaaaand.. meeting adjourned! Sweet!" Jason offers fist bumps all around to solidify things and then says cheerfully, "Get the hell outta my garage, I gotta close up and get to work."

Dawn notes the address and then gets up. She leaves her empty beer cans next to the chair she was occupying. The fist bump /is/ returned, although reluctantly. "Later," she says and then she heads towards the door without saying much to anybody, getting out another cigarette on the way.

Joaquin, it should be noted, fistbumps enthusiastically.

"Well, since there's four of us, that's damned handy. Though, ooh, there's totally somebody I might bring along." And Petra totally fistbumps like a mofo. Like a... very dorky mofo.

Joaquin fistbumps Petra for good measure. "Well, you guys can fight over the middle seat then."

Scene halts until next chance.

Joaquin packs everybody into his little SUV and drives them all out to this lavishly decorated location.

Jason actually managed to not be having a massive fight with his sister when getting picked up, so he's in a pretty good fuckin mood by the time they arrive. "Wow, looks a lot worse at night." says the guy that used to walk past it in the day time a lot, "Holy shit this is awesome." Once there, he's happy to hop out and double check all his own gear, which consists of flashlight, dust mask, spare contact lenses and fluid, a crow bar, lock pick set, a little tape recorder for voices, and a note book filled with all his fucked up schizophrenic ravings.

Dawn is oddly under-geared compared to the rest of them. She actually has a little battery-powered lantern that's dangling from one hand.

Joaquin knows that the one thing you can do to make a creepy location absolutely downright spooky is to just add dark! And to go one step further-- add flashlights. He switches his on, holding it up just over his shoulder as he attempts to operate his camera for a sweep of the exterior while he's at it.

Petra is not, as her desc says, in the pink shirt. Instead, she's in a black t-shirt that reads, "This statement is false." and a pair of loose-fitting but not baggy jeans. She's got a flashlight out and her camera strap is around her neck rather than in her tote, but other than that, it'd be hard to tell what gear she has, since she's got a jacket and a backpack both. She looks pretty jazzed about this whole thing.

Jai's got a satchel over his shoulder and an arm in a sling, wearing his usual layers, with a black sweater today. He missed the meeting before, but looks fairly psyched about this all the same. "Nice," he remarks, looking up at the facade, and checks his pockets idly, making sure the things he expects to be there are. It takes a little work, but he works a flashlight out of his satchel, a fairly large maglite of the kind security guards often carry for joint light/potentially beating attackers. "Do we know anything about, y'know, the history of this place?"

Dawn takes out a cigarette and a lighter, flicking the flame and keeping it at arm's length as she touches it to the smoke. She seems fairly laconic about it all, standing a little way back from the others.

Crickets chirping, Jason cinches up his back pack and gets it on his shoulder, flash light out and on, tape recorder set and put in a shirt pocket. And Joaquin's got filming under control! "Okay, for record's sake it's Wednesday night-Thursday morning at <whatever the address was> and we're gonna go see if the lights work in here or if it's a gateway to hell or some shit." he says to the camera, and then introduces everyone for the film, "I'm Jason, this is Petra, got uh.. Jaaaaay? Jai, Jai. Sorry. Dawn, and Martin Scorsese. I mean Joaquin. Okay! Let's go do some breaking and entering." he starts towards the steps and the front door of the place. Now then, for that requested history: "Yeah sorta. It's been closed as long as I can remember, I guess it went down a good like... twenty years ago or something like that. Shitty performance records, couple stress suicides among the seniors, teachers not exactly the cream of the crop. Kinda screams 'Dirty Little Secrets' to me, but I haven't been able to dig that stuff up yet."

Joaquin turns the camera on Jason for his intro. "What he said," he contributes, local that he is. "I think there was some kind of pay-for-grades scandal going on, but eventually it just got shut down when they redistricted the city."

After staring at Dawn for a few moments, Petra turns her attention back to Jason and Joaquin, nodding to the history. "Sounds promising," she says. "Ain't no angst like high school angst. Place looks run down as shit. Somebody should really clean it up, y'know? It's makin' the neighborhood look all sad 'n shit."

"Interesting," Jai says, narrowing his eyes at the building, and then glances around at the group, pausing when he sees Dawn light her cigarette, and studying her for a couple seconds. Maybe he's jealous, not having enough hands available to smoke and use his flashlight at the same time. He glances at Petra, then back to the school. "20 years, huh? Yeah, surprised they haven't done anything with it since then. That's interesting too."

Dawn rolls her eyes at the camera and she pockets the lighter again as she slots the cigarette between her lips. She gets a proper hold on her lantern again, having let it dangle from one finger while messing about. "They probably had better stuff to spend the money on," she drawls.

Jason considers trying to slip a hand past the window boards but isn't keen on getting cut, so he whips out the crow bar instead and begins trying to work the door open. "You heard that too?" he asks Joaquin, "I thought that was just the library chick fuckin' with me. They leave crap like this up all the time, not enough city bucks to bulldoze or people forget or whatever, like Dawn says. Mother. Fucking. DOOR!" he says, straining at the portal with his crow bar. Friggin thing is solid! *CLICK!* Jason falls over with a "WAH!" when the door abruptly just pops open like the easiest door there ever was to open. Sprawled on the front stoop, he just stares for a second. "Oh. Kay. Guess it's open.."

Joaquin says "Yeah, they just didn't have the money. They keep talking about turning it into a community center now and then, but nothing ever happens." He can't help grinning when Jason takes a nosedive on the stoop, but moves to help him up before shining his light through the opening, peering inside.

"Interesting. Veeeeery interesting," Petra says with a grin at Jason's mishap. It does seem to highly intrigue her, however, and she adjusts the shoulder strap on her backpack before also peering in. She glances at Jai before shining her light up and down the street, being sure nobody's catching them not-exactly-breaking-in.

Jai stifles a laugh when the door opens and Jason falls. He moves like he's going to offer a hand up before he realizing he hasn't got one free. "Maybe we oughta check the knobs before we do it the hard way -- other people might've paved the way already," he says, grinning. "Anyway, it doesn't cost a lot of money to use a building for something... helps keep it from getting so run down you don't have any choice but to destroy it. But, eh. Then it wouldn't be any fun to explore, right?"

Dawn hangs out at the back, the loner in the group of paranormal dorks! She seems pretty relaxed about the whole operation, although every so often she glances around.

Dust motes shine in the light of flashlights, lantern, and camcorder. Jason gets himself up off the ground and collects up his light and crowbar again, slipping that latter through a loop in his jeans. "Maybe its lack of being renovated again has something to do with the building itself. I mean, if it *is* haunted, and I'm not sayin' it is, but if it is, then I bet the dead wouldn't want their house getting all messed up by people." Stepping into the school, night sounds quickly fade away into the background and are replaced by building sounds of settling, possible vermin, the distant clatter of some piece of wall crumbling.

Petra smiles faintly and follows in after Jason, then turns more serious at his words. "Yeah, could be they don't want messed with. Or maybe they kinda do, you know, but they unintentionally scare people off or whatever. They're all, 'oh hey, wanna be friends?' and people are like, 'HOLY SHIT IT'S A GHOST!' and they flee and shit. Anything could happen." Once she gets a better look at the interior, she whistles lowly. "Daaaamn this place is fucked up."

"That would fucking suck if you died as a kid. Haunting the school? Geeze. Talk about a fate worse than death," Dawn shakes her head, face illuminated slightly by the glowing end of the cigarette. She lifts her lantern and looks around. "If I was dead, I sure as hell wouldn't waste my time haunting a fucking empty school." She steps forward, foot crunching on a piece of debris.

Jai grins, bringing up the rear. "'I only want to lovvvvve yooooooooou'," he says plaintively, being a sadly misunderstood ghost. "Yeah, though. If I were haunting a place, I'd be miffed at anyone trying to do anything to it. I mean, what are you gonna do, just move? You can't haunt just anywhere, how embarrassing would that be. And maybe you'd haunt the school if you died there. Or if you died 'cause of it." He sweeps his flashlight beam around, checking out the current state of the place. "Man. ...think this was painted before or after they stopped using lead?"

"I would have brought you guys some protective charms, but I wasn't real sure what, if anything, we'd be dealing with." Jason says apologetically, and eyes the peeling paint, "I.. don't know. Try not to eat any of it, though." he says with a grin, "So, I think that room with the light problem was on the top floor. Head up there, or poke around down here?" he asks, gesturing at the old stairs.

"Man, I dunno," Petra says thoughtfully. "I lean toward saying let's poke around down here, though, cuz if we go upstairs and the lights turn right on, it's gonna totally ruin the creepy mood we got goin' on here." She snickers lowly as her foot nudges up against a discarded condom and then she says, "I totally wanna find some old lockers and stuff, see if there's any creepy stuff in 'em."

"Aw, but I hear the leaded stuff's sweet and delicious," Jai says, "and it's been like =hours= since dinner..." He glances at Petra when she snickers, following her gaze downward, and smirks, shaking his head. "Imp's got a point. Well, I guess it wouldn't ruin the mood if they turned on by =themselves=, but. Let's at least take a quick look around down here before we go up."

"Fine by me," Dawn says, holding her lantern up to look around. Her cigarette is dropped and scuffed out, adding to the litter. "We can always come and lick the paint later if nothing happens."

"That's a good point, cause you can't even fake yourself into going back into creepy mode after you've turned on the lights in a place." Jason agrees with a laugh, and carefully moves through the wide entry hall, stopping to flick a switch on the wall. Click click. No power. "Well, that helps." he says, and looks around a corner, "Well, there's some lockers down that way and.. down the other way, looks like we got class rooms between here and there." Looking either way down the main hall, he just randomly decides to turn right since both directions look more or less the same. He's careful not to get away from the group though, and stays close.

"Wai--" Petra starts to say when Jason goes for the light. She looks relieved when it doesn't turn on, and grins widely. "Now that is more like it. Now it's even creepier! Could be a busted bulb down here, but hopefully it means there's no electricity in the whole place, and shit just got weirder."

Joaquin points out reasonably "Why would there be electricity in a building nobody's used for 20 years?"

Jai points to Joaquin with his flashlight. "Good point that dude," he says, "Be a waste. Which is even better for the lights upstairs thing. Though someone could've just been squatting up there with a lantern or something. But meanwhile!" He follows along the same direction Jason's chosen, apparently being of a Don't Split The Party frame of mind.

You should never split the party. Dawn is currently trying to decide which of them is who in the Scooby gang, but she keeps coming to Velma for herself, so she decides not to tell them. She follows along, looking around carefully as she walks.

"That's what I was thinkin'." Jason says with a nod for Joaquin's reasonable voicing and Jai's agreement, "Unless it's like that one chick was sayin', like there's some sorta fire safety... thing. I wish I had one of those little doodads that you clip on to wires to see if there's any charge in 'em." If only we had a werewolf to be Scooby! He stops to peer into the dust caked, cracked window of a classroom door. "Smells like a barn in here.." he mumbles, and it does indeed smell kinda musty and straw-y and a touch sweaty. Probably because there's an axe murderer living in here with a thing for barns. There's a metallic click and a distant squeal of rusty hinges from up ahead down the locker hallway, and something round rolls through the gloom past the end of the hallway they're in. Pausing, Jason digs a pill bottle out of his pants pocket and glances at its brief instructions, "Anyone got the time?" he asks, just making sure he hasn't missed a dose. Which he hasn't, so the pills are put back in his pants.

Joaquin says "Like anybody'd even care if this place burned down..." He trails off at the sound of the rusty hinges up ahead, and drops his voice to whisper excitedly "Did you guys hear that?" His eye is caught by the rolling... thing... and he ducks both light and camera that way as well.

Petra seemed ready to reply as to why there might be electricity, or maybe why there wouldn't, but she trails off at the sound of the hinges, and starts grinning like a loon. Distractedly, she fumbles out her iPhone and murmurs quietly after checking, "...12:35. I *totally* heard that, JQ. Could just be a hobo but god I hope it's not." She slips her iPhone back in her pocket and brings up her camera, aiming to get a few shots off of whatever the rolling thing is, if it can even be seen.

"Ooh," Jai says softly, perking up at the unexpected sound, flashlight swinging over in that direction, looking for the source. And the... thing. Whatever that was. He heads slowly in that direction, looking side to side as he goes. "Okay, someone should check where that went, and someone should check where it came from..."

Dawn jumps at the sound, crouching slightly into a ready sort of pose. She actually turns off her little lantern, giving her eyes a bit more chance to adjust to the darkness as she peers ahead, frowning. She slowly takes a few steps forward, aiming to put herself at the front of the little group. "'S probably some gangers or something... looking for somewhere to smoke crack."

"...So how come there's no voices?" Jason asks, just a little on edge. Shit happens, he's willing to accept this, but damn it the environment is friggin spooky! He advances along with Jai as well, swinging his flashlight with paranoid little glances at the classroom doors they pass, whether they be open or closed, in pursuit of That Thingie that rolled by. He also manages to scare the hell out of himself by catching his foot in a bit of broken chair when he wasn't watching where he was going, "Ah! Oh, jesus..!" he says while shaking it off and getting his heart out of his throat as they come to the edge of the hall. They are in a downstairs hallway of the school and coming up to an intersection, the quiet sounds of slight scraping can be heard. Sure, if it was day light the sounds would be pretty generic and unspooky, but at the moment, it just makes a guy (and possibly a girl) think of pretty awful things.

Joaquin's camera's zoom function comes to the rescue. "You know a lot of gangers with toy balls?" he says, and shines his light down the hallway where the scraping sounds are coming from. Jason, obviously, is Shaggy. Joaquin starts picking his way down the hall toward the noises.

"Maybe it's just one crack head," Petra says reasonably, "...who isn't too into talking to themselves. That said, this is creepy as shit." She sounds like that's some kind of high compliment coming from her. "And no, I don't know any gangers with toy balls. This is gonna be aaaaawesome." That last part is sing-song. Her gaze is turned on Jason quickly as his foot gets caught, and then she relaxes, offering him a hand once she sees he's not being attacked.

"Couple, that was why they got into it," Jai murmurs, grinning, and he stops to look at Jason's chair-attack as well. But all's well, right? So he goes on, still checking both ways with the light, but does ask, "You 'kay, man? Anyway, if it's a person, they definitely know we're here. Prolly even if it isn't a person. Maybe they're... moving a chair. That they were sitting in. Or something."

Dawn ignores the rest of them for the moment, leaving them to whisper as she moves on ahead, holding her dark lantern down by her side. She places her feet carefully, so to make the least amount of noise possible, and she's half-crouched as she walks.

And with Dawn in the forefront, backed by Jason and Jai, backed by Petra and Joaquin, the group turns the corner in pursuit of what does indeed turn out to be a shiny, new looking toy ball, bright purple in color..

As gazes track the pretty toy.. something else moves. A THUD from around the next corner. Then - an explosion of light, enough to make if feel as if there's a risk of damaged ocular tissues, evokes blindness. This is paired with the jarring peel of inhuman screaming.. the light falls with a clattering to the ground.. only the vaguest shape of a human left burned into the retinal dayglo images left behind. A sinister hissing comes from somewhere in front of you... Something slimy.. hairy, and thin flies into the midst of the group.. For those who can see, if anyone is immune to Alysanna's discovery of the ON switch for her 2Mil candle powered floodlight, a rat dropped on her head from a rafter. She then dropped the floodlight, which shut off on impact, and murdered the vermin by panic stricken squeeze.. throwing it when she was bitten. Ball be damned.

Jason screams at the tops of his lungs like a little girl as wavering beams of flashlights fly every which way, and he can't see SHIT except the evil ghost right in front of him, "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he bellows while flailing backwards and knocking into people and trying very, very hard to fall over and be the worst ghost hunter hero EVER.

"That ain't right," Petra notes quietly, when they finally do spot the ball. "That ain't right at all. Cuz, you know. Kid ghosts. Toy balls. Whatever. That said, what high school kid plays with a toy ball like thi--" She doesn't get much further than that when there's thudding and too much light and screaming and OMG. All that provokes her to an actual startle and she lets out a small shriek as she jumps away from the general direction of all the hubbub. And then Jason's screaming and there's just so much crazy stuff going on. She doesn't seem able to make out what's going on, judging from the way she irritatedly rubs at her eyes and mutters, "Fuck fuck fuck, calm DOWN." That seems to be said to herself as much as anyone else.

Joaquin is a slightly better ghost hunter hero than Jason, but the footage from his camera is going to be shit as the sudden attack of Alysanna makes him hold up his camera-hand for defense. And then when he identifies it as that random skeptic chick from the meeting, he relaxes and slouches defensively, muttering something in Spanish whose tone can identify it as something akin to "man, what the hell."

Since the group as a whole was heading after the round-moving-thing, Jai figured they had it handled, and checked the other direction instead, the one it came from. Which means he's amazingly saved from being blinded! But not from the unexpected commotion behind him, and he yelps, jumping slightly away and turning on it with a swing of his flashlight beam. "Holy FUCK!" he exclaims, catching his breath, and shifting the beam to try to make sense of what's there. "What are you doing here? Aside from giving people heart attacks?" he asks the woman he mostly-recognizes, and then notes her apparent pain, "And are you okay? Is everyone okay?"

And everything is shouty and bright and what the hell?! Dawn doesn't scream or fall over or flail or anything. Opposed to everything that we've learned in horror movies, she actually edges around Jai and starts creeping towards where she thinks the ball came from. On her own!

Alysanna stands in the hallway.. looking rather annoyed as opposed to frightened.. maybe because she DID get scared. There's a bright flush to her visible cheek, that long hair mostly obscuring her face like an over sized extra from The Grudge. She half crouches back into shadow and gives Jai's question a curt nod, peeling off her leather gloves. A foot nudges the now broken floodlight and she mutters. "Got lost on way to driving."

"JESUS FUCK!" Jason blurts from his his place half slid down a wall, eyes wide open and blinking furiously to get rid of the glare and work his rods and cones back into proper light capturing. He reaches down and grabs his crotch briefly, firstly to make sure that his balls have dropped for the second time in his life and aren't still hiding, and secondly to make sure he didn't wet himself. Cause that was fuckin' scary! "Why! Why!" he begins, stopping to swallow and get his English back on track, "Why didn't you come through the *door*!" Not angry, scared but not angry, he actually lets out a nervous little laugh while Dawn goes creeping off into doom.

Joaquin has no further time and energy to waste on skeptics who think it's funny to sneak up on people, and he too follows the track of the ball, listening hard to see if he can still hear any scraping over the uproar.

Now properly calmed down, Petra exhales a slooooow breath and glances at Jai, smirking faintly. Then she looks back to Alysanna and notes, "You uh... you sure know how to make an entrance, lady. Holy fuck." She chuckles, then asks, "So. You're okay, then? Good, good. We were just checking out CreepyTown."

"Like a normal person," Jai agrees dryly about ways to enter. He nods at everyone being okay, and smirks back at Petra, quirking a brow, before he heads back along the way he'd initially been looking, focusing on the lockers. "This one was moving," he says, stopping before it and giving it an extra close look, "right before the whole bright lights, big panic thing."

"Yeah," Dawn agrees with Jai. She crouches down next to the lockers and looks more closely, then reaches out to push the door of the one that the two of them are examining.

The vaguely annoyed expression condenses in a partially formed frown on one side of the young woman's face. Hands stuffed into her back pockets, Alysanna answers the group with a hushed.. still tight voice. "Because you locking the door from inside.. front, back.. side.. all tighter than security floor in hospital. Even gates outside chaining up behind you? Can understand not wanting police to stop by... but you expect me to using chimney like Saint Nicolas? And what if someone is getting hurt and you need to getting out in hurry. Dumb." Grumpy German Skeptics, always the worst party guests.

The locker in question (#163, if you care) is empty save for scraps of rotted paper and a few paint chips, and a build up of rusty stains. There may have been some water damage at some point, as drops are dried and frozen at the edge of the locker's shelf, pooled on the locker's floor with little drops of spatter along the door's lower edge. A lot of thick rusty... stuff. The two lockers next to it, if checked, are fairly clean aside from dust and a much lighter touch of rust.

"...Dude, we left the door open. Fuckin broke the lock or somethin'. ..I thought." Jason says as he gets himself on his feet again, shining his flashlight towards the three locker inspectors, and then back down the hall they all came from, torn as to which way he wants to look now. Locker, or front door.

Joaquin ignores the Grumpy German Skeptic like an ignoring machine, joining the others at the locker just to make sure he gets it all on sweet digital video.

"Wait wait, it's all locked up? ...fuckin' SWEET," Petra says, sounding excited. "That makes it seem like it's trying to keep us in here. Which, y'know, ups the creepy factor by like ten thousand." She rubs at the back of her neck and follows Jai over to the lockers, peering into one. "You say the lockers were moving? Was that what was making that noise, d'ya think? Or do you think it was like, rats 'n shit?"

"Wait, what?" Jai asks, looking sharply over at Alysanna when she answers, "...yeah. What he said. Are you sure?" He holds the flashlight, letting those with two working arms handle the more hands-on locker-investigation. "Because if things are locking themselves... that's up there with the weird lights thing, for sure." He eyes the mess in the locker, and the ones on either side. "You know what'd be nice to have? Some of that luminol stuff and swabs they use on tv. 'cause rust and dried blood look a lot alike in the sorta-dark." A glance upward, to see if there's a clear place water might've dripped from to cause all that rust. Or, in fact, anything interesting in the ceiling realm.

Dawn leans forward, taking in a long breath through her nose with her face almost inside the locker. There's a moment where she freezes and then she rubs her hand against the rust-looking substance, then raises it to her mouth and lightly licks a tiny bit of it off. "It's blood," she says quietly, rocking back on her heels. Apparently she's a human CSI kit. She doesn't seem to have been listening to the conversation about whether they may or may not be locked in.

"Jah, is all locked tight. You thinking I want to stand on dumpster and crawling ass through little window?" Alysanna tells Jai when he comments about luminol.. "Next time asking before I am crawling through window.. and can giving you crime scene kit jah? Empirical evidence is only mattering." She watches Dawn and notes to her.. "Jah.. you can catching diseases licking dirty things you know?"

Jason just *has* to know now, and attempts to take Aly's hand while saying, "Comin ze here, bitte." Not keen on running back the short distance to check the front door alone, he's willing to take the grumpy skeptic as a meat shield. I mean partner. Whether she accompanies him or not, he does run back to the school's main entrance, where the futile jiggling and shaking of doors can be hear. "Uhhhh." he calls while coming back, "Door's locked!" He sounds both dismayed as well as excited about this fact.

Joaquin says, "That's weird. I mean, nobody ever got killed here that I ever heard of, it's just an old abandoned building." Still, he leans in close with light and camera to get a real good picture for later submission to "Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery."

Alysanna stands at the door with Jason, looking at him with the -so- Velma 'told you so' expression.

"That's blood? Real actual blood? I mean, you know. Man. Maaaaaan." Petra is highly cogent as usual. She also leans forward to snap off several shots, and employs a little flash photography as well. "Well, I guess it could be, like, an ectoplasmic manifestation. Or what the hell ever. Like, maybe nobody died here, but there's an unhappy spirit anyway, and it's makin' it happen. Or maybe somebody DID die here, but like... their body's hidden somewhere here. Like maybe it happened after the school closed down, yeah?"

"You can give me a crime scene kit? 'cause that would be pretty awesome," Jai says, and makes a face when Dawn =tastes= the evidence. And another one when she declares it blood, though not the same expression. "...no shit? That ceiling really doesn't look water damaged, and the holes aren't in the right place for something to get poured through 'em from up there..." And then Jason's calling, and his eyebrows lift. "Okay then. Either someone's fucking with us or something is indeed rotten in the state of Denmark. And yeah, if you had a dead body to hide, I guess a years-abandoned building might not be the worst place to try it..." Another glance upward. "But it wasn't over the locker, and if it was inside the locker it got moved since then..." He doesn't seem overly worried about the being locked in part of things, but all in all, this is apparently getting toward the 'concerning' level of interesting.

"Maybe /part/ of it was in the locker," Dawn suggests. She wipe her hand on her shirt and stands up. "Somebody's probably fucking with us... a bunch of teenagers who think it's funny to try and scare the shit out of a group of 'ghost hunters'. Been waitin' for it for weeks." She starts heading for the front door, walking carefully.

Alysanna looks back down the hall towards the locker where the others are - and uncrosses her arms. Leaving Jason at the front door, she passes Dawn, nodding just slightly at the comment about body parts. Skeptic or not.. blood is at least interesting. She waits for the others to check it out first, picking up the ball off the floor and bouncing it in front of her rhythmically. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Jason and Aly are on their way back to rejoin the group and he says, "I'm pretty sure none of the suicide cases ever employed a locker. Seems kinda a hard way to kick the bucket.. Well, I guess.. we could probably still get out through windows, like she got in, um. Well I guess if someone's fuckin' with us we might as well put all this effort to use, let's go poke deeper in. MAN I wanna know what's goin' on! ...I'm'a open a door!" he decides and picks the closest one to them, a stairwell door. Well, he begins crow-barring at it, anyhow, since it doesn't exactly wanna open.

Joaquin is still treading the line between 'interesting' and 'worrisome.' "Nobody could've known we were going to be here weeks ago," he says, and starts training the light around the hall again, looking for a murder victim. Presuming he finds none, he goes to help Jason with the door.

"Yeah, exactly," Petra agrees with Joaquin. "We didn't even know we were gonna be here even a few days ago. So unless these pranksters are also psychic, which just makes it a *different* kinda interesting, I'm not buyin' it." She grins at Jason's enthusiasm and pumps a fist before going over to where he is and trying to help. Not that she's much help.

"We've got a crowbar, bolt cutters, and six people. I'm not that worried about the practical issue of the door being locked," Jai says, "...the =technical= issue, maybe, 'cause seriously, what the fuck, but getting an actual exit open, I think we can handle." He eyes the locker again, then watches Jason's attempt at the stairwell door.

Dawn joins Jason and Joaquin at the stairwell. The fairly diminutive goth girl takes a couple of steps run-up and then throws herself at the door. Apparently that last application of weight was enough to make the door open, because it *flies* outwards. Dawn, obviously expecting there to be more resistance, also goes flying. Right through the open doorway and down the stairs with a series of dull thuds.

Alysanna makes a soft noise of concern, watching the small woman go tumbling into the darkness. She doesn't rush over to assist, as there seem to be plenty of hands already. She takes a moment to inspect the locker, catching the ball and holding onto it.

Jason jumps back from the door when the stairwell attempts to eat Dawn whole, "Holy shit! Dawn, are you okay!?" he calls as the girl goes wudding down the stairs, and steps in quickly with flashlight beam swinging about to try and help a girl up. "You didn't break anything, did you?"

Joaquin can't help laughing, even though it isn't funny, and quickly he turns it into a cough before joining the troop down the stairs to check on Dawn.

"Shitfuck!" Petra calls out, following after Jason and trying not to crowd him or Dawn as she does so. "You uh... you okay, Dawn? Fuuuuck." She shines her flashlight down to give the two of them better light.

For architectural reference, this should be a stairwell leading up to the second and third floors, and indeed there are steps going upwards, and there should be a short flight down to your standard fire door leading to boiler room, storage areas, janitorial services, etc. I say 'should be' because it's fuckin' dark, damn it, and it's hard to tell.

Jai winces when Dawn goes flying right through the door, and even more at the sound of her subsequent tumbles down the stairs. "Well, shit," he murmurs, and glances once more at the locker before heading over to look as well -- he stays at the top, though, to avoid crowding as well. The Are-you-okays seem handled, so what he ends up saying wryly is, "See, we can defeat locked doors. I never said without casualties."

"Yeah... yeah. Just bruises, mostly on my pride," Dawn says as she picks herself up. She doesn't bother to dust off. "Can you guys hear that?" She casts about, then swears softly as she finds the broken remains of her little lantern. So, she does what any cool goth chick would do in these circumstances. She takes out a pair of largish, mirrored shades and slips them over her eyes. Then she starts walking off into the darkness.

After the group has cleared out of the doorway, Alysanna takes a linen kerchief out of her pocket and rubs it on the 'blood' in the locker. She folds this up neatly and sticks it inside her pocket before heading to the stairwell. Poking her head into the dark over Jai she looks after the bob of lights.. calling out, "Do not all horror movies starting in basement and ending in attic?"

"Yeah, pretty true." Jason answers about how horror movies usually go, "But I think we were already working on that script; save the top floor with the possible light problem for last, so might as well hit the basement! ...Hear what?" he asks Dawn then, tilting his head and trying to hear past the sounds of shifting feets, people's breathing, his own heart rate, and so on. "I don't.. Know. Too much echoes. What'd you hear?" he asks, keeping his place on the first landing heading downwards. He looks back up at the rest of the group and with a shrug waves them to join.

Joaquin says "Yeah, hey, uh... whatever your name is... weren't we gonna look upstairs?" But he doesn't have a problem going with the herd.

Jason grins and shrugs his shoulders at Joaquin's pretty self, "Ain't no scheduled tour!"

Joaquin says "Yeah, yeah, okay." Light and camera at the ready for the next time some weird shit goes down!

"Upstairs can wait," Petra agrees. "There's blood and locked doors and shit, and stuff is cool where it is." She follows after Jason and Dawn, flashlight held at the ready, and notes, "This is totally horror movie appropriate, but we should be safe enough. We didn't split up, and nobody's gone off to make out. However, I note we're already two lights down. That does not bode well for our bad selves."

Jai nods at the invitation, and starts down as well, grinning at Petra's remark. "Well, if you're feeling a little too safe..." he tells her, bumping his shoulder lightly against hers. "Also I note none of the women seem to be wearing high heels, so that helps, too." No other comment for now, just continuing with the rest of the group.

Dawn's voice comes out from the darkness. "It sounds like somebody crying." She's far enough away that she can't be seen.

Alysanna frowns a little as Dawn gets further away, saying quietly to Jai, whom she stands closer to near the back, "Hey should could fall or .. you know.. something bad happen.. better get them calling her to coming back."

"Whoa, wait, you're so far ahead.. Where the hell are you, Dawn?" Jason calls, the stairwell's various bends and turns making it hard to get a flashlight beam anywhere, "Who's crying? Dawn? ...Dawn?" Mirth gone, he turns a worried look back towards the rest, and especially the camera, because this is one of those Dramatic Moments where the sound track's going to be going DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!

Joaquin stays near Jason, the camera documenting the unsteady twists and turns down into the basement, and capturing the anxiety on Jason's face in the kind of footage that is Ghost Hunter GOLD.

"Dawn, Dawn, man. You're totally breaking Horror Movie Rule #1: Do Not Split Up. Whatever you do, do not make out with whoever's crying, or you're fucked." Petra is clearly teasing, but she's also starting to get a little concerned here. "Jason, speed up a bit, if you can, man. We shouldn't let her get off by herself. Bad Shit can only come of that."

Jason tries to be slightly speedier! But without falling down the stairs!

Joaquin tries to conserve battery life on his camera, but this is just too good.

Jai's brow furrows, and he works on the speedier as well, keeping things as well-lit as he can. "Yo, Dawn! Wait up," he calls after her, joining the chorus, "If it's crying it probably isn't going to run away if you wait five seconds to stick with us..."

Alysanna walks.. no hustle in her step. She brings up the rear end of this motley crew with a soft frown.

Around and around they go, trotting down concretey steps as they head down several floors into the blackness with no sign of a basement door. The sound Dawn claimed to have heard becomes just barely audible, a soft, whispery sniffling sound and the higher pitched jag in sound of what could very well be a child crying somewhere in the darkness. "Holy fucking shit the school ate Dawn." Jason blurts while stopping to catch a little breath.

Joaquin grabs Jason's elbow as the sound becomes audible, and he mouths rather than says "Holy shit," the better to try to record the sound.

"Yeah, that's... that ain't right," Petra repeats for the second time tonight, quite quietly. "Could well be Dawn doin' it, fuckin' with us," she adds after a few moments. "Would make sense. She pretends to be the skeptic, goes off on her own, starts makin' noises. Maybe had a tape recorder with 'er the whole time." She quiets again after saying this, listening closely to the sound.

"True," Jai says, "She's the one who tested the rusty drips and said they're blood, also. So." All the same, he sounds faintly worried about her disappearance, and goes silent to listen, as well.

Alysanna stops on the stairs after counting out what should have easily been five full floors below ground level. "Am not wanting to becoming desert." Seems the Skeptic has stopped for at least the moment.. was that, actual .. concern in her voice? Definitely. "Guys.. we are.. being.. five floors underground. This is.. not.. okay. Nein."

Jason isn't sure what to do, it seems, he's worried about Dawn's safety since he got them into this, but is also freaked out, but isn't sure if it's even real, but is also freaked the fuck out. Swallowing, he looks down the stairs as far as their light will go and says, "...One more flight. Just.. just to make sure and.. And then we'll go back..?"

Joaquin says, "Yeah. Yeah, just a little further and then..." He trails off. Then what? Call the cops like sane people? "And if we can't find her we'll call somebody."

"Yeah," Petra agrees. "We call somebody, or we do... something. Cuz, like... I dunno that we want to announce to the cops that we're doing this? But we can't just fuckin' leave her. Unless she *is* fucking with us, in which case fuck that bitch. We can always go down a little further, then turn back and try and figure out what's going on and see if we can't, y'know... shed some light on this stuff."

"Who you gonna call?" Jai asks, partly because c'mon, he's only human, but partly because as Petra points out, it's sort of a good question, given their current activities. A look to Alysanna, and he's mentally trying to retrace how many stairs it feels like they've been down so far. "Okay, another flight, because there shouldn't even be more than one flight here, should there? Just ground floor to basement..."

One more flight, said Jason, and he takes the steps much more slowly, the hand holding his flashlight shaking visibly. One more flight is all it took, however, six floors underground the stairs finally end in a very small square room with no basement doors what so ever, just a little drain in the middle of its slightly bowled floor to allow any water or spills to flow away into the sewers. There's no doors, and there's also no Dawns, but the sound of weeping persists at the same distance as before, just barely at the edge of hearing as if still a good distance away. Jason swings his flashlight beam around and then abruptly halts it on the wall under the stairs, where a mural has been painted with all the skill of a kid at work with crayons. Six figures are painted there, the artwork damaged by time and neglect, six figures holding hands together. The likenesses to the school's guests isn't exact, but one has blue hair, one wears a sling on his arm that makes hand holding a little awkward there, one wears pink and has brown hair, and so on. One of the figures on the end seems vaguely gothy, mime-y almost, but she isn't smiling like the rest, her face turned upward in a howl with black eyes and black mouth, her unheld hand with its fingers hooked into claws.

Joaquin trains his light over the walls, and for a long minute he's too busy staring mutely at the mural to remember to film it; when he does remember, he does only a quick pan of it before stopping, looking at the wall in stunned silence. Safe to say he's not anxious to grab someone and sneak off to have sex anymore. Well, not /as/ anxious anyway. "Where'd she go?" he says, and his voice is very small.

Petra is wearing black, not pink! But her @desc totally lies, so that's fair. She *stares* at that mural for a long time, and of course brings up her camera to take several shots, some of them with flash. Her reaction is pretty predictable at this point: "That. Ain't. Right." She swallows, opens her mouth to say more, and then closes her mouth again. Her gaze shifts to Jai to see if he's seen it yet, and then she looks to Jason. Firmly, she says, "We gotta find her, or we gotta stop this. This is bigger than us, man. We gotta open that door."

The hell with Petra's pink! So fine, it's painted black, in that case.

"Fuck you." Aly's response is as straight forward as her accent is thick. The used-to-be-skeptic is hauling ass back up the stairs just as fast as those too long legs can carry her.

Jai's definitely seen it. He stares at it for a couple seconds, wordlessly, and then turns and steps back up onto the last of the stairs, as if he were holding it down. Which might in fact be the idea, since one of them just disappeared in a room with no other openings. Except that drain. "Definitely not right," he agrees quietly, looking around their surroundings again. "This is extra specially fucked up, in fact." He breaks off as Aly hauls ass past him, looking after her for a second, then down to the others, muttering, "And then there were four."

Jason is pretty sure Aly's got the right idea, but her sudden bolting seems to scare him, "Wait! WAIT!" he yells as he begins up the stairs after her, "We have to stay together! Waaaaaaait!" Despite his worry about splitting up, he's mostly just banking on everyone else keeping up rather than saying holy shit scooby gang we gotta get movin'.

Joaquin just mutters "Crap" as everybody starts heading back up the stairs, and turns to follow in the interest of keeping the gang together.

"I'm not-- this is-- goddamnit." Petra waits several moments after Jason, Aly and Joaquin have headed back up, seeming torn on if she'll let them split up or not. Then she points at Jai and says resolutely, "If whatever we do upstairs doesn't fix it, you and I have to come back down here." That said, she starts back up the stairs, taking them at a run.

Shouting in German, "Mother Fucker" still sounds -remarkably like "Mother Fucker!" especially in a voice riddled with panic. Allysanna bursts into the pitch black hallway and hits the wall opposite the door at a dead run, smashing into it with full bodied brute force and landing flat on her back. She lays there stunned .. white .. and trembling as she babbles in that foreign tongue.

"I know," Jai answers Petra, sounding much, much less than excited about the prospect, and he scans the room again before turning to hurry after the others, bringing up the rear. He can't really take it at a run, since one arm in a sling and one arm holding a flashlight equals no arms for banisters or balance, but he hurries, trying not to end up left behind. It's hard to tell in the dimness, but he's a tad paler than usual at the moment.

It's a good thing Jason always found German to be a stupidly sexy language and decided to learn it! Just a little ways behind the fleeing woman and with others behind him, his flashlight beam cuts through the blackness along with the camcorder light, and then Jai's light, as Jason too bursts out of the stairwell. The return trip seems a lot longer than the downward trip, probably because everyone' going uphill now. He drops down to make sure Aly hasn't busted her head, speaking in her language. Even if you can't understand it, it's easy to tell it's a general mantra of it's okay, it's okay, we're back upstairs, it's okay.

Joaquin heads for the front door, despite not having the pry bar; he's going to try to get that fucker open with his SCREWDRIVER. We can anticipate how well that's gonna go.

Petra slows down to Jai's pace as she notices he's not able to keep up; she can be kind of a dick, but she's not abandonating him to the dark stairwell. If it's even wide enough to move shoulder to shoulder, she does so, otherwise she keeps just ahead of him. Once they've reached the landing, she looks over to Joaquin, frowning. She makes no move to help him with the door, instead walking over to Alysanna and saying, "You uh. You're gonna be okay. 'n stuff."

Alysanna rolls over onto her side.. Alysanna's eyes climb to Jason's face. As Petra reassures her.. the German launches herself at Jason, grabbing for his shirt, attempting to drag him to the ground as she screams at him and says in a foreign language, ".... ...... ..... .... ...... ... .... ..... .... ... .... ... ... .... ... ... ... ..... .. ......"

Jai gives Petra a little smile when she slows down for him, and keeps with the speedy as best he can. Once they're up and out, he steps away from the doorway, and watches Alysanna for a moment, then goes back to the locker from earlier. Awkwardly tucking the flashlight under his arm, he does what she did before -- tries to capture some of the maybe-blood with a hanky, or in his case a kleenex.

Jason is caught way off guard and flies downwards where he's jerked by the crazed Aly, "AHHH!" he yells with startlement, "I didn't do it! I DIDN'T DO IT!" he wails while squirming in her grip. His shirt ain't all that important to him, he's just fine with squirting out of the shirt and leaving it in her hands while he flies backwards to escape, and seduce you all with his not-quite-as-hot-as-Joaquin tattooed hotness (and if you want you can make an int+occult vs 6 roll to read his body art). "I just wanted to know why the light went on!" Meanwhile, Joaquin's screwdriver attack at the door is met with a whole lotta not a whole lotta success.

Joaquin kicks at the door in frustration and pulls out his phone, to call The Authorities!

"Whoa whoa!" Petra starts to call, as Alysanna grabs at Jason, and then she can't help but laugh tersely as he wriggles free. She gives his not-quite-as-hot-as-Joaquin bod a long look (she totally IS shaggy!) and then walks over to Joaquin, trying to put a hand on his arm. Not trying to physically stop him from calling so much as quietly offer caution. "Look, hold up. Give it a minute. We're all in one piece. Let's handle this. Cops are just gonna fuckin' arrest us for being here in the first place. You know how useless they are."

Joaquin says "Nobody knows better than me that the cops are useless, but a girl just /disappeared/ into thin air and I'm hoping they'd think that's a little more important than some goddamn trespassing." His voice rises in pitch a little bit toward the end, and when he thrusts the phone at Petra saying "But nobody's calling anybody!" it becomes clear why, as the sound is nothing but weird static, edged with barely-heard moans and screams. Joaquin barely remembers to notice the not-quite-as-hot-as-him bod in all the encroaching panic.

Alysanna stares at Jason.. a low grow in her throat.. posture as predatory as anything under the sun. She's in a crouch now, the shirt clutched in one hand as she takes short, tight breaths. The German shudders and whips her head to Jai.. then back towards the corner.. bolting for the window she managed to squeeze into. Maybe she can get out over there!

Jason has a pierced belly button! Why this matters is up for grabs, but I ain't got no shirt on so I'm gonna play up this App 3 shit, man. "Wait!" he says when Alysanna makes her dramatic escape for the window, not quite able to keep up since he has to get to his feet to do so, and Aly.. she escapes. OR DOES SHE!?

Jai slips the kleenex in a pocket, staring at Jason's tattoos and Alysanna's panic, stepping back when she speeds past him. "Okay, hold on!" he says, "Everyone just... hold on. Take a breath. Or five. Panic's not going to help, right? Right. There's five of us, between us we can get out, if that's what we're gonna do. But either in here or out there we have to figure out what the fuck's going on and what the fuck whoever or whatever's doing it =wants=. And how to get Dawn back."

"You'd think, but you prolly know better than that," Petra mutters to Joaquin, and then she blinks several times as she hears what's on the phone line. "Yeeeeah. So. That, uh--" thankfully, you're all spared another iteration of 'that ain't right' by Alysanna bolting for the window and Jai's words. "Man's got a point. Everybody needs to calm the fuck down, and we need to-- what he said. Figure out what he/she/it wants."

Around the corner Jason gets to see Alysanna's sneakered feet pull out the window.. then her dark head emerges through the window in the opposite wall as she tumbles back into the space. *KATHWUMP* She lands on her belly, legs kicking.. and then grows very, very still.. staring at the window she just crawled OUT of, that is now in front of her.

Joaquin shoves the useless phone back into his pocket. "I don't care what it wants," he says, SEALING HIS INEVITABLE BROWN SLUTTY STUPID PRETTY FATE, and then he just sort of stares between Alysanna on the floor and Jason's tattoos and says to nobody in particular "Man... we shoulda gone to the field."

Jai goes completely still for a moment when Alysanna thumps back into the building. "That. THAT ain't right," he says quietly, and looks over to Petra and Joaquin, then back to the others. "O...kay. Possibly the door thing's gonna be trickier than I thought." He takes his own advice; there's a couple deep breaths being taken there. "Usually the only way to sort shit out is to figure out what they want and do something about it. And we're IN here now, and it doesn't look like we're getting out easy, so we have to =deal=. Right? ...Right."

Jason stares at Aly's weird return to the hallway with wide eyes and open mouth, eventually remembering to close it before any flies get in there. "They don't.. they don't always want something." Jason says, cautiously crawling his way to his abandoned shirt and fallen backpack, picking up the garment and shaking dust and paint chips off it before trying to put it back on with shakey hands, "Sometimes they do, but sometimes they just want what you're feeling, just the.. the feelings. Things respond a lot to emotion and.. and.. uh. Sometimes... they just want to fuck with you, keep you around to like.. feed on and.. But there's always a way out, always always, cause we're on *our* plane, and they can't manipulate it as much as they might want." He nods to, well, everyone, and says, "We gotta calm down.. We can't let it feed off us."

Joaquin mutters "At least chupacabras just want to eat your goats," but he pushes both hands through his hair, which has only the slightly counterproductive effect of pulling most of it out of the elastic that only haphazardly secured it in the first place.

"Right," Petra nods to Jai's words. And then she looks to Jason, nodding again, quite firmly. "Right. The last thing we wanna do is give this thing its jollies. So whatever weird fucking shit we see, we gotta try not to freak the fuck out. Crying noises, bleeding walls, shriveled up corpses, people disappearing-- it's all gotta be taken in stride. Like mothafuckin' HEROES. Which we totally are, at this point. We're gonna save this run-down shithole from itself." In that vein, she murmurs to Joaquin teasingly, "Don't even talk about things eating goatse." That is very much not a typo. She walks over to Jai and puts a hand lightly on his shoulder, then looks to Jason. "So. What's the next move, after calming down?"

Alysanna remains on the floor.. hands pressed against the floor in push-up position. Her gaze stays fixed on the window for a long moment more. "I.. tasting the outside. Is still there." She moves to her knees slowly, then to her feet. A hand rubs her face and the woman looks back at the door with the stairs on the other side. Looking over at Joaguin she mutters, "Bet it is eating your film."

"Shit!" Joaquin pulls the camera out again, trying the playback, and showing Jason whatever the results might happen to be.

"Either way, calming down for everyone. Yayyy." Jai takes another breath, and the beam of his flashlight moves around for a few seconds as he moves his arm around Petra's waist. "So, yeah. What's our next move? Should we bother trying to get the front door open again, whether we're gonna go out of it now or not? When you say a way out, how literal it that? Doors and windows, or, like... finding the right thread to pull to unravel everything? And any ideas on how to figure out what it is we're facing?"

The playback shows their most recent run up the stairs, shakey cam movie style with jittery glimpses of the people in front of Joaquin, their tinny wails calling for Aly or panting that this shit ain't right as their sneakered feet splash through the thin layer of black goop trickling down the steps like spilled oil. And yes, your shoes are all clean and goop free.

Jason's brow is way up at the little played back image, and he says, "I... I don't know. I've never been eaten by a building before. We just.. we just gotta keep looking, find a way out that's actually a way out. Door, window, hole in the roof, I dunno. But we'll find it."

Joaquin looks over to the door by the stairs, and says bleakly "We gotta go up. We started it and we gotta finish."

Alysanna raises her hand slowly as if it were some sort of classroom.. then signals to Joaquin after catching sight of a bit of that film. "Maybe using camera to see if trail of oily stuff is leading somewhere not just down?"

"JQ here might have a point. This started with a light upstairs. Might be more than a little hint that whatever it is wants someone to take a look up there. Or it might be like, bait to lead us to the slaughter, but either way I think we should look," Petra says, before pursing her lips and adding, "...and if that doesn't fix it, maybe we go back downstairs through the invisible muck and we go through that door and we fuckin' find Dawn already." She cants her head to the side and considers Aly for a moment, then says, "Yeah... that's actually a really good idea."

Joaquin nods a little, and turns the camera back on to do a slow pan of the hall, then plays back what he gets. He's still more interested in the steps than anything.

"I like that idea," Jai says to Aly's suggestion, and nods about going up to check out the original goal, though he pauses suddenly, tilting his head to look at Petra. "There weren't any doors down there," he says, "Just the mural, the stairs, and a drain in the floor. That's what I saw. Did we see different things?" The question's to all of them, not just her.

The hallway looks like shit on the little screen, just like in real life, the five of them all scattered about in this close area in the locker hallway of the first floor, Aly on the floor, Jason getting his shirt back on and straightened out, Petra and Jai looking around all warily, the shadowy form of Dawn clutching her chest and heaving panicked breath back into a state of calm, Joaquin isn't on there, but then he's the guy spinning the camera about. At the stairwell, there is that only-seeable-on-film black goop trickling thickly down the stairs. Oh, Dawn? Not here, just on film. If that was Dawn's shape at all.

Joaquin shakes his head, still watching his camera. "I didn't see any doors... but check the stairs," he says, tapping the playback. "I hate being right."

Jason nods his head and says, "Up sounds good, if all the bad shit's draining downwards." Taking a calming breath, he says, "I almost wanna say we should hold hands, but after that painting, I'm thinkin' not."

"Wait.. what the fuck.. that was being the girl." Alysanna scrambles to her feet jabbing at some space in the hallway. Her eyes are narrowed and her mouth is cut in a tight frown.

<OOC> Petra says, "Man, was there not a door? *reads up* Yeah, I'm dumb. Can we pretend Petra didn't say that. :P"
<OOC> Joaquin says, "<3"
<OOC> Joaquin says, "It was extra spooky your way!"
<OOC> Jai says, "It totally was."
<OOC> Jason says, "Hell, if you wanna believe you saw a door, I will MAKE a fucking door >:)"
<OOC> Jai says, "ogod"
<OOC> Petra says, "YES. Doorplz. ;D"
<OOC> Joaquin says, "Ahahahahaha."
<OOC> Jai says, "But ONLY PETRA CAN SEE IT."
<OOC> Jason says, "Then argue your point and don't take no shit from no boyfriends!"

Joaquin starts wandering toward the stairs, himself. "Shit, I'll hold whoever's hand," he mutters, only half to himself.

"Wait, what?" Petra asks Jai, staring at him dumbly, and says firmly, "There totally WAS a door. That's why I was saying we needed to take care of shit! Cuz there was a door!" After she takes a deeeeeep calming breath, she says, "Okay. So. Goop. Locked in. Invisible doors. Blood. It's got all the hallmarks of an exciting evening." And then she looks between Jason and Joaquin, and says, "I'm up for holding hands or not. Whatever ya'll think is wiser. It might be a bad idea, or it might be that that mural was supposed to STOP us from doing calming shit like holding hands, if it's feeding off emotions."

Alysanna holds her ground, shouting "Did you seeing the girl in the filming? She was not breathing.. jah? We have to finding her.. is not okay. Nien, no.. no." The woman stomps her foot. "Are you listening?"

Joaquin says calmly "I heard you. She's not here now, but neither is the black goop. So I'm gonna follow the black goop that isn't here, and hope it'll lead us to the girl that isn't here. Possibly via the door that isn't /there/."

Jason attempts to grab a hold of Aly's hand (German, it's stupidly sexy) and says, "We're gonna be okay." he tells her firmly, and does not let go of her hand, his flashlight in his other. "Let's link up and.. and go uh. Up? Down? Flip a coin?"

Nobody's holding Joaquin's hand, so he shoves it into his pocket, and comes out with a quarter. "Heads up, tails down?" If nobody objects, he flips, catching the result on tape for posterity.

"There weren't, which was why I didn't try checking 'em out to see if Dawn went through," Jai replies, staring back at her, "...so prolly it's fucking with us. Again. Okay. Also, if we all hold hands, we're gonna have trouble keeping things lit, especially since I'm going to have to be on one end of the chain and won't exactly have a free hand."

Joaquin flips. "Fuck. Tails," he says, and looks back to the down stairs.

"Person on back of chain holding one.. and..." Alysanna looks at her captured hand and then pauses to consider. "Can holding in mouth or tearing shirt in strips and tie to head liking miner helmet light?"

Joaquin says, "Yeah, I need both hands I guess. Oh well, odd man out."

"I wondered why everybody was so keen on leaving when there was totally a door to be explored," Petra admits. "Jai's got a point, though... he can't very well hold hands with one arm all fucked up. That's just gonna lead to another 'fall down stairs' moment, and he might have bad luck like Dawn. I kinda like this shirt tearing idea, though. Like tie the strips to our belt loops or somethin', keep us connected."

Alysanna nods her head and then reaches for her shirt. "Jah." She pulls the cotton garment up and off over her head and then bites into it.. "Miss Petra is right.. we making rope and tying together one to other. No going alone."

Joaquin says, "I don't want to be tied to anybody. Thanks, but no thanks, that's just going to cause more trouble if we have to run."

Alysanna is NOT topless. She's wearing a Wal-Mart white cotton bra. Poor Jai. Nothing to get excited about.

Jason tries very hard to not ogle Aly. He might be about to die at like any moment, but. Dude. And damn. No boobs. Oh well, he'll just have to ogle the very ogleable Joaquin instead. He isn't real sure about the lead rope makin', but he's down with helping at any rate, and will even sacrifice his sweet Sex Pistols shirt if it helps. "Okay. So we go down, careful like.. count the floors one flight at a time until we hit the bottom, and then we make sure we can all see the door. Keep an eye out, if you see any kind of... I dunno, symbols, paintings, *anything*, we all stop and look just to make sure. Joaquin, you're mastering the vid cam, so shout if you see anything."

Joaquin can take his shirt off if it'll help. In the meantime, he's willing to lead the way down the stairs, ropeless. Because we've established he's on The List.

Jai gestures slightly with the flashlight, from where he's still holding it at Petra's other side. "There's no way anyone's wearing this like a miner. They'd be the freakiest unicorn ever." The flashlight's a good inch and a half diameter, at least, and well over a foot long. It would make a good club, as well as a giver of light. "I like the rope-on-belt-loops idea, but I think we need to do quick-release knots. In case." He nods at Jason's plan, apparently down with that. "Think we should keep one end of the group on the stairs? I don't trust this place not to, I dunno, pull them up like a venetian blind or something."

Petra helps with the rope making, and though she totally looked ready to also remove shirt and thus provide extra ogling potential, it seems pretty well covered with Aly, Joaquin and Jason all offering up shirts. So she doesn't-- you get to SUFFER. Unless somebody specifically said, 'yo, we need more rope,' in which case she would anyway, without a hint of shame. "Quick release knots is a good idea." She nods to Jason's suggestions and that seems all she's going to say at the moment.

And it seems Aly knows just enough about survival to indeed, make a quick-release knot.. which she shows to Petra and Jason, getting their approval. She collects all the t-shirts those here are willing to donate to the cause.. tying the strips into a rope as best she can manage. "Needing yours." she tells Petra, "Or will not stretch from stairs into door." Or she doesn't want to have the biggest boobies showing. Whatever the case, get more nekkid Petra!

Jason manages to prove he's Just A Guy here and tells Petra, "Yeah. Weeeeee should totally use everyone's shirts." And then slaps himself in the forehead. Dude, you're in hell, SURELY there's more important things to be thinking about right now!

Joaquin has no tattoos, piercings, or unusual markings of any kind. There's a missed opportunity. He's standing at the top of the stairs, looking at them through the camera impatiently.

What, no one's asking for Jai's shirts? He's wearing two of them! Admittedly, neither is a t-shirt, and there'd be sling-wrangling involved, but still. A guy could get a complex!

Everyone can thank Aly for Petra stripping out of her t-shirt and revealing a forest green lace bra. Jason's words make her laugh despite the situation, and she passes her shirt over to Aly for the ripping and tearing. For the record? I totally had her wear something OTHER than what's in her desc because shirts on Masq have a way of getting RUINED and I didn't wanna lose the use of this desc. The More You Know(tm). Petra doesn't seem embarrassed in the slightest to be showin' off her lacey underthings, and also has no tattoos, piercings, or other unusual markings.

The rope is handed off to Jason .. since he's like in charge and stuff.. and Aly sticks her hands in her pockets to keep them from getting taken or anything again.

Jason pauses a minute while their safety line is put together, and then abruptly grins at the camera, saying to it, "Remember, kids! If you're gonna get stuck in a man eating building that's trying to devour your souls, make sure you do it with a buncha sexy people." Hitching his pack on his bare back now, he starts into the stairwell and shines the light down over the railing. "Okay, let's... let's get linked up and get it on. I'm really sorry I got you guys into this, I didn't know this was going to be like this, I promise. I'll go first in case anything wants to eat somebody." he ties the end of rope he's given to the back of the belt around his waist, which he's sure will survive better than a belt loop. And once everyone's ready, he starts down.

Joaquin declines the rope, but he's going down those steps regardless, camera in hand. He's mostly watching his surroundings through the viewfinder now.

Jai keeps his arm around Petra while she strips the shirt off, watching her for a moment, and murmuring something to her before it's time to work out how to get the shirt-rope attached to his pants. Alas, he's probably going to have to let her go for that, and to do decently at lighting their way while they head back down those stairs. Jai mutters to Petra, "... like that one, hope... clearly gotta... one... camo... situations..."

Petra follows Jason's lead and ties the quick release knot around her *belt* instead of her belt loop, cuz what the hey. She grins at his apology and says, "Are you kidding me, dude? This is fuckin' awesome. Most exciting night I've had all week-- and I lead a charmed and exciting existence already." Whatever Jai murmurs to her makes her smirk over at him, though she doesn't reply to it aloud. Instead, she pats his head before tying the shirt rope around his belt, and then they're off!

Rope might as well be an umbilical cord for Aly. She's got it tied through her belt loop and totally passed on the quick-release. She's not going to get lost down there, nope. Though on the way back into the stairwell she does grab the ball that started this whole thing.. tossing it over the side of the steps and listening to how far it falls in the dark before bouncing as they begin.

And since Joaquin passed on the ol' rope idea, he'll be the first to fall in a hole, surely! The ball hits the next flight down and starts bouncing down the stairs, going and going and going and going.. and going.. and going.. until the sound is lost to distance. "I really hope that was actually a ball this whole time." Jason makes the mistake of muttering out loud while they go. If it was five or six flights down the first time and supposedly around nine up the first time, it's a full twenty seven or so flights down in the dark this time. Long enough to be suspenseful, and then actually a little boring, and then suspenseful again as the realization that this is way too damned far starts to settle in. The walls are concrete and featureless, none of them identical so there's no indication of just passing the same place twice. No marks, no symbols, but always that distant, just at the edge of hearing child's weeping somewhere down in the dark. Flashlight beams eventually hit not another landing but the slightly bowled floor of that pointless basement where there was nothing but the drain in the floor and the fucked up mural of them on the wall the last time they were here. These things are still here, but something that's not here is the ball, which has vanished as surely as Dawn had. Because everyone's looking for it, there is in fact a door, large and metal and very old looking set into the wall. BEDLAM is worked into the metal of the door like a name tag, the letters machined into the old steel. This is not your typical basement fire door.

Joaquin risks life and limb, ropeless and shirtless, but to the disappointment of all, does not fall in a hole. He does, however, take the camera on another slow pan around the room, playing it back in search of black ooze.... not that the big fucking door is all that ambiguous.

Knowing something is supposed to be there, expecting and beliving it, seems to have an effect sometimes. The door is there now for all to see, the black ooze that wasn't seen until the tape's first playback now shows on the miniscreen as it's being filmed, who knows what else may be lurking just past the edge of your vision, waiting to be recognized and allowed entry into your world? Unseen to the naked eye but there on the viewer, the trickle of oily gunk dribbles down the stairs and pools in the basement area, slowly pouring through the drain in the floor.

Petra made the occasional wisecrack as they started down into the dimness, and after about fifteen floors of this, she mutters, "Jesus FUCK. Seriously? I'm glad we're all in good shape, man. Ghost hunting's fuckin' HARD." Still, she's mostly good natured until about 25 floors, which is when all attempts at making jokes cease. When they finally reach the ground, she points at the door triumphantly. "There. Door." And then she pauses and checks, "...I'm not the only one who can see it again, am I?"

"Oh shit." Another German phrase that might as well be English. Alysanna stares at the word on the door. "Am seeing bedlam.. anyone else seeing it say other words?" She's a bit winded from the climb down as well. and looks up into the blackness then back over to the door.

Jai tosses silly jokes back with Petra, nothing notable, and also gets quieter as it keeps going. Finally, finally, they're there, and he stares across at the door. "Yeah. Yeah, I see that," he says, "And yeah, it says 'Bedlam' for me."

Joaquin doesn't say a word, all Srs Biz all of a sudden, but he checks to see if it says something else in the viewfinder. Whether it does or not, he's gonna try to open it! Oh yes he is!

The view finder says BEDLAM as well. "How the fuck do you miss a big ass *door*?" Jason asks, staring at the closed portal for a time. He glances over to see the mural, which is much the same with Dawn's figure warped differently than their own. "I wanna take it as a compliment that my picture actually looks okay. I'm not all that photogenic." Back to the group he asks, putting his hand on the door, "We wanna bust this bitch open and get into it?"

Joaquin, still looking through the camera, just says "Yyyyep."

Alysanna says, "Nien." Alysanna tosses in her 'vote' quietly.. not expecting to really win any ground. She doesn't fight the crowd at least, and allows her hesitant self to be tugged along by the rope."

"Man, I wondered the same damn thing," Petra tells Jason, and smirks at his comments about the mural. "Yeah. Let's pop this baby open." She looks to Alysanna and says quietly, "I know this doesn't look like fun," despite it totally seeming like she thought it did not two seconds ago, "...but it's gotta be done. We gotta figure this shit out, find Dawn, and get the fuck outta here."

"Maybe it wanted to be missed," Jai suggests, and nods agreement to Petra's remarks. "The sounds they make, so hideous, so great that they are more able to drive a man that hath his wits rather out of them," he says absently, then looks surprised and a little uneasy.

Jason gives Jai a Look, because now is totally not the time to be blurting out black poetry and shit. "Dude." he says, because that just jangled his shit up. Swallowing, he hesitates, and then pulls open the door, which turns out to be quite heavy, the way he strains. A boiler room beyond? No, in fact it's the foyer of a very old and delapidated building a bit like the school so far above them. The room there is a large entryway, there is a reception desk in bad repair with old candles set there for light (they are currently unlit and cobwebby). Various display shelves have dust caked things on them, and drab sunlight filters through dust caked and cobwebby windows with the faint lines of outside bars showing.

Or so it seems! Joaquin is making a pass with the camera before he lets anybody go in there.

Alysanna definitely hesitates at the portal into Bedlam.. even going so far as to suggest "What of someone staying at stairs? Can... tying pants to rope to making longer..." Because she would totally be safer out here, alone. Right?

Petra also gives Jai a Look, this one frowning, but it's less a 'Don't freak me out, man,' look as a 'Whoa, you okay there, dude?' look. She pairs this with reaching out for his good arm and touching it for a moment, squeezing lightly. With her eyes still on Jai, she tells Alysanna, "That's a bad idea, and you know it's a bad idea. You don't wanna end up lost, like Dawn. The last thing we need now is to lose more people."

Joaquin's viewfinder shows the room... not quite sure if it wants to look as dusty and filthy and done as it actually appears to the naked eye, or cleaned up and bright and shining.

Jai chews his bottom lip, looking a little bit jangled himself, but manages a smile for Petra when she squeezes his arm. A somewhat weak smile, but a smile nonetheless. "...she's right. As much as I don't trust this place to stay architecturally logical, if we're going in, I think we'd all better. Splitting up's just asking for it. And... I dunno if there are rules, but if there are, then if there's always a way out somewhere, then there has to be a way to get to it. Which would mean it can't... yeah." A deep breath, and he goes to check out that drain before they go, to see if he can see anything down in it before they go in. "...hey, Imp? Take a picture of this, and see if it looks any different that way?" After a breath of thought Jai adds, "You got the mural, too, right? Does it look any different on film?"

Joaquin obediently (presuming that he's the one being addressed) gives the drain another pass. "Well, I mean, that's where the invisible black stuff is going, but other than that..." Other than that.

"...Did we just go to a hotel?" Jason asks, and then looks back at Aly, nodding at the nudging of the other folk that staying behind might be bad. The drain itself is, to the naked eye, a dry drain that's very drain shaped, pretty much your standard out dated drain. On film it's gross with black gunk pouring slowly through it, and on regular camera it's the same, just stilled. The mural doesn't change, appearing the same to the naked eye as it does on either type of camera. "How in the *fuck* did we end up at a hotel in the god damned day time?" Jason's busy stuck on that right now, and leans in through the open door to look around, trusting to the rope at his belt and his feet planted outside to keep him safe.

Joaquin resumes watching the room in his camera, not quiiiite willing to step in there until the room in the picture makes up its mind.

Alysanna still looks hesitant to enter the second gateway, and after a moment she wipes a hand across her sweating brow. "Is not.. hotel." She swallows hard as she stiffens up her back and steps forward with the rest of them, seeming to make the choice to be an obedient, even if terrified, tag-a-long. "Bedlam is asylum. Mental institution. Was place of torture and experimenting on patients.. naming after Bethlem Hospital.. started in thirteenth century.. worst in sixteenth to eighteenth before revolutions.."

Petra squeezes Jai's arm one last time before nodding to his request and taking pictures of the drain and the mural after Joaquin's done filming them. She shows the pictures to Jai before first saying to Jason, "Dude. There's invisible shit. Disappearing people. Blood. Magically locked doors. Windows that don't go anywhere. And sudden hotels surprise you?" And then Alysanna's answer as to what the place actually is makes her purse her lips, frowning. "Well. That's cheery. And uh..." she peeks in. "Yeah, appears to be lit by candles, so hopefully this isn't the fuckin' sixteenth century in here cuz I do NOT need to get experimented on or tortured. It'd totally mess up my hair. Besides, I *like* this bra." Her words are flippant, but her tone is tense.

"I like that bra too," Jai volunteers. "I bet we all like that bra, so clearly we all need to avoid experimentation and torture. Just logic, right there." He adds a quiet 'thanks' to Petra for the picture assistance, and peers in through the door without entering as well. "So it's an old mental hospital from hell and history," he says, "...but what's it doing here? I mean, is there some connection with the school, somehow?"

Just stepping into the 'hotel', Jason is beginning to recall what he learned from The Shining and other such books and movies in an attempt to prepare himself for... whatever. And then Alysanna has to go giving her little history lesson as to the actual nature of the building he's now standing in. Every scrap of color blanches from him as a result of sudden knee locking terror. If he were a better man, he'd bolt like a fox and fly up twentysomething (or more) floors and *claw* his way out of here. Instead, he faints dead away just after a little squeak.

Joaquin continues to keep an eye on the camera. "Well, since I don't have any idea what /that/ Bedlam /actually/ looked like, I can't say if that's it or not, but I'm just gonna wait until it decides what it wants to-- aw, man!" This last, obviously, to their fearless leader, and Joaquin feels honor bound to at least get the guy off the cold floor.

Moving to help Joaquin with Jason, Alysanna takes a deep breath.. steeling herself as she mutters something in German. She moves behind Jason and instructs "Putting his feet above his head. Is shock." She glances off down into the hall and then back at the man.. wrapping her hands gently around the back of his head and speaking to him softly, compassionately. Whatever else is going on - she seems to be focused on Jason.

Once he enters the room, the image on Joaquin's camera settles into Clean and Sparkly.

"Aw, man," Petra echoes, and heads into the room herself, though she makes sure Jai is coming along. "Goddamnit. He'll be fine, I'm sure. Anybody got any smelling salts or somethin'? I totally do not." She kneels down beside Jason and says quietly, "Yo. Yo. Jason. Dude. We're gonna be fine, man. You okay, there? We can't get outta here if you don't wake up."

Jai does come along as well, standing =right= in the doorway and playing human lamp again while the others tend to their fearless leader. "No smelling salts," he says, shaking his head. "Or ice cubes or other things like that. Could try slapping him, I guess..."

The door to Bedlam (which is also not your typical front door to a building any more than it is a typical boiler room door) closes ever so quietly while you're all distracted by the fainted Jason, booting Jai in the butt with its heavy weight and shoving those last couple of inches towards closed. Jason does sort of stir a little, eyes moving behind his lids and then popping open, contacts settling back into place, "Oh fuck this wasn't a dream." he mentions.

Joaquin straightens up. "He'll be fine," he says, and continues to scan the room through the viewfinder- for black goop or an otherwise invisible method of escape.

To Jason the German says, "You can pretending if is help.. is what I will doing." Alysanna stares down at Jason, untying the rope from her belt with a soft shake of her head. Once free, she stands back up and suggests to Joaquin "Can you panning us with camera.. making sure we are.. as we are? Please?" The skeptic seems to be relaxing enough to at least be minimally useful. Her gaze then shifts to the desk, which she approaches, looking for anything with a date, status report, roster of patients or staff.

"Of course," Petra mutters when the door insists on closing itself. She gives Jai a warm smile of commiseration before turning back to Jason and offering him a hand up. "Even dreams have shitty spots, so just take things as they are. C'mon. Let's figure this shit out and ride to Dawn's rescue like mothafuckin' heroes 'n shit."

Joaquin takes a deep breath, shakes his head a little bit as if to clear it, and pulls up a smile (which is, needless to say, gorgeous even if it's a little insecure around the edges). "Big adventure time!" he says, as much to himself as anyone, and he follows Aly's suggestion of looking at each of our heroes through the camera.

Jai was of course standing there precisely to prevent that, and does his damnedest. "No... you... fucking... don't," he grinds out, leaning his entire inconsiderable weight on the thing and trying to dig in with his feet, but to no avail, and he stumbles slightly when it manages to shut itself anyway. "Or you do. Fuck you, door," he says, turning to glare at it balefully, and then he sighs, stepping farther in. Might as well, now. "Right. Excitement and adventure and really wild things."

Jason whiiiiiiines in the most unattractive, unheroic way ever and says, "Maaaaaan! Why couldn't this have just stayed a school? I fuckin hate hospitals!" as he accepts Petra's help up. For the record, you all look fantastic and shirtless on film. It's like the beginning of a silent hill porno or something. Next? A pants rope! "You're right, Dawn's... probably in here somewhere.. Fuck, poor girl.." At the desk, the candles have wicks if anyone decides they want to replace their flashlights or anything. There's various paper litter there under quite a lot of dust that doesn't exist on film, with lots of different stuff on them that I can't even begin to imagine how to describe. Reception desk stuff. But the date appears to be 1814, if the papers are to be believed. There's a little collection box for pennies on the desk for visitors that reads "Thank you!" carved artfully into the wood. Jason also has TOTALLY been forgetting to mention this whole time just the teeniest bit of distortion to his image on film, I have no excuse other than that I've been distracted by all this other stuff. Just like, consider yourselves used to it or something since it's always been there.

Joaquin eyes the donation box. Pauses. Eyes the donation box. Digs into his pocket and... probably stupidly... puts a penny in it. Clink!

"...is 1814. Anyone is remembering girl's name who was being.. Dawn.. right Dawn?" She keeps shuffling through all the papers.. then beckons Joaquin over, "Seeing if her name is here.. anywhere what is looking like list of rooms.. or.. treatments?" Alysanna tries to keep this last part down to almost a whisper for Joaquin alone.

Distraction is totally normal when there's a shirtless Joaquin. I mean, really. Petra pauses as she sees what Joaquin's doing, and after a moment, she pulls out her wallet and drops a penny in as well. In for a penny, in for a pound cake, as a wise man once said. If she catches Alysanna's whisper, she doesn't let it show, and instead says, "I think we should all put a penny in. Y'know. So we're officially visitors, and not fresh meat for the torturating."

It might be a stupid move, but Joaquin may not've been the only one inclined to make it, since Jai's tucked the flashlight under his arm so he could dig in his own pocket. The guy with two good hands and less distance to go gets there first, though, so he pauses -- and then Petra makes her suggestion. "...sure, why not?" he agrees, and finishes finding a handful of change. He winnows it down to a penny, drops it in the box, then pauses, and adds a nickel before pouring the rest back in his pocket. Then he takes one of the unlit candles, putting that in a different pocket. In case.

Jason decides to add a penny as well (in for a penny, in for a pound!), may as well considering he's fucked any way. As an after thought he decides to add one for Aly as well. It's like a date. But way more horrific! And just like that, as Joaquin's, and the other people's, generosity and curiosity are brought forth, so too is the true nature of the building for one so kind as to pay the price. Cob webs and dust do not instantly dissapear but fade away with a quick sort of gradual quality that might leave one wondering if it'd ever really been there at all, were it not for the smudges of those that have fallen, knelt, or touched dusty pages. Wood takes on a polished shine that you're probably all just imagining, broken things unbrokening. From this room there's a nice set of doors that were there before but not really all that worth mentioning yet, however now there's a lovely banner over them reading 'Show of Bethlehem'.

Joaquin's shirtlessness /is/ distracting, but not even that can distract from the changes taking place around the room. Probably. Joaquin brightens a little as the next door appears. "Cool," he says, getting into it now, and takes a look at the new door through the camera.

Alysanna digs into her pockets.. a linen kerchief from earlier.. a ball of lint. There's a needle in a tube and.. a rubber band. "Um.. can.. borrowing.. penny?" She then notes Jason's generosity and the surreal change to the surroundings. "Oh great - is more.. real now." She looks down at herself and back at the camera. Eyeing the new doors she lets the others fuss with them, stuffing things back into her pockets and getting a candle to light off another one that's already glowing.

"Oooooooh," Petra murmurs, far more fascinated by this change than she is afraid, or at least that's how it appears. She snaps off some photographs of the room and some of the writing on the papers, and then she says, "We should totally go see whatever crazy shit is through that door." She definitely does not untie her shirt rope from her belt, unless she ends up the only one attached.

A good point just came up that I neglected due to dinner distraction: There is daylight coming through nice clean windows, so no oppressive darkness in here.
Barred windows. Sorry.

Jai definitely hasn't untied his rope, but given the lighting of the place, he turns off the flashlight, tucking it through his belt at his side, where it's snugly held but easy to get hold of. He looks around at the place, quiet for the moment as he takes it in. "...yeah," he agrees then, "We prolly should."

Alysanna suddenly stops moving... her hands just hovering there in the air. Her jaw sets a little bit tighter and she asks.. "Any of you... students.. loving to read?"

Jason ain't untying anything! "This is gonna suuuuuuuuck!" Jason whines under his breath as the party goes wandering off into the great screwy yonder. The doors open easily as if well maintained, leading into a T intersection. It's sort of like a museum, doesn't really matter where you go, there's art all over. Except in this case, it's various crazy people wards. Considering this was all a big attraction back in the day, these, for lack of a better word, cells, have doors exactly like the door that lead you all here, and their hallway walls have large barred windows which help with being able to poke people with sticks. While all this outside, more public space is bright and cheery, it is abandoned except for this group. The insides of these cells are not at all cleaned up and pretty, some appearing dusty and aged, and others appearing 'current', empty but with mattresses and trash strewn, occasionally blood spattered and not generally smelling all that nice if you get right up close. Hooray for crappy toilet facilities! There are shackles and chains and crazed drawings in dark substances, a silent echo of the place that really was a mad house. Jason mentions while looking past the door, "I like to read, sorta."

"What Jai is saying.. what was it.. reminded me of book? But am not being for sure. Is called Bedlam, setting is 1814.. by man Hollingshead?" Alysanna brushes her fingers through her hair, lifting the locks out of her eyes. "Can you repeating line you spoke? Spooking one? Bitte.. please?"

Joaquin says, "Not a student, don't read much... but there doesn't look to be much of another way out." As ever, he observes the spaces both with eyes and camera, looking for the weird. .....the /more/ weird. "Christ, Jason, get a hold of yourself, this is what it is, man."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is," Petra agrees with Jason, and gives him a small smile. She tilts her head to Alysanna's words and perhaps inexplicably reaches out to Jai after they're spoken, giving his shoulder a little squeeze. "We're gonna be fine. We're too pretty to die. And life's too cool to kill us off. Seriously."

"I'm not a student," Jai says, ";but I read..." The further question makes him look faintly uneasy again, and he takes a breath and a slight pause, as though rummaging through his memory, before replying, "'The sounds they make, so hideous, so great that they are more able to drive a man that hath his wits rather out of them'." The first time he didn't sound like he was quoting; this time he does. Petra's squeeze seems to help with the uneasy thing, and since he actually has a free hand now, he uses it to reach over and rub the small of her back for a moment in return. "We are definitely too pretty to die. 'specially me. I mean, have you seen my legs? Amazing. But man, this place is not my idea of entertainment."

"*You* get a hold of myself!" Jason says right back to Joaquin, "Have you ever *been* a patient? It fucking *sucks*!" He shakes his head though and cautiously goes forward, "Never read anything by that guy. Bet it wasn't a good book though.."

Joaquin gets a hold on Jason!....'s elbow. "Well, there's nowhere to take this shared hallucination but forward." He doesn't tell Jason that he looks a little weird on the viewfinder- probably if he wasn't taking his meds he'd be looking a lot weirder.

"Nien.. book sucked, but was something maybe someone would force students to read.. for literature class." Alysanna goes along with the other, muttering the line from Jai under her breath. "Watching for names.. Matthew.. Has... haslem? Just in being case."

Petra squeezes Jai's shoulder and decides to just keep her hand there for now. She gives him a reassuring smile and then tells Jason, "We're not patients this time. I think. We're *guests.* We're here to look but not touch. Not to be poked at and not to be prodded. We're gonna do okay, man."

"And to find Dawn," Jai adds, glancing both ways down the hall. He gives Petra a small smile in return for hers, and stays close. "Matthew Haslem? Yeah... okay. Makes me wonder if we should all be wearing earplugs or something. But then we wouldn't know what the rest of us were saying, so..."

"Right. Right." Jason says with a breath, trying to MAINTAIN! under these circumstances. "I hope we find her soon.." This is the part of the movie where something's supposed to pop up and scare everyone, and that does happen, only in miniature because view screens are little. While panning past a cell's window something flies at the screen, some greasy, unwashed, haggard individual that flickers briefly before vanishing. Jason screams on que whether he can see the screen or not. He's got his movie timing down pretty well.

Joaquin doesn't scream, but he does jump, and quickly turns for another pan at that particular cell. This video better come out, man.

The scream startles Alysanna.. and after she jumps like she's been goosed, the young woman glares at Jason. She looks down the hall again and wraps her arms around her waist. "Should checking every cell with camera, in case can only seeing Beth.. or whatever name was. is... with it. Camera."

"Whoashit!" Petra mutters as she practically jumps out of her skin at Jason's screaming. She wasn't looking at the screen, but she sure as heck does now, asking, "What? What totally freaky yet awesomely cool thing was on there? We should run it back in slow-mo or something." Her hand finally leaves Jai's shoulder so she can pull her camera up and start getting shots of the cells and windows.

"Dawn," Jai says, "like the sunrise. Presumably. I mean, I guess it could be short for Donald, and she's just convincing..." He jumped a little at Jason's scream as well, but since he can't see the viewfinder, just looks a little confused. "What'd you see, man?"

Joaquin explains "Ghost," and tries Petra's suggestion of rolling it back in slow motion.

"AaaaaaahhhhhhIfuckinhatehospitals!" Jason says in that 'scared me so it pissed me off' sort of way. Hospitals really do suck for a ghost busty sorta guy. He doesn't watch the slow mo replay of scary greasy guy throwing himself at the bars and flickering away with a snarl, just looking anywhere else instead. And from somewhere deeper in the asylum there's a wailing woman's scream of terror or pain, who knows which, the sound quite real in this deserted place. "Holy shit I think that was her!" Jason says and starts down the hall again, pulled up short by the shirt rope tied around his belt.

"Yeah, that..." Petra says, trailing off before her presumable ending of 'ain't right,' because man, they're so beyond that now. "Whoa," she adds helpfully, after they hear the scream, and she too starts following after Jason, doing her part to keep him from being held back. "We're gonna be okay," she notes, possibly as much for herself as for the others.

Joaquin starts after Jason too-- he may not be tied to the others, but he's not going to get left behind anyway!

"ALL of us are gonna be okay," Jai agrees, screams notwithstanding, and he follows as well, toward the sounds of terror or pain.

No longer tied to the human chain, Alysanna takes off towards the scream with the others at a quick lope.. It's like she's forgotten she was scared, but then she did tell Jason that she was going to pretend it was a dream.

With their hearts a beating and worried panic setting in about what might be making Dawn make that terrible sound, things flicker past their vision inside cells, people rocking in corners or flailing wildly in too-fast speeds, others lying still and sprawled, a couple of vicious fights, the sorts of things you'd pay a penny to go see on a boring afternoon. One might be tempted to linger and try to catch more than just a glimpse if it weren't for the tortured yells of poor Dawn. 'Electrotherapy' reads a small sign at an archway they run through, and here is where we're going to pause our tale and just BS for a few until probably day after tomorrow when Dawn is back, or tomorrow if her Shadowrun game is canceled.

Another scene pause.
When last we left our intrepid heroes, everyone except Dawn was stalking cautiously and curiously through Bedlam Asylum, supposedly in the year 1814, a time and place where they simply could not possibly actually be. They've been lost for the most part, taking whatever random direction and just exploring, hoping to find their missing Dawn and a way out of all this madness. They've been spooked by ghosts along the way and had to listen to Jason whine about how much he hates hospitals, but then lo, in the distance is Dawn's scream peeling out through the empty halls. They yell out for her and begin running towards the sound, heading under an archway that proclaims this area the electrotherapy section of the hospital. So. Game on. Alysanna is totally there, being all thinky and stuff.

Joaquin is shirtless and extremely attractive. Game on.

Jason is shirtless and only pretty attractive! But he has awesome tattoos all over the place. I believe he, Jai, and Petra are all still tied together by way of their missing shirts torn into strips and made into a rope connecting their belts, because they've gotten a little paranoid about shit disappearing on them. And, you know, people vanishing into fucked up hospitals. "DAAAAAAWN!" Jason bellows, totally forgetting any notion of being sneaky while running with the group. (after everyone's gone, I'll scene set Dawn's reappearance)

Joaquin's attention is divided between the actual scene and the scene as it appears on his video camera, as they do not always match up.

Jai, alas, is shirted, tattooless, and can only claim not to be UNattractive, but he follows Jason all the same, still properly shirt-roped. No yelling on his part, and he glances at everything they pass, but the source of the Dawn-like screaming is definitely a priority at present.

Petra is also shirtless, but not as hawt as Joaquin. Her jaw's set firmly, and yes she is totally tied together with Jai and Jason. She gives little attention to anything but the view ahead of her, which probably means she's going to get eaten.

The caged animals that people once paid to view howl and shriek in their cells as the group runs past. Rounding a corner and leaving the mad ones behind, a room proves not to be deserted, a wood and tile chamber lit with a mix of electric and gas lighting. If you've ever seen House on Haunted Hill, you'll better understand the flickering, form stuttering effect of the doctor and his couple of nurses in this room, their movements jittery and their forms jerky and flickery, like an extremely bad roll of film trying to play out. The figure of Dawn strapped to a table with thick bands of leather about her wrists, ankles, and waist making her wild struggles much more mild than she might like, and her thrashing to get away from what's happening sort of makes one think maybe they're accidentally rescuing a scruffy alley urchin for a moment but.. No, definitely Dawn. The doctor and his nurses look thoroughly surprised to see the group barge in, paused in the act of bringing electroshock doom towards Dawn's poor head. "Holy fuck!" is all Jason can really think of to say when he skids to a stop in the doorway.
I meant to imply that Dawn is very real and not flickery, I think I failed to type that.

And if that's what's actually /in/ the room, what the fuck is on the /camera/? Joaquin assumes you mean the inferior yet strangely not bad remake and not the original, and after a moment of hesitation he decides that flickery things are no match for shirtless 3-D reality. And so without giving this decision nearly enough thought, he jumps in to try to unbuckle Dawn.

Dawn screams and struggles, and struggles and screams. It's pretty amazing how long she can yell for without drawing breath. She's frantic, throwing herself against the restraints, her eyes wide and full of an animal terror.

Jai is dressed for the wrong era and probably several shades darker than the norm for the place, but hey, who says that means he can't impersonate a doctor? After he stops staring at the flickering for a second and pulls himself together, anyway. "Stop," he tells the doctor and nurses, in the most firm and professional voice he can muster up, "There's been a mistake; she isn't scheduled for this treatment today. Ny orderlies have to take her back to her cell." Worth a shot, right?

Petra glances at Jai and his doctorly doctorness, then nods firmly to the actual doctors and walks over to assist Joaquin with the unbuckling of Dawn. She tries to be quite casual despite being nervous as all get-out and kinda shirtless an' all.

"You mustn't! You mustn't!" A flickery, form jittering nurse says to Joaquin with alarm, her voice accented in a Londoner fashion, reaching to try and stop him freeing Dawn, but she jerks back when Jason raises a fist and threatens to not be a gentleman. Alysanna leaps forward to help Petra and Joaquin with the unbuckling of Dawn. "Patient is Incurable.." the doctor says in a flat, emotionless voice, flickering hands tightening around his electro implements of doom, "The road to progress must be paved with Science." His voice may be deadpan, but his face tightens with building rage, held back for now by Jai's odd impersonation.

There's mindless flailing and screamin from Dawn. The little goth chick seems to totally have lost it. There's a sssccccriiip! sound as she rips one of the wrist restraints right off, her hand batting about uselessly.

"Absolutely," Jai agrees firmly with the doctor, in somewhat clipped tones, "The road to progress MUST be paved with Science. Which is why it is =imperative= that the patient =not= be treated on a mistaken schedule. Science requires =precision=. A mistimed session could spoil the entire regimen, as you of course know. Progress requires the utmost. Care. Or They will seize on it as an excuse to cling to the old ways!" There's always a They, right? "The ways of tradition and superstition! No, we will treat her on the exact schedule, and leave them nothing to question in our methods." He gives his 'assistants' a curt nod as they remove the restraints, or try to. "Be sure she stays under control." If Dawn has any control to get herself under right now.

Joaquin glances anxiously at Jai, and then turns his most gorgeous smile on the flickery nurse, in a sort of wordless "hey, doctors, you know how it is," and then starts working to free Dawn again, saying "Yes, doctor!" as crisply as he can manage under the circumstances.

"Yes, doctor!" Petra echoes firmly, and works at one of Dawn's leg restraints. She gives the nurse who said 'You mustn't!' a broad smile of her own, meant to be reassuring. Nothing Odd Here, move along!

Jason is pretty friggin frazzled himself and plays the part of the orderly, sorta, letting Petra, Joaquin, and Alysanna deal with getting Dawn loose, Aly taking up the last wrist restraint. And then Dawn is free to fling herself off the gurney. "Control the patient!" the flicker-stutter doctor snaps, the pair of jittery nurses attempting to take a step forward with reaching hands, but neither wants to get punched by the schizo blue haired guy. No one's argued about these new doctors and nurses being unprofessionally half naked, probably they don't see things the same way you lot do any more than the camera tends to at times. He's the only guy that wasn't working on tricking doctors or working on straps, so Jason makes the attempt to snag Dawn up before she can bulldoze her way through a wall.

The purple-haired goth girl leaps off the table as soon as she's free, still screaming. She makes to run, blindly. But then, there's a Jason! She doesn't quite dodge fast enough and finds herself grabbed by him. At the moment, she's not doing very much but her wide eyes and the expression that's consumed by an almost inhuman terror doesn't bode well.

"Control the patient," Jai echoes the other 'doctor'. "Without harming her. Bring her out, we have much else to do today." He nods to them, putting his working hand behind his back, and maintaining an extremely upright posture. He watches Dawn from the corner of his eye, trying not to let his worry about her panic show.

Once Dawn is free, Joaquin goes to help Jason steer her out of the room.

With another terse nod to Doctor Jai, Petra moves to help Jason and Joaquin get Dawn controlled. She's not very strong, so hopefully you menfolk have it mostly under control!

Jason, with the help of others, covers Dawn in a lot of comforting, steering arms while she flails and freaks, and with cautious looks back and forth for who knows what sort of crazy shit, they steer her desperate-to-flee self out of the shock therapy room. "Dude, dude!" Jason tries to stage call in a not doctorly professional way to Jai to let him know they're ready for him to join them in the fleeing process. The flickery, angry doctor, meanwhile, glares at Jai like a doctor might look at a professional rival, but Jai speaks complete sense and he can't make himself argue with that. But he is *definitely* going to be writing to the board of directors or house of lords or something like that. Damned upstart young physicians think they know everything! Out in the hall, Jason's great suggestion about how to proceed is, "Run!" in a small voice.

Dawn is calming down a little as they get her away from the electroshock machines and the doctors and nurses. She finally stops screaming and just goes still, completely. She doesn't move, or breathe, or blink. She just lets herself be steered.

Jai has no idea what the proper way to address the other doctor would be -- Sir? Doctor? M'colleague? -- so he simply gives the man his best respectful-but-not-subservient nod, turns neatly, and strides out of the room. Just in time to keep from having his bit of rope go too taut, too, so when he's out the door, he speeds up to catch the rest of the group. "Back to the door?" he suggests quietly once they're all one mass again.

Joaquin is the only one who's not tied to the group; he continues to guide Dawn as quickly and efficiently (and shirtlessly!) as he can. "Don't see much of a choice."

Once they're free of the doctor and his nurses, Petra gives Jai such a smitten LOOK. It totally promises mad smoochin's if they ever get out of this alive. She then nods firmly to his question and agrees with Joaquin, "Seems the best option, yeah." Quietly, she tells Dawn, "We're gonna get you outta this. You're okay now."

Jason nods his head so hard he risks the damned thing flying right off his neck, "Shit yeah let's get the *fuck* out of this place! Are you okay Dawn? Are you okay? They didn't get your head, did they? Mother fucking brain frying *bastards*! It's okay, we're gonna get you outta here, you can have one'a my pills and.. and.. whatever else'll make you feel better!" Through the video camera, the hospital is back to trying to make up its mind if it wants to be shiny and in service, or shitty and broke down. Fortunately, their speedy legs make getting towards the entry hall a lot quicker.

Joaquin is still keeping an eye on the camera, but he's less interested in smoochins (for once) than in getting out of here. They're still going to have to get to the top floor to get out of here, diverting though this detour has been.

Dawn is moving along with them just as fast as they are, but it seems her mind has checked out for the moment. Withdrawn into somewhere that's easier to cope with, perhaps. She does reach out for Petra's hand, though.

Jai gives a small breath of relief once they've turned the corner away from the ECT room and toward the door, and he gives Petra a grin. As they approach the door out, his old nemesis, he steps ahead to try to open it. It turns out not to be locked, though it =is= still huge and heavy and somewhat difficult to wrangle one-handed. He wrangles it like a mofo, though!

Petra lets Dawn take her hand, and helps guide the woman as they go. She gives Dawn's hand a reassuring squeeze or two as they move, and she heaves a sigh of relief as the door turns out not to be locked. With her free hand, she tries to help open the door, and mutters, "Let's get the FUCK out of here."

The door scree's softly in protest as Jai insists they be allowed out, its heavy weight trying to deny them, but it's pushed open nonetheless and lets the lot spill out into the familiar little basement room with its drain in the floor and the spooky mural on the wall. The faces on the mural have changed, no one's smiling any more, Dawn's image still looks crazed and howling, while the rest look distinctly surprised with wide round black eyes and mouths. The room is still dark and shadowy, flashlights I think were off for the moment, but Joaquin's camera light gives them a little illumination. On the view screen, that gross black goop still trickles down the single flight of stairs leading to the open doorway of the stairwell leading to the school's first floor. The Bedlam door stands open, revealing a dark, dusty boiler room with damaged, rusted and unusable equipment, a few old and forgotten janitorial supplies and the like.

Joaquin switches his flashlight back on now that he's got the hand free. And he doesn't waste any time heading back up the stairs. "We still need to find the room where the light was- or where this black gunk is coming from- which I'm gonna bet is the same place. We're not getting out of here until we do."

Jason pants, "Top.. top floor." Taking just a second to glance at the mural, he follows Joaquin quickly, making sure everyone's coming along and staying close. The totally here Alysanna helps with Dawn, taking a place at the side Petra isn't on and linking an arm with her, likely cooing something soothing in German to the poor goth girl. "Good thing we got all this shirt rope, we can probably get out the window or.. I hope." He glances back at the hospital turned boiler room and seems distinctly weirded out, deciding to put his eyes on Joaquin ahead of him. His bum, prolly, since that's straight ahead.

And what better to look at? Joaquin's just hoping there are fewer flights going up than there were coming down.

Once they're all on the correct side of the Bedlam door, Jai leans on it to make sure it's firmly closed again, and reclaims his flashlight from his belt, turning it on again. "Well," he says brightly, "that went well." A sigh, playing the light over the mural, and then he looks to Dawn. "You doing okay, Dawn?" He glances to each of them, "We have another length of rope to add her to the line? Joaquin's prolly right. And I think I liked the old version of the mural better than the new one." He'll head up the stairs too, but not until he's sure the wimmenfolk are ready too.

"That's not good," Petra notes when she looks at the changed mural, taking on the role of Captain Obvious for about the fifteenth time tonight. She gives Joaquin a nod, seeming to agree. Assuming Dawn is still easily led, she starts helping her up the stairs, and says, "Yeah, we should have enough rope for her, now that Aly's not connected."

Dawn is very easily lead. She seems to have gone into some weird 'standby' mode, allowing herself to be pulled around. "No jackets, no jackets," she whispers quietly. Oddly enough, she doesn't sound like somebody from the South of the US anymore. It's an accent that's probably familiar to a few of them, instead.

"Crap, I think they rubbed Brit off on her." Jason says, their neat little rope line easily extended by one more person. Their trip up is a hell of a lot shorter this time, just one single flight to reach the first floor, and with some looking upwards through the narrow gap between railings, only two flights up to the top. Reality wins! Theoretically. The black goop makes an easy to follow trail.

Joaquin doesn't really answer- possibly doesn't even notice the change in Dawn's demeanor- too focused on following the track of black goop up the stairs.

"No jackets," Jai assures Dawn quietly as he climbs, bringing up the rear this time, lighting their feet. "Hold on, it'll be okay." If he's noticed the change in Dawn's accent, he doesn't mention it.

Petra STARES at Dawn for several seconds, frowning faintly and giving her a distinct WTF look. Still, she doesn't let go of her hand, and echoes Jai's promise: "No jackets." Assuming it's even possible to do one-handed while climbing, she tries to hook Dawn to the shirt-rope. Possibly she gets Aly's help, which is likely the only way she'll manage it.

Dawn quietens down to inaudible mumbles now, and she won't let go of Petra's hand for any reason.

As Background Aly, she is obligated to help! Up the stairs they go! The place is in bad shape, but the stairwell was built quite well, up to code and all that, so no worries about broken steps or anything, just peeling paint that's probably lead based and random litter from the decaying place. It's possibly both welcoming and frightening that the doorway to the top floor hallway swings slowly open for them as they approach, the trail of black, oily goop trickling past the doorway from down one of the locker strewn hallways. "You can't *do* this!" comes a young female voice from somewhere down that goopy floored hall, "I paid! I paid!"

It's really a lot more frightening than welcoming for Joaquin, but he seems to have grimly accepted the situation. With light in one hand and camera in the other, he scans the hallway to follow the otherwise invisible goop.

AHH SOMETHING'S GOT JOAQUIN! Wait no, it's just Jason grabbing one of his back pockets around the top of the stairs out of worry.

It's enough to make Joaquin stumble back and make a small, unmanly squeaking noise. "Jesus, Jason!"

Jason says, "Sorry! Sorry!"

Jai follows quietly, keeping the way lit and glancing periodically over his shoulder to make sure nothing unexpected's following them up. As long as it isn't, he continues with the whole group up into the hallway, and shines his light in the direction of the voice -- then the other way, just in case, and then voiceward again.

Petra stays absolutely silent as they reach the upstairs, and squeezes Dawn's hand again reassuringly. She jumps at Joaquin's squeaking, and then despite the tense situation, can't help but smirk once it's clear it's just Jason.

Dawn stops mumbling after a little while and lapses into silence again. When J&J do their grabby squeaky act, she jumps a little.

"I'm sorry!" Jason apologizes again, "I was worried! Doorway and all that.." Nothing follows them, they're so deceptively 'safe' just now. Only a little ways down the hall, a teenage girl in a school uniform bursts out of one classroom, runs across the hall with her face in her hands and the sound of crying, and darts into a classroom just ahead of her. There's a scraping sound that is just like that made by the windows when Alysanna came in (and tried unsuccessfully to leave).

Joaquin was about to tell Jason to get his hand off his ass, but-- well, ghosts sort of trump. Joaquin makes a check with the camera to see if that room happens to be the source of the black ooze.

It is!

Well, JQ's going THERE then. No sense wasting time!

Jai follows the running girl with his flashlight beam, and glances to Petra and Dawn before following JQ -- whichever of the two classrooms Joaquin heads to, Jai checks the other one, not that he has a camera handy to use as a lens.

Petra leads Dawn to follow Jai long enough for her to take some quick snapshots of the room he's looking in. And then, depending on what she sees on her screen, she likely turns to head in after Joaquin.

Dawn follows sedately after Petra, barely taking an interest other than to quietly watch the running girl.

Jason follows too! Once they've managed to make it past the threshold of the door without anyone getting eaten by a building, he totally lets go of Joaquin's pocket. His knuckles got so lucky! Swoon. At that classroom, where black gunk oozes in the camera's view screen, the floor is covered in the stuff, old, crumbling school desks scattered and the room strewn about with all sorts of trash. The school girl they saw is just finishing climbing out the window onto the ledge three floors above the ground, the sound of her hysterical crying rushed into the classroom on the mild night time breeze, "I deserve an *A*!" she wails with that 'I'm about to jump' look and sound to her.

Joaquin hangs back at the doorway. "Shit," he says under his breath, "I totally recognize her. She's one of the kids who killed themselves during the whole pay for grades... thing." He scans the room with the camera again, to see the origin of the goo, if any.

The source of the goop itself seems to just be the room, the entire floor is covered in the stuff through the view screen, splashes of it staining desks and walls. It's an inch or so deep in here at the site of an innocent person's death.

Nothing notable in the room she ran from, so Jai heads to the room she ran too as well. "Happen to remember her name or any details?" he asks Joaquin quietly but urgently, and slides around him just into the room, goop be damned. "Hey," he says to the girl, "Wait, okay? Come back in, let's try to get this fixed. You deserve better than =that=, right?" He gestures to the window on 'that', and holds out a hand to her.

"Hey, heeeeeey," Petra soothes the ghost. "Nothing's worth killing yourself over, let alone a grade. I mean, maaaan. You do totally deserve an A and all, I'm not gonna argue with you on that, but like, there'll be other classes, and other times to totally kick academic ass. There's lots o' stuff to live for-- skydiving, and runner's high, and prolly people to care about. And there'll be sunshiney days, and, y'know, fuckin'... puppies and babies and what the fuck ever." Proooobably she should've left the talking to someone else. Assuming there's even any point to trying to talk a *ghost* out of killing itself. Again. She nods her head firmly to Jai's words, adding, "You're totally cooler than this. You deserve awesomeness."

Dawn finally lets go of Petra's hand and she stays out in the hall, apparently not wanting to go into the classroom. She leans against a wall, quietly.

The girl gasps and wobbles dangerously on the ledge outside the window, shocked to see the group but seeming unaware that they aren't from her school or have a camera. "Don't you come near me!" she says, but doesn't do anything if anyone actually approaches. "Do you know what I had to *do*? I was promised an A! A perfect A! Oh god I'm so stupid! I'm so *dirty*!" She lets go of the window frame and begins to tip forward.

Joaquin just shakes his head slightly in response to Jai's question. "I was just a kid then." He's too far back from the window to be able to grab the girl, but it's instantly clear this isn't about grades and all he can do is yell to whoever's closer "Stop her!" Because... nobody would have figured that out on their own.

Jai keeps moving slowly closer, warning to stay away completely ignored. "I don't. Why don't you tell us? Make him pay," he's saying when she starts to tip, and he lunges forward to try to catch and stop her, sling be damned. Also the fact that she's a ghost, and may or may not have any physical tangibility to catch in the first place. No wonder he HAS a sling.

"Whoashit!" Petra calls out as the girl starts to tip, and she leans forward to grab at Jai-- not trying to prevent him from helping, but steadying him in case the girl is completely intangible, so that he won't go flying out the window and add yet more unhappy goop to the room.

Dawn just watches the happenings with an uninterested sort of expression, hunching over and crossing her arms on her chest.

The best, easiest place to grab the suicidal girl is her ankle as she tips out into the open air, and she turns out to be very much solid, and also very heavy. Without two arms to use in this endeavor, Jai's without support at first and is dragged out the window, pulling everyone that was tied to him towards the window. Hanging out the window with Petra's hand tangled in the back of his sweater and weighted down by the dead, the girl whimpers a soft, "I'm sorry mommy!" and then jerk-shudders in Jai's grip as though she'd made it all the way down and hit the ground, beginning to evaporate quickly into misty nothingness that leaves his hand empty in seconds. There is in fact a bright side to this: Jai is hanging out of the school, in the fresh air and everything. Jason tries to hang on to Petra trying to hang on to Jai.

Joaquin just stares, the one person who's not roped into the chain. He's silent for a while; ten seconds maybe, a long time. Finally, he just says "We're goin' out that window."

"Fuck!" Jai swears sharply, not that saving a ghost from what she already did was that logical a goal to begin with. He uses his now empty hand to reach back and try to grab the sill to help pull himself back in, fairly gingerly. He doesn't need another big fall this spring. "...yeah, but more controlled than this way," he agrees, trying to gauge the distance to the ground once he feels more stable.

Joaquin says, "We've got a rope. Sort of."

"Motherfucker!" Petra agrees with Jai, frowning deeply and trying to help pull him back in before he slips any further down. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Shit," she continues. She spares a glance for Joaquin, and then looks back to Jai, not commenting on their method of egress.

Dawn, apparently, agrees with this judgement of leaving. Without speaking to any of the others, she crosses the room to the window. She'll nudge Jai out of the way if he doesn't move himself, and then she goes about starting to climb out.

Jason is frantically untying the shirt rope from around his waist and, while Petra finishes hauling Jai back in, he gets it untied from Dawn as well, mumbling something supportive to her, a little don't worry, we're getting out of here right now sort of thing while working on making sure their rope's long enough. "This isn't very long.." he says uncertainly. JAI has plenty of clothes! "Jai! Gimme yer pants!" he says, when he could very well just use his own. Still, either way he ties an end of their rope to a bit of radiator. Fun fact, radiator sounds almost exactly the same in French as it does in English! If Jai's not willing to sacrifice his pants and get on par with the rest of their half nekkid selves, he'll use his own, but they're gettin' out of this place by next pose round, damn it!

Joaquin takes it upon himself to restrain Dawn from climbing out the window sans rope, while the others get said rope business sorted.

Jai not only still has pants, he probably has the longest pants in the group. He eyes the rope, glances at his arm, and then nods, reaching down to undo his belt and shed the jeans, tugging them over his shoes to hand them to Jason. For the record: boxerbriefs. Black ones. "I can do it," he says, mostly to Petra, and then to Jason, "Just make sure there's lots of strong knots I can step on, okay? You can have my shirt, too, if we need it."

"Okay," Petra says with a firm nod for Jai, and unties herself from the shirt rope. "If you need mine too, that's fine. Dawn, Dawn, whoa. Wait for the rope, yeah?" She tries to help Joaquin with the whole 'stopping Dawn from crawling out the window' thing.

Pose jumping Dawn for the sake of getting her to bed. Not to send Jai into too-naked land without the rest of them, his belt and pants add quite a bit of length to their rope and it's chucked out the window. Yay for enough rope! Dawn's probably the first one to attack that exit, but Jason says, "I'll go next, try and give Jai some support on the way down." And I'm totally not even going to beat anyone up with any rolls, assuming you say you're taking your time getting down the rope. Otherwise, watch you botch! Jason is keen on kissing the ground when he finally gets down there. As the last person gets down and turns their back on it in favor of woo hooing over being free, your rope is silently reeled in by something on the third floor. Should anyone decide to look back up there, this is what you see:

A white horse at the window of a high building floor.

The animal is very briefly back lit by classroom lights which quickly turn off again. Remember that barn smell? There you go, that was the point of it.

"No no no," Dawn says, again in that familiar, accented voice. "Gotta get out." She does stop and wait with both Joaquin and Petra on her case, though. She's out as soon as the "rope" is there and when she reaches the ground, she looks down and waits for the others. She sure as hell doesn't look up.

Joaquin manages to get down most of the way, but he actually falls the last six feet or so, looking back up with what almost looks like mild surprise, as though he's decided /now/ to start flipping out. "....That horse has Jai's pants," he says, wonderingly.

Jai definitely takes his time, using the knots like he mentioned, and just barely using his bad hand a little, as well -- maybe it can't take much weight, but he can wrap his fingers around for guidance, at least. When they're all on the ground, and the rope goes upward, stealing his jeans, he's speechless for a moment. And then Joaquin comments, and he starts laughing, with only a slight hysterical edge to it. "I don't think they're gonna fit!"

Petra also takes her time, even though she's clearly anxious to get the hell out of Dodge. She *stares* at the rope as it gets pulled upward, and then at the horse. Joaquin's words make her open her mouth to reply, and then Jai steals the show. She can't help but laugh either, FAR too much for the joke that's just been given. Her hands actually have to clutch her stomach as she lawls her head off.

Dawn, while they're all looking and laughing... leaves. Quietly, and invisibly.

Jason's brows are UP. "Oooooookay." he says as the window up above slides closed. "I'm. I'm. I'm gonna go drink some beer. A lot of beer. I have a *lot* of beer if any of you wants to self medicate with me." he says, and starts towards Joaquin's ride.

Joaquin starts giggling, and then starts laughing, and doesn't stop.

Jai can't stop laughing at the moment either, though when he offers Petra his good hand before starting to the car as well, he manages to gasp, "Beer?" between giggles. The school gets quite a few backward looks when they head out.

Joaquin can barely breathe. "Fuck yeah, beer! And new pants for you. You need new pants."

Petra takes Jai's offered hand and squeezes lightly, smiling up at him in between laughs. Finally she seems to be calming down a little, though she has to wipe tears from her eyes with her free hand. "That-- that was fucked up. Ahaha. A HORSE. Motherfucking HORSE stole my SHIRT. And your PANTS."

Jason notices then that they're missing a Dawn but.. Well fuck it, his humanity is crap anyway and he's gonna fall back on being self centered and just wanna go home. He takes the front passenger's seat so the other two can make out or something in the back. Pre drunken molestations, that way Petra knows Jai still totally respects her. Or something.

Joaquin's hands are shaking already, and he drops the keys twice before he manages to get everybody the fuck out of there! "I just don't get the horse..."

"Definitely need new pants," Jai agrees, still giggling, but calmed enough to talk more. "The horse is a horse, of course. Of course! How did a damn horse even pull the rope UP, it has no thumbs! He's never gonna get the fly zipped... heh, horsefly." Leeetle punchy. He's totally taking advantage of that backseat thing, though, trying to steal a kiss from Petra before he buckles up.

Petra bursts out into a new round of laughter at all the jokes, and she is more than willing to engage in a little PDA. Maybe a LOT more PDA than is strictly proper in the back of someone else's car. It's not as blatant as a crotch grab, but there's totally mad smoochin' goin' on.

Joaquin doesn't seem like he'd mind random almost-strangers gettin' it on in the back of his car. He's got a camera, after all-- o, hey, the camera! "I gotta check that footage," he mutters. "10 bucks says it's all erased."

Post-scene chatter can come up in RP :)