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 Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 3:59 pm
Vera sat in the third floor study area, idly twirling one of her rather too sharp pencils between her fingers while she attempted to read To Kill A Mockingbird. There was a notebook open on the table in front of her, pristine white pages showing no evidence of any sort of note taking. She was here, on third floor, because there were fewer people roomed here, which made it entirely less likely anyone would come in and bother her. So she sat and read, not really paying attention to the words on the page, letting the eraser on the pencil hit the table in fairly regular time, never letting the tip hit, lest it lose it's point.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:10 pm
Vera Valentine was not the only one who appreciated the study area for its relative silence and the solitude it provided.
With a small pile of books tucked under one arm, Janice's handful-of-matchsticks figure stalked into the room, flat gaze scanning the room, inertly. Although she was a transfer student, she hadn't yet encountered any problems immersing herself into the social framework of Barren Pines. Part of her admittedly missed her jazz band at Meadowview, but she had enough trust in Nora running it in her stead that she felt no lasting worries about its success.
Her murk-colored eyes quickly caught sight of the single other girl in the room. Even from this distance she could recognize the book she held just by the general appearance of the cover, and Janice could not help but give a little smirk of sympathy, knowing fully why the other student looked so tremendously bored. It was such an overdone book. She wondered if she could provide a distraction.
Soon Vera had someone quietly sitting across from her and, after a few minutes and the scribbling noise of pen on paper, a small notepad would appear from under her book. It had an unnaturally perfect nine-square grid drawn on it, and in the center square a font-perfect X.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:34 pm
The new arrival had not gone unnoticed, creating only a slight pause in the drumming. The best course of action was, as always, ignore the other person and hope they went away soon. She was supposed to be studying after all, even if her mind was more engaged with a counting game she'd created to go along with the pencil twirling.
When Janice sat down across from her, the pencil stopped twirling, landing easily in a grip that one would assume was for note taking. Vera, however, had learned how best to launch it from such a position, and would not hesitate to do so if this proved to be someone obnoxious.
So it was with some surprise that Vera stared down at the proffered notepad, complete with the beginnings of a tic tac toe game. That was new. But...Hm. Janice's notepad was returned to her, an elegantly formed O clearly marked in the upper left corner of the grid.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 4:47 pm
Janice would probably have argued that any attempts at studying that book would really do the other girl no good. The two of them had probably read it a dozen times for school, collectively. There were no more new perspectives they could possibly think to look at it from. Its academic value had been completely exhausted.
She looked at the O on the grid with the same kind of muted interest that the girl had written it was regarding Janice with. And then, with a swift swiping motion of her pen, drew on another X in the bottom right.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:00 pm
The book was entirely, eagerly, laid aside as Vera resumed her pencil spinning. It had been mildly interested the first time she'd read it, but any enjoyment she'd garnered had long since been rendered into mockery upon the nigh endless rereading school required. Tucking her bright red bangs behind an ear with her free hand, Vera studied the returning notepad with slightly narrowed violet eyes.
Bottom right? Another O was quickly sketched in the upper center, notepad sliding back across the table.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:06 pm
The book being put aside told Janice all she needed to know about this encounter: the girl was genuinely interested in her now, perhaps only as just a distraction from her literature, but this and her silent compliance to a game of tic tac toe made her come to a conclusion that she had found a kindred spirit in the redhead. She allowed herself a small smirk when the notepad was in front of her once again, clicking her pen in tandem to other's pencil-spinning for a second before settling on her next move.
An X, in the top right.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:12 pm
Clickclickclick.
It harmonized with the irritating sound of Janice's pen, pulsing along with each beat until the very room seemed filled with it. It was quiet, otherwise, though the sound continued on and on even if the girl herself would stop to listen. The mindless drone of a noise eventually seemed to realize it was alone again, trailing off into a silence that seemed to be for good this time. Something weird with the lights, maybe--surely nothing to be concerned about.
The ceiling above them creaked.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:15 pm
Vera's pencil thumped against the table right as Janice clicked her pen; the additional sound was enough to throw her spin into a faltering halt. She quickly recovered by spiing it once into the air, catching it perfectly without even looking. The...hmm, what color was that anyway? A quick glance gave her no further clues, and with a mental shrug, Vera dismissed it as unimportant. A game played in silence? Perfect, as far as Vera was concerned.
Not that she played many games. Tic Tac Toe was easy, and something simple one could do to pass the time, especially if one always had a pencil on hand.
When the notepad landed in front of her once more, Vera frowned slightly. A defeat. She made one last O - bottom left - and quickly scrawled good game underneath it, in the same elegant writing as before.
After that, however, the cessation of the clicking noise that hadn't been coming from her or her companion drew Vera's attention. As did the rather ominous creak from the ceiling. They were on the third floor - what was above them to be making a noise like that?
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:26 pm
Janice made no effort to hide her pleasure at yet another tic tac toe victory - underneath the redhead's lovely writing in graphite she produced a cramped, spiky line in ink -- A pleasure.
She hadn't noticed the clicking noise swell into the room herself, but she did notice when it slowly but surely faded out, an unnerving silence in place of what she had been sure was silence before. It made her pitch an eyebrow in confusion, but she didn't look too concerned; this building looked like it could be a bit old, after all, and there was a whole host of potential structural problems and issues with old wiring that could cause a noise like that.
The creak, however, got a reaction from Janice that was near-identical to Vera's, in the sense it seemed more worth paying attention to.
After a moment of thought, though, she shrugged and went back to idly clicking her pen, thinking of perhaps starting another game.
It was an old building, after all.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:40 pm
It was indeed an old building, and the silence would carry on long enough that there would be plenty of time to start a new game should the impulse be carried out. The strange clicking would resume after a while, but a low hiss billowed up to cushion the sound.
Something wet would unexpectedly splat upon the notepad, searing fingers if they were too close, and burning a hole straight through it.
There were several small holes in the ceiling now, something clear and sticky definitely dripping the slightly smoking wood. The ceiling creaked again.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:48 pm
Vera eyed the other girl and offered an almost imperceptable shrug, as if to confirm the assessment of 'old buildings creak'. She had been eyeing her book half-heartedly, almost hoping that Janice would offer another game to distract her.
Instead, the clicking started up again, in tandem with that of the pen. The hiss was somewhat easier to dismiss, since an old building had old pipes and heating...things, Vera honestly wasn't sure what it was, but it could just be the building.
The sudden destruction of the notepad put the lie to that theory however, as Vera glanced up and quickly dodged another drop of whatever it was. Hey, that was useful - she could predict the trajectory of something about to hit her! As long as she saw it coming.
Violet eyes flickered over to Janice, as if Vera was actually concerned about the other student. Which she was, in her own way. A quirk of an eyebrow served to ask the question - what the hell is going on?
And possibly Are you alright? It depended on your translation.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:04 pm
More clicking... more electrical issues and building-settling, probably. Curious hissing noise... that could be plenty of things, too, possibly the air vents or someone using the showers next door, except there was something a bit off about that noise; it wasn't quite the cool hollow sound one got with water rushing through pipes--
And then a neat, sizzling hole appeared on the notepad, taking the place of one of Vera's O's. Janice immediately took on a more alert stance at this, unfolding herself from under the table. She definitely did not want to be sitting if there was... oh god, it was such a horror movie cliche, but acid suddenly dripping from the ceiling. Keeping her body upright would make her as small a target as possible.
She caught Vera's look, and with a cursory glance at the ceiling and a short shake of the head suggested she hadn't a clue.
Carefully winding her way around the slow dripping she made her way towards the door, jerking her head in its direction as she did so - enough to say that she was fine, and perhaps now it would be a good idea to leave the room and find a staff member to bring this up with.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:13 pm
Yes, leaving seemed to be the optimal thing to do, especially since neither of them had been injured. The strange fluid would continue to dribble from the slowly widening holes the ceiling, but did little more as the girls made their way out of the study room.
Then there was the unmistakable sound of the ceiling cracking. A wild scrabble of what sounded like claws, and plaster rained down where they'd been seated moments ago. Something heavy hit the floor, knocked over both the table and chairs with a gut-wrenching scream that probably the entire floor would hear, piercing through the walls themselves.
When they turned around, there was nothing. Only the decimated wooden furniture, and sizzling, hissing streaks of slime. Something jittered out of the corners of their eyes, skittering as it vanished back into the hole that had been created.
Clickclickclick.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:22 pm
Okay, yes, getting out of here was an excellent idea. A very brief nod confirmed Janice's implied suggestion, and Vera was heading to the door when the ceiling collapsed behind them. The scream had momentarily paralyzed her, frozen with a shuddering fright. She now whirled about, hair whipping behind her, pencil held at the ready. She was too slow, however, to catch any sort of glimpse of the whatever it was (that was going to give her nightmares for months, no doubt).
Shifting herself about slightly, Vera pulled another pencil from her cleverly hidden pocket - it was a minor adjustment to the uniform skirt, and one she'd eagerly attempted. It was...well padded, in order to avoid accidentally stabbing herself in the leg.
Looking rather ridiculous with two pencils in hand, Vera's eyes darted about, not noticing anything amiss. Aside from the utterly ruined furniture. A gesture to Janice - you go first, I'll be rear guard.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:32 pm
Janice was almost at the door. Her hand had tentatively lifted so it could catch on the doorknob at the earliest possible instant. The cracking of the ceiling, however, jerked her to a halt, and she stood watching Vera's expression change as the furniture behind them was noisily, agonizingly decimated.
The two whirled around simultaneously, and Janice's eyes narrowed when they saw only the carnage in the wake of whatever it was that caused it. How annoying.
Nodding to Vera, she readied her own weapon of choice-- her pen-- and slowly backed herself towards the door. With her free hand she reached out for the doorknob again and turned her wrist, hoping there wouldn't be more generic horror mishaps to be found in it being mysteriously locked or jammed.
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