{ The School Office } [Re-Open] PAGE 36: THE CALLING

[Zoobey]

A few moments where Arel stopped and simply digested this. There was that noise again, the sounds of boxes opening, and the crinkle of papers as the secretary rummaged through them, muttering something under his breath. A pause, and then, from behind the safety of his desk came out the very lightest and most awkward of "Thank you's".

The secretary cleared his throat. "I... appreciate you... telling me this." Another awkward moment of silence. "There are others who... might not... well, I think we need to think about this carefully. There is a fine line between raising suspicions and acting on them. Perhaps once things have settled down, it would be best to... not speak of it further."

And as Jericho turned to exit the door, he could have sworn he heard the strangest sound, an even smaller and barely audible "Good luck".

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

It seemed that Arel didn't have any answers after all, regarding 'Caelum'. But at the very least, it seemed that Jericho had raised some sense of awareness. He got the Secretary thinking, which was important in its own right.

"Right. Well.. if you find anything about that professor, could you let me know some how?" he asked. It was possible, even though he was a Hunter, that the guy had left behind something that would be of use to them all. In the meantime, he was going to have to try and see if he could do any digging on his own.

It seemed that this was a pretty sensitive matter, but a student asking about a professor seeking if he had any results for past homework shouldn't be too suspicious right?

Turning to exit, the dragon paused as he could have sworn he heard someone wishing him good luck. He glanced over his shoulder and gave a weak smile, then walked on out.  

[Zoobey]

Arel waited until the door audibly closed behind the second-year before letting out a deeper sigh. It was no coincidence that this fake professor, Professor Caelum, if that was even his real name, had given the students so much information to toy with. Information, as Red might have warned, was always a double-edged tool. Too much information could lead to underestimating, and too little information something else. Assumptions.

Running in blind was one thing, it was another thing to run in blind with all the right intentions.  

[Zoobey]

"Right now?" The secretary's voice was pained as he drew little swirly loops into a discarded student application form. "But I'm, ah, you know, busy, things to do and-"

Loud yelling from the other side of the phone.

-"Yes, I'll come right now." A sigh. He grabbed a few of his essential belongings before making the trek out. The walk from the school office to the front gates of Amityville was a whole daunting five minutes after all, the key word being too many students. A figure was waiting for him outside, their robes slightly covered in snow.

"We expect you to have all our belongings moved to our guest suites in no less than an hour until we come back." Said robed figure was saying, giving Arel a haughty sort of look. "Have this trunk unpacked, make sure the hot water is working and oh-" they pulled out a strange glass object, what looked like an hourglass- "Don't lose this."

The secretary was promptly left in the snow with five pieces of luggage an an hourglass. He proceeded to do the only mature thing: flip all of the luggage, because clearly Desu-chan was a great influence to all the staff. The hourglass fell in the snow, glowing and then....  

[Dragain]

Her shock of pink hair was braided and put into a bun, suddenly grateful that she didn't let it grow any longer than it already was; with her hair tucked under a hoodie, which was pulled up to cast a shadow over her face, she peeked into the office; it wasn't empty, but it seemed like the person who should be at his desk wasn't.

Good.

Quickly, she walked in, placing an orange envelope on the school secretary's desk, making sure that even someone of his... Stature would be able to see it easily. Once that was done, she quickly left the office, hoping that the letter would not be missed. On the envelope itself, 'To: Mr Arel' was written in big, bold letters...

Zoobey

Inside the envelope
A name card with the word 'SEED' on one side, and a website on the other side; the website would lead to a page where he would be required to input his name and skelephone number. Below the website were the following words:

"We need your guidance. Help us.

PS. This card is charmed to self-destruct in 10... 9... 8..."

 

[Zoobey]

THE RUINED OFFICE

Even days later, the door to the office is still half-closed on its hinges, thick yellow tape plastered all over the entrance with signs clearly pointing to students that they should really, really not enter. The office itself is still a mess, the desk upturned, papers everywhere: there is no sign of the Shredder, the only form of once-animate life in the office. The secretary has not been seen since he, as the most common rumour circulated, was sent to jail by the Bogeymen for illegally trafficking copious amounts of Apple Cider.

However, some students knew better. They knew that in the office was somewhere else a hallway leading to a strange locker room. A locker room that could only be opened with a certain combination. A locker room that perhaps lead to somewhere else.

And like all things, there was of course, the greatest moral dilemma: was it really worth exploring?

OOC

- If you are a part of DEFENDERS or had A SPECIAL ROLE and have NOT picked up/ open your locker you will need to do so to continue onwards to part 2 if you would like to keep your "special" role, otherwise you can continue on with the story as per normal. If you have picked up the box, still read below okay. Geez.
- If you were not a part of defenders part 1 that is fine, you don't need to pick up a box, but you CAN open one as long a you have OOC permission from a player that had a trance past character that you can have their locker box. That means that player is forfeiting their own character getting the box.
- Either or, please follow the steps below. Make sure to post AT THE TOP OF THE POST where your student is.

LOCATION: Exploring the office

LOCATION: EXPLORING THE OFFICE:

- If your student is exploring the office, they will need to avoid being seen by staff members! It seems the staff are extra wary after what happened to Arel. Students may try ONCE per OOC 2 hours. Roll a 6-sided dice. If you odd, you are CAUGHT by a staff member, who stares at you reprimand and need to leave the office now. If EVEN you can proceed. You need to do this for each character you would like to visit the hidden locker rooms.
- If your student does NOT know where the entrance is, they will need to icly follow another character who is entering at around the same time.

LOCATION: The Hallway Inside

LOCATION: THE HALLWAY INSIDE:

- The hallway is still dark and requires navigation. Roll another 6-sided dice. If odd, you can't find the way! It is way too dark! You spend what seems like fruitless hours navigating until you finall give up. If even you find the path. You can try for this step once every 2 OOC hours.

Location: The Locker Room

LOCATION: THE LOCKER ROOM:

- After that seems like a blind romp through the dark, you FINALLY make it into the Locker Room. A strange sight greets your eyes: ALL LOCKERS HAVE BEEN OPEN AND UPTURNED. That means each locker has been forcefully open. Some lockers are missing their contents entirely, entirely bland, heavy boxes strewn all over the floor. You notice something however: each box has a name written on it. It is nearly impossible to carry more than one box not to mention: is it really worth it considering you can't open it?

gaia_crown [ All DEFENDERS PART 1: ] OOC: If you were part of DEFENDERS PART 1: Your character can rummage through the mess of boxes. They will also notice that some boxes have very familiar names in fact: they will probably pick up a box with the person they say in past Trance's name (OOC: it is up to you if you want your character to discover this box now or later). It is also very heavy, you cannot hold more than one at a time. After quite a bit of fiddling, your box shakes, jiggles, and then opens with a small click. This could be in your dorm room when it happens or even in the locker rooms, this is UP TO YOU depending on how many people you want to icly discover your trance past character's box contents. You CAN and it is ENCOURAGED that you do this in a solo/ PRP. Inside is whatever you would like: a journal perhaps belonging to the past character detailing what happened, photos, a small memento, anything you'd like related to your past character that is NOT AN ITEM OF POWER. Ie: you can't pass heirloom weapons or awesome artifacts okay, only small, powerless KEEPSAKES.
- If you have ALREADY picked up your box then lucky you sad You can just explore around/ help others/ bring it around for some show and tell.
- If you are uncertain if an item is okay in your box PLEASE PM ZOOBEY okay.

gaia_crown [ All SPECIAL ROLES ]- OOC: If you were given a special role AND participated in Defenders Part 1 from beginning to end, your box shakes, jiggles, and then opens with a small click. This could be in your dorm room when it happens or even in the locker rooms, this is UP TO YOU depending on how many people you want to icly discover your trance past character's box contents. You CAN and it is ENCOURAGED that you do this in a solo/ PRP. Inside is whatever you would like: a journal perhaps belonging to the past character detailing what happened, photos, a small memento, anything you'd like related to your past character that is NOT AN ITEM OF POWER. Ie: you can't pass heirloom weapons or awesome art
- However ALONG with that, you also see something else:

If you were given the Artifact Holder role OR the SEEDS role: Inside, you also find a strange, glowing vial:

Opening it reveals that it is simple water, or so it seems. However, the water not only glows, it seems oddly nostalgic, a strange memory... of a distant land perhaps. It seems valuable, maybe you should just hold onto it.

- If you were given the Sympathizer role you open your box and see also something else:

What is this? It seems valuable, and perhaps powerful. This could help you, perhaps.
SPECIAL EFFECT: Holding onto the item makes you feel stronger, more confident, arrogant almost. Unlike Insanity, the voices that speak to you from the chalice are tangible and very direct. They want you to find more, and there is only one thing that they are looking for...

- If you were given the RELATIVE role you open your box and see:

A small key. It doesn't seem to go anywhere though....

 

[Baneful]

Zar had been passing the office on his way to elsewhere when he noticed that it was very staunchly sealed up. He was not normally a curious creature, curiosity was best left to people who actually cared passionately about things, and - in general, he didn't care a great deal about anything.

Paperwork was different though. He cared a great deal about that, and it was all alone in there. He could see it, an avalanche of unattended paper. It made him stop in his stride. He could go no further.

Moving nearer, he peered in the crack of the hinges. He'd reassure it if he could.

 

[Baneful]

And with just enough pressure with claws and his weight, he managed to slip around the door. It wasn't breaking and entering strictly. It was a mission of mercy, all that carelessly scattered paper with no one to tend it. Paper was like blood, lifeblood of organisations, society, without a heart to push it, direct it, it was like a corpse.

He had no idea about the entrance in the office itself, so merely busied himself with tidying the damn place up, whatever had happened had been an administrative disaster. It made his very heart ache to look upon it.

"It's all right you dutiful diligent little A4 oblongs. I'm here."

Using his tail to help, he gathered them up, instinctually filing them according to similarity of their contents, leaving those without folders labelled with post-it feathers on their respective neat stacks.

He whistled a monotonous little tune as he worked.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Calder had heard there was a commotion in the office, and despite all the warnings, he was curious. He had to be considering every strange thing that happened to the school seemed to be something bigger than itself. Arel was also the only teacher he knew of that was still around and seen. One had to wonder who was running the school in the end during all this Boogeyman business.

Noticing a certain pleasing pair of horns enter the room, Calder slipped after, smiling when he saw the demon set to work with a cheery little whistle. Calder instead admired the view. (What? Barth wasn't around! Allow a kelpie his pleasures!)

"Hey there, Zar." Calder said, finally settling on being noticed. "Need some help?" He asked, and reached down to collect some papers near the desk. That was until he found a rather pleasing magazine.

One Calder was very familiar with. Oh-Ho! Arel you rascle. Calder didn't know you had such fine tastes.

Glancing over the desk to make sure Zar wasn't looking, Calder picked up a copy of Hornz and started to flip through the pages, going to the ones that seemed a bit more worn than the others. If that's the type of horns Arel liked, then he and Calder were of like minds (dirty as they came).

It was probably the whistling that tipped a teacher off, but since Zar was nothing more than a few perfectly organized stacks of paperwork, Calder was spotted and picked by his scruff.

"This place isn't for snooping about. Come on. To my office to - " That was when the magazine was spotted and pried from the kelpie's hands.

"Yes. We need to talk."

"Wait. No. I was just helping clean up. I swear! That's not mine! I mean it could be. It's a friends. I suppose to return it. Not that I had it." What was she going to do with that magazine. He didn't have that one yet!

With that, Calder was escorted out of the office.  

[Ice Queen]

Roch had been thinking of the office. Well, no, that was a lie. Roch had been walking past the office, thinking about his secret ghoulfriend, and wondering how in the hell he could sneak lunch with her without people wondering about it when he caught sight of the office, glanced in, and was yelled at for no good reason.

So NOW he was thinking about the office. He'd be back.  

[chiickadee]

It was odd to see someone without a blue striped scarf and grumpy little disposition cleaning the office. Instead it was a demon of some kind that Danny didn't know.

Were people just allowed in his office now? A sly little smile crossed her face as she attempted to break in ...

Apparently she wasn't very sneaky though. A cross teacher rolled his eyes and directed her away with an angry growl. Danny shook her fist.

She'd get in. She'd just come back when there were ... less teachers.

((fail~))  

[Baneful]

Zar glanced up from the stack of papers as Calder entered - though eerily didn't actually stop sorting even as he did.

"Certainly, you could pick some of the papers up from the floor, they might get trodden on." But Calder already had his attention diverted elsewhere. He let it slide, not everyone could be as devoted to the noble cause of paperwork.

As the other boil got engrossed in the magazine, Zar snuck a sneaky glance over his glasses at the magazine's title. He recognised it, his mother was a subscriber to many of the specialist magazines around, and at the very least, they had some riveting ads therin for various sharpening and polishing products, all of which came in handy.

He breathed a sigh of relief as the teacher didn't spot him in his nest of organisation and patiently got back to his work.

"Goodbye Calder." he said to the empty room.

 

[Kaiyumi]

[EXPLORING THE OFFICE]

Despite the fact she kept telling herself that it was a bad idea, Xiu found herself completely unable to resist that nagging curiosity that was tugging on her mind. Just what were those students--the ones who she had just spotted sneaking into the office--doing exactly? Unable to resist any longer, she tiptoed a little closer to the entrance, only to flinch and press herself up against the wall when a staff member suddenly emerged with another student in tow.

Welp. Clearly they weren't supposed to be in there...and yet a quick glance around told her that that wasn't stopping some of her peers from trying. Maybe she should...hmm.

Her rounded ears perked up as she cast a quick glance left and right before slipping inside.

She was going to regret this, wasn't she?  

[chiickadee]

Danny headed for the office again. She needed to know what was in there! After all, it seemed a few people were snooping around, and Danny wasn't about to be left out!

She scooted past a teacher, waving a hall pass as she slipped into the room. She waved at the demon who was tidying up, wrapping her tail around her leg. "Uhhh hey there. Don't mind me." Hopefully he wasn't the snitching type.

Now what was so special about this place ...

((pass onto hallway))