Dawn of A New Age - Roleplay Thread

Travis watched the other teens file in with their respective clubs, the cafeteria steadily growing louder. Voices bounced off the long halls, serving to multiply their volume. It was just the way the room was designed. Travis didn't eat lunch in the cafeteria for a reason.

It was just then that he figured that a dark corner wasn't the best place to sell newspapers, then promptly continued to sit in said dark corner and not follow his own advice. The loner tore off the page of his pad in anger, letting the crumpled paper fall to the floor as he began writing anew. Jerry would understand; to properly throw it out would mean walking through the small crowd of people. He migh trip and hurt someone, or worse, be forced into conversation, and picking up the paper would allow Jerry to continue with his job. So, leaving it on the floor was a win-win situation, as Travis saw. Plus he was tired and feeling too lazy to stand back up.

Terry immediately replied, trying to deny what was almost readily apparent by now, "No, no...m-me, scared of the dark...nah, its just how...sudden it became dark. That's all that gave me the shivers."

He walked along after Luna, seeing what looked like a large group of students talking. Starting to walk over to listen into the conversation, Terry immediately felt much safer in here.

I don't think it wants to show up with so many people...

Breathing a sigh of relief, Terry looked over at Cornelius and the drama club, walking over and deciding to offer his assistance, "Well, I've heard movies and such require a lotta back stage help and set up...if you guys need any help I'd be more than happy to offer a helping hand. My name's Terry, by the way."

Barbra had already been in the cafeteria by the time the lights went out, waiting for a message from her father. She didn't like waiting outside, where people could laugh at the way she dressed... or laugh at the fact one of the girls had asked her on a date, thinking she was a boy. Most of the times that didn't bother her, but that was right in the middle of soccer practice, and it threw her off her groove.

Whenever things got like that, Barbra went to somewhere that was empty and just... stood there with her thoughts. Daydreaming, some called it. So when the lights went off, she didn't notice. But when the other kids started streaming in... oh, then she noticed it.

So that was why when the kids came in, Barbra had her eyes glued to the intoxicating light of her cellphone. Staring... almost like a zombie. She paid no mind to them, they paid no mind to her... all was fine with the world.

"Thanks for the light, Anna." Said Benedict as they entered the cafeteria. "Got dark a fair bit quickly, wouldn't you say? ...actually, wait a tick. It's only about 6:30, isn't it? It really shouldn't be this dark."

He looked up, peering through a window at the moon and shivered slightly.

"Something about tonight gives me the chills. I hope this whole blackout mess gets sorted soon." He shook his head. Then he noticed the school paper on sale in the corner. He didn't remember it being particularly noteworthy, but he desperately wanted to distract himself. Fuck it, at least it's something to do for awhile. He strolled over, pulling two quarters out of his pocket, set them on the table and grabbed a copy.

"Business good tonight?" He joked with Travis, pulling out his phone for light and beginning to read.

"H-hey, Luna," Tim looked at his hands, resting on the table before him. Luna Black was pretty high on his list of people he wouldn't want to be stuck with in a blacked-out school.

When he heard the cultured tones of Cornelius Hawking approach, Tim only blinked. "Um, that'd be Sophie's department. They're the ones writing it." He waved a hand at a sharply dressed girl who was bent over her laptop, her face lit by its glow. "I'm only on the editing team. And the camera team. And the gopher team..."

If ever a sentence could have been ended with lightly-embarrassed laughter, Tim's response was in dire need of it. Instead, he just allowed himself to trail off while making hand gestures that were missed in the gloom.

Out of nowhere, a bright light shined through the glass in the doors to the cafeteria. It blinded the students looking directly at it, but it shook a little, illuminating everything around it. It grew closer and closer, its cone becoming more and more ominous as it—

Oh. It's just Jerry carrying a big flashlight.

"You kids okay?" Jerry asked, pointing the flashlight at his face before wincing due to the inexpected intensity. He turned it off, submerging the whole room in darkness before heading to the middle. "Right, I know you kids don't like this, but huddle up. We gotta follow security procedures after all. Stuff like that."

He turned on the flashlight again, and it flickered on and off, accidentally shining upon the face of a nearby student. "Sorry! Let me count you guys..." Jerry narrowed his eyes, surveying the entire group with his flashlight. There were approximately twenty nine to thirty students, but Jerry seemed sure of it when he announced the final number. "Twenty two! And I see you kids trying to hide in the back there, real funny, but you ain't tricking me." Turning off the flashlight, he smiled. "Right. Me and the other teachers are working things out with the technician, so use this chance to call your parents... tell 'em what's going on so they don't get worried, alright?"

Jerry pointed the flashlight at the doors and walked out of the cafeteria, putting the walkie-talkie near his mouth. "Yeah, the kids are safe. I'm going to check down on the basement, see what's up with the generator..."

After Jerry closed the door, silence reigned in the cafeteria, followed by the sounds of tapping as students called their parents. But the tapping was soon replaced by awkward grunting, as the students noticed their phones stopped responding to them. What began as an apparent lag soon transformed into the screens going full-on haywire. "What the—" Seventeen year old Jessica Hawkins harped on as her screen turned into a mess of multi-colored lines, similar to the static one would see in a broken television. "Come on! My Mom just gave me this!"

This sudden static wasn't just for the kids' cellphones. Tablets, portable gaming devices, everything electronic would start exhibiting the same static. And soon, the four television sets on the cafeteria turned on, displaying the exact same static. It wasn't a variation on a random combination of images- it was the exact same signal of static displayed on every screen in the cafeteria. But the televisions screens didn't stay like that for long.

The sounds of English rock band Yes' 1983 hit 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' started echoing through the halls of the cafeteria, as the music video started playing in sync with the music. But as the students started noticing the images on the television screens, those with knowledge of that particular music video would notice something was wrong. First of all, the music was glitching... extensively. But it wasn't the kind of glitch you would attribute to the mistakes of current technology. It was all intentional. And the video was going along with it.

Eventually, the music devolved into the lyric 'prove yourself' repeated over and over. But again, this wasn't some random mixer's attempt at some clever reinterpretation of the song. It sounded as if the actual singer, Jon Anderson, was singing the lyric over and over to the rest of the song. That was when the errors in the video became clear. Movements were repeated, often back and forth. The actors started looking directly at the camera when they weren't supposed to. Mouths were superimposed over theirs, repeating the same lyrics.

The sound of metal hitting against the floor rang through the cafeteria as Jessica dropped her phone. "Whoever's doing this, stop it right now!" She yelled at the geeks in the room, as the actors started to go through the whole movie backwards. Again, the footage wasn't being played backwards- the actors were all moving backwards without making a single mistake. "That's it! I'm out!" Jessica yelped, running towards the door, but another scream filled the air when she tried to open it and realized...

The doors were locked. All of the doors were locked.

edited 26th Apr '15 6:33:58 PM by GrateEscape

Amy huffed, looking at the table. "I wanted to turn them in today, so I finished them up in the library. But they rejected it! Can you believe that? But before I could leave, the lights went out, so I had to come over here..." She brought her head up. "About that...on the way over, I saw it was weirdly dark," she said with an exaggerated shiver. "Maybe you can use that kind of thing for the movie?" She grinned before sobering up again. "It's really weird though...is it from global warming or something?"

Just then, Luna and Cornelius approached the table. "Hey, Luna," Amy greeted, "just got out of detention, I'm guessing? Luckyyy." Company always put her in a better mood. She then turned to Cornelius. "Hey, you talk really weird, y'know? You don't have to be all formal and stuff."

—

Her eyes snapped to the door as Jerry walked in, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright..." she said, picking up her phone. But when she tried to dial her mom's cell, the screen turned to static. "What...?" She hadn't dropped it at all, and it was working just fine a second ago.

She looked up when the T Vs turned on and watched as the music video devolved into something sinister. "Wh-what the hell?" She leaped out her chair, backing into the wall, as if to get further away from them. "Is this...some kind of ghost? A haunt?" she squeaked, watching as Jessica tried to open the doors to no avail. "But this kind of thing...it doesn't happen in big groups like this!" She turned to her friends, tense and panicked. "Guys...?" she asked, searching for some kind of answer.

edited 26th Apr '15 6:41:56 PM by Serendipital

Terry put on a brave face, almost wanting to move along with the song, but then it started to degrade, becoming looped, and then other mouths started to super-impose over the singers' mouths during the video. He slowly tried to avert his eyes, to look around, and he almost seemed to see shadows moving erratically, almost like they were dissociating from the bodies they were supposed to be connected to.

He moved forward - he was strong, and if he couldn't use that strength to get people out and safe, what use was it? He started toward one of the doors, and employing every ounce of his strength, he began pulling on the door handle, trying to wrench it clean out of the hinges.

Cmon...Cmon...I thought these doors were not well made.

Prove yourself. Prove yourself. Prove yourself. Prove yourself.

It echoed in his ears, and he heard it spoken in an echoing, familiar voice.

7:00PM

The music was all David could hear. He never thought an 80's hit could be so creepy. Suddenly David was wishing he'd gone home earlier.

Prove yourself

Prove yourself

Prove yourself

Prove yourself

Prove yourself

The lyrics were making him feel scared... really scared.

O-Okay, David thought, maybe this whole thing is just a prank... a horrible and totally convincing prank.

David saw with horror how Jessica Hawkins was trying to open the doors, to no avail. What the hell is going on? David wanted to escape, but he found himself unable to move a single inch. He had never been so scared in his entire life...

edited 26th Apr '15 7:02:56 PM by zsax

Lightly laughing at Tim's gopher line, Cornelius gives a little amused smile. "Thank you for telling me about Sophie, though I wouldn't mind hearing about the editing & camera work." His eyes turning to look at Amy once she spoke, Cornelius calmly turns his neck to look directly at her. "Perhaps, but I am quite entertained by how I speak. I am capable of more informal words however, so is my speech a problem?"

Cornelius quickly turned to look at Jerry once he arrived, standing patiently to listen to him, Cornelius' eyes ultimately following Jerry as he left. Looking around the cafeteria to see others pull out their phones, Cornelius doesn't go for his and simply watches in silent interest. Noticing the static of the various phones however got Cornelius' brain firing, the signals all being the same triggering a single yet most excited thought. "One grand event, like in comic books and manga... What glorious thing awaits?"

Seeing the warped music video appearing on the screens, Cornelius' smile grew slightly more as it progressed, uncontrolled soft chuckling coming from him. "Oh, please let this be something grand, my time... To "prove myself", I can't wait any longer! Let this be what I dreamed for!" His chuckling getting somewhat louder as he leans back a little, Cornelius calls out in a certain if slightly loose tone.

"Come on now my fellow students, something like this? Just like something you would find in a manga or comic book before a major event happens! If you truly fear what will happen, then I wish you the best of luck in escaping. Why not try smashing a window perhaps if you're really desperate? However, I will relish this moment and embrace whatever will happen. My curiosity means everything to me now."

Before the chaos had begun, Travis merely looked up at Benedict with subdued contempt. One hand reached over to slide the coins towards himself, which he tossed into the box with a quick flick-of-the-wrist. He had gone back to his rapid scribbling when Jerry showed up as well. He filed in with the crowd a bit towards the back, newspaper-filled box in hands, and joined in with the teens' angry mutterings. Then all of the weird stuff happened (if you need a recap, just read the post where it happened before, geez).

Now a lot of people knew how closed-off Travis could be, how quiet he usually is. But what not a lot of people knew was that he didn't handle pressure very well. And right there, in the obnoxious echoing cafeteria with hysterical kids and blaring music videos, he had started to panic. Travis rushed towards one of the four T Vs, twisting his hips sideways and letting the heavy box swing outwards some. Then, snapping his torso the other way 'round, he hurled the newspaper-box towards the screen, shouting out one bold line...

"Prove this!"

Benedict could only twitch in irritation as the song came on and everyone summarily went mad at the same time.

Deep breaths, calm down, get everyone in order before they bloody kill themselves.

"Ahem!" He tried to get everyone's attention. "Would you all please calm down? I'm sure this is all some elaborate prank."

He walked over to one of the T Vs.

"Now let's just turn these off until Jerry gets back with the keys, alright?"

He reached up and pressed the power button.

Michal winced when the light shined on his face, opening his eyes in surprise. "Oh, it's just jerry. His face slowly dropped as Jerry talked, remembering that he had left his possessions in the robotics lab. That's what I get for following dumb policy, my parents are going to be worried sick...

Michal may dislike most of his parents decisions, but they still loved him. "What the—" Yawning as the girl complained about the phone, Michal got up and stretched, having sat down in an uncomfortable position. A frown spreading across his face as several students began to complain about their devices, his breathing slightly quickening.

The sudden flare of light made Michal catch his breath, "Bu-but..." The music video only making his eyes stretch further as he backed against the wall. The repetition gorging into his ears; a death blow to his illusion of safety.

The cling of a locked door broke the camels back, Michal laughed into his hands, talking to himself. "You've got to be fuc-fu-fucking with me, I just wanted to go home after school, Mom." Tightening his grip on his face, Michal laughed even more as his legs slowly let him down onto the floor. His denial in perfect tune with the televisions.

This isn't happening, this isn't happening. This isn't real, this isn't possible.

edited 26th Apr '15 7:10:05 PM by OhBoyTime

One moment, and now everyone was in panic. Barbra didn't panic, because this event wasn't scaring her. It was just pissing her off even more. Some idiot thought it was funny to lock kids into a cafeteria and play some dumb video for them.

She was having none of that, she wasn't giving them the satisfaction. "Shut up, ya geek!" She snapped at Cornelius. "It's probably some idiot trying to play pranks with us. God, the lengths stupid people will go to—" Barbra was interrupted by one of the other kids, Travis, suddenly throwing the newspaper box at the screen.

"Jesus!" She yelled, running to hold Travis back. "Are you nuts, dude?! You're gonna get us all in trouble- more trouble than whoever is behind this is in."

Lightly shaking his head at the shout it was just a prank, Cornelius speaks up. "No my fair lady, that video is clearly not edited. The video is too fluid to be modifications done by students. Believe your lies that this is a trick of some kind if you must. Perhaps it is faked, but clearly not by anyone at this school. Thus, someone with advanced skills has chosen this place, and I fully intend on playing along. Besides, I find this video rather intriguing regardless."

Terry shouted over at Cornelius while he was still trying to pull the door open off its hinges, "You...you can screw around in your delusions as long as you want! The others here are scared, and no matter what, I'll get them outta here!"

After pulling on the door didn't work, he instead resorted to using one of his broad shoulders to ram the door repeatedly, trying to force it open.

He then eyed the chairs in the room, thinking of breaking the windows open, but not sure if it'd work or if it'd be wise.

Zia was glad to see the familiar face of Jerry the Janitor, even if he needed to learn how to use a torch at the moment. She had never been particularly scared of the dark, dolls and falling asleep were a different matter but she blamed ‘’that’’ old phobia on seeing A Nightmare On Elm Street and Chucky before she was out of primary school. Nevertheless, it was nice to know the loss of power was going to be taken care of. She went to text her mum and let her know she might be later than expected home but the phone was unresponsive, static filling the cracked screen, “Hmm. Well that’s annoying…” Zia looked up to see the television screens had also come to life, despite the blackout, and were bathing them all in the same static.

Then the music started and people panicked.

Zia cringed and felt bewildered as her headphones refused to stop playing the looping song, “Oh god. It’s like Yes, Kubrick and the Twilight Zone had a baby… One that;s rick-rolling us.” She laughed nervously, humor her favoured defence. However, everyone else had decided technical fuckery and locked doors was cause to lose their shit. She hated yelling at the best of times, it just set of her anxiety. Zia was halfway between a panic attack and hitting someone as Benedict, one of the student council snobs, made a feable attempt at calming the students, “Oh for fuck’s sake…” She growling, grabbing the chair and leaping onto a table towards the centre.

The chair smashed against the metal chair legs, letting out a loud series of clangs over the rising panic and disarray, “’’’Hey! Everyone calm your bloody tits and ‘’shut the fuck up’’!” She boomed over the students – When push came to shove, Zia knew how to project her voice. She breathed in and out slowly for a moment before continuing in a calmer tone, “It’s just the T Vs going funny – it’s probably just a prank or something… Let’s just try and get the doors open, yeah?” She raised her hands in the offering fashion before motioning to the doors, hoping they’d listen. Zia started to get a little red in the face, standing in front of all the students. ‘’Awkward shame overload. How are you kidding, fuckwit?’’

Amy's fear turned to anger as she listened to Cornelius, and she turned on him. "What are you, batshit?" she yelled, stepping closer. "How could you be happy about this?" She gestured wildly at the screens, still playing that loop of prove yourself, prove yourself, prove yourself...

She growled, cutting her hand through the air as if to disperse the words. "You can be "intrigued" about this later! This is serious shit, and you're going to shut up if you know what's good for you!" The atmosphere - everything was getting to her. The music, the mass hysteria, the heavy air...Cornelius was right in that this wasn't just a simple prank. There was something distinctly off about the whole ordeal, something distinctly supernatural that was unlike any of the haunted sites she'd ever been to, and it scared her. Zia's little speech didn't help at all - it wasn't a prank, and no way they'd be able to get out of here through the doors. They'd be stuck in here until whatever was happening was done happening, and not a second sooner.

edited 26th Apr '15 7:52:39 PM by Serendipital

Tim was spared from any more queries from Cornelius when good old Jerry showed up to take a headcount.

Then as he was about to call his aunt to ensure that he'd try to hitch a ride with someone or catch the late bus, Jessica Hawkins from fifth period English went nuts. Or more spectacularly, everything with a screen went nuts.

People were yelling, Sophie was swearing, and Amy looked ready to pick a fight with Cornelius. Tim shut off his flip phone and reached for his friend's shoulder.

"Amy just chill! It's probably just a-" That cut Tim off. Unless someone from the Computer Club had decided to screw with them, he had absolutely no clue what was happening. Though he would admit that the repeated line of Prove Yourself was beginning to grate on his nerves.

"Look, just calm down, a'right?"

edited 26th Apr '15 8:25:08 PM by KR_Vandal

Well, there went the chair plan. Ciro was happy to see Jerry in the flesh, and the janitor's words made him realise that he really should give home a call. It wasn't often that he returned late- it always made the sibs anxious, and he hated that. It was nice of them to worry, but...

And then, in what seemed like an instant, the cafeteria had devolved into chaos. And Ciro didn't really have any idea why.

His phone was being buggy, and so was everyone else's, but that didn't seem so strange considering the blackout and all. The music video was freaky, yeah, but so were many more that he knew of. The only point of concern were the doors, and if not for the panic then he would've just guessed that Jerry locked them by accident on the way out.

Ciro wanted to do something to minimise the chaos, but he wasn't sure how much help he could be. He wasn't about to break through all the kids huddled around Jessica. Another kid had started attacking the TVs, but someone else already seemed to be taking care of that. Zia was... well, doing exactly what he'd suspect her to do. And then there was the guy who was really into this whole situation, but Ciro would be damned if he could calm them down.

When someone started trying to ram the doors open, Ciro decided to start there. He hurried over to the kid- he looked familiar, Terry was it?- raising his hands in a placating manner. "Hey hey, Terry! The others are just gonna get more scared if you start freaking out too. Let's just wait until Jerry gets back, so that he can unlock the doors for us. Don't want to get in trouble for damaging school property, you know?"

edited 26th Apr '15 8:02:09 PM by whizzerd

Luna- Actually enjoying this.

"Eh The usual," she replied to Amy as she put her arms on the back of her head to relax.

Luna simply laughed at everyone's panic with the monitors and the lights going out. Fear and Darkness were one of the few things that truly gave her joy. And she figured this was most likely a prank .

" You see? this is the kind of mood our movies need, not that disney, star trek crap," she told Tim after the monitors began to show that creepy imagery.

"Please, I read death note too. A loser with powers is still a loser," she told Cornelius abrasively, actually agreeing with Amy. "You are hopelessly naive if you think you change this rotten world. For the record, L is much better than Light."

EDIT: Then she noticed Terry having a lot of panic, trying to open the doors and she simply told him "Relax this is just a prank. You are just embarrassing yourself."

edited 26th Apr '15 8:31:53 PM by RPGLegend

His smile now merely a little smirk, Cornelius replies to Amy. "No, I simply don't fear this. Can't be afraid of something if you don't let yourself be afraid of it. Besides, I've written plenty of stories that would involve something like this. Helps validate everything I've done if this is truly a grand event."

Luna's words got Cornelius to flash a rather pleased smile, his own body language reflecting that. "You're quite keen, I like that. Though I have no intentions of being a failure if this really is an empowering event of some kind. Besides, it would be a waste of time trying to change this 'rotten' world, so I would merely want to make it better for good people. Light's goal was never going to work anyways."

Amy was ready to throttle Cornelius - not only was he making light of the situation, he was being freaking annoying - when Tim stopped her and grabbed her shoulder. She almost turned on him, too, before forcing herself to take a deep breath. "Right. Okay," she said with a strained smile, turning away from Cornelius to face Tim fully. She clenched her fists. "I'm calm, see?" She gave a little laugh. "A-after all, who better to rectify this situation than I, president of the Paranormal Investigation Club?" she said with a grandiose air, putting her hands on her hips. It made her feel a little better. Even if she couldn't stop...whatever was happening, she could try, right?

Still shaking, she pointed towards the windows. "W-well, I don't think we'll be able to get that door open, so help me inspect the windows. Or something."

His eyebrow raised upon hearing mention of herself to be the president of the Paranormal Investigation Club, Cornelius stood still with a hand to his mouth and his eyes averted. "Alright, calm down, calm down. If this is indeed an empowering event, they'll never trust you if you keep slipping your real self through. Such... unenlightened creatures, ones I will have to work with. Okay, okay, got it..."

Slightly bowing respectfully, Cornelius straightens up and speaks. "I'm terribly sorry about how I was acting, I got caught up in my excitement and forgot how serious this actually is. What's happening here is not a story, and I don't feel very comfortable in just staying here now that I've thought. So I'll be willing to help everyone get out of here."

Terry immediately stopped ramming the door to try to get out, listening more to Ciro than to Luna - he didn't like how lightly she seemed to be taking this. Didn't she see the interposed mouths over the singers in that video? This was not a prank - whatever it was, it was serious.

Even so, he supposed he let panic get the better of him. That seemed to be a recurring problem, definitely something to discuss with Doc.

"Alright...alright...calming down. Sorry, I'm just...okay, I'm scared of the dark. And that video just..."

He did shoot a scathing glare over at Cornelius - this wasn't fictionland and this wasn't something to take as exciting or empowering.