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Post by .Scotchy. on Jul 4, 2007 19:08:06 GMT -6
Three of you lucky Rper's have landed your characters in a scared living village. Find out why this village is living in such fear of the outside world! Here is your posting order: 1. Apple (Ruana Sremmos) 2. Purr (Michael Dubois) 3. Aika (Hailey & Kailey Masasha)Please remember that you have 2 days to post or your turn will be skipped. Also, we are looking to improve our length in posts so use A LOT of detail. If you need help getting that detail please go to THIS THREAD, it will help you all alot. If you forget what the role of your thread is, refer back to THIS THREAD. Have fun! *Scotchy*
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Post by Tori on Jul 6, 2007 23:06:25 GMT -6
As soon as Ruana Sremmos strode into the unknown pool of swirling colors, she felt a familiar tug behind her navel, just as though she were travelling by Portkey. Although, unlike a Portkey, she had a sense of prickling on her skin as though she had goosebumps, and she felt as though it were with great force that she was travelling through something very dense (time, perhaps?). For a bit, she coudn't breathe, as though there were no atmosphere. Everything was tugging and pulling and spinning and prickling and pushing.
And then, it stopped.
Ruana felt as though she were being spit out of something, and she landed on hard earth. She took a large gulp of breath and grabbed for her wand, which had fallen out of her cloak pocket and landed beside her. It was when she felt a breeze that Ruana knew she was outside. Looking up from her spot on all fours, she saw that it was nighttime, and she was nowhere near Hogwarts; at least, she wasn't on the grounds.
It was a village; abandoned, by the looks of it. With tall, crooked houses whose old shutters creaked on their hinges whenever the wind blew. Ruana looked around, expecting to see the others, but not only was she in a place she did not recognize, she was completely alone.
Starting to regret using the portal initially, Ruana stood up and brushed the dirt off of her knees. She pointed her wand shakily ahead of her as she advanced. She suddenly stopped and turned around to see if the portal was still there. Because, if it was, she might go back. But alas, it had gone.
Damn.
"Lumos," She muttered and began to walk around a bit, seeing if there was anyone around.
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Post by purrfection on Jul 7, 2007 20:50:05 GMT -6
When Michael Dubois had stepped into the... thing, it had become clear to him that it wasn't just any old thing, but a portal, right there in the middle of Hogwarts. In the West Wing. Having not come to this conclusion at first, Michael felt even more dumb than he had that morning, when he'd realized that his left shoe was actually Brigitta's cat. He found it very odd that Pregio had managed to get into his rooms, because the door most certainly had not been open. Michael had almost gotten his toes bitten off, but in his defense, it was dark and the soap he'd used in the shower the night before may or may not have smelled a lot like catnip.
Anyway, falling through the portal was very probably the oddest sensation Michael had ever experienced. It was as though he were being tossed through a blender on puree. There was really nothing there... it was just lots of space. Colors and light spun around in dizzying circles that anyone with motion sickness would have utterly detested. Good thing it wasn't painful.
THUD!
Michael was tossed out of the portal at random and slammed into a wall. Ouch. He winced and turned around to looked at it. It was stone, no less. Really old and covered in moss. Not the most beautiful thing to be thrown against. Both palms flat against the wall, Michael turned back around to face forward. Well, at least he hadn't run into it face-first.
SMACK!
A shoe flew out of nowhere and hit Michael in the head. He shouted out in surprise and reached out to catch it before it fell to the ground. He fumbled around a bit, but managed to grab it by a shoelace. This would be way easier if it weren't so dark. He looked down to make sure he was all in one piece. Blue jeans, plain white tennis shoes, a navy blue t-shirt covered by a black jacket which held his wand. It was summer, so Michael was not dressing professionally. He hadn't even walked a foot and he was already thankful for the tennis shoes.
Stepping away from the wall so that he could better observe his surroundings, Michael determined that he had never been here before. He was standing in the outskirts of what seemed to be a small village, kind of like a mini-Hogsmeade without the shops. And the people. It was totally quiet, except for the rustle of the trees in the forest a few yards away from him and the whap, whap of the window shutters as they blew in the slight breeze. He could see the outlines of buildings, but not much more detail than that. He dug his wand out of his jacket pocket. "Lumos!" he whispered, and he could see his hand in front of his face, making him feel much more secure.
Michael walked into the middle of the street, wary of the dark buildings. He didn't want to get too close, even if they were abandoned. When he reached a corner and turned onto an intersecting street, he caught sight of another light. It looked to be coming from a wand, like his, and he could see a silhouetted figure holding it. He started toward the shadowy figure, and when he thought he was close enough, he said, "Hello?" into the night. He felt very out-of-place in these strange surroundings, but instinct was telling him that this person wasn't dangerous.
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Post by Tori on Jul 9, 2007 15:50:29 GMT -6
Past traumas and fears have made Ruana a jumpy person, not that she wasn't rather jumpy before. Actually, she was very jumpy before. But the past traumas (a few weeks ago) have made Ruana even more jumpy. So it should come as no surprise that her wand is shaking in her hand, and she is very aware of all her surroundings, even though she could barely see ten feet in front of her. Wandlight wasn't that strong, but it did keep you from tripping.
Wish I'd had wandlight at the sleepover party, she thought bitterly, remembering the party held in the Room of Requirements a few nights before. She'd gone to hide (during Hide and Seek) and instead, tripped over a cedar chest. She's still got the bruises to prove it. If she'd had wandlight, that wouldn't have happened. Also, she might have seen Ike coming and therefore prevented his "attack".
Ruana was about to advance further when she heard a slight snap from behind her, followed by the voice of a fully grown male.
"Hello?"
Startled, Ruana whirled around quickly, her wand pointed ahead of her. "EXPELLIARMUS," she shrieked. The stream od red light hit her "pursuer" square in the chest.
Ruana would have ran for it then, but she realized that the person was standing precisely where she was when she came out of the portal, and his "hello?" didn't sound menacing. Wincing, Ruana approached the man she'd attacked, shining her light in his face. It was Michael Dubois.
"Professor!" She gasped. "I'm so sorry!"
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Post by purrfection on Jul 9, 2007 20:07:59 GMT -6
One moment Michael was trying to identify the mystery figure and the next he was flying backward after being hit square in the chest by bright flash of light. His back was abused for the second time that night as it hit the dirty, cobblestone street. His neck and head were jarred to one side as his body came to a halt, the leaves on the ground crackling beneath him. He groaned and felt for his wand. It was lying beside him, thankfully. Michael picked it up and propped himself up on his elbows, dazed and wary, and for some reason still under the impression that the person who was "not a threat" was still holding up to their title.
Since the wind had been knocked out of his lungs from the force of spell, the first deep breath Michael took caused him to cough, but after doing so he felt much better. At that moment, someone shined a light at him; he squinted at it, seeing only darkness. His own wand had been extinguished when he'd been expelliarmus'd, so he re-lit it and held it up to the black void in front of him.
"Professor! I'm so sorry!"
"Ruana!" He sat up alertly, relief flooding him. "Are you alright?"
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Post by Tori on Jul 9, 2007 21:25:40 GMT -6
"Ruana! Are you alright?"
Ruana let out a sigh of relief as the professor recognized her and was alright. "Yes," she replied, offering her hand to help him up. "I'm fine. Are you? That cobblestone looks pretty solid."
She then looked around at the dark outline of the tall, narrow buildings and shivered. It was eerie. Like this place had once been cheerful...sort of like Ruana's brain. Ruana had once been a bubbly, happy-go-lucky person who smiled and made jokes all the time, even if she was in a bad mood. All the nasty stuff was hidden. Now that the rape has happened to her, she felt dark, depressing, and a bit scary. Like anything could go wrong at any moment. Empty, like this village. Deserted of all happiness. One bad thing happened in her life, and everything just left her, paving the way for more bad things. It was like she had emotional AIDS.
((Angsty much?))
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Post by purrfection on Jul 9, 2007 22:02:20 GMT -6
"I'm fine. Are you? That cobblestone looks pretty solid."
"I think I'll live," Michael said, smiling uncontrollably at her because she was alive and in-tact and he had not let her down as of yet. He accepted her hand and hoisted himself off the ground, brushing himself off even though he could hardly see a thing.
He shined the light from his wand around, but it didn't bring anything circumstantial into view. Just a lot of rocks and leaves and the bases of some old, old trees on the side of the road. No one was around, or if they were, they weren't showing themselves. A slight breeze ruffled the collar of Michael's jacket. There was a full moon, but it wasn't casting the light one would expect--actually, it was tinted red.
Michael frowned into the darkness. This was too weird. Even if the town was desserted, there was a forest right there! Shouldn't there be an owl hooting at least?
"Do you know where we are?" he asked Ruana. He felt the need to speak quietly, as he was half-expecting that any disruption of the silence in this little village would result in chaos.
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Post by Tori on Jul 9, 2007 22:32:39 GMT -6
"I think I'll live."
Ruana smiled at the now upright professor. He had to have a headache from that fall. Still, she was glad he was okay. "Sorry," she muttered again, so to clarify that she hadn't really meant to attack her superior.
"Do you know where we are?"
She watched Michael look around and then shook her head. "No idea," she said honestly and quietly. "i'm just wondering why we're the only ones here and where the others--"
Ruana froze in min-sentence and jerked her head towards the forest on their left. From it, echoed a loud, bloodcurtling, terrified yell/scream of agony. Ruana's breath caught in her throat and she jumped a step closer to Michael. "P-professor?" She said weakly. "Sh...should we go...see?"
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Post by purrfection on Jul 12, 2007 16:49:37 GMT -6
Ruana hadn't booked Travelocity for their current position, or so she was saying when someone, somewhere through the trees and in distance, screamed.
It was a horrifyingly painful scream, the kind people generally gave when horrifyingly painful things were happening to them. It was especially uncomfortable for the people having to hear it. The way it was executed almost gave the impression that someone was seriously injured, but one could never be sure unless they--
"P-professor? Sh...should we go...see?"
Yes, they probably should. Of course, having a reason to go investigate didn't motivate Michael in the least. He had never liked screaming. Eight out of ten times, people did not scream bloodcurtlingly for pleasant reasons, and this shout of agony sounded especially terrible. Alas, the ever-insistent sense of duty in Michael did not want him to walk away from someone who was suffering without him at least trying to help them out.
He still didn't want to go, though, so he attempted to stall. "Michael," he corrected Ruana. "Call me Michael." He continued to examine the dark trees. "We have to be careful." This was as close to a flat-out yes as Ruana was going to get. He gently tugged the sleeve of her shirt and took a step in the direction of the scream, so she would know to follow him.
The thick shrubbery and shadowed, forboding tree trunks were much more silent than Michael had assumed they would be, especially for being foliage. He had been expecting a circus of death to magically set itself up right when he and Ruana entered the forest, but it hadn't. Everything was quiet.
Too quiet...
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Post by Tori on Jul 12, 2007 17:59:55 GMT -6
"Michael...call me Michael."
Bond...James Bond. Ha....No, this is not the time for jokes. Someone somewhere is in pain.
"We have to be careful."
Ruana stood there for a while. She knew what happened in forests. Rape. Death. Burning bushes. Fireballs. Yet she wanted to know what was going on. Yet still, her fear was stronger than her will to help. A tug on her sleeve by Michael told her that she had no choice. She wouldn't stay behind; she felt too safe with Michael. So finally, Ruana jogged to Michael's side and walked closely to him, her wand held forward shakily, alight.
The forest was no less menacing than the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. The trees were taller and more skeletal looking, also closer together. Noises could be heard in the Forbidden Forest, but here, none. Here, it was silent, apart from the scream heard earlier.
As they walked on, Ruana's heart beat swiftly. Shadows shifted as the light of her wand moved, in which case she'd jump and point her wand at the shadow. Nothing was there. The silence seemed to echo, driving Ruana's brain into swirling. She felt dizzy with fear and didn't let Michael veer more than a few inches away from her.
Soon they reached a small clearing; maybe about ten square feet. It was dark, and in the center was a large rock. A woman in a white cloak stood off to the left side of the rock, bending down slightly, looking at something on the ground behind it. There was a dark stain on the front of her cloak. The woman straightened her back and her hood fell down, revealing long, brown, curly-wavy hair. Ruana recognized her immediately.
"Katharine," she murmured and tugged on Michael's sleeve. "Michael, it's Katharine! She's been sent here, too!"
Ruana started to feel less afraid. "Katharine!" She called and started moving towards the familiar woman. "Are you alright? We heard someone screaming."
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Post by purrfection on Jul 12, 2007 18:52:32 GMT -6
"Katharine. Michael, it's Katharine! She's been sent here, too!"
As Ruana left his side and started to walk ahead of him, Michael squinted at the rock and the woman standing beside it. The flyaway hair and slim figure was undisputably Katharine; he'd only been gone less than an hour and he already missed Hogwarts. Familiarity washing over him, Michael tried to catch up to Ruana, but she was already a few yards ahead of him.
He looked up at Katharine offhandedly and noticed that her posture had a different air about it than usual--really, really stiff. She was usually so relaxed. Hopefully she hadn't run into trouble; to his knowledge, none of the staff had ever been to this place before (or at least they had never mentioned it or a portal). The town that he and Ruana had just left seemed totally empty, so if there was something dangerous around, it probably hadn't come from there.
Everything was so quiet; except for the scream, that is, and Michael was beginning to wonder if they had been in their right minds when they'd heard it. Maybe they just weren't used to this place and fear had caused them to hallucinate. That had been known to happen to many people before. The noise could have come from a bird. An angsty mockingbird, perhaps.
When he was about ten feet behind Ruana, he held his lit wand out ahead of him, hoping to illuminate the area around the rock near Katharine.
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Post by Tori on Jul 12, 2007 19:08:25 GMT -6
As Ruana walked closer to Katharine, she noticed the same thing Michael had. Katharine looked so stiff, as though every motion were forced. Not to mention, she looked older, now that Michael's wandlight was also upon her. There were more fine lines on her face. Laugh lines, too. This wasn't a surprise. Katharine smiled a lot. She looked a lot more like a middle-aged woman than a young, thirty-something nurse. Still pretty, though. Although...pained. Maybe it was just the light.
"Something wrong, Katharine?" Ruana asked, drawing her eyebrows together in confusion. Katharine turned her head towards them. It seemed like she had to force her head to move, for it moved slowly and shakily. Her head then snapped back to what she was looking at. She bent over whatever was behind the rock again. Something wasn't right. Katharine would have done more than look over; she would have ran into Michael's arms in fear. Something was wrong. Ruana knew it. "Michael..." Ruana murmured, but said no more, for a voice broke out from behind the rock.
"P-please," it sobbed, almost pleading. Ruana's stomach did a flip, and she backed up beside Michael. "Katharine.....please, no...."
With that, Katharine raised her arms over her head, and something glinted in the wandlight. She seemed to be holding something....something sharp. Ruana's stomach turned some more. This is wrong...something's wrong. With a small, pained cry, Katharine lowered her arms fast.
STAB!
STAB!
STAB!
In between stabs, the bloodcurtling, hair-raising scream filled the air again. Each stab made a sickening squish noise. After the third or fourth stab, the yell stopped, but it seemed to linger in the air. Katharine straightened, wiping more dark substance on her white cloak with whatever she'd been stabbing with.
"Michael," Ruana whispered, now scared out of her mind. "What's going on?!"
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Post by purrfection on Jul 13, 2007 20:31:41 GMT -6
"Something wrong, Katharine?"
When the woman turned her head toward them, Michael expected her to say something, since that was what he knew her to do. A smile, even, would be sufficient, because in addition to being talkative, Katharine was also a very happy person. But she did neither of those things; she just stared, and it was almost as if it took great effort to even turn their way in the first place because her head jerked back to the direction it had been facing before.
Michael's first instinct, upon concluding that Katharine was not making a move toward him, was to go to her. He covered the remaining distance between he and Ruana more quickly than he should have and found that this was because Ruana had backed up.
"P-please... Katharine.....please, no...."
So the thing behind the rock, the thing that Katharine had been so reluctant to turn away from, was not a thing at all. It was a person. The voice was deep, that of a man. What's more, he sounded terrified. Pleading.
Michael's eagerness to go to the rock was wiped away. Something silver shined above Katharine's head as she raised her arm and lowered it at twice the speed. Then the screaming began. While it had been scary far away, it was a couple hundred points past horrifying up-close. Michael's heart began to beat faster.
Katharine was stabbing someone. She was supposed to heal wounds, not inflict them!
As suddenly as it had begun, the shrieking stopped.
"Michael! What's going on?!"
"Something very bad," replied Michael, stating the obvious because he was too frightened to put his real suspicions into words. He felt as though his arm was moving on its own accord as it came to rest on Ruana's shoulder and forced her back a few paces, so that she was behind him. If someone was in trouble, he was going to help them, and he was going to do it without harming Katharine.
He held out his wand and pointed it at the murky blackness above the rock concealing Katharine and the mystery man. "CARPE RETRACTUM!" he shouted, and a fiery orange rope of light and magic shot from the tip of his wand, straight through where Michael had been aiming, and fell behind the rock. There was an abrupt pull on his arm as the spell grabbed ahold of something, and he used both hands to bear back on his wand and pull the magical rope back toward him. Through the air flew a darkened shape, about the same size as he was, being held around the middle by the spell and looking very limp. It narrowly missed hitting the rock and soared to a patch of ground a yard or so in front of Michael, who then flicked his wand and completed the spell.
Whatever-it-was landed with a thump on dirt. Michael took a step forward to get a closer look.
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Post by Tori on Jul 13, 2007 20:51:07 GMT -6
"Something very bad."
Ruana took a deep breath, her heart beating like tom-toms in double time. There was only one other time in her life that Ruana had felt fear this great, and she felt like this was only the start of it. Why did she ever enter that portal? Something very bad was happening right now, and Ruana needed to book it, get out of that forest as fast as she could, but her feet would not move. Except when Michael pushed her back some.
"CARPE RETRACTUM!"
Ruana felt the hairs on her arms stand up at the intensity of Michael's voice. He never yelled, and hearing him yell sent chills up her spine. Just then, something emerged from behind the rock. A long, limp something, floating towards them. It appeared to be a human.
Thud.
Ruana walked forward to see who's body it was, her wand alight. The beam from her wand rested upon the face of Dane Tigerthon. Ruana screamed and dropped her wand, jumping at his side on her knees and checking his wounds. He was bleeding heavily, and he wasn't breathing. Ruana sobbed.
Just then, Katharine seemed to snap out of it. Her body relaxed, as did her face. It took her a moment to realize what had just happened, but then she dropped the weapon as if repulsed by it and turned in the darkness, blinking at Michael and Ruana...and Dane. What had she done? "Oh my God..." she breathed and ran for Dane's body. Ruana backed away. Katharine knealt down beside the boy she had just killed and clutched his bloody shirt in her hands. She bowed her head and screamed, "NO!"
A faint pop could be heard over by the rock, and another dark silhouette appeared. It was a tall, muscular, manly silhouette. It emitted a growl and charged for Katharine, grabbing her around the waist with one arm and pulling her back, Ruana's wandlight illuminated a strong, handsome face and stubbly facial hair. The man pulled Katharine backwards, and she lashed out, grabbing for Dane, sobbing and screaming and kicking. Her screams cut off suddenly when another faint pop sounded and they both vanished.
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Post by purrfection on Jul 13, 2007 22:06:43 GMT -6
"Lumos," Michael whispered for the second time that night as he leaned over the motionless body on the ground before him. Ruana recognized its identity before he did; she kneeled down beside it, her hands frantically moving over the numerous stab wounds as Michael looked into the face of Dane Tigerthon. Dane was staring straight into the sky, but he was not blinking. In fact, his eyes seemed to be frozen in shock. In terror.
Michael was speechless. Below him, Ruana sobbed. Michael kneeled down and felt the side of Dane's neck for a pulse, which he failed to find. He felt his eyes dampen with tears, and looked up to see Katharine approaching. Out of his blurred peripheral vision, Michael saw Ruana back away from Dane's body. He almost followed suit, but all the trust and confidence Michael had in Katharine didn't want him to think that she would ever do anything bad. She was not, after all, in possesion of a weapon.
The nurse clutched Dane's shirt and cried and screamed, and a lump formed in Michael's throat. He was so confused and so utterly upset by it.
Then, out of nowhere, a man, shadowed by the overwhelming darkness, appeared and grabbed Katharine roughly from behind. She obviously did not take kindly to this, for she started to scream, flailing and kicking like mad in an effort to get away. Michael reacted too late: When he stood up and made a move to stop the man, he had already disappeared with Katharine.
Michael looked dumbly at the spot where they'd vanished for a moment or two, then he lowered himself back down to Dane's body and shined his wand light right in the boy's unresponsive face. That's when he noticed something.
"Ruana... look," he said, his voice a little shaky. He gazed quietly at the illuminated face, where the light revealed various scars and deep frown lines that only years of anguish could cause. "Is this really Dane? It looks like him, but..."
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