[PP - F2] Raven Hollow [School]

[Lessa 1]

The School

The large, one-room schoolhouse stands silent among the tall trees. Unlike the church, the bell that once hung in its tower is now long-gone. Large windows, their glass shattered centuries before, allow a player to peer into a place of learning, left abandoned. Rows of desks still face the front of a room, where a wooden desk resides beside a squat, wood-burning stove. The stove is still warm to the touch, and the apple that is perched upon the desk cannot be more than a few days old. But the rest of the room is filled with only cobwebs and heavy, suffocating silence. Those who have attended this place speak of soft laughter, and blurry movement on the edge of their vision.

Spoiler

 

General Rules:

• If you are going to leave, make a post that you are doing so. Otherwise, you cannot post in another location.
• If you plan to spawn a monster, make sure that it is the appropriate level for the people who are fighting with you.
• If you are non-combat, and do not plan to partake in the battle, be sure to make it known that you are doing something else at the time.
• Post order does not matter unless you are in combat, but please be respectful of others.
• All OOC comments/questions can be directed to myself directly, or the Recruitment Thread.

 

[Lessa 1]

The leaves crunched beneath Lessa's boot. With each step, she winced, her lips drawn in a tight line of concentration. Her goal had never been to make as much noise as possible, but it seemed as if she were doing just that. In the distance, she could hear the hushed voices of other players, carrying on the evening's cool breeze. The decision to split had been hers, as she did not care to stay out any later than necessary. At the same time, after a full three hours of walking, they could not hardly turn around again and go back. They had arrived, and they had a mission - best to take care of it, despite the knot in the pit of her stomach. Lessa was not afraid of the dark, per se. Rather, she feared what might be lurking among those shadows. Years in the game had taught her that nothing is out of the question. The rumors had taught her that this town had messed with many players' heads. Would she be among them?

A twig snapped underfoot, and Lessa cursed loudly.

The school house loomed over her. Leave it to the teacher to pick the school, she mused dryly. The creepy, abandoned, sort of murderous looking school.

Edited October 13, 2016 by Lessa

[Beatbox 0]

The leaves were blowing, branches were creaking... and Beatbox wanted to investigate something... scary. He wore his typical flashy outfit as he never stopped wearing it since he got it not too long ago, and it seemed that he found himself a lot of attention since then. He walked down the path of the old forest that led to an abandoned school the weather was cool, it wasn't too hot, and it wasn't too cold... however, something else was giving him the chills. But this scary school that he had been going to was not just because he wanted to see some spooks... appearently there is a whole mission to this and he wondered what lied within the school itself. As he approached the school he noticed that a blonde haired player had already arrived her at the scene. He walked up behind her and said to her "What a wonderful day to inspect a creepy old school wouldn't you think?" then giggled. "Say... don't you find it weird though that Kayaba even put an abandoned school here in the first place? It seems rather... out of place." he said as he tried to look into the school seeing nothing but darkness.

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru breathed as he soon appeared at the school, seeing that him, Lessa, and Beatbox were the only ones that were here. He breathed quietly and appeared next to the players, wielding his dagger in it's sheath behind his jacket. He gave a small chuckle and a sigh as he looked around, the school sending a small shudder down his spine as he did. He put a hand on Beatbox's shoulder and gave a small and nervous chuckle as he did. This wasn't something he was comfortable with, but he had shown up here, and he didn't know about any other places that were around here.

"So uh... M-my rule is ladies first..." He said weakly. Haunted places scared the crap out of him, and it brought him back to when he was in the mental hospital when doing the quest <<Wail of the Banshee>> With his comrades Lowenthal and Jomei, and it sent shudders down his spine. He breathed and did his best to stand tall and proud as he was the strongest player here, and he would have to make sure that both players were safe as they went into the school. Their lives were on his shoulders in his mind, so he had to try and be the brave one. He coughed and looked forward "If no one else wants to lead the way, I can..." He said quietly, and hoped that he wouldn't have to.

[Lessa 1]

The woman heard the man approaching before she might have sensed him otherwise. The fallen leaves amplified each movement, and made it impossible to move with any real sort of stealth. On one hand, that fact came as a blessing, because she was given ample warning when someone was drawing closer. On the other, the noise inspired a certain sense of foreboding within her; the goosebumps that raced up and down her bare arms had nothing to do with the chill in the air. Furthermore, she wondered what would happen if some entity was able to move without disturbing the leaves. She would never see it coming. Gulping down the lump that formed in the back of her throat, Lessa forced a smile for the boy.  Another soon approached, and she offered him the same tight-lipped greeting.

"Guess we should introduce ourselves before we start searching, don't you think?" She was stalling, of course. "I'm Lessa." She did not recognize either of the other players, but part of that could be due to the darkness that engulfed them. That, and the nerves that clouded her vision just the tiniest bit. When it came to the paranormal, Lessa was a stark believer in all things spooky. Once, the subject had fascinated her. She had even spent some time with her university's paranormal club. But a few too many close encounters had soured the topic for her, and she was no longer so eager to chase after the unexplained, EMF-meter in hand. That was not to say that there were not still the faintest wisps of curiosity. While she had found examples, she had never found answers, and that was partially what prompted her to join the search.

[Beatbox 0]

Beatbox had noticed that another player had come up behind Beatbox and place his hand on his shoulder, he looked at up at the player and smirked "What's with the nervous chuckle...? Worried about a little scare? Because I am..." he said with a nervous giggle. He looked at the blonde haired female and gave her a bow "The name's Beatbox, it's quite the pleasure to meet you today." he looked at the two and gave a smile to both of them and started to walk towards the door, "Well, there's no need to just stand here and look at the school for hours on end... let's check out the school shall we...?" he said as he unsheathed his sword just in case as he approached the door. "Why do think Kayaba designed a school to be here anyways? It's seems very out of place to put a creepy school in the middle of the forest." he said as he heard an echo effect in the woods as the leaves blew to the side in the background, he took a deep breath and looked at the door again reaching his hand down to the door knob.

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru listened as the girl named Lessa introduced herself, and his apprentice Beatbox introduced himself to her, and he smiled and chuckled as he bowed politely to the girl and gave a small chuckle as he stared at the ground for a moment, collecting his thoughts as fast as he could, and chuckled and stood, a small smile on his face as he did so.

"Hikoru, Master of Shadows, pleasure to make your acquaintance Ms. Lessa." He said as politely as he could. He breathed as they decided to head in, and he gave a small breath and unsheathed his dagger, Yamkimba and moved forward. He felt something shake inside his shirt, and soon his familiar's head appeared above out from the top of his scarf. He just gave a small chuckle and scratched his chin. It helped to calm his racing heart, and it gave him comfort as they went forward. He breathed and hoped for the best in this adventure he was going to have. He had to try and be strong, for not just his sake, but for the lives of his comrades as well.

[Lessa 1]

"Beatbox and Hikoru," she repeated, nodding to each in turn. For a moment, she found herself impressed by their polite bows and formal introductions. Her manners had a way of leaving her when the situation grew stressful, but that did not appear to be the case for the two men.

At Beatbox's question, the blonde shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe it is some sort of event? I mostly hear talk of people coming her around Halloween, so maybe it is special for October?" She let silence fall momentarily between the threesome, and then she gave a slight shrug. "I can't say for sure what he made the town for. But I can say that he did a good job with it." The laugh she let loose was hollow. "I'm terrified."

To demonstrate her words, she took her sweet time easing herself into the building. When she finally picked her way inside, she was met with an unexpected warmth. "Huh?" she murmured aloud, her gaze narrowing in confusion. "Where is that coming from?" It was dark inside the school, but as her eyes adjusted, she found that she was able to do a half-decent scan of the room. The only possible option was the wood-burning stove that squatted in the corner, only a few paces from the doorway. She moved so that she stood in front of it. Carefully, she pulled off her gauntlet, and hovered one hand over the black, cast-iron piece. "Guys," she hissed, narrowed eyes now widening. "It's giving off heat."

Edited October 14, 2016 by Lessa

[Beatbox 0]

"Master of Shadow's huh?" he said as he smirked at Hikoru, "So you're that Hikoru then huh? Finally nice to meet you." he said to him with a smile on his face. He was shocked that yet again that no one seemed to be overwhelmed by the way Beatbox had been dressed... it must have been they either didn't care, or looked past it. He listened to Lessa and he placed his hand on his chin in deep thought, "Hmmm... an event huh? Well, sure it is October and all, but still... wouldn't you think the Halloween event be a boss or something?" he said with a bit of confusion, he thought for a minute while listening to Lessa and he giggled, "Well, if this is for Halloween... it has to be spooky..." he then said with another worried giggle. "Here's to jumpscares everyone!" he said as he continued in Lessa. He looked around the room and he had a hard time adjusting to the darkness that was inside, and with enough time he also had noticed that the stove was giving off heat. "Odd... there doesn't appear to have an NPC around here..." he said "...wait, why is a stove in a school in the first place?" he said with confusion.

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru chuckled at the small player and chuckled. That's right, he had talked to Itzal about Beatbox, but he had never met him. He knew Beatbox was his Apprentice without even knowing it, he had almost forgotten entirely that the only people in his guild he had met was Morgenstern and Itzal, and even then it was only for a day or just a meeting. He just breathed and continued forward, looking as the fireplace seemed to heat the whole building on it's own. He looked over and saw some wood that looked like they were recently cut. He brought one over and handed it to Lessa

"No clue, but whoever did this, seemed to be here just recently, so we better be on our guard..." He said quietly, as to watch out for any wandering eyes and ears around them. He went around and looked to see if anything could be found, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the school. He gave a small shudder and came back over. Something definitely felt off about this place, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He looked at the fire and the piece of wood "I think we should try and keep this lit, so we have a place to come back to in case anything happens where we can see. Because I don't think there's going to be one in every room." He said, giving his two bits on what he thought they should do.

[Lessa 1]

Lessa gave a half-shrug, demonstrating her uncertainty when Beatbox countered her claim. "I mean," she began softly, "this could be a boss, for all we know. A boss with a very elaborate setup, sure. But for all we know, there's a monster waiting outside." The words hung in the silence for a moment, and they did nothing to settle her nerves. More likely, they had unnerved the entire party. Hoping to remedy the situation, she forced a weak smile, and added, "but probably not. Right?"

Now her gaze swung to the fire, which Beatbox questioned as Hikoru explored it. "I'm not sure why its here," she confessed. "Probably aesthetics, like the rest of this place. It really gives off the sensation of our being in an old schoolhouse." Careful not to bump Hikoru, who had moved to join her at the stove, she slowly reached down and tugged on the handle. The coils that wrapped around the handle cooled it to her touch, as she had not yet replaced her gauntlet, but the rush of heat she freed by opening the door could not go unnoticed. The flames, now visible to the threesome, also shed a decent amount of light. It was evident that the schoolhouse had never intended to house students so late, and thus candles and this stove were the only means of illuminating the place. The same would have to be true for that evening, Lessa presumed. 

She eased off her other gauntlet, and lay them both to rest atop the nearest desk. Bare skin now exposed, she held her hands out, palms forward, to soak up some of the now abundant heat. "I agree," she noted, nodding toward Hikoru. "Let's keep the stove lit. It gives us warmth and light, two things I'd rather not be without right now." Then, she added, "and I guess we could look around a bit. Whoever lit the stove could be hanging around. But honestly, I'm not sure we have too many places to search." With one hand, she motioned to her surroundings. "It looks like a standard one-room school house. There may be something out back though, behind the building."

[Beatbox 0]

Beatbox had listened to Lessa speak that this might be a set-up to a boss that may be waiting for us outside, he gave her a "why did you say that?" smile and giggled nervously. "I hope not... I'm not really feeling like dying today." he then said with another nervous chuckle. Beatbox had looked around the room, desks were from place to place, some flipped over, and some broken. He looked at the bookcase and saw that most of the books here had there titles faded out and dust gathered all over them, Beatbox smirked. "I was hoping for some spoopy ghosts in this school if you ask me." he said with a smile. "But it is very odd how that there is a stove ON here, do you think a player could have been here a moment ago?" he said as he tried to think of why it could be possibly on at the time. Beatbox chuckled and said nervously "Oh great... something outside, I'm not gonna be the one going out there to check I'll tell you that much." he then laughed nervously.

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru breathed and listened, a small shudder going down his back as she said the monster could be waiting outside. He had fought plenty of monsters before, but only a few in such creepy places. He breathed and put in a few logs in the fire, the flames licking them like they were some sort of sucker, and soon consuming them, the room growing brighter, and the shadows on the walls growing as well. The shadows didn't bother him as much as it might the others. His Unique Skill worked with the shadows, so it was his sort of comfort zone. He looked at the other two and gave a small breath

"Alright, you guys stay close. Im going to take a look around. Now, don't freak out, but I have a unique way of looking around. So just stay calm, and i'll be back as soon as I can." He said, and he breathed and backed away into the shadows, forming into them and soon appearing outside of the building, quickly climbing a tree and getting a better vantage point. He looked and saw nothing that seemed strange from what he saw now, but he knew that he couldn't trust this exact vantage point. He breathed and got back down, starting to walk around, the crunching of the leaves giving his location easily, but he tried his best to not be afraid. He knew he could easily run away if need be, and he was prepared for anything that was going to come his way

[Lessa 1]

"You were hoping for ghosts?" the woman asked incredulously. Then with a small laugh, she shook her head. "Man, I guess I can't blame you. I'd take ghosts over the alternative any day." Without waiting for a request, she elaborated: "demons, monsters, all that jazz." Despite the seemingly eerie topic of conversation, it was one she was familiar with. In fact, she even had some experience in that particular department. "Ghosts are creepy, sure. But they can't do much to you. If this place is haunted, I'd rather it be by ghosts."

After Hikoru took his leave via fairly unusual methods, Lessa finally pulled her hands back from the stove, where she had been warming them. "Guess you and I have the inside," she commented off-handedly, already turning toward the large room. Some light spilled from the crackling stove, but there were still corners of space that remained cloaked in shadow. For the moment, she shied away from those areas.

Her first destination was the large, black chalkboard. It was worn and chipped, a sign of constant use. More unsettling was the note that had been scrawled across. The handwriting was poor, with improper capitalization and letter spacing.

"It's locked," Lessa read, her voice seeming to boom in the small space. "Well, that isn't unnerving at all." She frowned, finally turning back to Beatbox. "But what's locked? This place only has one door, and we came through it. It isn't locked."

A hand instinctively scratched at the back of her head as she looked around. "We need more information. See if you can find any books, or papers, or anything that we can use to figure out what this place is supposed to be."

[Beatbox 0]

Beatbox had listened to Lessa and gave her a giggle after she was done talking "Well... I kind of expected a little more than just a creepy school with an oven on mysteriously. Like, I want to be spooked by something that may or may not exist in this world y'know? Its October, we need to get our spooks on!" he said with a laugh. Beatbox had continued to look around the school for anything interesting, he continued to look at the bookcase, most if not all the books have had their titles worn out and the Bookcase itself looks beat up and spider webs built up around the openings. "Well... it looks like all these books have no title to read..." he sighed and he didn't want to take one out. Beatbox looked over in confusion "It's locked? What's locked?" he said as he walked over to the chalk board. He read the poor hand written writings on the chalkboard and saw that it did state "it's Locked." Beatbox let out a "huh." and thought to himself in his head. "Wait... its... locked... what could possibly be locked here thats not the front door? A chest in here? A hidden room?" he said as he was in thought.

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru breathed as he didn't find anything. He started to head back where he was with the group and noticed that the door was locked. He jiggled the lock, then banged on the door. He didn't know if they were alright or not. He could easily go through the door, but he didn't cause them to attack him. He could easily live it, but it still wasn't an experience that he wanted to live with. He was an orange crystal, so they wouldn't become one like him, but he didn't want them to get a taste for it

"Hey! Are you guys okay?" He called, asking into the room to see if everyone was okay "I'm going to look around and see if I can find another way in!" He said, and left the door way after one last attempt to get into the room. He breathed and started to circle the building once more, and hoped that there was a broken window or something like that in which he could crawl through and get back into the building. He could only wait and see

(OOC: IM SO SORRY I FORGOT TO POST THIS A LONG TIME AGO FORGIVE ME)

[Lessa 1]

The sudden rattling of a door nearly frightened Lessa out of her skin. Despite her extensive experience with the paranormal, loud noises proved to be the bane of her existence. She loosed a string of exceptionally unladylike curses, wrapping her arms about herself to calm her galloping heart. "Maybe we found our answer," she muttered, when she finally managed to find her voice. Hikoru's voice carried, and she felt herself relax slightly. He was the one who had tried to get inside, and not some great beast, or disgruntled spirit. He could make such a graceful exit, but getting inside was an entirely different story. There was humor there, and she might have made a wise-crack, had she not fallen into deep thought.

She made her way to the door, jiggling the handle a bit to find that it was locked from the inside. Bare, chilled hands turned the key in the lock, and it swung open on a cool breeze. "Here you go," she called out. Then, "we promise it wasn't use who locked you out. I'm not sure how that happened, but it was probably pretty common with these old locks and keys." Her tone, and her expression, revealed her skepticism.

"So," she started suddenly, glancing back to Beatbox. "Do you really think the board referred to the door? I mean, it is creepy that the door seemed to lock itself, but that seems like a silly thing to have on a board. I can't help but think we missed something."

[Alkor 0]

He hadn't seen anything like it. Granted, he had a limited experience when it came to the various floors of Aincrad, and other than the hallowed ground of Floor 11 inside the safe zone, nothing quite matched the architecture of this particular building. Even Taft was a far cry from a proper comparison.

Alkor moved toward the entrance with his hand outstretched, utilizing his meager investigation skill to see if there was any imminent danger. Before it could sense anything however, he heard the sounds of movement from within.

Three distinct voices, but nonsensical sound. It was like that had willfully entered the belly of a beast, and the flesh between its stomach and the outside world distorted all sound. Alkor gripped his weapon and drew it into hand, then took a deep breath.

It was a textbook horror scenario, the kind where brave and foolish men alike ran headlong to their deaths. The token screaming woman. Some slasher pulp goth scream mask villain. The Swordsman was well equipped to death with that kind of danger, where all those others were not.

"Who's here?" he called out purposefully as light seemed to disappear behind him. The sun's rays didn't quite reach beyond the threshold, and dusty cobwebs hung between him as every other room.

He sneezed.

[Lessa 1]

Though Lessa thought she had heard a voice, it was the sudden, explosive sneeze that put her over the edge. For the second time, her body jolted so tremendously that she feared her heart might explode. “What was that?” she hissed to Beatbox, taking an involuntary step closer to him. If there was really a predator stalking them, the smart thing to do would be to draw her blade and shift into a ready stance. But in the moment, caught up in the moment, she simply wasn’t thinking straight.

Finally, her nerves got the best of her. “Okay,” she began, her voice shaking like a dying leaf clinging to a twig in a cold autumn breeze. “Who is it? Who’s there?” In one fluid movement, she wiped the sweat from her palms onto her pants, but it did nothing to comfort her. In fact, her hands somehow felt even more clammy as she squinted against the darkness.

[Alkor 0]

He heard something, or someone, but could see nothing. It was like he had gone to a new place where everything was relative, but nothing existed for him to cling to. If not for the steely resolve he had to be sure that whoever was within was safe, he would have turned right around.

Maybe he was wrong to defy his fear.

A sound crept across his ears and he saw something move. Or he thought he saw something move. The senses distorted when the mind was in flux. It was a parallax caused by both the augmented reality and by his own emotions, simply put- his truth was defined by his mind.

If he felt fear, fear manifested. That was why bosses in Sword Art Online could be so terrifying. Cardinal fed off of what the Players experienced. It had the capacity to be a benign system.

It had just been made into something more brutal.

As Alkor moved into the next room, he raised his voice. "If you can hear me, are you safe? I'm close to the entrance!"