In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 947):

The music ends.  Another song thumps on, but it's not one any of your group seems to like.

Lydia fans herself.  "I need a drink.  Might as well get a glo stick while I'm at it.  You guys want one?"

Colby shakes his head.  "I'm good." He looks over at Darja.  "I gotta duck out a minute.  Be right back."

She nods, giving him a slight smile.  He hurries towards the exit.  Darja chuckles.  "He shouldn't be here.  He's feeling sick.  Tried to tell him not to worry about it.  Guess he likes dances."

Lydia leads you and Darja to the refreshment table.

The big bowl of glo-sticks is about a third empty.  Lydia scoops up a couple and hands one to Darja before reaching for two more.  "I hope that whatever these for is worth it.  They blew like over the budget on 'em."

Darja looks her stick over and shrugs.  "At least we get a souvenir."

They seem like regular glo-sticks.  The type you snap, shake, and then light up with a greenish-yellow glow.  They won't be effective now with the lights on.

You see Ronald.  He's dateless apparently.  Or at least he's ditched her for the time being.  He glances around and then walks to the exit.

You "hear" Dan say, "Hey.  I gotta step out a sec.  You be okay by yourself a moment?"

Ari sighs.  "Well yeah. But guys are supposed to be able to hold it longer than girls you know."</red.

"Did you want to hold it for me?"

She laughs.  <red>"Asshole."

You see Dan head towards the exit Ronald took.

Lydia puts a cup of punch in your hand.  "I think it's supposed to be dragonfruit flavor.  Who serves dragonfruit punch at one of these?"

Jack takes one of the glowsticks and tucks it into his pants pocket, "I'll hold onto yours too," he says to Lydia as he holds it in those convenient pockets that pants have and gowns do not.

Noticing the exodus, he nods at Darja, understanding the effect if not the cause.

"I'll go check on him, you two stick together," he suggests, looking between Darja and Lydia.

Heading in the direction that Ronald and Dan had gone, he decides to follow up.

As he walks he says sotto voce to Darja: "I'm going to see what's up with Dan and Ronald."

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 949):

She sotto voce's back, "Good.  Was worried you were going to the bathroom with Colby or something."

You "hear" Ronald and Dan before you see (regular people seeing) them.

They are off in one of the side halls that lead to the shop classes.

Ronald sounds nervous.  "Look.  I don't know-"

"Bullshit.  I'm not buyin' it Ron.  She coulda died."

Dan sounds angry.

Ronald's heart is going ninety miles a minute.

"Now what did you do?"

"This isn't-"

You now have sight of them.  Regular people sight.

Ronald is slumped against a locker.  Dan is standing, not quite on top of him, but close enough.  He doesn't have a hand on Ronald but Dan looks pissed.

We apparently need a new thread soon. 1k posts!

"It's an essential part of the boy experience, Darja," Jack replies quietly.

Jack walks back through the school hallway until he spots Ronald and Dan. Leaning out of sight so that he can be on hand to break things up, but until it gets physical he has no reason to interfere. He's genuinely curious what this is all about, and what in the world it has to do with whatever Dan wanted him to get before.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:48, Fri 17 Sept 2021.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 951):

We're only a third of the way I had planned for Jack too

Switching Ron's dialogue color.  Forgot how much Coral looks like Orange

Ronald wipes his face with one hand.  He's sweating a lot.

Dan shakes his head and puts his hands on his hips.  "You still talking to him?"

Ronald says nothing.

"Do. You.  Talk. To. Him?"

Ronald shrugs hesitantly after a moment.

"Damnit Ron!" Dan lashes out, slamming a fist into a locker nearby.

Ronald flinches.

"This shit isn't funny!  What's he gonna do now?  Huh?"

Ron snaps his head up.  "Cut the crap.  You don't like Whitefalls either.  Why do you care?"

Dan starts to advance on Ronald.  Dan's heart rate is jumping up.  His hands are clenching and unclenching into fists.

"What the fuck?  What the actual fuck?  You're asking me that?  Did you get stupid?  He fucked up my life!  He's fucked up everyone's life around him."  Dan grabs Ronald by the shirt and hoists him up.  "And if you're trying to cover for him or some shit?  Ron..."

Dan leans closer.  "Tell me what you know or I'm gonna break your ass open."

Jack, listening in, is greatly intrigued. It sounds like “him” is responsible for Whitefalls downfall, and perhaps other things. Is it Roger?

“You hearing this?” Jack asks, making continued conversation with Darja in the cafeteria. Even as he is observing the goings on between Dan and Ronald, he  spares a glance in the direction of Lydia, Colby and Darja.

Making sure that they're all doing okay.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 953):

Colby is coming out of the john.  He seems in better spirits.

Darja sotto voce's back, "Now that I know to listen to it, yeah.  You think this is that guy who was hassling Sarah?"

Ronald shakes.  "Look.  I haven't talked to him in months.  He's...I don't know what he's gonna do.  You know him.  He's fuckin' nuts.  All I know is he phoned in some kinda fake emergency to the Program.  So they're all out right now.  That's all I know."

Dan stands back, blinking.  "What?  Shit!  You fucktard!  We gotta get everyone outta here!"

He starts to take a step forward and then stops, glaring at Ronald.  "I'll beat your ass in later."

Dan turns and starts running back down the hall.

"Texting HT.  If the program is gone...Do we panic or not here?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:54, Mon 20 Sept 2021.

"You mean Roger? Maybe?" Jack replies idly as he thinks about it. Listening to the story, he shakes his head and immediately zips through the hallways back toward the cafeteria. Moving faster than the eyes of the handful of people in the hallway can track. Only the stiff breeze he kicks up in his passage any sort of indication that he'd moved past anyone.

Looking back at the people he'd seen with the gun-shaped objects, he looks to scan if they're still in the cafeteria. He'd assumed they were with the program. A foolish assumption.

"Darja, are the people with guns with the Program or not?" he asks.

Getting to Lydia, he immediately starts to get her out of the building, directly picking her up by putting his arm around her waist and carrying her toward the nearest exit.

"I'll get your friends after I get you out," he whispers to her and once he's visually clear of the line of sight from the room, he'll zip her away as fast and safely as he can.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 955):

Lydia blinks.  "What?  What's goin'-"

Darja mutters, "I didn't say anything to her."

She glances at the men you point out.  "I recognize him.  He's a tech in the program.  So I think he's good.  You want me to talk to him?"

She is tapping on her cell as she talks.  "HT isn't responding.  I'll try GS too."

“I'll explain later, but something might be happening and I need you to be safe. I promise I'll make it up to you later,” Jack explains to Lydia as he gets her out of line of sight of the school and then scooping her up into a princess carry, flies her to his house several blocks away. It's closer than her house and he's in a hurry.

He hands her his house keys.

“I promise to make it up to you,” he reiterates and then darts back to the school.

As he nears he focuses on everything he can, thinking about the best course of action as he pats his pocket for his luchadore mask, making sure that its there.

“Yes, approach him and let him know what we know and tell him to tell them,” he replies.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 957):

Changing Darja back to Aqua

"Will do.  Is it bad that I'm not too surprised something like this is happening?"

By the time you get there, Darja is talking to the guard.  You see him tap an earpiece he's wearing and buzz for someone.  He then says something about a code 18.  You don't know what that means, but you can tell elevators from the program are heading up.  Reinforcements you assume.

At that moment, the latest song ends.  Mrs. Hollister is back up at the mic.

"Okay everyone.  Quiet please.  We are at that point in the evening where we have to announce...our homecoming queen!  Everyone get ready to clap!"

She waves an envelope.

You hear someone nearby mumble, "Did we even vote for a homecoming queen?"

"Yeah.  I don't really remember doing that."

Mrs. Hollister is opening up the envelope.  "Okay...Oh!  Well this is a surprise!  Sarah Milktoast!  Come on up here!"

There's a lot of confused voices at what Mrs. Hollister just said.  Like no one recognizes the name.

But the lights go down and a spotlight shines out, falling on Sarah, who is standing with some friends, staring around like she's not sure what's going on.

Mrs. Hollister continues.  "Oops.  Sorry Sarah.  I called you Milktoast."

Her voice suddenly changes.  "I guess I was saying what I really thought out loud.  Sorry.  I really need to learn to self edit."

Roger lays Mrs. Hollister's hand on the microphone.  "C'mon up here Sarah!  Get your crown on!  Everyone's just dyin' to see you in it!  Or...at least they soon will be."  Roger/Hollister giggles.  "Anyone want more punch?"

Upon arriving back at the cafeteria, Jack immediately goes to both Colby and Lydia's friends and tells them point blank: "Something freaky is going on, you should split, Lydia sent me."

He says something nearly identical to Colby, but is more to the point.

Thinking about their recent occurences, and listening to Roger on stage, he immediately starts to check for methods of mass-problems. Roger himself isn't capable of mass damage without a gun, but he has shown the capacity to build a bomb.

Check that first.

Second, there was that weird chemical thing with Colby. Maybe some sort of dispersal through the sprinkler system?

Even as he looks around, he wishes he could resolve this with a punch, but Roger is utterly impossible to solve that way.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 959):

No bombs you can tell, unless he planted them in areas of the Program complex you can't scan.  And if he did, the armor plating surrounding the complex should absorb anything short of a thermnuclear.

There's not a smell you can ID.  Darja is frowning.

The students are confused, of course.  Sarah is standing there trembling.

Roger/Hollister waves at her.  "C'mon up dearie!  Claim your prize!"

A girl near the front suddenly doubles over in pain.

"Oops!  Someone must have had something that doesn't agree with them!  Get her something to drink fellas!  Oh, sorry.  That's what got her in trouble in the first place.

"C'mon now Sarah."  Hollister/Roger is glaring at the girl in the spotlight.  "You can come up.  Or a lot of people can die.  Your call sweetie."

Jack can't really do anything, but he does send off a quick few texts:

First to Lydia: Lyds, did you drink anything at the dance?

Second to Darja, HT and the Program: Roger may have poisoned the drinks here. If he intends to “fix” it, he'd have had to stash the antidote somewhere nearby.

Even as he is saying this, he starts to scan the area for any sort of item that might fix a poison.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 961):

There are medical supplies in the nurse's office.  And you feel sure the Program has some.

But enough for a student body?

Also, without knowing what kind of poison, it would be difficult to know how to treat it.  The best option you can think of is to induce vomiting.

Hollister/Roger groans.  Sarah hasn't moved at all.  She's shaking and sweating.

"Hello?  This thing on?" Hollister/Roger taps the mic.  "Saaaaraah...get uuuuuuuup here."

The guys from the program have started to move.  The one Darja spoke to is helping the first girl who showed symptoms.  Others from the program are arriving.  You can hear their 'chatter'.

Alerted all area hospitals and emergency services

Omen is incommunicado.  Reaching out to back up healers...

Team is on the way back.  ETA is 39 minutes.

Let's get samples from the punch bowl. Priority 1 to running tox screens.  Get any student showing initial symptoms to sick bay.  Initiate UFO protocols

Hollister/Roger must notice their activity because she/he glowers.  Sighing, he/she raises their cell phone.  "Oh.  You people.  How do you deal with the flies that buzz around cow dung?  Well.  Fortunately, as in so much of life..."

He/she starts to flip through screens on their cell.

"There's an ap for that."

Lydia texts you back.  Had some punch.

Jack replies to Lydia: Have Aunt Marlene give you a purgative, if she doesn't have any, use your fingers and induce vomiting immediately. Empty your stomach as much as possible, just in case. I'm going to come get you in a few minutes, there might be poison that was in the punch.

Putting his phone back away, he continues to scan the area, looking for anything that might offset the poison in large amounts.

Focusing his vision on the girl who doubled over, and seeing as nobody has moved to get her to the exit, he goes over to start carting her toward an exit so that the program can take her to the medbay.

"Did she just call herself cow dung?" he asks out loud, loud enough to be heard.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 963):

The guy Darja spoke to is helping the first girl who doubled over.  Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Hollister/Roger looks up from fiddling with their phone.  "Oh my?  Is someone a heckler?"

They press something on their phone screen.

There's a large booming sound.  It's not from inside the school.  You can 'see' it's from outside.  The parking lot.  It looks like there were bombs, but they were outside.

The entries to the school from the road are now blocked. Either by smoking wreckage of cars or a large crater.

Everyone in the cafe is shouting and panicking.  They may not be able to 'see' like you can.  But they know something bad just happened.

They're starting to rush for the exits.

Roger/Hollister starts swiping along their phone screen again.  "See?  Like I said.  There's an app for everything. Now then...Let's get this party started."

Jack who'd checked the area wonders briefly how he'd missed the parking lot, but he moves past that and does a secondary check. Looking once again for anything out of place. Going as far as to check anything within visual distance for things like packages of antidotes or more explosives.

Having checked the parking lot, he will send an update with any further devices he spots in that area. Hopefully relieving some of the pressure on the agents who should be protecting the students.

Just in case, he sends a text to the Program: I took Lydia to my house when I realized Roger was up to something, she may have ingested something. Please send someone to pick her up.

Since you bring it up...

As you scan, you see the answer to at least one of your questions.

There are two men in a catering van.  The van wasn't there when you checked earlier.  You would have recalled that.  The back of the van is like something out of a Punisher comic book.  Rifles.  Assault weapons.  Grenades.

It seems Roger hired some help.  They must have set the bombs after the dance started.

The two guys are loading up a rather serious looking machine gun.  From the angle of the van's back doors, they'd have a clear shot at the most likely entrance people would exit.

Roger finishes scrolling.  "Sarah?  You gonna come up here?  Or does someone gotta die?"

Program people are trying to surround the stage.  But the bulk of them are starting to move students.  You can hear from the chatter that they are prioritizing evacuation but a small team is about to confront him.

Do not kill.  Repeat do not kill.  Subject will just jump bodies and we will lose him in the switch.  We need to keep him distracted while we evacuate

<i>We have two boggies out in the parking lot.  They've got firepower trained on the doorway

How the hell did they get past the security net?

We are ready to proceed

Alright.  On my mark.  3...2...

Roger/Hollister rolls his/her eyes as Sarah continues to stand there, shaking.  "Fine.  Let's go back to dancing then."

He/she taps something on their cell.

The fire alarms start to go off.

As if that was a cue, students start to freak out.  People are now rushing towards the exit.

Shit!  Contain!  Someone better have taken out the ones in the parking lot!

Darja glances at you.  She can hear the chatter too.  I'm gonna take the parking lot

Jack who has been continuing to try to find the antidotes, spots the men in the van and is about to respond to their presence when he hears the words from the Program. He looks toward Darja when she says she is going to take care of it and says, "White catering van, they're sighting in on fire exit," sotto voce in Estonian so that she can spot it immediately.

Even after he says that, he goes back to looking around. Scrubbing every inch meticulously.

It could all be a con.

The whole thing could just be to induce stomach cramps as a diversion. Then again, Roger isn't pulling punches with the bombs and mercs.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 967):

Darja nods and suddenly streaks out, weaving through the mob that's starting to form and heading for the exit.

The Program people are moving foward.  One of them has some kind of gun type device out.  He is heading around behind Roger/Hollister.  The others are coming in in front, probably to grab his/her attention.

If there is a stash of antidote, Roger isn't keeping it around.  Then again, would he really care if anyone got better?

You can hear the chatter.

What about those tox scans?

Almost done

Forward team.  Go in

We are.  Bill, you ready with the Psychodampner

Will this thing even work?

It's what we got until the big dogs show up.  Move in

Darja has come around to a side exit and is out of the building.  She takes to the air and whips around, coming up from the front of the van.

The mob has broken out into the hallway.  They are rushing for the exits.

The mercs in the van are popping open the backdoor.

The three front program guys move forward against the crowd.

Your cell vibrates.  Lydia texting.  Feeling ill.  Your aunt's taking me to hospital

Darja flies under the van.



The first of the mob have almost reached the fire exit door.  The lead guy is putting his hands on the push bar.

The mercs are taking off the safety.

Roger/Hollister looks up from the phone, noticing the three Program guys.  She/he grins.

The fourth one suddenly moves forward, the weird gun thingie raised.  Looks like he is going to jab it into the small of Hollister's back.

The van comes off the ground.

You come to a stop, Roger's/Hollister's cell phone in your hand.

The fire exit doors come open.  The mercs pull the trigger.

Darja gets it high enough off the ground that the shots go over the door. They rake the front of the school as she continues to lift up the van.

Roger looks at Hollister's hand and raises an eyebrow.  "The sure don't make 'em to last these days."

The mob are screaming.  They are pushing against each othe as the ones in front stop moving forward while the ones in back haven't gotten the memo yet.

Program people out in the lot move in to open the doors and get the mob cleared.

The three program guys lift up guns at Hollister/Roger.  But he/she doesn't pay them any mind.  Instead, she/he whips around to grab the forearm of the fourth man.

"Gotcha."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:39, Mon 04 Oct 2021.

Seeing the text from Lydia and a lack of antidotes, this business seems to be heading somewhere dark and Jack doesn't like that.

I'm doing my best to find out what is going on.

Jack is growing increasingly angry, but he's powerless against Roger's particular brand of tomfoolery. Especially with hostages on the line, but as he comes to the conclusion that there aren't any more bombs or antidotes he takes action:

With a flicker of motion, he disappears from his place in the crowd, taps the bottom of the phone to pop it out of Roger's hand—snatches it-- and then moves off, stage left.

Keeping awareness of things as best he can.

No more bombs being activated with the phone.

In reply to Jack Sharpe (msg # 969):

Thanks.  When in the sequence of events I outlined before does Jack take the phone?

Kind of important I know if the lights go off or not.  I trust you to be fair so just whenever you think Jack would have taken his action.

Thanks

Just after the text from Lydia.

The Programer Roger grabs shoves the device forward, making contact.  There's a sharp pop of static.  Hollister slumps downwards.

The other three jump up on the stage.

Did we get her?

Is it a her or a him?

Whichever.  Are they down?

Affirmative

What's the sitch in the parking lot?

Pupil 04 took care of the van.

A sigh

GS is gonna have my balls in a jar.  Okay.  Let's deal with the aftermath.  You four are on containment.  What about that tox screen?

Looks like an Ipecac derivative.  Not deadly.  Just meant to cause vomiting.

Lovely.  Let's assume we're gonna have people who will have worse possible reactions.  Let's get people into the nurse's office.

Seems like it's over.

Forgot to mention I updated my last thread to reflect the timing of the phone snatch.  Thanks
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:56, Tue 05 Oct 2021.