Enchantment Under the Sea

[applesaucemod]

Tonight, the dreamers of Manhattan will find themselves transported to what is unmistakably a high school gymnasium. Granted, it's lavishly decorated in blues, greens, and violets. There are jellyfish made of tissue paper and streamers, painted cardboard fish are dangling from ceiling, and an abundance of transparent balloons serve as substitute bubbles. Tables and chairs are clustered around the periphery for those who'd like to sit, but the majority of the floor is open for dancing. Along one wall, folding tables hold snacks and bowls of punch. There's no DJ to be seen, but a sound system is playing a steady stream of classic dance songs.

It's impressive work for a nonexistent prom committee, all things considered.

But the setting is not the only thing that hearkens back to one's teenage years. The dreamers will find, regardless of age or species, that they're now saddled with the hormones of an average sixteen-year-old human being… and with the delightful mood fluctuations and bouts of irrationality that come with the package. (Dreamers who are already teenagers might be said to be getting a reprieve… but dealing with adults in such a state will be trying enough on its own. Someone has to chaperone, right?)

The good news for dreamers who aren't into dances is that there's an entire high school to explore, though the hallways will only be half-lit and many of the classrooms will be locked up. Even the parking lot and athletic fields are accessible, but dreamers may find themselves getting mysteriously turned around if they try to actually leave school property.


[ooc: you all know the drill. Any and all characters are welcome, regardless of whether or not they're in the game. Dreamers may remember or forget the events of the party at the player's discretion.]

Comments

[johnny_truant]

"Woo," says Johnny by way of agreement, and leads her from the gymnasium out to a dimly lit corridor.

"Spooky," he comments, and rolls his eyes up to look at Aiden. "Keep an eye out for zombies, buddy."

He starts scoping out each room they pass, peering through the little windows on the doors. Lots of pretty standard classrooms, a few science labs, which are tempting, but some natural instinct keeps him moving.

"I dunno about you, but I really did not need to revisit my adolescence," he says. "My life is complicated enough without..." He waves a hand without finishing the sentence. Getting a hard-on over everyone in the world doesn't seem like the kind of thing to say to a friend who's just agreed to come somewhere private with you.

"At least I'm 100% human this time," he mutters, alighting upon a room that's more expansive than the others. Too dark to see into it. He pushes on the door, but it's locked. He represses a sigh and unlocks it with his stupid power. Not gonna think about it.

He pushes the doors open and flicks on a light. Sickly flourescents sputter into existence. Band class. Band class.

He grins and turns, gesturing to welcome them both in. "Fuck yeah."

[heysoulsister]

The shift away from the noise and bustle of the gym is a marked improvement, and Jodie would probably relax if Johnny didn't have to go and bring up zombies. She's a little tempted to tell him not to joke about that shit, but she resists. Aiden, on the other hand, seems to be taking the suggestion far more seriously than it was meant, and he roves the hallway and the rooms on either side as they progress down the hall.

"Yeah, mine wasn't exactly a great time, either," Jodie mutters. A bit more forthcoming than she normally would be, but she's been away from her universe long enough that she's starting to get over that instinctive impulse to check herself lest she reveal anything too telling. Especially with Johnny. Waving a hand at their surroundings, she adds, "I didn't even go to a school like this."

She winces sympathetically at the 'human' remark - he must have been in that clusterfuck of a dream, too - then raises her eyebrows as he leads them into a room full of musical instruments. A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth as she looks around, and there are a few faint, echoey thuds as Aiden scopes out the percussion section. "Nice," she agrees, grinning outright as her gaze lands on an electric guitar. It's propped next to an amp and everything, and she makes a beeline for it.

"I used to play guitar all the time when I was a teenager," she explains as she picks up the instrument and starts to check the tuning. "The lab wasn't exactly bursting with other forms of entertainment."

[johnny_truant]

"You didn't miss out on much," says Johnny, though he's sure that's not much comfort. He mentally kicks himself for being such a goddamn tool.

When she mentions the guitar - she'd mentioned that before once, he thinks - he lights up. "Oh shit yeah. Bring it over here." He climbs up onto the lip of a curtained stage - this seems to be a combination theater space and practice space, though a shitty one at that, no acoustics in here - and waves Jodie over. Just as with the flask, he happens fortuitously on a little bag of weed and an elegant, ceramic pipe to smoke from. Nice.

He digs his lighter (he always has a lighter) out of his other pocket, tucks some of the grass into the bowl and lights up. It's been ages since he did this, but it's like riding a bike.

He takes a nice, lazy toke, swirls it around for a minute like a goddamn wine connoisseur, and releases a puff of smoke with a good, raspy cough.

"Oh, shit," he says, his voice thick and strained, his eyes watering. "Oh fuck, that's good. Here, you gotta try this."

[heysoulsister]

She's never actually smoked weed before, but she watches Johnny and decides it doesn't look too complicated. The amp is a bit too heavy to lug to the stage, but there's a smaller one next to it - a tiny portable one you could clip onto your belt if you just want noise and comparatively shitty sound quality doesn't put you off. Jodie grabs it along with the guitar and heads up to the pseudo stage thing Johnny's parked himself on.

Aiden might disapprove, but he's still tinkering around in the percussion section. There are experimental chiming noises coming from the xylophone. Jodie sets down the guitar, then gingerly takes the bowl and mimics what Johnny had done a moment ago.

Holy shit. The smoke scalds the back of her throat, and she coughs immediately. The high hits a second later, and she passes the bowl back before she can drop it. "Fuck," she gasps, wiping her eyes.

[johnny_truant]

"Yeah," Johnny rasps back, grinning. "Oooh shit. Yeah." He takes the pipe and takes another drag. That's good. He's already feeling kind of lightheaded, but also filled with that energy, creative sort of energy, like the world is just at his fingertips. Yeah. This is good shit.

"I used to play, a little," he comments, eyeing the guitar. "I bet I could do a bass riff. Something cheap and basic. Let's hear you play. I'm ready."

[heysoulsister]

"It's been a while," Jodie warns, lest he think she's going to just start shredding immediately. But she does start to noodle a bit, familiarizing herself with the instrument. Muscle memory kicks in - she's a little surprised by how easily it is to get back into it. And by now nice it is; shit, she's missed this.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny practically beams as she tinkers with the guitar, and after another toke he sets the pipe gingerly down and slides back off the stage, feeling a little unsteady but no worse for wear. He gropes around through the somewhat eerily abandoned instruments until he finds what he's looking for, a pretty quality bass. He hefts it up and swings the strap over his shoulder. "Aw yeah," he declares. "Let's do this." He spends some time tuning it, then starts picking away at the strings, his fingers shifting clumsily over the frets. He's not as good as Jodie, obviously, but he might be able to keep up.

[heysoulsister]

Jamming with other people isn't something she's had the opportunity to do very often (she was largely self-taught for obvious reasons), but she can adapt. She shifts to a more straightforward chord progression and makes sure Johnny has it before she starts making increasingly complex forays along the neck.

Aiden observes the jam session for a few minutes, then drifts over to a trap set with a bit more purpose than before. It doesn't take long for him to work out the bass kick, and then he tries giving one of the cymbals a light ping. Jodie glances at the drums with a widening grin. She can feel Aiden's interest, and it's kind of nice to see him (or, well, hear him) working on something complex, but also delicate - for him, anyway.

[johnny_truant]

Aw yeah. Johnny grins and works on keeping up with her. He's not too concerned - he's most curious to hear what she can do, and he strums the basic chords along with her, nodding his head eagerly in time with the beat. Aiden's contributions are even better, and Johnny starts laughing with delight. This is great.

"You're pretty cool," he declares, dragging the bass back over toward the stage so he can get at the weed as well.

[heysoulsister]

Jodie does a bit of a double-take at that. 'Pretty cool' are not words people just toss out when describing her. Maybe they'll apply it to what she can do - or what she and Aiden can accomplish collectively - or maybe Cole had said something to that effect in an effort to cheer her up when she was younger and freaked out about… well, everything.

But she has never been 'cool.'

"Um." She grins and shakes her head a little, her riff petering down into something automatic, less complex. "I don't know about that," she stammers.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny glances up at her, still picking out a rhythm line. "Well I am obviously an authority," he says, just managing to keep up a serious face until the last minute, when he devolves back into laughter. "Anyone don't let me throw you off. Come on. Shred that fucker."

He gropes for the pipe and takes another long inhalation before playing manically up and down the neck of the bass.