Haunted House College AU

[worthallthis]

While the army is covering tuition, it doesn't cover living expenses, and temporary work on-campus is better than temporary work off-campus. So when the drama department managed to raise funds for a haunted house in one of the frat houses, James put on his best "I can kill you with my pinky" look, a shabby suit (shabby is really all he has, so, lucky), and his growing out hair loose around his face and "interviewed" for a spot as in-character for a creepy fucky as possible.

He had to refuse the first offer to be one of the ghosts inside. Dropping the character and donning a slightly sheepish smile, "Really not that keen on jumping out an' scaring people. Especially the ones that get punchy when they're scared." When the interviewer looked at his resume, saw his army tour (the whole "captured and tortured" thing isn't on there, but it doesn't have to be), she just nodded and stuck him at introductions and taking tickets. The pay isn't great, but it'll cover meals for a while.

So he shows up for opening night, gets his face done all pale with stage-make up and his suit a little spruced up with a very fancy shirt underneath from the costume department, and takes in the faces of the other people who'd been brought on.

Comments

[worthallthis]

"I am here," James says with a lazy grin, not quite as casual and easy as it used to be but still pretty good, "for three nights of looking scary for money. I'm great at looking scary, so I figured it'd be easy. Didn't plan for the make-up gig, though. You a drama folk I'm supposed to get in with?"

Seems cheerful, anyway, and obviously familiar with these kinds of events. Probably one of the drama folks, then, at a guess. They seem like decent people, if sometimes a little loud.

With fancy white gloves (hiding the fake hand) to go with his fancy-but-shabby suit, and his hair all loose and weighted down with mousse to keep the frizz in check, the make-up does go a pretty good job of enhancing the "I-will-kill-you-with-my-pinky" smile, though, he's gotta give them that.

[shadowsran]

"Undecided," she admits with a shrug, "But I hover around the events often enough I might as well be an honorary hanger-on. I'm easy to impress, so if it helps to think I am, please do."

If she's looking a little too intensely or a little too long, it really is just assessing his appearance from an event standpoint.

"I like the suit! You look like a natural. It might turn out to be fun y'know. I keep forgetting there's even money involved, I'm so excited about the setting."

[worthallthis]

Honestly, a lot of the drama people are doing that. It's a little weird, but nothing he can't handle. Makes him think she's probably more decided than she thinks she is, though. "Oh, I'm sure it'll be fun. Why do you think I'm doing this and not bagging at a grocery store or somethin'?" Bagging pays better, and he does in fact have some part-time hours doing that, but this is definitely going to be more fun.

He could use a little fun in his life. He's fuckin' earned it.

[shadowsran]

"I think ticket booth is the one place I'd get bored," she admits, laughing and having to consciously stop herself from rubbing her neck - compromises the makeup. "Jenny's stuck as a decapitated head, just sitting under a table all night, but she'll at least get some lines in."

Exactly two seconds pass before she realizes she might be offensive, and corrects, "Not that it's not important! Just - I don't know, I like having a whole character."

This is punctuated with a little wave of her veil.

"If this is your first you'll definitely like it."

[worthallthis]

"You think just because I'm out here I don't have a character? Come on, I'm not totally boring, I promise," he chuckles at her. "Besides, I like people. It'll be nice hanging around a bunch of 'em having fun."

It's not like he can handle the clubs and party scene much anymore. This is a nice kind of in-between that won't freak him out with weird, loud noises and grabby hands.

[shadowsran]

"What's your character?" Comes the less than shocking follow-up question, along with a laugh of her own. "A butler type? Punny name I don't know about?"

It's a sweet answer, and to what extent she can with any relative stranger she takes a liking.

"I don't think I've seen you around campus? Misty, good to meet you." Out goes the hand to shake. "Ophelia, far as all this is concerned."

[worthallthis]

"I am--" And then he drops his voice into the rough, low way he'd spoken for weeks after returning to Stateside, before he'd pushed himself to sound normal again, adding just a hint of spooky threatening. "--the Undertaker. I will guide these lost souls to the next life. Show me your ticket to the afterworld, little soul. Only four souls at once. We would not wish to overburden Charon's ferry. Do not lag behind, or the haunts may decide you are one of their own."

Then he grins, coughs once, and says, more normally, "James. Second semester, engineering."

[shadowsran]

Oh! Oooh!

She honest to god claps a little, tucking her bouquet into one elbow to manage it.

"Take back all doubt, that's good. Don't force it all night if it messes with your throat, though - I'd hate for it to get sore enough you need to miss a night. You're talented! Engineering come as easy?"

[worthallthis]

James mocks up a little bow, grinning. "We'll see how long it lasts. I can have water bottles up there and shit, so I'll keep on top of it. Engineering is more straight-forward, I guess, but I don't know about easy. By the time I hit my last year, I'm gonna be doing some pretty hefty projects." And he's never actually had that kind of determination, to stick with something long enough when it gets hard.

Then again, he's also never been a POW before. He's hoping he learned some shit from all that.

[shadowsran]

"Consider me plenty awed by both, then. Fingers crossed you get through them with flying colors, and I bother to pick a major by then. And you stick around for a few of these, they really get their hooks in you. Anybody who can hold a voice like that'll be in demand."

A companionable little nudge at his elbow, to accompany the previous grin.

"From around here?"

[worthallthis]

Well, if they keep paying him, of course he'll stick around. Non-paying extra-curriculars will take a little more effort, though. "New York." And this is not a New York college. He is not from around here. His accent isn't particularly strong-- he can put it back on if he wants to, but exposure to so many other accents in the army, and here on campus, has dulled it some-- but maybe noticeable when she knows what to look for. "And you're clearly from down south, yeah?"

[shadowsran]

"Louisiana, way bottom," she answers, with a pleased little bow of her head. "Always pleased to be rubbing elbows with city folk. Liking it up here better, so far - I miss the weather sometimes, but getting real snow and having more than two stores in walking distance feels like a worthwhile trade." There's no over-protectiveness of home to be found, here. She laughs. "Miss it much?"

[worthallthis]

"Sometimes. There's enough skyscrapers and shitty apartments within driving distance, though, if I get too homesick." There's nothing to really go back to, anyway, so it's being homesick for a place and people that aren't the same anymore.

So here he is, far from home. Making new friends, apparently. He'll take that. "How long have you been here? And you're still undecided?"

[shadowsran]

"Mm, the sentimental types," she murmurs with a laugh. Could easily be a matter of humility, but it doesn't sound too high an opinion anyway. Not like she couldn't claim similar feelings herself - though thankfully, little around reminds her of her hometown proper.

"Town or school are the same thing - two years. It's hard to pick! There's so much, you know? And it's your whole life, that's something I don't want to mess up. Rush it and I know I'll regret it later."

[worthallthis]

"Gotta pick something eventually or you'll never graduate," James says with a grin.

There's a buzz of activity coming from the front, and people coming through to put props in the right places. "Looks like it's almost show time. You ready, Ophelia? Got your rosemary and fennel?" Look, he's read Shakespeare. And he remembers it really well.

[shadowsran]

Maybe she'll stay forever, punk.

No time to say as much, of course. The not-stage, it beckons. Grinning right back, she rests her chin atop her prop flowers.

"Born ready. Primed for three hours straight of skulking and lunging. I'll see you around break, probably?"

Regardless of answer, it's followed by an exaggerated bow and a carefully rehearsed twirl before she starts inside.

"Good luck!"

[worthallthis]

James gives her a playful little salute, then saunters off to the front of the frat house all decked out for the hauntings. There are already a few people waiting out there, so he gets right in character.

Well, mostly. A few pretty ones get a slightly flirty Undertaker, but that's mostly just to keep his hand in. He hadn't tried much before running into Misty and sliding almost right into it, not since coming back to the country, and he'd kind of thought he'd just lost his desire to be charming. Apparently there's still a little bit, there, at least.

There is a break halfway through for the actors to get snacks, and James loiters just inside, watching everyone converge on the kitchen, enjoying not having to talk for a few minutes.

[shadowsran]

One performer is conspicuously absent. Easily noticed given the moderate number of people in costume to begin with, and especially considering the size and coloration of the missing costume in question.

A creak in the wing adjacent, undecorated and blocked off to visitors.

A thud, too solid to be any prerecorded effect.

[worthallthis]

Either someone is considering a joke, or someone is potentially in trouble, stuck on a prop or something. Or possibly found somebody to make out with and is hiding away to have a little fun. James considers a long moment whether to investigate, but the possibility of someone being in trouble (that cute Misty gal, seeing as she's missing and all) makes up his mind. Sigh.

If he walks in on somebody getting a blow-job, he's going to be very disappointed.

He heads down the hall, making sure to make plenty of noise with each step so he doesn't startle anyone.

[shadowsran]

Thankfully, despite any drama major/club stereotypes, he's spared that.

Unfortunately, what waits three doors down the untouched hallway of thud-origin isn't a great deal better. Doubly sad, given the careful setup. Lights had been dimmed. Masterfully repurposed prop wall hangings have been bound together to form a rope long enough to tie around a person twice. Once at the waist, another at the neck, and with the former under a costume it's a surprisingly fair facsimile. Comically pale, dramatic makeup had been crudely rubbed askew. Eyeliner made to run, bluer around the lips. As one does.

She isn't much of an actress, but skittering around in the woods long enough gives one a fairly good impression of truly dead eyes. And she waits, cold and still as clay, suspended with enough space between her and the floor for this to truly be a feasible hanging.

The werewolf was the intended target, or, best case scenario, Bucky and the werewolf. Steps are identifiable as a lone non-rescuer too late to do much of anything. It's less fun with just the one person, she realizes, dimly, once the door opens.

...Oops.

[worthallthis]

Oh Jesus. That is the last thing he expected. "Fuck!" he exclaims, and rushes in to grab her legs and left, taking pressure off her neck. For reference, if she's paying attention, he's clearly very strong, and one arm feels... weird and hard, under his suit jacket and glove.

But he's also yelling, "Hey! Hey somebody call 911!"

He can tell her heart's beating, so she can't be dead yet, which means ambulance and maybe CPR if she's not breathing.

[shadowsran]

There's nothing much else to pay attention to, really. The language is noted, and it would have been amusing were it not so -

That the first action, even in this seeming panic, was to move forward and assist rather than freeze. Which is for the best, because for one long moment that's precisely what she does. Really isn't breathing. Not so much as a twitch or shift at the moving, at his arm, but the command is thankfully a jolt.

Because pretending to have been murdered next to peers is one thing, but wasting real emergency resources is, evidently, where she draws the line. Frenzied blinking will be the first sign all may be well, but not by much. Both hands go to his shoulders, firm as if to exacerbate her liveliness.

"NonononoI'malrightI'msorry--"

[worthallthis]

Ironically, murder isn't even what he'd thought. He'd immediately thought suicide. Interesting how differently their minds must work.

He continues to hold her legs, staring up at her at the words and touch. A few other actors are pounding down the hall towards them, now, skidding into sight through the door just as he says, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

So his first guess, that someone was playing a prank, was right. A really, really nasty prank. He hadn't expected that of Misty, who'd seemed amiable and reasonable. Scowling, he reaches up with the gloved metal hand and rips the makeshift rope from the rafter, freeing her, and sets her down.

[shadowsran]

"I didn't think you'd show up! Or at least not just you--" Sidling out of the outermost layer, the second knot at the waist is immediately familiar to any horror production veterans. Which may well have been why that was the target audience; familiar enough with dumb stage tricks that they might have gone in with more scrutiny.

Not that she feels anything short of miserable about it now, given the expression on offer. Untying the remainder is taken up with zeal if only for being anything else to focus on.

"I am so, so sorry-"

[worthallthis]

"No emergency here, sorry guys," James tells the watching actors sourly, one of whom is starting to snicker-- the afore-mentioned werewolf-- and the other-- one of the zombies-- still looking a little panicked. "Just a bad joke."

He tosses the mangled wall-hanging aside, giving the metal hand's fingers a flex to make sure the glove didn't tear, too. Seems intact.

And he doesn't say a thing to Misty, not yet anyway.