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

[shadowsran]

The haunted house is a damn fine chance for Misty to continue the standing academic tradition of just being psyched to be there. It's an exhausting balancing act of throwing enough into classwork to keep her scholarship and enough into work she can hope to graduate with only minimal debt, but then, bodies in motion.

And this, she thinks, is incredibly fun. She has little else by way of Halloween plans and plenty of enthusiasm-- it ought to be put to use. Hardly even counts it as work, all considered; it won't feel like work. This opinion has strengthened absolutely every minute she's been on the grounds. The costuming is suitably over the top to ensure even the densest can't question the theme, and that it will do so in abysmal (or garish) lighting. Stark white dress, scant red accents, tattered and graying at the hem, with tastefully placed rips and a black veil that reaches her waist. Makeup is a process, but she comes out of it as chipper as she went in.

There's a final lighting and sound check before actors take their places, and she tosses a comically fake bouquet from one hand to the other as she decides she might as well strike up conversation for the wait.

"Hi," she starts, as one does, "I don't think I've seen you around any of these before - transferring to some new course and trying to get in with the drama folks, or just bored?"