PPC Halloween Co-Write Intro: In The Dark
Nov. 1st, 2011 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astra_auroraAuthor's Note: The Protectors of the Plot Continuum were created by Jay and Acacia. Agents Fix, Ally, the Carver and Grace are mine, as is Gaius. Agent Briggs belongs to Antigone6804. Agent Xericka belongs to PoorCynic, Agent Supernumerary belongs to Neshomeh and Agent Ardo belongs to FlareShard. "In The Dark" was written, produced and performed by The Birthday Massacre.
Please note that every agent mentioned in this, besides Luxury, was mentioned without permission from their authors. If anyone objects to this, please tell me so I can edit it.
-----
Ally gulped and took a step back as the door swung inwards, revealing a tall, ominous figure with long, shining, sharp claws and a deadly glare.
How did I get into this? she thought, trying to figure out what to do next. This was just supposed to be a party…
The figure stepped forward, took a breath and began to speak…
Unknown Hours Earlier
“Ally?”
Ally continued to click through the sites, completely unaware of her partner’s calls.
“Ally!”
Ally remained blissfully ignorant until Grace pulled her headphones off.
“Hey!” Ally exclaimed, turning around.
“I was calling you!”
“You could have tapped me on the shoulder or something!”
“Oh, whatever.” Grace waved a hand negligently. “I’ve had an idea!”
“I’ll go ready the missile launchers and make sure the bunker’s unoccupied,” Ally replied.
Grace made a rude gesture at her. “Ha, ha. No, I’ve had a good idea. Let’s throw a Halloween party!”
This brilliant idea was met with an exclamation of ‘Hey, great idea!’ from Erik, an approving comment of ‘Yes, that might well be beneficial to us all’ from Gaius, and complete silence from Ally.
Grace gestured with her hands impatiently. “Well? What do you think?”
Ally finally spoke. “Grace, what the fuck is Halloween?”
The ensuing silence was punctuated by Erik slapping his palm against his forehead.
Grace explained what Halloween was in minutes, with Gaius and Erik contributing.
“So let me get this straight,” Ally concluded. “In World One, you have a holiday where children go to the houses of perfect strangers asking for sweets, people dress up in silly costumes and the whole idea was based off ancient myths about ghosts and monsters?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Grace replied.
Ally paused for a moment. Then she said, “That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”
“It makes sense where we come from,” Erik argued.
Grace coughed.
“OK, it makes sense in the alternate universes where we come from.”
“Yes, but you three all come from places where this shit is standard. Where I come from, we were lucky if we had clothes that weren’t threadbare and sweets that weren’t made of overripe fruit.”
Grace looked down, her shoulders slumped. “OK, then… sorry I wasted your time, I guess.”
Erik and Gaius glared.
Ally cursed. “That’s not what I meant! I just said the holiday sounded stupid, not that I didn’t want to help.” She paused. “You want everyone in HQ to dress up in costumes and go to other RC’s for sweets? I can see a few problems with that…”
“No, that wasn’t my idea,” Grace said, perking up. “I thought we could take over the Really Very Tiny Auditorium, invite whoever wants to come and set up some games- nothing too long, because who knows when anyone will get a mission…”
Ally nodded. “That could work, I guess. What have you got in mind?”
“I was thinking we could do bobbing for apples, ghost stories and jack-o-lantern carving,” Grace replied. “We could set up some streamers, get some snacks and get everyone to wear a costume.”
Ally shrugged. “OK, but where do we get the stuff?”
Grace grinned. “I’ve got a plan.”
The invitations went out that afternoon. The ransacking, trading, begging and bribing went on for days, until finally, on the afternoon of October 31st, Ally and Grace had dragged a number of overstuffed bags into the Really Very Tiny Auditorium and a lot of collapsed furniture.
It took several hours to set things up, but by the time they were done, the Really Very Tiny Auditorium had been transformed. Black and orange streamers hung everywhere. Lit jack-o-lanterns sat in each corner, and two by the door. The long tables held a variety of sweets including toffee apples and Generic Chocolate, another table held a selection of knives and a lot of pumpkins, and a large fish tank stood at one end of the room, full of water and ready to be used for bobbing for apples. A huge number of floor cushions had been stacked against the wall, ready for the ghost stories, as had several torches. Supplies for more games stood in another bag, awaiting use, and a dartboard had been placed on an unused patch of wall.
“Where’d you get the cushions?” Ally asked.
“Borrowed them off Agent Briggs,” Grace replied. “He was happy to let us use them.”
Ally nodded. “Do you think we’re ready?”
Grace nodded back. “I’ll just send out a reminder to everyone that the party’s starting. We should both get our costumes on.”
Several minutes later, both agents had changed and were leaning against a table, waiting for the guests to arrive.
“I don’t get your costume,” Ally admitted.
“Look, there’s nothing wrong with going as Captain Jack Sparrow!” Grace replied.
“Yes, but… why go as a guy?”
“Because he’s awesome. And as for you… you do realise that you’re supposed to just wear the costume, you’re not meant to take one look at it, say ‘God, this is stupid’ and remake it into something you think is appropriate?”
“The old one was ridiculous,” Ally sniffed. “She calls herself a Warrior Princess and dresses like a stripper.”
Ally was wearing tight, thick, form-fitting black leather pants and shirt. Ornamental buttons, buckles and designs in bronze had been attached, and she also had a couple of somewhat-authentic bracelets. While the costume did look like something that could plausibly have appeared on Xena: Warrior Princess, it looked like something that would have been worn by Xena’s old mentor, or possibly her overachieving rival. If she’d had either.
Well, the two-handed sword strapped across her back didn’t help.
“Ally, put the sword away,” Grace begged. “You don’t bring a sword to a Halloween party. Knives, maybe, but not swords!”
“It’s part of the costume!” Ally objected.
“If it were fake, sure, but it’s a real two-handed sword! Put it away!”
Ally sighed dramatically and put the sword away.
Grace, in contrast, was wearing a perfect Jack Sparrow costume, but it was rather offset by the fact that Jack Sparrow didn’t have strawberry-pink dreadlocks.
“Grace?”
“Yes?”
“Is anyone going to come to this party?”
“Of course,” Grace replied, surprised. “Why wouldn’t they?”
“Well, no offence, but all of this looks like it’s for kids. Besides, people have missions, and not everyone comes from World One or another place where they celebrate Halloween.”
“A lot of people like embracing childhood stuff,” Grace said. “Others just like fun parties. The people who get dragged in by their partners will probably just talk to other agents- there’s no law that says they have to participate. All we need to do is wait.”
They waited.
About ten minutes later, the lights went out and suddenly returned.
“What the hell?”
Both agents glanced around nervously. Ally reached for her sword.
The lights went out, and seconds later there was a loud thunk.
“What the fuck?”
The lights returned, revealing that the door now had five holes in it, arranged in a neat line.
Grace grabbed a knife.
Ally gulped and took a step back as the door swung inwards, revealing a tall, ominous figure with long, shining, sharp claws and a deadly glare.
How did I get into this? she thought, trying to figure out what to do next. This was just supposed to be a party…
The figure stepped forward, took a breath and began to speak…
And Ally recognised him.
“Fix, you stupid fucker! Don’t do that!”
Fix looked at the door and winced. “Sorry. I tried to knock and missed.”
“Why did you have your claws out in the first place?”
“We got jumped by that little harlot,” the Carver said dryly, strolling in behind him. She was dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange, while Fix appeared to be dressed as Aragorn. “I’m afraid I may have cast several spells at her in the process.”
“Wait, you mean Luxury? You didn’t kill her, did you?” Grace asked.
The Carver smiled wryly. “I missed.”
“Oh. That would be why the lights went out,” Ally realised.
The Carver nodded. “I may use uncanonical magic, but I can still make the lights go out.” She looked around. “I was expecting a party.”
“Well, the guests should be here any time from now,” Grace replied. “Sit down, get a drink, have some-”
The Carver caught sight of the knives and bolted towards the table. She grabbed the nearest knife, examined it for several seconds and cast it aside. She kept doing so to all the knives until she finally found one.
“Mine.”
Fix sighed. “Carver, this is a Halloween party, not a knife festival.”
“I don’t care. Mine.”
Fix shrugged. “OK, fine. Just try to be normal. It’s a party, for fuck’s sake.”
Everyone turned as a group of agents walked in, all in full costume.
“It sure is,” Grace said, sliding off the table and walking forward to greet them.
In minutes, the party was in full swing. More and more agents were arriving, and so far, Grace reflected happily, nothing had gone wrong excepting Ardo trying to bob for apples without hearing the full instructions first, but at least nobody had drowned- that, and her having to talk the Carver out of playing darts using knives instead of darts. And then there had been Luxury…
“Hi, Grace!”
“What the hell?”
Luxury had apparently misinterpreted the idea of a costume. She was dressed in the dominatrix outfit Angelina Jolie had worn in Mr and Mrs Smith, with less cloth involved. And she’d brought a whip.
“Well, you said wear a costume,” Lux chirped happily. “So I wore a costume! Do you like it?”
“Um…” Grace said.
“Looks great,” Ally said, rescuing her partner.
“Oh, thanks, Ally! You look really hot in that. If you want, we could go somewhere a bit more quiet and cool down.” Lux winked.
Ally grinned. “Thanks for the offer, but I have to help Grace with the party.”
“Well, if you get some free time,” Lux replied, “call me.” She sauntered off in the direction of the punch.
Grace raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Lux? Really?”
“What’s your point?”
“I thought you didn’t like blondes,” Grace replied.
Ally shrugged. “I never said I was into her.”
She had a point, Grace conceded.
As she’d predicted, most of the guests were playing games or eating, and the ones who weren’t inclined to play along, like Agents Xericka, Fix or Supernumerary, were socialising instead. Or trying to.
It was going extremely well, Grace thought, until the lights went out and stayed out.
Once the immediate reactions of screams, shouts, and various noises made by weapons being readied had died out a number of handheld torches and other light-making devices turned on. Grace called out, “OK, can we all please be calm? This was not scheduled, but I see no immediate reason to panic. If there were an emergency, someone would have sounded an alarm by now-”
“Besides,” someone added, “this is the PPC. With everything that goes on here, why should we be surprised that something like this has happened?”
That got a few nervous laughs.
“If anyone else has any kind of light, could they please use it?” Grace called.
Once the remaining light-creating devices had been activated, the auditorium seemed much less scary. The produced light was enough to illuminate the area, but not very brightly.
The loudspeaker crackled.
“Attention! This is the Sunflower Official. There is no danger or threat, we are simply dealing with a lack of power to the overhead lights, cause unknown. It is recommended to remain where you are until we can restore the lights. Over.”
“Well, there you are then,” Fix said.
“Mmm,” the Carver mused, “but now what? We can’t continue with the party in sub-level light, and unless someone has an idea…”
“Ooh! I’ve got one!”
Grace half expected to see a giant floating lightbulb appear. “Oh?”
“You were planning to do ghost stories, right?” the unseen agent said.
“Yeah, wh- oh! That’s a great idea!”
“Huh?” Ally asked.
“Well, we were going to do ghost stories anyway, so why not do them now? The atmosphere’s perfect!”
There was a general chorus of agreement.
“OK, then,” Grace said. “The cushions are over by the far wall. Anyone who wants to tell a story, come over near me so we can work out an order. Everyone else, get a cushion and put them in a circle so we can all hear. If you don’t want to listen…”
“I’ll go wait near the punch bowl,” the Carver said. “Anyone else who does not like ghost stories, come talk to me.”
Grace looked at her. “You sure?”
“I don’t like ghost stories. They bring back bad memories,” she replied, and went over to the punch.
Grace shrugged and went back to organising the order as the rest of the guests helped lay out the circle of cushions.
Finally, once everyone was ready, Grace sat down on her cushion, picked up a small hand-held torch, and got ready to tell her story.
Please note that every agent mentioned in this, besides Luxury, was mentioned without permission from their authors. If anyone objects to this, please tell me so I can edit it.
-----
Ally gulped and took a step back as the door swung inwards, revealing a tall, ominous figure with long, shining, sharp claws and a deadly glare.
How did I get into this? she thought, trying to figure out what to do next. This was just supposed to be a party…
The figure stepped forward, took a breath and began to speak…
Unknown Hours Earlier
“Ally?”
Ally continued to click through the sites, completely unaware of her partner’s calls.
“Ally!”
Ally remained blissfully ignorant until Grace pulled her headphones off.
“Hey!” Ally exclaimed, turning around.
“I was calling you!”
“You could have tapped me on the shoulder or something!”
“Oh, whatever.” Grace waved a hand negligently. “I’ve had an idea!”
“I’ll go ready the missile launchers and make sure the bunker’s unoccupied,” Ally replied.
Grace made a rude gesture at her. “Ha, ha. No, I’ve had a good idea. Let’s throw a Halloween party!”
This brilliant idea was met with an exclamation of ‘Hey, great idea!’ from Erik, an approving comment of ‘Yes, that might well be beneficial to us all’ from Gaius, and complete silence from Ally.
Grace gestured with her hands impatiently. “Well? What do you think?”
Ally finally spoke. “Grace, what the fuck is Halloween?”
The ensuing silence was punctuated by Erik slapping his palm against his forehead.
Grace explained what Halloween was in minutes, with Gaius and Erik contributing.
“So let me get this straight,” Ally concluded. “In World One, you have a holiday where children go to the houses of perfect strangers asking for sweets, people dress up in silly costumes and the whole idea was based off ancient myths about ghosts and monsters?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Grace replied.
Ally paused for a moment. Then she said, “That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”
“It makes sense where we come from,” Erik argued.
Grace coughed.
“OK, it makes sense in the alternate universes where we come from.”
“Yes, but you three all come from places where this shit is standard. Where I come from, we were lucky if we had clothes that weren’t threadbare and sweets that weren’t made of overripe fruit.”
Grace looked down, her shoulders slumped. “OK, then… sorry I wasted your time, I guess.”
Erik and Gaius glared.
Ally cursed. “That’s not what I meant! I just said the holiday sounded stupid, not that I didn’t want to help.” She paused. “You want everyone in HQ to dress up in costumes and go to other RC’s for sweets? I can see a few problems with that…”
“No, that wasn’t my idea,” Grace said, perking up. “I thought we could take over the Really Very Tiny Auditorium, invite whoever wants to come and set up some games- nothing too long, because who knows when anyone will get a mission…”
Ally nodded. “That could work, I guess. What have you got in mind?”
“I was thinking we could do bobbing for apples, ghost stories and jack-o-lantern carving,” Grace replied. “We could set up some streamers, get some snacks and get everyone to wear a costume.”
Ally shrugged. “OK, but where do we get the stuff?”
Grace grinned. “I’ve got a plan.”
The invitations went out that afternoon. The ransacking, trading, begging and bribing went on for days, until finally, on the afternoon of October 31st, Ally and Grace had dragged a number of overstuffed bags into the Really Very Tiny Auditorium and a lot of collapsed furniture.
It took several hours to set things up, but by the time they were done, the Really Very Tiny Auditorium had been transformed. Black and orange streamers hung everywhere. Lit jack-o-lanterns sat in each corner, and two by the door. The long tables held a variety of sweets including toffee apples and Generic Chocolate, another table held a selection of knives and a lot of pumpkins, and a large fish tank stood at one end of the room, full of water and ready to be used for bobbing for apples. A huge number of floor cushions had been stacked against the wall, ready for the ghost stories, as had several torches. Supplies for more games stood in another bag, awaiting use, and a dartboard had been placed on an unused patch of wall.
“Where’d you get the cushions?” Ally asked.
“Borrowed them off Agent Briggs,” Grace replied. “He was happy to let us use them.”
Ally nodded. “Do you think we’re ready?”
Grace nodded back. “I’ll just send out a reminder to everyone that the party’s starting. We should both get our costumes on.”
Several minutes later, both agents had changed and were leaning against a table, waiting for the guests to arrive.
“I don’t get your costume,” Ally admitted.
“Look, there’s nothing wrong with going as Captain Jack Sparrow!” Grace replied.
“Yes, but… why go as a guy?”
“Because he’s awesome. And as for you… you do realise that you’re supposed to just wear the costume, you’re not meant to take one look at it, say ‘God, this is stupid’ and remake it into something you think is appropriate?”
“The old one was ridiculous,” Ally sniffed. “She calls herself a Warrior Princess and dresses like a stripper.”
Ally was wearing tight, thick, form-fitting black leather pants and shirt. Ornamental buttons, buckles and designs in bronze had been attached, and she also had a couple of somewhat-authentic bracelets. While the costume did look like something that could plausibly have appeared on Xena: Warrior Princess, it looked like something that would have been worn by Xena’s old mentor, or possibly her overachieving rival. If she’d had either.
Well, the two-handed sword strapped across her back didn’t help.
“Ally, put the sword away,” Grace begged. “You don’t bring a sword to a Halloween party. Knives, maybe, but not swords!”
“It’s part of the costume!” Ally objected.
“If it were fake, sure, but it’s a real two-handed sword! Put it away!”
Ally sighed dramatically and put the sword away.
Grace, in contrast, was wearing a perfect Jack Sparrow costume, but it was rather offset by the fact that Jack Sparrow didn’t have strawberry-pink dreadlocks.
“Grace?”
“Yes?”
“Is anyone going to come to this party?”
“Of course,” Grace replied, surprised. “Why wouldn’t they?”
“Well, no offence, but all of this looks like it’s for kids. Besides, people have missions, and not everyone comes from World One or another place where they celebrate Halloween.”
“A lot of people like embracing childhood stuff,” Grace said. “Others just like fun parties. The people who get dragged in by their partners will probably just talk to other agents- there’s no law that says they have to participate. All we need to do is wait.”
They waited.
About ten minutes later, the lights went out and suddenly returned.
“What the hell?”
Both agents glanced around nervously. Ally reached for her sword.
The lights went out, and seconds later there was a loud thunk.
“What the fuck?”
The lights returned, revealing that the door now had five holes in it, arranged in a neat line.
Grace grabbed a knife.
Ally gulped and took a step back as the door swung inwards, revealing a tall, ominous figure with long, shining, sharp claws and a deadly glare.
How did I get into this? she thought, trying to figure out what to do next. This was just supposed to be a party…
The figure stepped forward, took a breath and began to speak…
And Ally recognised him.
“Fix, you stupid fucker! Don’t do that!”
Fix looked at the door and winced. “Sorry. I tried to knock and missed.”
“Why did you have your claws out in the first place?”
“We got jumped by that little harlot,” the Carver said dryly, strolling in behind him. She was dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange, while Fix appeared to be dressed as Aragorn. “I’m afraid I may have cast several spells at her in the process.”
“Wait, you mean Luxury? You didn’t kill her, did you?” Grace asked.
The Carver smiled wryly. “I missed.”
“Oh. That would be why the lights went out,” Ally realised.
The Carver nodded. “I may use uncanonical magic, but I can still make the lights go out.” She looked around. “I was expecting a party.”
“Well, the guests should be here any time from now,” Grace replied. “Sit down, get a drink, have some-”
The Carver caught sight of the knives and bolted towards the table. She grabbed the nearest knife, examined it for several seconds and cast it aside. She kept doing so to all the knives until she finally found one.
“Mine.”
Fix sighed. “Carver, this is a Halloween party, not a knife festival.”
“I don’t care. Mine.”
Fix shrugged. “OK, fine. Just try to be normal. It’s a party, for fuck’s sake.”
Everyone turned as a group of agents walked in, all in full costume.
“It sure is,” Grace said, sliding off the table and walking forward to greet them.
In minutes, the party was in full swing. More and more agents were arriving, and so far, Grace reflected happily, nothing had gone wrong excepting Ardo trying to bob for apples without hearing the full instructions first, but at least nobody had drowned- that, and her having to talk the Carver out of playing darts using knives instead of darts. And then there had been Luxury…
“Hi, Grace!”
“What the hell?”
Luxury had apparently misinterpreted the idea of a costume. She was dressed in the dominatrix outfit Angelina Jolie had worn in Mr and Mrs Smith, with less cloth involved. And she’d brought a whip.
“Well, you said wear a costume,” Lux chirped happily. “So I wore a costume! Do you like it?”
“Um…” Grace said.
“Looks great,” Ally said, rescuing her partner.
“Oh, thanks, Ally! You look really hot in that. If you want, we could go somewhere a bit more quiet and cool down.” Lux winked.
Ally grinned. “Thanks for the offer, but I have to help Grace with the party.”
“Well, if you get some free time,” Lux replied, “call me.” She sauntered off in the direction of the punch.
Grace raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Lux? Really?”
“What’s your point?”
“I thought you didn’t like blondes,” Grace replied.
Ally shrugged. “I never said I was into her.”
She had a point, Grace conceded.
As she’d predicted, most of the guests were playing games or eating, and the ones who weren’t inclined to play along, like Agents Xericka, Fix or Supernumerary, were socialising instead. Or trying to.
It was going extremely well, Grace thought, until the lights went out and stayed out.
Once the immediate reactions of screams, shouts, and various noises made by weapons being readied had died out a number of handheld torches and other light-making devices turned on. Grace called out, “OK, can we all please be calm? This was not scheduled, but I see no immediate reason to panic. If there were an emergency, someone would have sounded an alarm by now-”
“Besides,” someone added, “this is the PPC. With everything that goes on here, why should we be surprised that something like this has happened?”
That got a few nervous laughs.
“If anyone else has any kind of light, could they please use it?” Grace called.
Once the remaining light-creating devices had been activated, the auditorium seemed much less scary. The produced light was enough to illuminate the area, but not very brightly.
The loudspeaker crackled.
“Attention! This is the Sunflower Official. There is no danger or threat, we are simply dealing with a lack of power to the overhead lights, cause unknown. It is recommended to remain where you are until we can restore the lights. Over.”
“Well, there you are then,” Fix said.
“Mmm,” the Carver mused, “but now what? We can’t continue with the party in sub-level light, and unless someone has an idea…”
“Ooh! I’ve got one!”
Grace half expected to see a giant floating lightbulb appear. “Oh?”
“You were planning to do ghost stories, right?” the unseen agent said.
“Yeah, wh- oh! That’s a great idea!”
“Huh?” Ally asked.
“Well, we were going to do ghost stories anyway, so why not do them now? The atmosphere’s perfect!”
There was a general chorus of agreement.
“OK, then,” Grace said. “The cushions are over by the far wall. Anyone who wants to tell a story, come over near me so we can work out an order. Everyone else, get a cushion and put them in a circle so we can all hear. If you don’t want to listen…”
“I’ll go wait near the punch bowl,” the Carver said. “Anyone else who does not like ghost stories, come talk to me.”
Grace looked at her. “You sure?”
“I don’t like ghost stories. They bring back bad memories,” she replied, and went over to the punch.
Grace shrugged and went back to organising the order as the rest of the guests helped lay out the circle of cushions.
Finally, once everyone was ready, Grace sat down on her cushion, picked up a small hand-held torch, and got ready to tell her story.
