gooseberryhigh | AFTERMATH & DEPARTURE

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AFTERMATH & DEPARTURE

AFTERMATH & DEPARTURE

Mr. Merrill, still half-asleep, hikes up the hill to Azurcrest to run the last middle-of-the-night headcount. Inconvenience turns to fear as he discovers that half of his students are missing, and the other are in a sleep so deep he can't rouse them.

The unresponsive students are taken to the atrium for Healer Mufferaw to tend to, and Agent Larke is already contacting the MACUSA. The government descends on the school, with Aurors and Hitwizards to lead search parties. They head out immediately to scour the woods for the missing students. Heads of House confer with one another and the agents about the emergency, and decide parents need to be informed about the situation immediately.

There's no sign of any missing students for hours. Furthermore, there's no response from the apparently comatose children in the lodge. Not until 7:14 AM, anyway. The students that weren't taken begin to stir, and within minutes Agent Larke bursts in, clearly having ran all the way there. She announces that the missing students have been found, and are being escorted to the lodge.

Agent Larke had been organizing a new search party when Ivy Templeton stumbled out of their cabin, still half-asleep. It was discovered that inside the cabins, all the missing students had mysteriously reappeared in their beds.

All of the missing students are taken to the lodge by Aurors and Hitwizards, and a thorough headcount is done. Meanwhile, emergency Healers and Healer Mufferaw do thorough checks. The MACUSA representatives interview all the students individually. Students are only in the lodge for about an hour and a half before the order comes down: evacuate students and staff. Students are to be released to their families immediately. Personal belongings will be delivered to their homes at a later date.

The school buses are familiar, but the mood of the bus ride home after summer break isn't quite the same. They don't deliver students to their doorsteps or international stops, but to a staging area in Logan, hidden from Muggle eyes, where countless fearful relatives wait to take their children home.

HOW THIS WORKS:

All dreamers have been rescued. All rescuers have reunited with their friends.

The seven students who took part in the Finding the Heart adventure also wake up at the same time. To their friends, it will seem like they disappeared for 15 minutes max before everyone wakes up. To the seven students, it will seem like they were gone for hours.

Everyone will wake up after 7:14 AM. Ideally, they all wake up at the same time, but if you'd like to put it a bit later for dramatic purposes, you may.

Your character will be picked up at a staging area in Logan by a legal guardian, or escorted by a MACUSA agent to pre-arranged international transportation. If your character has only Muggle relatives, MACUSA will transport them to and from home.

If you are a rescuer or dreamer:
- You will wake up in your own bed, unless for some reason you want your character to wake up in someone else's bed. e.g. Gabi can wake up in the Ribbonfin soph girls' cabin, or she can wake up in the Ebonhide soph boys' cabin with Bash and Wyatt, since she was with them.
- You will keep all injuries you incurred during the event. However, you will not have any traces of ghost blood on you! Or ghost viscera of any kind.
- You will be wearing what you had on when the event ended, i.e. your pajamas and the clothing given to you by Brother. If you gave something away to another student during the event, e.g. a jacket, that other character will be wearing it instead.
- You will have all objects you started the event with, i.e. things in your pockets, unless you dropped them or gave away those items to an NPC. Then they're gone forever, sorry!
- You will not have any objects you picked up during the course of the event. This includes rocks, twigs, and personal items like Diego's crucifix, Sy's captain's badge, etc. All that stuff was imaginary! Those objects still exist in the real world.

If you are a non-participant:
- You will wake up on a cot in the Atrium. Please assume you are decently dressed. You will see Healers checking on other students, and government Aurors guarding the room. Your Head of House will tell you that you were moved here for observation because you were discovered in a state of deep sleep and no one could wake you. If you ask about your other friends, your teacher will admit that they've gone missing and the MACUSA is here to find them.
- Mere minutes after you've woken up, you will all hear from the Aurors that the other students have been found in their cabins.
- You have no memory of your roommates leaving the cabin, or being moved to the Atrium. You slept straight through the night. You did not have any dreams.

» MORNING: You wake up. You're in, well, a bed. It may or may not be your own, and the people you were with when you were in the other world may be with you.

» AFTERMATH: As soon as the staff realize that all the missing students have been found, everyone is promptly escorted to the lodge. Campus is crawling with MACUSA presence, and hitwizards and Aurors alike lead the students to the lodge. Everyone is looked over by emergency healers, and give quick statements to the authorities.

» BUSES: Understandably, everyone's families are impatient to get their children back. Students are hurried onto buses to be taken to a relay point outside of the anti-apparition zone, where their families will be to take them home.

» OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS & CONCERNS

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Sneaking up on Hazel seems like a bad idea, even though that's exactly what Micah would do under normal circumstances. Just make his way behind her and steal a kiss on her cheek before starting in with the usual hey's and how are you's, or maybe quietly move to the side so he can snap a picture and catch her attention with the flash.

Some part of him still wants to. If Hazel has enough energy to scowl, then she has enough energy to be Hazel, and that's reassuring. He wouldn't mind a photo of it. But Micah makes sure she sees him before he takes a seat on the floor in front of her, and rests his head on her knees.

And oh. There's rat in her hoodie. "Hey, Joe."

Ivy also waves at Leo as he sits down. Hi, Leo. Good to see you not dead, still, somehow.

"Just another day at the office for them, I guess," Ivy says, leaning her head back against the wall. They're supposed to be going home today, and she's grateful for that. But it feels weird at the same time, that everything is still on-schedule here in the real world. She would've been less surprised to wake up in 2024 than she was to have woken up at seven in the morning.

"I wonder what's going to happen," she says, meaning with the school and the large governmental response but sounding absent-minded. Even though she's graduated and it wouldn't be unwarranted, she's not sure she wants to see the school shut down.

"Sorry," he says, mentally wincing at her tense response to being grabbed. Even though he had no way of knowing better, he probably still should have. But her hand's on his before he can pull it back, so he leaves it there, squeezing her shoulder in what he hopes is a reassuring way.

"I'm thinking no," he says, having come to this conclusion fairly quickly. "What happened?"

She's slower to respond to noises and movement when earlier she was on high alert, letting her wand be her warning to not get close, but now she tilts her head up and watches as Dimi sits beside her. She even finds herself slumping a bit towards him, a silent sort of nuzzle of her own shoulder against his, which is strange and new to her, but brings her comfort all the same.

"My small consolation for the pain, I suppose," she smiles softly, blinking softly. Even her lashes closing around her eye send a twinge. "I would have liked more armor and a sword but perhaps next time." Looking up at him, she sighs contented, perhaps the first time since waking up that she has done so. "You appear to be in one piece as well, fortunately."

Watching as Chris's foot touches hers, Hazel reciprocates the gesture after some consideration. She is fine. She keeps telling herself she is fine, so she must be. Checking for her wand that she already knows his nestled in with Joe Montana, she gives the boy a lopsided shrug.

"I know you're like... trying. But there was nothing fake about that shit." Looking down for a moment, Hazel finds herself frustrated at how delicate she's feeling at the moment. Like she's always a few words away from crying. Some of it is people leaving, and some of it is being tired, but... it's hard to discount what happened. And that's annoying.

"We did good though, yeah. Everyone is safe. I mean, to get there I, we, did a bunch of stupid things. They turned out ok, but they were... scary." She tries to smile at Chris. "You probably did the dumbest shit though, huh?" For an instant she almost looks like she's going to say something else, but she just shoves a hand inside her pocket to pet Joe Montana.

Hazel's expression softens a minuscule amount at the sight of Micah, because he's a reminder that they'd done it and that everything had been worth it. Ultimately nothing bad had happened anyways, right? It was just scary. So what's there to fuss about?

She blinks as he sits in front of her and rests his head on her knees, but she clearly doesn't mind as she's immediately lifting a hand to rest on his head. Despite her lingering scowl, Hazel's touch is gentle. It's a little uncertain initially (has she ever been gentle with Micah? She's pretty sure she hasn't), but she pets his hair with light strokes.

"He only responds if you call him Joe Montana." Indeed, it doesn't look like her rat has stirred in the least, at least until Hazel says his full name. Then there's a little wiggle, but not much more. "He's lazy as hell though."

At that moment, Lucas is pretty sure there is nothing better than that laugh, that smile. The curve of it. The broadness of it. The fact that...they're outside, it's mid-morning, and still somehow it makes everything seem brighter. His stomach does a flip when he sees it.

But then the words that follow are even better, and they still him. Externally, at least. Lucas' smile softens and the laughter peters out, but the buzz in his chest dials up to a roar so loud he wonders if others can feel it. It's not unpleasant, but it still makes him want to knot himself up, and its a fight to keep his fingers locked with Bash's. Lucas gives his hands a squeezes, for strength.

"I, um, same," he begins, uselessly, squinting and knocking his head to the side. Talking seriously feels a bit like scaling a cliff and Lucas has trouble finding all the footholds. "I think you're incredible," he reiterates. "You make me brave. Or, like I'm...something? Instead of nothing. Being around you is...I just want to be around you."

Oh boy, you are not doing so hot, Lucas. And this is not the greatest place to have this conversation. But where else are you going to go at this point? Lucas swallows, feet bouncing. "It'd be cool, maybe, if--um, do you want to be something more official?"

Micah grins at that wiggle. "Rest is well-deserved. Joe Montana's a busy rat."

He's quiet for a moment, just enjoying the feeling of being near her, with Hazel's hand in his hair. It's early, earlier than Micah prefers to be awake, even despite getting into the habit of early morning runs with Calvin and Essie. A lot of people look more tired than him, though. He slept through most of the night. Part of him wishes Hazel had been there with him when they went through the mines, but most of him is glad she didn't have to go through that too. Not after everything.

"Haze," he says softly. "I think you saved my life."

"Gainful employment, the greatest adventure of them all." He says, the grin he's wearing taking away from the put-on wistfulness of the statement. It's easy to joke. A job is just like school - dreary work you have to do at least passingly, so you can spend your free time doing what you want. Dimi worries about very few things; a job is, perhaps unfortunately, not one of them.

"What about you? Thought about summer work? You'd make an 'ansome shop boy." Dimi turns his full attention to Calvin and ruffles his hair affectionately (but also, it needs to be said, obnoxiously). It looks a bit odd, since, between the two of them, Calvin looks a bit like he might be the older brother at this point. It is Dimi's secret horror that he might actually wind up being the shortest Evercreech; teasing Calvin is a defense mechanism.

Ty knows that his experience last night wasn't like the one that many of his friends had endured. He'd been one of the dreamers, asleep through much of what had happened, and even after Quinn and Leo and Ivy had found him he'd been unable to completely shake that exhausted state for a long time. Like the dreams had been trying to pull him back down again. Like the dreams didn't want to let him go. While that's unsettling to consider, it had kept the worst of everything from reaching him. The guilt over this is something he'll have to deal with later, though. Right now, he just wants to make sure that his friends that went to hell and back last night are all right. Especially his little sister.

When he finally spots Hazel, he hurries over to her. "Hazel!" The staff had told them that everyone was safe -- everyone had made it -- but seeing her safe and sound is a relief. Even if she looks like she wants to punch the world squarely in the face.

"You missed all the olive oil," Dimi replies mysteriously, smirking, head bobbing to the side.

He keeps his gaze fixed on her as he scoots a bit closer, eager for contact - for further verification that this is real and they are here. That was a hell of a night, and this morning the whirlwind continues. Thinking about it makes his smile fade.

"After all this," Dimi begins, looking away just long enough to scan the crowds before returning his attention to Sylla. "Still think you'll come back next year?" There's a hint of worry in his voice.

"It's fine," Roxie replies, hastily reassuring, and readies herself to reign in the mess of nerves and uncertainty - chin up, shoulders back, and smile - but finds that she doesn't really want to. Or maybe she doesn't have to. There's little point in an act if you've already been caught in it. So she sighs instead, blowing her hair from her eyes and lacing her fingers through his.

"I don't know what they told you. Or how much justice I'm going to do to what actually happened. But, c'mon," she admits, before tugging on his hand and pulling him over to an unoccupied couch. When she sits, it's close enough to hook one ankle behind his. "The things in the forest," she starts. "The ones that talk to us? I guess they had a disagreement. One of them stole people from their beds, left them scattered and sleeping all over the woods. Wanted to keep them here."

"You don't think that, right?" Bash asks, lips twitching to the side and eyebrows beetling together. "That you're nothing?" It's frankly one of the more ridiculous things he's heard in the last twenty-four hours - and that's saying something, considering the particular twenty-four hours being referenced. "Cause - cause that's bullshit. You're like magnets? Or maybe like gravity or something?" He wrinkles his nose, feeling grossly inarticulate, "You know I'm bad at - at one thing all the time, but I never want to find something else when I'm talking to you?"

That's definitely not even a little bit nothing.

And then that last question - He isn't exactly sure if he's been asked a question like that before. It sets all the stuff between his ears ringing and he struggles to find an appropriate answer that isn't some sort of squeaky, inquisitive noise. (Duh isn't the right one - neither is fuck yes.)

"Well, I mean, I was sort of planning on heading off Beth's fucking intense interrogation into being attacked by ghosts by telling her I had a super cute boyfriend? So -" he shrugs and ducks his chin, cheeks heating and thoroughly ruining the illusion of easy confidence he (sort of) had going on there for a minute. "I just - it'd be real terrible if I was lyin' about it."

The question about Diego unintentionally digs at a wound that needs time to heal. "No, he wasn't. I mean, he was, but I haven't seen him since—" Her words stop abruptly; it's not a memory she wants to relive right now and Mina would just get mad at Diego. There hadn't been another option, Essie knew that. Maybe Mina would have found a way, no, Mina definitely would have found a way. (Or not, but the idea that her big sister wouldn't hesitate to go toe-to-toe with an ancient forest spirit or a bottomless chasm makes Essie smile.)

She shakes her head and tries again, "I'm okay, I promise." Physically, yes. Her clothes have suffered the worst of it, mud covered and tear stained, but she managed to escape multiple run-ins with ghosts and a descent through the mines with relatively few scratches. "I was with my friends, and some of the older kids. We had to help Brother so this won't ever happen again." And then she pulls Mina back into the hug, squeezing tightly. "It's okay now, I promise."

"I mean. Hope they don't use this as my first interview."

He grimaces, empathetic with Quinn. He hadn't loved telling a potential future colleague that he'd absolutely jumped in a lake, without knowing how to swim, without a wand, definitely endangering another student, just for a hint at a clue. He looks to his side, and smiles gently at the kitten, reaching out to scratch Goosey's ears just once. There are still kittens in the world. It's good to remember.

He peers around the Atrium like he'd be offered clues to that answer. He wonders, too. He's both relieved and terrified to leave forever, today. They're leaving behind so many more people. If Gooseberry reopens at all. "I don't know. I guess at least they have all summer to do a real investigation, now. That's good."

Maybe they'd actually find something.

"He sure acts like he is," Hazel responds absently, going to pat her pocket with the hand that's not running over Micah's hair. She considers making a joke about what a bum Joe Montana is, or how she's planning on being as lazy as him this summer, just in an attempt to bring her and Micah back to their normal dynamic, but she doesn't really feel like making the effort at the moment. Instead she just surveys the room and continues to pet the boy's hair until he speaks. His words make her frown more than scowl, and her initial reaction is just to shrug. Maybe it's time for a sort-of joke.

"...we couldn't leave your dumb butt out on a bridge to die. I guess that's sort of movie-worthy, but it seemed pretty lame to me."

"I'm supposed to punch you," Hazel says immediately, as though she wasn't the one who had made this decision. She stands, pulling sleepy Joe Montana out of her pocket to set on the chair before fully approaching Ty. She's still scowling as she goes to give the Senior a truly weak punch in the arm.

"...and I forgot your letter jacket back in my cabin."

He looks up at her. They can all be humble if they want. He gets it. He'd hate it too if someone was saying stuff like this to him. But his friends went out into the woods last night and they kept going until they found him. He could've died. By the sounds of it, his friends could've died too, multiple times.

Hazel saved him. He doesn't know how he'll ever get over that.

"If only I'd gotten it on camera," Micah sighs. "Some music, some exciting close-up shots... I bet I could've made it super not lame. You better bring me along next time!"

Edited 2017-07-08 18:38 (UTC)

Even if she'd had no control over being suddenly pulled away, Essie still feels a twinge of guilt, knowing all too well how devastating it must have been for Pippa. She gives her best friend a tight squeeze and an apologetic smile; it's the best she has to offer right now. The fact they'll be pulled away from each other in a few hours anyway isn't something she wants to think about. "We were in the mines that Zach told us about. Zach was there, and so were Calvin and Micah," she recalls, unfortunately not the best suited narrator for giving all the details. Hopefully Zach would fill everyone in later. "And we found Brother's heart and it was like a weird rock, but he has it now, so it's over."

"And I think you were right about the ghosts," she smiles at Pippa and then all of their friends, hoping she can fill them somehow with the same sense of relief that she's been feeling, despite the hell they'd all been through. "I think they're at peace now. And he knew how brave we'd all been."

Though Hazel meets Micah's gaze it's short-lived; she's glancing back out into the room again, trying not to think too much about what had happened.

"You and your stupid camera. The night was definitely full of horror movie moments, so it's a good thing you weren't awake. You would've gotten yourself killed trying to film everything." Hesitantly, Hazel looks back at him, tugging on a piece of his hair. "You can't just come along with me though. I have to wake you up again, remember? Gotta slap you awake. Or was it kiss you awake? Both, maybe? I can do both."

Lucas answers Bash's questions with a look, a little pained, chewing on his bottom lip. It's a wincing shock of embarrassment - because what do you say when that's just how you feel about yourself - but it's short-lived, and, searching Bash's face, Lucas' expression relaxes back into a shy smile, one full of gratitude. He nods, because he's not sure what to say.

Until Bash answers his question. And then the smile cracks into a broad grin.

"Well, that settles it. I can't abide you lying to your family," Lucas says, remarkably measured considering he feels like mentos in a coke bottle. He clears his throat, shoulders wriggling, losing any semblance of self-control after that, "Good--great. Great. You are...my boyfriend. Cool."

For a moment, Bash looks sorely tempted to press. To barge ahead, sticking his fingers further into things than is probably socially appropriate, no matter how good the intention. But then Lucas nods and, well, maybe it'll hold for a bit. Maybe he can stay right here and be okay with that, without tossing himself too far forward for once.

They've got time for that.

And, anyway, he's way too busy grinning like somebody's gone and told him he's won the lottery. Or something nicer than the lottery? (Shit, what's nicer than the lottery?) "Yeah, that's -" A laugh, all bright and incredulous sound. "That's the coolest thing anybody's called me. Like - holy shit." He doesn't want to let go of Lucas' hands, so he pulls down on them instead, swaying forward to press their lips together again. Swift, so maybe there's no time in between to take any of it back.

Ty doesn't seem to mind the punch or the missing letter jacket; he pulls Hazel immediately into a firm hug. "You can keep it. Looks better on you, anyway," he says quietly and with forced brightness, not giving the problem any real consideration. Because how in the hell could that matter right now? His grip tightens and he adds in an even smaller voice, "Are you okay, Haze?"

Rosy looks like shit. Rosy knows she looks like shit, she's looking forward to hearing about it on the way home. She wonders vaguely if someone has a hair tie she can use so she can at least tie her hair back, and maybe she can scrape the mud off her cheeks and shorts, but now there's... fuck, is that grease on Chris' hand? Great, now she's got grease in her hair, and she's just too tired to care right now.

"I don't know who ghost dad is, but I'm glad I didn't have to fight him for you too," she says, running one thumb along a light scratch on his cheek. Then she glances to the side to make sure Sy hasn't disappeared since this conversation started. It's very possible, it only takes a second for a child to get stolen. Or a 6'1" not-sleeping brother.

She snatches Chris' hand with her own, hoping it wasn't some kind of ghost snot he was raking through her hair, and sniffs it delicately. "What the hell are you getting in my hair?"

Edited (i wrote this at like 8 am and forgot to hit send until right now whoops) 2017-07-08 20:15 (UTC)

Though she groans, Hazel doesn't fight being pulled into Ty's arms at all because it's honestly what she'd been hoping for. The hug makes it feels like they're both really safe now. "It smells like the freaking lake," she murmurs into his chest before really processing what he's said. Once she does, she looks up at him, expression unsure. Does she even want to keep it? She'll... figure that out later.

"...I'm fine. I mean. Kind of fine. Are you?"

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Page 13 of 15

AFTERMATH & DEPARTURE

Hazel & Micah

The Lost & Found Box

Roxie & Reece

Sylla & Dimi

Hazel & Chris

Hazel & Micah

Lucas & Bash

Hazel & Micah

Calvin & Dimi

Hazel & Ty

Sylla & Dimi

Roxie & Reece

Lucas & Bash

Morales-Trans

The Lost & Found Box

Hazel & Micah

Hazel & Ty

Hazel & Micah

CHOO CHOO BABYTRAIN (SEARCH PARTY & ALL PERMUTATIONS, RESCUEES)

Hazel & Micah

Lucas & Bash

Lucas & Bash

Hazel & Ty

Chris & Rosy

Hazel & Ty