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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Hostile and tired, Hazel didn't want to talk to agents about what happened and she certainly doesn't want tell her family when she sees them, or really even think about the events of the evening. She just wants to... go home, she guesses? A part of her does, but another part of her is anxious about leaving her friends - she doesn't trust the world with them right now. Leaving would have sucked with or without forest shit shenanigans, but this parting of ways is probably the worst she's ever had.

Hazel has been scowling since they'd woken up, and she doesn't look like she's going to be quitting any time soon. After giving her statement she sits in one of the chairs in the atrium in a sleeveless hoodie, the front pocket sagging with the weight of Joe Montana as she looks around, making mental note of who she sees (and who she doesn't. Just in case.).

"You're putting in some impressive practice, but that scowl can't replace mine once I'm gone," Chris observes. Chris isn't actually wearing a scowl. He doesn't actually look like he's even in a bad mood. He is - fuck the anonymous writer, what an asshole. He drops down into a chair beside Hazel. "Sup, Grumpy, how you doing?"

In human terms, this is how Chris asks people he cares about how they're doing after highly traumatic events, because he cares about their wellbeing. Out loud, it betrays no emotions at all.

Hazel's scowl shifts a little more into the pout end of the spectrum at Chris's words, her body shifting to follow him as he goes to sit in the chair next to hers.

"I'm real good at scowling, I can totally give you a run for your money," she states matter-of-factly, but despite the attempt to put some friendly bite in her words her tone falls a little flat.

".. 'm fine. I guess." Fidgeting, she's quiet for a moment before letting out a short sigh. "I don't know. Anyways. You ok? I mean. You're not dead at least."

Chris nudges Hazel's foot with his own foot. This is an unusual Hazel. This is a down Hazel. Which makes sense, despite how jarring it is. "None of us are dead. What happen is as real and as fake as an illusion. What we wrote in our journals don't exist anymore. If we want to pretend real hard, it's like we just had a super lucid dream about our own insecurities and mortality." He shrugged. "As a collective whole, collectively together, all one hundred of us, all had the same lucid dream. Which is a crazy coincidence, but we all feel extremely bonded and grateful after the fact."

He nudges her foot with his again. "Did something happen that you wanna talk about?" He asks, a bit more seriously this time, despite everything he had just said.

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.

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."

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."

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."

"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."

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)

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."

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.

"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."

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?"

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?"

The groan actually makes Ty smile faintly because it seems normal, like what the Hazel from before a night of missing friends and frightening specters and dire uncertainty might've done, and he wants normal to be something that she can get back to. Pressing on with the annoying big brother role, he kisses the top of her head. Then he pauses, confused and about to ask why his jacket would smell like the freaking lake, when her question stops him.

He loosens his hold enough to look down into her face and nods. "...Yeah. I'm okay. I was asleep for a lot of it. Almost all of it, I guess." After admitting this, he can't quite look her in the eyes as he adds, "I heard you weren't. I'm sorry you had to...go through whatever you went through out there."

Hazel remains close to Ty, her arms now looped around him as she looks up at him and sticks out her tongue at the kiss on the head. It's something else she doesn't actually mind.

"I'm glad you were sleeping." She bites her lip as Ty averts his eyes, shoulders sinking slightly. "It... whatever, I guess. I mean. It's all done now. And everyone is ok. I was...just worried about you. But I knew with me and Quinn looking for you it'd be ok. So that's what matters. That everyone is ok." Though Hazel wants to say more, about what happened to her and the others, she refrains. She doesn't want to stress out Ty.

A part of Ty is glad that he'd been sleeping too. But it's a small, shameful part. Everything he's heard about what happened from Quinn and from Leo is frightening. Everything that he actually remembers for himself is frightening too. But he would've preferred to be there alongside his friends and his girlfriend rather than being a burden. There's no point in going into that, though. He shakes his head and looks back at Hazel. "...Yeah. You're right," he says, trying to sound certain (which he isn't) and grateful (which he definitely is), "Everyone's safe and that's what matters. Nothing you two can't do, is there?"

"Yep, everyone's safe." And she thinks that should be enough, even though it doesn't really feel like it. Hazel hopes the summer will be enough time for her to get over the lake and get over rickety bridges and get over drains and get over all the nightmares she can feel tingling at the back of her mind. It's... not going to be a great summer.

"Quinn and I definitely got whatever gets thrown at us." Turning her head to press her cheek to Ty's chest, Hazel lets out a slow sigh. "...I like her, a lot. You did a good job."

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