[LAM Session 2] Mandi 2

Adam

So it's been a while since the after school "date" that you had with John, where the horrors of the outside world revealed themselves to you. There have been a few close calls where you're walking near a window and one of those things walks by. They come right up to the glass, and can't reach through to you. They're truly terrifying at night, but you seem safe here in the school. It's not quite clear how that's possible, but it's enough that you don't have to worry all the time. You've noticed they have a pattern, right around sunset and sunrise, where they're most active. Something about the transition sets them off.

Who knows. Did you end up looking anything up on the school computers about the kid in the parking lot who got taken by one of those things? I mean... His obituary was probably easy enough to spot, but did you find anything else out about him?

Anyway... It's Friday afternoon, and students are going back to their classes after lunch. You spotted John Smith looking particularly miserable on his own, doing some musical theory homework... A composition of some sort. Probably also noticed that Eventide was showing some pictures to Seth in class... A picture of you, specifically. He told her he needed to show her something in private. Are you intending on spying on them? Or do you have something better to do?

scott

That's terrifying. Especially at sunset when the last few club students are making their way out and everything grows quiet and i wish I could just walk out that door with them and go home... but then the monsters come. And I retreat to the inside of the building, I don't want to see... but it's hard not to hear them. Like a nightmare. It gets to me, bothers me, sometimes terrifies me.

At first I didn't even think to look up who that boy might be, but while browsing in the computer lab for news about... well... me. (Another suicide at at this school, right?) I happened upon him. He was well liked, from a poor family but a rising star in academics and probably going to UCLA or some other school. He won a scholarship from the Los Angeles Police Relief Fund.... lucky him. And in the grainy photo of him in the article, standing on the podium with the other three winners... a familiar looking police officer. Face in the shadows... but it must be him... Ramos.

---

Friday.

I avoid John. I don't think I can explain... I don't think I deserve the chance. I was cold to him... unfair. All the things I hate about many of the girls around school... I was that. I can't explain it. Berto looked at me and smiled and I just... I just lost it. Ok? I wasn't thinking.

Picture of me? Oh you better believe I'm following to hear what they say. I probably have better things to do. After all, I've started going back to class, even took the pop quiz... well. in my head. But it's not like I'm going to be marked any more absent.

What's he showing her?

Adam

You follow Eventide downstairs into the hallways below the auditorium, and you find Seth waiting for her. He smiles, and puts his backpack down on the floor. She walks right up to him, and plants the steamiest kiss you've ever seen on him. "Hey hot stuff," she mutters, throwing her bag down on the floor, "What's this picture you wanted to show me?"

Seth smirks, and flips out his phone. "You know that girl Lali, in our class? The rituals have been saying weird shit about her ever since she came to our school... So I started following her." He starts flicking through some pictures of some really morbid shit on his phone. Pentagrams, pictures of old Wicca texts, a photo of him in some really weird makeup... "Most of the time, she's just acting normal, right? But one night, a few weeks back, I caught her leaving school, like way late. Check this shit out..."

He stops at a video, and presses play. You watch as shaky-cam footage replays Lali walking out of the gym... She checks all directions, nervously, before exiting with something slumped over her shoulder. The frame follows her to a dumpster, where she tosses the object in. She stands there a moment, dialing something on her cellphone, then having an inaudible conversation. She checks a few things, waits, and leaves.

When she leaves, the person holding the camera waits for her to be completely gone — which doesn't take long, seeing as she bolted away. Then the cameraman emerges from his hiding place, and moves in to the dumpster. He shuffles through some trash, and finds your face, pale and lifeless, staring back up at him. "Oh shit!" you hear the cameraman whisper under his breath.

The frame lingers on your face for a long moment before some car doors open and shut off-screen. You hear a deep voice call out, "Hey, you!" When the cameraman stuffs his phone into his pocket, and bolts. The video ends abruptly at that point.

Eventide looks on in morbid curiosity. "Holy shit!" She exclaims, pulling Seth into a side-hug, "that's the girl! That's Amandine! She is a fucking spirit!"

Seth nods, "and Lali totally had something to do with her death."

What do you do?

scott

I find myself watching with pretty much the same curiosity as them, at first, crane my head to peer past Eventide's shoulder at the little screen. My chin would be touching her if it... if it could.
Lali? I'm really curious now. I thought Eventide might be angry with Lali over what happened and it feels like this is that.
I gasp as I see my own face, hopefully remembering not to be heard... or is it that I need to remember to be heard... it's confusing being dead like this. There really aren't any rules and nobody told me how it works.
But I cover my mouth with a hand as it shows my dead body tossed in the garbage. In the garbage! I hadn't thought, too much, about where my body is. I wasn't sure that it was still even anywhere... like... did I disappear?
"Lali.... in the garbage?" I whine to myself, it really hurts.
Then they exclaim the truth they know about me and I'm suddenly quiet like they could hear. I back up, slowly, tiptoe, suddenly concerned not to make a sound.
What do I do? What do I do?
I consider just taking the camera and running, but I can't take it without being seen, and that would be a disaster.
Ok, Amandine. Calm down... it doesn't matter what they think, they can't hurt you... I get my breathing under control and, at a bit of a distance n ow, pay attention.
If nothing else I'm going to follow Seth to gym, when his phone should be left in his locker.
Then I can do something about this.

Right?

In the garbage?

Adam

That sounds like a smart move... Seth has Gym later in the afternoon. Are you following him into the locker room? Or are you waiting for it to be empty before going back in?

scott

I pause at the door, but I realize I don't actually know where his locker is. I have to follow him.

Adam

Well Mandi, you follow him in, and are instantly greeted by the sight of some twenty-odd young men, in various states of nakedness. The door shuts behind you, and Seth circumnavigates the room to his locker near the showers. You know what a naked guy looks like, right Mandi? Thought I presume this is probably your first practical exposure to male anatomy... I mean, have you even looked at porn?

Some of the fitter boys in this room are real specimens. Shockingly so. Especially... Is that John Smith going into the showers? He's just everywhere, isn't he?

Oh my...

What do you do?

scott

I stop there just inside the door, my back to it. I hold my breath, invisible... Amandine, you are invisible right?

I stand there making a little whiny sound of desperation and I feel the heat going to my face. I don't know where to look, where to put my eyes. "Oh my gosh...." I quietly whisper to myself.

Porn? Well... I've seen pictures like that, mostly on friends phones and stuff ... the few friends I did have while being home schooled through middle school. I don't use the internet very much at home so well... nothing more than a few pictures and things. So i know what.. um... it looks like but haven't really seen. Um... sex... happening.

I notice John, get a glimpse of his back in his towel ad he disappears into the showers. But these other boys, the jocks, I guess. They're... wow.

I nearly forget to follow Seth as he disappears through the mass of beefy boys. I follow, looking at is feet and trying, really hard, not to touch anything. Really really... trying.

Adam

Maybe you should be Holding Steady here. It'd be a shame if you lost control of yourself in the middle of all these hot guys...

scott

Holding steady:
(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 4, 3. Total: 8)
xp(4)

scott

Keep my cool. Yes. For sure, that's what matters right now. Amandine, don't... don't look at that No. Just keep moving. Look at your feet.

Adam

Yeah, that's probably for the best. With some new-found focus, you head over to Seth, who's stripping down, and getting into his gym clothes. His phone is sitting on top of his jeans in his locker, which is open for the moment. It's a Nexus 6, brand spanking new, and shiny as all get-out. A smart phone...

Thankfully, you've got your wherewithal, and nobody seems to see you. What do you do?