(no subject)

[inthebones]

[phone]
Oh, marvelous, it's August again.  My favorite time of the year.

Students, I hope you've been working on your summer assignments.  Adult men, I hope you're prepared to be perfect gentlemen when we all find ourselves floundering in that ghastly hotel.  Anything else to expect this month?  No?  On to business, then.

I'm sure we're all very distracted by talking pony parties and pool parties and platter parties and inpourings of perpetually perplexed new populations, but has anyone made any effort whatsoever to sort out that business from last month or are we still playing the game where we ignore all interesting information in favor of smashing random objects we find in the dairy?  I don't mind that game; of course, quite invigorating, good for the vasculature, but it might be worth trying a different approach at some point in time.  I venture to suggest today, if no one's too busy holding competitions to see who looks the most absurd absent their clothing.

[action, 726 Anderson Lane]
[Susan can be found hanging up black cloaks and other assorted clothing in uniform crepuscular shades around the house where garish green was all there was formerly to see.  A welcome change, in her opinion; she'd missed her wardrobe from home, even if everything looked exactly the same as the black cloak she had commissioned here in Mayfield.

Still, she pauses for a moment as she handles an emerald-green cloak, never worn, hanging in the hall closet since the previous Christmas.  ...It goes back on the rack after a bit.  And she'll only push it back behind the others an inch or two.]

[action, park]
[A rather unusual sight in the park later on that week.  Somehow, Miss Susan the English teacher has been cajoled into reading a nice story for a small group of drones.]

And so, adding conspiracy and first-degree murder to their trespass and property damage charges, Hansel and Gretel pushed the old woman into the oven and ignored her anguished screams as they left the house of gingerbread, naturally taking all of her valuables with them as they went.  With these illicit goods, they reunited with their criminally negligent father, but not, surprisingly, their 'wicked' stepmother, who had mysteriously vanished in the space of the two nights in which the children were gone, leaving the father sole keeper of his property and remaining funds and raising suspicion as to who it was had devised the plan to leave the children in the forest in the first place.

But it doesn't matter, because they all lived happily ever after.

The End.

[The drones seem quite pleased with her recitation, at any rate.]

Comments

[Phone]

[ukelelenogood]

Sure have. We should compare notes, ya know.

Talk about what we've both found out.

[inthebones]

Fantastic.

I have nothing, because I wasn't there. Apart from the obvious deduction that it was a representation of the past. Your turn.

[ooeeooahah]

I'm afraid they got to me before I was able to collect anything, but it was a good example of an unstable pocket dimension. I apparently arrived on the second day, and there were already things deteriorating.

[inthebones]

I believe Mayfield itself qualifies as a pocket dimension. Every town seems to be its own, though I doubt they all degenerate quite as spectacularly.

726 Anderson

[hintcoinplz]

[Later, if Susan passes by the kitchen, she'll find Luke. No longer moping in his room, it looks like he's back to playing outside and enjoying the remaining days of summer.

But right now, he's dressed in only his swim trunks in front of an opened refrigerator, rummaging for something to eat and to cool down for a while.

It's really hot outside okay.]

[inthebones]

[NO SWIMMING NO FUN. The rules of this household are very simple, OK? Susan finishes putting away her regained clothing and briskly maneuvers around Luke as she opens some cabinets.]

There's ice cream in the freezer. Cream isn't something I ever would have thought to freeze as a treat, but I never did have much imagination.

[Of course, the flavor is chocolate.]

[phone]

[allwehad]

Well I intend to keep my clothes on today, so what exactly happened last month? Coming from one of the perpetually perplexed new population.

And -- you did say talking ponies, right? ...Cool.

[inthebones]

Carnivals. Carnivals and pseudo-time travel and finger-dissolving walls, from what I gathered. Nothing terribly unusual for Mayfield.

If you see a pink one, run as quickly as you can in the opposite direction.

((Whoa, welcome back to Mayfield! It's so awesome to see you again! =D ))

[phone]

[noluckduck]

... Summer assignments? [They have those?]

[inthebones]

Of course.

You should have received them in the mail by now. I believe the principal was saying something about 15 summer reading reports.

[action;park]

[infernodivider]

[...There's just somebody leaning on a tree a bit far away from where Susan's sitting. Ugh why did this woman had to do a story-telling session on his old training spot? That's just bothersome, really...]

[inthebones]

And now, we move on to Jack and the Beanstalk, or Why Perching on Foliage is Generally a Poor Decision if You'd Rather Not Snap Your Neck.

[Susan glances pointedly up at the man in the tree as she speaks, her tone mild.]

[Phone]

[doesnotgetit]

... "Ghastly hotel"? What are you talking about?

[inthebones]

Oh.

...You'll find out soon enough, if it happens. Perhaps I shouldn't give you nightmares about it beforehand.

[action, park]

[commentboxtroll]

[The sudden bout of storytelling was interesting enough to draw Caesar off from his stroll through the park, so he's been standing at the back of the gaggle of drone kids to listen. He's not familiar with the story itself, but he highly doubts she's telling it like it was written!

He waits for her to finish reading before commenting on it, though.]

Sounds like a lawyer tried their hand at fairy tales. Or is that just how you read everything, Miss S?

[inthebones]

Until, that is, they were hit with the court summons.

[Susan snaps the book shut and glances over to Caesar.]

Oh, Caesar. Do me a favor and give your fellow young delinquents some pocket change for ice cream.

Phone

[grumpiest_tree]

[Oh look, it's Groot's favorite snark buddy on the phone.]

What's this about a hotel now? I thought we already had assigned houses here. Nice alliteration, by the way.

But no, I'm afraid I haven't really had a chance to ask others what happened to them. They seemed rather shell-shocked in a way. If you do get a group together to discuss things though, I'd be interested in stopping by. It would be easier than going through the annoyance of having to track down such things by myself.

[inthebones]

Oh, certainly, perfectly reasonable; sparing you annoyance is my number one priority at the moment, never mind how annoying this is for me.

park

[togetherwestand]

[She can't help but catch the end of that, chuckling quietly. She wouldn't usually approach a stranger, but anyone who helps out kids like that is okay in her book.]

I've never quite heard that version before.

[inthebones]

It's a modernized version to reflect on the changing times.

[Susan manages this with a straight face as she closes the book with a snap.]

Now, I'm afraid I'm all out of material for the day. Run along, everyone.

[phone]

[greyerrant]

I think I won the absurd competition

[inthebones]

Stop.

I don't even want to imagine this scene. And don't sound so proud of yourself.

Park

[atent_dead]

Same nonsense crops up everywhere.

[Oh, Granny loves fairy tales, she really does, can you tell?]

[inthebones]

Sadly, Hansel and Gretel Learn Productive Life Lessons doesn't seem to go over as well with children.

[Susan glances towards Granny as the children around her feet begin to disperse.]

[action, park]

[highfunctioning_sociopath]

The story is much more interesting when the witch is poisoning the children and the consulting detective hired by the father to find the children is being framed for the crime.

[Sherlock might sound a bit bitter - well it did lead to him flinging himself from the roof of a hospital.]

[inthebones]

I rather think poison would defeat the purpose of fattening them up.

[Susan arches an eyebrow at this odd interruption before beginning to shoo the children away.]

[phone]

[shadowflashkick]

Hm. Has anyone tried a direct approach of investigating lately? ... or at all?

[inthebones]

That depends on what you mean by 'direct approach'. If it's what I suspect, do refer to my comments about smashing things in the dairy.

[ Phone ]

[1_truth]

[ He doesn't want to be on an open connection for too long So he'll try and keep this as short as possible. ]

N-ne... it sounds like you know when school starts up again?

[inthebones]

I do have to teach. It will be the day after that holiday, as it always is. September 6th.

[park]

[demonhunting]

Never heard that version before.

[inthebones]

It's an updated version by the schoolteachers' guild to reflect the changing values and necessary life-skills of our times.

[Susan responds drily as she snaps the book shut.]

[encored]

[story time is his favorite time okay, he'll even take time out of his completely aimless walk to stop by the bench and listen in. once she's finished:]

You ought to tell Snow White next, that one is always lovely.

[inthebones]

Snow White and the man who kissed her while she was unable to give consent? Right, let's do that next time.

[Susan is the worst storyteller. The children have already begun to scamper away.]

Park

[likescats]

[Walks over after she finishes.]

HOW DID THEY CONVINCE YOU TO DO THIS?

[inthebones]

Whatever do you mean? I just love the dear tykes so much, Grandfather.

[Susan smiles benignly as the children begin to tug at her skirt.]

[phone]

[woodsiequeen]

I encountered nothing there but a few brushes with death, which is hardly out of the ordinary when this place plays one of its games.

I should hope that if anyone else discovered something of substance they would have shared it by now.

[inthebones]

You'd be surprised at how much people think they can manage on their own.

Then they inevitably vanish alongside everything they've ever learned.

[phone]

[werewolfoflondon]

[And here, Remus feels caught with his trousers around his ankles.]

Begging pardon, but I only arrived a few weeks ago. Could I trouble you for the summer assignments?

[inthebones]

[Oh, dear. This one rather reminded her of Lyon.]

You'll be hard-pressed to complete them before the beginning of fall term. Perhaps you'd better pretend you never spoke up.

[Action, park]

[pumpkinpie]

[The Other Father leans against a tree in the park, smiling at the sight. He'd never seen a school of children before he was apparently always the Elementary School music teacher. To see them all so happy and learning is such a beautiful thing.

And then he hears what she's actually telling them and raises a brow. Might be good they learn about the bad things in life too, but still...

His own drone children are running around the park, laughing happily as they play with their kites and balls.]

Now tha~t's an interesting children's story.

[inthebones]

Isn't it?

[Susan snaps the book shut.]

I always prefer 'interesting' over 'dreadfully dull' in hopes of convincing them to sit still for longer than ten seconds.

Phone

[jaws5sonofjaws]

Uh

What was our assignment again?

'Cuz I'm not sure if I'm gonna do it.

[inthebones]

It's too late. You already failed.

A)

[begintheoperation]

Excuse me, my name is Fran Madaraki~ I just arrived in town, or I'm told I returned~ Are you one of the teachers at the local school?

I have no opposition to attending class, but I am also eager to learn more about precisely what is going on in this town~

[inthebones]

That's all very well, but given that I just queried the town at large, it's rather pointless to ask me.