Author: cross_and_bow | Prom arrives.
Bella wears her indigo dress and her indigo heels with their straps that go all the way up her calves, and she nukes Sherlock some breakfast, and she waits. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock appears at the end of her driveway wearing an impeccable tuxedo and new shoes. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Swanky boots," says Bella. "And a tux! Mind you don't spill." |
Author: eversomuchfun | He laughs.
And does not, in fact, spill. |
Author: cross_and_bow | When he's through, into Bella's pickup they hop, and to prom they go.
Bella pats her waist twice on the way, feeling for the presence of her squares under all the ruffles. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I also," he says cheerfully, "got you a corsage." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Oooh?" She drives one-handed, offering her other wrist for corsaging. |
Author: eversomuchfun | On it goes.
It matches her dress perfectly. |
Author: cross_and_bow | She pulls it into her field of vision. "Oh, it's nice, you have good taste," she says approvingly. "I do like indigo." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I am glad you approve." |
Author: cross_and_bow | There is a stoplight. He gets a kiss on the cheek while they are stationary, and then on they go.
At the door, the gatekeepers insist that Bella and Sherlock prove that they are together - "you can't just pretend to be dates to get in, you have to actually be!" - and another kiss occurs by way of proof, and in they go.
The Viennese Carnival thing is halfhearted - a few people have made attempts with the outfits, but almost no one has bothered with a mask, and most are neglecting the theme entirely. Still, all the couples present seem happy to be there.
"If you spot anyone who snuck past the gatekeepers without a date," she says to Sherlock, "point 'em out." |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Will do." |
Author: cross_and_bow | She looks around, tapping a foot to the thinly instrumentated pop in the background. "I don't exactly keep a finger on the pulse of social life here, but unlike you I actually attend school here, and I know those two weren't dating yesterday," she frowns, nodding in the direction of a girl in a blue dress and her disinterested date. "I sorta know her, I'll go talk to them." And off she trots.
If Sherlock intended to follow, this may be slightly derailed by a girl who - unaccompanied by any obvious companion - says: "Wow, you look just like Tony Stark!" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Yeah," he says, laughing, "I've heard that one before." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "No seriously you're like identical, I would know, I had such a crush on him, I had one of those magazine covers on my wall, and you look just identical. What's your name?" she asks. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "What's yours?" he inquires cheerfully. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I'm Kayli!" she says. "D'you wanna dance?"
Across the room, Bella has apparently determined to her satisfaction that her acquaintance and that boy she's with are dating enough, and has moved on to another possibility. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "I'd like to know if either of our dates would object, first," he says. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Pfft, I came with my cousin, he couldn't find anybody 'cause he waited till the last minute, and yours went and left you all by yourself, didn't she?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Then yes," he says, "why not." |
Author: cross_and_bow | Meanwhile, Bella has not found any single targets for the Ghost of Promenade Past -
Oh, there's a girl standing by herself, a bit more in keeping with the theme than the others, hiding behind a mask so if Bella knows her she doesn't recognize her. "Hey," she says. "Did your date ditch you?" |
Author: pythbox | The stranger tosses her hair carelessly over her shoulder. "He's around here somewhere," she says. "You?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "He's dancing with some girl, but I don't mind," replies Bella. |
Author: pythbox | "You sure he's your date?" she asks, with an odd edge to her voice. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yeah? He's my boyfriend as of months ago. He got me a corsage," Bella adds, holding up her wrist. "I don't mind if he dances with somebody else, he's going home with me after." |
Author: pythbox | "Ooh," she says, looking approvingly at the corsage. "Pretty. Do I know this guy? What year's he in?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "He's not a student," Bella says. "Why?" |
Author: pythbox | She tsks and shakes her head. "Bad news, you know," she says. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Bad news? What do you mean?" |
Author: pythbox | "What is he, a dropout? You can get in trouble with those." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Sort of homeschooled," says Bella. "Why are you concerned with my boyfriend's education?" |
Author: pythbox | "You never know about those guys," she says vaguely. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "How does their being enrolled in a public high school help one know about them?" |
Author: pythbox | The strange girl shakes her head, curls bouncing this way and that. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "...What's your name?" |
Author: pythbox | "Minnie," she says. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Minnie," says Bella, looking around and finding that there are no nearby witnesses, "are you by any chance a vengeful ghost who kills people who go stag to prom?" |
Author: pythbox |
She giggles.
And steps back, directly through the wall. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Oh, lord.
Bella hunts down Sherlock, who is presumably still in the middle of dancing with Kayli. "Hey sweetie!" she says. "Can I cut in? I found Minnie and we should go say hi!" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Certainly," he says, giving Kayli a final twirl and bowing over her hand as he steps back. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [She went through that wall,] Bella adds, and she describes what Minnie looks like, [presuming her appearance is stable, anyway. She talks like a person, up to the point where I got her name and asked her if she was by any chance a vengeful ghost - I don't know how reasonable she is, she laughed and backed away when I said that.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [I see,] says Sherlock. [I wonder if I should hang around the afflicted sink. She can't exactly drown me.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Good idea. Here - you should be carrying squares anyway -] She unclips her chain and shakes four of the coins into her hand and presses them into his, then clips the chain back on. [I'll go around and see if she's in the room she appeared to go to, though I'm not betting on it.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Right.]
He kisses her cheek quickly, just because he can. |
Author: cross_and_bow | She flashes a smile at him and she's off at a run.
That wall leads to a science classroom.
The ghost is not there. Or at least is not visibly there. "Minnie?" Bella tries. No luck.
She heads back into prom, scanning the crowd for that face, that dress. |
Author: pythbox | No sign of either. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Okay - headcount. People were only admitted in pairs. Is there an even number of people in the room? |
Author: pythbox | Yes, not including Juliet. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Is the coast clear by you?] Bella asks Sherlock. She goes to check the other bathroom; if two people have gone to the bathroom at the same time that would also yield this mathematical result. |
Author: pythbox |
There is, indeed, someone in the bathroom.
She's not wearing her mask anymore, and she's a little translucent now, with dark bruises on her neck.
"What are you doing?" she wonders. |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Yes.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Found her. Girls' bathroom.]
"Looking for you. I want to talk to you," Bella says to Minnie, spreading her hands in a nonthreatening gesture. (Wand's tucked into her sash, coins around her waist, she's not nonthreatening, just looking that way.) "Can we talk?" |
Author: pythbox | "About what?" she asks, folding her arms. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "About how prom has been unreasonably fatal for the last eighty-five years or so." |
Author: pythbox | She tosses her hair again.
"What's it to you?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I don't like it when people die," Bella says. |
Author: pythbox | "That's nice," she says sarcastically. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "It's true. What do you want?" Bella says. "What are you hanging around for?" |
Author: pythbox | "I didn't like it when I died," she says. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I don't like it that you died either," Bella says. "It was shitty. I'm really sorry that happened to you and I wish it hadn't." |
Author: pythbox |
Her outline flickers.
She frowns.
"What do you know, anyway? It's been like a hundred years." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "There's old newspaper articles," says Bella. "About what happened." |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah?" She flickers again, then solidifies further. "What do they say?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "They say your date strangled you and then drowned you in a sink. And then the ones after that say that people have been found dead one way or the other at prom, if they come alone, since then. Why would you do that? Why wouldn't you just go after the guy who hurt you?" |
Author: pythbox | "I can't find him," she snaps. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "He's probably dead now," Bella says. "If he's not he'd be a hundred years old. You couldn't find him even then? Did it take a while for you to become a ghost?" |
Author: pythbox | "He never came back to prooooooom," she wails, the word stretching out into an unearthly howl. "Do you know how infuriating that is? I get one night a year to walk around, and I can't even get far enough from where I died to go to the other end of the gym!" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "That sounds really stultifying," Bella says sympathetically, hoping her wince looks like it has more to do with the ghost's plight than with her wail. |
Author: pythbox | "It makes me so mad," she grumbles. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I bet. I'd hate being cooped up like that too. But he's never coming back to prom. Even if he's alive, he's been out of high school for many years now," says Bella quietly. "Can you - go on?" |
Author: pythbox | She scuffs her foot. It dips through the bathroom floor slightly.
"I don't know how." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I don't either," admits Bella. The ghost books don't have how-tos from the ghost's perspective. "Maybe we can figure it out, okay?"
[Giles, you awake?] |
Author: pythbox | Minnie looks dubious, and flickers again.
[Yes?] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [I need to give the ghost instructions on how to move on. Help?]
"Would it help if you knew what happened to the guy who killed you?" Bella tries. "If I looked him up and said 'yes, he's dead' or 'he's in this nursing home' or - whatever?" |
Author: pythbox | [Of course,] says Giles.
"...yes," says Minnie. "Yes! Tell me!" |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Can you look up the dude who killed her, see what became of him, in the newspapers?]
And then she asks Jarvis the same thing, giving him all the details, and substituting "on the internet" for "in the newspapers".
"I'm asking some of my friends to help find out, now," Bella tells Minnie. "I'm telepathic so I can do that from right here." |
Author: pythbox | "Lucky you," grumbles Minnie, crossing her arms again. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I'm just explaining that when they get the answers I won't have gone anywhere but that doesn't mean I'm making it up. I want to tell you the truth," Bella says placatingly. |
Author: pythbox | "Ugh," she says, but she doesn't do anything overtly hostile, or go anywhere.
Giles and Jarvis are quiet for a few minutes. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Jarvis ought to be faster than Giles for any number of reasons; she pokes him again first. [Any luck?] |
Author: poeticterms | [Not so far,] he says. [I haven't restored all my old connections yet. The Internet isn't quite such an open book to me as I'm used to.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Okay.] [Giles?]
"One of my friends is looking on the internet, and one of them is checking newspapers," she reports to Minnie. |
Author: pythbox | "What is the internet?" she asks, intrigued.
[Still looking,] Giles reports. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "It's - a lot of machines that act sort of like books crossed with phones and know how to talk to each other," Bella summarizes. "If you have a book-phone-thing you can find information that's on all the other book-phone-things." |
Author: pythbox | Minnie seems to find this explanation giggle-worthy. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "It's pretty cool," Bella says. "And useful for all kinds of things." |
Author: pythbox | "And people's phones these days," she says with a sigh of envy. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Yeah, phones are neat!" says Bella. "Are you solid enough to hold stuff - d'you wanna see mine?" |
Author: pythbox | "If I even try to touch it, it'll die," she says regretfully. "But you could show me!" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Okay," says Bella, and she gets out her phone, and says to Jarvis, [Are you good enough at multitasking to not be slowed down if I call you by way of showing the Prom Ghost my phone?] |
Author: pythbox | Prom Ghost claps with glee. |
Author: poeticterms | [Entirely,] says Jarvis. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I'll call my friend who's looking on the Internet for stuff," Bella suggests, and she scrolls through her contacts and hits call and then sets it to speakerphone. |
Author: poeticterms | "Hello," says Jarvis. |
Author: pythbox | Minnie beams. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Hi, Jarvis," says Bella. "This is Minnie. I wonder if you'll be able to hear her through the phone? Minnie, you want to say hi?" |
Author: pythbox | "Hi!" says Minnie. |
Author: poeticterms | "Hello, Minnie," says Jarvis. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella smiles. "My phone's not particularly fancy, but some people nowadays have phones that cross with books a little bit almost like the machines that go on the internet," she says to Minnie. |
Author: pythbox | "I've seen those," she says, nodding. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "You seem like a nice person. I really don't understand why you'd kill people, even if you've been stuck in a really annoying situation for a very long time," Bella says to Minnie. |
Author: pythbox | "I get mad," she says, crossing her arms in front of her and rubbing her hands along them above the opposing elbows. "I just get mad, that's all." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "At people who go stag to prom," prompts Bella. |
Author: pythbox | Minnie nods unhappily. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Because... they can't get hurt the same way you were?" guesses Bella. |
Author: pythbox | "I don't know," she says frustratedly. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Has it been this way since you died? Were you ever that angry before?" |
Author: pythbox | "I don't..." She falters, then shakes her head. "I don't think so. Except that night. I was that mad then, for sure." Minnie shivers. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I bet. If anything could make somebody mad enough to kill it'd be getting murdered." |
Author: pythbox | "I was mad before then," she says. "I dumped him in front of everybody and chased him into the bathroom and then," she swallows, "it turned out he was madder." |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella nods solemnly. "He's probably dead," she says. |
Author: pythbox | "I guess," says Minnie. "It doesn't seem to make much difference." |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Giles, isn't there any way to - to unghost her? Not make her deader, but less dead?] Bella asks helplessly. [She is a perfectly nice person with some magically boosted anger-triggers attached to her and she was murdered when she was sixteen, it's appalling.]
"I'm sorry," says Bella. |
Author: pythbox | [...I'm not sure,] says Giles. [But I think I just found her boyfriend's obituary.]
A pause; then, [Yes. David Banks. Died November 5th, 1933.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | "My other friend found David's obituary," Bella says quietly. "He died on November fifth. 1933." |
Author: pythbox | "Good riddance," says Minnie, scowling. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Cause?] Bella asks Giles. Jarvis presumably already heard over the phone what she told Minnie and knows that he can stop looking. |
Author: pythbox | [Vampire.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | "A vampire got him," Bella adds. Normally she wouldn't tell anyone this, but Minnie is already herself a ghost. [Any evidence he turned?] |
Author: pythbox | [None.]
Minnie grins. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Feel better?" Bella asks her. [Thank you so much.] |
Author: pythbox | "Much," she says, and she twirls around, her outdated dress floating through the air. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "D'you think you'll be less angry now, or did it not help that much?" |
Author: pythbox | ...She grimaces.
"I don't know. I don't feel angry until... I feel angry, you know?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella nods slowly. "I have a little bit of magic," she says. "I'm going to try and see if it can un-angry you, okay?" |
Author: pythbox | Minnie eyes her suspiciously. For a moment.
Then she nods. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella tries a square to cut the... rage issues.
To her surprise, it goes.
"I think that worked," she says. "...Do you feel any different, or is there no way to tell unless you run into something that would make you mad?" |
Author: pythbox | Minnie spreads her hands helplessly. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well," says Bella, "what would normally make you mad? My boyfriend is a vampire, if we can get him to make you mad then it's not such a big deal if you try to drown him..." [Have attempted to cure ghost's anger management problem with square, square went, require test subject to see if it worked before I can declare the case closed.] |
Author: pythbox | "He doesn't go to Sunnydale, right?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | [I volunteer,] he says dryly. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Thought so. Thanks!] "Right. Never has." |
Author: pythbox | "Where is he, then?" |
Author: cross_and_bow | "He's been keeping watch at your haunted sink." |
Author: pythbox | She grins, and disappears. |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Here she is,] Sherlock reports. [Not attempting violence.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | Juliet jogs to the other bathroom, checks for witnesses who might wonder at her presence, and pokes her head in.
"So normally at this point you'd be trying to strangle and/or drown him?" she asks Minnie. |
Author: pythbox | "Yup!"
She forms her hands into exaggerated claws, makes a silly face, and floats toward Sherlock for an unmenacing few inches. Then she shrugs.
"Nothin'." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "...Okay, cool!" Pause. "But you're still here. And somehow I don't think the magic coins I have can revive the dead." |
Author: pythbox | Minnie shrugs unhappily.
"I guess. Being a ghost wouldn't be so bad if I could leave this stupid half of this stupid building." |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Then what would you do?" asks Bella. |
Author: pythbox | "Go places," she says, flinging out her arms dramatically. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Sure, but, like, would you be doing mischief, making walls bleed and teakettles explode, spying on hot actors in the shower, whatever?" |
Author: pythbox | "...Ooh," she says speculatively, when Juliet offers that last suggestion. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "I really cannot approve of spying on anyone in the shower, you see," says Bella. "But if you were going to be a well-behaved wandering ghost I could see if I could cut you loose." |
Author: pythbox | "Not even a little, tiny bit of spying?" she wheedles. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Only if you get to know them and ask for their permission first," says Bella. "Otherwise that is sketchy Peeping Tom behavior." |
Author: pythbox | She spins around and addresses Sherlock.
"Can I spy on you in the shower?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | ...
He cracks up. |
Author: cross_and_bow | So does Bella. |
Author: pythbox | Minnie bats her eyelashes.
"Pleeeeeease?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | He giggles helplessly. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Face it, Sherlock, you're pretty edible," giggles Bella. |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Oh, I'm well aware." |
Author: pythbox | "You are," sighs Minnie. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well, Minnie, if you can confine yourself to wheedling and not turning-invisible-and-lurking-without-consent, I think I can try freeing you from the prom," says Bella. |
Author: pythbox | Minnie nods several times and tries to look as innocent as possible. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Hey, Giles, I fixed the ghost's rage issues. Is there any particular reason I shouldn't un-confine-her-to-prom if I can do that with a square? She displays no interest in anything more nefarious than maybe spying on movie stars in the shower and seems willing to agree to not do even that.] |
Author: pythbox | [...This is a little out of my depth,] Giles admits. [But, er, benign hauntings are possible... to my knowledge, no one's ever tried to reform one.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Well, curing her anger issues took a square, but the square went, which wishcoins only do when they work, and then Sherlock volunteered as bait for a fit of murderousness since her standard methods wouldn't work on him and she did not try to murder him. Okay then. One free happier ghost, coming up, if a square can do it.]
Wish. Square goes.
"See if you can leave now?" Bella says. |
Author: pythbox | Minnie disappears.
Minnie reappears again and gives Bella an enthusiastic hug, solid if a little chilly. Then she spins away and plants a kiss on Sherlock. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Bella laughs. "Awesome!" she says.
[Success!] she relays to Giles. |
Author: eversomuchfun | Sherlock blinks. |
Author: pythbox | Minnie giggles.
"The look on your face!" she says. "Byeeeeeeeeeeee~!"
And she vanishes again. |
Author: cross_and_bow | "Well, hopefully that wasn't a dreadful mistake I just made," says Bella. "Wanna go enjoy the rest of the dance?" |
Author: eversomuchfun | "Do let's." |
Author: cross_and_bow | There is dancing! It's such fun. |
Author: eversomuchfun | They make a bit of a spectacle. But what is prom for if not showing off? |
Author: cross_and_bow | Of course that's the entire point. And if they're the best dancers there, that's hardly something they ought to be concealing.
Bella dutifully calls her father at a quarter to eleven.
She's gonna be out late. |