groovygamers.com

Everyone is home, after school.  It's a nice quiet evening.

Donnie, Sarah, and Sylvia still feel the slight pains they had at lunch.  Colin is still feeling a little dizzy and his nose occassionally starts to bleed again but it's nothing serious, his mother says so.

OOC: Everyone make a Will Save DC 20

Will Save (1d20=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123145)

Will save (I spend a hero point and reroll) (1d20.minroll(11)+6=25) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123152)

OOC: it looks like that's my only way to make a save lately.  ::)

Will Saving Throw (1d20+3=23) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123180)

ooc: ..and tomorrow I will roll another '1' to make up for this.. :P

Colin is in his room, resting.  "Colin, time to get up."  the voice calls from the doorway.  The light coming in from the hallway shrouds the person at the door, making it impossible to make out any details.  "You've laid there on the floor long enough, it's time to get up."  The voice speaks again, but it doesn't make any sense.  Colin is in his bed, not on the floor.

*****

Donnie is home, doing homework at the kitchen counter and eating some chips.  He casually throws a chip towards the other end of the counter, where it lands.  A second later he looks up at the chip sitting on the counter.  It seemed so natural to throw the chip over there, but now he's not sure why he did it.

Sarah takes more medicine for her headache at home and lies down.  "Ugh.  I hope I'm not getting the flu or something." 

OOC:
Will Save (1d20+3=11) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123187)

She reaches for the phone on the bedside table and calls the Crow house to check on Colin. 

"What the... Who are you?"

Colin's right hand look for his glasses, while the other presses a napkin below his nose as he tries to get up.

Donnie stares at the chip. Something in his mind squirms, but settles a moment later.

Why would I throw chips at the counter? As if I had a pet or something..

Disquieted, he goes back to his homework.

The figure remains still, when it speaks again the voice is no longer vauge, but firm and familiar and loud.  "Colin, you need to get up, your friends are counting on you." It's his father's voice.

*****


Donnie continues his homework for a moment, and then notices the smell of antiseptic cleaner.

*****

Sylvia is on her room, finishing her homework when she realizes there is something in the room with her.  That eerie feeling on the back of her neck causes her to look around.  Near the closet door is a man.  He's dressed in hospital scrubs in a dingy white and canvas shoes.  He looks like he needs a shave and the look in his eyes is intense.  "Remember me?"

"Daddy?"

Colin wipes his eyes for a moment and puts on his glasses.

"Is this a dream?"

He tries to get up and to run towards the figure at the door.

"Dad? Is that you?"

Colin arrives at the doorway, but there is no one there.

OOC: Make a Notice Check DC 18

Sylvia gives the guy half a smile and then draws breath.  "MO-O-O-O-OM!"  She's up and out of her seat, heading for the bedroom door.

(ooc will save is a 5, http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123484; guess Megan thinks everything is just as it should be :))

(( 1d20+1=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123500) Used a hero point ))

Kel is doing push ups and reading.

Sylvia opens the door and there he is in the hall.  "I guess the answer is no."

OOC: Make a Will Save DC 18

Will Save (1d20=15) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123520)

Notice check (1d20+12=28) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123526)

"Dad....?"

Colin takes a look around trying to convince himself it only a dream, even if it felt so real.

"It must be the fever. I wonder what's happening to me. Mom? Are you here?"

If his mom doesn't answer he tries to drag himself to the kitchen to get some water.

"Listen carefully."  He says, looking into her eyes.  "I'm Smith.  You come to Mentano Hospital to visit me on Sunday's.  You're in some trouble, and if you don't snap out of it soon it's not going to be pretty."



Colin realizes that there are pictures missing from his walls.  at least, he feels there are pictures missing, and there are notebooks missing from his book bag.

Sylvia, with Smith between her and the stairs, looks over the railing that keeps people from toppling off the landing into the foyer.  Somehow she's been left at home, and there's some mental patient in the house with her, pulling a Freddy Krueger.  But she's no teeny-bopper scream queen.  She grabs the railing and uses her not-half-bad beam skills to straddle split over the carpentry and down to the carpeted floor below.  She does her best to avoid the entryway table.

Ok. Let sit down and take a breath.

He grabs a chair and sits down in the middle of the living room. He takes of his glasses, carefully wipes them clean, and puts them on again.

What's happening to my head? Brain cancer? Someone slipped some hallucinogens in the water at school? My memory doesn't work this way normally. I don't make up things. If I remember something, it was there.

Colin goes to check the walls where the photos should be looking for the nails they should have been hanging from.

Think, Colin, think. What are you talking about? It makes no sense. You just have a very vivid dream about daddy, and you're still a bit disoriented. Mom probably has just taken those photos down... ok, I have no idea why, but that's what must have happened, doesn't it?

He checks if his nose is bleeding again, and goes take a notebook and a pencil out of his backpack.

I could have sworn there used to be more of this notebooks in there. Did I show them to someone, and left them at school when I felt bad? Then why can't I remember about it?

He sits back on the chair and starts drawing.

Think, Colin, think. Which photos were they? Either mom moved them, and later we'll get a laugh out of this, or I kind of dreamed them, and then it could be interesting to find out why... or you're going nuts. Let's work on the second theory for the moment. What are my dreams trying to tell me?

He tries to sketch out what the "missing" photos were about, if he can remember them.

Sylvia lands in a squat, and stands up, finding she's still in her room, having apparently just landed in front of her door.  The man calling himself Smith is still there.  "Rationalize that."  He says in a tone that is devoid of humor.

OOC: Sylvia Make a Will Save DC 17


OOC: Colin Make a Will Save DC 16

Donnie gets up and looks around, looking in the cabinets for some sort of spill; some type of vicious cleanser his mom has let fall over or something.

He's not hungry anymore as the smell lingers and fills his nostrils.

She stares around the room, heart thumping in her ears.  Her voice has a pathetic note to it.  "This isn't real.  You're not real.  Where're my moms?"


Yet Another Will Save (1d20=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1123795)

[Bill's stolen all my crits and replaced them with his critical failures, or maybe Sylvia really likes it in this alternate reality--where she's pretty and popular and normal.]

ooc: Don't blame me. You are not doing the proscribed Dance to the Dice Gods before hitting Invisible Castle. I forgot yesterday.

"I wish that were true kid."  he says with a note of regret in his voice.  It was so subtle and sweet I even fell for it.  Only, I don't know what happiness feels like, so  the illusion wore thin after a little while."

Suddenly his voice is coming from the chair at her desk.

"You're partly right, this,"  he waves his arms as if to encompass the whole world, "Is not real.  You're not here in you room having a nervous breakdown with me.  You're somewhere else and far worse things are happening."

Sylvia bites her lip against the urge to cry, but it doesn't dry the shine of tears in her eyes.  "I want to wake up.  I want to go home."  But she's not thinking about waking up and going home to that forgotten world in which Rory died and people keep trying to kill them.  "Wake up," she tells herself, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking loose a few of those tears.  "Wake up, wake up, wake up."

OOC: Roll a Will Save DC 15

Sarah heads downstairs for a snack and flips on the PS2 for a little mayhem, hoping the adrenaline will help fix her headache. 

Will save (1d20+6=20) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124060)

Yay! Finally!

Colin tries to think about what might have been there, and when he's done with his drawing it's a picture of what looks like a hospital room.  There is a bed, and people nearby it.  He can't tell from the drawing who is in the bed.  He knows it's not a picture that was on his wall, but he also knows he's seen it before.


Sarah queues up a game and begins playing.  It's a Star Wars RPG game and a few minutes into playing she realizes that the game isn't the one she thought it was.  Her brother must have gotten a new game and left it in the console.  This one has a female character with some kind of staff weapon.  She seems like a Jedi.

she stops to talk to one of the NPCs to get her next mission and is amazed at the voice, she's more amazed that the character seems to have her name.

"Sarah, you're under a delusion.  You have to snap out of it.  Focus."

"Huh?"  Sarah blinks and looks down at the controller and then back at the screen.  She presses the button for the dialog to continue or to see if there are a choice of screen replies..  "Weird.  But this Jedi chick looks pretty cool.  Hey she's got red hair!  Awesome.  Maybe they mean I have to use the force or something.  Which button is that?  Why does Mart never leave the instructions for the games where anyone can find them? I wish we had the Wii.  That would be totally awesome to have light-sabre duels with."

OOC: Sarah, Make a Will Save DC 18

Colin looks at his drawing and sighs.

Ok, this clearly isn't one of those photos. So? My subconscious is telling me I should go to an hospital. I'd swear I've already seen this scene though. I wonder where...

Colin takes another look at the drawing, then at the wall, then at the drawing again.

He stands up and stretches.

Uhmm... Maybe a little cycling would help me clear out my mind."

He puts on his shoes and his heavy raincoat, he checks if his nose is behaving, he leaves a note to his mom, grabs the camera and goes out on his bike.

So, where do I go? Have I been to a hospital recently? There has been all that smoke... I heard Breanna fell and hurt her head... Did I go visit her?

He starts to cycle towards the town center.

Maybe I should ask Sarah? Or Donnie?

OOC: Need a D20 roll from Kel, Megan, and Sarah

Need a Will Save DC 20 from Kel and Megan.

(ooc 6 on the d20 and clsoer, but not quite close enough onthe Will save, a 17 http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124125)

Donnie stands in his kitchen, having gone through the cabinets and found no bottles tipped over or cleansers with caps askew. His hands are on his waist as he slowly turns in a circle.

Something was missing, but he could not put a finger on what it was.

Gimme Back My 20, Bill! (1d20=4) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124138)

[Spending a Hero Point for a reroll.]

Give it! I'm telling Mom! (1d20=17) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124141)

((Didn't realize it was another DC 20 will save...
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124122 20+1 Will=21
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124147 random roll=10 ))

Kel flips through another page as he does his push ups.

While in the dance studio working on a routine Megan takes a pretty serious tumble, managing not only to hurt her arm but hit her head on the hand rail and give herself a major headache.  It's at this point you realize there is no music playing.  You know you came in here to practice a routine, and got hurt doing it.  But there is no music playing.

*****


Donnie's mother comes in.  "What's wrong honey?"

OOC: Donnie needs to make a WIll Save DC 18

*****
Sylvia realizes that her perseptions are all wrong.  She can sense a world around her that is not a match for the world her other five senses are giving her.  She's sore, and hot and she's sure people are screaming.

"Now."  Smith says, "Remember me?"

OOC: Yes, she does.

*****

Kel is doing push-ups when he realizes he feels like he's pulled a muscle, but then the pain goes and when he tests it, the pain doesn't return.  He can smell antiseptic though, like someone is cleaning.  And there are a number of other smells that don't fit with the norm.

She opens her eyes.  Her face is dry, and she's wearing the jeans and cardigan she was wearing when she left her house.  Her expression is grim and strained.  "Yeah," she says slowly.  "What's going on?  Those damn witches again?  Can you do something about this?"

Kel stops mid one-handed push up.  He takes a few more whiffs of air as he raises himself up and looks around his room.  He plucks up the thumbnailed and dog eared collection of The Shadow stories, and tosses it to his bed as he wanders around the room and out into the hall trying to figure out who the hell is doing heavy duty cleaning.  "Gramps!?"  He calls out as he walks through the upper floors of his house looking for cleaning products, even an open can of scrubbing bubbles.

"Nothing you'll like.  Besides the backlash might be harmful.  You need to gather your little friends up.  It's best this doesn't fall apart when they're spread out, it could be disorienting."


"Yeah?"  his grandfather says, coming from his room, "What is it Kel?"

Megan cannot understand why there is no music playing as she tries to get herself back up and find her mom to check her head and arm.

Colin decides to go to the nearest hospital and check out if anything comes to his mind.

Sylvia grabs her phone, wondering if she even needs it.  It's an illusion, right?  I'm not doing this, am I?  She dials Donnie and goes running out the door to Kel's house.  "Kel!" she hollers.  "Kel!"

He looks at his grandfather "Do you smell like cleaning stuff?  Because it's all I can smell right now and I know I wasn't cleaning."

Kel's grandfather looks at him for a minute then chuckles.  "You kids say the damnest things."  he says as he walks back into his room and closes the door.

Kel can hear Sylvia yelling his name like she's on fire though.

Will Save (1d20+3=19) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124166)

Donnie shakes his head, eyes narrowed. "Something is wrong." He continues to pace around the kitchen, trying to figure it out.

Kel shakes his head as his grandfather walks away, mumbling, "Well at least I know he's just watching more reruns of Hogan's Heroes..."  When hears Sylvia screaming his name he rushes out of the house and looks around when he spots her and no crazy criminals chasing her, he sighs and says, "Hey you haven't been spraying cleaning crap on the side of my house have you because it reeks in my room..."

She doesn't crack a smile.  She's dead serious as she says, "It's not real.  None of it."  She pauses and searches his face.  "You're not going to make me try to convince you, are you?"

Colin arrives at the hospital and gets the strange feeling that it's very familiar, like he's been here very recently.  Everything seems to strike a chord, from the cars in the parking lot to the people sitting at the benches having their cigarette break.

Uhmmm, it looks like I am onto something.

He tries to let this feeling guide him along the corridors hoping to find the room of the drawing.

Kel rubs his chin, "As tempting as it is.  I suppose I won't."  He then says, "But it is a little hard to believe that none of this is real Syl.  I mean, I know we haven't talked philosophy in a while but yea, I mean well first off: this isn't another one of those conversations is it?  And next, I mean really explain how none of this is real Syl.  I'm standing here, the only thing that's not making sense is the smell.  Everything smells all....wrong..."

((I am just going out on a limb and saying he's still smelling the antiseptic))

He goes inside, and wanders around for a few minutes, but doesn't find anything promising.

OOC: Colin, make a Will Save DC 14


No limb.  He still smells it.

OOC: Kel, Make a Notice Check DC 18

Will save again! (1d20+6=12) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124209)

D'oh! It was going so well...

You sit up in bed.  The light from the hall makes it hard to see the person standing there.  "Colin"  he says, "Colin, you have to see Sylvia, she's the only one that understands what's happening."  The voice is familiar, but Colin can't quiet figure out who's it is.

"What the... Who are you?"

Colin's right hand look for his glasses, while the other presses a napkin below his nose as he tries to get up.

For a moment this scene is somewhat familiar to him, like a half remembered dream.

He wipes his eyes for a moment and puts on his glasses.

"Is this a dream?" he asks standing up.

(( http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124232 A nice 21 good sir))

As he stands there breathing in the funky air, "Yea, really disgusting of a smell out here, and in there.  It's just wrong, so ok.  I'll give you that it could be all fake, or there's been one hell of a spill.  But still, why would things be getting all matrix-y anyway?"

There are sounds that Kel can't account for.  Suddenly he's not sure what he's hearing.  It's almost like someone has a TV on really loud, but he's sure the sound isn't from a TV.

*****


The man that steps into the light is not someone Colin is familiar with.  He's pale with short unkept hair and in need of a shave.  He's dressed in dingy white hospital scrubs and canvas shoes.

"Do I look  like someone you'd dream about."  the figure says.  Then he lunges forward, arms up and yells "BOO".

Colin sits upright in his bed.  Their is light coming from the hallway, and his heart is pounding.

Kel's face twitches as the sounds start filtering, "Ok, since I know you're going to say you don't hear that...that...ugh, I don't even know.  I'll tell you what, I'll go along with this whole matrix thing on one condition: you give me one hell of an explanation later.  Besides, I've always wanted to be a hero in black leather."  He adjusts his biker jacket as he says this.

What the hell did they put in the school's water? I keep having the weirdest dreams. First my dad, now that scary guy. Uhmm, let me check one thing.

He stands up and goes to the living room to check if all the photos that should be there are there.

He's sure something isn't right.  As he looks around the room he's certain that something is not right.  Then he spots his sketch book, with a drawing of a hospital room and some people around a bed.

*****

Megan is putting ice on her knee OOC:(was it knee?) and realizes there is someone in the studio with her.

OOC:  You know the description of the scary freaky man  ;D

"Sylvia is looking for you."  he says flatly.

Then it wasn't a dream!

He puts on his shoes, grabs his raincoat, the sketchbook and his backpack, and runs out the door to his bike.

This time he doesn't go to the hospital, he goes straight where Sylvia lives.

On the way, he takes out his cellphone and tries to call her.

(ooc are you saying you don’t remember or that its another sign to Megan things are messed up?  It was her arm and head)

Megan bolts upright, dropping her icepack at the sight of the escaped serial killer (or at least someone that looked that part) that was suddenly in her room.  She runs out of the studio as best she can, screaming, “MOM!  DAD!”  Realizing she would that she would even settle for her brother right now she calls for him, “DONNIE!”

OOC: The GM couldn't remember.


As she rounds the bottom of the stairs she stops, he's standing there.  "Now, your horror movie moment is over, pick up the damn phone and call Sylvia before you all end up dead.  _{Why do they always run?}"

Megan backs up as she fumbles for her phone, speed dialing Sylvia.

"I could be wrong."  She'd be relieved if she were.  "But humor me, will you?  We need to call everybody and get them here as quickly as possible."


Sylvia gives up on reaching Donnie for the moment, eyebrows knitting in worry.  Megan's call comes through.  "Hey," Sylvia says, cutting to the chase.  "Bad news.  Get John and whomever else you can find and come to my house ASAP, please."

Megan hangs up and looks over towards the scary man while she calls John.

Then Sylvia sees the missed-call notification that came in while she was trying to reach Donnie.  She calls Colin and issues the same rapid alert.  "Drop everything.  Get ahold of Sarah, Donnie, and everyone else you can think to call and get them over to my house, please.  We're in trouble."

Kel is leaning against a tree as Sylvia begins to issue orders to people over the phone, when she's off he says, "Ok, so I'm following you in that this is all fake or whatever.  But exactly what can we do about it?  Hell better question, why would it all be fake?"

Megan calls John and Colin hangs up with Sylvia, and then they realize they're standing in Kel's yard with Sylvia and Kel.

John's phone rings, and Megan realizes that she can hear it in her phone and next to her.  John seems suprised to be standing there with her looking at his phone.

Donnie goes about the house opening doors and cabinets looking for the smell of chemicals, and then opens the door to his room, to find it now looks out on Kel's front lawn.  Colin, Megan, Kel, Sylvia and John are all there.

Megan almost drops her phone as she is suddenly in Kel’s yard.  “Never mind.”  She says to John.  “What is going on?”  She asks Sylvia.  “And who was that creepy guy that said to call you?”

Sylvia covers the receiver.  "If I explained, you'd think I was nuts, but think about all the little things that have been bugging you over the past day or so.  The smell you mentioned.  Just take it on faith for now that things are . . . too good."


Sylvia blinks at the sudden congregation.  You could have told me you could do that.


"Good guy, long story.  Suffice it to say we're not where we think we are."

"Uh... I... Ok. I'm getting there. You call Donnie, I call Sarah and Sammy. See you in a minute."

*****

"Ehmm.... Less than a minute actually. What the hell is going on?"

He lets down the bike to the ground and gets his sketchbook out of his backpack.

"I call Sarah. You guys look at this and tell me if it seems familiar to you too."

*****

"Hi Sarah, it's Colin. I know it sounds absurd, but you've got to come immediately at Sylvia's. There's something big going on. No, I can't tell you, I have no idea yet, but it makes no sense. Please hurry. See you won- ehmm, I have no idea what I was going to say. Ah, call Dave and the guys too. Ok, see you."

*****

He calls Sammy too and says something very similar. He tells her to call Elrod.

*****


"And then who are we exactly?"

Sylvia can hear the strangely reassuring sound of Smith's thoughts.  Where's the fun in that?


Now, now.  Didn't your moms tell you lying  is bad?

Kel's jaw drops when everyone's in his yard, "So, this part where I'd think you're nuts, I'm pretty sure it's gone now Syl 'cause well yea.." He gestures to the mass of everyone, and then says, "Hey guys welcome to the party of weird...population us. And what weird guy?"

"The one that looked like he escaped from a mental institution. Didn't you see him too?"

Sylvia grimaces, knowing this conversation won't get any easier until it's done, but she doesn't want them to drift away dismissively.  Even if they think she's lost her mind, she'll try to stall them until Sammy and Elrod--and maybe Dave and Greg--get there, too.  "Superheroes.  Sort of."


We'll discuss moral relativity later.


Sylvia feels compelled to defend Smith.  "He didn't escape.  He's . . . on walkabout."

“I did.”  Megan replied.  “He showed up in my dance room after I hurt myself working on a routine and was icing my arm and head.  When I tried to run, he appeared in front of me in the hallway and said to call Sylvia.”

Donnie looks around, hand raised in the air as if he were holding something. He blinks in confusion and looks towards Sylvia. "Syl?"

Sylvia goes over to him and takes his hand in hers, then gives him an impulsive kiss.  It might be a while before they're boyfriend and girlfriend again.  Best to take advantage while she can.  "It's okay.  Just come stand over here."

Don't hold your breath for Sammy.  The las one that's here.  He pauses, Anyway we're waiting on Sarah and she seems hard to move for some reason.  She might be unconscious, where you are.  We'll know more whenb we get you all back.

"Superheroes. Well I guess it makes as much sense as the rest of what's happening. At the moment my superpower seems being super-forgetful. My memory has being doing weird tricks all day. Does this hospital room says anything to you? I drew it while I was trying to draw something else. And yes, I am perfectly aware of how weird that sounds. Do you think they slipped something in the school's water?"

OOC: Everyone there to view the picture Make a Will Save DC 10

Do you want us to do anything?  I'd like to get out of here before I have to answer too many questions.  Then Colin asks about the water.  For instance. . . .


"It'll all become clear any moment now."  That's your cue.


Will Save (1d20=9) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124482)

“Superheroes?  Us?”  Megan asked, not believing Sylvia had said that.  “How could we be superheroes?”

When Colin mentions a hospital room, she tries to think of if that is familiar or not.

(ooc now I roll a 20.  22.  http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124483)

"You'd be surprised how often I ask that question myself."

Will save (There's no place like home!) (1d20+6=22) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124504)

Kel smirks, "Now you see Syl, that makes sense.  She said I'd think she was crazy."  He looks at the others and says, "I'm actually kind of surprised that the rest of you would be superheroes though, I mean no offense but only John here looks like he could take a hit."  He then smirks at Syl, "So how many evil crime lords have we taken down? 20? Or is just you're typical save the world from evil aliens deal?"

((Woot, Kel's impressive iron will shows itself again: 1d20+1=3 (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1124503) ))

Sylvia opens her mouth and then gives Kel an apologetic wince.  "Enjoy the amnesia."

Mom was driving us, wasn't she?  Is she okay?