[Preston Howell is completely unaware that his houseguests are out murdering each other instead of protecting themselves against highly-trained teen assassins. He’s looking for the girl who didn’t show up for the meeting.] -05:13 Jun 29
[Raven is just a normal every day teenager damnit. All she wanted was a summer job! Now she is in the kitchen looking for the booze, because there was no way being trapped on an island with crazy people was going to end well.] -05:14 Jun 29
Raven: Rifling through the cabinets in the kitchen… The staff must have known that people would snoop for alcohol, because she wasn’t finding anything. That sucked! The way things were looking, she was probably going to be the first picked off in a serial killer horror massacre, and now she was going to be sober! -05:15 Jun 29
Preston Howell: Thankfully Tim, his chief of security, had given Preston a heads-up about where the camera was showing Raven during the meeting. Preston hadn’t stuck around even a minute; he made a beeline straight for the kitchen. And when he got there… What was she doing? "Are you, uh, are you alright?" -05:19 Jun 29
Raven: Raven jumped, slamming one of the cabinet doors in the process. In an instant, she was relieved it was him and not that crazy guy from outside. …and then just as quickly she was pointing a hand at him and freaking out. "You! Are you totally insane?! People in the hall said you handed out -weapons-! People our age can barely handle math tests, what are they supposed to do with guns and knives!" -05:21 Jun 29
Preston Howell: He held up his splayed hands as if ready to push her back, dumbfounded. "But! You- The guy with the knife and the backflips is our age, too! And he’s attacking them! I just want people to be safe!" -05:24 Jun 29
Raven: "You don’t give them weapons! I already heard someone shoot off one of those guns! There was one crazy guy, and now there’s dozens!" Raven didn’t think he was so sheltered in his rich guy life not to have common sense. She glared at him for a moment before the expression faded to something much more anxious. "He’s not like… some sort of island legend ghost of a maniac is he? This wasn’t some sort of trick to capture people’s souls or something? Because it’s way too surreal!" -05:28 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do! I guess maybe he’s here to kill me?" Preston frowned, then turned on his bluetooth, dialing for Tim. If people were really shooting each other, he needed to stop them! …Why wasn’t his call going through? "Tim? Hello? Tim?" Just then, what was DEFINITELY gunfire went off, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. -05:33 Jun 29
Raven: "…phones not working is the first sign of being screwed." More gun shots. Totally screwed! Raven was stepping closer to him, just from instinct alone and taking a quick look at the doors. "Don’t you have security and stuff? Where are they at! We can’t just stay here in the kitchen though…" -05:36 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "That’s who I’m trying to call!" This was not good! Thankfully Preston was pretty used to thinking on his feet. Grabbing Raven’s hand, he tugged her toward the back of the kitchen. There was a service door back there that would take them in the opposite direction of where gunfights were apparently going on. "We can head for the panic room. We’ll have to get upstairs, but once we’re there we’ll be safe and we can start figuring this out." -05:41 Jun 29
Raven: Raven squeezed his hand, and really couldn’t stop scowling. At least he kinda had a good idea about what to do. Even if he started the whole mess in the first place. She would cast a look over her should ever so often to make sure they weren’t being followed, but kept close on his heels. "I just wanted a cool, normal summer job… Do you know the sort of people you invited?" -05:46 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "Not personally… I just wanted everyone to get away from things and relax! The assassin guy, he wasn’t invited…" He stopped in his tracks suddenly, pulling Raven with him into an alcove as a girl holding a katana wandered zombie-like down the hallway. "…I don’t really know how this happened," he finished, eyes wide, when the girl was out of earshot. -05:52 Jun 29
Raven: She was silent as a mouse. Holding her breath and holding on to his shirt like he was some sort of life line. That girl looked… high as a kite, really! Once she was gone down the hall, Raven whispered. "She didn’t seem… right. Maybe it wasn’t your fault…" Raven wasn’t exactly queen of conspiracy theories, but she read enough books to get feel at guessing at stuff. Would a bunch of teenagers REALLY be so dumb to immediately start killing each other? Surely not! -05:57 Jun 29
Preston Howell: Preston glanced at her, and suddenly realized how close she was. Coughing, he made sure the coast was clear and started on towards the elevator! It wasn’t really the time to be getting all awkward! Unfortunately, when they got there… "Uh, that doesn’t look good." The buttons for the elevator had been completely ripped out of the wall, wires poking out and crackling with sparks. -06:07 Jun 29
Raven: Maybe it was good she didn’t find any alcohol. Had she gotten herself drunk, she wouldn’t be able to process all these…. weird things! "Someone really wanted to make everything as shitty as possible. Are there stairs?" Raven still held on to his hand, and now she definitely didn’t want to let go. "…I’m starting to think we need a weapon too…" -06:17 Jun 29
[Raven enters.] -06:26 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "Right. Back staircase it is." No way were they going up the main staircase while this was going on. As for the weapons… There was a fire axe somewhere around here, wasn’t there? If he could just find it… -06:28 Jun 29
Raven: Down the hall and towards the back stairs they went. And much to Raven’s displeasure, the hallways weren’t looking so nice and normal like always either. She was pretty sure she saw blood splotches here and there. Some holes… on the bright side, there were no dead bodies? She was holding on to his arm now. She hated horror movies. This was so not cool! At the stairwell, she peeked through the doorway to see if anyone was lurking inside. -06:34 Jun 29
[(Timeout) Raven was sacrificed to the gods of Roleplay by a vicious tribe of rampaging plot bunnies.] -06:49 Jun 29
Preston Howell: There was, in fact, someone there. They had also just found the fire axe! Preston tackled Raven out of the way of the swinging axe blade, stumbling over his own expensive leather shoes as the crazy guy came at them. "Get upstairs!" -06:49 Jun 29
Raven: She screamed, which probably wasn’t smart. But who was smart when a psycho was swinging and axe at you?! Still shrieking she was scrambling up the stairs with Preston close behind her, near crashing in to the door and collapsing in to the hall. She grasped at Preston to all but drag him through the threshold, then was slamming the door closed and leading against it. "We are so screwed..! " -06:52 Jun 29
Preston Howell: The sound of wood splintering on the other side of the door punctuated her statement. Gulping, Preston scrambled to secure the latch. They were on the right floor now, at least; they just had to get to the panic room without being caught. He hoped no one had heard Raven scream… A door down the hall behind them swung slowly open, and Preston yelped, grabbing Raven’s hand again and hurrying forward. Maybe they should just make a run for it! -07:04 Jun 29
Raven: She nearly got axed through the door in the face! Raven was sure she saw that in the Shining! His yelp might have made her laugh, if she weren’t herself trying to stiffle another scream. She made the mistake of looking over her shoulder to see what was behind them and caught the sight of one of those guys she saw earlier. Nothing but his swim trunks on and someone’s red handprint dragged over his chest. ….Raven decided she wasn’t look back any more. -07:08 Jun 29
Preston Howell: They dashed down the hallway, chased by psychopathic teens and by not-nearly-distant-enough echoes of bullet fire. Preston was sweating through his suit again, and his heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest. He had just ducked through a doorway with Raven close behind when there was a droning hum and they were pitched into utter blackness. Stopping short, he gripped her tighter. "Power’s been cut," he whispered. -07:16 Jun 29
Raven: And here she thought things weren’t going to get any worse. Raven held on to him. They were in the dark, with crazies everywhere and he was the only thing solid and not insane! Still trying to catch her breath, Raven attempted to think it all through without slipping in to some sort of mindless panic. Panic was getting hard to resist now! "I don’t have a flash light." she muttered softly, trying to keep her voice from shaking and loud enough for him to hear without getting them noticed. "You know your own house don’t you…?" She could hear HIS heart beating, it made her wonder if anyone in the hall could hear it too! -07:22 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "Y-yes, uh, I do," he stammered quietly. He needed to keep cool. She was scared too, so he should keep as calm as possible or they’d both lose it! "Yes. We’re really close now, and the panic room runs off of a backup generator. We just need to be careful getting there. Come on." He squeezed his arms around her briefly before once again beginning to carefully pick a way across the blacked out room. Things had gone eerily silent now, and he almost wished the gunfire was back now! -07:27 Jun 29
Raven: Her thoughts were very similar. Silence was worse. In silence, things like to get sneaky and pop out of no where. Especially in the dark. Raven kept a tight grip on his clothes and wasn’t farther than two steps from him. Every time he stopped she ended up running in to him, and wasn’t apologetic about it! When they neared a wall, she kept a hand against it too to keep her barings. -07:36 Jun 29
Preston Howell: When he took a step forward and something squelched under his shoe, chills shot down Preston’s spine. Maybe it was for the best that he couldn’t see to know for sure what he was stepping in, but all the same, he had a pretty good idea. And he wasn’t about to let Raven know. "Wait," he told her in a hushed tone. "Here. Let me just-" It was a little tricky in the dark, but he managed to scoop her up bridal-style. He was a lot stronger than he looked! This way they wouldn’t make so much noise, either. -07:47 Jun 29
Raven: Raven wasn’t expecting to be picked up off the ground, but at least she managed to squelch her squeak of surprise in to a hushed hiss of breath. Just from the fear he would drop her she was quickly locking her arms around his neck. If she could see she’d have been staring at him, but Raven settled for her unnoticed frown and hiding her face at his neck. "It’s worse isn’t it. Dead people." she muttered. -07:53 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "We don’t know that," he answered, although he was pretty sure that much blood couldn’t mean anything else. "We’re going to be okay, I promise. I just wish I understood why this was happening. Everthing was fine before that guy showed up…" -07:58 Jun 29
Raven: "Maybe they’re zombies… the murdering kind, not the brain eating kind…" Zombies weren’t real, but neither were teenage assassins either. Or kooky billionaires with special Island Invites for once in a lifetime offers. ….she was just gonna have to stop debating what was real! "I don’t wanna to know what’s happening, I just wanna get out." At this rate she’d start crying! Fat lot of good that’d do. Raven just squeezed him tighter! -08:02 Jun 29
[(Timeout) Raven got too distracted for their own good…] -08:49 Jun 29
[Raven enters.] -08:49 Jun 29
Preston Howell: Preston was quiet, stomach flipping, as they finally went through the door to his office. He set Raven down and fumbled his way to the desk, nearly knocking over his dead computer moniter as he searched for the hidden panel. When he finally found it and entered the code, the back wall of the room slid open. The fluorescent overhead lighting in the panic room was dim, but still bright enough to make him blink and squint owlishly. "Come on, we’ll spend the night in here and figure out what to do in the morning. Maybe I can get the cameras back online…" -09:07 Jun 29
Raven: She cast a bit of a grim expression at the thought of the cameras, but it really was the smart thing to do. They had to know what they were dealing with! She rubbed her eyes a bit, both from the adjustment to the light and from trying to hold back tears. Raven really didn’t waste any time skittering in there where it was safe! "I can’t believe people actually have these things." she muttered, at least trying to have some humor in her voice. -09:11 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "Why not? They’re so useful!" He didn’t hesitate to shut them both inside. Now only he or his butler, Thornton, would be able to let them out. "There was this one time in one of my other houses when someone hired a man to kidnap me and ransom the company, and another when one of the robots broke out of the lab… I would have been in big trouble both times without a panic room!" -09:15 Jun 29
Raven: "Are you serious…? Stuff like that actually happens?" Raven sank on to the single small bed. Her mouth twisting up when she spotted the red footprints from his shoes on the floor. ….Try not to think about! She squeezed her eyes shut. "Before today, the weirdest thing that ever happened to me was my parents…" -09:18 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "Your parents? What happened?" He sat down next to her, loosening his tie. He still felt a little awkward getting all dishevelled in front of a girl, but he was overheated and it was going to be warm in here even with the backup AC running. -09:26 Jun 29
Raven: She opened one eye, enough to catch him fussing with his clothes. …and being reminded about seeing him half naked earlier in the day. Raven almost started smirking. "They’re just weird in general… Totally were in to the goth craze and never got out of it? They’re always walking around like vampires or in lolita lace. It’s the most embarassing thing in the universe." -09:33 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "Why is that embarrassing?" And why was she looking at him like that? He edged away a little. "They’re just clothes, right?" Perhaps Raven was barking up the wrong tree here. Preston had been wearing an entirely silver suit earlier… -09:36 Jun 29
Raven: "It’s not the clothes, just… how they act! All the time! They don’t really act like parents." He was scooting away from her, now with both eyes open she was grinning. A soft and weary expression that was more relief to have something to grin about. Raven looked away to take a gander at the room itself. "I was hoping a job like this would get me away from them for awhile. Kinda wishing I was back home now…" -09:40 Jun 29
Preston Howell: The room was fairly spartan: bare walls, the single bed, a mini fridge, a landline phone, and a trunk. Preston had never had to use this particular room before, but he knew there was a flashlight and first aid kit inside, as well as some other supplies and clothes. "I’m sorry. Did I really mess up that badly? I didn’t think anyone would hurt each other on purpose." He combed his fingers through his hair, looking as lost as he felt. Usually his crazy schemes worked! -09:59 Jun 29
Raven: "Not the brightest idea in the world, but you’d think people would be intelligent enough to not go bananas." she shrugged her shoulders, that grin fading as her stare focused on their feet. "Something had to of happened. I mean, people don’t just get a gun and starting shooting people like crazy. I don’t know…" she was grasping at straws! So much for being an A+ student, education didn’t help for shit in real world situations! -10:03 Jun 29
Preston Howell: "You’re right, this is weird." He frowned. Something fishy was definitely going on around here, and he was going to figure it out. Just as soon as he got some kind of communication going again. He tried his bluetooth again, but all he got was an out-of-service tone. "If things are still bad in the morning, I’ll make sure you get home, okay? If we need to, I can fly us out of here in my helicopter." He just hoped that his service crew had refueled it before things went crazy. -10:15 Jun 29
Raven: "You can fly a helicoptor?" she didn’t sound like she believed it, but she did look a little more hopeful that things weren’t -quite- as grim. "That’s actually kind of cool. In a weird, james bond sort of way." Raven leaned closer to peer at his phone. That sure wasn’t going to work. -10:18 Jun 29