IT'S JUST A JUMP TO THE LEFT

[hdmaster_cid]

Name(s): EVERYBODY WHO WANTS TO TIME WARP AGAIN
Location: Great Hall
Week: 31
Time: Evening, about Tuesdayish?
Rating: OH GOD I DON'T KNOW....PG13 at least.

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[bring_me_sake]

Curled up in the corner of the Great Halls, Rangiku sat with her forehead resting against her knees. Her journal, which she'd kept with her through the say, was a short distance away - the victim of a horrified throw after reading one too many insane journal entries.

She leaned against the woman next to her. "I don't want to say 'this would never have happened when I was a kid,' because that makes me sound old but--" the blonde looked over at her best friend, "-- I think I might actually be right this time."

[nethiciteashe]

Ashe supported Rangiku's weight easily for her smaller frame, leaning back against her best friend in a kind of horrified silence. Something was tugging at her as though she wanted to get up and dance, but she was squashing that idea for the moment, brain too broken to really continue. She'd chosen the Great Hall to hide in on a whim, thinking it would be the safest place; however now she was beginning to think she'd been wrong about that as she glanced around at the decorations. This could not end well.

"If you are old, then so am I," she muttered. "I have to agree with you, though. This is absurd. What was the Headmaster... oh nevermind I don't want to know."

[bring_me_sake]

"You're younger than me," came the muffled reply. "Why is this the one time I turn out to be responsible and say it's a bad idea for me to have sake? At least then we could drown it out, ne?"

Lifting her head from her knees again, Ran gently nudged Ashe and slung an arm around her shoulders. "We'll be all right. As long as we stick together, Nanao can't get us." She paled a little. "You have your wand, right?"

[nethiciteashe]

"Like that matters much," Ashe muttered, wrapping one arm around Rangiku and tensing slightly as she spotted a few people trickling in. "I would say that's a good idea, but then you'd join the ranks of crazy people and I'd have to scream at you."

Nudging her friend with her foot, she snorted at the implication that she might not have her wand around. "When do I not?" she asked, leaning against her friend still. "People are starting to come in... What now...?"

[bring_me_sake]

Rangiku smiled despite herself when Ashe wrapped an arm around her. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all~ Or, at least it had it's upsides. Grinning a little at Ashe's words, she gently poked her in the ribs with the arm that had ended up wrapped around her waist. "Does that qualify me as sane the rest of the time?" she asked, teasing her just a little. "At least it's a step up from hitting me with a glove."

Nudging Ashe right back, Rangiku's small smile became a full on grin as she brushed her hair out of her face. "Fair point," she acknowledged, before looking over to the door. She didn't move though. Moving might mean the leaning would stop. "Now... we find somewhere else to hide? I can cast a great invisibility charm~"

[maestoso_tempo]

Luxord had been wandering the hallways as he had said he would for some time now but they were surprisingly quiet. He would almost say they were too quiet but that was always just begging for trouble. For some reason or other his feet had led him directly to the Great Hall. Luxord noticed that a few others were starting to enter.

Curious. Luxord stepped into the large room as well and looked around with a raised eyebrow at the decorations. He wondered if this had anything to do with the craziness that had been going on. It was very plausible. Looking around the room his eyes happened to fall on a familiar pair huddled in the corner.

Well that was certainly interesting. Luxord smirked and quietly crept over to the pair, "Am I interrupting something ladies?" It was one of those smirks you just wanted to smack someone for...unfortunately that just happened to be Luxord's default expression.

[nethiciteashe]

Ashe made a face as she was poked in the ribs, nudging Rangiku's foot again and would have retorted about charms in an atmosphere like this, but she was effectively distracted by the sight of someone making his way over to them and she scowled slightly. The expression wasn't directed at the person approaching, nor the fact that it was a man and he was most definitely going to get the right wrong idea about them. No, it was mostly that damnable smirk on his face coupled with his words.

It was as though he suspected something was going on between them.

"Of course not," she answered primly, straightening slightly under Rangiku's arm. "I take it you are one of the unaffected people?"

[bring_me_sake]

"Eeeehh?" The look Rangiku gave one was all confusion, although it was a rather overdramatised attempt to steer Luxord off course. Things were going weirdly with Ashe, and while it was weird in a good way that was resulting in lots of probably unnecessary hands-all-over-each-other, she still wasn't sure what it was the Ashe wanted. Or if Ashe knew what Ashe wanted. The other woman's clipped tone only added to that, and she considered pulling her arm from around her waist before she decided that, no, that would just be silly. And give Luxord more ideas.

"Only us trying to figure out a way out," she said, voice laced with vague confusion. "Ne, think we could borrow one of the Hippogriffs?" Her gaze slid to Luxord. "Or two?"

[maestoso_tempo]

Oh, it seemed he had hit a slight nerve. Luxord didn't mind, he'd found two people who were not effected by the spell and he was quite glad for it. "I am. I was monitoring the halls but found myself drawn to this location," he glanced around at the decorations again, "I'm starting to see why...it appears this place is soon to be the spot for a rather interesting party."

While this whole mess was a little odd and unnerving it didn't bother Luxord near as much as it did some of the other professors. "And where exactly do you plan to go? I thought our plan was to help our colleagues out...not leave them to this mess." He wondered if he'd missed something since he'd last spoken to Rangiku over the journals.

[nethiciteashe]

In all honesty, Ashe wasn't even sure where she and Rangiku stood with each other, but she was becoming increasingly more convinced that she was going to need to do something about this after everything calmed down. If it ever did.

"That depends on your definition of interesting," Ashe muttered, looking rather put out by this whole thing. It was no secret that this whole.. whatever it was had been taking its toll on her, but she had yet to make known just how badly it had affected her, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"I am staying for my students," she continued, disentangling herself from Rangiku and starting to stand up. "I am not entirely sure how to feel about what our colleagues are... doing."

[bring_me_sake]

For all that she liked Luxord, Rangiku was currently nursing quite the urge to hit him upside the head. Instead she just shot him a look one he should understand because he'd known her so long, even if she wasn't exactly sure why he was on the receiving end of the look.

Rangiku sighed. "Horrifying might be the better word." She cast a curious look at Ashe. Yes this was bad but... she had a feeling there was something she didn't know. Considering all the things Nanao had been throwing around, that was probably a bad thing.

She frowned, mouth cutting a hard line across her face.
"Then we'll help them," she told Luxord simply, pushing herself up off the floor in a completely ungraceful way. "I think the best plan would be to put them in different rooms and lock them in but..." her voice trailed off. "That might not be the best plan we can come up with," Rangiku concluded with a shrug.

[maestoso_tempo]

Rangiku did not seem pleased at all. Luxord found himself taking a step back, mostly so she could stand up, but he wasn't above admitting that it was also so she would have to reach to hit him should she so desire.

"Have you sent that owl to St. Mungo's," he asked on a whim, figuring it would be good to know whether they should expect a Healer any time soon. "Or perhaps we should start searching for some sort of counter spell...not that I'm exactly clear how this started which would make finding a counter rather difficult," he muttered the last bit of this with a frown.

He thought about Rangiku's plan for a moment, "Well...it would be a good temporary plan...but we couldn't keep them locked away forever."

[nethiciteashe]

"Yesterday," Ashe muttered in response to Luxord as she moved aside to let Rangiku stand. "I sent one out." She glanced at Rangiku, unsure if her friend had done the same or not. "It came back after an hour, dizzy with the letter still tied to its leg." She rolled her eyes a bit and leaned back against the wall, obviously not happy with any of the situations she'd found herself in currently.

"Keeping them locked up until the spell wears off would be nice," she continued, snaking a glance to where some of the affected professors had arrived. "....Though with the way some of them are, I don't think anything magical could keep them locked away. It'd be nice not to have to look at them like this...."

What on earth was Kristoph wearing?! She was sure the horror was showing on her face, but she didn't really care to do anything about it.

[bring_me_sake]

She just nodded tiredly. "Yeah, yesterday. Looks like another day at Hogwarts, only now our nurse thinks he is a tap dancer." Rangiku made a face that clearly showed she didn't think a lot of this revelation. "I can't even think of anything they have in common apart from being staff here, so it isn't like we can narrow it down." With a sigh, she brushed her hair out of her face.

Her eyebrow arched a little and she jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "You're right. I mean, Psyche can get away with wearing whatever she wants, but someone really needs to tell Godot to do up his--" the words died as her eyes settled on something new, and all the more horrifying than the bastard's exposed chest. "Ohgod," she choked out. "Kristoph?! What the hell?!"

Screw it. It was time to start drinking. This would be hilarious if it wasn't... Kristoph. "And Nanao?" Her hand made a smacking noise as it met her forehead.

[maestoso_tempo]

Luxord frowned at Ashe's news. That certainly wasn't a good sign. He wasn't sure what to make of it either. He sighed, "True, I have no doubt that whatever is influencing them would not stop them from breaking out of a room should they desire it

[nethiciteashe]

At least Ashe wasn't the only one who had just about choked when she saw whatever it was that Kristoph was wearing. The other two seemed to be at least half as surprised as she was, though really Rangiku appeared to match her incredulity.

Whatever this spell was, it certainly must be having quite the effect on the professor's subconscious if he was willing walking around in that.

Ashe really couldn't blame Rangiku for her reaction, nor Luxord for the flask he was pulling out. She had a feeling she knew what was in there and as tempting as the idea was, she knew she needed to stay sober, if for nothing else other than to keep an eye on the staff and students around her.

"I'll pass on that, but thank you," she murmured to Luxord, finally tearing her eyes away from the abysmal sight for just long enough to have to snake them back out of curiosity over what was going on now. "As much as I would love to burn away this image, I should keep an eye on the.... sane members of our school, few as they are."