Fantasy PHANTASMA: SCHOOL OF THE STRANGE

[MechaGhoul]

Note to self, get more binding materials. I'd rather not like to run out, I-it's pretty useful.. Susie thought to herself as she glanced down. She continued to meditate for awhile, before she got up and went around the trunk, opened it up and pulled out a bright cyan hand puppet, which had two black beads for eyes, a bit of purple cloth as a fluffy mohawk, and some black and red cloth to represent the mouth.





"So not practicing with ME? You damn well know our act is better than you and... Is that Fuffernoodle?" The Unholy Puppet blinked glancing at the regular hand-puppet. Susie shut the trunk back as she glanced at her hand-puppet.





"Heyo!" Fuffernoodle declared, as Susie kept her mouth slightly open, and kept her lips from moving too much. "Wouldn't ya believe I'm not feeling blue. Though I'm a bit green with envy, and purplexed on why it's taking Godot so long to show, usually he's golden with timing." Suzie glanced at Fuffernoodle annoyed. "Could you please stop with your colorful descriptions?"





"All riiiiight fine. I'm a little rusty in showbiz. Unlike that Ferdie, I don't knock them dead. Which is a bad thing knowing what kinda reception we get after the show!"





"Yes well that would be a problem if our act wasn't dead on arrival."





"I wonder whose Hell this is, ours or the audience?"

 

[CSA]

"I... I didn't choose to lie down here, Anya. I fell over when I pulled you off Susie, remember? Five seconds ago?" said Lily, Picking Anya up and taking a seat on her bed.


"That's better, huh? So, like how long do I have to-"


Lily found her attention being pulled once again to Susie, who was apparently doing some sort of comedy act with one of her dummies.


"It's a good thing that being so weird makes her cute instead of eerie, otherwise I can only imagine how much she would get bullied."

 

[DarkAncient]

(really sorry about the late reply hope this post is still even relevant I just got spearheaded by work this week)


Elric walked up to Richter as the classes ended and smiled with a fake salute. "Reporting for detention sir! I hear you are substituting for combat lessons." He laughed and light up a cigarette holding one out to Richter. "You smoke? After all immortality means not worrying about your lungs." Another laugh and then a puff of smoke. "So what am I doing today aside from cleaning up my usual mess? Am I taking out the trash or sharpening all the swords we use for practice?"

 

[MechaGhoul]

Susie continued practicing as she glanced at Fuffernoodle. She appeared quite wrapped up in her own performance, and probably oblivious to the outside world at this particular moment in time.


"Well clearly it's both."


"Hey good to see you are in high spirits!"


"Well we surely aren't in the heavens. Do you know what that'd be like?"


Susie raised her eyebrow at Fuffernoodle. The puppet's mouth moved back as it was scrunched up.


"I always imagined as some sort of exclusive nightclub. Ya know Saint Peter standing in front of the rope, checking the list. Why'd ya think indulgences were sold? Those guys didn't have good enough shoes to get past the bouncers!"

 

[ComradeSenpai]

"Neither my vices nor my substitute classes tomorrow are of concern. After you fill in the hole you made in the wall" Richter motioned to some crack filler, "I need the men's room on the second floor scrubbed top to bottom, and the mats in the gym smell of sweat; you may as well scrub those as well."


"Oh, one more thing!" the vampire snapped his fingers. "Some student spilled a bunch of spaghetti on my floor earlier. Clean that up before the parmesan begins to stink."


-------------------


Back in her dorm, Anya stared with wide eyes at the sights before her. More puppets had come for her, and they made idle conversation with the elf. She always had a feeling something was off about the school, but never did she anticipate the horrors she'd come across.


"Lily" she whimpered, tugging her shirt. "It's happening again."

 

[DarkAncient]

Elric sighed and picked up the crack filler. "You know I might as well be the school janitor Mr. Richter. Why not pay me by the hour and I'll just wash the rest of the school as well." He put the loose cigarette away and took another puff from his starting to work on the crack. "Why are you always so uptight anyway? You might be one of the more respectable teachers if you didn't make everyone think you were going to snap their neck." He laughed and finished with the hole he made taking another quick puff. "Well, to work it seems." Elric let out a small chuckle followed immediately by a deep sigh and began to walk towards the second floor stairs.

 

[Death Star]

Already awaiting Elric inside the men's restroom was Sergio Giordano, wearing a plastic apron and plastic kitchen gloves. In both hands, Sergio held a rag, using them to wipe the floor. In his mouth was a slide whistle, which he seemed to control by nodding sporadically up and down. Flying around the restroom were buckets of water as well as mops, which shook back and forth, washing out the bathroom grime but also dancing like a Mickey Mouse cartoon.

 

[DarkAncient]

"What are you doing in here Sergio?" Elric took another puff from his cigarette and looked around at everything that was happening. "I am pretty sure that you didn't get detention yourself." He took out a rag and began to wipe the mirrors down sighing. "If you insist on helping you are going to have to clean up your own pasta. The stuff is starting to smell, and despite being undead I don't do well with rotten smells." He finished his cigarette and dropped the butt into the sink washing it down the drain. "You have some impressive musical magic if you can do this with a silly slide whistle."

 

[Death Star]

Sergio turned to face Elric and smiled. As he did, the whistle fell from his mouth and onto the yet-to-be washed floor. As soon as it did, all the cleaning tools stopped and dropped onto the ground. Sergio looked down at his whistle, spat on it, then put it into the pocket of his apron. "Um. Thank you." Sergio replied.


"I'm gonna clean that once this place is finished. You go do whatever you need to be doing." Sergio explained. He put the whistle back into his mouth and began playing again. After a minute, the mops began to animate again, followed by the buckets. Sergio went back to work.

 

[CSA]

"Huh?"


Lily turned her attention back to Anya. She didn't really know what the girl meant, but this weird dummy stand up act was entrancing. Mostly because it was Susie doing it. The Elf was making jokes with a dummy, and she wasn't even stuttering a lot.


"What's happening again, Anya? Does Susie do this a lot or something and I just haven't noticed? Because I think I would have noticed this."

 

[MechaGhoul]

"Riiiight so..." Susie rolled her eyes at Fuffernoodle, "What is Hell li-." Pausing, she was now ripped out of her world of practicing some material with her hand-puppet, from some earlier whimpering, and the sound of Lily's voice. H-how did I forget!? Rubbing both of her eyes with her free hand, she pondered on how she got distracted from their presence.


She glanced at them, confirming that yes, the Alarune and the Neko were both still there. "S-say Fuffernoodle... W-why don't we practice the rest of the bit er uhm, a bit later." Nodding in affirmative, well really Suzie maintaining the character of Fuffernoodle nodded. She took the puppet from her hand, and placed it back into the trunk.


Staring at the two, she began rubbing the back of her head with her right hand. "Eheheheh...er uhm..." She nervously chuckled as she stopped rubbing the back of her head. Tapping her two index fingers she glanced back at her trunk.

 

[DarkAncient]

Elric sighed and gave Sergio a pat on the head. "Well I have a gym to clean. You really are a strange little Italian, but you aren't half bad." He chuckled and grabbed one of the dancing mobs and buckets as it swayed back and forth. "I'll have to borrow this though, you seem to be using all of them." He shook the mop a few times until it stopped moving autonomously and walked over to the gym area. "Smells like death in here, well I guess it kinda smells like me on a bad day." Laughing at his own joke Elric quickly returned to his normal mood of superiority and began to mop the floors.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

"No, I mean.... it's moving on its own again." Anya whispered, tugging on Lily's shirt. She calmed down slightly as Susie put the horrendous thing away.


"How do we stop it from moving on its own, Lily? Can you tell me?"

 

[CSA]

Lily's face slowly contorted into a wide grin, and she let out a soft squeal.


"His name is Fuffernoodle? That's just too adorable!" squeaked Lily, holding Anya with one hand and placing the other on her cheek in a way that said 'this is so precious I can barely even stand it'.


"Hey, it's alright Anya. It's cute. Besides, Susie is controlling that one with her hands. It's not moving around on its own, see? She and I talked. Her dummies aren't going to scare you again, so you don't have to worry. Anyways, I'm here now. I'm not going to let bad stuff happen to you."

 

[MechaGhoul]

"Y-y-yes his na-ame is Fuffernoodle." She replied, a bit taken back from Lily's squeaking. Blushing from the comment of Fuffernoodle's adorable comment she spoke up again.


"From the Gumdrop Forest..." Susie said, revealing part of the origin story of the hand-puppet.


Focusing on Anya, she knew she had to help quell her fear. "F-F-Fuffernoodle isn't as rambunctious as Ferdie. A-and y-yes he's just a hand puppet." Susie eyed back at the trunk, before glancing back at them.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

THE NEXT MORNING


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The students stood in a line as the bell rang, signalling gym classes start. Richter entered, reading over a clipboard, then stopping over some padded mats, reeking of sweat and the faintest tinge of blood.


"Alright, I think you know what you're here for." the vampire spoke aloud, glaring over the aligned students. "Before we begin, are there any questions?"

 

[MechaGhoul]

Susie felt well, a lot of things. All of them were incredibly bad, and as such she was grimacing in a bit of horror, especially if he kept to the plans of Martin, who did mention wrestling, or perhaps he didn't mention it. Maybe she was terrified of this for nothing, the line certainly seemed a bit ominous. Yes, there was a good chance that Susie was just assuming the worst possibility. T-the p-p-potential f-for g-grappling! No, NO! Far too much contact! IT can't be that! She thought to herself as her knees shaking a bit. C-couldn't it just have been sword-play!? In it, there is far less chance for, horrible, horrible things to happen! M-maybe it'll be okay, maybe I'm just overreacting. Susie knew in her heart that she had to find a good excuse to avoid what was about to come. Cold sweat dripped down her face, as she was fearful of being unable to escape the horror. Or maybe everything would be fine and she was just overreacting. However whether or not Susie was sane in this situation, there was one constant, she was nervous.

 

[Death Star]

In the morning, Sergio awoke without the slightest hint of sunlight in his room. His alarm blared loudly signalling that it was 7 o clock and the entire room smelled of molded cheese. Good.


Sergio rose comfortably, rubbing his eyes. The entire scene made him feel at home already, Sergio throwing off his sheets before hopping off and carefully making his bed. Sergio's morning routine was quick, as he dashed into his bathroom, then out fully clothed and showered and teeth as clean as an Italian's teeth could be. That is, not very; but at least he wasn't British. The bell rang soon after, Sergio already on the way to his class.


As Mr. Richter explained to the class, pictures of Sergio's home had filled his head. He remembered the scenes of men, clad in leotards and sporting manly beards grappling each other into submission. There was a slight twinkle in his eye.


"I would like to volunteer!" Sergio raised his hand fervently.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

"You can volunteer after you change." Richter said to the Italian.


"Today, we wrestle. Men and women are separated. Nonetheless, we only have one referee, and thus one match at a time. One more thing."


The vampire produced a leotard, a scant looking one-piece clothing, made of a taut material, and not unlike an old-timey bathing suit. "These are the proper wrestling attire. I've taken liberty of determining your sizes; you'll each find a set in your locker. Go change."

 

[CSA]

The gumdrop forest. Fuffernoodle was from the gumdrop forest. If Susie wasn't totally adorable before, and she was, then she would be now. When Lily wasn't comforting Anya and helping with her laundry that night, certainly she would be fawning over Susie and asking her about the gumdrop forest.


And then morning came, and Lily found herself in the gym; being asked to wear a leotard after that weird Italian kid openly volunteered to grapple with other sweaty, smelly men. Leotards were fine, really. They hugged Lily's subtle curves right, but they weren't nearly revealing enough. Not like the small pink tube top and jean shorts she was currently wearing.


Lily generally didn't like wearing the same thing day to day, but jean shorts were just so comfy and they made her rear look incredible. Besides, these ones were different. They were shorter.





Lily sighed and went into the girl's locker room to change. She supposed that it wouldn't do to get some mammal's disgusting perspiration on her nice clothes anyways.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

Anya's eyes, no, her very soul were alight as she followed her friends into the locker room. She knew little of wrestling, but she knew they wore wonderfully flamboyant outfits, and flew threw the air to kick each other in the head.


She was squealing in delight until she pulled out her leotard- a plain looking piece of spandex that reminded her of a weird swimsuit.


"Maybe... Maybe we're supposed to decorate it ourselves?" she asked herself as she tugged off her sweater.


A few minutes later, and Anya had wrestled on the outfit. She was surprised at how snug the one-piece managed to hug her body; were it not for the solid color, she'd have felt bare.


"Lily, I don't feel like a wrestler." she called aloud.

 

[Zerohex]

Martin wandered into the gym, already clad in his leotard and boots. This wouldn't really be strange except he'd been missing for a few days and he looked, to be quite frank, like shit. He was battered and bruised, caked with dirt and dry blood and was still sporting some bandages here and there. His boots looked ready to fall apart and the upper left part of his leotard had been clearly torn right off, exposing further injuries to his torso. Looking for all the world like a walking dead man, he ignored students as he approached Richter. "Am I late? It doesn't feel late..."

 

[MechaGhoul]

C-crap! Susie thought to herself as it was confirmed that grappling was to be done. Trudging very slowly she entered the locker room. Mortified at the idea of the leotard and the prospect of both being forced to be in one and to be made to grapple others, she immediately thought of a potential escape attempt.


Judging the height of the lockers, as compared to the ceiling of the locker room, she paused to take notice of the ceiling itself. It looks like maybe, just maybe if I can get up there I can push it and stowaway up in the crawlspace.


Prenez de la hauteur, où les As sont élevés.





Waiting for the opportune moment, when no one had their eyes focused on this moment, she used her natural eleven grace to try to ascend and escape this burdensome situation.

Spoiler

[dice]1939[/dice]


... Whiiiich didn't seem likely at all. First she had her hands clammy from fear of having to participate, so it made it incredibly difficult to get a proper hold. Oh even though Susie made it up a little ways, she found that her baggy pants were caught in the locker.


The following unfortunate series of events caused her several problems in her escape plan, making this iteration of it a futile effort. Susie was valiantly attempting to remove the pants from the trap of the locker without ripping them up horribly. A task which at the moment seemed quite impossible.


No! No! No t-this c-can't be happening!!!

 

[Death Star]

Without another word, Sergio hurried into the locker rooms and tore open his locker, pulling from it the suit. It hurt slightly to part with his instruments, but Sergio was confident he would be reunited with them soon. The Italian slammed his locker shut, then briskly walked back to the wrestling mats, feeling the squelching of blood and sweat on his feet with each step.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

"Hm? Oh, no, I just sent in the students to change. Then when they get out, we can begin the lesson." the vampire said, peering up from his clipboard.


"Actually, you have experience in wrestling, right? You should stick around; you'd be a better referee than I." he said, nodding.