Just Hangin' Out (OPEN)

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh pointed a finger at his super-villain mater. “Don’t forget about the cake.” No cake, no wishes, those were the rules Ray was making up on the spot. Ray wouldn’t mind be will protected though, no one could hurt him if he was in the protection of the person who would probably inevitably be their overlord anyways, he was thinking back to Aladdin, probably best not to let anyone know she had a genie, he didn’t want to be stolen and have to answer to another person against Alex, he liked Alex, super-villain or not.

“I’m quick, especially if we wanna make them look a little bit shady,” he said and honestly they probably wouldn’t be much like ghouls, probably more just like scary looking people. He was already thinking about how he should paint them. Ray did stuff like this all the time, granted he usually did it on the border of a notebook not on a wall, but a canvas was just a flat piece of something to paint the mind’s eye for the physical eye. “Right, well we’ll make do with what time we have, though for painting ghouls you might need to create a little bit of a diversion,” he grinning feeling absolutely sinister, he was such a rebel. It was definitely going to be a new experience and he was glad he’d met Alex, she was probably a bad influence but everyone needed a little bit of a bad influence in their lives.

Laughter burst from Raylaigh’s lips as he failed to keep a straight face and he fanned his face with his free hand as if he was being a fan girl. “Oh won’t some of your cool rub off on me?” He teased and swung their hands and grinned at her antics. “Don’t worry, it’s a common problem,” Ray grinned and his wings fluttered and Ray lifted his chin a little bit and gave an arrogant smile. He really was a little too full of himself for his own good. Ray’s smile was stuck on, he was so excited and now he had an outlet so he at least didn’t look like a crazy person. He wondered if Alex had a boyfriend, he certainly hoped not, he was not looking to get punched in the face. Alex was very pretty, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she did, not to mention she was pretty much awesome.

“’Kay,” he said with a nod and he turned away to gather his sheets. Raylaigh was pretty sure his mother was not going to be happy if he lost her sheets but it was all in the name of fun, there was no way she could be mad about that right? Raylaigh was having problems not looking like he was plotting something when he walked through the halls with his sheets in his bag. He waved at a few people who passed but didn’t stop walking like he was on a mission, as he was. Granted it wasn’t unusual for Raylaigh to be grinning without an explanation. He happened to just think about things that made him happy, it was a lot more fun than thinking about unhappy thoughts and it made things like this easier because Ray was the most unsuspicious suspicious person ever.

Ray caught sight of Alex and waved. “Same,” he said and grinned like a loon for a moment before he struggled to control his features and keep himself looking like he wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. “We couldn’t made it twenty minutes so you didn’t have to run,” he teased lightly and shrugged his bag off and pulling it open. “How much time do you think we have? I should probably start writing if you wanna set our ghosties up somewhere.” He said looked at her a wicked look in his eyes as he considered just how much trouble he could get in for writing on the walls. But the paint was invisible wasn’t it?

[Genesis Kyland]

"Yeah, yeah, as a supervillain I won't have any problems getting cake." Alex grinned. "You'll have plenty, just don't kill yourself on it 'cause a dead genie won't be very fun."

"Hang around long enough, and maybe and little of my coolness will rub off." She snickered, amused at his antics. "I'm sure it's a very common problem. You just have people throwing themselves at you left and right. It's a wonder your girlfriend isn't jealous." She tossed out the last bit mostly out of curiosity about whether he had a girlfriend or not. Or boyfriend. Whatever floated his boat. He definitely seemed the type to have someone-- not really shy at all and likable enough.

Alex snorted at his teasing. "Hey, I don't have wings on my feet to help me out, cheater." She smirked and held out the paint and brush. "It'll look like it's white paint for a couple moments before it dries," she directed, pulling from memory what her friends had said before. When she'd first taken part in a prank with invisible prank, she'd thought it mildly strange, but also somewhat cool that there was such thing as paint no one could see. It would make painting with it almost like being blind. However, when she'd expressed the thought to one of said friends, she was quickly put on the right track. Just because it was invisible paint, they'd said, didn't mean that one looked into the jar and saw nothing but the bottom of the jar. She'd felt a little silly after learning that...

As Ray handed over the sheets, Alex feigned a few coughs to judge where things were in the lobby, mostly to place where the coat rack was, and any other objects that might be of use for hanging their "ghosts" on. "Work quick, all right?" she directed. "I'll tell you if anyone starts getting close." Perks of echolocation and super good hearing. A very high privilege, and she used it well. "Oh, and try not to get it on yourself. When the lights go out, if you have that stuff on you, you'll stick out like a sore thumb as the culprit." Though the warning seemed obvious enough to Alex, it was Ray's first big prank, after all, and she wanted to have all the bases covered.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

“See, here’s the benefit,” he said holding up a finger, “You just make your first wish that I be forever sexy and fit.” He said, easy solution to a ridiculous problem. Raylaigh laughed, he was having so much fun with Alex, she was definitely the coolest person he’d met. She wasn’t afraid of anything and she practically leaked confidence. “I’m not going anywhere, I’m kinda stuck with the bottle and I owe you your wishes.” He giggled and blushed a little bit at the idea and ran a hand dramatically through his hair. “It’s so hard being this beautiful,” he agreed then gave her a sideways look, “I’m sure you have the same problem.”

“Nah, no girlfriend for me,” he said waving their hands forward and back, he always a little nervy about telling people outright and his smile became shy and he ducked his head and peeked at her. He’d told Maddie and she’d taken it very well. He just hated when it came up in conversation, he was still expecting people to react poorly to it. Jack had always told him that his parents would hate him if he told them that he was gay, and he’d stressed how important it was that no one know that they had been dating. Ray swallowed and laughed it off, he only just met Alex, he didn’t know a lot about her, but he really liked her and he hoped that she wouldn’t hate him if he told her. Oh well, it wasn’t important, not right now so he’d hold off.

Raylaigh snickered, “Don’t blame me for your misfortunes!” Because not getting wings on her feet was truly a sad turn of events. “Perfect,” he said taking the paint and looking inside the lid. Raylaigh nodded, working quick, got it. “Sweet, I’ll get to work then.” He dipped the brush into the paint and turned to look at her and nodded with a sheepish grin, that was good to know, he hadn’t actually thought about that. He went to work. First thing was first, he wrote on the walls. He was nervous and psyched himself out several times before he finally pressed brush to wall. It was exciting thinking about all the trouble they could get in. With a spur of the moment thought he jumped and his wings caught him and he wrote ‘I know what you did…’ high above head level, then a little way away tilting down wrote ‘and you will pay’.

He dropped to the floor and went to the other wall and wrote in big messy letters: ‘Careful what you wish for!’ He should draw a few ghouls and write more if he had time. He started in on a vaguely person shaped thing. The body was wavering and unclear as if it were breaking through dimensions. The face was ferocious, eyes that would glow in the dark and a set of jaws sharp and terrible. It wasn't his best work but not bad for being quick. He looked back at the other wall and noticed the paint was already gone. He went back to that wall and drew another, this one he added a little perspective to taking a crack in the paint that already existed and making it look like the ghoul was tearing through the wall. He’d just finished that one when he moved the paint brush to the side to examine his handiwork, which couldn’t be seen anymore, unfortunately, but even more unfortunately the blot of paint he’d dripped on his shoe had also disappeared. “Do I have time do more?” He asked nervously in a low voice and looked to Alex.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex burst into a laugh at Ray's suggestion for a wish. "Or I could just wish that you were immortal and forever healthy or somethin'." She smirked. "I think a fat Buddha version of you would be pretty darn funny."

She gave a dramatic sigh. "Oh yes, I'm virtually tripping over people who want to be around me. It's most inconvenient." She frowned. "I'm glad you understand though. Very few people are so amazing that they see the problem, you know? They're just like, 'But it would be great to be famous!'. Psh, what do they know?" She shook her head, "frown" deepening. Yeah right. The most famous she'd ever been was as the blind prankster at school. Since she'd moved here she'd lost any of the little "fame" she'd ever held. Now she was "cool" around a bunch of other "cool" people, so it made it pretty hard to be famous. Not that she was bitter or anything.

Alex tilted her head the slightest bit at Ray's reaction. Very nervy, avoidant almost. She had a pretty good idea as to why. Ever for Ray, the reaction was a little more shy than seemed right for him in particular. 99.99% sure he leaned more toward guys when it came to romance. Though she wasn't one to judge, she also didn't see the point in bringing the subject up blatantly. If he didn't want to bring it up yet, then she was definitely not going to force him to. It wasn't as if she had no secrets, after all. She still had to figure out when and how to tell him she was blind sometime. Ah well. What was life without a couple secrets? "Well then," she said in answer to his denial of having a girlfriend, grinning as she did. "Someone's missin' out."

She set to work setting up the sheet ghosts, tugging and pulling the sheets first over a coat rack, and then over a floor lamp. She ran her fingers over each, making sure they were straight and proper, then stepped back and listed for any approaching people. Just a second before Ray asked if he had more time, she caught the sound of footsteps.

"Nope, we gotta run," she stated, grabbing the backpack he'd brought the sheets in. "Let's run up to your room to stash things, then we can get to the breaker box. Careful not to spill the paint, too. Is there much left?" she tossed the question out as almost an afterthought, knowing there wouldn't be a whole lot left. She hadn't had a lot to begin with after all.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

“I’m a genie, I’m already immortal,” he said with a giggle. Ray covered his belly with his arms and shook his head. “Oh no, I don’t wanna be a Buddha!” He said with a bright smile and shook his head. He didn’t want to get big, he was too much of a peacock for that. “I’ll just have to work out extra hard seeing as my master isn’t gonna make my life easy,” he stuck his tongue out at her and laughed. Alex was definitely fun to be with, she was funny. He was going to giggle his gut out if this kept up too long. Raylaigh nodded with just as much of a world weary expression. “Right!? Finally! You know, it’s so nice to meet someone who understands.” Ray couldn’t help but smile, he was enjoying himself far too much at the moment. He could only imagine what Nao would say, Nao had scolded him not too long ago about being arrogant.

Ray didn’t make a huge deal about hiding it, but he still couldn’t figure out how to just come out and tell people without feeling nervy, scared and a little awkward. Maybe he wasn’t as comfortable with it as he claimed he was. He made no effort to hide it, he was just being himself, and being himself meant not hiding it when he wanted to gush about something and bounce around on his toes, or watch as a hot guy walked by. “Eh,” Ray shrugged, “Not really looking too hard. Just going with the flow.” He said waving their linked hands in a fluid motion. “What about you Alex? Is some big guy gonna come out of nowhere and want to fight me?” In that case he would definitely be hiding being Alex and hoping that she protected him. They’d already very much established that he was going to be terrible in a fight.

Looking around, Ray didn’t see anyone or hear anyone but he trusted Alex and when she said they were done he was done. He wanted to add a bit of detail, but honestly he couldn’t even see where he’d put the pain before anymore so he’d probably just mess it up. He was excited and the prospects of being caught brought back the excitement that he’d had before. “Okay,” he said with a nod, perfect. He was going to have to hide them in case someone decided a dorm search was in order after this. The pan was so far out of his mind that he didn’t even think about the fact that he was letting her into his room. “No, not too much, I’ll be careful.” It wasn’t like it was going to come sloshing out, there really wasn’t that much, he almost wanted to just splatter it but that would just do to get it everywhere.

“Follow me,” he said and waved her to follow him up to the second floor. He was having a hard time holding it together and it took a lot of self control to not fly up the stairwell. He hid the paint as best he could and looked out into the second floor hallway like a spy before he lead her to his dorm and then through the common room and to his room. “Welcome,” he said and started digging out a space in his closet to stash the pain. “You can just drop that anywhere,” he said about the bag. “You’ll have to excuse the mess.” He laughed sheepishly, it wasn’t too messy, really it was quite organized, what was the problem was his clothing was spilling messily out of the dresser and onto the floor. So, he was organized as far as everything went, minus his clothing.

“How many people do you think are gonna freak out?” He asked as he made a spot for the paint and secured the lid and brush. He wished he had a plastic bag of some sort to keep it from getting paint everywhere if it happened to spontaneously fall. He waved a hand, leaving it for now. Straightening his looked back at Alex. “You sure you know how to turn out the lights?” He asked, nervous. Messing with something like the breaker could probably get them in a boatload of trouble. Poor Raylaigh wouldn’t know he had to hide his shoe when the lights went out, until it was already dark.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex snickered. "If I go too easy on you, you'll get spoiled. Of course..." she feigned a thoughtful look, "if you do turn into a Buddha, maybe you wouldn't have to put up with the trials of popularity quite as much." She grinned.

"Oh yeah, I should probably have mentioned something about that," she mused. "My boyfriend was on 'is football team. Kinda protective. Played offensive line 'cause he's like seven foot." She gave a casual shrug. "I don't think he'd hurt you too badly for holding my hand though." She bit her lip, amusement tugging at her with the story about her imaginary boyfriend. Though she wanted to hear and be amused at Ray's reaction, she also didn't really try to keep a terribly straight face. Really, if Ray called her bluff with would be all the same to her-- the idea of a boyfriend like that was funny enough in and of itself.

Alex stayed right Ray's heels as she followed him up to his room. Handy that he was on the co-ed floor-- she wouldn't have to worry about getting spotted and getting in trouble. Yes, she had often snuck into the guys dorm to pull off a good prank. As good an adrenaline rush as she got from that, it was something she rarely did with an accomplice, because the more people around, the harder going unnoticed was made. As it was, she wouldn't even have to worry about that.

"The mess?" she retorted at his apology. "You should see some of my roommates' rooms if y'think this is bad. You'd have a heart attack, pro'lly." Of course, she kept her own room immaculate. Made finding things a lot easier. Nothing was worse than losing something and having to go poking around everywhere to find it. However, she dropped Ray's backpack near the door and listened as he moved around to hide the paint. "If you hide it under the couch in the common's room it'd probably be easier. That way if it does get found, you're not implicated outright. Plus it's less likely they'll be looking under the couch 'cause there isn't as much room there." If he wanted to leave it where he'd hidden it, fine, but she figured she might as well throw the option out there.

"Well everyone'll probably freak out at first, since it'll be dark." She adjusted her shirt and strolled to the door. "How many will freak out at the paint job will be the actual question." She grinned. "We'll see, I guess. And of course I know how to turn out the lights. It's super easy. Ready?" She prepared to lead the way down to the basement, adrenaline already beginning to rush.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh put his hands on his cheeks in a look of horror. “But what will I do without my adoring fans!” He couldn’t hold it much longer and started laughing holding onto his belly as he did so. He looked down at her as she started talking about her boyfriend. He swallowed and started imagining a hulk of a man, basically the Hulk minus being green. “Well, I ain’t scared of him!” Raylaigh boasted, though he was, if he saw Alex’s boyfriend he would be hightailing it in the opposite direction, probably flying too, he couldn’t catch a quick little guy, right? “I’ll just tell him it was all your idea and that you threatened me.” He declared with a grin. If he got caught that was. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to have enough time to explain. They’d already established that Ray was a yellow bellied coward and he was proud of it.

The flyer grinned over at her and sat back on his heels. “I doubt it, my mom thinks it’s a wonder I haven’t broken my neck yet.” Probably a completely valid and understandable fear considering he could easily trip over something and face plant into the wall. Well, it wasn’t like that had never happened before. Raylaigh raised a finger and nodded at her, that was a good idea and they could easily claim to be framed. He gathered the paint and brush back up and slipped out of his room wrapping them in a bag and slipping it under the couch. There, now if they found it, he was practically golden. Ray was good, no one would suspect that he was a part of this plot. And honestly they never really cared about who all came in and out of their common room so anyone could have done it. It wasn’t like the school had people who could tell if they were lying or anything like that.

Ray stood and went back into his room and leaned against his desk. “Do we wait until it gets really dark or maybe an eerie twilight kinda thing?” He asked and closed the door behind her as she walked out and he stood for a moment looking at the couch trying to figure out how to keep himself from immediately giving himself away if he were caught. “Oh trust me, it’s gonna be super spooky.” The best way to do things like that was to make them abstract and smeary so that it was hard to discern details because that way peoples imagination could run away with them. That was the best. A smile appeared on Raylaigh’s face and he nodded at her. “Ready.” His wings beat once as he rearranged them against his legs and the dancer practically bounced on the balls of his feet in anticipation.

He didn’t even know where this box was, he was impressed that she knew. It would probably be scary for him at first too, he didn’t like the dark very much, though he wasn’t afraid of it, of course not it wasn’t like there were ghosts or anything living in the dark, anyways, they had a job to do, no time to get distracted. Now was the time for focus and Raylaigh was going to be the most focused person now.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex snickered at Ray. "I'm sure you're not scared of him at all," she assured. "Even if I told him that it wasn't my idea at all, and it was all your idea to get me in trouble... Even then you wouldn't be scared've him." She gave an "angelic" smile, then couldn't help but break down laughing. "Mostly because, y'know, this boyfriend of mine ain't real." Sure, she'd had a couple romantic flings before, but not so much since coming to Hammel. Mostly because here just about the only people she knew were metas, and the idea of being in a romantic relationship with a meta was a strange one. Not because she had any prejudices against metas, but because at this point most of her friends were about as good at controlling their powers as she was at controlling hers. Which wasn't always a good thing. Being blind, she'd learned to cut down on the number of possible dangers in her immediate life, and so getting close to someone in that way who might accidentally mindbash her or something wasn't her idea of a good time. Anyway, she had more important things to focus on than romance. So, she kept plenty of friends around, both girl and guy, but when it came to more than that... she tended to back off. Nope, she just wasn't ready for something like that yet.

"We don't really need to wait long," Alex mused in answer to his question. "We want there to be some light from the windows, or else people could trip and kill themselves or something. People don't do well with not being able to see anything if they're not used to it." She grinned. "We wanna good prank, but not anything deathly." With that, she started out of the room and down the hall.

The box she had found during one of her explorations, which she had quite regularly when she first moved in. Knowing where everything was tended to be important, especially before she had learned to really use her power to get around. Once she'd gotten down the basic layout, she'd started on the less necessary areas, the areas that weren't technically supposed to be frequented by students. She'd gotten caught several times in those first few months, but had always managed to get out of any sort of trouble by playing the, "I'm blind, so I got lost..." card. Sure, being stereotyped for being blind was something she hated, but it could definitely have its uses on occasion.

She padded along, still trying to keep an even stroll that didn't betray anything to the general public. Down the stairs, through some halls, and eventually down into the basement. The electrical room wasn't far now, just a few more paces. She paused to listen, didn't hear any footsteps, and so started forward carefully.

She didn't give any thought to the fact that the basement had very little light, as security typically went around with flashlights when they did their rounds. Something about preserving electricity.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

“I’m not,” Raylaigh confirmed with a little bit a break in his adolescent voice giving him away. He shook his head and then gave a laugh and a relieved sigh before he elbowed her. “Stop it!” He whined dramatically and giggled. He let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulders and held her tightly. He laughed and loosened his hold. “Eh, well that makes two of us,” he replied giving her a wink. Invisible boyfriends were never as good as real boyfriends, and well, in Raylaigh’s case, fake boyfriends were better than his ex-boyfriend. Which was making being around his crush very difficult. “Well, I’m guessing since you have suitors falling at your feet that you’re simply waiting for the best.” He grinned at her, she was a friend now, she was officially under the Ray friend category which made him interested in her life and everything that was going on in it.

Ray nodded, she had a good point. He looked at her with interest when she added the part about people being used to the dark. He raised a brow. “How are we gonna see when we can’t see either?” He asked innocently, though with her tricks Raylaigh’s first thought was that she had some sort of night vision goggles or something. Right no death, that was good. What was that saying? Until someone lost an eye? He supposed dying could replace the last thought. All fun until someone dies… no, that would not be fun at all. “Right.” He agreed and followed after her going down the hall and he trotted down the stairs after her. He had no idea how she’d found all this stuff. When it came to the basement it became clear. Raylaigh had no interest in exploring dark and enclosed areas, call him bias but he preferred outside a great deal.

Walking with Alex Ray did his best to look as casual as she was, it wasn’t easy when his wings fluttered now and again with a rush of adrenaline. In a state like this it wouldn’t be easy for someone to pop out at the flyer and for the flyer then to be down the hall. He was so excited but it also made him very skittish. Add onto that the fact that they were doing something bad and it became worse. He took a quick glance before going into the basement after her. He was hit with the darkness of the basement and he stood where he was for a while trying to get his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. “Alex?” He whispered as he tried to get his eyes to find a shadow amongst shadows. He started down the stairs and had one hand against the wall and the other groping about the space ahead of him so he wouldn’t run into Alex.

When his hand finally found her he breathed a sigh of relief. Well, he really hoped it was Alex. “Alex?” he whispered, “I can’t see a thing… uh…” He looked down and caught sight of a small glow on his foot. “Oops,” he said and lifted his foot, “Looks like I got a bit of paint on my shoe, glad we found that now.” He looked in whatever direction he thought she was and gave a smile, despite the fact that she probably couldn’t see it. He breathed shallowly, he was going to have to have to see if he couldn’t find something to wipe his shoe off, else he was going to be carrying his guilt with him. He supposed leaving his shoes somewhere would also be suspicious considering he’d be in his socks when they actually turned off the lights. Raylaigh started looking around his eyes finding little lights on the machinery and dim reflections of those lights off of metal. “We should probably hurry,” he said, he really didn’t like it down here, it was creepy.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex snorted. "Of course I'm just waiting for the best." She gave a casual shrug. "That and it's so hard to decide between so many people." She grinned at the one-armed shoulder hug, shifting to return it as well as she could. Jeez, he was tall. She'd known from the soundwaves and his voice level of course, but actually physically feeling how tall he was drove it home. "Don't squash me to death, gigantor," she snarked as he loosened his hold.

"We'll still be able to see each other," she stated, grinning. However, the thought hadn't quite occurred to her. It wasn't that dark in the basement, right? She hoped not, because that'd make things a little awkward. Though she supposed it wouldn't matter too much if she ended up having to explain about her sight.

Alex slowed as they entered the basement, listening carefully to Ray's steps to ensure she didn't lose him. "It's all right," she whispered. "Don't be too loud though, in case there's a guard close by or somethin'." She cocked her head as he said something about the paint being on his shoe. Well snap, that wouldn't be good... Easy busting point. She paused. "Pro'lly should take 'em off. I go around barefoot all the time, it ain't dangerous or anything."

She offered a faint smile at his musing about them having to hurry. Sure, they should hurry, for obvious reasons. They didn't want to get caught down here, after all. But his reasons for hurrying were slightly different, according to the speed of his heartbeat. "It's fine," she said as quietly as possible. "There's nothing down here but machines'n'stuff." She momentarily thought about being a tease and joking about monsters, but decided against it. The last thing they needed was for him to get startled and accidentally bolt or squeak or something. Anything that would draw unnecessary attention. So instead she just assured again, "There's nothing dangerous to worry about. Worst thing that could happen would be we get caught. 'cause we aren't exactly supposed to be here, ya know."

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

“It’s so hard isn’t it?” He mused dramatically, especially when there were so many good looking men at this school! Seriously, was being attractive a requirement for being a meta human because this school had a couple of studs roaming the halls. Raylaigh giggled and patted her head and was tempted to hang onto her just for kicks. That would be entertaining, most people expected him to be heavier than he was, which was why when he played basketball people went in for a hard hit and then poor Raylaigh went skidding halfway across the floor. And quite possibly break something on his way. It was bad, every time he fell, even if he was fine the nurses demanded he get checked over. He might be made of glass but it wasn’t like he was going to shatter if looked at the wrong way.

“Okay,” he said sticking close in the creepy basement. She should speak for herself, the light was coming in as fast as it could and all Ray could do was take in the sparse lighting and make sense of shadows. Didn’t they have lights in this basement? Well, they did, he could see them a little ways off, the probably didn’t turn them on unless they needed to and well, Alex seemed to know where she was going so he was going to stick as close as he could to her. Maybe they should have brought along a flashlight. Raylaigh looked around and jumped at every strange machine sound as they whirred and switched on and off. It wasn’t exactly quiet down here. It wasn’t like a major network of machinery but it had an eerie echo-y sound going on.

Ray nodded and zipped his lip. Right, guards. That wouldn’t be good, they had to at least pull off their prank before they got caught. “Right,” he whispered, “I’ll stash them down here and come back for them when it’s light out.” And not so creepy. Taking his shoes off was an easy measure, they were and old and worn pair that he didn’t even have to bother tying on and off anymore. He supposed this would actually be better, it would look like he wandered out of his room when the power was out and didn’t bother putting on shoes in case it was an emergency. His socks with little frogs on them might get a little dirty but that was no matter. That was why they had laundry machines.

He smiled a little when he slid around on the tile floor and his socks pretty much eliminated a lot of the friction keeping him from slipping around. He held onto them, it was probably best to hang onto them and stash them close to the stairs where he could run in and get them. For some reason Alex’s reassurances didn’t do a lot to calm Ray, but he followed closely and trusted that she would keep them from getting caught either by guards or any of the ghouls that Raylaigh had painted on the walls. He giggled a little, half because of nerves and half because he was trying to cover his creeped out state. “You know I don’t even wanna know how you found this, but I’m so glad you did,” he said keeping a hand on her shoulder and following her as she seemed to be good at knowing where she was going. She was definitely better at navigating than Ray was, he probably would have run into something by now. “We’re not gonna get caught, we’re masters of sneaker!” He exclaimed in a whisper, well perhaps they would be if Ray stopped talking.

[Genesis Kyland]

Alex nodded in answer to Ray's plan of stashing his shoes, then coming back for them later. Sounded like the best plan-- walking around holding his shoes would likely look just a tad suspicious. However, a moment later she realized maybe he hadn't seen her nod, since he obviously couldn't see very well (at least, so she guessed by his hand on her shoulder), so she gave a quiet, "That works" just in case.

"Prankster's gotta have know-how," she added just as quietly, smiling faintly. "Took even me a little while to find this, though." She turned one more corner and paused in front of the fuse box, raising her hand carefully to locate first it, then the lock. Simple enough. She slipped her lockpicking tools from her pocket and deftly began work. Lockpicking had been one of the first things her friends back home had taught her. After all, it was a perfect job for a blind girl-- didn't have to see to be able to pick a lock well.

"Shh," she murmured to him. "Not much of a master of sneak if we're jabbering down here. It echoes." Sure, most people probably wouldn't pick up on the bouncing echoes so easily, but it still set her nerves on edge. With a final prod, the lock clicked, and Alex pulled the door open quickly.

"Ready? You get the ones to the right, I'll get the ones on the left," she whispered, heart pounding with anticipation. She set one hand on the switches, and held up her free one to count down from five, silently mouthing as she did, "Five, four, three, two, one..." At the end of the countdown, she pushed all of her switches to "off", moving quickly to get them out as uniforming as possible.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

He nodded and considering it for a moment he decided that the light they had now while his eyes adjusted was going to be better than when it went completely black so he detached from Alex for a moment and found a little alcove for his shoes and stashed them away where the paint wouldn’t show and then he made it back to Alex as fast as he possibly could hoping he didn’t lose her. Luckily she wasn’t hard to find being the only other person in here and now that his eyes were adjusting he could see more than just her silhouette. Ray resisted the urge to laugh, he really had to get Alex to teach him how to be sneaky like her. He was lightweight he should be able to get around without making much noise. And he could hover, but that usually made noises, cause his wings weren’t exactly owl wings.

Ray followed her without fear, completely trusting that she wasn’t going to get him into any trouble that he couldn’t get out of, at least not in the regard of actual trouble that might involve injury or something. Ray was getting excited now that he’d seen the paint work, it was gonna look so scary on the walls. He grinned and bit his fist as he tried not to laugh out loud and blow their cover. His wings flapped once and he settled them against his legs and he only had to try harder not to laugh when she told him to be quiet. He nodded his head like she could hear the marbles knocking around inside to indicate he was zipping his lip and he was going to be the sneakiest sneaky person ever. Well, maybe second sneakiest if he was including Alex in the count. He heard something click and he looked toward the noise and could barely make out the switches on the board. She’d actually done it! Alex had done it! Holy hell! This was happening!

“Ready,” he whispered and reached up feeling for the switches and pulling both hands on the switches to make sure they all went down. His heart hammered with her countdown and when she reached one Ray jerked his hands to switch them to ‘off’. He had to quickly flip a few that he’d missed, but all and all it seemed to go off more or less uniformly. Only problem, now they were stuck down here in the dark and now Raylaigh really couldn’t see anything. The dark wasn’t Ray’s favorite thing either, but he was looking forward to seeing some people’s reactions to their prank, they were practically evil geniuses. He reached out a hand and groped around for Alex finding her head first and then her shoulder. “Sorry,” he whispered, “I can’t see anything. Do we go topside now? Someone might be coming down to check.” He hadn’t thought about that until now, but now it seemed like it might be a problem. He was going to follow Alex’s lead now, he was trapped in here, but if he could get topside he could at least have a chance.

[Genesis Kyland]

That familiar and amazing thrill buzzed through Alex as the lights went black. Mission accomplished! Now, it was time to switch to mission "get the hell out before anyone finds us". She made a face when Ray found her head, but grinned a moment later. Of course he couldn't see anything. Ah, the trials of being able to see.

However, now she grabbed his hand and started running. "We've gotta hurry, now," she said as she pounded along. If they were caught down there now, the jig would be completely up. It'd be hard to talk their way out of it, though of course Alex would do her best. Which often worked out. People could be wonderfully naive when it came to blind people. Then again, she was already under suspicion for being a prankster around school, so that could definitely throw a kink in things.

"Watch your head up here," she directed as she caught some soundwaves off a low pipe. Not low enough to get her, but enough that Ray would likely find a problem if he wasn't careful... "Duck," she commanded as they came to it.

Her mind bounded on to what would have to happen after the basement. As soon as they cleared it, things wouldn't be pitch black anymore, there would be a little light at least, enough that Ray should be able to see something. Probably similar to what the basement had been like before the lights went off. Either way, once they broke free of the basement, things would be much safer. Her mind tumbled through plans. Once they broke out of basement, they'd have to slow down, not run anymore, or else people would be suspicious. She made note to remind Ray of this when necessary.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray was honestly afraid, he wasn’t a huge fan of the dark and he shivered, not being able to see anything was truly terrifying. He searched for Alex, reaching out for her to give him some comfort that she still existed and the darkness didn’t make her go away. It was a childish, but it was something he’d never really gotten over. When his eyes adjusted at night it wasn’t too bad, but there were no lights down here for his eyes to adjust to and it was pitch black. He was comforted by her hand in his and he trusted that she would keep them free of trouble and that she’d get him out of here safely. Perhaps that was a lot of trust to put into someone he just met, but Raylaigh was one of those people to trust first after all, what would it serve her to lie. She’d already put the rules on the ground.

He nodded into the darkness and followed her at a quick pace. He was hesitant to run and was glad she had his hand because he tripped several times over his own wings. He was trying to be quiet but it wasn’t easy not being able to see. He didn’t know how she was doing so well, probably something with her hearing thing. In this case Ray’s power was nothing but a handicap. He wouldn’t chicken out now, he was too far in now, if they got caught now it would be because of him being too loud. He tucked his wings tightly against his calves and worked on focusing on where his feet were going and not about the unknown world around him. He looked up as if that would help him see it, but it was just as dark and he could barely make out shadows against shadows. He held up a hand just in case waving it in front of him to at least give him a buffer if he were to run into it. He felt the pipe just as she told him to duck and he was glad she did because he would have hit that right in the forehead and that would have been a crack on the head that would have been hard to explain away.

All the while in the dark Raylaigh hoped that no one found them, all this work couldn’t be for naught. He followed, he was a good follower, and Alex a good leader. They had to be getting close to the door now, right? He slipped a little as he went around in his socks. If she changed direction suddenly on him he slipped a little bit before he regained his ability to follow again. When would they be out of this maze? At least out in the world above there would be forms of light, it would probably look like daylight compared to this basement. Remind him never to come down here. Ray had a stroke of claustrophobia when he was indoors and especially if it was dark. Be it his power or just predisposition but he just liked the ability to see the sky.

“Are we almost there?” He asked softly, he thought they’d been going forever. He kept hearing things in the darkness and checking over his shoulder for monsters his eyes wide in an attempt to catch any stray photons that might be bouncing around still. Nothing, nothing at all. Then finally a small sliver of gray among the black, that must be the door up above. It was just barely lighter than the surrounding black, but it was the door and Ray was so excited! Then it opened. Ray bit his tongue to hold back a gasp and he reached out his hand and caught one of the machines and pulled Alex back with him, hiding them in the shadows. He didn’t say anything, his heart beating like a drum. Alex must have seen the person. They couldn’t get caught now. Not when they were so close.