I WANT TO PLAY A GAME.

[dousing]

HIDE AND SEEK MEME It's time to play hide and seek! Whether it's a fun game with your friends or a horrifying romp through a hellscape, you're hiding or you're seeking and this is a game you want to WIN. Either for glory or, you know, to live. Post your preferences (listed below) and have fun!

LOCATIONS • WOODS You're having fun with some friends, running from an axe murderer or some friendly hillbillies that you think are murderers, but the gist is this: you're in the woods. Is it daytime? Night time? Foggy, clear? Are there obstacles? Animals? Are you scared or laughing? • HOME You're somewhere familiar. You're playing in your house (or yard) or you're hiding from some dude in a mask that broke into your place in the middle of the night. Don't get caught. Or do. Maybe you're just playing with your honey and they're gonna toss you into bed once they catch you. • PARK Perfectly manicured lawns and play structures and sand pits, where are you going to hide? Can you keep yourself hidden in the tube slide by gripping the sides? Careful not to get plastic burn. • HOSPITAL Okay but: why are you playing hide and seek in a hospital? Maybe find some chill, guys. • THIS IS SOME SHIT Haunted house, haunted amusement park, haunted lab, dead space ship, Silent Hill, Raccoon City... Look, are you sensing the theme yet? Run For Your Life. • WAIT, WHERE Your friendly random scene. If none of these fit, make up your own place. We won't tell. WHO'S PLAYING? 1. FRIEND You're just having fun! It's an easy match (or a hardcore match, we won't judge) between you and your friends! Who's gonna win? Is there a prize?! 2. FOE You're enemies. Maybe you're both spies or something. Maybe one of you is a fucking serial (cereal) murderer and the other one is Captain Crunch hiding in a closet. Maybe you're a guy with a chainsaw that just wants to kill some teenagers. Whatever, man. 3. LOVER It's all cute and fluffy here. You're playing a game with your honey and the stakes are basically naked time. Nothing wrong with that. Maybe don't be naked while you're chasing though, imagine the possible disasters. 4. MONSTER IS THAT A XENOMORPH?!!?!?! Sorry, we really like Xenomorphs here. Anyway, here's your monsters: your zombie, your hell creature, your all-seeing elder god, why are you even trying to hide? As always, these are just suggestions. Make up anything you want, as long as you're having fun!

Comments

[alphaophiuchi]

[ in all honesty, Astoria is probably doing much better than Draco is. In his defence, though, he's also nearly died at least twice in the last little while. That he's counted. She's done well to keep her head down, because getting involved in any of it - and having an opinion, for that matter - seems to be most people's undoing.

[ he still can't get the image of Crabbe getting swallowed up by the Fiendfyre he'd cast out of his head. It's a terrible image, paired with more sensory overload than he knows what to do with. Just thinking about it makes him shiver.

[ his breathing is coming with a great deal of difficulty, like he's on the wrong end of a panic attack that never actually stopped, and after she replies, Draco's expression is simply incredulous. It's not baffling that she wants to help, but- Well, there's something about it. He's not sure why she's so eager to do so. Why she's so determined.

[ fuck it. If she wants to get herself killed, he should just let her. But no, he reasons, that's just more blood on his hands, even if he told her she should steer clear. It's all blood on his hands, to be quite frank. ]

Do you want to die too? I'm not letting someone else die on my watch. [ his voice is tight now, still irritated and probably aggressive, but also tinged with something else: he looks like he's on the verge of tears. ] Come on. Just hide. [ unsaid, but implied in his tone: please. ]

[innoxia]

[ It's all been too much. Even for Astoria, who hasn't suffered as much as Draco has, she still feels quiet and broken and lost. Desperate.

For a long moment, Astoria just looks up at him, her eyes searching his face. She knows he's right. Knows she should hide. But it's so... It's his tone that finally stills her, the unspoken please that makes her swallow. Maybe she really should listen.

At the same time, everything is coming down around them, figuratively and at points literally. There's a sound a little too close for comfort and she jumps, tenses, and finally relents, nodding. It worries her and when she speaks, her voice is still small and barely breathed out. ]

Where?

[ She honestly has no idea where to go or where would be safe. She can see the near-tears but of course doesn't comment on it, instead focusing on the moment at hand and trying to ignore her rapidly-beating heart. ]

I don't know where to go.

[alphaophiuchi]

[ it's war. It does horrible things to good people who deserve better. Like this young girl before him, looking scared as anything. At least she's still alive, though; Draco thinks that's all that matters right now, because he can do something about that. He can maybe keep her this way, breathing and blinking and staring at him a little like she can see straight into his soul. ]

There's a classroom. [ his exhale is soft, slightly reassured that she's going to listen. One more person hidden is one more person who can't be mistaken for the enemy by some rogue Death Eater who just wants to add to his body count. That's all he wants right this moment. His focus on her is, oddly, helping distract him away from everything else. Which is nice. Just what he needs. ]

It's deserted, and the Death Eaters already passed it. I saw them go by. They won't check again. [ he knows this for a fact. He knows the plan, after all. And shameful as it is that he knows at all, at least he can use it to keep someone else safe.

[ he holds out his hand to her, and though it's trembling, he's capable of at least this much. Surely. ]

[innoxia]

[ It's good he's able to focus at all because she can't - she's too scattered, too young, too out of place. Still, even though she's terrified and he looks almost as much as she, she trusts him. She trusts him because he's here, and he's telling her to hide, and he's offering her his hand even though his own is trembling and he doesn't have to, he doesn't have to help her, he doesn't have to care. Of course she knows who he is, it's hard not to know your housemates, and even though she's marginally surprised he's taking the time to care, it's a pleasant surprise in the face of everything else.

Astoria exhales, shaking, and nods again. Then she takes his hand, her own trembling as well but her grip firm, looking for something grounding. Someone grounding. If only for a moment. ] Thank you.

[ It's whispered because she's not sure she can speak louder right now, isn't sure she should, either. She stays as close to him as she can as soon as they start moving, very nearly curled inward toward him. It's embarrassing, but she's scared. She'll hide because he told her to, but drawing comfort from him is her own doing. ]

[alphaophiuchi]

[ he's done some terrible things, Draco knows. Arguably, this is all his fault. He's sure that people would fight him on that matter, so he hasn't said as much, but it's what he believes. Perhaps he can make up for it in some tiny way, by keeping at least one person safe. He won't ruin another family; he won't let a set of parents mourn their child.

[ she's as grounding to him as he is to her, in truth: when she closes her hand around his, it's like a lifejacket for something within him. Maybe he's not entirely beyond hope. Maybe he too can live through this, and maybe he can live the rest of his life out with only a touch of survivor's guilt. He squeezes her hand slightly and offers a faint smile in return for her thanks. It's all he can manage, and that's all right.

[ and embarrassing though it may be, there are worse things. Which is more important: pride or survival? At any rate, he's in no place to be judging her right now, and his mother's wand is clasped tight in his free hand as his eyes scan the immediate area. He knows their school well enough to know where the door is, hopefully. Unless it's hidden behind rubble, but for now, he's sure it's fine. He only just passed it. It'll be fine. The door will still be there.

[ he helps her around another corner, and though he stumbles as much as he runs, he's hoping he doesn't trip her up too much. ]