The Locusts are Spawning [Boardwide], Sunday - Monday, 11:53 - 12:30AM

The wind was blowing things about, which was the perfect condition for someone or something to bubble up from a small crack in the concrete; and it did, emitting a stench so strong that it managed to wilt the flowers and trees and kill some of the small animals that dared to be out at night. No one would notice the strange, bubbling black mass that was now slithering its way toward the old Alameda Theater, intent on devouring it whole; where this building fell would become the permanent place of the ending and his future underlings. In an instant the old building was enveloped in the black mass, crumbling quickly and silently until it was all absorbed and there was nothing left except for a large, black crater. Surely, once daylight rolled around people would be quite curious as to why everything within a hundred foot radius was dead, dying or decayed. The buildings that were nearest to what was once the theater now looked older, as if the slightest touch would send them crumbling to the ground.

Everything would change; things would never be the same from now on. The world would be his, all of Earth's inhabitants would be under his control and, as far as he knew, there would be no one around to stop him. It was time to right the previous wrongs of his predecessor and to make sure that, soon, everyone knew of The Ending...

Heavy winds continued to blow all around; window panes rattled and shook, causing The Guardian to wake out of her several years-long slumber. She clutched her chest as she tried to steady her breath. The Guardian had felt its awakening like a jolt of electricity through her body; it was safe to say that she was more than a little dissatisfied with this turn of events. It had been years and The Guardian had hoped that things would remain peaceful for the rest of her time here on earth; funny how things never seemed to go the way one wanted them to. She rose out of her place of rest slowly, stretching out her arms and legs and wondering how hard it would be to get used to this body once again. After steadying herself, The Guardian made her way to the lone wooden box that rested on a small wooden table. She opened it slowly, squinting at the multi-colored light that emitted from the inside. The Henshin items were here and she would now have the task of finding each Sailor Scout and General and she hoped to locate them before The Ending found his henchmen or the world would truly be doomed; he'd be too weak to strike tonight though, which was a very good thing.

The star seeds had since found their way to the future protectors of the Earth and, sensing the threat, they would now awaken within each person's body. The Guardian could sleep easily for now, but tomorrow would be the beginning of the fight to save the Earth...

Like most of Alameda's citizens, the residents of 3059 Henderson Way were fast asleep. The Gosh Family, as they were called, were a pretty normal family by all accounts, comprised of a mother, a father, and a daughter. Tallulah was her name, and she enjoyed her sleep very much. So much, in fact, that on the rare instances when she was woken up prematurely by someone or something she quite frankly became a bit of a... well, beast. Her mother often joked that the world was never prepared for her daughter's rages.

Unfortunately, one of those rare instances was about to occur at that very moment.

If anyone were awake at that very moment they would undoubtedly witness a very strange event. Electricity, white hot in composition, seemed to be sparking above the slumbering girl. One would think something like this would normally cause a person to awake. But Tallulah merely mumbled in her sleep, furrowed her brows, and turned onto her side. Still, the electricity continued to spark above her, weaving distinct patterns that somewhat resembled a number four. While this all seemed to be some kind of isolated event, that soon wasn't proven to be the case. A clear, blue substance that resembled water began to float through the air towards the electricity, churning softly as it went. Of course, it was inevitable that the two collided, producing a small surge of power that swept through the room... and gave Tallulah a very shocking awakening.

"Ahhh!" The teen yelled out as she bolted upright, panting heavily and feeling as if she had just been hit by a very weak taser. "What in the fuck?!" She cried, clutching her forehead as she tried to collect her thoughts. "Lydia... I think I just got electrocuted!" Mysteriously, the phenomenon from early had ceased.

Another girl lay on an air mattress across the room, obviously having slept over. Tallulah knew her as Lydia Zakharov, a bespectacled, somewhat geeky girl who was pretty much her best friend in the entire world, as cheesy as that sounded. Kicking the covers off of her Tallulah swung her legs over the side of the bed and rose to her feet.

"Hey Lyds, you up?"

One Lydia Zakharov had been sleeping rather peacefully, enjoying how nice the air mattress felt since it felt a lot better than her needlessly stiff bad at home. She would have gotten a softer one but her father was vehemently against such a thing. It was another specifics of a Russian soul type of thing. Supposedly a bed as hard as cement would strengthen her back and her body when in reality all it did was make her extremely uncomfortable. It was a good thing she did so many stretches in the morning and was generally active or else she'd be as stiff as her bed and twice as unhappy as Lulu always seemed to be. Currently she was curled up on the air mattress and feeling very calm and cool, the sign of Mercury gently pulsating at the center of her forehead unbeknownst to her.

If the initial yell didn't wake her the what in the fuck?! had managed to do the job. Lydia rose slowly, wiping her eyes and having yet to notice that she was a little damp, well, all over. "I'm up now!" Lydia said in somewhat of an annoyed tone, though her first sentence had come out in very slurred Russian. Of course Lulu had known enough Russian to know what she had said. Lydia took a few seconds to rub her eyes and blindly grope around for her glasses. Once they were slipped on she blinked and yawned. "What’s up? Why are you up? Why did you wake me up? Why am I not sleeping?" These questions were fired in a rapid fashion before a yelp was heard and Lydia jumped up. "What in the fuck!" Was the next thing to come out of her mouth as she squealed and did a little dance as it dawned on her that she was wet.

"I'm wet!" She said, rather alarmed. "My shirt! My bottoms!" Lydia paused for a moment to pull her wet shirt away from her skin. "Why'mi wet!? This isn't pee!" The last part added on just in case Miss Gosh got any wise ideas. The mark on her forehead had since faded and after her little episode of jumping around she stood in the middle of the air mattress just as confused as ever. After a few seconds she breathed in and then exhaled before turning her attention to Tallulah.

"Now, what seemed to be troubling you my dear?"

Adrienne Quade was a complete night owl, so in the wee hours of the morning when most people were sleeping, she was not. This was due partially due to a very basic love of the nighttime in general - as well as due to sometimes chronic insomnia. There were times when she felt like a zombie, sleepwalking through life. But tonight, she was wide awake, and enjoying the night.

As a sweet sixteen birthday present, her parents had bought her a shiny new dark red convertible Lexus - more her father's idea than her mother's really - and tonight she had decided to go for a long winding drive around town. She loved driving, she loved speed, she loved... *that car*. It was her baby, and she adored how the engine purred so gently, rising to a growl when she pushed it to high speeds.

She was cruising down Main Street, just heading back toward St Marina's Private Academy where she was currently a boarding student, when all of a sudden there was a bright white flash, blinding her. For several minutes, she couldn't see anything, but the temperature was steadily rising. It wasn't exactly a cold night, but it wasn't midsummer either, but suddenly she could feel perspiration beading up on her face and arms and all over. Like she was sitting in a Sauna turned up high. Then she blinked, and it turned out that the white light wasn't light at all - it was the bright flickering of flames that had consumed the inside of her car, licking at the leather and at her flesh. All at once, she felt suffocated by the smoke, could feel her skin just start to burn, like a really super-bad sunburn, could almost smell searing flesh and burning hair, and then

CRASH

"Aaahhh! FUCK!!" she squealed in a high-pitched tone, as her car crashed into a lamp-post, doing a lot of expensive damage to the hood and front bumper and probably the engine - as the poor thing began spluttering pitifully. Smoke was rising from under the hood, and she still felt hot and sweaty, but all of a sudden Adrienne realized - she wasn't on fire. The car was - mostly - in one piece, and her flesh and hair hasn't melted away.

"What the shit?!"

Shakingly, she undid her belt buckle, burning her fingertips on the strangely hot metal, took her keys out of the ignition, and clamboured out onto the street, her heeled shoes clacking echoingly in the empty street.

She didn't know what the fuck had just happened, but whatever it was - it was scary. It was just like those dreams she'd been having lately, but far more real.

At least, in the dreams, she couldn't *feel* the fire.

A cool breeze floated in through the open window at 940 Rose Ave in Alameda County. The night sky was brilliantly lit by the full moon outside and the light softly entered the bedroom of a sleeping young woman. After all, it was a school night and she had been up for hours, writing an article for her mother's magazine. Katherine Tolbert, Kat to family and friends, had fallen asleep at her desk with her laptop still glowing in front of her. Normally she was careful with her precious computer, but she'd just been so tired for some reason that she fell asleep.

She was completely unaware that, in the center of her brow, a gold crescent moon was starting to form and glow softly. But at the hint of a knock on the door, the symbol vanished, leaving Kat's forehead bare.

Her father came into Kat's room quietly and smiled as he saved her work and closed her laptop. He knew that his little girl had been working hard because this was the first article she'd get to publish in Pink. It had to be a success. Jason Tolbert frowned as he glanced out the window. I didn't think Kat left her window open like this. Especially not at night. So he went over, took out the stick of wood that propped up the frame, and began to slide the squeaky wood shut.

"Stop Dad," a sleepy voice came from the desk. "I want it open."

Jason chuckled and nodded, propping the window back open as he went to his sleepy daughter. Kat rubbed her blue eyes drowsily. I was having the strangest dreams. Something about the moon and a princess with long blonde hair...weird. For as long as she could remember, Kat had never had any sort of dreams like that. Nothing whatsoever. In fact, the more she tried to grasp the dream, the quicker it faded away so she didn't even notice when her dad wished her good night and left the room. I have to be outside. I can't seem to sit still now. So, Kat slipped her window open as high as it could go and jumped outside. Her room was on the first story of her house, so she did this quite often.

However, when Kat stepped out onto the grass, the moon was no longer full. It was a crescent. It was waning right before her eyes.

"What the heck? That's not right. There's supposed to be a full moon tonight..."

Nearly smothered by a puffy pink comforter and polka-dotted sheets, fourteen-year-old Jasmine Kimura slept soundly. Her face was covered, giving her the complete darkness she required for sleep. Once that had been done, she was out for the night. On any normal night, Jasmine is a very heavy sleeper. Even if a tornado went through her room (by looking at the floor you would have thought one already did), she would have gone on sleeping. Her dreams were strange though and so she was mumbling into her pillow.

"No, don't eat me, Marshmallow man!" she yelled, sitting upright in her bed. At least, she thought she had yelled that. Didn't she? Jasmine sat for a moment, hair disheveled, tangled in her bed sheets and just sitting there. She stared at her floor and all of the stuffed animals, stray clothes and random papers littering it. Nothing looked wrong... it sounded wrong. She heard nothing. No crickets, no cars from the street outside, no noises from her parents. Nothing. She cleared her throat. Nothing. It was comepletely silent.

"Am I dreaming?" she asked herself out loud. Her mouth was moving, she knew that, but nothing was coming out. She tried to scream, to make some noise. The quiet was suffocating. It was pressing down on her head, on her eardrums, trying to make her head fit in a hat ten times too small. Then her ears popped and the motors of cars were apparent, the night noises were back and one of her parents was moving around in the next room. It was all so loud now, but at least she knew she wasn't deaf. Jasmine fell back onto her pillow and glanced over at her night stand, holding up an alarm clock with glaring red numbers (which didn't do her much good). 12:04. She was never going to get back to sleep.

Magonolia Drive was silent, so silent that if one listened closely enough, they could hear the sigh of the Autumn breeze that rolled slowly through the streets. The voices of the trees could be heard clearly in the rustling of the changing leaves and an owl hooted mournfully in a nearby tree. Autumn Rose Michaels sat on her window seat in her bedroom, a meticulously neat room colored in light pinks and whites. She stared up at the stars, making notes on the positions of Sirius, Rigel and the Betegeuse for a project she was working on. She wanted to write a computer program for use in Astronomy courses. She wrote them quickly and looked back up at the sky, knitting her brow in curiousity.

"It can't be... That's not supposed to be visible till next month," she muttered, looking up at a single, bright yellow orb that shone through the black of the night sky. She moved from the window to her desk nearby and typed quickly into her computer browser. She was right. That orb should not be visible. Perhaps the calculations were wrong, or perhaps it was a celestial anomolay that could not be predicted. Noticing a few people active in the site's chatbox, she asked if anyone else noticed it, but no body else had, and they were all looking at the same night sky. "This is so weird."

Autumn shook her head. She was so involved in what she saw that she didn't notice the pink glow on her forehead of the symbol of Venus fading away as she focused on the orb. "Venus is not supposed to be there. What is going on?" She leaned back on her window seat and glanced out her window, playing slightly with the heart locket around her neck, a feeling of warmth flowing over her as the symbol faded away.

"Stupid insomnia," Stephen muttered to himself. He hadn't gotten a night's sleep in three days. Now he sat in his dorm at Raft, typing mindlessly at his computer. The time in the corner read 12 AM. Another night gone. He shook his head and clicked out of the window he'd been working in. Moving away from his desk, he grabbed his tan leather jacket and left the room. Perhaps a walk would clear his head. He wondered if Autumn was still up, maybe he'd drop by and see. So he left campus and wandered down the road towards Magnolia. The sky was clear and it was a pretty nice night, not terribly hot, not too cool. It was perfect walking weather, but it was only serving to wake him up more, not put him to sleep.

Five minutes after leaving his room he was walking by the park, when he felt a weird twinge in his arm. Looking to his side, he noticed a tear in his jacket and frowned. His frown deepened as he noticed a trickle of blood making a streak down his arm. The perpetrator? A rose bush. A particularly large thorn had caught in the leather and his skin. Plucking the blood red rose containing said thorn, he turned it over in his hands. Funny he thought, how something so beautiful and delicate can also cause one so much pain. He looked back at his watch. 12:05 AM, fantastic. Walking back through the park he tossed the rose back and forth between his hands. He didn't know why he kept it, but something told him it was worth keeping.

Giving a slight turn in her sleep, Kizuna blinked, rubbing her eyes. It wasn't too early in the morning, but she could still be getting some sleep as of... now. Something kept her awake. It was odd. She was usually a deep sleeper. Slowly sitting up, she took a glance around the room. Something didn't seem right. She had a deja-vu feeling. Like right now had happened before. Before she could start to think correctly, she heard a loud buzzing. Turning her head fast to the side, it was her alarm clock.

"What the..." she said, hitting the button to turn it off, but it didn't stop. She hit it a few more times, slamming her fist on the button, but it only got louder, the time flashing '12:00'. "...damn clock!" she said, becoming irritated with it. She grabbed the plug from the wall socket and yanked, it popping out, and the clock becoming silent, and the time not flashing. "There we go... now maybe I can get some-"

Before she could finish her sentence, she could hear alarm clocks inside her house going off, and her siblings groaning in tired agony. "...what the hell is wrong with these clocks!" Kizuna ran down the stairs, practically knocking her twin brother Keiji out of the way, and noticed the cuckoo clock in the kitchen was going crazy and the time was stuck on '12:00'. Running around, she noticed the other clocks were stuck on '12:00' and all flashing and bleeping loudly. She tried to unplug some, but it didn't work. They continued beeping, getting louder, and louder, until Kizuna couldn't hear nothing, and her mind went blank.

Kizuna sat up in bed, looking around. "A dream... no. Couldn't have been..." she said. She looked at her clock, '5:42 AM'. "That was weird... I could have sworn..." she laid back down, giving a sigh and rubbing her head. She rolled onto her side, looking behind the table next to her bed. Her eyes widened,

The clock was still unplugged.

"This can't be right. It just can't be right."

First Kat had seen the full moon wane to a crescent when it wasn't supposed to. Then she saw the bright light of Venus hovering in the sky. Again, when it wasn't supposed to. Freaked out beyond all belief, Kat began to make her way down the street. She didn't know where she was going...until she thought of her older sister at St. Marina's. Unlike Kat, her older sister Jessie and her younger sister Maggie both boarded at the school. And if anyone would know what's going on, then it would be Jessie. She's got like a million straight-A's or something like that.

And so down the block she went, heading for the school. It was just twenty blocks away from her house, so it wouldn't take that long to track down her older sister. Plus, it's the middle of the night, where else would Miss Goody Two-Shoes be but sleeping? As she rounded the corner, she came across a wrecked car in a telephone pole and a girl standing next to it. Someone she vaguely recognized...

"Hey! Are you all right?" Kat ran over to the wreckage, brushing back her blonde curls as she approached Adri. "I know you. You're my older sister's roommate, Adrienne, aren't you? What happened?"

Satisfied that Lydia was indeed up, Tallulah crossed her arms and shifted to one foot, about to tell her about the jarring shock to her system when the girl began to freak out about being wet. Raising a brow she looked her over. "God I hope you didn't piss the bed." Lydia, of course, confirmed that she did not, which made her breathe a sigh of relief. The last thing she wanted to do was explain something like her friend wetting the bed to her parents. Though knowing them they'd totally understand and comfort her. Yay for cool parents. In reality though maybe Lydia was having the "night sweats" or whatever. Lulu sometimes woke up with her clothes and bedsheets nearly soaked through with sweat. It was so annoying, and sometimes happened even if the A/C was cranked to nearly its lowest setting.

"What's troubling me? Oh I dunno, how about a fucking electric shock that woke me from one of the best dreams I ever had. We were totally kicking Polk's ass in the finals." She was of course referring to field hockey, which was something she admittedly obsessed about. "Anyway, did you get shocked too? Or did some kind of super static electricity decide to make me its bitch?" It may have seemed like she was exaggerating about the potency of the shock, but she really wasn't. That wasn't any normal static electricity. It was way, way to powerful, and even know the hairs on the back of her neck were standing at attention. She really hoped Lydia had some kind of explanation.

Autumn's head was beginning to hurt from the thinking she was doing. She was the only one that saw the celestial anomoly, and no one would be able to confirm it. That was the worst. Shaking her head, she jumped up, grabbed a jacket and walked quickly from her room. A walk would clear her mind a little more and make it possible for her to go to bed. One block, she kept glancing at the sky. Still there. Two blocks, still. SHe decided tostop glancing at the plant above her, that seemed to be calling to her. Instead she walked down a side street toward the park and nearly ran into two people. They were arguing, then all of a sudden, a shiny silver object came flying toward her, hitting the ground at her feet. A ring, a diamond ring.

Take it back, you liar! the tearful woman was screaming. A couple was fighting, over what, she didn't know. Nor did she care to find out, but something was bothering her. She hated to see people who love each other break up. So instead of heading back home like she was going to do, she walked up to them, ring in hand.

"Listen, I don't mean to interrupt," she said to the woman, "but I really think you should keep this. Whatever this fight is about, it isn't worth lsoing someone as much as he loves you." She turned to the guy, he seemed to radiate a soft pink glow whenever his eyes met his fiance's. "You two are meant to be together. Don't ask me how I know, but I do." With that, she handed the ring back to the woman and walked away, but she felt a surge of energy and a smile crossed her face. Couple saved. Still smiling she decided to head back home. Returning to her room, she changed into pajamas and hopped into bed, deciding before falling asleep to text Kiz.

Weird night... have to tell you about it tomorrow With that, she was asleep, preparing for the day ahead of her.

Buzzzzzz Buzzzz Buzzzzz

"No, not the clocks again. Please not!" Kizuna couldn't sleep now. It was now 6:02AM. She hadn't slept since that clock incident. In fact, she had her comforter over her head. She yanked it back, grabbing her phone. "Who is texting me this early..." she said softly, scratching her head and sitting up in bed.

"Guess the text got delayed and sent now... hmmm. I should probably work on getting that fixed." She got up, steering clear of her clock, which had the correct time on it. She still didn't want to get close to it. Kizuna gave a flick to the lightswitch, not even worrying about going back to sleep. It was pointless. She'd have to be up in almost an hour for school anyways. She headed downstairs, phone in hand, and decided to text Autumn.

(I know the grammar in the texted part sucks, but yeah, who texts in proper english. I actually do, but hey! Lol)

Autumn slept less then soundly that night, and when her alarm went off at 5:30 that morning, she just shook her head and groaned. What a night. Hopping from bed she went to take a shower then, she quickly changed into her St. Marina's uniform. She lived on campus, but had spent the night at home. She was expected back on campus early that morning. Brushing out her hair, she heard a sudden buzz followed by The Doom Song, courtesy of Invader Zim. Glancing at her phone she nodded to herself and smiled. Early morning texts, wonderful.

Weird shit happened tonite. Meet me @ the lunch room, and I will tell u bout it. -Kiz

Looks like she'd be taking a detour to Polk on her way to school, again. It made her smile a little the fact that she spent most of her free time at St. M's over at Polk High, her school's rival.

K c u there -Autumn

Sending her text she finished getting ready and grabbed her school bag. It would certainly be an interesting day.

[OOC: Ladies, just a gentle reminder that the events in this post are taking place between the times of 11:53pm and 12:30am. If you want to skip ahead to the next day, feel free to do so but please move it to a separate topic, for continuity's sake?

Thanks loves ]