Fandom Island and Town

The trouble with having let Mavis go off with Johnny on a trip around the human world was that now that his baby girl was gone, the Hotel was just a hotel. And apparently Drac was the worst boss ever. Or so the entire housekeeping staff had told him when they'd threatened to walk out.

(When he found out who had unionized the hotel staff, there would be trouble!)

So Drac was on the island and in a snit. Well, he had been in a snit. Then he'd gone to the theatre and yelled at some of the zombies, non-union ones, and now he was feeling a little better. He found a pile of scripts on his desk and pulled the top one to read...

"Hmm... A play about Twelve Angry Men? "


[open]

No one die of shock... but there was a Vampire in the Theatre.

And it was open.

(Just don't ask what are the crashing yet slightly musical noises that are coming from the auditorium. SOMEvampire needed to learn to put his sheet music away when he was finished.)

At least the place was clean? No spiders ANYwhere!

*Crash*BOOM*Clang*

... "'Boom'?"

Drac had spent most of the week since talking to Jono working on business. For the Boards, for his hotel back in Transylvania, and for the current big problem in his life... preparing the best birthday party ever for his daughter's 118th birthday later this year!

Okay, so most of his week had been spent on that last one. Apparently some one else had booked one of the acts that he wanted at the party and was being particularly nasty about it. Which meant that Drac was back to square one for day two of the party.

So tonight Drac was sitting on the stage at the theatre, taking his frustrations out on his new guitar. He spent some time with a few of the tunes he remembered, then brought out the sheet music he'd picked up at Jono's the other day. He set it in a swirl of purple magic in front of him and began picking out the chords.

There were no windows inside the auditorium and the zombie staff knew better than to disturb him, so Drac was going to stay and practice until he didn't want to anymore.


[open!]

Drac's Christmas present dropped onto the lid of his coffin with a thunk that woke him easily. Of course it didn't hurt that he had only been asleep a few hours. What did hurt was the unexpected bone crunching hug it had given him when he'd opened his coffin to see what the thunk had been.

"Dad! Merry Christmas!"

"Mouse?!"

----

Drac had decided overnight that the island had needed a real Christmas party, so now with Mavis' help he headed to the Boards to give it just that.

The Theatre was decorated gaily. Outside it was bright lights and colour and sparkle, courtesy of the zombies (Mavis had designed and supervised it). The interior had been left to Drac and was warm and woodsy, the grand lobby was filled with candles and trees and there was lots of food and mulled wine... a bit old fashioned, but the Vampire was a romantic at heart.

At one side of the lobby, a small guitar was sitting against the wall in case anyone wanted to perform a few carols. Ocassionally Drac would look longingly towards it, yes.

Moving past the lobby, the zombie actors were enjoying the freedom to put on a panto or two. Or at least that was what Drac was trying to convince himself they were doing. Anyone wanting to join would be heartily welcomed.

Possibly with actual hearts, depending on the zombie. The management apologizes.



The doors of the theatre were wide open and the marquee read:

Free admission
celebrate with
music and food and friends



[open all day. Slow play, handwavy, messy, etc. I am AFK most of the day, but enjoy :)]

It was bad enough he couldn't remember who he was or where he was. But to wake up and figure out he was TRAPPED IN A COFFIN?! He'd passed out.

When he'd woken again, it had taken what seemed like forever to yell his fool head off and then scratch his way out of said coffin... to find himself in a very nice office and not buried six-feet underground. Not that he wasn't grateful, of course, it just didn't seem to make any SENSE.

He had puttered around the room and then a few of the others on the same floor, trying to find something that would help him figure out what he was doing there, why he'd been in a coffin... and yeah, who he even was. He found lots of papers in a desk drawer that, what he could read of them since they were in some really weird handwriting as well as in a different language! mentioned a theatre? Which made sense with all the scripts and props and things he'd also found. Didn't help answer the question of who he was or why he'd been sealed in a casket, but it was one less mystery at least.

The noises he heard downstairs, when he'd finally found the staircase, still had him slightly concerned, though. It was this late at night and there was so much banging and grunting and shouting? Hmm. Maybe it would be best to stay where he was until daylight... He'd eaten some of the food he'd found in the office next door and crashed out on a rather large chair in there (he hadn't wanted to go back to the office with the coffin). The next morning, he cleaned up in a bathroom and fiddled with his outfit as best as he could figure out (so COMPLICATED!) and when he seemed dressed enough to still be acceptable in public, he made his way downstairs.

He managed to avoid the very odd looking people moving about the theatre and found his way to the door. Finally! Freedom! He could escape and find some hospital or something and get some help! Surely someone would know who he was and why he'd been held prisoner in such a weird place!

He checked again and then made a dash for the main door. It gave some slight resistance but another tug had it open and he ran outside into the sunlight.

It wasn't until he reached the center of the street that he realized he was on fire.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Unlike many of its fellow theatres, the Black Swan had resisted the modern trend of changing over to a 'movie house'. Unfortunately it had also resisted that whole 'air conditioned' trend as well.

Welcome to the Black Swan Theatre.



One of the finest stage theatres this side of the Atlantic. Especially if you ask the mysterious foreign Count who owned it. Which you could only do if you could find him. For some reason, the handsome and charming man rarely appeared before evening, even if there were early shows playing.

And speaking of shows, this weekend the Swan was still running, The Screen Door. Though for the third time this run there were changes in the leading ladies. Odd how many female company members seemed to disappear when they came to play at the Swan.


[The Boards is now the Black Swan Theatre. Still a stage theatre, just very luxurious. Enjoy the show!]

Drac had the windows repaired and most of the internal damage the zombie staff had done was corrected. Enough so that at least he could now sit down and look at a calendar and make an attempt at scheduling a play.

Behind closed doors, of course. The zombies had caught him with a script earlier in the week and the whole rest of the day had been them following him around 'auditioning'. Despite his very loud declaratons that he was only cleaning out the files.

So today, Drac was definitely behind closed doors. Trying really really hard to ignore the ocassional sounds coming from the rest of the theatre.



"Verily, tis unharmed, Count!"

... It kind of reminded him of when Mavis was learning to fly, actually.




[Open for Drac interaction, zombies, and PINKIES!!]

Do not ask Drac why the Boards had not actually opened Friday. Or Saturday. He will not tell you, he will not discuss it, and luckily there were no witnesses.



When he was finally able to get himself to the theatre it was just before dawn on Sunday. He was greeted by nothing but complaints from the troupe of zombie actors. Apparently they had performed, both days, to an empty house.

"Well of course no one came to see the play... you didn't open the doors!" Drac was seriously reconsidering hiring zombies.

So. Sunday morning found Drac wandering around town and putting up NEW posters announcing that the play would again be performed tonight.

And now the doors were open and ushers were ready to escort people to their seats for the zombie performance of Amleth.



[aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!]

Now that word had been sent back to him that Mavis had his Hotel back in hand (and the hot-headed Quasimodo had been convinced not to quit because of it), Drac was finally able to sit back and muse over the disaster he had made of the Theatre: there had been no performance the entire semester, and he was running behind for the summer season.

Drac was not a happy Vampire.

So it was that Drac was on the phone calling his suppliers back home and making arrangements for a rather large shipment. The Boards needed a play, and Drac was going to make sure it got a play.

Anyone visiting today would find Drac in and tending to various theatre things. Including writing letters of apology to Jonothon, Mr Kirby, and Ms Malikov.



[open for SP, but no OCD]

"You are still here," Drac rounded a corner and found the woman still in the lobby. "Ms Akatsutsumi?"

"I'm not leaving until he shows up." The redheaded woman lowered the script she was reading to give him what was probably supposed to be an intimidating look, except Drac had been married. Oh, and he was a vampire. "I told you that." And she had. When she'd shown up. Hours ago.

"Jonothon doesn't always come in, as I mentioned earlier. He's only working sound on this production; being here for casting isn't necessary."

The woman shrugged and went back to reading the script. "It's Jono. He'll be here; he loves this place."

AAAAUGH. "Have you tried contacting him directly?" Drac was so tempted to rub his face in frustration, but he kept his Service Smile and simply ducked his head as he continued past and resumed setting up for the day.

The woman's eyes rolled. "I've texted him, like, a hundred times."

"And visited his music store?"

"I'll go there later, if I don't find him here." She looked back up at him, this time with a curious look on her face. "Hey, do you know why weird things are happening on the island?"

Drac raised an eyebrow as he set the poster in the window. "Because it's the island?" Yes. He'd now lived here long enough that was actually an answer.

"That's... actually an answer, I guess."

3rd Casting Call for Sour Grapes Of Death One year ago, Robert Killingsworth bought the farm. Six months later, he was dead, leaving his widow Elizabeth to tend to their fledgling vineyard and winery on the outskirts of California’s wine country. With mounting debts and no idea how to run a business, Elizabeth is desperate to sell the farm and recoup her losses. The fierce drought and shaky economy, however, have left Killingsworth Farm on the market for far too long. One autumn day, seven people passed through the gates of Killingsworth Farm to see Elizabeth. One of them, Detective Yu discovers, is the last person Elizabeth ever sees. AUDITIONS OPEN

Come in and audition!

No seriously. Audition. He has only two parts cast.


[AU and AU!NPC auditioners welcome! Play with Momo or Drac! Slow play as I am at work and then personal errands until later tonight EST]

"Now it's linens?! How can we be out of linens, Frank. I don't... I don't understand that." Drac rubbed his forehead as he paced the office floor and spoke into the phone. "It's a hotel. We have extra extra spare linens."

Well, that was actually because Drac was OCD, but he believed it was Status: Hotel, Normal.

He listened a moment, nodding. "Yes. Yes, I see. The Bog monster family reunion does usually run us out of clean..."

...

"Oh." More nodding. "...Wait, what? Why would a poltergeist convention ruin the rest of the... A costume ball?!" Drac's face went slack and he facepalmed. "Of course. No, you couldn't have known they would all dress up as ghosts. No, we can't very well use them! They have holes in them! No. I'll call and order more linens. No, you're not fired. I'm just..."

FREAKING OUT!!! WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO HIS HOTEL?!?

"concerned about things. No, Frank; other things. Right. I will call you later with more information."

And so, there was an emotionally distraught vampire in the theatre hiding his twitchyness about the mess his poor poor hotel was becoming in his absence by checking inventory and OCD-ing puttering about.

Oh, and despite all the troubles his mun he was having, he finally had signs up that auditions were open:

Casting Call for Sour Grapes Of Death One year ago, Robert Killingsworth bought the farm. Six months later, he was dead, leaving his widow Elizabeth to tend to their fledgling vineyard and winery on the outskirts of California’s wine country. With mounting debts and no idea how to run a business, Elizabeth is desperate to sell the farm and recoup her losses. The fierce drought and shaky economy, however, have left Killingsworth Farm on the market for far too long. One autumn day, seven people passed through the gates of Killingsworth Farm to see Elizabeth. One of them, Detective Yu discovers, is the last person Elizabeth ever sees. AUDITIONS OPEN

Come in and audition!

[OCD minimal because I am brain dead and Drac doesn't know what he's doing. AU and AU!NPC auditioners welcome!]

This time Drac had heard the radio announcement and he was not best pleased at being threatened. He'd been through this already and definitely knew what to do...

Grab Mavis and run away.

Only, this time there were more monsters here that he worried about. And apparently they were out there in the streets, fighting. That was insane! Right. Well, then. Time to go get everyone. And if they didn't want to get away and be safe... there was always the option to hypnotize them. Someone in this town had to show they cared about them, after all.

So now Drac was walking the streets, a very grumpy modded Mavis tailing behind him, and collecting various students and other fellow monsters. He figured he could take them back to the hotel and contact their families from there.

...

He was going to be a very upset vampire when he finds out there are no Portals connecting to his Transylvania for at least two weeks.



[open! It's note necessary, but if you want Drac to hypnotize your character into joining, let me know! Also, any attacks? Drac will totally fend off, dunworry kids! Mavis modded with permission]

If Drac was a wee bit cranky today, it was quite possibly the noise that was leaking through the walls and interfering with his attempts to get the NPC chorus and music to properly sync up today. Everyone seemed to be gabbing on about money lying about, and since the noise from outside had gotten steadier over the day, the sounds inside the Boards had increased in volume as well to compensate. And it was not the pleasant noise of a rehearsal.

"I thought theaters were meant to be sound efficient," he mumbled as he rubbed his forehead, another headache starting already. Well, at least the sets were ready and in position? And the costumes had arrived back from the cleaners?

Yes! The show must go on! And so, Drac was puttering about and trying to get things done as the players came in.

When enough of them assembled, "Greetings everyone!"

"My apologies for both the noise and for missing last weeks rehearsal. Let's do our best today. You are all doing very well and the show next week will certainly reflect that. I cannot wait for your friends and family to see how far you've all come. Now, lets get to work."

"Last week you worked on blocking. I hope you remember your movements, because today you are doing them in costume." He waved at racks of dry cleaning bags, each tagged with a character name. Of course, Drac's lack of actual Theatre experience meant he hadn't known to check the costumes that came back from the laundry... so, enjoy what you find in those bags, peoples.

"Let's see. Do we have the players for act one...?"


[open! OCD in a moment up!]

Drac was not at the theater early this Wednesday. He was, in fact, still at the theater. He'd spent Monday tidying his own place and arranging for the removal of the amusement park from the warehouse. Tuesday evening, he'd arrived at his usual time at the Boards and found the door hanging wide open. Immediately upon looking inside, it was obvious that it had not been spared the island's invasion of little children, and after a moment or sixty of grumbling wishing he could send for his staff from the hotel, he set about straightening up.

He'd taken a brief nap in his spare coffin in the room he'd been allowed upstairs, and was now attempting to sort out a pile of props and costumes that needed repair. There were a few brooms wandering about, still magicked into sweeping. Just ignore them.

It was about ten minutes before the rehearsal started when Jono finally managed to get back to the Boards, his portal from Kaeleer a little delayed. And then detoured. Through a reality that had replaced his clothing with Scottish garb from the late seventeenth century the minute he'd stepped through his first portal. Because apparently the multiverse was keen on seeing him in a kilt, for reasons he couldn't quite figure out.

The stopover meant that Jonothon somewhat resembled a giant, disgruntled Nac Mac Feegle, when he walked into the Boards and nearly tripped over a magical sweeping broom.

"What the bloody hell happened to-- Dracula!"

Oh, because that was definitely the way you summoned Count Dracula, Jono. Especially when he was low on sleep and cranky from having been cleaning. On his own. Stupid lack of NPCs staff.

Drac heard the call and flicked a wrist. The broom stopped sweeping and floated mid-air to point in Drac's direction.

From whence he wasn't budging, but was instead examining an Elizabethan maid costume and trying to determine if the golden glittery... stuff it was covered in was intentional or was put there through childish interference.

Perhaps it was a sign they needed more gremlin traps in the costume room?

Jono was pinching the bridge of his nose as he made his way into the costume storage area. Ignore the kilt. Please. Ignore it a lot.

"Dare I ask?"

Because from where he was standing, he probably didn't want to know.

Drac waved another costume into the 'find a seamstress' pile. "The children were apparently not satisfied by my Funhouse Transylvania." That hurt to admit.

Rehearsals today would be interesting.

--
[Boards is (finally) Open, no OCD today. Unless you counted the piles Drac was making. Nice and neat piles. Cowritten with apocalipped]

Drac had his hands full with a young-again Mavis, so rehearsals were the farthest thing from his mind.

Well, okay. Not really. Given that the radio implied the island was full of people turned into children (and when had he accepted that this sort of things was okay?) he wasn't sure this was the most opportune time to hold play rehearsals. And doubly so, since he had someplace else he wanted to be: taking care of his wee-again mouse. So Drac managed to bundle Mavis up against the sun and carry her to the Boards, where he put a sign on the doors:

Play rehearsals have been cancelled for Sunday. Please practice your lines and songs on your own. Make-up Rehearsal Date: Wednesday Evening.

And then he'd headed off for the abandoned warehouse he'd commandeered.

Okay. Not really. He'd spent the next twenty minutes chasing a giggling toddler-Mavis-bat through the theater rafters and then he'd gone to the warehouse.

Blissfully unaware he'd left the doors to the Theatre unlocked.

Jono was going to kill him.


---
[open but Drac and Jono are not here. The theater offices and upstairs apartments are locked and cannot be entered. This includes Jono's instruments. The theater prop and costume rooms, however... fully stocked and open.]

Drac's week had been... interesting. He wasn't going to talk about it.

He was happy to be out of his rooms, though, and flew his way quickly through the daylight and into the theatre through his office window, ready for the last rounds of discussion with Jonothon about the casting. He was actually pleased to find one of those sticky yellow pieces of note paper on his desk that read Final Draft Casting in what appeared to be a drunken, scrawly version of the director's handwriting. Underneath it was a folder that contained the former drafts of the cast list.

( Including the latest: )

[Jekyll and Hyde it is! Cast roles will be in the OCD! Script and rehearsal info coming soon! Thanks everyone, this really was hard to cast!]

Drac was hoping that Jonothan was resting up and that the noise wouldn't bother him as today was the second day of rehearsals for the upcoming play!

And yes, DAY. Just don't ask him to go outside or open a window or anything. That's why the lights were on! (and yes yes, electricity was much better than candlelight, yes yes. Move on.)

The place was a little cleaner than it had been the last time, but mostly because of Drac and his magic. Apparently there was a shortage of zombies in this town. He would have to look into that; who else was qualified to do the work?

But anyway. A cleaner, brighter theatre awaited those who trekked in and auditioned for the Count today. Outside since the predawn hours, Jonothan's sign from the other day was again present. A minor change made:


Auditions Today and Sunday!
Jekyll & Hyde
Bring a Monologue and a Song
Rehearsals on Wednesdays and Sundays, Performance Friday, Nov. 29
Cast and Crew Wanted!


Drac had asked for catering and been sent fruit and vegetable trays! And... flavoured water? He was going to have to complain. There wasn't even any scream cheese!

[Open auditions are open to all!]