All Tomorrow's Parties

[Chiquitita]

“A flash in the skies, the sun will somersault towards earth turning the horizon into a glowing furnace of destruction. Cities will flood in minutes and the earth will crack and splinter. The screams of the trapped souls of hell will rise from these cracks, and will mark truly the end of the world. Sunrise marks the start, and the end.

The date? The Nineteenth of next month.”

“So, Kelly, want to do anything before the End of the World?”

“I really can’t hear what you’re saying?” Kelly scrunched up her face in an attempt to improve her hearing. The thrashing guitar music playing in this small dorm room had made her almost deaf, and she was just a tad tipsy to lip-read.

“I said, is there anything you want to do before we all die?” Why was she even talking to him? He was a wood-shop major with bad blonde jerry-curls and had chosen to wear a novelty ‘Got Wood?’ t-shirt tonight.

“I’m gonna go, the music’s too loud.” She slipped quickly through the door, closing it so he could not follow her. She narrowly avoided some freshmen rolling a keg down the hallway and goose-stepped into the opposing dorm where Julie and Sandy, her bleached blonde friends who did her hair sometimes, lived.

“Kelly! Over here!” Julie stood shaking with severe mascara trails running down her cheeks. Sandy was face down on her bed hugging a pillow. Julie’s brother Seth stood elsewhere in the room reading a copy of ‘Brave New World’ he’d taken from the girls’ bookshelf.

“What’s wrong with you three?” Kelly sat down and rubbed Sandy’s shoulder with her hand.

“What’s wrong Kelly? What’s wrong!” Sandy shrieked, her speech intercepted by choked puppy-like sobs. “We’re all going to die! And I never even graduated college, I’m going to die as a high-school graduate!”

Kelly laughed, rather insensitively but under the influence of alcohol so it was excusable. She looked to Julie’s grave face, her thumbnail bitten down to the thumb and to Seth who read with a glazed vacant expression. “You can’t all really think that this is for real can you? It’s a party! Are you guys stoned or what?”

“This is global news though. You can tell it’s for real!” Seth looked up from the pages.

“It’s not a serious story guys! My gosh, it was behind the celebrity news on yesterday’s CNN bulletin! It was like ‘Pop star gives birth, and before we go, more on the end of the world’.” Kelly held her hands out to emphasise her point, but it was lost on the three. “Okay, when you three sit here lamenting, I’m going to go check out what’s happening downstairs.”

Kelly left the three gormless characters to stew and made her way through the packed hallways, full of half-dressed drunken revellers and conflicting genres of music. A drunken senior who she’d have usually taken a chance with grabbed her and twirled her theatrically to a R’n’B slow ballad pounding out of a nearby room. Kelly laughed politely, but ran downstairs before she gave out any wrong signals.

The room was a bombsite; some people from town had arrived and were acting too big for their boots. Slogans of war and political hate were daubed in foot high letters on the walls and the glass trophy cabinet had been split open. Freshmen had filled the thirty year old, gold-plated hockey trophy with beer and were currently passing it round the room. Someone flicked the communal TV on, but it was a repeat of ‘Fraiser’ and they quickly turned it off, much to the protest of some Drama majors who loitered around the fireplace in matching black jumpers and berets.

The downstairs dorms were slightly less rambunctious than the upstairs, but torn papers and bedding lay in the hall indicating a mass gathering earlier. Kelly noted a room with six or seven people gathered inside and slipped in.

“Whoa there, no one comes in without signing the sheet.” A guy with long black hair and braces put his arm over the doorframe and thrust a sheet towards her. On it was messages such as: ‘War only breeds War’, ‘Humans are not the only Fruit’, ‘And I Am In Arcadia Too’ and ‘I went to third with Pete Sampson- No Lie!’.

“Um, okay sure,” she took a pen and wrote a haphazard ‘Carpe Diem’. “There you go.”

“’Carpe Diem’? How apt of you, come in, come in!”

Denny Phillips, the Goth-girl who’s room it was sat on her bed in the far corner. She was slightly heavy and Kelly felt ashamed to realise that she, Julie and Sandy had poked fun at her at times. Denny was really all right if you got on the right side of her. Denny’s quiet male friend Alex sat at the foot of the bed, entwined in Denny’s feet. He was short with a shaven head and was a person who no one except Denny knew much about. A girl with bright red hair and dungarees smoked in the corner. She flicked through a tattoo magazine between puffs. The black haired guy who stopped her on the way in smiled at her, showing off his metallic braces that he had on top and bottom.

The most surprising member of the group was Tiffany Wallace; a vacant bimbo who Kelly felt was responsible for the ‘Pete Sampson’ contribution. Tiffany’s family had taken her down to Florida at the start of the year where she was rumoured to have tried to start a singing career. She had returned just a few weeks previously and had tried it on with every boy in the college since.

Kelly took a seat next to Tiffany. The room was distinctly free from chaos or empty bottles, and smelt strongly of incense.

“So, as I was saying, yes, this is going to happen people, the end of the world is tomorrow roughly in-“ Denny checked her flashing LED alarm clock, “8 hours time.”

Tiffany raised her hands to her mouth in shock and emitted a little gasp. Denny nodded knowingly. “But, what if I was to tell you, we could survive?”

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

This is set with 8 hours to go till the end of the world. Nothings pre-planned, so it’s fairly free form. You can play another college student or an outsider who joins the party, or use one of the characters already made in this post. PM me with queries. And Have Fun!

[Greyhag]

"I'm fine mom, honestly. Don't worry about anything, I'll call in the morning and you'll see how funny all this was, I promise you. All right, have a good night. Don't sit up worrying. Goodbye now, love you!"

Annie hung up slowly, a small part of her wanted to believe the stories but she'd put on a brave front for her mother.

"How was your mother?" Oskar took his phone card from Annie's pale outstretched hand. The phone-card had seen much use from phoning up Norway twice weekly.

"She's really shaken up. My cousin is over there with her, so she should be okay." The two walked to the main rowdy den and Oskar ducked as some drunken loons threw darts at a picture of the Dean.

"It's so noisy here. These will have any excuse to have a party. These Americans have no self control, we should put them in a pig-pen instead of these fancy dorm-rooms." Oskar spoke in Norwegian without restraint or fear of being overheard. Annie clung to his arm to steady her light-headedness.

"Let's go find a room to sit in.” she whispered into his ear, her white blonde hair falling in front of her Slavic eyes.

The twosome made their way through the halls, avoiding passed out revellers as they stepped. They came upon a room of six or seven people.

"Excuse me. Is it possible for us to join you?" Oskar stuck his head into the room and Alex, Kelly and the black-haired boy looked up at them. Alex mumbled something about Annie being in his class and the black-haired one thrust the signing page up at them.

"I'm to write a saying? A proverb?" Oskar stuck out his tongue and scrawled something in Norwegian. "It says 'Rather free in a foreign place than a slave back home', it's a Norwegian proverb.” The room looked impressed and the paper then went to Annie.

"I don't know what to write." she drew back breezily.

"Just write anything, it doesn't matter."

She hesitated for a minute but then returned with 'The age of miracles is past'. The group gestured for the two to come and sit in with them, and they all turned patiently back to Denny's story.

[KosherPig?]

Nathan got out of the shower and went downstairs from his all white room. He rubbed his blurry eyes. He put on the box rimmed glasses, and grabbed some coffee. So good to be home with his family. He picked up the paper, and threw his favorite scarf on, and went to the car. *Click* Turned on the radio.
"End of the world" were the words he caught, he glanced at the paper, and saw a depiction of god zapping cities. "JUDGEMENT DAY" was the title. He gulped and thought of his whole family.
His eyes became hot with tears.
"where are they...no time to look. I must go visit my friends" he thought.
He put his foot on the gas, and drove to the college campus.
Bablyon, by David Gray began to play on the radio. He entered a tunnel. He began to cry, not sob, just a silent, teary, cry.
The lights passed his face.
Let go of your heart
Let go of your head
Thats what he heard. He wiped the tears off, and a smile jerked through. A smile that could keep the world alive. A smile that for one minute, could put another smile on everyone's faces. He came out of the tunnel. Campus was up close. He came to a parking lot, and to his dorm building, and entered. He was walking around the packed building, and saw a dorm with around 7 people. A sheet was put in front of him, and he wrote, "A hand in the hand beats two in the face" He wrote below the other proverbs.
He walked in and sat down, and glared at everyone directly in the eyes. He smiled at everyone.
"We will make it. The grass isnt greener on the other side, but its still grass."

[SkyRiseSlasher]

J.T sat in his room playing his PS2. Madden 2004, you know. He had the 2005 and 2006 versions, he just liked this version best. In the background music blared, at the moment Fall Out Boy's - Champagne for my Real Friends, Real Pain for my Sham Friends was playing. As he continued the drubbing he was laying on the Panthers, he sang along with the horribly catchy song, hitting notes almost as perfectly as the lead singer.

"Strike us like matches, because everyone deserves a flame. We only do this for the scars and stories, not the fame." The words resonated in his head, and through his room, echoing loudly. The dormroom he occupied at the moment was for two people, but only he lived there. His roomate had moved out a month before, claiming that J.T's music was depressing and that J.T should be listening to rap, not that "Punk-Rock/Emo *****". J.T had countered back with, "It's only depressing if you're already depressed" and "I can listen to what I want." The roommate left a week after, and he didnt mind much. He liked living alone anyways, gave him more space to use.

The game was finished, a final score of 65-7. J.T stood up and stretched, trying to shake the stiffness from his 6'3, 215 lb frame. An avid basketballer, he kept himself in shape enough to play; though as of late he spent all of his time doing nothing at all, playing video games. Grabbing a brush from the counter, he brushed black hair, cut short and even. After this he would walk over to the closet and grab a gray long-sleeve shirt, then a red one to go over top of it. The jean shorts he already wore and a pair of white and red And 1's finished off his outfit. Grabbing a few notebooks, pencils and pens, he threw them into a bag. In his right hand, he held an Ipod, loaded with all the songs on his comp. He shut the comp down, turned off the lights, left, and locked the door.

Walking through the halls was a task in itself, with avoiding the drunks and the extraneous people who wanted to spend time on a college campus chasing girls because the world was ending. He had spent time doing the same thing, but not as often after Tarah. She had changed him in so many ways, it was a wonder he wasnt dead now from being without her; he almost was, but thats another story. Coming up soon wouldve been their two year anniversary, but not anymore.

As the sounds of Armor For Sleep blasted his ears, he passed by a room with a couple people inside, noone he really knew. He passed by it before seeing a girl go into it out of the corner of his eye, a girl named Kelly. Semi-intrigued, he turned around and headed for the room signing in with a quote from a AFS song, You can't change, that you're dead. You just deal with it. The guy at the door seemed satisfied and let him in. He walked inside, smiling abit at Kelly as he passed. He wasnt too sure if she knew him or not, but he smiled nonetheless. He took a seat about three people to the right from her, then turned off his music, the guy was speaking.

[Provocative.]

"Alright guys! I need a break, I'll be back later" Jayde yelled to the crowd in the hall as she was hit with a wave of groans and boos.

Slipping from the large headphones off her oval shaped head, Jayde placed them on one of the turntables in the desk in front of her. Her long, manicured hands found each knob and turned the decks off, then making her way to the switch behind the mixer. She spun around on the heel of her high top Nike Air Force Ones and placed her own mixed cd into the stereo behind her, so the crowd would have music. Any excuse to have a party... Jade returned to her equipment as the music blared from behind, making the drunken, drugged up college.. people jump around in a frenzy.

Having just moved here a few months ago from Australia for college, Jayde was still a little confused about where she belonged, but it didn't really faze her. She was the loud, spontaneous, Australian girl that loved to make people laugh, people kinda' 'stuck' to her. Plus being a DJ also helped with her reputation. Image and Style matters so much here... She missed her best friend Mariana, and her mum, she even missed her ex, despite all the pain and hurt he caused... but she would never let anyone know it, she was too strong to show it. Whenever someone asked her about him, she would just laugh casually, even though deep inside she wanted to cry and scream. But now she was a different girl, it was time to put all that in the past...

The reason for travelling to the good ol' U. S of A...

Alot of good that did her... she about to die in a strange country she only knew from television shows and movies, away from the people she grew up with. Oh who cares! Stop your whinging! A small smile crossed her plump, glossy lips as she began to pack her vinyls back into the blood red mettalic case. End of the world or no end of the world, she was NOT letting her prized possesions leave her side. She grabbed her navy blue jacket from her ground and slipped it on her clim yet curvy torso. The cuffs and the waist band had white and lime green stripes, prints of skulls and dollar signs were printed in white on the rest of it with lime dotted lines connecting each. Different and funky, but that was her style. With the vinyl case held tightly in her hand, Jayde moved her way through the crowd, yelling a hi here and there.

She finally reached the dorms, lugging the case behind her. Her gray skinny leg jeans hugged her long legs tightly and were tucked into her checkered Air Force Ones. Bright yellow suspenders were attached to the waist band of her jeans and hung around her thighs. As she entered, Jayde quickly walked into an empty room, checking her reflection in the mirror. She didn't do her hair in the morning but it still looked like it usually did. The left side was shaved lightly in an arc that led to the back of her neck while the other side was long and layered. Her chocolate brown locks had chunks of petrol green in various spot around her head, with a large chunck in her bangs that swept across her right eye. The contrasting colour made her eyes look like fiery gems. Her large, emerald green orbs scanned the reflection and as soon as she was pleased, the dark olive skinned girl made her way up the stairs.

Ducking in and out of the loud drunks that occupied the dorm, Jayde finally made it to her good friend's room. She kicked the door open, hoping to scare the tall athlete.

"AY! J.T!" Jayde bellowed, "Didya mis- Bugger!"

The young woman cursed when she realised J.T wasn't in his room and huffed. Where the hell could he be?

Jayde continued to walk down the hall, laughing loudly as one freshman fell down. As she passed a room, she looked casually inside, glancing at the group of people. She was about to pass it when she saw J.T in a seat.

"THERE YOU ARE! I'VE BEEN LOOKING EVER-" she yelled, her Australian accent strong.

She was interrupted as a guy shoved a sheet into her free hand. She stared at the sheet, reading each proverb. You can't change, that you're dead. You just deal with it. She grinned largely at J.T's, knowing straight away that he wrote it. Lowering the vinyl case to the floor, Jayde grabbed the pen and paused for a moment, thinking... then she remembered a saying her grandfather said to her.

A beber y a tragar, que el mundo se va a acabar

She thrusted the paper back to the guy, reading the look of confusion on his face.

"It's in spanish. It means "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

She picked up the case and sat down on the seat next to J.T., giving him a quick peck on the cheek as a greeting. Jayde looked watched him, extremely grateful to have someone like him around. He had been through heaps and she hated herself for not being with him through it all. Her trance was broken and she smiled largely, looking around at the others in the room.

"Sorry about the interruption... mind if I join? Is this like an A.A. meeting or something?" She joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

((Sorry about the long post, I got a little carried away...))

[Chiquitita]

Denny sulked as people coming and going interrupted her climatic speech. First to arrive was JT, a complete jock who by Denny's dark standards, was designed to hate. Tiffany was perhaps slightly too shocked to flirt, but she just about managed a few bats of her eyelids.

Two European sounding students arrived next, all wispy blonde locks and pale fluorescent skin. Since they'd sat down the male introduced them both to the group as Oskar and Annie, and they subsequently had sat whispering to each other in a foreign language.

Kelly despised Nathan from the moment she saw him, his quality controlled looks and his annoying proverb. Kelly hadn't even thought through the whole 'Carpe Diem' thing, but that was ten-times better than what he had written in her opinion. Last to arrive was Jayde, a girl popular by almost everyone’s standards and her appearance had caused the red-haired girl to throw her hands up in the air and whoop.

"May I continue, or is anyone else coming to invade MY dorm-room?" Denny glared at all assembled. "Right, for the benefit of the new people, I believe I can solve this whole 'end of the world' thing for us'."

Kelly sighed sceptically; her tipsiness had made her lose her tact. Denny glared at her furiously. "Carry on Denny, you've got us all excited now."

The Goth-girl cleared her throat dramatically and raised herself off the bed, dislodging Alex who moaned and hugged a pillow instead. Denny walked to her desk, drew back a drawer, handed some incense and assorted tea-candles for Annie to hold and brought out a stack of yellow-flyers. Taking the candles off Annie she passed out the flyers to all assembled.

The End Of The World Is Coming, Say No To It!

At precisely midnight tonight you can say no to the End Of The World! Meet The Cardinal and her group at the address below, and be part of the World when everyone else is gone! Only you can say No To the End Of The World!

Kelly stared at her flyer in disbelief, then horror as she saw many of the people grouped nodding as they read. "Excuse me Denny, I respect you and all, but what on earth are you thinking of?"

"I'm suggesting that, if you want to survive Kelly, you come with us tonight to join The Cardinal!"

Tiffany gripped Kelly's hand unexpectedly and stared deep into her eyes, "Kelly, come on, we may as well try you know? It's not like we want to die or anything?". The red headed girl nodded and the black haired guy put his hand on her shoulder, "If you don't try, you'll be dead anyway."

Kelly shook her head. "We're putting our trust in whoever this 'Cardinal' is? It's ludicrous! What do you guys think?". She threw her question to the ones who joined the room after her.

[Greyhag]

"It's always so warm here. People say there's a giant hot-spring buried straight underground, but some scientists came a few months back and said that there wasn't. The people here don't care though, they've just put up a sign outside saying 'World's Largest Underground Hot-Spring'"

"Can you even get underground hot-springs?"

"I don't think you can. It's sad to think that the people of this town's only testament is something that doesn't exist. In the future they'll look back and see this as a joke."

"Even as a joke, this town will still be remembered though." Oskar unwrapped his scarf and undid the top button of his fleece. It was indeed as hot as Annie had said. The windows of the cafe they sat inside had fogged up with condensation, and she had drawn a heart with their initials inside.

"Will America have villages like this?" Annie wore a cream cashmere jumper with hearts of different colors sewn in. This was 3 days after her and Oskar's two-year anniversary, and 3 days before they left for college in America. She'd driven absent-mindedly to this place, and he had driven absent-mindedly to join her.

"America doesn't have villages. Only cities of wasteful opportunity and skyscrapers." Oskar was philosophical from a young age, he tended to spot irony in childrens shows on TV. "Does your mother still not want you to go?"

Annie sipped at a hot-chocolate that singed her tongue and made it sandy. "She says that me going away would be like the end of the world. I'm sad she hasn't gotten over my father's death, it's been two and a half years now."

"That was the day I first met you?"

"Indeed, you helped carry in the coffin. You were so nervous it went all lop-sided where you held it."

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

"What do you guys think?" Kelly asked brashly. Her eyes were bloodshot, either from the drink or the smoke ((the red-haired girl was on her fourth cigarette)).

"We will go. We can't do anything here, we don't know anyone or care for anyone here except each other." Oskar lamented.

Annie swept her wispy hair back behind her ear. "I don't know if it will work. I don't believe in miracles, but at least we'd be remembered as people who tried to make things happen."

[SkyRiseSlasher]

J.T sat there in the room, wondering why exactly he had bothered to stop in here. He saw the look that was given to him by the main speaker; J.T just stared on past it. He'd been given the dumb jock look too many times to actually give a damn about the person sending it his way. Still, he was being unnerved by the way that Tiffany girl looked at him, and his growing uncertainty of why he was in that room.

Thats when he heard the loud, female voice and knew instinctively who it was. Instantly thinking, Why does Jayde need to be so damn loud?, he looked at her as if dissapointed, but couldnt stop the rapidly forming smile on his face. "Jayde!" he said, stopped by the peck on the cheek. "If I had known you were looking I would've stayed in my dorm." She looked at him some more, then proceeded to look around the room at the others, attempting to lighten the mood of the room. He smiled and looked back to the speaker.

Denny, his name was, as J.T would learn it after he finished his speech. "Say No to the end of the world." J.T looked at him as if he was a retard. Apparently, someone else thought so too; none other then Kelly. She voiced her opinion, and offered up a question to the rest of them. The people who walked in before him decided that they were going to go, the male pointed out his obvious dislike for anyone that wasnt the girl hanging on his arm. J.T shook his head and sighed. "I think its crazy, to be honest. I dont even know why I even walked into this room." He looked at Jayde as he stood. "If you decide to go, Ill go along with you, just to see that nothing happens to you; If youre not going to go then lets go hang out some before we all die."

[Provocative.]

Jayde stared at Denny with the same look J.T had on his face as they read the flyers and listened to her little talk about the 'cardinal'. Who the hell was this 'cardinal'? Her mouth was slightly open, with the her top lip on an angle. One eye was slightly more closed in an exaggerated dumbfounded expression. Where these people normal? Jayde couldn't believe they were serious... maybe they were extremely desperate for a glimps of hope. She had to admit she was extremely shocked that Tiffany was in this room. But she thought Kelly was a cool girl and was with her on this. She was about to answer her question when the foreigners spoke. She glared at Oskar, she was in the same boat as them. Jayde and the couple were both strangers to America but she found Oskar's attitude completely repulsing. It just proved how different people were. Opening her mouth to say something to him, Jayde was interrupted again but this time by J.T.

"If you decide to go, Ill go along with you, just to see that nothing happens to you; If youre not going to go then lets go hang out some before we all die."

She raised her oval face to him, her eyes wide.

"I appreciate it J.T. but i'm a tough girl," she winked at him and chuckled a little as she stood up.

"I'm with these two on this," she said pointing to J.T and Kelly as she faced the group, "We are going to trust this 'cardinal' guy? Sorry but it sounds like a cult... But I'll suppose i'll go along for the ride. I have nothing else to lose right? But one thing... what about those people out there? "she said, indicating the door, "We are just going to let them die and only look out for ourselves? What? We are going to start going to make babies with each other if we DO survive to make up the human race? There are to many What Ifs."

She thought it was a mouthful, but she wasn't finished yet...

She turned to the Norweigan couple and stared at Oskar. "I mean no offence, but you have to stop being so selfish. There's NINE people in this room, not just you two. If you're only going think about the two of you, then you should find another way to survive. It's a group effort."

Jayde smiled slowly, trying not to seem like she was attacking them. But she wasn't the one to hold back, but she always tried to do it nicely.

"I no you guys aren't from here and me neither. I want to be home with my family aswell. You have each other and I came here by myself. At least I try to make an effort to talk to others instead of sitting in my room like a hermit."