doorkey: (Jump Downstairs)
Coraline Jones ([personal profile] doorkey) wrote in [community profile] entrancelogs2016-11-03 02:39 pm

[Open] What an extraordinary child...

Who: Coraline Jones & OPEN TO ANYBODY!
Where: The Grounds, Your Bedroom Door, The Halls, The Dining Room
When: Early November
Rating: PG
Summary: Being a mansion busybody, and sampling sounds for spooktunes
The Story: (But first, mood music...)

Out and About

The grounds feel extra chilly these days, air crisp with all the pleasantries of autumn, and the forest edges along with some of the garden is shedding crunchy leaves this way and that. There's a distantly smokey smell too, that's impossible to pinpoint the exact source of, but it pleases Miss Jones immensely.

She wanders the grounds with a sense of open-minded purpose, wearing a slouchy wool cap and a cozy sweater underneath her bright yellow coat. It's not quite cold enough for snazzy gloves, which is just as well- easier to carry a handheld tape recorder, pointing it at scattered leaf piles just before giving them a hearty kick with her wellington boots. Coraline walks hard along the cobblestone pathways too, trying to put a little more deliberate weight in her footsteps, occasionally bouncing from foot to foot rhythmically as if playing on invisible hopscotch boards.

She bothers the vendors for a bit, knocking on empty turtleshells and strings of pretty glass beads, bowls of jangly trickets, poking about at their wares with absolutely no real intentions of buying or bartering. Once the faceless merchants have realized this, and she's had quite enough of their cold shouldering, Coraline moves on quickly, finding a branch with some leaves still attached (not poison oak!) to run along the fences, making a glorious racket. On the review playback, it's not quite as satisfying as she'd hoped. Maybe she should have thought to arm herself with fancier microphones.

Soon she spots someone else out here, probably minding their own business, or lost in their own thoughts, and hurries over wth the branch dragging behind her on the grass.

" 'Scuse me?" The girl pipes, waving mid-approach. "Hi there, uh... Are you busy, right now? Would you mind, um... holding this up for me, for just a second?" Turning the branch around so the leafy ends are facing her sound recorder, she smiles hopefully and makes a flimsy, demonstrating gesture. "Yeah. Give it a good rustle?"


Door to Door

There's an eerie sounding disturbance in the hall, off and on during the day. Maybe you've just been too tired or preoccupied to investigate it's source. But that's okay. The sound machine's about to come to you!

(Knock-Knock-Knock.)

Yep, that's the sound of smallish knuckles on your bedroom door. Did you perhaps forget to put the No Solicitations or Please Do No Disturb sign on the door handle today? Or is a mild distraction a most welcome visitor, right now?

This one might be a little impatient, piping up before you can quite make your way to the door, or yell at the drop-in to go away

"Hello?" Sounds precociously girlish, and not with any particular panic. Like there might be a wagon of Girl Scout Cookies involved? And there's the knock again, repeating. "Is anyone home?"

No cookies in the wagon, alas, though it's rigged with some kind of dated recording equiptment, wedged in alongside a tangle of wires hauled out of her closet, along with one too many odds-and-ends noisemakers. In front of it stands Coraline Jones, a blue-haired girl in a silvery soft sweater that's a couple of sizes too big and stripey neon leggings.


Hallway Sound Effects

Sounds like someone with far too much free time on their hands has raided the music room's percussion and hand-instrument cabinets.

And it sounds like that someone has assigned you a few of them, and has been innocuously tailing you for as long as you can bear to dismiss your shuffling footsteps accompanied by the rattle of maracas, or every turn of your head punctuated by slide whistle. She follows at just enough of a distance to duck into an open doorway or lean up against the wall beside a mirror, examining a chip in her clipped painted nails.

But Coraline's harmless mischief can probably only continue on for so long, before she's called out for being a general nuisance. Or until she can get one of her victims to crack a smile.


Wish to Table

It's on the later side of suppertime, and Coraline has just managed to snag herself a seat in the dining room, staring down at her plate with the usual sigh of indecision. Pepperoni Pizza sounds like a great idea, but she's already had that three times this week, and that annoying naggy voice in her conscience that sounds like her well-meaning father is reminding her of food groups and variety.

She heaves a sigh, and quietly grumbles 'Okay, Dad' under her breath.

"Hmmm..." She strums her fingers on the fancy tablecloth and peeks up and down the long table for some inspiration. "What do I want, what do I- Oh! A...Chicken Pot Pie?" Coraline requests, remembering a microwaved one that she used to help herself to on nights when her father made stuff like Creamed Kale with Goat Cheese, or Seafood Paella. "With no mushy peas, please." She adds, before the magic can complete it's thing. "Ooh, and extra crusty crust!"

Yum. That's perfect, and perfectly sized for her appetite with room for dessert, too.

But after a second marveling sniff of the air, her face pulls a grimace of disgust. Gross. Where is that coming from?

Her attention goes scurrying a few places down in curious horror as she stabs a fork into her pot pie, steam rising from the pierced crust.

"What are you eating?!" Coraline exclaims, eyes wide with revulsion.

"That looks, um..." (Gosh, don't be completely rude, Coraline. Even if that smell is turning your stomach) "...Different?"
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Tired and cold)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-11-08 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
He's learned his lesson. Or, truthfully, he just slept through most of Halloween because he was feeling like it didn't matter without his friends. He'll never really say that out loud, and he's better now, especially since he's aware of what events do now thanks to Neverland.

Coraline is basically giving him a chance to be his normal self, and he's absolutely delighted. Dustin thinks, with other people like the blue haired girl, this place won't be so bad at all.

"A very important experiment. You wanna make funny noises, right?" He gestures emphatically to the kazoo. "What would a bicycle in the hallways soundlike, instead of just my footsteps?" And, more importantly, "I could put a playing card or something in the spokes so it'll be double the fun."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Harfoots who planted)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-11-11 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
"A ghost DJ?" Dustin echoes, and he's surprised to find himself not shocked in the least. Maybe he's fitting into Wonderland easier, especially after Neverland. A ghost DJ sounds just about right, and Dustin actually finds himself wanting to know more.

It's okay, Coraline. All Dustin does is ride his bike around the halls when he's bored. He's gotten weird looks, but no one's said anything about it yet. The way he sees it, it's totally fair game. Coralin's smile is met with one of his own and he realizes, suddenly, if they keep one-upping each other on grins it's going to absolutely split his face in half.

"I've never done that before. We could make a giant sound making machine, you could record it and maybe that ghost guy will find something to work with? Also think of how funny it'll be if we run into someone."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Sing me a story of heroes of the Shire)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-11-16 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, wow." A real life ghost musician DJ friend. Dustin presses his lips into a thin line, impressed, and shrugs. He can't beat that at all. he kind of wishes he could, though. It would be cool for someone to talk about him like Coraline's talking about Napsta--whatever his name is. Dustin makes that his personal goal.

"I'm gonna grab my bike from one of the closets, and then--maybe we can rendezvous here and then just make everything explode with how cool this is gonna be? Or do you wanna go together? I figure you can just ride on the back, like my friend Eleven does with Mike. We could probably annoy some adults, too. That's always fun."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Comrade and guide at my side)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-11-24 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
Dustin nods. "Yeah, the music room. We're gonna drive everybody nuts!" He grins, and though he'll never admit it, he giggles. If pressed he'll claim it's more of a chuckle, but it's definitely a giggle.

He's about to turn around and head to grab his bike when he realizes something--that coraline said she thought she was annoying him. That in and of itself strikes Dustin as weird. More than weird--he's never really asked that sort of stuff before. Never had a need to. If people thought he was being annoying, they'd make it pretty clear and Dustin thinks he would, too.

"You're like, my first friend here. Why do you think you're annoying me? This is the greatest idea in the history of ideas."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Never to change)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-11-25 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
It's just the type of annoying he likes--bordering on grating, but still fun enough to laugh about even if you're the victim. That is, if people have an actual sense of humour here. He's pretty sure they do--Coraline does at least, so Dustin deems it an Officially Worthy task to pester the residents of Wonderland with her.

He stares at Coraline when she starts talking about stuff like how she's a girl and he's a boy and they're going to have to share a bike. It's in the back of his mind but Dustin thinks it's fine--it's not like they're like Eleven and Mike. Ew. Then again, Mike hadn't seen how googoo he went over Eleven. It was pretty gross. No, Dustin and Coraline are their own people and he will absolutely not fall the Mike Wheeler route.

Dustin smacks Coraline's hand as hard as he can--mostly because it's funny--and puts his best game face on.

"Great friends. Meeting in 15 minutes in the music room--be there or be banished from the great friend ladder for all eternity."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Sing me a story of heroes of the Shire)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-11-28 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
It takes Dustin most of the allotted time--the bike is easy, and it's pretty much an exact copy of his own--complete with light and pegs on the back so Coraline can at least be a little more comfortable.

Hauling the bike up the stairs, however, is an ordeal. An ordeal complete with losing his balance and nearly tipping over: at one point his bike actually falls down the stairs, leaving him to stare at it forlornely and whisper 'shit' quietly to himself. By the time he arrives he's out of breath and his hat is on and slightly askew, having knocked it off during one of his near-falls. It's a rough world, but Dustin calls this a victory.

"Okay, I've got--" woah. hold on. That smell, is that--dear God this is the best ever. The popcorn scent hits his nostrils and he gets a smile on his face that's almost cartoonish, pushing the bike further into the room.

"You got snacks! Thanks." He may as well be saying it in the same tone one declares love. Instead, he plunks the bike away and moves towards her, grabbing a fistful of popcorn already.

"Okay, what first--holy shit, this is good."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Never to change)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-11-29 08:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Dustin's brows raise high at the tease, but he doesn't say anything--he figures he probably deserves that tease. He's not opposed to healthy snacks, either, he loves apples, but e's always a sucker for sugar.

Coraline's right, the popcorn is a nice halfway. He doesn't recognise the pun for anything, but he decides he's going to eat nothing but this for three days straight, and while Caroline talks he continues to munch away, mouth half-full as he speaks.

"I mhrrmhrph--" Maybe he should swallow first. There we go. "I think that's a great start, and once we fix it on, we have to go outside the box, too. Do you think you can use your hands while we ride? That opens up a million new possibilities."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Default)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-12-02 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
"You're a certified genius," Dustin states, and he's swallowed another handful of popcorn and is moving to the closet to grab just that.

"It has to be strong to sustain it, like a farm's windmill like in the Wizard of Oz. Oh, but it could make that squeaky noise, that grating--iiiiiiiiiieeeeee thing that it always does, right?"

He pulls out a weathervane, frowns, and chucks it back. Not quite.

"I bet you write nohands awesomely, by the way."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Default)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-12-03 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
Dustin snaps his fingers--xylophone is all he needed to hear.

"Xylophone," he echoes, like Coraline has just come up with a cure for some strange and horrible disease, like malaria, or influence, or even chicken pox.

"Try to make it with a strap, so I can wear it on my back and you can play it. This is going to be perfect. Let's see--we have percussion, we've got kazoos, pinwheels... What else?"
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (Harfoots who planted)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-12-07 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
"That won't happen, because I'm good," Dustin quips, and it's with such self-confidence and bravado you practically have believe it.

"I say we just do all of this, set it up, and go for a major test run. That way if it fails we can just try again--the scientific method. We just gotta figure out how to attach all of it."
chocolatepudding: <lj user=easystreet> (brave and true)

[personal profile] chocolatepudding 2016-12-08 12:24 am (UTC)(link)
Dustin is already at the closet, opening it and pulling the things out, tossing them haphazardly on the floor behind. He's sure coraline has the common sense to get out of the way. Breadties. The wires that hold plastic bags together. He thinks of what Coraline has described--the thing that holds wires in a bundle--despite not knowing what the hell it is exactly. Something (hopefully) close to what she wants pops out and that joins the floor, too.

"I say this takes 20 minutes of prep time, max." It's a number he's pulled out of air much like what he's just done with the fastening items.

He immediately gets to work, too, and even shoves his hat off because he doesn't want it falling or getting in the way. "I bet you five bucks we can do this while riding down a staircase," he bets, waggling his eyebrows as he talks.