there are ghosts in there that tell you ferocious things (part II)

(Continued from Part I.)

Do you like to craft things? Like embroidery? Like Dr. Who? Scared of the Weeping Angels? We can work with that.

(from the random album; trying to download CoolVL)

Great. Now I can't even download viewers to crash on me, the sites are crashing before I can! Somewhere, on some ethereal altered plane, I am the comedy network.

But back to Miniascape, and Horror Night.

(from the haunts album. Raining blood in the bathroom.)

Today, Mr. Otsuka, the janitor, became very upset after cleaning the girls' bathroom. He complained of blood red floors and toilets, but we are a girls' school! Only adults bleed without wounds, and we are still girls! But he has heard a child crying, and he said he had seen an enormous bloody face, like a giant child, like a...baby. But no one has had a baby at this school.

And Mr. Otsuka said he saw someone at the far end of the toilet. It is a shameless story, but it is a scary one. I'm afraid to go in now.

There's a HUD you wear, going through the haunts. If you find journal pieces, find little scraps of bloodstained blessings, things will happen on the HUD. Also, if you find a place that says 'sit and hit escape', do so. The HUD will help activate special scenes (though it does seize your camera when this happens, be prepared for that).

(from the haunts album)

Everyone was crying in the principal's office before Mr. Mitsuru came in. He'd been cleaning, he said. He was very angry. He called us monsters.

Where have you been, he said. Who is in the hospital? That much blood, someone had to go to the hospital. Do I have to call all your mothers, he said. Tell me who is in the hospital.

We don't know. We cling to each other and cry, and we cannot answer his questions.

Once you're finished going through the haunt, you're going to realize how much went wrong at this school, and that's horrific all on its own. So in essence, this haunt presents two levels of fear--the initial OMG-that-scared-me-giggle stuph (standard, not boring, but standard), followed by the penny dropping once you realize what some of the scenes meant.

(from the haunts album)

Did I praise the school today, Rika-chan? Did I do that? The principal's uncle came by the school, or maybe he was someone's grandfather. He was so old he didn't seem human.

I ate a carrot for Mr. Takeshi, or maybe it was a mushroom. I can't remember. Today there's something on the shelf and I'm standing before the principle's office. What is happening he asks me. Why is it so noisy?

I don't know. I see the mushroom on the shelf and I pick it up and eat it. Or maybe it was a carrot.

(from the haunts album)

I heard there was a collapse where we store our bags. Somebody fell, I don't remember who. The teacher is paddling people who cry now. Look over your page, he tells us, do not say such things, this is a school.

In another room, Mr. Mitsuru falls over. I hear about it later. It is interesting and I think on it a lot. This is no longer a school, it is a fiasco.

(from the haunts album)

Today, Mr. Hida comes out of the principal's office and begins to berate us. The door is large and requires effort to open. He opens it and comes out and he closes it. Then it opens again behind him. He says we are being playful. He says it's our fault the door is opening. He says we need to stop playing pranks.

He was cleaning the office with the door open, he said, and it kept closing. He blames us for that too. He says he is going to tell other teachers about our pranks, and make sure everyone knows. He says we need to stop giggling.

We're not giggling. We're not looking to see who is, we don't want to know. But it's not us.

(from the haunts album)

If you wash your hands in the bathroom, will you see children you know in the mirror? I looked back and I heard someone talking next to me, but no one was there. I started to cry, and the child in the mirror cried with me. I am afraid to look. I am afraid it will be someone I know. I am afraid to know.

There are no specific Windlight settings for this, and there are no recommendations to set the mood, but we ran on Midnight for the sim time and everything was fine. Feel free to play around for maximum creep factor.

(from the haunts album; don't hide in the well.)

I still feel it's rather early in the year for a serious haunt, but nevertheless it's well done and sufficiently creepy at some point or another for nearly everyone. The only hazard is the repetitive rezzing of prim haunts; there are moments where the sim does stagger from the load.

But it's worth a trip, definitely. Take some time, wander; there's one long L-shaped school building, and one small gymnasium/concert hall, and of course, the pool. Also, there are three rooms total where people have made things to go along with Horror Night. Some of them are really innovative, like the skin, and some are just beautifully made things, like RokuMeiKan's Blue Rose kimono, with a thorn-and-rose-bedecked obi. There's a few gachas, for people who like the random factor, including the one for the flashlight at the front gate (free, but you can keep clicking it for different-colored flashlights!).

All in all, highly recommended, four out of five skulls, and that only because if there are a lot of folks on the sim, lag gets dire from the prim effects.