Open and that's all there was

[H-land]

"Might as well," Lillian sighed, under her breath. She walked over to the gate and opened it, went through it and then turned around to face the pool, looking at the lifeguard first, then for a response from anybody else who might have been unfrozen. "Is anyone planning on coming with me?" She waited but a moment for a response before letting go of the door (which she had been holding), and ambling toward the congregation by the pond.

 

[Clover]

Isaac frowned. Why all the fuss? There were obviously plenty of people unaffected by the force - those joining his meeting of 'the bandana-man', as he was apparently now known as, included a lovely dame, a crap yeesh that's not a woman at all is it eugh... How could he do such a thing?, a stately gentleman, a young squirt having fun splashing in the shallows of the lake, and he was sure there would be more, if the proportions stayed accurate in the city. He'd considered leaving, except he had nothing better to do, and he was curious as to what, exactly, had caused it.

He walked away from the group a bit, and leaned against a sturdy oak (oaks had acorns and pines had pinecones, and that was the extent of his knowledge; he couldn't tell a birch from a baobab) with his pack still dangling loosely from one shoulder, and closed his eyes, enjoying the... it was just breezing a while ago, before this happened. Now, though, when he paid attention with fewer distractions, it was slightly... suffocating. Tenser, denser, than usual. Isaac's eyes flew open and he began breathing deeper, as if he had just finished running. He was still in a park - a nice, wide-open park with plenty of free space - but now, lost without even his own weak rationalizations, he gazed upon the children the others had forgotten in the confusion. Pallid skin and posed faces and damned if they didn't feel like mannequins or the exhumed. Isaac broke out in a cold sweat as he fell into a park-sized coffin, shared with dozens of bodies.

He began pacing away from the group, not really a run but surely a fast walk, back and forth a few meters at a time while trying to remain inconspicuous and trying to calm himself by not thinking about it, not even thinking about not thinking about it, and of course it worked just as well as trying not to think about polar bears.

 

[Elfin]

Leah wrapped her towel more tightly around herself, for some reason feeling embarrassed about being seen in such a silly-looking bikini. Why she even cared about that given the situation, she didn't know. It was one of those things, she thought; when weird things are happening, people try to act normally. Or something.
Quickly putting on her sandals and shouldering her bag, she ran after Lillian and the life guard. Walking with them towards the other group of people, she chuckled nervously.
"I wonder how long it'll take for us or those people to start stealing stuff from frozen people."

 

[surskitty]

"I think that would be unwise," she says, briefly collected. It passes a few seconds later, as she follows the older woman, hiking sandals thudding on the pavement. When they reach the gate, she hops the fence instead.

Once outside the boundaries of the pool, she stops and looks around. "... hello?" she calls out.

 

[Clover]

So he was just taking his morning walk, as usual - or the mixed assortment of mixed-breed dogs at the ends of a tangle of leashes were walking him, really - through the park, as usual, keeping a bit off the trail for the bikers to easily pass him by. That was until the dogs stopped, mid-stride, all of them, and he, in a moment of not paying attention that really pretty much encompassed his whole life, fell over them in a heap. He stood up, disentangled his arms from the loops of leashes, and stared, because okay, this was not As Usual.

He looked behind him, and noticed not only the oncoming bikers a fair few meters back, but how they too were paused in the same fashion, pictures right out of a fitness equipment catalog, and then watched with a wince as an old man (who might only have made it into the catalog as a 'before' model) crashed into the pack, gave some choice words, then ran off through a woodier section of the park.

Darryl knew he had to follow him, because he probably knew what was going on at least to some greater extent than he himself did (which, if he had to put a number on it, was zero). So, after shortly debating whether to somehow bring the dogs or not, and choosing against dragging a Neapolitan mastiff over half his size and his buddies, and awkwardly looping the leashes around the most-fitting tree branch he could easily locate, he stepped his way gently through the woody bit, trying hard not to scratch his nice shoes, he'd just had them shined.

Darryl ran his hand through his hair as he stepped back into a clearing and tried to comprehend what he was seeing, taking vast sweeping glances around. In the distance, he could see the old man talking to a largish group, gesturing to one of the dark-green painted analog clocks that scattered throughout the park. He was more puzzled - or perhaps 'befuddled', or perhaps 'that state in which the coyote on the old animated childrens' cartoons found himself in right as he looked down on invisible air, seconds before comprehending the situation and waving his farewell' - over the complete lack of human movement in the normally vivacious park. All was still, except for those who weren't.

A smaller group of the latter tentatively approached now, the presence of the triad of women announced with a clanging of a metal gate against the metal fence and who was quite probably the leader calling hello. He was rather closer to them than the others - and their group had the benefit of being smaller, as well - so he stepped from the foliage and ambled toward them, stammering out a quiet "yes uh, hi uh, do you uh, know what is uh, kind of happening currently" that might as well have been addressed to the dirt underfoot from the volume and the fact that he was looking straight down. His ears burned red as he hoped whatever this /was/ would end soon and he could go back home and forget it all happened.