Haunted House GP

[londoncallingmods]

 The house doesn't exist, that's the first thing anyone who might find themselves inside it would want to know. Now, you might ask how one could find themselves inside something that doesn't exist, but you'd honestly be better off asking yourself how you could leave something that doesn't exist. After all, ideas and concepts can't be burnt or broken, and you can't breakdown a door that's not there- Or was there and then decided to be somewhere else for a while...

 

You wake in a house though, a house that doesn't exist. A house that defies the laws of reality. There are corridors that go on for days, rooms full of nightmares, and millions of doors that lead you anywhere but out. Trapped inside with you are dozens of other people, all searching for an exit, or an explanation.

 

Behind every door you'll find your darkest fears, maybe even memories you've tried to forget, or secrets you never wanted to share... 

 

(OTA! Here is your first of two Halloween gps! This one is, of course, set in the haunted house where your pup can run into anything you can dream up! Deadly traps! Spooky monsters! An existential crises! Top level your pups waking up or running into danger, and then go ahead and tag other players! Since this is all magic-y and spooky don't worry too much about time lines and who bumped into who first. Only rule is that your pup can't escape until November 1st! Have fun! Also, because there are two GPs going up this week, both are open to new top levels for two whole weeks! And, of course, you can keep tagging long after that if you want. :D I'll post reminders daily on slack.)

Comments

[akatawitch]

The look in Sunny's own eyes immediately softened, even as she didn't relax her body, her grip on her knife. It had to be at the ready at a moment's notice, or she might just end up dead. Masquerades were Ndibu level magic, and nothing to trifle with.

Just because she was sympathetic--empathetic--to the fear in his face didn't mean she could ignore that something very dangerous was here.

"Easy, Felix," she said quietly. "Just me."

[harrowgate]

"... Sunny?" Felix blinked, stared, put a hand to his forehead and stared again. Sunny's presence meant that he wasn't dreaming, and perhaps he wasn't even mad. Her presence meant that this green-coated blackness was reality. He might have preferred madness.

Reality hit him with an observable start: Sunny was here, Sunny had her knife, Sunny was a wizard, he was a wizard, he had magic in his hands and his blood that had been entirely forgotten before now. However, summoning his witchlights did not feel like it would help the situation.

Felix looked down at his filthy (for someone usually so well-dressed and neat) shirt and trousers. "How long have I been here?"

[akatawitch]

"No idea," Sunny admitted, not commenting on the visible shift in his mindset. Really, she hadn't been entirely certain that she wasn't beginning to lose her mind herself, if maybe it was a dream or...

"It feels like I've been wandering for hours. There's something here. Something dangerous." And she couldn't get away from it.

[harrowgate]

"It's not here," Felix said without thinking, though as soon as he spoke, he felt the truth of it. "It's where. We're inside it."

[akatawitch]

If that wasn't a bit of a blood-chilling idea, Sunny didn't know what was. But it made sense. This house was impossible; No matter how far down she went, there was no basement and no matter how high she climbed no attic or roof. No doors out, no windows. It was like being trapped in the Winchester Mystery House from hell. "Inside... what?"

[harrowgate]

"The Tower," Felix slurred in a mumble, closing his eyes before dragging a hand down his face. He had made only a surface study of the Tarot while working with Vanessa, and the sketch of the impenetrable structure rising out of the sea coalesced quickly in his imagination. He half wished Miss Ives were here now, except that would mean she was trapped as well.

Rushing to cover his thoughtless statement, he went on, "I don't know. I've been in this hall... I don't know how long. I try to walk away from the river, but it's always just behind me."

[akatawitch]

Tarot being European in origin, the study of it had not particularly featured in Sunny's education. But she was aware of it in a popular culture sense, as any person who had seen a few occult movies would be. The Tower was one of the bad cards, that she knew. But no further.

"A river," Sunny murmured. "Drums and a river... Fuck."

[harrowgate]

Felix's brow twitched at the vulgarity, but in this situation, it was well deserved. Still, he caught himself glancing back over his shoulder, as though expecting a sharp reprimand, a smacking hand, to punish them for it.

These were symbols, and they meant something to Sunny. "I don't hear the drums. What does it mean for you?"

[akatawitch]

"I haven't heard then in a while," Sunny explained, not particularly bothered by this. Not yet at least. "But if I'm right, there's a masquerade involved. Which, to translate into European terms in very broad and very quick strokes that I should be smacked for, picture something like ghosts with the powers, caprices, and yet none of the rules of the Sidhe."

[harrowgate]

Felix wanted to scowl over Sunny having to 'translate into European terms' as if he were an uneducated yokel. However, the concept really wasn't that familiar. "A Wild Hunt," he murmured, since his tongue seemed only able to speak in riddles and symbols in this place.

[akatawitch]

Sunny considered that before adding, "In a single entity." She hadn't meant offense, only she wasn't used to westerners understanding what she meant. Mmanwu was simply not part of life here.

But yeah. That was... unfortunately apt.

[harrowgate]

That shut Felix up directly, the concept of overwhelming to the point of nearly blinding him in the darkness.

When he recovered his voice out of the choked silence, Felix asked, "I don't suppose it would help to run."

[akatawitch]

Sunny could only shake her head. "Not if we don't find a way out."

The question of course was where and how.

[harrowgate]

"Then we should be prepared to shield ourselves, or to hide," Felix answered, his response absent but steady. The terror enveloping his heart had not abated, but he found it easier to respond if he didn't spend too much time thinking.

He glanced down at his hands, ringless of course, and bit his lip. It wasn't enough that he felt exposed in these thin, dirty clothes, but his hands were naked as well. Felix was clearly distressed, but he said nothing.

[akatawitch]

The sound was coming again, from far away like it were several halls and perhaps a couple of floors down. But distance was the only thing lending the illusion of a soft sound; up close it would be booming like the house's own heartbeat. And Sunny hoped against hope that that was her own private hallucination and her own fear was creating the drum beat.

"Pity we're not in a corn maze," she said, trying to think of which way they should try to go. "Keep your hand along the wall and you're out." But there had to be a trick to it somehow.

[harrowgate]

"This wall has been to my left as long as I can remember," Felix said, gesturing vaguely to that side. He couldn't say the same for the right, not reliably, but even frightened and trapped he wasn't about to plainly admit to his vision problems. "No, I don't believe this is a corn maze."

There was nothing to do but walk, however, in one direction or the other. Felix began a few steps, not remembering if he'd originally been going this way or the other. "An intersection, stairs... I've not seen anything since I started walking. A hallway cannot possibly be this long."

[akatawitch]

"In other circumstances, that would call for a Labyrinth joke," Sunny quipped, doing her best to ignore her own unease. The drums were in her head. They must be, if Felix wasn't reacting.

Then again, masquerades could scramble minds.

She took a breath. "I've been hitting a lot of turns. Put those together, if we don't get separated, one of our patterns has to change."

[harrowgate]

Felix couldn't be sure why jokes should be made about labyrinths -- he'd never seen the film -- but he wisely kept his mouth shut on that point. Instead, he glanced aside at Sunny, and made a vague gesture in her direction. "Perhaps we should ensure we don't get separated. I wouldn't suggest we hold hands at any other time. Split our tactics and try every other turn?"

[akatawitch]

"Sounds like a plan." For now anyway.

Sunny had picked up enough of Felix to surmise that he didn't like being touched. It wasn't anything in particular, only that people who liked casual touch were also people who initiated it, which he never did and she'd just kind of unconsciously responded to it. The way he addressed holding hands, even now not quite offering, said everything.

So Sunny reached out and took the not-quite-offered hand, keeping her grip firm but light. "It's a children's film," she said. If he'd seen it, she imagined he'd be more annoyed that she'd bring up something so ridiculous at a time like this. "With Muppets. But it's also chock-full of symbolism and David Bowie circa 1985. You'd love it."

[harrowgate]

"Ah. You should have led with Bowie," Felix commented absently, his fingers circled lightly around Sunny's smaller hand. "I enjoy his work immensely. His style and sense of performance, I mean, less so the actual acting. Shannon and I once tried to watch The Man Who Fell to Earth at a film festival. It was atrocious. I can't imagine that puppets would help the situation very much."

Quite unexpectedly for Felix, they came to an intersection in the hallway, branching off in two other directions. Felix actually sucked in a short breath of surprise. "And now we're spoiled for choice."

[akatawitch]

"Figured I should save the best for last," Sunny explained. "Anyway, no one goes into it for the acting. You can make an entire drinking game out of how many times you find yourself staring at his package. Because y'know. Kids movie!"

She glanced in both of the possible directions. There were no discernible differences from here. "What does your gut tell you? Left or right?"

[harrowgate]

Package? Surely Sunny didn't mean...

Felix was decidedly not feeling very sexy at the moment, and elected not to think too closely about it. "My, er, gut tells me to run. And go up, to higher ground." He actually glanced upward, toward the featureless ceiling. With a sigh, he gestured left -- if for no other reason than that he could see it somewhat more clearly.

The witchlights preceded him down the hall by a few feet.