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

[offthebeatenpath]

Em nodded her acceptance. They were obviously close, even without Em being told, and she wouldn't want to believe someone she cared about had turned into a monster either. "I'm sorry. This place seems to know just how to hurt us. But you stopped her somehow."

[miss_ives]

"Yes," Vanessa agreed, rather laconically. "Somehow."

[offthebeatenpath]

There wasn't really anything to say to that, so Em didn't. She continued on, taking the next left, onto a corridor so long the other end was hidden in shadows.

[miss_ives]

There was movement in the shadows, and Vanessa frowned, her hand clamping down on Ms. Colbert's forearm. "Do you see that?"

[offthebeatenpath]

"Yes," Em answered quietly. "But not as well as I'd like." She reached for a card, wanting something that she'd need, but not trusting herself to look at it yet.

[miss_ives]

"Then let's get a better view," Vanessa stated, letting go of her arm to step cautiously closer.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Wait." It was Em's turn to grab at Ms. Ives' arm. "I can help with that."

She looked at the card she'd drawn, her eyes whiting out as a sun, small but light enough to see by, appeared in the shadowed end of the hall.

[miss_ives]

The thing(s) in the darkness retreated with a hiss as the small sun pushed the shadows back. "Or, at least, keep them at a safe distance," Vanessa stated, freed her arm, and resumed walking.

[offthebeatenpath]

Em followed along, the hand not holding the Sun clenching and unclenching for want of a weapon. The small sun moved in a slow arc along the hall, like the path it would take through the sky in a day, and for now at least, it kept the shadows from overtaking them.

[miss_ives]

"You're a woman of unsuspected talents, Ms. Colbert," Vanessa remarked, as they advanced cautiously, one step after the next.

[offthebeatenpath]

"I don't think I'm the only one," Em answered. Ms. Ives had been very formidable when her friend had attacked, and she was taking Em's mutation in stride. "But yes, my connection to the tarot goes much deeper than entertaining tourists."

[miss_ives]

"And yet, you're no daywalker," Vanessa replied evenly. What she was doing did not come from a spell, or not any of the sort of spells Vanessa had ever witnessed.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Daywalker?" Em might could guess, based on books she'd read, but asking was easier with less risk of misunderstandings.

[miss_ives]

"A witch," Vanessa replied, the word crisp in the halflit corridor.

[offthebeatenpath]

See? This was why it was better to ask, because 'witch' wouldn't have been her first assumption. "No," she agreed, "I'm not a witch."

[miss_ives]

"But you've got magic," Vanessa prodded, as they followed the small sun down the hallway.

[offthebeatenpath]

"That was the family story when I was a kid." Mémé had often told her the story of the family magic and how it had been handed down through the generations. "And I do believe in magic. But what I have..." She paused, assuring herself she remembered the quote correctly. "'Fear not, my Holly, I shall use no magic. Have I not told thee that there is no such thing as magic, though there is such a thing as understanding and applying the forces which are in Nature?'"

[miss_ives]

"Most sorts of witches could say those words," Vanessa replied, glancing at the young woman. "What do you call yourself, then?"

[offthebeatenpath]

With as long as she'd been in London and having to hide, Em hesitated before answering. But she did answer, because she hated having to hide when she was proud of what she was. "I'm a mutant," she said, the words simple, tone even. "With precognition and psionic projections," she added, as she might have with another mutant, although she didn't get the impression Ms. Ives was one.

[miss_ives]

"A mutant," Vanessa echoed, frowning at the word. Precognition and psionic projections, she understood. But what Ms. Colbert might mean by mutant, she had no idea.

[offthebeatenpath]

"That's not exactly public knowledge." Mostly she meant that mutants existed in this world, but also that Em was one of them.

[miss_ives]

"What are mutants?" Vanessa asked, still unsure what to make of the word.

[offthebeatenpath]

Em took a moment to consider how to explain, since the science was kind of beyond her, at least when you got to the specifics. "People with a particular genetic anomaly which gives them abilities outside baseline human range. Just one example from the 'more things in heaven and earth' list.

[miss_ives]

"But witches aren't mutants?" Vanessa pressed simply. "Or is it simply that mutants aren't witches?"

[offthebeatenpath]

"I've known one mutant who was a witch," Em answered, the corner of her mouth twitching up at the thought of Illyana's reaction to this conversation, or to being called a witch instead of sorceress. "Or one witch who was a mutant, maybe. But I believe they're rarely overlapping groups, rather than distinct labels for the same thing. I'm not exactly an expert, though."