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

[quartermaster_q]

Nodding, Q complied, perking up a bit as he spotted a sword on the wall.

"A bit heavy looking, but better than nothing," he noted.

[hardertohide]

"Don't tell me about heavy," Dutch muttered, given what she was carrying for a weapon. "So, now you're geared up as well," she added as she took the pepper spray back, and put it in her bag. "Undead psycho or angry skeletons?"

[quartermaster_q]

"I can't vote for the third option where we build a fort and wait for my partner to come find us?" Q asked.

[hardertohide]

"Sure, you do that," Dutch nodded. "I'll have my phone back and pick a direction." The day she waits for a bloody spook to come save her - the way she waits for anyone to come save her...

[quartermaster_q]

Q sighed, then looked back up the stairs.

"I'd rather take my chances with Silva I think. At least it wasn't pitch black up there."

[hardertohide]

"Right," Dutch sighed. "Back up we go. Go slowly, yeah? I'm going to climb up backwards. Just in case." Better safe than sorry, in a case like this.

[quartermaster_q]

"Mind yourself," Q said, his concern genuine as he nodded his head and started back up the steps- Only to find the door was locked.

"Shit," he swore softly- Though at least one good thing had come from backtracking. He could see now that there was some sort of archaic lighting system- An oil system built into the walls themselves.

"Step back from the wall," he said, pulling out his lighter and using it to light the shallow river of oil within the stone.

[hardertohide]

"What -" Dutch cut herself off when she realised that the door was locked, then sighed. She frowned and stepped back to the middle of the stairs at his words, resting the axe on the steps. She watched as the fire licked at the oil within the stones, to light the way down. It bathed the stone stairway in a warm glow, and suddenly made it look a lot more inviting than the cold, limited light of her phone. "Wicked," she murmured, then held her hand out for her phone.

[quartermaster_q]

Q handed it over wordlessly, he'd never intended to tamper with or keep it.

"How very clever," he said, admiring the lighting and how remarkably effective it was. "I can't say I'm pleased to be locked down here, but at least we can see where we're headed now."

He lifted the sword then, admiring the blade. "I did always want to try my hand at sword fighting actually."

[hardertohide]

"I do like what they've done with the place," Dutch agreed, and hefted the axe back up again, mindful not to hurt Quinton behind her. She huffed out a determined breath, then started climbing back down those stairs. No skeleton, this time, until they got to a musty old wooden door. The stairs kept climbing down, but Dutch stopped beside it and looked back at Quinton. "What do you think?"

[quartermaster_q]

"Much further down and I'd imagine we'd find ourselves in the sewers," Q replied, offering a small shrug. "I'd rather deal with skeletons than dozens of rats, personally."

[hardertohide]

"Better rats than snakes," Dutch answered with a grimace, but she rested the heavy axe on her shoulder and tried the handle. It didn't open, and she sighed. "Can nothing be easy." She rested the axe on the step she was on, and tried again, putting her shoulder against the door to push harder.

[quartermaster_q]

Q put his sword down for a moment, then stepped closer, examining the door, and finding a loose panel carved into the wood. Behind it was some kind of puzzle.

"How odd," he hummed. "This reminds me of a horror game I played when I was about twelve. Far too gruesome for my age group, gave me nightmares for weeks, but it was very good. Looks like some sort of sliding puzzle..."

Crouching low he began to move the pieces- Unaware that as he solved it not one, but two skeletons were approaching them. One from above, another from below.

[hardertohide]

Dutch was watching him work, and didn't notice the skeletons either until she noticed the faint clicking noises they made as they moved. "Um, Quin, you nearly done?" she asked, hefting the axe up again. She'd go and smash them to bits if needed; they thankfully didn't seem to be in a hurry to tear them apart, or whatever they had planned for the two of them.

[quartermaster_q]

Q didn't respond right away, forgetting for a moment that Quinton was the name she knew him by. Though he did look up to see what was going on.

"Oh, yes. Nearly done," he assured her, sliding the last few parts and reaching for his sword as the door popped open.

[hardertohide]

"Let's hope there's nothing worse on the other side, then," Dutch says, glancing back urgently to make sure she isn't stepping on him as she backs into the doorway, firmly intending to slam the door in the skeletons' faces.

Unless the room on the other side of it holds a freaking dragon, of course.

The room on the other doesn't hold much of anything. It barely even holds a floor, as it turns out. There's about a yard of floor before a huge freaking drop, and Dutch almost loses her footing in surprise.

[quartermaster_q]

Reaching with his free hand, Q caught hold of Dutch to steady her. The ledge didn't really offer the luxury of space, and as he locked the door behind them, he found himself standing very close.

"I have to admit, this isn't what I was hoping to find on the other side- But so far everything's felt a bit... Well, Dungeons and Dragons. Perhaps this is another puzzle. ...A slightly more, erm, dangerous one than the last."

[hardertohide]

"Please let this be a Last Crusade type deal," Dutch muttered, keeping a tight grip on her axe as she crouched down to gather some dust from the floor. It was a good thing D&D scenarios didn't make for tidy, clean dungeons. She blew the dust across the gap, hoping it would visibly settle somewhere.

Especially when the door behind them rattled in its hinges. The skeletons had probably finally reached it.

[quartermaster_q]

Q'd been thinking along the same lines, and he smiled faintly to himself as Dutch set to work.

"Narrow, but definitely a path," he noted as the dust settled. "We'll need more dust to see our way across. I'm not too proud to play the damsel," he said, putting his sword down in favour of gathering as much dust as he could manage.

"Unless you'd rather I carried the axe," he offered, though he had a feeling she'd much rather be armed.

[hardertohide]

"Please go on," she assured him wryly, although some measure of something other than dryness had begun to worm its way through her defenses.

She even picked up his sword, holding a weapon in each hand as she followed after him on the narrow bridge to the other side of the room.

She was just not going to look down, and everything would be just fine.

[quartermaster_q]

The brown haired boffin moved slowly, scattering dust as he walked to make sure he didn't lead them off a dead end. A good move on his part, since they soon reached the end of the straight path and found themselves looking at a moving invisible platform.

"I'll go first," he suggested. "You can pass me the weapons, then join me. It looks as though it will carry us the rest of the way across."

[hardertohide]

"Here's to hoping," Dutch muttered, but nodded her agreement. The door behind them rattled again, harder. "And let's make it fast?"

[quartermaster_q]

Q nodded, throwing the rest of the dust to cover as much ground as possible, then taking a calming breath before using all the strength he had to jump to the platform.

He landed hard- But he landed, and as the platform drifted close again, he reached for Dutch.

"Leave the weapons, I don't think it's safe to jump with them or even try and pass them this far. It's more important to get you across safely."

[hardertohide]

"Seriously?" Dutch wasn't listening to him. She took the sword by the blade, trying not to cut herself, and swung it hilt first in Quin's direction. The axe was too heavy for anything, so she dropped it in the chasm. Then she took a couple of steps back and ran forward, leaping onto the platform - and trusting Quinton not to still be holding the sword in her direction.

At the same time as she jumped, the door behind her burst open, and skeletons started to file into the room. And more than two of them, at that.

[quartermaster_q]

Q took the sword and lowered it immediately, standing back to give Dutch room to jump. A few of the skeletons fell straight to their deaths, but several seemed to easily begin making their way towards the pair.

"I really hope there's not another locked door waiting for us," he said as they drifted towards land again.