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

[hardertohide]

"So it's either aliens, or we're trapped inside our own minds," Dutch answered, pushing a hand back through her hair. "And the computer thing's just our subconscious trying to give us a symbolic structure we can use to shut this down and break free." She grinned. "I like my theory better."

[quartermaster_q]

"Whatever it is, it's designed in a way that forces us to backtrack every time we make progress," Q frowned. "Look, that's the room where Silva's servers were. We're back where we started. A physical impossibility given the route we took- So clearly those two theories are the most likely at this point, but- Why? How?"

Scowling, he pulled open another door- Then quickly shut it again, looking embarrassed.

"Let's not go that way."

[hardertohide]

"What's in there?" Dutch asked with a curious look, trying not to seem too amused by his reaction.

[quartermaster_q]

"Nothing- Personal... Nothings," Q replied, looking like a teenager who'd just been caught with his first dirty magazine.

[hardertohide]

Dutch smirked, but moved on. "Trust me, I don't want to see your porn collection." Of course her mind had gone there. She tried another door, and opened it to find a room full of servers. "Jackpot."

[quartermaster_q]

"It wasn't porn... Not exactly," Q replied, sulking a bit, but perking up at the sight of tech.

"This can't be it though- There's not enough here to power more than- Oh, I don't know, a room maybe?" he said, frowning a bit as he inspected one of the towers.

[hardertohide]

"It's somewhere to plug in," Dutch pointed out, pulling one of her laptops out of her messenger bag. Besides, she still liked her mental construct theory.

[quartermaster_q]

Q frowned, then sighed as he shrugged his backpack off and retrieved his own beat up old machine.

"Last time I plugged into an unknown machine I unwittingly helped a criminal mastermind escape and nearly lost my job," he muttered.

[hardertohide]

"Sounds like it's time to face your fear," Dutch answered nonchalantly, booting up her computer and finding the right cable for this.

[quartermaster_q]

"How odd, I'm getting a wireless signal now- I wasn't before," Q said, chewing his bottom lip thoughtfully, then starting to connect to the wireless, using a simple program to break through the WEP encryption.

"There's massive amounts of data coming and going," he noted. "Look at the amount of packets that are being sent out."

[hardertohide]

"That's insane," Dutch agreed, frowning at what she was seeing. "There's no way these servers can hold that much traffic. Let me try and track down where it's coming from..." She chewed on her bottom lip as she worked, completely focused on her task.

[quartermaster_q]

Q began tapping into the core systems, running a search on the drives in one window, and attempting to follow the outgoing data in another.

"The encryption is poor, but the systems themselves are beautiful. Imagine the damage one could do with machines like this. I can take a nation down with my laptop, but with this sort of power I could knock out several with a few keystrokes."

He paused then, glancing over at Dutch.

"Not that I would. ...Unless I had to."

[hardertohide]

Dutch smirked over at him, clearly amused rather than disturbed. "Easy to make a case for 'having to'."

[quartermaster_q]

Q offered a small shrug, then sighed.

"But who would go to the trouble of setting all this up, only to leave it vulnerable?" he asked her. "It's as if someone wanted us to find them."

[hardertohide]

"Well, it works with my theory," Dutch replied, turning her attention back on the screen. "Or your aliens are testing us. So, I've got multiple input sources."

[quartermaster_q]

Q hummed, heading over to her side to read her screen.

"Given the branding on the chip sets, I think it's safe to say it isn't aliens," Q replied, sounding mildly amused.

[hardertohide]

Dutch ignored that (she liked her theory better, anyway), and brought up what she wanted him to look at. "Look, two of them are closer to the core than the others. I'm pinging them," she added, and typed in a new line of code.

As she pressed enter, acute, overwhelming pain washed through her brain.

[quartermaster_q]

Q didn't notice her pain, at least not right away. He was focused on only the screen, his mind drinking in every line of code that was returned.

He only became aware of what was happening when he glanced over to ask if she recognized the ip.

"Dutch?" he frowned. "Are you alright?"

[hardertohide]

"I'm fine," she stated with a grimace, holding a hand to her temple as if that might make the pain recede. Her voice was still strained as she went on. "Bloody awful migraine all of a sudden."

[quartermaster_q]

"Looks a bit rougher than a migraine, Dutch," Q said gently, opening his coat and pulling at a stitch near the lining.

Pulling the red thread revealed a hidden pocket- Something he'd picked up while working with Bond- And he pulled out a very basic first aid kit, complete with pain killers.

"Here, these ought to help. Codeine, a moderate dose. You're not allergic, are you?"

[hardertohide]

"No," Dutch confirmed, and reached out to accept the pills, electing not to say anything about that hidden pocket. Dry-swallowing was something she was great at, and she had no problem downing a couple. "Thanks."

[quartermaster_q]

Q nodded a little, tucking the rest of the pills away again.

"Those IP's keep changing," he noted. "Considering the lack of sophistication in their encryption, it seems odd that they'd have the sense to cloak their IP. ...Also, it doesn't feel warm in here, does it? All these machines running, no sign of a cooling system- It should be boiling in here, but it isn't at all."

Cautiously, he touched one of the towers, pulling one of the Ethernet cables- Only to be shocked again, just as he'd been back in the room with Silva's machines.

[hardertohide]

"No touching that, then?" Dutch asked from where she was seated, watching him with a pained look that had everything to do with the painkillers not yet having kicked in.

[quartermaster_q]

"Apparently not," Q replied, rubbing his hand and frowning to himself.

"This is all a bit mad- I keep trying to reason it all out, to make sense of it, but... It's just insane."

[hardertohide]

"You can't get shocked if you're only touching rubber," Dutch stated, pushing out of her chair to come closer. When she clearly wasn't allowed to do something, of course it made her want to.