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.)

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[miss_ives]

Vanessa held the girls's gaze steadily, her gaze piercing. "Do you know something pertaining to our situation that I do not, Ms. Colbert?"

[offthebeatenpath]

In contrast, Em's eyes began to unfocus again, trying to slip back into the visions the tarot had given her. "The cards are unclear," she said, a small part of her feeling as though she said it before. She flipped a card from the deck, showing it to Ms. Ives while only barely glimpsing it herself. "Happy Squirrel. The cards are vague and mysterious."

[miss_ives]

Vanessa huffed out through her nose, then pulled herself up to her feet. "I shall take this as a no." She dusted herself off, looked back at the room they were leaving, Mina's childhood room, then waited until Ms. Colbert joined her to close the door, very firmly, on these memories. They had no place in the here and now.

[offthebeatenpath]

Em left the room and started down the hall, as the door shut with a click. "We should keep moving. This way. We need to meet what we meet."

[miss_ives]

Vanessa drew herself up straight, then followed after the redhead, feeling oddly at ease in the Victorian garments she wore. "How much of this place have you seen so far?"

[offthebeatenpath]

"I..." Em paused, trying to decide how to answer. "The tarot has shown me a lot, but not in any sort of order. I don't know that I'd been anywhere but that room before I saw you, though."

[miss_ives]

"Anything of interest?" she asked, glancing at Ms. Colbert as they kept walking.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Doors. Halls with no end in sight. And danger. Some from our pasts. We won't see the cliff's edge until we're upon it." In a way, that was life for most people, but it was all more immediate here, more intense.

[miss_ives]

The Fool, again. "I believe that we might be, already."

[offthebeatenpath]

The hall ended in a T-intersection, and Em turned to Ms. Ives. "But which way will we fall? Right or left?"

[miss_ives]

"Left," Vanessa answered decisively, and turned in that direction.

[offthebeatenpath]

Em nodded and went that way, because she didn't have any idea which way was better than the other. "Do you know how you got here?"

[miss_ives]

"Not how I came to be here, not how I was dressed in these clothes," Vanessa replied, shaking her head tersely.

[offthebeatenpath]

"And no idea how to get out, or where we'll find ourselves if we manage it." Em sighed. "I have spent worse Halloweens, but this is like being trapped in a Poe story or something."

[miss_ives]

"Hopefully the house won't crumble around us," Vanessa dryly stated, and stopped when a door held her attention, for no particular reason she could fathom. She stepped closer, frowning slightly, and began to pick up words coming from the other side. A thousand voices, low and insistent, in that same guttural mixed language she had spoken. Without thinking, but simply because she must, she reached out to open the door.

[offthebeatenpath]

Ms. Ives paused, and Em couldn't resist drawing a card from the deck in her pocket. The images provoked by the card flooded through her, and the card, the Devil from a deck Em had never seen but her companion was intimately familiar with fell from her hand to the floor.

"No!" Em lunged to reach the door knob first, wrapping her hand around and pulling hard against it to keep the door shut. "Not there."

[miss_ives]

Vanessa seemed to blink out of a trance as she met Ms. Colbert's gaze. The voices inside went quiet, and then she stepped. "Yes, of course." She looked away, troubled, and crouched down to pick up the card that had fallen, feeling very much the bat in this scenario. She held it out to its owner, meaning to go on and move away from that door as quickly as possible. The voices had started whispering again.

[offthebeatenpath]

Em took the card, not needing to look at it again to see the visions it had given, but stayed on the door until she was sure Ms. Ives was moving on. "I'd say we're like the blind leading the blind, but that isn't right, is it?" she asked. "Something about that room drew you to it."

[miss_ives]

"Like a moth to a flame?" Vanessa offered, unsure whether the image worked, but happier the farther away from that room they walked.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Too much like it from what I saw." Em was just glad she was there and able to prevent the moth meeting the flame.

Her head tilted, trying to listen to something far away. "Do you hear, is that a calliope?"

[miss_ives]

Vanessa stopped walking, focusing on what she might hear. Her frown deepened as she finally picked up on the sounds. "It might very well be," she confirmed, glancing at Ms. Colbert questioningly before resuming walking, with purpose, towards the origin of the faraway sound.

[offthebeatenpath]

"From gothic manse to carnival funhouse." The longer this went on, the more confused Em was, and the Wheel of Fortune she drew didn't clarify things. "Past and future blending together." As they got closer to the music, it became more familiar. "I used to get so sick of this song."

[miss_ives]

"What is it, to you?" Vanessa asked, turning her gaze on the young woman.

[offthebeatenpath]

"When I was with the carnival," no, that wasn't the best way to start. "The music was meant to draw a crowd, to get people in the right spirit, so it had to carry. We didn't have a real calliope, but we'd put up speakers to play recordings. The layout could change, but a lot of the time, the fortune teller's tent was just under, or close to, a speaker. I would have to listen to the same few songs all day long."

[miss_ives]

"Irritation turned nostalgia," Vanessa remarked. "This place seems set on having us taste the many flavours of past, present and future."