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]

Ms. Ives reaction only drew Em closer. "The Devil," she muttered, mostly to herself, before studying the painting more closely.

[miss_ives]

"A Devil," Vanessa replied, reaching out to touch the cheek of the painted man. She gasped at the small shock of electricity, and stepped back again.

The sound of loud footsteps echoed, drawing her attention to a hall she hadn't seen, and she drew closer to Ms. Colbert. "We must leave."

But the door they had used to come in had vanished, along with their way out.

[offthebeatenpath]

Nowhere to hide. No way to run. Em's hand went to her pocket, only finding a few cards instead of a full deck. Not much in the way of weapons, then, and for once she didn't think of the knight under her sleeve. Keeping a wall at their backs could offer some protection, but it also kept them trapped. Still, she began backing toward the wall as far from the footsteps as they could get, anything to buy them a bit more time.

[miss_ives]

A wall was not always a wall, and there had once been a door here. Vanessa turned her fingers on the stones, looking for a trigger, a mechanism, anything that might offer a way out. As the steps came closer, their owner could be heard whistling an opera tune, something out of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

[offthebeatenpath]

While Ms. Ives looked for some way out, Em kept watch for whomever was coming for them. The tune was familiar, but not one she could name. Not that she needed to, just the sound of it over the footsteps was enough to ramp up tension that was already high.

She drew a card. Judgement. Alice's White Rabbit, not all that helpful when they were already beyond curiouser and curiouser.

[miss_ives]

Vanessa's fingers finally tripped on something, and she pulled on a small indentation in the rock, unlocking a hidden door. "Ms. Colbert," she called out, hooking her hand in her arm and pulling her along through the door, and into a dark stone tunnel. "Now."

[offthebeatenpath]

Em was dragged through the door just as she caught a glimpse of a shadow belonging to the footsteps that had been hounding them. She pushed the door closed behind them before he could follow, not thinking it would plunge the tunnel into total darkness. "Damn it."

[miss_ives]

Vanessa turned back to the closed door and raised her fingertips to its stones, as if wanting to reach out to the person on the other side.

[offthebeatenpath]

Her lighter didn't give anywhere near as much light as a sun or star, or even moon, would have, but Em couldn't project without being able to see the card. Assuming she still had one that would be helpful. But the cool weight of the zippo in her hand, and the familiar sounds of flicking it open and lighting it were comforting in their own way.

"We should keep moving," she encouraged.

[miss_ives]

The words snapped Vanessa out of it, and she looked at Ms. Colbert, and the flickering light of her Zippo. She nodded, and walked on, waiting until they were away from the door to say, quietly, "All out of sun?"

[offthebeatenpath]

"I've lost the card," she explained, thinking of the few she'd found in her pocket, most with characters she barely recognized, and none of them helpful right now.

"So unless I want to go barefoot, no sun. Although..." She was so stupid. This place was really getting to her, if she didn't think about this already. On the side of the lighter was one of her own paintings in miniature, and with a quick look at it, she projected a fist-sized fireball ahead of them, and stretched it out to run along the side of the tunnel, the way Pyro or Jag might have with their fire.

[miss_ives]

"That is... even handier," Vanessa remarked quietly, her voice echoing oddly in the relatively narrow hallway.

[offthebeatenpath]

"It isn't really fire," Em warned, as she started down the tunnel. Although it could hurt someone, if need be. "Any more than the sun was truly the sun."

[miss_ives]

"Does it burn?" Vanessa asked, very pragmatically, checking back that they weren't followed.

[offthebeatenpath]

"It'll feel like it's burning; I wouldn't recommend touching it." Pyro and Jag could tell the difference, probably other fire or energy-based mutants could too, and it didn't work the same on inanimate objects as real fire would, but anyone else would feel it.

[miss_ives]

"Handy," was Vanessa's only answer, and she frowned as she noticed the tunnel curving and sloping down. "Deeper down the rabbit hole."

[offthebeatenpath]

Em didn't think Ms. Ives had seen the White Rabbit she drew a few minutes ago, and this whole place had a through the looking glass feel. But her own thoughts turned to Judgment all the same. "Let's try to avoid the bandersnatch."

[miss_ives]

"Neither one of us would outrun it," Vanessa confirmed, making sure not to slip on the increasingly wet stones.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Unfortunately." And there wasn't room to fly, although Em kept that thought to herself for now, since it wasn't helpful. It wasn't just the floor that wet, Em noticed, when her foot skidded and she steadied herself with a hand against the wall. And up ahead, a muted hum built to a low roar.

[miss_ives]

Vanessa picked up the pace, as much as she could without slipping in her Victorian heels. At least the shoes felt worn and perfect for her feet, as if she had worn them herself for days. And then, at a turn in the corridor, the hallway straightened out into the mouth of a gigantic, dark cave, with a huge waterfall on the other side. Vanessa stood on the edge of the cave, a hand on the wet wall, watching with awe.

[offthebeatenpath]

"There could be another way out," Em said, picturing Madeleine Stowe and Daniel Day-Lewis in Last of the Mohicans as she stared at the rush of water.. "Behind the waterfall. Or it could be another attempt to kill us."

[miss_ives]

"Your cards," Vanessa offered, tearing her gaze away from the waterfall to turn to her.

[offthebeatenpath]

Finding only one card left in her pocket, Em felt dread rising before she looked to see what she'd drawn. A Tower she could only describe as kawaii, not from a deck she'd ever owned. But what she Saw rocked her so hard her knees slammed into the rock floor as she fell, pressing her free hand to her temple.

[miss_ives]

"Emma!" Vanessa cried out, and crouched beside her, reaching out instinctively.

[offthebeatenpath]

For a moment or more, Em simply breathed through the pain and disorientation, and although she improved, her eyes remained unfocused, or rather, focused on something apart. "We have to keep going," she said once she could. "We have to go through... but there's... a cost."