Ghost House?
Who: Nic and open to Ben, Dan, Gavin, Janie, Joy, Ren, Sally, Sarah, Zhen
Where: The Spooky House, Living Room and Parlor
When: Morning
There was nothing quite as creepy as waking up somewhere else. Nic knew where he'd gone to bed and the floor had been hard beneath him, even with the sleeping bag. Dan had been close by, always within reach. Now he was on a couch, that much he knew without opening his eyes. He could feel the cushions beneath him, one side walled and padded. His arm hung off the side, fingertips brushing the floor. His hand was numb, fingertips tingling, and as he pulled it back up onto the couch, blood rushed back into it. "Where are we?" he asked, opening his eyes. He didn't feel drugged, but that didn't mean a thing. He'd become such a light sleeper that moving him would have been impossible otherwise. "Shit," he said softly as he sat up. Any moment bats might fly through the room, or a wolf might howl out the window. This looked like a haunted house if he'd ever seen one, certainly not the campsite in which he expected to wake up.
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Eyes fluttering open, Sarah was distinctively aware that she was not outside, and she was not laying next to Zania. Blinking wildly for a few moments, she sucked in a breath and sat up, taking in her surroundings with hazy vision before she heard someone speak. Turning her head, she recognized Nic sitting up on the couch. Dan was there. And others. Though not...everyone.
"What's going on?" She was sore, but ignored it as she stood, using both hands to frantically brush the hair from her face. The place was... strange. Creepy? Odd? So many adjectives and none very flattering other than it was a roof over their heads. She hurried to the window alone and looked out into the dreary weather. It matched the decor, that was for damn sure. "Where the bloody hell are we?" And where was everyone else? On different floors, maybe?
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"I don't know," Nic answered, his attention turning to Sarah as he rose to his feet. He wasn't all that comfortable in the new environment, not at all sure what the scientists might be prepared to spring on them. People seemed to be missing, but Dan was there, still fast asleep. Moving to his boyfriend's side, he shook his shoulder, waking him gently. "Dan," he said softly, pointedly not using his pet name for Dan in present company. It just didn't seem polite. "Wake up. They've moved us."
It didn't seem like anything urgent, but then, it could be at any moment. Izzy rose sleepily, slowly padding over to sit by Dan. She wagged her tail slowly, looking around as Nic did. "Where is everyone?" he said, seeing that their number had been cut substantially. If this was their new home, he wasn't sure he was all that thrilled. It seemed like a perfect setup to scare them silly. "What's out there?" he asked Sarah, wondering if they were still anywhere near their original location.
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"A small stone wall in front of the house," she replied, looking away from Nic and out the window again as he began to rouse Dan from sleep. "And trees. Dead ones, it looks like." She sighed, eyes lifting to the gray sky. "Are we in some kind of horror movie, or something? I'm surprised there's not a cemetery in the front garden."
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Dan rolled over, his usual hatred of being woken up - he'd never been and never would be a morning person. He batted at Nic's hand, trying to dismiss him and grunted inaudibly.
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"If we're in a horror movie... we should find weapons or something. The toll of the clock will have some ominous meaning and the stairs will creek. Though running up the stairs could be a sure sign of imminent death. Baby, wake up," Nic said, shaking Dan a bit harder, his concentration now on his drugged up boyfriend. Or maybe it wasn't the drugs. Nic never knew. Dan didn't like to get up even after eight hours sleep. Glancing at Izzy, Nic's lips curled up in a small smile. "Izzy," he said excitedly. "Wake Dan up! Give Dan kisses!" Nic might not wake Dan up with a kiss in front of people, but he had no issues with the dog doing so.
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And then there was licking - there was definite facial licking from a smelly-dog-breath-point-of-view going on and Dan sat up, brishing Izzy away with a spluttering cough. "Okay, okay - I'm awake! what?" he asked, knowing that Nic would only do that if his attention was really required.
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Nic smiled, amused, but glad Dan was awake. For one, it proved he wasn't drugged, just hard to wake up, but it also meant his boyfriend was with him to experience the oddness that was their new home. Was it their new home? Nic wasn't sure. "Good girl," Nic said, patting Izzy on the head as he crouched beside his boyfriend. "We've been relocated," he said, not at all sure whether he should be thrilled or not. It was a house, at least.
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"The cemetary's in the back yard," said Joy, who was just coming into the room. She'd gotten up a little earlier and checked out the place. It was creepy, so of course Janie and Gavin were here. But it looked like a lot of people weren't. "It looks like the people in here are the only ones in the house, by the way." She walked over and plopped down in a chair, passing her sister along the way. She decided against kicking her for now. "I peeked around the place a bit, and it's all dark and satanic like this. Real goddamn cheery."
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Gavin had woken up to the muzzy sounds of voices, on the floor. The carpet under him smelled pretty musty. Sitting up and blinking around had revealed ... oh guess what! They'd been dropped onto the set of the Addams Family. Fucking brilliant. He was at least right next to Janie on the floor, which was something, at least, and his green eyes tracked Joy as she passed by. He sat up slow and winced at the protest in his ribs. Another something was that they'd laid him on his good side. He might've been appreciative if he wasn't still in his boxers and in some fucked up haunted house. One hand fell to rest on Janie as he looked around and listened. "Guess they got bored of us flailing in the woods," he said to no one in particular, voice sort of hoarse.
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Sarah glanced briefly at Joy and the other guy - who she hadn't really met yet, before she turned away from the window, both eyebrows raised as a sense of panic hit her. "Wait, no one else is here? Are you sure? It couldn't be just us...where's everyone else?" Sarah started off out of the room without an answer to search the house herself.
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"Fuck if I know," she shouted as Sarah left. She looked around the room. There wasn't anyone missing that she'd particularly been friendly with. "Maybe they're in the back yard," she said with an evil smile. "Maybe that's what happens when you get kicked out of here, they put you in a hole out back." She laughed slightly maniacally, half wondering if this place had something to drink. She'd been dry far too long.
Zhen had also been up and
Zhen had also been up and wandering around, though she'd gone upstairs instead of looking out the windows. So, when she came bounding down the stairs, in an old black dress that was reminiscent of Grand MaMa on the Addams Family, she looked like she was in a stunningly good mood. "There's a tower!" she exclaimed to everyone, jumping down the last three steps. "And an attic, and a widow's walk--it's great! Oh and everyone can have clothes! There's bedrooms upstairs and wardrobes and stuff, c'mon, it's awesome!!" No, she wasn't the type who really let situations get her down for long, and this was just the kind of thing she'd needed to perk right back up.
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Janie came to slowly. It was kind of a rough journey, her pulling herself up from the ether. She felt Gavin's hand on her, and heard voices. Sadly, one of those voices was Joy. That was perfect. And someone was excited. Was she hearing a dog? Maybe a cat? She cracked her eyes open, looking at the blurs around her in mild confusion. "...okaaayyyy..." she mumbled sleepily, not fully awake yet.
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Ren woke up not in a tent but instead in some kind of horror house straight out of bad b-movies. It took her a minute to get her bearings but eventually she woke up, just in time to see Zhen come bounding into the room talking about widow's walks and towers and clothes for people. She was cool with clothes. She was getting tired of walking around in her underwear doing heavy manual labor and getting all gross.
"What the hell?" she said in bewilderment, getting up and poking around the very authentically-decorated room. Well, authentic according to her memories of horror flicks, at least. "I vote we should find the clothes," she said, unable to resist grinning at Zhen. Her enthusiasm was kind of contagious, and it was kind of cool to have a haunted house to play in, if she ignored the fact that the scientists were probably going to fuck with them hardcore in the upcoming day. "And then explore. I call first dibs on any strange looking eyeglasses." Because okay, it wasn't Thir13en Ghosts but it never hurt to be safe.
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"I second that," Joy said, standing up. "Anything to get out of Brother Bob's shirt." Well, I guess it's MY shirt now. Somewhere deep inside her, she found she actually might miss the guy a little bit. A little. She looked down at Janie. "Yo, sis, you gonna just lie there all day?" She chuckled a little as she headed up the stairs, unbuttoning the shirt as she went. "Look out creepies and crawlies, I'm coming up there!"
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Gavin really would've liked to have chucked something at Joy's head when she spoke to Janie. Again. Something better than a rock. It wasn't like they hadn't found the shit she'd left in their boat the night before, mostly by 'what's that smell?' and Gavin stupidly putting his hand in it. He hadn't gotten cut, thankfully, but it was still disgusting and she was a horrible bitch. But there was something more important going on, and that was the girl waking up next to him. He looked down at Janie. "They moved us," he told her, not sounding thrilled about that really. "We're in this ... big spooky house, apparently. Like ... Addams Family spooky. For serious. I feel like I'm on a tour of the set and I haven't even gotten up yet. And not everybody's here." May as well lay out what she couldn't really see.
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Janie rubbed at her eyes, and sat up, stretching and cracking her back and neck. "...seriously?" she asked. Then she paused, and shrugged. "Better than the boat. Do you have your meds?" she asked. She tried to look around, seeing other moving blurs, though she didn't recognize them. And she wished she hadn't recognized Joy. "Did someone say there was a tower? Think Joy might have an 'accident'?"
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"Seriously," Gavin confirmed. He glanced around himself at the question, and didn't see anything that resembled an orange little bottle, so ... "I dunno," he told her. "If they're here, I dunno where. And yeah ... that was Zhen." Whom he was actually really glad to see, as she dragged the ghey bois out of the room. He was also glad -- in a way that he felt vaguely guilty for -- that he didn't see Hannah or Zania there. It was a gut feeling that was quickly replaced by an unvoiced worry about what had happened to Everybody Else. He sat for a second, then blinked and looked at Janie again. "One can only hope. About the accident. Here, c'mon ... people are looking for clothes, and I'm sick of having my nips exposed." He got to his feet slowly and took her arm to sort of ... help her up or whatever.
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Zhen went up to her boys, grabbing them each by a hand to tug them along. "C'mon!! It's so sweet, seriously, you have to come find stuff!! Oooh I can't wait to see what clothes they left you!!" She bounced up and down in place, layers of black clothing flapping with her. The dangle earrings she'd found were swinging wildly, catching the light, and it appeared they were fashioned after little spiderwebs.
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Dan let himself be pulled - really, there was no choice with Zhen, and he had to laugh at how she was dressed. Looked like they were not only in a strange place, but it was to be a costume party as well.
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Nic laughed softly and followed along, whistling so that Izzy would accompany them. Perhaps they'd find a room, and maybe some clean clothes, or a costume, if that's what there was to wear. It seemed they had a bit of exploring to do.
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Sarah wasn't interested in what clothes were left behind. She was more interested in searching every room to make sure people weren't just asleep in odd places. She wandered on her own, more disappointed with every empty room. No one else was here.
The house was horrible. Dreary and dark. It was if the house had been fashioned after some cheesy b-movie horror flick. In fact, she was pretty sure once the sun went down Nosferatu would be creeping down the stairs.
Sighing, Sarah began to head back toward all the noise.
...
Joy, on the other hand was very interested in clothes. She'd found the perfect outfit- so perfect, in fact it was like it had been made just for her. A long black dress, with long sleeves... after having everyone and their dog seeing the crap the scientists had done to her, it was nice to finally be able to cover it all up. They'd been nice enough to include a wide-brimmed hat with a spider web-like veil. She looked in the dark mirror in the bathroom and adjusted the veil to obscure the word "LEECH" on her forehead.. With her pale skin, she looked the very picture of "goth". She smiled at her dim reflection, then headed to the top of the stairs and posed for everyone downstairs. "Whaddaya think, kids?
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Sarah found the clothes and tried not to sigh again. Did they expect them to dress up like the Munsters? Or was it the Addams Family? She always got those two shows mixed up. She found an outfit that looked like it would fit her and debated. She had been wearing the same clothes for days. But did she want to go around wearing this? At least it was sort of cute, if not a bit too goth and morbid for her taste. Fingering the long, black velvet and lace skirt, she figured she could at least be thankful that the silky corset they'd placed with it was a deep crimson red, although even that had black ribbon laced through it. At least it was some color. Though she wasn't too fond of the matching red neck ribbon, but hell, it was a change of clothes, wasn't it? Sarah found a bathroom and changed, amazed at how perfectly everything fit. But Dan was going to laugh at her, maybe, because it so wasn't really her style even though it was pretty flattering, given her coloring.
She felt silly, but exited the bathroom tentatively. It was official, they had all gone completely and totally mental.
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Ren had been doing her own little clothes-finding mission. The rooms all had different clothes in them and she'd had to search for a minute to find ones that would fit her. But when she did, she was less than impressed. It was like the Addams Family met Hot Topic, and while she was usually down with interesting corsetry, it wasn't something she preferred to wear for a full day of working or whatever else they'd have to do. All the same, she didn't want to run around in her underwear when all the other girls were getting dressed, so she slid into her clothes and tromped back out with a sigh. "Kind of hot, I guess," looking down at herself dressed in a floor-length silk and chiffon skirt, black sheer undershirt and a black brocade corset, "but why do I feel like Victorian goth barbie? And if I see a walking disembodied hand, I am going to scream."
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Joy looked at Ren and Sarah as they met up in the hallway. They all looked a bit ridiculous, like a bunch of the mallgoth kids she normally was infuriated by. "A bit freaky, yeah, but trust me, my oldest would think we were hot." She cackled a little bit. "It's better than running around in underwear or less, though."
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Sarah nodded at Joy's comment, not really listening to her. Her mind was racing as she gripped her discarded clothes to her chest and looked around. "Are we sure no one else is here?" she asked, starting to accept that it was just them. Zania and Conor were nowhere to be found. The two people she'd begun to build friendships with and now she was back where she started when she first arrived. Dan was here but...well, that didn't count right now, did it? "Maybe they're...outside. Or in another house nearby?"
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"Well, I didn't go outside, but from looking out the windows I'd say it's pretty much just us chickens here," Joy said, absentmindedly picking at some spiderweb-like lace on her sleeve. "We can keep looking though." Joy started heading back down the spiral staircase. "Those science-y folks love to leave us notes. Maybe they left one around here somewh-"
As she got to the bottom of the stars, she looked up and saw a piece of paper with red ink dangling from the chandelier. "Disco!" Joy exclaimed, walking over and reaching up to grab it. She read it, then sighed. "Yep. They split everyone up all right. For our own safety or something. Whatever." She let the note drop behind her as she kept looking around.
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Through it all, the discussions and waking, Ben had stayed asleep. It was the culmination of asleepless paranoia building up as they'd camped, and also of the strain his outburst had put on him. He'd dozed off peacefully as he ever managed to the night before, tucked away in the storage room Kaori had led him to, and had started the sleep with the hope that things wouldn't change. Being penned up in the tiny room was perfect for Ben, it would've kept him safe and sane while the more competent people around him dealt with their problems.
Instead, he woke with a violent start; sucking deep lungfuls of panicked breath into his lungs as he scrambled to sit upright. He could hear voices around him, but the peoples' features were still a haze, blurred over by sleep. Rubbing frantically at his eyes, Ben tried to listen to the voices around him as if he might garner identities on voice alone. "What now?" he rumbled hopelessly as his hands left his eyes, moving instead to feel the odd shapes wedged into his pants pockets... pill bottles. Without waiting for an answer to his question, Ben started yanking each prescription free and open, quickly chewing and dry-swallowing a succession of pills.