Return of the Hall of Horrors

[cardio_swindle]

[From the outside, when you open the door, the room looks like a warm, inviting tavern, smelling possibly of mulled cider, mom's apple pie, hearty stew... A cozy seat by a roaring fire with spirits just behind the counter for the taking, and that fresh pie cooling on a table.]

Comments

[butadoll]

[ oh, she's very, very familiar with that feeling ] . . . who's there?

[ ooc: Should have mentioned this in the meme post, but got turned into a girl by the tea party. Hope that's okay. ]

[cardio_swindle]

[There is no answer. The hallway is eerily silent in the aftermath of the scream. The faint echoes of splashing liquid and the creaking of the chains holding the dead.]

[That and the deep, amused, familiar chuckle in Tokusa's ear.]

[but_a_doll]

[ and if Tokusa was a little bit freaked out before, this takes the cake. Completely freezes up before bringing herself to look over her shoulder very, very slowly ]

[cardio_swindle]

[It's crawling down the wall behind Tokusa, it has Cyril's torso and face and a spider's body and legs for the lower half.]

My my, you look lovely. [The... Cyril part of the creature coos, low and sinister as it reaches forward to curl fingers around Tokusa's throat, one spidery leg also raising to touch the woman's hip.]

[besomeothername]

[Just keep moving. Just keep moving. Trying oh, so very hard to not take a good look at the faces of those corpses hanging up in their own macabre display. Really now, Dressing Room? Didn't it have its fill of horrors earlier with the whole movie marathon?

Whipping his head around in the direction of the scream. Well... crap]

[cardio_swindle]

[Don't want to look at those corpses? Because some of them may be awfully familiar. ...Is that Doug?]

[Then again, they are dead. And the screaming person, because they're screaming again, may still be alive, savable.]

[besomeothername]

[By the tattered white clothes and patches of blue-black hair still on the corpse, he doesn't have to see the face to know. That old familiar guilt of not being where he needed to be starts to well up.

And without really thinking about it, he starts moving in the direction of the scream]

[cardio_swindle]

Wouldn't go that way, if I were you.

[Where the hell did Tyki come from? Regardless, he's stepping around a corpse, kicking aside a floating hand casually.]

Well, really, I wouldn't go any direction given a choice, but there's not much of one.

[Despite his words he joins Lavi in walking towards the screaming. Which has started again, and is going on longer but is weaker.]

[resoluteblade]

[Oh boy. He immediately unsheathes Mugen, on alert and eyes shifting about vigilantly as he proceeds in further.]

[cardio_swindle]

...Ah lovely, this place again.

[The voice is behind Kanda and accompanied by the lighting of a match, and the acrid smoke of a cigarette. In front of Kanda something splashes ominously, and the lights flicker and dim.]

[resoluteblade]

[So, Noah on one side, unknown-maybe-threat on the other. Wonderful. He chooses to face the unknown-something and put a lot of trust in his hearing.]

Again?

[cardio_swindle]

Tip, standing in one spot is asking for trouble.

[Tyki doesn't really answer as he steps up next to Kanda, peering into the darkness, there's another splash, and something above them scrapes against the ceiling, with a sound more grating than forks on a blackboard.]

[justacatphase]

[Still looking ten years old from the tea, but finally in clothes that fit, Tykitty's tail is lashing and his ears flattened against his head at the scream.]

Karma really doesn't like me at the moment.

[cardio_swindle]

Karma's got nothing to do with it.

[Tyki steps from behind a corpse, looking a little worse for wear and glancing at the.... Young kitty version of himself. Not going to comment.]

[Something slithers past Tykitty's leg though, something slimy and scaled.]

[justacatphase]

[Looking away from the ceiling to his more normal self, breathing out a cloud of smoke.]

And I suppose it's this place acting up again.

[Jolting just a little bit, ears flicking up as he pulls his leg up and away.]

[cardio_swindle]

You've got it there. Hope you can fight. And run. Because standing still is a bad idea.

[He's already moving past the other, walking down the hall with the screaming. The slithering thing twines around the kitty's other ankle, this time tightening as if to grab, pulling experimentally.]

[solo_insanity]

[Curses out loud when the door clicks shut behind him turning into a wall. How clever, you tricksy little hobbit, how clever. Tyki glares at the wall for the offense for a moment before reaching out a hand and pressing it to the wall.

Nope.]

Well, then. [He reaches a hand up and yanks down a body. The chains might be useful.]

[cardio_swindle]

[You sure you want to do that? Don't you remember the chain spider? Still the corpse splashes into the liquid and Tyki manages to pull down a good chunk of chains. But it's noisy, there's a loud echoing of metal and clinking that seems to echo unnaturally down the hall, and then back, as if replayed.]

[The lights flicker and dim, and something is definitely alive and watching him, the malice and bloodthirst is practically palpable.]

[solo_insanity]

[He let's the carcass rot in the water. He bets on that disturbance that it and the chains caused caused should at least make it the focus of attention at the moment. Any unsavory creatures swimming at his feet should be coming up to the surface now. He didn't care for the surprises like last time.

The lights dimming was not desirable in any sense. Always made it easier when he actually could see. The Tease he summoned, however, were not as constrained by sight as he. And they fastened themselves onto the chain ten links apart and lifted it from the ground. He'd have to admit, that chain fence the spider made was rather clever after all. He stood between them, the fence and the dropped body, disrupting the water as little as possible position himself. Then he stopped and slowly counted down from sixty. An afternoon snack decoy or a tease and chain blanket. Sometimes you just have to make do.]

[cardio_swindle]

[Something dark and humongous--too big to have been hiding in the shallow water--emerges. Tentacles, slimy, slick, with sticky suckers, coil around the corpses and haul it under, with more reaching, feeling around for Tyki, for more of a snack.]

[The thing stinks of rotting flesh and stagnant water. There's a horrible, screeching noise that covers any sounds of what may or may not be approaching from above.]