bakerstreet | This house is a labyrinth, let's get lost.

Entry tags:

[warning] trigger warning

This house is a labyrinth, let's get lost.

Hallways*: a free form horror meme

Wherever you meant to go is not where you are. When you look back, there is no door.

A hallway stretches out in front of you, with branching corridors and closed doors as far as the eye can see. There are hints of other people around - sounds and voices of others who have found themselves trapped in this space, or those who were originally here. Not everyone is friendly.

Just remember: any door you go through will cease to exist. You must go forwards to get out.

So, will you make it?

*It doesn't have to be a hallway, you might end up in a kitchen that tries to eat you, or knee deep in water of a basement somewhere when you were just on the 18^th story.

Warning: tags in this post will deal with themes that include violence, blood, gore and other horror topics. Please communicate your preferences with your threading partners.

Starters and thread hopping is encouraged.

Inspiration from HOUSE of Leaves and

cardio_swindle.
Meme taken from

thelongcon

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[I am fine with just about anything, but let's discuss first just so we're on the same page.]

[FIGHT M E]

[might actually be the horror in the hallway]

[ The hallway is endless.

That door at the end of it? Unreachable. Peter isn't even sure how long they've been stuck here, walking and walking and walking, other doors opening on either side of them, but the one in front of them never quite there. It's almost enough to drive a man mad.

He glances at Derek. ] I think we need to try a different approach.

You think?

[ All right, so maybe the sarcasm was unwarranted. It's not like this was Peter's fault. Possibly.

Unfortunately, Derek didn't share his uncle's patience. The longer that this dragged out, the more irate he became. Obviously whoever or whatever was causing the door at the end of the hallway to remain out of their reach was trying to get them to try the other doors that lined the walls--which was probably why they had both opted against using them up until this point. Call it instinct, but Derek knew the door at the end of the hall was their way out.]

[ Definitely not his fault this time around, thank you very much. Nobody expects to enter a perfectly innocuous building and wind up somewhere else altogether. (But try as Peter might, he can't remember where they had been-- a red flag in itself.)

With an irritated sigh and a roll of his eyes, he stops where he is. Obviously, he isn't Derek's first choice of people he'd like to be stuck in an unending hallway with, but it could be worse. At the very least, they should be able to work together. ]

But I don't suppose you have any ideas.

[ Day fourteen. Ward never expected it to go on this long. He's going to have to halve ration portions again. They should last him another two weeks. The water situation is more dire. His thirst isn't quite at drink your own piss levels, but if he doesn't find another leak like the one two hundred and ninety doors ago, or some other water source, he's going to reach it fast. He's thirsty all the time. It's worst in the morning; he twisted one of the metal zipper pullers off his bag a while ago, sucks it to generate saliva, the metal tangy as blood on his tongue. Does the check on autopilot: all stations still static. Checks his gun. Tests the torch; just one on-off flick, saving the last of the battery for more dangerous terrain than the long, chilly hallways he walks. Does his stretches, warming up for the walk ahead. Sets the alarm on his watch for his next break. Packs up camp.

When Ward had entered the irregularity, he'd been prepared for the possibility of alien conditions. But not this, not blank nothing for endless stretches, each door disappearing after he closes it like his path back is erasing itself. He tries to convince himself that when he took those turns about a week ago it was a 180, he's heading back the way he came, but both his compass and his sense of direction just spin aimlessly, and he has no idea where he is, how far he's travelled or how far he has to go.

It's not like when he'd first learned to survive; he'd stolen tools and food, had elements of nature to help him make shelter and keep him active. Now he has nothing to do but let his mind eat itself, all the turbulence of his childhood and Hydra and combat training and his time as a double agent whirling together into a maelstrom that is slowly growing too loud to simply quiet on command.

Sometimes the hallways vary enough to be a thankful distraction. Today is one of those days; the next door he goes through opens into — a space. It is the same featurelessness as the hallway, but he gets the feeling of vastness from the darkness stretching out ahead and to the sides. He tends to leave his left hand on the wall at all times, the way you're supposed to escape a maze, but his right eases out his gun. Because in addition to the way the noiseless hush echoes with the sense of a grand chamber, a vast emptiness, he feels something even more disconcerting, closer to hand.

The familiar prickle of being watched. ]

Hello?

[ Emptiness swallows his voice. Ward grimaces and resists the urge to step out into it, see how big the room really is. He keeps his hand on the wall, keeps walking, until — no, that was footsteps. A shuffling sound. Was that a light? Two? He weaves his gun wildly, pressing his back to the wall, fear thick in his gut and turning him mercenary. ]

[Any level of violence or horror is perfectly fine.]

[The hallway is dark, there's not enough light to illuminate the farther corners of the small space, and Sonico shivers, walking up to Ryou, swallowing loudly.]

Do- Do we have to get through this to get out?

[Darkness has hardly ever been a problem for Ryou, he's lived with something much worse for years and became accustomed to such places, but even he's a little on edge in this place.

At the voice of another, closer than he thought anyone would be, he's proud of himself for only twitching a little before giving what he hopes is a reassuring smile.]

It would seem so. However, I'm not quite sure how much luck we'll have. It seems no matter how many doors or turns I've taken thus far, it goes on forever. And the whole disappearing doors once we go through them isn't exactly comforting. But, I'm sure there's a way out, someway.

[Sonico nods, her legs trembling a little, her arms against her chest, hands into tight fists.]

You think so?

[She blushes slightly, looking at the boy.]

Is it- Is it ok if I walk with you?

After so many years of wandering from place to place melded by the memories and whims of so many before him, some of which he couldn't really determine the origin of, this bubble looked like one of the more normal ones to him. Such was not the case, the moment he'd opened one of the doors to step through, he'd ended up in the midst of a hall far from where he'd walked away from a still nattering redblood who he's sure is undoubtedly still going.

From one situation to the next, the immovable brick wall of any Makara bares the brunt of the door landing him smack in front of the shorter male. If he had been walking or running, Kurloz had no clue, but he'd certainly been thrown into whatever confrontation this would bring. His hand raises to the bone pattern chest to circle over the faux ribcage and offer his apology.

Between living with a vengeful spirit most of his life, his fascination with the occult, and his constant watching of horror movies, Ryou had thought that it would take a lot to scare him. He hadn't quite counted on losing himself in a virtual haunted labyrinth where even the walls of some sections of the corridors seemed to have it out for his blood. That last door he'd gone through a while back had bitten him before it disappeared, and that alone had him a little more on edge than before as he made a half-assed attempt to stop the bleeding a little too close to the main veins on his arm for comfort. He's had worse, but it certainly wasn't very pleasant.

You would think such things would have him paying more attention to his surroundings instead of spacing out, but no. Here he is, bumping into what he at first assumed to be another wall, second glance something else that may want him dead, and finally settling on relaxed confusion when the other doesn't seem to mean any harm.

"Oh, sorry."

For the minor collision, or for accidentally getting his blood on the other, he's not quite sure. It's awkward, uncertain, but still, Ryou manages to keep it together even if this man clearly isn't human and could likely break him with little to no effort.

The blood was the second thing he noticed the more his sensitive nose adjusted to the smells around him, the coppery liquid ~~now on his outfit, thanks for that~~ is strong and even red as it is, it doesn't smell anything like the redblood he'd just left not long before. In fact, he's almost certain this is a human by the smell of it, the fragile things looked as bump-death worthy as he's assuming this one is, too. Raising his hand he notes, with a little bit of disdain that he can't summon his usual to throw in a reactionary picture. Furthermore he checks, just quickly, that his modus stayed present. Luckily there are a few things that seem in order and he's continually unsure just what's happened. Alternately, he's glad he doesn't have the ability to tag, that meant no trigger warnings.

He grunts at the small human and lifts his slender finger to point at the bleeding arm. If there's one thing that Kurloz Makara could do, it's sew flesh together. Out of his modus comes thread and a needle, and even while he's suggesting trust in his measures, Kurloz stands smiling as though it weren't a lesson in weird scars. Half-ass isn't the way to stop bleeding, though, Mituna's often halfassed way of taking care of himself, or forgetting he's bleeding made for necessity with Latula not around.

Edited (shush) 2016-10-24 14:34 (UTC)

Whatever Ryou had been expecting from this larger creature he assumes is male, it certainly wasn't this. The needle and thread coming out of seemingly nowhere, and the rather obvious offer to fix up his torn arm are almost as surprising as this whole situation itself. First he lands himself in a horror movie, and now he has a clown-mime?-of some unknown species offering to patch him up.

Well. His life has never been anywhere close to normal, why start now?

A voice that he knows is no longer in his head, yet still seems like it never left, tells him it's stupid to trust strangers in dark corridors on a good day, much less a place that wants you dead, but he ignores it just as he would have if the voice had still been the one he'd known for so long instead of the impression left behind.

With a slight smile that's far too relaxed for the situation and present company, he sheepishly holds out his injured arm. "I'm afraid I didn't quite have anything to properly tend to it myself other than keeping pressure on it. But, it's not that bad, is it?"

An honest question as he'd been more concerned with running and taking twists and turns through the halls than noticing just how much blood he'd been losing along the way. It was numb by now anyway, which, in hindsight, probably isn't a good thing. Oh well.

The deliberation is given it's own reverence and respect, his hand sans the needle is waiting, outstretched. Ultimately it didn't matter to him if he wanted to fix it up or not, the human is of no consequence, but he knows the verbal thrashing he'll get if Kankri actually manages to follow him and ends up seeing him with a human bleeding out and is perceived as 'doing nothing'.

Just like the deliberation, the smile is, and has been this entire time, returned with the same kind, making a bit of a grabbed hand outward, urging it to settle in his hands and let him do his thing. It's not the worst wound he'd seen, he'd seen certain other highbloods limping around and never bothered to offer knowing there was a certain hardy, inherent ability to live. He himself had gone through all the same tribulations a Beforan goes through, less violent than an Alternian for sure, but still all the required as a Highblood, as a believer.

Once the arm is held out, Kurloz bends down the needed distance to have a look at it, wiping the sleeve of his forearm over it to assess where did need to be stitched. While he's asked the damage, he's busied looking it over, again wiping his sleeve over the beading blood from the wound. A silent shrug of his shoulders and he gestures that the human should look the other way. He always made Mituna look at something else. Be it what it is, if the human decides to, then good on him, if not, then the prods of the needle into the skin to stitch a particularly deep area would have to be the entertainment for the evening.

To his credit, the only shaking Ryou does is from being slightly unsteady on his feet as he realizes just how much blood he must have lost without realizing it. Certainly not the first time it's happened, but it has been long enough for him to have missed the warning signs with how panicked he'd been trying to find a way out. Strangely, this larger creature brings a sense of calm that has him mostly relaxed, even if the slight droop to his eyes could be from hanging onto consciousness from sheer stubbornness than anything else.

And as the blood's wiped away and the needle close to the skin, he doesn't bother looking away. In fact, there's more of a bit of morbid curiosity as he watches the worst of the wound be stitched back together. Partially from fascination, but mostly so that if it were to happen again, he'll know how to take care of it himself without making a complete mess of things.

For a few moments, he allows the other to work in silence, but it can only stretch on for so long before he has to stop himself from fidgeting. "Thank you, for this. I can't say I'd be too thrilled to have my death be due to a wound from a door, of all things. Even if it did have disturbing accuracy going for the right veins with a single attack."

A sigh that's mostly directed at himself and his own carelessness is let out, and he debates for a moment just how to proceed. "What's your name? Mine's Ryou Bakura. I... Well, I don't know sign language very well, so if you want to write it out in my blood before it's all cleaned up, that's perfectly fine."

( feel free to PM to discuss ideas, I'm up for p. much everything! prose preferred. )

[ Neville really never thought he'd end up here again. His work as an Auror is uncomfortable but necessary and he's honored to be chosen despite his grades but honestly it's not what he wants to be doing. It doesn't suit him. Never will, he thinks, though he doesn't say as much. He's gone from someone that no one expects anything from to someone people expect great things from but it's not like he wanted to have to do any of the things he had, during the war.

Well, now they're working on this and he's not pleased about it. There's not much to be done for it. He, Harry, and Ron have been after some left-over Death Eaters and there have been whispers that there is at least one that's been scoping out the Department of Mysteries. Going after studies about death and the mastering of it.

Sending people that have already been is a sound move. They haven't brought any Unspeakables in on it because they don't quite trust them even now, so it's fallen to Neville - and by proxy, Luna - while Harry and Ron have their own work to do.

It's late, because of course it is, because nothing important can ever happen in the day. Neville just wishes the whole bloody layout wouldn't change every five minutes.

They've been looking for the proper doors, the proper corridors, for what seems like ages. The information they had gotten is no real help. At least they've remembered to mark where they've been. ]

Bloody hell there are too many ways to go in this place.

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord advances... Those thrice defying him, born as the seventh month died... The Dark Lord has marked him as his equal, but he has power the Dark Lord knows not... Either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord is preparing...

[ Well, this is an absolute shit-show. When the prophecy happens, no one even considers Regulus as an option. Lily Potter and Alice Longbottom are both pregnant, due at the end of July, both sets of parents have thrice defied the Dark Lord, but--it's the tense of Sybill's prophecy that gets them. Present tense. Past tense. Already marked. Marked. No need for the parents to be the ones defiant. Sirius Black has defied the Dark Lord three times. Regulus Black has as well, and he's taken the Dark Mark. (First, he refuses to kill his brother. Second, he learns Legilimency to become a spy. Third, he steals a Horcrux and hands it off to Albus Dumbledore.) His birthday is 29th July.

This is stupid. This is ridiculous. There's no way that Regulus can be the chosen one--but here they are anyway. They need to protect the prophecy (destroy it, Regulus thinks to himself, once it's been heard by the important parties) and protect Regulus from the fate of getting murdered. The Dark Lord thinks it's one of the coming babies and both families have gone into hiding for their protection. It's safer this way. Safer too to let some Death Eaters hear the prophecy in full so they can convey it word for word, make him realize he doesn't have to kill any children.

And then, well, he has no idea that Regulus has betrayed him quite so many times.

Still, the Department of Mysteries is tricky. They've come in a group - Remus, Sirius, Moody, Caradoc, himself - but things are so loopy and ridiculous here that they've gotten separated. In here, now, it's just him and Remus. They're comfortable working together but there's the problem of if the others find the prophecy first, they can't touch it. Nor can the Death Eaters - and if Regulus removes it in front of them, they'll know it's him.

They have to move quickly, essentially. He turns toward a door they've passed that had nothing in it but a horror show of sharp teeth and claws and swipes his wand, marking it as one they've already been in. ]

I'd really rather not die if it can be helped at all. [ It's said conversationally, like they're just taking a walk in the park. ] One near-death experience is quite enough for me, but frankly I'm not sure what they expect me to do.

Edited (gdi spelling) 2016-10-22 18:22 (UTC)

[Remus is already sick of this place. The doors are supposed to listen to verbal requests, but they hadn't, and now they were in this damned endless corridor with doors that led anywhere but where they were supposed to be already.

Frustrated as he is with their situation, though, he answers seriously.] You dying is not the plan.

[He's just not entirely sure what the plan actually is. They reach another door and this time he's the one to open it. It looks to lead to a corridor exactly like the one they're currently in.] What do you think? Worth a shot?

[ Nothing is going as planned. Regulus shakes his head because he's not entirely sure that him dying isn't the plan, but then he supposes that Voldemort wouldn't be able to die, so maybe it's for the best if he survives.

Man, he'd really never wanted any of this.

When Remus opens the way to the corridor Regulus squints down it, then sighs and nods. ]

It's as good a bet as any, I suppose. Want me to go first?

AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE AVERE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This house is a labyrinth, let's get lost.

Charlie | fnaf: the silver eyes | ota

Grace Ford | OC

Jackson Whittemore | Teen Wolf

Frisk | Undertale | OTA

Scarecrow | Batman Arkham Knight | ota

no subject

robbie reyes/ghost rider | agents of shield (mcu) | ota

roman godfrey ( hemlock grove )

satya (symmetra) vaswani | overwatch

the virtuoso | league of legends

Carl Grimes || The Walking Dead

Stefan Salvatore | The Vampire Diaries

Derek Hale | Teen Wolf

no subject

no subject

no subject

Maria Ushiromiya | Umineko

Joshua Washington | Until Dawn

no subject

Bakura Ryou | YGO! | OTA

no subject

no subject

no subject

And queue muse test. ASL for ease.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Sherlock Holmes || Sherlock BBC || m/m

Hayley Marshall | The Vampire Diaries/Originals

legolas, lord of the rings (novels)

Rasmus Björklund | VtM OC | ota

luna lovegood | harry potter

we got some post-war shenanigans #probably

Remus Lupin | Harry Potter and This Is Fine.jpg

but is it really fine. also look what changing a few words can do.

amazing

no subject

amberle elessedil | the shannara chronicles

Trucy Wright | Ace Attorney | ota

Juuzou Suzuya | TG:RE

Fr. Tomas Ortega | The Exorcist

Ayumi Shinozaki| Corpse Party |ota

Edda | Final Fantasy XIV | OTA