Dreamspace - RP Topic

Community Role Playing
104

It also echoed quite loudly inside the previous room. Coincidentally, Basil was now pressed against the opposite wall clutching the sides of his head and praying that the cacophony of aggravating sounds and trauma would find a way to cease within the foreseeable future.

There was something else, too. The stinging sensation in his leg had gotten much worse. Perhaps it was because he was kneeling down - or at least attempting to. There was some obstruction between his right leg and the floor, the same one that stung. Probably a bump in the floor or something. but wow, that was beginning to really hurt.

Standing again to avoid the pain, Basil readjusted the blanket around his body and tried to look past the party in the doorway and to the ominous room beyond.

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105

Odd.

Given what she remembered, Sue expected some sort of hospital or laboratory, some place that could cure the blind (and give amnesia and turn your head into a giant eyeball, apparently). She had expected to see people bustling about, performing expirements and procedures and tests.

Well, maybe that was past the stairs.

Then again, there was all the mold in the previous room. She didn’t know what a lab or a hospital should look like – she’d never seen one, for obvious reasons – but weren’t they supposed to be clean? Even the floor here, though thankfully free of mold, felt dirty, and the room smelled dusty and old. She realized this grey stuff must be what dust looked like, though again she’d not seen it before.

Wait. Dust implies a place is unused, but then how did we get in there? Someone must have brought us there… is there another door we missed?

Well, she wasn’t about to go back into that room and find out. Not when there was a way to go onward, stairs leading to the unknown. Though perhaps she should lead the powerful one go first, just in case it was dangerous.

Sue moved to the side and gestured toward the steps. “Ladies first,” she said, looking at Eve. Wait, we’re both ladies. Well, whatever, I’m still saying that.

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107

"So much clanging and scraping. Something is happening, something big.”
Alexis removed her hands from her ears and risked a glance, and too her surprise she could see she could actually see! "Where is it?” Alexis’ heart raced as she scanned the now dimly lit room for any sign of the beast.

Alexis nodded and muttered a quiet “uh huh.”, she hadn’t paid attention to a single word the man had said, she only knew that he had addressed her. She stood back up, hoping that the extra height might somehow improve the efficiency of her search.

“Hallway?” Alexis’ eyes darted towards the exit, oh the glorious exit! That was her ticket out of this hell. She could finally leave! Alexis needn’t give a second thought as she began making her way towards the now open door. At last, freedom was in her grasps!

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108

The clang is deafening. As you remove your foot, it reveals a large dent, far larger than your previous attempts had yielded.

The chamber outside the door is barely large enough for more than two, and with the hulking form of Eve’s metal form, it is cramped at best, forcing some of you up the first few stairs.

Weaving effortlessly through and above the infrared-riddled bootleg owners, you float up the stairs. Flying is just like swimming, natural and superior to any other form of locomotion. It’s nice, upwards at a 45 degree angle, nice and const-

The stairs level out.

Behind you, 10 feet of stairs. Above, another flickering light, this time a domed, tipped fixture, like you’ve seen in human… houses? Ahead of you are more stairs.

But on your left and right are two more doors.

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109

There are stairs there.

Basil stared almost in wonder at the stairs stretching before him into the dark unknown, beckoning him to approach. They seemed significantly less disgusting than this room, and there was nothing left to be done here. So he took one step forward-

-only to flail ineffectively for a second and fall on the ground as Alexis bolted past towards the opportunity to escape. Thankfully he had avoided the glass, and heard it crunch under Alexis’ step as she made her way out of the room. Now only he and Jung were inside and the room’s exit was become very crowded.

A bit more cautiously this time, Basil slowly stood, rubbing the elbow which supported his fall and carefully made his way around the broken lightbulb. Now he stood, completely obscured by his blanket, his yellow eyes scanning the party as he stood inside of the doorway hoping there would be an opportunity.

And now that he was closer to it, that light was really annoying.

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110

“Good, I’m getting somewhere at least. Now maybe I can get the gu-”

“Nevermind…” Jung thought to himself. At least the crisis of a stray gunshot was delayed at worst and gone at best. He turned towards the exit to see…

…The entire band of misfits he was with piling out of the door into the light beyond. Jung would have followed, but something was at the back of his mind.

Or neck, in this instance. He took this moment to mentally recap what had just happened: He and all of the people here had awaken in the mold filled room. All of the others save one had some form of mutation or superpower of varying levels of weirdness. He began to classify them on how strange they appeared, but quickly stopped, saying to himself: “No. Judging on outward appearance isn’t right, even if I’m surrounded by things I’d see in a dream. If I, if WE want to escape this, then I need to do my best to be good to these people so that they can at least have a sense of friendship in this situation. It’s what mum and the twins would want me to do.”

The last sentence made him sad. It had been years since he had seen the twins. And remembering his mother in a better state made him yearn for days long past. Now was not the time for this. Jung stood back up. The action caused him to be aware of the lump burrowing on the back of his neck. What was this thing that had caused such pain earlier? What had even caused the paralysis in the first place? Had he broken his neck after taking the pill somehow? And how was this thing allowing him to move? He again attempted to turn around and see it, but to no avail. Perhaps there was a reflective surface he could use as a mirror as the group advanced to get a better look. But that would have to wait.

For now, Jung waited for the group to continue before moving on. He took the time to search the pockets of his pants and worn jacket, seeing what items he had unintentionally brought with him on this strange adventure. He then decided to feel what was on his neck…

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112

It was an unnerving feeling, to feel the skin building up to a point and then dropping off, the gaping wound in his back otherwise a crater were it not for this alien substance filling the void.

And alien it was. Jung could not determine anything other than it being a solid piece of… Something, very hard and incredibly smooth. It was slightly rounded, like a piece from a suit of armor, but by no means metallic. And it was probably due to whatever it was now being inside his body, but it was just as warm as the rest of him.

Further inspection would require removing garments in order to access, and a second pair of eyes would certainly help. At least whatever it was wasn’t biting him further.

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113

As one hand reaches over your back to feel at what it was that has so … invaded you, the other dives into first your left pocket, then your jacket pocket. In your pants pocket, there is a single, worn coin, it’s once-ridged edge rubbed to near smoothness. In your jacket … you feel around, slightly awkwardly with your non-dominant hand … you feel something, you grasp it, pull it out-

Pocket lint.

As you gingerly rub your hand over the lump, it seems to trail down your entire back. Involuntarily, a shiver of mixed curiosity and revulsion convulses down your spine.

Then it twitches, and, equally involuntarily, but in a different, horrifying way … your hand flies away from it.

The doors are definitely not high up enough to swim underneath, though set into the center of each is a glass window pane, which is blocked from the other side by a layer of … it looks soft … mold. More mold.

Do you still wish to continue up the stairs?

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115

Sue was only intending to let Eve go by, but she stops and lets Other Girl go by too – partly to be nice, and partly so as not to be standing in the way of a freaked out girl with a gun. Suit guy is also already past. The fish also… swam? Flew? floated?.. past. What was up with that, anyway?

She started to follow, but something stopped her. There were still two people in the room, the not-so-paralytic, and the bat-kid. Someone really should watch out for the bat-kid, who seemed to be an actual kid. Couldn’t be her, though, not if the kid was scared of her. Why was he so scared, anyway? Wait, what if she’d done something horrible to him that she couldn’t remember? What if she stole his favorite toy, or worse – tried to tickle him?!

She glances down, seeing the blanketed figure approach the doorway. She couldn’t see his face, but he definitely seemed wary of her. Behind, she could see

Not-so-Para seemed to be doing some sort of something. Hmm, he was the one who tried to comfort Gun Lady – maybe he could help.

“Do you think you could keep an eye – er, no pun intended – on the kid?” she says.

Then, suddenly, curiosity overwhelms her desire to be helpful, and she doesn’t even wait for a response, turning and heading up the stairs as fast as the party in front of her will allow.

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116

Jung looked at the coin, quickly realizing he’d need better light to see it. After putting it away, he felt something else in his pocket. Unfortunately it was only some lint, but at least there was the possibility of fire starter if needed.

The strange feeling of the shape made Jung’s skin crawl. He still couldn’t see what on earth this strange entity was. He could ask someone else for a better view, but he figured it would be a waste of time.

The thing moved. It was alive. Jung already knew such due to it crawling up his leg, but this new reaction only reminded him of the horrid fact.

“Worry about it later, right now you need to find a way out of-

Jung was startled by the sudden question, “I wha-“

The eyed woman was gone before Jung could say anything. “Wonderful, now that’s two I’ll need to look after closely,” Jung thought to himself. He looked at the poor child, who was now limping. “Still, could be worse I guess”.

He called out to the kid: “Are you okay? Do you need help at all?”

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117

Basil stared up at the party, glad to once again be in the comfort of his now rather dirty blanket. He could see past the obnoxious light and slightly up the stairs that lie ahead, but there was too much ceiling in the way to see any more without getting closer.

Which he couldn’t do because he was now completely locked in place, eyes frozen, his mind daring his muscles to release and involuntarily glance at the eyeball girl’s massive eyeball head, which was now looking directly at him. His peripheral vision was enough of a direct look; he didn’t need anymore anytime soon and actually waking up from this would be real nice right now.

Assuming, of course, that this wasn’t reality itself. Maybe it was just a very surreal nightmare. Or maybe the SNOVA pill was actually a hallucinogenic.

One eyebrow twitched.

Who was she speaking to? She had to be speaking about him; there were clearly no other kids in the whole room. Lawyer man, angry woman, the… fish, and the gun girl had all exited, although lawyer man and angry girl were still standing in the stairs entrance, as eyeball head lady had pushed past them both and ascended. Maybe they were waiting for floor guy and him to-

Basil’s head snapped around with unreal speed. Two frightened yellow eyes beamed shocked terror towards the speaker as the small figure repeatedly flinched, his neck begging and screaming for him to turn and run.

The small figure inhaled deeply, pulled the blanket tighter, and slowly turned towards the stairs, insistent on going slow and collected. As he passed Miles and Eve, he stopped for a moment to allow Sue ample time to ascend before following dutifully up the steps, arms tugging at his blanket, trying so very, very hard not to run.

As he left, however, those under the light may notice a series of crimson streaks on the floor.

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118

Miles pressed against the dusty wall as everyone else went by, not wanting to make anyone angrier by being in their way or saying something out of line.

However, what looked like a trail of blood following Basil on his way out prompted Miles to speak up.
“Hey, are you sure you’re alright? If you let one of us see we might be able to help.”

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119

Another flight of stairs. Longer, this time. The floating is easy, nice, lung-cloyingly dusty, gradual, slow, enjoyable, even-

Another leveling out. Two more doors, a light fixture, this time a ceiling fan, its naked lightbulb barely emitting light.

What is this? Not what you expected, that’s for sure.

Fear, confusion, and distraction are very good painkillers.

Walking up stairs is not. The first step feels like a shotgun blast up your leg. The second one is less severe - maybe knitting needles in your knee? This is not the kind of pain you feel in dreams. This is not the kind of pain you feel in real life.

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120

The air rushed out of Basil’s wrinkled nose like two bullets, his lungs squeezing tight as he tried desperately to bring his other leg up and support his weight. That… was really painful.

Bracing an unnecessary amount for the second step, Basil gritted his teeth and placed his foot… And it still hurt. He managed to limp up the step without it appearing too obvious, but the remaining steps appeared quite daunting.

And the pain… It was almost a taste, a flavor, sitting on his tongue, burning with an inhuman, searing smoke, clouding his nerves with a numbing savor which unwillingly drew all sensation into that one spot on his leg where it was stinging for some reason. It was an addictive, surreal, unreal pain; it was an intolerable addiction and completely unlike any pain he had ever experienced before.

Third step. Yeouch. Fourth step. Yikes. Fifth-

Freeze.

Jerkily rotate your upper body around even though you really wanted it to be a smooth and possibly thought-provoking transition okay maybe you didn’t put that much thought into it but he’s still waiting for you to turn around okay hurry it up already he’s still waiting and probably metal girl is going to punch something if you don’t hurry it up will you ugh finally you did it that took way too long.

“What?”

He looks a bit smaller from up here.

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122

Miles starts walking over to Basil, trying his best not to scare him farther up the stairs.

“Can you show me what’s hurting? We won’t get very far if you’re limping everywhere.”

Miles squats down at the bottom of the stairs, gesturing for the large bat child to come back down for a moment.

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123

The silence was deafening. It beats against Basil’s eardrums with the fury of a hurricane.

Had there been some indicator that he was in pain? Could this lawyer man tell he was hurting somehow? Did his experience as a lawyer let him have some kind of sixth sense that let him know when people felt like their leg was about to fall off from pain?

The rest of the room seemed to grow darker as all light focused in on the sharp image of that fellow in the suit framed in the stairwell. The idea of there being people behind him fell away from his train of thought as even the previous confined room seemed like an irrelevant concept. Was he truly being genuine, and trying to help? Could Basil afford to take such an immense risk as to approach him? Revealing his appearance to everyone was entirely out of the question and the last time he felt that genuine comfort and care was being offered to him, he woke up to be staring directly into an eyeball as big - or maybe even bigger - than his entire head.

He opened his mouth to give some kind of false answer to the question to act naive as a tactic of deflection, hoping to buy some other kind of suggestion. Maybe he would shrug it off, or even decide not to care.

“…H…”

Try again. Even if it ties your stomach in a knot to do it. Which, by the way, definitely feels like that’s what’s happening.

“…Hurting?”

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124

Alexis continued up the stairs: her heart still raced from the encounter with the beast. Alexis felt almost as if it was just over her shoulder, waiting for her to drop her guard.

No

She needed to calm down; panicking wasn’t going to get her anywhere, it was only then that She realized she was gripping her gun with a force so great it had gone completely numb. She took a deep breath and return the weapon to her pocket. Alexis returned her attention back to calming down.

Inhale
One…Two…Three…Four…Five
Exhale
One…Two…Three…Four…Five
Inhale
One…Two…Three…Four…Five
Exhale
One…Two…Three…Four…Five

She had done this many times prior, but never had it been in a situation like this. No one in here had control, they were all subject to the whims of whoever put them in this hellscape. All these people were similar to her in that they possessed some unnatural ability, perhaps this was a series of tests to find the root cause?

Alexis froze as she laid her eyes on the next room, she thought she had heard a voice echo up from lower down on the stairs, it sounded like a child, Then it clicked for her. The tightly wrapped blanket she had bolted past in her blind panic, it was a child, there was a child in here.
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125

Miles laughed for a second and sighed.

“Look, you don’t have any reason to trust me, but you’re never going to get help if you don’t tell anyone what’s wrong.”

The lawyer looked down at the floor for a moment, as if he was trying to figure out how to say something that wouldn’t scare Basil back up the stairs.

“Could you open up your blanket a bit? You don’t have to show anything you aren’t comfortable with, I just want to see what’s bleeding.”

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126

Wrong? What was wrong? There wasn’t any indication of anything being wrong, was there? He was just having a little difficulty getting up the stairs. He hadn’t cried out in pain, he hadn’t said anything about hurting, he- he hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t. Nothing was wrong, nothing could be wrong, it simply- it couldn’t. He couldn’t know. He couldn’t know.

A mild sensation in his ear told him the last person on the stairs had stopped moving just before reaching the top. He didn’t know who it was, but the idea alone made him beg the universe to give him a handrail to clutch on to.

The light in the stairwell lit up Basil’s eyes and beamed the incredibly confused expression down upon the man speaking to him below. Bleeding? What on earth was he talking about?

“…Bleeding?”

Basil looked at the mechanical woman in the anticipation that she might have some kind of answer, and then immediately stopped because that was never a good idea. Then he saw something scarlet coming from the lawyer man’s shoe. It was reflective, glistening in the light; it was blood.

“Blood.”

Honestly, Basil may have to see a therapist about his eyes, given that they widened so frequently to such an almost physically impossible degree that it was astonishing and possibly indicative of some medical emergency. Regardless, they were once again widening now, as with an unwelcome thrill he traced the streaks of blood up the stairs directly to where he was standing. As if on queue, some droplet of something collided with his foot. The stinging in his leg grew worse.

“B-Blood.”

The smeared blood had not been trodden upon, so what caused it to be scraped across the concrete step like some foul brush had passed over it all? Out of the corner of his eye Basil saw the crimson stain on a slightly upturned corner of the blanket, which had been displaced due to him turning to face Miles.

“B-Blood-”

Shifting away from the tail end of the blanket instinctively, Basil set his leg down at a horrible angle, and it felt like it would split down the middle. His knee buckled to relieve him from the pain, and Basil threw both hands out to clutch into the wall to stop from tumbling down the stairs. The blanket did not give way, however, and Basil was left wildly trying to stop his fall as he neared the bottom of the stairs, his good leg occasionally scraping against the step in an attempt to stop himself.

For the rest of the party, the blanket was now almost flying down the steps after attempting poorly to stop its descent. Why, Basil?

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127

The small figure quickly looked at jung, flashing a pair of gleaming, yellow eyes. Rather than anger, they presented the frightened eyes of a small child. The being then confidendly followed the eye’d woman, exuding an air of bravery around him.

“Ok. Maybe he’s just scared is a-” Jung thought to himself when:

“Good, he’s helping too. Wait is he actually okay then?” Jung suddenly realized. He quickly moved to the doorway and into the light to get a better look. The light blazed brighter in his eyes despite its relative weakness. Jung blinked, grateful to have such light again. He looked back at the child, seeing that the businessman was now talking to him. However, leading up to the pair was:

“Oh he is very much not okay” Jung thought. “Do we tell him he’s bleeding or will that make things wor-”

Too late

Jung could hear the fear in the child’s voice

“…don’t freak out…”

"Oh please don’t freak out kid…"

"Crap!"

The now panicked child was careening down the stairway. Jung quickly moved to attempt to catch him.

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