hellhouse | (no subject)

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(no subject)

WHO: Rikki Chadwick & Ben Hargreeves
WHAT: Waking up in Hell House
WHEN: Day 1, late morning
WARNINGS: tbd

Groaning a little with dissatisfaction is Rikki's soft protest to her body clock pulling her out of sleep. It's time to start another day and while things have been on the financial upswing, that's largely because the cafe has been doing really well with traffic. That's good for the books; exhausting in execution, because it means that they're always busy and Rikki has to jump in to help the waitresses. Summer is always good for that, she supposes, although last summer had been difficult. She still blames that on Zane, but Rikki reckons that he'd actually agree, if she were still talking to him. They've drifted and that's just as well. He leaves her to it, takes his cut, and they largely leave one another alone. Serves him right after everything.

It takes her a few moments to wake up enough to realize that she's sans-tail, but instead she's dressed to the nines. It isn't that Rikki doesn't like to look nice when it's warranted, but she doesn't wear dresses like this. She probably still couldn't afford a dress like this. "What...?" she mutters once she's sat up and taken a look at herself. It's hard to miss the glowing block in her arm as it evidently powers up and Rikki tells herself that she's just having a lucid dream. A right weird one, but a dream. There's no way there's literally a new mobile in her arm and she's not in the moon pool, but instead in some dimly lit dining room in a ball gown.

It isn't until she notices the other person in the room and hears a scratch of vinyl that she starts to wonder if maybe she's mistaken. Rikki doesn't have dreams often, but when she does, they've never been this vivid. "Oi," she calls out to rouse the man. "What are you playing at? I've got more important things going on, yeah?" Her Aussie accent is somehow thicker as she's waking still, or maybe it's just because she's getting angry.

Rikki gets to her feet, hand twitching at her side like she's itching to use her power, but on the off chance that the guy hasn't anything to do with what she's doing here, she holds off for the mo. "Hey!" she snaps at him in an attempt to wake him without actually having to go over and touch him. This is all a bit much. Her first thought is that she'd fallen asleep with her chin propped on her arms at the moon pool and she'd been picked up by someone and she was finally going to be dissected like a frog and studied, but what would the point of the stupid dress be?

"Forget it," she mutters more to herself than to him, moving toward the door, meaning to leave him and this room behind and just leave, but she stops when the voice fills the room, welcoming her — them? — to "Hell House" before quoting a song lyric. "Ohhhh, no. No, not today. Not now, not ever," she says with a sneer, moving the rest of the way to the door to try the knob which, as it turns out, is sticking.

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His first thought is 'Klaus must be really high' as he was waking up. Someone had said something but he didn't quite catch it, feeling foggy as he woke up. When Klaus was too high, he tended to 'sleep'. It felt like he was stuck in a fog, alone, trapped. He always felt extra sleepy when Klaus was sobering up.

This was almost like that, but the fog wasn't going away slowly. Instead it was starting to clear a bit faster. The only problem was he FELT different. There was a fork in his hand and a half piece of eaten something or other. he didn't focus on that as he tossed it down to the plate, looking startled.

Again, someone said something but he wasn't awake enough yet. Too focused on the fact that he could FEEL things. And then he looked down to see his suit and frowned. This wasn't his hoodie and leather coat. This was new. He'd never been able to CHANGE before.

There was a moment of panic that hit his chest for not knowing what was going on. He felt over his chest a moment, patting down his body, only to feel his arms and pause. His sleeve was pulled back, finding a thing in his arm. "What the fuck?" He said, more awake now than before.

He backed up the chair, moving to stand, hand pulling at his arm. "What the hell is going on here?" And then he saw the girl as she said 'forget it' and started to leave? "Wait, you can see me?!" He called after her, only to pause as someone... greeted them. He stood there, looking as confused as he felt. The person (male? Female? he couldn't tell) quoted lyrics and... and what the fuck?

They said check their pockets. "What's going on here? Who are you?" He asked but if it was to the girl or the speaker, it wasn't clear. His hands pat down his pockets, looking to see if he found anything on him.

Rikki paused, looking over at the man. "...yeah, I can see you. You're not doing a very good job hiding right now, are you?" she asked, even though she could tell that he wasn't actually trying to hide. She couldn't, however, work out why he would be asking her a dumb question like that, anyway. Of course she could see him. She wasn't blind.

At the mention of pockets, Rikki rolled her eyes a little, watching the man start to pat himself down. "Nothing, mate," she offered him as a hint. "I haven't even got pockets in this stupid thing, come on."

Her attention turned back to the door and she tried it again. This time, it opened and Rikki looked back at the man in the room with her. "Are you coming or staying? I'm not staying in a place called 'Hell House' of all things. You can come or not."

Never let it be said that Rikki is too soft. Her friends might have found her demeanor to be endearing by now, but it was probably off-putting to strangers. It was a good thing Rikki didn't care about that sort of thing, she supposed, or she might be miserable worrying about what other people thought. As for this guy, if he wanted to come along — she'd noticed the glow in his arm, too, so he must be in the same situation as she was and whatever; if this was a dream, who cared? He was fit, so he could come along if he wanted, so then at least the view would be nice, she supposed. — then he could do, but if he was going to slow her down, Rikki was going to leave him behind. She'd spent her whole life knowing that she just had to look out for number one and it had been an adjustment to alter that to include Cleo, Emma, and Lewis. Instinct kicked in once she'd heard that creepy recording. She was back to looking out for herself and this guy could either come along or be left behind. She couldn't risk herself for a stranger.

This was all weird. He and Klaus were, well, dealing with the end of the world with their siblings, and now he was here, in a dining hall, with a beautiful chandelier of candles as the only source of light, and a god damn Victrola telling them they were trapped here.

Yeah, this all made a hell of a lot of sense.

AND on top of it he had this girl telling him she can SEE him? He was stunned still. Was this some new form of afterlife? Had the moon crushed them all and this is where he ended up with out a Klaus to manifest him? It didn't make sense.

Was he coming? She had opened the door and was ready to run it seemed. "Y-yeah. Yeah. I'm coming, but..." He moved to go to the door, to follow as he spoke. "...don't you think this is a bit weird? Do YOU remember how we got here? Or where here is? Hell House isn't exactly a destination I was looking to go to."

Rikki shrugged her shoulders. "No, does it really matter how we got here once we get out?" she asked, lifting her eyebrows at him. "Any place calling itself 'Hell House' is a place I'd like to vacate sooner than later. Besides, I've a business to run," she replied. She wasn't willing to let herself get hung up, at the moment, on the fact that his accent is foreign; American. She can't lose focus right now. It's more important that she gets out of here, with or without him.

Her attention turns back to the open doorway and she steps out into the hall. "Let's go, America," she calls over her shoulder, "otherwise I'm leaving you here."

Some people just need a fire lit under their behinds. Maybe America is one of them.

There's an echo in the hallway of dripping water and, right...that wouldn't be her favourite thing to be hearing just now, but she'll just have to be careful. If she kept an eye out and stayed out of the line of fire, then she'd be fine. If she got especially lucky, maybe she could subtly fix the leak. She might not be able to freeze the pipes like Emma or divert the water like Cleo or jam it all up like Bella, but she could probably come up with something in a pinch, right?

"This is so creepy..." she murmured, frowning as she looked around.

"Uh, yeah? It'd be good to know how we got here so we know how to get out? If we're in the middle of actual Hell, can we even get out?" He said as he moved with her, frowning. "I'm already dead. This doesn't make sense at all." Was he just talking metaphorically or for real? Hmm.

He stepped out with her and paused, looking around. Left, right, forward. There's dripping water and the sound of nothing but, well, nothingness.

"Creepy is an understatement." He stated, frowning as he looked around for more doors or not. He pointed to one at the far end of the hall way, starting that way. "And my name's Ben, not America." He noticed her own accent was different than his, so he assumed that's why she just called him that. Still, he had a name.

The drip sounded louder as he headed for the door, and there was water seeping down along a wall near them. The creature under his skin wriggled in discomfort as he frowned, making his way towards the door.

With a sigh, Rikki lifted her eyebrows at that, but she assumed that it was metaphorical. Why wouldn't it be? "We're not in actual Hell. That's not a thing," she replied, sounding confident in her agnostic opinion about all of that.

"Ben, then," she responded, looking over at him. "I'm Rikki." Not that it mattered much, because if things went the way she wanted them to, they were both going to be on their merry ways sooner than later. Her arms crossed over her chest to hug herself against the chill that wasn't really there. The creepiness and unsettling feeling of being in this place against her will was creating the illusion of that chill.

The water she noticed seeping down the wall gave way to a flash of panic and Rikki looked down at the floor. It was starting to pool along the crease where the wall met the floor and Rikki moved away from the wall, moving to walk behind Ben rather than beside him. She could not, under any circumstances, come into contact with that water, so if she stayed as close to the center of the hall as possible, that would be better. Of course it would.

"What is this place?" she asked, frowning. Rikki didn't get scared often and typically, it took a lot to get her there, but she couldn't help feeling like fear was poking at her with interest, like it wanted to be let in. She wasn't going to allow it. At least, not yet, and certainly not in front of a stranger. "I don't like the look of that water. There must be a leak somewhere...that can't be good..."

"It could be." He said with a snort, reaching a hand up to scratch at his neck. The video thing in his harm glowing under the sleeve. That was still creeping him out.

"I'd say it's nice to meet you Rikki, but being kidnapped and stuck in a strange house is weird." Maybe under better circumstances he'd be more pleased to meet anyone at all, seeing as he could only see Klaus and other dead people.

Ben didn't like the look of the water either, but it didn't scare him. He had no reason to be scared of water. It seemed more just a creepy aesthetic to the place that made it seem just a touch worse. Damp and annoying. He stepped through a puddle and frowned down at it.

"Looks like just water. Not oil or anything like that. I wonder where it's coming from. Like someone left a sink on up stairs or something." He shook his head, moving for the door at the end of the hall. "Come on. let's just get out of here." If it were only so easy.

Without responding, Rikki rolled her eyes at that a little bit. As far as she was concerned, when a person died, they were gone and that was the end of. There was no Heaven or Hell or Purgatory; they just ceased to be when they ceased to live. She hadn't ever had any reason to think anything different. But she wasn't going to ridicule him if he wanted to hold onto the idea of those places for whatever his reasons. A couple of years ago, she would've done without even thinking about it, but Rikki had grown a lot after spending time with the other mermaids. Now, she had a little more tact than to do that.

Catching sight of the splash when he stepped through a puddle in the floor, Rikki stumbled in her attempt to side-step it and avoid the splash hitting the bare part of her leg peeking out of a slit in the dress she'd woken up in. She'd forgotten she'd been wearing heels and it took a couple of steps to try to right herself and, in doing so, her hand shot out to her side in a reflexive movement to catch herself with the wall. ...the wall that was seeping with water from the ceiling to the floor.

Rikki pulled her hand away again like she'd burned it, eyes wide as she gathered up a section of the dress in a hasty attempt to dry it off before anything could happen. She wasn't fast enough. Ten seconds later, she could feel herself turning into water for that flicker of a second before her legs turned into a tail and her arms pinwheeled in front of her, grabbing his shoulder in an attempt to keep from falling flat on her face. "Oh, no..." she whimpered as she felt her weight wobbling on the fin before she started to go down. It didn't occur to her to let go of him to avoid taking him down with her.

Edited (sorry so many edits! :() 2019-06-12 00:41 (UTC)

What? He doesn't believe in heaven or hell, but when something is called Hell House and you're dead you start to wonder a bit! He was at least wondering, a bit. Was she dead too? She could see him, after all.

Had he known water was a BAD thing here he would have been more careful stepping through it, but to him it was just water and this was just the fastest way to get out of here. To that door, right. They weren't that far either, but he paused as he heard her and just caught sight of her hand darting back away from the wet wall. He was about to ask if she was okay. It was just water, wasn't it? She was acting like it burned her. But then...

His eyes went wide as she changed. It didn't take anymore than a moments and she went from human to water to human again. Only, she had grabbed him and was falling now. "Whoa, whoa!" He said, trying to lean in to catch her fall, but realized a moment after she was a bit heavier than he expected.

They both went down, though he slowed her fall so she wasn't face first into the hard ground. He hit to his knees and shins, splashed into the water with a oof. He held onto her as he drew back after a moment, checking to make sure she was alright.

"You okay? You're not hurt are yo--oh..." He took in a breath, seeing the fin now. Where there had been dress and legs now was a fin and... and he was very confused. "Uh..."

Bless him for trying to help, Rikki thought, as he leaned in to try to catch her. He wasn't going to be expecting her to weigh an extra several stone, but she appreciated the fact that he was trying, anyway, because it meant not falling flat on her face. ...then again, if he'd just kept walking because she hadn't reflexively grabbed onto him, she might have had a chance to dry herself off in time for him not to see the tail. If she'd been less panicked, she'd have thought to use her powers to dry her hand, but well. Here she was, clinging to a stranger, her tail flopped heavily out behind her on the floor, in a creepy house, looking back up at him with an expression caught somewhere between sheepishness and horror.

"Thanks, mate," she replied quietly, then sighed, looking over her shoulder at the offending tail. "Really not how thought this escape attempt was going to go..." she added before looking back at him. "Surprise, I'm a mermaid?"

What else was she supposed to say? "Now you see why I didn't like the look of all the water in the hall," she told him, frowning. "...right, I don't suppose you could help me down to the floor so I can dry off? Only, it'll be harder to do while I'm holding onto you to keep from hitting the floor."

He tried. It was the best he could do in a blink. And there was just stunned silence for the moment as she thanked him and said surprise. Well yeah, this was a surprise. He blinked, then nodded. "That you are. Um... I suppose I've seen stranger surprises." He said softly.

He gave a nod, trying to shake himself out of his bewilderment enough to move. To help her to the floor better, so she was seated if possible. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Here." he said as he helped her down. "Glad you're okay though. Give me a second and I'll find something to help you dry." He said, then started to take his dress coat off, as if she needed the help.

Okay, so she was a mermaid.

That was okay, right?

He wasn't going to freak out about it. After all, he knew a chimpanzee scientist for most his given life. His brother talks to the dead. These things happen, right?

Oh man, she's a mermaid!

In spite of herself, Rikki huffed a soft laugh at his comment. "Yikes, do I even want to know?" she asked with a little smile. Rikki hung onto him while he helped her maneuver to lay on her back and she propped herself up on one hand while she hovered the other over her tail. "Thanks, mate."

As he was shrugging himself out of his suit jacket, though, Rikki was already working on closing her fist to evaporate the water out of her tail and off the floor so that she can get back to her feet. The sooner she can get dry, the sooner she'll have legs and they can go on trying to get out of this stupid house.

"You're really sweet, though, with that," she said, nodding toward the coat he was holding. "I've got it. Give me a mo."

Steam started to rise out of the carpet and her tail. "You know this?" she said, nodding to the tail, "has to stay between us. Yeah? It could be dangerous for me if other people know. I don't like telling people, but I suppose now you're in on it."

"Maybe not." He said to her wanting to know or not. Honestly, he was the weird one here, not the mermaid, but damn was she cool. That was a new one for him, really.

And she could dry herself too? Just a balled up fist and she started to heat up and dry? Now that was a neat power. He pulled his jacket back on when she didn't need it, shrugging it back on and stood back. "You have powers to dry off? Like, heating powers?"

And as she said this to be a secret, he gave a nod, kneeling there near by, out of a spot of water. "Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I promise, not to tell. I don't really know anyone to tell anyhow."

Somehow, Rikki found herself incredibly curious to know what could possibly compete on the weird scale with her being a mermaid, while simultaneously deciding that she absolutely did not want to know what could tip the weird scale away from her. No way.

"You could say that, sure," Rikki replied casually, keeping it at that. If she were to go into more detail, she'd be intentionally sharing and that wasn't part of the plan. Heck, accidentally sharing wasn't part of the plan. Once she was dried, the steam started to dissipate and Rikki stood again, on two legs, back in that obnoxious red dress. This time, she took her heels off straight away. Then, she looked down the hall, noting the smattering of puddles about as the water continued to seep down the sides.

Frowning, she took a deep breath and looked back up at him, looking appreciative that he was at least willing to pay lip service, if nothing else, when she asked that he keep it between them. Eventually, they would find their way out of here and all she wanted was to feel comfortable with the idea that he would keep from going straight to the media with this exact story, her tail and all. "I appreciate it. I meant when we leave, yeah? But still, thanks, mate." She looked back down the hall. "...right, well, I can't get wet or it'll happen again. So how do we want to do this...?"

He might actually have showed her, if she had asked. Fair is fair after all, but he'd really rather not scare someone with a tentacle monster coming out of his skin so early in the disaster that is waking up in a hell house. What ever that means.

As the fin started to fade away and she grew back into legs and that uncomfortable looking dress, he had offered her a hand to stand up with, but moved to stand himself as she got up on her own. Dusting his knees off, damp from the water he sighed.

"Seriously, if things go back to the way they were when we leave this place, I'll be a ghost again and will have just my brother to talk to again so, there's no worry about me telling. Besides, I get how dangerous that could be. Powers and all." He glanced down the hall at the water. There were places it crossed the hall way. He wondered what was leaking to make it happen.

"I could give you a piggy back ride to the door, if that'll help." It was a honest offer at least.

Rikki took pause at that, staring back at him as she turned his words over in her head. "What do you mean, you would be a ghost again? That doesn't make sense," she pointed out. It didn't make sense to her. How could someone be a ghost if they were right in front of her and corporeal enough to catch her and hold her up when she fell, at that? Her eyebrows lifted. "How would you know? How dangerous that could be?" she asked, sounding more curious than accusatory.

A small smile crossed her expression when he offered to give her a piggyback ride, if only because it sounded like an actual offer. "Yeah? You'd do that? It'd be the fastest way, that's for sure," she replied. "The other option is that I could steam dry the whole hall, only it could take a little while and it'll get really hot in here when I do..."

The fact that she was wearing a dress wasn't any sort of deterrent because the huge slit in the side would make it easy enough for her to hop onto his back, however awkward it was going to feel once she was there, considering that she hadn't any shorts, spanks, or pants beneath it; just her undergarments. With a sigh, she nodded decisively. "Right, let me up, then. This is so not how I saw today going..."

"Trust me, it doesn't make any sense to me either, but here we are. I'm alive and you can see me and that's not normal. Unless you're dead back where you're from and this is really Hell? But I never put much stock in Hell considering I stayed behind as a ghost." he gave a shrug.

"Ah, I get it mostly because my father used to do experiments on me and my siblings. We were each born.... oddly. And with powers, so... I can only imagine what it would be like if someone else got hold of us. Or, in your case, a Mermaid." He said the word Mermaid on a whisper, in case anyone was around.

Glancing back down the hall then to her, he turned, and crouched low for her. "Come on. It'll be faster and I promise not to drop you." If she moved to climb on, he would help with his arms hooking over her legs, dress out of the way hopefully, and heft her up. It shouldn't be too hard to do.

"I'm definitely not dead," Rikki replied quickly. But then again... What if she had fallen asleep in the moon pool? What if she was the only mermaid in history to drown and they really are dead?

No. She wasn't going to let herself think that. No way. No way. "How did you..." Rikki started to ask and then let her question trail away. If he was telling the truth, that was probably the rudest question she could ever ask: how did you die, guy I just met less than an hour ago in a creepy house? She couldn't do that.

She swallowed thickly before looking horrified at his confession. "Your own father? Oh, mate..." she said woefully, looking sympathetic. Rikki gave him a small smile of gratitude when he not only had the wherewithal to whisper the word mermaid but then crouched so that she could climb onto his back. "Free smoothies for life at my cafe, America. I owe you one," she said playfully as she hitched up the dress and climbed onto his back, her arms looping around his neck and hands settling on his collar as his arms hooked around her legs to keep her in place. "Let's get out of here."

As soon as she'd said it, she realized something. "...wait, if we leave, then you... I mean...d'you think you would really go back to...?" she asked, tilting her head to look at him better; all she could get was his profile but that was enough. If he was going to go back to being dead...shouldn't he stay? Wouldn't that be better for him? To be able to be alive again?

"Well, then I don't know what's going on. If you're alive and I'm alive. I'm just as lost as I was when we started." He said and raised a brow as she started to ask what he assumed was the general question. How did you die? "Die? Not sure honestly. In a fight, I think. I don't really remember the details, which is really annoying."

"Ah, yeah, my father. He was adoptive, really." He said, helping her get a hold on him and standing once he was sure she was secure. He moved to the center of the hall, so not to be too close to the walls. "You own a cafe?" She looked young to him, to own a cafe, but he really couldn't judge.

He started walking carefully, feet going through shallow puddles lightly, so not to splash. His head turned only a bit as if to peek at her as he spoke. "Not sure. I'm not even sure how I'm alive now let alone what will happen once we get out of here. I'm just looking forward to get out."

Rikki at least had the grace to look sheepish for having asked. She hadn't actually intended to and she should've been able to stop herself sooner, but she hadn't done. "Maybe it's better that way, yeah? Maybe it was really horrific and it's better that you can't remember the trauma that comes with it." She still couldn't decide if she believed that he was dead. Rikki believed that Ben believed he was dead, but she wasn't sure she believed he was dead. Tact wasn't really her strong suit, but she had at least grown enough to know that she should just go along with it. It isn't hurting anyone, him believing that. It would be hurting him, though, if she was cagey about it and he was helping her right now. The least she could do was let him have that one.

"That doesn't excuse it," she pointed out when he clarified that he was adopted. "...I'd wager that might even make it worse, actually," she went on before switching gears along with him. "And I co-own, I suppose. I'm a partner. I don't really work there as much anymore, but..." Her voice trailed off. She'd started working at the cafe a little bit, again. She and Zane had slowly worked back up to the point where they could get along with one another enough for her to do so. If the place was going to have her name on it, she'd rather be the one helping than knowing her absence only managed to invite Sophie in again, potentially. She'd practically help run the place into the ground. With Rikki around and Zane being largely peripheral, the cafe was back on its feet.

As Ben walked, Rikki tried to look around. She couldn't believe how dark it was; there weren't any windows. "But what if we get out and then you're not...y'know, alive anymore? Then what...?" she asked, sounding like she couldn't decide whether to feel sympathetic, sad, or worried for him. "...mate...?" she asked suddenly, straightening up a little on his back as she looked out in front of them. "...is it just me or does the hallway look a lot longer than it did a minute ago...?"

He actually doesn't mind that she asked. "Yeah. My brother knows how, but we tend not to talk about it and honestly, you're right. It's most likely for the best." He agreed. Honestly, he wouldn't blame her for not believing him. It's a weird thing to say 'I'm dead' and mean it. The fact she was rolling with it was nice of her.

"Yeah, I suppose not." He said about it not excusing things. His father was a tough spot for him, and for his siblings, really. He liked the new topic better. About her and her cafe. He walked along with her on his back, watching his footing as they went. "Co-owner though. You seem a bit young to co-own a cafe. That's really amazing." Then added... "Not that being young is a bad thing."

He walked, frowning at her comment. "Then I suppose I go back to haunting my brother and following him around." But as she pointed out the situation with the hall way he paused there, frown deepening. He glanced back and it appeared that the door they came out of was a ways behind them, but looking forward, the door out seemed so far away. He hoped that was a door out at least. But why was it so ... far?

"What the hell?" He let out a breath, glancing towards her. "You're right. We should have been to the door by now. It's not like I'm walking slow or anything." He started moving again, towards it. "Keep an eye on the door." He said, moving a bit faster, but still careful not to drop her.

"How old do you think I am?" Rikki asked, laughing. She would be young to be co-owning a business, sure, if she'd been the one who had tried to open it in the first place. It was Zane's money that had bought the place after the Juicenet closed. Then he'd tried to give it to her and they'd agreed on the partnership. Besides, Ben couldn't be more than a couple of years older than her, from the looks of him.

It sounded like a sad sort of existence to her. Not that Rikki had any siblings for a direct frame of reference, but she couldn't imagine continuing to exist and only being able to talk to Cleo or Bella, but never both of them. There had to be another way. It couldn't be as simple as leaving would reverse what had happened to him, could it?

She startled a little at the echoing sound of disembodied childish giggles. ...she had to be hearing things. That wasn't happening and she was going to ignore it unless Ben said otherwise. Instead, she watched the door as Ben started to pick up speed. "I am," she agreed, adjusting her hold around his chest to keep herself steady as he started to move faster. "I'm watching it. ...'s not moving...it's not getting any closer... How is that...?"

Rikki looked down at the carpet, still wet, and groaned with frustration. If it weren't so wet, he wouldn't have to carry her, and they could just run.

He laughed at her question, a honest laugh. "Oh no. You never guess a woman's age. Though I would say late teens, if I had to guess." But even late teens seemed young to own a cafe. Early 20's seemed young to him though. Not 'young' as in too young but more just 'young' to be successful in a business. "It's admirable though, that you have a place of your own like that."

It was a bit of a s ad existence, but he was glad to have Klaus at least and not stuck as a wandering ghost all alone. Some things were hard enough on their own, he was sure being a ghost would be one of those things.

She wasn't the only one that heard it though. He was moving fast down the hall when she might have felt him jerk in a stumbled step for a moment. Head turning as if to hear where the sound was coming from. "Uh..." He said, but then looked forward again to the door.

It wasn't getting any closer, and the carpet was no longer just puddles, but soaked clear through. His steps were giving a squish in ever movement. "This is... getting weird. I mean it was already weird, but this is getting ridiculous now." He couldn't sit her down either. There was no where dry at all that he could see. "The door doesn't seem to be getting any closer at all..."

Rolling her eyes, Rikki huffed a laugh in spite of herself. "Yeah, well, I don't mind. I'll be twenty in a couple of weeks," she replied to answer his question. "It sort of fell in my lap, I just worked really hard to make sure it stayed afloat." Which hadn't been easy, that was for sure. Sometimes she actually thought Zane was working actively against their success. It turned out that he was just too confident for his own good and he'd been raised without learning the value of a dollar. Rikki, on the other hand, knew all too well.

Ben's sudden physical reaction suggested that Rikki hadn't, in fact, been hearing things, but she willed herself to continue to believe that she had. "Nope," was all she would say in response, shaking her head. She wasn't willing to admit that she'd heard that. No way.

"And the floor is getting wetter and wetter. Something's wrong... Maybe we're going the wrong way," Rikki suggested, fighting against her discomfort with the hope that he wouldn't hear it in her voice. Rikki never got scared, she didn't want to start now. "Let's go the other way. Maybe we just need to go the other direction, yeah?"

"So, I was close." He said with a faint smile at that. Twenty in two weeks was basically the middle of his guess range anyhow. "Still, that's impressive. If we get out of here, and if I'm still alive, I'll come for a drink." He promised, though he had a feeling that was a lot of 'ifs'.

"Nope. Right. I didn't hear anything either." He was willing to admit it but not. Because that was weird. Houses of evil and giggling children were never a good sign. Ever.

He did stop though, turning them both back to look where they had left. He didn't see the dining room door but maybe they HAD gone a ways. He can't be sure. "Right. Let's turn back. If anything we can search the dining room again." He said it while holding down his own mild panic. He didn't care for the idea of being trapped. Turning he started back the way they came, though he noticed the water didn't get shallow again. Awesome.

Thank the maker she wasn't too heavy. Though who knows how long he could hold out like this. He trudged back the way they came.

"Well, thank you," she replied with a small smile. "And you should. Australia's especially this time of year. Christ, after this place, I could use a swim with the dolphins. You're welcome to join," she added to expand upon the hypothetical. Hope was a dangerous thing to lose and Rikki didn't want either of them finding their own starting to fade.

It was a relief when he, too, was willing to pretend he hadn't heard it. Rikki didn't really like children as it was, but make them ghostly and giggling and unseen? She'd rather pass on that, thank you very much.

Rikki felt bad about the fact that he had to keep carrying her, but she was no use to him if she had a tail. If she were in his shoes, though, she'd have dumped him off and taken a run for it by now, so she was glad that he wasn't more like her. Especially, she thought, when she realized that the water didn't seem to be any shallower as they moved back in the direction they'd come. "Let me know if you need to rest, yeah?" she asked, because she couldn't see the dining room door anymore, so they must have been walking a lot longer than she'd thought they had been. He must be starting to get tired, carrying her. Or if not, he would sooner or later.

Her eyes moved up to the ceiling, searching for signs of a leak that would cause the water to seep down the walls the way it was, so quickly that the floor was starting to fill a little. It wasn't just puddles anymore. There should be watermarks on the ceiling or something to indicate a leak from above, but Rikki couldn't see any. "...it's coming from the walls..." she realized aloud. "Look up, there's no marks on the ceiling from the water pooling. It's literally coming from the walls, mate...what the hell...?"

"Never really learned to swim." He admitted, but he didn't mind the idea of hypotheticals. It made it a bit easier to push away the creepiness factor of this entire place. "I've been to Sydney once though. For a mission. A long time ago. Um, and we didn't really stay for anything fun. In and out." Like Paris, and generally anywhere that wasn't home. Get in, do the job, talk to press, get out.

He was going to pass on the sounds for now too. He couldn't hear the giggling again anyhow, and so he was going to hope that was a one time thing and they were imagining things.

"Yeah, will do. Though I'm not seeing anywhere to sit you safely away from water, and, I hate to say it, but I don't see the dining room door. I actually don't see a door at all." He pointed out, moving swiftly but carefully down the hall, realizing the water was covering the toes of his shoes now, coming near ankle. He didn't want to splash her, because he sure as hell couldn't carry her with the fin.

"Maybe it's a leak though pipes in the wall. But, that would be stupid, huh? Considering it's... all of the walls. What the hell." He said, more talking out loud. He shifted to heft her a moment on his back, reaching a hand out to touch then push on a wall, to see if it was soft or firm or what. Wet, for sure. "There has to be a way out of here." He dried his hand on his pants and held onto her again, turning to look back and see if the door was still there or not.

"Well then, I suppose it's a good thing that a mermaid owes you a favour, isn't it?" she asked with a little grin. A grin which faded when he went on to say that he'd been but that he'd been on a mission. She wondered whether he had been on a mission, whatever they had been, when he'd died, but she wasn't going to ask.

Rikki frowned when he said he couldn't see the door. "I don't, either," she sighed. That couldn't be a good sign. They could not have gone that far. Had they really been walking for long enough to get themselves lost in spite of having never changed directions?

"It's rising faster, isn't it...?" she asked, something of an elephant in the room which needed to be addressed. They had woken up in a dining room and left it only to get lost in a hallway which was fast filling with water. At this rate, another hour or two of this and he was going to have to learn how to swim sooner than the hypothetical trip to Gold Coast.

Her eyes moved to watch Ben reach out and she stiffened with concern when he touched the wall, because if his hand was wet when he touched her, she'd be transition again and if she was on his back when she did it, she was liable to pin him face down in the rising water on the floor when he inevitably buckled under the sudden and unexpected extra weight. But her worrying was for naught; Ben remembered to dry his hand before touching her again and Rikki relaxed.

...until she heard the giggles again, louder this time, but still echoing around the hallway indiscernibly. "Still no, you little brats!" she called, sounding frustrated with the slightest tint of discomfort creeping into her words against her will. Her attention moved back to the floor reflexively and she gasped. "Ben...look down," she said, and this time, she couldn't keep the fear out of her words. "...you're standing on a door..." she added, her voice choked with unease.

How was he standing on a door that looked just like the one she'd opened to let them out of the dining room? How could there be a door under them when it should have been beside them. Her heart started to race and her stomach twisted with worry. What was this place? Moreover, how the hell were they going to get out?

"Suppose it is!" He said, amused by the fact that she's a mermaid. He might never have believed it with out seeing it. Maybe. He had seen weird things in his life after all.

But his hope was waning a bit on their trying to keep it light conversation. He turned again in the water logged hall, giving a nod. "It is most definitely rising faster. At this rate it's going to be easier for you to swim though the hall ways." Or just this one very long hall way. It seemed to stretch on too far, and he couldn't see any doors.

And then the giggles came back. He glanced around and gave a deep growl in the back of his throat. "I really don't like the giggling." He had to admit it was there and he didn't like it one bit. Only as soon as he said it she told him to look down.

"What the hell?" He said, moving back so he wasn't standing on the door itself. There was water about three inches thick over top of the door, and if he had gone another inch he'd have tripped over the handle. "I swear that was carpet a moment ago..."

"What is this place?" He questioned, giving one more look around and not seeing anything, then back down to the drowned door. "This is... so strange." They were very clearly going to open this, huh.

"I hate it," Rikki agreed. The giggling was unsettling and that was putting it mildly. It sent chills down her spine every time she heard it and she hoped to hell that one would be the last time. Rikki held onto him a little tighter and took a shaking breath in, letting a wavering one back out.

"I know it was," she agreed. "I saw it. I was sat on it," she reminded him.

By now, Rikki's heart was racing. Fear was getting the better of her. This didn't make sense. They'd been walking down the same hallway this whole time, only changing their direction by turning around a full 180° so there was no reason why suddenly there would be a door beneath them rather than on their right or left sides. The fact that the whole room seemed to have been rotated 90° without either of them noticing it was nothing short of hair-raising.

"You'll have to put me down. It's all right. I'll get a tail, but that's okay. I'll figure it out, but we have to open the door."

He didn't say anything at first. He hated it too. He hated all of this. Everything about this was wrong and some strange form of torture. Doors should not disappear, reappear or move in hall ways. He glanced back to where they had headed before, but that door was missing now. The fuck?

He frowned over at her, but gave a nod. "I guess we have no choice. This is going to take a bit." He said, moving to the side of the hall way and back a bit, lowering so she would have a easier time to get down. He would have said she should have put her shoes back on but the water was now up to ankles as it was.

"Be careful." He said, and would help her down if she did change, if she needed the hand. Letting her down was one thing. Opening this door was going to take some muscle. And if he couldn't do it on his own, he might have to let her in on his own secret in order to do it.

That was going to suck.

Initially, Rikki thought to herself that she could just start to evaporate the water around them so that the door would open right up with no problem, but as Ben lowered himself so that she could slide off his back, she realized that doing that would mean boiling the water...which she couldn't do while he was ankle deep and she was sitting on the floor with a tail.

She hopped off his back and immediately sat down on the floor so that once the ten seconds elapsed and she turned into a mermaid, she wouldn't fall face first into the floor. She'd been careful about her placement, making sure that she wasn't in the way of the door opening, but also so that she could try to help him pry it up. It wasn't going to be easy, that was for sure. With that much water over it, it was going to be impossibly heavy. They had to do what they had to do. Maybe if they could both pull on it together, they'd manage to get it opened.

"Right, this is the worst team-building exercise I've ever done," she complained, nodding for him to start to try. "You'll have to get it started since you're higher and you've got more room for leverage. From here, I can try to help you pry it up, but you'll have to lift it enough for me to get my fingers between the door and the jamb, yeah?"

That would have been a good idea, but if the room was filling up so fast, and the hall seemed endless, would she have been able to do it? Too late to tell now though. If anything the room might empty when the door was opened.

When she hopped off and sat down, he couldn't help but watch, seeing her blink into water then into a tail. There was a faint smile on his face, before he forced himself to look away. Back to the door and problem at hand.

Part of the problem was the water was getting deeper a bit too fast. He moved to the side of the door, reaching under for the door knob. "Just be careful. If My hand slips, I don't want you getting your fingers caught."

He did try wrapping a hand around the knob, then his other hand around that hand. He'd have to lift up and try to get his finger under the door as well, as the handle wasn't the best to hold. "Here goes..." He said, and hefted, pulling after a twist of the handle, trying to beat the force of the water to lift the door. "God, don't... make me do this... the other way." He growled, pulling.

Lifting her eyebrows, Rikki huffed out a humorless laugh. "Right, well, don't let your hand slip, yeah? With all this water, I'm less worried about my fingers being caught and more worried about them being severed," she replied and she wished that she were exaggerating. The extra weight on the door could very possibly do some serious damage to her fingers if he accidentally let go.

She waited patiently but at the ready for Ben to try the door. Rikki wasn't going to waste any time once he got the thing up high enough for her to get her hands in there. Plus, she thought, once he could get it cracked open, if the room wasn't already full of water, a lot of this building up in the hallway would get sucked in like water down a bathtub drain and that would give them a lot more leverage as the weight on top of the door fell away.

"Come on, mate, you can do it," she cheered him on quietly, more urgency than enthusiasm in her tone. Her eyes narrowed a little with confusion at his grunted comment. "Other way? Ben, if you've got a better way, now's a good time to use it," she replied, frowning. The water only seemed to be moving in on them faster now, almost like it had noticed that they had noticed what was happening and the water was trying to actively thwart their attempts at escape. It had to know that, even as a mermaid, she could only hold her breath, to her knowledge, for an hour or so; less, if she was going to have to share with Ben.

The water seemed to stop seeping from the walls and was now just coming down in what looked like miles of thin, steady waterfalls on either side of them. It crept past her abdomen as she sat and up to her chest. "I can't hold my breath forever," she admitted. "I can for a while, but not forever. And I can share, if we have to. Maybe we need to wait until the hall fills and then it'll turn itself again right side up and we can open the door then?" she wondered aloud, as though verbally trying to solve the puzzle. She wasn't good at this part of things; never had been. This was the part of a situation where Cleo or Lewis would've excelled, not Rikki.

"Funny, I was going to make the same type of comment but figured it wouldn't be amusing. I was right, it wasn't." He said, giving her a faint half-hearted smile before he concentrated on the door.

She can't hold her breath forever, but she could share? Even that wasn't a great thought. There was so much more water coming in now. His hand was slipping on the knob and he hadn't even got it to lift enough to have her help. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit." He let out a buff, realizing the water was rushing now.

"Okay, okay. You're not the only one with aquatic abilities. Or, well, somewhat aquatic." He said with frown, moving to untuck his shirt and unbutton the front. "I'm pretty sure I can control them but they haven't been, um, out in over a decade, so... I'd stay behind me, if you can."

He moved a bit, especially if she moved, to stand with his back to her. She wouldn't see them coming out of his belly, but that was the area they came from. His hands shot out to his side, and tentacles, four of them, shot out into the room, wagging and flailing for a moment. He growled, trying to control them. It had gotten easier when he was a teenager than it had been as a kid.

"Don't. Hurt. Her." He said to them as two tried to arch back towards her. They paused there as if looking at her. One reached out to softly touch her fin tail, like a large octopus arm, then drew back. All four moved to the door. One round the knob, and the other three trying to worm their way between the crack, pulling and pushing, getting under the door.

It cracked open and water started to pour through it. It wouldn't take too long to muscle it open.

"S'pose humour is the only way I know how to deal with an especially stressful situation," she replied almost — almost — sheepishly. Humour or anger and getting angry with Ben wasn't going to help anything. So she returned his small smile with one of her own to match before watching him failing spectacularly at trying to get the damn door open. Rikki couldn't be mad at that, either; she doubted she'd have been able to do any better.

After his barrage of swearing, which Rikki found to be maybe the most humanizing thing he'd done so far beyond the obvious carrying her piggyback down the hall, her eyebrows lifted with uncertainty as he went on. First of all, how could something be "somewhat" aquatic? It either was or it wasn't, in her experience. Second, he wasn't confident he could control "them," whatever they were, and considering what she knew about what she and the girls had done, most notably to Lewis, when they had lost control, that wasn't exactly comforting to Rikki. Last, he was opening his shirt and while Rikki could appreciate a bare male torso as much as the next girl, it didn't really seem well timed.

All the same, she cocked her eyebrows slightly. He wasn't judging the mermaid, so she wasn't going to judge whatever...they were. Instead, with effort, Rikki grunted a little as she dragged herself further away from the door to give him more room. Another couple of inches and she'd be able to just swim, but it was still a little too shallow at this point. "Right...do what you have to do."

She waited as he moved to stand in front of her with his back to her and she watched him with interest until suddenly his arms went out to his side and—

Were those tentacles? Rikki had had enough with tentacles; this was about the last thing she needed. Worse, these weren't made of water and he was talking to them telling them not to hurt her as she scooted back a little with fear when two of them turned their attention in her direction. A hand went up by reflex and she almost started to close her first before reminding herself that they were attached to Ben and if she did that, she'd be hurting him just as much.

Rikki swallowed thickly and watched them warily, flinching reflexively when one of them reached to her, but after a moment, when all it seemed to do was touch her tail before moving to the door, Rikki relaxed a little. Whatever they were doing, it was working, she realized. Rikki let out a huff of relief when she could literally feel the water rushing away from her toward the opening between the floor and the door. While she waited for the water to flood into the opening and Ben to be able to pull the door the rest of the way open, Rikki willed her racing heart to calm itself.

"Talk about releasing the Kraken," she muttered almost breathlessly, huffing out a soft laugh that was more surprise than amusement. "We're just full of surprises, aren't we?" she asked.

Well, if nothing else, now Rikki had a good idea why they were here. They were going to become science experiments if they didn't get out and fast.

As the water drained the rest of the way out of the hallway, Rikki dragged herself forward again to try to peek into the doorway. "What's in there? I can't see..."

He didn't mean to scare her with them, but he also knew there was no way of saying 'I have tentacles that shoot out of my skin' that was going to help either. No point of wasting time with that. What they needed was strength right now, and Luther wasn't around. If he would have been here he could have done it with his pinky and be fine.

The tentacles moved and wiggled, leaving her alone, thankfully. They seemed glad to be out of him and doing anything at all. His relief was clear on his face, if only he was facing her. Still, they worked like an octopus, squeezing in, lifting, pulling, and getting under the door, pushing it up and expanding to push it farther. Ben's hands moved in to grab it and help pull as well, getting behind the door as it opened.

"Kraken was my brothers code name. I was... um, The Horror." He said, and shrugged, looking anywhere but her. He knew how freakish his powers were.

He panted, holding the door with four tentacles and his to hands, leaning over it. Then he jerked back with a grunt as he forced them to go back inside. He let out a pant, leaning on the open door.

He looked, well, DOWN, into the door way and frowned. The water seemed to drop for a ways and he didn't hear it splash or hit ground. It was like a nothingness. A darkness inside. "I don't know. It's just dark." He moved to the other side of where Rikki was. If she was at the bottom of the door, he took the top. Leaning over it, he reached a hand in and waved, just in case. "I literally can't see anything at all."

"I feel like that's a missed opportunity, then, mate," Rikki replied with a small smile. "Unless he has tentacles, too." She was trying to keep things light because it felt better than letting herself continue to be swallowed by her growing fear in this place.

She would've tried to keep from watching as the tentacles disappeared from sight again, but she couldn't help wondering. The way he was standing didn't really give her much insight, but given the unbuttoning of the shirt, Rikki suspected that those things had burst from his chest or abdomen, or something, so not seeing didn't feel like she was missing too much when her imagination filled her in.

Rikki leaned a little further forward, but she noticed that she hadn't heard the water splashing anywhere. That was...disconcerting. If she couldn't hear it, where had it gone? Was that just so deep that the sound was lost to the distance? If so, then where the hell were they supposed to go from here?

Sighing, Rikki used her power to dry herself again so that she could get her legs back, watching as Ben reached in to wave his hand around. Rikki decided to try it, too, with the hope that she might feel something that he was missing. Why she thought she might was beyond her, because why would she if the water disappeared into some soundless abyss? She shifted onto her knees and placed a hand on the open door, to balance herself before leaning further over.

"Where did the water go? I didn't hear it hit the floor or wall or anything..." she admitted, looking up at him again. "Did you?"

Her attention was on Ben, so she wasn't paying attention to the door she'd been holding onto for balance. It never occurred to her that it might bite her, because it was a door, but all the same, she felt the sensation of sharp fangs cutting into her hand and, out of reflex as she yelped with pain, Rikki let go of the door. ...causing her to lose her balance.

Eyes wide as saucers and a gasp caught in the back of her throat, Rikki reached for Ben to catch herself, but instead, she would up with her fingers slipping straight off her attempt to grab his open shirt and into the darkness she fell, her scream of surprise swallowed up completely as she disappeared from his sight.

Rikki couldn't hear her own scream and the silence was almost deafening with the way her brain tried to fill it in with white noise that didn't exist and she felt like she was falling for actual minutes before her body slammed into a body of bright blue water; a gigantic swimming pool that immediately turned her right back into the mermaid she'd just transitioned out of.

When her head broke the surface of the pool and Rikki took a breath, she looked up and was horrified to see that all she could find was a solid ceiling above her. "What the hell?" she hissed, frowning and lowering herself back beneath the surface, meaning to then swim to the nearest edge and pull herself out.

"A bit. No tentacles though, but Diego was special, so it worked for him too." He said with a chuckle about the code names. It did feel better trying to keep things light. This darkness that was around them and how dark it was through the hole was really upsetting.

They fortunately came from, what his father could only assume, portals under the skin, but they weren't at all sure how his powers worked other than they did. Though Ben didn't show them off often. Most people felt sick by seeing it.

The water seemed to disappear into the hole, and he noticed that it stopped flowing from the walls in the hall too. "I didn't her it hit bottom, but look. The water in here seems to have stopped as wel--Rikki!" He gasped, reaching out a bit too late to try and grab her. His hand seemed to be inchs away from her arm as he grabbed out for her, and realized he missed completely.

"RIKKI!" He yelled after her, hearing her scream and then it was cut off completely. "Rikki! Shit, fuck... " he cursed, then yelled out for her again. He was starting to call out again into the void of the door when a few things s tarted to happen. One, the giggling started to rush in on him. Soft at first that he almost missed it, but then louder, like several children were coming around to circle him. Then he felt as if something was trying to close the door on him. He put a hand up to stop it from hitting him, but it fought him.

And third, the hall way, where he thought a door HAD been when they first found the hall, burst with a flood of water rushing down the hall. He cursed again, feeling the door trying to close on him, and the water rushing his way. The children laughing.

Swiftly he slipped to the edge, feet dangling, looking up to see the water coming his way and... he slipped down into the darkness, his heart sinking as he did. He hated the dark. Not that he was scared of it, but any time Klaus was too high to see him he felt in the dark. Felt trapped. This felt worse then that.

But he was committed now, as he slipped into the dark, water hit the open door way, splashing after him, but then the door closed, cutting off the sounds. ALL sounds. The void was stifling, and even his own scream cut off as he fell, and fell, and fell...

He fell in silence, his hands coming to his eras, hurting, it was so dark it was deafening. He started to hyperventilate a bit, breath coming fast as he panicked. Too dark. TOO DARK. Too silent. Like Klaus was gone. Like HE was gone. Maybe this is what it really feels like to cross over. Nothingness.

And then he felt it. A shift in the darkness. And suddenly he was in over his head in water, again. Crashing feet and back first, into the water, feeling it swell over his head, and into his mouth and nose. He choked on it, eyes opening to see again. Not blackness anymore, but water all around.

He struggled and kicked, trying to find the surface, breaking it a moment after and coughing, arms flailing a moment as he slipped back under and choked again. He fought to reach the top once more, needing air.

The splash and subsequent struggle behind her caught Rikki's attention and she turned to see Ben, trying to stay above water long enough to catch his breath. She didn't bother wasting time asking if he was all right; he clearly wasn't. Maybe he hadn't ever learned to swim and asking that was only going to waste precious seconds and he needed help.

As she hadn't even finished pulling herself out of the pool, it was as easy as slipping under the surface again and giving a couple of especially hard swishes of her tail for her to shoot forward under the water like a bullet, leaving little more than a trail of effervescence in her wake.

She came up a little way, circling her arms around Ben and swimming up to the surface, holding him up and turning her head away so that he can safely sputter and cough without coughing water right into her face. "I've got you, mate. You're all right," she assured him, fin already starting to swish more slowly under the water as she started to swim back toward one of the edges of the pool, dragging Ben along with her.

Rikki let go of him with one hand and reached for the edge of the pool, clenching her fingers around the lip of it to steady herself as she moved them closer. "Okay...I have so had it with this stupid house...are you okay?" she asked once she'd managed to get him close enough to the edge as well that he could reach out to hold onto the side on his own if it occurred to him to try. Rikki didn't let go of him and wouldn't until he did, though. She wouldn't have blamed him if he hadn't thought to grab on because he was still recovering from the fall.

Edited (accidentally tab+spaced before I was done.) 2019-06-24 01:09 (UTC)

This was the worst. Water wasn't really his element. He could swim but not well. They were all sort of taught to swim, but he was nearly the worst at it. And this was proven by his floundering about in the water at the moment. It would have been fine IF he had gotten a breath before going under, but because it surprised him so swiftly that he was sputtering on water.

He felt arms go around him and instead of fighting it he let her drag him up. That was one good thing about training, it taught him when to tell if he was being rescued or if he needed to knife someone in the throat.

Coming up for air was a heaven sent, and he coughed and spit water in a try for real air. "God!" He coughed. "What the hell was that!?" he asked, feeling them moving in the water. All he could assume is a mermaid just saved him and he was so very glad for it. He sputtered still, coughing water out of his lungs when he felt them come to the edge. His hands both reached out to grab it, clinging to the pool side for dear life and lifting himself enough to get his arms over the edge.

With one last hack he spit the last of the water from his lungs, though he could feel it burn still. "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." He finally said, taking a clearly needed full breath and letting it out. "There was this huge flood, and those kids laughing, and the door tried to shut on me. I didn't know if you were okay or not, but I had to follow." He said, coughing softer now.

"I dunno. Look up," Rikki replied. "It's gone, whatever it was. This is completely insane. Nothing makes sense. I feel like we fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, if Wonderland was awful." She waited in the water with him, figuring she would try to heft herself out of the pool after he got out. Mostly because if he was out already and she couldn't manage it, then maybe he could help.

While Ben coughed up more water, Rikki crossed her arms on the edge of the pool, lifting herself a little so that she could rest her chin on them. "I don't understand what the point of all of this is. If they're going to dissect me, then I wish they'd just get to it, yeah? I hate being scared. I don't like horror movies, I don't like haunted houses; I don't want to be afraid anymore. I hate it."

There it was. That was Rikki's biggest fear and she was certain, now, that that was the end game for her in this place. Why wouldn't it be? Why else would she keep being forced into her mermaid form over and over? Were they trying to be sure that she would still consistently turn? Was it just an obnoxious coincidence? "Come on, then, let's get out. I'll dry us off and we'll try again. If we're in here, then there's a way in and wherever there's a way in, there's also a way out. We just have to keep looking, yeah?"

He coughed and pushed himself up by his arms, pulling himself out of the water and twisting around t take a seat on the edge. There was literally just a ledge to sit on in this room. A room full of a surprise pool. He sat on the edge, legs hanging over the pool and looking down at her on the edge of the pool.

Another cough before he spoke. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it one bit. I don't care for horror movies either, and this is just turning into one huge horror house show."

He let out a breath and tried to move to stand, pressing his back to the wall and leaning over. "Here, let me help you out." He said, moving to offer a hand. "Getting dried off and getting out of here seems like the best idea. There's not a lot of room in here though, so be careful." He said, and would help pull her out of the water if she needed a hand.

Once Ben was up, Rikki started to try to drag her own weight out of the pool. There wasn't much space; just a narrow ledge. Getting out was going to be enough of a challenge, but then trying to get herself dry without slipping back into the pool was going to be even harder.

"This feels like every terrible nightmare I've ever had got together and concocted something ten times worse than all of them combined," she complained, grunting with effort and then looking grateful when Ben offered her a hand. Rikki took it happily, swishing her tail in an attempt to give herself a bit of a boost so that he could use the momentum to pull her out of the pool with less effort. She'd be entirely too heavy for someone his size to lift, she thought. At least not without those tentacle things and Rikki could do without those touching her, thank you very much.

With effort on both of their parts, Rikki flopped heavily onto the ledge, turning herself so that she could comfortably work on drying her tail off. She'd almost be loathe to lose the tail because it meant ending up back in that stupid dress, but there were worse things, she supposed, especially after having experienced them. Being in a dress when she'd rather be in a pair of shorts was absolutely the least of her problems.

A few moments later, Rikki pushed herself to her feet and looked over at Ben. "This is going to sting a little. It gets hot, yeah? It'll only take a minute, though," she promised before holding her hand up toward him and lifting her eyes in question, asking silently for permission before starting the process.

He's more stable now than a moment ago. He's leaning into the wall and frowning at how cold it feels. He dripped there and though he didn't mind dripping, being dry sounded nice. "Someone seems to enjoy tossing water at you. It's like they want your secret to get out."

He couldn't lift her in this form, no, and he didn't want to bring the tentacles out again, if it's all the same to anyone else, please. Besides, he wasn't sure how well he could control them with out fighting them to make them go back. Last time might have been lucky. But he helped as best he could with out toppling back into the pool.

As she started to dry herself, he slide down the wall a bit, so not to drip on her. As she got legs again and stood up, he looked her over then nodded. "That's never going to not impress me." he said, softly, then nodded again. "Rather be dry than walking around a hazard to you." He held his arms out a bit as if to say 'go for it' and waited.

"Yeah, well at least someone is amused because I'm sure as hell not," Rikki replied flatly. She was pretty sure the idea wasn't so much to get her secret out as it was to confirm that it was real and they had the right subject. Rikki was patently convinced that she was here because she was about to become the science experiment of the century.

In spite of herself, Rikki laughed a little at his comment about being impressed. "It impresses me, too, sometimes. I haven't been able to do it for very long; just a few years," she replied as she slowly started to close her first. She did, at least, have the grace to look a little bit apologetic to him when she saw the steam starting to rise out of his clothes and hair.

"I appreciate that," she said honestly, a small smile on her face as her fist continued to close until the steam started to dissipate. By the time she finished, her fist had been completely closed and she opened her hand again, setting it at her side. "All right, mate?"

Edited 2019-06-30 03:19 (UTC)

"I don't think I've had an amusing moment since we got here. Like a bad theme park." He said with a snort. he was pretty sure they were all dead, inn real hell, or yeah, a science project. It could be anything. It was all confusing is all.

"Well, it's more useful than what I was born with. Mine just makes most people sick or uncomfortable." he said with a shrug, looking down at himself in the dimly lit room, standing on a ledge and tying not to fall in. He held his arms out a bit and watched as he dried.

A small wince but otherwise he was okay. "Yeah, thanks. That should be good." He said and pat himself down, dry. He then nodded to her and then back towards him. "There looks like a door over here. Let's carefully slide this way and hope the damn thing opens."

Rikki almost looked apologetic in response to Ben's comment. "If it makes you feel any better, a couple of years ago, it wouldn't have made me sick or uncomfortable," she told him. Before the water tentacle, she'd have been a lot more interested and curious than anything else, but now? Well. She could do without them touching her, was all.

She reached for him, taking hold of the back of his shirt to keep from being separated from him again. "Right, let's get out of here. Enough messing about in this stupid house, hopefully we can find the way out of this place this time. I don't want to be here anymore. I've had enough."

She'd had enough the moment she'd woken up in this ridiculous dress, but all the same. Rikki is more than ready to get out of here now.

He frowned as he learned that his ability made her uncomfortable. He hadn't realized it before this really. "Sorry. I should have warned you more for it. I seem to still have some control over them, but I wasn't so sure, considering how long they've been locked up." It had taken a moment to get them to do what he wanted. To leave her alone and open the door.

He held back that generally they were used to rip apart people. She didn't need to know that.

When she took a hold, he started to carefully walk the ledge of the pool, sliding down the wall and towards the door. When he reached it he sighed. It would swing out over the pool and away from them. He tried it and it opened, swinging away and...

"Looks like we found a new hall way. Anything is better than this though." He said, stepping through the threshold and making sure she was behind him and didn't fall in again. When he glanced back it seemed as if the pool was gone.

This was the worst place. They were going to be lost forever, weren't they?

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shit i never hit enter on this tag. Sorry!

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