hellhouse | (no subject)

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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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"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!

no worries!

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