=== Eridan: Find Feferi
It was pitch-black when Eridan came to his senses. Pitch-black and wet. The tunnels where he found himself all led to a large water source; an underground lake with channels leading to and away from it scattered in the area. It was swollen with dark water, the shore under several feet of liquid. The rains had been heavy this season, and some pathways were flooded with murky, foul-smelling water.
He was half-tempted to jump into one of the pools to test his new gills, but the better half of his judgment kept seeing shadows below the surface. They would vanish the moment he got a lantern over them, but nonetheless, it wasn't a smart idea. He let his eyes adjust to the misty darkness, trying not to light the lantern with the precious oil he'd obtained. Who knew when he'd have a good use for it later.
Eridan, like Rose, was genre savvy.
While exploring one of the many unblocked paths, he came across a multitude of odd items: a collection of powdered substances in jars, screwdrivers, bullets for a nineteenth century weapon, valves for some contraption, a crowbar, and a coil of rope. None of these things seemed particularly useful, but he took a few just in case.
Ransacking an office, he came across a map and a log written over forty years ago. It read:
November 6, 1876
The winter is harsh again, but we've trudged on, nearing the castle. It is the only shelter for miles, as the village down the mountain is abandoned. I personally will go to the owner, the Duke of Bavaria, for help, as his father was an old friend of my father's. He is capricious in nature, and I fear if I allow anyone else to approach him, we may not have luck in securing a safe place to camp through the winter.
I can only hope he has returned from his voyages at sea, otherwise I am unsure of how to proceed. We have a party of sixteen and not nearly enough supplies to last us a trek through the mountains. I hope for the best, and that the tides of fate will smile upon us.
It was signed, but the name was smudged. He could only make out the A at the end.
Oh. That was...what was this doing down here? Eridan bit his lip and added the tattered, old note to the back of a journal he'd discovered in one of the desk drawers. It might come in handy. Maybe the others were finding odd notes of their own. They could make a stack of them in chronological order and figure out what was going on.
A light flickered through the bottom of the door and Eridan froze. What was...He vaulted over the desk and crouched low, able to see through a crack at the bottom from his awkward hiding spot. If it was some monster, he was dead. There was no weapon on him to speak of, let alone use. Crowbars were great fun, sure, but useless against the undead. And bullets needed guns, which he did not have.
The door creaked open and in walked a pair of very familiar shoes. He exhaled loudly in relief, startling the wearer.
"HOLY SHIT!" she screeched, backing up and tripping over a fallen chair.
"Fef," Eridan started, slowly rising from his hiding spot, "have you any idea a how to play these things? Any at all?"
"Ohmigod Eridan. I am going to kill you. Do you know how frightened I was about getting eaten a moment ago?"
"And there's still a chance if you don't be quiet. They can hear us."
Oh, right on cue. There were the chains again, rattling in the hall.
"Quickly. You need to cross the room quickly," Eridan said barely above a whisper.
Feferi, eyes wide as sauce pans, sprang up and sprinted to the desk. She dove around it and somehow managed to fit herself in the small hollow along with Eridan.
Neither of them took a breath as the clanking of metal cuffs passed the room.
It was the laughing that caused Eridan's nerves to drive themselves off a cliff. Unnerving. So unnerving, he had taken Feferi's hands in his own. Or maybe she took his? She looked equally horrified.
"We need to get out of this basement," she said after the thing passed. "I found a way up earlier but I was looking for you. We should leave before it comes back."
=== Karkat: Wander.
It was thundering outside the castle, the wind whipping at the windows and howling through the cracks in the walls. Up on the second floor, Karkat felt unsteady.
Terezi had found him before he woke up, and located one of the staircases in no time. Her senses had been heightened by the injections, but she refused to say how. He wasn't going to press on the matter any harder.
Kanaya had run into them on the first floor, a rusty metal pipe in her hands. She had been following a trail of destruction that she assumed went to the third floor, but hadn't gotten time to check it out yet.
"So what are we doing?" Terezi asked as they trekked across a destroyed corridor.
"Clown hunting," Kanaya spit. She was leading, as she was the only one with a sense of direction in this maze of a castle. "That idiot is upstairs somewhere, and we have to find him."
"What happens if we don't?"
"One of two things. Either he will kill everyone or he will be eliminated."
"How's he in a fit now?" Karkat was confused. Gamzee only went fully crazy under the full moon.
"The darkness is unnatural. Things live in it, hide in it. They feed off sanity. The longer you go in the dark, the more humanity you lose."
"I don't like this game."
"Oh, come on, Karkar, it's not so bad."
Karkat took Terezi's hand, more for his security than hers. "It's terrible, Tez. There were—there were things down there. Horrible things."
"Did you see them?"
"I heard them, but I couldn't look. Did you?"
She shook her head. "Kanaya?"
"You only see them if they want you to see them. There is all manner of once-living creatures down there."
"And the ones causing Gamzee to go insane?"
"Lemures. Beings that live in the darkness with no true physical forms. They take all different shapes from the things they...corrupt."
"And the ones we heard?"
"I—I do not know. I thought I knew most of the things that lurked in the cellars, but I guess I do not. Sollux learned the technology, and I, the environment. For instance, I know the monster causing everything lives deep in the bowls of the castle, far below ground, but only Sollux can devise a way to get there."
Kanaya turned a corner and hurried immediately back, pushing Terezi and Karkat into an open door before locking it tightly, standing in front of them, clutching her rusted pipe.
"It will not do much good," she explained in a hushed voice. "These things are dead, they cannot die twice."
Great. That made him feel a million times better. Karkat put himself in front of Terezi. If that thing managed to mow down Kanaya, he'd go next. Nothing would get to Tez. He wouldn't allow it.
"I can defend myself," Terezi said in a whisper, annoyed.
"I know you can."
"Then why go in front?"
"Because I want to protect you, not because I can protect you. You could do a better job of saving my ass than I ever could of yours."
"Do you want it to hear us?" Kanaya hissed.
There was a noise at the door. The three occupants leapt backwards and dove behind furniture, trying to disappear. A key turned in the lock and two people scrambled in, shut the door, and re-locked it.
"Oh hey Karkat, Kanaya, girl I don't know, nice to see you."
It was John and Rose. Rose made a beeline to one of the bookshelves behind them. "Do you want to get ripped to pieces? Help me out."
Kanaya, Karkat, and Terezi stood, confused, as the two new party members began to pull volumes off the shelves at random.
"What are you—"
"It's a horror game, right? Guess what's always in studies of big creepy houses in detective novels?"
"Secret passages!" Terezi said with a smile. She joined John and Rose as Kanaya and Karkat shared a look.
Rose managed to pull the right book out when the sound of dragging chains grew louder. The five hurried furiously through the new opening in the wall and shut it tightly, scurrying down a new passage and ending up in a grander, weirder room.
Chemistry sets took up the majority of the countertops and books of detailed alchemical processes lay open next to old burners and on the master desk in the back of the room. Some of the beakers still contained chemicals and concoctions, others were clean as whistles. The whole place smelled of stale air and mildew.
"This is..." John trailed off.
"Fantastic," Rose finished. She was flipping through one of the thick tomes on the mahogany desk. "There are entries in here, notes scribbled in the margins. It's marked up about not just the processes, but what the compounds were used for and how. John, this is exactly what I was looking for."
John wrapped an arm around Rose's waist and read over her shoulder. "D'you think we'll need any more, or will this do it?"
"I think this should be good."
Kanaya coughed. "What are you two doing?"
"Rosey's got a brilliant idea," John informed her with a goofy smile. "It involves chemistry."
"There's a door that leads to the west wing that I cannot get through. It's covered in biological material and I plan on burning through it."
"Biological material?"
"Burning?"
Rose nodded. "See, the castle is alive. It changes, it twists, and it breathes. John and I were traveling a corridor earlier and the door at the end of the hall moved six feet to the left. Right in front of our eyes. It opened over the forest floor. That was either the castle changing or very poor planning."
"The Curse of Castle Wahnsinn," Kanaya muttered.
There was a collective "What?"
"It is an old Austrian tale. Travelers spend the night at an old castle only to discover it's alive and they go insane."
"And this relates because?" asked Karkat.
"This is that very castle. It wasn't a folktale, it was a recount of history. If we do not get out and to the village soon, I fear we may all go mad, not just Gamzee. Speaking of whom, I should go find him."
=== Kanaya: Go Clown Hunting.
Don't mind if you do. You've got a serious score to settle with that asswi—erm, lovely gentleman friend of yours.
Kanaya trudged down a new hallway, useless pipe gripped firmly in both hands. She didn't have time for this, she needed to find a new partner soon or she'd be eliminated. But there were sixteen players and it was unlikely there was anyone but Gamzee left.
Nothing sprang out at her as she ascended the stairs to the third floor. It seemed the monsters were afraid of her vicious, twisting anger. They could come if they wanted, she'd just bludgeon them to second-death and continue forward. She was determined, and nothing, nothing would stop her.
She heard the laughter before she spotted him.
Crouched on a tall statue of a sea-goat, Gamzee grinned down at her, his teeth pointed and horrible. The injections hadn't helped with his sanity at all; his nails looked more pointed and he was on all fours, poised like a jungle cat about to lunge.
"Kanaayyaa," he purred, leering at her.
"What." There was venom in her voice.
"Don't you want to play Kanaya? Play a game with me, please?"
"I am not playing any games with you."
"We played one earlier though. Remember? It involved things that made Karkat squeamish." He leaped down from his perch, landing a few feet from her. His height only increased his level of intimidation. But Kanaya didn't break, the anger never stopped flowing through her.
"We are not playing that."
"Why ever, ever not?" He closed the distance in a beat, pressing her up against a wall. His eyes were dark, his pupils were fully dilated, and his breath was warm and sweet on her face. "They don't like me, the shadows. Think I'm scary. I've heard them muttering. They think they're SO QUIET!" His head whipped around, directing his words towards some corner where invisible beings lurked. "Not even in the cellars. Didn't chase me. I felt so left out."
"Why would you want them to chase you?"
"Because it's all a game, Kanaya. All a lovely, sweet little game. What good is playing from the beginning if you have all the additions? All the best items?"
"Being insane is a good item?"
He barked a laugh, sharp and shattering. "Whatever keeps the boogeyman away is like water for a fish. Speaking of fish, guess who I saw."
"No, please tell me you left them alone."
"Of course I did. After scaring them half to death."
She glared.
"I'm sorry, love," he said softly, a thumb stroking her cheek. "I made you upset. I always make you upset." He kissed her forehead. "Will you forgive me?"
"I—"
"Please?" He kissed her gently, a hand lightly stroking her hair.
Oh, she hated him for this. This—this—this capriciousness. Mad as a hatter one moment, soft as butter the next. And she hated these butterfly kisses, and his hand through her hair, hated the other hand grabbing at her bottom as he—
No, no, she liked this kiss. The biting, scratching kind that buried his tongue deep in her mouth. The one where she could taste blood as his teeth scraped her lips, making them raw and swollen. The darker one, filled with motives and lust. A kiss of lunacy.
"W-what about the creatures?" Kanaya asked when they broke apart for air.
"They won't come near me, my love. I will keep you safe from them."
"What about you? Am I safe from you?"
He grinned, slipping his hands into her dress and cupping her breasts. They fit perfectly into his hands, soft and round. He squeezed until she let out a moan of pain and pleasure.
"You will never be safe from me."
=== Tavros: Attempt to chat up the girl.
You're not very good at that, and that will be hard given the circumstances.
Eh. You'll give it a shot.
Aradia had passed out not long after meeting up with Sollux and Tavros. They needed to patrol the area. With the partner rule still in effect, Sollux opted to stay behind and watch her if Tavros and Vriska scouted out the area.
He gave Tavros a wink when they left, and he hadn't the slightest idea how Sollux had found out.
"This place is too big," Vriska muttered as they paced around one of the dark corridors, a torch burning slowly in one hand. She seemed upset in a venomous way, like a python poised to strike. Tavros was unsure of what to say.
"I mean, look at it," she continued. "We're on the first floor and have passed two libraries, a sketchy door leading down to the kitchens, several creepy studies, and a dinning hall. With a dumbwaiter for chrissake. My house didn't even have a dumbwaiter."
"Did you live in a Great House?"
She rolled her eyes. Clearly that was not the correct question. "You've been in it. Did it look like one?"
"It—"
"No, it was just a mansion. The Peixes girl lives in a Great House. They've got extravagant gardens and a fountain inside the house."
"Inside?"
"Inside. Bizarrchitecture, that place. Like this place. Was that door there before?"
She pointed to an immaculate-looking white wood door with gold detail. Its knob was polished and pristine. Something felt...off about it.
"Do we open it?"
Vriska shrugged. "Why not?"
"Because there could be something in there that wants to kill us?"
"Any other good reasons?"
"Vriska!"
"Oh come on, what are the chances? I haven't heard anything since I was in the basements. Have you?"
"No, but—"
"But nothing. C'mon, we're gonna open the door."
"We're not going to open the door we're not going to open the door we're not going to—"
"Stop being such a sissy and get over here."
He couldn't refuse her. He couldn't refuse the temptation that was her. He looked utterly pathetic right about now, and this wasn't helping his chances with the girl. Man up, Tavros.
He stood in front of the door with her, each of them with a hand on the handle. "On the count of three. One—"
"THREE!" Vriska yanked the door open and it slammed into the wall.
The room was dark aside from two orange—
"SHIT SHIT SHIT THOSE ARE EYES HOLY GOD RUN RUN RUN RUN."
Tavros took Vriska's hand and booked it, dragging her down the long hall and back to—
"It's going to follow us you idiot don't lead it back!"
"What do I do then what do what—oh my god oh god—"
Vriska, her head more leveled, swung them in a new direction, taking the lead and pulling him down a new hallway.
Dead end. That's it. Game over. He couldn't look. They were dead, they were dead, they were—
Vriska was laughing.
Tavros opened an eye.
There was a small, bull-like creature on the carpet in front of them. It had little pixie wings and its metal skin shone through its fine white coat. It looked harmless.
Tavros started laughing. This was ridiculous. They were running from one of the guide-things that never got explained. He had been frightened of that. How was that even possible?
He glanced over at Vriska, who's face was still in a giggle-induced smile. It was one of the happiest expressions he'd ever seen her wear. One of the most beautiful, too.
"Can you believe it?" she asked in between bouts of laughter. "Can you actually believe we were running from that?"
"Not easily. Could it get more ridiculous?"
"It can, and it will. Stick around for the stupidity." She grinned. "I mean, look." Vriska held up her hand, which was still tangled with his. "This shouldn't happen so easily. You have to work for this."
"Work for your hand?"
"In a way, yes," she teased. "But on a serious note, thanks for trying to save me from...that." She suffered another wave of laughter.
"What are we going to do with it?"
"I have an idea."
Sollux nearly threw a chair at the door when the little bull creature wandered in. He swore loud enough to wake up Aradia, who was confused and dazed beyond belief. She promptly went back to bed when Sollux was done cursing out Tavros and Vriska.
Vriska had dubbed them "Team Fuck Shit Up" after devising their prank. "You need to live a little more," she had said to him. "Stick with me, I'm gong to show you what it's like to break the rules. Of both society and this game."
And he agreed. If that's what it took to hold her hand, then he'd do it, he'd fuck shit up with her. They would fuck up all of the shit if that granted him the key to her heart. Or wherever the key went.
Rule number one was Don't be a Pansy. Rule number two was Tavros You're Still Being a Pansy, Stop it.
Sollux didn't stop glaring at them for ten minutes.
"Wot was even th' point?"
"To see your face?" Vriska tried to hide a smile.
"Ah. Right. Me face is entertaining enough by isself."
"How's Aradia doing?" Tavros asked, changing the subject.
Sollux jerked his head. "'Ow're yer 'ands doin'?"
Vriska and Tavros snatched their hands back, both blushing and embarrassed.
"I ain't gonna go 'round knockin' an' bleatin' about that, but watch where we are, mkay? It's a dangerous place out there, and I dun' want anyone or anyfing to go missing. Got it?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now don't go snog behind some pillar unless you wants the monsters to gobble you up like seasoned ham on Christmas."
"What?" gasped Vriska, embarrassed. "We don't have that kind of a relationship!"
"Yet," Sollux corrected with a sly grin. "People do mad fings in mad circumstances."
"You and my maid?"
"Are none of your business. Don't you 'ave some corridors to stalk down or somefing?"
"We might."
"Then get. I'll finds out wot's wif the bull when you're gone. Don't let the Makara boy bite."
"We'll try not to."
As soon as they left the room, Tavros reclaimed Vriska's hand, smiling like a loony. "I'm sorry we didn't get that second date."
"Me too. But, I bet we can find a way to make up for it, right?"
"Right. Did you have anything in mind?"
"I saw a ballroom back when we were wandering..."
"But there's no music."
"I bet we can find a solution. C'mon, it's not that far. Sollux won't miss us."
=== John: Assist Rose.
"What exactly is it that we're looking for, Rose?"
They were outside the door to the stairs that led down to the laboratory in the cellars. Rose was visibly nervous about the trek. John wasn't, but was still worried for Rose. She knew what she was doing more than he, but still she got nervous.
"In most cases I'd say we would only need hydrochloric acid, but I doubt we'll find any. I am not excited to make it."
"Because it's hard to make?"
"Because it's extremely corrosive and if I mess it up it could eat through my flesh. It is far from the top of my to do list."
"Well what should I be on the lookout for?"
"Vitriol and salt."
"...What is vitriol?"
"Sulfuric acid. Clear, smells horrible, burns through clothing. Run-of-the-mill acid."
John knew nothing of chemistry. He was the business major. "...Rose, I don't think I'll be of any help."
"I figured. Follow me, then."
She yanked the old door open with her free hand. Lantern high over her head, she entered the lab. John kept close, a plank of wood clutched in his hands. It wouldn't help much, but it couldn't hurt.
The lab was dark, but not as dark as the caves. There was faint light pouring in through windows near the ceiling. The counters were covered in cobwebs. The whole place had a desolate, abandoned air to it, with the smell of decay ravaging John's nostrils. It was somewhat depressing, not to mention sinister.
"Careful, there's broken glass at the bottom of the staircase."
John stepped around a pile of shards that was once a bottle, the contents leaking all over the floor. It was still wet, and whatever had been in the bottle was lying on the bottom step, organic and rubbery. The spill looked fresh.
John gulped. "I don't particularly like this place."
"Nor do I. Let's be quick and get out of here."
The floorboards creaked under their feet, moaning in an eerie symphony. There were all sorts of beakers and test tubes strewn about, ranging in size from quite small to obscenely large. The amount of knives was making John uncomfortable. If this was a kitchen, it'd be understandable, but this was overdoing it. A few blades were slick with a dark, slippery substance.
"I've found a chemical cabinet," Rose whispered in the darkness.
"Oh joy. Now we can get out of here faster."
"Not exactly," she muttered, taking out all sorts of bottles and containers, containing mixtures of every color and density. "Aqua Fortis, Spirit of Hartshorn, Aqua Tofani, King's Yellow, Flowers of Antimony, dammit!" Rose made a gurgling, frustrated sound. "These are all alchemical substances."
"...You need to help me out, you're the chem major. I work in business, remember?"
"Alchemy was a debunked science that stemmed from early Chinese medicine and found its way to the Islamic empires and into Medieval Europe. It's a completely bogus predecessor of Chemistry that wanted to turn lead into gold and create an elixir that would give the drinker eternal life. Hence, it is utterly useless."
"So it was magic?"
"No, just faulty science. Any type of sufficiently analyzed magic is science. But alchemy was bad magic and bad science."
"So we're screwed?"
"Help me find something called Spirit of Salt. We're going to use the Aqua Fortis to make Aqua Regia."
"What."
"Find me hydrochloric acid, I am going to mix it with the Aqua Fortis—nitric acid—and burn a hole in that stupid goddamn door."
She was pissed. Oh dear. "I thought you said we wouldn't find any hydrochloric acid?"
"That was before we ventured into an alchemical lab. Hurry, I don't like this darkness and we are wasting oil."
John ducked down to open cupboards, his own lantern out and burning. There were all types of creepy things tucked down there. Skeletons of...not-human humans, powders, jars of—oh ew those were eyes, scales, bags of things he wasn't going to open, and a wide assortment of strange implements. While he rummaged, he could hear Rose chanting I am a chemist, this is not an issue. I can do this, I am a chemist.
She was cracking. This darkness was actually cracking the thick shell that was Rose. John liked this place less and less with every second. He wasn't keen on seeing what would happen to his strong, beautiful Rose after an hour passed. Something horrible, no doubt.
"Got it!" Across the room, Rose held up a large, clear jug of acid.
Oh thank god. Now they could leave—
There was a clanging at the door on the far end of the room. Rose whipped her lantern out in front of her as John hurried across the room. She wanted to fight, he wanted to flee.
"Wait a moment." Rose neared the door. "I hear voices."
"You what?"
She gestured John forward.
"Shit! It's locked!"
"Aww fuck. We're gone. We're so gone. We're more gone than my grandma at Easter dinner. Do you understand how gone that is?"
"Yes! Can we break it down?"
There was a muffled roar from somewhere behind the door.
"Answer: not fast enough."
John and Rose glanced at each other. Those two were—
John fiddled with the lock and quickly opened the door.
Dave and Jade, horrified and stunned, stood behind.
"Get in, now," Rose commanded.
"Don't need to tell me twice," Dave said as he took Jade's hand and pulled her towards the staircase on the other side of the room. John and Rose locked the door and followed at breakneck speed.
"We're going to need to barricade the door!" John called as they neared the top of the stairs.
"Way ahead of you!" Dave was behind one side of a large marble pedestal.
Rose scrambled out and re-locked the laboratory door—not that it would do much good—as John helped move the heavy stone into place. It would hold...for a little while.
"Back to the study!" Rose cried and began sprinting down the hall to the second-floor staircase.
"Dude, what the hell is up with this place?" Dave asked as they followed at a somewhat slower pace.
"It's a big evil mess?"
"The castle's fuckin' alive, John. Jade and I were traipsing around downstairs and a whole wall disappeared into thin air. If I'm not high, I'm not sure what's going down."
"I know. A door moved on me and Rose earlier."
"I don't want to go back downstairs anytime soon," Jade added. "It's unnatural."
"Stick with us, then. Rose wants to blast a hole through some door on the third floor."
"Blast a hole in a door. You've got some weird kinks, my friend."
John elbowed Dave. "There's some bizarre organic thing blocking one of the wings. Rose is going to chemistry it to death. That was the whole reason we were down in the lab in the first place."
"And man was that lucky for us. We were almost monster chow."
"So we heard. Did you get a good look at it?"
Jade shook her head. "Not at all. All I saw was a pale white form, almost human. But something was wrong about it. Like it wasn't built right."
Rose, who was waiting at the stairs, raised an eyebrow. "What kind of not built right?"
"It walked funny. I could hear three footsteps in place of two. And its form was all hunched and twisted."
John watched as Rose's eyes widened and her face shifted into a rare look of horror. "Lord Christ in Heaven."
John took her hands. "What's wrong?"
"Those were—oh God I've never wanted to be so wrong before."
"Rosey?"
"Alchemy. A laboratory filled with chemicals and skulls and body parts. Chalk everywhere. The moaning in the basement. The human-like things." She swallowed loudly. "I believe there are—there are failed homunculi in the cellars."
=== Nepeta: Be a Badass.
The cellars weren't unpleasant.
Well, they weren't her babushka's house, but they weren't the New York City sewers either. Sure, they were dark and smelled repulsive, but she could handle that, right? Those painful injections of god-knows-what had heightened her senses and her night vision. Unlike Vriska, it wasn't just the fungi on the walls.
She was still weaponless and had to rely on stealth. Easy enough, she was used to playing Extreme Hide and Go Seek with Equius. It would take him hours to find her hidden among the trees. But unlike their childhood game, this Game would kill her if she wasn't careful. That she knew for sure.
Inching along a dark stone hallway, she had no idea where she was. Or where anyone else was. There was only a constant drip drip drip of water. So maybe near an underground lake or some cistern system? She hadn't a clue.
Turning down another dark hall, she could make out a faint light coming from ceiling at the end. Jogging a bit, she found—oh dear god. It was a meurtrière. A hole to dump sand and tar and rocks and other nasty things down on attackers. She was in a tunnel that lead to the outside, no doubt. Or maybe had once lead to the outside. The lack of light wasn't convincing. What in the world had happened here?
Okay! Nothing else to see here! Time to go in the other direction!
Back the way she came and this time to the left, the path was much darker than before. There was a slight breeze from behind, and she hadn't the nerve to turn and look. If she looked, there would be something there, she knew it. She'd be fine if she just kept straight ahead and didn't give in to temptation.
She ventured into a pitch-black room. Maybe now was a good time to light her torch. Yes. Now was a good time.
No. Now was a terrible time.
The room she had stumbled into was meant to be kept in the dark.
There were instruments of torture scattered about the room. A rack was at one end of the room, an iron spider hung above an old, heavily used fire pit, and a wheel was leaning against the other wall. On a wooden shelf hung a multitude of devices: a cat-o-nine-tails, cat's paws, a lead sprinkler, a pear of anguish, a curaisse, and a heretic's fork.
Bile rose in her throat when she realized half of the devices were stained a deep red. Her stomach churned queasily and it took everything for Nepeta not to be sick at the sight of the accursed atrocities sitting in this room.
She didn't dare take a step further.
Backing out of this hellish room, Nepeta flew down the corridor, down and to another light source. These light sources were probably a bad sign, all things consi—
AHHHHHHHH!
OH GOD OH GOD THAT WAS A PERSON THAT WASN'T A PERSON OTHER WAY OTHER WAY. NO SHITFUCK THAT WAY WAS BLOCKED OFF OH LORD ONLY THAT ROOM IS LEFT NO NO NOOOOOOOO.
Nepeta dive-rolled into the torture chamber. It was between being ripped to shreds or being violently sick, and at the moment violently sick was winning. She never thought she'd say that. Weapon. She needed a weapon. This was a matter of life and death, her stomach was going to have to deal.
Hating everything about life, Nepeta snatched the cat's paws off the wall and prepared herself for a brawl. Honestly, this was the complete wrong way to go about this Game, but sometimes the rules had to be bent. She tried her best not to think about how the sharp metal prongs in her hands had once been used to rip flesh off bone.
For Equius. She'd tear this thing to re-death for Equius. He'd be displeased if she went and got herself torn to bits.
Or maybe for Karkat. Dear, sweet, shouty, taken, completely unavailable, STUPID FUCKING KARKAT—
There was a shuffle of heavy footsteps as the not-human human approached. Nepeta was having an angry breakdown. She didn't exactly notice how terrifying the thing was that entered the room roaring like a wounded lion.
"WHAT THE FUCK DOES HE EVEN SEE IN HER ANYWAY?" she roared back, pupils dilated and cat's paws bared.
It growled and lunged at her.
Nepeta barrelrolled and swung her arms wildly, ripping at the flesh of its abdomen. "HUH? SHE'S SO GIGGLY AND PRISSY AND LOUD AND—" more angry slicing, "—SO. ANNOYING."
The humanoid monster screeched in pain as Nepeta slid across the room, backing up in order to spring.
It howled.
"I DIDN'T ASK FOR A MOTHERFUCKING OPINION, ASSHOLE."
She charged, feral and powerful like a jungle cat.
Equius found his companion seated atop the unmoving, maimed corpse of a humanoid creature. Sobbing.
"Nepeta, what happened?"
"Karkat's a big, stupid loser!" she whined, wiping tears from her eyes onto the back of her sleeve.
Equius brought a hand to his forehead and sighed. "Are you all right?"
"All right? All right? Do I look all right to you?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Th-then why bother asking?" she broke into a teary hiccuping fit. "I d-don't even know what happened."
"What do you mean?"
"One moment I was te-terrified for my life. The next? I'm on some dead-thing throne like I'm the fucking Queen of Sheba!"
"You're using vulgar language, young lady."
"I don't care, Equius!" she yelled a little too loudly. "I'm scared, is all. I...I don't know what happened to me. I became something else. Someone not me. Like a voice in my head took over and caused all—all this." She gestured to the carnage lying about on the floor. "I'm used to hunting. I'm used to killing animals with guns to eat. I'm not used to killing things with my bare hands for the sake of killing." She stared down into her lap, gazing at the black-red stains on her pale skin. "Will these hands ever be clean? Hell is murky, Equius. Hell is murky."
"I—we need to get you out of here."
"Even with a weapon I feel unsafe. Unguarded. We're still vulnerable. It gets into our minds, burrows into our thoughts. It reduces our humanity. Sucks it all out."
"What does?"
"The darkness."
Equius crossed the torture chamber and kneeled in front of poor, broken Nepeta. "I'm going to carry you out."
"I don't need you to carry me!"
"Yes, you do, you're in shock. You won't last much longer down here."
A rumble rippled through the room, shaking the walls and pillars.
"Fiddlesticks."
Nepeta's eyes were glowing with a fierceness like nothing before. "I'll take it."
"No, you will not. I am afraid the more you attack these things, the more sanity you lose."
"So is part of me already lost for good?"
"I hope not." Equius picked her up and swung her into his arms like she was lighter than a feather pillow. "Do you want to talk about what made you upset?"
"I'm still heartbroken."
"About the angry one?"
"Karkat, yeah," she sniffed. "It's been like, what, three months now?"
"Some wounds take longer to heal."
"I know." She gave her best friend a weak smile. "I just wish it would hurry and close up already. Maybe then I won't have any more outbursts."
"It seemed the outburst saved your life, though."
"In a way, yeah, I guess it did."
"So perhaps you should hold on to your anger in order to keep yourself safe?"
She snorted. "That is the stupidest thing I've heard you say in a long time!"
He stopped in his tracks and watched something out of Nepeta's line of sight. "What is it?"
"I smell German."
"You can't smell German, Equius. It's a nationality, not a pastry—"
Sure enough, Eridan rounded a corner at an admirable speed, dragging Feferi behind him. "That rumble just now? Yeah, from our direction!"
Equius turned on his heel and followed the two newcomers. "What was it?"
"Don't know, not lookin'!"
"So it was creepy?" Nepeta asked, eyes wide in curiosity.
"Yes!" Eridan and Feferi replied in unison.
"Hard left here, we're almost out," Eridan called behind him."
"How do you know?"
"Simple! I have a map!"
The German was right; there was a staircase to the upstairs down the hall to the left. They ascended fast as rabbits and blocked the door off with every piece of heavy-looking furniture they could find.
"Holy shit that was close," Eridan breathed and slid down a wall. He and Feferi looked completely winded, like they had been running for a considerable amount of time before nearly slamming into Equius and her. Nepeta cocked her head, still interested in the beastie chasing them.
"Did you find anything interesting down there?" Feferi asked.
"I found a torture chamber," Nepeta replied, feeling the color drain from her face at the memory. She held up her hands, cat's paws still locked around her fingers. "And these."
"I found next to nothing of importance, aside from Nepeta."
"I'm so glad I'm more observant. Maybe it's the glasses." Eridan pulled out an old journal. At the back, he had collected a number of letters and entries and envelopes. "I pay attention to my environment."
"So do I," Feferi said with a frown. "And I didn't find anything of value."
"You were also trudgin' around the prison ward. I doubt they'd have paper lyin' around there."
"Then where the heck were you?"
"Living quarters. Personally, I'm surprised they were even down there. Odd thing to keep in a cellar."
"What about servants' quarters?"
Eridan shook his head. "Those are kept upstairs, not down."
Nepeta frowned. This castle wasn't making any sense. There were too many weird rooms downstairs. Too many strange things that didn't belong. She wondered how everyone else was doing. If they'd made it out of the cellars alive or not.
"Has anyone seen anybody else?"
Eridan and Feferi both scowled. "Gamzee."
"Where?" Equius crossed his arms and tried to look nonchalant, but Nepeta knew he was internally freaking out. Some authority complex or something.
"Down in the...this room with the name worn off the map. It looked like an office a some sort."
"What was he doing?"
"Causing trouble," they said with venom.
"Speak of the devil," Nepeta muttered as an orange mess of hair appeared at the top of the stairs. He was grinning madly. "Hello there, everyone. What's going down?"
"Get your pasty ass over here and I will show you what the fuck is goin' down, aside from your damn face into the rug!" Eridan whipped off his vivid purple cloak and threw it violently on the ground.
"Aww Eridan did you miss me? Did you have fun in the dark, fish-boy?"
"Come here and say that to my fucking face!"
"Eridan!" Feferi leapt into action, wrapping her arms around Eridan's waist. "You can't just run around beating up other members of our group!"
"It was him in the caves!" he said with a growl. "It was his goddamn laugh we heard."
"Was it?"
Nepeta bit her tongue to keep from laughing. This was entertaining. She had no doubt Gamzee could and would clobber Eridan, but the way Eridan was able to slither out of Feferi's grasp made her think twice. He was quicker on his feet than Gamzee, who was sluggish in his mania. Also, Eridan had a mean right hook. She'd seen it in action before. He had managed to knock Sollux halfway across a room with one swing. The bruises hadn't been pretty.
There was a flash of green and the wild red mop tumbled below the bannister and out of sight. Kanaya, looking ferocious and dangerous, was holding a long piece of metal over her head, posed to strike Gamzee again.
"Kanaya?!" the four said in collective surprise.
"Hi. Am I interrupting something?"
"Just the fight'a the century," Eridan deadpanned.
"Ow, love, that hurt," Gamzee moaned and stood. "I think you've concussed me."
"You are not vomiting. Also, I did not hit you hard enough to fracture your skull, I made sure of it."
"But it huuuurts!" he whined.
"Not used to getting hit, are you?"
"What the heck are we watching?" Feferi whispered. The other three shook their heads, eyes glued to the oddities on the stairs above.
"You might as well join us," Kanaya called. "Everyone is upstairs and accounted for aside from you four and Sollux, Aradia, Tavros, and Vriska."
"Everyone else?" Nepeta asked. She was struggling to say Karkat's name, instead substituting where necessary.
Kanaya nodded. "We were about to go look for the rest of the party, but it seems—"
"I'll go find Sollux," Eridan interrupted, picking up a large piece of piping.
"Oh lord. I'm going too," Feferi said, taking Eridan's free hand. "Make sure everyone's brains stay intact."
"We will go upstairs." Equius hoisted Nepeta onto his shoulders. "Right?"
She grumbled something, but didn't directly protest.
"They are congregated in the grand chambers down the hall and to the right. Rose is waiting outside—" Kanaya grimaced, "—so you should have no trouble finding it. Now, to seek Tavros—"
Kanaya clamped onto Gamzee's upper arm and practically yanked him down the stairs. Nepeta hadn't been aware of her strength until now. Kanaya was not someone she wanted to meet in a dark alley.
"Eridan, Feferi, meet up here in an hour if you cannot find Sollux and Aradia. I assume the two will be together."
Eridan growled and stalked off. Feferi shot Kanaya a sympathetic look and followed.
Equius looked up at Nepeta. "Are you ready to face him?"
Was she ready to face Karkat, the boy who confused her and ripped her heart to pieces? Who was, quite possibly, her least favorite human being at this point in time? Also one of the ones she held most highly? The one who hurt her the deepest three months ago? Who had moved on, while she was stuck, still miserable, and still terribly attached? The one she had gone to goddamn Turkey to forget?
The short answer was no.
The long answer was noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
"Yes. I think so."
He nodded. "Let me know if I should tear him to pieces."
"I will."
"Because I will."
She laughed. "I know. You're a good friend, Equius."
A strange expression passed across his face. "You too, Nepeta. A good friend. The best."
A/N: Eeep I'm three days late! Augh I wanted to update Saturdays and here I am at 11 on a Monday night just finishing this chapter. AARRRGGGHHH!
From now on I promise Saturday-Sunday will but the update day. Not Mondays. To make up for it, here's 1000+ more words than usual. Go crazy. Sorry the majority is Nepeta. Honestly, not the direction I intended, but as I've stated before, this story writes itself.
Hope everyone's in-character.
There's a poll on my profile about the shipteases I'm considering. If you'd just drop a few votes it'd give me an idea of what everyone ships.
Not that it'll change the final pairings, but I'll include some fodder. Mwahahaha.
So yeah. As some of you have pointed out, it is reminiscent of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Means I'm doing something right because that was exactly the atmosphere I was aiming for. Thanks to Rose's little deduction, that is clearly not the plot I'll be following, but hey, creepy atmosphere: check!
(Did anyone recognize the Shakespeare? One of the better plays in my opinion.)
Word of the Chapter: Amentia - Latin, meaning 'to be out of ones senses; madness; insanity'.
Love you all, you're all fantastic for sticking with my super-mood-change, and once again grazie grazie for the reviews and favorites and follows and AHH I WANT TO HUG YOU ALL.
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asdfghjkl; aww thank you! I'm so glad you liked it