Author's Note: Sorry about the delay… again. I'd promise to get the next chapter out faster… but by now I think anyone who's been reading my stories a while will know exactly how much that would mean. I have no intention of stopping this tale until it's done, though, so if you have a Fanfiction Dot Net account, set me to your author alerts (if you haven't already), or just keep checking back every few weeks. …Oh, and as always, please review!
Chrono Crossover: The Funhouse
Episode Twelve
Previously: Gray team won the right to use the Hot Tub, while Red team had to wear their bathing suits all day. A challenge was held in which the contestants had to copy the movements of mechanical duplicates of themselves. Robo won this challenge, and with it a doll he could use to stand-in for him in certain dares. Then, in the Bonus Dare, most of Red Team agreed to get messy, while Marle had her right arm turned to stone.
o-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-o
Character Scoreboard:
Red Team:
Team Points: 12
Team Prizes: Access to Cafeteria
*Crono:
Conditions: (not yet begun: whipped cream on face (24 hours))
Points: 14
*Lucca:
Conditions: (not yet begun: latex on face (~), clay mud in hair (~))
Points: 14
*Robo:
(Serial Dare X: "Metamorphosis" into action figure.)
Conditions: Head, right foot plastic
Points: 72
(Robo Doll):
Conditions: Head, right foot, right arm plastic
*Ayla:
Conditions: (not yet begun: Ice Cream on palms (24 hours))
Points: 12
*Serge:
Conditions: none
Points: 5
*Leena:
Conditions: none
Points: 4
.
Gray Team
Team Points: 0
Team Prizes: Access to Yard, Hot Tub
*Frog:
Conditions: None
Points: 10
*Marle:
Clothing: snake-woman costume with bikini top
Condition: right arm turned to stone.
Points: 22
*Korcha:
Conditions: none
Points: 4
*Kid
Conditions: none
Points: 0
*Harle:
(Serial Dare VI: "Identity Crisis")
Conditions: act as if had amnesia (until next bonus)
Points: 66
o-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-o
Day Eleven Continued (Round 3, Part 3)"Isn't that stone arm heavy?" Kid asked, watching Marle awkwardly crawl/slither along, her stiff right arm giving her a strange sort of "limp".
Suddenly, Marle collapsed to the floor, apparently overwhelmed by her arm's weight.
Korcha laughed, and Kid gave her an annoyed look.
"Kidding!" Marle said, picking herself up. "Seriously, it is a little bit heavy, but not too bad. I wouldn't want to have to hold it up for too long, but other than that, it's no big deal. Trying to move around with it frozen in position, that's a little more challenging."
Kid shuddered. "I still can't believe you can do things like wear that snake-tail and the body cast you got, and let your arm be petrified… And you seem so cheerful about it, to boot!"
Frog added, "Indeed, thine bravery dost astound me."
Korcha said with a smile, "Face it, she's just plain kinky. She likes being helpless!"
Marle protested, "I am not 'kinky'! And I don't like being helpless, either. I just... don't mind it too much, when I know I'm safe…"
Korcha shrugged. "If cha say so…" He didn't sound convinced.
Harle spoke up. "So, I take it, zis 'kinky', it is a bad thing?"
"Well, yeah… I mean, isn't it…?"
Kid said, "It means you're strange. Weather that makes it bad, I guess depends on weather you think 'strange' is bad…"
Frog spoke up. "If to be unusual is to be 'bad', then I must be unwelcome in the world of man, for in mine present form, I am most unusual. Indeed, one could say that all of our traveling companions are quite unusual… A mechanical man… a woman with the strength of ten men… a lass as intelligent and clever as the wisest and craftiest old men… and a young man who leads with almost nary a word… -These are not, methinks, the sorts of people one might meet every day."
"You have a point there," Marle conceded.
"And furthermore, thou art a princess. Is it therefore not appropriate that thou shouldst be accepting of; nay, even find comfort in, bonds? After all, 'tis a common theme in tales of romance and adventure that the princess shall be captured by the villain, and rescued by her true love."
Marle stared at him skeptically. "I don't think that's quite it, Frog. In face, I'm not sure I even see your point."
Frog halted for a moment, blinked, and croaked. He then resumed walking, and said, "Pay it no mind. 'Twas of no import…"
o-o-o-o
Meanwhile, Crono, Lucca, and Ayla, headed for the supply room.
Marian greeted them cheerfully. "Hello. We've got quite a catch today, don't we?"
Lucca rolled her eyes.
Getting right down to business, Marian called out Anar and Reton. When they came over, she said, "Anar, Reton, why don't you take Crono and Ayla to the refrigerator and help them with their dares? I'll assist Lucca—If that's all right with you, contestants?"
Crono nodded, and Ayla and Lucca agreed.
Anar and Reton led Crono and Ayla to another part of the storeroom, where there was a large refrigerator.
"All right, we need Ice Cream and Whipped Cream, right?" Reton asked. Anar nodded. Reton opened the door and began searching for the whipped cream.
Anar turned to Ayla. "I guess I'm supposed to ask you, what flavor Ice Cream do you want?"
Ayla shrugged. "Ayla no care."
Anar gave a slight smile, then ducked into the refrigerator.
Meanwhile, Reton had gotten out a container of Whipped Cream, and handed it to Crono. "I assume you can do this yourself?"
Crono nodded. He pulled off the lid of the container, stuck his hand into the cream, and taking a large gob of it, began smearing it on his face.
Anar came out of the refrigerator with a carton of Carmel Swirl Ice Cream, which he opened for Ayla.
"You need any help?" He asked.
Reton raised an eyebrow. "To put ice cream on her hands? Why would she need any help with that?!"
"I, er, was just being polite, that's all," Anar said nobly.
"Polite? You?! …There's a first time for everything, I suppose…"
Meanwhile, Ayla had dug her hands into the ice cream. "Ooh! Cold." She pulled out two handfuls, and licked one. "Tastes good!" She began eating the ice cream off of her hands.
"Er, don't forget you're supposed to leave some on your palms," Reton reminded her.
Anar turned his attention to Crono, who had covered his entire face in a thin layer of whipped cream.
"Hey," Anar complained, "you can do better than that!" He grabbed a big handful of the stuff, and smushed it onto Crono's face before Crono could react.
Crono wiped the cream off his eyes, and scowled at Anar, prompting Anar to begin laughing.
o-o-o-o
In another part of the supply room,. Marion was busy preparing the supplies for Lucca's dares.
"While you wait, why don't you pick out which color latex you'd like—we just got a shipment in the other day, so you have a lot of options."
Lucca studied the many cans of latex. There was clear, "basic black", white, silver, gold, bronze, and the basic colors of the rainbow.
Soon, Marian came back in, carrying a big bucket of gray mud, which she put down near a chair in the center of the "room".
Lucca told her, "I think I'll go with the purple."
"Good choice—it'll match your hair. Not that anyone will be able to see much of your hair with the mud in it..."
"Uh, yeah…"
"Oh! I forgot—you'll want to shave before we apply the latex."
"Shave…? Oh, that's right, Marle mentioned that she had to before you applied the latex to her. It also made a pretty nasty stain on one of her outfits—it must bond to any fibrous material, I take it?"
Marion blinked. "Uh, yes. And even the smallest hair could get stuck to it, making removal quite painful."
"So I guess my eyebrows will have to go. And it wouldn't hurt to give the rest of my face a once over, to get rid of any other hair, even if we're just talking about hair so small it's next-to-impossible to see."
"Yes. Follow me, I'll show you to a place where you can take care of that."
"…Wait!" Lucca said, holding up her hand.
"Yes?"
Lucca adjusted her glasses. "I'm supposed to wear this latex mask for the rest of the game, right?"
"That's correct."
"And, I just remembered, Marle said that once it was fully dry, the latex stopped sticking to her skin, and only stayed on because it was so tight."
"Oh, really? I believe the directions for the latex might have said something about that."
"So, how are we going to make sure my latex mask won't fall off?"
"That's a good question…"
Lucca adjusted her glasses again. "Why don't we just apply the latex without having me shave first?"
"Well, that would keep it on, all right, but it would be quite painful when we finally did go to remove it, after the game."
"Oh, right. Hmm…"
o-o-o-o
"You probably shouldn't bother waiting for Lucca—she could be a while," Reton told Crono and Ayla.
Crono nodded, and he and Ayla headed for the door.
As they walked back to the Red Room, Ayla sneaked in several more licks to the (now thin) layer of ice cream on her hands.
o-o-o-o
After a bit of discussion, Marion and Lucca decided to attach strings to the "mask" to tie it to Lucca's head.
Lucca took off her helmet and glasses, and shaved her face, including her eyebrows. After Lucca dried her face, Marion had her sit on the stool in the area with the supplies for her dare. Marian then painted on the first layer of purple latex, being careful not to get any in Lucca's eyes and mouth, or on her eyelids and lips. While they waited for it to dry, Marion stirred up the clay mud, poured a little bit onto Lucca's bare head (causing her to shiver a bit), and began mixing it into the hair like a shampoo.
"Wow, this already feels a little tighter," Lucca commented.
"The latex, you mean?" Marion asked, as she added some more of the mud to Lucca's hair.
"Yeah."
"I guess I should do another layer, then." Marion wiped off her hands, and taking the foam latex-brush, painted another layer of the latex onto Lucca's face.
"I can't believe I'm letting you put mud in my hair and liquid rubber on my face… Maybe I shouldn't have let Marle talk me into playing this 'Funhouse'…"
"Please don't move your mouth, this is sensitive work." Marion said.
Lucca decided the best reply to that was to be quiet.
When Marion had finished with the layer of latex, she went back to adding mud to Lucca's hair. As she did so, she said, "You may have been talked into playing this game, but you weren't talked into doing this dare, were you?"
"Well… no. But I had to start building up some points sooner or later, right?"
"The points are only a way of determining how much money you win at the end. Is the money that important to you?"
"No! Of course not…"
"Then why are you performing the dare?"
"Well, I…" Lucca wasn't quite sure how to answer. Finally, as Marion stood back to decide if she'd mixed enough mud into Lucca's hair yet, Lucca said, "It's not that I'm opposed to these dares. It's just that they seem so… weird…"
"Well, of course. Haven't you figured it out yet? That's the whole point of the Funhouse—to allow people a chance to do totally bizarre things, in a safe, secluded setting."
Lucca thought about that for a moment, while Marion got some strings.
"I'm going to attach the strings now, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I guess."
Choosing several spots at the edges of Lucca's latex-covered face as anchors, Marion stuck the ends of the strings on the currently sticky latex, then pulled them around to the back of Lucca's head, being careful not to pull them loose. She then straightened out Lucca's hair, patting it down to lie flat. In the process, the strings were covered up, except for a few inches at the spot where Marion planned on tying them together. Letting the back ends of the strings hang loose, she then painted another layer of latex onto Lucca's face, this time covering over the ends of the strings.
"Now, try not to move your face or head while this layer dries," Marion instructed. As before, Lucca responded by not responding.
When she felt the latex had dried enough, she took the strings and gave them a test tug. Satisfied with the results, she tied off the ends, then covered the knot with some of Lucca's thick-with-drying-mud hair.
"Almost done, now. Oh, and you can talk now."
"Thanks."
Marion walked around Lucca, trying to decide what more she should do. Deciding Lucca's hair could use some more mud, she took some and began spreading it over the surface of Lucca's mass of hair and mud.
"About what you were saying earlier," Lucca spoke up, "—you know, about the purpose of the Funhouse? –I think you're right. And maybe the reason I agreed to this—and to these dares—is because I wanted to cut loose a little myself, you know?" Lucca gave an uncertain smile.
Marion smiled. "Makes perfect sense to me."
"It's just strange, that's all. I never really thought I had any interest in stuff this crazy!"
"One never knows."
o-o-o-o
"So, do I get to lick the whipped cream off your face?" Marle asked Crono, leaning forward onto her stone arm.
"Uh, once the dare's over…"
Marle giggled.
Meanwhile, Robo was telling Ayla, "Continued consumption of the substance on your palms is inadvisable. You have touched several things (such as the doorknob), that are likely to be high in dangerous microbes. Furthermore, you shall soon have consumed all of the ice cream, and thus be in violation of your dare."
Ayla brushed his comments aside. "If Ayla run out of ice cream, Ayla go get more."
o-o-o-o
When Lucca returned to the apartments, she quickly became the center of attention. She had put her glasses back on, but had left her helmet off, to keep it clean. As it turned out, this was just as well, as everybody wanted to get a good look at both her face and her hair. Marle and Ayla even had to touch them—even though Ayla ended up getting ice cream on Lucca's face.
Lucca blushed at all the attention; thankfully, no one could see the color of her face.
"What does it feel like?" Marle wanted to know.
"Well, the latex is tight—tighter than I expected. I can feel it clinging to my face with every movement of my facial muscles… As for the clay mud, it's mostly wet and heavy."
o-o-o-o
After everybody was done quizzing the new dare performers about their dares, there was still a little bit of time for some sparring practice, then it was time for supper.
Marle had already had to do some adjusting due to her rigid right arm—opening doors was a bit of a challenge, for instance. She now had another new challenge to face, as her magical handicap left her having to feed herself one-handed.
o-o-o-o
After the meal, Ayla went to get some more ice cream for her hands, while the Gray Team enjoyed some time out in the yard, watching the sun set.
o-o-o-o
As Lucca got ready for bed, she looked in the mirror at herself. Her face was purple, and shiny, while her hair was a dull gray. She touched her hair, feeling the nearly dry mud. It was a little dusty, but otherwise quite solid. Almost as if she were still wearing her helmet…
"Very weird," she commented to herself.
o-o-o-o
Lucca had resigned herself to getting her pillow dirty, but she had overlooked the fact that her "helmet" of hair made the pillow irrelevant. As she lay down, she discovered that whether her head was on the pillow, or on the mattress itself, she couldn't feel the pillow. "It's like sleeping with my helmet on…" Pushing the pillow aside, she tried to find a comfortable position.
Meanwhile, Crono made sure to lay down on the couch so that his face was facing outward, thus hopefully minimizing the risk of his getting whipped cream on the couch.
Ayla, on the other hand, paid no heed to her sticky, melted-ice-cream covered hands as she curled up on the chair, much to the annoyance of the others.
o-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_o
Day Twelve (Round Three, Part 3 Continued)Late that night, Kid woke to find Marle tossing and turning wildly in her sleep.
Kid got out of bed and shook Marle. "Marle, wake up!"
It took a little bit, but finally, Marle woke up. "Wha—Kid? …Thanks for waking me up. I was having a really bad dream."
"Yeah, I kinda guessed. You were tossin' an' turnin' like crazy. Parta why I woke up."
"Oh. Sorry about that…"
"Nah, it's all right. Not yer fault." Kid sat down on the edge of her bed. "…So, wanna' talk about it?"
"Well… I dreamed I was turning to stone. Not just my arm, but my whole body! It—It started with my arm, then my legs… Then it was all but my head, just like when I was in that cast… I was trying and trying to move, but I just couldn't…"
"That's quite the nightmare. Guess it's 'cause of your arm?"
"…Yeah, I guess. It's really freaky, having my arm changed like this…" Marle cradled her stone arm in her other arm.
"I can imagine. …But… I thought you liked this…?"
"I do! Well, sort of. I like the craziness of it… and the challenge of trying to do things without moving my elbow… or walking, for that matter. It's just… sometimes, I miss my freedom, you know?"
"…Yeah…" Kid moved over and patted Marle on the back. "Don't worry though—remember, this is all a game. You don't have to take on any dares you don't want to, you can forfeit old dares, and if it comes down to it, you can always quit the game."
"…I suppose…"
"Come on," Kid said, starting to smile, "don't be like this! If you can't be your usual perky self, it'll be up to me to keep the team's spirits up—and trust me, you don't want to see my attempts at morale boosting."
Marle smiled back mildly. "Oh… alright. I'll try to enjoy myself."
"That's the spirit."
"…You know, though," Marle said, her smile turning sly, "it might be a little easier for me to handle my dares if the rest of the team would perform some from time to time…"
"Oh no, I'm not going to let you talk me into doing anything crazy!" Kid said with mock apprehension. They both laughed.
o-o-o-o
In the morning, Crono discovered he had ended up getting some whipped cream on the couch, despite his best efforts. Ayla, of course, had gotten a bit of ice-cream on the chair; enough so that she had to stop by the supply room for more.
o-o-o-o
The rest of the morning went rather normally, aside from Crono's cream-covered face causing laughs from the others, Lucca's latex and clay combo eliciting stares, and the "amnesiac" Harle needing to have everything explained for her.
Crono, Marle, and Lucca spent some time together mending their relationship, Frog spent more time in the hot-tub, and Ayla got ice-cream on Serge, Korcha, and Harle when she sparred with them.
Then, after lunch at noon, Vicks, Wedge, and Piette informed Crono and Ayla that they could remove the whipped & ice cream. All members of both teams were to then put on their normal bathing suits and report to the Dare Room.
Ayla immediately began licking the ice cream from her hands.
Lucca, meanwhile, said to Crono seductively, "I wouldn't mind helping you get that whipped cream off."
Marle put her left hand on her hip (her right arm not being mobile enough for that). "Hey, Crono promised that I could lick the cream off!"
Lowering her voice, and looking around to make sure no one else was listening, Lucca complained, "But, you got to lick the pie off his face last time."
"Oh, fine, we'll share him. Okay?"
"It's not the same... But I suppose… That okay with you, Crono?"
Crono nodded, glad the whipped cream hid his blushing.
o-o-o-o
Borrowing the Red Room bathroom, Marle & Lucca got down to business.
"I'll go first," Lucca said, beginning to lick the cream off Crono's right cheek.
"Why take turns?" Marle asked, attacking the cream on Crono's left cheek.
Crono began to overheat a bit, having two beautiful girls he liked licking his face at the same time. He also was glad yet again that he wore loose pants.
Lucca worked her way up the side of Crono's face, and Marle followed suit. They met in the middle of his forehead, and Crono could feel the tips of their warm, wet tongues touch for a moment.
Lucca jerked away. "Marle, what was that?!"
"Um... My tongue?" Marle said innocently.
Lucca scowled. "Marle, doing this with you around is hard enough for me, I don't need you making it harder."
Marle giggled. "Sorry. I guess I got over enthused. It won't happen again."
Lucca hesitated, then nodded. She moved back up to Crono's face to lick at the cream at the lower end of his cheek, and on his chin, while Marle licked off the cream on his nose.
Marle gave Lucca a little bit of space as Lucca came in for the kill, licking the cream off from around Crono's lips, then turning it into a kiss. Marle went for the last bits of cream on the lower part of his left cheek, then pulled away from Crono's face to whisper in Lucca's ear, "I know I said I wouldn't make this any harder, but I just had an idea I think Crono would like."
"Hmm?" Lucca intoned, not breaking the kiss.
Not bothering to answer or give further warning, Marle moved her face back over to Crono's, then pushed Lucca to the side just enough to join in on the kiss.
Crono and Lucca's eyes widened as they found themselves in a 3-way kiss. After getting over the surprise, Crono decided to go with the flow, and open his mouth to touch tongues with Marle.
Lucca hesitated a few moments, not entirely comfortable being part of a kiss with Marle, but not wanting to give up the kiss she'd been having with Crono. Of course, this close to the two of them it was hard to ignore how much Marle and Crono were getting into their part of the kiss, and before long Lucca's competitive streak kicked in and she opened her mouth and shoved her tongue into Crono's mouth, determined that Crono would enjoy her side of the kiss as much as Marle's. She did, however, do her best to avoid Marle's tongue while she did this.
Of course, now that Lucca saw it as a competition, she couldn't be the first one to break the kiss, and Marle was enjoying herself too much to think of stopping. Thus it fell to Crono to pull back after a few minutes and point out reluctantly, "We need to get in our bathing suits."
Marle said, "Oh, right. Everyone's probably waiting for us by now."
Lucca nodded. "You're right, we need to get going." She adjusted her glasses. "By the way, I hope you enjoyed that, Crono - because making out with you alongside Marle is not something I plan on repeating."
Marle said, "Oh, don't make such a big deal about it - that wasn't so bad. ...But still, I wouldn't want to make a habit of it either. But you did like it, right Crono?"
Crono grinned, and nodded.
o-o-o-o
…Later, when everyone had changed into their bathing suits, they assembled in the Dare Room, and Bekkler led them to the Challenge Room.
The pool there was once again filled with slime.
"Today's individual challenge will test your tolerance for messy stuff, and your ability to tread water. The challenge: tread slime! If you forfeit the challenge, give up, or your head goes below the surface and remains there for over five seconds, you're out. The player that stays above slime the longest wins 6 points. Meanwhile, as nobody left the house in the last round, the first two players out must face the Eviction Challenge."
Marle sighed. "I was afraid of this. My dares keep getting in the way of challenges—there's no way I can tread water like this!" Even though she had been allowed to change into a bathing suit, her arm was still stone.
"Why don't you try?" Lucca suggested, adjusting her glasses.
Kid agreed. "Yeah, these dares could really start to add up, otherwise."
"…But, it's slime-! It's so disgusting."
Lucca smiled encouragingly. "It's not that bad. Isn't this the sort of thing you wanted from the Funhouse?"
"Well… sort of… I guess… Oh, alright, I'll try."
…Leena, however, decided to sacrifice her 5 points and risk the Eviction Dares and Challenge, rather than take a dip in the slime pool.
o-o-o-o
And so, the challenge began!
As it turned out, it was a good thing Marle chose to participate, as even Robo's mechanical speed, strength, and endurance were not enough to make up for the fact that his sheer weight made swimming an "iffy" proposition. He had to move his legs and arms so fast they were barely visible—an effort that quickly began to drain his fuel-cells. Before long, he had to quit.
Marle's legs weren't as strong as she'd have liked, after not having been used very much recently, and that, along with her stone arm, caused her to soon sink below the surface long enough to be disqualified. She climbed out of the pool, and began playing around with the slime in her hand. "I still think it's disgusting… but it's kind of fun too… Makes me wish I'd gone in last time!"
Lucca was next, followed by Crono, then Kid.
Having been raised near the ocean, Serge was a pretty good swimmer, and lasted quite a while. However, he was the next to sink, followed by Harle, Ayla, and finally Korcha.
"'Shoulda' known Frog'd win," Korcha commented as he climbed out of the pool.
Bekkler made it official. "Frog wins 6 points! Robo and Leena, please come with me to the Dare Room, where we'll see what you need to do to stay in the game."
What dares await our two potential evictees? Shall both of them stay in the game, or will the house have one or two people less very soon? Find out, on the next out-of-this world episode of the Funhouse!