Cyg doesn’t really do haunted houses insofar as she doesn’t enjoy cheap canned thrills. Jumpscares do the job, but she doesn’t find them enjoyable. Once she even got asked to leave a haunted house early because she accidentally sucker-punched one of the actors.

“Let’s see if we can get through this without me smashing a mirror,” she jokes as she clicks the pen she used to sign the waiver and hands it back to the GMH attendant. There was an odd kind of whiplash from seeing the ol’ uniform, in a haunted house, no less. That was its own spookiness in and of itself.

The hallway was chilly, almost painfully so, and smelled sharp, like frost and Windex. She was glad she wore layers. Despite her propensity to not be scared in haunted houses, her final girl instincts had kicked in; her outfit was utilitarian: warm, but light, with sneakers for running. In case there was running to be had.

Frankly, Cyg adored oscar clayton -- for numerous reasons, the least of which being his intelligence and his penchant for machinery. She also had a crush on Genesect that probably said a lot more about her than many of her other proclivities. But she didn’t trust the man as far as she could throw him, which, despite his slight stature, was probably not very far.

Still, she’s so excited, she’s giddy. She loves being scared. And it’s been so long since she’s been well and truly scared-- the innocent kind, not the people I care about are actively suffering and might die kind. She’s had enough of that for a fucking lifetime.

“Fortunately for us, the man’s a genius,” Cyg said, nodding at Isaac Merlo ; when she said us she meant Rocket at large, not their little group and its doomed foray into the Reflection Realm.

There’s a distant noise, like glass tinkling as it scatters across the ground. Cyg tries to focus in on the direction its coming from and can’t-- and then Isaac ruins the moment by being disgustingly hilarious, and the only sound that can be heard is her loud, stupid laughter as she cackles hard enough for tears to pool at the corners of her eyes.

“Fuck,” she wheezed, reaching over to tap him lovingly (but firmly) on his thunderous backside. “Yeah, you made all the mirrors laugh. There’s probably speakers behind them. Or ghosts. Maybe both.”

The ambiance was excellent, and the set-up was very well done. But she wasn’t about to give in yet.

“This is going to be fun.”

N3AnhVjs

Isaac Merlo illeana reyes Violet Fairbanks
wearing

☉

Oh. Mirrors. Again. Was this an odd digital world at the bottom of the sea that seemed to grotesquely take body parts for wrong answers in trivia games?
[break][break]
No? Okay then. Not scary. It simply was not. The only reason Vio shuddered even a little bit was because her skirt and blazer combo wasn’t exactly made for temperatures like these. But if that was all they had on offer, it was pretty pathetic, really. Yeah, that reflection was moving towards her all distorted like. Boo-hooh. Quite literally even. But it couldn’t exactly do a worse job on her than the one in Cyberchase had, so she just harrumphed and ignored it. “Whichever it is behind the mirrors, it’s not anything we couldn’t handle anyhow. Probably mostly Ghastly and Zorua if I know my mischief-making Pokemon.”
[break][break]
That was her expert opinion on the matter. As someone who had grown up with ghostly hijinks in the woods due to the nesting Pokemon there, Vio was definitely used to those sorts of things. Granted, the mirror stuff was neat and all. But some dude with a weird haircut had recently done that way better, so she could not really get worked up about this. “Anyway, I say we move on down this corridor, aye? Not like we have much of a choice one way or another, even with creepy mirrors. Just be wary of trapdoors and mirror-doors, I guess?”
[break][break]

+ ana fell illeana reyes Isaac Merlo 2Op9UAUL

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]oh... this is interesting.

her head rotates from left to right, sweeping across the stretching lines of mirrors. the longer she looks, the longer she waits for a certain sea hoennian to step out.

and yet, she doesn't hear the sound of water. she doesn't see a water saw. she doesn't feel death by self creeping into a pit in her stomach.

somehow, it brings a sense of ease to see only herself in the reflections. and isn't it refreshing to feel relief when she looks at herself for once?

the group chats and odd, jumbled giggles punctuate every sentence. she pays little mind to the laughter. it's second nature when you surround yourself with vocal ghosts.

"yeah, should be fine to keep going."

besides, the scent of bleach is beginning to sting her eyes...

DIvalkFP
Isaac Merlo ana fell Violet Fairbanks

“What? They might be into it,” she says, faux-affronted, peering into her reflection with an excited grin. She cocks her head to the side and the mirror does the same, and maybe if the glass-Cygne’s smile is a bit too big for her face, well, that’s more the fun, isn’t it?

She follows along after Isaac, happy to take her time, to enjoy the uneasiness of it all. Cyg loves being scared, she loves being freaked out, she loves that little thrill of things just maybe going tits up-- especially (only) when there’s no real weight behind it.

“I wonder what the mirrors would do,” she hums, suddenly graced with the mental vision of mirror her with a freakishly long tongue to shove down--

--nope, not getting horny in a mirror maze, thank you, Cyg. Try to keep your thoughts vaguely human, thank you.

She was torn from her licentious thoughts by Isaac startling back, the sudden and very visible discomfort in his movement discordant from their previously easy camaraderie. She would have reached for him, anyway, to make sure he was okay, but he was quicker: he grabbed her hand and began to run.

“Isaac!” she panted with a surprised gasp as he propelled her forward, bouncing like an electron off mirrors and down hallways. There was no order, no thought in the directions he was leading him, and only when she thought of them being trapped in the maze forever did she finally start to feel a little real panic bubble up. She tried to balance it with the logic of oscar clayton wouldn’t just do that but she found she… couldn’t comfortably assure herself that.

“Hey,” she said, finally digging in her heels and putting on the brakes, tugging him back to her. “Hey, you’re okay. You’re okay.” She put herself solidly between himself and the mirrors behind them. “This-- this is supposed to be fun. You’re okay.”

She had her hands on his shoulders and was looking into his eyes.

So why could she still see his face in the mirror behind him?

8YB3iARA

Isaac Merlo illeana reyes Violet Fairbanks
wearing
10/50 resolve?

☉

Huh? Violet found herself slightly startled – startled, not scared – when the other’s just took off. Which was a bother since she had just started pouting in a way that more or less clearly wanted to tell those two to get a room. With a bit of jealousy involved for not being, well, involved. Yet, the boy just suddenly rushed along as if he wanted to get out ASAP. Why? This whole mirror stuff wasn’t all that scary, in her opinion. Sure, given that these mirrors were seemingly capable of independent transformation meant there was some impressive technology behind it. But, again, she had been to the bottom of the sea. This clearly paled in comparison.
[break][break]
But then again, being left behind clearly was not going to be a good thing either! Vio sighed, then started to jog after them, very careful to not lose track of the real ones compared to the images. “I kind of meant moving onwards together, as a group, not to just rush headlong into the closest mirrors!” Naturally, she did not exactly give much attention to the fourth wheel to their quad. Mostly because they seemed relatively calm and collected still. Hopefully, they would not get lost. But she had to worry about those two silly-puddies for now. And maybe, just maybe, she just did not want to be left behind.

[break][break]

+ ana fell illeana reyes Isaac Merlo puMsjWu4

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]in the end, she loses sight of the companion closest to her. Violet Fairbanks seemingly disappears and she blames it on the twists and turns of the haunted house.

of course, she'd be wrong...

she turns the corner, backtracking to locate the woman, when she sees it happen: the body of Violet Fairbanks being tugged into a mirror by one of the woman's doppelgangers.

a shiver runs down the spine and with it, the ignition of scar tissue across the back skittering to life. it crawls in her skin, an irritated paranoia.

perhaps she had been wrong in the beginning, too. maybe in some way, her sea hoennian doppelganger is here in hiding, waiting to grab her too...

she keeps going despite the urge to stop, to leave, to escape the fated meeting of doppelgangers again in a house of mirrors.

X9rp7HnG
Isaac Merlo ana fell Violet Fairbanks

Isaac looks more alarmed at the fact that they were just playing grab-ass in front of polite company than anything else, really. A slightly deranged chuckle bubbles to her lips. It’s adorable. She doesn’t know what’s cuter, the fact that he’s blushing or the idea that his endearing corniness was meant for her and her alone.

Yeah, she was definitely 100% normal and being affected by their surroundings normally.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” she hurried to assure him, still fighting giggles, and losing. “That just makes it funnier. Besides, it’s not like we were shoving our tongues down each other’s throats.” Which. coincidentally, hadn’t that been what’d she’d imagined?

Fuck, she needed to see a psychiatrist.

She eventually had to clap her hands over her mouth to follow along behind him because she was still laughing. Shit, this was too much fun. oscar clayton needed to do one of these like once a week.

The laughter spilled over as they watched Violet Fairbanks ’s doppleganger reach out and grab her, dragging her back into the mirror. “Okay, that was so fucking cool,” she said, looking down at Isaac and genuinely surprised to see he wasn’t having as much fun as she was. He was repeating his it’s just a show mantra to himself and looked like he was about to bolt.

Her enthusiasm died. She definitely regretted coming here, if he was looking this uncomfortable.

“Hey, I’m sure-- there’s gotta be a panic button somewhere. Where we can get out. Or I’ll just bust through the mirrors.” Muirne would be amenable to that, probably. She turned to one of her reflections and mimicked the very stern hands-on-her-hips reflection it was giving off, returning its scowl with one of equal fervor.

Then the lights flickered out.

In the next blink, the strange wire-boned thing was close enough to her face for her to smell the metal on the air-- like the lost memory of a bloody nose.

And Isaac was running.

CUXbMAMz

Isaac Merlo illeana reyes Violet Fairbanks
wearing
see you next year. good luck baby

☉