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 Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 10:45 am
"Door-jam," mused the stranger, "door-jam, jammed door. This place loves itself a good pun, don't it."
He took a few steps away from the door and scooped up the toy piano in his free hand, turning it over before pocketing this too (probably next to the fork). "Key," he said. "We're trying to open something, maybe there's a particular key it's looking for. Maybe not. Let's try C major again, it was responding well to that. I'm thinking -- whistle and strum in unison, and we do it at least five times over before letting it lapse into its copy-of-a-copy repetitions. What do you say, Perry? Worth a shot?"
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 11:42 am
"Guess so," Perry said, with an inert shrug -- that made some sense out of that horrible comb, at any rate. He was never that much of a word games person, and so he stood in place and listened as 'John' wove together a plan, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head to the side a little, giving the entire situation a tensed frown.
They were trying to open something, but there was no guarantee anything in here would be opening at all, he thought. Who really knew.
After a low, quiet sigh, he repositioned his hands around the banjo and asked, "Shave-and-a-haircut again?" Perry received a quick nod, and, feeling entirely silly (and feeling like he was going to have to get used to feeling entirely silly pretty quickly here), he turned his attention back to the wall and they started again:
Shave-and-a-haircut, two bits!
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 6:08 pm
The orchestra of twin whistles and a banjo echoed throughout the room. By the time they'd reached the third iteration the wall had already started to sing along, and as the last whistles died away on the fifth bricks had started to fall. One, then two -- but the wall launched into a new strum of chords, bellowing with all its might.
A major D crashed into their C crashed into the mighty major G chord, and the wall busted enthusiastically out into the overfamiliar stylings of:
SHE'S GOT EYES LIKE THE BLUEST SKIES
AS IF THEY THOUGHT OF RAIN
I HATE TO LOOK INTO THOSE EY...
For a moment the wall faltered, as though embarrassed it had continued on alone or like it didn't know the next key. The stranger and Perry had loosed six whole bricks, empty darkness beyond.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 6:14 pm
The stranger didn't need prompting, bursting out in a melodious baritenor: "-- eeeyes and seee an ouuunce of paiiiiin! Her hair reminds me of a warm safe space where aaas a chiiild I'd hiiiide, and pray for the thunder and the rain to quiiiietly pass me by-y-yy."
He was grinning now, though possibly more out of adrenaline and pent-up tension than actual cheer -- and without waiting to see whether Perry was accompanying him on banjo, though probably with the hope that he was, he went on, "Ohhhhh, sweet child of miii-iiine --"
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:41 pm
Fortunately for Wiseman, Dr. Westerman was indeed accompanying on the banjo -- as emphatically as he could, anyway, given the distinctive twang of a banjo could only do so much to emulate the sound of an electric guitar.
He had also picked up singing along. In a rich, rumbling bass.
Emphatically.
Hey, he couldn't just half-a** Guns N' Roses. It was a good song.
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Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:45 pm
The wall belted with them. As it did, more and more bricks fell -- a hole was revealed that they could squeeze through if they wanted -- more fell away, until the entire doorway was open for them to go through. The end chords of Sweet Child O'Mine died away into happy, satiated silence, and the way was clear.
Revealed was a corridor with wood-panelled walls and peeling wallpaper. The corridor split off in dozens of paths left and right, new corridors to consider, the floor covered in dust and dirt and bits of left-over machinery and broken jack-in-the-boxes and flotsam of all sorts.
And there were doors. So many doors. None of them would open.
On the walls there were sconces with candles to light their way. They could go whatever way they pleased. Every so often the wallpaper would change into paint or stripes or bare wall, and there was junk in massed piles everywhere the eye could see.
What would Perry and the stranger do now?
[Dr. Westerman and the strange man have completed the puzzle room and are free to wander the corridors. Your reward is being able to explore without interference -- for now. Remember that you can't meet up with anyone else until Stage One commences. Good job!]
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