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 Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:21 pm
Halloween only came once a year, and Tallulah was a pretty big fan of the holiday. As a kid she'd done Trick-or-Treating for Unicef, having never been a huge fan of candy, but she'd always loved dressing up (usually as a mermaid) and seeing Destiny City transformed into a fantasy land for most of the latter half of October. Last year she'd gone to the carnival with friends, and a parental chaperone, but seventeen-almost-eighteen was where Angus was persuaded to let Tallulah go by herself. Or, an even more frightening proposition - with her boyfriend.
Tonight, she and Jaimie were each other's context - apart, Tallulah was an Indian princess and Jaimie was a British soldier, circa the 1500s, but together they made for a fetching and quite obvious Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. They'd already been on a number of rides, and played some games, and now Tallulah had her sights set on the haunted house.
"Come on," she said, tugging Jaimie towards the library elevators, past the kiddy stuff. "Let's go to the third floor. We're big kids, Jai."
No, definitely no bedsheet ghosts for Tallulah Cowden. She'd spent a year fighting Youma and had a taste for zombies.
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:29 pm
"And we've even got the costumes to prove it." Jaimie chuckled, though he wasn't entirely talking about their History-a-la-Disney costumes. They were entertainingly appropriate, though he seemed to recall that the 'real' John Smith was his personal, hairy, polar opposite. No wonder people liked the Disney version.
"You know this will probably be a yawn fest compared to... well.." He glanced around at the crowd and flashed her an impish grin. "You know."
"Probably better than having a real boogie-man pop up in the haunted house though." Wouldn't that be the perfect Nega-scam?
"...Sorry. I'll quit talking about that kind of stuff while we're trying to have fun." He promised.
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:19 pm
"You're going to have me jumping at shadows," scoffed Tallulah as they got into the elevator and she hit the button for three. Her henshin pen was at the bottom of her purse, which some might call tempting fate but she just considered being prepared. It didn't mean she wanted to use it.
The doors dinged open and she pulled him out onto the dimly lit landing. "Come on," she chided, tugging him into a gloomy stack of books draped in black and green crepe paper. "Let's just be normal teenagers tonight."
Said the girl in the feathered headdress.
Walking backwards, Tallulah backed into a skeleton that looked like it had been stolen from a college biology lab. It tipped forwards onto her, and she shrieked and clung to Jaimie.
The skeleton slowly righted itself.
"How corny," chided Tallulah, but didn't let go of her boyfriend.
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:30 pm
"I think I have a new respect for corn." Jaimie grinned, putting his arm around her shoulders and trying to pretend he hadn't, himself, jumped when the skeleton moved.
His own Henshin pen was stuffed into his pants pocket, along with his Senshi-phone.
He did have to admit though, you really had to hand it to some of the classic scares... even with the risk that either he or Tal might startle enough to henshin up and blow away and display.
...He just hoped it wasn't him. He wasn't too sure about how this place was for fire code.
"Although at least not as corny as those sweatshirts that one guy wears. You know the one, the Godfather kid. Holy Cow that guy is like a walking B-movie advertisement."
He wouldn't have admitted it but Jaimie talked when he was nervous. This was not as much a secret as he would have liked.
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:36 pm
"I - uh - no, I don't know," admitted Tallulah. She was still trembling a bit as they made their way through a curtain of spider webs illuminated by slanting red shafts of light. "You think there's anyone else in here?" she asked. "Other kids, or--"
She was cut off by the appearance of Freddy Krueger, who stepped from behind a bookcase and grinned at Jaimie. "Pretty girlfriend you'd got there," he said, gesturing at Tallulah with a razor-blade studded finger. "I'm sure you won't mind sharing."
Tallulah let out a slight Eep! and clasped a hand over her mouth to keep from saying any more. It was just an actor, she reminded herself. An actor, in extremely realistic stage makeup. He'd probably played Macbeth last season at DC Community Stage. She'd probably seen him. It was just prosthetics. Extremely realistic prosthetics.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" asked Freddy. "Krueger got your tongue?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:44 pm
Jaimie jerked in surprise, starting to take a defensive position between Tallulah and the actor, and caught himself reaching for his henshin pen, in spite of his own internal monologue against doing anything of the sort.
Don't set fire to the plastic cobwebs dingus. That s**t will melt all over!
He chastised himself, though his heart rate had jumped notably. This guy was definitely higher on the scary rating than say, Wolframite.
"N-nah." He fought the skip and stutter in his voice. "She loaned it to the cat. Nice makeup Fred, you gonna make an cameo at the sandwich shop after the show? You'd be a hit..."
He's not a youma... he's not a youma... it's just an actor...
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:02 pm
"Jason and I are going out for drinks," said Freddy, leaving it perfectly ambiguous as to whether there was a Jason Voorhees in a hockey mask somewhere in the maze, or whether his boyfriend's name was Jason, or whether they were the same person. He grinned menacingly. "I could tell you kids where, but then I'd have to kill you!"
"Of course," he continued, leaning in close and flexing his gloved hand in front of their faces, "I might just do that anyways!"
Tallulah whimpered and gripped Jaimie's arm tighter.
"Oh, are you scared, princess?" asked Freddy.
"No," muttered Tallulah, not looking away. Just an actor, she reminded herself. He was just an actor, even if the glove looked so realistic. She glanced behind her, ascertaining that there was a clear path, and tugged on Jaimie's arm.
"Jai," she whispered. "Jai, he can't hurt us, let's go-"
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:15 pm
"...Yeah..." Jaimie agreed, eying the man as he moved to edge past Freddie, still trying to keep between him and Tallulah. "...Let's go. I never did like the smell of old Barbecue..."
He'd almost forgotten about that, it had been so long since he'd actually watched those movies, but Freddie had originally died in a fire hadn't he? What he couldn't remember was how they'd beaten him, but the girl had ended up with a white streak in her hair.
Granted that look was sort of 'automatic badass'...but on him it would probably barely show anyway.
"Seriously dude... be glad she's not a princess." He smirked grimly, palming his henshin pen and clutching it so tightly that he knew his knuckles would be white. "You couldn't handle the princesses I've heard about."
He had to admit, Tal was probably going to wrench his arm out of his socket for it... but he savored the inside joke like a hidden weapon.
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:21 pm
"She's in another castle, anyway," said Tallulah shakily as they backed away. Freddy didn't give pursuit, reassuring Tallulah that he really was just an actor. Once they were a safe distance away, she turned to face forward, picking her way through a small graveyard that had sprung up in the aisle. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Me, a princess?" she smirked. While Tallulah enjoyed responsibility, she didn't think she wanted to be a princess. Because what happened when your prince sent the whole city into a coma? You kind of had to take the fall.
"...Do you think this entire maze is just populated by horror movie monsters?" she asked, and kind of hoped not. With the gravestones behind them, she was keen on catching what came next before it caught her.
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:29 pm
"Well I guess it makes sense..." Jaimie was trying to keep his ears perked, as it were, straining for the sounds of movement around them. "I mean it's not like people are exactly reading much these days..."
He did his best not to trip on the gravestones, partially hidden in the gloom.
"That was pretty impressive makeup for an fun-house horror costume..." He admitted, unhappy with his own discomfort.
The darkness around them made soft, leathery noises, and he kept trying to catch the flickers of movement around them, not sure if it were animatronics or actors. At this point he wouldn't have been surprised by either.
That was about when the monster popped in from above, swooping just overhead and perching, probably on a wire, on one of the gravestones off to the side. It was roughly man sized, purple black with ragged wings and twisted horns and long spindly fingers that came close enough to ruffle hair in passing. Surprisingly it didn't sport a maw full of shark or needle teeth, since it didn't have a mouth at all, or for that matter a face, though the room sound effects provided an high pitched, bat like shriek.
"WOAH!"
He'd have sooner dipped his head in paint than admit it, but Jaimie Leontyne had just been officially startled.
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:34 pm
Tallulah shrieked and dove for the floor to get out of the thing's way, winding up sprawled against the base of a shelf with her dress up around her hips and her underwear on display to the whole world. She scrambled to her feet, furiously tugging at her dress, and stared at the thing.
Was it a youma? Was it a man in a costume? Honestly, she couldn't tell. But with so many civilians in costume, it wouldn't do to go attacking anything that moved. She took a tentative step towards Jaimie, clutching a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica (E through Ee, it proclaimed helpfully) to her chest for protection.
"...What are you supposed to be?" she asked, staring at the creature. Oh, wow, that was a great costume! And the flying effect! The longer it went without directly attacking them, the more confident she was that it was just an actor, but still - it was such an impressive getup!
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:40 pm
The actor didn't answer, but hunched forward on the grave stone, twitching it's unnaturally long fingers, which, in Jaimie's book, was almost creepier than talking.
...And it was almost enough to scare him enough to not notice Tallulah's skirt blunder, which he did his best to not study too intently, although he was, in the back of his mind, trying to decide if he'd just seen a cute little cartoon... something. Tallulah? Cartoon undies? Really? Maybe he was imagining it.
"Fffff. Shiiiiiit." Jaimie heaved an huge sigh, trying to get his pulse back under control. "I dunno, I haven't seen that movie, Ask the Godfather, he probably knows..."
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 5:53 pm
They were, in fact, disney princess undies, and if Tallulah had known anyone was going to see her underwear tonight, she'd have worn a different pair. "Come on," she said, regaining her composure. She set the book down and took Jaimie by the wrist. "Let's keep moving."
The pair left the creature behind and started down an aisle decorated to look like a swamp, with mossy, low hanging branches and thick fog.
Something skittered past Tallulah's foot. She jumped and looked around fearfully. "Jai, there's something here," she hissed.
A pair of beady red eyes peered at them through the fog, and then several dozen more pairs blinked on. A wall of red eyes. "Jai, what are they?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 6:13 am
"...Rats?" He suggested, with a grimace, hoping that, if they were what he thought, they were made of rubber and little light bulbs. They might have had real actors in here but real rats? Surely not...
They'd never be able to get that many rats trained without them escaping everywhere, right?
...And he was pretty sure it wasn't Youma. He hoped it wasn't youma.
"They gotta be fake..." He assured out loud, though he wasn't entirely sure. This was ridiculous, how could he be spooked by a haunted house? He was a senshi for the love of God.
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Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 3:40 pm
Another one of the red-eyed things skittered past, and Tallulah squealed and lashed out with her foot. It couldn't be a youma, could it? In a haunted house? You could run into a dozen and never know! Thankfully, though, the rat flipped over with a squeak and stayed there - Tallulah crouched to investigate closer.
"It's rubber," she said with relief. "On wheels. The eyes are LEDs."
To demonstrate, she picked up the rat and flipped a switch on its belly. The light of its eyes went out. Tallulah set the rat aside and got to her feet.
"I think we ought to find our way back to the elevator," she said, taking Jaimie by the hand. "I'm all turned around, though - any ideas?"
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