Malice in Wonderland: Laviee

[♥ Tiffany]

You have been summoned to take part in Tiffany's grand Halloween event. She has allowed you and two other people to participate in what may be the scariest thing you've ever encountered thus far at The Crossroads.

You stand at the doorstep of a very large and dark building. Looking up, you see the door is no longer plain and white, but has been painted gray and has bloody smears all over it. There is a bronze ornate doorknocker in the center and no doorknob.

You reach up and make use of the doorknocker. "Tap! Tap! Tap!" Without hesitation after your third knock, the door creaks open slowly and you try to look inside. There is nothing but darkness. And you must now step into it.

You step inside and before you get a chance to get your bearings about you, the door slams closed behind you and locks itself. You turn to see if there is any way out, but there's nothing. Looks like you really are stuck in here.

Your eyes adjust to the darkness and you try to look around. Squinting, you see a dim light ahead of you and another to the right of you. Which way do you go?

Make your choice: Forward, or to the right?

[Laviee]

Laviee jumped in freight when the door slammed shut behind her. Should have seen that one coming. She mentally berated herself. Hesitantly, she stepped forward. She was torn between having her arms out around her, feeling the walls in order to understand her surroundings better and keeping herself as small as possible, so she wouldn't touch anything creepy. Who knows what are on these walls... She quickly shook herself as morbid thoughts clouded her mind and stared at the two points of light again. After a few more moments of silent stillness, Laviee gave up on her pupils dilating enough to perceive anything more than that blur. With a sigh, she reached into her pocket for her knife and inched towards the right. The little plastic knife felt solid in her grip. At any other time, she probably would have thought herself crazy for taking comfort in a harmless little toy, but it felt reassuring in her hand at the moment.

[♥ Tiffany]

Immediately after making your decision, the room becomes freezing cold. So cold in fact, that you swear your breath is frosty in the air. You wish you could see it, because hey, who doesn't love to see themselves breathe out smoke during the wintertime?

Lost in your thoughts, you turn a corner and fail to pay attention to where you are going and you trip over something and stumble to the ground. Great. Nothing like a good fall in the dark to disorient you and keep you from knowing which direction is which.

You get up, trying to decide which way you came from...

You can make out a path to the left of you and to the right of you. But which way is the one you haven't been down yet?

[Laviee]

Laviee halted in her path hesitantly and shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. Thankful for her long sleeved hoodie, she shuffled on, telling herself that she could handle a bit of cold. Of course Canadians can handle cold, eh? With a curse, Laviee fell to the ground. Scowling, she looks behind her to see if she could see what had tripped her. Seeing nothing, she signed and turned back forwards. Except... which way was forwards? If not for the solid boards underneath her body, she wouldn't even be able to tell up from down! Both paths looked exactly the same. Not enough data, she muttered darkly to herself. Missing data doesn't make for accurate experiments, much less be useful in making decisions, so she went with a gut feeling and turned down towards the right path once again.

[♥ Tiffany]

After walking around the corner of the path, the light you were chasing suddenly becomes bright. You see before you an elaborate setup. It appears to be a kitchen... Of sorts. Except there's blood everywhere. Kitchen utensils laying about. Knives stuck into cutting boards and just left there. Empty bottles of wine are thrown about.

Bloody hand prints and paw prints splatter the scene, leaving you to wonder if you're really safe just standing here gawking.

You can walk past this, or explore it. Up to you.

[Laviee]

She stopped in her tracks and stared wide eyed at the frankly bloody scene in front of her. The scent of blood was making her queezy. If life gets tougher, it just means you've leveled up, she chanted silently to herself. It was hard to believe she had done anything commendable thus far, though. Besides tripping over nothing. Because that's an achievement. Laviee took a deep breath and stepped into the room. There could be something useful in there, if only an empty wine bottle or one of those knives, if she could pry one off the cutting boards, to use as a weapon. She still held out her trusty little plastic knife in front of her, though. It seemed as good shield for what's coming as any.

Careful to not step in any of the blood, she inched in, hesitantly. It was probably better to look around as quickly as possible, and leaving just as fast, just in case. Of what, she didn't know, but it was probably a good idea. The bloody around her still made her extremely uncomfortable, but the whole house did, so what else was new. Laviee made her way to the counters, hoping that she would not be victim to whatever happened to who were in here, because it looked quite... painful.

(( Are you going to write stuff that is extremely creepy or descriptively gore-y? I need to mentally prepare myself if you are, so a heads up would be nice. >< Or is this what I had signed myself up for. 8( ))

[♥ Tiffany]

((Well, it IS a Halloween event, and I thought I had given a fairly decent warning in the sign-up post that things were gonna get creepy...))

After stepping carefully into the kitchen, you realized that the blood splattered everywhere was really just fake blood. Of course Tiffany wouldn't allow creatures of any type to come into any kind of harm for a "haunted house" of sorts... Would she? You certainly couldn't understand where the putrid smell was coming from though... Until you heard rattling from near the stove, and looked over just in time to duck out of the way of a teacup that was coming straight toward your head!

There standing in a brown coat, blue bowtie, and chef's apron was a delirious looking little rabbit. He had a slightly crazed look in his eyes as he threw yet another teacup at you, but missed you by a wide margin.

"What're ye doin' here in mah kitchen?! Get oot! OOT I SAY! Or maybe ye'd like to stay fer TEAAA!" he said, stirring a pot on the stove with one paw while he smashed a plate on the counter top and threw it into the mixture. He mumbled to himself as he worked, ignoring you for a moment, throwing things into the pot that didn't make any sense at all.

Suddenly he jumped down from his step-stool onto the kitchen floor and began rummaging through cupboards, throwing pots and pans and measuring cups out onto the floor. He popped up out of the mess and glared at you. His ear twitched and distracted him, and he reached up to grab it and start petting it. "Calm yer self down thar... No need tah be twitchin like that now... Yer a pretty little ear yah know... I could use another one jus' like yah."

"Or maybe yah'd like tah trade!" he said as he took to rummaging through the cupboards again, throwing things around carelessly. His head popped up one more time and he tried to smile, but it came off more like a mild facial stroke.

[Laviee]

(( Of course, I just wanted to know. c: ))

Even after noticing that the red puddles were fake, Laviee still tried her best to avoid them. Leaving footprints around the place didn't seem like a great thing to do. The teacup that whizzed past her head caught her by surprise; she hadn't noticed the rabbit when she first looked into the room, but at her first look at him, she wondered how that was even possible.

"Hey! Watch it," Laviee snapped while attempting to whack and deflect the second teacup with her plastic knife. Stepping around the pieces of shattered china, she walked closer to the stove, wanting to see the contents of the pot.

"Tea would be nice," she replied to the rabbit's demands and glare, thinking that perhaps being agreeable would be better than not. Hopefully the tea would actually be tea. Almost tripping over a overturned pot, she wobbled to catch her balance again, causing the tiara to almost dislodge itself from her hoodie pocket. With a sigh, Laviee put the tiara upon her head instead. It wouldn't do to lose one of her only items to fend against all the oddities of the house.

Laviee blinked at his second question, assuming it was aimed at her. "Er, no thanks..." Careful to be out of line of the oncoming projectiles, she reached a metre or so away from the stove and peered in on tip toe for the extra height.

[♥ Tiffany]

Having taken offense to your refusal to trade with him, he abandoned his search through the cupboards and quickly blocked you off from looking into his pot. "Well if yah don' wanna trade then get OOT of mah kitchen!"

He took a wooden spoon and began swatting at you with it, hitting you on your legs and arms in an effort to shoo you away. "Iff'n yah got nothin' tah trade then get oot! Yah have no business in here!"

[Laviee]

Laviee snapped her head back at the body in her vision. At his demands for her bodily removal, she could only stammer, "But, I..." Even though the rabbit was deranged, being in the creepy kitchen was at least a little better than wandering around the hallways alone. In the dark. At least he was someone to talk to who replied.

Laviee winced at the blows; they were likely to bruise in the morning. Taking a step or two back to get out of range, she frowned angrily. She had wanted to wear socks instead of those darned tights to school in the next few days. She can't do that with bruises all over her legs! With her hands on her hips and a scowl (hopefully looking somewhat imposing) she said shortly, "Hey, look here, Mister Rabbit, sir. I only trade when things are beneficial me, as well as the opposing party. It's just good business. You did offer me tea, you know. Manners are imperative whether or not the business deal is likely to go through or not."

[♥ Tiffany]

The March Hare stopped in his tracks and gave you a menacing glare right back in response to your scowl and held his wooden spoon back above his head as if he was trying to decide whether to smack you with it again or not. "Mister Rabbit? MISTER RABBIT?! Why I am the March Hare, young'n, and ye should learn tah respect others!"

He pitched his spoon in your direction and you avoided it with ease. Having to dodge things flying toward your head since you walked into the room was beginning to pay off. Maybe you'd get outta here without as many scrapes and bruises as you imagined.

He grabbed at his ears and pulled on the ends of them and looked up at you, still somewhat glaring at you. "If yah want tea you'll have to sit down an' be proper!" He gestured toward a small table set for two and before you even had a chance to move to it he reached up and grabbed your arm and tried to pull you toward it. "Sit! Sit!"

[Laviee]

"Sorry," she mumbled, stumbling over to the chair with the the rabbit's pull. Her free hand automatically went up to her head, making sure tiara was still there and holding it to her head. Thankfully it was still wedged where it was supposed to be.

Finally seated, Laviee shifted around, trying to get comfortable. The wooden chair was inordinately hard for some reason. With a cursory glance over the table, she kept her eyes upon the rabbit, no, the March Hare. There may be some... quentionable items on there, but the rabbit was her current problem. After taking inventory of her injuries (minimal) and straightening out her clothing (still reasonably clean), she said, "Well, Mister March Hare, it's nice to meet you. And it's very kind of you to offer tea as well. My name is Laviee."

[♥ Tiffany]

As you sat down in the chair, the March Hare left you to your own devices as he began scooping out his tea concoction out of the pot on the stove into a gravy bowl. He brought the "tea" to the table and sat down with you and poured you a cup of his homemade brew. You'd probably be wise not to drink it. God only knows what is in there...

"Laviee? What a ridiculous name tah be havin'! I think yah should be called Clementine instead!" he said as he served himself a cup of his brew.

"Yah better drink up yer tea if yer gonna make it outta here alive, Clementine. Yah got a long way tah go."

He picked up his cup of tea and sipped from it, but dribbled down his chin a little bit in the process. He grinned shakily and picked up a piece of paper off the table and used it for a napkin to wipe his chin, but you noticed it had some writing on it... Hmm...

[Laviee]

Laviee regarded the cup with trepidation, holding it as far as possible away from her without seeming rude and inspecting it intently. She could pick out pieces of that shattered plate in there, and she couldn't name anything else in there, but then again she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

"My name is Laviee, though..." she began to say, when he suggested a new name for her, but before she could get the first syllable out, the March Hare was speaking again.

Deciding to let the misnomer go (as the resulting argument would probably get a little heated if she didn't), she watched him drink the contents of his cup with awe. He didn't hesitate to drink or show any signs that it was toxic or otherwise dangerous, but then the March Hare didn't seem like the kind to feel any inclination towards of self preservation.

Laviee faked a sip and set her cup down. That was when she noticed the words on the March Hare's napkin. Making a quick decision, she leaned forwards quickly, conveniently knocking her cup over on the process. "Oh I am so sorry!" she exclaimed. In a rush, she leaned over and plucked the napkin out of her companion's paw, as well as grabbing a small stack of the other napkins on the table. Pocketing the enscribed napkin, she set up to dab up as much of the spilled concoction as possible, all the whole apologizing profusely for 'ruining the tablecloth' and 'being a horrible guest'.

[Raven]

Unfortunately, due to real life issues, Tiffany has asked me to cancel these. She apologizes.