11 Ashan 700
"And this is-" Magenta Maroon reached forward and playfully ran her fingers across the leather coated handle of "-the lever." There was a presence to the firm mahogany that was so proudly protruded from the otherwise blank, pale white wall. It was the sort of aura that whispered into the deepest, darkest corners of the heart, daring any who gazed upon it to just give it one... little... tug. "Never ever ever ever pull the lever." Magenta Maroon's pale puce eyes sparkled with all the gravity of a giggling school girl. "Or you'll regret it."
"What do I do that I don't regret," muttered Sapphire Spruce, bushy head of hair morosely shifting from side to side.
"Aaaaanyway," Magenta Maroon shot Sapphire Spruce a discerning glance before turning to face the entire group, her hands on her hips and a way-too-wide grin on her face. "That concludes the tour!"
A pale hand was raised into the air.
"Yes..." Magenta Maroon glanced down at her clipboard. "Porcelain Pearl?"
"Where is the lavatory?"
"Oh." Magenta Maroon used the back of her hand to flip her dark brown hair over her shoulder. "We don't have those here."
Coffee Carob's voice was about three times the volume it needed to be as he shouted out a panicked, "W-where are we going to release our insides?"
Magenta Maroon arched one of her neatly plucked brows. "Uh... don't?" Coffee Carob looked like he'd just been slapped in the face with a handful of chilled peanut butter. "Okay, so my shift is over, you're now officially all on your own." Like the breaking of a still pond's surface, all of the pep and prep of Magenta Maroon immediately dissipated in favor of disinterest and disdain. She flicked a finger toward the wall one last time as she turned to leave and called over her shoulder in an entirely detached drawl, "Don't pull the lever, turds."
"M-Magenta!" Coffee Carob recovered right as the door slammed shut behind her, stumbling over his own feet in pursuit, words breathy and panicked, "Magenta!" He then proceeded to fumble with the door's handle, quietly muttering to himself between the occasional whine.
"So, um," Porcelain Pearl stood, clearly feeling especially awkward considering she'd misunderstood the dress code regulations and had shown up wearing nothing but a tube sock, "I guess we're all going to be companions from this point forward?"
"Until we die," muttered Sapphire Spruce.
Slate Silver, Sable Soot, Shamrock Seafoam, Rouge Rose, Marigold Marmalade, and Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee all stared at Sapphire Spruce who, after a minute or so, seemed to have nothing else to add.
"May be companions we, but be friends we not." Slate Silver had both the height and the kind of arched, elongated nose that just begged to be looked down, making her the perfect candidate for a condescending constitution. "See you when I like that dressed, crawls my skin."
"What she said," pipped up Sable Soot, nervously wringing the hem of his camisole in his tiny, tiny hands. "And then some."
Rouge Rose open his wide mouth, ready to verbally jump in to defend what little honor Porcelain Pearl had, but was interrupted by Coffee Carob's panicked screeching.
"I-It's stuck! It's s-stuck!" His cries were followed by an increasingly violent pounding on the door which, upon closer examination as the group - sans Sapphire Spruce - gathered around it, appeared suspiciously like a painting rather than the portal it was meant to represent.
"Oh no, oh dear!" murmured Marigold Marmalade, "I fear we might be stuck in here!"
"Da," agreed Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee. "Ya soglasen s poetom."
Punch Pink, too short to be noticed before, poked his head out from underneath Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee's dark violet broomstick skirt. "They said, 'Fucking shit.'"
"I can't feel the handle anymore! Oh- oh gods! Oh gods, we're trapped!"
"Calm down everyone," Slate Silver spoke with authority, the kind that came with being at least a torso taller than everyone else in the room. It was fortunate the ceiling was vaulted. "Aside step and to fix this issue me allow." Everyone did as they were bid, even Coffee Carob who had begun to shed fat, rolling tears. "One, six, four..." With a great shout, Slate Sliver slammed her angled shoulder into the door-wall. "Ho-heave!"
"Kazhetsya, eta taktika neeffektivna." Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee sighed, shaking their considerably sized, slightly asymmetrically shaped head.
"They said, 'Eat shit and die.'," Punch Pink piped up, his voice muffled by Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee's broomstick skirt as he hadn't taken the time to peak his head out from under it.
"Once more with force?" suggested Marigold Marmalade, "Unless you'd rather not, of course!"
Slate Silver did indeed try again. Several times. Enough that, by the time he'd finished, it was quite clear the door wasn't going t be opening any time soon.
"We're all going to die in here," muttered Sapphire Spruce. "Our bodies will slowly but surely rot into one another until we become a single unit of festering flesh and unrealized potential wasted in starvation and shame." Coffee Carob began to let loose heavy, baleful sobs. "Coffee Carob will be the first of us to go, so ashamed of his insides that he would rather die than defecate."
"I-it's true," Coffee Carob wailed, "I-I just c-can't go when other p-people are watching! N-not since t-that time..."
There was not a single soul in the room who wished from him to elaborate, and Marigold Marmalade was the quickest on the uptake. "I've heard that in times of fear and strife it's best to focus on the happy things in life." She smiled, revealing that her slight lisp was due to the fact that she was missing every other tooth. "Would anybody like to start? I'm certain it will calm the heart."
Rouge Rose opened his mouth, expression resigned and ready to embarrass himself for the sake of the others if need be, but Porcelain Pearl was the first to speak, unknowingly snatching the spotlight away from him once again. "One of the happiest moments of my life was when I received this sock from my master's son's arch-rival." She sighed, the tube sock swaying from where it was attached to her pale body. "He was so brave, that arch-rival of my master's son. So handsome if you squinted and disregarded age discrepancies, but only in the platonic sense."
Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee nodded sympathetically. "Vy dolzhny pozabotit'sya ob etoy pamyati."
"They said," Punch Pink started, crawling out from beneath Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee's broomstick skirt to settle onto their lap instead, "'Booooooring!'"
"What they said," echoed Sable Soot, glaring daggers at Porcelain Pearl.
"O-oh, I apologize, I didn't mean to-"
"What about the lever?" interrupted Shamrock Seafoam. Everyone gathered blinked in surprise at how very deep the young woman's voice was. Like a smokey chocolate mixed with smooth pebbled gravel and tumbled on low through the pit of a thunderstorm, Shamrock Seafoam had the sort of voice that could win wars and put middle aged men who still lived with their mothers and ranted about economics to strangers right to sleep without hassle. "Maybe that's how we all get out of here."
"B-but," Coffee Carob had calmed a bit after Punch Pink and Sable Soot and shot down Porcelain Pearl's reminiscence, "Magenta Maroon said-"
"Left us here to die Magenta Maroon," sighed Slate Silver, gently massaging her shoulder with a wince. "Say try the lever I, said like suggested Shamrock Seafoam."
Shamrock Seafoam seemed pleased that her idea had the support of the tallest member of their group.
"The idea may not be the best," murmured Marigold Marmalade, "But we have little else to test."
"What she said," nodded Sable Soot.
"Ideya tak zhe khorosha, kak i lyubaya drugaya." Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee added.
"They said, 'Fuck yes, let's fucking fuck that fucker!'" Punch Pink helpfully chimed in.
Rouge Rose's eyes lit up, vigor returned, and he opened his mouth to cast his own vote of confidence, but the others were already on the move, leaving him behind before he could speak. He sullenly trailed after them as they all gathered around the lever, each at least several steps away from it if not more. There was something ominous about the way it simply stuck out from the wall, as if everything had been leading up to this very moment. As if they'd known all along this was what it had always been about.
And now that it was time, it seemed none of them was quite read to follow through.
"We're all going to die in here," muttered Sapphire Spruce.
The others shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. The idea had been sound but when actually faced with the lever - with what they all considered to be their only way out - not a single one of them had the courage to step forward. To definitively lay claim to the future - or lack of it - that lay before them.
All of them except for Rouge Rose.
Without a sound, he stepped forward,
"And this is-" Magenta Maroon reached forward and playfully ran her fingers across the leather coated handle of "-the lever." There was a presence to the firm mahogany that was so proudly protruded from the otherwise blank, pale white wall. It was the sort of aura that whispered into the deepest, darkest corners of the heart, daring any who gazed upon it to just give it one... little... tug. "Never ever ever ever pull the lever." Magenta Maroon's pale puce eyes sparkled with all the gravity of a giggling school girl. "Or you'll regret it."
"What do I do that I don't regret," muttered Sapphire Spruce, bushy head of hair morosely shifting from side to side.
"Aaaaanyway," Magenta Maroon shot Sapphire Spruce a discerning glance before turning to face the entire group, her hands on her hips and a way-too-wide grin on her face. "That concludes the tour!"
A pale hand was raised into the air.
"Yes..." Magenta Maroon glanced down at her clipboard. "Porcelain Pearl?"
"Where is the lavatory?"
"Oh." Magenta Maroon used the back of her hand to flip her dark brown hair over her shoulder. "We don't have those here."
Coffee Carob's voice was about three times the volume it needed to be as he shouted out a panicked, "W-where are we going to release our insides?"
Magenta Maroon arched one of her neatly plucked brows. "Uh... don't?" Coffee Carob looked like he'd just been slapped in the face with a handful of chilled peanut butter. "Okay, so my shift is over, you're now officially all on your own." Like the breaking of a still pond's surface, all of the pep and prep of Magenta Maroon immediately dissipated in favor of disinterest and disdain. She flicked a finger toward the wall one last time as she turned to leave and called over her shoulder in an entirely detached drawl, "Don't pull the lever, turds."
"M-Magenta!" Coffee Carob recovered right as the door slammed shut behind her, stumbling over his own feet in pursuit, words breathy and panicked, "Magenta!" He then proceeded to fumble with the door's handle, quietly muttering to himself between the occasional whine.
"So, um," Porcelain Pearl stood, clearly feeling especially awkward considering she'd misunderstood the dress code regulations and had shown up wearing nothing but a tube sock, "I guess we're all going to be companions from this point forward?"
"Until we die," muttered Sapphire Spruce.
Slate Silver, Sable Soot, Shamrock Seafoam, Rouge Rose, Marigold Marmalade, and Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee all stared at Sapphire Spruce who, after a minute or so, seemed to have nothing else to add.
"May be companions we, but be friends we not." Slate Silver had both the height and the kind of arched, elongated nose that just begged to be looked down, making her the perfect candidate for a condescending constitution. "See you when I like that dressed, crawls my skin."
"What she said," pipped up Sable Soot, nervously wringing the hem of his camisole in his tiny, tiny hands. "And then some."
Rouge Rose open his wide mouth, ready to verbally jump in to defend what little honor Porcelain Pearl had, but was interrupted by Coffee Carob's panicked screeching.
"I-It's stuck! It's s-stuck!" His cries were followed by an increasingly violent pounding on the door which, upon closer examination as the group - sans Sapphire Spruce - gathered around it, appeared suspiciously like a painting rather than the portal it was meant to represent.
"Oh no, oh dear!" murmured Marigold Marmalade, "I fear we might be stuck in here!"
"Da," agreed Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee. "Ya soglasen s poetom."
Punch Pink, too short to be noticed before, poked his head out from underneath Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee's dark violet broomstick skirt. "They said, 'Fucking shit.'"
"I can't feel the handle anymore! Oh- oh gods! Oh gods, we're trapped!"
"Calm down everyone," Slate Silver spoke with authority, the kind that came with being at least a torso taller than everyone else in the room. It was fortunate the ceiling was vaulted. "Aside step and to fix this issue me allow." Everyone did as they were bid, even Coffee Carob who had begun to shed fat, rolling tears. "One, six, four..." With a great shout, Slate Sliver slammed her angled shoulder into the door-wall. "Ho-heave!"
"Kazhetsya, eta taktika neeffektivna." Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee sighed, shaking their considerably sized, slightly asymmetrically shaped head.
"They said, 'Eat shit and die.'," Punch Pink piped up, his voice muffled by Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee's broomstick skirt as he hadn't taken the time to peak his head out from under it.
"Once more with force?" suggested Marigold Marmalade, "Unless you'd rather not, of course!"
Slate Silver did indeed try again. Several times. Enough that, by the time he'd finished, it was quite clear the door wasn't going t be opening any time soon.
"We're all going to die in here," muttered Sapphire Spruce. "Our bodies will slowly but surely rot into one another until we become a single unit of festering flesh and unrealized potential wasted in starvation and shame." Coffee Carob began to let loose heavy, baleful sobs. "Coffee Carob will be the first of us to go, so ashamed of his insides that he would rather die than defecate."
"I-it's true," Coffee Carob wailed, "I-I just c-can't go when other p-people are watching! N-not since t-that time..."
There was not a single soul in the room who wished from him to elaborate, and Marigold Marmalade was the quickest on the uptake. "I've heard that in times of fear and strife it's best to focus on the happy things in life." She smiled, revealing that her slight lisp was due to the fact that she was missing every other tooth. "Would anybody like to start? I'm certain it will calm the heart."
Rouge Rose opened his mouth, expression resigned and ready to embarrass himself for the sake of the others if need be, but Porcelain Pearl was the first to speak, unknowingly snatching the spotlight away from him once again. "One of the happiest moments of my life was when I received this sock from my master's son's arch-rival." She sighed, the tube sock swaying from where it was attached to her pale body. "He was so brave, that arch-rival of my master's son. So handsome if you squinted and disregarded age discrepancies, but only in the platonic sense."
Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee nodded sympathetically. "Vy dolzhny pozabotit'sya ob etoy pamyati."
"They said," Punch Pink started, crawling out from beneath Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee's broomstick skirt to settle onto their lap instead, "'Booooooring!'"
"What they said," echoed Sable Soot, glaring daggers at Porcelain Pearl.
"O-oh, I apologize, I didn't mean to-"
"What about the lever?" interrupted Shamrock Seafoam. Everyone gathered blinked in surprise at how very deep the young woman's voice was. Like a smokey chocolate mixed with smooth pebbled gravel and tumbled on low through the pit of a thunderstorm, Shamrock Seafoam had the sort of voice that could win wars and put middle aged men who still lived with their mothers and ranted about economics to strangers right to sleep without hassle. "Maybe that's how we all get out of here."
"B-but," Coffee Carob had calmed a bit after Punch Pink and Sable Soot and shot down Porcelain Pearl's reminiscence, "Magenta Maroon said-"
"Left us here to die Magenta Maroon," sighed Slate Silver, gently massaging her shoulder with a wince. "Say try the lever I, said like suggested Shamrock Seafoam."
Shamrock Seafoam seemed pleased that her idea had the support of the tallest member of their group.
"The idea may not be the best," murmured Marigold Marmalade, "But we have little else to test."
"What she said," nodded Sable Soot.
"Ideya tak zhe khorosha, kak i lyubaya drugaya." Butterscotch Banana Bumblebee added.
"They said, 'Fuck yes, let's fucking fuck that fucker!'" Punch Pink helpfully chimed in.
Rouge Rose's eyes lit up, vigor returned, and he opened his mouth to cast his own vote of confidence, but the others were already on the move, leaving him behind before he could speak. He sullenly trailed after them as they all gathered around the lever, each at least several steps away from it if not more. There was something ominous about the way it simply stuck out from the wall, as if everything had been leading up to this very moment. As if they'd known all along this was what it had always been about.
And now that it was time, it seemed none of them was quite read to follow through.
"We're all going to die in here," muttered Sapphire Spruce.
The others shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. The idea had been sound but when actually faced with the lever - with what they all considered to be their only way out - not a single one of them had the courage to step forward. To definitively lay claim to the future - or lack of it - that lay before them.
All of them except for Rouge Rose.
Without a sound, he stepped forward,
reached out,
and pulled the lever.
