the dollhouse
who: everett, eris and brett open to hannah and posy
when: morning
where: front hall
When Eris had woken up, she'd still felt like hell. Not quite as much like hell as she had yesterday, but still. She also noticed straight off that she was back upstairs. Or...wherever the hell it was. She remembered stairs. Evil, evil stairs. She dragged herself out of bed and went to find a bathroom. The layout of the house fucked with her head something awful, and she just could not grasp it. But she found the bathroom, mostly because it was the closest door to her room. Finding a huge tub in there, she took a bath, which made her feel slightly more human, and at the very least made her smell pretty again. She pulled on pajama pants and a long sleeved shirt, and wished she had a robe. She didn't know if she did or not, did she have a robe? Whatever she had blankets.
Grabbing those, she started downstairs, damp hair pulled back up off of her neck, because it kept making her shiver. She looked about five, all wrapped up in the blankets, in her jammies and trudging along like her body was too heavy for her. The unconscious pout on her lips helped out that image too. She paused when she got to the bottom of the stairs, head pounding, and she eyed the door she saw first. That door lead to....someplace. That wasn't the hall. Brilliant. She couldn't remember. So she walked over and pulled it open, looking inside. Kitchen. Hallway-kitchen that Brett would be avoiding like the plague.
Staring into it for a few moments, she left the door open, and walked inside, very slowly starting to get things out to make french toast. That? She remembered how to do. Plus, it was easy as hell. She wasn't hungry--and in fact the thought of food kind of made her queasy, but Brett had to eat. So she was going to make him something. Or, that was her running theory, anyways. It was just a really inefficient process.
Brett had been unsurprised to wake up and find nothing had changed. Or that things had changed - the things he'd purposefully left out last night were all back where they'd been yesterday morning. He got himself into the shitty wheelchair and headed for the bathroom - managing another cramped shower sat in the bottom of the tray, only just able to reach the controls for the water flow. Bastards - why the fuck couldn't they have put a bath in here? Or, better yet, a wet room with a spare chair, though the way this was set up, water was going fucking everywhere anyway.
His clothes, as a result, were damp as he left the bathroom and headed down the hallway, his stomach growling as he smelt food. It had been two days now since he'd eaten properly - so far surviving on energy bars. It made him grouchy. More grouchy.
Ev had been awake for a while now, though he'd only bothered to get out of bed when the sounds of life in the house had reached his ears, traveling through dilapidated walls and floors. The plainest of them was the creak and groan of Brett's chair, but mixing into it was the odd thunk of a cabinet shutting. Someone was in the kitchen. If it was Posy? Ev wanted to avoid another squabble in the house. Which went doubly for the chance that it might be Hannah. And if it was Eris...
He knew that he didn't know everything, a fact he reminded himself of as Ev tugged on yesterday's sweatshirt. There had been something in Brett's tone and look that said the paralyzed man had insight on him, and he didn't trust the idea of more time passing where Brett might learn even more. Rather, when he might learn more of one side of things. Trudging downstairs, Ev moved towards the kitchen with a pronounced clunk to his step, lingering outside of the kitchen to listen after the squeal of Brett's chair.
Eris was still in the process of making french toast. Which had been easier in memory than it was in practicality. There were a few done, though they were just a hair darker than they should have been. Not charcoal or anything, but she had the burner up too high. It wasn't like her skill set really included cooking. Why hadn't she just tried to do something easy? She flipped the one in the pan and saw that at least this one wasn't too dark. She also felt a little woozy and while she waited for that to cook, she leaned against the wall, lowered her head a bit and shut her eyes.
Brett stopped by the other door to the kitchen, pushing the door open, but not going inside at all. He wasn't going into that room, and he backed off a little as he saw Eris there, since yesterday she'd tried to push food onto him, as though he needed to be taken care of. Okay, sure, he needed to eat and that need was getting more pressing, but he was a stubborn bastard who didn't take favours from people. Case in point, he made himself turn and continue down the hallway, towards the stairs.
Towards the stairs meant towards Everett, an opposing path to the one he'd taken, and he stepped lightly to one side to let Brett pass by. "Morning," he said plainly, in nowhere near enough of a mood to make any kind of witty greeting. He moved around the chair-bound man, nudging open the door and scowling sharply at the sight of Eris as she busied herself with the cooking. Coughing slightly to announce himself, Ev only lingered in the doorway long enough to speak her way. "I'll leave you room to move, but put the kettle on a burner if you please," he asked evenly, ducking back out.
She tensed when she heard Everett's voice, and looked up, hand tightening on the spatula. Because that was seriously going to cause damage. Really it was. Nevermind even if she'd had a proper weapon, she didn't feel strong enough to do anything. She thought about not doing it. He could put his own goddamn kettle on a burner, but in the end she did it so he didn't come back in, since he'd ducked out. In putting the kettle on the burner, the one-side-not-overdone bread she had in the pan burned. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she just tossed that one, because it was kind of worse than those previous. Then she started the process over again, hoping her concentration wasn't interrupted this time. And that Brett wasn't going to be a fucking moron today about this. Because that was always a possibility.
Brett headed over to the front door, skirting round the edge of the large box in the centre of the hallway. He wondered what the hell that was but, first things first: fresh air. He opened up the front door and let in a flurry of snow and cold air, but it was fresh and he needed that. At least this house was big enough for him to be able to cope without all the windows open - the current weather wasn't conducive to that right now. He still had that tendency of opening and leaving open every inner door that he could though. And, for now, he sat in front of the open door, watching the snow fall outside, letting cold air in.
Turning away from the kitchen door, Everett had started to move back towards the stairs as a spot to sit and wait until he heard the howl of the kettle. Of course, he didn't make it there before he finally noticed the box that sat nearby. "...the fuck?" he growled warily, wondering just where that had come from and what might be inside. Last time he'd gotten a package here, it had been an old murder tool of his, so he wasn't exactly looking to sign for future deliveries either. Moving up closer to the box, Ev laid a hand flat on its top, feeling for anything vibrating from within. "Any idea who's been online-shopping?" he quipped at Brett without glancing over.
She got one or two done that didn't look too dark, and she grabbed a fork, and the pile of french toast, there being quite a pile there, but whatever, and she looked for syrup. She found it, and headed out into the...was it a dining room? Whatever, and she set the plate and everything down on a table. Then she went back for her blanket, and pulled that over her shoulders again and wandered into the hall. Where she saw Brett and Everett...and a weird box. "That wasn't here yesterday." She didn't think. She probably wouldn't have noticed, now that she thought about it.
Brett turned back from the door, though he left it open, blowing cold air and occasional flurries of snow into the hall. He looked from Everett to Eris. "No, it wasn't - and looks quite the crate to be mail order," he added, to Everett.
"Y'know, they added a banquet hall to our house overnight once," Ev observed, leaning in a little closer and straining to hear if there was anything making noise inside the box, "I think the local sadists can handle sneaking this in on us." Maybe it was for one of them; maybe that strange woman, Posy. Until Ev knew? He didn't trust it. But the slow rise of a squeal from the kitchen intruded on his study and he rose gradually, glancing to both Brett and Eris. "I'm grabbing coffee. Anyone else? It's instant, but I need it before I deal with whatever's in there."
Shivering at the cold air that was sweeping through the hall, Eris brought the blanket around herself better, teeth starting to chatter, but she didn't tell Brett to shut the door. She also considered whether or not she was going to accept coffee from Everett. Her throat wasn't happy with her. Her voice was still hoarse and she was still fantastically sick. It might be okay for her throat. Whatever. "Me." she said in answer to Everett, trudging over to the box. She didn't want to remain upright, so she sat down heavily in front of it, looking at it to see if there was an easy way to open it.
"If you're making," Brett told him with a shrug. God, coffee would be fabulous, even if it was just instant. He didn't give a damn - he wanted that shit, he just didn't let on how much. He did, though, catch the shiver and turned back to shut the door again. He didn't want her getting too cold - that wasn't going to help anything at all. "You gonna open it?" he asked.
Cold wasn't an issue for Everett as he ducked into the kitchen to stifle the kettle, the steam building towards a shrill screech. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He could feel a column of heat from the stovetop as he reached to grab the kettle's handle, scowling as he glanced down at the pan on another burner. "Christ on crutches," he muttered, snapping off the burner Eris had been using, "Girl's gonna make us all dead or homeless." He turned to the cabinet he'd found the coffee in yesterday, digging it out and musing on whether or not to bitch at her for this when he got back out there.
Eris kept looking at the box, trying to decide what the answer was to Brett's question. Then she shrugged, and pulled at the top of it. "Might as well." she said, releived when the shriek of the kettle stopped--it had been aggrevating her headache. She frowned lightly when she looked inside the box, and more when the sides of the box gave way and started to fall away to reveal the dollhouse within. She moved so the one in front of her didn't fall on her or anything, and she crawled on top of that plane of the box when the rest of them dropped down. She pulled her blanket with her, and leaned over to peer into one of the windows, confusion pretty clear on her face.
"A dollshouse," Brett said, blankly. "What the fuck?" It seemed a relevant question here and now as he wheeled himself in a wide circle around it. "Creepy fucking dollshouse as well..."
Shouldering back through the kitchen door with three mugs in his grip, Ev slowed and eventually stopped at the sight of the doll house. "I'll say it again," he muttered warily, staring at the thing, "What the fuck?" He just stood there, not really wild about any 'gift' that seemed so innocuous. "That's the box? What's inside the dollhouse?"
Eris didn't look up, but she looked for the seam to open the house. Which she found no problem. Swinging it open, she had to move to do it, then she resettled in front of it, sitting indian style. Reaching in, she saw little dolls, and she picked up one that looked familiar. Turning it over in her hands, she could see that it was clearly her. Or, her if she was in Gone With The Wind. "Apparently I live here." she said, holding the doll up sort of automatically towards Brett, not thinking better of it til she'd already done so.
- login to post comments
Posy heard voics floating up through the floorboards again, and this was what stirred her. Old house, terrible insulation - you could hear everything. Not clearly, but the grumblings of human movement were there, and she was a light sleeper.
She slid out of bed, not bothering to change out of her white silk pajamas but still taking her tablets, and moved serenly down the stairs. She was becoming bored of this routine. Go downstairs, meet someone who refuses to talk to you, spend the rest of the day alone. She was seriously considering trying to get in contact with the scientists - find something a little more hands on to do. Hands on was very much her thing.
As she entered the hallway she was a little dissappointed at the lack of new faces - Everett and Brett she knew, but the woman wrapped in blankets was a nice addition. They were looking at something with interest - a doll's house. How quaint.
"Good morning. Playing with toys are we?"
Hannah was getting really goddamned tired of waking up in the fucking basement. And she didn't care how close to the definition of insanity it was, she would continue to move her shit upstairs until they got the goddamned hint. Which would probably be never. Fuck it. She was up early again; she didn't really sleep that late anymore, especially with the dripping noises, and was packing some of her shit (again) when she heard people upstairs. Being that this was a house where people didn't really speak to each other - like, at all - she was curious enough to harness Anubis and head up there.
"Oooh, toys?" she echoed, catching only the unfamiliar voice's question as she reached the others. "I don't suppose there's a big fucking machete in there with my name on it, is there? And who the hell is that?" The last added with a finger pointed towards the unfamiliar voice. Her aim was close; she'd nearly pointed dead on, but was instead just a tad off to the left.
"That's Posy," Ev answered Hannah, offering a mug down to Brett. He still had Eris' too, but she seemed preoccupied with her doll or whatever the hell it was. Ev wasn't about to be anywhere near forceful or commanding with her in front of others. She might freak out again, and then he'd be left with a lot of questions he didn't want to answer. "And no, no machetes. Just a big damn dollhouse, at least one doll... anything else in there?" Ev asked of Eris, not wanting to squirm in front of Posy as he wondered. She'd seemed far too curious about him, and he wasn't going to indulge her.
Ah, another new face. Another loud-mouth, apaprantly. Well, whatever, the mroe conversation she got the better. She ignored being pointed at, and was glad Everett had introduced her as the issue of the doll's house was far more interesting than making polite conversation. None of them seemed to know why it was there - a night-time present from the scientists? It was obvious that they were still being tested - Posy, however, did not feel it was fair for her to be tested too. She'd have to have words about it later. She looked at Eris and peered forwards slightly with curiosty.
"That doll. It looks like you? Is there one for each of us?"
She restrained herself from saying "there shouldn't be one of me" - she didn't think of herself as a pawn, after all. She was a game master, not a player.
Eris laid on her side, not necessarily happy with the two new additions to the proceedings. Which was probably fucked up of her. But at least with Brett and Everett, she knew how to deal with them. Hannah, not so much, and New Chick, definitely not. But she pulled the blanket over herself a little more, and reached inside to start pulling out more dolls. She glanced at Posy, and handed over the doll that looked like her, then grabbed up the obvious Everett one. She tossed that over to the Captain. "Yes, there's one for everyone. Fun, fun." she said, then had to pause for a coughing fit. She grabbed the Hannah doll, complete with a dog on a leash, setting that on the roof of the thing, and lastly pulled out the Brett one.
Propping herself on her elbow, she smirked at it, looking amused before she ticked her gaze up to the man in question.
Oh look, the entire house together - wasn't that sweet? Or not, but for once curiosity got the better of Brett and he wheeled himself forward enough to take the doll from Eris, wondering about the look on her face until he saw what it was. "Oh, for fuck's... Here," he handed the wounded soldier in its blue uniform, complete with arm in a sling, a missing leg, crutches and an eye patch, back to the girl on the floor. "Think they're trying to say something, Scarlett?" he asked, Eris, catching sight of her doll, before looking at the others to see if he could see what kind of doll designs they had.
"I think they're trying to say they want my foot knee fucking deep in their collective ass," Everett spat, tossing his doll on the ground forcefully. It was clad in an old-time servant's outfit, maybe a butler, complete with a serving tray with tiny cups set in one hand, and that detail seemed especially spiteful in light of how he had, in fact, just gotten coffee for Brett and Eris. House nigger. That's what they're saying. Are they wrong? "I'm not wasting my time on these bullshit head games, is there anything with a damned point in that dollhouse?" he asked bitterly.
Eris took Brett's doll back and actually smiled for a second. "Why, I do believe so, good sir." she said, letting a touch of southern drawl into her voice--though the effect was somewhat ruined by her sore throat. Then she looked back to Everett, what with the fit throwing, and she couldn't help but be amused there too. "Someone's inner child is throwing toys, and if you can't play nice with the rest of the class, captain, you're going to have to sit in the corner." Oddly, her voice didn't hold the general acidity to it that she usually did when speaking to the man. But then she relented anyhow, and actually looked into the house properly again. It was the space in the upstairs hallway that caught her attention, and she reached in, setting the Brett and Eris dolls on the floor beside her, and poked her finger through, looking down to see where it came out. Looked like it came out into a bedroom. Like Brett's room. "Is this this house?" she asked, since she wasn't very good with the layout. It just confused her far too much. But that she knew existed.
"What the hell kind of name is Posy," Hannah grumbled to herself rhetorically, wishing someone would explain what the hell was going on, beyond the fact that there was apparently a doll with her name on it. "Here's an idea," she suggested, speaking loudly enough to be heard by others this time. "Why don't we just take turns kicking the shit out of this thing and be done with it?"
"here's an idea," Brett said, mimicking her tone, though he added an edge to it. "How about I describe your doll to you and you do the kicking for me, hmm?" he suggested. Fucking people, though he had to agree with her on the name thing. "And yeah, maybe - ground floor looks right anyway," he said to Eris,eyeing the structure. He didn't know what the house really looked like from the outside, and he couldn't say anything about the top floors. "And looks like... if this floor is here-" he said, pointing one floor up. "-then they've put the basement in as well. At least, I assume that the stairs in the other room go down to a basement."
Posy ignored Hannah's remark about her name, and instead tried to get a look at Hannah's doll. "I don't know, history isn't exactly my strong point, but I think Asians at the time period they're going for were only really imported as cheap brothel labour. They've done Everett's correctly, what about yours?" her tone was flat, and there was no spite to the words - just her usual deadpan curiosity, "and as far as the house goes the layout is the same. My attic room is accurate, at least, as is the rest of the house that I've seen. Decor definitely isn't, though. And as for this," she poked at her doll, which had hair in a very severe bun and was wearing a high necked black dress like some sort of evil governess "it doesn't make much sense to me. Did they do this sort of thing before, the scientists? Leave bizarre gifts for you and see what you did with them? Hardly tantamount to torture is it? Just odd."
Eris was leaning further down to get a look into the 'basement' for the house. "...is there a long hallway and creepy rooms shoved at the end in the basement?" she asked. "...looks like you can't even get into two of the rooms." she added. Then she paused, and had to look over at Posy. Now, it wasn't that she hadn't taken racists shots in her day. She had. But to hear things put that blatantly, and callously was weird. That was going to go over stunningly well. Also, her last comment didn't sit well. "I'm sorry, Posy, is it? Did anyone say anything about torture?" she asked, sugar in her tone, even if it still was hoarse from all of her coughing fits. "And yes. The scientists liked to leave little gifts."
Hell must've frozen over, because Everett actually found himself agreeing with Eris' words. He was bristling inside over Posy's observation despite its accuracy, thinking Hannah would like it even less than him. "Hasn't been long yet," he told Posy, choking on the much harsher words he had that wouldn't be aired in front of everyone. "Give them time, girl. It's coming." He had to keep it together, but it was far, far harder without the solace of a drink and when he was forced into group housing like this.
"Stop crying, Wheels," Hannah said. "I don't give a goddamn what my doll looks like, and you can always substitute punching for kicking. Or straight bludgeoning, if we find you a suitable implement. Like bitch's face over here," she said, gesturing towards Posy. "Now, I don't know for sure if you're also blind or just stupid - though I can guess it's just 'stupid' - but people've been shanked for being racist whores. So fair warning, keep talking shit and I don't think anyone here would blame me for knocking out a few teeth." That had been delivered in the sort of pleasant, casual tones that belied her irritation, and she smiled sharply. "And, for your information, if we're talking Civil War-ish era here, as I assume from the Scarlett remark, the majority of Asian immigrants were rail workers. So go suck a railroad spike." Dismissing Posy, she turned back to the conversation at hand. "Yes, the stairs in the other room go to the basement," she answered, being the authority on such things, "because that's where my goddamn room is with the fucking annoying as shit dripping noise coming from behind the wall, which suddenly got, like, a million times creepier if there are rooms hidden behind mine because there sure as shit aren't any other doors."
"Fine, I'll just leave it in the basement then," Brett said, moving to look to see what her doll was actually like, simply from curiosity more than anything else, though he tried to appear nonchalant about it. She was right, the doll looked more like a worker than a whore, dressed in a tunic and wide pants with a triangular-ish hat on its head. The rest, he wasn't entering into. "Look, they're fucking dolls, that's all. That's it. Dolls and a doll house."
"Pointing out the fact that you are in fact Asian hardly seems racist. Touchy bunch, aren't we?" said Posy, wrinkling her nose and putting her doll back in her attic room. God this was frustrating.
"Is there anything else in the box, aside from the doll house? Some sort of message from the scientists?"
Despite her clipped tone you couldn't ignore the flash of excitement behind her dark eyes when she asked this. If the test subjects wouldn't give her information, bugger it, perhaps the testers themselves would.
"Why, expecting something?" Eris asked, arching a brow at Posy and her delighted glee going on. Or, alright, it wasn't delighted glee. But she did catch the excitement. Just because she didn't make a career out of playing people anymore didn't mean that she didn't still have the necessary skills to read people, and she was paying attention. "There's just the house and the dolls. When the scientists want to contact you, they will." Her eyes moved to rest on Everett. "They know just how to get through to people, don't they?" she asked rhetorically.
Stooped over to pick up his doll, Ev managed to aim the majority of fire in his gaze at the floor as Eris' words registered. Whatever intent he had to change or amend things, she still managed to hit his nerves pretty reliably. Everett's hand tightened around the doll as he stood back up, giving her a glare that pretty clearly told her to watch herself. "They do. When they want you to know something, you'll know it. Until then? Don't hold your breath." He looked over to Posy with ire in his eyes, she needed to wise up fast. "You volunteered for this, lady. Only difference between you and us is that there's no money you'll never get to spend."
Posy noticed the tingle of tension between Everett and Eris and wondered. Her curiosity was something that was easily piqued, and they obviously knew each other quite well from the experiment. She kept the questioning to herself for the moment, however. It wasn't that she was intimidated by any of them, although she didn't doubt they could be violent, she just felt that they probably wouldn't answer her questions. Strange, illogical bunch. "I think there are really quite a few differences between us. For example, I didn't expect and money. It's really not a driving factor. And I haven't been experimented on for a long period of time. I'd say that the similarities between you and I begin and end at the fact we share a house, Everett." The words were loaded. You couldn't really hide Posy's superiority complex - nor did she ever attempt to. Why would she care what a bunch of pathetic lab rats thought of her? She was in fact better than them - brighter and sharper and better. Again she gave her cold, insincere smile. She didn't have the patience for these people. She was bored of their paranoia, their inability to discuss anything with her without being hostile and suspicious. It was stupid. She turned slowly away and stalked out of the room. She wanted to get on the computer again. Posy felt it was time to try to talk to someone with a little more bloody authority.
"...Damn," Hannah commented after a second. She'd heard the emotion, even if she'd been unable to see facial expressions. She found herself grinning. "She makes the rest of you look like the fucking welcome wagon. Think anyone would blame us if we punched first and asked questions later?" Living here was going to be so goddamn fun. Not.
Even Brett was surprised - usually he was the one who most easily got people backs up. part of him was actually impressed at that little display. he might have to take something from that and assume the whole superiority complex thing with someone in the future. It seemed to be an effective strategy for severely pissing people off, after all.
Eris watched Posy go, and arched a brow, before looking back at the others. "someone never learned to play nice with the rest of the class." she said, rolling her eyes. She almost looked at Brett and said she vetoed that woman looking after her, but didn't. Instead she sat back, then rubbed at her temple, what with the headache and all. She needed to go lay down again.