+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: YOU!
Where: The Mindscape
When: starting November 11th
Rating: may be up to R for character deaths
Summary: Navigate challenges to learn valuable lessons about nonviolence, cooperation, and self-sacrifice! Release your inner animal! Read more about the event here, and on the bulletin board.
The Story:




"If you know yourself, you have nothing to fear."
"Working together is the only way."
"Deaths are a necessary part of life, but not all deaths are necessary."
"The needs of the many outweigh the life of just one."

Comments

Rick S.; The man who drank too much and he thought the rumors true

[theothermrgray]

[As Dorian laid his eyes on the abandoned construction project before him, he began to long for the shrubbery from the last challenge.]

[The room was a mess. Boards, nails, rope... Everything was scattered around what looked like a short platform. Dorian glanced towards the ceiling and saw an old trap door, like one that would lead to an attic. It was too high to reach, though...]

[Dorian sighed and looked down at the mess, only to see a rather unexpected presence amid the chaos.]

... YOU?!

[wriggedywrecked]

[He sits up slowly with a groan, figuring he must have just drank too much and passed the fuck out, which is basically the usual backstory to waking up in weird places. Only someone's yelling from nearby.]

[He blinks up at Dorian.]

Oh it's uhhhhhhhh whoever the fuck you are.

This is going wonderfully.

[theothermrgray]

[That would be a plausible explanation if this wasn't an event.]

[Dorian looks behind him, hoping to see the shrubbery, but alas. That shrub is nowhere to be seen.]

... I thought Wonderland sent you back home!

[wriggedywrecked]

[Oh. Oh, right. Right, that happened, didn't it.]

[Right.]

[He sits up.]

Guess I came back. The fuck is all this?

[theothermrgray]

[He came back.]

[WHY?! He was better off in his own world! GOD.]

[SIGH.] Well, sir, it appears Wonderland is making us complete physically ridiculous challenges with people [we don't like] we barely even know. On top of that, everyone is switching between their human forms and that of an animal. Apparently.

[Dorian's already had to endure a magic bush with a kid he fought with in magic school.]

As for all of this... [He gestures at the messy construction zone.] ... I barely have any idea.

[wriggedywrecked]

Don't fucking call me sir.

[He gets to his feet, tugging at the collar of his swanky prison jumpsuit.]

That's a stupid fuck combination. Physical challenges in a, what, is this, s-some kind of labyrinth or whatever? And turning into animals? Fucking stupid. Stupid.

[There's not as much heat in his voice as there would usually be. He points at the ceiling.]

Trapdoor is probably the way out.

[theothermrgray]

[Well! That certainly flies in the face of formality.]

Then what do you expect me to call you?!

[Dorian does notice the lack of heat, and is grateful for it. He also notices the weird jumpsuit, but since there's no way a simple Victorian dandy could have even heard of Galactic Prison he assumes that Rick was in the middle of some dangerous alcohol induced experiment before he came back.]

[He looks up at the trapdoor.] Well, that's well and good, but how are we going to get up there?

[wriggedywrecked]

Call me Rick like a normal fucking human being.

[He surveys all the junk in the room and starts calculating the distance from the floor to the trapdoor in his head, noting the shape and size of the door as well as the presence of the button across the room. His mind is always sharp, whether he's drunk or whether he's suffering withdrawals like he sort of is now. At least they haven't hit hard yet.]

[He literally doesn't even answer, just wanders across the room to inspect the button. He nudges it with a foot, then stands on it. It's definitely a button, but clearly his weight alone isn't enough to depress it.]

Come stand on this thing.

[theothermrgray]

Wha- Ugh.

Alright, Rick, I would greatly appreciate it if you would answer my question like a "normal human being."

[He looks up at the... Well, it kind of looks like a button he might find on a camera. The old timey ones, not the thing on the device.]

[He's still a bit miffed about being treated so rudely.] Why?

[wriggedywrecked]

Nope.

[Seriously, fuck that guy, also fuck the entire concept of normalcy.]

I wanna see if our shared w-weight is enough to press it down.

[theothermrgray]

[He groans.] Fine, fine. Let's see if it works.

[Dorian reluctantly walks up to the button and stands on it with Rick.]

[But nothing happened.]

... Any other ideas, Rick?

[wriggedywrecked]

[Well, that didn't work. He was sort of assuming that the button would open the trapdoor, but apparently not. There's also the fact that there's another door at the other end of the room. A button that won't depress, and two doors.]

[Rick climbs off the button with a thoughtful sound and goes to the door, trying the handle. No luck. He looks over at all the construction material, then at the button, then at the trapdoor again.]

[He's fresh out of prison. He hasn't had to actually put his mind to work for a few days now, but the gears never quite get rusty. It just takes a second to get them turning again.]

Let's o-open that trapdoor and see what happens.

[theothermrgray]

[So the drunkard's strategy is to keep throwing bad ideas at the wall and see what sticks.]

[It's not like any other options.]

Yes. Perhaps we could try opening the trapdoor...

[Dorian crosses his arms.] If we can reach it first!

[Rick had better have some sort of animal form with wings.]

[wriggedywrecked]

[He throws a glare over his shoulder as he stalks toward some of the construction supplies.]

So h-help me stack some of this shit so we can get up there, fuckass. There's a bit of scaffolding over here, i-if we can get it upright we just, just need something to reach up and grab the stupid rope from there, holy fuck, try being helpful in-instead of standing around complaining.

[theothermrgray]

[Dorian gives him a look that practically screams, "I'd be a lot happier if you would stop your goddamned swearing."]

[However, it is plain to see that he has to deal with this bastard to escape, so he'll simply nods and walks over to where Rick's getting his junk.]

[wriggedywrecked]

[Rick isn't really in a mood to actually talk anyway. He just goes about setting up the scaffolding directly under the trapdoor and stacks some extra wood panels on the top to give a few more inches. He squints up at the trapdoor, noting where the hinges are, and pauses.]

...Aaaaaactually, let's scoot this thing back a bit, j-just in case this place is a fuckshow and wants to, wants to drop some weird shit on us. F-For all we know that thing's holding back four thousand gallons of literal shit.

[He honestly wouldn't put it past Wonderland to pull something like that. Better to have their makeshift tower positioned slightly to the side of the trapdoor. That way if anything falls out, it'll fall right past them.]

Okay. Now you just, just take this--

[He hands Dorian a crowbar.]

And just climb on up there and open it. I think I see a h-handle.

[theothermrgray]

[EW. Thanks for the colorful imagery, you bastard.] At least you can take that into account...

[Dorian stares at the crowbar for a moment.] Wait, why do I have to go up and poke the trapdoor of doom?

[wriggedywrecked]

Because I'm a weak old man who can't possibly climb things the way a y-young, fit guy like you can.

[His voice is dripping with sarcasm.]

[theothermrgray]

... Oh! That makes sense! How did I not notice that?!

[And sarcasm is fought with sarcasm.]

[Dorian holds the crowbar under his arm as he begins his ascent. He's really hoping the "weak old man" doesn't decide to tip over the stack while he's climbing.]

[wriggedywrecked]

[It'd be funny, but nah. He's not in the mood, really. As far as wrecking people's shit goes, he'd rather do it to Federation lackeys or fellow inmates, not the guy who is kinda vaguely helping him get out of this stupidfuck maze.]

Just b-be careful cause if you die I'm probably s-stuck here.

[theothermrgray]

I'd appreciate not being killed, thank you very MuuaaAAAAGH!

[The trapdoor has been opened, and just as Rick suspected, some weird shit falls out of it.]

[The good news: It's not literal shit.]

[The bad news: It's a giant boulder.]

[Worse news: The momentum and the shock causes Dorian to fall from the scaffolding.]

[Slightly better news: Falling from great distances triggers that animal transformation the event gave people, and Dorian suddenly turns into a black cat. This is slightly better news because cats tend to land on their feet.]

[Slightly worse news: Said cat is still falling from a great height and needs something soft to land on before he goes splat.]

[And the best news? The boulder pressed the button.]

[It's not immediately obvious what the button did.]

[wriggedywrecked]

HOLY FUCK!

[Yeah that's definitely a giant boulder that's definitely falling out of the trapdoor and definitely smashing into the ground and definitely rolling onto the button and now the scaffolding is definitely crumbling and Dorian definitely just turned into a fucking cat.]

[And listen, even if he'd been a human, Rick...probably wouldn't have let him just smash into the ground. Jeez. He doesn't like the guy, but still. But a falling animal? That would just be downright cruel, and Rick has a whoooole lot of problems with people who are cruel to animals. He don't do that shit.]

[Catching a flailing, falling cat is quite possibly one of the most painful experiences in all reality, but Rick does it anyway, making a high-pitched keening sound as claws dig into his flesh.]

FUUUUCK.

[theothermrgray]

[THANK GOD THERE WAS A RICK THERE.]

[The cat is clinging on for his life, with its cute blue eyes wide in shock. Not that it's very common for a black cat to have blue eyes... In fact, it is a very pretty cat.]

[However, there is some serious doubt that a person like Rick Sanchez would care for pretty things.]

[wriggedywrecked]

[HOLY FUCKING HELL THOSE ARE SOME SHARP CLAWS.]

[Rick doesn't give two shits about pretty things, but pretty animals are the exception. It just also isn't lost on him that this pretty animal was a few seconds ago a pretty and annoying dude. It makes him want to almost dropkick the cat, but he's just not that much of an asshole.]

[Instead he just carefully dislodges the animal and sets it on the ground.]

Holy goddamn fuck shit, okay, you can f-f-fucking change back now. Jesus Christ.

[theothermrgray]

[... Good, he wasn't going to die. Maybe there was some common sense in the mad scientist after all.]

[Though, changing back is easier said than done. The poor cat stumbles around trying to revert to human form, looking somewhat adorable in the process. It gets to the point where the cat leans against a brick in an attempt to stand on two legs.]

[Give him a moment, please.]