[IC] [GUTS+] You Awake in a Dark Room

You all awaken in a pitch black room. You feel a wall against your back and a dull pain on the back of your head. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, all you are able to see is a single pinprick of light off to your right. You try to move your hands and feet, and you find that they move freely. You're not tied up, so that's good at least.

As far as you know, you are alone in the room, but it's just so dark that you can't even really tell... Is that breathing? A groan? Maybe you're not the only one here after all.

[Vertigo]

When Duncan first stirred, he didn't think much of the darkness - or the pain, for that matter. He'd found himself waking up with a throbbing head in the most curious of places before, so in his groggy state, he assumed he'd just had a few shots too many, again.

But with consciousness came increased unease. Duncan didn't really feel hungover, and as far as he could remember, he hadn't even been drinking. His latest memories were of basketball practice, and the start of a subsequent ride home. After that... yeah. That's where he was drawing a blank. He had no idea how the hell he'd ended up-- wherever this was. Some place without windows, he figured; it wouldn't be this dark otherwise. What, was he in a basement or something?

"Alright guys," he called out into the void, using the wall behind him to stand. As he did, he felt his foot hit something. His sports bag; he flung it over one shoulder, before looking around - not that it did much for him. "Which one of you did this?"

The darkness didn't answer, so Duncan continued in the same, lighthearted tone. "Justin? Caleb? Matthew, you son of a bitch, it was you, wasn't it? Did you knock me out or something? Jesus, dude."

There was no response; no Justin to slap him on the back, or Caleb to grin up at him, or Matthew to clutch at his sides for a prank well pulled. Just darkness, as far as the eye could see. Staring at it was starting to make Duncan feel disorientated - and slightly nervous. If this wasn't one of his friends' doing, then...

He pushed that thought away with the same motion he pushed himself off the wall. He could make out a tiny spec of light in the distance. Faint as it was, it was the only thing giving him some form of direction, so he started to slowly edge his way towards it, hands reflexively out-held.

There was some joke to be made about the whole 'don't go into the light' business here, but he forwent it in favour of calling out a third time.

"Right guys, you got me," though his tone was still calm, small tinges of worry shone through the cracks. He kind of needed this to be a prank, because none of the alternatives he could think of were any good. "Ha-ha, freaked me out good. Just turn some lights on, I'm gonna go blind here."

As the darkness remained stubbornly silent, Duncan sighed and resumed his slow advance, trying to feel his way across the room.

[Alamantus]

As Duncan shuffles his way toward the pinprick of light, he encounters no obstacles on the ground. When he finally reaches it, he discovers that it's the dim light of a totally normal-looking illuminated light switch set to the off position.

[Typical]

---

Pebble Meyers

---

Pebs awoke to darkness, which didn’t bother her until she heard a voice—an unknown voice—in the room. Snapping up, she looked around frantically, making out a very faint outline on one side of the room. Whoever or whatever it was, they were blocking some sort of faint light, and Pebs didn’t like this situation one bit. Her mind dug out her parents’ warnings: Cities are dangerous and full of crime. Going meant she could be robbed or kidnapped if not murdered, and kidnapped was exactly the situation that fit her here and now, unsure of how she got here and with only murky memories of the day before. And, unfortunately, whoever was blocking the light was not making a good case for themselves, going on about ‘getting him’ and ‘freaking him out.’

Blinking, Pebs realized that it’d be strange for a kidnapper to say he was ‘freaked out,’ but what did she know? She’d never been kidnapped. But, say she wasn’t kidnapped. Maybe she’d hit her head and this was just a dark room in a hospital or something of that sort. Weren’t there conditions that made people sensitive to light? Had she been diagnosed with one of those?

“H-hello? Is someone there?” Her voice was shaky as she felt at her head, almost afraid of what she’d find. But, thankfully, she seemed to be fine. The surface against her back was a wall, as far as she could feel, and the hard ‘pillow’ she thought she’d felt turned out to be her backpack. Some more blind pats revealed that she was, in fact, sitting on the floor, which aligned more with a kidnapping situation.

At this point, her heart was in her throat, and she curled her legs to her chest, reaching for her trusty army knife and thanking her lucky stars when her fingers wrapped around it. Now armed, she felt braver and more prepared to ask questions.

“W-where am I? Who are you?”

---

@Vertigo@Alamantus

[Vertigo]

The closer Duncan got to the distant dot of light, the clearer its origin became. From a few steps away, he could make out the specifics; a light switch, turned off - the likely culprit behind the darkness. Relief washed over the athlete as he continued forward, sudden confidence in his steps.

That confidence was quick to falter. He hadn't quite reached the switch when something stole his attention. From somewhere within the darkness he'd left behind came a sudden voice, stuttering out the exact question quickly bubbling up in Duncan's mind: Is someone there?

For a second, Duncan froze; feet and mind and all. He only knew his heart hadn't stopped then and there in tandem with the rest of him because he could hear it drum up a vehement beat in his ears. He was overtaken by the kind of cold dread one felt when they realized they'd forgotten their keys or lost their phone - just amped up to eleven.

And then, just as quickly, his mind caught up and the feeling passed.

Duncan sighed, running a hand through his hair to try and drive away the post-jumpscare shakes. Right, so he wasn't alone; there was a girl in the room with him. So that's the kinda game his friends were playing, huh. A literal 'blind' date. Very funny.

He turned around to face in her general direction - not that it made any matter. "Yeah. Name's Duncan."

A shake of his head; another gesture that was entirely lost to the darkness. "Sorry 'bout this. Don't really know where we are but-- look, it's cool, I'm not a creep. This is prolly just Justin's shitty prank. Dude loves setting me up."

Guess Matthew was off the hook, then. But man, they could've at least told her about this beforehand. She'd sounded scared as hell. That was pretty fucked up, even from Justin.

"Oh-- yeah, want some light?" he suddenly remembered, trying to entertain a grin and a chuckle to lighten the mood. "Getting kinda sick of the dark, personally. Gimme a sec."

He took the last few steps needed to reach the switch and, without missing a beat, slapped it to the on-position.

[Alamantus]

The lights blare on for several blinding moments as the fluorescent tubes settle in to a quiet hum above. When Duncan and Pebs' eyes adjust, they see a square room, roughly 20x20 feet, painted a drab beige with a gray linoleum floor.

To the left of the light switch is a gray door that, judging by the hinges, appears to open inward and has a round knob. To the left of the door is one of the walls.

Along the wall opposite the door is a countertop that stretches the length of the wall with cabinets above and below, a total of 8 doors on each set of cabinets. A sink with a tall faucet is situated on the left side of the counter, but the rest of the countertop is empty and clean.

The only other things Pebs and Duncan notice in the room are a small, circular drain in the center of the floor and a larger-than-normal air vent about 2 feet above the door. The ceiling is also feels unusually high for a room like this.

[Typical]

---

Pebble Meyers

---

Duncan? The name didn’t ring a bell, only serving to scare Pebs more with the boy’s tone coming across as lackadaisical. Why was he so relaxed? Why was this happening, and why to her? Where she’d been and what she was doing before waking up were blanks in her mind, unhelpful but for fueling her pounding heart. She remembered packing, heading to class, then... nothing.

When ‘Duncan’ continued, though, making movements in the darkness that Pebs struggled to make out, she felt a bit more reassured that he wasn’t the one behind it all. So it was a prank? By someone named ‘Justin?' The name was equally unfamiliar, which set off a new set of alarms in her head. Was Justin the one who kidnapped her, abducting her off the streets? By the way Duncan spoke about Justin, he sounded like a friend, so it seemed unlikely, but what did she know about Justin? If she believed what Duncan said, the situation seemed more like something out of a rom-com movie than real life.

This thought brought a blush to Pebs' face, and for the first time that day she was glad it was dark. Duncan’s next words though—‘Want some light?’—sent her shooting up, hands against the wall behind her to guide her to her feet as the light flashed into existence, momentarily blinding Pebs.

The room slowly blurred into existence, her eyes finally able to focus and take in her surroundings. Nondescript and bland, the room was unremarkable, complete with a counter, cabinets, and sink on one side and a door on the other. Underfoot was a drain, and overhead was a large vent—two things that seemed out of the ordinary in an otherwise commonplace room, but Pebs was distracted from focusing on these items by the other person in the room.

Duncan, as he’d introduced in the dark, was a boy over a head taller than Pebs, which both surprised and intimidated her. She’d met plenty of tall people in her life, but even amongst the tall, Duncan was tall. His varsity jacket placed him as an athlete of sorts, and Pebs’ mind immediately guessed basketball because, well, basketball. Or volleyball, or, well, nearly any other sport because height was almost always appreciated. Thankfully, he didn’t strike her as a kidnapper because if he was, Pebs probably wouldn’t win the fight.

“Duncan, right? I’m Pebble. Pebs,” she said, a nervous tremor in her voice. “And, um, I-I don't think I've met a Justin in town.”

She paused, looking around again, hoping something would register with her, would trigger some bit of memory, but nothing did. “A-Are you sure Justin would do this?”

---

^@Vertigo

[Vertigo]

In retrospect, he probably should have given at least some kind of a warning before carelessly flicking the switch. Duncan was not at all prepared for the sudden onslaught of light that followed, and suspected the girl in the room wasn't, either. The light flooded the room in flickering waves, pushing aside the darkness that had once seemed endless.

For a moment, Duncan was sure he'd gone blind. For what felt like an eternity, he could see nothing but a sea of endless white. But then, ever so slowly, the room started to take form. Not that there was much to see; a countertop, cabinets, sink... and a drain? As he'd expected, there were no windows - but the decor did not make him think of a basement, either. What kinda room was this?

He hadn't yet decided one way or the other when a nervous voice reminded him that he wasn't alone - or the only one having second thoughts about Justin's involvement. With a quick, curious glance, he found the source of the (so far) disembodied voice; a girl head shorter than him, leaning against the opposing wall, almost as if cornered.

Surely enough, Pebs definitely didn't look like the type to hang around with Justin, much less go along with his crazy schemes. She seemed like a nice girl, with a vaguely 'girl next door' vibe going on. Maybe it was the freckles. It was definitely the freckles.

She seemed nervous. He didn't blame her.

"Yeah, 'bout that..." Duncan trailed off, crossing his arms in thought. He let his gaze wander around the strange room one more time, trailing along the plain walls, up to the peculiarly high ceiling - and back down to the seemingly misplaced drain. None of it looked befitting for a blind date, a prank one or otherwise. Too bad. "I might've jumped the gun there a little."

This wasn't Justin's doing. Or any of his friends', for that matter.

"Got no other guesses as to what's goin' on, though," Duncan didn't sound all that worried about it, his tone careless if vaguely thoughtful. He could feel a dozen unpleasant possibilities bubbling up somewhere in the back of his mind, but he kept them at bay by busying himself with a glance towards the door - and then back to Pebs.

"Whatever it is, I'm ready to bail. You with me, Pebs?" he pointed a thumb back at the door behind him and grinned. "Could really use a smoke right now."

Duncan recognized the familiar itch and the increasing discomfort it brought - but refused to acknowledge the cause. He just wanted a smoke. Not because he was nervous, or anything. Just... it had been a while.

With the promise of a good whiff ahead, Duncan reached for the handle to turn it and gave it a strong yank.

[Alamantus]

As if providing a grim reply to Duncan's confident motion, the door handle does not turn. Despite any efforts to turn it or force it, the thing simply will not move!

@Vertigo @Typical

[Typical]

---

Pebble Meyers

---

“Yep,” Pebs said, watching in trepidation as Duncan gave the knob a turn and tug, but when the tug turned into a yank, her heart dropped.

“Locked, huh.” She knew she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up about the door being a free and available exit, but at the same time she couldn’t not hope for an easy out to the situation at hand. If the door was locked, there would be no denying the situation.

Pebs slumped back for a moment, then peeled herself from the wall and joined Duncan at the door.

“Hold on,” she said, pressing an ear to the door and listening intently. If she heard nothing of suspicion—that is, nothing that made it sound like there was something moving behind the door—she’d knock on it, then listen to the tone it created. If the sound was light and travelled, it meant the door wasn’t blocked. If the sound didn’t travel, there was probably something blocking the door, and quite a big something too.

---

^{@Vertigo@Alamantus}

Thought Check

Thought 1, rolled 6

[Alamantus]

“Hold on,” she said, pressing an ear to the door and listening intently. If she heard nothing of suspicion—that is, nothing that made it sound like there was something moving behind the door—she’d knock on it, then listen to the tone it created. If the sound was light and travelled, it meant the door wasn’t blocked. If the sound didn’t travel, there was probably something blocking the door, and quite a big something too.

Thought 1, rolled 6

@Typical

Pebs listens close, and in the silence of the room, she is able to hear... nothing. If there's anyone behind the door, they're either inhumanly quiet or not alive. The only thing she is able to hear the soft hum of the air conditioner from the vent above.

Knocking on the door reveals that it is one of those cheap, hollow doors made of thin plywood reinforced by a lattice of cardboard to make it feel solid. She once went down a rabbit hole while looking at online encyclopedias and ended up researching doors, and she's confident this is a hollow-core door. They're tough enough, but mainly only serve as ways to separate rooms in houses.

[Typical]

---

Pebble Meyers

---

“I learned to do this back home, to figure out where rats might be nesting. Usually it’s walls, but I think it'd work on doors too,” Pebs explained. “To figure out whether there's something behind the door, I mean, and to see what kind of door it is.”

She listened intently as she rapped her knuckles against the door. The reply back was a hollow one, communicating the vast emptiness that lay behind the locked barrier, as well as the latticework inside the door itself. Cardboard, most likely—and most fortunately.

“No one out there, I don’t think, and this is a hollow-core door. Lots of plywood and cardboard, not so much substance. Meaning,” she said, turning to look at Duncan, “you could probably break this down.”

[Vertigo]

The door was locked.

Of course the door was locked - his luck would've had it no other way. Man, he must've pissed Lady Luck off somethin' fierce at some point. Probably at Jacob's party. All the bad things in his life traced back to Jacob's party. Tequila was the devil.

A few more tugs, just in case, and Duncan had to concede defeat. He retracted his hand, subconsciously stuffing it into his pocket in search for a familiar pack. The craving was becoming unbearable, and it made him restless.

"Yep," he confirmed airily, "it's locked a'ight."

He'd just managed to pull out a cig when Pebs joined him, her tone suggesting she had a plan. Equal parts surprised and curious, Duncan took a step aside to let her pass. He wasn't really sure what he expected her to do - but knocking on the door was certainly not it.

He blinked. "Hey, uh," Duncan hesitated on how to word his confusion. Was... was she trying to get someone to come and open it or somethin'? Yeah, that was one way to get a locked door open, but.... "You know, I doubt anyone's gon-"

Before he could finish and make a total fool out of himself, Pebs spoke up, almost as if able to read his mind. God, she better not be able to read his mind. He didn't really get her explanation, but the girl sounded like she knew what she was doing, so Duncan trusted her and waited. It felt a little absurd, standing there with an unlit cigarette in some creepy-ass room, watching a girl essentially communicate with a door through knocks.

Least he'd have a story to tell.

With her deed done, she went on to explain the make up of the door. Plywood, cardboard, no substance-- Duncan nodded along slowly, until the magic words hit him.

Break it down.

A knowing grin spread on the athlete's face. "Now we're talking."

He slid his bag off his shoulder and dropped it on the ground, taking a step back towards Pebs and the door. "Right, you may wanna stand back a bit." Duncan did a few quick stretches while waiting for her to move to safety, pulled back his leg - and then leaned his weight down to aim a kick near the door's handle.

^{@Typical, @Alamantus
Gumption 2, rolled a 7.}

[Alamantus]

Duncan's kick is pretty well-aimed at a space near the latch and is overall pretty solid, but despite Duncan doing everything right per his previous experience kicking doors open, this door does not budge. He glances to the left and sees the door's hinges, realizing that this door opens inward—by kicking the door from this direction, he's fighting the door's solid frame rather than the much weaker latch itself!

^{@Vertigo, @Typical}

[Alamantus]

Duncan prepares for another kick, but Pebs stops him, pointing toward the middle of the door, explaining the concept of the hollow center versus the solid frame. With this new information, Duncan adjusts his aim, rears back, and... (Duncan rolled 1 and 4)

BANG!

His foot crashes into the door and out the other side where it gets a little bit stuck. It takes some time to get his foot out safely, but after a few minutes of bending the thin wood and breaking pieces out of the way, he is able to pull it back into the room.

Once his foot is back in the room, there's a hole just a little bit less than a foot tall and roughly half a foot thick just to the right of center, closer to the door knob than the middle of the door. Through the hole is nothing but darkness—not even the light from the room reveals anything beyond the door.

[Typical]

---

Pebble Meyers

---

^@Alamantus

With a loud ‘bang,’ Duncan’s foot went through the door. It was his second attempt, after aiming his kick at the wrong part of the door the first time, but he’d figured it out after Pebs chimed in to explain the door’s intrinsic lack of substance as opposed to its solid supports, and lo and behold, his foot went through the door without much struggle.

However, a new problem soon presented itself when Duncan tried to retract his foot, and after a few tries, it was clear that he was stuck. Pebs acted as a support for him so he didn’t fall over as he tugged, and thankfully he was able to free himself after a few minutes, which was about when she was about done bearing his weight.

“You’re not hurt, are you?” she asked, glancing at his foot. It’d been her idea for him to break down the door, so if he got hurt doing it, it’d be partially her fault, and that didn’t sit right with her.

Looking around the room, Pebs focused on the cabinets and counters, walking over to them. She counted eight doors total, or four cabinets.

“There’s gotta be something in these, right?” she said, attempting to open each cabinet to see what was inside each of them.

[Alamantus]

Working methodically, opening the top cabinets first from left to right, Pebs finds that each cabinet contains one thing:

The first has a flathead screwdriver with a red handle;
the second, a small radio-controlled pickup truck that's about a foot long and half a foot wide;
third, a folded sheet of lined paper;
fourth, a tangle of wires coated in several different colors, the frayed metal sticking out the ends of each;
fifth, a bare speaker that looks like it was removed from something rather than bought new;
sixth, a D Battery;
seventh, needlenose pliers with orange handles and a wire stripper on the inside end;
and eighth, a C Battery.

@Typical

[Typical]

---

Pebble Meyers

---

^{@Alamantus@Vertigo}

In the cabinets were a strange collection of objects, which Pebs retrieved to place on the counter after each opened door. Slowly but steadily, she accrued a pile of miscellaneous items that seemed to fit together only because each one seemed to have no explanation as to why they were in the room in the first place. Surely, if they had been kidnapped, the kidnapper would be smart enough to clear the room of possible tools before locking their victims inside?

That aside, though, Pebs waa grateful for the new discoveries. Though some seemed less useful than others, like the tangle of wires compared to the two different-sized batteries, others seemed to have an immediate use, like the screwdriver.

“At least we got a screwdriver,” she said, selecting the screwdriver and folded paper from the pile and heading over to Duncan. Then, after handing him the screwdriver with a “You’d probably get more use out of this than me,” she opened up the lined paper for them both to see. Was it as blank and innocuous as it seemed?

[Alamantus]

she opened up the lined paper for them both to see. Was it as blank and innocuous as it seemed?

@Typical

Unfolding the paper reveals a diagram written in, what, is that some kind of green marker?

In bright green marker is a crude drawing of an oval with several lines drawn through it, a line going down through the circle with a sort of hooked end with an arrow is drawn pointing down along its length. Further down the paper is another line with a circle at one end and kind of a jagged edge coming off the top side of the line? Another arrow points at the circle with the jagged line sticking out.

^{@Typical@Vertigo}

[Vertigo]

The crash Duncan had braced himself for never came. His foot collided with the wooden surface, yet the door did not give way. There was no satisfaction of a sudden forward force, only a cruel, sudden stop. The impact sent an unpleasant, stinging reverberation up his leg all the way to his spine. He had to bite back a curse. Son of a--

Dedicated not to lose to a door of all things - especially when he had an audience - Duncan prepared another kick. Before he could go for a second round, though, Pebs stepped up to stop him - or rather, redirect him. To the middle, since this door flung inwards and not out. Oh. Duh. He knew that.

Duncan cleared his throat, took a step to the side, and--

There was a crash this time, alright.

Duncan grinned victoriously - for about a second, before he realized his foot was now stuck in the door. Well, uh. That wasn't... that wasn't exactly part of the plan. Whatever the plan was.

Sheepishly, he turned back to Pebs. "Right, uh. Gimme a sec or two, got some-- technical difficulties over here."

And he might've needed some help. He didn't say it, nor did he mean to imply it, but it was apparently clear enough a fact that she came over to give him aid regardless. Pebs made sure he didn't fall over as he struggled to free his foot, which, after a moment of a battle well-fought, was finally back on solid ground. Thank god.

"Hurt? Nah, I'm fine," he assured her, giving his leg a few swings in the air for good measure. He chuckled, then gave her a nod of gratitude. "It's been through worse. Thanks for the help though, 'preciate it."

As Duncan went back to examine the hole he'd made, Pebs split off to examine the cupboards. A really good idea, actually, since it'd probably take him a while to figure out how to... get through the door still. He could just keep kicking it, or try to bend and break off pieces the way he'd done when he freed his leg. But man, that'd take a while.

So then... maybe...?

Carefully, Duncan started to try and push his hand - then wrist, then elbow - through the hole and feel around for the door's handle. He wasn't sure what kind of a locking mechanism it had, or whether it was something that could be undone by blindly feeling around, but he figured it was worth a try.

With his arm still in the door, Pebs returned with her loot.

She handed him a screwdriver, which he took into his free and grinned at her comment. "Sure thing. I'll take real good care of it, promise." Apart from the usual uses, it'd make for a good weapon, too. Not that they... needed that.

The next thing he showed her piqued his interest enough to almost forget about his hand. It was a piece of paper with a picture scribbled onto it. It looked like a hint of some sort, deliberately made by someone. Like one of those things you'd find in escape rooms. Which, well, this technically was. Only they'd skipped the signing up part.

"Looks like someone wants us to go fishing," he remarked, still a bit to carefree for the occasion, before glancing back at the door. "Think it's hinting at the drain here, or something behind this damn thing?"

^{@Typical, @Alamantus}

[Alamantus]

Duncan feels around and finds the door knob on the other side. It has a simple turn lock, and as he feels around some more, he feels that there is also a deadbolt underneath the knob. Both feel like totally normal locks, and he can actually feel them give way easily as he touches them.