sadfreezingbrit_archive | An accidental video on the fifth floor [1/??? artefacts collected]

What--

[ Philip looks around, running his gloved hands along the wall. Where is the destruction? The decay? The ice? ]

No. No, this is not...

This can't be...

[ The door he came through is not the door he came through. And the frozen landscape behind that door? Is suddenly a warm corridor with a nice, carpeted floor.]

Where am I?

{ We're not in Kansas anymore, that's for sure. Not that you've ever been, far as I can tell. Heh, not that you're missin' out on much... }

What did you do?!

{ Calm down, monkey. For once in my life I'm just as clueless as you are and I've been around for a while, so that's sayin' somethin'. }

Turn it back!!

{ Now listen here: You can either go on yapping and blame it all on Clarence till you're blue in the face, or you can get a grip and have a look around. }

Turn it back...

{ Oh, and one more thing: How about you get rid of those gloves? We're obviously not below zero anymore and I'm sure you'd hate to have your monkey palms all sweaty when you shake hands with whoever brought you here. }

Oh God...

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[Pendergast knows panic pretty well, so he slowly takes his hands out of his pockets and holds them up, in a clear sign of calm, controlled harmlessness. Softly, he speaks, and his voice is very calming and unhurried.]

Relax. I'm not here to hurt you. What is your name?

{ Looky here, another monkey. I think that one's putting a liiiittle too much effort into the whole 'calm and soothing' routine, so if you wanna make a run for it, I won't blame you! }

...

Philip. Philip LaFresque.

[ He walks towards Pendergast, one slow step at a time, but his initial expression of relief falters with Clarence's words, replaced with hesitation. That thought was admittedly at the back of his mind, but it was buried deep and never would have surfaced on its own. ]

[He bows his head slightly, replacing his hands in his pockets.] Hello there, Philip. You look lost.

[ He takes a step back. ]

I am.

You simply need to calm. down. [He leans against the wall, raising an eyebrow.]

[ He takes another step back. ]

[He shakes his head slightly.] You're trapped here, I'm afraid. You can leave the mansion, but the ocean leads nowhere, the forest leads nowhere, the fields lead nowhere... Eventually you're going to come back here. So, Philip, it is in your best interest to calm yourself, breathe, and figure out what you're going to do.

[ It's hard to say if Clarence is helping the sentiment along or if it's all Pendergast's doing, but the calm and soothing words spoken in the middle of death and chaos by a man whose name he doesn't even know make his heart race and his vision blur. This is not reassuring, this is inhuman. ]

{ Awww, what's the matter, monkey? Oh my, don't tell me our little hop into another dimension doesn't agree with you, old chap! Here... lemme... fix that for you. }

[ And suddenly the walls are coated in ice and rust, the ceiling crumbles and dust and grime cover the floor. The doors are nailed shut, rusted or broken or close to it. Some metal, some wood. One is open, letting in the ice cold air. Philip shivers, looks up.

The man previously in front of him is no longer a man. He is one of the creatures chasing him, nothing but chalk white skin and bones, hideous deformity and eyes black as coal.

He doesn't, he can't question which reality is a hallucination and which isn't. All he feels is the cold and all he sees is the monster, so he turns around and runs. ]

[...Or not. Raising an eyebrow, he cocks his head slightly and purses his lips, watching Philip fucking book it.

...Well, that's not the first time that's happened to him. He makes a mental note to investigate later and pushes off the wall, wandering back down the hall.]

[ He doesn't look back, doesn't care if he's still being chased or if he ever was.

He runs and runs through the corridors, down the stairs, until he's finally outside and the hallucination starts to break down.

An ocean. A forest. Fields and.... the weather is nice. He never thought he'd see anything like that again.

It's too good... too good not to be true, because everything he's experienced so far has been designed to crush his hopes, even the false ones.

Taking a deep breath he sits down in the grass and sees to his own notes... actual, written ones. ]

An accidental video on the fifth floor [1/??? artefacts collected]

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