Imojen:

Imojen listened carefully to Michael and Nick's conversation. "So, 'The Book of Gathering Terrors' or something like that?" Imojen mused. Though she didn't know Latin, she recognized a few words, or their derivations into English.

"I don't think I am a character miss! I am quite a bit younger thought!" Ben said.

"I guess, the form are random, though, maybe it's more that we just embody the ideal horror movie form.... I guess we try to get the other four awake.... and then..." Nick replied.

"Maybe it's not characters, so much as the tropes they embody," Imojen said. "So, here I'm Jo Harvelle, from Supernatural. We look different, but our body types are close enough, and the letters of her first name are reversed in the middle of mine. Her horror trope is the Monster Hunter, like Van Helsing in Dracula. Maybe your younger self embodies a horror trope the egregore of the Book wanted to include, so it didn't need to overlay you with a Hollywood representation. Like the Nice Guy or the Hero or something like that?"

Imojen followed everyone else's eyes as they were drawn to the looming presence of a nearby cabin. Moonlight hinted at its features in glosses of silver and sharp shadow, while trees shaded it in jagged slashes that cut across its craggy clapboard and shingles. Imojen tilted her head with curiosity. Was that there before and no one noticed, or did it just get added to the scenario? she thought.

" Go to the cabin in the woods...... sure....."

"And don't you worry, we got plenny of experience with cabins in the woods. Whut? It's true... I just wish Allison was here."

This came from one of a pair of guys who, if she had to slot them into a horror trope, would be Scary Rednecks, like the ones in Deliverance or Southern Comfort. Supernatural also had an episode playing on that trope, with Sam and Dean left shocked that they'd been fighting ordinary human beings instead of the paranormal monsters they usually faced. But these two were likeable rather than scary; they even looked familiar, though Imojen could not place them at the moment.

"Wait--before we go traipsing off to The Cabin In The Woods, we should try to learn all we can, and have a strategy. I saw this horror movie once, about a couple that had car trouble, and they got stuck staying at this old roadside motel where the people running it were psycho killers who filmed themselves killing people in the motel. Something one of the killers said stuck with me: 'They think their rooms will protect them.' But they didn't, because the rooms were all rigged with secret entrances and stuff so the killers could slip in once the victims locked themselves inside, and they had cameras watching everything. So...if we do go to the cabin, we should think of it as a dungeon crawl, rather than a shelter.

"But first," she said, turning to Michael, "do you remember if there were any passages in the Book written in Latin?" Now that it had abducted them into...whatever this was, she was definitely thinking of it with a capital B. "I wouldn't expect you'd remember the passages if you can't even remember the plot, but any names in a Latin passage might be helpful. Especially if you say the words under your breath when you read. Do you remember what sub-genre of horror it was? Slasher type, supernatural, psychological, that sort of thing?"

Then she turned to Nick. "Do you know anything about the script your father was working on? Was there a cabin like that in it, or in the Book itself?"
 
Big Ben

It finally sunk in that he had fallen into some sort of terrible twilight zone episode written by someone like Stephen King. In fact it was the two boys dad. None of this was designed to make people feel good. Just the same it was hard for him to completely kill off the elation that his pain free and mobile new existence brought to him. He imagined that the young man in the wheelchair probably felt that way too. Ben thought more about it as the girl he liked, now in a different body, went into her theory. He had thought once that the movie director dad had written him into one of the movies. Lasted almost to the end and saved someone's life. Life for him, like the boy in the wheelchair wan't quite how he would have written it. He had a lot of money. Many millions earned in his football career and multiplied by smart investing. He had lived very humbly during his football years, earning many teasing comments from his team mates. No one knew he thought. Except the people at the bank. He had always lived small. Except for his entertainment. He had spent a fortune on DVD movies, books and internet streaming. a nice computer every four or five years and a big screen for TV and computer.

Now he rather realized if this were in any shape as real as it looked. He was doomed to die. He was never one of the heroes, even in his own life. He did a good job and had earned his retirement. But, he couldn't just sit at home. He needed a people fix. He wasn't the smartest guy aside from finance. His mother said that was some sort of savant thing she told him once. Oh well, maybe he'd save someone before the end. Maybe he'd rather die young and strong rather than stiff and over medicated in his bed.

" Alright Imogene, I'm game. I'm strong and more mobile than I look. When I was young... ( he had a strange expression here ) I played professional football. Defensive lineman for the Steelers. I'm not the smartest guy out here, but I have my gifts"

He smiled at her. He looked over at the two country boys.

"Hi Guys! I'm Ben"
 
Michael wasn't sure what to make of the situation, uncertain of the fact that two of the people said that they hadn't changed much at all. It ruined his theory that they were all changed. But there was definitely changes. He could definitely see that. Chad did not look like his usual self and neither did Liz or at least that's who he assumed they were. He couldn't know for sure until they woke up and he had to wonder when that would happen. He would get his answer as Liz woke up. She looked the same, though her make-up seemed more done up.

"I knew that you two made fun of me taking Latin, but that quite literally translates to " Books of Horrors". Why did you think it was a good idea to insult a possibly cursed book that literally had horrors in its title? Sometimes, I think you have a death wish."


Michael would take a moment to consider Imojen's point. " I don't think the forms are so much to represent the character as much as it suppose to just be appealing to the viewers. People in horror can never be how they were, even if they were pretty hot in the first place. That being said, if we all do embody tropes, I know immediately what Liz is supposed to represent. She's supposed to be the Horror Movie buff. The girl has seen practically every horror movie and was the one who was yelling at the screen to not go in the obvious trap."

Liz would look over at him and clicked her tongue. " Which is why my immediate response to the cabin that appears in the middle of the woods is an immediate no. Well, unless any of you have an itching to die. I would suggest no though because splitting up in horror always end with someone on the ground bleeding out by whatever it is. This doesn't feel like a government conspiracy horror though. It is giving off more of an atmosphere of supernatural or psycho in the woods."


Nick had to admit one thing. Liz had a fair point though. Splitting up seemed like a bad idea, no matter how prepared they were. That just left Chad to wake up. He had to wonder when that was going to happen. He assumed it was going to be some time soon though. Especially they had gotten three of the others awake. He took a moment to consider what else he knew that would be useful. He knew that his dad had written a virgin and a killer into his script. But the details were getting fuzzy the more he tried to remember it.

"I do think having a strategy might be a good idea because we have no clue what we are running into. Horrors has so many tropes to use that it is very possible that we have to figure things out. That being said, I don't know if we should or shouldn't be worried about death. To one degree, there is always fast kills in horror movies, but Dad loved to take more inspiration from games. It's entirely possible that the book would work the same way, giving us respawn points, though, I am sure that there is a finite......" As Nick said this, everyone would feel a sudden burning on their hands and when they would look down at the back of their palms, it would be engraphed with a number 13. Well almost everyone. Michael would turn over his hand and see it was an infinity symbol, quickly shoving his hand into his pocket. " 13 lives, it looks like that hw many deaths we get. So if I calulcated that right, in total, we have 104 shared lives." Liz would walk over to Chad and shake him awake.

Michael would take a moment to think about it for a moment. " No, that was the weird thing actually, the only thing written in the book was in English. Ocassionally, it would slide into Spanish, French, Russian and other languages, but I would blink and they would be back in English. I can remember one thing about the book. It was very much a psychological slasher book, though occassionally, there would be traces of the supernatural out of the no where. It sometimes connected to the script though, it was weird. It never stayed on one genre."


Nick would look over at her. " As I mentioned before, it was taking some inspiration from some video game horror. He had been playing that game Until Dawn when he wrote it. There was definitely a cabin in that game."

Liz would take a moment to flip over Chad. She resisted the urge to scream. " So, I think our Jock definitely might have woken up a few times before us. He has a scar over his right cheek and he has a few scars on his chest and legs. I think when we die, it might leave some scars on our bodies to contend with then. But that isn't the actual problem. It's this." She would pick up Chad's hand and show it to everyone. There was a number on it. 1. Chad Stephens, the jock at the party, the one in the party only had one life to live. That might prove to be a problem for them. If Chad was any indicator with how badly they could die was, it seemed that the group of eighth was going to have a very bloody night in for them. She wondered something. Liz would place her hand on Chad's and he would jolt awake, his life counter going up to 2 and Liz's going down to 12.

Chad would take a moment to look around. It seemed that everyone was getting to wake up. He knew that he had died twelve times already, and he didn't know how bad that was. He thought he was going to be okay. He hadn't gotten a chance to look at his reflection at any point, always just trying to fight to survive, so, he would take a moment to finally look at his reflection in the pond. He took a step back and tilted his head.

1605068506592.png


" I'm going to assume that the fact that I looks like Chris Evans has something to do with the fact that this is definitely something straight out of a horror movie. I'm Chad Stephens, in case nobody recgonizes me, though, I guess you could have assumed that based on my appearance. So, yeah, that cabin that is lit up is definitely a death trap. There are twelve different rooms and each won killed me in a different way. That being said, there isn't anything else here." There was a silence that would follow by Michael and Nick.

Liz would take a moment to consider their options. " Well, that sure is a good thing to know, though that really cost us nearly you, you fucking idiot. Rule 1 of Horror, never go anywhere alone. Like even children know that. I guess we can.... there are no other paths."

As Liz said this, the moonlight would shine away from the cabin into the clearing. A sign would appear in front of them. Challenge 1 of 13 complete. Night in a Deadly Cabin Complete. Challenge 2 currently setting up: Night in the Murder Woods. The Moonlight would make four new paths.

@Michale CS @Gands @Zarko Straadi
 
Imojen:

Imojen listened with rapt attention, trying her best to remember and process the information from the others as it came in. I am noticing confusion, she thought as Mike mentioned seeing the Book shift between languages. How could he find that boring? I'd have been all over that! she thought. Then why did he talk as if he didn't know the Book was cursed back at the party? He would have at least known that it had a paranormal effect. Did he ever--

She gave a yelp of surprise when she felt a burning in her hand and saw a number 13 appear just as Nick brought up the idea of a finite set of lives. For some reason, Mike looked at his hand and rapidly stuffed it into his pocket. She hadn't been close enough to Liz and Chad to see that his life-counter had gone up when Liz made the transfer.

"Huh...OK...OK..." she muttered as the sign appeared, announcing the end of one challenge and the start of another. "OK! So...one possible bit of good news: if it's working on video game logic, then the horror trope we embody doesn't necessarily determine our destiny the way it might in a movie where you kinda know everybody's doomed except the Final Girl. I'm not much of a gamer, but I've played the Knights of the Old Republic games. In those games, you had a starting character, but as the story moved on, you got other characters to join your party, and you could play as those characters for different missions. Each character had different strengths and weaknesses, skill-sets, abilities, that sort of thing. And if you played the game right, all the characters could survive.

"Our horror tropes could be more about something like that. Like...I'm the Monster Hunter, so I might be best at certain types of combat, and maybe have the best chance at making a Lore check, like if we find a grimoire or a mysterious sigil. You," she said to Big Ben, "were a football player and you're also the biggest, so you might be the only one of us who could use a suit of armor or a big, heavy weapon. You two," she said to the rednecks, "might have the highest Marksmanship and the best Craft skill, for making improvised weaponry and armor if we find a Workshop, or maybe you'll have Wilderness Survival skills like Stealth and Tracking.

"Each of us will probably be best at at least one thing and worst at something else, so we should be trying to figure out what those are, so we can know who would be best to task for a given challenge.

"Before we leave this clearing, we should look around to see if we can find any starting weapons or equipment. There might also be things like Health packs and power-ups we should keep an eye out for as we go along. Maybe even extra lives, but those will probably be harder to come by, especially as we move up through the challenges. There might also be things like puzzles, mini-games and hidden loot.

"And since Chad only has one life, we're gonna need to bodyguard him--wait," she said, turning to Nick, "you said you thought we had 104 shared lives. Does that mean we can actually share? Oh, and if the Book is being influenced by your father's writing--did he write the Book, or know its author?"
 
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There was an uncomfortable shift in the air for the briefest of moments. It was barely noticeable, but it was there as a fog rolled into the area. The fog completely blocked the viewing area for everyone. It only took a moment to pass, but once it was gone.....Big Ben was gone. Not a trace of him was left, no soul, no body. It was as if he had never been with them in the first place. The only indication that he had ever existed at all was that every's life counter would go up by about 3.

"Somehow I doubt that the fog is ever going to be a good thing.... uhh.... guys, I think we lost someone when the fog rolled in. Maybe he got lost and moved or something," he replied, pushing the thought that the other guy was dead. No, that wasn't what happened. It couldn't be what happened. Besides, just because his life moved to the others. Mike decided then and there that the book had let Ben out. Maybe it saw he was actually too good and didn't need whatever trials they would go through.

Nick would take a moment to consider why the fog had rolled in and taken Ben away, but he figured that it was just something that he wouldn't understand. Maybe there were too many of them and this was the book's way of making everything even. Or maybe there was no reason for it at all. He had learned from his accident that there was no point in dwelling on the past, whatever happened in life was just meant to be. He had to agree with Imogen on one point, he wasn't big on Horror games. His medium for horror was the books and movies that he grew up on. Games had never been on his radar or rather horror games. Sure, he did watch other people play them, but he didn't find them to be in the realm of interest for him. He did have to wonder why the game decided he could walk. There was such a thing as disabled horror movie characters.

Mike would take a moment to stare at his pocket and think about the infinity symbol on his hand. He knew that it was a big deal that his life was limitless. Few tropes in horrors were given the status where they couldn't die. At the moment, there were exactly three that he could think might be like that. . There was the nice guy who would survive for a long time.... but that was not infinite. Maybe he was the Final boy, the person who fought the monster... but yet, from his horror movie knowledge, they could die as well. That only left one role and a shiver ran down his spine. No, no, no, he couldn't be that. Sure, he hadn't believed the book was magical.... but that seemed too cruel....

But he knew better than to doubt himself. He remembered reading somewhere that once you eliminated the impossible, only the possible remained or something like that. He- no- no- no- maybe if he didn't say it, it wouldn't be real.

"Yeah, I think that makes the most sense too. There are probably some like normal weapons that are easy to find here, and I am sure that if we look hard enough, there might be some better weapons, though I don't think those will be easy to find. I do think that all the things you mentioned will be there and I'm sure somewhere out there is a killer who wants us all dead. They are a staple of like all horror media."

Nick would nod. " Yeah, I think so. It looks like LIz already shared a life with Chad, so i'm pretty sure that we can too. I don't think our father wrote the book, but I'm sure that he knew the author. He said that he disappeared under mysterious circumstances and only.... you don't think that maybe the author might be in his own book like us?"

@Zarko Straadi @Michale CS