The Mysterious Misery Society

[Villamvihar]

"That probably isn't important," declared Alfed as both Dariusz and Thiri attempted to solve the puzzle. "What is important is that it says Dusk Avenue 59. And maybe if we go to Dusk Avenue 59, I'll finally get paid and you guys can have your... whatever this thing is supposed to be." There was a hint of doubt in the man's voice as he declared this statement, as if he did not quite believe himself. Mostly because while today was supposed to have been an ordinary day, it was starting to get quite tiresome. He only wanted to be paid damnit! At first, he may have cared about the people who wanted to be helped and share their misery with the rest of the world, but then he almost got squashed by a painting of the Taj Mahal.

"For those of us who just arrived," he continued after a huge, overly dramatic sigh, "Welcome to the Mysterious Misery Society! Don't panic," these words were said in a tone that mixed disbelief and mockery, "because we may have found our true destination. Now follow me and let's get this thing over with."

Fortunately, the destination he would lead people to was not far away, just a couple of metres away and it looked fairly normal from the outside. It was an ordinary block of flats with a rather large, iron gate that blocked off the entrance, but that was only there to fool people into believing it was closed. As Alfred soon discovered, the lock was left open and the moment he turned the knob, it opened with the characteristic, rusty sound of metal sliding on metal. The plain door was similarly left open, but then the next oddity revealed itself: a huge corridor was waiting them instead of a lobby. It was rather well lit, however, judging by its size, it took up the entire building.

"What sort of a maniac builds something like this?" asked Alfred out loud as he stared at the long hallway, mostly because it was a rather amazing sight to behold. First of all, it looked as if it had been constructed from white marble. Second of all, it was supported by greek columns, all of them exquisitely crafted and painted with a vomit-inducing variant of pink. Third of all, it was lined with ornate, ancient lamps that looked like they took months of hard labour to forge. And last, but most important of all, someone had tried to complete the masterpiece by drawing childish pictures onto nearly every available surface without any regard for coherency. Really, it was a surprise that the colours did not start screaming 'please end my miserable existence' when the group entered the hallway.

 

[chaosheart13]

Dani had watched the others solve the puzzle with ease, though she didn't take credit for saying that the letters might be anagrams. Heaving out a sigh, she walked after Alfred with a slightly irritated look on her face. She was hot, though not to the extent Alfred was, and being hot made her a little more short tempered. Hopefully the Mysterious Misery Society would allow her to vent.

They came to their destination soon enough, Dusk Avenue 59. And what she saw next made her eyes nearly pop out of her skull. A large corridor was before them with pink columns and scribbles that were probably from a madman's ramblings. "What," was all she could say, though her thoughts were more along the lines of "What have I gotten myself into?"

 

[Ravenfrost]

Jinks trailed along as the small group entered the bizarre corridor. The enterprise had taken on a decidedly sinister hue. First the fishy "collapse" of a huge billboard at the place and the moment the group had initially met.

Now, they were in a strange situation that appeared to be decorated by a child, an idiot, or a madman--any of whom could be dangerous in a position of power.

Jinks looked around for hidden cameras...surely someone was getting their jollies from watching the poor confused band of misfits struggling to make sense of it all. Or maybe "Alfred" was the mastermind. Jinks studied him with narrowed eyes. Alfred= psycho Mastermind?

Nah. She couldn't credit him with part of that equation at least.

With a silent sigh of disappointment, she yanked back on her violent inclinations....

 

[Eteles]

Upon entering the building, Dariusz's eyebrows slowly migrated to the top of his forehead. They stayed there as he looked around cautiously, took a step backward, swallowed. "Maybe this is... a special school," he suggested. "At first, an older building for some secret society, and then, sold to strange teachers who think children show their creativity best by doing whatever they like," he suggested, looking to Jinks hopefully as he suggested this.

"Whatever we have gotten into," he said, looking at Dani, "I hope you will stay with us a little longer. Your idea was very smart, in the alley, about the letters being mixed up. If maybe this turns out to be a good group, I hope very much that you are in it," he said hopefully.

 

[Kitti]

Almost as though in a trace, Thiri had trailed along behind the others like a shadow. She felt too overwhelmed, too bewildered to even question what was going on and had reached a state where she just accepted that this was as it was without a fuss. Her thoughts were hazy and focused primarily on why she had even bothered to come along to such a thing as this and thinking how much better it would have been to stay in bed.

The woman, one of the latecomers... Jinx? She had been in front of Thiri but stopped quite abruptly and Thiri nearly ran into her back. Grazing against her back and mumbling a hasty apology with a quick step backward, Thiri brought her thoughts back to the present to look around her. The others all seemed in quite a state of surprise and a cursory glance explained why. The decorations could have been lavish but the colors made everything look tacky and gaudy.

The loud colors were an insult to the senses but what drew Thiri away from the group were the drawings. They were childish and crude and she couldn't help but peer at them in confusion. Was it some kind of clue as to what was going on here? A school, like the man behind her suggested? The home of some psychotic serial killer who would lock them in his basement? Thiri frowned at the last thought. ​

 

[Villamvihar]

Right, this was going to give Alfred a headache. How was he supposed to get these people to whatever gathering was being held if there were things like these in the way? At first, he did not think it was anything bad, but Dariusz' explanation made a shiver go down his back as if there was something much more sinister awaiting them at the end of the road. In retrospect, the house's ornate interior did not match its quite regular exterior either and while he was no architect, he had the vague feeling that this room was somehow too large for the building. It was most definitely too long for it to be a part of the building. It was at least several dozen metres and the man was not sure that the part at the end opened up into a bigger room or not. It was difficult to tell.

"I would rather we moved on with this thing," said Alfred after several seconds. To the hell with the creepy hallways, he was going to get these people to their destinations. For one, because he had to get paid. For two, because he had been living on bread and butter for a week. And for three, because it was the right thing to do. All things, considered, he had his priorities straight given his situation, but not even he was heartless enough to deny these people the right to leave.

"If you're as creeped out as I am, just turn around and le-"

Click. SLAM.

Alfred whirled around and almost got a heart attack. The door! The entrance which they had come in through was just gone as if it had never been there! Worst of all, the long hallway had absolutely no windows. Almost as though this place had been designed to trap a group of people inside, a thought which made a shiver run down Alfred's spine. What the hell had he gotten himself into? The dark-skinned man shook his head in an effort to clear his thoughts of the various, invasive and useless thoughts. He could have theorised for weeks on end, but that was not going to help the situation. The only way he along with this rag-tag group of misfits were going was forward.

"Never mind. Everyone, stay close to each other and follow me." Like that needed to be said. This support group thing just turned into something quite spooky. Of course, the first thing that came to Alfred's mind was that he should have kept that damn armour on. At least then he would feel safe as he took the point, leading the group towards the other end of the hallway. Fortunately, nothing spooky happened. Even the childish drawings on the walls faded as the small group advanced onwards and almost as if on cue, stopped a couple of metres short of the door.

What. The. Hell.

Two people were literally hanging from the ceiling by their waists, their mouths duct-taped shut. One of them was a dark-skinned woman in baggy, casual clothes with a strange hairstyle, piercings and some vague ink on her hand that suggested at least one tattoo hidden underneath her dress. The other was... either a man or a woman. It was very difficult to judge based on their appearance; they were as ambigious as one could get without the use of plastic surgery. Both of them looked panicked and it seemed as if they had been up there for quite some time. What is more, upon closer inspection, the word "INTERLOPER" has been stamped onto their foreheads with garish, red ink. Therefore, it was no surprise that all Alfred could do was let his jaw hang open.

 

[chaosheart13]

Dani jumped at the slamming noise before whirling around to see that the entrance was gone. "...That's not possible," she said, "How can an entrance disappear just like that?" She couldn't help but feel that something was fishy about the whole thing. It didn't make sense, none of it even remotely made sense. Like the Taj Mahal puzzle, as an example. Heaving a sigh, she began to follow Alfred down the hall.

It seemed to be endless and she was sure that the hall was impossibly long. She wasn't quite sure, though. Her mind could be playing tricks on her. However, it wasn't playing tricks on her when they stumbled upon two people being hung on the ceiling by the waist. Her eyes bugged out at the display. "Are you two alright?!" she shouted, coming over to see if she can find a way to bring them down. "Someone help me get them down, right now!"

 

[Demmy]

The black hair girl stared up at the large image of the Taj Mahal. She was early for the meeting, but Iana always made a point to be early to every appointment she had. Even if it was by an hour... Or two. With a sigh she sat where she was, in the middle of the street where if one dared they could run her over. The thought made her chuckle. She didn't want to die, no. She simply found gory situations amusing. Her parents once thought she was going to be a serial killer. Once again the girl laughed, moving to stand up before everything went black.

-----------------​

Iana, who was never still when asleep, woke up to the world spinning and swaying. Groaning she closed her eyes. Not working. Opening them again she squinted at a small imagine in the distance. She couldn't make it out, but it took her mind off the nauseating feeling in her stomach. Eventually the swinging slowed enough for her to look away and she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. Where was she? Why was she swaying? And why did her waist hurt? Despite finding herself hanging from the ceiling of a large room, Iana found herself to be quite calm. Internally at least. She no idea how she looked on the outside. Panic wasn't going to help and she didn't want to start the swaying again.

Voices? Did she actually hear noises. Squinting her eyes again she could see what looked like to be a group talking at the entrance. They weren't going to kill her, were they? Once the door slammed shut the girl jumped, causing herself to start swaying again. Squeezing her eyes closed she started counting in her head, ignoring whatever else might have happened to the group.

 

[Ravenfrost]

Jinks smiled thinly.

This was turning out very badly, indeed. She shot a killing glance at the back of Alfred's head. Did the fool have no idea what he was getting them into? Probably didn't know a damn thing about his employers, either. Either way, doors didn't just "disappear." Either it was some mechanical slight-of-hand or something far more ominous was afoot.

Glancing up at the bodies dangling from the ceiling, she was relieved that they seemed to be alive at the moment. It could be a ruse, to lure them into thinking that these people were victims... But the fact that the trussed-up people were stamped across the forehead, branding them as INTERLOPERS...and the childish drawings...along with the vanishing door.... It all led Jinks to form a vague opinion of a childish, hostile, unstable being (or group of beings) that had more power than was good for them.

She rubbed a weary hand over her face. She really hated brats. They better not mess with her bicycle!

Dropping her satchel, she rummaged in a voluminous side pocket and pulled out a climbing rope with some type of strangely-shaped grapple at the end.

"Thiri! Dani! Al! And .... er... Curly Joe!" she barked, "I'm going to try to cut one of these poor suckers down. Do you think you can break their fall? This one looks pretty lightweight."

Jinks pointed at a boy or girl (it was hard to tell which, especially with the duct tape decorating them) with dark hair and panicked green eyes. Irritatingly, without waiting for a reply, Jinks quickly threw the knotted rope up at the anchor holding one of the victims, secured the line, and knife between her teeth, shimmied up the rope.

 

[Eteles]

Dariusz felt his body fill with ice water as he looked up at the dangling figures, heart speeding. It thumped as Jinks pulled a grappling hook from her side pocket and threw it cleanly up to find purchase above, and a warm pink began to spread across his cheeks as he watched her ascend the rope with practiced ease.

"Yes!" He sputtered suddenly, realizing that he was Curly Joe, it was him. "I am able to catch them. Catch you," he corrected himself, positioning himself beneath the dark-haired one. "Do not worry! I am small, but am full of muscle and soft fat from lifting things and too much babka," he said, suddenly awkwardly aware of his short, thick shape.