Chapter Text
You register the blaring lights overhead before you even realise you're awake. Your head pounds as the lights swim above you and, slowly, your brain begins to register the sound around you. You lie on your back, blinking up at the lights for what must be several minutes before you push yourself up, bringing a hand to your face as if that will stop your brain feeling like it’s about to burst out of your skull. You feel a light pressure around your neck and you bring your hand up to find the source. A collar wraps around your neck. Panicked, you sit up too fast and your head spins, vision blurring. You momentarily forget about the collar to clutch at your head until it stops.
You blink a few more times, trying to get your bearings. Who are you? Dave Strider. Where are you? Where are you from? What were you just doing?
You can’t remember.
You can’t remember anything. Just your name. Assuming that it is your name.
You stagger to your feet and turn around, searching for the source of the noise in the room.
The sound of people arguing is not one you're especially used to, but a group of teenagers shouting loudly at each other is a rather unmistakable sound. Not far from where you now stand, a group of people - a quick headcount reveals this number to be thirteen - stand in a sort of semicircle pointing accusingly at each other and swearing loudly.
“-don’t see anybody else with any ideas!” You only catch the tail end of her sentence as she flails her arms a little. Apparently she notices you now as her attention shifts and when she turns to face you, her blue hair shifts out of her face, revealing what you assume is a burn wound. The flesh on the left side of her face is discoloured and, now that she’s facing you, you note that her arm is also missing. She makes a face at you and remarks loudly, “Well, look who finally decided to join us. Have a nice sleep, princess?”
It’s then that you realise you don't have your shades. Fuck. You ignore her in favour of searching for them, glancing around the room, checking the floor around where you woke up.
Clearly this upsets her as she snaps her fingers at you, “Hey! I was talking to you!”
“Vriska, lay off,” another girl says. “He just woke up and we’re all in the same situation.”
That seems to distract her long enough for her to stop staring at you, her eyes - or rather eye - tearing away from you and toward the girl, “Which speaking of, I’d like to point out yet again that no one has had any good ideas about what to do and it’s really starting to get annoying."
“You’re starting to get annoying,” a boy with dark hair and a lisp mutters.
The girl - Vriska, apparently - narrows her eyes at him, “What was that?”
“I said,” he repeats, louder this time, “You're starting to get annoying.”
“That’s it-” she starts to roll up her sleeves but a tall girl steps in front of her, raising her hands.
“Let’s all just calm down,” she says, speaking with a slight lilt. “We’re all in the same situation and we’re all confused but there’s no need to start going after each other.”
“She’s right,” another girl says. “Our top priority right now should be figuring out where we are and what to do next. Now that we're all conscious, I suggest we introduce ourselves. I'll start, I suppose, seeing as it was my proposal. My name is Rose Lalonde and I don't remember anything before waking up just now."
"Right, so exactly the same as literally everyone else," Vriska rolls her eyes.
"Oh my god, do you ever shut up?" You don't flinch, because something ingrained in your mind tells you not to, but this guy is so fucking loud that you almost do.
Vriska makes a disgusted face, "No one was talking to you," she keeps talking before he can respond. "Anyway I'm Vriska Serket." She adds in a hairflip for good measure and you barely hold back a grimace.
You lift a hand to your neck, trying to get a finger under the collar.
"Don't bother," the guy with the lisp says. "We've already tried taking them off. I don't know how exactly they're attached yet but I'm pretty fucking certain theres something connecting them inside our necks."
You drop your hand back to your side, "Christ."
"I'm Jade," another girl says, gesturing to the boy next to her. "This is my brother, Jake."
The boy - Jake - looks like he's about to throw up. He attempts a smile anyway and a small wave.
"I am Kanaya Maryam," The tall girl with the lilt to her voice says. "I arrived here with my sister but she is um… Gone."
Yikes. You're grateful when another girl speaks up, "I'm Nepeta. This is my best furr-end, Equius! We came here toge-fur."
Yep, that girl just made a cat pun. Okay sure why not. You figure, why not make this shit even weirder than it already is. And okay, woah how did you not notice this guy before? She gestures at the guy next to her who absolutely towers over her and looks built like a fuckin’ boulder. You note that this guy has shades on, although they're cracked, and hope that means yours are around somewhere. Equius says nothing, just stands there intimidatingly with his arms crossed. You make a mental note to stay on this guy's good side.
The others all introduce themselves as Gamzee, Eridan, Sollux, and the guy that shouted right in your damn ear earlier is Karkat.
Somehow you didn't notice Gamzee before. He's taller than both Equius and Kanaya, who, as you so astutely observed, are tall, and has clown makeup smudged across his face. He smiles dopily, his eyes unfocused. You always thought you were fairly tall but apparently, compared to half the people here, you're not.
“And you are?” Vriska asks finally, turning to you.
“Dave,” You say. “Strider.”
“Any clue where we are, how you got here, etcetera?”
“Nope. Nothin’.” You don’t say that you remember nothing nothing - you don’t know if that would make this situation better or worse for the others.
"Great, now that that's over with," Vriska says, stepping forward, somehow commanding everyone's attention to her. "Can we maybe figure out what the fuck is going on?"
"Yes, I expect we are all wondering the same thing, however, assuming the rest of you know as little as I do, I doubt we will learn very much." Rose says.
Vriska rolls her eyes, "Well we can at least look around?"
"Yes," Kanaya says. "It looks like there are other rooms aside from this one. Perhaps we should explore a little."
"Yeah, okay, let's just split up and search this place none of us have ever fucking seen before," Karkat says, making overly exaggerated hand movements. "That sounds like a great idea that definitely won't result in our collective fucking demise!"
"No one said anything about splitting up, idiot," Vriska says, crossing her arms. "We can go in groups. Figure out where the hell we are maybe? Or who the fuck kidnapped us all."
"Catnapped?" Nepeta asks.
"Ya duh," Vriska rolls her eyes again. Her eye. Singular. "How do you think we got here, huh? Don't know about you, but I sure as hell didn't come here voluntarily."
Nepeta frowns, but doesn't say anything else.
"Great, if no one else has any stupid objections, I'm going this way," she points to a dark passage on the left. "You, you and I guess you," she points at Kanaya, Jade, and hesitantly, Jake. "can come with me."
Then she turns on her heel and marches down the passage. Jade and Kanaya share a look, and Jake looks even more uneasy than he already did. The three reluctantly trail after Vriska.
"I guess we'll go this way?" Nepeta says to Equius, pointing at the passage on the opposite side. "Does anyone else wa-nya come?"
"Better than standing around here doing fuck all," Karkat marches off after them. Eridan looks around and then trails behind them muttering something about being left behind.
You turn around and find only Rose, Sollux and yourself left.
"I suppose we should search together?" Rose suggests.
"Yeah, fuck that, I'm going to search on my own," Sollux disappears into one of the dark corners of the room.
"Guess it's just us then huh?" You say to Rose. She frowns and looks around.
"Wasn’t there someone else here?"
"Uh, you mean Sollux? The guy that literally just walked away?"
She levels you with an irritated look, "Yes, I mean the guy who I just watched walk away. No, I mean the other one. With the clown makeup - Gamzee, I think - where did he go?"
You spin around, "Huh. Dunno. Maybe he went with the others and we just didn't see it?"
She frowns, "Hmm… Oh well, I suppose we should go this way-" she points to the only remaining passage, "as the others have all been claimed."
She starts off in the direction of the passage and you follow a few steps behind her.
You step into the darkness of the passage and a blaring automatic light comes on above you. You blink against the harsh light. God, you wish you had your shades right now.
"A vending machine?" You turn at the sound of Rose's voice and find her standing in front of what appears to be a large green vending machine.
It stands at one side of a door, a sign of the word 'BAR' is plastered on the other side. The passage continues on past the vending machine and stops, a dead end against a dark blue wall.
You stand beside Rose and peer through the glass into the vending machine, "Water and soda. Huh. I guess whoever put us here doesn't want us to die of thirst at least."
"Yes, except we have no money," Rose says. Then she looks at you, "Unless you have some?"
You know you don't, but you check your pockets just in case, "Nope."
Rose shakes her head, "Perhaps they just want to taunt us."
Then she turns and walks through the door into the room. Following her you find that it leads to a bar, which you probably should have guessed considering the sign outside.
The walls are painted a dark red and the room's lights are less painful than that of the passage and the room you woke up in. They light up the room without fucking blinding you. Bottles of alcohol line the shelves and sit on the counter below them. Four wooden, uncomfortable looking stools sit in front of the bar and a blackboard with words scribbled down on it hangs on the wall.
"What could be the point in having a bar for a group of underage kids?" Rose wonders aloud. "How old are you, Dave?"
"Nineteen."
She hums, "Me too. I wonder if anyone among us is old enough to drink?"
"Dunno," You shrug. You step forward to get a better look at the writing on the blackboard, hoping for some sort of clue.
It reads:
"Can Drink:
Jane, Sollux, Kanaya, Eridan, Feferi, Roxy, Dirk, Gamzee, Jake, Porrim
Can't Drink:
Nepeta, Tavros, Vriska, Equius, John, Jade, Aradia, Rose, Dave, Terezi, Karkat"
You don't recognise half the names on the list but you turn to Rose anyway, "Think I found an answer to your question."
She steps forward and reads the board, "Huh. I suppose that does answer my question."
Your eyes linger on one of the names. Dirk. You don’t know why, but you have a feeling that you should know who that is. Something sits on the edge of your mind, somewhere just out of reach. Forgotten memories taunt you from the darkness.
Rose steps back around the bar and stops, seeming to notice something. She crouches down, "I guess we didn't notice it before somehow, but there's a sliding door in the side of the bar here."
She tugs on the handle a bit before standing back up, "It won't open."
"Wow, that's super useful then," You shove your hands in your pockets. "Doesn't look like there's much else in here."
Rose nods, "Yes, perhaps we should find the others and reveal our findings."
"What 'findings'?" You once again find yourself trailing after Rose as she leads you down the passage Vriska went down.
"Well, the bar, vending machine and sliding door I suppose. We may as well see if anyone else has had any more luck than we have."
"Sure, okay."
Stepping into the now lit passage - you assume the lights turned on when they entered much like the lights where you and Rose were - you find yet another vending machine.
This passage is very similar to the passage to the bar - a vending machine by a door, a sign at the side reading 'GAME'. The biggest difference is what looks like a large glass room at the end of the hall.
"A smoking booth?" Rose asks, stepping towards it.
You elect to inspect the vending machine and let her look at the supposed smoking booth. This one is brown, rather than green, and seems to sell cigarettes. Rose's theory of the smoking booth makes a lot more sense now. Purely out of curiosity - or so you tell yourself - you fiddle around with the machine, dunting it slightly, just to see if anything falls out.
It doesn’t, of course.
You leave Rose there, and step into the game room, finding a dart board surrounded by a large square pit. Staring down into the pit, you can't tell exactly how far down it goes. You wish you had something to drop down there. Suddenly, you feel wind on your face. Looking up, you discover the source of the wind is just a large vent. Two doors, one blue and one red, are at the opposite end of the room. You walk over and try the handle of the red door. It doesn't open. You try again.
"Um," Jake appears in the doorway of the blue room. "That door's locked, chap. But this one isn't, come on in."
He motions to the room behind him. He looks less uneasy than before but something feels off about him. You warily step past him and into the blue room. Vriska kicks the leg of… something that sits on the chair. She groans and tugs at her hair.
"This is so stupid and useless! What's even the point in these dumb things?" She kicks it again. It appears to be some type of purple doll. Something sloshes inside it when she kicks it.
There are five of them in total in the room, four on the five chairs along the bottom of the room and one above them on a platform. A ladder leads up to said platform where an additional four chairs sit. A large picture of a man in a black suit and hat with an eyepatch and a sneer plastered on his face sits on the wall to the left of the chairs.
"The fuck is this shit?" You ask.
Jade, who was standing under the painting, turns around and shrugs, "We don't know. We couldn't get into the red room and nothing in this room makes much sense."
"Did you find anything wherever you were searching?" Kanaya asks you.
"Nope," you say, popping the P. "Just another vending machine we can't use and a bar with a list of names of who can and can't drink. And a sliding door that we can't open."
"Sounds dumb-" Vriska says before turning to scream at the doll. "-just like everything else in this stupid fucking place!!"
You raise your eyebrows at Jade who just grins sheepishly and shrugs.
"It's been a little frustrating…" She says, frowning at the floor.
"More than a little," Vriska growls. "Nothing here makes any damn sense!"
"Did you say there was another vending machine?" Kanaya asks, stepping towards you.
"Uh yeah, why?"
"Did that one also have cigarettes?"
"Nah, it was just overpriced soda and water."
She nods, "I see. This was in the machine's pocket when we found it. I have decided to hold onto it for the time being."
She produces a cigar seemingly out of nowhere, "We don't need any underage smoking to make an already bad situation worse."
You raise your eyebrows, "That's what you're worried about?"
"There is no harm in keeping some sort of order."
You guess you can agree with that. You shrug and turn to leave the room. Heading back into the passage, you find Rose has gone. You figure she probably went down the only remaining passage so you start in that direction.
This passage turns out not to be a passage at all but instead what appears to be a large cafeteria. Several chandeliers hang overhead and the room is full of tables covered in white cloth. There's a door at the back of the room and yet another dark passageway at the otherside. What is with this place and passages?
You head to the door and try the handle only to find it locked. Apparently this place likes locked doors almost as much as it likes dark passages. You turn to the dark area behind the cafeteria and head that way instead.
There are no lights in the area other than a single red lamp that doesn't illuminate much other than the vague shape of a doorknob below it. The door sits open a crack, allowing a sliver of light to shine through. You hear voices from inside and push open the door.
The walls of the room are eye searingly pink and lined with shelves of dolls. Rose stands in the centre holding a stuffed bunny in one hand and what looks like bullets in the other. Nepeta, Equius, Karkat and Eridan are beside her and they all turn to look at you as you open the door.
"Oh, Dave," Rose says casually, as if she's not standing there holding fucking bullets. "Was there anything of interest in the game room."
"No, just a bunch of weird shit. Why are you holding bullets?"
"They were in the fucking rabbit." Karkat says, pointing at the purple bunny toy. He, Equius and Nepeta are also holding stuffed bunnies but don't appear to have any bullets.
"Yes," Rose says. "I found six bullets in this rabbit but they appear to be fake."
"And how the fuck would you know that?" Karkat asks which, yeah okay, good question.
"They are far too light to be real," Rose inspects them further. "But if you don't believe me that's fine."
Nepeta frowns, "Maybe we should just put them back? That way we don't have someone walking around with bullets and causing arguments."
"Yeah, but then anyone could just come and take them," Eridan says. He holds out his hand toward Rose. "I will hold onto them."
She raises her eyebrows at him, mouth twisting downwards, "And why should we trust you with them?"
"I trust myself a lot more than I trust you," he says.
"And I also trust myself more than I trust you. After all, we did just meet and I have no reason to trust you."
He sputters, clearly upset at having his own logic thrown back at him, "That's not the same!"
"It's literally exactly the fucking same, how stupid are you?" Karkat asks.
It's around this time, having more or less checked out of this conversation, that you notice the body behind them, beneath a large fuchsia pink vent. You use the word 'body' rather loosely as it appears to be missing all its limbs and other appendages.
"What the fuck is that?" You ask, interrupting whoever was talking at the time.
"Hm?" Rose turns to the body. "Oh right. Yes, we aren't entirely sure but it seems like the body of a human sized doll. Missing its limbs and head, of course."
"Why?" You ask, semi redundantly.
"That's a stupid fucking question," Karkat says. "How the fuck should we know?"
And yeah, that makes sense. But the sight of a limbless torso is kinda wigging you out.
"Perhaps we should have this discussion elsewhere," Rose suggests. "Somewhere with fewer doll bodies."
You agree and, thankfully, so does everyone else. The six of you exit the room and the door shuts behind you.
You all stand around awkwardly back in the cafeteria until Rose breaks the silence.
"I will hold onto the bullets for now. It's not like I have a gun - despite them being fake - so I wouldn't be able to use them anyway."
She turns on her heel and leaves the room. Everyone else sort of disperses as well, leaving you alone. You glance around the room, unsure of what to really do now. You've been to all the places available to you and found fuckall to help this situation in anyway, so there's not exactly a whole lot you can do right now.
You idly flick the lightswitch next to the cafeteria doorway, turning the lights on and off a couple times, as if that’s gonna do anything. Out of the corner of your eye you spot something glowing under the table in front of you. You flick the lights back off and crouch down by the table reaching out for whatever it is.
You pull out some sort of small card. It reads 'Commoner' and has the image of something you can't quite make out on it. Flipping the card over, you find the source of the glowing.
You mutter the words aloud "The one who claims this: This now belongs to you. Keep it on you always. This is a key to the exit. Let no one else know the existence of this card. Otherwise, you will die. What the fuck?"
Suddenly the lights flip on and Nepeta's voice rings out, "Dave?"
You stand up, shoving the card into your pocket and smacking your head off the table as you do, "Ow, fuck."
"Oh, there you are!" She smiles and produces something from her pocket. "I meant to give these to mew earlier but I fur-got in the co-meow-tion."
She hands over your shades.
"Oh shit, thanks." You place them back on your face, grateful for the reprieve from the blinding lights that seem to be in every damn room of this place.
She hesitates before pulling out a lighter, "I also found this and I don't think Equius would like it if I was carrying it around so maybe mew can take it?"
"Uh," You decide not to ask where she found a lighter and instead just take it. "Sure, okay."
She smiles at you again, "Are you coming? Everyone's back in the main room."
You follow Nepeta back to the main room where everyone is gathered discussing their findings. As far as you can tell, everyone’s luck has been just as shit as your own.
Suddenly Gamzee appears out of fucking nowhere holding a box the same shade of fuchsia pink as the vent.
"Hey motherfuckers," He grins, lazily. "Come see what I all up and motherfucking found."
He dumps the box on the floor and opens the lid. And then, oh son of a fuck, he pulls out a human head.
You tense, and around you a few people gasp. Equius covers Nepeta's eyes and beside you Karkat retches.
"Hang on," Rose says, stepping closer. "It's not real."
She reaches into the box and pulls out a slip of paper.
"'Find my body'," she reads aloud. "'Bring me back, for I don't have arms or legs.' Could this be in reference to the doll's body in the pink room?"
Karkat sucks in a breath, "Fucking Christ, can we please agree to never pull heads out of boxes ever again? Even if it's fucking fake, a warning would still be greatly appreciated!"
"Okay but if that's the dolls head," Nepeta says. "Then where's her arms and legs?"
"Perhaps they're hidden around here somewhere?" Kanaya suggests.
"Bullshit," Vriska spits. "We've searched every god damn room in this place and I don't know about the rest of you shitheads, but I haven't found any fucking limbs!"
"That's because they're fucking hidden dumbass," Sollux says. You have no idea where he fucked off to earlier but he's back now and has presumably seen every room.
"Maybe we should just look again?" Jake suggests.
Vriska groans and rolls her eyes, "Fine! You idiots go search somewhere else, I'm going to look at the places I haven't been to yet because you guys probably missed something obvious."
She then marches off in the direction of the bar. You raise your eyebrows at Rose and she just shakes her head and sighs.
"Fine," she says, placing the doll's head back in the box. "Let's investigate again."
This time around, you find yourself back in the blue room with Rose, Jake, Jade, Karkat, and Eridan.
Rose, Jade and Jake are on the top platform inspecting the singular doll and the three empty chairs up there. Karkat is hanging around near the door uneasily. Eridan keeps complaining about the room being creepy until Rose finally tells him to just shut up and leave then.
"Hey, I found some bullets under this chair!" Jake's voice comes from above you.
Eridan huffs, but turns on his admittedly very high heels and leaves the room. The second he does, a loud bang comes from the door. You spin around from where you were looking at the only empty chair on the bottom row.
Thick iron bars block the door to the room.
Eridan stands on the other side of them, eyes wide and mouth forming a little 'o'.
"What the fuck?!" Karkat tugs at the bars desperately.
You stay frozen in place because oh god, oh fuck, this is how you die isn't it. Someone above you is speaking but the words don't quite reach your ears.
Then a loud voice rings out through the whole room, "Christ, quit yer yammerin'."
Something wraps around your waist and you are pulled violently backwards into the chair, thick metal restraints clamping around your wrists as soon as they hit the arm rests. You sputter, completely lost for words as the chair restrains you. It all happens very fast. Based on the confused babble above you you can guess the same thing has happened up there. You assume Jake dropped the bullets he was holding as they land with a dull thud on the floor in front of you.
Karkat is staring wide-eyed at the painting on the wall, his back pressed against the metal bars.
The voice speaks again, "I fuckin' said quit yer yammerin'!"
The noise above you stops and the voice speaks again, "See now that weren't so hard now, was it?"
"What the fuck is going on?" Karkat asks, still staring at the painting.
"If you'd shuddup for a second I'd explain it," The voice says. "I'm the Master of this here room. The name's Slick."
Something falls from the roof and clatters to the floor in front of Karkat who startles, "Is that a fucking gun!? Jesus Christ!"
"It's a revolver. Time for a game, kids," Slick's disembodied voice says. "Ya ever heard of Russian Roulette?"
Your mouth goes completely dry. Fucking Russian Roulette? Really??
"There's five humans in here, correct?" Slick asks. He doesn’t wait for answer and continues speaking, "Four of you have taken your seats, and one of you remains. You at the door, you are the Challenger."
Karkat sputters, "The fucking what?"
"Pick up that there gun, kid," Slick says. "Your pal on the platform very kindly dropped some bullets for you. Those ones're real so don't accidentally blow your damn face off before the game even starts."
Karkat looks horrified and makes no move to pick up the gun or the bullets.
"I believe the lovely lady on the platform has the six dummy bullets. Mind droppin' 'em down there?"
"How do you expect me to do that," Rose's voice comes from above you, oddly composed considering the situation. "When I am completely trapped in this chair?"
"I'll remove one of yer hand restrains," A click sounds throughout the room "Now hand over those dummy bullets."
Rose sighs but she seems to comply, probably sensing there's no point in resisting when you are literally trapped in these chairs. The dummy bullets land in front of you near the real bullets.
"Kid, I said pick up the damn gun. And load 'em up. You're gonna have to shoot every single person in this room, both humans and dolls, so if you don't want your pals to fuckin' die you'd better be strategic about it."
Karkat glares at the gun like it's personally offended him which, yeah it probably fucking has considering the stupid situation you're in right now.
"Karkat," Jade's voice says. "He just said no one has to die which means there must be a way to not shoot anyone! Just be careful about how you load it and where you aim it."
"Yes," Rose adds on. "It doesn't look like you have much of a choice and I'm assuming if we ever want to escape this room we're going to have to comply with the demands of a crude painting."
"Watch it," Slick growls.
Karkat hesitantly picks up the gun and steps towards the bullets. He looks fucking miserable as he crouches down and slowly starts loading them into the barrel of the gun.
He steps back towards the bars, behind which Eridan has long since disappeared. He aims the gun at the doll furthest from you, takes a deep breath, and pulls the trigger.
Nothing happens.
He aims the gun at the doll next to you. He pulls the trigger and blows the doll's head off. Green liquid explodes from it, splattering over your face and hair.
He audibly swallows and aims the gun at you. He slowly pulls the trigger and you let out the breath you didn't know you'd been holding when nothing happens. You relax, grateful to not have just had your head blown off like the doll next to you.
Karkat aims the gun at someone above you and pulls the trigger. When nothing happens, he aims it once more. You hear the sound of the bullet piercing something solid and liquid sloshing around. The same green liquid that's splattered on your face drips down from the platform.
Karkat fires the last two dummy bullets at whoever was left above you and one of the dolls near you. He fires the final real bullet at the dummy on the other side of you. The bullet hits the doll's chest splattering the green liquid all over the place.
Karkat lets out a shaky breath and collapses against the wall behind him.
"Wow," Slick says. "Nice job, kid, looks like you win. Maybe this one was too easy for you. Anyway, here's your prize."
A hand falls from the ceiling. Karkat lets out a strangled cry.
The restrains on your wrists spring open with a loud click. You hastily stand from the chair and step as far from it as possible. Karkat slumps to the floor and kicks the gun away from him. The bars slide back up and disappear as quickly as they came.
Jade, Jake and Rose descend the ladder. Rose picks up the arm and inspects it, as you rub your own arm where the restraints previously were, faint red marks now left behind..
"It appears we've found our first limb."
She smiles at the rest of you. Jade and Jake look a little shaken, and you sure as fuck are even though you are very much trying not to show it.
Karkat leans his head against the wall and snorts, still looking a little pale, "Holy shit, Rose."
She waves the arm at you and you grimace.
Just what the fuck is this place?