Obed Brandt | Hades (obedear) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-04-16 10:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | hades, persephone |
so inconceivable often I barely can speak
Who: Obed & Isobel
What: The residents of D3 discover their floor's… renovations.
Where: the Deluxe floor
When: April 16, 6:15 a.m.
Notes: gdoc, now complete!
Hanni danced by the doorway, impatiently awaiting his master and the little black harness and lead in his hands. Obed had been awake for some time, but his eyes were bleary from hours spent staring at a computer screen. He had not looked outside, had not so much as parted the curtains to peer into the strangeness he would have seen there. Because of this lack of observation, Obed and his dog were both utterly unprepared for what they saw upon the opening of their front door.
A gentle breeze stirred the grape vines hanging from the hallway walls. Or what should have been walls, Obed noted, as the places that had been soothing, neutral colors the night before were now copses of shrubs and scattered palm trees. Stunned, Obed led Hanni down the corridor, blue eyes going subtly wide the longer they walked. Sand and stone scraped beneath his sneakers; Hanni's paws made no sound at all. They did not stop until they reached the far end of the hallway, where a large fig tree bore copious amounts of fruit. Hanni sniffed around its base as Obed plucked a fig from a branch. He popped it into his mouth. It tasted perfectly real, perfectly natural; he savored the taste, letting it roll on his tongue. It was all so utterly bizarre that for this brief moment Obed decided not to even attempt understanding. He merely plucked another few figs from the tree, holding them in his palm as they turned back toward the apartment.
Halfway down the corridor, Hanni leapt out in front of Obed, growling into the wind. A deep furrow creased Obed's brow. He moved them both closer against the wall, his cold gaze sweeping the floor as they made their way back to their door. A sharp hiss sounded from the elevator alcove. The elevator door was closed, but something large loomed before it, lazing on the sand as though it feared nothing and no-one. And indeed it had no need to: It was a massive crocodile, its heavy head angled precisely in their direction.
Hanni began yipping. Obed reached down, snatching the tiny dog up in his arms; the figs were quickly exchanged for the dog, spilling across the floor. He did not run to his door, but his stride was so lengthy and quick it seemed like he had. He swept into the apartment, slamming and locking the door behind him, as that would do any good at all against such a creature.
"Isobel," he shouted, his voice echoing through the apartment. He left Hanni's harness on but unsnapped his lead, letting the dog run through the house. Both of them moved at once toward the bedroom. "Isobel, wake up."
The sound of Obed's normally calm voice near panic brought Isobel out of the bathroom. She was still dressed in pajamas, swallowing down froth from toothpaste, her eyes not quite free of sleep.
"What? What's wrong?" The fear from their shared dream had mostly subsided, though the tension and distance between them had not. Regardless, she closed the distance between them, going directly for Hanni as the small dog made its way toward her. Isobel scooped him up, but still approached Obed all the same, worry written easily across her tired face. She couldn't even imagine what it was now -- whether Bryan had done something else, or they'd gotten another strange gift, or something else entirely.
"I don't…" He raked a hand over his short hair. "I honestly don't fucking know. Don't go into the hall. Just… go look through the peephole."
At last Obed moved to the window. He threw open the curtains and immediately began to laugh, a low, rumbling sound of sheer disbelief. "Or…" He pulled the curtain wide, stepping aside to let her see as well. There was no fire escape, no beach, not a tourist in sight. The whole of their view was a massive river, deep blue and fathomless. In the distance a green shore could be seen. "What on earth. Am I dreaming?" He looked back to his fiancee, a plea in his cold eyes. "Tell me I'm dreaming."
Isobel's confused expression went completely slack, her arms still carefully holding Hanni as she took a step toward the drawn-back curtains and the view out through the window. Hanni began to wriggle, and she let him down; instead of offering Obed a reply, she went to open the window, as though that would reveal some kind of painting or trick that was being played on them. At once, the sounds of wind on sand, water rippling in the sunlight, the cawing of some strange bird met her ears, and she buttoned up the window as a defense against whatever was going on. She swallowed, looking back at Obed.
"What's out in the hallway?" She felt afraid to ask, but she did all the same. This was far worse than the gifts, and also far more inexplicable. How...?
Obed shook his head. He knew how the answer would sound, but there was nothing else for it; given what was outside their window even now, it seemed unlikely she would disbelieve him. He pulled the curtains more tightly shut in a futile effort to undo what they had both seen.
"A crocodile," he said. "By the elevators." He gestured toward the door. "It's bizarre. There's a vineyard out there. Fig trees. Everything just growing right out of the carpet. And then that thing..."
Teeth scraped over her lower lip, and her head bobbed as she went to look for herself. She opened the door, carefully keeping Hanni from running into the hall. Sand, vines, and palm trees met her eyes, and before she realized what she was doing, the doorway was open wide. Glancing up and down the hall, she didn't immediately see the creature Obed had described; she was too distracted by everything else. Just as Hanni seemed to make an attempt at darting out the door again, perhaps this time to do righteous battle with the reptile that threatened his doorstep, Isobel caught him and held him once more with both arms. She turned, still standing in the doorway, glancing back at Obed.
"How... How is this possible?" She didn't expect an answer; instead, she closed the door, moving back into the hall. "We should try to call management, maybe Stephan knows..." Isobel dropped Hanni to the floor, moving to grab her cell from the purse she'd left on the dining room table. It took only a moment to recognize that there was no signal. Glancing at Obed, she encouraged him to check his phone.
He did so immediately, only to find his a useless as her own. He turned it face out toward her. "Nothing. I'll go down there. If it's still there, maybe I can take the stairs…" He hated the idea even as he said it; it sounded beyond foolish. But then, so did every other part of this. Huffing a sigh, he thumbed through his phone once more. When it did not spring to life, he returned it to his pocket. "Stay here with Hanni. Either I'll find Stephan or I'll use his desk phone to call the police. All right?"
"No," she immediately shot back. "Hanni will be fine on his own for a few minutes; I'm not staying here by myself," she added, somewhat heatedly. She disliked that his immediate decision was to ensure she was tucked away somewhere out of harm's way, as though she couldn't be trusted with her own safety. Isobel took a breath, bundling her hair up and knotting it behind her head with a tie from her wrist. "I want to find out what's going on just as much as you, and you're not getting hurt when I could have been more help. Besides," she added, "that's a long walk to make by yourself. I'm coming with you." She was still in pajama bottoms and a regular shirt with quarter-length sleeves, but she was covered enough to not make a scene. She moved to the closet near the front door, retrieving sneakers.
Obed sighed, but he was familiar enough with that tone to know better than to question her. With one simple, curt nod he followed her to the door, looking the peephole before opening it once more. "At least let me go first," he said. He did not wait for her response, but she followed quickly at his heels regardless.
In spite of the sand and stone he kept his footfalls quiet in the hallway; Isobel mimicked him, taking in the hall with wide, unsure eyes as the moved. Obed heard no telltale hissing coming from the elevator's niche, but that was no great comfort to him; it only meant the crocodile could be somewhere they couldn't see. He tread still more carefully as he moved toward the alcove, craning his neck to peek around a corner. Seeing no reptile, he waved Isobel on, and moved quickly toward the stairwell to hold the door open for her.
"We'll go straight down to the lobby," he said. "If Stephan isn't there, we'll use the phone. If his phone doesn't work…" He shook his head. "I guess we make our way up each floor and see if anyone knows anything."
She went quickly into the stairwell, noting that it had retained its normal appearance in spite of the hall's change. It made her wonder if their floor was unique in some way, or if the alterations only struck a few places. As thoughts scurried through her mind, she paused, waiting for Obed to follow before she plunged down the long path toward the lobby. As she took the first step, a question popped out of her mouth somewhat unbidden, inspired by his reaction to her insistence on coming with him.
"Are you angry with me?" She glanced back, one hand on the safety railing as she came to the first break between floors. "With...all of the distance, and now Bryan, and... I just wanted to say I'm sorry, I didn't... I know things have been awkward since the dinner..."
He shook his head. "I'm not angry with you. Besides, we've already talked about all this. I know I didn't handle that well. You've got nothing to apologize for."
He moved from one landing to the next, not looking back, not stopping to search the floors they passed. He was driven to find Stephan; all else could wait until after that. More, motion kept him from having to face this redux of a difficult conversation; there was nothing new to be said, least of all about Bryan. The more they discussed him, the more likely she was to realize he knew more than he was letting on. At the next landing he slowed, his hand on the rail, as though a thought had belatedly occurred to him. "Are you angry with me?"
His quick movements did not reassure her that nothing was wrong; if anything, it only irritated her more that he could not take a moment to sit and talk. Isobel shook her head in response to his question. "No," she replied, only half lying. "Well, not as much as I was. I just mean, with that dream and all of this happening, you were working later, and I wasn't sure if you were upset with me. I don't... " She shrugged, following him down another flight. "I just wanted to be sure everything was all right between us."
At last Obed stopped. He turned to face her, a shadow of sadness lingering in his bright eyes. "It is," he said. "Or at least I think it is. I know work has pulled me away a lot lately, but I don't mean anything by it. I promise. Things have just been more stressful lately. They'll even out. Or so I assumed, until this happened…" He gestured beyond the landing's door, to the floor that was presumably as awry as their own.
"I love you, Isobel. A little rough patch doesn't change that. Okay?"
She chewed the inside of her lip, wondering if their current obstacles were just a rough patch. But she nodded, taking his word and dropping the subject for the moment. Curiosity nagged her, and she opened the door to see where they were; the stairs around them had at last shifted away from their usual concrete shape, taking on a stone walkway complete with small window holes that looked out into nothing. The doorway revealed something akin to a jungle, with thick vines and trees covering most of the space. Stone continued on in the walls, colors peeking out between the glossy green leaves. Stepping further into the hall, one hand outstretched to brush the leaf, amazed at its size and health.
Her attention was pulled further along by more punches of colors; thick clusters of pink and white flowers attached to the vines. Obed lingered in the doorway, watching her progression even as he held the door open.
"Isobel," he called, his voice soft in case of other carnivorous beasts. "We should go. Stephan won't be here." In truth the more Obed saw the less he was certain Stephan would be found even on the first floor. The increasing strangeness of this transformation was getting to him. He pressed a hand to the stony wall, letting the stairwell door fall closed as he followed her.
"Please, Isobel. Let's go."
She glanced back at him, her hand still outstretched toward the flowers; they seemed to reach back, but Isobel did not see. She turned, pulling her arm back toward herself, and turned back to Obed, nodding.
"Yes, sorry. I..." She glanced over her shoulder, clearly wanting to examine the plants more closely. Any thought of danger was far from her mind, and yet she still moved back toward Obed, taking his hand almost absentmindedly as they moved back to the stairwell. "They were real," she murmured. "Alive. Those... those aren't anything I could've gotten around here, or even in the U.S., I don't think. This is...insane." She kept a tight grip on Obed's hand as she started down the next flight of stairs, noting how it returned to its usual form.
He held her tightly in return, tamping down the animal fear that stirred in his chest. Something else stirred there, too, helping him to push those base feelings down. He shrugged off all conscious awareness of this, focusing instead on his fiancee and their safe passage to the ground floor.
"What were they?" he asked. "And honestly… is something like this even possible on this sort of scale? It seems… absurd. The animals, trees, even the ground... I can't imagine the logistics of carrying off something like this."
"I think I saw apparition orchids, and those are endangered," she replied, not certain she was correct in her identification. She wanted to go back, but it seemed like there'd be time enough for that; the fact that she'd been able to touch, much less handle the plants suggested all of this was actually happening. "I can't imagine either. And to do it all without anyone noticing seems even more impossible. Our floor was... I don't know if we can call it a beach, but that was just the tenth floor, I think? Maybe they're all different."
She stopped on the eighth floor, opening the door wide enough to peek through. Sure enough, the ninth floor was covered in cut stone, olive trees brushing the ceiling. Isobel thought she could hear the ocean, but when she tried to concentrate on it, the sound faded as though it had never been. To the side, just opposite the stairwell entrance, sat an altar with a random assortment of offerings, and when she glanced down...
"Is that blood?"
Obed, having been staring at the mass of wet, thick lumps on the floor since the door first opened, nodded. "And intestines, I think," he said. He blinked to clear his vision but the entrails remained stubbornly in place. He reached out and took Isobel's arm, tugging her gently back into the stairwell. "I… this is bizarre. I'm not sure calling the police will even be the best idea at this point. They'd just think we're insane or on drugs."
Seven more landings to go; Obed could not help but wonder what each one might reveal. He was increasingly uncertain he wanted to find out. He let go of Isobel's hand, turning back toward the stairs, silently speaking prayers to no-one in particular that this madness had an end. She followed at his heels, having fallen silent after that particular discovery. Isobel sincerely hoped that what they'd found was animal related, but it was difficult to wrap her mind around any of it. She twisted her arms around her middle, feeling unduly cold, and no longer had any desire to open any further doors. The stairwell remained mostly the same as they continued to descend, Obed's form in front of her a dark shadow in the low, red light of the emergency exits. Swallowing, she could not help being reminded of the lone figure riding the chariot in her dream. Isobel shook her head and concentrated on making sure each foot found where it needed to go, eventually bringing them both to the lobby.
There, the door opened onto a walk of smooth paving-stones; olive trees swayed in an impossible breeze, and the scent of fresh fruit, thick grasses, and a distant ocean. The moment they rounded the stairwell's corner and entered the lobby, Obed's gaze moved to the concierge desk. As expected, Stephan was absent. A frown appeared on Obed's lips, deepening when his attempt to leave through the front door met with precisely the failure he had anticipated. And when they reached the concierge's desk, they found the telephone there was as broken as their own. He sighed, shaking his head.
"Back up, I suppose," he said. "I'd like to check on Hanni if nothing else. Then I suppose we'll see if the forum is up. Perhaps others are working on a plan as well..."
Isobel nodded. "I think we still have some of those training squares from when he was a puppy; at the very least, he can use the bathroom until we figure out how to get back outside." She'd paused, waiting in the center of it all as Obed tried fruitlessly at the front doors. Her arms had fallen to her sides, her eyes gazing about the environment; something about it was so familiar...
She shook her head, clearing it of those thoughts. There were other, more pressing matters to attend to; once Obed had joined her again, they both moved to the elevator and started the long climb up. This, too, was in silence, though Isobel desperately wanted to ask after the topic she'd brought up before. Instead, she leaned against one elevator wall and waited for their suddenly beachside floor to reappear.