OUR TOUR BEGINS HERE.

[yourghosthost]

[Eventually, no matter your reading comprehension or your sense of time, you all find your way to the stretching room. Once everyone has gathered, the ominous sounds of a clock ring throughout the chamber. The clock strikes 13 times, and the candles in the room light themselves up on their own.

Something...or someone is in the room with you. They make themselves known quickly, with a deep voice that echoes throughout the room.]

When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls; Whenever candlelights flicker where the air is deathly still - that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight!

Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion. I am your host, your... ghost host. Kindly step all the way in please and make room for everyone. There's no turning back now.

[The doors close behind everyone as he speaks, leaving the group stuck in the room until he finishes talking.]

Normally, we spirits don't open our manor up to temporary guests. But desperate times have forced me to extend visitations beyond our usual tours, and residency has been extended to your select group. You shall remain here permanently, unless...

Well.

[...his tone goes slightly darker for a second, with a hint of reluctance. The candlelight dims for just a moment.]

If you end the life of one of your fellow guests without being discovered, you shall be allowed to leave.

[It takes a moment, but the lights return to their normal brightness, and his tone becomes chipper once more.]

Of course, you're more than welcome to stay in the manor as long as you like! Our spirits haven't spent time with the living for a while, so they'll be excited for the change of pace.

Comments

[pardonmylanguage]

Don't fall for it! [She might try and grab him by the collar.] Charisma is how they get you.

[aboyandhiscar]

Woah WOAH, easier there--[He blinks down at her]--I'm not getting suckered in, promise. The whole dead thing is kind of a deal breaker.

[pardonmylanguage]

[She nods seriously.] You remember that last part then. No matter what else he tries to promise.

[aboyandhiscar]

No matter what. Don't worry, I'm an anti-murder kinda dude. You used to this kinda thing?

[pardonmylanguage]

I was there for the Boov invasion. They didn't take me, but they did abduct my mom. [She clenches her hand into a fist.] They dropped her off eventually, but it still took almost too long for us to get back together.

[aboyandhiscar]

Woah, yikes, back up, invasion? You mean like, army invasion or are we talking ET here?

[pardonmylanguage]

...both. The Boov were aliens, and they had an army. And they were way more dangerous than any aliens you see in movies. [Well, maybe not, but "being actually real" kind of counts as "more dangerous," right?]

[aboyandhiscar]

[tbf even goofy aliens become legit scary when applied to real life. Mike shakes his head]

Yikes. Well hey, no aliens here--aside from the folks who are??--but it's not like they're invading anything. And our biggest enemy so far is already. . .dead, apparently, so you can rest easy. No one's getting roped into anything.

[pardonmylanguage]

...well, a lot of the people were a problem during the Boov invasion as well. It seems a lot of people were just waiting for an alien invasion as an excuse to go wild. [Some of it wasn't that bad. Some of it...she's glad she had a fairly sturdy car to go around in.]

[aboyandhiscar]

Yeeah, people do kinda lean toward rioting, huh? [He can't even grasp the idea of a real alien invasion, but an excuse for people to panic and do whatever? Yeah, been there.] But so far, looks like we're all pretty dang rational folks. . .and aliens and lions and uh, that bug guy and robot. I think if someone were gonna go nuts it would've happened already.

[pardonmylanguage]

[Okay, she supposes that even if the lion and the wild man can be reasonable about this, they should be pretty safe.] Yeah, that makes sense. And I guess some of them might be useful in trying to find a way out.

[aboyandhiscar]

Right! When it comes down to it, like it or not, we're all a team here. It's gonna take all of us to figure out how to get the heck out of here. And we'll do it too, Casper's got nothing on us.

[pardonmylanguage]

[He manages to get an actual smile! Mostly for the reference combined with the optimism.] There are worse people to be in a team with, I guess. [She could name some from back home.] And really, what can he do?

[aboyandhiscar]

Rattle some chains and open some cabinets at night to keep us awake? Suuuper spooky, but harmless.

[pardonmylanguage]

...honestly I could probably sleep through that anyways. [Considering the kind of places she stayed during the Boov invasion...]

[aboyandhiscar]

Heh! You're a better sleeper than me. But see, he can't even get to you that way, you're fine.

[pardonmylanguage]

[A small shrug.] I've gotten used to a lot more weird things than I ever thought I would.

[aboyandhiscar]

. . .a great thing for here, a bad thing in general! Hopefully after this, your life slows the heck down, missy. [seriously lets let the kids catch a break.]

[pardonmylanguage]

[A slight shrug.] I thought it was going to, then I woke up here.

[aboyandhiscar]

. . .

[jeeze this poor kid. Mike grins.]

Well, tell you what. For as long as we're stuck in spooksville, we'll try to make it as normal as possible! . . .which is a stretch given, well. Everything, but hey, nothing wrong with trying, right?

[pardonmylanguage]

...I guess we can try our best. Maybe figure out what's up with this place.