Liminal Twilight - [JennyDK & Jholdono]

[JennyDK]

Roleplay between @JennyDK and @Jholdono.

-----------------------------

As the guy (played by @Jholdono) is laying on their couch, the static from the shitty TV signal messing up the late night broadcast of old 90's sitcoms, fatigue is finally about to hit the barely awake resident of the small apartment. The failure of the TV broadcast doesn't help either and their eyes getting heavier each passing second. This goes on for a good half a minute, before they finally drift off into slumber, shutting out the real and awake world. Of course, normally, that would simply be all she wrote and they would usually wake up on that couch later on.

However, if determined by fate or sheer happenstance, that is not to occur this time...

Instead, he finds himself, fully awake and even rested at a place very, very different from where he remember. This new place both feels utterly alien to him, as well as really familiar, at the same time.

It looks like your typical office space interior - except a few differences. A few differences only, but enough to unsettle anyone unlucky enough to end up here. The walls are decorated with horrible looking yellow coloured wall paper. The room is lit up by flourescent lights from above, their buzzing and humming like an eerie and ever-present background noise - otherwise, no other noises are heard in any direction. The floor is still dirty as if to indicate that others have been here at some point. Others: the presence of other living beings. That is most likely the most creepy of all - the lack of any sort of immediate people. Likewise is there no furnishing to be seen in the immediate area either. It is like a office space in the most bare minimum understanding of it.

[Jholdono]

A million questions suddenly begin racing in Jholdono's head. Where am I? How did I get here? The last thing I remember is...

He stops to ponder this. Confusion begins overwhelming his thoughts - for he cannot remember anything before now. Suddenly, in a moment of clarity among the struggle of recollection, one final, more pressing thought crosses his mind:

Who... am I...?

Existential dread begins filling his mind - unable to recall his name, or any other of his personal memories or information. Just then, for some odd reason, the compulsion to search his body overwhelms him. Perhaps I have my wallet on me? He thinks to himself and he begins digging out his pockets. My... wallet? The thought puzzled him as he searched for an item he felt he knew well of - something everyone has on them, and yet... he did not know himself?

[JennyDK]

As he stands up and begins to rummage through his clothing for any sort of items, they are all still there. Keys, phone, wallet and whatever else he had on him at the time where he drifted off into sleep. The phone even still has battery on it, but the bars show no trails of a signal available. The wallet contains all of the stuff he had in it before, including money, any cards and even his driver's license, which includes his name and other personal information. This seems like it is handy to try and keep a grip on reality - unless this is just a very vivid dream?

[Jholdono]

He remembers that people in these kinds of situations would pinch their cheeks to see if they were really asleep, and follows through with this notion of making sure one is awake. No surprise that he could pinch his cheek as hard or as soft as he wanted, and the sensation of his skin was just as tangible as the items he found in his pockets. He was as awake as could be...

He takes a look at the driver's license in his wallet and reads the name on it:

Alan Walker

That must be my name, right? But without a mirror to see my reflection, the photo on the license might as well be that of someone else, or of some fictional character... wait, this phone should have a camera on it, and it did have a little bit of a charge left on it, right? How odd that I can remember all this...

He presses a button on the side, turning it on, and is met with a lock screen. A grid of dots greets him. Does he still remember his phone's password? 

Edited May 5, 2022 by Jholdono

[JennyDK]

As Alan tries to wake himself up, by the means people normally suggest, seems to suggest that this is not a dream. Of course, waking up here does appear to go against all logical sense, so this method of checking might not even be real? In any case, the man is clearly completely alone, with only weird yellow rooms and the buzzing of lights to keep him company. The phone boots up as normal and he is able to get past the lock screen as Alan is able to remember how to do so. Everything on the screen looks like normal, even the applications that he has are there, but the biggest thing missing being the signal bar, which shows no signal at all.

[Jholdono]

With no signal, and only a remainder of his battery left, Alan decides to turn his phone on airplane mode to save battery (just in case). With his identity crisis resolved for now, he turns his attention back to his surroundings.

Remembering that the floor is dirtied with the footprints of others before him, he considers if he should call out into the sickly yellowish expanse, but decides against it for the time being. Who knows who might be lurking around these corners? Other people just as lost as he, looking for a way out or for help? Or other, more devious persons, who might do him harm?

It strikes him odd as those are the two main thoughts that cross his mind as to the potential for human interaction, but he pushes the thought out of his head and decides to take his first steps into this strange new world. Leaving the room he started in, he begins walking towards the corridor that it opens up into, peeking around the corners before crossing the threshold. 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Jholdono

[JennyDK]

Once Allan moves further ahead and gets to peek around in different directions, he sees pretty much the same sort of rooms. There seems to be no logic to these rooms either: The walls and doors have no real pattern of any discernable sort. Of course, since this place seems so real, surely there has to be some exit somewhere, right? At least he is all alive, well and feeling generally normal in any aspect. For now, there are no signs of danger of any sort, but also zero other sounds than the constant buzzing from above.

[Jholdono]

Alan continues searching along the corridors, trying a logical pattern at first. With every right turn he is able to make, he does so. By the third turn, he feels a sense of unease...

I should have made one whole round on this floor, but there were no elevators, no stairwell exits... nothing...

He peers through one of the doorways, and sees the same scenery as the rest. This place was not an apartment dwelling as he had originally thought - rather, it was a maze, and he began to liken his situation more to that of a lab rat navigating through it.

Seeing no other alternative, he decides to try progressing through one of the other doorways leading into another hallway not unlike those he had already walked through. Before crossing that threshold, though, he decides it might be best to try leaving a mark on one of the walls. A trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak, of where he has already been. The last thing he wants (if it's even possible) is to run around in circles and not make any progress through the eerie yellow halls...

Edited April 29, 2022 by Jholdono

[JennyDK]

With the intention of leaving some sort of visible marker behind, Allan rummages through all pockets of his clothing and sadly the results are not exactly spectacular. As before, he still has his phone and the wallet and its contents. Besides that, he has his keys still and his small, but trusty pocket knife. Nothing else is to be found, leaving his options rather thin and bare. The door ways all stretch for what seems like forever and so far he has walked at least 15 minutes....maybe more? The only real indicator of time would be his wrist watch and his phone.

[Jholdono]

Alan decides to use his pocket knife to etch an 'X' onto the wall and the doorway that he last came through. Fruitless though it may be, he still has hopes that it would help guide him and remind him of where he has been already, so as not to continually walk around in circles. With a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of being able to make some meaningful progress, he proceeds onwards, cutting the same 'X' on the walls and doorways in which he passes through.

[JennyDK]

The X carved into the wall seems to appear as the knife is able to penetrate the horrid yellow wallpaper, but somehow there is no sound of this happening. Still, once it has been made it seems to stay there and possibly become a guiding tool for Alan on his attempt to find his way out of this place. With that done, there is a plan to move forwards, with more X's being planted as he pushes on. Still, time continues to pass and pass, feeling like an eternity. If he were to look at his watch or check his phone, he would come to realize that multiple hours has already gone by and this landscape of endless rooms go on and on and not even one sign of his markers has been seen since he made them.

[Jholdono]

Despite the numerous turns and endless corridors traveled, Alan begins to becomes unnerved. Signs of hallways wandered by other occupants, yet not a sign so far of human life other than his own. Besides that, if there were any standard logic to the design and layout of this place, surely he would have encountered a hallway he had already been down before and yet this endless expanse of yellow yields no such roundabout. 

With the solitude and pointless wandering, Alan finally caves in, he shouts. At first, with his voice being unused for so long, it came across as a hoarse, somewhat meek, "Hello?!"

He then tries again, clearing his throat before announcing even louder and with more authority, "Hello? Is there anyone else in here?"

[JennyDK]

Giving into the sense and realization about the sheer emptiness and loneliness of this vast and endless space, Allan tries to make his presence known to anyone - or anything - able to hear him call out into the countless corridors. As he voice is unleashed it is still both heard by himself, but also feels like it is just being engulfed by a void. There is absolutely no other people giving any response back or any change in the surrounding sounds or environment. He might as well just shout directly onto a brick wall from the feel of things. The only other indication that his own words exist here, is the tiny and almost lifefless eccho that they produce.

[Jholdono]

With the wasted effort of shouting into the abyss, Alan begins to wonder what his options are. Something in the back of his mind is screaming for a way out - to return to normalcy. And yet, this place showed no exit, no change in scenery - just an endless sea of yellow.

Logic held no substance here, and Alan was succumbing to the mind-numbing madness of the perfectly rendered copies of the same corridors which greeted him at every turn. Feeling stuck, he no longer knew what to do. There was no physical pressure to find a way out, no sense of hunger or thirst, no fatigue requiring sleep to recuperate - nothing. Just his own mind being his worst enemy here.

An intangible desire clawing at his psyche... does he simply press onwards with no goal? With no hope for escape? Like a mindless automaton left to run an endless program until it breaks?

[JennyDK]

The buzzing of the flourescent lights just keeps on going and going, like a neverending cacophony of bad music to the ears and is sure to get obnoxious to even the most stalwart person who would otherwise be successful in ignoring such a noise. Several places, the lights flicker and others are fully dead, but even to that there is not discernable pattern at all, making this place even more random and without any sense of logic, As Allan moves further along, the scenery never ever changing, he moves past a section where two walls nearly touch. In the split second it takes to pass by that short distance, the man spots what looks like an identical clone of himself, standing in the middle of the room to the side, simply staring back at him with an expressionless face. Just as quickly as it was there (or not?) it is gone once more.

[Jholdono]

Blinking in disbelief, Alan rubs his eyes. Have I been here too long that now I'm hallucinating? He looks around once more to see if the clone of him was anywhere nearby, checking the split in the walls and around the last corner he passed by. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing...

Thinking that the solitude had finally started making him go insane, yet becoming desperate for some kind of interaction - he decided to figure out a way to the other side of the walls where he saw his doppelganger. Mimic or not, he was going to get to the bottom of this and see if there was anything or anyone else in this desolate place. Hell, Alan thought to himself, a monster trying to rip my face off would at least provide some sort of excitement... or at least put an end to this Purgatory...

[JennyDK]

Allan is, without trouble, able to slip into the room where this figure briefly appeared inside. Of course, it is now as barren and same-y as all of the rest of this place. The incessant buzzing and occasional flickering of the lights above is the only exception to an otherwise non-varied landscape, but even by now these variations are starting to feel much of the same as well. However, as Allan turns towards the gap in the wall he just came from, the view is suddenly different. He is able to see somthing on the floor and if he is to look down, he can see fresh footprints in the carpet. The reason these standing out, is because they look a little bit muddy and wet. The trail of them seem to start from whereever this "doppelganger" of his stood before.

[Jholdono]

With something to go on now, instead of wandering aimlessly in this place, Alan follows the muddy trail of footsteps. Not knowing where they would lead, but at least knowing something else was here finally gave him a sliver of hope. Besides, there was a good possibility he was just hallucinating a spitting image of himself due to his driver's license picture. The hope of finally finding someone else in this unbearably drab environment gave him a spring in his step, and rounding each corner, he followed the footsteps as far as they could take him...

[JennyDK]

The trail of muddy steps takes Allan around several corner, through a few open rooms and so on. Until something new happens. The next corner he swirls around takes him to one of these endless yellow walled segments, but with a huge difference. It is a fully closed off room and while that does happen here and there before now, this one is quite unique. Every part of the wall has portraits hanging with his face on it. Whilst they do not appear to move at all, it still feels as if all these portraits are following his body as it moves around.

In the middle of the room there is a small table and chair, with the table having an old timey type of telephone sitting on it.

[Jholdono]

Walking around the table, he first examines the portraits of himself. All just various pictures of his face and only his face. Although creepy, he could feel as if the eyes on the portraits followed his every move. Unnerved, he finally looked at the table - the old rotary telephone sitting pristine, but with no visible wires or cables extending out from the bottom of the base. However, since it was the first object and the first room like this in this place, he humored himself to walk to the chair and sit down for once. Oddly enough, he didn't feel tired or exhausted, but the act of sitting in a chair seemed to be so relaxing and nostalgic...

He then decides to check the phone. For all he knew, it was a dead phone that was not connected to any lines, but he couldn't know for sure - this place was very strange after all...

Taking the phone off the hook, he holds up the receiver end to his right ear...

[JennyDK]

The chair is soft without being too much. It fits Allan just right in every single way possible, like it was made specifically him alone and no one else. The sensation is tipping towards euphoric on a minor scale from the comfort. Even the table and phone are placed in such a way and height that it just fits the overall experience. All the while the sensation of constant luring goes on, he still goes about sitting down and then to lift up the phone to try and listen and maybe even have someone - or something - to talk to.

For the first time since coming here, Allan is able to hear another voice besides his own. However, it is both a sour and sweet experience as it unfolds. A very "automatic machine" kind of voice breaks the silence:
"Welcome to the office of [INCOHERENT NAME]. Please stay on the line. You are number....three...on the line. Remember to have [INCOHERENT SPEECH] ready for when you get through the line or we won't be able to take your request".

[Jholdono]

Shocked, Alan doesn't know what to say at first, but as the message plays, he can't help but wonder what exactly he needs while he stays on hold. There was a good chance it was something he didn't have, but he decides to ready his wallet and driver's license just in case. Since this is the first sort of vocal interaction he's had in this place for so long, he clears his throat and waits patiently for the automated message to direct him to someone (or something) on the other line while he ponders to himself just who else could be waiting ahead of him on this phone call?

[JennyDK]

Whilst on the line, waiting for him to get to talk to someone, smooth music plays on the phone (link: music ) which keeps playing. Every 4-5 minutes the voice from before comes back to repeat the same line as earlier, until it does it one final time where Allan is number 1 on the line. Finally, the distinct dialing noise is heard and there is a soft 'click' on the other end. However, this leads to the next unsettling occurence as new sound plays. A combination of sounds hit his eardrum, the most dominant being this one and behind what sounds like a faint, almost inaudible voice or rather...it sounds like different voices, spliced together:"Listen to this carefully....you want to get out of there, right? Ohhhh hot damn!! You got stuck, there, hahaha! Hmmmm...he really doesn't know the way out? No no, I think he just wants to waste my time! Buddy...buddy, you need to do the following...f̵̱̜̩̟͖͉̅̌̐̋̓̊̆̑͜͞i̷̦̫͕͖̺̦͎̽̒̀͑̚͟n̡̨̤̖̬̬͖͉̅̆̐͒̂d̸̙̦̣̘̪̙͓͆̋̈͋͞͝.̧̻̹̦̤̩̪̼́́͑͛̊̉̾̕͠ͅ.̵̢͙͕̺̳̹̫͖̠̫͌̀̏̒̈́̐̾̕͞.̩̙̭̦͈̭̬̰̎͌̾̈́͒̿͆̚͜.̢̣̝͈̪̱̏̄̄̎̊̀t̴̲͇̮̭͉͎̄̉͊̊͋͊͂̚͞͞h̷̡̳̼̳̖͑́̇̈̈é̸̻̝̹͙̞̹̼̹̂́̅͘ͅ.̴̛̳̘͎̗͓͓͕̒͐̀̊̃̑͠ͅ.̠͙̜͈͚̣̤̏̑͒͘͘͠.̷̛̼̮̟̫͖̠̤̰̳̥̈͛̿̆͑̅̒͌s̱̩̟̗̫̾̄̍̈́͝h̢̛͇͈̫͎̩͗̑̀̀̄͞ã̷̢̭̥̞̳̞͔͖̞̊̂̉͆͌͊͌͡f̱͚̣̟͖͖̉̑̿̉̇́͟͢ţ̧̢͈͙̲̻̘͉̠͋͊͌̐̚.̶̜͕̣͎̻̘̈̈́̆̏̿̿͆̽͢.̸̧̧̛͎̯̺̞̩̱͗̍̑̓̎͋͜͝͝ͅ.̝͚͔̙̰̮̘̙̈̾̅̏̉̉̀̊d͕̤̰̪̼̤̐̌̄͆̊̇͘̕͝ơ̳̥̦̺͙͇̺͌͒̈͆̌̅͘͟w̸̛͙͙̹̤̲̼͔̼͊̉̂́̓͂͑͟ņ͉̭̠̟̖͓̗̅̀̈́́̽̇̐̈͜͢"

[Jholdono]

Listening as carefully as he could to the voices on the phone, Alan winces at the end when everything became garbled, and the shriek of what sounded like a million voices speaking a million different sentences all at once caused him to pull the receiver away from him.

"Hey! HEY! One voice at a time! Who are you, and where am I? And don't give me the same old contrived bullshit of making the path out of here impossible to understand!"

Alan was quickly becoming unphased by the oddities of this place, and angered annoyance replacing any other emotion since his first interaction with anything in this place seemed more like some strange being fucking around with him. He just wanted to find the way out of here - even though he couldn't remember anything about his old life, he had more than just a gut feeling that this place wasn't it. He began tapping his feet on the ground out of annoyance and agitation, hoping that his outburst would stop these shenanigans and the voice (or voices) would concede to his demands...

[JennyDK]

The voices stop speaking suddenly, only for a few seconds of silence and one single voice speaks out again, in a fully normal female voice:"Your input and criticism of [INCOMPREHENSIBLE] is valued and will be used for future revising and improvements of our services. Thank you kindly for your feedback. We will now put you through for our head administrator. Please....stay on the line". After that there is a 'click' noise and some sort of music begins to play as part of holding on the line. The tune keeps playing in a loop, getting more and more distorted for each new repeat.