Ryslig Multiversal Museum Exhibit

[gothicgambit]

There’s a specific section of the Multiversal Museum marked off for a category of talented children all their own. Appropriately named the Hope’s Peak Academy Wing. It’s a mouthful, but it works.

Upon entering the grandiose lobby, guests are likely to notice two things: one, the room itself is centered around a strange, sunken-in pit, set up like some sort of mock trial ground. Velvet ropes deter guests from clambering into the pit, after all, inside there isn’t much to see, and it is just deep enough that should you climb in, you may not be able to get out again.

The second detail, is that the room is silent. A hush seems to inhabit the walls, and while footsteps are muffled by red carpet, words die on your lips. It has the presence of a checkerboard tomb, and should you step off onto the marble, your shoes will echo loudly enough you feel as though something is watching.

>Is someone there?




But that is just the lobby, and several halls are marked off around its circular shape. Most lay empty, but some are inhabited. The first is the Hall of Arms, marked with a young person's photo, drawn over with a pink 'X' made to look like a pair of spears. But that is not Celeste’s Exhibit.

Several stretching spaces later is the Den of Gamblers, noted with girl's portrait, similarly marked.

The Den is an immediate change of space. Where the entrance lobby is large and spacious, intimidating in it’s stature, this room is small. Almost claustrophobic in its proportion, a dorm room from an old building, barely large enough to fit all the furniture and more than a few people at a time. You enter from the far side, through what is clearly supposed to be a window. The only window. All others have been covered and bolted with metal sheets, larger than the head of a grown man.

A feeling shivers up your spine. If you keep going, you may not get out again. There’s no exits marked, and you haven’t seen anyone exit out this way.

>Continue?







Should you do so, there are a few things to note in the room. It’s dripping in frilly gothic paraphernalia. The little tea-table, covered in it’s delicate black satin cloth, is empty save for a little PDA. Oddly high-tech for the state of Ryslig. However, should you attempt to turn it on, it will simply flash 'low-battery' and refuse to activate.

>Charge it?


There’s no cord you can find. The drawers reveal a sewing kit, a map of all the vital points of a human body, a very frilly cat collar, and an impressive amount of manga.

Perhaps there’s nothing to do for it. But the exhibit is one way, you must keep going to get out.

Next to the door is an alcove, the kind that’s positioned just abnormally enough you can’t see it unless you are standing directly in front of it and turn your head at the last moment.

Hanging on the wall like a trophy is a wooden mallet. It looks almost harmless, like the kind used for stone sculpting, just quite a bit larger. It’s damp to the touch. It’s been washed recently, and to a sensitive monster nose, it smells strongly of blood.

>Keep Going.


Onto the next room! The final room.

Opening the dorm’s door, you would assume it goes to a hallway, or perhaps this is the way out. It is. And also it is not. Instead the room beyond is cavernous. Tall enough that the ceiling disappears into the dark, and floodlights are needed to see all the corners.

Brutalist concrete leads visitors into an area protected by an industrial-style cage-wire fence. Several feet high and possibly climbable, but what lies beyond would deter most.

In the distance is a grand stage, framed with false, two-dimensional silhouettes of houses. A charming, fake little village. Nothing of substance, of course. A strange marionette of a rabbit, gargantuan in size, lays across the fly like it’s waiting for something, knit smile blankly staring at the door from whence you came.

And the stage itself seems set for an execution. A burning at the stake to be precise. There are steps leading up the side, and an audio plays on repeat. The distant sound of a twinging harpsichord, offset with heeled footsteps, carefully ascending those wooden stairs. Though of course, no one is really there. Just ghosts.

There’s a gate in the fence. The padlock and chain were left open. It is unlatched.

>Climb the stage?

There must be a way out, of course. You haven’t seen anyone exit, and the exhibit doesn’t loop around. Perhaps if you just kept going. Just a step further.

The sound of footsteps move in unison with your own.

There’s an optical illusion in this room. From behind the fence, the room appears empty, but from the spotlight’s center, you look out and see a crowd of faces. Watching.

>Stand at the stake?

It’s hot under these lights, but you climb the uneven wooden pyre. Scaling up, up, up, until you’re sweating and you can’t take it anymore. You’ve reached the top. There’s a little platform.

>Take Your Place.

Standing with your back to the stake, there’s sweat beading down your spine, and you swear that the crowd is full of sharp toothed smiles. The music almost seems to swell, and it screeches off into the sound of harsh braking tires, a honking horn, a siren-

A trapdoor opens beneath your feet, dropping you into darkness.







And you land on a cushion below. You’ve reached the end! Did you have a good time? Make some good memories? Don’t forget to visit the gift shop on the way out! Celestia has some very popular trinkets, you know.

If you manage to keep your eyes open when you fall, you even get a little surprise. On the underside of the trapdoor is bright pink script!

You’ve Graduated!