The morning after the mirror double debacle, the sun shines through the windows of the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow. Rapunzel yawns and stretches, then smiles at Pascal. He blinks his eyes sleepily, stretches, and attempts a groggy smile in return.
As the others awaken, Varian groans. He didn't sleep well at all, and wants nothing more than to stay snuggled under the blanket. But he knows that they need to get out of this creepy place as soon as possible, and Eugene won't let him sleep in anyway...
"Wake up, time to get a move-on!" Eugene says in a sing-song voice, kneeling down and shaking Varian. Varian groans even louder, but finally gets up and prepares to leave.
"You know, aside from the fact that we were nearly replaced by evil doppelgängers last night," Rapunzel says, "the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow offers a pretty good night's sleep!"
"Speak for yourself..." Varian mutters as he rubs the sleep from his eyes. He heard every creek and moan this place made last night, and he couldn't keep himself from worrying what horror may be causing each sound.
But, it seems he is the only one who had a sleepless night. "Well, it's certainly the coziest seashell-shaped inn I've ever slept in," Eugene says.
"I've stayed at a cozier one," Shorty adds. "No, wait... that was a seashell shaped like an inn. Five stars."
The gang head for the front door, but stop short when they realize it's completely gone. There is nothing there but wall.
"Uh, wait a minute... the door!" Rapunzel says worriedly.
"It was right here yesterday!" Cassandra says.
"Oh, come on!" Varian says exasperatedly. "Can't this freaky place give us a break?!"
"Now, everyone relax!" Lance says. "There's a solution to every problem." He approaches the wall, and knocks on it a couple times as the others shrug at each other. But when he doesn't get the result he desires (whatever that may be), he pounds on the wall desperately. "It's no use! We're trapped! It's all over!"
The others are used to his meltdowns by now. After a little while, he'll chill out and return to normal. Sure enough, after a short pause, Lance turns back around calmly and says, "Okay... what's for breakfast?"
"Breakfast later, Lance," Eugene tells him. "Let's find an exit first, m'kay?"
Together, the gang head down one of the many, many hallways. It is lined with all different kinds of doors on either side. Varian wonders what terrors may lie behind each one.
"Come on, guys!" Rapunzel says eagerly. "There's gotta be another way out of here." She opens one of the doors, and Varian cringes as she enters the room. But she simply emerges out of another door, farther down the hallway. "Except in this case..."
Cassandra approaches a door, and hesitantly opens it. But as soon as she does, a gust of air attempts to suck her in.
"Cass!" Rapunzel shouts worriedly as the others gasp.
Cassandra grasps the door frame, but is about to lose her grip. Quickly, Varian manages to slide over and pull her back before either of them can get sucked in. They slam the door shut, and sigh with relief.
"That's not an exit," Cassandra says.
"Definitely not how I wanna go out," Varian adds.
Eugene now chooses a door. The others hang back nervously, watching as he carefully opens it. After a moment, they hear low growling coming from inside that escalates to loud snarling.
"Dog, dog, dog, dog!" Eugene shouts, as Rapunzel quickly lassos her hair around the doorknob and slams it shut before the dogs inside can attack. "A dog kennel. And why not, right?"
"Well, at least we can take that door off the list," Rapunzel says.
"But look how many are still left..." Varian points out, gesturing down the hallway at the countless doors.
"Hey! I found the way out," they hear Shorty say as Rapunzel ties her hair back up. They all exchange unsure glances, and then follow after the old man. He leads them into a large room filled to the brim with all different kinds of colorful toys, games, and fun things. Everything is so bright and cheery, it makes Varian's eyes hurt.
"Whoa!" Lance says with wonder as the others gape at the room. They all begin exploring excitedly, except for Cassandra who seems less than impressed.
"Shorty, this isn't a way out!" Cassandra says when she finds him bouncing on a trampoline.
"Well, not with that attitude it's not!" Shorty says with a smile.
"Well look, the adults would like to find a—" Cassandra begins to say. But she sighs when she glances around and realizes that everyone else has disappeared to explore the room. "Oh, great..."
Eugene checks out an old paddle ball, as Rapunzel pretends to make a teddy bear talk in a silly voice. Shorty discovers a kiddy pool, and floats around in it on miniature boat that's just his size. Varian is intrigued by many of the toys around him, ones he's sure his younger self would have loved to play with a few years ago. But right now, he is honestly too tired to examine any of the items closer. He leans back against a shelf sleepily, watching as Lance challenges Shorty to a duel with toy swords.
"Okay, playtime's over," Cassandra says to Lance with her hands on her hips.
"Aw, come on, Cass! Lighten up," Lance replies. "When do we ever get the chance to play with amazing toy swords like this?"
"You do realize we have actual swords, right?" Cassandra remarks.
"Yeah, but, uh, since these are just toys... they don't hurt." He whacks the side of Shorty's boat, sending it into a spin.
Cassandra suddenly jumps at Lance, grabs one of the toy swords, and knocks him to the ground. Pointing it at him, she chuckles playfully. "Sure about that?"
"Okay, sword time's over..." Lance agrees.
"Now come on, enough messing around," Cassandra says, dropping the toy sword to the floor. "We've gotta find an exit." She turns to look at Varian, who is still leaning against the shelf but has dozed off. "Wake up, kid. Let's get—" But before she can finish her sentence, something catches her eye on the shelf behind him. "No way!"
Varian opens his eyes and watches as Cassandra reaches for a toy top. She pulls it down excitedly, and he is surprised to see true joy gleaming in her eyes.
"I used to have a top just like this!" Cassandra says as she pulls the toy down. "I love these things!"
"Uh, Cassandra... You like tops?" Lance says with a chuckle.
"Hey, she has the right to like whatever she wants!" Varian protests.
"Yeah, got a problem with that?" Cassandra says to Lance with a glare.
"No, by all means. Spin away," Lance replies, regretting that he said anything.
Cassandra places the top on the ground. She, Lance, Varian, and Shorty sit down in a circle around it as she sends it into a spin. "Look at it go!" She says as the top whirls.
The spinning colors almost make Varian even sleepier, but he feels an onrush of adrenaline when the top begins to glow and spark.
"Does this seem weird to anybody else?" Shorty asks.
Varian groans as the flashing sparks grow brighter and they all begin to feel strange. "This isn't good..." He mutters, realizing too late that they should have known better than to mess with anything else in this crazy inn.