The Woodland Mansion

"But it's not!" Télos protested. He wasn't flustered by the snake-man standing in front of him. Why would he be? He lived with endermen, and had encountered countless other mobs that look a hundred times more terrifying than him. "I'm stuck on another world that I think might be Earth. You have no idea how bad that is. I have no way to contact my friends and family. I can't even get a message across to my chosen! A-And what if I can never get back to them? M-My wife's supposed to have our baby soon. What if I'm not there to see my kid come into the world? What if I can never get back? I don't want my kid to grow up without a father!"

Sevy's eyes widen slightly at the ghost's mention of his baby. He rested a scaled hand on his shoulder, or attempted to, before it slipped through.

"That ith bad. And my girlfriend ith probably gonna kill me when I finally make it back home. But right now all you can do is thtay calm and be optimistic, becauthe that will get us out of here fathter than if you panic." He gazed seriously into what he though were the eyeholes in the pumpkin, "I promithe you I will do my betht to help send you back."

Arlais blinked back tears. She didn't know what it was like to have wife and children - she just had one - but she knew what it felt like to be separated from family and loved ones.

Floating her way over to Télos, she put a hand on his shoulder. It went through his shoulder, but hopefully he'd understand the gesture. "I can't say anything you haven't heard before, so is it fine to ask about your wife? What's she like? It sounds like you have a happy family."

He sniffled.

"She's absolutely amazing," he said. Grim watched the exchange carefully. He still looked absolutely miserable, but, hopefully, he'd be able to find comfort in the question being asked. "Her name is Oracle. She-She's super kind and sweet and always comes up with the best ghost stories to scare me. And sh-she's really good with mobs - I mean people - too. They-they all really like her a lot."

Another broken sob left him. "Unlike me."

Grim nervously looked between Arlais and Télos.

Télos looked down and stared at his hands, then back up at the other ghost standing beside him. "And-And now I'm getting upset about something that I wasn't even upset about earlier. Ether, I hate crying. I don't-I don't want to cry about this. But I can't stop crying because I keep thinking of Oracle and Hero and Lex and Aleks and Glistro and Katy and Liz and Aquarius and Zephyrus and Renee and-" He took a deep breath. "I just can't stop thinking about all the people I care about."

"I can understand that," Arlais said shakily. She hadn't quite thought about her friends before now; she'd been distracted by other things, like being unable to walk or morphing through the floor. Faces flashed by in her mind, only scattered when Marisol walked up.

"It's been a long f***in' day," Marisol said. She tried to clean the blood out of her ears as she focused on the two ghosts. "What d'ya want to do now?"

"We should probably try finding the source-" Grim started to say, only to be cut off by the sudden burst of magic that enveloped the entirety of the building. Things began to revert back to normal - and not just them. Anything that had been broken by Télos' started cries and screams began to fix themselves. This should have probably terrified the newcomer of their little group, but he was now much more interested in the way that his body was beginning to grow solid. Bizarrely enough, the pumpkin remained.

And then the magic stopped.

Things had returned to normal.

He knew that Télos wasn't from his world, but he still instinctively pulled his cloak close to his skeletal body. People were always afraid of him, and Télos was especially terrified of the deceased.

But Télos wasn't screaming.

He just gave a single look and promptly glanced around at the others present. He still seemed upset about what they had talked about from the way that his shoulders remained slumped, but he was no longer sobbing. He blinked, then asked in a surprisingly calm voice, "Does anyone have a mirror?" He paused. Before anyone could offer any sort of answer, he turned around and started to head towards one of the now-fixed windows. "Never mind! It's probably better to go larger so I can get this stupid thing off without killing myself."

He peered into one of the windows, then nodded to himself.

And then a golden sword suddenly appeared in his hand.

Marisol laughed when she felt the wave of magic pulsing through her. As she hoped, her hearing and sense of smell instantly worsened, and her vision went back to their regular clarity. Looking down at her human arms, she couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for Kendrik. But he was a prick, so it didn't last too long.

She looked up in time to see Arlais reaching a hand out to Télos, who was apparently trying to brain himself with a sword. "Dunno if the mirror matters," Marisol said. She scowled and raised her ax. "You're probably gonna get yourself killed like that. Here, this thing ain't so sharp."

"I don't think a rusty ax will be any more helpful than a sword," Arlais said. Crossing her arms, she glared at Marisol.

Marisol rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said. "But it ain't any more likely to kill 'im, so my offer's still up there."

Kit sighed in relief as her stomach shifted again and she went back to normal. She glanced down at herself, very glad to be wearing clothes once again.

Leo had gotten shorter again- he hadn't even realized that his hooves had granted him a few inches. Well, losing height was a small price to pay for getting his legs back. He shifted his sore muscules, knowing that several bruises were well on the way to forming from all his falls.

Sevy glanced wearily at the man with the pumpkin head, who seemed to be trying to cut it off with a sword. Oh, and now he was being offered an axe. The winged boy quickly stepped closer.

"Hey, um, I can get that off, you don't need to hurt yourself." At least, he thought he could get the pumpkin off, if his idea of his abilities was accurate. He had to try. Thankfully, Tamika wasn't here to witness this potentially embarrassing situation.

"If it's no offense to you guys, I think I'll stick with my sword," Télos said. He held said sword out in front of him and continued to peer at his reflection. "I'm not going to get myself killed. I've been using this sword since I was a kid. All I need is to get just the right angle."

He pressed the blade of his sword right up against the bottom of the pumpkin, looked into the mirror for a final time, and slowly started to cut up. Grim looked away, not wanting to see the inevitable gore that occurred when he cut into his head. He wished he could cover his ears to block out any screaming, but he didn't truly have a normal set of them.

So he just settled with trying to avoid looking in Télos' direction.

The man didn't scream. He didn't cry out in pain, either. After a few seconds passed without any notable indicator of agony, Grim hesitantly turned back to see what had happened.

Télos was in the middle of digging his fingers into the cut that he had made in the side of the pumpkin, tearing it open with reckless abandon. His gold sword laid forgotten on the ground beside him. The outer shell of the pumpkin fell to the floor, leaving a very human looking man covered in pumpkin seeds and guts. His eyes were still the same shade of gold they had been earlier, but now another defining feature had been revealed - he had a long black braid, covered in pumpkin remains, trailing down his back. Going by his appearance alone, he couldn't be more than in his mid-twenties.

Télos spat one of the pumpkin seeds out.

"Yuck," he said, frowning. "That tasted absolutely disgusting."

Marisol grimaced when saw the mess that Télos had made. She was honestly a little surprised he was human, given that nobody in their right mind would wear a pumpkin on their head. Actually, now that he was covered in pumpkin guts and complaining about it, she could call him out.

"So why in the f*** did you put it on?" Marisol said, resting the ax handle on her shoulder. "Things 're much better fer eating."

Télos turned back to look at Marisol; he appeared to be trying to brush out the pumpkin seeds and guts from his hair with his fingers, but he wasn't making much progress. "I was testing something out," he said. He grimaced as he tugged a particularly long strand of pumpkin guts out from his hair. "Katy said that endermen can't see players who wear them. So I tried putting it on - turns out she was right."

He paused in his attempt and let out what sounded suspiciously like a snicker. "They were all convinced I was a ghost. It was hilarious. I was about to test it out on Glistro and-" He frowned, the laughter coming to a sudden halt. "-and then I ended up here."

"So yer not an idiot," Marisol said. "Just an a**hole. Good to know. Dunno what the 'endermen' are though. Or Glistro. Katy sounds like Katerina, but I'm pretty sure it ain't her, even if it sounds like she knows too much."

Télos crossed his arms. "I was going to let them know about it afterwards," he promptly informed Marisol. "I just had to test it out first so there wouldn't be any hysteria about players having secret technology, and I might have decided to get some fun out of it, too."

He got a few more pumpkin guts out of his hair, then added, "Endermen are what I rule. They look like..." He thought for a moment, resting a hand covered in pumpkin seeds underneath his chin. "It's probably better to show you than to try explaining it. They look like this."

He snapped his fingers. A second later, a creature that was distinctively not human was standing in his place - black scales covered every inch of what should have been bare skin, and a pair of purple eyes peered out from a scale-covered face. Black hair cascaded down the creature's back, and the fingers that it used to point at itself were long and clawed. Even though Grim was quite tall, the thing before him was even taller, and its limbs were lean and lanky. The only indicator that he was still looking at Télos was the clothing he was wearing - which somehow made him look even more intimidating.

Marisol swore and jumped back as Télos became some kind of tall scaly creature. But she knew it was better to judge the person for who they were on the inside, not on their outside. It just so happened his inside was only mildly less terrible than his outside.

She composed herself immediately, expression settling back to annoyed. Tapping her chin, Marisol nodded. "I probably didn't need to see that. And yer still taunting them. Which is so sweet."

Sevy took a step back as Télos transformed, and unvoluntarily made a very awkward sound in the back of his throat.

"Nnng... thaaat's-" he caught himself before he could say 'creepy', not wanting to offend Télos. "...an interesting appearance." He saved the line after a few too many beats.

Leo had been slowly inching closer to Grim during all of the commotion, mostly due to the guilt he still felt about screaming at his appearance. He stood awkwardly a few feet away, waiting for the right moment or thought to pop up before he started a conversation. The transformation of Télos seemed to be sufficient enough.

"Uhm, y'know, Griffith... compared to what I've already seen tonight- well, shoot, even things I've seen in the past few months, you really aren't that terrifying." He stuttered through this oddly phrased reassurance, "I mean, what I'm trying to say is, you deserve friends who will enjoy your company and who can look past your appearance and occupation."

Leaving this sentiment hanging, he chewed on his lip, knowing that if he had finished the thought, it would have came out as the dorkiest line ever: 'it might not be much, but I can be your friend.'