The Woodland Mansion

Grim's pointed ears twitched as he looked around the room at the chaos that had occurred following the third wave of magic - he wasn't counting the two times that they had returned to normal. Kit and Leo seemed to have ended up at an awkward stage between human and animal. Sevy was a human. Marisol was literally holding her head in her hands, and Arlais, now curled up in the fetal position on the ground, was entirely made out of water. Télos had suddenly shot up a few feet and was entirely made of living shadows.

Grim wasn't going to lie to himself - the first moment he saw Télos like that, the heart he now had skipped a beat. He had seen...things like that before, and had heard ghosts referencing them when he had accidentally overheard their conversations. And whatever that thing that Télos had become was, it was absolutely terrifying.

But he couldn't focus on that. They needed to do something if they wanted to figure out what was going on, and Grim would just have to lead them all through it. "I think magic is responsible for what's going on," he started, a hand going up to cover his mouth when he heard how young his voice sounded. It had never once been so high-pitched in his entire life, and he was more than a little thrown off by suddenly sounding like he was in his late teens.

Télos looked around at the others. "I've never seen magic like this before."

"I haven't either," Grim agreed, "but I know what magic feels like. We're being changed by magic, so if we want to figure out what's going on, we'll have to find its source."

He pointed at a hallway leading off from the foyer. "I'm going to try checking there." He started to head towards it, then hesitated. "Maybe we should try sticking together? If another change happens and we run into each other afterwards, we might attack each other."

Télos nodded. "Sounds like good reasoning to me." He joined Grim by his side, much to Grim's hidden horror - or maybe not so hidden. Faces covered in flesh were far more expressive than faces that weren't. "Let's go, then!"

Firanna cautiously entered a room and finding it empty, closed the door behind her. She needed to get a grip. Hearing voices, she stands up, hand on her sword hilt.

Marisol slowly turned herself in Grim and Télos's direction. Trying to ignore that Télos was now some giant creepy creature, she scowled at Grim. "'s not gonna be that easy," she said. "I dunno how I'm gonna move like -"

She saw a pair of watery hands grab onto either ear. Before Marisol could respond, Arlais tried to tug Marisol's head back to where it belonged. When it was obvious Arlais didn't quite have the grip strength, Marisol lifted her own arms up. A few seconds later, her head was back on her neck. For how long, she wasn't sure. She'd have to walk more carefully from this point onwards.

"Fine then," Marisol said, wincing at how cold the water in her ears felt. "Let's do this."

Even though Grim was the one initially leading the way, Télos somehow ended up at the front of the little procession. He had mentioned that he was a ruler; Grim could almost see it now, though Télos had a personality that wasn't what he would have expected from that.

Télos came to an abrupt stop when they reached a series of doors. Grim, unprepared for him suddenly stopping, went crashing into him. The two almost fell to the floor, but Télos managed to regain his balance before they could. Grim muttered a hurried sorry and tried to increase the distance between them.

"I think we should split up now," Télos decided, looking around at the different rooms. "We've got a bunch of people, and it would take far longer for us to check every single room as a group. As long as we know exactly where the other people are, it shouldn't be a problem."

Grim gave a hesitant nod. It did sound like a good plan, though he was still worried about someone accidentally attacking one of them. Before he could suggest how they could break up, Grim suddenly felt a long, shadowy arm be wrapped around his shoulder.

"I call dibs on Grim," Télos said, much to Grim's horror. "Marisol, you don't like me that much, and Arlais will probably go with you, so I'm thinking that you shouldn't be in our group. Leo, Kit and Sevy, feel free to come join us."

And then Télos began to lead his unwilling partner into the nearest room..

Spoiler

@Firerose, hi! We talked about this in the Discord server for my roleplays, but basically one group - probably the Marisol/Arlais group - is going to go into the room that Firanna is in, and Télos/Grim's group are going to end up in a different room where they'll encounter another one of my characters.

By the way, what does Firanna look like right now? All the other characters have undergone changes thanks to the magic of the place they're in, but, depending on when Firanna got there, she might just look like her normal self.

[spoiler]
Firanna is still human looking, just rather translucent.

Firanna could hear them talking. She heard them say that they would be splitting up to go into the different rooms. Someone was right outside her door. She wondered if the waves had affected them as well.

Marisol was about to complain that she and Arlais weren't anywhere near ready or exactly capable of separating from the rest of the group, but Télos had already started to drag Grim away. Of course. She hadn't pegged Télos as the spiteful type, but she'd apparently gone too far.

"Kinda need ta keep my head on," Marisol said to Arlais as they walked in front of the door, "So could ya open it?"

Arlais nodded, grabbed the door handle, and began to slowly pull it open. Marisol wondered if Arlais could keep speak; it wasn't a pleasant thought. But they didn't have anything else to do but step into the room and see who - or what - might be inside.

Firanna drew her sword as the people entered the room. There were two of them, and they too had been affected. She didn't know if they could see her, since she was rather translucent, but she stepped forward.
"If you are part of this house, I swear I will kill you. I have had enough of being messed with and thrown about. I am scared, mad, and tired."

It took a few seconds for Marisol to recognize that there was anyone else in the room, thanks to the other girl being almost invisible. And armed with a sword. And angry.

Marisol squinted for a few seconds and then nodded. "Let's go check the other room," Marisol said, turning back to Arlais. Arlais did what Marisol guessed was rolling her eyes, but began to close the door after Marisol walked past it.

Spoiler

haha I'm sorry but I had to write this, but yeah, Firanna can definitely respond however she'd like

Télos pulled Grim into the nearest room, leaving the others out in the hallway as the two began their investigation. The first thing that came to Grim's attention when they entered the room was just how creepy it was - dolls covered every inch of furniture and spilled out onto the floor, all seeming to watch them as they entered farther into the room. Most of the dolls were the size Grim would have expected, but others bordered closer to the size of actual people.

Perhaps the most realistic of all was the doll tucked in the very corner of the room, staring out at the wall across from it. It had to be close to his current height. He looked around, held his breath, and separated from Télos. Something about that doll didn't sit right with him. He took a couple of steps closer to it so he could get a better look at the mysterious doll. It was dressed in an outfit that looked vaguely Victorian, its short raven locks of hair going all the way down to its shoulders. The eyes that stared at the wall were a bright, unnerving shade of blue.

By this point, Télos had wandered off to another part of the room, and was investigating several of the dolls by picking them up and studying them. That left Grim with the remaining doll, nervously watching for something. He just wasn't sure what. Maybe it was the way that its smooth porcelain body seemed to imitate human flesh, or maybe it was the way that it was sitting there, almost like it had been thrown down in a hurry as it was forgotten by its original owner-

The doll's head moved.

It wasn't by much - just a tiny bit - but it was definitely staring at Télos now instead of the wall. He tried to tell himself that he had just been imagining it, but then he noticed movement out of the corner of his eyes.

The doll was tapping the ground with its finger.

Grim let out a terrified scream and stumbled away from it. The doll rose to its full height - and of course it was taller than him! - and Télos let out a scream of his own when he turned to see what Grim's cause for alarm was. Grim. The doll just stood there, slowly turning its head from side to side as it looked at the two people in the room.

Grim and Télos instinctively grabbed onto one another, staring with horror as they were faced with a doll that should have never been able to move on its own.

Spoiler

This is what the doll is wearing!

Firanna drew a quick breath as the people left the room. She realized she had been hasty, but she was sooo tired. She sheathed her sword and went out.

"I'm sorry. I'm just so tired. I realize you guys aren't part of the house."

Marisol shrugged. Now that transparent girl wasn't armed, and slightly less crazy, she seemed tolerable. "Not sure I want to meet what thing is part of the-" Marisol said, before she was interrupted by screaming from the other room.

Marisol raised a fist and swore at that other room's door. Just her luck.

"Maybe it's a person," Grim whispered, still clinging to Télos. He kept his gaze on the doll. It was just staring at them, and Grim didn't know if he wanted to know why. "Maybe it's a person, and they're in the same situation as us."

Télos' grip on him tightened, causing Grim to give a little squeak in surprise. His grip was strong when he was like this. "But what if it's a-it's a g-ghost and it's possessing that doll until it can possess one of us?"

"Ghosts don't work like-" he started, only to stop when he realized he was thinking of the ghosts he had known better - not partials. A partial could theoretically possess something, and so could a normal ghost. All they had to do was let go of their hold on what their old body had looked like, and adjust themselves to the idea of taking on another form. With such a realistic doll, that would be far from difficult.

The doll took a step forward.

Télos let out another scream and somehow managed to hold Grim even more tightly than before.

Now the doll hesitated. It looked at Télos, eyes rolling back into its head before appearing in the front again - eliciting yet another scream from him - and then promptly stumbled back into the pile of dolls behind it. The dolls were luckily made of fabric and not porcelain, or else the doll might have cracked when it tripped and fell backwards into the pile. It raised its now shaking hands up in front of its face and covered its eyes.

Grim stared at it, and then stared at Télos.

"I think you scared it," he slowly said.

"Me?" Télos repeated. "But that's the gh-ghost!"

Grim managed to wiggle out of Télos' strong grip. "You're a giant being made out of living shadows," Grim pointed out, "and even your voice sounds terrifying. I'm scared of you, and I'm normally a giant talking skeleton."

Télos thought for a moment. "I guess you're right," he said, looking over at the cowering doll. He thought for another moment, then went right to where the doll was. He sat down right beside, much to the doll's apparent horror from the way it tried to scoot even farther back.

"I'm not going to harm you," Télos said. "I promise. I think Grim's right - there's multiple people in here who currently don't look like they should, and I think you're like us."

The doll slowly removed one hand and peeked at him.

Télos held out his hand. "My name is Télos. I'm the g-"

Before he could finish speaking, the doll suddenly threw its arms around him. Grim watched with confusion as the doll did the opposite of what it had been trying to do only seconds earlier - now it was full-on embracing Télos, even though all he had really done was say his name.

Télos narrowed his golden eyes. "I know you, don't I?"

The doll momentarily leaned back and nodded, only to go back to hugging him again. The trembling hadn't stopped, but it seemed to be getting better now that the doll was in the safety of someone it knew.

"You're not Lex," Télos said, "because Lex has already seen me in a form sort-of like this before. None of Hero's or Oracle's chosen would be this scared, and neither would Zephyrus or Renee. And neither would Liz, so-"

He stared down at the doll.

"Aquarius?"

The doll nodded again.

Télos' eyes widened, and he - gently - pulled Aquarius into an embrace. When he noticed Grim watching from the side with confusion, Télos gave the doll an affectionate pat on the head before explaining just who Aquarius was. "Aquarius is my little brother," he said. "He's only sixteen."

Firanna put her hand on her sword hilt. "Friends of yours?"

Télos carefully lifted his brother off of the ground, making sure to fully support his body as he got to his feet and returned to Grim's side. Aquarius appeared a little startled by the gesture from the way his head started spinning around, but then he immediately grew calmer when Télos turned to him and said, "I'll carry you around until we get back to normal, okay? You're fragile right now, and you could get hurt if you tripped because you're not used to that body."

Aquarius gave a little nod to show he understood.

"Let's head back out now," Télos said, this to time to Grim. "I don't think we're going to find anything in here, and I'm sure everyone's a little spooked by us screaming."

Grim nodded, then silently followed Télos and his brother out into the hallway. It quickly became apparent that Marisol and Arlais had discovered another person in the mansion - a transparent girl. "Oh, hey," Télos said, "you found another person, too."

Firanna just gave him a nod. She was hanging back from the others.