The Woodland Mansion

Sevy, Kit, and Leo had decided to follow Grim and Télos too late, and were winding g the halls looking for them when they heard the screams.

"Oh gosh." Kit gripped Leo's arm in surprise after the first scream. Without hesitation, the group was running through the hall, trying to locate the screaming.

After a third turn down the hall, Kit, who had been taking the lead, nearly ran right into Grim. She came to a stop, her claws screeching on the tile.

"Okay, okay..." seeing everyone seemed to be fine, she bent over and caught her breath while Leo and Sevy approached behind her.

"Oh. Télos. Um... you found a doll?" Sevy glanced over at him, eyeing the well-dressed doll in his arms, whose life-like state was unnerving him. "Do you, ah, collect them?"

Firanna stood next to the wall, watching. There were a lot of people in this house. She moved, shifting her weight onto her other leg.

The moment that the other trio appeared, Télos felt Aquarius throw his arms around his neck. For a body now made of porcelain, his grip was stronger than expected - though Télos really shouldn't have been so surprised. They did share the same godly blood, and something like that translating to him being incredibly strong as a doll made sense.

"It's okay," Télos reassured him. "They're not players."

Aquarius, who had turned away and buried his face in Télos' shoulder, hesitantly raised his head up and gave him what he guessed was an inquisitive look.

"Okay, they technically are," he admitted, "but they're not bad. We're the people from another world here."

Aquarius frantically tried to get out of his arms. When Télos stubbornly held onto him and prevented him from falling to the ground, Aquarius reluctantly stopped attempting to break free. Télos took this temporary calm as an opportunity to answer Sevy's question.

"I'm guessing you've already figured it out from how much he was squirming, but I'm not holding a doll. Well, I am, but he's not usually one." He gestured down at Aquarius with a nod of his head. "He's my younger brother. His name is Aquarius."

"It's gettin' crowded in here," Marisol said, waking up to Aquarius. She was fine with dolls, but the ones with pale skin and big eyes always creeped her out. Oh, and this one was alive, too. Just great.

"Poor bastard." She poked at his face. "Looks like he got the short end of the stick, but at least he's still got a head attached to his-"

She felt a very slow, watery slap across her face. Marisol looked down to see Arlais glaring up at her.

Marisol took a few steps back. When Arlais was staring to get violent, it was a good time to quit.

Sevy glanced over at Marisol out of the corner of his eye. He had been staying on the safe side and trying not to address her, since he figured that with his luck, a conversation with her would quickly put him on her bad side.

"Hello, Aquarius. Nice to meet you. Um, I'm not quite sure about what your brother has been talking about. I don't know what players are, except for the fact that I'm definitely not one." He gave what he hoped was a reassuring grin.

Aquarius had been having a good day.

He and Liz had gone to visit Sebastian, and were in the middle of walking through the short stretch of woods that was between the portal to the End and Hero's base. He had been counting down the minutes until they arrived - the woods were starting to get dark, and he had wanted to get there as soon as possible. He had been clinging to Liz the entire time, refusing to let go of her hand if he could help it.

But then they had gotten somehow gotten separated, and he found himself in front of this place instead of Hero's. And he was absolutely terrified by it, but he mustered the courage to enter through the side door and start trying to find people. That was when he had suddenly become like this, and when he had heard other people talking. And, to his horror, he couldn't move his face or use his mouth - and he looked little like his actual self. He had darted into the first room that he had found, realized it was a room filled with dolls and therefore would be the perfect hiding place, and then went into the back corner and tried to look as still as possible.

And now Télos was carrying him around, and players who apparently weren't players were also present - as well as a mob who was like nothing he had ever seen before. Out of all of them, it was the boy who had come up to him that scared him the most. He appeared to be most like a player, even though Télos said that he wasn't.

Then again, it seemed like most of the people here had changed like him, too. So maybe this boy had?

He tried to return the reassuring grin with a shaky smile of his own, but his lips stubbornly refused to move. He just continued to cling to Télos and stare at him instead - it was a bad compromise, but it was something.

Firanna just stood there, listening to the conversation. "So all of you came here by accident as well?"

Grim nodded. "That's what it seems like." He glanced around at the other people present, though his gaze mainly landed on Aquarius. He was the only one who hadn't clearly communicated how they arrived, but a hurried nod confirmed the conclusion. He looked back at Firanna. "I was walking in the woods near my home, and I ended up here."

"Same here!" Télos agreed. "Well, sort of, but it's close enough."

Firanna just nodded, still shifting uneasily. "Any idea on how to get out?"

Spoiler

@Saen, I am so sorry! I wasn't paying attention when I typed that. I will fix that right now.

Spoiler

Don't worry about it, @Firerose! I apologize if my message came off as angry - I was at school, and I was trying to quickly ask what was happening in between my classes.

It was Grim who answered the question this time.

"I think we can just leave the building," Grim replied. His ears nervously twitched, his wings following suit a minute later. He really wasn't liking being stuck like this. "But getting out of the forest surrounding here might not be as easy, and it's impossible to tell if we're only changing appearances because we're in this mansion, or something's happened to us."

"Like a curse?" Télos asked.

Grim nodded. "I think that would be the only alternative."

Aquarius moved a little closer to Télos at this revelation.

"But we're trying to figure out why the changes are happening," Grim hurriedly added, casting a brief glance over in Aquarius and Télos's direction. "That's what we were doing before we found you and Aquarius. We were trying to search each room to see if there were any clues there, and were trying to wait out this change."

Firanna looked down then back up. "I...I found something in the room I was in. It was different than the rest of the mansion."

Marisol raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" she said, trying her best to sound respectful. She knew it wouldn't last long, but she had to give it a try for Arlais's sake. "Hey, better yet, where is it?"

Firanna looked at the girl. She seemed a little hostile, but Firanna wasn't sure why. "It...It was behind the fireplace." Remembering, Firanna paled, which only served to make her a rippling outline.