The Woodland Mansion

Dragging Arlais along - why were those stupid legs so heavy? - Marisol hesitated at the edge of the library. It wasn't because of the fish man, though he was honestly kind of gross. It wasn't the wolf or the rotting man either. The bookshelves intimidated her. She hadn't been able to read a couple years ago, and only had some basic skills now. All those books seemed to be watching her, taunting her. They knew she couldn't read them. She'd never be as good as the princess in that regard, which frustrated her.

Marisol focused on the rotting man. "Sounds like a plan," she said, gritting her teeth and smiling awkwardly. "I'd help out, but -" she gestured to Arlais with her axhand - "I'm kinda busy with her."

Sevy padded closer to Kit and Leo, crouching down to make it easier for Leo to get up. He couldn't help himself from sniffing Leo's fin, however, and gently touched his tongue to it.

Kit stood and wrapped her arms under Leo's, hefting his front half up. He wheezed a little in response to Sevy's tongue.

"D- did you just- lick me?"

"I think he did," he quietly said from where he was standing, staying within a foot of the exit to the library. He didn't want to come off as frightening. He was sure he already seemed that way to everyone already there, but he could least try to not seem as terrifying. A little fear wasn't all that daunting. He'd never enjoy being considered intimidating, but he had come to accept it.

And, before he knew it, he found a tear rolling down his cold cheek.

It was something that he knew no one could see behind his wig, so he let himself cry. Let himself envy the two women who had only just been out in the hallway, and the young trio. Let himself envy the normal life the mysterious man with the gun must have had, because anything would be considered normal compared to what he had been through. Let himself mourn the life he could have had, the friends he could have made, because being a silent bystander was the closest he'd ever get to that.

Because no one would ever wanted to know him.

He pulled up his information, more tears rolling down his cheeks as he waited for Leo to be put on his friend's back.

Was the rotting man crying? Marisol couldn't see the tears, but she could see his shoulders shaking. Eugh, she had no idea what to do.

Arlais let go of Marisol and grabbed onto the doorway, so that she could pull herself into the library. Thanks to her legs preventing her from turning around, she could only glance back at the trio. "It looks like he'll be fine," Arlais said, sighing in relief. She used her arms to push herself along the ground until she could see into the face of the rotting man. Whatever she saw, she wasn't happy about it. "Is it getting to you?" she said, frowning. "This whole mess? I can relate."

"Yeah," Marisol said. "I could get used to the axhand, but it sure sucks for the rest of ya."

With some help with Sevy's muzzle, Kit was finally able to lift Leo onto Sevy's back. She turned him so that he was belly-down and turned to Griffith, ignoring his situation- she didn't want to embarrass him any further than he might be.

"If you would lead the way.." she offered a strained smile.

Leo gripped onto Sevy's fur, starting to feel light-headed again.

He stiffened when he realized they had discovered that he was crying. It was so surprising and out of the ordinary that he had trouble registering that it had happened. Once it finally clicked, he found himself crying even harder. They only were talking to him because he looked like this. If they had even caught a glimpse of what he truly looked like, they would have run away as soon as they could. They would have never tried to have a conversation.

"It-It could be worse," he replied, ducking his head down and slipping out into the hallway.

Sevy walked carefully down the hallway, trying not to slip. Leo watched the zombie man, picking up on a sob that escaped. He frowned, a bit upset that Kit seemed to be ignoring him.

"Hey," he started quietly, "it will all work out, don't worry." Unfortunately, as his craving for water got even worse, most of his words came out as garbled shrieks.

He could tell from the expression on Leo's face that the words were meant to be some form of comfort to him, even if he couldn't actually discern what he was trying to say. A moan mixed with another sob as he ducked his head down even more and hurried down the hallway. He didn't even look back at the others when he found a room with a tub - he just went inside and turned on the water.

Then he stood off against the wall, head down, as he waited for the others to enter.

Sevy moved over to the bathtub, with a bit of difficulty squeezing through the doorway. He lowered his head, and Leo slid off his back, flopping violently onto the porcelain.

"Ow! A little more gently next time." Leo wheezed and adjusted himself so that the faucet was running directly over his gills. He gave a gurgle of satisfication.

As Marisol went back to pulling Arlais, following the others to wherever it was they needed to go (she'd forgotten), she struggled to find an answer to the rotting man's response. There was clearly some context that she wasn't aware of, because it didn't make much sense otherwise.

It was only when she arrived in the bathroom and spotted the rotting man leaning against a wall that Marisol realized she could call attention to it.

"Ain't that a good thing?" she said. She tried to ignore the sight of water spilling over the gills of the fish man. It wasn't the first time she'd seen something like, but it still grossed her out. "That it could be worse, but it ain't?"

The water continued to run in the background.

"It is," he said with a moan. He was trying not cry anymore, but that was hard when he still felt so miserable. He held his detached arm close to his chest. He tried to focus on the sound of the tub slowly being filled, tried to focus on the sight of Leo slowly becoming more and more covered by the water. Anything was better than addressing the question.

But just as the water had finally covered Leo's body and was being turned off by one of the other people in the room, a familiar warmth burst through the room. Instinct kicked in. Using his attached hand, he pulled his information and stared at it, trying to get a good look at the time before what was inevitably another change occurred.


As the warmth washed over him, the information began to glitch out. The STATUS began to flicker from what it should have been and what it currently was. His TUD began to hurriedly head towards zero, going even faster as it gained momentum. Negatives became positives. It just kept going and going and going until it was a blur, finally coming to a stop just as his STATUS returned to what it had been a little more than ten minutes before.


Things were how they should have been.

Something that he was suddenly reminded of when he looked down and saw that his arm was still detached from the rest of his body, already trying to connect with the rest of it. And then he let out a sound that could have easily been considered a sob and sunk to the floor, because his efforts to hide the truth were all in vain.

The only thing covering his detached arm was a single little glove.

And everyone could see that his arm was nothing but bones.

Leo relaxed, his head submerged underwater. He finally started to feel comfortable in his own skin (well, the skin he was currently wearing), when a strange feeling oozed through him, leaving water to shoot up his nose. His head popped up on instinct, and promptly smacked against the faucet. Coughing violently, he rubbed at his eyes with wet hands and looked down at himself. Great. Just great. it seemed that he had returned to normal, but he was now sitting in a full bathtub, his clothes drenched.

Sevy shuddered, blinking from the floor, where he was crouching on all fours. He looked down at himself briefly to check that everything was in order before standing up, his limbs aching dully.

Kit sighed in relief as she felt her senses heightened once again. She turned to assess the rest of the group, and her eyes immediately jumped to Griffith, whose arm seemed to be fusing together. His rotting flesh had disappeared, exposing only a thin, skeletal arm. She quickly surveyed him again- his clothes had also been restored.

"Are you... are you alright?" Maybe this had been what she had sensed, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions.

When Marisol felt that wave of warmth again, she immediately shut her eyes. She didn't want to see what disgusting way her body would change shape or morph into something this time. However, as she tightened her grip on her ax, she realized that she could move it. Better yet, she could feel her fingers. Wiggling them, she was relieved to find that they were all in place. And nothing else felt strange to her - no gills on her neck, no change in size, no turning into a wolf. She was okay.

Marisol opened her eyes in time for Arlais to lay a hand on her shoulder. "I'm back to normal," Arlais whispered, grinning. For a second, Marisol wondered why Arlais was being quiet, but the otter quickly frowned and gestured at the rotting man. "But I'm not sure he is."

Turning to look at the rotting man, Marisol quickly focused on his detached skeleton arm. "Oh s***," she said. "That's not good."

They had noticed.

He dropped his arm, half out of disappointment and half out of horror. He had known this would eventually happen. It had only been a matter of time before he accidentally revealed the truth. As he tried to figure out what he was supposed to say, his detached arm eagerly slipped up his empty sleeve and connected to the rest of his body.

He got to his feet, a final tear rolling down his cheek. His actions were robotic. Mechanical. His body was running on autopilot, and he wasn't going to go back to manual. Not when he had no idea how to deal with this. He never did, really. He made his way over to the door. Not hurriedly, but also not too slow.

He didn't try to explain. That would have done nothing. It never did. He just made his way over to the door, slipped out into the hallway, and promptly ran to the first room that he could find - that room being the room he had liked so much earlier. He closed the door behind him as softly as he could so they wouldn't realize that he was in that room. With a shaking hand, he locked it.

Then he went to work taking off the clothes. Clothes that been fun when he had first tried them on, but now were a painful reminder of what he wasn't. The only thing that remained when he was done with his cloak. He pulled up the hood, fingers still trembling. And then he stood in front of the mirror and looked at himself - his true self, not the human he had pretended to be for less than even an hour - and gave himself a nod in confirmation, because this was how things were meant to be.

He went back to the door and unlocked it.

And then he slipped out into the hallway, ready for whatever confrontation he would have to face. Though he doubted it would even come to that; people always seemed to run when they saw him.

Marisol and Arlais were too surprised by the skeleton arm reattaching itself to the man to respond to the said man's fleeing the room. Mainly because a quick glance around the room suggested that everyone else was back to normal, if soaked and/or crouching on the floor. Which could only mean that they had been looking at the skeleton man's actual form.

Marisol was the first to recover. "That's what he was so weepy about?" she said, staring out the door. "Ugh, I better go drag his butt back here before he does something stupid. He's got a better idea of what's goin' on than any of us."

Not waiting for a response, she ran out the door. Sure enough, down the hallway to her right, a billowing cloak moved ever farther away. "Get back here!" Marisol called, running after him. She still had her ax in hand, but she figured it'd be fine. Like she was just going to drop her ax on the floor or something.