Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was like a sleepover. It was just like a sleepover and she had to keep telling herself that as the black and white senshi stepped foot into the strange room with Kibirev in tow. Having her best friend there made everything a level of safe that would otherwise have her pigtails in frazzles - things would be okay. She had Kelly. They were gonna be okay, right?

She waited for the door to close behind them before turning around to stare down at the colorful, much prettier senshi as her free hand clasped on top of Kibby’s.

“So. Do we stay behind and see how haunted this joint really is or do we start looking for an escape route like, yesterday?”

“Okay so the crystals are the kool-aid. Got it.”

Dark eyes stared intently at her best friend’s prettier pair, which seemed innocent and oblivious to all of the troubling questions this whole… situation brought with it. Yes, the castle looked amazing. The Queen, as Kibby had put it, was breathtakingly beautiful. Everything seemed wonderful and magical and as Bea knew her horror movies, that was a recipe for disaster.

“Ever heard of the phrase ‘if something’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t’?” Tugging the other girl forward, she glanced around at the room. It was clear that LJ wasn’t willing to part ways with the other teenager - not yet at least - despite being in a closed room with her. Who knew what magical force could potentially come in and try to whisk her away?? “This all seems a little too good to be true.”

Kibirev had a point though. Lovejoy did enjoy a good adventure and it seemed almost a slap in the face to have it pointed out to her that she was acting more of a grump than a team player when it came to this magical adventure ahead of them.

“I’m sorry,” she finally sighed as she stared at the generic looking painting on the wall. “I just… this doesn’t sound like any of the stories I’ve ever read before. I don’t know what to think.”

Wrinkling her nose, she finally released her companion from her grip and sank down onto the side of the bed.

Dark eyes grew wide in startled surprise as she found herself flying backwards onto the bed, the weight of the other girl on top of her as white pigtails went sailing. Her brain had been trying so hard to process what the other girl was trying to argue that she hadn’t expected the sudden assault - after all, she was the one who’d done almost all of the yanking and pulling, right???

She wrinkled her nose as the tip of the foxglove senshi’s brushed against hers, the softness of the skin tickling hers. They were supposed to be cautious, gosh darn it - all the people in the horror movies that let their guards down usually were the first ones to get snatched up and eaten! Or torn apart! Or possessed!

Oh no… could Kibirev be possessed?

Gloved hands moved to gently shove at the other girl, the gangly girl trying to push her best friend to the side as she huffed quietly. Kibbyroo had been right about one thing - Lovejoy was far more worried (not scared, Kibby!!! She wasn’t scared!) than Kibirev was and that was oddly unusual. If things did turn out rather pleasant, LJ would be kicking her own butt with her own boots for ruining her best friend’s fairytale fun.

“Fine,” she grunted under the teenager’s weight, her cheeks flushing a light pink at the proximity of the other girl’s face. Her breath smelled sweet, inches away from the barely-younger girl’s nose. “Fairytale dreamland. Just remember that there are villains in fairytales, okay?”

Gloves gripped the other girl’s arms gently. “I don’t want the princess of this story to get stolen away by some evil witch. Capiche?”

Her free hand moved to push herself back up into a sitting position while the other allowed itself to be stolen by her bestie. Fingers curled between fingers and she glanced at the connection before moving to fluff down her skirt. Kibirev felt right at home wearing all of this fluffy, girly stuff but Bea was used to jeans and t-shirts. All of this magical schoolgirl business was definitely up her friend’s alley where the outfits and appearances were concerned, while Bea found their powers more attractive than the fact she wasn’t allowed to wear pants.

“Kisses only work when there are princes,” came the eventual, grumpy reply. Truthfully, LJ didn’t mean to sound so fussy but the thought of finding some handsome stranger to come lay the mack-down on Kelly… well, it was gross. Extra, super gross. Even grosser than watching the autopsy video she’d found online that one time. “But yeah. I guess I’d find someone to do it, but only to keep your doofy butt around.”

Presumably settled in for the night (because those crystal servant creeps looked like they were gonna keep the senshi in their designated rooms, honestly), feet kicked up in the air and with some minor tugging, her boots slid off and plopped down onto the carpeted flooring. Toes wiggled freely and her glance shifted from her wriggly digits to her best friend. “Kib…”

Releasing the hand, she moved to playfully shove the older girl. “I didn’t say you were dumb - I know you aren’t. I’m just worried that all this pretty is making you blind to stuff. But…” She sighed, “Maybe I’m being a little overly paranoid too, okay?”

The thought of Kib sharing dresses with the stranger-Queen was slightly alarming, if only because her imagination was already taking off at a mile a minute. “Wait. You’re going to put on her clothes? You do know that people used to poison others by putting toxic stuff in dresses and then giving them to girls to wear, right???”

She wore her figurative Overly Paranoid badge proudly for all the world to see - it was the paranoid people who survived, at the end of the story. Well, at least the ones that didn’t go crazy and end up offing themselves first… yeah, she didn’t really see herself doing that, so she was more of an end-game player, if she had to put a label on herself. It didn’t offend her for Kelly to describe her as such, just as Kelly never seemed to mind having her whimsical, fantasy-loving little mind called out by her morbid best friend.

“At least fluff the dress out before you put it on,” she argued, narrowing her eyes as she gave the other teen her best Staredown Look. “Or put your hand in it first. You can survive without a hand, but not a head. I’d hate to lose your head, a best friend without one makes for really crummy conversation.”

Legs kicked and she adjusted herself on the bed, slipping both knees up on the comforter as she sat on her legs, now facing her companion (and apparent roommate, now). Her free hand fell on top of Kibby’s in an assuring manner as she realized the foxglove senshi was getting worried about her family back home.

In truth, LJ had absolutely no idea when or if they’d ever make it home. No one seemed to have found any success in getting home thus far, but things hadn’t hit Threat Level Midnight yet either.

“I’d miss Leander too much too,” she teased lightly, thoughts flickering back to her best friend’s handsome older brother, “and chocolate chip cookies. I don’t think we’d get stuck here - this seems kind of boring to haunt, anyways.”

Pause.

“Besides, if everyone died, then we’d just be haunting each other and that would be extra boring. So no, I promise - we’ll find a way out of here, Kibaroo.”

“Hey, I’m practical - don’t pin all your scares on me trying to keep us safe.”

She wanted to give her companion a nice and righteous hmph at the implication that she’d conditioned the older girl into a constant state of fear but at the same time, she didn’t want to think about how… well, how true that statement really was.

Nope. Not gonna dwell - means it isn’t true, nope, nope!

Her brows rose as her friend stumbled over her words as she made insinuations that they should stick close, in case LJ was getting scared. Lovejoy opened her mouth to point out that she was the one who wasn’t scared, that conquering this spooky castle was gonna be her greatest accomplishment… and then she noticed Kibirev’s face. And her words. And the fact she was buttering up her best friend, sweet talking her as if she was about to ask for answers to math homework or if Bea would be willing to help her with chores.

Kibby was nervous and LJ needed to cool down on the crazy.

“Yeah, yeah,” the senshi of confusion wasn’t very suave when it came to accepting compliments, the girl moving to flop down next to her friend as she turned to stare at her from the pillow. They’d shared beds before for sleepovers and this...this was pretty much a sleepover anyways, just in some weird mirrorspace place, right? “You know we gotta stick together. It’s what besties do.”

Her hand reached out and tugged onto Kib’s.

“Best friends ‘til death do us part, right?”

"Dork."

She shoved at the other girl again before cuddling up beside her. Sleep wasn't anything on her mind but she knew she needed to at least pretend for Kib's sake, so that at least the other girl would get some decent rest for whatever day was ahead of them.

"Yeah, we'll haunt stuff together. It'll be awesome."

Dark eyes watched as the girl in front of her quickly dozed off, one black glove moving to sweep a few locks of hair from out of her face.

If they were lucky, they wouldn't have to resort to haunting things for a long, long time to come.