Welcome to Gaia! ::

In the foyer, Maggie had heard the commotion in the entertainment room and peeled away from her swarthy blind date to see what was happening. She had missed the death itself, but had heard the whispers about a red thing coming out of the worker's mouth, had seen him on the pool table.

Tears pricked in her eyes immediately. She had been unfortunate enough to see a friend die at the hands of the Negaverse once. This... this was too painful. She knew she should have thicker skin, but the girl was 17 and death was terrifying and final. Maria shouted for them to pair up -- oh god, this was painfully horror-movie-esque, but worse because it was real -- and find a means of escape. Staggering backwards back into the foyer, she bumped into her assumed date again, feeling stupid.

"I can't stay down here," she said to him, looking away to hide the emotion welling in her eyes. "Someone just died. This... this isn't right. Something is very wrong here. I have to get us out of here." Because Maggie always assumed she could save the day.

Slipping away from her date, she pulled free the white tie that had kept the stairs blocked off and made her way up them, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hands and stumbling over her long, glamorous skirts. She went for the first door to the Gold Room and had to force it open, immediately coughing from an inhale of dust.

Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she pulled her henshin pen from her bra and attempted to power up. It was risky, but she had to protect all these people. She couldn't let anything bad happen to anyone else! Once. Twice. Three times. Nothing. "No no NO!" she shouted, balling her hands into fists and hiding her pen again. This was all wrong, very wrong -- and it was supposed to be her magical night of romance, not horror. Why did bad things always have to happen to her?

In an emotional fury, Maggie stomped across the floor, ripped the cloth covering the painting free and ran to the window, covering her hands in the cloth and attempting to wrench it open. Someone was dead, and she couldn't power up. It had been a long time since the girl had felt so powerless.

The window was giving her trouble and the flurry of dust had her coughing hard -- stupid, un-senshi arms -- and she let out a whimper of frustration, resting her forehead on the cool glass. Slowly, she turned, dropping the cloth, and walked back to the painting. She squinted at it, tears still fresh in her eyes. She was looking at... Krystal. The same kind woman who had greeted her in the hallway. She had... children? There were no rooms here, and this photo could have been taken yesterday. And the date...

"What, are they vampires?" she said aloud. As far as she knew, senshi and Negas aged just like anyone. Hell, Maggie had aged! So what other horrible magic was at play here? Didn't it have to be something cosmic? Wasn't it always?

She stared at the photo, trying to compose herself. Heroes didn't cry. Heroes were strong enough to open windows. Reaching out, she touched the face of Krystal in the painting to feel the oil and then inspected the frame, checking the back of the painting. Could she throw it and shatter the window? It only overlooked the garden, but maybe... could they jump? If she was her senshi self, she could. In her head, she prayed and prayed for Ganymede or Gunn, but there was no henshin to rely on. The only thing she had was herself, and right now, she was only feeling doubt.

Beatrice Kellye - Being dragged into the Blue Room



Everything was happening in one giant whirl and Bea was pretty sure that she was disassociating with it all. Not that she'd ever really disassociated with anything before - she knew the idea of what the word meant but had yet to experience it for herself but as everything came crashing down around them (figuratively, the only thing to really come down had been the painting that Marnie continued to tote with her) she seemed to be having an out-of-body experience with it all.

Ignoring the fact there was a dead freaking body downstairs, she watched as her friend started picking up random articles of clothing from off the ground and pressing them against her body as though she were shopping at the mall and wanting an opinion on how a top looked on her.

"I... I mean, the color looks good but I dunno if that belonged to a dead person or... y'know."

Her hands waved around hopelessly as she struggled to get her point across. It seemed pointless, Bea leaning down to retrieve an article of clothing as well, playing with the fabric between her hands.

"Who just leaves their clothes strewn all over the place? I thought this place had maids."

Marnie Rogers in the Blue Room

Once she pressed the article of clothing against herself, Marnie found her fingers running across...dried...blood? There were tatters and tears all along the clothing lame and Marnie had been holding it in front of her to assess the damage when her bestie said her name.

Her head shot up and she stared at the white haired girl for a minute before she looked down.

Oh.

Oh.

That was spooky.

“They look like crystals, duh,” Marnie said. She stooped, reaching for Bea to drag her down and reached out to grab one of the crystals

As she would pick through the pile of blood covered crytsals, a single, rusted item would be at the bottom of the pile-

A key, matching the design of the lock upon the basement door.


Without warning, the crystals began to glow, and as soon as her fingers touched them, pain would hit her- the crystals were cutting into her skin, as if seeking fresh blood.

The crystal gave an ominous glow and a resounding crack echoed in the room. A nearby mirror had broken- as they'd look to it, they'd see their reflections; deformed, half consumed by red crystals themselves. Then the image was gone, glass still broken.