Welcome to Gaia! ::

The fifth lock is undone, and vanishes among the others. The grand oaken doors creak open, revealing a dark room. By the miniscule candlelight available, the group can see that the room itself is dark red and seems to be pulsing.

Almost like a heart.

In the center of the room, on a raised platform, is the true body of Autumn. She is not in the regalia the painting portrayed her in- rather, she is herself. Breathing, but barely. Otherwise, there is no life to the body.

Her spirit appears in front of the group, before the rich oaken doors. She is smiling, but it is... off.

"Oh!!! Thank you all, you've done it! Thanks to your valiant efforts, you've saved me from the wickedness of other Ashdown!!!" She clasps her hands together, delighted. But then, her face shifts.

And she laughs

"That's what you wanted me to say, right?! YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOTS. WHAT KIND OF STUPID, CLICHE WORLD DO YOU THINK THIS IS, TO JUST TRAIPSE OFF ON A MAGICAL ADVENTURE TO SAVE YOUR FRIEND?! DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS WAS SO SIMPLE?!"

The ghostly image flakes away, bit by bit. The ethereal skin is then solid and green, and her forms shapes out to something more wild. Her eyes are dark, no whites showing in them, and her smile draws back to reveal a mouth full of perfectly sharpened teeth. Gone are the soft, rounded ears of a human. No. The being which floats before them, with her tattered insect wings, is anything but.

"Oh, she tried so, SO hard to save you all! Put her soul in this house and immediately locked away her body so I couldn't get to it. And then she made these cutesy wutesy little animals, all after her friends, thinking that the power of wuv and fwiendship would save her!"

The being waves her hand, and in it, a small fawn appears. Its eyes are bright and, as the monster out back did, it bears Zac's hair. It looks at them, sadly.

"Sweet little Zac here was going to say no, no, you're going to hurt her! You're all being tricked! But I made him better." And it warps, then, into the monstrous being of rot from the garden. The creature grins gleefully at the miniature beast in her hands, and without another word, crushes it to dust before them.

"The best part is, she tried to tell you! She kept using this stupid house to override my power and send you all warnings. I was ALMOST worried for a minute! You found that stupid little bird that even had my damnable name, and NONE OF YOU GOT IT!" She howls in laughter, throwing her head back. The deep green hair of the forest spills onto the carpet, and her body is racked with laughter.

"And then oh- oh! She even- she even TOOK BACK MY MONSTERS, and WARNED YOU IDIOTS, and you STILL didn't listen! Absolutely incredible! You just- you just thought noooo, everything is exactly the way I want it so this little story can be perfect! Oh man, it's just TOO EASY!" The spirit uprights herself, wiping at her eyes.

Then, she raises a hand towards the bedroom. The unconscious body is dragged to her, and with all the grace of slipping into a dress, the being takes it.

Autumn's eyes open. But they are black and malicious, and just as quickly as she was Autumn, the fae entirely takes over her form.

"I reaaaaaaally thought book boy and the detective were gonna sell you all out with the flowers- that was some clever thinking, I didn't even catch her on that one! But no, no. You were all just so self-absorbed, so bound and determined, you didn't even stop to think. Absolutely incredible."

The wings rip out from her back once more, covered in ichor. The now tangible being lifts herself from the ground, a buzzing sound coming from her wings. Her sharp teeth are still drawn in a manic, wild smile. She holds up her hands, and they suddenly light with a deep green flame.

"So good job, everyone! Round of applause for just jumping in to kill the monsters and save the princess without using any of your brains or talking. Really, you made my life SO much easier!" She snaps, and the group is encircled by flame. It draws closer to them, ever hotter, ever higher.

"Because now, I have a body of my own to high tail it out of this hellhole and make my way to YOUR world. And you get to go up in flames with this wretched little house that girl put so much of her heart into, trying to save you all!" The walls light up with flame. In the distance- from the library- they can hear Autumn scream in pain. The fae laughs again.

"It's just... it's just beautiful. You've all been great, I mean it. Thanks for playing kids! I mean, I'll stick around to see you burn to death. It'll be my little treat from this world, one last time, before I go."

And she laughs HYSTERICALLY. The flames draw closer. It is over for the mansion explorers.

They have lost

PLEASE HOLD FOR MOD WRAPUP

The flames freeze, a video paused mid-frame. The fae freezes, too, the malicious laugh cut off mid-syllable. "That's nice," says Sunny, "Except you kinda forgot one thing."

She pauses.

"More like two things. Okay, three... no... okay you forgot a lot of things, the most important is this--"

Sunny's voice echoes from every portrait, every wall, every fireplace in the house:



Sunny pauses, breathing a little hard. "S'cuze me," she says, pushing her way past the gathered crowd, "Sorry. Don't let me bother you. Actually, uh. Since."

She extends a hand and hardly seems to think about it before yanking Autumn's body to her, the swamp green body of the fae creature left behind. "Eat a fat one, b***h," says Sunny, adjusting Autumn's comatose form in her arms. Autumn's head rests sweetly upon Sunny's shoulder: she is safe now. "I rule here."

As if Autumn weighs nothing at all, Sunny turns on her heel to the group. "Y'all can take out the garbage, right? Cuz I've gotta scarper if I'm gonna do a science here."

She takes Autumn and ******** ollies.

The fae SCREAMS. It is the anguished cry of someone who has been so close to their plans coming to fruition, only to have them ripped away. Her flames are gone. The house no longer burns. But she does. The creature known as friend whirls on the group, furious.

"HER?! You called HER in to save you?!" She shrieks, voice unbelievably high pitched and broken. Her hands light with flame, and she lands on the ground, shaking the house.

"FINE. You idiots wanna dance?! LET'S DANCE. No more nice Friend for you lot!"

But the Visitors have not been forgotten. Whatever will dictates magic, the assembled group finds they are not defenseless. Each of them now bears a weapon, brought into existence by their heart and their spirit and their will to do what is right.

What that weapon is, is how they choose to see it. Whether they protect another, fight the fae, or hang back until the opportune moment is up to them.

But now, the FINALE begins.

Alexis doesn't know what to do. (They'd never tell anyone that, of course, but it's true: this is so far beyond them, so much more encompassing...it's a little frightening, honestly.) So when the fae screams and Alexis' hands go for something -- anything --

They find themself holding a knife. More like a dagger than a knife, really; but a knife none the less. (The weight is oddly familiar, like they've held it before; the grip, molded to their hand as though it was made for them -- and it was, really.)

There's no need to think about this. The way forwards is ******** you," Alexis snarled, diving for Friend with the intent to draw as much blood as possible.

BOSS HP: 93

Algie was so, so totally right and Chris was completely and utterly ********. There was an immense surge of guilt but he shoved it down, swallowed it and carried on his way. Sunny, at the least, was a help and now they just had one last problem to deal with.

Damn, fae were ******** up.

He had a weapon though and he gave a glance to it (and it was some kind of whip, thorned? that was probably Autumn's influence, somehow) before lashing out with it.

It didn't do much, since he didn't aim very well, arm shaking so bad it only manage to maybe graze the monster. He couldn't tell.

BOSS HP: 88

Everyone seemed to be taking an offensive stance against Friend, and Asiya was no different.

When the fight began, the hijabi hung back initially, watching. She was waiting to see what other weapons the others had in their hands. There was a surprising variety, and that made her happy.

Instead of an actual weapon, Asiya's hands glowed with opalescent colors. She then focused her thoughts on one specific color -- yellow -- which then caused trickles of electricity to spark up and down her arms. She extended her hands out and threw a ball of electricity at the monster, and once she did the colors switched back to the kaleidoscope of colored energy.

If all of them kept attacking at the monster, surely they would begin to wear it down.

BOSS HP: 81

Leila's only real experience in combat was a 'women's self-defense' course her dad had signed her up when she was 17, and it turned out to be a lesson on how to blow a whistle and kick a dude in the junk. So, it was more accurate to say that she had virtually no combat experience, which paired delightfully well with her complete lack of confidence in her ability to really do a whole lot here.

In light of "Friend"'s reveal, though, her own Friend responded in kind -- and the walls erupted with hundreds of eye-riddled soldier termites that came in rivulets across the floor to surround Leila. The Multitude was here, and a wave of them rose up as a living appendage to slam into the fae.


boss hp: 70

It was not what he expected. The keys, the door, the fae, anything. Also unexpected? The twin globes of orange light that appeared, swirling and vaguely menacing, in his palms. Rabbit flung one of them at the creature in surprise, but it barely put a dent in her at all.

BOSS HP: 60