Welcome to Gaia! ::

Saturday, early morning.

The Catacombs were a huge, meandering maze of tunnels, chambers and mysteries that seemed to sprawl out underneath the entire city of New Salem and beyond. They had never been fully hexplored, and although Monster High was built on top of the most polished and civilized of the corridors and tunnels, entrances to the caverns could be found in multiple places.

It was one such entrance, just on the edge of Haunted Hollow Park, that the fearstival Woestock was beginning to take shape. Although it was a cold, brisk Decembrrr day outside, the caverns were surprisingly warm and inviting. These particular caverns, tended to by a clan of Kobolds who lived further in, were lit with spooktacular glowing spectral candles, and almost seemed designed to have the perfect acoustics for musical performances.

What are the odds?

Over the last few days, the talk of Woestock had grown, and gone viral. Everymonster who was anymonster had heard about the fearstival, even if they weren't quite sure what the theme was or what was going to happen there. It sounded like a party and a creepy cool reason to go fang out - and what more does any monster really need?

Kai yawned as he trudged across Haunted Hollow Park towards the caverns that would host Woestock. He was early; earlier than he'd planned to be, but he hadn't slept well last night. He was too excited about the possibilities of this Fearstival. And maybe just a LITTLE worried about the plot Harry had hatched to get the two of them out of Saturday Deadtention.

"The band!" He told a random tree that seemed to have a face. "We're getting the band back together!"

"Good for you." The tree replied, then went back to doing tree-y things. Kai grinned.

'The Band' didn't even have a formal name...it was comprised of himself, Glen da West, Dashner Hawke, Roswell Gray and Nero du Sphinx. They had put it together last summer in sort of a competition with their ghoul friends, who had put together their own band. Atomica and the Rest in Peace worried about things like choreography, costuming and practicing. The Band, on the other hand, didn't need to sweat those things. They were just naturally uhh-mazing once they started jamming!

Of course, they had to break up after their first performance for a while...Roswell went back into space and Nero suffered some sort of nervous breakdown...but there was no way they could stay broken up for Woestock! Kai's dad (the Mad Scientist) had even agreed to help them out by building a hologram generator of Roswell to join in the performance!

"Hey! Harry!" Kai reached the entrance of the caverns and waved at his bluddy and event coordinator. "Aloha, brutha! I came early to see if you need help with anything before the big show starts."

Hellene wobbled in the air as a blast of unidentifiable (and therefore probably Atomica) feedback ricocheted off the cavern walls around her. It was already hard enough carrying a 42 lb bag of approximately 8% of her makeup and accessories without having to deal with additional obstacles.

"Stupid catacombs and their stupid water dripping down their stupid walls and ceilings to form stupid geologically impressive rock formations," she muttered as another stalactites lanced her hair.

"ARG!" she screamed and her voice combined with the still echoing feedback boom.

Arillena walked with Damyn (currently in his Bat form) towards the Entrance to the Catacombs. "I believe this is one of the entrances...right?" She glanced at her guardian friend to confirm. The bat nodded. Damyn had taken these roots to avoid the crazy cats in the city. He shivered remembering the chase.

"I cannot wait to properly introduce you to my new friends~ Um..." She studied the Bat flapping next to her. "Are you going to shy away like that the whole time?"

"..."

Ari pushed open the door of the tiny mausoleum-type-thing...and pushed the button to head downwards. "But I Can hear just as well as any bat can." She challenged. "We will find them. Quit being so shy, hehe, that is my job."

"..."

"'You cannot hide from new friends forever.' That is what you told me before I tried to find a school. Remember?"

"...Alright, You got me there." Just as the Elevator hit the bottom Damyn poofed back into his Satyr-like form.

"And what did I say about your telepathy?"

"...To not do it?"

Ari smiled and listened for familiar voices. "This way!"

Sally spent her night sorting through all her reading material she could to prepare for being in a band. All the magazines talked about the drama that goes on between the monsters in the band, the fact that most of the writers all write their own songs and music and have other people record them, and performing in front of crowds of millions that it causes them to sweat profusely. It was all very strange and just confused Sally more.

Once she was through all the magazines, she started going through how to actually play music. She'd never actually tried, but she didn't think it could be that bad. Since she was the drummer, she focused on the books that had all the information on drums she could get her tendrils on. She'd gone through the entire history by the time the sun rose.

Even as she walked into the catacomb cave for Woestock, she was reading a book which described the differences between playing with wooden drum sticks and metal ones.

Neither Fae was surprised by Atomica's voice as it had been what they were following. Arillena Waved a small amount timidly and smiled brightly, holding onto her bottomless bag and wondering what to do next. The metallic girl had not specified what The changeling was supposed to bring- or if she had... Ari was still confused as to how she got recruited into this anyway.

"...?"

It's a long story... Arillena sighed. She timidly looked around and continued to feel relaxed seeing all the familiar faces. The Faerie had yet to see or hear Marceline- and wasn't sure yet if she was at all prepared to talk to her.

"H-Hello Everyone~" She managed after receiving a gentle nudge from the boy next to her. Ari took a few steps towards the apparent Band leader. "I wasn't sure what instrument you wanted me to play so I brought all the ones I had..." She said reaching her full arms length into her shoulder bag.

Damyn lingered around the walls of the catacombs. Not at all feeling in place. It had been too long since he's walked around at this height. The voiceless Fae calmly looked around recalling names of those he had already- well, kind of- met.

"..."
Arillena, Kai, Hellene, Harry, Atomica, Layla... An Angel, Several Goblins, and a girl with many arms... He nodded to himself as he studied the faces of the he knew, and those he didn't.

"Wait!" Atomica called as Harry wandered off into the massive throng of goblins. "We're supposed to be the headliners! Not Jimi-"

Harry was gone.

"-Hexdrix." Atomica's shoulders slumped. How was the fearstival supposed to raise awareness for robot equality if the headliner was some meat creature?! And how could she break it to her band that they weren't going to be the centers of attention? It could possibly break their meat hearts.

Atomica put on a brave face.

"Well, ghouls...there's a side cavern we can get set up for practicing and getting dressed. Should we go get OUTRAGEOUS?"

Regina runs over to Atomica, first anxiously and then shyly. "I... Uh... I don't know how I got into a band..." She looks panicked. "There must be a misunderstanding miss, uhh..." She was about to ask the mecha-ghouls name but her panicked mind then switched immediately to something else, all the while looking as if she was going to cry. Of all things Regina was hoping for in New Salem, she certainly wasn't hexpecting this.

"What do I do-, what do you do-, what is happening...?" Regina breaks down and sits on the floor with her head between her knees and her hands above her halo.