Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Nero! Bro!" Kai greeted his brutha-in-harms and grinned at the two last members of THE BAND. "Glen! You made it!"

"GRUMPY. BAT." Glen seethed and stomped a foot. Kai raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, brutha, I know that's where you came from. Wish you'd have let us all know beforehand. I was worried we weren't going to get in any practice time-"

"We're going to practice?! Why start now?!" Nero jumped in, looking kind of nervous for some reason. "I mean, why even play at all? We could just fang out at the fearstival, check out the lovely ghouls, enjoy the atmos-fear-"

*CRACK!* Speaking of the atmosphere, A lightning bolt flashed across the roof of the cavern from Glen's temper tantrum tornado that was starting to form. The wind was whipping up, sending recycleable paper cups flying from the concession stands.

"GRUMPY BAAAAAAT!" Glen shouted out again. Kai leaned over to Dashner.

"I think meeting the bat broke his brain. That may be a problem..."

"He didn't hexactly get to meet the critter." Nero hexplained, raising his voice to try to be heard over the approaching gale-force tantrum-winds. "We got pulled away sort of right before the big meet-and-greet."

Kai nodded. Wow, those goblins were deadly efficient! All he'd done was mentioned offhand to one of them about needing his band-mate, and it was almost like they had a ready-made kidnap squad just waiting for a mission of redemption or something!

One of the goblins ran by.

"BEG A BILLION FORGIVENESSES FROM THE MASTER FOR VIOLATING HIS WILL AND STEPPING FOOT INSIDSE THE FEARSTIVAL! WE DID NOT KNOW HOW TO DELIVER THE WITCHLING WITHOUT BRINGING HIM IN OURSELVES! PLEASE STOP HIS STORMY WRATH!"

"Uh, this isn't Harry's doing-" Kai tried to hexplain, but the goblin was caught by a headwind and blown into an inflatable bouncy castle, where he was bounced up and down.

"WHEEEE, THIS IS SO FUN AND YET THE MASTER'S WRATH IS SO TERRIBLE!"

"Well, this is no good." Dashner nudged Kai. "If the whole Fearstival blows away, how am I supposed to ask Nero about putting an opera solo for me into our musical set?"

"A WHAT?!" Nero tried to ask, but his voice was drowned out with thunder.

"GRUMPY BAAAAAAT." Glen moaned again, as if not getting his picture taken with an internet-famous bat he already owned several accurate-to-life plushies of was the end of everything, ever.

This was fast approaching meltdown status. As in, if Glen's tantrum got big enough, the tornado he was unconsciously summoning was going to drop rain and melt him. And Kai really didn't want to have to try to balance a bucket of Glen on the drum kit. He motioned his bros over to huddle up around Glen.

"Glen, brutha, you need to relax." Kai tried telling him. "It's BAND time, bro!"

"Unless you don't want it to be band time!" Nero quickly added, a bit too hopefully. "Then it can be something-else time! Something-else time that doesn't destroy Woestock!"

"Hey, this might not be the beast time, but I've been practicing this great opera solo-" Dashner began, but Glen drowned him out with a petulant, bratty wail.

"BUT I WANNA SEE GRUMPY BAAAAAAT!"

Kai just shrugged.

"Then why don't you just see him?" He asked. "Can't you just hex a mirror to watch the bat or something? I've seen your cousin do that."

Despite Harry's incessant pleas, the tantrum crafted storm continued to grow!

Flash of lightning!

"Her!" Nero shouted over the force of the wind, almost making Kai wince.

"What!?" Kai shouted back.

"Her! Grumpy Bat is a ghoul!"

"Oh!" Kai went to address Glen to try and again get the little witch to calm down before he blew the roof off of the caverns when he gave Nero a skeptical sidelong glance. "Seriously?"

Nero simply nodded.

Crack of thunder!

"Great One?" Glen blinked back for a brief moment, the wind he was generating stinging a bit at his own eyes. He turned to Harry and held onto his "Grumpy Hat" to keep it from going anywhere in what was quickly becoming a gale-like wind. "You think my mom's great?"

"Glen. GLEN!" Kai shouted, grabbing his bluddy by the shoulder. "Seriously bro! You want to see Grumpy Bat so why not do a little hocus pocus with that mirror pool over there?"

Kai indicated a carved stone well across the catacombs where Woestock was currently at risk of being swept up by Hurricane Glen. Seeing Glen looking toward it, Nero jumped in to press the advantage...

"Yeah! Hasn't Shiny-bro been teaching you how to do mirror magic?" Nero asked.

Crack of lightning flashed again over their heads.

"Yeah!" Kai nodded, nudging Glen toward the pool. "Just like you've been teaching him Oz magic!"

"But," Glen hesitated. "Rory has a better grasp at conjuring than I do mirror magic..."

"Well you can't improve without the practice!" Kai shouted. "Go see Grumpy Bat!"

The wind was starting to die down, what with Glen's strong desire to see the little internet grimsation slowly starting to come to booition. The vast stor cloud in the caverns started to dissipate...

"Well..." Glen took another step toward the pool, then turned and grasped Nero by the wrist. "Okay but only if Nero comes with! He's a Grumpy Bat fan too now!"

"Welll now I wouldn't say I was..."

*YOINK!*

Outside of the Catacombs....

Wyvernia St. George stood in front of the maw of the cavern and put on her best reporterly smile.

"Wyvernia St. George here, in front of the entrance to Woestock, a Fearstival brought to us by-" She checked her notes. "BOJANGLES."

Wyvernia looked at her notes again.

"Wait, is that right?"

Her cameraman nodded. She shrugged.

"All right then. The stated message of BOJANGLES is one of peace, monster love, and equality for non-goreganic monsters. And to accomplish that end, Harry Herne, son of the Erlking of Never Never, has funded and organized this Fearstival. There will be food, arts and crafts, amusements, and live music provided by both local bands and renowned monsters of rock like Jimi Hexdrix!"

"Did I hear somemonster say my name?!" A voice piped up from just off-camera. Wyvernia turned and beheld a witchy manster with deep purple skin, a huge indigo afro, and fringe hanging off of every moving body part. The manster extended two fingers on his left hand.

"Peace, groovy ghoul."

"Well, speak of the warlock, and there he is! Jimi Hexdrix, in the rotting flesh! Do you have time for an interview, Jimi?" Wyvernia asked.

"For you I do." Jimi replied. He held out his hand to shake, but Wyvernia held her microphone with both hands and smiled apologetically.

Wyvernia had grimterviewed enough superscars of the music industry to know their superstition - you did NOT shake hands with Jimi Hexdrix.

"So what can you tell us about Woestock, Jimi?" Wyvernia asked the warlock. "What do the BOJANGLES mean to you?"

"Bo-what?" Jimi asked. "To me, Woestock is a clawesome gig, Wyvernia. I worked my way up through the industry right to the top. When I started out, I was an opening act for the Lunkees. Now Casta Fierce and Catty Noir open for ME. I'm totally groovy with bringing my noteriety and fame to this little fearstival to give all these little ghouls and mansters the thrills of their unlives."

"It must be refreshing to be able to share the stage with some of the local talent that the BOJANGLES have put together. I hear that there are even some bands from Monster High that will be performing alongside you, Jimi!" Wyvernia replied. Jimi scowled a bit before retaining his cool demeanor.

"Well, they're not hexactly SHARING the stage with me, Wyvernia. They're more like the salt on the popscorn - just a little flavor added to the main snack."

Wyvernia's grimvestigative side took over - she wasn't just the host of a morning talk show, after all...she was a global grimvestigative reporter! Wyvernia held up one of the posters Harry's goblins had been plastering all over the entrance of the catacombs.

"But it says right here on the posters, 'Jimi Hexdrix with our guest of honor, ATOMICA AND THE REST IN PEACE,' doesn't that mean you'll be sharing the stage with a high school band?" Jimi snatched the poster out of Wyvernia's hand.

"Gimme that!" He snapped, his black eyes scanning back and forth as he read the poster. "Er....yes, well, there may have been some miscommunication between my agent and....You know what, I need to go speak to some monsters about a...thing. Catch you later, groovy ghoul."

And with that, Jimi crumpled up the poster and walked into the Catacombs. Wyvernia watched him disappear into the shadows and then turned back to the cameramonster.

"Jimi Hexdrix, maladies and gentlemansters!"

"And...we're clear!" Wyvernia's cameramanster gave her the sign and turned off his camera. "That's going to be an interesting concert."

"You bet it is...." Wyvernia replied as she handed him her mic.

"Say, why didn't you shake his hand?"

"Oh, well, it's sort of a saying in the music biz...a handshake with Jimi is a handshake with bad luck. Really, really bad luck."

Inside of the cavern, walking towards the sounds of Woestock, Jimi Hexdrix cracked his knuckles. A magical purple haze seemed to surround his hands...and he smiled an-ever-so-slightly sinister smile....

"Well, that WAS a great practice..." Atomica stated, dripping in scarcasm as gale-force winds started to subside and she could freely peel a Woestock poster off of her faceplate. Her ocular scanners indicated that Glen da West was the cause of the logic-error cavestorm.

That figured.

"Are you ghouls okay? You didn't get blown away? You're still in the band?!" She asked everymonster on the stage with a touch of panic. Did they like the practice? Were they catching on? Were they all just secretly seething in rage and looking for an excuse to quit? Her positronic brain started calculating the odds that within a few minutes, she would be the only one left. Atomica and the No Monster Else.

The spontaneous storm had shocked the Changeling so much she had curled into a ball clutching the instrument as she wasted for it to calm down. Once it did, Ari looked up and around.. Did that come from...Glen? She wondered.

Hearing Atomica speak the Fae shook her head. "I-I am alright." She smiled kindly. The Fae was catching on that Atomica was very nervous, and knowing how that felt made her want to encourage her more. "I don' see why a...rather strange storm.. would stop us."

"Aw don' you go worryin' about ME lass! I'll be just FINE!"

Ari followed the voice and acted without thinking. She set the base down and unglamoured her wings- which, contrary to her fairy-ish appearance- were Dark Green and thorny. She flew up to the dangling Gremlin. "Oh dear... H-how did you get up here?" Her voice lined with a fainter version of the Celtic accent. Arillena Took a moment to observe his situation before she Unhooked the pliers. A split second passed and Lin began to fall- causing a shout to come from him.

But Ari was quicker, without giving anyone a second to react she swooped around and grabbed him under the arms before descending and setting him safely on the ground. "A-are you alright...?" Then she realized she had no idea who this was. Her face turned completely red as she stammered. "S-sorry..." But she wasn't sure what she was apologizing for.

"I'm fine!" Lin declared, dusting himself off with his claws and searching the cavern floor for his lost wrench. "I was fixin' me an' Gryff's coffin stand when that wind blew me up into the rafters... last time I wear the baggy overalls..."

Lin looked up finally to the ghoul who had saved him from a nasty fall and arched an eyebrow.

"And whatcha sorry for? For savin' me?"

One last gust of Glen-conjured wind blew past Draconia and her date apparent, Skeletorrence. Unfortunately, the gust blew hard enough that Skelly's jaw unhinged and went flying further into the catacombs.

"Uh oh! Eh-hoozh eee." Skelly apologized as he dashed off once again to grab his jaw.

Draconia sighed. This was not going to be as fun of a date as last night for sure. Draconia considered hexting one of her bluddies to bail her out of it, but as she reached for her iCoffin, a purple haze started creeping around her feet.

"Hey, groovy ghoul. Is this the way to Woestock?" Draconia looked up and immediately recognized who was speaking to her.

"J-j-j-Jimi Hexdrix!" Draconia stammered. As she spoke, her wings flipped open due to her surprise, knocking Skelly's jaw out of his hands just as he'd retrieved and returned to her. He slunk back into the shadows looking for the offending piece of bone. "Oh my ghoul! It's really you!"

"'Scuse me, while I hiss the sky." Jimi said with a smile, tapping his chin with one bony purple hand. "So am I grooving in the fright direction here or not?"

"Oh...er, yes!" Draconia replied, pointing in the direction that the gusts of wind had come from. "The signs were saying Woestock was this way, but I guess they all blew down."

"Outta sight." Jimi replied, pushing past Draconia. "Freak you later."

"Wait! I-I'm a huge fan..." Draconia called after him, looking desperately in her purse for something for him to clawtograph. "C-could you sign something for me?"

"Sorry, I don't sign anything without my agent present." Jimi replied. He shrugged and turned again to walk off.

Having (once again) found his jaw and (once again) reattached it where it belonged, Skelly decided to take the initiative to impress Draconia, since she seemed so stunned by whoever this tall, fringer-covered purple guy was.

"Oh, wow, it's Jimi Dreadrix, I'm a huge fan, it's so cool to meet you!" Skelly thrust out his digits, grabbing Jimi's hand and giving it a hearty shake. Whisps of purple haze seemed to encircle the handshake.

Jimi pulled his hand back and gave Skelly a slightly distasteful look.

"Er...yeah. Whatever. Later, bone brother." And Jimi hustled off, cracking his knuckles.

Skelly turned to Draconia.

"Did you see that?! I shook his hand! We're practically best friends n-"

*CRACK!*

With a frighteningly loud sound, Skeletorrence's jaw fell off his body, rolled across the floor of the cavern, took a left turn down a dark corner, and seemingly with a mind of its own, leapt off of a stalactite into a large pool of water.

Skelly's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull.

"HY HAAAAAW! HO OOOOOOOOOO!" Skelly took off like a shot after his missing bone.

"Skelly! Wait! Where are you-" But it was too late. Skelly was gone, off on his own adventure. Draconia sighed again. What terrible luck! Now she was at Woestock...all alone.

"LIN!" Atomica interrupted the two of them. "Are you distracting my bass player?!"

"No! For your grimformation, she SAVED me from splatting on the stage, not that YOU care! That's not a distraction, that's an unlife-saving event!" Lin snapped back. Atomica let out an annoyed sigh.

"Aren't you, like, supposed to be lovey-doveying with Jinafire after your date last night or some junk? Why are you being a player with a new ghoul?"


"It was Draconia! The other golden dragonette! And the lass and I are JUST friends!" Lin insisted right back.

"So you ARE asking my bass player out on a date?!" Atomica accused Lin.

"I....maybe I will! I don't know!" Lin stammered. He honestly hadn't been thinking about that at all, and now he was. "Maybe you're just jealous because you DIDN'T have a date last night."

"I could totes date any time I wanted!" Atomica protested. Perhaps a bit too loudly. "I'm just SUPER busy working with the BOJANGLES and putting my band together and everything!"

"Hexcuses, hexcuses." Lin shot back, crossing his stubby arms in front of him. He and Atomica always snarked back and forth like this when Gryff wasn't around to distract them. Really, they were practically siblings as well as beast friends.

Atomica threw her arms up in defeat.

"FINE, ask my bass player out on a date, see if I care! You just better show her a SUPER CLAWESOME magical time because she is my band member first and if you mess it up then it would be totally AWKWARD between us and it would mess up the dynamic of the band!"

Atomica stomped over to the other side of the stage, near Sally and Regina.

"Uuugggh. Band drama!" She said to both of them. "Neither of you are planning on dating Lin, are you?"