Welcome to Gaia! ::

In the lobby, Amaris looked up from her book.

"Thought I heard something," she mumbled, halfheartedly placing an oversalted popcorn kernel to her lips. She gazed towards the preparation room suspiciously, then noticed the stairs to an upper level.

That must overlook the arena, she thought, and finally put her book down and made her way over to the staircase. Everything was probably fine, just like she'd told Mitsu, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure, would it? Besides, the sooner she made sure that her charge was safe, the sooner she could find out exactly how Ykelov Gurgelay would defeat the dastardly Opigu Grumblig.

Sure enough, there was a window set into the wall designed to allow a view into the arena. She expectantly pressed her face into it.

It was sort of hard to see, but down below, everyone seemed to be walking around. Squinting, she could make out Mitsu's form crouched behind a low wall. As she leaned around the curve to point her gun at someone's back, that other kid, Dustin, shot at her back sensor from around another corner. She looked up, startled, but... smiled? Amaris watched in awe as Dusty walked to her and offered her his hand, which the little girl accepted quickly and shook with great fervor. Dustin was smiling too, very widely. In fact, everyone was smiling. The older Fa'e pulled the young girl to her feet and skipped around the corner with her to go hug one of the older kids.

I need to come here more often, Amaris thought, completely stunned, and turned away from the window lest she be overcome with the apparent joy that pervaded the entire arena. She didn't notice that Rat was not with Mitsu, and did not realize during the time it took for her to return down the stairs and pick up her book again.

As the excess of the Abyss-puddle that was once Rat began to overflow and trail down the edges of the now inaccessible upper platform, it broke apart into unidentifiable lumps which continued trailing neon slime calmly down the walls. Some of them blinked, somehow, a kind of shuffle-bouncing motion that was accompanied with a 'squelching' noise, and opened eyes to take census of its new playthings.

Three such lumps, sensing Caoi was the closest but overlooking her presently incapacitated state, decided to detach from the wall -- land, unseen, in the pooling mist -- and roll out into view in the shape of three furred, clawed, horrible things with wide grins and faces even a mother would be hard-pressed to love.

"Hello," began the first one in a baritone, the second crooning "HELLO" in an alto, and the last, besides itself with glee, bellowing "HelLO!!!1111" Inches away from Caoi, they proceeded, staggeringly, to fall upon their knees(?) and open their arms(??) dramatically.

With (understandably) no reply from the fallen Fa'e. This perplexed them, and their wide grins somehow turning a bit crestfallen and grim, they surrounded her and observed her as a television viewer would calmly watch a lion devour a zebra. Then, suddenly, it clicked: sleeping and would wake up soon enough.

So they joined hands around her body and pranced in a circle, starting a perfectly (yet slightly warbling, yet slightly off-key, yet slightly ear-shattering) harmonized chorus of "She'll becoming round the mountain when she comes!" Except, instead of 'mountain', it was 'AK-67', and then 'rollerskate', and somehow the song devolved into some kind of nameless nonsense that sounded suspiciously like something Britney Spears would sing.

10 | 60 | 100%

Seung quivered behind one of the half walls, plastic gun held against her chest. After finally getting up the nerve to actually go out there and try to shoot someone (after all, this was just a game and no one could get hurt) she managed to get all turned around in the foggy maze.

And then...the blackout and those blood-curdling screams. The mothfish had dropped behind one wall, eyes squeezed shut and her hands clapped over her long ears as best they could be. "It's only a game, it's only a game. A game can't hurt me, it's only a game," she muttered to herself in Korean, willing herself to believe it. The screaming stopped and she picked up her gun, remembering she wasn't supposed to let it drop. But she couldn't manage to make herself move after that. The only part of her that could move was her wings, quivering and rustling against each other in a very loud and noticeable fashion.

She could still hear yelling through the arena and it didn't sound like anyone having fun. "Mik? Bhel?" she tried to call out, but it came out as a cracked whisper.

10|59|100%

Lucretia grinned with satisfaction as Lethe's vest blinked and the girl shouted; she had scored a hit already!

She was definitely not expecting the white-skinned girl to come after her with the gun like a club, though. Holding her hands up defensively, the Raevan got as much altitude as she could - like standing on her toes, except she did not really have any - and braced herself for the attack. This... did not quite seem like the way to play the game. At the last moment, the Raevan grasped her gun in both hands again, figuring it might be easier to block with plastic than her own flesh, and, as an afterthought, fired again at Lethe.

The sound of her laser never came, though, or it was not audible over the ungodly shrieking that filled the arena, anyway. Flaring her wings, Lucretia looked around wildly as the plastic walls around her pounded inwards slightly. And then there was a gust of fog that quickly began condensing in a translucent cloud around the cold-skinned girl.

Waving her arms around in the fog, and half-wondering where her small assailant from a few moments prior had gotten to, Lucretia shouted out into the darkness, "Bhel, are you okay?"

10|54|50%

Bhel was far from okay at the moment. Darkness had fallen around him, and he was not sure if his sister was okay. He let the gun slip from his hands and tried to edge towards her, but immediately felt the goop from the floor grabbing at his hooves and at the dangling weapon.

The bull was feeling dizzy and sick, but he stretched his hand out to see if he could get hold of his sister. "Mits-" he started to yell again, but choked on the words as nausea overcame him.

Bhel turned away, and fell to his hands and knees, his vision becoming somehow even more obscured by the darkness. Sound around him started to fade. He could not see it, but blackness like tar oozed from his eyes and ears, running down his face and arms to pool on the ground beneath his hands. And then he started to throw up the black stuff as well.

The toddler was well-versed in throwing up, at least, and knew that just a few moments after he was finished, he would feel better. And sure enough, the dizziness, the nausea, the sensory blackout, they all began to fade away. Things around him returned to their normal state of... well... twisted and chaos-filled darkness, but he found himself able to move again. His throw-up was not like normal throw-up, and it seemed to be trying to grab his hands now.

Struggling to his hooves, Bhel shakily wiped his mouth and tried to brush off the grabby strands of black ooze still clinging to his forearms. "M-mitsu, down!" he shouted, hoping she would hear him and move. They had to get out of here. It was scaring even Bhel, though he fought to keep his panic down. Regardless, his eyes watered anyway, if from the darkness that had poured from them before if for no other reason. And as Bhel fought his way through the sticky stuff to a place where he could jump from the edge of the bridge, he was starting to sniffle.

9 | 54 | 75%

The shriek had not been nice. Especially not for Dusty, with his sharp hearing and immediately under the source. But that was just an alarming matter, not an actual source of fear. The moment the lights went out and that strange voice started rumbling under the music, however, Dusty felt his heart falter and leap, lodging itself solidly in his throat. He knew that voice- s**t, he didn't fully understand it, but there was something both familiar and unspeakably terrifying about it. Flattening his ears, Dusty let his eyes fluttered shut. He remembered it well enough now. He'd been smaller, and they were at the Fa'e HQ... him and Lethe, and Callix, and something else--

The sound of something plopping to the ground brought his eyes snapping back open again. Something overhead was leaking. Dusty shuffled backwards and away, trying to suppress the high, heady panic that was threatening to overwhelm. His antler armor, which had laid itself close to his body for the sake of wearing the vest, was trying to push away in response to his defensive terror.

"Crap," he muttered, trying to jointly calm down and ramp himself at once. Was it going to come to a fight? Hadn't it last time? Damn it! Why'd he left his sword at home? Because Arri had told him to... "Crap!"

He didn't know what to do. There was someone with him- that girl Lethe had been talking to, great big help that was- but he wanted Lethe there. As in, immediately. Lethe would know what to do- or at least, he HOPED she would.

Gathering a breathe of air deep into his lungs, he bellowed out- "LETHE!", hoping that the River Fa'e would appear instantly at his command. And if she didn't, well... Dusty was already looking for escape routes, planning the quickest way back to the front door.

Deeming Bhel too weak of a target and sensing others nearby, the Rabyss turned to the nearby boundary of the bridge and began to ooze its entire being down through the railing. The arms grasped and fumbled at the bars as the entire goopy mass fell heavily on what was previously Mitsu's own pack. Its light disappeared as Rabyss inadvertently ate it.

Rabyss pondered.

The cracking of plastic could be faintly heard deep inside its body, if one could even hear over the pathetically moaning voices trapped inside it. After a moment, the gun and display were unceremoniously ejected, covered in goop but faintly glowing nonetheless. All four targets were missing.

At that point, four pairs of arms began to stretch through its stomach, pushing further than the others and resisting their attempts to pull them back in. The vague forms of four people stepped from the goop, dripping heavily, their features distorted, and grinning widely.

One of the figures shifted its weight to one poorly-defined foot and slung his long, thoroughly goopy hair over one shoulder, ungracefully splattering Rabyss-bits onto a nearby plastic divider. Leathery bat wings stretched from its back, struggling to move under the weight of its body. Sniffing the air, the figure slunk into the inner tunnel, searching for a warm body.

Wings struggled to move on the back of another figure, but there were four of them, all lumpy with what might have been feathers. Its stomach bulged and roiled strangely. The figure limp-slithered along the wall of the tunnel, headed towards what had once been the ramp to the upper level.

The third stumbled vaguely in the direction of the red base, long things sprouting from its head, almost resembling demon's horns.

The final figure did not wait for its body to fully form before garrumphing off in the general direction of its Fa'e counterpart, stumpy legs spattering clumsily on the floor. The horned figure watched forlornly.

All four figures glowed red in their torsos.

As Shai attempted to pull his hand back, several fists slammed into the plastic near the heat of his point of contact and reached out to solidly grab his wrist. (Three missed their mark and gestured vaguely in the air before retreating.) With a solid, kidsafe grip on him, the hands yanked him forward as hard as possible with the intention of swallowing his entire body. However, his torso thunked against the plastic. The hands paused, but did not release Shai, who was now shoulder-deep in the wall. This was a problem.

Little drops of Rabyss began to shudder and run from the main body in several directions. Two came to Lucretia. Pausing on the floor, the little drops of darkness sprouted black, beady eyes to stare up at the Raevan. One was brave enough to sprout a hand and tug expectantly at the black blanket covering her lower body - or, rather, her lack of one, though the drops were not aware of this.

Slight, shuffling footsteps were heard -- and their owner soon emerged from the mist, coming to a self-satisfied halt in front of Lethe's decapitated head. The small, pale figure reached down with three sets of arms to pick it up, stroking the curly hair carefully and feeling the sensitive skin around the eyes. She had none of her own, only empty sockets where they should have been.

It looked like a normal (in comparison) girl -- sort of. Her skin was peeling from her bones, uneven in color, and the size of her limbs didn't quite match up to each other. Neither was she quite in proportion -- she practically had no torso, her shoulders connecting nearly directly with her legs (the left bigger than the right), and there was nothing vouching for her gender, really, except she had long hair and the slithery, mechanical voice she spoke in had a feminine undertone to it.

"YOu wiLl see SucH pRetTY thInGS." The girl said, unmindful of the head's proper owner just inches behind where it had been lying on the floor.

10 | 60

The hand on his shoulder got no reaction out of the fa'e - it was when the voice came from straight behind him that the fa'e bolted, turning to face whatever it was.

In retrospect, it was a bad idea. The fog had shifted just enough to gift him one clear look, and the surge of panic that followed was much harder to ignore. He took a few steps backward, and promptly tripped on the body.

This time, he didn't even take the time to check what it was. He got up, and did the only thing he thought of - he ran. He needed to get out of there. He needed to find Lethe and Darsais and get the HELL out of here !