A moment later, there was a sort of buzzing sound, and the screen began to glow, although it had faded to a black screen, because there wasn't anything onscreen.
"Oh- the generator's back on?" Olivia looked up at the ceiling, a bit confused.
"Thank Notch and Jeb and everyone else," Harper muttered, a bit shakily.
The screen faded in to show that everyone was sitting on the seats in the main hall, all looking a little flustered. Lukas's tail was bushy as he kept pacing around the room nervously. It looked as though he was wearing a small spot into the carpet.
Petra was so twitchy that when Jesse moved a bit more than normal she actually flinched and managed to set a nearby chair on fire.
(Half of the real audience jumped a bit at that themselves.)
Onscreen, Ivor's already rather pale face was even paler than usual, and that's really saying something.
Finally, Stacy looked up, crossing her arms. "I... thought I heard Sparklez say something about flint and steel?" she asked, tentatively.
Stampy frowned, uneasily. "Oh, please don't bring that up again..." he pleaded, obviously a bit twitchy about it.
Real-Cassie frowned a bit at that herself but didn't say anything.
"Well, obviously TorqueDawg didn't steal it, then," Lizzie spoke up, sounding a bit shaky as well.
Dan frowned a bit. "Well, there was nothing like it in Sparklez' inventory, so he couldn't have taken it either... so who then?" he asked, trailing off a little bit curiously.
"Uh... Jesse?"
Jesse looked over at Lukas, who was staring up at the wall with wide eyes, his ears having drooped a bit in shock. She followed his gaze to see TorqueDawg's portrait... then Sparklez... and... then...
Real-Jesse looked as though someone had just slapped in the face, while the audience's heads had all snapped around to stare at Ivor, who was mirroring his onscreen-self and had turned about twelve shades paler.
Because up on the wall, next to Sparklez' crossed-out portrait, was Ivor's.
"Well," and Onscreen-Jesse turned to see Ivor staring at his own portrait, voice oddly light and a strangely calm expression on his face. "I guess I'm next."
"How are you staying so calm right now?!" Soren squeaked, looking from onscreen-Ivor to the real Ivor, who was just sitting there like a statue.
No response.
"Ivor?" Harper, the nearest person to Ivor, poked him gently.
Nothing.
"I... think he might be in shock?"
Everyone looked at Jesse, except for Ivor, who was still staring at the screen.
The petite girl shrugged at the looks she was now receiving. "I mean, we just saw two people die, and now he's being told... well, shown, that he might be next in line. If that was my portrait..." she trailed off, weakly. "I mean, I'd be in shock too."
There was a short silence, before Axel shook his head and patted her on the back. "I think we've said this before, but you should be a psychologist," he joked a bit, in a poor attempt to lighten the mood.
The spider hybrid growled, eyes beginning to glow an angry red. "Oh, there's no way in hell I'm letting that happen," she growled, fists clenching protectively.
Petra nodded, eyes beginning to heat up. "Yeah. We won't let that happen," she agreed.
Jace let a soft smile come over his face, for a moment distracted from the events that had just occurred.
Knowing how Petra felt about Ivor, both onscreen and in real-life...
Well, that meant quite a lot.
Onscreen, Lukas's fists clenched angrily, and his tail started twitching erratically. He blinked, pupils becoming narrow slits as his teeth gritted a bit. He looked pissed off beyond belief right now, seriously. "This guy's gotta be stopped," he said, softly, nodding his head a little bit.
Jesse took a deep breath, shoulders relaxing, before she turned her head to stare at Ivor. "Don't worry, D-" She physically paused, blinking a bit, before picking back up, as if nothing had just happened, "Ivor."
Several audience members blinked at this sudden pause.
Ivor's dark blue eyes softened a bit as he glanced up at Jesse. "Thank you, Jesse," he said, oddly softly, "I just hope that this 'White Pumpkin' isn't beyond both of our abilities."
There was an ominous pause at that, before Lukas relaxed, eyes going back to normal. "Well, I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for how the White Pumpkin is doing all of this. I mean-" he shrugged, "the whole place is pretty much rigged with traps, right?" He put a hand on his hip. "TorqueDawg - trap. Sparklez - trap."
Jesse's eyes lit up a little bit in realization, a small smile coming over her face at that. She put one of her lower arms on her hip and nodded. "Yeah. We need to figure out what's making these traps tick."
"Okay," Real-Lukas said, making Real-Jesse jump a tiny bit in surprise, "so we've got a plan. We can figure this out."
"Mmhm," Olivia hummed, leaning onto Axel's shoulder a bit.
The whole group exchanged small smiles, before the spider hybrid pointed at the still-open dining room door. "Okay, I'm going to head back and investigate that dining room," Jesse said, rather evenly.
"Doesn't going back to the room where someone just died and a murderer is lurking around feel kinda scary?" Slab asked.
"Yeah, I'd get reeeal scared," Facemeat said, grinning a bit.
"Oh, trust me, I'm pretty sure Onscreen-me is just as terrified about the prospect as I am," the real Jesse responded, in a rather light, calm voice.
"Cool," Onscreen-Petra agreed almost immediately, "I'll keep these guys in the hall for now so that I can keep an eye on everyone."
"Excellent idea," Ivor conceded, "don't want them messing up the crime scene."
This one sentence made several audience members snort, snapping them out of the dark mood that had fallen over the whole room from both the vision and the scene now playing onscreen. Real-Ivor chuckled a bit too, although he still seemed to be in a bit of a state of shock.
Lukas looked over at Jesse, concern reflecting in his eyes. "I'm sticking with you, Jesse - doesn't really seem safe to wander off alone right now."
"Holy crap I love you right now."
Both Lukas and Jesse froze at the words that had just automatically slipped out of Jesse's mouth, both turning the color of the inside of a ripe watermelon.
"B-b-because you're great and I don't want to be stuck in a creepy dining room by myself and that's all I meant by that, I didn't- I didn't mean anything e-e-else-!" Jesse stuttered out half a second later, feeling her cheeks turning hotter and hotter with each passing second.
"Yo, you can sort out your lover's issues later," Magnus said lazily, hiding a grin when the two teenagers proceeded to turn a shade of red that you could only get with cocktail cherries. "For now, can we just finish watching the episode?"
Onscreen, the spider hybrid smiled gratefully at Lukas, in both relief and gratitude, and the two of them walked back towards the dining room. Behind them, Ivor practically bellowed, "Okay, people, clear out! This is a crime scene!"
More laughter; though thankfully it was now not directed at the bright red Lukas and Jesse and rather at Ivor's comment.
Ivor coolly ignored it. He totally wasn't blushing. Nope. No light pink blush dusting his cheeks. No idea what you're talking about.
Onscreen, the dining room was still lit in eerie tones of blue, except for the fireplace, glowing red and casting eerie orange light over the blue overtones of the room. Jesse crossed her arms thoughtfully as Lukas went ahead and shut the door behind them. "Okay... how are you doing this, White Pumpkin?" she hummed thoughtfully.
A few seconds went by before Jesse sighed and tilted her head back. "Okay, narrator," she said, in the softest voice you could possibly get to, "do you have any helpful hints or what?"
"Hey, that was alliteration."
There was a pause where everyone was staring at Aiden, who was just blinking back at them in confusion.
"What?"
"Hmm..." the narrator hummed, her female voice slightly lilting as she thought about it. "Well, I do like the painting. Dramatic pose. I can totally get behind that."
Onscreen-Jesse's lips twitched, and she stifled a snort. "Thanks. That was very helpful."
Several audience members snorted at that sardonic comment from the spider hybrid.
A second passed as Jesse actually considered the comment, before she snapped her fingers, blinking in realization. "Actually, that was helpful. Thanks narrator."
"I live to please."
Several more audience members couldn't help it and started snickering at the sarcastic comment from the narrator.
Onscreen, Jesse went over to the painting, putting her lower arms on her hips thoughtfully. "Hm... this was the spot where the White Pumpkin appeared, but now it's just the portrait," she said, pensively, before her eyes narrowed suspiciously at it. "Un... less..."
"Unless? Unless what?" Otto wondered, leaning forward and steepling his fingers together.
Jesse slowly drew her arm back, eyes narrowing at the portrait even further, before her upper body unfurled and she smashed her fist through the painting, breaking the whole thing into little splinters, the White Pumpkin appearing right behind it.
"OH NOTCH-" Stampy leaped into Dan's arms, unbalanced the both of them, and sent them crashing to the floor.
Lukas and Jesse winced sympathetically.
Onscreen, Jesse went into a defensive position, hand twitching to the hilt of her sword immediately.
Nothing. Not even a twitch from the White Pumpkin.
Slowly, Jesse relaxed a bit, although her uppermost right arm was still at the hilt of her sword. She edged forward a bit. When she got no reaction, she hesitantly climbed onto the area. When she still got no reaction, she removed her hand from the sword hilt and gave the White Pumpkin a solid punch on the arm.
It rattled a bit before falling back into place.
Hopping back, Jesse put her lowermost set of hands on her hips, looking both immensely relieved and incredibly disappointed at the same time, if one could be both at the same time. "It's... just a costume. On an armor stand, with a jukebox for the voice," she said, sounding slightly puzzled. The puzzled tone was practically saturated with relief.
"Oh." Stampy managed to creep back onto the couch, his cheeks slightly red. "That's... actually a lot more comforting."
"Still have no idea how it was triggered, of course..."
Onscreen, Lukas let out a low whistle, ears perking up as he drew level with Jesse and had a look at it. "Wow. The White Pumpkin must have... I dunno- Ellegaard or Olivia-level redstone skills to rig up something as convoluted as this."
"Convo-what?" Clutch asked, blinking.
Hadrian smirked at Mevia. The pale-blue-haired woman shook her head and hid the smirk forming over her face.
Lukas's eyebrows descended a bit, thoughtfully. "... but why? Must've taken a lot of work to rig it up..."
"He's not wrong- something like that would've taken me at least two days. And that's with checking it over, if I don't sleep, eat, or perform other human bodily functions."
Everyone looked at Ellegaard.
"Hey, I'm like Ivor- when I'm working on a project, I focus every tiny bit of concentration on that one project."
Jesse's lips twisted a bit, and she was silent as she thought about it. "It might've just been a scare tactic, but... maybe it was... I dunno- some sort of diversion, from whatever was going on in the room at the time."
Lukas's ears suddenly shot completely upright, and his head snapped around to stare at Jesse, wide-eyed. "What- like you think the White Pumpkin was in the room with us?!" he yelped, voice cracking as he went up several octaves.
Cassie shifted a bit at that.
"And I am no longer feeling comforted," Stampy squeaked, his arms having gone back around Dan.
The spider hybrid's eyes narrowed a bit. "Hm... well, it's possible, but... like I said, it might've just been to scare the living daylights out of us," she added, giving a slight shrug.
The ocelot hybrid's ears twitched, almost in irritation. "Yeah, well..." He crossed his arms. "It worked."
Jesse glanced at the White Pumpkin costume on the armor stand, her face going a bit stony as she stared at the setup, before turning away from it herself. "Yeah."
Having turned around, the first thing her gaze fell on happened to be the table, and she strolled towards it, resting a hand on the tabletop. "Okay. So, this is the dining table where we were all gathered right... be...fore..." Her voice trailed off, and her eyes darkened a bit. The screen panned down to follow her gaze... to reveal a button sitting under the table. "Oh, hello."
"Ooh- what's that supposed to do?" Stacy wondered, sitting up a bit and leaning forward.
Harper frowned. She had the uncomfortable premonition that she knew exactly what that was supposed to do.
Onscreen, Jesse's middle arm reached under the table, feeling around, before slapping the button. The head chair's seat back flung backwards, slamming into the floor, the hole opening up in the floor.
Several audience members may or may not have jumped at the suddenness of the whole thing with a few yelps. (Stampy was back in Dan's arms, the cat-hoodie-wearing boy having let out the highest of high-pitched squeaks in surprise.)
Sand blocks plummeted from the ceiling and slammed into the floor, where the hole had just opened up.
"Just like before-!" Jesse gasped.
The lights suddenly plunged back out, but there was no alarmed shouts or screams this time- just the gasps of several audience members as they realized that Jesse's earlier statement had been the truth.
It looked like the White Pumpkin had been in the room with them.
The lights flickered back on to reveal Jesse crossing her arms at the setup and glaring at it a bit. "Yep," Lukas said, eyes narrowing angrily as the voice started going on about it being the White Pumpkin, "just like before."
A blast of lightning and thunder onscreen made the room flicker with white light, before the doors slammed open and the screen moved rapidly to show Petra charging in, eyes wide. "JESSE!" she yelled, skidding a few steps, before running towards the duo at full tilt.
"Awww, you care," Jace teased.
"Of course I care, ya doofus," Petra muttered, her cheeks turning pink. There was a short pause, as Jace grinned smugly, having thought he'd won.
She proceeded to lean forward and kiss him on the cheek.
Jace's face turned red, blinking rapidly as he glanced back at Petra.
"OhmyNotchohmyNotchohmyNotch-" Everyone turned at the sort-of chant to see Nell grinning like a maniac, hands clasped to her mouth and eyes sparkling as she stared at the two, squealing a little bit. "This is practically canon now oh my Notch-"
Petra's face was now turning bright red. "No- that- that was just- that was just to-" she spluttered a bit, blinking rapidly.
Gill was grinning evilly now as well. "Yep. It's official. I ship it."
"That- that was just to make Jace blush, i-it d-didn't mean anything-"
"Oh, of course it didn't, Petra," Soren said, his voice having adopted the same tone that he used to tease Ivor. "Just like Harper practically hugging Ivor half of this episode so far didn't mean anything."
Harper felt her cheeks flush; she thought she'd been pretty subtle about it. She glanced at Ivor to see that the pale man was about the color of the inside of a ripe watermelon and developing a strange interest in one of the potions in his lap.
Onscreen, everyone else charged into the room as well, apparently having heard the whole monologue from the White PumpkinStampy flailed his arms like pinwheels in a panic when he spotted the setup. "He's back! The White Pumpkin's back!" he nearly shrieked, voice rising a few octaves in panic.
"No no no," Jesse said hastily, going so far as hopping up onto the spot where the costumed armor stand was and poking it to prove her point, "don't worry, it's just a dummy- a White Pumpkin costume on an armor stand."
"Wait- what?" Dan frowned. "Why?" The second part came out much more sharply than the first two words.
Jesse frowned, crossing her arms with a shadow crossing her face. "The trap that killed Sparklez, that whole- show, with the White Pumpkin... it was all triggered by a button under the table," she said, a bit more darkly than usual. Her eyes were starting to glow red.
"What does that mean?" Lizzie frowned.
Jesse turned to face them, her face completely stony as she processed this whole mess. With most of her face shrouded in shadow except for her glowing red eyes, and the black armor, and her extra arms all crossed intimidatingly in front of her, she looked downright scary. "It means," she said, slowly, "that the killer sat right at this table."
"I'm not sure what I'm more unsettled by," Em said, flatly. "The idea that one of the people in this room is a killer, or Jesse just now."
There was a horrifying silence as everyone processed this fact.
Everyone still alive in that room... was in this very room.
The White Pumpkin could be sitting right next to any one of them.
And they might not know it.
"It might be both," Maya mumbled, shuddering a bit. Gill patted her on the back in a comforting way.
Stampy's eyes widened. "Wait- so you're saying that the White Pumpkin-" Stampy looked around at the other YouTubers, voice rising a bit in both pitch and volume in fear. "Is one of us?!"
Jesse nodded, crossing her arms. Her red eyes passed over Dan, with his ever-changing hair color; over Lizzie, with her bubblegum-pink hair and cheery manner; over Stacy and her cynical personality; over Stampy, the most cheerful, random, almost sweet guy that any of them had ever met; and Cassie, with her glasses and perfume and calico cat and mild personality. "That's right," she said, steadily. "One of us... is a murderer."
A blast of thunder exploded on both ends, making the entire audience jump a little bit. Real-Jesse let out a squeak and proceeded to bury herself and Reuben in the blanket wrapped around Lukas, Jesse, and Reuben. She accidentally jerked Lukas with her, succeeding in having his chin clunk into her forehead solidly.
"And he sat right here," Ivor said, indicating a button near the end of the table that was also under the table.
Jesse's eyes widened, blinking a bit as she shook her head and looked utterly bewildered. Lukas finished the thought for her aloud. "Wait- but that's not where Jesse found the button before!"
"Oh good Notch why can't things ever be easy for you kids," Magnus groaned. He sounded a little annoyed.
"I would rather like to know that myself..." Mevia muttered, frowning at the screen.
Jesse winced onscreen. "This... just got more complicated."
"I'll see if I can find all the buttons," Lukas said, and he quickly began to move around the table, stabbing arrows into the table in the places he'd found a button.
Petra clapped a hand onto Jesse's shoulder gently, making the spider hybrid glance at Petra in surprise. "Nice work, Jesse," she complimented the spider hybrid, lips curving up into a nice smile.
Ivor nodded, and his own lips seemed to twitch into the ghost of a smile. "Yes... I must say, I'm relieved to know that there's a logical explanation for what the White Pumpkin's been doing."
Jesse gave them a smile as well, but it faded a moment later. "Thanks guys... but with this case... I dunno. I feel like it's one step forward and three steps back." She paused, as that thought sank in, before she let out a sigh and put a smile back on her face. "But... as long as we eventually get to the answer, it doesn't matter how many steps we've got to take."
"Whoa- deep," Petra said, blinking a few times and smiling slightly.
"That was an accident."
About three-quarters of the room snorted loudly at that.
A/N: Red, don't you dare comment on Ellegaard and Olivia's redstone. I know how you feel about it. Talk about it in the GC.
GUYS 50,000 VIEWS
FIFTY
THOUSAND VIEWS
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH
[hISCEGENATION]
Letters correctly guessed by AquaK13.
ONE MORE LETTER GUYS YOU CAN DO THIS
RQTC: I don't have a random question; but I do have a request that's not-so-random.
If I haven't said that I've preordered Season 2 by Saturday evening, DO NOT COMMENT ANY SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS WHEN SEASON 2 COMES OUT. If I haven't preordered it, I won't be able to get it until August 5th, and I do NOT WANT SPOILERS while I continue work on this story. That clear?
On a slightly brighter note, I've actually started work on the actual storyline of Phantasmagoria!
LunarStarsMoons: Lol yep xD / (laughs) Uh, glad to hear that, I think xD / (grins) / Ah, I see.
RapidSammi: (laughing hysterically) Haha, sorry Sammi-kun. xD / Lol x3 It's fine.
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Why would they not come again? / Lol I feel ya fam / :3
Rabbits rule: Aw :( / (laughs) Nice pun, Jess.
sailor . mikuchan: Already guessed. / It's 1-10. / iMovie.
the indecisive bird: (laughing) / Yeah, poor Sparklez.
AquaK13: (laughing hysterically at that) / xD / Ahhh, I see :3 / No, I've never seen scratchboard art. / Correct! / Thanks :3
Guest: Thank you! / No; it's based off of the original story, 'Hybrid'. / Uhh, pig. Pigs are cute x3 / Hehehe xD / Thank you! I'm glad you like it :3
DarkPrincess2001: Nah, it's fine :3
BeliTheGhoti0304: Very true :3 / Incorrect, sorry x3
Kaos Ruin: (laughs) Sorry, fam.
LegoGirl794: Ah, I see.
NoItsBecky: (nods) I see.. / I'm not spoiling anything haha xD / Incorrect, sorry.
J.M.M: I see.
Emily The Avenger: We did? / (laughs)
RavenBlaze4850: (laughs) Very true. / Your reviews always cheer me up x3 / Ah, I see. / (laughs)
Jack634: (laughs) 'H' is just a stand-in letter. / (hums) / Ah, I see. / Ummm... well, I like too much music... / Okay, Jack.
InsaneAcrobat: (nods) / ... (points at a certain paragraph where it says that his inventory is shown.) / Both have been guessed already. / I'm not saying anything. / Ah, I see. / (laughs) / I have no idea what that is. xD
TheRealRedGaming: When did this happen?
PoptartCrumbs: Why wouldn't we see them again?
x.X. A.L. X.x
