"Are you freaking kidding me" Harper groaned under her breath, burying her head in her hands.
Ivor might've given a response, except a loud scream cut him off.
It then turned into a squeal.
"GUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYS!" screamed a voice, Gommie abruptly skidding through the door.
Several people fell out of their seats in shock. Gommie didn't have that hard look on her face, or a sword in her hand- she looked genuinely happy. Almost giddy, really, bouncing on the balls of her feet like that.
Ariza's head snapped up from where she was sitting on the couch with a notebook and a weird thing that looked like a book, but with half of it glowing and standing up on its own. More importantly, she looked completely normal. No blood, no arrow in her shoulder. Nothing wrong with the girl. "Oh, hey, Gom. What's up-?"
"Lookitlookitlookit-" Gommie shoved her phone into Ariza's face, making the black-haired girl with long black hair, a huge bang of it dyed hot pink and a streak of purple through it (wait- but- her hair had been different before, right?) jump back and fumble the phone a bit.
She'd only stared at it for a second when she squealed as well, eyes lighting up as she stood up, nearly knocking her weird thing onto the floor. She scooped it up hastily and dumped it on the couch (Aiden flinched when it landed right in his lap) before hopping up and down a bit. It looked a bit funny, actually, a nearly 7-foot tall girl hopping up and down repeatedly. "This is real? This is legit?"
"YES!" Gommie squealed, hopping up and down a bit herself.
"Holy crap. Holy crap!" Ariza continued hopping around.
"What's with the racket?" Red rounded the corner, looking rather bemused about everything.
He didn't even get five feet past the doorway when Ariza was grinning at him about three inches from his face, eyes wide with excitement. "Red, Red, look at this!" She pushed Gommie's phone at Red.
Red had a look, and his eyes widened. A huge grin spread over his face as he looked back up at Ariza. "You're serious? This is serious?" he asked, pacing over to the TV's shelf to sit down with a shocked look on his face.
"Yeah!" Ariza squealed, voice reaching an octave that most opera singers probably couldn't achieve. "And there's some gameplay on it, too."
Another loud squeal pierced the air, and Emily proceeded to shoot in like a bullet and throw their arms around Ariza, nearly bowling her over altogether. "Holymolythisisawesome!" she nearly shrieked into Ariza's ear, making Ariza wince a bit, but with a huge grin spreading over her face.
"The website said July 11, yeah?" Red asked, plucking the phone out of Ariza's hand and taking a gander at it again.
"Wait- then shouldn't it be out by now?"
Red jumped a bit with a yelp and fumbled Gommie's phone at the sound of the voice coming from behind him, courtesy of Sammi. Her foot automatically kicked out, 'hooking' the phone, before flinging it into the air and over her head before it could hit the floor.
"Nice one, Sammi," Lunar said from where she was standing near the other girl, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement with her hands clasped to her mouth (she looked rather like Ivor when he fangirled, to be honest), who looked over and gave Lunar a small grin.
"Thanks!"
The door opened, and Becky walked in, along with Cho. The blonde girl didn't even flinch as she reached up and smoothly snatched the phone out of the air before it could smack right into Cho's face.
"That's a handy talent you have, Becky," Cho said, letting out a relieved sigh. "Thanks for that."
"No problem. This yours, Gom?" Becky called casually, waving the phone at Gommie.
Gommie nodded, gesturing at the two of them with a faint smile. "Yuh-huh, but check the screen."
Becky and Cho both proceeded to do so, looking down at the screen. Cho's eyes lit up in excitement, while Becky's grew wide and round, her mouth dropping open in astonishment. "Holy sh-"
"We heard screaming, what's going on?" Becky and Cho quickly sidled aside to let Toni and Mason enter, looking rather bemused as they (unknowingly) cut Becky's sentence off before she could most likely deliver an expletive.
"Oh, hey, Toni. Hey Mason," Emily said, still clinging onto Ariza in a tight hug. "Check the phone, once those two are done with it."
Becky quickly recovered, holding the phone out to Mason, who took it and had a good look at it, Toni leaning over his shoulder to have a look.
"But if the release date's the 11th, then...?"
Ariza abruptly let out a cheerful, friendly laugh upon realizing the mistake the red-haired girl had just made. "Sammi-kun, the release date's July 11th. Today's the 26th of June."
Sammi colored a bit in embarrassment, and she crossed her arms with a soft huff. "I knew that."
Lunar 'coughed' a bit.
"It's fine-" Ariza was cut off as Toni let out a loud cheer and started doing a sort of impromptu war dance, dancing around in circles victoriously. "Yes!" he crowed, loudly.
Mason let out a friendly laugh as he gave the phone back to Gommie, who'd trotted over to retrieve it. "Yeah, this is definitely exciting. Oh, but, Ariza-" his face grew more serious, and Ariza's amused smile faded as she took note of the urgency in his tone.
"What's up, Mason?"
"Doesn't that mean the story's going to 'reopen'?"
Ariza blinked blankly at Mason, for a moment being just as confused as the shocked-silent audience... and then her expression filled with something somewhat akin to horror as she realized something that none of them knew about.
"Sh*t."
And all of the blue figures dissipated in the next, gentle breeze.
None of them even had time to process that- not half a second later, the screen suddenly flickered back to life, a 'loading' signal circling in the middle of the screen, before it disappeared, returning to the scene they'd been watching.
But before that, just for a second- there'd been a gray silhouette standing in front of it.
Harper's face paled a bit.
The audience all exchanged small glances, before giving a slow nod.
They would definitely be talking about that later.
Onscreen, Petra didn't even hesitate- her gold eyes narrowed, and she whipped out her sword in a smooth, fluid motion, flames flaring along the blade expertly a second later. "Then let's go kick his ass into next Tuesday," she nearly snarled.
Ivor nodded in agreement, dark blue eyes flickering with something that looked like worry. For once, though, he simply kept his mouth shut and said absolutely nothing.
The spider hybrid whipped out her own sword, and proceeded to slam it straight through the bunny tapestry, smashing it to splinters.
"What the-?" Dan began, starting back in shock, but Jesse wasn't paying attention as she sprinted straight forward- skidding to a halt a second later as the sound of a lever being toggled sounded.
"Oh no, not another trap!" Em groaned.
"What is it this time, a pit of venomous vipers?" Aiden grumbled, under his breath.
(Cassie heard though. She frowned for some reason.)
Onscreen, Jesse's head jerked to her left. Spiders were emerging from the now-open fireplace, making odd creeping sounds as they crawled towards Dan and Stampy. There was a sudden scraping of metal, and Jesse whirled around to her right to see bars slamming down over the door, a thud coming from the other side. "What's going on?!" Lukas's muffled voice called through the door. "The door's locked- Jesse?!" The shout for the spider hybrid was more of a desperate one than anything else, filled with utter panic.
Lukas's arm tightened around Jesse's shoulders.
"Spiders!" Jesse yelled back to him, "let me handle it!"
"Got it- I'll see if I can get in another way!"
"Okay!"
Stampy had his hands over his eyes. As a sort of reflex reaction, Dan looped his arm around Stampy's waist and yanked him into an impromptu hug. Stampy didn't shove him away, instead muttering under his breath "Googliesgoogliesgoogliesgooglies" at the speed of light.
Lizzie and Stacy shared slightly teasing grins, despite the severity of the situation.
Onscreen, Jesse whirled back around, eyes flashing angrily as her right eye began to darken to a deep red, before raising her sword above her head.
"Jesse, what are you-?"
Axel's question was never finished- the sword came flashing down, smashing through a few of the wood planks and making everyone's attention- even the spider's- snap to her. "STOP!" she commanded in a loud hiss, chest thrumming as she abruptly started speaking in Spider.
To the audience's relief, the spiders all stopped and turned to stare at Jesse. She raised one arm and pointed at the picture of the White Pumpkin, narrowing her eyes in a glare. "Can you do me a favor?" she continued. "Get that guy- the one wearing the white pumpkin head thing!"
The spiders all nodded, hissing at her in perfect sync, before they all pivoted to face the painting and started towards it.
"We aren't going to die!" Dan cheered, throwing his arms into the air.
The others all cheered as well, throwing their arms into the air with him, with the exception of Hadrian, Mevia, Otto, Harper, and Isa. (Isa was grinning like a madman, though, and Harper and Otto were sharing beaming grins. Hadrian and Mevia just seemed indifferent.)
Jesse charged forward, eyes narrowing dangerously, before slamming straight through the portrait- revealing the real White Pumpkin standing there, glowering at Jesse. "Why, you little-!"
Jesse did a backwards flip, just in time to avoid the diamond axe that swung horizontally through the air where Jesse had been a second earlier, the spiders all poising for attack and everyone whipping out a sword and holding it up defensively.
The White Pumpkin charged, swinging their axe at Jesse. Jesse darted backwards, narrowly avoiding it again, before gasping as her foot slipped on the carpet, and her back slammed into the floor with a painful-sounding smack!, head following half a second later and making Jesse grit her teeth in pain. The White Pumpkin dodged a spider that lunged at them, ducking and rolling, before coming up into a thrust and slamming straight into Petra's armor, the redhead having started charging at her.
"Petra!" Jace screamed. Real-Petra was watching the screen raptly.
Onscreen, Petra flinched back a step, flashing red as she took damage, and the White Pumpkin took the opportunity to swing their axe again, slamming right into Petra and knocking her back straight into Dan, who plowed into Stampy and managed to knock all three of them to the floor in a huge heap. Ivor's eyes widened, and he quickly started rummaging in his pockets for a healing potion.
The White Pumpkin raised the axe again, Jesse still in her stupor.
"JESSE!" Lukas screamed in a panic, voice rising a few octaves.
The screen switched to show a spider tackling the White Pumpkin from the side, the white-masked figure staggering sideways as the axe came swishing down and slammed-
- straight into the floor with a nasty crunching sound, Jesse having jerked out of the way a few heartbeats before.
Almost all of the audience heaved loud sighs of relief.
Jesse leaped to her feet, sword back in hand, and slashed outwards with the blade. The White Pumpkin managed to throw the spider off and bring the axe up defensively just in the nick of time, Jesse's sword poofing the spider by accident and clanging against the axe with tremendous force- enough to make the White Pumpkin stagger back a step from the impact.
Jesse followed this up with an upwards slashing motion, and the White Pumpkin managed to dart back- but not before a huge gash appeared in the mask.
"Yes!" Slab pumped his fists in the air with a grin on his face. "Smash 'em to a pulp!"
Cassie winced a bit at that.
"My mask!" the White Pumpkin exclaimed, before levelling a glare at Jesse with venomous intensity. Jesse tensed a bit, all of the spiders, Stampy, Dan, Petra, and Ivor all beginning to approach the White Pumpkin, Petra holding herself slightly gingerly but otherwise looking unharmed.
"That's my cue," the masked character hissed, back to the fireplace- before suddenly turning around and charging through the flames, the fire suddenly clearing to leave a clear path into a tunnel that had definitely been there a few seconds ago.
"Come on!" Jesse shouted, charging forward-
- before the walls slammed shut behind her.
"Are you f*cking kidding me?!" Magnus swore, making everyone look at him in surprise. So far, he hadn't cursed once. Sure, he'd been kinda inappropriate a few times, but never cursing.
"Jesse- are you okay?!" Petra shouted through the stone, voice a little muffled.
"We have to- break through!" Ivor grunted, a metallic thud coming from the other side. Judging from his comment, he must've tried to slam his sword into the 'door' in an attempt to break through the wall.
A loud cackle rang out behind Jesse, who'd turned back to the wall, and she turned back to the wall, eyes hardening. "I'll be fine- just make sure everyone's okay!" she shouted, before adding, as an afterthought, in a Spider-y hiss, "and don't kill anyone or so help me, you will all die at my hand!"
With that, she whirled on her heel and bolted down the passageway as fast as she could. Skidding around the nearest corner, she came to a stop at a staircase with the White Pumpkin standing at the top of it, leering down at Jesse with the gashed mask.
"Try to keep up!" they shouted, before slamming their foot into a pressure plate.
The sound of pistons disengaging made Jesse look up- to see that the ceiling was chock-full of arrow dispensers.
"Move! Move! Move!" Reginald chanted, eyes widening.
"Crapcrapcrap!" Jesse shrieked, lunging forward and dropping to all eights in the process, tipped arrows slamming into the ground where she'd just been with ominous thuds, before racing up onto the wall and continuing to run along the wall.
The White Pumpkin slammed their hand into a lever, making Jesse's eyes widen. "Try to keep up!" they shouted.
Jesse flinched- before realizing that nothing had happened. She looked down to see that the floor had opened up to reveal Soul Sand making up the entire floor, lava steadily pouring out onto the floor.
"You definitely would've lost some time if you'd gotten stuck in there," Ellegaard sighed in relief.
Onscreen, Jesse looked up, sending the White Pumpkin a deadpan look as they rubbed their head sheepishly. "Good planning," she told them flatly, racing pell-mell across the wall towards them.
The White Pumpkin growled in frustration, lunging back a step as she flipped herself off the wall and onto the floor, reaching into their pocket to pull something out.
"Watch out, bro!"
"Your luck's about to end!" they snarled, making Jesse flinch- as they drew out an Ender Pearl, pivoting on the spot and hurling it down the hallway. They suddenly disappeared, and Jesse whirled around to see them hovering over a staircase, waving sarcastically at her, before dropping out of sight.
Dropping back to all eights, Jesse bolted down the wall of the staircase as fast as she could, the White Pumpkin still charging away ahead of her.
The screen switched to show the White Pumpkin smashing through a portrait on the wall (Ivor's? It was a bit quick), soaring through the opening and landing on the ground. Jesse jumped through as well, landing on all eights and panting heavily.
There was the sound of wood splintering, and Jesse looked over in time to see Lukas with a sword in hand, having just smashed through the library doors with the bars still in place, as Petra, Dan, Stampy, and Ivor began to work at the bars.
"Where did all the spiders go?" Soren wondered.
"I think they might've all gotten killed," Aiden speculated, narrowing his eyes at the screen.
"... well, I can't say that I'm upset about that," Milo muttered.
Onscreen, Lukas suddenly spotted Jesse, whirling around to face her. "You're alright!" he exclaimed, voice saturated with relief.
Jesse clambered back to her feet, panting heavily and shaking her head. "This guy's... this guy's fit," she panted out.
There was another deep, wicked laugh, and Lukas dropped to all fours before bolting after the White Pumpkin. "Jesse! I'll try to corner him!" he shouted to her.
"Okay!" and Jesse dropped to all eights, scuttling after Lukas up another staircase, then up the wall of the next staircase, before doing a flip expertly at the top of said stairs, kicking the doors open and dropping to the ground like a ninja in a darkened room.
"Fancy," Mevia joked weakly.
Real-Jesse couldn't help but giggle a bit at that, Lukas also reaching up and covering his mouth with an amused smile.
"Lukas?" Jesse called uneasily onscreen, looking around in the room.
A low rumble of thunder and lightning made the room flicker- enough to reveal that the White Pumpkin was standing there, swaying unsteadily in the room. "Ugh... Jesse..." they muttered.
Jace frowned. "Did the voice sound a bit off to you?" he whispered to Jesse.
"Oh good, so I'm not hallucinating then."
Onscreen, Jesse frowned a bit, brow creasing slightly in confusion... before bolting forward, tackling the White Pumpkin to the floor.
"You've got him!" Sparklez exclaimed, eyes lighting up a bit. "You got the White Pumpkin!"
"Well, who is it?" Ellegaard asked, frowning a bit impatiently.
The screen switched to show the White Pumpkin mask rolling off, having been knocked off in the fall, before coming to a stop a few feet away on the floor.
Jesse stared down at someone in complete confusion, eyes widening a bit.
"Lukas?!"
A/N: Yaaaaaaaaasssssss x3
Hey, the blue figures are back. I wonder what they were fangirling over lolol
I never actually officially said this, did I? My bad. (If I did, I'm doing it again.)
Welcome to the Authors, LunarStarMoons (Lunar), Emily the Avenger (Emily), and coughandcolds (Mason)!
RQTC: How much of Phantasmagoria do you think I've got done at this point? (Those who know me on Twitter are exempt from guessing and may therefore answer the alternative question)
ARQTC: Do you ever like a character for one random reason?
Yep. I like Soren, Isa, Milo, Reginald, and Mevia just because of their voices. xD Personality DOES have something to do with it as well, but... eh.
So there was a bit of confusion on the time thing I mentioned last chapter, so I'll repeat.
Ten minutes pass, in game, from when the White Pumpkin spots them and when Lizzie enters the room that Cassie was in, which is the window of time it took for Cassie to paint the portraits and then put them up. However, let's add a bit of a time skip to the thing, since they had to walk through the hallway to get there- that gives Cassie 15 minutes to paint and put up the portraits. (Putting up a portrait takes only a second or two, so let's say it took Cassie a minute to put them up, to be generous.) So she had ten minutes to paint the portraits, and she had templates.
Oh, also, uh
1,910 REVIEWS?!
HOW THE HECK DID THAT HAPPEN?!
GUYS THANK YOU SO MUCH!
LunarStarsMoons: (laughs) Yes, that was fun. / Ahh, I'm sorry xD / (laughs) did I really roast him that bad? / Yep xD / Ahhh, gotcha. xD
RapidSammi: (cracks up) Yes, this was fun to write. So, so, so much fun. xD
the indecisive bird: (grins) Yes :3 / Oh, sorry- does the above bit clear it up a bit? / True, but painting does take a bit more skill I think. / (laughs) uh, no. Sorry. / Yep! :3
Emily the Avenger: 'Blue people' xD / Hahahaha xD / YEP
RavenBlaze4850: Mmhm. / (laughing hysterically) / (blinks) / Yes, do hug poor Sparklez, Blaze xD / It's not that it's not that different, but you kinda got it.
DarkPrincess2001: Lol
AquaK13: (laughs) / Haha xD I would've gone with Gilen/Gilden myself. / Of course she does, but if she didn't recoil wouldn't that be more suspicious? / Yep~
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: Go ahead and do that xD / Apparently. / (laughs)
Darkbeast Dend: My favorite is a phoenix.
BeliTheGhoti0304: (laughs) / Nope. Look closer. / (laughs)
Guest: ?
RWBYSTRQ: Nope. / Oh.
PoptartCrumbs: (laughs) I'm glad you're excited. Sorry about the cliffhanger, though xD / Haha, glad to hear it x3
Guest: (cracks up)
InsaneAcrobat: Nope, nope, and nope. / x3 / Oh, thanks :3 I'm glad you liked it! / Ten minutes, actually.
That's all for this chappie! Baiiii!
x.X. A.L. X.x
