Eh? What was this? Twisted the Cat was once more exploring the strange festival that came, apparently, out of nowhere. Most of it was rather calm, full of faces she didn't know and ones she wished she didn't know-- typical, to say the least. But there was one thing that really caught the huntresses' eye: a dark, mysterious cavern, filled with shifting eyes and lined with stone teeth. The occasional scream came from inside.

It looked interesting enough. Some other gembound were already heading inside, so why not give it a try? The siamese carefully picked her way into the entrance of the ride, watching the sprite flutter ahead curiously. It didn't seem too bad-- while the others screeched and cowered at the tumbling spiders and frights, Twisted powered through with nothing more than a mildly spooked disposition. It was a pretty nice ride, even if a few passengers were grumbling about how much they hated the conductor.

Effluvium's interest had been piqued by the troupe of gembound following a small, squeaky fairy. Confused, it clambered from its booth, and began to drag itself after the gembound. It didn't recognize any of them. But, as always, it was hungee. And greaters meant food. Effluvium stopped at the entrance. Staring at the purple teeth, and bright green fog. Effluvium huffed. Then, it stuck its face down to bite at the fog. No taste.

Effluvium padded further in. Effluvium navigated the haunted house easily. What scares there were didn't effect the beast. And that was especially true here. It padded past the smattering of gembound taking their time. Tongue out as it panted. It seemed as if Effluvium almost instinctively knew where to go. It was like the beast fit in here. There was the occasional quiet shuffling of flesh. A low guttural sound bloomed in its throat. Barely visible shifting shapes of red. As if the haunted tunnel were its natural environment.

"When I speak."

When I think.

Nemean dodged whatever cloud of nastiness Victim Number One was lobbing at her.

Her hands cupped her ears with a sharp, "uh, HELLO? YES?" Really? "Do you think I can't hear you making your terrible little scheme?" She stroked her chin briefly before laughing, again, at the fairy, "terrible as in bad. I'm too mighty!" (Here, her voice went deep and big.) "Awesome! POWERFUL—! for that."

Already bored of the baby walking away from her, she waved dismissively, "but, WHAT-ever! Keep going!" The boring little thing was already puttering around on someone else's shoulders.

Ugh.

She had better things to do, like scaring the living daylights out of everything trudging through—even that absolutely gorgeously disgusting hunk of moving meat. Like, what was that? Nemean buzzed closer, absolutely entranced by it and all the gurgling noises it made. "You are DIS-GUSTING," and she was kind of having an idea in her mind about it.

The sprite fluttered closer and whispered behind her paw, "you want a job? You chase these scaredy-cats through this tunnel, and you can have one—one!—thing as a reward." Oh, she could barely contain her excitement!

Please say yes please say yes pleasesayyespleasesayes—

The cackling of witches followed James out of the Tunnel of Frightmares. There was no tangible reward on a silver platter or anything else at the entrance; just silence.

Yet, he might later discover strange abilities added to his repertoire: the special event spells Witch Cackle and Vampire Gaze! All participants in this thread will receive these spells upon either exiting the tunnel or exiting this thread once it has reached its conclusion.

@Effluvium and @Arwen for Direct Interaction
@James @Redwood @Tema @Fahl @Jampa @Thalia @Bug @Comet @Twisted @Pride

strong language

gore

(or at least describing it)

Arwen narrowed her eyes at Nemean. Stupid bitch.

She turned her nose up and crawled off Blue, stubbornly trudging forward. Stupid cave. Stupid fairy. How dare she ruin her and Blue's date? Oh she'd turn Nemean inside out for this-

Chittering in bug-speak (as she'd started to call it), she growled under her breath, "First I'll turn her inside out and use her as a rug. Then I'll stomp on her stupid little wings, maybe even set them on fire. Yess... And her stupid blonde hair. I'll steep it in boiling water until it's a ratty mess. Stupid bitch thinks she can cross me? Oh no... oh no no no~!! She'll regret it when I stick her head on a stake! Hahaha~!!"

She rubbed her hands together and stalked off towards the exit, growling under her breath, "Come on. This place is a heap of dung anyway. Whoever made it is a tacky, useless, garbage fairy and doesn't deserve the name! For a faerie has respect for her fellows..."

Under her breath, she mumbled in bug-speak, "And allies."

James managed to reach the other side, ears drooping. Great. There wasn't even anything here. What a ripoff.

"Of course she'd be a liar," he mumbled, making his way back towards the beginning, hopefully to meet the others back again.

"At least I know what name to curse," he scoffed.

Exit James unless stopped

It would seem as though Kaimana had come late to the party. Well, Kaimana wouldn't know that. It just looked like... a tunnel, to her. She had heard the call of its.. was figurehead the right word? Maybe just advertisor. She had heard that call, yes, but had ignored it -- she'd been busy! And now that she was done being busy for a time, she was ready to have some fun! And how much fun could be stored in a tunnel...? Perhaps part of the fun was finding out!

The jaguar would enter then, wondering if that (extremely) loud voice's "frightmares", as they had been called, could really make an impact on nerves such as hers. Honestly... she hoped so! It would be a sign of good craft, and, on top of that naturally, enjoyable!

Text. "Speech." Thoughts.

Aran was another who was late to the hypothetical party. It was too bad, really, seeing reactions of other gembound would have been fun - rather hearing. Aran himself wished he could truly see it, but he could not. It was another disappointing thing, but karma hit and it hit hard for him. He was essentially completely blind except for being able to see vague shapes, a pity, really.

It didn't matter now, since he was entering the Tunnel of Frightmares anyway. He hoped it actually would live up to its title, though.

they nearly let out a snarl at nemeans mockery, but held it together. they let arwen hop off, crouching down to make it easier for her.

they moved to follow her, their feathers puffing angrily as they went, but of course, they had to fall in a hole too, it was only fair.

with a loud "oof!" they fell, feathers flying as they hit the floor. they growled. they hated this fucking place.

Helped back onto her feet by James, she shook out her fur and looked at Nemean, with the same hatred in her eyes that James had for the creature. Seeing that he wasn't in danger, it was time for them to leave. Comet followed close behind him to exit this stupid tunnel. She nearly fell into a pit, but she caught herself at the last moment and followed him out. How disappointing. There were no celebratory things at the end. What a waste of time.

"Exit Comet"

Pride's ears swept forward at the accusations, at the realizations. And when James went in, he was close behind. "Wait-" -but too late.

Into the dark he went, summoning a flourish of preemptive defensive magic around himself. As it settled, he called out against the fairy's screeching.

"...Nemean? You are the one who set the bugs on us in Orion. Is this true-? Did you try to kill one of my people, now?" he called out. A beat of thought as he tried to rein in that rage, to think a little straighter.

"Come a little closer," he suggested, his tone ice. Ahh. That wasn't thinking straight at all.