Everyone Makes Mistakes! [Redux]

Brandon would have jumped into the battle, quickly too, but it seemed that everyone else had things covered. Sure the girl was impaled upon some kind of drill appendage, but that did not really hinder Brandon from doing anything, though he would have preferred to let the other more capable people do their thing. Soon enough one of them were left burnt, and dying, which made the Hale feel a little sick but otherwise it was nothing that should have bothered. The smell of burnt flesh, and the sight of bodily fluids spilling out was disgusting, perhaps something that he was not all too used to. He crossed leanly muscled arms over his chest, considering what he could do, and if there were another way to escape this strange dimension.

The young queen that was being harmed only moments ago was on her feet, and looked undamaged, or atleast the damage was minimal. Someone had leapt into the fray, and caught the woman, though she quickly floated from his arm, and was now standing on the ground. More was explained about the ones that they had fought, and that filled in some of the missing pieces within the confusion. They were dealing with some kind of thought forms, and that meant that they would be hard to truly kill; something that his master had taught him enough of. Bad ideas especially had a way of lingering around when they were not wanted, and that was what made their foes even worst.

One of them showed a small amount of guilt, and it was the one that had seemingly killed one of the thought forms in the first place.  She was a strange woman with an equally interesting power, one that Brandon partially wanted to figure out. Someone named Shauna, and then the red haired one would introduce herself, as well as someone else that he could not quite see, though something told him it was the fog that aided her. The ground below felt strangely against his bare feet, but then again the male hated the feel of dirt between his toes. It was strange and always managed to send a tingle up his spine; which would raised some hairs along with it. ”I’m Brandon.” He would say with a slight grin that revealed the white teeth behind his lips.

dkumbass, of course it'd hurt her, that's what the flash meant, just cause it was linked to her didn't mean it was a total weapon of power in YOUR hands. Shit, I should at least apologize to the kid.Assault thought, moving a to scratch the back of his neck. Man, that felt good, good to have my hands free for the first time in a long a$$ time! he'd think to himself. Aurora then asked who they were, with Shauna's fine ass showing up, then gas girl and her pal, along with the fly guy showing up as well, and he noticed Shauna was feeling down about the Doldrumm and Brandon, who was apparently a Colgate spokesperson. His teeth were hella bright.

"Yo Shauna, you heard Aurora right? THe Doldrumm will be okay, he ain't dead, he's a bad idea and bad ideas are mad resilient. Yea you hurt him now but he'll pull back" he'd tell her, nodding towards the woman, then at the others. "Nice teeth Brandon" he'd say before kneeling in front of Aurora and grabbing her hand.

"Okay, first of all, sorry about earlier your highness, it was a dumb move to use your sword to try and hurt Context, but my powers had been shut off for a while and I just went for the first thing I could touch. I'm Assault, and well I'll be glad to help you get back to your castle, okay kiddo?" he tells her. "I pledge to aid you with all of my ability, just give me a decent weapon or something to use, okay? I mean if I gotta use my fingernails I will but I'd like to be armed if that's possible" he'd tell her, almost pleading. While a few may know Assault, most would not know about the soft spot he had for kids. He was very fond of them, and his protectiveness rose to the forefront at seeing Aurora

“No prob,” Miracle Boy said softly to the weakened girl. He was worried about how weak she was so he flew higher in-case the creature attacked again. But the creature made no further move instead sating it would inform its' master.

“Get back here and fight!” He called to it but the creature vanished. He looked around but couldn't find it anywhere, not that it would be hard to hide in this dark forest. The girl he was holding grew stronger and flew out of his arms. She must be able to heal quicker then I can.

She started talking about how bad ideas were difficult to destroy. He looked around and saw the concern of some of these peoples' faces. He caught sight of a burning creature fleeing in the distance before it vanished. He cringed figuring how painful that must be.

“Cool!” He said hearing that they bad been kidnapped here. This would be an great adventure!

The role call began and he heard that the girl was Queen Aurora, where was her crown? The black-haired woman was Shauna, red-haired girl was Illianis and...did she name some fog Nerfram? Was it a pet? The blond haired guy was Brandon and the second man who was apologizing to the girl was Assault. That last one was a cool name. The flying boy hoped he could keep up with all these names.

Miracle Boy dropped to the ground looking to the group.
“Name's Miracle Boy! I'm the greatest hero of all time!” He declared proudly pointing his thumb to himself.
“I'll get you home Queen Aurora.” He assured her before sheathing his dagger behind his shield and walking up to her.

He looked over to the fog creature again as his curiosity got the best of him.
“Where do you find things like this? Can it fetch a stick?” The boy asked reaching out to pet the fog.

"Oh, no the Doldrumm is most certainly bad. A truly terrible creature who hates anything that moves, thinks, or does." She said looking back at Shauna. She would have continued her lecture on the Doldrumm had she not been interrupted by the prisoner taking her hand, apologizing profusely and requesting a weapon with which to fight for her with. "You want a weapon? Like what? A mighty Blade? A merciless firearm? An enchanted morningstar?" As Aurora spoke objects appeared on cue. Suddenly she had the form of a mighty warrior, clad head to toe in gaudy spiked metal armor and standing over 8 feet tall. He held a giant bastard sword in one hand and a glowing morningstar with the other, a giant minigun strapped to his back. "Unfortunately" The warrior spoke in a booming masculine voice before returning to to the Aurora's usual bubbly soprano "I can give you none of these things." Suddenly the weapons and armor burned away to reveal the young rainbow-clad girl they had just saved from a giant platypus. As everything burned away it rose like smoke and recombined into a ball of prismatic light that floated down into Aurora's waiting palm. "For I am Queen of Nothing, and my dominion is over the unreal and imaginary." The ball of light shrank and solidified into a dandelion's bloom. Aurora gave it a gentle blow and the fuzzy seeds took flight and drifted through the air before disappearing. "I and everything I create are mere illusions. So simply put, you're just as well off with your fingernails. But worry not miscreant!" She said heartily putting her fists to her waist in a hero's pose. "Not only do we have a human with a real killer look, but this brave knight is the greatest hero of all time!" She said with a smile motioning to Miracle boy. "We'll have you back in whatever prison you belong in no time!" She said rather cheerfully.

"Now, the Doldrumm has been kind enough to let me know about where we are, so we can begin our retreat from this dreadfull place post-haste." A large paper map appeared in the air in front of her, and she motioned for everyone to come look. The map showed several landforms, but nothing remotely recognizable as anything from earth. She pointed to a long narrow valley that went in a complete circle around a patch of trees. "These are the doldrums, populated only by the Doldrumm and the Lethargians he feeds upon. which puts us somewhere around here..." She pointed to the patch of trees and the words "Forest of Misdirection" appeared on the paper above them. "Which means we just have to find the Toll's bridge across the Doldrums and go across it. Luckily toll's are never hard to find, and when it comes to escaping the doldrums it doesn't really matter which direction you move as long as you're moving, so....we need to go this way." She said pointing to a direction seemingly picked at random. "But first...we should try not to attract any more attention than we need to..." As soon as she finished her thought suddenly the color seemed to vanish off every person in the room, rendering the entire besides Aurora herself group to black and white greyscale, which made it that much more difficult to see anyone in the lack of light which Aurora set about to correct next. Her entire body becoming a source of soft light, illuminating the area immediately around her. "Can't make things too bright, or we'll have every bad idea in the area trying to bring us down. Just stick close to me, and you'll be fine!" She said, slowly floating off into the brush in a completely different direction than what she had originally pointed out.

The lady of lasers could feel a lecherous eye fall on her, and she glanced about, shooting every man a hostile glare, wondering who it came from. She particularly admonished the young Miracle Boy, his naivety likely to get him hurt. Indeed, he reminded Shauna too much of herself, back when she was the once-famous Laser Ladette. She wondered if someone was going to call her out on it today.

"...Greatest hero of all time? Pffft, Been there, done that. You should wise up kid, and quit while you're ahead, before something really bad happens to you." She went up to him and outright said it, though in her heart she knew that they couldn't be verbally deterred until something bad really happened to them. She also looked at the strange creature.

"...Not the strangest thing I've seen so far." She remarked. She tries to tease it with laser dots, if it was responsive.

Shauna's attention fell onto Aurora, who demonstrated her abilities in this strange, strange world. She was an illusionist when speaking in terms of ability, but had the personality not far from a kid who watched too much anime. "...We can use your Illusion abilities for misdirection and support." she commented, though that was probably already obvious.


"..Doldrums... Letha.... Are you really... You know what, you do the thinking, I'll do the zapping. Alternate dimensions with non-Newtonian physical laws was not covered in college." She looked at the map, finding it to be not so helpful, nor was Aurora's rather whimsical approach to their problem. Shauna would offer suggestions, but it was clear she left logic and rationality back in the hyperspace she traveled coming through her. The mathematics and physics of describing alternate dimensions proved a bit too much for the teacher, such work likely to occupy an ordinary physicists' study for years.

She looked at Aurora as she performed one more illusion, and then looked at themselves as they turned grey scale. "Okay, this is definitely weird, but if it means getting us out of this place, sure, why not. Um, does anyone have a spare towel or something? I feel like somebody's watching my ass." She asked, just to make sure before they moved on.

Helia smiled as the boy named Miracle Boy petted her fog.  he was calmly curious and it made helia giggle a little. "No he doesn't play fetch and I don't even know where he came from and also his name is nerfram."  She said then the girl in the bikini came up and stated a very truthful yet mean statement towards miracle boy.  Helia covered her mouth in shock at how blunt the lady was about his comment.

"That was kind of mean don't you think."  She said not expecting an answer.

The lady named shauna began to shoot beams at the helia's fog causing it to split and then wrap around it lightly like a drill.  Helia watched this for a couple minutes then their was a kind of weird draining feeling that fell upon her body.  When she looked at herself she was black and white along with everyone else except for queen aurora.  Then she turned herself into light and began to float into the woods.  Helia sighed and began to walk close to her like she said with her fog close beside her.

"Hey Nerfram leave a faint trail for the people in the back just in case someone falls behind."  She said and her fog did just that.

The fog wrapped around her waist and began to drag down her leg and onto the ground.  It left a gentle trail of sparkling gray smoke on the ground that was only visible if you stared around for a minute to try and find a trail on the ground.  She stroked nerfram as he layed on her shoulder.

"Perfect Nerfram just like that."  She said as she kept up with the queen.

Brandon let his lips curl into a slight scowl at Assualts quip about his teeth, though that was perhaps the price paid when you worried about your appearance some. Some people had noted them before, though they were mostly compliments, considering that some people just thought brown was a fashionable color for their nose. Still, he would ignore the male and let his mind forcus on something else, like the strange kid that had saved Aurora only moments ago and his outrageous claim that was perhaps a little…..funny. While Brandon was by no means a great hero, he perhaps could tell that the kid was a little full of himself, or maybe his mommy taught him to believe in himself too much; or maybe even he watched too much Shonen anime. Well no matter which one it was,  he was sure the kid would realize the folly of his words soon enough, and then Brandon realized he was being uncharacteristically cynical.

The laser eye woman seemed to share his sentiment upon the young male but then again what she thought mattered like really. The Queen would answer the man’s plea for a weapon with that she could not make him such a weapon, simply because she was queen of nothing, a master of illusions and nothing else. Illusions were an interesting if not annoying power, but then again everything had its use within the battle fields, other than cheese. Well, maybe if the dairy were hard enough, you could brain someone with it, but that was a big if really. When she explained the situation, everything faded away to monochromatic colors and that only made the darkness worst and his body shiver from an unknown chill. Brandon felt a few shivers worm their way up his body, as dark brown eyes would dart about. Aurora would let off some light to stave away the darkness, as she was the only one that retained color.

”Watching your ass?” Brandon said with an exasperated chuckle, unable to really help himself then. Not that she wasn’t a beautiful woman and everything, but then again even if that were the case, it would have been better to keep those thoughts controlled, other wise he would have more problems than needed. Still for now he would have to keep close to the young looking illusionary female.

Assault felt a slight twinge of disappointment, but as the queen continued her explanation, he nodded and began to understand. "Eh, no big deal, it's cool I'll mana.....huhwhat?" he'd ask as she referred to Shauna and Miracle Boy. He raised an eyebrow at Shauna, mulling over the possible danger of calling her out on the whole Laser Lady thing, then thought against it. She asked if someone had a towel, then shrugged as he removed the top half of the orange jumpsuit. Assault had a lean, muscular build, with his forearms being rather pronounced, and a wifebeater underneath the jumpsuit. He then handed it to Shauna. "Look, I'm all for advocating that women-and men-flaunt what they got, but I can understand why some might not be down with that. You can have this, Not my style anyways. Prefer a nice upscale suit or something" he'd mention, then turn to to Miracle Boy, and eyed the kid up and down.

"Well, those are some big shoes to fill hero, don't get got before you do though, aight? That and at least get big so that when I get out I can help cement that myth. I mean you know what they say, you're nobody 'till somebody kills you" Assault would say, making a gun motion with his fingers and pointing it at the kid's head, smiling. If worst came to worst he could use his fingernails more than likely. Shit would hurt but then again he could manage. Assault picked up a fallen tree branch, twirling it in one hand as they walked. He could use all kinds of things here to his advantage probably, I mean it was a big, wide forest.

Then the greyscale happened. Well, that's cool, looking like I'm on an old school TV. Ted Turner would probably lose his shit at the Technicolor Tina here. Lurking in the back, Assault nodded up to the girl with the smoke thing. "Good idea Smokey, smoke girl, girl and her fog pet?" he'd say. He then remembered his cuffs! Those could be weapons, those could definitely be weapons of his to use!

As he thought this, he stayed close to Aurora, catching a glance at her once. She looked around the same age his sister would be, and maybe that's why he felt the inclination to watch her so closely.

Though I don't know if April would have time for me like that, hope she's doing alright

Miracle Boy watched the queen shape shift again into a large warrior. Now that was a cool power to have! Must be fun for games.

The boy watched the lights that Queen Aurora's lights drift off and vanish and to her explanation of her powers. Shame she couldn't make real tools. He smiled and made a hero pose as she called him and brave knight. He imagined himself in armor. But then Shauna disagreed telling him to wise up.
“Just you wait and see! I'll show you what a hero can do!” Miracle Boy said insulted looking up to her . He'd have to prove himself to her to seemed. Part of him hoped they ran into more bad ideas now.

“I'll have to find one of my own one day.” He responded to Helia after petting the Nerfram.
Lastly Assault talked about 'cementing that myth'. That was dare! He smiled at the thought of it. This guy must like to fight. He wondered that kind of powers or skills this guy had.
“Can't promise the getting bigger part. But I'm sure we can meet after this.” Miracle Boy said amused before stepping away from the fog creature and starting hovering off of the ground to get ready to move in the direction Queen Aurora pointed. But how did she know? He couldn't see anything that way.

Then the colors vanished. He looked at himself curiously before hearing Queen Aurora explain it. It would make them harder to see in this dark place, even if they looked like a flashback. He flew just over the group he had just met keeping close like she said.
“Let's get going!” He said eagerly looking to Queen Aurora. She was the only one who still had color and was now glowing. He'd have to keep any monsters off of her if they went for her first.

Aurora turned an looked back at Shauna and shook her head disapprovingly. "Your race is already so limited, it is truly saddening to see you limit yourself further with negativity." She left it at that, and continued guiding the strange party through the eerily silent woods. Here the leaves didn't even bother to fall from the trees, for the Doldrumm would abide no action in his territory. Any who stayed here too long was doomed to become one of the lethargians. No animals populated the trees, and the only sound came from the outsiders' advance.

After a few long moments they emerged from the trees onto bland colorless grass. Behind them there was only more woods, and before them a deep canyon that extended to both sides as far as the eye could see. A single stone bridge that lay before them reached across the expanse, to a hillside of vibrant greens, it's color and life a stark contrast to the space they currently occupied. As they neared the canyon one could see masses of grey shapes dotting the plain landscape below. A sharp eye might see that the shapes were actually small motionless humanoids. Occasionally a piece of rock would quietly break off the wall of the mighty canyon, and any of the Lethargians below were crushed to death, refusing to move even when their life depended on it.  "Now all we have to do is pass the Toll's bridge. It shouldn't present too much difficulty. Tolls aren't really bad they're just....very simple. Well actually..." She looked back at her motley crew "I suppose they're a lot like you guys." She said with a smile and a friendly tone as she carried forward onto the bridge. "Oh, but I guess you guys wouldn't have any change to offer. You can borrow some of mine." she extended a hand and five colorful masks of fantastic creatures materialized. One was some manner of bird with a long bent beak, another a purple reptilian profile, on somewhat resembled a boar though it's tusks were upside down and curved into an almost perfect circle, one was a simple white mask that didn't even feature eyeholes, and the final mask seemed only to be two red eyes behind a mask of dark tentacles. Aurora handed them to her guardians as if their intended use was obvious. "Just don't dilly-dally. Giving you something like this is sort of like.." Aurora cradled her chin in her hand as she tried to think of a way to explain it so that her human companions would understand. Suddenly she spread both her arms wide. "Like stretching my arms really far." As she spoke her arms stretched out to several feet beside her before shrinking back into her small frame. "Just don't make the toll angry, and you'll be fine."

As they crossed the bridge they came upon a guardhouse, and a short, wide humanoid stepped out to greet them. He was dressed in an ill-fitting black business suit with a distressingly thin tie. His skin was a lumpy and mottled green and the occasional orange patch of hair clung desperately to his otherwise bald head. His face was as short and wide as the rest of him, giving him the appearance that he had been pushed down and his body mass simply readjusted itself like a hasty photo edit. His mandible featured an impressive underbite, and his lower canines jutted out of the corners of his mouth like tusks. His hands ended in dirty claws, and each held a pad of paper and a large sharpened pencil respectively. Black beady eyes peered at Aurora through small round lenses in a simple wire frame as she approached. "Change?" He asked flatly in a gravely voice. Aurora responded by changing her appearance, suddenly becoming a carbon copy of the toll standing before her. His beady eyes went as wide as they could manage and he began hastily jotting down onto his pad of paper, though if one could actually see what he was writing they would only see random scribbles of graphite. "Hm, yes, quite an impressive change." The creature mumbled to himself before looking up from his notepad appearing quite flustered. "Listen, my replacement will be here in three years. I know it's short notice but if you're not busy then maybe we could..." Aurora the toll cut him off, speaking in her normal voice. "I'm afraid I'm in an engagement for the next 16 years." The Toll dropped the matter abruptly. "Oh, oh yes of course. I would never do something as improper as courting one already spoken for. Not me no sir." He nervously adjusted his collar. "No not me, I'm the most proper toll you'll ever meet I am. Have a nice day miss." Aurora politely waved as she finished crossing the bridge. The toll watched her walking away while mumbling to himself. "Never seen such a beautiful woman with such an ugly voice...the things you see in this line of work, tut!"

The toll turned to the rest of the party. "You're with the lady? Even so, I'll need some change. These things must be done properly." He looked at the group, his pencil ready to resume it's frantic pace.

Shauna caught Assault's Jacket and wore it, covering most of her as it was three sizes too big. She was quietly relieved that she was decent now.

"Kids aren't supposed to be in that line of work, but hey, you're not my kid and you've got powers, so go crazy then." Shauna voiced her sentiment one last time, responding to what everyone thought of her telling it like it is, almost sounding like she cared.

Shauna followed behind Aurora as they exited the woods and arrived at a grasslands. She scanned the horizon with her binocular vision, making sure she's see trouble long before it could get near them. Reaching the edge of the canyon, she took a closer look and saw the people below, in high definition as they were crushed by falling boulders.

"What the... are those people down there just standing around? This place is gonna make my brain jump out of my skull..." Shauna said, looking away from the scene. She looked at Aurora as she started explaining the mechanics of the toll. She didn't have spare change on her, but when she handed them masks, Shauna had an slight idea that wasn't the change this one would be looking for. Shauna took the bird mask and took the rest on faith.

She put it on as Aurora went ahead first, changing her form to match the very ugly looking bridge keeper. Then it was her turn. She stepped forward, feeling incredibly foolish. But, as the saying goes, when in Rome...

"Caw?" She squawked awkwardly with the mask, rather half-heartedly, then took it off, 'changing' into Shauna. "Ta-da~ yeah, that's all I got."

Helia watched as the people under some canyon they had just reached were crushed by some boulders. The people didn't even move when it was coming they just stood there still as a statue as they met their end. Helia shrugged and looked at the princess who was giving out masks. Helia quickly grabbed the black one with red eyes and smiled eagerly. The bridge was old looking yet still fortified so helia walked onto it. The aurora girl changed into some ugly...thing that looked just like the creature on the exit side of the bridge.

"Cool." She said as she walked passed the toll. Now Helia couldn't wait for her turn but she took her spot behind shauna who was now wearing a big orange shirt.

The further they ventured into the monochromatic forest, the more that Brandon could feel a certain lethargy fall over him, something causing the hair on his back to slowly rise. From what he could tell the leaves did not even fall from the willowy branches, almost as if something willed that they did not. Brandon slunk behind the only source of color, arms crossed over his chest as he found himself looking for anything that could leap from the shadows and try to rip them apart. They stepped through the dense, color less forest onto bland colorless grass, so there was once again nothing that was really changing here. If anything was a bad idea within this place, it was the overall lack of color, and that was something that annoyed him more than anything. He took note of the Assault guy giving the laser woman a jacket, and Brandon once again realized that he was woefully underdressed, and that caused the blonde to frown lightly.

However, it seemed that a monochromatic hell was not something that they would be talking through forever, as they came upon vibrant fields of green, ones that caused him to take a deep breath and pinch himself on the upper arm. It seemed that he was not sleeping, so he would have to continue his trek through madness, but with more color now. The grassy field neared what looked like a canyon, and across if spanned a bridge, one that would lead them to somewhere else. They would have to pass some kind of toll bridge, though she said it as if they were dealing with some kind of people that referred to themselves as the Tolls, which added to the whole strangeness of the scenario. Something about this did not sit well with the Hale, but then again there was no way that he could get out of this; so he could only keep moving on.

She handed out masks to them, and Brandon wanted to get the bird one, if only to add to the intrigue of his sprouting wings, but that was ruined when bikini woman took it. With a sigh he took another one, a mask that caught his interest almost as much as the others, and looked over it for a few moments. This was the Boar like mask, one that he placed on his face, and walked after the red head and Shauna. He pressed the mask against his face, feeling its rather cold embrace against his still warm skin. He looked at the toll through the eyehole and he made the most believable pig snort possible, and then removing it from his face, lips arranged into a goofy grin. It was all believable surprisingly. ”Ta da.”

Assault was by nature, kind of a trollish motherfucker. As he grabbed the purple reptillian mask and put it on his face, making fake roaring sounds at the group as he waited. He listened to Shauna admonish Miracle Boy. A wry smirk appeared behind his mask as she stated her opinion on Miracle Boy's career choices. Knowing what he thought he knew, it was, well funny to him. He clasped his hand on Miracle Boy's shoulder. "Yo, I'll give you some real advice kid. There's a serious dearth, a lack of goodie two shoes so morally righteous it'd give me diabetes, and i'm saying this as a dude who kills people for a living so trust my credentials. you should go for it, reach for the stars man, and if and when you get swiss cheese'd up, you'll have no regrets right?" he asked him, shrugging.

"I thought you educational types were 'spose to be good at creative tings and all dat' he'd say, a bit of patois sinking in to his speech" he'd remark, before sizing up the Toll. It was a nice suit, but it was not his size. He thought about asking Aurora if there was someway he could lift it off of him, but considering how everything worked here, he'd probably get turned into the dude, and that gave him the chills. He next watched the girl-Helia-walk through, and made a mocking 'tut tut' gesture.

"Come on? None of yaw have any showmanship? We can't give this dude chump change" and then he saw Brandon's performance. He really sounded like a boar, holy shit, prettyboy sounded like Mrs. Piggy and Kermit's illegitimate bacon greased child, and he loved it, he really did. Assault had to stifle a laugh as he clapped at the performance.

"Bravo, mothafuggin bravo Brandon!" he'd say before walking up to the Toll, clearing his throat. He then arched his head up to the sky, arms flexed, and gave a Godzilla-esque roar, or a close approximation, shaking his butt as if he had a tail, then removed his mask and bowed before the Toll.

Shauna gave one last statement as they walked. He felt he should not respond to it. It would only make problems for their group. They then arrived at a bridge made of a single rock.

Miracle Boy flew down to land by the group when he saw Aurora conjured up the masks. He was the last one to get to them and all that was left was the white mask that lacked even eye holes. He held up to see if he was missing anything but that was all there was to this mask. Was it suppose to be a ghost or something? He wasn't sure. But what else could it be? He looked forward to see Aurora transforming into the troll when he asked for change. Each person made a sound based on the mask they were wearing. Oh I get it! You change when you arrive at the guard booth. That makes sense.


The boy looked to the troll before he reluctantly put the mask on. Sure enough, he couldn't see anything. He then felt someone put hands on his shoulder. He spun around to see the person but quickly realized he could not see anything thanks to the mask.
“Thanks!” He said to the guy looking to where he had last heard him believing he was serious. He heard the guy speak behind him and spun around again realizing the guy had moved.

Miracle Boy walked with and arm out until he felt the shack he knew the troll was in. He then held out both arms and levitated an inch off the ground.
“Wahoooooo-” He mimicked what he thought a ghost sounded like smiling behind the mask at how silly and amusing this was. He landed after he was past the guard shack and removed the mask to be reminded of how the color was drained from the environment. He laughed and ran to catch up with the group.

The toll watched the woman don the bird mask impassively, jotting a few scribbles down into his notepad before waving her along.  "Next in line!" He called out flatly while attending to some additional scribbling. He looked up to Helia and the sound of his pencil lead snapping penetrated the still air. His eyes first went wide with surprise, then focused into an apathetic look of contempt on the masked girl. He continued to stare at her wordless as he inserted the broken pencil into a groove in his teeth and rotated it several times before removing a resharpened pencil and jotting down something very brief. "hmph. Very poor taste, very poor taste indeed child. I suppose you lot are too young to remember the dream-eater, still very poor taste. Quite offensive. The greatest tragedy known to the world, best never to mention it much less wear it...haaarumph!" The toll poured all the indignation one possibly could into a single sound. "Still, it's a change nonetheless so go on." He waved the young girl on. "Hurry, and take that awful face with you. Next in line!"

The toll was much more pleased with the change he got from Brandon. "There's a good lad, better to change into something handsome I think." He said, waving him through and attending to the last two in line. He waved them through as well, seemingly unfazed by their theatrics. "Yes, everything seems in order." He told Miracle boy as he scribbled furiously. "A good proper day to the lot of you." he said before disappearing back into his hut to do god-knows-what. Aurora greeted them all with a smile, the masks disappearing as soon as they were no longer necessary. Aurora breathed a sigh of relief as they did, as if the mask's continued existence put a physical strain on her. "Well now that that's over with, we can-" Aurora's voice cut off as she looked at another person, a stranger, crossing the bridge they had just stood on. In contrast to everything else here, he seemed very much to be a normal man dressed in a large grey trench coat and matching dark grey fedora. He walked with his hands in his pockets onto the bridge.

"Run." Aurora said quietly, her gaze fixed on the man. "We have to go!" She said abruptly, turning and flying across the ground the opposite direction from the bridge not looking to see if her comrades were following. "Just follow me, c'mon!"