1926/Haz Hotel: Mushroom Mania

Haz Hotel: Mushroom Mania
Date of Scene:	05 September 2024
Location:	Port Warehouses
Synopsis:	A second visit to the hazardous hotel?! How brave of you! In spite of having (likely) been defeated before, the Hazardous Hotel seems to still be running strong!? What's going on? Don't these schemes usually stop when they're, well, stopped?!And yet now it's back, themed with ferocious fungi!
Cast of Characters:	Aloisia Stauss, Taro Yamada, Takuto Tsunashi, Amanda Faust, Sugata Shindo

---

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Another night at the Hazardous Hotel!

It's actually been closed a few days as it remodels and changes theme, something which a few people have been complaining about here and there.

Something about an explosion nearby and them needing to reassess safety to make sure they don't join it, who knows though.

It does seem that they've put in a lot of effort into updating the Hazardous Hotel, however, as even the outside has more of a hotel-like vibe, with several fake 'balconies' added to the front of the hotel in various places, and the entrance is more like a hotel lobby. Sitting at the check-in desk is a rather bored looking young woman whose name tag reads as 'Madame Melancholy'. Seems it's a different employee today! Tickets apparently have to be purchased before entering the building, with a note stating that the check-in person is an actor.

The reason why likely becoming immediately obvious as the girl greets those coming to visit. "Hello, welcome to the hazardous hotel." Her voice is the lazy, kind of slow tone of someone who just is not here for this and doesn't care at all. "Walk up to the counter and present your ticket so I can tell you what floor you're on today for your visit to the hazardous hotel. Management has told me to warn you that there is a small chance of injury and exhaustion and requires you to sign an, uuuuugh, waiver." She lazily pushes forward a stack of papers, leaning against the desk. She looks like she'd rather be napping than literally anything else.

There might be some homework hidden underneath the desk somewhere, considering she looks kind of like an older teen.

As with last time, it's a fairly regular safety waiver, with the addition of notes that there is a small chance of passing out listed on the hazards. It also has some information on the measures taken against hazards, noting a medical team, constant video monitoring, and notes that while the actors are incredibly realistic no matter how dangerous the situation seems they will not actually touch any visitors no matter how close they seem they will be to doing so.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Thank you for all the hard work that you do," Taro says politely to the check in actor, signing his waiver.

Honestly, he's a little surprised he hasn't been blacklisted after last time? But perhaps the veil is in effect there. In either case, he's planning on staying firmly human this time around and enjoying the haunted house properly. Without being spooked by the youma so much he henshins.

"I get a little twitchy when I get spooked,but I love haunted houses. Do you have any reccomendations for going in to enjoy it but not stressing out the entertainers? Or can you give them a heads up beforehand? I understand if you have to bounce me, but - I would like to appreciate the artistry here."

And if he gets a little drained? So be it! It's encouraging Obsidian's people to go for less overall destructive plans! At least now,he' shaving fun!

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"I didn't think I was afraid of anything," a red-spiky-haired CLAMP noodle of a boy says to the blue-haired CLAMP noodle of a boy he's with, really quietly, as they're in line to go in, "but then there were skeletons at a shrine and they were grabby and had despair attacks and I had to super-henshin to kill them and now I'm biased against them--"

He's got that lanky teenaged-boy posture, all angles and slouch, and he looks like he wants to be chewing on a lollipop stick but isn't. He's also wearing the sleeves of his red longsleeved t-shirt pushed up to the elbows, and one of those elbows links vehemently around Sugata's arm as they come up to the counter and present tickets.

Takuto listens very closely to Taro's questions, and he squints a little bit at the other boy before letting go of Sugata to read through the waiver. "...energy?" he reads, frowning a little.

Then his eyes glitter.

"Don't worry," he tells Taro, grinning toothily, "we'll keep everyone safe if anything scary gets a little too real."

A beat. "Unless skeletons."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Huh it actually looks like a hotel now. Welcome to Penacony..." Amy mutters as she looks around. She came with Taro this time, and when she gets to the desk she reads the whole waiver, some of it reminding her of what people thought she was concerned about last time and making her flush slightly, embarassed for the memory of thinking she messed up the exhibit and making people worry for her last time. She steels herself -- she won't let that happen again this time! She signs the waiver, pausing briefly to stare at her signature and reflect on how she's used to signing this name now before passing it back.

    Amy points at Taro with a thumb. "Same question. last time things went all awry when the... show tricked me into thinking I'd knocked one of the dummies over."

    She hears someone mention skeletons, and thinks back to the catacombs. "There aren't... skeletons, are there? At least, not moving ones?" Suddenly, that's what she's concerned about.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Haunted Houses weren't exactly Sugata's thing, in the sense that he'd never cared about Halloween aside from as 'that American holiday', and equally never cared about being scared outside of the brief period of their youth where Wako made a sincere effort to try and frighten him whenever she could.

Today though - well, why not have fun, with Takuto? Both of them were plenty brave, and a Hazardous Hotel was sure to not have anything they couldn't handle.

"Skeletons that come to life with despair attacks probably isn't something they'll replicate," Sugata considers, and then - "On the other hand, it'd be fun to fight them."

This conversation is happening right in front of the staff, as if he doesn't care if they're overheard. This is a correct assumption. He signs the waiver after a thorough moment of reviewing the document.

"If there are skeletons and one of them gets punched, I'll reimburse for medical care."

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
"Just remember that the actors have been instructed not to touch anyone and that we request that you not touch the actors as well. Their costumes are pretty fragile, and, like, they don't really like being touched that much either." Madame Melancholy glances at the ticket. "Looks like tonight everyone's on floor seven, you're supposed to get through to room 23, though you'll have to get through some obstacles and shit. Oh, and, like, some weirdos who really like mushrooms kind of snuck into that floor last week and we've honestly been having problems getting them out so like, be careful around the mushrooms and stuff."

She pauses.
"Please do not attempt to evict them yourselves, and violence will result in an expulsion from the Hazardous Hotel and your experience will promptly end for your own safety and the safety of everyone else involved."

Madame Melancholy looks towards Clamp Noodle Boy 1 and Clamp Noodle Boy 2. "Do not worry, all seeming realism is just a result of high quality costumes and scenes, though I have been told by management that it doesn't matter how edible the mushrooms may look, please do not attempt to eat them, and keep touching of the mushrooms to a minimum except when necessary to proceed." While the props won't hurt them, they don't want their foam mushrooms to have ... more ... teeth marks. There's always someone.

"There will be no issues so long as you do not enter any areas clearly marked as employees only. Most areas you cannot enter will be concealed or behind actively locked doors, so such issues should not be particularly doable, especially since the wax musem theme is no longer in rotation." Madame Melancholy responds to Amy. It seems they're pretty relaxed about people who have had minor issues in the past. Likely due to the fact things were able to be stopped before it went too far.

On the upside, with the themeing of their floor-- most likely mushrooms -- there probably won't be many skeletons. Maybe mushroom zombies though, who knows.

For the most part, Madame Melancholy isn't paying too much attention to the talk of despair attacks and such, almost aggressively so, like she's been instructed not to pay attention to those kinds of things. "When you're ready, please proceed to one of the elevators." She says, motioning towards a wall which had a few elevators. As they approach, another group coming out of one of the elvators chattering cheerfully about how fun their floor was, something about yarn monsters and how hard it was to see all the strings and stuff moving the props.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro shrugs at Takuto, giving him a sheepish look. "I almost punched an actor for getting in my friend's face last time. They look a LOT like monsters, and feel like it too," which - ok, he doesn't know if this kid is another mahou or not, but he figures he ought to try and warn juuuust in case. "So, if you're gonna fight, wait until first blood?"

Which is a normal piece of advice to give! Totally!

He offers Amy a hi-five. "We're gonna actually make it to the end this time. Definiteily." no getting spooked!!

uhh. despair attacks. Hm. How does he phrase this without being sus, Sugata? "I think the attraction gets more lively if people are more afraid? I dunno if that's despair adjacent." Gotta try!!

And. Hm. "Miss, do you need us to collect any stray mushrooms? Or should we ignore them for now?"

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"That's fair," Takuto says, and nods firmly. "Also, Wako thought I was really cool when I fought the skeletons last time." He doesn't mention how he squeaked about it afterwards. "Even though despair attacks, et cetera."

He signs the waiver, too.

He gives a thumbs-up to Madame Melancholy when she's like 'don't touch and you won't get touched' because that's also fair. And fits with the 'if there are skeletons' rider. Which Madame Melancholy almost immediately puts the kibosh on. He starts thinking about how to evict mushroom-eating skeletons without violence. It's a reasonably engaging mental exercise.

"Then I'll just have to not be afraid of mushrooms, which honestly doesn't seem too hard," he tells Taro, "but noted." More eye-glittering, and definitely a 'challenge accepted' expression, before he slopes off to the elevators.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
These two must have bailed out before, which amused Sugata, because he was and always would be, kind of a jerk, and he couldn't quite imagine being that frightened of an attraction he'd willingly walked himself into. Still, that wasn't the kind of thing you could say to someone without being an ass, so he didn't - instead, he just shrugged.

"As long as they won't be touching us, it will be fine," he says, assuming that he's lying, which he's perfectly fine with. "At least Wako-chan's not with us, she might have taken no eating the mushrooms as a challenge."

When they're allowed, he takes a step into the themed attraction.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Right yes got it, the mushrooms are part of the show." Amy nods. When not eating the mushrooms is brought up she looks up at Taro, smiling, "Man, imagine if it were like Alice in Wonderland and the mushrooms made you bigger or smaller? That'd be pretty cool..." She looks back to the employee. "To be clear I am not saying I intend to try this. Expecting that to work would obviously be stupid."

    She gives the employee a thumbs-up, and walks with the others to the elevator.

    Upon hearing the other group she grins and asks them, "Sounds like you have an epic yarn to tell later, eh? Ehhhh?"

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
"Please do not remove anything from the experiences with the exception of snacks and drinks acquired at the end, those your are allowed to take with you." Is Melancholy's response to Taro. It's... technically not a no. Though not really a yes either. Maybe it's just expected to be obvious enough what they're supposed to do once they get to the floor.

Just before entering the elevator, Amy's 'epic yarn' comment gets a long, drawn out, "Uuuuuuuuuugh that was /bad/." From Madame Melancholy. At least she got the reference.

They're allowed easily to step into the attraction, or rather, the elevator that takes them to their attraction, they could either all enter into the same elevator together, or separately, but either way the elevator would actually function as an elevator.

...An old, creaky elevator.

Once it gets moving, there's a screeeeech of metal against metal as the elevator starts to move up to the aforementioned '7th' floor, though the numbers seem to skip floors 4, 5, and 6. Which likely were just not actual floors that existed at present, considering it definitely didn't FEEL like they'd gone up 7 floors. Which makes sense.

...The warehouse it was set up in wasn't exactly a 7 story building. They just liked the number for the floor, maybe.

As the elevator headed up to that upper floor, there was an almost... mustiness that started to settle into the elevator, even still sealed. A mustiness that gets worse as the door creeeeaaaaaaks open, the rush of air conditioning entering into the dimly lit hallway stirring up strategically-placed dust piles which just add to the mustiness as the group steps back off of the elevator and onto the 7th floor.

There's a certain... dampness to the air, as well. and seemingly in front of them was a blocked off hallway, a series of massive mushrooms blocking off their path directly beyond the first series of four rooms.

The closest two rooms to the elevator were solidly shut with 'Out of Order' signs hanging off of the doors. The further back room to the right had a slightly askew door, and the further back room on the left, at the very least, didn't seem to have any signs on the door marking it as out of order.

Of note, if one walks through one of those clouds of 'dust' there would be a very brief tingle as the floating spores impart the tiniest of energy drains.

There's a sense that anyone magical could probably stand in that cloud all night and be fine though.

Taro Yamada has posed:
An old, creaky, creepy elevator. A horrible,horrible elevator.

Taro's old enough to have ridden in worse, but he does wonder if the effect is for effect or just the nature of renting out an old building. The spores definitely are an effect, though, when he walks through them, testing them out.

"Last time we cam ethrough, it was a spooky warehouse full of even spookier dolls. Do you two want to take the lead on this creepshow?" he asks Takuto and Sugata, gesturing at the Out-Of-Order signs. "I don't think my usual tactics of physically menacing the rooms to death would go great here."

Which is entirely true,even if it sounds like a joke.

And to Amy - "I'd bet it's smaller only. Bigger has a risk of someone busting out the rooftop and then not only do we get a concussion but some poor building inspector is having a bad time."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
As he gets in the elevator, Takuto lets out a short, surprised laugh, glancing back at Amy.

He does, however, hold his hands over his ears and grimace at the screech of metal on metal... and squint at the elevator numbers. But the place is obviously sus, so he doesn't bring them u-- no he totally does. "Do you guys think those are locked-off dusk zone floors or something? I bet they're actually there but not in this dimension."

And then the doors open and there's musty dust on the floors... Takuto reaches into his back pocket and takes out and unfolds a face-mask, which he puts on. "No alien spores in my lungs," he says as he walks through a pile of dust and gets tingled.

"Oh!" he says, eyes widening; he looks to Taro. "I see what you mean!" And then he grips Sugata's arm and tells him, "Don't stab the dust."

Again his attention goes to Taro, and Amy, and he blinks. "Why don't we just see if it attacks us? I mean, obviously there are youma behind the doors, but if we go in all magic blazing we'll just get kicked out."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Takuto might know these two - Sugata doesn't, because the people he knows at the school start and end with Takuto, Wako, Drama Club, Kendo Club, School Council. It's a surprisingly large number of people, but it doesn't encompass near enough.

And these people? Definitely magical, just based on the efforts to cover up the odd. That was fine - if they'd come through here, gotten scared, and come back, not to fight, then things were probably more than fine - maybe even fun.

The screech of the elevator? Not fun. Not pleasant, either, and he grimaces, not quite covering his ears but also scrunching his shoulders.

As soon as Takuto puts on the mask, Sugata is pulling one on as well, and after a moment, offers them to the other two.

"If they're paths to the Dusk Zone, we should consider breaking in some time," he says casually, "Not today, though. And fine, fine, I won't stab the filthy dust trying to invade our lungs."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Reference? The kirby title was making the same pun, sure, but it's not really a reference... Although maybe the pun doesn't work in Japanese... Wait, what was the game title in Japanese? ...Not diving down that rabbit hole right now, or this scene will end up with more Translation Notes.

    Amy laughs at Madame Melancholy's groan, then comments, "Wow, you have seven whole floors?!"

    They do not have seven whole floors.

    Amy blinks at Taro responding to the mushroom question. "Uh. Well. I mean I don't think they'd actually do that. With as worried as they seem to be about hurting anyone... like, the risk someone gets out of here with the effect still applied, or something, is too high, even if they could do it."

    Mustiness. Amy hasn't really had to smell much mustiness lately aside from what clings to her sleep shirts, and reflects on this. What is that actually the smell of? she wonders silently. And then the door opens and it's cold and damp, as fitting for a mushroom-based horror setting.

    "So how d'ya think they're gonna do mushroom-based horror? Fungal zombies like a human cordyceps? Or like... the mushrooms gaining sentience, and perhaps sapience, and growing into monsters?" She looks around as she walks past the 'out of order' signs. "I wonder if there's even anything past those doors. They probably don't even open." She does not check.

    She holds her breath as she steps through the dust, but... "Oh. I see. How does that work--?" Wait, no one who worked on Team Evil's R&D is here, so there will be no answer. Although Takuto's warning gets a stare. "How would you stab the--" she stops and shakes her head.

    She'll just peer through the ajar door while they explore.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Having locked off dusk zone floors would be incredibly irresponsible and terrible to have in a building intending to bring many, many people through it.

In short something Obsidian would /definitely/ do.

Somewhere, in the operations room, someone is already feeling a headache coming on just from the comments being made by this group, making a note to have someone keeping an eye on them at all times.
Not that it wasn't already in place, considering Taro and Amy were there.

Speaking of Amy, as she approaches the door...

The ajar door begins to creeeaaaaak open slowly. A single massive eye peering through the crack. Meeting her gaze for a few moments...
Before with a SLAM. The door closes again.

The sound of scampering audible, the soft thuds of footfalls sounding more like something with far more than two legs beginning to disappear into the distance; further than a hotel room would let it move. Either that or it was very good at controlling the sounds of its footfalls, whatever it was.

And really. Not stabbing the dust is probably for the best. That's a lot of tiny targets.

On the upside, breathing the spores doesn't seem to have any particular effect beyond that tingling...though leaving the cloud, the tingling would abruptly stop with another little tingle.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Are these two magic? That makes things significantly easier, all things considered. "The last time we came through here," he tells Sugata and Takuto, "we experienced mild drains whenever we got scared, and then got escorted out when I tried to punch a youma because apparantly they're trained to not actually attack people."

Well. Stab. Punch. Same difference!

"I told them in my post-haunt review to remove scares that would make mahou types startled enough to attack shit; I wanted to make sure they took my advice this time around," he says, and takes the mask gratefully, put sit on. "Thanks. I dunno if spooky dust keeps working in my lungs, but better safe than sorry, right?"

And for Amy, he gestures, mimicking stabbing with his open palm. "You can stab just about anything if you try hard enough! Sometimes dust has stabble stuff hiding inside it. You just have to feel around and stab it!"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"Energy sword," Sugata says with a shrug, and doesn't summon it, because he's already said he won't attack unless they're attacked. The mask keeps them from breathing in spores, which keeps them from experiencing the tingling - and thus keeps Sugata from indeed confirming this is an evil scheme of some sort.

He catches the barest glimpse of the eye through the door before the door slams shut, scampering footfalls sounding, and merely makes a contemplative noise.

"If it was a youma, you should have killed it," he says dispassionately. "Though, I suppose plenty of us care about keeping a separation of identity, and they're sure to have cameras throughout this place. We should keep exploring. Whatever that was, it was just a jump scare - though, we could always try to re-open the door and give chase."

He tries the door, just to see if it will open to let them do that.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Well also honestly who needs mushroom spores in visible dust quantities hanging out in your lungs anyway? Like even if it's not spooky energy drain dust," Takuto says reasonably.

He jumps when the door slams, then looks rueful. "I should have expected that..."

Then he zoops over to link his arm through Sugata's again. He doesn't try to pull him away, he just says reasonably, "My assumption is that the place is crawling with youma who aren't trying to kill anyone. Let's see it through to the end? The crowd that came out ahead of us seemed energetic enough. If they break the deal we can break the deal. Otherwise think of it as intel gathering!"

He looks back to Taro and Amy, and nods firmly to Taro. "Anything is stabbable if you're not a coward. But no stabbing right now. I mean there's no reason to. Yet. Did you really do a post-scare review?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Ah!" Amy does give a soft grunt of surprise and jerk like a quarter-step back before she starts trying to figure out if this is an illusion, actual giant monster, or prop. She follows the sound of the scampering with her eyes.

    Then looks at Taro. Blink. "Y-yeah... I stab with heavy metal plasma, remember? Somehow it's rarely as effective as you'd expect, but it certainly does the job well enough."

    She glances at the nearest dust cloud. "I suppose that probably would disperse the dust, though." By blowing it apart with rapidly-expanding hot air, mainly.

    Energy sword? "Oh cool, what kinda energy?"

    She sighs at Takuto, "Look, I just... something happened last time that put me in a bad mood; it wasn't the haunted house that was as scary as my own issues."

    Man, the things the operators are hearing.

    She looks back to Taro. "Anyway, there was a 'giant monster' of some kind behind that door looking back at me. So I expect we'll keep seeing hints of it -- that sort of thing's best when you never get to see the whole monster, right?" She says it with air quotes to let the others know she doesn't think there is actually a dangerous monster on the loose here.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
The door does, in fact, open when it's tried! Just slammed shut. Likely something as a 'hey this is an idea of where to go' tool in the haunted house itself by drawing attention to one of the routes forward. Upon opening the door, it reveals...

A room where mushrooms seem to have began growing on any wooden structure in the room, attached to cabinets, the bedframe, and also on the ground is a 'corpse' of a man, whose face seems to have been half taken over by mushrooms. Next to him is what looks like a fungicide stick sprayer, one of those old style ones where you'd move a stick going through the tube to blow air through it and launch out the chemicals.

...This one probably doesn't have actual chemicals, for safety reasons. Next to the man is what appears to be a note, as well. If read, it reads as the following.

'If anyone finds this note.
...I don't have much time.
You have to make a choice, seal this place forever... or destroy the source.
If you choose to destroy the source, take this fungicide to the deepest part of the floor and spray it on the mushroom hulk. It's the source of the spores. Destroying it should make it so we can get rid of the rest.'

Oh. Right. There's also a hole in the right side of the room from the entrance where the wall seems to have been eaten through by the ring of mushrooms around the edges of said wall-hole.

The dim lighting makes it hard to tell what's beyond the hole beyond, well, another room, with no real immediate sign of the youma/creature.
There are a few of the larger mushrooms that look ... almost ... like they could move, though. Like the bottoms of their stems have started to pull out of the wall with little nobby-leg type things. But they're not moving, at least, not at the moment.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro looks at the note and sighs. "This would be really cool if this was a normal haunted house, but after all the stupid magic shit I've had to fight, I'm gonna be trying REAL hard not to stab it. One of you should take the fungicide, I am NOT getting kicked out of the house again." If he's getting booted, its for legitimate reasons, not almost stabbing a haunt youma!!

"It would've been dead if it hadn't teleported," Taro says conversationally to Sugata , as if that's a normal thing to say. "The last one I fought didn't have any internal organs so I was going for a decapitation, but it flat out wasn't there when I went in for the blow. Which is cheating, right? Nothing else I had fought could teleport,so I assumed an obviously magical monster making a flying leap for my face was actively going for the kill!"

Things flying at his face were usually fatal! What was he supposed to do,NOT stab it?

"Supposedly they're not actually trying to kill us, just scare us. Since we can't take out Obisdian as a whole, I think that encouraging operations like this, where they only take a little energy but from a lot of people, means we have to deal with less shit like nine year olds get kidnapped outta elementary school as youma fodder or someone gets slapped to death with a rose vine or a cotton candy made of iron," he tells Takuto. "I did do a post scare review. Whoever made this place really did care about the artistic quality of the experience! I'm willing to give up a little energy to get a cheap haunted house with good customer service. Which is why I'm going multiple times, to be really sure no one's actually getting eaten in here!" ETHICS.

And he gingerly takes Amy's hand, squeezing it to comfort her. "The brain goblins aren't gonna get us this time. And if it's a real monster and not a haunted house one, I'll stab it. They're not allowed to touch us so you should use me as a human shield, so that if it does attack us I can Get It right when it tries to Get Us. If it breaks the rules first, then we're ok."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Having walked through the door first, Sugata takes note of the 'corpse', and more importantly, the items the corpse seems to be gesturing to are picked up, including the note, and he's the one who reads it to everyone.

He allows a beat of silence, after.

"Good," Sugata confirms, nodding in approval, "You should always go for the kill, in as clean a fashion as you can manage. Most of the time, they don't seem to have organs; they aren't often organic life. But teleporting is new," hmmm that's going to be interesting to manage. How were they going to kill things that could teleport so easily - without just using King's Pillar, which would have Takuto and Wako irritable with him.

"Apprivoiser."

The henshin is sudden, likely entirely unexpected for all of them, the military style coat, cravat, boots for days - but the CLAMP noodle with blue hair has a good reason for this: his henshin comes with gloves, and he's not touching that disgusting item with his bare hands after all these spores have been in the air.

"So," he says, turning around to face the others, "Let's go after the source then. That's the best way to learn more about this ridiculous enterprise, yes?"

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"That's really considerate of them. White-collar crime I guess," Takuto says to Taro, mildly grumpily. He tilts his head at Amy, though, puzzled. "I mean-- I'm sorry that happened to you.,," he says, apparently somewhat confused, but not annoyed or anything.

Then his boyfriend goddamn henshins for no easily apparent reason.

Takuto turns to stare at Sugata.

"Yeah," he says, deadpan, "yeah that's the best way." He is trying not to escalate. He does not apprivoise this time, merely heads for the extra exit. The scary way. That way, where they're supposed to go.

It doesn't remotely occur to him that that was Sugata literally not wanting to dirty his hands.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Well," Amy clarifies, "Maybe not actually a giant monster so much as it had a giant eye... I didn't get the best look at it. Which is of course the point."

    After they enter the mushroom room, Amy prods one of the mushrooms growing on the wood to see how realistic it feels.

    There's a note! "Oh, a quest! Man, now this is like a LARP. One of you carry the sprayer."

    She approaches the hole curiously, and starts to reach for the flashlight at her belt before remembering she has neither, and with a sigh, using her phone's flashlight function to try and peer through the hole.

    "Actually, isn't that a good reason for you to cary the 'fungicide'? Maybe if you're holding it you'll be more likely to remember to 'use' it instead of stabbing."

    Post-scare reviews. "Yeah, it's almost a shame that they can't safely do a real magic horror show that plays into the themes I like. It would just be... like... The safety concerns. People wouldn't be able to remember it and spread word of it. And you know a mahou would blow it all away the moment something actually magical happened."

    At Taro's comforting about brain-goblins, she smiles squeezing his hand back, and steps closer to him, leaning against him for a moment. "Thanks. I'll..." she shakes her head. "I'll play it by ear. But if there's any real danger here? You and me are... the idea of them trying to actually trap and menace us is absurd. My magic is full this time." She shakes her head and smiles. "It might be unpleasant, but nothing can hold us. Remember, even in that state I was confident I could escape The Slasher if I needed to. Together?" She looks up at him and smiles more.

    And then a dude actually henshins. She turns and looks at Ginga Kingu. "Did you hear any of what he said about how we should encourage operations like this and not blow them away?" Then blinks. "Oh... I guess your transformation isn't just to attack, huh... it's just in case?"

    She looks back at Taro. "Should we?" She's skeptical of the idea.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Look it's not the mannequin's fault its scripted jumpscare included a teleportation that just happened to be /really/ well timed. ... .... ... But also that mannequin is probably gone now, probably recycled into a new youma by now, all things considered.

When Kingu henshined in the middle of the room and grabs the fungicide, several of the mushrooms in the mushroom ring around the hole in the wall opened eyes which were staring at him, a silent, unwavering and unblinking gaze. It gives off a very strong 'The Myconids are Aware Of You Now' kind of look/feeling.

But they're still not attacking as he picks up that item. In the distance, a very soft, rhythmic ~thud~ starts to be audible. While easy to assume it's because of the henshin... the timing was actually closer to when he picked up the fungicide itself when that happened, so likely a scripted event to up the creepy factor by giving something that normally shouldn't have eyes, well, eyes.

In spite of walking through the ring of mushrooms, they don't really track Takuto himself, mainly tracking the movement of ... the fungicide sprayer, and Takuto can walk through largely unmolested and unbothered. Beyond, well, walking through a ring of mushrooms. With eyes. The next room is similar to the last, mushrooms growing on most non-floor surfaces -- likely to reduce tripping hazards. The doorway leading back out into the hallway is completely missing, the doorway half-torn-open by the mushrooms that had been blocking the hallway. The doorway /was/ passable, though would likely involve brief contact with the mushrooms.

Meanwhile, poking at the mushrooms reveals... most of them... are... made of very realistically-modeled foam, having a small amount of give when poked. A few of the mushrooms -- likely ones deemed safer to actually physically have in the building -- are actually real though. Specifically some of the 'shelf' style mushrooms which are regularly edible are real, growing on the cabinet sides specifically. Probably why there's warnings not to eat them because sometimes, people are like that.

...Also foam isn't tasty.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Specifically, however, when the fungicide sprayer goes through the ring of mushrooms, the ring of eye-mushrooms will suddenly uproot themselves, skittering off of the wall and away into the darkest corners of the next rooms where they simply will stay, watching.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"They don't transform with organs?" What! That's not fair! He transforms with organs! He must always be far more aware of his organs than he'd rather like to be, thank you very much. "I guess that's one way to keep them from getting killed easily, but that's gotta play hell on their guts when they transform back." Ugh. He sympathizes a little, as the clown who finds his food sensitivities varying wildly on if he can henshin or not, but it's not like he's actively endangered an elementary schooler about it. He has Standards!

He looks to Takuto, pondering. "I already got kicked outta here last time. I'm just trying to get out of here without getting blacklisted from haunted houses? I figure if they're strong enough or good enough at talking, they'll stop him, and if not they can start from scratch. it's the privilage of the strong to cause problems on purpose, and I kind of want to see if he can do anything before security shows up?" Maybe that's kind of an asshole move, but. This is hilarious, actually? Let's see if this fancy military boy can get further than the Back Street Slasher!

"Eye poking is allowed," Taro reassures Amy. "And these two got it handled. I'm just watching so I can review things! It's a careful line to bridge between human and monster, so I want to see if this house can pull it off." Which he is interested in for completely normal reasons and hes not projecting at all.He prommy.

He grins at her. "Together. We got this."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
The eyeballs-mushrooms ring -- walking through it to the potential danger of it being an eyeball-fairy ring -- that was weirdly creepy in the kind of gross way. But small skittering things going past him in the dark?

Okay, that gets a yelp and a little bit of flailing, --okay a lot bit of flailing, he's practically a cartoon character in how physically viscerally he does not want to interact with what are potentially a swarm of mice! Or worse!

But they don't crawl up him and besides maybe nobody say that.

(Probably everybody saw that.)

"S-sugatakun," he says, shivering and brushing at his arms as he turns to look at Ginga Kingu, "this place is gross, they really did a great job."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"It's because I brought masks but not gloves," Ginga Kingu says dryly, unbothered by her statement, "Though you should notice that I didn't actually agree in encouraging these little shenanigans."

He is not remarking on the judging stare he's received from Takuto, because frankly, he deserves it. He knows what he did.

"They don't like the sprayer, so I'll keep it at the ready, see if it scares them off." Takuto is rushing ahead, of course, which is fine - besides, the other boy here seems to be... confused.

"They don't transform. Most of them aren't people, at all. They're just things, and they might as well be cut down. Some of them are people, but they'll bleed, if so. That's a good standby for figuring it out. Though, Takuto dislikes it when they're human, so -"

A shrug, and she follows, because there's a yelp and he follows after in time to see Takuto flailing about like an electrocuted Muppet, and like any respectable boyfriend, he snickers.

"Do you want to ride on my shoulders?" It's a tease, but also, he'd do it. He brushes their shoulders together again, and then looks back, "Follow, and stick together, I'll lead the pack, they seem to be avoiding this sprayer."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Actually, you know what, I think it'll help me get into the mood." Amy holds up her hand and snaps her fingers.

    That... is not her henshin. Her clothes are covered in pink sparkles which then fade to reveal her in something that, do be fair, looks more like a typical magical girl outfit than her actual henshin does. There's a lot of pink, and a beret and a bow and a white blouse under a pink dress and a plastic prop wand with a heart on the end and her hair is in pigtails now.

    And at least for a moment, her body language does change to be more closed, anxious, fearful, cautious, clutching the wand to her chest or clutching at her skirt nervously; although the acting doesn't carry through as much to her facial expression.

    Though she doesn't appear as creeped out as Takuto!

    Ginga Kingu explains she just transformed for gloves. "Oh, that's fair." She nods agreeably.

    When she turns back towards the mushroom ring she does jump slightly in surprise at the sudden eyes. "Ohhh, that's cool. Do you think it's practical effects or magic?" She leans in to peer at them closely, only to startle again when they uproot and run off! "...I guess that answers that."

    When they step through where the ring of mushrooms was, Amy comments with a smile, "Man, wouldn't it be wild if those were actually changeling mushrooms like on Dungeon Meshi?" Perhaps, like Laios, she's embraced being weird at this point.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Honestly it probably would be hard to get blacklisted if you just caused minor problems, since it's generally still a net benefit if he gets into it far enough to get drained a few times, even if they have to escort him out. ...Now if he went wiping out ALL of the Youma or something, well.

...That would start getting expensive, probably.

Luckily for Takuto, the mushrooms do clearly not intend to crawl up and over him, just moving away from the fungicide sprayer, rather clearly. There /are/ a few more fungus spores floating in the room, more chances for that tiny energy drain.

But otherwise the room wasn't /actively/ being aggressive towards them. For now. Though the distant ~thuds~ were still audible every so often. Likely that was the 'mushroom hulk', really.

There isn't really much in the present room beyond those mushrooms staring from the corners, little eyes the only thing visible of them in the dimly lit room.

Moving on to the hallway through that other doorway would be relatively easy, enough space for people to move through relatively easily, and the mushrooms there seemed to be flexible to allow even larger folks through.

The vague movements of the mushroom in the breeze of the air conditioner did seem to result in it giving off some of those 'dust' clouds though, so another one of those small energy drains was likely inevitable to continue forward.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro adjustes himself so that he, Amy and Sugata make a triangle around Takuto - protecting the odd one out from the mushrooms, for the time being. If anyone makes a move at this dude clearly having a bad time at the haunted house, they are risking, at minimum, being stabbed. Which is a normal consequence to have!

He tilts his head at Sugata, confused. "They're not people? But then where are they coming from? What are they? Are they like bad video game programs or homonculi? Do they just get born beforehand? No one told me any of this stuff!" This may not be the time, he's aware, but this is kind of need to know information?? No one told him any of this before!!

He grimaces at the mention of Dungeon Meshi from amy, though not because he doesn't like it - "I already spent enough of my life being short that I don't want to magically become short again. I want a transformation that makes me cooler!"

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Kinda yeah, but nah," says Takuto, smiling and lightly leaning into the brush against his shoulder-- and he's relaxed again, following Kingu at pace when he starts to lead them out into the hall.

The latest batch of tiny energy drain dust particles hits from the air conditioner, and he doesn't flail like a muppet, he just-- observes. "This really is genius. I'm not even mad." A pause. "I haven't actually seen Dungeon Meshi," he says a little sheepishly.

Taro triangles them around him, and Takuto laughs. "You don't have to protect me, if anything attacks I'll apprivoise then. But thanks." Not to mention Kingu undoubtedly already had it covered-- not mentioning. He's got his hand up over his head, looking like he's shielding his hair from mushrooms in tall-people-land. "Sometimes people get turned into youma, and it sucks having to beat them up in order to get what's basically possession to stop. Of course I don't like it. But yeah, some are just animating found objects or whatever... I don't know where they come from. I don't think we had those on the island? They definitely didn't pop up anywhere near home when I was growing up. Maybe they're spirits of things already."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks at Taro. "I think they're like homunculi? They often look humanoid, but I've tried talking them down and it doesn't work because almost all of them are very... purpose-focused? Their don't seem to have knowledge of or be able to understand anything outside of like, their specific job. So I can't argue how they could use their powers for good, for instance, they literally will not understand the examples I bring up.

    Wait, Taro knows what she's talking about? Amy happily engages. "Well, who says you'd become a half-foot, right? Maybe you'd become, like, an oni or a goliath or something!" And to Takuto she also gushes, "Oh you should, it's totally awesome! Great series!" She beams.

    Beat.

    "...Man, after the changeling mushrooms happened and actually lasted for multiple episodes I was hype for more shenanigans like that, I was kinda disappointed we didn't get a GB episode. Still, that was cool. And yes, I've been shown the omake page where Laios asks the mirror how that woulda gone."

    She notes the dust clouds and steps through willingly. The drain is so minor for her, and this *is* better than Obsidian doing youma attacks.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
There's a faint tingle and drain, as they have to walk through the next cloud, and he doesn't care for it, being of the opinion that they should be destroying all of Obsidian's properties - but, he understands harm reduction.

And this is harm reduction, to an extent.

"Mostly, they create them, as far as I've seen. It wouldn't have changed my actions if they were human and unwilling to change their ways, but Takuto certainly wouldn't go around killing people for attacking others; a significant chunk of our old student body would have died if that was the case."

It didn't really need to be said that Sugata would likely have made a different choice.

"It's something we've only really encountered in this world... when we catch up to whatever it is that's stomping, we'll try and spray it."

And he sprays a small amount of material at a mushroom as they pass.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
A triangle of protection is great! Honestly! Very good tactics. If it was Aloisia watching instead of the person currently taking care of it, she'd probably be admiring it right about now!

Unfortunately she is currently off resting still.

Moving into the next room they would find themselves face to face with the thing that Amy had been face to face with. A ... relatively small-ish mushroom monster, its one eye open and staring at the group. A somewhat lumpy mushroom-monster, with 9 little 'feet' and almost reminiscent of a mushroom snail, a few bioluminescent stocks sticking out of the top of its cap, which has a small hole in it where the stalks stick out of.

It only stares for about a half of a second or so, before getting sprayed with the fungicide and immediately turning and skittering away down the hallway, turning into an open doorway, which then slams closed after it with little screechy cries of 'pain'.

And in the distance, that ~thud~ of heavy footsteps is still audible every so often.

In spite of that, the hallway is relatively peaceful, it would normally be a cross junction here, but the two side paths are closed, leaving them with 6 doorways available to explore, though the most obvious path forward likely being chasing the mushroom creature that just skittered off into to take cover.

Also the hallway vaguely smells of lavender now, after Ginga's spraying.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Oh! Yeah! That's the eye I saw!" Amy points when they see the monster. But after it skitters away and they hear the much more massive *thump*s in the background... "...So what's making that noise, then...?"

    She sniffs at the air. "...Did they put... air freshener in that thing? And we sprayed it in that thing's eye? Oh, that can't have been pleasant..."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"Makes more sense than anything actually hazardous - despite the name of this place," Ginga Kingu says in response to Amy's wondering about the spray being air freshener. "We should probably follow the thumping."

Since it's a loud, clear noise to follow, and also, because the mushroom creature seems to have disappeared after it. With that in mind, he starts forward, threatening air freshener prop at the ready.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Oh," Taro says sheepishly as Takuto says he could just transform if there was trouble. "Ugh, I had a monster attack me and a couple guys when everyone was human and now I keep getting twitchy about monsters near normal humans without realizing. Not that you're normal." ...wait. "You're not normal in a cool and interesting way?"

He shakes himself restlessly as he walks through the tingling cloud with the rest of them. "I figure if something's attacking that is going in for a kill, it's ok to kill it back," he tells Ginga Kingu. "Fair's fair. If they're magical effigies rather than human, that is kind of a relief. Any chance you know much about what their weaknesses are? Is it magic lasers only or can stabbing and crushing work? Do they have weak points like humans do or are they like dolls?" He has so much to learn.

He snickers at the little mushroom that runs off. "Knowing my luck, I'd end up turning into a mushroom like that thing. If I want to be cool I have to do all the work myself." He hops on his toes a little. "Oh, I wonder if it'll be a mega mushroom! If it's magic, do you think it'd still be edible? Or is that like weird since that's a magic guy mushroom?"

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto looks disconcertingly pleased about the 'significant chunk of our old student body would have died' comment, sticking his thumbs in his pockets and letting his arms hang otherwise loosely as he walks after Sugata.

"You hurt a mushroom with the lavender-scented spray, good job," he says as a reward, sounding honestly encouraging as he suppresses a smirk. After all, Sugata is definitely holding back from flattening the place.

"He's probably running home to mama. She. It." A beat. "They. Do mushrooms have genders? Are they plural?" he asks Amy over his shoulder, and then he eyes Taro. "Don't eat the mushrooms, magic or otherwise." But then he grins. "Also, no I'm not normal, I'm the Ginga Bishounen."

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
In fairness it's a mushroom youma, so who knows if it actually feels pain, in spite of it's little squeal before running. ...Also who knows how much they actually care about the wellbeing of said youma, being, y'know, evil creatures of darkness.

There's something to be said about the potential misuse of assets there but that's beside the point.

Still, the air freshener is at the ready and they are continuing forward towards the thumping! Which is ... more or less on the other side of the mushroomy barrier at the end of the hallway, a relatively easy guess being that following the mushroom creature that ran away would be the path forward. Assuming the silly thing didn't corner itself or something. There are those other rooms still that could be checked.

At Taro's comments, there is a brief crackle of the intercom turning on, and the operator comments, "Just a reminder, please do not attempt to eat any of the mushroom props or the actors. While most of them would not be harmful, foam is generally not healthy to ingest."

Well at least someone's definitely watching in case things go pear-shaped.

The question of mushroom genders is a complicated one that gets no answer from the intercom though. Beyond the agreement with Takuto previously.

Continuing forward, they find another room much like the previous one they had been in, unsurprisingly, considering it's a hotel, most of the rooms look pretty similar. Beyond, well, unique and different looking mushroom growths here and there. The sheer myconid variety would probably be interesting, whoever set it up did their research on different types.

...Though some of them are a bit out of place, like the giant one that has some sort of red slime oozing out of it that normally only grows in forest areas, that is instead growing in the middle of the room.

Also normally isn't that big. But that's beside the point.

Said mushroom ... shudders as the door opens, some of that slime sliding off of it and drooling down onto the ground in a puddle around it, several prop-humans laying in the puddle with small versions of the mushroom growing out of their 'corpses'. ... It doesn't take much to tell that they're just realistic mannequins though.

The hole in the wall is somehow larger this time, though not ringed with mushrooms this time, cracking and damaged drywall visible around the edges of the hole; like something punched through it to the next room. And that distant ~thud~ ~thud~ ~thud~ ~thud~ continues in the distance... though it sounds like it's getting gradually louder.

Like it was walking this way.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"We're not normal," Sugata says, not reassuringly, but with the casual air of someone who has never known this 'normality' of which some speak. Of course he hasn't. He's not just a Shindo, he's that one. The Sugata. Normality was never an option. "Honestly, I've no idea why so many people bother to pretend they are. Still, those secret identities must be useful for something."

Not that he's made any effort to find out, given how little he obviously cares about his 'secret identity'. Honestly, if Aloisia ever reviews this tape, she's going to know exactly who these two are.

"That's my position too, though my apprentice over here disagrees when the something is human." He doesn't roll his eyes, though he smirks a bit at the word apprentice. "When I'm not using magic lasers, I'm using a sword. But it's made of energy, so it's arguable whether or not that counts to the question. You could always find out."

As they walk along the path, he gestures in the direction of those mushrooms which seem more living than foam, clearly indicating targets. "Does the gender of a mushroom matter to us, if we're not planning to socially engage?"

What is the point at which gender matters - or ceases to matter - anyway?

Considering the opened hole in the wall, Sugata... sprays it, and pointedly does not enter first. He's going to see if someone else gets messy when they enter, before he follows.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The name of the hotel... "I mean... it's a haunted house. Those aren't supposed to actually be haunted, they just pretend. Similarly, the hotel should only pretend to be hazardous."

    She giggles a little at Taro's fumble with normality. And then slumps her shoulders a bit. "Okay yeah I don't think I'd wanna be one of those little mushrooms, as interesting as being a doll was. It'd be neater to like, get turned into a cat for a day or something."

    "We were told not to eat the mushrooms. They're probably not edible -- if there were a risk of someone suddenly growing so big they collapsed part of the hotel, like was said earlier they probably would not allow that risk."

    Do mushrooms have genders? "Uhhhh... I don't remember? Isn't there one kind of fungus that has like a thousand genders depending on how you categorize it? Err, well, sexes, anyway, gender's the mental one..." she pulls out her phone and starts tapping away, opening wikipedia. "...It's complicated. Looks like some have sexes and some don't, with some they're differentiated a different way or it doesn't matter because the parents don't contribute big and little gametes like with humans, or have sex chromosomes, and yeah in a hypothetical intelligent fungi who's to say they'd have social roles anything like humans?"

    She does feel a tiny bit less weird at the thought that her own oddities might seem so small as to be incomprehensible to an alien species.

    "What were we talking about before?" Slipping her phone into her pocket, Amy sighs and clutches her wand close as her mind drifts back to the earlier topic. "I suppose to those of us who've met real ghosts and faced magical dangers it's... kind of hard to really get into pretending it's real and letting ourselves get scared; we don't get to go back to feeling safe afterwards, either, knowing what dangers are out there and that we could have to go fight a monster at any time..." She clutches Taro's sleeve and stays close to him for the moment.

    Moving on, they find a giant mushroom! Which shudders. "Um.... hello?" she asks, uncertainly. Then her eyes take in the people 'defeated' by the mushroom. "Wait, how did it get them?" Awkwardly still holding the prop wand, she clutches at the collar of her costume pulling the bow up to try and cover her mouth.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Yeah, don't worry, I won't actually eat them! It's an intellectual exercize," Taro yells up at the intercom.

"I'm pretty sure mushrooms have genders unknown to humanity. That's how there's so many of them," Taro answers sagely. "Like lichens. Are mahous like lichens, two seperate entities merging to become a third, greater being?"

No, wait. He's getting offf focus. No more wonders of nature, yes more violence against fungi.

"I usually try not to trust pretty boys, but I'll make an exception for you two," Taro says bluntly, nodding to Sugata and Takuto. "Good heads on your shoulders. I'll have to apply the scientific method to the youma." Figure out how they do vis a vis blood knives, vampiric energy theft, and so forth.

taro stops in front of the giant hole, letting Amy cling on to him. If she's spooked, he's sticking with her so nothing gets in her face like last time. No thanks - wait hold on. "You mean people feel safe?" he asks her.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Who's an apprentice! Are you even trying to make a point right now?" huffs Takuto, adjusting his mask then standing back with squinty eyes, ready for a sporesplosion or something. "I'm not his apprentice," he tells Taro and Amy.

He also takes another step back. He's not in the mood for slime molds today.

He is not going in the next room first by any stretch of the imagination.

"Well..." he says, clearly trying to come up with a response to Sugata's social engagement comment. "No, you're right," he sighs, defeated. "But that was interesting," he says, nodding in Amy's direction. "Thank you for woogling that for me."

A pause. "Seriously? Are you literally all going 'not me'? Fine! Fine, you cowards."

He walks through, already full-body flinched in advance.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
As the mushroom ring is sprayed there is... silence on the other side, though a few of the mushrooms nearby where he sprayed at seem to shrink away from the mist of the water-and-lavender-oil spray. Or whatever it is. Probably the gender of mushroom youma is pretty debatable anyway, youma are usually pretty mindless or low-intelligence to begin with so who knows if they even have true personalities beyond the extremes forced upon them in the case of some human transformations?

...But that's unrelated, really.

A lot of the mannequins in the puddle are in poses where they're meant to look relatively 'happy', some of them with hands held to their mouth with some of the slime dribbling off their hands, and things like that... so most likely it's less the mushroom 'defeated' them so much as well... addiction or something, who knows.

Luckily there doesn't /seem/ to be much of any compulsion to join them, beyond a sticky sweet smell that seemed to stick to the nose. It might be tempting for some people, who knows. Luckily there were warnings about not eating the mushrooms, though.

...Because looking at it too closely it's pretty likely that it's just a very realistic foam and plastic mushroom that had some sort of animatronic in it to make it move, covered in some of that slime like one would play with as a kid.

Or adult. They're not judging.

As Takuto steps directly up to the hole in the wall as if to start to go through... there was a rather sudden noise from immediately to his left, the previously-seen mushroom creature screeching as the pretty boy sacrifice steps through, skittering past him and running quickly out the door again...

...As that distant thudding seems to be growing ever closer. And... faster?

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
There's a tiny, strangled little scream from Takuto that sounds almost like 'app--' and then Takuto's hissing through his teeth. "It was the same little guy, he just skittered out the door again and that thing is getting closer!"

Can he get through this without henshining? By the time everyone else gets through, he's still exaggeratedly holding his hand over his thumping heart-- "That thumping's not my heart. But it's actors. It's fake! It's fake."

He's obviously not having a problem getting his adrenaline going here, despite Amy's problems finding it scary.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro jumps a little at the shriek, but he's at least not in harms - er, in the mushroom's way, so it's not too bad. He tiptoes into the room once the mushroom's said its peace, leading Amy with him.

"Your sacrifice will not be vain. We can go get ice cream after?" He does appreciate someone else taking the jump scare!

And he looks between Sugata and Takuto with increasing thoughtfulness, brows knitted, steam metaphorically billowing out of his ears. . "No, I get what he's trying to say with the apprentice thing," Taro says at last. "I didn't think people did the seme-uke thing in real life, but if that's what you enjoy, there's no shame in it. This modern era is much more accepting."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"It's not cowardice when there's a brave hero willing to sacrifice themself," Sugata says dryly, "And there's always a point, when you think about it for long enough."

That means there definitely was not a point when he said it. RIP.

The Mushroom Woogle facts are interesting, though he's not got much to comment on, given the gender of mushrooms is irrelevant to any goals of his. It's not like Takuto's going to be adding a mushroom to their relationship, so what does it matter how the mushrooms do or do not identify?

A pause, and he glances at Taro, brows furrowed. "Thank, you?" This is the most confusing compliment he's ever received - well. Well, maybe that's not true. But most confusing compliment he's received in Tokyo, for sure.

He follows after Takuto, and he's smirking when he hears that cut off cry, fully ready to say that the henshin isn't so ridiculous NOW is it -

When Taro might as well have dropped a bucket of water on him for as much as that statement takes it out of him.

"The what," he chokes, and then tries again, "That's not -" and fails because he chokes, "That is not what it's referring to -"

His face is red. Thumping who? Death might as well take him, he's - oh god oh no he's thinking THOUGHTS, he's imagining THINGS, Taro WHY -

"I'll be going to seek my death now," and throws the anti-fungal towards someone as he plows through the nearest mushroomed door.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    People feel safe? Amy opens her mouth, pauses, then responds, "I... I thought so. Adults with secure finances and teenagers at places like Radiant Heart, I figured. W-wouldn't they?" She sighs and hangs her head. "I suppose not. Adults telling you grades will decide your life. Wondering if your hopes and dreams for being anything but a service or office worker will come true. And if you are academically talented, but at all weird, you know that every day the adults who shower you with praise one moment throw you to the social wolves every day, and never really understand why."

    She gets a little choked up, opining sadly: "...Perhaps no one gets to feel safe and loved but those lucky enough to have wonderful friendOH GEEZE!"

    Amy is jumpscared by the mushroom creature skittering past the hole on the other side and as she's already clutching Taro's sleeve, she presses close against him, taking a moment to try and calm her breathing. She's pretty sure they can't actually hear her thumping heart, right? "It's, it's fine." She tries to reassure Takuto. "Jumpscares are startling no matter what, it's a reflex, not about courage or bravery or anything."

    And then Taro is commenting on the couple, and she looks between them. "...Oh, cool! Happy for you!" She smiles earnestly. Although then the Galactic King runs off. "Um... maybe there was a misunderstanding...?" She looks uncertainly between the others.

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
Someone might be doing a victory motion in the operations room about how their spooking plan worked well, nevermind that it was the actual monster that did said spooking, but that's beside the point. What's LESS beside the point is that in the distance, the thudding is... replaced. Whatever it is has stopped.

...And for the moment, it is almost eerily quiet, the only sound being the occasional drips of water due to the musty humidity of the attraction, and the sounds of the party's own movements and talking.

As Ginga Kingu plows through the door, finding himself on the other side of that mushroom barrier again, running... and then...

The unholy roar of something without vocal cords, as, at the other end of the hallway, the mushroom barrier is only partially obscuring the creature on the other side, the Mushroom Hulk. The thuds from before rocking the hallway, making the entire area shudder as clouds of dust and spores begin to fill the hallway, and then...

It simply SMASHES through the mushroom barrier at the end of the hallway, barreling towards the Ginga Kingu at the other end of the hallway.

...Yeah it's probably not going to survive this encounter.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
It's not even - it's not as though the thought has never come up. Of course it's come up. Sugata is a teenaged boy with a fiancé and a girlfriend and of course he's thought about it but not even Kanako had ever been that blunt in bringing it up.

Running away like that was ridiculous. Embarrassing. It's not like a question was going to hurt him but the thought of being misunderstood in quite that fashion had simply filled Ginga Kingu with a white hot flood of embarrassment and wow no, not that thought!

Oh there's his cheeks crimson again, his own thoughts, betraying him and -

And then, there's the unholy roar of something deadly, something that comes to bring him the death he's so clearly seeking, the end to the embarrassment - by the time the others catch up, the Mushroom Hulk is splitting apart in two, a white cross-shaped blade of energy in Ginga Kingu's hand.

Star Swordo Diamant was more than enough to destroy the enemy.

"We're probably going to get kicked out now," he says stiffly.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"UM," Takuto says, catching the can out of the air and then reaching up to rub the back of his neck while grinning uncertainly. "It's not-- I mean, we *are* dating but it's not like that!"

After a half-second's fussing with the can, he explains, "He just calls me his apprentice because I won't land the killing blow in kendo practice. He's a jerk." He leans in. "So thank you for that."

He'll waggle his eyebrows every time Sugata says 'apprentice' now.

Then there's that giant roar! And Takuto! Runs! He runs in with lavender spray spraying!

Which means there's a pile of lavender-scented mushroom youma body on the floor and a lavender-scented Ginga Kingu with a sword, and Takuto's other hand goes over his mouth. He immediately tosses the can to Taro and whips out his phone, taking a picture.

    Takuto TXT: wakochan sugata defeated a mushroom and were getting kicked out
    Takuto TXT: of a haunted house i mean

Takuto TXT: rip youma actor

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is trying to untangle whether the King is upset at the implied relationship, the same-genderness of it, or the role within it, or is happily embarassed at something true, and then Takuto is explaining it, when a mushroom ROARS.

    A lot of impossible things have happened to or around Amy, but somehow she never would have predicted she would one day know what a roaring mushroom sounds like.

    Amy startles and tries to step back, but she's already pressed against Taro... and then the mushroom hulk SMASHES into the room and she startles again and it's a whole second before she regains the presense of mind to point her wand at it, warning, "It's not real! I mean, it's not gonna hurt us! Don't blast it!"

    We're probably going to get kicked out now.

    Amy slumps her shoulders again. "Yeah..." she agrees, resignedly.

    She looks up at Taro as a thought crosses her mind. "Wait, why would you not trust pretty boys? ...Oh wait." She looks down at the floor again. "Yeah, if a pretty girl talked to me the first time around I'd have wondered what the trick was and how she planned to make fun of me."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Oh! I see! This is bonding between men," Taro says, nodding sagely as Takuto explains. "Sorry if I don't know a lot. I just - I am still Figuring Things Out so it's nice seeing people being artists," and he traces the kanji 'gei' in the air, "in the wild? You know?"

Oof, he knows that's an awkward explenation but an attempt! Has been made!

He follows along and watches as the Mushroom Hulk falls into pieces, misting into spores and energy and goo,and sighs. "We're definitely getting kicked out. Last time had way less damage. That was really cool to watch, though!" Thumbs up!! Kingu Coolness Confirmed!!

And he grips Amy's hand as the dust settles. "I could live with being a world with youma if we could just get less grown ups being weirdos. Or at least accept that if I hit someone with a plate at work, it was for a good reason?" Extremely normal to hit grown ass men with plates. It's fine! And, uh. "Pretty boys keep asking me to do stuff and I agree even if it's a terrible idea. So they should be treated with kid hands."

Aloisia Stauss has posed:
It wasn't even a fight, as the youma ran up. In spite of its size, it was still (intentionally) only really the power level of a kindabad in strength, so the cross-slash cuts the mushroom into four equal pieces, which fall to the ground with a surprised THUD. And, as youma do, soon is disintegrating into magical particles, leaving behind a neatly cut up pile of mushroom in its wake.

... ... ...

And then it's quiet again.

"Ahem. Ahem hem. Uhmm..."
"...Well this isn't how it usually goes, but.."
Stringpull. ~POP~.

Several cleverly hidden plastic spheres split open, letting out tiny bits of glittery paper and such with little banners that say 'CONGRATULATIONS' falling down on them.

"You have completed the course. Please wait calmly and you shall be lead to the rest area to enjoy snacks and drinks."

Pause, off to the side and quietly, "Hey, shut down the attraction for the night we don't have a climax actor anymore."

Aaaand then several people wearing mushroom costumes (Obviously people, their heads sticking out of the costumes and not all of them looking thrilled about this) come out and start to usher the group towards the rest area for several mushroom-themed snacks. Little cakes with mushroom cap icing on them, fried mushrooms with dipping sauces, and mushroom-shaped cookies... and a few other snacks along those lines. They might be a little afraid of Ginga Kingu though, mostly keeping their distance the moment they'd completed their duties, really.

...Well, at least they weren't OVERTLY kicked out...?

...Who knows if the little mushroom youma will seek revenge though.

...Until NEXT TIME.
In the Hazarous Hotel!