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Twyla smiled when the boy laughed, sensing he wasn't laughing at her really. (She couldn't find any reason for him to besides.) He then told her there was a 'no' in the talking like a human department. That could be an issue, but probably not--could she even hear him talk if they were flying? The girl didn't really know how high you had to go before things got loud or something...she'd never been up high, unless you counted being in random tall buildings. The two scenarios were probably unrelated.

Another nod. Although being tossed around didn't sound like all that much fun. She'd just have to try really hard to find a good spot right away. It suddenly occurred to Twyla that she might have gotten herself in an awkward situation with an almost-stranger. She'd never met with any shifters besides Emerald and her sister, and neither of them had offered her a ride. Carrick told her to wait for a little bit, probably to give him time to finish his transformation in private. Twyla just nodded, worrying her lip when he walked away. All she could do was hope that it would be awesome as she imagined it and that nothing would make things uncomfortable between them or whatever.

The lip chewing stopped when Twyla heard a scream through the trees near where she saw Carrick walk. Was that part of the shift or was he really hurt? She took a few steps forward and then she heard another noise, this one less human sounding. "Carrick?" She called, but her voice was carried away by the wind. The girl kicked at the earth for a few moments, indecision making her unable to move. There was a screech a few moments later and Twyla decided that whatever noises she'd heard must have been part of the transformation process. Using her powers never hurt, so it always surprised her when they did for other people. This idea was backed up when she saw him rise from the forest in his gryphon form. Something in the back of her throat caught, that was a pretty effing sweet power. He looked like something from some of the fantasy books that she'd read and the parts of the girl that weren't in total awe were a little jealous.

Suddenly, he was flying straight towards her. There was a split second of fear and then he landed near enough to the girl that she could feel the wind his landing created on her face, it moved her hair back. He chirped at her, he was being honest when he said he couldn't talk, and then he blinked. "That is so awesome." There were cooler phrases in her head, but Twyla couldn't find a way to say them without making herself sound epically lame or creepy. She just stood there, taking in the feathers and larger wings and everything before she realized she was staring. Her cheeks reddened with a blush and Twyla felt a little embarrassed and nervous. "Um, so..." Her foot scraped the ground again, but this was a different kind of hesitation.

Edited for mutation description--with permission

Twyla wrestled with the vacuum to get it into the living room. "I think so too." She agreed with the movie idea--that had been the point of the whole thing in the first place, to make Henri feel better and now that blond as well. Angrily she shoved the cord into the wall and the machine buzzed to life in loud, strong suction, glory. "Move." She muttered to Henri as she deftly maneuvered the vacuum across the carpet, sending all of the rest of the tiny candies to their chocolaty doom. I love vacuums. The girl thought to herself as she looked at her handiwork. Cleaning always calmed Twyla down, it was a constant, something she'd done since she was very small--vacuuming required enough concentration that she didn't have to worry about anything else except turning the base the right way and keeping her cords behind her.

The vacuum got deposited in a corner to be put away later after it was done being of use. There was still about half a bag of candy left, so Twyla grabbed a handful as she bent down near the TV to start up the movie. One the DVD was safely in its player she sat back on the couch and arranged herself.

"So, you gonna be okay?" She asked, turning to her friend as the credits started. Just to make sure. She had to make sure.

Twyla eventually got to Susan and a moment later got the ropes to slide off her wrists. "Of course." She replied to the thanks with a tight smile. "Me too." As far as bad ideas went, going to the creepy house in the first place had been one of Twyla's dumbest bad ideas. She followed the other girl back towards Emerald and Gawain, keeping her eyes upward so she could watch the fighting that they were still doing. It was not a good feeling, just standing around watching while your friends put the beat on some medieval villagers. When they reached the other two it seemed like everyone was excited to get out of that place--it's not like they knew how--and then there was a warning...

And then there was another giant hand.

At first the girl felt like she was falling, but it was dark so she couldn't tell--and then there was a slight pain on her bottom that told Twyla that she had landed. It was still dark, and she made no move to get up. It was just so dark. As she got older, Twyla had realized that her fear of the dark was ridiculous, but she'd never quite managed to let it go. There was something simply terrifying about the things that could or could not get you in a dark room. There was no limit to the things that could lurk in a dark corner--the dark was just so...dark.

And then there was light.

It was a faint reddish light and it was coming from down the other end of the hallway that Twyla was apparently sitting in. Deciding it would be better, at least moderately, if she could see, the girl stood up shakily and hesitantly walked down the corridor. "Gawain?" She called softly, trying to figure out if the hand had brought her to a similar place as last time and all of them were together. "Emerald?" There was still no answer, and her voice echoed eerily back to her as she walked. "Susan?" She'd reached the end of the hall.

At least she was back in her regular clothes.

The reddish light had been coming from a neon sign surrounding a wooden frame of a sinister looking clown. The clown's mouth was open, revealing a black expanse beyond. It took her a moment, but Twyla finally realized that she must have stumbled onto the illusion of some kind of fun house. Apparently fun had different meanings for different people. She was shaking and trying not to hyperventilate, but the girl decided to enter the clown mouth--she had a better chance of finding the others in there than standing on the outside alone and in the dark. Even with the reddish tinted light it was so dark.

The first room was not much brighter than outside and it was a giant spinning barrel, Twyla ended up falling and having to crawl through it--she screamed the first time she fell, and her scream echoed through the building. Just find the others, you'll be okay. She reminded herself as she slunk on her belly through the tunnel like room. The next non-moving surface was a platform with two doors. The sign on left one read:'To the Hall of Mirrors' and the right said 'To the Ball Pit'. She opened up both doors and called out:" Gawain? Susan? Emmy? Someone?" and then she waited.

Nothing except her echo.

Fear was really starting to creep through the girl now, causing all the fine hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end as she stood in front of the doors. It was beginning to dawn on Twyla that maybe she was supposed to be alone and that this was yet another form of personal torture created by the twins. "Gawain?" She whispered, finally deciding that the best place to find a mirror-walker was in a hall of mirrors. As soon as she stepped inside, the door closed and locked behind her. The girl suppressed the urge to scream at the sudden noise and hesitantly walked farther into the 'hall'. After a moment of tiny, nervous footsteps, Twyla decided that she didn't like halls of mirrors if they were going to be so creepy. It was actually more of a maze, and the lights were flickering in a way that made her almost jump every time her distorted reflection was revealed to her.

She did scream, once. it was a very tiny scream, more of a pathetic squeak than anything. Instead of giving way to another path, once of her reflections had been solid. All of the fellows near it had been solid too (she hadn't seen the contact coming), Twyla was getting lost and her fear was making her panic more and more. "Just focus on finding the others--you're going to be okay--the others--Gawain?" The boy's name came out as more of a choked sob as the girl got more and more confused and desperate in the dimly lit maze.

"I said. Where you going?" His grip on her shoulder tightened and mild fear turned into panic as the girl's eyes began to dart about frantically, searching for help and her mind whirred through the random self defense moves she'd been practicing. Thankfully, helpful passerby were apparently not all that hard to come by. Helpful passerby came in the form of an almost-stranger named Ilari. Ilari's first step in extracting her from Baseball Cap was to swear at him. This made Twyla's eyes widen as she looked between the two men, waiting for a response. Before the college boy could say anything the blond man proceeded to tell him that she wasn't interested.

The girl realized that at first baseball Cap hadn't been able to tell where Ilari was, because a moment later his head and torso spun around to better lock his eyes on the man she'd seen a few moments previous. With the distraction she hoped that his hold had loosened, but she was being dragged along for the ride as it so happened. Twyla's fears were slightly abated, since she was no longer facing Baseball Cap alone...

But Ilari, for all his sudden helpfulness (and anger) was a bit on the scrawny side. Apparently Baseball Cap was thinking the same thing, because he gruffly asked who the other man was. More semi-scary anger came by way of reply from Ilari, who also threatened Baseball Cap. Baseball Cap apparently did not like this. "Oh, you're gonna hurt me now?" His hand dropped off of Twyla's shoulder as he stepped closer to the smaller man, half raising his fists.

Freedom, sweet freedom. The girl's initial response was to run away and her second response was to stay, and watch the scene to make sure that the distraction came out okay. It seemed silly, to ruin his distracting appearance by sticking around, but Twyla only got a few steps away before she had to stop and turn around. The college boy took another slightly shaky step forward, his face reddening in anger. "Huh, little man, you gonna hurt me now?" He was decidedly under the influence of something, his slight slur and shaking body were proof of this. A few other passerby had glanced their way, but none had been inclined to stop, apparently. In the back of her mind, Twyla weighed the merits of screaming until someone came and dealt with the situation.

The girl couldn't see her friend since she was on her knees crawling around behind the couch--thankfully her friend couldn't see her blush deepen either. "No worries." Twyla kept her head down as she continued to pick candy out of the carpet. She wasn't sure why that made her so embarrassed--she knew what Henri was talking about, to an extent. She was 18, technically and adult, she should have been able to handle stuff like that without looking like some kind of prudish weenie. More heat flooded through her as she wondered what would forever be a [insert what Henri said here] thing for her. Kissing girls, did that count? probably not seeing as Twyla wasn't sure how many girls besides Maya she was like to kiss. Maybe she was just embarrassed becuase she was still figuring things out with Mirror? That seemed like a likely culprit.

It seemed like a tragic waste, all of that chocolate littering the carpet. Ugh. The blond thought to herself as she felt a warm M&M squish underneath her knee. In the back of her mind she started weighing the merits of getting a vacum from the closet, but no move was made to get up--Twyla just continued to shuffle crawl across the floor.

"Aw, that must have sucked." Twyla paused for a long time, not wanting to share her particular experiences with the elusive holiday rabbit. After picking up all of the pastel orbs in her latest quadrant she finally replied: "Um, I never really got and Easter Bunny. My parents couldn't afford it and all...not something so silly and frivolous, not with six kids. I never believed in him or her or whatever...Easter meant church and sometimes cake after church if we had time." Another flush was splashed across her face at admitting the fact that her parents couldn't afford baskets and candy and all that stuff that kids look forward to on Easter morning. It was really embarrassing, sharing something like that with someone she hadn't know all that long--whether they were good friends or not.

"I think that is a general rule when it comes to friends--you have to get upset when they are and you want to retaliate." Twyla smiled when Henri said that she'd be thinking the same things if someone had upset her. It was probably written in a Rule book somewhere, she supposed, that friends had to empathize and to long to make each other feel better by making whoever was the abuser feel as crummy or whatever as the victim. Twyla would just stay away from phones for a while--not that she knew the kid's last name anyway or any other cell number or anything. Van was safe, for the moment.

Twyla's brown eyes were huge when it sunk in that Henri had just said something like that. "Oh my god!" The blond threw a pillow at the brunette, successfully hitting her with it and sending the bag of candy flying. For a second she just sat there, watching the pastel colored M&Ms fly around the room and then she came back to the present. "I can't believe you just said that!" Twyla's cheeks were tinged slightly with a blush as she covered her face in her hands and began to giggle in a very squealing way--thankfully they were alone in the living room by then.

Looking around at the chaos she'd created, the girl mumbled "Crap." Sighing, she stood up and walked to the Outer Limits of candy coated chocolate, deciding it would be best to start outward in the chocolate galaxy and move in as she went.