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Chapter Text

Black and purple. James couldn't tell what the blobs of colors were supposed to be, his head swimming as he tried to concentrate despite the roaring sound in his ears. The purple was steadily encroaching at the edges of the black, slowly taking up more and more of his field of vision, and he coolly realized it was getting closer. Something about being at the edge of unconsciousness kept James calm even as he registered that he was falling, probably from very high up, and that, whatever the reason for the unusual color, the purple was almost certainly the ground. As he got closer, the resolution improved, and he could make out dark trees and cliffs along a black ocean, his view of which was further obscured by the purple foreground of land with every passing second. He could just make out what looked like a building in the distance, on a precarious-looking grey peninsula over the sea, but before he could register what it was something knocked the air out of him. He'd landed on that something, but it wasn't the ground- this was black and red.

James turned over with a groan, the deafening roar from earlier reduced to a relatively mild whooshing sound as air blew past him. He could feel that he was no longer falling down, but rather moving quickly through the air sideways, on top of something. Something red and black. His train of thought was interrupted by a girl whooping and yelling in front of him.

"Woohoo! Aw yeah, that was awesome! I mean... are you okay?"

He shifted his head with some effort, blinking a few times. Either he was hallucinating, or the person asking him that question was a female cyclops riding a giant bug. Assuming it was the former, James lay his head back down with a sigh, attempting to deliver a nod.

"Yeah... I'm fine. Thanks for the rescue."

She laughed, the sound reminding him of a clean mountain spring. Maybe he had suffered some head trauma.

"C'mon, me and Squig weren't just gonna let you fall. Besides, I always wanted to try catching a moving target."

'Squig' steered hard right as they got closer to the ground, James looking up and noticing they were near the grey peninsula he'd spotted earlier. Now that they were a lot closer, he could make the building out in much greater detail- a huge, warped purple mansion with vast turqoise roofs perched on an impossibly thin stretch of land over the sea. It was covered in windows of various shapes and sizes, with a bizarre walkway between two balconies that was so curved as to be unusable. Huge trees grew on either side of the manor, and a shed stood (or really, leaned) along the path to the front entrance, somehow propped up by a few sticks. Of course, seeing as how James was just hallucinating all of this, he simply exhaled with a chuckle and closed his eyes. The danger gone, exhaustion suddenly washed over him, and not even the feeling of someone hauling him over their shoulder could stop him from falling asleep.

Chapter Text

Cool grey light poured in through the giant window behind James as he woke up. He stared in confusion at the door for a few seconds before the events of the night before slowly came to him.

He'd been on a plane headed home when an explosion tore a huge, vicious gash in the side, and the pressure instantly sucked him out. He'd passed out from something, probably the lack of air, and came to not long before he was set to hit the ground. A woman had pulled off a daring mid-air rescue and saved his life, and though he had no idea how much of that part was real and how much was a hallucination (he really hoped he didn't have any brain damage from all the oxygen deprivation), he knew he needed to see her again.

Suddenly, James registered the sound of a... harp(?) echoing around the room, which, now that he really took it in, was pretty cavernous. He turned to look out of the window, taking in the hills of purple grass and leafless black trees beneath a churning grey sky as the music softly played.

"Ahh, beautiful, isn't it? Welcome to Gloomsville."

James turned to where the voice was coming from, and his heart dropped. There, playing a harp in a plain black shirt and pair of grey slacks like everything was normal, was a skeleton, who flashed a sheepish smile after missing a note.

"Oops. We figured it would be best if you crashed in my room."

After a few seconds, James recovered a enough to throw out a response.

"Oh."

After a few more seconds, he registered what the skeleton had told him.

"We?"

As if on cue, the room's enormous doors burst open, a menagerie of creatures and people advancing towards James and deafening the room with all sorts of words and noises. Flying critters flitted about to get a look at him, something with two oddly-colored heads shredded on a gnarly-looking black guitar, a ghost that looked straight off of a cereal box rubbed its ethereal hands together with a chuckle, and in the center of it all, three strange, otherworldly and exceptionally beautiful women looked over him with mixed expressions, each trying to tell him something different. It was overwhelming to the point that all James could do was stare, eyes wide, and blink as they all tried to talk his ear off. After a few seconds, the skeleton appeared, closer than before and waving his hands around.

"Whoa, whoa, guys! He just woke up!"

A portly raven landed at the bedpost with a huff.

"Well of course! Whatever do you think we were waiting for?"

The bird turned to James, adjusting its monocle.

"How do you do? My name is Poe, and yes, in case you're wondering, that is indeed in honor of the great poet of whom my wonderful ancestor, whom I was able to actually make the acquaintance of, was-"

With a good-natured chuckle, one of the three women stepped forward to cut him off.

"Alllright Poe, you can tell him that story later. Over breakfast!"

She turned to face James, sweet smile on a snow-white face framed by incredibly bright, deep red hair. He could tell from her huge black eyes and impossibly pale skin that she also wasn't quite human, but she didn't feel like a ghost, skeleton or anything remotely like that. Her smile shifted slightly as if the two were sharing an inside joke, and James realized he'd been staring dumbly.

"We'd love it if you'd join us for some pancakes, we can all introduce ourselves."

Chapter Text

Something about the creepy feel of the creaky old mansion made James nervous to try the pancakes, but the look on his redheaded host's face made avoiding it impossible. He was surprised (and glad) when his first bite was delicious, and the chewing gave him something to do other than awkwardly nod his head while they all introduced themselves.

The (slightly pompous) bird was Poe, as he'd said earlier, and luckily for James he was interrupted again before he could launch into his story. This time the enthusiastic interruption came from the one-eyed woman that'd rescued him.

"Hi, I'm Iris! Why were you falling from so high, and what were you doing near Gloomsville? We haven't had a human around here in years!"

At that, a few of the others winced, but again the redhead swooped in.

"Haha... I'm sure he doesn't feel like talking about all of that right now, seeing as how he just woke up and all."

She turned to James with a soft smile.

"I'm Ruby, by the way. Who's next?"

"Me!"

"No way Frank, I'm next!"

James turned to see the blue and green heads, which he could tell now were just two conjoined twins, arguing. The blue one sighed with exasperation.

"Len, we went over this. I go first."

"Just cause you said it doesn't mean we went over it!"

Ruby motioned for them to stop with a playful laugh and an eye roll.

"Okay guys, James, this is Frank and Len. How about we go in a circle, starting with... you?"

She pointed at the skeleton from earlier, who nodded with a grin.

"Alright. I'm Skull Boy, part time director, artist, inventor, astronomer, and as of late-"

He threw on a pair of glitzy sunglasses, a faux goatee and a trans-Atlantic accent.

"Jetsetter. Charmed, I'm sure."

All James could do was nod with his mouth slightly open before his attention was pulled away by a bat with huge eyes standing in the next chair. His expression was deathly nervous as he cleared his throat and began to speak in an Indian accent.

"Um, oh dear. Hello, my name is Scaredy Bat. Let me see, I enjoy reading, taking long naps in my hammock and, well, playing the drums."

Len pumped his fist.

"Aw yeah! Best drummer we ever had!"

The bat waved it away with a blush.

"Ah, well, thank you."

The expression on James' face must've been dubious, but before he could say anything the next introductee launched into hers.

"Hello. I'm Misery."

He turned to face her, blinking a few times as he tried to take in her features. She was dark grey, with pock marks and scars on her cheeks that almost resembled freckles and long black hair covered in a dark purple shawl. Like the others, her eyes were huge. Otherwise, it was the opposite of Ruby's- her pupils were white, and where the white of her eyes should've been there was nothing but black. At the edges, she was tearing up. Misery was awkwardly, strangely, hauntingly beautiful. After neither said anything for a few seconds, she looked away with faint hints of a blush. Once again, Ruby jumped in to diffuse the situation.

"Great! Now that you know all of us, what about you? What's your name?"

James rubbed the back of his neck, a bit sheepish at how dull any introduction he might cook up would be in comparison to theirs.

"Hello everybody, I'm James. I like cooking, gardening, and travelling."

He turned to Iris.

"I was on a plane that blew up midair, that's how I ended up out here. I would've hit the ground if it wasn't for you. Thanks again."

She dismissed his thanks with a wave.

"Pssh. Like I said, it was fun. Let's do it again sometime!"

James winced slightly and turned to face everybody again.

"So, we're near a place called Gloomsville? Where is it, exactly?"

Skull Boy tapped his chin for a few seconds of thought.

"Hmm... I don't really know how to answer that. I've never seen an airplane flying around here, so that explosion must've taken you pretty far off course."

James couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the cryptic and somewhat bizarre response.

"Do you have a map anywhere?"

He shook his head with an apologetic expression, and James began to realize that finding a way home would be much more difficult than he imagined. Ruby penetrated the gloomy atmosphere with a huge plate of pancakes.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out. Seconds, anyone?"