A Zoo in the Fog (PersonaxZoophobia)

The Star of the Show

                Once again, everyone had gathered up, prepared for what they had to do. Though a couple of members were still scarred from the images of the night before.

Zill rubs his eyes, not having caught too much sleep. "You guys have any trouble sleeping?" He asks with a little yawn.

"I'm used to nightmares. I slept fine." Jackson says, giving a little shiver. "Still didn't make what the nightmares were about any better." Jackson didn't care about anyone's sexuality. With his luck, he'd probably take anything that wasn't toxic at this point. He just didn't want to see Rusty, someone who had bullied him since grade school, like what he was last night. It was like a new scar, but on his mind.

"What does it matter?" Autumn says with a roll of his eyes. "We need to save him and that's what we're going to do." He hefts up the bag which held his bow, along with a few medicinal items too.

Kayla seemed to be on Autumn's side of this, obviously having gotten enough sleep. "Strip club or not, you guys have done this before, right?"

"Yeah but... it was Rusty. Barely wearing anything." Zill sighs, collecting himself for the journey ahead.

"You still haven't told me what that's about." Autumn said, looking to Jackson. "You're all normally naked, and something similar happens to me when I turn into a deer, so what happens to the extra bits?" Everyone began looking to each other, tilting their heads for a bit, before all giving a collective shrug. "Wait, you guys don't know either?"

"I mean... when it's there, it's there?" Zill shrugs a bit.

"I don't really care, I know no one would be staring at me so it never really came to mind." Jackson says, adjusting his weapon holster before getting ready to head into the TV.

"Don't be like that Jackson, you look lovely." Kayla says, patting his back.

"But... you wear something when you work at the observatory, right Jackson?" Autumn asks, tilting his head.

"Well, that's just a uniform." Jackson gives a shrug, much like Zill before him.

"You guys never ask about stuff like this?" Autumn asks once again.

"I feel like this matters a lot less when someone's life is on the line." Kayla says simply, going through the TV with Jackson. Zill heads in after, followed by a very confused Autumn. They all land in the main stage and sure enough, there was a new area that led off the main stage. Though the next area seemed a bit brighter than the rest of the TV world before this. Jackson took the lead and sure enough, the bright lights came from the stage area that the group saw last night. The lights were red, almost overbearingly so as some of them even had to squint to just see past the bright lights.

"If this is supposed to be a strip club, why are the lights so bright..?" Zill asks, not noticing the others heard him and all looked over at him awkwardly. "Not that I would want to see anything!" Kayla gave a little nod, holding his arm.

"Something feels off about the stage..." Autumn looks around, seeing that the area behind them had a bunch of cameras. Like the stage was just a set for some movie. "Guys, is this what recorded him..?"

"But there wasn't any cameras around Kayla's castle..." Jackson says, going ahead and flicking off the more overbearing lights. As soon as he did so, the shadow of Rusty stood on stage, growling a bit. Now that look is what they'd expect of Rusty, at least the angry eyes and growl. He still wore the outfit that he was wearing last night and Zill would avert his eyes.