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Maebe stopped, just long enough to let that sentence sink in, and imagined all the possibilities that were being laid out. She didn't think the man had been the reason their crystal was being corrupted, so she just assumed nothing interesting would occur. But now that this inventive little death clanswoman had begun to paint pictures in her head, she became a bit more excited for better outcomes.

"No one has chosen that. You will be the first, and I must say, I kind of hope you win the pot. That sounds like so much fun."

Robert watched Mimsy gear up for the jump, and held his arms out beside him just to give her as many things to latch on to as she could. He thought she was absolutely lovely, coming at him in a cloud of shimmer and shine. His body was slammed back just a few inches when she landed on him, and he let out a soft 'oof' until he could right himself again. Then he raised one hand, and ran it lovingly down the length of her back as she slowly attached herself to his body.

Yes, this did sort of look like Maebe had won the bet.

Thankfully, he turned just enough to call out to those below. "WHO ELSE IS COMING WITH ME? FOLLOW ME! IF YOU CAN'T FLY, I WILL COME BACK AFTER THE FIRST FLIGHT AND CARRY YOU! ONWARD!!!"

And there he went, flying towards the crystal with a spider attached to his body.

Nothing could go wrong.

Just as promised - because she sure as hell wasn't backing down to a man - Nine arrived to check out the crystal. On her own. Entirely separate from Robert's suggestion to accompany him.

Her wings were pressed close to her body as she dove like a hawk after its prey, which was not entirely dissimilar from what she was trying to do here. But instead of snatching him up and shredding him with talons, she stopped alongside his ascent, her lengthy feathers stretching to keep her airborne.

And that was when she struck.

By throwing her phone at him as hard as she could.

"DON'T KILL MY PERFECT KID, YOU d**k," she warned, signaling that she was watching him for what was easily the six thousandth time.

Tanita heard the commotion, and thought back to the Chat Messages. It was so noisy that she could only assume that Robert really WAS going back up to the Crystal. She ran down, and outside, her eyes huge. Part of her was terrified, part of her was hoping to see him prove himself. Because at least then they'd ALL know he wasn't at fault, and that would rule out one possible cause of whatever was going on here in this horrible mess. And maybe if he could prove that, she'd have ONE less thing in her mind to cause spirals of thought from occurring.

She got outside just in time to see the chunk fall, and barely be missed by it too. She screamed in shock and threw herself against the wall, staring in horror at the fallen piece of rock. After a long moment, she said, much louder then she'd ever meant, "WE. Are. So. ********." She inched along the wall, keeping half an eye on the fallen crystal, and the other half on Robert, and anyone else who had taken to the air. "MAYBE YOU SHOULD LIKE. COLLECT ALL THE LOOSE PIECES." She tried to shout up to them, in the hopes they might hear. After all, if nothing else, it might prevent MORE from falling. What if, next time, it actually landed ON some one? Or the tower? That could kill a lot of people in a very short period of time. She didn't want to die, and she was quite sure no one else did either.

Watching a piece of crystal fall off of the main part was pure ecstasy. Maebe sat up straight and put her hands on her chin, starry eyed as it shattered into the side of the tower and left a mess in its wake. She climbed out of her window, and gave the others a saucy little wink.

"Well, it's time to get to work. I doubt I'll win the pot now, but if I do, come find me. I'll be the one practically covered head to toe in pretty little shard fragments." She waved her fingers and blew a kiss, before slinking off into the mess and taking pieces for herself. One by one, they went right into her mouth - she was swallowing them whole, tons of them, thanks to having nothing inside but air. The perfect scavenging vessel, as always.

Tanita turned to watch, startled, as the Death Horsewoman began to eat the Crystals, and blinks slowly. Wait, she was EATING the crystals? What in the Dusk did this odd woman think she was up to? "WHY are you eating the Crystal pieces? This seems like a really bad idea. I mean you don't know what caused everything to happen. What if it starts to affect you?" Her eyes widened at the idea, and she shuddered, and made a face. "What if YOU change color, then go dim and crack to pieces?" She shook her head, and then said "Ok that's kind of far fetched, I admit. But what if it somehow... infects you, or poisons you?"

She jerked back when she heard Robert's shout, and looked up at him, shaking her head in disbelief. At least she believed him about this part, he hadn't made it to the Crystal yet when that had happened, but she wondered if maybe he... and whoever it was he was carrying... shouldn't get away from it before it broke again? Just in case. Then again, if he did that, he couldn't gather pieces like she suggested. Even assuming any of the flyers had heard her. She wondered if he had his phone, so she pulled hers out and decided to try sending him a direct message, in hopes that he might spread the word to anyone else nearby and do something with her idea.

Truthfully, Nine didn't know if she should be more angry at the moment that Robert was continuing to be so reckless with one of her perfect daughters, or that he'd actually managed to break that ******** thing without even trying. She hadn't even given breaking it a shot! And now those assholes on the ground were scooping up all the pieces before she could collect trophies to bring home for her woman.

"HEY," she shouted, removing a bone that had been carefully tucked into her hair to keep it up, which she immediately pelted him with. "HEY. If you didn't do that, you'll have NO PROBLEM sitting on top of it--'CAUSE I ******** DON'T."

This was clearly a challenge, and she took the advantage of a split second's head start, her wings pushing her up towards the crystal's brilliant light.

If she was feeling endangered in the slightest, Mimsy did not look the part. She was safely and securely latched onto Robert with each of her legs and most of her hands (one of her finest skills), and was giggling to herself as chaos unfolded all around her, without even needing her help. Between the movements of her soft laughter and the motions that kept him aloft, the spores that continued to disperse in her wake gave an appearance that Robert was flying with the assistance of pixie dust.

She seemed particularly interested in the crystal as it fell, and watched it with wide, luminous eyes, before turning to stare at what remained, hoping for some sign of what the true catalyst was.