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 Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:43 pm
[The thread is now LIVE. Every participant has a shot at dying. Please reply within 24 hours. Contact rosemilk if there is a problem regarding this!]
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 10:19 pm
John rolled onto his back as he pulled the key out with the cloak and wrinkled his nose. "Ow," he said, transferring key and cloak to his other hand and inspecting the bitten hand. He spoke up more as he rolled to his feet: "Either they got enormous rats around here or this key just tried to bite me. Key being the operative word in this sentence. Lemme give this a go."
He was on his feet pretty quick -- quicker than it'd taken him to get off them, come to think of it -- and, with a spring in his step, he strode over to the dusty cabinet again and dusted it off a little with the back of his free hand. "Hey, Cecilio, you mind giving me a hand again? Even if this does unlock, I dunno if I can get this open on my own horsepower."
The self-stated magician glanced over his shoulder to see if Perry was coming over to help him, and glanced at the rest of the group and cracked a smile. "If you wouldn't mind standing clear for a sec," he said. "You know how it is. Luggage in overhead compartments may shift in transit."
And with that he looked up at the cabinet, looked down at the cabinet, and then made an effort to fit the key into the keyhole.
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 10:32 pm
The keyhole clicked, and the doors slowly opened. There was a rusted tinkle of carnival music, the sort you'd find in a music-box, as the doors spread with an exhaled breath of dust. Perry and John were forced to back away as it wheezed open untunefully, filling the air with song that seemed slightly -- off, atonal, unsettling. The cabinet was lit brightly from behind, and it opened with a rattle to a series of potions. The potions were bottles with corks wedged firmly in their necks. Within their glass skins were bubbling, parti-coloured liquids, frothing and sizzling silently. The music was cut off all of a sudden as the doors opened as far as they would go. A gaily-coloured paper was stuck to the insides of the left door. On it read this: Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker,
What is alive will not make you sicker!
Dinner? You're thinner. On the second door a Post-It note heralded: DRINK ME In front of you there are twelve potions. Each potion looks alike barring color. From left to right, the potions are coloured red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange, blue, teal, white, black, puce and beige. Each potion has a cork in it. To reiterate: 1. Red 2. Yellow 3. Pink 4. Green 5. Purple 6. Orange 7. Blue 8. Teal 9. White 10. Black 11. Puce 12. Beige Actions that may be performed on each potion: INVESTIGATE
TAKE
UNCORK
DRINKYou may still investigate other objects in the room should you so choose.
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Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 10:32 pm
It would not have occurred to Vanessa, who had failed to connect the cheese sandwich to her bloody nose, to worry about the water. Golden eyes flickered from where she examined the door, crouched like a frog to get a second look at the claw marks in the wood, to Sailor Polaris. She pursed her lips with concern, appreciating the efforts of their new companions to warn Polaris away from any dangerous actions. During their exploration of the hallways outside this room, Vanessa had become very attached to her fellow hero. She had sworn to herself that she would help them both escape this place, and did not want to have to drag Polaris's comatose body anywhere. But she would if she had to.
"Are you okay?" The question was aimed at Polaris. She watched the other girl carefully and, when she stood up, accidentally kicked a skull. It was the one she'd spoken to earlier.
"Oops," Super Van made a face and, while wordlessly heeding Mr. Liddel's probably wise suggestion to stand out of the way, stooped to replace it back on the neck.
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 5:53 am
The normalcy of the others gathered (normal being a relative term used only because of how odd everything else had seemed before this) calmed her enough that she didn't leap at the first thing to move. Instead she nodded at the introductions, glancing over at Devi as her civilian companion latched onto someone familiar. For her sake she hoped that this Dr. Westerman wasn't a figment of her imagination as all of the other things had been.
"Corvus." She murmured her own name, watching as the 'magician' peered into the hole and then reached into the hole. Corvus likely would have poked something else other than her own hand into the hole at first to test whether or not it was safe, shiny thing within or not, but...
The senshi shook her head slowly, watching on silently as a key was produced and another door was opened, stooping down to pick up her 'weapon' before making her way over to investigate the newly opened cabinet alongside the man who had opened it. "The water certainly looks more safe to drink than those things." She commented idly as she reached her hand out, not quite touching any of the bottles although the curiosity was there.
"What do you think is inside them?" Corvus leaned a bit closer, trying to investigate the purple potion without picking it up.
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 6:34 am
"I'm okay" -She offered softly, but assuredly to her partner. Polaris too had made a connection with her fellow kidnapee and while they had a whole group now.. Polaris would find it hard to part with Super Van if the situation or suggestion came up.
Fingers sliding over the edges of the silver piece she eyed the kangaroo and strange large bird on the back. It seemed strange, but appropriate for this place. If she had a pocket she would have pocketed it, instead she slipped it under the cup in her hand, creeping forward to see the chest spring open with a melody.
Colors and cryptic words. As Corvus grabbed one bottle she grabbed another, holding up the teal bottle curiously before drawing back to where she'd been again. The bubbling was interesting.. strange considering the lack of air. Glancing to make sure noone was looking at her, not really keen on being scolded again, she uncorked the bottle with her teeth. Would it smell like something, bubble out of the bottle perhaps, or maybe even stop bubbling all together? Curiouser and curiouser.-
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:38 am
Europa was back to following Polaris closely, feeling protective of her teammate. Tate, while not hostile, was not really someone she wanted to spend more time with than she had to.
Momentarily distracted by the opened liquor cabinet, she did not notice Polaris uncorking the teal bottle as she reached out and took the blue one. Europa held it between her right thumb and forefinger, and shook it, curious what would happen to the fizzing liquid if she agitated it.
Her face itched. Wincingly, Europa scratched her cheek with her injured hand. Feathery. Her face was feathery. Europa couldn't see it, but the iridescent, peacock-colored stain around her eyes was gradually evolving into some kind of carnival mask.
Europa looked over at Polaris, disregarding the opened bottle in the girl's hand or the cork in her mouth. "Polaris," she whispered, "What's happening to my face?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:57 am
"Stick to what Doc Wes told you," said the blue-eyed man, standing in front of the cabinet with his hands on his hips looking the contents up and down. "Let's not be drinking or touching any of the stuff in those bottles till we discuss it, all right?"
He glanced at Europa, Corvus and Polaris to see that they weren't before reading the inscription aloud for the benefit of anyone not already clustered around the cabinet. "Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker; What is alive will not make you sicker!; Dinner? You're thinner. DRINK ME. Well, that sure explains everything."
John reached out to take, uncork and investigate the red potion.
"I reckon some of these poison us," he said, "and some of them resize us. I wonder if there's a wordplay correlation between the colors and that Pulitzer-Prize-winning poem up there."
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 11:37 am
It was enough, for Vanessa, to hear Polaris's soft reassurances. Super Van would worry again if the other girl suddenly swayed or fainted, but she seemed to be in perfect control of herself right now. Concern abated, and was quickly replaced by curiosity at the sight and sounds of the antique cabinet.
When she left the skeletons Vanessa was careful not to disturb them again, and ambled briskly over to join the group that had gathered in front of the open cabinet doors. There was something serious and business-like about the way she moved, with her arms swinging at her sides.
"Resize us?" She inquired with a quirked eyebrow, as she took the orange vial from its perch and investigated the outsides. "Resize us how?"
If they had been anywhere else, Vanessa would have had several doubts about Mr. Liddel's pronouncement. But this place has already proved to them all that nothing was as it seemed- except for the things that were.
"If they do resize us," Super Van ventured, and pulled the cork from the top of the bottle so that she could look inside. She had been struck by an epiphany, and was very proud of herself. These things didn't happen to her very often. "Maybe we could open one of those giant doors!"
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:01 pm
Devi took a look at the riddle. She had thought herself to be good with riddles, having some degree of both text and media literacy. Her twisted mind led her to numerous interpretations, including one interpretation involving cannibalism, but most really had much to do with the potions. There was only one interpretation she could think of that would make sense:
"I think some of the potions are alive," Devi suggested. In this place, what was sensical has proven to not necessarily be what's all-that-sensical. "What is alive will not make you sicker - so if there are potions that are alive, those may be the ones safe to drink."
Following the logic of odd expectations, Devi took and investigated the bottle containing the black potion.
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:25 pm
((Unless for some reason the cork is going to stick to her lips or choke her to death I figured this post wouldn't hurt. I'm happy to edit it though if GM requests, just shove me a pm!! ;D))
-When she was addressed her attention turned momentarily from the potion to her friend, inspecting her more closely now that the question had been asked. What she'd assumed before was some sort of mask she could see now was perhaps stained? And something.. small bumps, small feathers was it were emerging straight from her skin.
Lifting the cup and coin carrying hand Polaris gingerly spit the cork into the water before her lips pursed thoughtfully.- "I... I'd say it was a rash but I've never seen one quite like that."
"We'll take care of it, don't worry." -She offered with a soft whisper and smile before turning her attention back to the conversation that was going on about potions.-
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:42 pm
"What is alive will not make you sicker," Dr. Westerman repeated along with the rest of them, mulling over the words. Honestly, he really hated riddles. He really sucked at them. It looked like he had no choice but to try, however, if they wanted to get out of here.
Glancing over at John, he saw that he'd already taken the red potion -- Perry scratched his head again, frowning a bit, and took up the beige one to investigate.
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:42 pm
The purple potion was, upon investigating, just that; purple, fizzing. It was the deep rich purple of the night sky after sunset.
The teal bottle Sailor Polaris had uncorked smelled strongly like violets. It was the bright teal of peacock feathers, much like Europa's face.
When shaken by Europa, the blue potion foamed up momentarily and then returned to normal. It was the blue of a summer sea.
The red bottle was just like the rest, the liquid fizzing despite having been locked in a dusty cabinet. It was a deep crimson like blood. Uncorked, the red potion smelled strongly like, ...
...
...
John Liddel had never smelled it before, but somehow he knew what it smelled like through some human instinct recognising what the scent was although it had never been smelled by him personally. It smelled like Robert Pattinson. Even not knowing who Robert Pattinson necessarily was, it smelled like Robert Pattinson.
The orange potion was the bright orange of, just that, the fruit, with a waxy sheen to it. Uncorked, it smelled strongly to Van of fresh tomato soup.
The black potion was the black of an oil slick.
And lastly, the beige potion upon inspection was the beige of curtains from your grandmother's house circa 1984.
You may pick the option RECORK if you wish.
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:54 pm
John Liddel sniffed the uncorked bottle and twitched his nose once or twice like a large, humanoid bunny rabbit. He pursed his lips for a moment or two assessing the smell of the blood-red potion.
"Dazzling," he decided, and switched the cork to the same hand as the potion as he reached out the other to rip the DRINK ME Post-It off the wall.
"'Alive' could mean carbonated," he mused aloud. "Hang on to those fizzy bottles. And 'thinner' could mean skeletal, so I'd advise anyone think twice before drinking anything that smells like food. Alcohol, we're good to go, but sweet-smelling might be dangerous -- or the other way around, depending how you interpret 'quicker' and 'dandy.' Curse you, Ogden Nash. I think we better open these all and tabulate what they do. Anyone up for some tabulation?"
In the ensuing moment of silence he stuck the Post-It to the red bottle, thoughtfully -- then set about recorking the red bottle, getting the yellow bottle, and uncorking and investigating that.
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