[PRP] Hedge Maze - Melisande and Rivener

[Aphismet]

Ah, Melisande was trying to find the boy with the little ghost-girl's help? Adorable. Riv smirked at the image before he ducked behind another sculpted tree, this one in the shape of a dancer twirling. His red eyes scoured the place for something out of the ordinary, not necessarily a person... He hadn't thought of that at all, but overhearing Meli's question, it made sense. There was no reason to assume the brother would be boy-shaped. Or that he'd be normal-sized. In fact, Rivener started looking at these sculpted bushes a little more closely.

"Has it been a long time that you've lost him?" Riv asked from his side of the garden, the area small enough that he didn't need to raise his voice at all to be heard.  

[Aki Ana]

Melisande floated up a bit higher, trying to get a better view of the gardens. Her rune lit the underside of the lily ruffled dress a spectacular, sunrise purple. The Sigel turned slowly, looking at each topiary sculpture carefully. It really was magnificent. Kyou had done an amazing job!

"Oh, let's look there!" The spiraling hedges were to tall that the Muse didn't dare float any higher to look over them, for fear of breaking the rules of the Maze. She darted back down, leaving a few petals flurrying in her wake, and motioned the girl excitedly over. It was just another sculpture, this one shaped like a child, but they were getting closer, the Muse could feel it!  

[Aphismet]

Perhaps the little ghost-girl wasn't programmed to answer questions, so Riv hardly paid attention to the answer if there was one. He was convinced he was right, and that the boy might be anything at all. Meli seemed to have turned her attention to the sculpted hedges too, which only cemented the darker Sigel's idea in his mind.

"I'm sure he must be cheating, if you couldn't find him. Is it allowed to turn into a bush? Or become a wrought-iron white-painted bench? ...Hm, maybe if we touch things it'll snap his shape back to a boy." Following his own advice, Rivener began tapping bushes and benches as he examined around them.  

[Aki Ana]

Pasha paused in her search to watch Rivener. It was such a cute scene, the Scorpion floating around patting whimsical bushes, that the Muse couldn't help herself. She laughed, covering her mouth with one hand, and beamed at the other Sigel.  

[Anachrophobia]

"You know..." said a youthful male voice as a ghostly figure suddenly floated out of the tree Rivener had been inspecting just then. "...that's a really in-effective way to find a ghost." He sighed deep, obviously annoyed by these horrible players. He shrugged though as his sister attached herself to his side with a hug. "But I guess you found me nonetheless."

"Aww boo bro. That was too easy!" the girl complained.

Raising a ghostly brow, "You think? When the girl nodded, both siblings grinned mischievously to one another before turning their sights on the Sigels. "Okay then, how about a little quiz before you two go? If I took away two years from my age and gave them to my sis here, she'd be twice my age."

"How about you give me one more bro? Then I'd be three times your age!" the girl giggled, delighted that they were still playing.

He laughed, "Okay then, sure whatever. Anyway, how old are we?"  

[Aphismet]

Rivener floated back with a happy grin when the brother was found, floating out of the tree. The Scorpion had been sure they'd be ecstatic to find one another, or at the very least they'd be grateful, but instead the two ghosts were smirking and berating them? Riv frowned, confused.

And then, oh god. Math. Riv grimaced and already shook his head in puzzled helplessness the moment they started with the equations. Basic math was all well and good, but when you started in with the Xs and the Ys, Riv always wanted to just throw his arms up in the air. He remembered doing this stuff way back when he was a Frei, living alone with Aphi in that runt of an apartment, when the man was frantically trying to earn some kind of GED. Riv had been better at math then Aphi then, but it was so long ago now, and Riv just HATED math...

"Argh, s**t," he groaned, face-palming. "I suck at this. Okay, okay. Melisande, I sure hope you're better than I am. Let's put our heads together. Uh, okay, so his age minus two is equal to her age plus two times two? ...Awh, f@ck." It was already too complicated for Riv. He shook his head, refusing to even THINK about the second part of the question. He decided to just try every damned number until he got it right. "So if she's one and he's two... no, then he'd be zero years. So he's three and she's one... so that makes one and three times two is six... no that's not it. He's four and she's one, so that makes two and three times two is six... If he's five and she's one, then he's three and she's three times two is six... Oh! that one works! So then, uh... what was the second part of the question again?" He winced, dreading the question.  

[Aki Ana]

Melisande shrugged silently, pale hands both palm up. "Maybe you're both...zero. Because you're ghosts!" She dropped her hands and shared a look with Rivener, smiling at his efforts.

"But if we are guessing how old you were..." Melisande floated a little lower, peering at the pair. "You were crying." She said sympathetically to the girl, and tilted her head the other way. "And you were very cranky when Rivener found you. Combined with the fact that you were playing hide and seek..."

Pasha was doing a very strange sort of math. "And it takes most people a year to grow up..." The Muse thought back to all the family she and Aki had ever had. Inside of a year, they'd always grown at least half way! Of course, most family she had started life as a bottle, or a scroll."You must have been very young! Maybe you were both...six months old? Oh, let me guess! You started life as sculpted bushes!"

The Muse brought her hands together, delighted.  

[Anachrophobia]

Between Rivener's confusing calculations and Melisande's strange math, the two siblings just gave one another a bemused look before bursting out with laughter.

"Sculpted bushes!" the girl shrieked with laughter so hard that she actually fell to the ground in a case of the fits.

Her brother managed to stay a float so to speak and simply brushed a non-existent tear from the corner of his eye. "Wow...you two are really bad at this. There's only one question scorpion boy. How old are we?" He smirked and winked at Pasha before continuing, "Though despite the odd way she got to it, your angelic friend is much closer to the answer than you are."

The sister stopped laughing and gasped, "Hey! Don't give them anymore hints! We're suppose to be making this difficult for them!"  

[Aphismet]

Rivener gave Melisande a rather confused What-The-Hell-Are-You-Going-On-About look, with narrowed eyes and one corner of his lip lifted in an amused smirk. Most of HER math was so much worse than his! Hell, most of it wasn't even math! And yet the ghost-kids said she was closer than he was? And they refused to repeat their initial question.

So it'd been if he gave her two years she'd be twice his age. And if he gave her three she'd be three times his age, or something like that... Right? Sighing, Riv rubbed a hand along his face again.

"For the love of... okay, she's closer. So maybe you're zero. Let's see. if the boy was four and she was two, let's say... Then he'd be two and she'd be four. And then he'd be one and she'd be five. ....Gah, I dunno, you're two and she's four? No wait, you're four and she's two. ....Motherf-!" Muttering under his breath, Riv spun in a circle, losing patience with this puzzle, his wings rustling. He wasn't anywhere near Melisande's answer, which was supposedly closer. He threw his arms up again and tried for a shot in the dark. "You're pineapple years old and she's lemmings years old! How's that?" He laughed, shaking his head. "How many tries at this do we even get? Are you gonna just let us guess until we get it?"  

[Aki Ana]

A kiss of pink touched Pasha's cheeks once again. Children would be children, but didn't they realize they were being rude? The Muse's smile changed, becoming the careful, polite curve of her lips that she used with pushy customers at the Cafe'.

"Years. You said years!" She uncurled four fingers gracefully. "If you were twins, gifting the two years would make you four and eight. That's double! One more year as a gift, and that would be three and nine." She was even using the same tone she used the Cafe' patrons, when she counted back change. "So, if you were the same age, I would guess six. But I still think you meant six months, not six years..."

Melisande shrugged with one shoulder, and gave them both another cool smile. Unconsciously, she floated back a bit, leaving Rivener more in the foreground.  

[Anachrophobia]

"Now we're pineapples and lemmings!" the ghostly girl wailed with laughter once more.

Her brother kept his composure for the most part, yet he still couldn't completely contain the snicker of laughter that sneaked out of him then. "Well considering you can't leave until you answer it...yeah I guess you do have unlimited tries." This time the boy couldn't help it as his laughter rolled right out of him. These two were terrible at math!

The kids listened up when Melisande spoke up. They grinned and leaned in expectantly, nodding excitedly from time to time, until she said she thought her previous answer was the correct one still. The two hung their heads in defeat and sighed loudly.

"Well what do you think sis?"

"I dunno...I guess she sort of got it..." the girl pouted, completely put out that this all came to an anti-climatic ending.

The brother gave a gentle smile to the floating pair. "We're both six years old. Congratulations on finishing the maze." With that the siblings disappeared and the maze revealed an exit not encased in shrubbery for once.  

[Aphismet]

Rivener actually startled when Melisande actually gave a mathematical answer, surprised that she knew the answer. Had she just been playing dumb before, just to have fun? He tilted his head at her, wondering. Regardless, she'd solved their problem, and now the kids seemed quite disappointed to let them go. Riv grinned at the twins and nodded his thanks, the smile only broadening as the exit to the maze appeared.

"Hey! Whaddaya know, we made it! That wasn't all that bad at all was it?" Riv snickered, thinking back again on those squares with red Xs in them. He floated to Melisande's side and offered the Muse his arm with a flourishing bow, figuring they should exit this place in style. "If you'll allow me, Lady?" And of course he'd stretch his wing over her once she was within reach, though he waited for her to accept his arm first.  

[Aki Ana]

Melisande defrosted a bit once the twins vanished. "We made it." She repeated, sighing in relief, and accepted Rivener's gesture with a featherlight touch of her hand. As they exited, she twisted back to look at the maze...thinking of all the strange things they'd encountered.

"I think I've learned something." Her voice was sweet as she tilted her face up to glance at Rivener, temples still crowned with flowers. The Muse smiled, and tightened her hold on his arm for just a fleeting moment in something like a hug.

"I'm never having children."