Welcome to Gaia! ::

With the guidance of his companions, Pyxis somehow made it down the stairs despite his serious lack of energy. Examining the room, he found that there were definitely other people down here, just as Howl had indicated to him. They seemed occupied with something. This something wasn't water, and they weren't swimming. He drooped in disappointment.

Realizing that they were all paying attention to something on the wall, he leaned forward to read it himself, murmuring some of the words aloud. "Treasures...Solomon...works of Ozy..man...dias. Ramses? Midas? Di..j..i..nuhs?" His brows knitted together in confusion. These didn't even sound like people that were real. If they were make-believe people, and the world around them had treasure and flying carpets...

"We're in Disney World!" Pyxis exclaimed as excitedly as his tired body would let him, which really wasn't much. He had no problem obliging Howl's request - after all, he'd helped him plenty so far, and he was feeling a bit better now that the sun wasn't bearing down on him. As carefully as he possibly could, he took the bag from Howl and settled it under his own arm. It was a bit more difficult for him to carry, due to their size differences, but he didn't seem to mind. "Okay, I'll hold onto it and everything, but if it gets wet on the ride...you gotta forgive me." It seemed fair to him.

Nothing on the walls. Only two things. The writing, with the small puzzle that she could recite from memory already, and the thing that Raite had been looking at. What had Raite been looking at? Scylla darted across the floor heedless of the rubble in the center of the room, moving to the place in the wall where he had been. Odd. It was the outline of a door, but there were no handles, there were no markings that she could see in the dim light of her torch.

Torches: There was a sling for every person in the room right now, perfectly, with three unlit torches in each sling. There were four lit torches, and four unlit torches.

Markings on the wall: The outline of a door, and a riddle.

Debris: Straw and little pieces of wood, the same size as her little stone from the obelisk.

A few of the pieces of wood were tucked into her gloves. She tugged out the small stone, bending to pick up some of the straw. As she did, her torch bumped against the stone of the door.

Remarkably, when her lit torch touched the outline of the door, there was no resulting smack of two objects hitting, no thudding noise.

The torch seemed to pass right into the stone of the door.

How odd -- it had been solid when Raite had been running his hands along it.

Sailor Scylla's hand went into the stone along with the torch. She felt herself being pulled forward like a magnet had drawn her -- and then the others could see she had gone through entirely.

[The thread is now LIVE. This stage is set up in an interactive fiction format. It is laid out in a number of 'rooms' with a number of interactive objects (indicated in bold during this Stage) and NPCs. Room descriptions will be given anytime a character moves into a new 'room,' and players may post their character's attempt to interact with an object or NPC, and receive a GM response.

Participants act freely, but must make at least one attempted action within 24 hours. Please bold the action you are attempting to take, for example, "Rudy tried to swallow the bouillon cube."

Non-passive actions should be phrased as attempted action whenever possible, in the event a GM must respond indicating that your attempt is unsuccessful. (For example: "tried to stab the rodent of unusual size" rather than "stabbed the ROUS right in its foul belly.") It's much easier to indicate that an attempt did not succeed than to delete or edit a post, and way less heartache! This also helps to ensure that you're not attempting to take multiple actions within the same turn that couldn't occur simultaneously.

There will not be a posting order at all times; however, in certain rooms you may be directed to follow your pre-set posting order. Your pre-set posting order is the order in which you pass through the 'go-live' door.

This stage is set up in an interactive fiction format. It is laid out in a number of 'rooms' with a number of interactive objects and NPCs. Room descriptions will be given anytime a character moves into a new 'room,' and players may post their character's attempt to interact with an object or NPC, and receive a GM response.

A 24-hour posting requirement is in place in all puzzle threads. In this thread, only posts containing non-passive actions will count as satisfying this requirement, so feel free to interact with each other, but remember that only non-passive actions (actions intended to result in a GM response) will count as 'activity.'

Good roleplaying, common sense and ingenuity will all be rewarded -- leeway may be given at GM discretion to those who roleplay well, but do not expect this to protect foolhardy or suicidal behavior from consequences.

Good luck!

Participants are allowed and encouraged to take different actions from their teammates. Every participant has a shot at dying.

Contact Shazari if there is a problem regarding this!]

[SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:
ALL PLAYERS, please generate a random number from 1 to 3 during your next post.

Please note that characters can only pass through the door if they are carrying a lit torch. The torch must be the first thing to touch the door.]

Boreas was a little more than slightly caught off guard when he saw his fellow senshi pass through a wall that he was leaning against. Stunned, he grabbed out for her, but it was far too late. His actions seemed almost foreign to him as his mind was still processing what went on. He was worried about her and he wanted to help save her somehow. Optimism, the glass half full. That was who Boreas was. Skimming the surface, keeping a smile on his face. That was the senshi of winter. However, all that felt foreign to him at that moment. He had never witnessed anything so strange and he had just ridden on a magic carpet.

"Scylla--"

She was gone. He knew that. He wasn't so optimistic that he was a blind fool. Boreas knew that he had to try. Try to help her. He didn't know her, but he had to help her. After all, they had come this far together and he wasn't going to let some fire wall stop them now. He had to. It was all he could do at that point. They had found the key, now all they had to do was turn the lock. He exhaled and turned to the others.

"I'm going in after her! Please follow at your own discretion!"

He gave them all a big grin and the put the torch forward and Sailor Boreas went through the door after his missing companion.

It was awkward, trying to juggle a roll of paper, a stick of charcoal, a torch, and Pyxis' hand in the mere two hands Erin possessed. Hesitating as she realized both torch and map-making supplies were likely to be neccessary, she glanced at the boy (she had no idea of his true age, but he seemed and acted young). "I'm going to need to let go of your hand so that I can hang onto everything--just say something if you need more help, okay?"

Shifting the torch into the now-unoccupied hand, Erin raised it before her and passed through the door.

[SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:
ERIN, please make a post generating a random number from 1 to 3.]

((Derpy EA is a derp. Sorry!))