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Wet dog. If the smell had been uninviting, the taste was repulsive.

Vanessa turned a nasty shade of green and clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from hurling. Her stomach heaved in disagreement, but was effectively quieted by her staunch determination. Everything was effectively swallowed.

"Oh, god," she shuddered. Her tongue stuck out and her eyes were squeezed so tightly shut that she saw white "That's disgusting."

And then there was change. Super Van's expression transformed from one of revulsion to one of wonder and then, when golden eyes alighted on Europa's dying body, one of horror. Her legs shot up and her arms shot out and she was soaring towards the ceiling with Polaris, looking absolutely ill as she swayed dangerously and took up the space beside Giant John.

"NO!" She hollered when she was steady and her voice did not boom quite like Giant John's, but was still destructively loud. Vanessa gawked at what was happening at her feet, angry about the nasty turn their little taste testing game had taken, and was about to stoop- careless of her much greater width and height and weight- to reach out to Europa, when she was stopped by the gentle pressure of Giant John's hand on her shoulder. Super Van stood very still, golden gaze flickering up to meet his blue-eyed stare, and pursed her lips when he spoke.

He was right, of course. There wasn't a thing that any of them could do. Vanessa saw this. She understood, and she was infuriated. She should have been able to help.

Failure to save Europa inspired a sense of helplessness within Super Van. It loomed over her head like a thundercloud. Nothing felt quite so giant as death, and she was made acutely aware of the other lives that she had known and lost. A grandmother. Her mother. Hairy Pete.

Europa, now.

They were like ripples in a pond.

This train of thought unsettled her. Vanessa sniffed back the vengeful tears that threatened to pour down her cheeks, was proud of herself for stifling them, and then nodded at John.

"You can lift me," she informed him. Any of the delight she felt (and, oh, did she FEEL it) at being so strong and so huge was tainted and, at the same time, strangely intensified by the threat of danger. Vanessa was terrified and furious, but also positively enlivened. The power made her feel more capable. She would help John investigate. She would help the rest of them make it out safely.

Super Van had her war face on.

Unlike Devi, Corvus had seen someone die before. She had watched in horror through tear-blurred eyes as several humanoid creatures had been slaughtered by the Negaverse. The memory turned her stomach even now, but she fought it back, pushing the thoughts into a dark corner where they wouldn't be able to effect her... At least not yet, she hoped.

She took a deep breath, releasing it in a short puff of air as she held the bottle of clear liquid up so that she could swish it lightly before observing it again. It seemed safe enough; at least when compared to the candy (which should have been labeled deadly, not dandy). Corvus then corked the bottle of water, tucking it back into her sash for safe keeping before turning her attention back to the two potions that she had brought over to the cistern with her.

"Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker..." A quicker death? Less painful, perhaps? She wouldn't be the one to test it, that was for certain. Her brow furrowed as she took the purple potion, tucking it into her sash alongside the bottle of water just in case whatever effects it might have could be used against someone else down the road. She then uncorked the beige potion, hesitating for the briefest of moments before taking a small sip, trying hard not to think about the smell. Penicillin. You've taken it before... You can do this, Cordy. You can...

-Super Van offered her help, Corvus grew. Polaris was happy to let them all go about their business for the moment, her attention turning once again to the three.. no two on the ground. That was why she wanted to be big after all right? To be helpful to the group and to help protect the smaller people. Had she heard the ceiling were moving it would have only strengthened her desire not to be anywhere freaking near it.

She stepped slowly and carefully from the large group and towards the cistern. She crouched with her back towards the group of giants, placing herself hopefully as a shield for Devi and Perry just incase someone should trip, stumble, or drop something large. Polaris seemed aware of the fact her voice might be loud, and she hushed it as she spoke.- "I'll help you with the potions Mr. Perry." -Being so huge her fingers lacked a bit of dexterity, but that didn't mean she couldn't act as a pack horse for the bottles.

Reaching, she made a few careful attempts to pick up and take the bottle that Corvus had drank, and then reached to take Europa's empty bottle. She tried hard not to look at her friend as she did, pausing once both glasses rested upon her hand. She could still see a little bit of Europa's boots, and that sparked a sudden thought in her.- "She hasn't transformed back yet."

"When we die.. or even when we're just too tired we lose our costumes. Is she.. is she not died?" -There was a hope in her eyes, a silent pleading that was directed in a giant sized whisper towards the tiny adult man.-

John for his part was now unconcerned with the potions. John was squinting up into the darkness of the ceiling.

"We got trouble," he said.

With a glance to Perry and Devi and a hand on one of the walls to support himself and avoid having to move his feet, he crouched and let Vanessa climb up onto his shoulders. She was a giant now, but they were proportional giants: the effort was no clumsier for him than it would've been had they been normally sized. The task remained to balance Vanessa, steady himself with hands on either wall and then, carefully, stand up.

"Be careful and don't touch anything," he told her as he did. "Tell me the moment you see anything. If you need me to stop lifting you higher say 'STOP' immediately."

He didn't spare a glance for anything else, but he inclined his head to Corvus. "Check the keys," he said. "Hey, Cecilio, you ever see that scene in Star Wars with the trash compactor?"

-Crunch.. crackle... Tiny pieces of glass squished between her fingers despite her efforts. She felt the warmth of tears at the edges of her eyes but held them back.-

"I'm sorry..." -She echo'd softly withdrawing her hand.- "I guess I'd better not try to touch anymore. You can rest them on my hand if you want, I'll hold it still. But...."

-How could someone so huge feel so damned helpless.-

"Smells rotten," Devi said, disgusted by the smell, as she recorked the green bottle and then put it away. "I think a rotten fruit, but whatever it is, if it was living, its not now."

She listened to Dr. Westerman's logic and agreed with him. If liquor was quicker, it could only mean a quicker death. But what about the last line of the riddle? Dinner? You're thinner. She looked at the remaining bottles - the pink, the green, the yellow, and the orange. The pink roast beef, the green rotten fruit, the yellow Twinkie, the orange tomato soup. The yellow sounded like a candy, but the other three were more suitable as dinner.

But what does it mean?

Devi scratched her head. If what was candy or liquor killed them, if what was alive made them bigger, then perhaps what was dinner would make them smaller? It would fit the logic of making them 'thinner.'

"I got it!" she exclaimed. For a moment, she felt like the kiss-a** smarty pants student in class, the ones who jumped out of their seat to raise their hand. "If what's dinner makes you thinner, then I think the pink, green, and orange ones will make you smaller. Maybe yellow - is Twinkie a dinner?" Devi's mom didn't allow Twinkies in the house, she had no idea what they were actually made of.

She looked at the giants in the room. Drinking a potion that might make her smaller would not be smart, she'd easily be crushed. Especially since that Polaris chick has proven to be a total klutz. There was also the mouse hole to be concerned with - if they shrunk down, whatever was inside could attack.

"Dr. Westerman, we should check what's inside the mouse hole. Is there anything we can do to draw it out?" He was the wilderness expert, their very own Steve Irwin (sans sting ray). He must have a plan! Right?

For John and Vanessa:

John raised Super Van very cautiously up on his shoulders, their ascent careful and safe. The higher she got, the colder it was; the colder it was, the darker it was; but as her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she could see the shiny and ascertain what was on the roof.

The roof was covered in keys.

The keys were fully long again as her arm -- monster keys to her in the same way that the keys in the door were monstrous to the others on the ground -- and she realised she could not see the roof at all. All of them had been sharpened like stakes and were incredibly sharp. Had John lifted her up less cautiously, she might have been in a great deal of trouble.

This high up she could see that caught between the teeth of these spikes were bits of furniture -- old bits of wood -- that the spikes themselves were discoloured in some places. They would not have been enough to kill a person, though. That was the odd part. Were they to all come down at once, they were not thickly clustered to necessarily kill a person -- you'd be squashed to death, and the skeletons on the floor were not squashed to death.

Something fluttered around one of the sharpened keys, out of the corner of her eye. It looked like a piece of fabric. If she reached up she could perhaps try to take it.

This high up and this close, Vanessa could hear a mechanism grinding. It was very quiet. You had to be up this high to hear it. It sounded like clockwork. It sounded like a sizzling hiss.

The ceiling was dropping.

It was dropping so slowly and so gradually, way up there in the dark, that someone might not notice. And she started to smell something -- a faint, peppery scent that made her feel dizzy and sick.

She could investigate further, take something or talk to John.

For Perry:

The drain smelled strongly of mouthwash as he emptied the potion into the cistern. Oil floated on the top. The water did not discolour, and now he had an empty bottle for his pains.

Before his eyes, the water suddenly diminished -- it dwindled down in the bowl to a damp sprinkling on the bottom, exposing the coins and the smell of mouthwash again, and then the pipe slowly refilled the cistern back up.

For Corvus:

The key seemed old and dusty. It consisted of a single clover-leaf head and the rest of it was ensconced in the lock -- a normal-sized lock, though it certainly wouldn't have been normal back when she was her usual height.

The area around the keyhole seemed a bit battered and scarred, as though somebody had rattled the key in it around violently before.

[NOTE TO ALL: the ceiling is dropping, though the effects of this are unknown.

It is dropping very gradually, but it is suggested you escape in SIX TURNS or the giant doors may not be openable. You may only take one action per round, but if you would like to passively post to discuss with teammates, that is ENCOURAGED. I will only post when everyone has taken their action or 24 hours is up.]

Polaris and Van are bleeding lightly. There are three broken bottles and five empty bottles. There is Europa's corpse covered by a sash. Corvus holds the purple potion, now miniscule, in her belt, as well as a bottle of clear water. Five potions remain.

The ceiling is dropping, though this is only noticeable to the giants. They can see movement on the ceiling.

Drunk potions:

Red
Blue
Teal
Black
Beige

Spilled:

Puce
White

Yellow
Pink
Green
Purple (carried)
Orange

You may still:

take
investigate
uncork
drink
recork
empty
fill

There was silence for a moment or two, which, as everyone was learning, didn't seem to be the normal state of affairs for John Liddel.

"Okay," he said. "We need to get out of the Death Star, pronto." He had one of his hands resting on Van's leg, to steady her, and when he took it away for a moment it was covered in blood -- frowning, he looked up just as he raised both of his arms to catch hers and help her keep her balance. "You're bleeding," he said. "Here, let me --"

He looked like he was about to say, get you down, but then he looked up again and his apparent sense of adult-to-teenager responsibility to protect her from harm and the need for further investigation warred briefly on his face. The latter won. "Keep on telling me what's going on," he encouraged her, his voice taking on the cheery luster of approval or, perhaps, of trying to keep someone else calm in a crisis situation. "That's good. Cover your nose, though, we don't want no chloroforming a pretty girl like you -- that's just unsavory. A cloth -- what kind of cloth? Does it look like the keys are dangling like windchimes, or fixed straight on like, like spikes? Tell me when you think they're getting close to you, I'll kneel and you can step down."

"Cecilio" and Devi were forgotten for the moment; while John took care to keep his balance, he glanced at Corvus and Polaris and the doors. "It's all right. We've got time. Look at those two doors," he said, indicating two that hadn't been investigated. When he'd assigned this he investigated the third unexamined door, or as much as he could while still balancing Van on his shoulders, anyway.