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 Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 3:28 pm
Walküre couldn't help but feel a little disturbed by how amused the Winter Witch was with her... yet also she felt proud at the same time. It was a mixed bag of strange feelings. She would have said 'thank you', but the rest of the Witch's speech was distracting her thoughts.
In chess, pieces are often sacrificed for either other pieces or better board position. So now the strategy would be to decide who was going to be sacrificed for the good of the rest of them. That was assuming that they just weren't choosing who was being eaten first; there was always a chance the Winter Which was going to eat all of them anyway.
For her, the obvious choice would be to have one of the Negaversers be the main course. Then again, they might have morals just flexible enough to get her out of this place. The other senshi might not have the fortitude to get dirty jobs done.
Others began to speak up and ask questions. "Really?," she interjected, "she just told us to prep a human meal for her, and you're playing a game of 20 questions?"
Then, someone spoke up and volunteered to be served up. That seemed to solve the problem, didn't it? Although not everyone seemed to agree. She probably should have protested too, but protecting any life other than her own wasn't exactly her top priority. Admittedly, she wasn't the best senshi out there.
Walküre's eyes scanned around the room for the sharpest object. When they could move again, she guessed that she might need it to defend herself; Walküre hadn't made any friends in this room.
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Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 8:14 pm
Considering the situation, "good child" was better than Aquarius could have hoped for. If the circumstances were different, she might have argued the "child" part a bit- Aquarius was a seasoned soldier, not a wimpy kid. But at least the Witch hadn't torn anyone's head off... yet. She still had to act fast. The books required a closer study later, though the title she could read stuck in her head. In the meantime, she looked at the other doors, hoping one of them might provide a means of escape.
The mention of the moon startled her slightly. If the Moon was her niece, would that make the Witch kin to Princess Serenity, and in turn Princess Chronos? Or else was she related to Chronos' winter handmaiden? It was times like these that Aquarius wished that she had paid more attention to the social hierarchy in the past. Then again, the likelihood that this frigid, unsavory, bloodthirsty woman had any relationship to her Princess was hardly the foremost possibility. More likely, she was bluffing.
The thought of sacrificing one of her companions didn't even occur to her. She knew better to think that when one of them was gone, the Witch's appetite would be sated. Rather than waste time picking a victim, her focus was on getting out. She looked at the Winter Witch, gaze steady, but stayed silent. She wasn't going to make promises she couldn't keep, and she had nothing to say that she didn't think would be an offense worth killing for.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 9:21 am
Lyra couldn't see much of the greenery that was visible above the half-door -- but it did look like it was leafy. Trees. Maybe a greenhouse? Her attention was drawn back to the Winter Witch, however, who was answering her question:
"Ah, so we do have a fledgling of the faith among us, do we? Well. All symbols are his, all things are his -- but here, let it never be said that I was a reluctant acolyte. Look here -- "
She pointed generally toward the door. "This tree here, this represents the Infidel that calls himself the Green King. Here beneath it, then, this symbol represents the Moon -- and then, compassing them about, this is the Firelord." She indicated the snowflakes at the four corners. "These are just my symbols, marks of protection. It is a door, after all."
She waved a hand dismissively at Marlo, then at Hector. "Oh, you'll be free to move as soon as I've left. I have some errands of my own to run -- I have to hunt three very, very bad bears and dispatch them before the Firelord finds out the Red Maiden's been killed."
To the rest of them, she only said, "Now, now, don't spoil the surprise for me, darlings. Finding out which of you I get to eat first is the only joy left for this old woman."
'First.'
Ah, so there it was -- as some of them had suspected, they weren't buying their lives. She planned to make meals of them all.
The sharpest object in the room that Walküre could see from where she was standing was probably the spindle on the spinning wheel, but the kitchen drawers couldn't be discounted -- most kitchens had knives, didn't they?
The other doors that Aquarius looked at turned out not to be all too remarkable -- plain wood, with only a few small suns etched in them. Aquarius could see, as Lyra had, that the half-height door, of the two, appeared to lead into some kind of a greenhouse.
The Winter Witch took up her white mantle, swept it over her shoulders, and said, "Make yourselves comfortable, my industrious little gnomes." At her height, the group of them probably did look like dwarves to her.
Then she took the doorknob in hand, and, with a small puff of condensation in the air, she left, shutting the door securely behind her.
They could move again.
[OOC: You are now free to move about the cottage. As she herself noted, the Witch will not be back any time soon -- it might not be wise to start trying to kill your teammates just yet.]
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 10:05 am
Once able to move, Sailor Walküre let out a little of her frustration at the situation, and stomped harshly on the ground. Her face was red with anger. She did not want to be eaten for dinner.
"Can you believe this woman!?" she said to no one in particular.
Even if they all were going to be on the menu at some point, she still worried about the order they were going to put on the chopping block. She walked over to the kitchen drawers, and slid one open hoping to find something of use.
Right now, she was more concerned with protecting herself, and would let the others figure out the clues on how to escape. Although, she did make a mental note that the cloak her and Aquarius had found earlier belonged to someone named the Red Maiden.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 2:24 pm
Upon looking outside- she found herself mentally twitch. Trees. Why trees. As long as they didn't CREAK at her, she figured they were safe enough. Though admittedly, she would not trust a single tree in this strange world again. She mentally nodded at the explanation of the symbols. Green king? He must be their figurehead. From the sound of both the Winter Witch, and the pig, they both did not like their king. Maybe he was a tyrant or something.
Once the witch was gone- Lyra found herself crossing her arms and embracing herself. "Auuuuuugh i CANT believe she SNIFFED me!" She exclaimed, disgusted and twitching a little- she was at least glad to be free of the bonds that held them.
Everything in the room was accessible now- minus a few things that were ah... too tall for her to reach. After all, the room was made for someone twice her height. Deciding she needed to learn... a little more- Lyra made her way for the bookcase and examined the books a little more closely. She had a feeling she was going to need help to get any of these books down.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 2:33 pm
Protection-- that line had Serandite puzzled over the significance over it, even after the witch made her exit. They had probably all reached the same conclusion-- they were all to be eaten, at one point or another. That's where the skulls must have come from. Did they still have the apples? Not that it would have been useful but Serandite wasn't sure if the witch had taken them away or they had left it back at the lake.
The sense of edgy temporary relief filled Serandite-- only fleetingly. Nobody knew when the witch would return and if they didn't find a solution before she returned, they would definitely end up as human sushi. She buried her face in her hands, heaving a giant sigh, taking the few seconds to compose her fluttering insides.
Serandite's first move was to trace her hand against the door's markings. "Does anyone else think it was strange? She said.. protection? What did she mean by 'it is a door, after all?' " Perhaps.. it was of significance? What would happen if they were to scratch such markings out? Or was Serandite overthinking the possibilities of a door?
Serandite frowned, taking a glance at Walkure and Lyra. Books might have been useful but Serandite was thinking that a knife would have little effect against a very tall witch. What sort of witch would leave useful weapons around her hostages anyways? (The keyword was useful. Because there was likely to be very ineffectual weapons left behind.) Serandite knew that in a hostage situation, she would never leave anything of use that could leave her at a disadvantage.
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iStoleYurVamps
iStoleYurVamps
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 3:49 pm
Marlo paled. Three bears who killed the red maiden. They had been in a cabin. They had found a dead girl. The rav- Totem Pole said it was the red maiden. Three beds. "Hector." Marlo was looking at him. A mask of annoyance. "Your brother's dream land is <********> Up." It really was. "...I guess we won't get to see the little girl get justice...Even if it would have meant bear wrestling." A bitter chuckle. A distressed nervous one. "I'm not sure she should if she served a guy who's other followers want to eat us. Christ." His thoughts were a mess.
"....I wonder." Looking at the door, his mind began to wonder about what the raven had said, along with the symbols. "The tree is a symbol of the Green King. The stars and moons of the Firelord. The axe that cut down the tree was embellished with those symbols, thus, the axe belonged to one the Firelord's followers." He was half talking to himself, half to Hector. "Totem Pole, your overly friendly feathered headpiece, suggested we wait to find out who we serve. All in all, a servant of the Firelord wants to eat us. Not inclined to that. We know nothing of the Green King."
Marlo pulled out the lace doily. "Symbols supposedly carry power, and years ago, people would etch such symbols into their door to provide their home protection. Pagan faiths also thought that adding symbols to things could not only provide protection, but power." He had been listening to Serandite. "Perhaps it would be wise to remove the symbols of the Witch. Last thing we want is to allow her protection in her own home or give her more power." Inspecting the lace doily, he scanned for any patterns or symbols.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 5:59 pm
"The door..."
For a moment, Ametrine found it hard to get out the words that she wanted to express her thoughts. "The door at the little pig's house. It was special. It had symbols on it, symbols of the Firelord, and when I touched it, it burned my hand." It suddenly seemed so relevant now. "The pig believed that the symbols would protect me-- us, but they vanished."
The pouch had disappeared, and she didn't know where to look to find it. Blast. "Do you, any of you, think that this might work in a similar way?" How odd to be in the position of asking strangers such things. Whatever. Lt. Ametrine decided to simply go with it, and began searching the room, deciding that any conversation she might have with Serandite about her priorities could wait.
But truly, could Serandite not see the logic in what she'd said? Of course she couldn't. There was no way that she'd go through with it now, though, unless they needed the extra time. Not when it was fairly clear that they were all going to be eaten. She walked over to the half-height door, and began to inspect it closely, searching for any sign that it was like the door that had born the Firelord's symbols.
If indeed those had been the Firelord's symbols.
Moons, and suns... what else had the pig's door had? Or the charms, in point of fact? Trees? She couldn't quite... remember. Carefully, she put a finger on the handle, checking to see if it would burn her the way the pig's door handle had. If it did, then she could verify the sort of protection doors might have.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 6:58 pm
Aquarius came to the same conclusion that the Red Maiden had been the owner of the cloak they had found. If she was dead, perhaps that explained the smell of the cloak... not that it mattered either way. The Maiden was dead, the cloak was gone, and there were more important things to do. Like bust out before the Witch got back, or the others started trying to cook each other.
As she tried to decide where the best place to start would be, she kept her ears open. It was a good thing she did, since one of the boys was saying something potentially interesting. "Dream land?" she echoed, fixing both the speaker and the apparent Prince with a curious look. "Interesting. Do you boys have something you'd like to share with the rest of the class? Or does anyone else? Getting out of here is definitely the priority, but I wouldn't mind some insight as to where 'here' is, if anyone's got any. I can multitask."
Aquarius couldn't multitask any more than she could fly, but nobody else needed to know that.
She set down the cup on the table in the middle of the room, but kept holding the pitcher. It felt comforting to have something in her hands. Since it seemed that both the front door and the half door were under scrutiny by people who knew more about the situation, she went to the bookcase and gave the books another look. "For those of you looking at the doors, The Glory of the Red God might help you a bit," she offered, "if the sun's this god's symbol."
It was the other book that had caught Aquarius' eye, though. If the spine had been made illegible, it was probably from much use, meaning that the book was important in some way. Still holding the pitcher in one hand, she reached up and tried to knock the amber-yellow book off of the shelf.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 10:45 pm
Released, the first thing the Lady did was rub her temples, trying to listen to everything at once. She wasn't incredibly worried about her own personal safety. There were maybe two people in the entire room that posed a real danger to her, and one was supposedly good. It did seem wise, however, to put her back against the wall so that there would be no one coming up in a surprise attack.
Symbols, strange mythologies, it made no sense to her. She'd been educated enough to get by the in world, but when it came to comparative religion, there'd been no such class. In Crystal Tokyo, there were only the King and Queen, the goddess of the moon, the worship of pure power. Symbols of followers made sense though, in a way. If you removed the henshin pen, the compact, the senshi lost their power. It would have been easier to just to kill someone. The witch would come back, and let the rest out, and one life meant nothing to her.
Well. No life but her own. Speaking up in agreement, her voice was tired and more than a little defeated. All she wanted was Wiseman, and to go back to their place, and watch silly movies she didn't understand. She wanted to go home. "Maybe if you remove the sign she will lose her power? It works that way with senshi. Take the item, take the power." It wasn't much of a secret, she felt no betrayal at revealing it.
Ruby eyes lifted to look into violet ones, and sheer want to go home overrode anger for only a moment. "This is your world. Do you know nothing of how it works?" Stepping up with Serandite, her hand ran over the markings as well. They were alien to her, unimportant, yet so totally significant to their imprisonment. "This is not a religion you have heard of?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 11:34 pm
Lyra blinked a few times as the other girl also approached the shelf. She even waved a little in greeting- a wave that was apparently disregarded because the girl continued to look at the books that Lyra was already looking at.
"Need hel-" She was about to say, as she said something about the red god. "It looks like a equivalent of a bible in this world..."
Lyra had to double take also how the girl was..reaching for a book next, that was huge, with one hand on a pitcher filled with liquid. "Uhm. You DO KNOW water and books don't mix...right? Maybe put the pitcher down..?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:35 am
Sailor Walküre listened to all the conversations buzzing around her. You'd think that since her namesake were the Valkyries of lore that she'd know more about runes and magic. Frankly though, it was something she never studied. Her main study was how to put her fist in someone else's face.
Although, she was glad to find out that they were in a dreamland and not... you know... non-existent anymore. She checked off "trapped in Hell" on her mental list of options of what was going on. Her and Aquarius didn't get far enough along that road to find out the deal with this place. At least someone did though.
Glancing at the normal-looking boy, Walküre's ears perked up, "Did you say bear wrestling?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 12:08 pm
It only took about thirty seconds for Aquarius' claim to multitasking fame to be disproven. Even though Lyra had reached the bookcase first, the other senshi still managed to catch Aquarius completely by surprise. Not so much that she dropped what she was holding, but enough to make her stand a little straighter and turn around quickly to see who was hiding next to her.
"Oh." Relaxing slightly, Aquarius shrugged. "I thought it might be more of a history book-" which was the reason she wasn't touching it unless she had to- "but it could be that too. Either way, it might have information about the symbols on the doors."
Despite the other senshi's sensible suggestion, Aquarius continued to cling to the pitcher's handle. "I like holding it," she said simply. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to drop it, you know. Nothing's gonna happen."
"Et tu, Brute?" surely held the top position of Famous Last Words, but "nothing's gonna happen" had to be up there in the top five. Aquarius was too busy trying to get the book down to notice.
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:13 pm
[OOC: From this point onward, this is an open-ended puzzle. GM responses may not necessarily occur in "rounds," (i.e. only after all players have posted) but may be occur at any interval. Your 24-hour period will always start from the timestamp on the first thing I posted after your most recent post. That is:
2:15 pm - Ametrine posts
3:30 pm - Aquarius posts
4:45 pm - GM POST
5:00 pm Lyra posts
7:30 pm - GM POST
9:00 pm - Ametrine posts
In this example, Ametrine does not currently owe a post (she's waiting for a GM reply to her current non-passive action), Aquarius owes a post by 4:45 pm tomorrow, and Lyra owes a post by 7:30 pm tomorrow.]
The Living Room - Ametrine, Aquarius, Black Lady, Hector, Lyra, Marlo, Serandite, Walküre
They were all still in the -- well, the living room, they supposed, except that they got the feeling that "the dying room" might be more appropriate.
Walküre: By the kitchen drawers
There wasn't much in the drawer Walküre opened, other than some wooden spoons. One of the wooden spoons was particularly long.
Lyra and Aquarius: By the bookcase
Try as they might, Lyra and Ametrine couldn't quite reach the shelf with the books on it as they were -- it was just out of reach. They'd need to find a way to get a little higher up.
The amber-yellow book, so close and yet so seemingly far, taunted Aquarius. On its spine, it reminded her faintly of something she'd seen before: it looked vaguely like someone had watercolored flower blossoms or something similar on it.
Serandite and Black Lady: By the front door
The flat of the door was cold -- burningly cold. Serandite and Black Lady both had to draw their hands back the instant they touched it, and even so it seemed to have cost them a little bit of epidermis. If they'd touched it any longer than a fraction of a second, they could guess that their hands would each probably be stuck there, or worse. As it was, their palms and fingertips were in a bit of pain.
Marlo: Examining the doily
It was a pretty doily -- very white, with very delicate latticework, tiny threads and holes between them. If he squinted, Marlo could probably visualize a snowflake pattern somewhere in there, but there was nothing particularly overt, or even necessarily distinct. It was simply that all circular doilies tended to look basically similar in concept to paper snowflakes.
Ametrine: By the half-height door
Ametrine gently reached out to touch the door handle, which turned out to be unmarked, and was also harmlessly temperate to the touch. It was unlocked, in fact, when she gingerly tested the knob, but as she tried to open it, the door seemed to stick --
-- moreover, from somewhere on the other side of the door, there came a harsh growling, and at that she let go of the doorknob at once.
The half-door itself was mostly unmarked, other than a single, small sun carved into the wood -- but Ametrine began to realize all the wooden objects she'd seen had been marked with a little sun somewhere, hadn't they? Perhaps not a remarkable detail, then. The half-door also had a short ledge along the top, which was about chest-high and quite easy to view: in fact, quite easy to read, as there were words carved there in neat script:
Which makes the plants grow, the sun or the soil?
Now that she was standing right by the half-door, Ametrine could see that way lay beyond appeared to be some sort of conservatory, all walled in with glass. If she leaned over the top of the half-door a bit, she might be able to see what had growled at her. Something had growled at her, right?
----
All characters are still in the living room.
There are four points of exit here:
- the front door (locked)
- the closed door (unknown)
- the half-door (not locked, per se)
- the staircase
The following is a list of the items which were removed from your persons at some point and are now unaccounted for:
- the carved axe
- the smokewood basket
- the red cloak
- the truffles
- the red apples
- the green apples
- the pouch of symbols
- a few sticks
Otherwise you are as you would expect yourself to be.
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