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It was the most interesting question someone had asking him in a while. "Yes." He looked up from the doily. It was just a normal lace thing. He pocketed it once more. "Bear wrestling. It...Let's just say Hector and I were in the woods discussing our personal feelings on what should be done to those who kill and mutilate little girls." He said, swallowing back the sickness that edged in the corner of his mind. "If three bears killed the red maide- Oh god." He groaned. He'd made a connection. "Her hair was blond. Gold. Goldilocks and the three mother ******** bears."

He felt stupid. "We're not only in a dreamworld, we're in a ******** up children's story. This day just keeps getting better." He was cursing a lot now. He was sounding more like his brother. That idea alone seemed to make him calm down. "I don't suppose anyone knows a children's tale with a certain seasonal sorcerer?" Sarcasm. He moved.

As he was moving towards the 'living' chest, Marlo paused at the two senshi at the bookcase. He rolled his eyes. "Murphy's law. Take a bit of advice and set the water down when reaching for a book that is just out of reach. The last thing we need is an accident that might deprive us of possible clues that would aid in our escape." He seemed unimpressed, doubly so with both their attempts to reach it alone. Totem Pole's words echoed. ******** ravens and riddles. "You seem to have two problems with the same solution." If they hadn't been threatened with their lives he might have left it at that. Thankful, his life had been threatened. And he wasn't a riddle shitting raven. "Help her up." He didn't say who was the 'her' he was referring to was, but rather left it open ended. Part of him hoped it wasn't the one in the short skirt.

At the chest, Marlo gingerly pulled away the cloth covering. It was a moving chest. The hell if he knew what was in it.

"Its not like im going to take if from you." Lyra's eyebrows furrowed together at the other senshi's possessive streak of the pitcher of water. "If i was at all thirsty... i could probably get water from the sink over there." She pointed towards Serandite, whom was currently at the sink.

"These books are huge we are going to need all the manpower we can get to get one of them down." Hopefully the other senshi would get the hint that that meant BOTH hands were required. Lyra looked around at the voice- she recalled him calling himself Marlo. She nodded once at him- grateful that he was also suggesting the water be as far from the books as possible. "There are a few stories i can think of with a winter witch... There is Narnia and Snow queen.... those are the only two i can think of off the top of my head..."

She turned back to her original task. She sighed and tried to jump at the books once more- only to fail. She was just too short. Lyra looked back and forth between Marlo and the other senshi next to her. "Marlo, and.... I dont remember your name, sorry" She nodded at Aquarius. "You think we could lift one of us up and bring a book down? I would help you with the chest in return..." She said to Marlo- whom just took the cloth off it.

[[OOC: I didn't see the glasses Walkure had stashed in her cleavage on the list of items that are unaccounted for. Can you clarify if she has them or not so I know for future reference?]]

"FYI guys," Walkure said, "I would be all for wrestling a bear or three right now." Not that it mattered. They had a room to get out of first.

Opening the drawer, she was disappointed that all she found was the wooden spoons. She took the long spoon in case it would come in handy. Who knows, there could be a soup monster out there. That one was unsuccessful, but they all couldn't be that way. She opened another drawer. This one had better find something good in it or she was going to be upset. Someone would get this damn wooden spoon up their a**.

[GM NOTE: Correct, the glasses were not on the list because they are indeed still tucked into her cleavage. Well observed. <3]

What was it, pick on the Zodiac day? "Says the guy playing with a doily," Aquarius muttered, but set the pitcher down on the table. She looked slightly less grumpily at Lyra. "That's not what I meant." Not that anyone was even listening to her anymore. "Nevermind."

Two people seemed like enough for a simple book retrieval, but Aquarius stayed next to the two-person totem pole in case they realized that they needed her help. While she waited, she eyed the objects near her as best as she could without wincing. She couldn't focus for too long on the spinning wheel, knowing full well what parts of the body were strung on it like thread. The iron maiden was different. Blood wasn't so bad to look at, provided it wasn't spilling out of someone while she watched, and aside from splashes of crimson, it looked almost innocuous.

"Red," she murmured to herself. "Red Maiden, red blood, iron maiden." Maybe there was another Red Maiden in the house. Aquarius leaned closer to investigate the iron maiden further. If nothing else, it would be the last place anyone would look for something important.

"There is something behind this door," Ametrine said rather uselessly, her remark revealing nothing at all. But from the way that she had swiftly taken her hand off of the door knob, it was clear that her words meant something more than what they seemed to. "... Wait. What if the wolf is here, behind the door? What if he's her monster? I heard something growling behind the door." Was she in shock? Perhaps.

Her brain was still working, though, and she traced her fingers over the script, frowning deeply as she read it. "Which makes the plants grow, the sun or the soil?" But wait, there was more. She dismissed the sun carving as being unimportant, precisely because there were so many of them. Whatever they signified, it was not what she'd been looking for.

She leaned up slightly, peering over the half-door, trying to see what within the conservatory had growled at her.

The Living Room - Ametrine, Aquarius, Black Lady, Hector, Lyra, Marlo, Serandite, Walküre

They were all still in the living room.

Walküre: By the kitchen drawers

Walkure took the long wooden spoon with her. It might come in handy if they ran into any badgers that needed poking.

The second drawer down contained a number of spices, none of them too well organized -- if they had need for a particular herb, spice, or seasoning, they could probably find it here -- there really were quite a few of them -- but picking up spices aimlessly wasn't likely to be any use. None of them seemed to be labelled Use Me: I Am A Particularly Efficacious Contact Poison. Alas.


Lyra, Hector, Marlo and Aquarius: By the bookcase

Perched sturdily on Hector's shoulders, if Lyra was interested, she could now see the spines of all the books on the shelf in front of her. The amber-yellow book was heavy in her hands, but she took it without incident. It had more of the watercolor-wash pattern on its front cover.

With scientifically careful hands, Aquarius edged open the front of the iron maiden. On the inside, it was just as she might have expected -- huge, blood-encrusted spikes piercing the air where a body was meant to be placed. Peculiarly, this particular torture instrument was painstakingly handcrafted: even on the inside, it seemed to have been shaped to perfectly replicate the shell of a human body -- its mouth caught open in a shattering scream, its hands upraised in terror and surrender. She wouldn't want to climb in it and have a go, by any means, but otherwise it seemed to be a fairly straightforward device.

The dirty rag which Marlo picked up was still a dirty rag. It smelled like food -- probably a napkin. He could now fully see the locked box beneath it. It was wooden, the wood dotted with little carved suns, with a few tiny holes cut into two of the sides. It was too dark in the box to try and see what was within. At the lid of the box there was a single, small lock, that looked like it needed a small key.


Serandite: At the basin

It turned out not to be a sink after all, not in the way they'd been expecting. There was no faucet, no place where water might be dispensed -- just a big, ceramic tub with a single, narrow drain hole where water could escape once you managed to get it. The only water on hand appeared to be what was in Aquarius's pitcher, so far -- but Serandite's palm wasn't stinging so badly anymore. The basin had a filmy layer of scum forming a ring around the edges; it obviously hadn't been given a thorough cleaning in some time.


Ametrine: By the half-height door

Ametrine, peeking over the door, could see a very large, very testy-looking hound glaring back at her. It growled out a warning at her again.


Black Lady: By the front door

[Under the activity requirements for this zone (non-passive action required), Black Lady has died. She will fall into a deeper coma for the duration of Tartaros, and wake up at the conclusion of the plotline. Please PM me if there are any questions.]

As she'd suggested, Black Lady picked up the coat tree next to the door. She wedged it against the door to see if she could pry the door open with a bit of leverage, and began to lean her weight down against it. While she was doing this, a rush of frost quickly spread its way across the beam of the tree and then, like a parasite, over Black Lady herself. It was numbing -- and then she paled till she was excruciatingly winter-white, toes to clothes to hair -- and then the coat tree and the girl herself both fluttered down to the ground speck by speck, now nothing but loose piles of white snow. The floor darkened as the snow on it began to melt away.

At least it seemed painless. At least it was -- they fervently hoped, whether for her sake or for their own -- probably only a dream.

----

All remaining characters are still in the living room.

There are four points of exit here:
- the front door (locked, warded)
- the closed door (unknown)
- the half-door (not locked, per se)
- the staircase

Aquarius flinched as she looked inside the iron maiden, shutting it again with a grimace still on her face. That was a waste of time, and a rather unpleasant one at that. It probably was the last place anyone would look, but it was also the last place the Witch would choose to hide something. At least, it looked that way.

Since she was standing nearby, she was somewhat ready for Lyra to drop the book. A warning would have been nice, though. "What do you think I'm standing here for?" she muttered, trying to catch the book before it hit the floor. "If these are old," she said more clearly, "it might not be a good idea to drop them and potentially cause damage."

That was Aquarius' valid point, but in truth, her curiosity was the driving force behind her actions. If she could catch it, she could look at the book's contents before anyone else.

Serandite was at the sink (could one call it a sink?) wondering for a split second as to why there was no faucet. (It would explain the lack of cleaning of bloodstains all over the floor.) She was going to agree with Usagi, the girl going forth with the plans.

Any hope of going through that door came to an abrupt end. Usagi's body crumbled into snow, the (seemingly) true meaning of "protection" the witch had termed the door hit Serandite painfully. She had rushed over the minute that Black lady paled, as if reaching her in time might have saved her. But pushing through the occupants from the room and crossing the room--by the time she had reached her, what was left of Usagi was melting snow.

"W-Well, that advice would have been helpful sooner dumbass." Serandite snapped at Marlo, her angry outburst derived from the fact that it had to happen to Black Lady before they could reach that conclusion. Even if it was a dreamworld, it was the reality in front of her. She pounded a fist into the wet ground, tears watering the rim of her eyes, refusing to fall. It was stupid of her to have even gotten a little attached-- she was a negaverse agent-- but that's who Serandite was. The captain who nobody expected anything from except naivete and childish desires.

But even her mind worked quickly-- in the bigger scheme of things, all of them would die if they didnt find a way out. Soon. Now. Just like Black Lady, unable to do anything.

"T-The greenhouse outside.. Would that be the field of the green king?" Serandite spoke hesitantly, trying to regain her broken composure. "Or maybe she hid the key to the locked box around here?" Serandite walked slowly over to the spices, shaking the spices as if it might hold a key inside. (It was one hiding spot.) "Did anyone else see a key where they searched? It could be anywhere." After all, whatever was in the box had some importance if it had been locked up right?