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"WHAT THE ******** ********?" Devi screamed at the chaos, providing helpful words. Devi was on edge, and now that the Giant John had punched Giant Corvus while Regular-Sized Devi was still regular sized without consideration of her being crushed to death, she had gone off the edge and into the magical world of Saying ******** A Lot. "I swear to ******** God you two don't ******** punch each other while I'm a ******** tiny little thing or I will climb up your ******** leg hairs and gouge out your eyes. Work the ******** together and get us out of here before our brains are pressed into ******** pancakes!"

And out came the anger and washed the fright out. Devi exhaled. Ah, that felt better. A nice release of emotions. She sure missed her diary at a time like this.

"Sorry," Devi said, slightly embarrassed. She then flashed an insincere smile at them and went back to inspecting the refilled bottle as if nothing had just happened.

Corvus's moment of shock at her powerlessness was just the break in movement Perry needed to reach out and snatch the potion: without another second of hesitation he took the purple bottle from her belt, and waited for Polaris to pull him out of harm's potential way before he uncorked the bottle and drank down its contents.

"Ugh, this is shitty booze," he remarked, a sour expression on his face while he waited for the whiskey-potion to do its magic. Or its poisoning, whatever case.

He really hoped it was the first thing.

For Van:

The cloth untangled itself from the key, leaving only a scrap left -- it was old, faded blue silk or satin, some kind of cloth with a shiny smooth outside and a rougher inside with the warp threads showing. It was discoloured a little, but it was definitely blue and definitely still cloth, shiny with age. There were a few old coffee-brown dots on it of blood.

For Devi:

The empty white potion bottle filled with clear, sparkling water. No traces of the potion remained. She now had a water bottle, and could hydrate herself, others, or food items.

For Corvus:

The key only turned so far in the lock -- about a five-minute slice on the twelve-hour clock of the keyhole before it met lock and wouldn't move any more. What was interesting, however, was that all of the keys in all of the big doors had jolted as she tried to turn hers, as though they were -- connected, somehow?

For Perry:

The Jack Daniels purple potion went down his throat like lightning. Before he left, he could have brushed his teeth with it, if he planned on leaving for the night without returning. Much like with the other potions, nothing happened for a few moments.

Then his skin started tingling like mad. It was as though he had been rubbed all over with a particularly virulent brand of Icy Hot, and every hair on his scalp felt as though it was being sucked back into his head. As the rest of them watched, Doctor Westerman started to shrink, lower and lower until a Barbie doll would have appeared as an Amazon to him and he was doll-sized to Devi. To the giants he was even tinier. Their voices were thunder now, and his own was small to Devorah and a squeak to them. The potion bottle dropped from his grip.

He could now fit in the small door.

[Polaris, John, Vanessa and Corvus all can see movement in the ceiling. Perry cannot make out the ceiling. It is dropping. You have four more turns.]

Polaris and Van are bleeding lightly. There are three broken bottles and six empty bottles. There is Europa's corpse covered by a sash. Van has a piece of blue cloth. Devi and Corvus hold a bottle of clear water each. Four potions remain.

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

Drunk potions:

Red
Blue
Teal
Black
Beige
Purple

Spilled:

Puce
White

Remaining:

Yellow
Pink
Green
Orange

You may still:

take
investigate
uncork
drink
recork
empty
fill

"Wine?" Devi questioned. She hadn't thought of that - she didn't know the slightest thing about the process of making the drink. Curious, she moved over the cabinet and placed the white bottle of water on the ground in a safe distance from her feet. She then took the green bottle and examined it at an arm's length distance. Perhaps it was wine, and perhaps that would shrink Devi just like the other liquor shrank Dr. Westerman.

Devi looked at the body of Europa, lying in the puddle of her own blood. Would that be her? Devi wasn't a daredevil, she was far from it. She wasn't prone taking risks, especially anything that could put her life in grave danger. She was far too worrisome of getting hurt, hell, she was afraid of riding a bicycle - she might fall and injure herself.

But if she didn't drink, then what? She needed to help the group, that ceiling was falling and would collapse onto them any minute now. It wasn't the time to be afraid, it was the time to take action. Make that leap of faith and--

Devi uncorked the green bottle and drank.

And for once, Devorah Gellner took a risk.

John's words played a loop through her mind, although she paid them little attention. Her focus was on her hands; the source of a power that should have tossed him away from her. Fear, panic, hopelessness. There were so many things that Corvus could have been feeling, yet deep down there was only loss; an empty void where there should have been a well of power and determination.

This was not her. This was not who she was. She did not give up or give in. She was missing something, and whatever it was she knew it was the key...

"The key." She turned away from John, away from Polaris and Van. "The key!" It was an odd way of saying 'Eureka!' for the senshi as her fingers grasped at the key she had just fiddled with it. "When I turned this one, those ones... Did you see?" Corvus looked over her shoulder, not even certain that anything she said now would warrant any attention from the others. "Do you think they'd turn if we went at it all at once? Four of us, four of them..."

((Thanks for the size clarification Rose heart ))

"No! No wa.....it" -Her voice squeaked as the one she'd assumed was going to be the middle man tipped back the green bottle, her voice drowning out before she could finish the second word. DAMNIT. Damn it all!

Even if the potion did as they thought the results could be disasterous. Now there was noone to let the giants know where the tiny people were. The likelihood of accidentally bug squashing them was high in the slowly shrinking cavern. And even if they weren't squashed if they were both the size of dolls how long would it take for their tiny legs to even get across the room to the tiny doors!? Probably longer then it took for the spikes to crack through their giant heads. Heaven forbid they needed to communicate and do something with both sets of doors at once! Devi was supposed to carry Mr Perry over to the doors. Supposed to relay messages back and forth.

Why wasn't anyone listening to her!? Why did all of her suggestions go completely ignored and unheard. A wave of despair washed over Polaris, of complete and utter helplessness. Her eyes touched the cloth that she knew hid Europa's body.

She couldn't tell if Mr Perry was there anymore in her gigantic hands, so she carefully slide them apart, leaving something of an angled slide that, if he was still there, would hopefully deliver him safely to the ground, holding her hands still like that for a long moment just in case. And then she stood, stretching her foot as far away as she could before she placed it gingerly down. One tiptoed step after another until she stood in front of one of the large doors.

Her hand firmly grasped the doorknob and she was just about to try and turn and jerk on the stupid thing in desperation. Maybe even just jiggle the stupid door to make sure. To see if it was even a door on hinges or if it was all just some sick joke. Fake wood built into a rock wall to distract them from the real exit. She gritted her teeth, fingers sliding from the door knob as Corvus spoke. It wouldn't hurt to try the keys once.. they had enough time.

Polaris waited at her door, fingers sliding onto the key, watching the others and waiting for the right moment to turn the key in synchronization with the others.-

It was like a warmer, bumpier version of those larger inflatable emergency slides that were sometimes used to get people out of places -- after somewhat ungracefully falling onto his back in Polaris's tilted hand he slid straight towards the floor, caterwauling an inch or two towards the wall before fully regaining his footing. From there he opted to hug the wall as closely as possible and get to his target from there. He couldn't be certain how well Devi or the giants could see him at his current size, where bits of dust looked the size of housecats, and figured staying away from the open floor would be the best execution of better-safe-than-sorry.

Carefully, but as quickly as he could manage, he went to inspect the door he had been looking at before, paying careful attention to the key and making an attempt to turn it in its keyhole.