Anarion

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

Awww, Timmy attacking with your shadow? That's so not...normal

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

W.W.H.D.: Obviously, in this situation, princess Hornet would pull out her trusty vine de-tanglizer, or perhaps her always consistent safety cat extraction device, or...or at least her rocket boots.

Oh...oh bother, oh dear, her backpack had nothing but Labazaaar buttons and labazaar pinwheels, and some Labazaar desert spice scented bubble bath but none of these were...were any of the things that she needed. Oh no, she had to do something, Kyouko was clinging to her and screaming but she had drowned that out 2.37 seconds ago, but she couldn't tune out Alina being captured! She could make a rush for the apples and try to save them all, it was the rational play. An IEM would make a beeline for an Alina in trouble, abandoning her apple rush and leaving a wide opening for Kathelia. But...but Alina was in danger and she was missing her lights! That little light there seemed so agitated too. Looking through her trusty Labazaar brand® spyglass (price tag still hanging off of it) Kathelia thought that the little light seemed practically antsy on top of its tree-column, like it was trying to break out of there and rush to Alina, but it just couldn't.

***
Somewhere far away and long ago now, a princess landed her Pegasus in an open field where a purple-haired princess was dancing by a gentle stream. She didn't want to scare the princess away and...you've heard this story right? They met, they agreed that Oberon was the worst, they started to fight together, but no listen. That purple-haired princess, she looked so graceful. Where she danced with her little lights, it was like the flowers could bear her weight, so light and beautiful was her step. Kazelia had watched those flowers freeze in her home and she'd heard a song in her heart for the first time in such a long time. The little embers of fire in her heart had just started to glow and when she saw Alina dancing there, she had to land. She had to approach her because...because she just couldn't help it! She didn't know how to say it back then, how to say that she was seeing something special, how to tell this little Illuminan how perfectly she moved and how her love for the land and the water were bursting out of her and through her lights and warming Kazelia's heart from far away. It made Kazelia burn that Oberon had stabbed her, and that fueled those fires too.

There had been many people Kazelia had promised to protect. Even a dragon (despite her insistence she didn't need it) and the Sun, and a goddess, and her own sisters, and she'd even shed a tear for an automaton that looked like her. But Alina had been the first. The first friend. The first one that Kazelia would protect, no matter what happened.

***

She's in the air before she can really think about it, which is good because if she had thought about it, she'd have started hyperventilating. Aerial acrobatics were for Alina, or Esmeralda Thunderbolt! Not book worms like Kathelia! But, funny, she was already in the air and her Labazaar bag was sailing from her shoulders, even as Kyouko gazed up as her mouth agape. Her super awesome unicorn spear was blazing, twin arcs of flame swirling and entwining around it and sparkling with rainbow colors. It almost looked like a little miniature fire Caduceus. She didn't land elegantly, it was more like a skinned knee though her thick overalls did a pretty good job cushioning the blow and her spear was already charring vines around the crown of Argossa as she started sweeping at all the traps stretching to meet her. One of the manticore gardeners tried to fly up close and Kathelia's flames leaped at the manticore and pushed her back with singed paws. That got a lot of attention. Sure they could drag away a tied up princess anytime, but a crazy princess hacking and slashing at the statue of Argossa and scaring off the gardeners? That needed immediate attention. Unfortunately for them, Kathelia was hacking and slashing with a goal: she jammed her spear against the statue encasing that little red light, and her magic too, sending off sparkles and lights doing everything she could to crack the stone and pry that little light free. Was she imagining it, or was it pushing from the other side too?

[rolling to keep the garden traps busy 5+1+2=8. Time bought and all attention on Kathelia (and red free I hope), but there will be some kind of retaliation at the end. Alina is at an advantage.]

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

Annalee freaks the hell out and grabs Timmy to sprint for the exit. This just got extremely real and she is out of there.

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

CREEP
WHIPPED
TRUANT

"We're done talking" she says, pulling Timmy forcefully by the arm towards the door. She's not turning her back on you, Samael but she is leaving so long as he doesn't try to pull away. She is leaving right now, pulling Timothy as fast as he'll move, keeping one hand raised and ready, and moving herself out to the library where there are other students, where you might have a reputation to uphold you see.

She's not sure if that's a gambit worth making, but she's hoping that Samael will treat dragging her back to him again with a level of difference if he's performing in front of an audience than he did when they were alone and he attacked her. If he comes ravaging after them in the library proper, it will turn noisy. There will be shouting in tongues and books flying every which way perhaps, and ideally Timmy screaming like a tiny girl. If that happens, which anyone with half an ounce of discretion would know and therefore avoid.

Really that's the ideal, this confrontation should be put off. Annalee needs a few moments alone with her things for the day. No Elodie dropping in unannounced, no being flung out of towers by a werewolf, and no vampire bypassing her magical wards. For a witch, a little time alone is power, after all.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

W.W.H.D.: When faced with a series of sudden developments accompanied by "friendship" Princess Hornet of course gladly accepts this friendship. Typically, in such a situation, she would choose to celebrate such an occasion by demonstrating one or more of her inventions suited to the purpose (outside the boundaries of Jedad where nobody will immediately jump out and tackle any control devices out of her hands before any buttons could be pressed).

Kathelia digs in her new Labazaar backpack with her hands free, but the closest she can find to an appropriately celebratory device is a Labazzar labeled party noisemaker that you pop and that shoots out a tiny caduceus. Since this is the best she has, she pulls it out and releases it in the area between herself, Kyouko, and Alina, to the extent that she can triangulate the position appropriately accounting for both weather conditions and current hug status.

With the appropriate celebratory act completed, she takes the opportunity to properly hug Alina. She hasn't seen her friend since the strange Labyrinth started, except in fleeting moments of the competitive games when Alina appeared either stalemated or a fleeting and untouchable dream and just it's been a while:

"Alina!" she shouts and throws herself, backpack and trinkets and all around her friend, even if her voice comes out less as a shout and more as her nerdy voice breaking sniffling sound that she's almost gotten used to (and that Kyouko blessedly hasn't complained about so far). "I'm glad you're okay!" Then because the better social niceties are beyond her, she immediately starts calculating based on Alina's final question with barely a breath. "Well, the ideal approach would be via flight, but it appears that Eupheria has carefully disabled all modes of access to airborne transportation and I don't particularly have the tools for that. One presumes that not waking the dragon is the most ideal outcome of course, since a victory using the fewest resources is most ideal, so shattering the wall would be out of the question. Some kind of suck device perhaps, combined with something to suppress sound ought to at least get us past the first obstacle..."

[I did not miss my Look Closely roll, 4+4=8. So
1. Is something hidden our out of place? If so, what looks suspicious?
2. Tell me about the sleeping dragon, how could it hurt me? How could it help me?
3. Tell me about Momma up there on the hill. What is she doing? what will she do next?
One answer will be the hard way.]

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

W.W.H.D. (What would Hornet Do): As everyone knows, Hornet is the coolest, bestest princess in all of Hyperborea. She's smart and inventive and Kathelia hopes to one day be as good as Hornet at making stuff, but she knows she'll have to do lots of homework first before she can even get close to building real-life automatons and castle rockets and stuff. But in the meantime, Kathelia has realized (as she has been dragged before a ridiculous kangaroo court) that she can at least do her best to emulate her hero in every way possible as they make their way through the bazaar. Unfortunately, she lacks a goblin contract to set this agreement into proper and effective legalese, but lacking that she knows that by silently agreeing to the Bazaar's demands despite their unfair trial, she will be able to accomplish one (1) or more of the following objectives
1) focus more precisely on considering the magic system in the dungeon without worrying about her surroundings, since she has such kind gremlins to carry her and Kyouko along
2) avoid distractions that would get in the way of her brainstorming thanks to the friendly gags provided by the market
3) Help craft inspiration through physical sensation, which the market is providing thanks to all this new clothing and gear they're giving her including an "I <3 Labyrinth Bazaar" backpack, cap, and a t-shirt that says "I fell through the Labazaar and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" as well as through the paddling, which is very focusing and helpful for staying awake and ensuring that she won't doze off later.

So, even though Kyouko, for some strange reason, is squirming and shouting into her gag (and from Kathelia's sharp gaze also using that melodramatic cover and her pompoms to work on slowly pickign at the ropes around her hands with her little claws), Kathelia is enduring this in stoic silence. Well, she may be yelping into her gag each time she gets hit, but that's a reflex and she's just using those to keep time as she tries to focus her mind. Objective accomplished: door open. Next labyrinth zone analysis soon to start. Curse analysis ongoing and "mmmmrrrrph" that one really hurt, but that's fine, even if maybe some centaurs are a little overzealous in their physical focus increasement activities.

[Kathelia will accept her clothing and spanks without running.]

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

A part of Kathelia is thrilled at this turn of events. Kyouko was cutting the metaphorical Gordion knot here (hopefully not the real one though, that poor gremlin!). Hogarth's House of Hot Hams was still on the right side up part of the market, so they weren't even halfway through, never mind the backtracking. Just on this block alone there was Charlie's Checkered Cheeses and Marybelle's Mystical Menagerie and Merry-go-round, which had keys attached to some of the horses and required checking. (No Kathelia wasn't disappointed that this turn of events might mean she wouldn't get to ride the merry-go-round, shut up internal brain voice.)

Another part of her was feeling sad though. A whole mixed bundle of sadness. She liked this part of Eupheria's weird labyrinth. Her nightmare creatures were...well, not really that nightmarish. More outlandish than the typical Hyperborean resident, but compared to everything out there in the universe, they were perfectly fine. They were running shops here, doing business, being friendly. Kathelia felt like she was back in Jedad. The scents of exotic spices tickled her nose and even the cheese looked like it was flavored with some kind of spicy peppers, a big wheel outside the shop had little flecks of red running through it like tiny spicy grains of sand. Even if Eupheria personally was being a total meanie-head, that didn't mean all her creatures were all the time. They had a life and independence of their own, which really shouldn't have been that surprising. Eupheria was creative. Mean, as established, but she was obviously putting her heart and soul into all of this, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that her creations had heart and soul all their own.

"Kyouko, don't!" she shouted, as loud as she could manage through her braces and everything else. Ugh, why was this curse so frustrating? She was starting to see the shape of it though. The Caduceus was a reality warper, it changed the terrain, but that was a surface level thing (she tried not to smile at her own pun). It seemed like what it was really doing was changing the role of things according to the bearer's will. Eupheria saw Kathelia's role as a know-it-all and so it shaped her slowly but surely into that role as Eupheria saw it for her theater. It shaped Alina into the role of the cat that she was playing and Adila to the dog. Even a whole bazaar shifted towards Eupheria's imaginings and the creatures she made to fill it were filling holes in her imagination, making the place according to her vision.

It was breathtaking, addictive in a way that Kathelia could appreciate as she started to understand Ourania's warning. Even someone of the purest intentions couldn't help but think of the ways that everyone around her ought to fit into the way she imagined them. It was the nature of every being with a mind to do it. Perhaps the Caduceus had once been safe for some devil grandmother who was already used to the world being mutable to her will and had the iron focus to live in that manner. She almost laughed though. For Oberon, oh for Oberon it would be nothing. Worse than nothing. He, of all people in the grand and vast universe could not conceive of anything acting beyond his control. If he held the Caduceus, the world would turn to icy stillness anywhere that he didn't immediately focus. She'd have to tell Azora, she wondered if Daddy's little girl would be so eager knowing that even she would be lost the second his attention strayed from her.

And none of this was solving her immediate problem at all! But, it was helping. It was helping her focus and see the inhabitants of the labyrinth bazaar differently. As people. She turned to look at the centaur and the little gremlins. "I'll...I'll sthtop my friend from hurting anyone. Don't worry, okay? She's jutht cranky because it'th hot and we're worried. Your mathter, she's changing uth in wayths that we don't like, that hurt uth. I know she made you all thith wonderful plathe, and I bet you really enjoy her showth too, right? I don't want to change that. I jutht want to save my friendth and help her too. I think Eupheria ith really hurting. Tho...uh...do you think you could...maybe...help uth find our way patht the next door and I'll get Kyouko to sthop making thilly threatth?"

[Talk Sense with Wisdom: Alas 1+3+1=5. And the curse advances again.]

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Oh no. A trading quest! Kathelia hated trading quests. They were sooooo boring. You had to play errand girl to everyone and their mother. First one place, then the other, then backtrack, then backtrack again, on and on and on. It felt too much like what her sisters wanted her to be doing. And beyond that it took forever and there wasn't any challenge or strategy to it! You just had to look everywhere, talk to everyone, and write it all down and eventually you'd figure out who to talk to for each thing you needed until you got your ultimate result, which was a bunch of stupid keys in this case.

Kathelia just put her head in her hands and leaned on Kyouko for support as she despaired at this.
[Look closely: 3+2=5. Miss. My question is "What will happen if I systematically talk to each merchant and ask about the keys for the door?" I find out the hard way. Also the curse advances.]

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

She really didn't expect Kyouko to react this way. Kathelia is blushing furiously! She's never been this purple in her life! Her glasses are so steamy that she can barely see, her long white hair is all tangled up, one of the bands on the pigtails seems to be coming loose and bits are tangled in Kyouko's fur and the fox puts both arms (pompoms and all) around Kathelia and hugs her tightly as she buries her in kisses. It's a special kind of heaven, one that she never thought was hers to have.

As the fireworks are going off and the pompoms are shaking very fast, Eska is busy trying to set up every crystal in the room to show that she will NOT be ignored. This, the analytical side of Kathelia is saying to herself, is a mistake. One crystal laser is annoying, and it takes power to deflect. It would eventually disrupt Kathelia and Kyouko. A couple at a time might even speed that up, make it more difficult to deflect, up the math requirement perhaps. But Eska isn't doing that. She's furious at being ignored. She could have just gone for the head start through the maze, but she has to have attention and so she's wound herself up and up and up until she's trying to show off by causing every laser and crystal formation in the room to bounce, refract, and focus on Kathelia and Kyouko in one fell swoop. And that's silly of her because trying to concentrate all that power means that if just one little thing goes wrong, it will blow up in her face.

[Finish with doom: 6+3+2=11]

It only takes that little bit of shifting. Kathelia watches the lasers coalesce out of the corner of her eye. Leans into Kyouko, buries her head in that soft, soft neck fur and nuzzles her, and as she's looking to the side, she waives a hand and the last crystal near Eska shifts out of alignment. All that laser energy comes together and oops, there's no focusing lens to send it at Kathelia and Kyouko! Eska might realize what's happening, but it's too much energy too late for her to get out of the way. Instead it has to release somewhere and that happens right where she is in a big glittery crystal laser explosion! Victory for the heroes!

Slowly, Kathelia and Kyouko extricate themselves from each other. They do need to breathe, and they are still trapped and cursed in a maze. They can't just sit here forever, much as they'd like to. It's been a few minutes though. The crystals are mostly exhausted and there's a hole blown in the wall. Kathelia finally does look over at Eska, who seems to be out for the count here, her clothing a slightly smoking swirl of rainbow patterns as the laser explosion impacted her.

"Well," she says, pulling her glasses down. "I'd thay the flaw in your plan wath crythtal...uh wait. Technically, a flaw ith the part of the crythtal that ithn't clear so...the flaw would be cloudy but...argh, no that'th no good! The crythal ith clear! Which meanth we can thee the flaw, stho I mean, your plan wath clearly bad! And it had lotth of flawth, which meanth it wathn't really clear at all! Your plan wath a...um...a cloudy crystal...er...I gueth?"

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Eska!!!!!

Never has Kathelia been more angry at her sister. Not the time she blew up an entire room of equipment in Kathelia's face. Not the time she covered Kathelia's saddle with an invisible glue that made it impossible to get off of her pegasus. Not even the time she trapped Kathelia and Cassian in a crushing wall room just to see how they'd act when literally forced into each other's arms.

She and Kyouko were HAVING. A. MOMENT.

Well, you know what, too bad. Too bad Eska. Kathelia wasn't the same sister she was before and she doesn't care one bit about crystal lasers right now. For once, sister, you can just sit there and be ignored because everyone else in the room is busy right now. Maybe she'll realize that other people are important for once and she doesn't need to be the center of attention all the time. What? A girl can hope.

Kathelia puts up a hand, just one. The other one is still around Kyouko, wrapped around her shoulders, nestled in the small of her back to hold her weight, pressing her uniform gently into her fur with the center of her palm. The crystal shimmers, the laser fires, and it parts around the raised hand. Kathelia's magic reflecting and refracting it. There's a rainbow. Eska might not be sure if it's from the crystal light refracting around that hand or if Kathelia is adding the effect to go with her general glittery hearts aesthetic.

[Overcome: 4+4+1=9. The effect is temporary, but that's good enough.]

Kathelia leans forward and uses the hand on Kyouko's back to pull her close. Her glasses are unsteady and her overalls too tight, but she doesn't care right now. She's acting on an instinct that's deeper than Eupheria's curse. She pulls Kyouko close, and she breathes, maybe even hyperventilates a little, but she takes in that autumn scent with its hints of cinnamon and lets herself dream for a moment. Then she gives her fox a kiss. It's a gentle kiss. A little tentative. She's not as experienced as Alina and Rita at this sort of thing. It's probably a little chilly too, she's still got that Rider void within her. She presses the very center of her lips to Kyouko's, so there's just the hint of a touch. Pulls her a little closer, lets the sensation spread out, just a bit further. She parts her lips ever so slightly, lets out a breath, feels the warmth and the cold mix and tingle and come back to her and just holds the moment.

She knows this is the last moment she gets out of this. The analytical side of her brain is already starting to whir, her inner voice calculating the angle that she could deflect the crystal beam (she did super great on her trig homework, just so you know), but she gets this moment and nobody, but NOBODY is going to take it away.