Scene Listing

||

Scene Schedule

||

Scene Schedule RSS

Owner	Pose
Rita Ma	The 'backstage' of Cinniuint is always a little surreal. Paladins support staff wave you through a staging area to a waiting room, where you're plied with coffee and donuts by casually starstruck office workers who chatter amongst themselves. Once everyone's arrived, you're ushered through the entry warpgate--      --and emerge from a window-portal into the Shop Area rather than the Grand Hall of before.      BGM: https://youtu.be/r9jGvaEWEeM      Like last time, it's a room of cozy, cool-colored stone, with a bluish glow seeping through its portal-windows. It mingles with warm candlelight spilling from the open wooden doors of the comfy fantasy convenience store adjoining the lounge.      While the Grand Hall is a 'progress hub', this is a 'shortcut hub'. But most of the shortcut windows are blocked by blue-white branching... coral?? Roots?? Despite looking organic, they're clearly an intentional fixture. Sequence breaking remains enticingly forbidden.      Right now only two windows are unblocked: the one to the Grand Hall, and the one to the Dungeons you just emerged from, both fancifully depicting their destinations in stained glass.      ROYAL CONSIGNER'S GENERAL SHOP - OPEN!!      New things daily! I hope it makes you happy!      RULE 1: No fighting      RULE 2: No stealing      RULE 3: Respect the castle's integrity      Inside, once again, the floorboards creak and the bell rings. And once again- "Oh! It's you!"- the Royal Consigner and definitely-not-vampire, Miss Ritescu rises to wave at you. Her little black-and-red cloak flounces as she stands, and her white ruffled shirt is slightly dribbled with juices from the steak tartare she's enjoying on the shop counter. She hurriedly slides it off to the side, embarrassed.
Rita Ma	"Did you vanquish the heroine?! Great job, everyone! Was there some kind of 'trick' after all? Oh, sorry- if you're hurt, sit over there and the nurse will be with you shortly!" She motions at the little curtained medical alcove to the side. 'The nurse' will of course be her, but quickchanged into a cute nurse outfit.      (The few days you've had off from the simulation are more than enough time for the half-real bruises Dylan might've given you to fade, though.)      Mundane adventuring gear like lamps and ropes, common pseudo-medieval necessities, souvenirs, and snacks are heaped on the potted-plant-decorated shelves, all for (the local equivalent of) insignificant pocket change (put your stained-glass petals in the big jar!). The good stuff is behind the counter, though, and it costs.      Holy Water      There's probably ghosts somewhere! It stings me, though.      2I      Dullahan Disguise      But you'd have to remove your head, so...      1I4H      Mirror Shield      Almost as tough as stained glass! Plus, always look your best!      1L      Premium Grappling Hook      Automatically reels you in! Maybe you'll need it for a puzzle later!      1L2l      Homemade Seaweed Soup      Keep your energy up!      2H      Homemade Yangnyeom-Gejang      Spicy raw crab, but be careful!      1F2H      Jewelled Cog      I don't really understand, but it looks important.      6L      A full Hydrangea flower is worth one Forget-me-Not petal; a full Forget-me-Not flower is worth one Iris petal, and so on through Lotus and Lily; the exponential denominations mean that, having beaten Dylan, the group can juuuust afford the Jewelled Cog (though it'll eat up most of their collective budget). It has the feeling of a progression item, or maybe a puzzle-boss solution, though convention says shop items are never mandatory.      Surely nobody would shoplift from little innocent vampire Ritescu.      When the group's done with their purchasing, they can travel via window into the Grand Hall, with its stately stone, imposing god-rays through high windows lighting a beautiful indoor garden. But the enormous doors with the tower motif are still sealed, and the winched elevator down to the basement has had its challenge overcome.
Kale Hearthward	Kale had to miss the last simulation due to scheduling conflicts. Thankfully there's shortcuts to catch him up to the rest of the group. He's drawn to the Dullahan Disguise, and it has to be pointed out to him that, no, removing his head is a non-workable requirement. "Well - do we have enough for the cog *and* for some extra snacks?" he says, as though he hadn't just arrived from outside the simulation and presumably had more than enough time and opportunities to fill up his mundane supplies there, as well as to eat. "So - the cog, and a serving of crab, to go," he asks, as though he was around to help gather the petals he's partially commandeering for his takeout meal. > <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "We could totally behead Qetra if we need to. She doesn't even have brains, I've seen in there." "Oh! Or - actually, idea!" "Okay! Everyone, your attention please! I've got a new thing to show off. If we need to use the Dullahan Disguise, I've got..." Kale focuses. "I've got..." "..." He puts two fingers to his temple, and his other hand outstretched, palm down and fingers spread, like he's seen psychonauts do. "I've just - okay, warmed up, now watch... ... I can just..." "..." Nothing's happening. Nothing continues to happen. "..." "Uh - the... conditions must not be right for it. Nevermind!" He tries to play it off. --- Once outside the shop, back in the Grand Hall, Kale reaches out with his sixth sense, trying to figure out... well, where to go next. By trying to get a sense of where nearby people are. It's ersatz divination at best, and leaning a bit too much on the meta elements of the simulation here as well. Wherever they're *supposed* to go, there should be more activity there, right? More people/monsters/souls? Or maybe *less* people than before, as whoever's behind the scenes setting things up would have cleared out of the next area in anticipation of the party going through.
Timespace Riders	Backstage, Woz preens in the starstruck energy quietly present among the workers--not for his own sake, but for Sougo's. Sougo, dressed in an oversized violet button-up, rolled blue jeans with a pink striped lining, a vibrant pair of lavender socks and his distinctive Timbs, bashfully accepts coffee and donuts. --- ROYAL CONSIGNER'S GENERAL SHOP     "Hail to you, shopkeeper," says Woz, indulging her with a hand over his heart and a bow at the waist.     "Hey, Miss Ritescu," Sougo enthusiastically offers with an animated wave just barely constrained enough to be appropriate for 'indoors and a few feet away' rather than 'excitedly from across the street.' >Was there some kind of 'trick' after all?     "Mm!" Sougo's head bobs in the affirmative, his auburn locks bouncing slightly. "Thanks for the advice, by the way!"     Woz peers at the cog, then opens that curious book of his and begins intently perusing its seemingly blank pages. Convention also says that adventurers are cheapskates, so this will need some convincing.     The retainer clears his throat. "If I may," he begins, turning to face 'everyone, generally,' "After consulting with this book, I must request that we pool our funds and purchase the Jewelled Cog." Woz's free hand lifts in a grandiloquent gesture of palm-out concern-amelioration, his lips pursed. "I realize that you may be reticent to part with your petals, for they were hard won, but I assure you the Cog is well worth the investment."
Petra Soroka	<J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "But we have to get the cog!! We'll totally regret it if we don't get that. So buck up everyone, I'm gonna buy it."     Petra would never purchase a consumable healing or damage item, or an item that makes challenges 'easier', or a temporary buff, or anything like that. Investing money into instances of easier traversal isn't her style at all, even though she'll happily scrounge around for random miscellany to add to Qetra's collection of garbage.     No, there's one thing here that could unlock additional *content*. Missable content is an irresistible lure, and the knowledge that she could accidentally leave some of Lilian's lovingly-crafted world unseen because some idiots wanted a stupid disguise or a potion to resist black holes, or anything like that, it absolutely unacceptable. This cog surely unlocks some kind of special interaction, and that's a page in the compendium that Petra can't leave blank.     Which means Petra is going around to everyone with her cutesy little leather bag (purchased when passing through a small down in the Western Isles, used only for this) pulled open, demanding that they dump their petals in so that she can pool the money together. If no one objects strenuously, then she'll excitedly pour it out on the counter and ask Ritescu for the cog, and if they do object, then she'll get into an argument about it. "Did you vanquish the heroine?!"     "Hey, Ritescu!" It's a little weird that Petra is so easily capable of using Rita's stage name without a hitch, while always fumbling a bit with Liliana at first. "I'm actually really good at vanquishing heroines. Like, I've done it a lot, so I would've been great doing-- it's just a little dumb that I'm over here, doing this, but it's fine."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan is sipping coffee and TRYING to look up tarot cards on his tablet as he is having an argument with some of the staff. "Wind magic is super useful! I can lift stuff, I can move stuff, I can hurl attacks, and I can make walls, it's really great! Just because I don't have a weapon anymore!" He finishes the coffee, washes the cup, then puts the cup in his bag. As soon as he touches down in the progress hub, Aidan leaps forward towards the shop, moving at a full gallop. His adventuring backpack jingles and jangles as he bounds. Tail twitching excitedly, bouncing up and down with every little step until he's in the shop. Immediately, Aidan is up to a shelf. He grabs a lantern, 50' of rope(silk), more chalk, two flasks of oil, some manacles, and a second ten foot pole. And a torch. SquirrelMen can see in the dark, but can you imagine not having a torch? He gets up to the counter with an eager bounce of his feet, dumping the set of gear onto the counter. Aidan pulls out his special adventurer pouch just for this, a small leather sack at his waist that he fumbles through to fish out a few Hydrangea petals to dump in. Kale proclaims loudly he has a new ability. Aidan turns, eyebrows raised, a big grin on his face. He waits. And waits. And waits. And... no did something happen there? No, Aidan just blinked at the wrong moment. He turns back to Rita at the counter, pitching his voice low, "I'll take the Dullahan Disguise, just in case." He flicks his extra petals onto the table, to cover snacks, and leaves the rest of the adventuring gear at the table on behest of Woz. Back out at the mainhall, empty handed of gear once more, Aidan looks up at the tower door. Whispering out a bit of wind, Aidan starts slow, first throwing a single dart of air at the door. A tiny whisp of air. Then, he weaves the air back towards him, forming it into large dart. With a sound much like 'pew' from his lips, he fires it around the door. Then another at the stone around the door. Soon, he is wiling away the time for everyone to shop by trying to hurl wind darts and chip away the stone around the door.
Angela	Cinder is in agreement with Petra that they should get the jeweled cog. She isn't sure what good a dullahan costume would do without decapitating anyone and frankly if they were going to do that, they'd already have a dullahan costume wouldn't they? Maybe the dullahan costume lets you get away with chopping your own head off? Cinder cups her chin in deep thought thinking about it. When Kale calls for everyone's attention, she dutifully turns to watch him. And watch him. And then frown deeply at him. And then turns around when everything continues to not be happening resulting in her no longer paying him any mind well before he actually says 'Nevermind'. "Got my hopes up," She mutters. Woz agrees that they should focus on buying the cog, though Petra saying it alone is enough and also Cinder wanted to get it anyway for not really disimilar reasons as Petra. It FEELS important so they should make sure they get it. She has no idea how many more 'boss fights' or 'minions' they'll get to fight. If there's anything they need to go back to get later it makes sense to deal with the most expensive item first! Cinder hands off her own petals to Petra. "Here you go...!" She says. "Man it's going to be really fulfilling when we find like the spot to put the cog, right? If Woz says they're important he probably TIME GAZED and knows what it's for." She frowns as Aidan starts buying other stuff and says, "Hey wait--are we gonna have enough if yuo buy all that junk?"
Odette Raskins	Odette spends quite a bit of time admiring the stained glass. She's seen it in several stations' designated worship areas, but never up close like this. The other closed windows are tempting to try and peek through, but... This has to be done right. No cheating, and no stealing! The thought hasn't even occurred to her until she sees the sign with the rules at Ritescu's shop, and it's such a common sense thing that it just kind of gets glossed over in favor of just feeling her heart lift at the happy note a few lines up and Ritescu's appearance in person today. "Oh! M-Miss Ritescu! Hi. Yes, we-er. They stopped her before she could turn us into more prisoners of the castle." The EMT answers with a confident little nod, stroking her chin for a moment as she mulls over what Dylan had been up to. "There was! It kind of felt like... She was at odds with herself? Like a proper dark heroine, for sure." A beat, and then she corrects herself. "Corrupted heroine." Even though Odette's feeling fine, she of course takes a seat in the alcove. She doesn't actual need any medical care aside from tending to a bit of bruising and soreness from her training routine, clearly just going in to let her heart heal a bit from seeing Rita in a nurse outfit. It's also an opportunity to nonchalantly leave Rita with some stomach pills and napkins, in case the steak tartare doesn't sit well with her. "Psst. Is that stuff good? I-I've been meaning to try it, but... The nerves, you know?" When it comes to actually buying shop stuff, meanwhile, Odette doesn't object to buying the cog even a little. Woz puts forward a strong enough argument for it, and Petra's already secured her position as the intimidating expert of some sorts in Odette's mind, so she bites the bullet and put most of her own funds into the pool. "Th... That's not a bad idea, no. Um. I-I think we should get the holy water, too. I mean, since ghosts or something called ghosts exists here. J-j-just in case, you know?" She's trying not to show her usual amount of fear at a concept, but she's still terrible at it. Kale's apparent nothing happening has Odette watching him the entire time, and then she lets out a disappointed little noise when nothing happens. "We'll.. Try again later, I guess? D-don't worry, you'll.. Um. You'll pull it off when it matters, I bet!"
Petra Soroka	"Uh - the... conditions must not be right for it."     While Kale is putting his all into manifesting his Cool New Power, Petra says aside, "Oh, wow, if you blow a blood vessel in your brain, we can cut your head off and not lose anything. Good plan." Then a beat. "What's up with your magic not firing, though?" "I'll take the Dullahan Disguise, just in case."     Aidan doesn't even get the dignity of Petra asking his permission, after she simply Told him in the radio. When he dumps his petals onto the counter, she just leans around behind him and starts plucking them up to put them in her own collective bag, as fast as he can spend them on other stuff. "Man it's going to be really fulfilling when we find like the spot to put the cog, right?"     "Mhm, yeah, like--" Petra nods a few times, excitedly, "There's no way it'll just be some throwaway bullshit. We *know* Queen Liliana won't half-ass something like that, so it'll definitely be meaningful. *I* wouldn't even set up some kind of optional unlock like this, in Hydrochoeria or whatever, without making sure there's payoff."
Powerpuff Girls	Blossom and Princess are once again ushered through the Paladins checkpoints and simulation staff outside the area, Blossom wearing a wine-red cardigan over a white turtleneck and black skirt and Princess in a yellow jacket over purple scarf overflowing collar emblazoned with golden M's, black skirt, and pink large-lens glasses stylishly added to her usually crowned head. Chatting lightly about nothing - Blossom and Princess share a mid-level finance course at Stanford, Blossom is feigning being worried about being less than perfect, and Princess is not entirely immune to engaging the red's fretting and grademongering unlike her sisters who are all well sick of her perfectionist streak - the pass-through into the castle is only startling for a moment. "What, no city?" Princess asks, looking at the walls. "It'd take too long, and be a poor simulation, if we had to do the whole town advance every time." Blossom reasons, moving into the shop to peruse and window-glance at things like grappling hooks and mirror shields with an amused glow to her ruby eyes. Princess is less convinced, jamming her hands into her jacket pockets and sticking out her elbows with a trotting bounce of her ginger pouf pom-pom bobs of hair. The tchotchkies and adventuring shop tools get a judging quirk of the brow, right up until Petra and Woz double team the rich girl to empty out her pockets for party profit! "Huh? I'm not giving you squat, girlie, I'm not into charity cases if you didn't--" Princess begins in on Petra before spotting Blossom lean in around her to pick out the small handful of in-sim petals she had gotten from Dylan's defeat. Betrayed in look and shocked to boot while the red Puff acquiesces for both of them, Princess cants her own gaze away and pouts across her whole face and a soft puff of cheeks while 'humph!'-ing and dropping her miserly adventurer purse (bag and all!) into Petra's sack. Blossom remains interested in the interaction with Petra - hovering there with her hands behind her back, faintly smiling, watching what Petra does while maintaining a quietly confident eye contact when looked back at... expectant? Looking for something? Meanwhile Princess moseyingly saunters out to the scanning-for-feelings Kale and clapping the bird on the back with a palm. "What's the matter, birdie, crab not agree with you?" Princess rolls right into, a little harsh to start from her pocketbook souring just earlieir. She didn't get anything! She's not good with spicy seafood... "Conditions aren't right? What're you talking about? Well, don't forget - We're supposed to go through the underground aqueduct, up through the luxury level, and find the throne room somewhere upstairs. So if your..." Princess makes a fake two-fingers-to-temple half-salute gesture. "Bird salute can sense where the money is, we'll be on the right track."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan lets Petra pick up most of them without looking up until it gets to the last Iris and a few Hydrangea. Then he slams his hand down over them, gathering them into a fist and away from her grabbing hands. He turns towards her, "I said, I'm picking up the costume, just in case. Blow off. I'm putting everything else back, I'm taking this."
Petra Soroka	"Huh? I'm not giving you squat, girlie, I'm not into charity cases if you didn't--"     Petra shakes the bag around, pushing it in Princess's direction like a kid outside a grocery store fundraising with a jar in hand. "It's for *everyone*! Look, if *you* set up a singular, super-expensive thing, that people had to go through hoops to get, inside your floating fortress of doom or whatever, I *know* it wouldn't just be a pretty piece of garbage."     After a moment of smugness where Blossom gets Princess to acquiesce, Petra flips back to reflect on that thought some more. "I feel like it's an important part of heroism to, like, understand a bit of the psychological profile of the people you're fighting, right? Especially when it comes to intentionality. Some goofy arbitrary villain-- like, Bowser's alright, but his lair design's a lot more style than substance, in my opinion-- you'd treat their stuff different from someone who's got a lot of thought in every part of their plan. Not to make them happy, or whatever, but because villains set the term and stakes of the whole thing."     Blossom's continuing staring makes Petra sweat more and more, as Blossom's attention always has. She raises up her hands disarmingly, bag pinched between her fingers, feeling accused of *something*-- there's always something that it's fair to accuse Petra of!-- but not being sure *what*.     "H-hey, like, I *do* think this would be good for everyone. I'm not, undermining, the heroes, or whatever. If I was going to betray everyone, which I'm not, then it'd be something way bigger than just wasting some money on this. I think it'll totally come in handy, somehow, for real."
Rita Ma	Miss Ritescu watches Kale in faint fascinated horror. The longer this goes on, the more apparent it becomes that she expects him to psychically blow up his own head.      "Oh, um- yeah! You've got a little under seven Lily, I think, but you can get some things that don't cost a Lily petal!" Sliding him a little fantasy-tupperware of spicy crab cheers her up.      "Hi, Mr. Sougo! Hi, Mr. Woz! You're really welcome!" Rita waves a little too peppily for her current disguise. Really, she hasn't changed her mannerisms at all. She watches Woz's prognostication with a little awe- "You can tell just like that?"- and then beamingly puts it in Petra's hands after counting the petals into her big petal-jar.      "Thanks, Petra! I guess it is a little weird that Queen Liliana hasn't let you pledge your loyalty yet... but I'm sure you can impress her! Don't worry!" In Petra's hands, it feels solid, reassuring, and ineffably magical; at intervals it 'tugs' gently as if there were a pendulum or gyroscope inside.      The big pile of stuff that Aidan gets amounts to very little flowermoney at all: if the cog was a thousand dollars, this is a few bucks. "With the way the denominations work, I'm sure it's fine, Ms. Cinder!" Rita says, while handing over the Dullahan Costume. "You can't get the mirror shield or grappling hook now, but..."      Ritescu steps behind the white medical curtain for Odette, swishes it shut, and swooshes it open again a second later, already quick-changed to nurse Ritescu. Bruises don't make her drool like open wounds do, so it's just cute care and glowy hands!      "Huh? Oh, you mean steak tartare?" She glances over at the raw meat dish still on the shop counter. "Yeah! It's really good! I asked Queen Liliana where she gets it, since Cinniuint doesn't have cows, but she just told me not to worry."      Back at the counter, she hands over a bottle of iridescent Holy Water to Odette, and then sneakily slides some complimentary seaweed soup to Blossom too. "For your friend," she murmurs apologetically, since Princess seemed so put out.      With all that winding down: "See you! Thank you for your patronage! Remember to be good to the castle, please!"
Angela	Cinder is relieved that they are able to get the gear. "Hell yeah! We did it!" She offers Petra a hifive. "Yeah there's no way it's not gonna be super important." She looks towards Woz, beaming at him. "Thanks man!" Without him jumping in she thinks it would've been a tougher ask. Rita reassures her that its fine so Cinder immediately stops bullying Aidan as it has ceased its purpose. "Well you're the shopowner, Miss Ritescu...!" She grins and holds up her own grappling hook from the LAST shopping segment. "Heh...! I already have one! Thanks to you! I hope I can keep it later too..." She worries it might vanish from her inventory between adventures. She technically didn't get anything just for us, sharing everything with Petra for the cog. She then spins on a heel to wave back to Rita before... "Hey Woz...can you give us like... a little hint for what it'll be used for? Like without giving the game away so that when we figure it out it'll be like 'woah! Just like what Woz said!'...?"
Sarracenia	Sarra was quite happy when Dorothea decided to free the prisoners herself! It was the kind of hero overcoming their corruption that makes the best hero stories! And all the cheers had left her actually feeling high as they left that day!      So now as she returns, she is kind of looking forward to who or what might face them today! "Hello Miss Rita! Oh, I mean...Ritescu!" Sarra says as they are greeted by the shopkeeper Ritescu, and of course since they are on a heroic quest here and that gear seems to be a progression item Sarra pushes to get it.      She also takes time to be treated by the nurse even though there are no injuries left. Because it seems rude to not allow the nurse to perform her duty amidst this rather elaborate simulation. And she is certainly not going to shoplift.      '<J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "But we have to get the cog!! We'll totally regret it if we don't get that. So buck up everyone, I'm gonna buy it.'      It is somewhat irksome to end up agreeing with Petra about the cog, but Sarra just lets it pass with a soft huff. She gives her petals when requested.      Like Aidan, Sarra turns to look when Kale proclaims 'watch this'...and like so many instances of that, nothing impressive happens. "...well?" He tries to play it off, and Sarra rolls her eyes and giggles slightly.      Sarra takes to watching Aidan throw those wind darts after that, but soon is looking around the Grand Hall. "So, where does that cog go?"
Lilian Rook	Exiting good little Ritescu's shop of gothic wonders places you back in the 'lobby' area with the beautiful trees and crystal-paned vision of the underground river, sun artificially streaming through the painted ceilings. No such filthy maneuver as filling with traps has occurred, despite your re-use of the space. The sight of benches at least implies someone comes by every once in a while, and so perhaps the space should be considered sacred. Or perhaps it's a matter of principle. 'If you haven't gotten any further than this, you're not worth it' seems plausible for a supervillain.     Of course the special key on Dorothea's ring corresponds to the central gates. As the corrupted former heroine in charge of the underground prisons, this was probably as far as she was allowed to freely come and go without oversight. In the lore. The key styled with twisting ivy fits the overgrown castle-motif lock just right, though it takes strength bordering on snapping the thing in half to properly turn the thing, obviously catching on layers of bigger and bigger gears inside the door. It makes a mechanical ratcheting sound as you turn it, and then when withdrawn, the massive doors slowly grind open on their own, powered by mechanical tension.     And then you're back in the supervillain's lair.     The steps of the great hall beyond the doors echo with the distant sounds of music; another piece at another hour, drifting through the metaphorical pipes and echoing grandly from the acoustic vaulting. Not so far from the dark gothic baroque you navigated before, what was once lit only by ruby candle and the pools of stained glass windows, is now suffused with the golden warmth of artificial twilight sun beaming through the ceiling as it is in the atrium, ambered to colours of near-sunset, and then brightened again by the ocean blue glow of countless crystalline braziers and chandeliers.     The marble floor is shrouded in a reflected white haze. Glittering particles drift through the god-rays of stained glass windows into other rooms and outdoor balconies. Ancient pillars are stripped and re-gilded, their decorations matching the theme by the presence of dark iron vines blooming with cyan glass petals. You walk beneath the dappled shadows of vast and complicated clockworks, loosely fitted together across the entire space above your head, clunking away in perfect order. Tick Tock Tick Tock
Lilian Rook	The spinal corridor stretches on for long enough to see the enormous labyrinth of steps rising up and away and crisscrossing around and through the clockworks. The uppermost catwalk divides into four, terminating at three iron-barred doors to the castle's corner towers, and one open one. The terminus of it all is blocked by a second gate; this one is fixed with a key inset rendered like a crown wheel. It seems that clocks aren't the final tier of aesthetics at all.     To access the stairs normally, you'd have to go to the left or right from the massive corridor. Otherwise, you'd have to fly through an entire nightmare platforming gauntlet of incredibly dangerous clockworks that could easily tear you in half.     To the left, past various storage rooms, there is the junction of an L-shaped kitchen galley and a grandiloquent feasting hall, with the stairs at the back. To the right, the glittering glow of a fabulous ballroom, polished to a mirror shine that perfectly reflects the crystal-dripping lights, one entire wall taken up with a full-scale aquarium based on a beautiful slice of coral reef.     The ballroom seems innocuous, until one enters; then the door slams, the lights wink out, and the glow of the aquarium matches the pale blue of countless ghostly figures, there all along paused in the act of dance to stare at the uncouth interloper. It hardly takes a moment for them to turn hostile, swarming down on intruding Elites in vast choreographed circles, becoming a relentless barrage of intangible bodies that freeze you to the core on touch, and once you're worn down, attempt to possess you into attacking your teammates. In the dark, you can't easily see the stairs anymore.     The feasting hall is not much safer. You hear the sounds of clatter and commotion from it as a matter of course, though you have to pass the storage rooms to see the endless train of plates and trays and chalices cycling in and out of the vast tables like a steady bloodstream. tThe items are brought out by seemingly nothing more than a procession of poltergeists, totally ignorant to your presence until you intrude further, at which point cutlery and tableware becomes an endless onslaught of whirling sharp objects battering you at every step. When half the lights go out, the servers are no more visible, but in the pools of orange-crimson radiance cast by the candles on the table, you can see the shapes of shadow people in each seat, watching you like waking sleep paralysis, into which every vittle simply vanishes. When they stand up and venture away from the table, they become totally invisible in the dark. Their unseen touch saps the strength from your body, latching on by contact. When two or more get to anyone, they begin dragging them back towards the kitchen, to some grisly fate that is easily imagined.
Kale Hearthward	> "Got my hopes up," Kale (who's got pretty good hearing) glances over at the Angelapad, but doesn't respond to that. > "You'll pull it off when it matters, I bet!" "Why can't these things work when I *want* them to?" complains Kale. "It's always, dramatic moment, 11th hour, sudden apotheosis, do or die realizations. Not when it'd be *useful*." > "What's up with your magic not firing, though?" "My magic's fine," complains Kale to Petra. "It's just - other things that need the right conditions. Psychic stuff like-" Oh right, 'Psychic Stuff' and Petra don't get along. Oops. "-Nevermind." > "Bird salute can sense where the money is, we'll be on the right track." "... Money?" Kale gives Princess a look. "Do you really think there's money here?" The question lingers for a few seconds before being exposed for the hypocrisy it is. "Because if we're getting bonuses for all this, that'd be really nice, actually." A split path! Go right. Always go right. It solves every maze, except for the ones it doesn't. Entirely predictably, Kale ends up getting grabbed by one of the invisible diners, and dragged off towards the kitchen! "Awk! Hey!" He grabs onto a table leg and attempts to keep himself in place. "Stop it! I taste terrible, I promise!"
Sarracenia	Sarra hates to admit it, but...this place, the evil queen's castle, is just amazing. She finds herself intrigued by everything, dazzled by mostly everything, and wishing she had such fixtures and artistry and architecture in her own castle. She is definitely taking notes, but to implement any of them would be much too risky. She would just get flamed for copying Lilian again.      Of course, she says none of this out loud since the source of the most toxic of flames is actually here with them.      The clockwork makes her think the place for the gear must be nearby, perhaps at the top of the tower. And Sarra is all for not sequence breaking, so she picks the side that most intrigues her.      The ballroom is magnificent, making Sarra's cheeks puff in annoyance. The aquarium is also amazing, but aquariums are enough of a novelty and just plain fun that she smiles as she gazes into it. Of course, the ghostly figures make it a bit unnerving. And when they suddenly stop dancing Sarra lets out a soft 'eep!' of surprise. "A-aah...please excuse us! We did not mean to-"      They do not even give time for an apology, though! Sarra yelps as the ghosts start attacking and quickly pulls out her hammer to start swinging. "How rude! Is this such a private party that you could not allow even a princess to join in the dancing? I love dancing, you know!!"      Sarra has never been any good at defense unfortunately, and so unless these ghosts are more vulnerable to hammer strikes than most ethereal beings she is quickly overwhelmed. "S-stop that! T-touching a princess without permission is...nng...v-very rude...!"      Sarra's words become more strained and she clutches a hand against her face as the soul-sapping cold gets to her. It probably doesn't help that she lets a possibly possessed hammer possess her on a regular basis. Sure, she directs that possession somewhat, but...      In fairly short order, Sarra is mobbed by a group of the ghostly figures. She collapses, then shudders, then slowly rises again. Now with a pale blue glow flowing silhouetting her and her eyes burning with a pale ghostly fire. "...how dare you interrupt our dancing!!"      Whoever happened to come along to the ballroom will now have not only the ghosts, but a heavy handed hammer princess dancing a lethal waltz full of hammer strikes and explosives!
Odette Raskins	Odette knew she made the right call sitting in the medical area! There's a visible relaxing sag in her posture when Nurse Ritescu arrives, and she even seems to melt a little when those glowy hands get her exercise bruises fixed up! "That's the one, yeah... I see it on menus every now and then, but I'm always worried about the.. You know. Food safety and stuff. I might have to ask Queen Liliana about that whenever she's not doing her queen stuff. I-I mean, if she'd speak with a..." She snaps her fingers her times, trying to wrangle the word out of her brain. "... Outsider? Peasant? Oh, I know I heard the word in one of my shows the other night." That's about as bothered as Odette looks the entire time she's in the shop, and that doesn't last long because she's acquired the Holy Water! She giggles lightly when she sees Ritescu sneaking Blossom that soup, too, covering her mouth with a hand after the first few seconds and looking off to the side so she can pretend not to have seen her get anything for Princess. And then it's back into the castle! Or the adventuring/castle traversal part of it, anyway, and Odette has her game face put back on by the time everyone gets their purchases together. After sliding her holy water into her bag, the EMT makes no secret about how much she's gawking at the beautiful scenery that has her almost forgetting she's in a supervillain's lair. "I can't imagine how much this would've cost... Or would this be something built by the Queen's servants?" Odette shivers briefly at both possibilities, not sure whether to feel worse about the practical expenses of building this kind of place or the idea that a supervillain could, in fact, enslave people to do so. The ticking clocks far above have Odette looking up every now and then, too, like she's worried some of those clocks might suddenly come crashing down on her at any moment. Flying is out of the question for Odette (at least not without someone yanking her off her feet), so she weighs her options on whether to go left or right. The right certainly looks prettier, but the feasting hall is something she can't ignore so easily. She hems and haws for a while until she finally decides to go with her gut, and it's offer to the feasting hall! Seeing those poltergeists drains almost all of the color from Odette's face, too, and she clutches her bottle of Holy Water tightly against her chest like its mere presence would dissuade the ghosts from coming near her. With the cutlery and tableware being the actual (first) threat, however, she's soon forced to shove that bottle back into her pocket while scurrying and screaming for dear life. Covering her head with her arms, she ducks and jukes around randomly, acting mostly on instinct and panic while the sharpened things slice at her from all angles. She doesn't stop to bandage herself up, either, just focusing entirely on sprinting and freaking out as she tries to get out of that storage area as quickly as possible! The shadow people's presence gets her to bring that holy water back out, but she still holds onto it tightly like a security blanket rather than flinging it around. Once they start disappearing, though, ODette's usual screams turn into terrified whimpers, and she douses herself with some of it before drinking a little as though that might... Suffuse her? Infuse her? She doesn't really know how Holy Water works, so she's just pulling things out of the air in the hopes that something will work! Until they start dragging her to the kitchen. Odette's good at thrashing around and screaming even when she's getting her energy sapped by their draining touches, at least, so she can at least be a signal to follow.
Petra Soroka	"Psychic stuff like-"     Petra crosses her arms and pouts at Kale, reading everything she needs to into him cutting off his sentence that way. "Uh huh. Lecture *me* about psychic stuff, sure. Sorry I'm fucking ruining your vibe, or whatever."     She might also be reading things she doesn't need to, into it.     Without thinking about it, Petra's pace stutters to match the tick-tock of the clockwork exactly. She holds the cog out in front of her with both hands like a dowsing rod, rotating to hold it at different angles sometimes to see if its tug has a consistent direction, or if it reacts to being held up above her head towards the other machinery.     "Oh... I wonder if it's *immediately* relevant. I mean, look, all that clockwork up there; maybe there's a spot where a cog's missing that this would slot into? Everyone, like, keep an eye out for stuff that's *not* moving, I think."     Looking up at the catwalk, there's a part of Petra that wants to just try spiking morphmetal into the pillars and bouncing up through the gears to access it early. The direct path's *always* tempting, and she can see a spot where she could probably slip between without being turned into ground meat, even if it's risky. The path's clear in her mind, and she's hyping herself up for the blistering momentum and precision demands that her own constructed falling-platforms would make of her, when she gets lost in thought and her boot scuffs against the floor with a squeak, causing her to stumble.     For whatever reason, something as small as that utterly takes the wind out of her sails. A buzzing flare-up of the infuriating psychic itch that she radiates washes off of her, and she wraps her arms around herself, looking side to side for the alternative routes.     "--Oh my gosh, is that an aquarium? With real fish? Wait, I have to see--"     That bolsters her mood right back up, though! Surely, the Simulation staff take care of most of the cleaning and chores of the set, and Lilian doesn't really 'live' here at all, but Petra can't imagine that she has *no* hand in taking care of the fish. With how much joy Lilian tries not to show that she gets from spending time with Curupira, this is an environmental storytelling prop that Petra has no choice but to investigate.     So when the lights go off, she's got her back to the rest of the ballroom. The blue glow shining into her eyes while she inspects the decor and waves hi to the little fishies completely sabotages her nightvision, so whirling around at the sudden shock of cold means she's still got blind pinpricks in her vision instead of ghosts. She's fumbling for *where*, but cold, dark, and Lilian manor can only mean one thing!     "Waa--! Ghosts?! What do I even have to *deal* with those?!" If only she had some sort of consumable weapon from a nearby shop that could combat ghosts!     Petra stumbles back into the glass, then flinches away out of imagined 'do not tap on glass' signs. Blue-lipped and purple-pale, she pulls her jacket tight and zips it up one-handed, side-stepping across the aquarium glass until there's a point where her reflection's visible in it. Hand to the glass, matched by Qetra's inside it, and then she pulls out the best tool she has for the job-- a simple heavy-duty flashlight, and a pair of white (maid?) gloves.     The flashlight's purpose is simple: itty-bitty-style scurrying through the dark room to hunt around for the stairs, hiding from patrolling ghosts, flaring brightness to max defensively to try and buy herself time. The gloves are just because she's learned from Lilian, that the best way to treat ghosts is to buy into their thing and respect them a bit! They're not quite tuxedo or opera gloves, but given that she's got no means to *actually* interact with ghosts reliably, maybe a little outfit mimicry could give her an edge somehow!
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan always seems to accept Cinder's bullying with little worry. It's somehow... valid? Romantic in a way that he doesn't want to deprive Cinder of the oppurtunity to do it on behalf of Petra. "So, where does that cog go?" "Hey, I'm sure he'll be able to do whatever he needs to when the time is right. Just like we'll figure it the cog out!" He keeps slinging darts at the Tower Door until Dorothea pulls out the key. "Oh." He lets the skeins of wind fall away, white wisps fading around him as he tightens up his backpack. He brushes himself off, standing erect. Trying not to feel a little sheepish and shot by his lack of fashion accessories. I'm a good looking guy, I make what I got work. Sorting the Dullahan Costume into one side of his back, taking the torch he was at least able to afford, Aidan pulls out a knife. A few flicks of it across the stone and the pitch soaked wrapping on the wood lights up. The torch lifts up as it does in every adventure movie, held high over head and angled towards everything to see. Aidan whistles as he watches the castle slowly operate, shifting in on itself. His eyes track the movements, gears and plates and ivy moving. "How long did it take to make THAT?" He can't even withhold appreciation for it, mezmerized until it disappears. the golden warmth of artificial twilight sun Sheepishly, he puts out the torch on the ground. Again, clockwork. Aidan has worked with wooden gears mostly, but this is something he at least knows. His eyes drift across the beauty. Not perfect order... a dance. A thousand different sizes of gears and machines that all work together to do something. Everyone has their job and they are working together, keeping each other moving. Aidan spins around slowly on the spot as they walk, lambent eyes drifting to each new piece of clockwork. When they get to the ballroom and the dining room, Aidan glances over at Kale going into the dining room. Then at Sarracenia. The squirrel lets out a prolonged breath, another sheepish smile, then jerks a thumb at the dining room. "I'll take that direction." Humming quietly, Aidan watches the trays, trying to find something that doesn't have duck fat or human flesh or eggs or something of the like. Finally, he flicks his hand towards himself, sucking in a brief bit of air to pull a strawberry tart towards himself. He uses his finger, like a barbarian, to scoop out the strawberries and glaze and push them into his mouth as he moves into the big dining room. "Too fancy, too big. A nice cozy meal nook any day. Just a little meal with friends," he whispers. He spies a set of golden spoons passing by. (Gold is not reactive, making it the best sort of dessert spoon!) 'Well, it IS a super villain lair." He plucks at the spoon in the air. A knife stabs him in the un-gambisoned shoulder. Aidan turns his head to it, a second later feeling the flash of pain. A fork spins past his cheek, drawing a line of blood across it in the lightest scar. A wall of wind comes up quickly, a set of knives aimed at his throat dropping to the ground before they hit the floor. The windwall whips out of view, forming into a white wind skein that Aidan wields like a whip. Another knife hammers into his arm as he lashes out the skein. Massive wooden tables flip over onto their sides. A loud SCRRRREEEE sounds as Aidan pulls a table towards him to catch up Odette and Kale. For the moment, Aidan stays by the walls, but he is antsy, moving in and weaving around the trailing raid effects, trying not to stay too far away from his rescuees.
Angela	Cinder leans in to study the mysterious cog. "Or maybe we're supposed to put it into a place where it'll be ''out'' of place? That doesn't feel right, though, I guess--metaphorically it could work." Cinder frowns. "But I didn't really need the grappling hook immediately too. THere might be a proper time for it.#-1 FUNCTION (ANIS) NOT FOUND Cinder probably could not force her way through the clockwork herself, but--Petra seems to get pulled away from that idea regardless. Cinder scratches at her arms briefly before-- ''Oh my gosh, is that an aquarium? With real fish?'' "Oh hey, we never did an aquarium trip did we?" Cinder asks, jogging after Petra. "I'm impressed she was able to set all this up in such a short time. I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting this exercise to be so involved. "I wonder if the kraken lives in the aquarium normally." She adds as an afterthought. ''Waa--! Ghosts?!'' "Oh maybe the holy water is for the ghosts." Cinder says thoughtfully, wondering how Lilian got ghosts to show up here. Sure, she had house ghosts she heard but those have gotta be stuck in a single house, right? "I wonder if she designed the whole space herself or just found some really wild architect." She squints at them ebfore adding, "But we can probably just...try and avoid them right?" She asks. Cinder quirks her head after towards Petra as she zips up her jacket and she draws out Fourth Match Flame and ignites it. "This should help wit hthe chill..." She says. "..And, like, provide some light..." She stays close but naturally--she doesn't actually have a means to combat ghosts directly either but the heat should help! "I can try to flare it up a bit if you need more." She adds.
Petra Soroka	This part of the castle isn't one Petra's going to be swinging around weapons and firing guns in. Power outages, swarming period-appropriate ghosts, and grand ballrooms call for a certain tone, and it's not 'armor and plastic toy finisher callouts'.     So when Sarracenia's puppeted by the ghosts to flail her hammer around, Petra's got no defenses of her own to overpower the princess. Until then, she's not even aware that the ghosts are trying to possess them-- she can't tell herself! The ghosts get repelled any time they reach below skin-deep, and skin-deep's enough to discolor her skin with frost and set her shivering.     Instead, Petra's forced to just dodge and scurry away from Sarra, tearing curtains off the wall to throw them at her to slow her down, or kicking the carpet out from under her feet to set her off-balance. "Hey!! What the fuck, princess! Fucking slow down a fucking second, what the hell!"     Petra yelps and stumbles away when a bomb-omb goes off too near her, flailing her flashlight around. On her hand and knees, Petra points the flashlight directly at Sarra's eyes and cranks the brightness to maximum, only then noticing the fucked-up look in them. "Fuck, right, ghosts do that. Cinder--! Can you--"     In the middle of calling out to her, Petra's gut drops, assuming that Cinder must be possessed too. She glances to the side and sees that she isn't, and sighs a bit in relief. She aims her flashlight at Fourth Match Flame then at the ghosts around Sarra, like a teacher's pointer.     "Try warming *her* up! *I'll* literally be fine, that stuff can't get me!"
Timespace Riders	You can tell just like that?     "Indeed, I can tell," says Woz with his distinctive cat-that-got-the-canary smile. "But 'just so' may be an exaggeration, however much I appreciate your praise. It took diligent training to be able to read the futures contained within these pages, and many mistakes to realize the worth of reading them sparingly."     Woz purses his lips and rolls his eyes at Aidan's insistence on the disguise--though thankfully at just under seven Lily, there's no need to press the issue. Thanks man!     "Thank you," he says, "For giving your assent. I assure you, you will not be disappointed." See you! Thank you for your patronage! Remember to be good to the castle, please!     "Bye, Miss Ritescu!"     "Farewell." ---     Hey Woz...can you give us like... a little hint for what it'll be used for? So, where does that cog go?     "Very well," says Woz with a slight nod of his head. "I had planned on saying so anyway, in the event of more fervent disagreement among the ranks, so it is of little concern."     Continuing to stride into the Great Hall, he gesticulates with his free hand, indicating the space around the party. "There are certain protective measures I have developed which the rest of you lack. The Cog is as a balm to a wound you have yet to encounter--save, perhaps Cinder, or possibly Petra. I know not." Her, he isn't sure about, given a certain someone's insistence that her wish didn't directly manipulate the forces he's thinking of.      "What I do know..." Tick tock tick tock. "...is that when the hands of the clock march in an unfavorable direction, the Cog can reverse them."      A crossroads, between the feasting hall on one side and the ballroom on the other. The Demon King and his retainer share a look, then nod, each producing their respective transformation belts. "I'll take the banquet hall. Woz, can you take the ballroom?"      "What a truly marvelous space for rejoicing. Would that I could take both, sire--but yes, I shall take the ballroom, with gusto." Woz smiles.
Timespace Riders	Sougo's TIMESPACE DRIVER! and Woz's BEYONDRIVER! announce themselves via the belts' onboard AIs. As they each insert selections of futuristic pocketwatches (Sougo on both sides, Woz in a neon green loading gate at the right) the belts play their respective backing tracks of looped music--Sougo's, a thrumming bass guitar chord set over the rapid ticking of a clock which subdivides the ticktocks already in the room; Woz's, an energetic techno overture over a fast-paced beat. An entourage of disembodied silver-and-gold clock faces flanks Sougo, while a towering hologram of a smartwatch's screen looms behind Woz. Sougo traces the motion of a clock's hands in reverse, before tensing his muscles and spinning the bulky white Timespace Driver. Woz closes the neon green gate of the Beyondriver with a grandiloquent forward-upward sweep of his hand. Both say, in unison:      "Henshin."      "Henshin!"                    KAMEN RIDEEER.. (RIDER..!) ZI-O--ZI-O!! II!                                    Amazing! Time! Future! KAMEN RIDER WOZ? WOZ?!                        The decision to armor up before entering proves wise on both of their parts. Zi-O enters into the feasting hall with a silver longsword, blade shaped like a clock hand, its crossguard bearing a really weird resemblance to the face of his armor. He expects to wield it against something tangible, but instead comments with interest on the floating tableware:      "Whoa... kind of spooky. That's really coolEHHHH?!" Knives and forks pelt his knightly, symmetrical watch-themed armor, sending up sprays of sparks and causing him to swing the sword defensively. A polychromatic cluster of exploding clockfaces flies from his sword towards the offending poltergeists, as he complains: "Knock that off!" He gets in a gooberly tug-of-war with one poltergeist, holding cutlery down against the wall with the flat of his blade, only to catch a few more from its fellows who aren't similarly restrained.     "Mnh... change of strategy!" The clock hands on his symmetrically-aligned helmet race in fast-forward, predicting a hail of thrown knives and sharpened platters. He plants one foot wide and low, sweeping under the platters, bringing the opposite leg up in time to avoid a knife and pressing himself against the opposite wall to avoid its fellow cutlery projectile companions. Ghost! An orange and black Ridewatch is slotted into the left side of the Driver around his waist. The LCD chronometer on the Demon King's belt reads AU23. Zi-O hurriedly spins the Timespace Driver, and--                                   ARMOR TIME!                                        Now silver with orange trim, Zi-O's armor sports white pauldrons halfway between camera lenses and eyeballs. The neon orange trim resembles the bones of a skeleton, complete with a pink 'heart' on the right side. "I'm gonna try letting my life burn bright!" Not quite Ghost's catchphrase--but he's got the spirit. A haunted orange hoodies flies in from offscreen to settle, hood-up, over Zi-o.      The Demon King spookily floats through the banquet hall, afforded extra mobility by his levitation, and firing back at the silverware-tossing poltergeists with swings of his sword, which conjure bursts of homing, multicolored ghosts to hound the attacking poltergeists and explode on contact!      Woz, meanwhile, takes several hits in the ballroom, nearly frozen in place and susceptible but for a timely jab from his green-bladed, touchscreen-hafted spear. A loading-screen splash of green motion lines converges and explodes on a point he finds by watching reflections on the aquarium glass, affording him the ability to clumsily roll free and switch tools:      "Forgive my boorishness."
Timespace Riders	Dashing! Durable! Deadly! Futurering Zero! ZERO!                      The watch wristband suggested by Woz's tabard is now formed of thorny green vines, while his app-icon pauldrons sport white roses on red backgrounds. His katakana lenses spell 'ZERO' in vibrant pink, and the hands of the watch formed by his antennae are now the stems of two interwoven roses. "This should be much more appropriate attire, no?"      The spear he once held is now a long, thorny whip, which he cracks, causing an aftershock of hardlight roses to bloom and explode into spiny thorns on the spot. Scraping off a layer of frost with the thorns, he makes a self-satisfied 'hmh' before striding in three-four time through the hallway, brandishing the whip overhead in a twirling pirouette first to generate distance, and then to single out 'dancers' and snatch them violently out of place, following up with hard elbow strikes, snap kicks and roundhouses.
Powerpuff Girls	Princess is entreated about the real, narrative quality of engaging with those things set out by the villain at bar. Petra clearly knows, and definitely understands, the tangible effect of having your machinations engaged with in a genuine and upfront way - the way they were meant to be engaged with, finding and meeting the mastermind halfway on the field. To duel, back to back, ten paces, and drawing every wit and weapon to do battle. She is entreated, and she knows. "Why should I care about ev-..." Princess grumbles, and then puffs out a breath and flips out a mirror to check her pom-poms of ginger hair. She already knows why that answer 'isn't allowed' this time, but, at the same time... Princess Morbucks doesn't have to like it, even if she's respecting it right now. Blossom, still in the shop and pleasantly looming for a moment, gives Petra a looooong ruby stare, and then blinks and smiles with a chime-soft pop of laughter, and a knowing-slow cross of cardiganed arms over core. "So why are you worried, then, Petra?" Blossom asks, extra-patient, smiling over Petra's shoulder at Ritescu as she accepts the tasty soup. "Oh, thanks so much! I know someone will enjoy it, even if that grumpy gus," She's so casual with throwing that title around, even in earshot of Princess! "-doesn't want soup." Blossom promises in aside, before holding the little soup container preciously in both hands, balancing it while bringing gaze back down on Petra. "And why do you think you have to justify it to me? If you're 'for real', Petra..." Blossom can affect a perfectly dismissing swish in about-face, bow-wrapped ponytail swinging in her wake to head out of the shop. "I'm sure you can act like it." Blossom joins Princess while having taken a little sample of the soup on the way, leaving Petra to bearing the Jewelled Cog. Princess is still in a little conversation with Kale while the pair reconvene! "This is aesthetic. This isn't 'money'. There'll be a 'money' area, the area where the nice stuff is concentrated. A sitting room, a gallery, a luxurious golden and black lounge with pillows like foam around the edges of the area. Someplace, you know, nice." Princess insists, like this thing is just a recurring phenomenon of architecture. To her, it is! Both Puffs give ganders up the forbidding aerial path through the castle, but seeing as everyone else is ground-bound, neither seem willing to risk the approach vertically - Princess, not even out of a fancy jacket yet, still trying to eat soup and walk at the same time without spilling. While the pair move in concert behind the leading Petra, who seems to have a clear and honest excitement about going to the Aquarium Room. Surely nothing bad will happen following Petra! But then, something bad happens! 'Waa--! Ghosts?! What do I even have to *deal* with those?!' "Gosh!!" Princess smarms sourly. "If I hadn't been fleeced at the store for my savings I'd have plenty of --" Princess Morbucks stamps a foot and closes her eyes in the dark of the ballroom in frustration. "-- anti-*October* countermeasures!"
Powerpuff Girls	"Have to do everything the hard way!" Princess complains, bitter as she reaches for her scarf, tugging loose the purple strip from her neck as the yellow jacket and scarf incinerate around her grip and shoulders and chest, a black bodysuit underneath detailing in a wash of gold yellow banding and color-changing plasma flash like the striking of a match and the flash of high-tech transformatives. Cinder's lighting of the Fourth Match Flame is accompanied by the palpable and slightly plasma-pink glow of the crackling yellow powersuited temporary-trial Puff, Princess, who dives on a wash of bluewhite jet boots into a crowd of faint ghosts with a wheel-of flame spin that lights candles and shifts a great volume of air. Pressure-and-heat blasting the ghosts, Princess dives right in before-- Being dogpiled by specters and slowly schlorped into by spiritual presences, causing the golden armored girl to marionette jerkily for a few moments, slouching over, and standing at hovering-idle for a second, lit at four points from hand and boot-jets, and the limning of Kirby Crackle polkadot pink-black. Princess starts... giggling, then, and laughing, jerkingly swinging off of her flight-hover and turning pink-HUD spectacles across the group with lambent spiritual backing to her system-light aglow eyes, searching the room for targets. Blossom rolls her ruby eyes. "Where's that *rodent*?!" Princess keens, playing up 'possessed evil version of herself'. "We're *not* doing this. Cut it out." Blossom chides sharply. "Don't even pretend." ''Possessed'' Princess, floating menacingly towards Petra while leaking ghostmatter, aims a shaky-reachy hand for the flashlight-equipped girl. Blossom, having retrieved the tasty seaweed soup from the table where ''Possessed'' Princess had put it down, takes another sip. "Or you'll lose points." Beat. "With me." Dropping both arms and shuddering, Princess (who had actually been possessed), thunks like a dropped sack of inherited wealth onto the ground in a sprawl, dazed and overcoming her momentary bout with the spooky ghosts of the mansion.
Rowdyruff Boys	Brick shows up late. He's wearing ripped up and burned-looking jeans, and a zipped-up but strangely fresh hoodie that implicitly suggests that he just threw it on because whatever he was involved with torched his shirt more thoroughly than his jeans. He's also wearing a red baseball cap, which is almost as pristine as the hoodie-- it's faded by comparison though, as if it's been worn many times. "... I don't care if you don't want to touch the amoeba boys, I already hung back with you for too fucking long just to make sure that dickhead didn't dig up one of dad's entrapment devices along with the robot. Deal with it, we planned this far enough in advance," He's yammering into his cell phone, passing through the Paladin-staffed area and following some invisible signal that tells him 'Blossom walked here'. There's actually an eerie sort of symmetry to how he seems to fall in with 'her', such that if the footage of his movements were spliced together with hers at a separate time he would be walking with her completely naturally. He emerges into Ritescu's shop, and pauses, though he does so directly adjacent to where Blossom had previously been standing. The sound of boys talking on the other end of his phone continues without response by Brick. After a couple of seconds of just looking at Rita, assuming she's still there, he hangs up on them and pockets the phone. Fishing a slightly singed $20 out of his left pocket, Brick deposits it on whatever passes for a counter in the shop. "I didn't keep up with this stuff, so I know that doesn't buy anything here. But it's always good to not be a ghost when you pass through a new area's stores. Pretend I bought some gum or something." He hesitates a moment, pondering his last interaction with Rita... But decides that it's not the time. Giving a casual wave of parting, he follows Blossom's "trail"... Coming to a stop in front of a door that's already slammed shut in front of him. Brick frowns, scanning through it with his x-ray vision. He witnesses a whole lot of things ongoing on the other side, most of which involve a bunch of ghosts, and Princess acting crazy... which is about when he forces the door opened. He goes out of his way to close it right back, though, for some reason. Once he's inside he unzips his hoodie partway, reaches into an interior pocket almost as if prepared to draw something as mundane as a gun, and produces... a spice jar, filled with salt. He lifts up off the floor in a barely-a-hover and interjects a long, thin oval line of salt in the path of the ghost-choreography, probably but not assuredly creating a safe zone on one side of the room. He stays there to see if it works, replacing his salt in his hoodie and zipping it back up. The shirt underneath has a hole scorched right through it, so he must not have had time to change. "There was a shop back there. How bad was the group shopping?" He asks-- probably Blossom, but he's speaking loudly enough that it's audible enough for whoever.
Angela	EARLIER... "Expect perhaps me or Petra...?" Cinder asks. It's strange that the very item they were the most concerned with getting is something they might not need for themselves. And she says, "Well thanks for the tip, Woz!" NOW Cinder startles--but she seems to not be possessed quite yet--perhaps her EGO is giving her some protection but it's never quite ''perfect'' protection. Eventually she'll succumb if she gets worn down enough. But for right now she is actually being told to HELP Sarracenia out. Since Cinder mostly bullies the people Petra bullies for the purposes of bonding, she is perfectly willing to lend Sarracenia a hand when Petra of all people tells her to. Experimentally, she brings forth the Fourth Match Flame towards Sarracenia. "HEY SARRACENIA!" She shouts. "Are you still possessed if I do this...!" She almost pokes SArracenia with the Fourth Match Flame before remembering it is TOTALLY on fire and lighting Sarracenia on fire might solve one problem but quite frankly cause another.
Rita Ma	By the time Brick rolls through, Rita's set aside her nearly-finished steak tartare and started sweeping the shop floor. She softly startles up. "Oh! I wasn't expecting anyone else! Um, first time...?"      For a moment, caught almost 'backstage', she seems unsure whether this is in-character or out-of-character. Rita knows Brick; Ritescu does not.      After a second, she swings toward 'in'. "Ah, well, thank you! That's money in your world? I know exactly what to do with it!" And Ritescu bustles behind the counter and tippy-toe-leans to prop it up proudly displayed on a not-for-sale shelf. "There! It's a first. But won't you at least take a soup bottle or something? They're good, I promise!" Pivot, hold-out, bottle swish-swish.      Today is a much better day than that time on Ossabaw. Ritescu smiles with her mouth, and Rita smiles with her eyes.
Lilian Rook	Words that Kale may not have expected to ever say, yet which many might agree are ultimately appropriate, do nothing to stay the abyssal hands that carry him towards the end of his role in the simulation. And just that. Only that. Hopefully. They aren't terribly strong, and so his resistance by grabbing the table leg works for a time, but then a third finds him, and then a fourth, each one increasing the rate his strength leaves him, until they can drag him away, limp on the floor.     Odette is perhaps in the wrong place for being the one that bought the holy water. Swallowing it tastes weirdly foul, with a strong metallic aftertaste worthy of making her gag. The shadow-people grab her all the same, and attempt to pull her away; but her strength drains away very slowly, and a burst of adrenaline might be all she needs to overpower them and rush towards the stairs; as long as she isn't pelted to death with porcelain shrapnel and silvered blades first, or waste it all screaming and flailing, as she presently is.     The wind wall deflects a spray of forks and knives from Aidan's eyeballs, and holds the torrent at bay for a while, but the length of the table is such that sooner or later, he's being assault from the side, then behind, too. Furthermore, the wind wall does nothing to stop a night terror from grabbing on to him, wrapping ice cold fingers around his throat and draining the life from him.     They might both be in Sougo's hands, as their sole useful method of fighting back. Toku sparks can handle some physical projectiles, whilst flying away seems to render the shadow-people a non-threat for at least a little while. The ghostly projectiles interact-- of course a ghost can touch a ghost-- and silverware on trays clatter in heaps to the floor, slicked with spilled drinks. The number of poltergeists is a threat in of itself, but it starts gradually slowing the outpouring of projectile-ready tableware from the kitchen, until the projectiles peter out.     Meanwhile:     Sarracenia's totally unreasonable suspicions about any authentic mind control in this utterly above-board join simulation slash bonding exercise pan out as unfairly and improbably maybe-not wrong! Somewhat cleverly, this instantly tilts the balance of threat level in the room. Despite the ostensible fragility of a full wall aquarium, the explosions spread along its surface rather than shattering the glass, either representing an unwillingness to let pet animals get killed in the exercise, or something about foreshadowing and thematics.     The moments Petra gets to examine her show that the coral has been arranged deliberately like a flower set, and it's full of appropriate yet mutually harmless critters. Many of them react to the chaos in the ballroom, but eerily not by hiding under the coral. An octopus changes colours to match the lights in the dark.     Blasting ghosts full on with her flashlight makes them disappear from the cone, but it takes mere seconds for them to fade back into view in the dark next to her again, and swinging it around wildly isn't good enough to vanish them; it takes a sustained beam for half a second at least. Scurrying away and defending herself with the beam works for a while, but soon she's fully surrounded by an entire dancing ring of ghosts, cutting off escape on all sides.     Her gloves are good enough. The blind gambit of reaching out works, mostly. Her hands are taken on each side (freezing her flashlight instantly), and she is swept up into the dance as well, spun from partner to partner in steady clockwise rotation, then joined into the wider ring. This is steadily ruinous to her hands, but less vicious than before; and more importantly, it distracts a full quarter of the ghosts, allowing people to squeeze by!
Lilian Rook	Cinder waving Fourth Match Flame around repels the ghosts just as the ancient belief in the always has. As long as one is within the pool of the camp-flame, the dark outside cannot encroach for a time. The spectres flinch back away from her as they do from the jet wash of Princess Morbucks' plasma boots, but unlike the candles that Princess lights, the ghosts eventually begin to adapt to Cinder, repelled less and less with each desperate wave, and beginning to creep up behind her while she fends off others, grasping hold of her arms to restrain her like victorian orderlies.     Woz catches a moment of eerie silent applause at his wardrobe change. The illusion of bows and curtsies plies the edge of his vision, though once it wraps up, their attempts to drag him into the waltz like Petra are hardly any less dangerous. The shades flinch back away from the bursts of roses-- specifically their light-- whilst some standing in the far back row soundlessly applaud. It's extremely difficult for any of them to approach him, especially since they become caught up in immaculate musical time, though he also can't quite grab them with his whip either, allowing him only to safely reach the stairs on his own.     The ghosts that encounter the salt circle slow to a drifting halt, piling up on one side. The flashes of passing light obscure and reveal them in slow-rippling ghastly shades, but they appear to be looking to one another, conversing with moving lips that make no sound. A storage cupboard somewhere across the room thuds open, and a broom comes floating through the air of its own accord, intent on sweeping away the salt. It's quarantining another quarter of the dance floor, for now. The blast waves on the other side aren't dislodging it.
Petra Soroka	"...is that when the hands of the clock march in an unfavorable direction, the Cog can reverse them."     "Ohhh..." Petra looks down at the cog in her hands, then tucks it under an arm instead of holding it out for dowsing. "So it's for *Queen Liliana*. Then it's definitely a good thing for me to hold it." This is either true or extremely untrue. "I'm sure you can act like it."     "I-I am! Aren't I?" Petra watches the back of Blossom's head anxiously after she swooshes away. "Aren't I?" "If I hadn't been fleeced at the store for my savings I'd have plenty of --"     Petra whirls her flashlight around to Princess petulantly, gesticulating with the beam in the dark. "Hey!! You'll be grateful for literally *any* edge we can get against Queen Liliana, so maybe stop whining and help make sure we actually *get* there--...!!" "Where's that *rodent*?!"     Petra's scolding trails off when another possessed Yellow is added to her array of foes, and not one she can fend off with a flashlight. She ducks behind a stool, instantly ice-cold sweating and fumbling with her transteam gun while Princess advances on her. "Okay, well, maybe *possession's* a pretty good justification for, like, maybe we should've grabbed some holy water, but, like, you can't *blame* me for not knowing, and I'm still-- like, I'm still *right*, that we'll want an edge against Queen Liliana, because there's no way she'll make it easy on us, so if you think about it, like--" "There was a shop back there. How bad was the group shopping?"     Petra droops her forehead onto a crossbar of the stool, releasing all the rest of her tensely held breath in a cloud of foggy cold. Maybe she'd normally a bit more on-edge around Brick, given his very good reasons for disliking her and her very bad reasons for being hesitant of him, but Princess's bit (real) drained her momentarily.     "Wasn't that bad. We got some sort of cog for messing with time stuff later, and you know how that is with-- with Queen Liliana. People didn't put up much of a fight besides, like, the expected."     Petra eventually gets into the rhythm of holding the light beam steady, brightening it, focusing just long enough to pierce through a ghostly obstacle, and then quickly hurrying on without giving them enough hesitation to reform. It's a button-hold rhythm game, and Petra can get some distance through the room that way, but it's only one jury-rigged option that she reached for when surprised! Shivery steps and shuddering foggy breaths, ducking into cupboards when a ghost couple twirls by, taking respite by Cinder when she can, only lasts so long.     When the throngs get too dense and she's almost overwhelmed, she drops the flashlight (oh no! It's completely gone now) and takes the ghosts hands as if she's one of them, white glove in translucent white glove. Petra is, however, a kind of dogshit dancer, even though 'being helplessly spun around between various partners who could all snuff out the life in her in a moment' is about the best case scenario for her skills. She's amenable to being twirled around and around, trying to guide herself towards where she *remembers* the stairs being, but without her flashlight, and being slowly dragged away from the glow of the aquarium, she's taken more and more off-course.     "C-C-Cinder! A l-l-little h-help, here? Over-- h-h-here?"     Numbing limbs and poor coordination are a bad combination from the start, and Petra's barely holding on to the dance routine while calling out for Cinder to help. With warming up and lighting the way, probably, but plausibly also with dancing.
Sarracenia	BEFORE      'What I do know...is that when the hands of the clock march in an unfavorable direction, the Cog can reverse them.'      Sarra lets out an intrigued 'oooh' as she hears this. "How do you know that, Woz?" Sarra asks.      NOW      Sarracenia lets out a totally...characteristic maniacal laugh as she tries to smash and bomb Petra. Sure, she's under the possession of evil spirits, but let's be honest. Sarra would (and probably does) completely enjoy smashing and bombing Petra while watching her scurry around to avoid it.      At least, until Petra joins the dance. Sarra still swings, but since she too is moving in time to the dance the swings are in elegant timing to the beat, being just too high when Petra happens to duck low or dip back, just too far to one side when she twirls or sways or steps.      Cinder swings that sword, then points it at Sarra. The warmth and light are enough to weaken the grasp of the ghosts, and Sarra clutches her head once again. "Nnng! Y-yes!! B-but...not as...gaah! L-let...go...!" Sarra's eyes flicker between normal sapphire blue and ghostly flame blue as she tries to fight off the possession. And she does the only thing she can think of to break it. Activate her hammer possession. The prismatic, sparkling glow of the hammer appears around its head, then flows down the handle and starts clashing with the ghostly glow.      There is a clash as the two glows push against each other, but ever so slowly and steadily the prismatic glow of the hammer pushes back the pale ghostly light until finally...Sarra's eyes are infused with an entirely new glow of possession!      "Hrraaaah!" She starts swinging that hammer up and down, the rainbow of colors shining like a beacon in the darkness. "F-follow...me!!!" the princess exclaims between clenched teeth and hammer swings. Now possessed in a way she can actually control, Sarracenia swings in a double-time beat and marches her way toward the stairs.      And maybe with the magic of the hammer activated it will have better luck at smashing ghosts! She circles Petra once or twice to try and free her as well before heading to the stairs.
Kale Hearthward	> "This is aesthetic. This isn't 'money'. There'll be a 'money' area, the area where the nice stuff is concentrated. A sitting room, a gallery, a luxurious golden and black lounge with pillows like foam around the edges of the area. Someplace, you know, nice." "Ahh. That makes sense." Kale is now fully on board with the expectation of there being, and an accompanying desire to find, the 'money area' here. It'd probably have like, thirteen of everything. And fancy grandfather clocks. And... (he tries to remember what Lilian likes)... big swords wielded by maids. Right? > She might also be reading things she doesn't need to, into it. This is also at least somewhat expected. Don't bring up Persephone or other psychic stuff in front of Petra. This is something to gosh-darn *remember* in the future. In the present, though, Kale is being dragged away by strength draining ghosts! "This's be a great time for my new powers to dramatically kick in and save me from the murderous feasting ghosts!" he calls. Kale's new powers do not dramatically kick in and save him from the murderous feasting ghosts. With an eleventh hour awakening seemingly off the table, and Kale seemingly nearly *on* the table, he reaches about for any other option. Do swords work on ghosts? (Probably not?) The only other thing he has on hand- "Food! Actual real food, not me!" He grabs the takeout box containing one (1) order of Homemade Yangnyeom-Gejang, and holds it up as high as he can from his prone, being-dragged-by-ghosts position. "And not just any food - homemade food hand-made by Rita- I mean, Miss Ritescu! You wouldn't want to turn down her cooking, would you? If she knew you turned your nose up at her hard work she spent all night making with love and care..." Kale digs deep and puts his best dramatic efforts into the next line, like his life depends on it. Maybe it does depend on it. He emphasizes every word, spitting them out as though uttering a dire curse, like prognosticating a doomed man's fate, like he was uttering words with the weight of the world itself. "She might cry." He (gently) slides the takeout box along the floor, as far away from himself as he can, and then tries to get loose again while the ghosts are hopefully distracted or trying to eat!
Angela	"Oh hey it worked!" Cinder beams, just happy to be helpful in the moment! "Don't let them grab you again! You might end up permanently ghostlike if you do! That's how it works with Abnormalities anyway." Sure the exercise is supposed to not be fatal but only become PART ghost isn't fatal right? It's like skinning your knee, she reasons, and she knows corrosion can leave permanent scars. "Haha! I feel invincible!" She says, swinging the Fourth Match Flame about to keep the ghosts away. Once. Twice...! And on the third time she notices it. "Oh...geeze... Petra... Nevermind! I don't think this is gonna be a permanent solution...!" She notices the candles seem to be having a more enduring effect. Why is that? Is that holy wax? She supposes it's possible. Couldn't she just take a candle out then? Probably doesn't work like that. It's probably meant to be a puzzle. " But before she can light a candle, one more blast reveals that she isn't able to actually stop the ghosts any longer. They grab onto her and the cold presses against her. She starts to get colder, colder... She sees a snowy field before her. She sees Granny and everyone far away in a well lit and warm room. She tries to light a match. Four. Three. Two. One. The last one is a ticket to heaven but-- That's the EGO talking to her, of course. Each one gives a direct line to the Abnormality it spawns from. Petra just doesn't have to worry about that because the phone line's dead. That's part of what makes her such an effective agent. Most of the benefits, none of the downside. ''C-C-Cinder! A l-l-little -help, here? Over-- h-h-here?'' Cinder blinks once and fire erupts around her EGO Armor, rippling across her body as the flames engulf her, all the way up to her hair which becomes one with the flame. She wrenches herself free from the ghosts, running towards Petra--looking like she's practically immolating. But she doesn't melt away into ash. At least, not this time. As Petra starts to stumble through her dance, the person that's mostly Cinder reaches out to Petra. The flames pull away from her hair, the moment passing quickly as the flames pull away from her, lingering around the lower side of her suit. "May I have this dance?" She quips, grinning, intending to help 'dance' Petra along the way, lighting torches with the Fourth Match Flame as she moves with one hand while helping Petra go where she likes with the other.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan struggles to keep up with both tasks. Defending himself and defending Kale and Odette. He is leaning towards the latter, using most of his energy to keep the table down and keep them from being pulled. "Come on... come on, when will this END! There's gotta be something-" He wasn't watching the ground markers. The circles of light that hone in close. Aidan takes a step to the side, avoiding one. He weaves down as a knife flies in from behind. A step forward, a gravy boat sailing past the back of his head. He can jump over these things, right? Icy hands close around his throat. White wisps of wind suddenly pour out of his mouth, almost as a soul leaving his body. Blood freezes solid, his heart beat slowing, but thudding in his chest as it struggles to keep going. Hands yank him forward towards the kitchen. A step back, another. His legs feel like warm lead, painful and sore. A cheese fork hits him in the armor. A soup spoon collides off his skull. A shellfish fork sticks into his bare midriff. The edge of his vision turn to fuzz. He turns slightly to grab a table, trying to dig his claws into it. Damn lack of upper body strength. The other hand struggles to keep cutlery from his shoulders and back as he more and more resembles a hedgehog rather than a squirrel. Can't rest. Think. The first thing, the only thing that enters Aidan's mind, is to flip the game on its head. Whatever Liliana wants us to do, do something else. One step forward. Loosening the grasps around his neck by pushing towards the kitchen. Another step, Aidan sucks in some life breath, taking solace in that maybe he's going to piss Lilian off. Another step, Aidan pushes out with his breath, grabbing the table again. He leans into it, pushing his shoulder against it, pushing towards the kitchen. A jog, then pushing everything into a run. Aidan heaves out breath after breath, pushing one of the enormous feasting tables in front of him like a sled. "A food box?!" Aidan shouts as he pushes by with his table. Who is going to run away from the kitchen. Aidan drives the table into the kitchen like a battering ram, pushing himself and his back full of cutlery along with it.
Powerpuff Girls	Princess, afflicted with bonechilling possession that she had pointed in a useful (to her) direction, pursues Petra menacingly, the soft-suited Morbucks a definite threat to the untransformed Petra. The sweep of jets alights the flickering-hot candles in the ballroom and chase the fleeing flashlight-wielding yellow at double speed over threats and with every dancer's grace at burning speed. Even Petra's flashlight is only momentarily helpful, the possessed Princess' highlight red under HUD-pane pink eyes trembling and twitching in focus and shrinking away in pain when blinded by the light. Lifting a hand and air-skidding with the lack of maneuverability for a moment, the possessed Princess moves to resume 'dancing' her crackling-hot whips of pink power about the room with polarized-dark sunglasses. Morbucks tracks Petra on thermals instead until Blossom calls the struggling yellow to heel with her cutting words of disapproval, and then Princess falls to the ballroom floor to feel sorry for herself. Laying on the ballroom ground on knee and shoulder coughing and sputtering in revulsion, retching in a wracked hurking as ectoplasm purges like phlegm from them and her visor-glasses wash from dark-opaque to pink crystal again, Princess recovers under the glow of a ghost-warding candleset. She takes several moments! Brick flies on. 'There was a shop back there. How bad was the group shopping?' "Simple." The red declares. "The lament of an-gels." Princess pouts sickly. Blossom is calm and collected even with all the ghosts around, taking up one of the lit candlesets and flying with it like a specter herself, warding away ectoplasmic hands with the warm light of local wicks. "Woz helped us reach a conclusion quickly. It's a special cog. We all had to pool resources, but it worked out well." Blossom is gentle when she leans over to the no-doubt following Brick. "Petra has it, so try not to let her get 'dragged off'." The red asides to her partner, though the code is clear and obvious: Whether or not Petra remains on their side, they have to make sure the special item she carries isn't stolen away by evil forces . . . however that may work. "It's like my sinuses have been frozen by a gross, *evil* Blossom." Princess drips in misery, her suit rippling with warm steam-lines as the heater element of the lining activates to warm the poor Morbucks girl up but she has been chilled to the soul and only the sharp words the real Blossom could heal her! Oh! The misery! Oh! The humanity! Oh, "I'm being left behind? W-wait up!!" Princess gasps, pushing herself to a knee and launching herself into the air to clear the Ballroom's ground and dive back into Blossom's flying light-source safespot, then on to Cinder and Sarracenia's rush to the door!
Rowdyruff Boys	"It's my first time inside the castle itself. I've been covering back in Townsville. Wasn't supposed to be covering this late, though. That's my fault," Brick says to Rita, though he doesn't apologize. Admitting that he was late might be the closest he'll get to it for something as petty as 'wandered through during clean-up'. He does pause a moment, sniffing audibly before accepting the soup bottle. "Soup bottles are a good idea. Won't turn my nose up at that." Literally or metaphorically, evidently. It gets stashed inside of his hoodie before he takes off. He flashes a reciprocal grin towards Rita -- not quite a smile, he's not the brother that does that so easily -- and then is off. Distantly, he can't help but wonder if accepting food like that is just in his nature. The 'dog' in his make-up does have influence in other areas. //People didn't put up much of a fight besides, like, the expected.// "So... several blatant fucking liabilities and then some maybe-liabilities working it out?" Brick wonders. Who he considers a liability is presently unclear. He glances towards the incoming magic broom-- if it was a possessed broom, he wonders if it would be able to get over the salt... but, he doesn't feel like testing it. If this place felt comfortable sending it out to check, there was a pretty good chance it was going to do its job. His eyes lit a brilliant ruby red, a tight beam of scorching heat zeroed in on the bristles of the broom threatening to basically vaporize them while leaving the rest of the broom intact. //... but it worked out well.// "Got it." //Petra has it, so try not to let her get 'dragged off'.// Brick grunts affirmatively. He wasn't actually in the mood to leave Petra twisting in the wind in particular at the moment, but he's pretty certain that her getting dragged off to an undisclosed location turns her back into a liability, even if he doesn't currently consider her one. At least, no more than usual. He ends up flying close to Blossom to take advantage of the fact that she's warding things off to start with... and focuses his attention on Petra and Cinder. They're actually doing pretty well, but Blossom is right about the strategic objective, and all he's done so far is eye-laser a broom. He can do better than that. A fresh gleam of ruby red light sparks in his pupils before a beam of heat pours down from above along a path in front of Cinder and Petra-- there's a curious quality to it, as well. As if he grasps the ongoing 'dance' well enough to move ahead of them... fairly precisely. Only fairly because he's not really a sharpshooter with eye beams, but there's still finesse focused around the pace and rhythm of the pair.
Odette Raskins	The foul taste of the holy water, combined with the terror from the shadow-people and getting cut up by cutlery, all combine to make Odette's time in the storage area quite unpleasant already. She's screaming, she's panicking, and the only relief she gets is knowing that she's not the only one there. Knowing that Sougo's watching (or at least close enough to see and hear her directly) reminds her that she should at least try to make a better showing here, and knowing that Kale and Aidan are both being targeted as well even helps her realize that the draining feeling is... It's not actually as intense as her mind told her it was at first contact. She can feel them grabbing her, too, and she can feel resistance as she thrashes about, which means... They're not ghosts after all, and she can fight back! Feeling that surge of adrenaline and confidence, the EMT wrenches herself sideways to free herself, practically flinging herself to the floor before scrambling along to get back to her feet before they can latch back onto her. "They're not... They're not ghosts! That's why the water isn't working!" She shouts to... Kale? Aidan? Zi-O? Maybe all three, or even just to herself to help push herself along and refocus on what she should be doing: Getting the heck out of this messy situation. Staying in here would be a huge mistake with all those projectiles flying around, after all, and the stairs at right over there! She can't just leave her companions here alone, though, what with Zi-O fighting those poltergeists as some hoodie-wearing floating Rider while Kale's being dragged onto a table for feasting and Aidan's trying to block the kitchen. Sucking in a breath to try and quiet down her survival instinct, Odette winces as more of those flying blades jab into her, and then she starts sprinting at the ghosts pinning Kale down. "I-I don't know if that's going to work, Mister..." Wait. Crap. What was his name again? "... Fireplace! Can you stand?" She calls out while yelping as she throws herself at another poltergeist, trying to shoulder check them before scrambling away so as to not get grabbed onto for too long. Her footwork isn't terrible, and she's even able to build up some speed before each ramming attempt, but a seasoned fighter she is not so much as she's just trying to buy time and draw attention away from the others in the feasting area so they can all escape at once.
Timespace Riders	FEASTING HALL     "These guys just don't give up," Zi-O laments, as Odette and Aidan both find themselves imperiled. He summons another longsword, combining it with its longer twin to form a greatsword, the long and short hands of a clock standing in unison. Holding the weapon high, he summons a host of colorful hoodie-ghosts--they swirl around it before colliding with the flat and wreathing it in an eerie orange mist.                                   OMEGA SLASH!                                       Zi-O darts towards Odette's assailant first, led on a wild trajectory by the haunted sword. He pulls a dramatic corkscrew in flight, the ghostly orange energy forming a helical contrail as he passes, impaling first her attacker and then Aidan's, before the energy discharges violently all at once in a plate-rattling explosion he directs at the ghosts trying to drag Kale off just as he proffers the takeout.     "Oh NO! I--I wasn't looking!" He really hopes the takeout didn't take collateral damage.     As the projectiles readily on hand become less of a problem, Zi-O makes all the more use of his ghostly flight, escorting his allies in an erratic, looping patrol pattern and striking out at night terrors with his conjured exploding hoodie ghosts before thinning out the poltergeists.
Timespace Riders	BALLROOM There was a shop back there. How bad was the group shopping? People didn't put up much of a fight besides, like, the expected.     "Indeed. Surprisingly, it was minimally intolerable," says Woz.     Woz's whip passes through the ghosts, drawing a thoughtful noise.     *Why, then, do they shy away from it? Cinder, Petra, Princess, and myself. What could our attacks have in common?*     He's kept himself relatively untouched thus far. *How?* His helmet glances towards the reflection on the aquarium, to maintain his distance from the phantoms. His reflection fades in and out with the light of Fourth Match Flame, Petra's flashlight, and Princess' plasma. *Could it be... Yes! The darkness not only serves to disadvantage us, but to give the phantoms space to attack us! My only option to truly combat them would be...*     He *could* just take the stairs and leave the others to take their chances with the phantoms. Indeed, he's already *reached* the stairs, thanks to his careful waltz. With a sigh, he realizes first that it wouldn't be very conducive to victory later, second that several of those present have his respect besides, and third that Petra (included in the former, also currently in a bind) insisted on carrying the Cog.     Woz's armored finger taps the rose icon on the whip's touchscreen, then rapidly swipes up and down the screen.                                  WHIPPRESSIVE!                                       He then proclaims, with his free hand out and high:     "Behold! The beauty and might of the Concord!"                                   FINISH TIME!                                       Woz twirls the whip overhead, creating a mesmerizing spiral of thorns as crackling green energy travels down the length. He deftly transitions the spiral left of him, then right, until the vine is all but occluded by the energy buildup, brighter and brighter.                                  BLOODY ROSES!                                       Rosebuds sprout along the glowing whip, just as Woz leaps down the stairs in a nimble frontflip, flicking outwards with his wrist and flying spread eagle for a moment over the ballroom. The whip extends, the roses bloom and burst into razor-sharp, glowing-hot petals that seek out the phantoms, tracing beautiful and deadly patterns through them on a current of burning red energy that leaves myriad little explosions in its wake. Landing gracefully on his feet with his arms extended, Woz presses his free hand to his chest and indulges in an unnecessary but gratifying bow at the waist.
Lilian Rook	Whether or not it is relevant that Rita might cry is uncertain. It's not even particularly clear how intelligent the shadow-people are, since they're clearly not ghosts. However, Kale offering food makes him part of the service staff, and subsequently leaves him ignored for a precious window of time. Seconds at most for those ambulatory voids to make the takeout vanish in so many silent, perfectly spherical bites.     Odette colliding with them extends his window by another five or six seconds as well, though it leaves her incrementally more drained as well, and the greater number now focused on her means that even her resistance will be taxed shortly. When Sougo blasts away the encircling crowd she's trying to fight back, the both of them have a chance to break for the stairs.     Aidan, meanwhile, is in deep. Pushing towards the kitchen loosens the grip on him somewhat, as it does to suddenly lean into tug-of-war you were just pulling against, but the kitchen is where they're taking him in the first place. Doing exactly what the enemies want isn't helping him escape the enemies at all.     The table colliding with the outside wall of the L-separated kitchen throws candle-light spinning and clattering everywhere, briefly illuminating the shadows clinging to him, and the others gathering around him, then going out. The number of them draining him doubles, then triples, and then he's being collectively dragged over the counter that is the only thing separating him from a chopping block and a massive stew pot filled with vigorously boiling water, whilst his remaining strength is depleted.
Lilian Rook	The ghosts dancing with Petra are utterly oblivious to her discomfort. By putting on the gloves and joining their age-old merriment, she has become one with the crowd, and thus her nature as a living being is irrelevant. If she dies, then she'll only join them forever.     Cinder's trump card; her last ditch burst of power; is sufficiently stronger than all of her previous flames that the ghosts are driven back away from her again, flinching from the fire they aren't used to. Tackling Petra out of the circle, she catches pantomime-silent tsks and mutters of disapproval, but participation is participation. The two waltz all the way up to the stairs in short order.     When they escape as such, the pressure being taken off them is applied to the remainder of the Elites, however. Sarracena is able to power halfway across the ballroom before the distracted dancers converge on her instead, and possession or not, the countless spirits swarming all around her is a recipe for frostbite in seconds, and a cold coma in one minute.     Ten seconds, if the ghosts on the wrong side of the salt get to her, but the end of the broom is scorched off, and hovering in mid-air, it's turned over as if to be examined, then sulkily tossed to the floor. The ghosts divided by salt fold their arms and shake their heads disapprovingly.     Princess is blasting across the ballroom too fast to actually catch, though the dancers take to the air to follow her and Blossom all the same. They're used to the light of her jet boots now, though they still avoid the candles for a little longer, flinching back from the beam. Each new light source seems to have its own 'resistance gauge' before they learn not to care about it, adjusted-to like the light of the aquarium.     Princess Morbucks might actually be the reason Sarracenia makes it, rushing at her as she is, fast enough to plough her into the magnificent monument of lambent yaoi roses that Woz erects on the ballroom floor, driving back the entire crowd whilst Brick crosses the finish line as well.     As you all reach the stairs, rather than being chased any further, you see the ghosts fading back into existence as the light recedes, lined up in rows, collectively applauding you in utter silence.
Petra Soroka	"So... several blatant fucking liabilities and then some maybe-liabilities working it out?"     Petra hangs her head, quietly defeated. "I didn't even do anything wrong this time..." She just hears 'liability' and assumes that includes herself. "May I have this dance?"     Cinder's presence is warming and welcome, literally, lighting up Petra's cold-flushed skin and the frost steadily climbing up her gloves. She scoffs and chatters out a "G-g-g-goof," but Cinder's absolutely right that they need to keep dancing through. When the next partner swap comes, Petra spins on over to Cinder, taking her warm hand with a frigidly cold glove, and nudges the pair's way back into the circle so that they don't immediately stick out and draw the ire of every single ghost around them.     Until Brick, Woz, and Sarra split open the way for the couple to spin their way over to the stairs, Petra feels the need to babble at Cinder with every ballroom beat, dutifully dipping and twirling her as needed.     "Y'know, like, I'm really not that g-good at dancing, sorry--" And dip, and then instead of switching partners, Petra releases and spins a circle around Cinder, back-to-back, for the illusion and the rhythm of matching the dancers. "Like, it doesn't come natural, I guess, and it was sort of hard to c-come up with a reason why I'd *want* to--"     Twirl her around by the hand, promenade position, hold-- "So, um, I guess it's a nice chance, despite the ghosts."     And then they're out, and Petra stumbles over her own feet to the stairs, helpless now that the Beat has left her. Her gloved hand comes off of Cinder's waist with a little puff of steam, frost overheated by proximity to her EGO, and then goes up to wipe the sweaty hair off her forehead and press the heel of her palm into her cheek embarrassedly.     "Well. You know. Cool. Stairs time."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan hammers into the side of the kitchen, toppling over onto it. He grins, blood sopping down his cheek. "Didn't like THAT, did you?" The light illuminates the dozens of shadows around him. A hand grabs his arm, then two. Then three. It falls completely limp as all the energy is sapped out of it. Sougo's blade cuts a few more down, but Aidan elected to try and solve the problem, not escape it. His head jerks back as he feels hands grab at it, at his skull, at his chest, feeling a quiet darkness settle in. Aidan grabs at the counter, claws digging in. I just wanted to be the knight in shining armor once. A thought bubbles up of it being a heroic sacrifice. No. He just fucked up. Everyone will remember him as that guy who fucked up and then forget about him. <J-IC-Scene> Kale Hearthward says, "... oh. Oh! If you're part of the service staff, I mean if you pretend you are, they might ignore you for a bit." That'll be the last thing he hears. The edges of his vision grow dark as his vision narrows in scope. "Help." Aidan croaks out in a whisper, his voice feeling like it can only come out of a long tunnel. He eyes a butcher's cleaver, ready to neatly remove his limbs at the ligaments and sort him into roasts and ribs and stew meat, "Help help help!"
Lilian Rook	The stairs out of both rooms (given every participant but Aidan can immediately use them) climb well away above the ceilings of both rooms, then converge again in the rafters of the main hall, though it takes some platforming to get to the point where they finally cross. Floating steps bridge upper and lower levels, moving with the rhythm of the gears. Small platforms are attached to the front side of mechanical teeth, allowing escalation in classical rotating style.     There are parts where you have to slip through the tick-tock snap back and forth of a balance wheel that touches the ceiling, and various struts, gear trains, stabilizers, and moving bezels, threaten to hurl you off, crush you flat, or slice you in half, in lethal but totally predictable rhythm. Given the lack of enemies above (for now; there could be something to trigger them) it's actually not the worst to advance, though only one tower isn't barred with an iron door. Said bars are coated in layers of finely engraved runes, so they must have received the architect's specific attentions.
Powerpuff Girls	Princess Delilah Morbucks, mechanical genius and power up designer on top of finance guru, had built a masterful wardrobe of Townsville-ready fashion in power suits with every kind of device and function. She was flying and fighting in kindergarten. Now, in College, surely, she would be poised and incredible, right? All that experience, and now a Powerpuff Girl! Well... Zipping across ballroom at speed, the nyerrroon of wavering powersuit-swoosh lets Princess scoop Sarracenia into her arms, the impact compensated for by a bubble-cushion-and-pop of pink energy that inertially dampens the princess' tumbling into the powered Yellow's outstretched arms to not become immediately lethal at speed. Just like a real Puff, Princess scoops up Sarra and leaves a pink-crackling trail across the last half of the room. "Persistent, adaptive specters. It's too bad I don't believe in you! Any more than I believe in getting hit by heatseekers!" Morbucks challenges the silent ghosts, shoulders and back wicking off a half-dozen bright heatflares that tumble hand hang like hot pink lamps in the air, three to a side behind her and among the Incredible Time Finish Future Yaoi Lamps And Flower Filters. Then they're past, and Morbucks doesn't quite check the incline on the stairs while confirming the ghosts are blasted behind her, coming to a sprawling stop with Sarracenia on a landing and slowing to an air-skating stop. Harmless, at least, for Sarracenia, and only scuffing of wall and armor for Princess, Morbucks looks - up! - at the taller girl with her pompoms bouncing and (after setting Sarracenia down) arms akimbo to hips. "Hey, your highness-" Princess holds out her hand, palm up. She hit the title without a hint of humor or ill grace, even! A bit of sassy hook, but, it's Princess Morbucks. That's just Citysville accent. "-h-how about one of those hot powerups? We both could use some warmth after those ghosts, right? I'm *froze*." Cheeks flushed, Princess looks away, down to the silently clapping ghosts. "And I think I left the soup behind..." She grumbles, scowling at the ''sarcastic'' (to her) specters. Blossom, meanwhile, ...
Angela	Cinder's grateful that the experience of corroding was brief at least. She can't help but fear lke she'll just burn away into nothing if she keeps at it--making it maybe a little silly to use in a circumstance like this. But she couldn't bear to have her aid called for and then just...miss it. Cooperation makes survival in the facility--and in the multiverse-a lot easier. Particularly if it's someone you care for asking for it. Cinder is...a surprisingly decent dancer. WHile she spent half her childhood in the outskirts, the other half was being the pet/charity case of a wealthy family. Some things stuck. She's not GREAT--her heart certainly wasn't in these sorts of things--but she can avoid stepping on Petra's feet and mantain her balance. "I get it. Before I met you I never really figured I'd dance again in my life." She's happy, she thinks. It's like the memory has been purified. She doesn't want to let go of Petra's hand but--well, like with Sarracenia, burning her wouldn't be a great idea. Maybe she can reach for it later again when it's still not so hot from the momentary corrosion. "Yeah. It was nice." She smiles. "Let's hit the next floor." And on the next floor... She gapes for a moment. "Uh Petra... Maybe you can take the lead ''this'' time." Her mind is spinning just trying to imagine a viable path forward. The rhythm seems predictable, but the variety... of platforming segments. Cinder looks down at her grappling hook toughtfully.
Kale Hearthward	Kale makes the connection that he's getting a few seconds of reprieve for being 'staff'. "Uh - dinner's served? Oh wow that disappeared quick-" Odette comes in to buy him a few more seconds, and he finally does get up and get into motion, booking it towards the stairs... "... Wait are we-" missing someone? Kale cuts himself off as he realizes *who* the group is missing, and *why* they're missing him. Aidan's getting dragged off. Has already been dragged off. Is actively and currently getting a Bad Ending. Kale's not *heartless*. But... ... But, well, there's a lot of rationalizable schadenfreude going on right now, isn't there? This'll be *good* for Aidan. Maybe he'll start taking things more seriously. Maybe he'll finally stance up and start being useful again. Maybe he'll get some improvement out of having lost like this. ... But really, Kale knows, in his heart of hearts, he's just kinda glad Aidan's flunking out. The right thing is to put aside his personal feelings, go pull him out of the fire, and be the bigger person. That'd be the right thing to do. Kale doesn't do any of that. "- free of the ghosts? They're not following," he says, trying to cover for his near slip of the tongue. "Let's move on." > <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa, as Kamen Rider Zi-O says, "I've got him!" "Oh! Aidan!" Kale's got a pretty good poker face when he wants it. "He didn't make it? I didn't notice... I hope you can rescue him. Sounds like you've got enough help right now, though." He faces forward again, putting Aidan out of his mind. The next floor is a nice distraction, honestly. He spends a bit of time watching everything going on. "I think I get the rhythm? And the route?" He opts to go first, if nobody else has yet. Really, his biggest worry is getting crushed (or sliced or smashed or torn apart or ground to bits or etc) because if he merely misses a platforming jump, he has the advantage of quick-activate jet boots to recover before he can fall too much. "It doesn't feel like there's time or enemy pressure here, at least?" he calls, since he hasn't learned to not tempt fate yet. "So we can take our time, if anyone's having some trouble or needs help.
Timespace Riders	KITCHEN     Zi-O goes from lamenting one thing to lamenting the next, as Aidan ... pushes right into the kitchen.     "Um, that was... creative," Zi-O calls out, zipping into the kitchen with an energy pistol that looks like the hilt of the smaller longsword he'd used earlier. Greatsword shouldered, he blasts a spread pattern with the pistol, sending little cartoonish, shadowy eyes-in-the-dark figures outwards in a saturation blast meant to remove the most immediate problem.     The greatsword dissipates in a cloud of pink light as Zi-O scoops Aidan up in an over-the-shoulder carry and hurriedly ghost-floats the both of them out of there and back towards the stairs, where he sets him down for a brief, sotto voce question, his helmet bobbing inquisitively.     "Um, hey, out of character, for a second..." He makes the time-out symbol with his free hand and the laser pistol. "Was that you throwing in the towel, there? Because if it was, you should probably just say that, and if it wasn't, well..."     "I really don't know what you were thinking was gonna happen there, but I'm just going to trust--" (Hope) "--that you had a reason for thinking it was gonna work that makes sense to you. I have a feeling looking at your past to figure it out is just gonna raise more questions. Just think things through a little more, okay? There's not always going to be someone who can or will save you, when you're doing this kind of thing. It's us that's supposed to be saving regular people, you know? Anyway..." He clears his throat and returns 'in-character.' "Okay, let's get you patched up and move out!" he affirms, with effortful spirit. STAIRS     Zi-O's flying in this form is a little too floaty to handle platforming challenges with the requisite precision. Thus, a tool he'd used previously makes a reoccurence!     Ex-Aid! A pink and green pocketwatch is slotted opposite the black-gold half of the Zi-O II Ridewatch.                                   ARMOR TIME!                                       A disembodied suit of white armor with pink and green trim appears from a pink portal before him. A colorful four-button gamepad breastplate complements game-cartridge pauldrons. A shock of stylized pink 'hair,' rests atop the helmet, and the bracers are replaced with housings for A and B buttons, respectively. It flies apart, hovering as little powerups for him to collect along the way, and by the time he's collected them all, he's easily clearing the platforming segment to the tune of retro 90s-gaming bweeps and bwoops.                           Level UP! o/` Ex-AIIID! o/`                                On the opposite end, Woz pats Cinder reassuringly on the shoulder, before using his whip likely much the same way she'll be using her grappling hook. The thorny spikes allow for ample grip, and so the challenge is finding spots that are both substantial enough and adequately placed for him to make his graceful, high-flying leaps.
Odette Raskins	Gasping for breath after the first several ramming maneuvers, Odette quickly realizes her attempt to help the Feasting Crew out might have some glaring flaws in it. "Guh.. Th-they really don't! We just gotta get out of here once-yeeh!" Diving beneath Zi-O'S OMEGA SLASH as it passes right over her, she rolls along the ground several times before looking over at the way he's headed in. Thankfully, Sougo's buying her plenty of time to get back on her feet, and she regroups with the Kamen Rider soon enough and eventually trails behind him once she realizes he's on escort duty. More importantly, the stairs are once again in sight, and Odette is quick to point them out to the others in the Feasting Area with vigorous swings of her arms. "C.. Come on, everyone! we've got a clear way out now!" She calls out, yelping again as a plate smashes into herface and staggers her momentarily. Picking some shards of porcelain out of her face with a pained noise, she soon notices those two that aren't with her and Sougo just yet. Kale's found a path out of his predicament, at least, even if it might still be a temporary one. Pretending to be part of the ghostly-but-not-really service staff certainly wasn't something she would have considered herself, but the opening bought by Kale's takeout from Rita means she probably doesn't have to worry about him too much as long as he isn't staggering about half-drunk. He's already headed for the stairs, too, so he'll probably be okay! No, the more pressing concern is Aidan when she sees him heading towards the kitchen that the shadow-people were already trying to drag Odette and Kale towards earlier. It's truly mind-boggling, and there's an uneasy noise coming out of the EMT as she realizes there's not much time to act before he's turned into the next serving for the feast. Is there even anything she can do at this point? Wait. The shadow-people aren't ghosts, as she remembers from earlier. Zi-O's already on the move, and that means the best odds of surviving this encounter would come from sticking with him. "Crap crap crap hhhh... I-I've got your back, Mister Go! Wait, Mister.. Eight?!" She calls out to Zi-O, clearly mishearing his belt's callouts amidst all the clattering metal noises and shouting. Odette groans lightly as she wracks her brain for the first idea that comes to mind, diving forward to roll over and grab some of the fallen knives and plate that have landed on the floor. As she finishes her roll, she flings the plate and knife in rapid succession, aiming the former right at one of those shadow-people's elbows to try and dislodge their grip on the squirrel. The latter, meanwhile, is aimed at the counter to ricochet off of it first so it can lose some velocity before turning into another shadow-person's forearm. Try as she might, Odette still can't bring herself to be too aggressive with shadow-people attacking someone she's working with today. She keeps grabbing more junk off the floor, too, to keep up the barrage of makeshift throwables aimed at those thatmight try and catch Zi-O while he's trying to talk sense into Aidan.
Sarracenia	It may have fought off the possession, but the hammer's glow is not enough to clear the way for Sarra completely! And since she is unable to be repossessed quite yet (and really who would want to anyway, Sarra's value is pretty low) the cold gets to her quickly. Her teeth are chattering as she nears the stairs and that floral safe zone. Frost starts forming on Sarra's hands, on her dress, on the metal flower in her hair. It would probably look pretty if the cold wasn't threatening to freeze Sarra solid. Her hammer swings even start to slow, and the prismatic glow starts to flicker...      ...but then, the princess is saved! Thanks to...the Powerpuff Princess! Shivering bitterly, Sarra does not complain in the slightest about being princess carried by a somewhat faux princess named Princess! Despite the situation and her pride being somewhat damaged from the irony, Sarra's eyes still sparkle a little. She is being rescued by someone in a heroic fashion!      The sprawling stop leaves Sarra flailing for balance on the landing. It isn't until Princess addresses her that Sarra fully realizes how much taller she is than her anti-villain savior. But, as Princess holds out a hand Sarra quickly agrees. "Definitely! And perhaps I will burn this area down while I am at it!" She pulls out two fireflower power-ups and places one in Princess's hand while making use of the other herself. In a puff of smoke Sarracenia and Princess are in fiery color palettes!      And Sarra lets out an angry and frustrated growly shriek. "So! You think you can just possess and freeze me and get away with it?!" A fireball forms in her hand and she rears back to pitch it. "Well, take thi-..."      As she looks back in and sees the ghosts clapping for them, Sarra holds her fire. She watches them, then her expression slowly fades from rage-filled to just flat. "...well, I suppose I cannot hold it against them..." she says, and clenches her hand to make that fireball disappear.      She turns to the others and bows lightly. "Thank you all for your help back there..." She rubs her arms with her now warmth-producing hands. "I...am not sure I would have made it without your help." she says, looking mostly at Cinder.      Brick however gets a bit of the nose upturned in a haughty way treatment and a hmph. "That said, I am not a liability. This was just a-..."      <J-IC-Scene> Aidan Proudpick in a waning whisper, "help"      Sarra's eyes widen. "...Aidan?" If he is asking for help like that, it must be bad...      Without finishing her thought toward Brick, Sarra takes off for the other stairs at a sprint, running expertly on her toes since she is wearing heels and is quite used to moving in them.      She passes Kale on the way, and gives him the most disbelieving look followed by the most 'if looks could kill' look she can manage. This is the bird Aidan is trying to get her to like?!      She balks at the darkness of the dining area and kitchen, but she isn't going to just give up! So, she starts throwing fireballs in a bit of a panic! Hopefully the heat and light will help the same way it did in the other room! "Aidan! And...Odette? I do not see her, either! Please tell me you have them!" she shouts into the darkness.      Just as Zi-O passes with the others in tow. She blinks in surprise, then follows after. "Are you all alright?!" she exclaims, knowing she was on the brink of a Bad End herself.
Sarracenia	At the top of the stairs, it turns out to be platforming time! One thing that Sarra excels at thanks to her planet of origin! Between her natural and trained acrobatic and athletic skill that she does not show off nearly enough and her power-ups, she hops, wall-jumps, and flies in short bursts to clear the room.      And stays close to Aidan the entire time.
Powerpuff Girls	... has taken it upon herself to leave the dance and abandon candelabrum she had taken up for the glow in flight over ghostly dance at door. A little out of place, but no worse for wear, and certainly within range for poltergeist replacement with little fuss, Blossom leaves the lackingly-protective light of candles behind with a sweeping bow under the light of Yaoi (Yuri?) Flowers and justice (heat flares) for her performance (that she didn't do). "Thank you, everyone, for your graceful dancing. Goodnight!" The red calls into the crowd of clapping ghosts, kisses fingertips and turns them out towards her audience, and then is up and around the landings in a blur of skidding red. Stopping over the half-collapsed Princess, with a flower in hand and her pretty girl run off to save the rodent, Blossom gives the Morbucks girl a pat on the head. Morbucks looks up with a frown, crushing the flower in hand and black bodysuit gaining a white-and-red undersuit to gold shine. The Fire Flower gives Princess an extra heat aura around her body, yet warmer fiery reds and oranges to her golds and plasma-pinks. It's not the Satellite Armor, but, it's warm on the inside more importantly, and so she's left in the warm wake of Sarracenia feeling like a dingus. "Feels weird, doesn't it?" "Enlighten me?" "Saving someone, for them to immediately run off." (Fire) Princess looks at the empty air where Sarracenia was just moments ago, and frowns. "Yeah." Says the woman warmed without by suit and within by 'flower'. "It's weird." Blossom pats the ginger on her head, and floats up the stairwell, turning towards the armored woman. "Come help me skip people through the platforming. They won't think of it after, either, but it's good practice." (Fire) Princess chases Blossom for a moment, both heading after Kale before Blossom hangs back and Princess carries on. With Petra and Cinder challenging timing traps, Princess can just use her two arms and bursts of zipping speed to carry them across short gaps and challenges, and drag up Zi-O and Cinder's hookshot opportunities when there's no clean way up and quickly snap on to helpfully dragging people past the worst of Tower Hell.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan has a single second to think that 'oh, the fact that the teleport only works if you are about to die, I can have a few limbs cut off of me before that kicks in. This is going to be terrible.' He sees the combat roll from Odette, a flung plate and a knife that makes his eyebrows raise. The blasts around him suddenly plow into ghosts and Aidan has a moment to crack an eye open before Zi-O grabs him and throws him over a shoulder. A WOOF of breath rushes out of him as he is carried like a sack of potatoes. He gets one look at Sarracenia charging down after him and then grimaces as he sees Sarracenia rush in with a fireball. "Um, hey, out of character, for a second..." "Figured breaking the kitchen would get them to go away." Aidan mumbles as he takes deep breaths. "Two people on the ground, I had to do something." He watches Odette wing projectiles with appreciation, grinning at her. "Battle medic," is all he can get before he is dumped back up at the platform. "Thanks, Demon King," Aidan staggers as he leans up against a wall, taking a moment to get his breath and his strength. "Thanks Odette." He nods slowly towards the Demon King as he watches the rider go off, Kale ahead, then back to Sarracenia. He pushes himself up against a wall to catch his breath. "Can I get one of those mushrooms? I got a lot of blood coming out of me." He lets out a slow breath, reading exactly what is on Sarracenia's face. Aidan looks back ahead, grimacing. "Thanks, Sarra. For being such a good friend." He looks back at the look on her face, then back ahead. "I gotta be someone people can rely on," is all he says. With a mushroom, the platforming is easy, he hardly has to platform when he can climb walls.
Rowdyruff Boys	"Your liability is very conditional, and even participants who weren't trying to be, have been liabilities," Brick says to Petra, simply. Which is true. He thinks he has a pretty good grasp on when she's a danger, now. Not perfect, and not enough to be absolutely comfortable with her presence in anything at all, but enough that he thinks he can do passable calculus. //Wait, are we-// //Help. Help help help!// Brick retrieves a small notebook and pencil from his back pocket, updates the degree to which he considers Aidan and Kale liabilities, and puts it away again in a barely-visible series of quick motions. A couple of plus marks go beside Zi-O's entry, though. //That said, I am not a liability. This was just a-...// "Cool," Brick says, lifelessly. He advances into the next room with Blossom, but he doesn't begin to advance into it until a significant portion of the group has already started their run. There is a really simply reason for this-- if it was him, he'd have a certain number of people passing key checkpoints trigger a defensive response. In all likelihood the people that would be left would be the people who aren't good at navigating environments like this. High-speed flight has an advantage in this sort of situation, and what's more, Brick is good at it. He'd rather the people with less convenient ambulation get ahead of them-- and he does pause and tap Blossom on the shoulder to aside, "Hey. Hang back with me once you get a few people boosted up." And so... he hovers there. After about ten seconds of observing Aidan and Sarracenia, he fishes the soup bottle out of his pocket, twists it open, and takes a sip. No visible reaction to its taste is displayed, save that he takes another, deeper sip. But, Brick's dog-like tendencies are in effect at the moment, so there's really just no telling. Once a certain, invisible threshold is crossed he carefully re-closes the bottle, secures it in his hoodie, and forms up parallel with Blossom when she returns. Whether there's a nasty last-minute surprise or not, he vanishes into a blur of luminous red that zips through the obstacles, having the benefit -- at least in part -- of having watch it get run before even attempting it. //I gotta be someone people can rely on// "Being reliable has nothing to do with wanting to be reliable," he directs to Aidan, on reaching the end. "You are who you are, and who you are is a guy who does stupid all-or-nothing shit practically on a lark. Half the people who are liabilities aren't intending to be liabilities. That group who made a big, visible castle near entry, for instance. Setting up a more subtle base would have worked out much better. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but it's still true that that was an error which cost the operation."
Petra Soroka	"Uh Petra... Maybe you can take the lead ''this'' time."     "Oh, hell yeah."     Platforming is *such* a welcome change after ballroom ghosts, partly because being up on the catwalk is helping her warm up. But, she is also so good at jumping across platforms and through constructed little challenges, like an extremely nimble rat in a deadly maze! There doesn't even need to be cheese at the end, because she's already been conditioned to have positive associations with the running and jumping in itself! "So we can take our time, if anyone's having some trouble or needs help."     "Yeah, but like, it's way easier if you *don't* hesitate," Petra calls out convincingly, since she's already ducked, double-jumped, and wall-kicked her way ahead of the others. She leans a hand on a stable bronze pillar, having gotten her blood pumping enough to recolor her extremities. She's got a surprisingly good sense of tempo, even when moving at full-tilt.     When Blossom offers to carry her, Petra shakes her head emphatically no and gestures to all the others. All of them! She wants to run and jump and so even if the others are *more* capable at platforming than her, she'd prefer that they be carried! "...Aidan?"     Petra opens her mouth to say something to Sarra, but doesn't get it out before she rushes off. She crosses her arms and frowns at the princess's retreating and descending back. "Literally, she's pulled his ass out of the fire a dozen times as often as he's done the same for her. Useless fucking shithead. I should ask Ash for some of that anti-Lilian-magic stuff they've got so I can cancel the ward around Proudpick and get him killed."     A beat, and then a single sweatdrop at the Puffs' proximity. "I mean, that's not actually practical. I wouldn't. And it'd be bad, like, here, for infighting." "Thanks, Sarra. For being such a good friend."     Contempt contempt contempt contempt. Petra attempts to psychically beam it in Aidan's direction, but fails. She also attempts to beam it facially in his direction, and succeeds. "Being reliable has nothing to do with wanting to be reliable,"     "I don't think it has *nothing* to do with it," says Petra, self-interestedly. "But there's the additional factor of, like, just being able to actualize on your wants in *general*, which Proudpick doesn't have at all. He'll say he wants it forever, and maybe he even thinks he means it, but he'll never actually change his behavior after people tell him he's not."
Rowdyruff Boys	//I don't think it has *nothing* to do with it// "You're right. I misspoke. It's largely a negative. Having a strong urge to prove yourself in any way involves engaging in high-stakes, low-reliability behavior. There's no glory or glamour in greasing the wheels," Brick says, shrugging.
Kale Hearthward	> She passes Kale on the way, and gives him the most disbelieving look followed by the most 'if looks could kill' look she can manage. Kale... ... neutrally returns the look. Multiple people are picking up on him actively choosing to not go to Aidan's rescue, though, which is harder to ignore than just Sarracenia. "Do you ever think it'd be kinder to just let someone fail?" he says, to no one in particular as the group platforms up, and purposefully ignoring that he had his own rescue by Odette not even five minutes prior. "Massive leaps of logic followed by thoughtless action, resulting in everyone dropping everything to come to your rescue with hugs and head-pats and reassurances that no you aren't worthless, that feels like one of those negative feedback loops," he adds, to no one in particular, about no one in particular.
Odette Raskins	Even though there's no enemies out by the stairs and assorted platforming gears and clock-relevant things, Odette's still looking pretty  haggard by the time she gets there. Rather, it's the lack of enemies that even gives her a chance to bandage herself up, but she's only about halfway through wrapping one around an arm before there's already calls from Blossom to skip past them and hurry on through. "H-huh? But shouldn't we... I-I mean, the right way to do a..." Before she can get her thoughts arranged properly, Odette finds herself struggling to keep up with some of the group already leaping on through. Not willing to hold the group back, she rushes a bit too soon at throwing herself right at the challenge, taking big running leaps to get onto the turning gears and only giving herself a little time to study the next moving crusher before leaping on through that as well. With her luck, she might very well need a save from Princess there, but at least she'll make one or two good jumps before that happens!
Aidan Proudpick	"Being reliable has nothing to do with wanting to be reliable," Aidan stops, mulling that over in his head. "Two people were in danger. I made a decision I thought was best." He tries to think past that. Then looks forward. "I thought wrecking it was gonna do it. Destroy the thing they are coming out of." SUCCESSFUL BEAMING. He glances at Petra, and it is possibly the most she has wounded him in a long time. His teeth set as he bristles, tail flicking. But he's already on the back foot as she lances him with exactly what feels about his relationship with Sarracenia. He stands more erect. "I'm working on it. Sometimes you need to take a big swing to get the right thing done." "Massive leaps of logic followed by thoughtless action." A wince, but he nods towards Sarracenia. Not quite thinking critically of it in this moment. Worthless. Aidan brushes himself down as they stand in front of the door. "We'll have ice cream later, maybe? Right now, we gotta focus." Having everyone watch him after that failure gives Aidan the brief thought of perhaps it would have been better to be chopped up and fed to Rita.
Petra Soroka	"There's no glory or glamour in greasing the wheels,"     Petra is about to object to this automatically, but she catches herself with her mouth open and reflects an extra few seconds on the kinds of behaviors she *actually* engages in when trying to be reliable. It's almost never glory-seeking or risk-taking, which isn't something she's given a lot of thought to before, but had apparently been operating on automatically, based on what actually produced successful results of being reliable. So Brick's chastisement doesn't apply to her!     Therefore, allowing her to agree. "Yeah, actually, good point. Almost everyone who says 'I want to be reliable' actually means 'I want to get credit for doing cool things and saving people', and they're kind of dogshit at that too. Predictable, consistent behavior doesn't get you gold star stickers." "Do you ever think it'd be kinder to just let someone fail?"     "Why stop there?" Petra is also definitely talking about anyone in particular, but she didn't see Kale ignoring Aidan, so she's talking about a different someone in particular. Who it is, is immediately clear.     "I mean, I've made *you* fail on purpose when I thought it'd be better for you. Passive beatdowns usually aren't, like, decisive enough to make enough friction to remold someone. At least, not in any tolerable amount of time. You have to help them along, and if they break, then they probably weren't ever going to get better by failing either." "Sometimes you need to take a big swing to get the right thing done."     "Sometimes you need to kill yourself immediately and stop being a fucking burden on everyone you scam into spending any effort on you," is Petra's response to Aidan's standing-up-straight, while rocking on the edge of a rotating gear-platform and mentally judging the timing to leap off it to the next. She can't possibly mean anyone but Sarracenia with that, which continues the odd streak of her being protective of Sarra against Aidan specifically.
Lilian Rook	The platforming segment above the ground is ruthlessly fair. There is no particularly clever way to cheat it, but it does nothing that it doesn't show you up front. While there are certain parts where some length of the pathways can be skipped with sharp flight or agile platforming maneuvers, large portions of the route are safer to traverse on the paths designed to go through it.     It might strike one or two that this incredibly deadly walkway should be trivial for Lilian herself to navigate, and much less so Dylan. It could say something about the remaining Generals ahead.     The only tower that lies open to your exploration subtly stands at a center of clockwork tension; the density of gears and wheels around it isn't unusual, but the rotational energy seems to feed into the walls surrounding the spiral staircase upwards more than the others. At the base, you hear clearly the way that the omnipresent Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock intensifies around you, echoing from the sloped walls until it crashes down on you in rhythmic waves. The more you ascend along the twisting ribbon of baroque rails and studded crystal torches, the louder it gets, until . . .     You emerge into golden sunset again, this time drained of fading white and drenched deeply in the rich hues of brass and gold. The entry stairway opens through a rooftop access door, of sorts, into the interior of a tower thirty times wider than the narrow stairwell, large enough to run laps around. Ahead of you, an unimaginably enormous axle descends from the heavens and spears through the floor, running up the entire length of the tower-- as far as you can see. Unfathomably complex clockworks orbit 'round and 'round the axis mundi of their tick-tock orderly world; what you saw before was, you now realize, just a taste of what runs through the castle.     The earlier platforming was a warmup. There are no helpful stairs upwards. You'll have to climb the entire length of the tower by platforming on the mechanism alone. Phantom lights and glinting metal above make it clear you won't be alone, either. And it appears to be a very long way down.     The next key can only be at the top.
Sarracenia	'Can I get one of those mushrooms? I got a lot of blood coming out of me.'      Sarra eeks softly and quickly pulls out like four green mushrooms. She holds them out for him, but is a bit caught off guard for the thank you. Especially for the being a good friend part. She is caught in stunned silence for a moment before she remembers to reply. "Oh...uh...you are quite welcome." she says, voice a bit shaky. She catches Petra's look at Aidan and huffs softly.      'I gotta be someone people can rely on,'      Sarra is not sure what to say at first, so just nods lightly in agreement. After a moment though she adds, "As do I."      'Cool.'      It is Sarra's turn to bristle, but in that moment she did not have time to address it. Now though, Brick gets a rather withering look from Sarra as she passes him on the way up. She listens to all that is being said about Aidan, and while she does not say anything to them about it since he -did- make a pretty big mistake it seems, she does at least pat him on the shoulder to show him support. It is all she can really think of to do right now.      '(Fire) Princess looks at the empty air where Sarracenia was just moments ago, and frowns.'      Sarra may not realize what she did, but when she encounters Princess offering rides upward later the princess smiles brightly. "Why, thank you~ So heroic~" she says, and waits to be carried. "And...thank you again, for saving me back there!"      Despite their size difference, Sarra insists on being carried princess style. And on slipping her arms around the back of Princess's neck to hang on. "You have been rather impressive throughout this mock hero exercise. Although, I did question you a bit during the encounter with the corrupted hero in the prison." Sarra hees and grins lightly. "You seem to have a bit of a bad girl streak, hmm? I suppose that is fine in a heroine, so long as you do not let it get the better of you. It makes things interesting!"
Powerpuff Girls	Blossom and Brick work in perfect concert, incredible in time and more than a match for any Brutally Fair coursework in air or ground. Speed is no problem, toughness no question. Even if it's a complex maneuver, they've practiced ten for just the occasion. Even better? Blossom is in the mood for dancing. Princess, doing her best to yank the slowpokes up and keep everyone going while catching looks from Blossom for her morale, reaches a hand out for the dashing-off princess Sarracenia and is tumbled into a full Princess princess carry. Holding onto Sarracenia without trouble, the flushed freckled cheeks of Morbucks turn away incrementally, in eyes and pouting mouth more than chin or neck. "Of course. I'm a Powerpuff Girl!" Princess puffs up in the carry as she effortlessly sweeps the crowned princess by certain disqualification and forbidding danger with showy ease - and extreme taxing of her skill and long experience flying under pressure. The clock theme was a nicer touch than usual! "I should be impressive - I'm here to prove myself a worthy member of the team. So, princess - right now? I'm the perfect hero. But, of course, the rest of the time?" Princess smirks, deflecting eyes dropping to the woman in her arms. "I'm a *bad* girl. A real Towns-villain." She rolls her tone, smirking confidently into her statement of self. "And why's that interesting, Princess? Do you... like bad girls?" Princess asks, leaning close to the woman who quite willingly hopped into her arms.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia giggles a bit impishly at the question. "Well, as long as they are not -too- bad. But, it would be terrible to finally find my hero or heroine and they were boring, you know? I am one who likes to enjoy life, to have fun, and a heroine who also knows how to let lose would be good." she says.      "A Towns-villain, hm?" Sarra say with a bit of a giggle before thinking a moment. "So, you are a reformed villain trying to prove her heroism? While I would like to think I have never been a villain, we may have something in common there. I am also here to prove I am a heroic princess who can be relied upon!"      She giggles again, then says, "Oh, I suppose since you have saved me you should be allowed to simply call me Sarracenia, instead of highness or Princess Sarracenia Sundew. What should I call you? And are you also a crown princess? What is your kingdom like?"
Powerpuff Girls	'As long as they're not *too* bad' is a bit of a tag-line about the quality of character around Townsville and the greater Bay Area. With things kept at a dulled roar by the Powerpuff Girls, the gallery of characters that had grown with them took on a few of those traits. Namely, a cartoonish reasonability to the levels of 'bad' they were. Back on Sarracenia, Princess holds her while smirking to the corners of glasses-set face and freckle-dotted cheeks. "Come on, highness. If you found your heroine," No 'hero' involved, but she is the villainous tryout of the *Girls*. "You'd be picky after? Are you in the market for a heroine to hold you or a toy to entertain you?" Setting down Sarracenia, gentle from armhold to guided-stand, Princess leaves a hand at the small of the taller woman's back, conspiratorial for a moment, leaning still. "Be sure, now. You can love a toy, but they won't save you." 'So, you are a reformed villain trying to prove her heroism?' Princess, shifting temporarily-white(-hot) suitgloved hands closed and back to her hips, leans back her bepommed head and chuffs confident-warm. "Well?" Morbucks looks up, pink lensed glasses clearing of HUD elements. "How'd I do?" She asks, oozing rhetorical. After a second of holding, her glowing ego dims in particular character and she dangles right arm while shifting back hip-planted left fist in her restanced casual lean. "You've got plenty of reliable tools too, highness. A little more using them, and you'd need heroes less. Like that bright-hot flower you've got - why didn't you use that in the ballroom? Would it make things..." Like the answer just occurred to her, though it reads something into Sarracenia found chiefly within the Morbucks heart. "... too easy? I see," She giggles a bit too, low peaks and back-of-throat chortles. "I see..." 'What should I call you?' Princess blinks. "Princess." 'And are you also a crown princess?' Princess looks up to the gem-set Power Crown on her head. 'What is your kingdom like?' "My name - my first name is Princess. Princess Morbucks." She can't quite believe she's having this conversation, but also, calling LA a kingdom didn't seem... entirely far off. "I'm from Citysville, in Los Angeles County, California."
Sarracenia	'Come on, highness. If you found your heroine, You'd be picky after? Are you in the market for a heroine to hold you or a toy to entertain you?'      Sarra hmphs lightly and smirks a bit, absorbing some of the bad girl vibes. "Well...I suppose if we did not mesh well then they would not actually be my heroine."      'e sure, now. You can love a toy, but they won't save you.'      The hand resting at the small of her back makes the taller red-head blush slightly, and the way that question is asked at the same time makes it worse. But, it is a question that Sarra has not really considered. "...a toy...?" The hand falls away finally, and Sarra turns to face Princess. "I suppose in some ways. Should couples not be able to entertain each other? But, what I really want is a hero or heroine who adores me yet is still devoted to being a hero. Then, we shall go on heroic adventures together, improving the Multiverse as a heroic power couple!" Sarra declares, raising one arm in a power fist as she does and giggling with delight at the idea after.      'How'd I do?'      Sarra recognizes a rhetorical question like that and just lets out a playful 'hee' in response.      'You've got plenty of reliable tools too, highness. A little more using them, and you'd need heroes less. Like that bright-hot flower you've got - why didn't you use that in the ballroom? Would it make things..... too easy? I see, I see...'      Sarra laughs awkwardly at that. "Er...well, actually...there was simply no time. By the time we knew what the countermeasures were...I was already freezing and watching myself try to smash the others. I do not do well with ghosts and spirits, I suppose..." she admits, rubbing an arm self-consciously.      'My name - my first name is Princess. Princess Morbucks. I'm from Citysville, in Los Angeles County, California.'      Sarra blinks in surprise. "Your...name is Princess?" she repeats, and has to take a moment to let that sink in. "So...your parents thought that was..." A good idea to name you that, but Sarra does not finish saying that. Her expression goes a bit flat at the idea, though. "I see." She shrugs after that and smiles. "Well, no matter. I place little merit in royal or noble status when it comes to my search for my heroine. Though, it seems likely you are some sort of noble with the amount of wealth that would be required to field such devices."      Sarra pauses a moment, then looks a little nervous. "Ah...I suppose I should be transparent and say that I do have my eye on another heroine as well. Merelisa Shaynore, the heroine known as Andromeda. We have had several adventures together already, and we get along swimmingly~ As an aspiring heroine myself, I thought I should let you know."
Powerpuff Girls	Sarracenia describes what - who - she desires to Princess, and the Morbucks woman takes a further gathering of the Sundew royal's measure. "It's best to want someone who's into themselves, and into you. Some might think slavish devotion is the best, but that's not really interesting in the long term - no staying power!" Princess agrees, rolling a tiny curl of pink flame amongst her fingers and finishing 'staying power!' with a snap that bursts the little bumb into a flash of emphasis. "But," Princess looks a little slyly at Sarra, up gently, arms crossing in collected confidence. "If you want to meet someone to adventure with, getting saved isn't the way, right?" Morbucks' dry chortle is almost-leading, mostly-honest. Doesn't Sarra get it? Princess thinks she does, or at least, should. "You don't play baccarat to find an honest smile, Sarracenia." Princess asides, as if that explains everything, using the familiar name boldly. And then,     ... Sarra learns the 'truth' of the girl whose name meant royalty, but was a noun, not a title. And then,     Princess's own smile dims, chasing meaning in 'I see.'. 'I do have my eye on another heroine as well.' Honesty may be the best policy among some, but it seems softly dashing of the dreamy machinations of a flush-faced ginger girl flanked by pom-poms of pouf over each shoulder. "Oh," She begins. "Yeah." She finishes, lamely. "Well," The smirk comes back, dagger-fine and practiced to a point, a never-losing always-on-the-upswing smirk that wouldn't ever falter no matter how she really felt. "It's im-portant to get along with your heroine, isn't it?" Princess asks, lifting hand in airy flourish as she joins the others towards the next checkpoint. "... Am I supposed to be that honest, too?" She mutters, under-breath, looking farther ahead to Blossom in the distance, ... with Brick.
Sarracenia	'If you want to meet someone to adventure with, getting saved isn't the way, right?'      "You are quite right! It is part of why I started my journey to becoming a heroine in the first place!" Sarra replies brightly. "I realized that if I wanted a hero or heroine who met my criteria to choose me, I needed to be heroic myself. And as such, putting myself out there as a heroine would increase my chances of meeting such a heroic person as well as improve my public image." She pauses a moment, a finger to her lips in thought. "Although...I ended up enjoying being a heroine somewhere along the way. Helping people...is nice, you know?"      'ou don't play baccarat to find an honest smile, Sarracenia.'      "I do! Well, if they are a friend or amicable aquaintance, at least. ...wait, what is baccarat?" Sarracenia comes from a non-Earth world, and does not really play board games besides. "Well anyway, it was quite common a year or two ago to challenge people to friendly fights in the Shrine of Adversity with the goal being entertainment and smiles. I quite enjoyed it! It seems to have fallen out of fashion now, though. It is a shame, really. One can learn so many things about someone during a fight that simply are not so easy to see in a social setting." the princess says, then hmms. "Perhaps we could have such a bout at some point."      'Oh,'      Sarra offers a small apologetic smile. She knew what the effects of that honesty might be of course, but she figured it was better to say it now than for it to become clear later. She smile/smirks more genuinely when Princess seems to bounce back, though! "Mm-hmm! It is perhaps the most important thing! Compatibility between the heroine and her chosen princess is paramount!" she agrees, following after.      Sarra doesn't quite catch the muttered question, but she is too glad that the revelation did not turn Princess off of her completely to press the issue as they head toward the next challenge.