((...Well, yes, but it
shouldn't be this effective! Look, an update, and the only difference today is that I actually posted that there would be an update. -.-))
Sasha carefully pokes the "food".
"Is this safe to eat? Maybe we could rest here, now that no monster is close."
You lightly poke the browned top of the "food", the surface cracking under the pressure and revealing a gooey white intertior. Which then sticks to your finger when you yank your hand back. You give the bit of goo a sniff, finding it to be intensely sweet-smelling, and get a mild compulsion to eat it... though you think that's more because it's candy, and you're kinda hungry. It really does seem to just be mundane baked marshmallow. It probably wouldn't be
that dangerous to eat some, after all, everything magical in this place is obviously magical, so something mundane should be fine, right?
...Alida brings up the fact that she's eaten spiders, and they don't taste bad, which makes you immediately lose your appetite and with it all interest in the stuff. You wipe your finger off on the table, before stepping away.
"I.. don't think so? Maybe after the witch is dead? It might do something to us, like the music."
"I'll carry a bit, though."
Take a piece of the food and drop it into the waterfall. Take another piece to carry around. Then stick my head through the two doors and try to figure out which one gets us closer to the witch. If the long slope brings us closer, use that one.
You thrust your hand into one of the weird pie-things, and dig out a fistful of sticky melted marshmallow, then walk over to the door that opens into a dark pit, and toss the treat down. You watch it disappear into the darkness, and wait, but nothing seems to happen... or at least, nothing that
you can see! You drag Mina over and ask her if she can tell if anything is different about the hole now that you've thrown candy into it. She gives you a weird look, and says that it's just a hole in the stone, not a giant rock monster. Oh well, it was worth a try.
You return to the table, and pull out another fistful of marshmallow goo, and
almost shove it into your backpack. You don't want to have to spend an hour cleaning marshmallow out of your backpack when you get home, so instead you just carry it in your already-messy hand. That done, you walk with Mina over to the next door, and try to sense the witch with her.
"We shouldn't eat that, no..."
Basically help with what Alida's doing.
You follow Alida as she scoops up a lump of the marshmallow pie, marches over to the weird pit, and throws the food into the darkness. She stands in the doorway and watches it fall, looking like she's expecting some monster to come surging up and punish her for littering. Unsurprisingly, nothing happens, but Alida still pulls you over and asks you if anything is different.
Just to humor her, you do reach your right hand in and inspect the shaft with your senses, but can't sense any difference. It's all just mundane stone, with an impossible little waterfall. You point this out to Alida, and she just shrugs, then goes and grabs another lump of marshmallow, before dragging you towards the next door and asking if you can sense the witch's location.
[Creativity] &
[Creativity]You step into both of the corridors in turn, closing your eyes and focusing for a minute in both, before answering and explaining what you can sense. Firstly, the emptions in this entire area feel... "stale" is the closest word you can think of. Old, negative, but not rotten. It's similar to the despair on the surface, just not as fresh. Of the two corridors, you'd say the shorter descending one is staler, but you're really not sure what that means in terms of the witch. Maybe it means she's
not that way, because the emotions are older? Or maybe it means that she
is that way, and these older emotions are more core to her? You have no idea, and tell Alida as much.
She nods, then says she thinks she can sense the witch through the longer corridor, and since your observations aren't helpful, she'll go with her own. Then she turns around and leads the way into the upward-sloping tunnel. How rude.
Everyone follows Alida through the door across from the window. Everyone stumbles when they first step through the door, the world feeling like it suddenly tilts ten degrees forward, to make the upward slope perfectly level, and the room they just left tilted. It's a strange sensation, but one easily adapted to. Curiously, the occasional drips of water falling from the ceiling don't match the slope, and fall at a subtly different angle from what feels like 'down'.
The tunnel turns rightward at a constant rate, and yet it never seems to complete a circle. The girls walk for several minutes, and feel like they must have made several circles by now, but the tunnel continues around without intersecting itself--or, as Mina helpfully points out, even coming close to any other open space in the stone. It feels like the path is some sort of repeating space that just starts you back at the end once you've reached the end, and just after Alida starts to wonder whether they should try going the other way, the group hears loud splashing from up ahead. Everyone freezes, and a few seconds later, the source reveals itself.
Another one of the sharply-dressed clay people, this one a man, and a spitting image of the driver of the boat that carried Mina, Alida, and Tooru into the labyrinth. It might be the very same man, actually. He has a shovel carried over one shoulder, much like the woman who had been following the group in the flower forest, but is otherwise identical.
He notices the girls almost as soon as they notice him, and he gives a friendly wave with his other hand. Then he turns around on a dime, and starts to walk back the way he came.
((Next update Wednesday the 17th. Labyrinth music no longer audible.))
Soul Gem: Glowing with a fading light.
Form and location: Medallion, pinned to her left breast.
Age: 14
Hair Color: Salt-stained blonde.
Health: Completely drenched and ashy, and with a bunch of deep cuts in her left shoulder, bandaged with two of Asha's ribbons. The bandages are soaked through with blood.
Inventory: A magically-lengthened club, and a boxed pair of new (if wet) shoes in her backpack. A fistful of marshmallow pie held in her offhand.
Totem: A fishing club.
Stats:
Bravery: Talented~
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Skilled!
Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility Lvl2
Close Combat Lvl3+1
Totem Manipulation Lvl2
Berzerker Lvl3 Active; Bloodied! (Cheap discount to power use)
Painless Lvl2
Effigy Lvl1
Soul Gem: Glowing with a Vibrant light.
Form and location: Ring, worn on her left ring finger.
Age: 13
Hair color: Ashen
Health: Fine, if very wet! And covered in asha!
Inventory: One ribbon.
Totem: A Ribbon. The one her late sister wore.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled!
Joy: Cursed ;-;
Innocence: Cursed ;-;
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Talented~
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 3
Close Combat: Level 2
Totem Manipulation: Level 1 (+1)
Heal and Steel: Level 2 (Active: Next attack rolls on Mercy)
Soothe: Level 3
Flagellation: Level 3
Memento: Level 1 (Given to Aleksandra)
Soul Gem: Glowing with a warm light.
Form and location: Ring, worn on her right index finger.
Age: 14.
Hair Color: Bright green.
Health: Dazed, a bit bruised from her fall, and covered in ash, aside from her wet feet.
Inventory: A halberd!
Totem: A halberd.
Stats:
Bravery: Amateur...
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Amateur...
Purity: Skilled!
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Talented~
Love: Cursed ;-;
Abilities:
Mobility: Level 2
Close-Combat: Level 2 (+1)
Regeneration: Level 2
Sixth Sense: Level 3
Semblance: Level 2
Projection: Level 2
Soul Gem: Glowing with a fading light.
Form and location: Necklace, worn around her... neck...
Age: 13
Hair Color: Bright scarlet.
Health: Fine! Somehow dry aside from her feet, but very ashy.
Inventory: Nothing useful, except for ashy clothes...
Totem: Ofuda talismans, primarily thrown as manabolts.
Stats:
Bravery: Cursed ;-;
Joy: Talented~
Innocence: Skilled!
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Amateur...
Love: Skilled!
Abilities:
Mobility II
Mana Bolt III (+I)
Regeneration I
Totem Manipulation II
Invigorating Passion I
Outburst II
Duet with Reality II
Ward: Glowing with a foolish light!
Age: 12
Hair Color: Black.
Health: Fine, though her ears still hurt. Also, she's drenched.
Inventory: A cute blue ribbon tied into her hair, and an ancient AK-47 held in her hands. Alida's coat is wrapped snugly around her head as a kind of combination hat/hearing protection, though it's no longer necessary.
Stats:
Bravery: Skilled!
Joy: Skilled!
Innocence: Talented~
Purity: Amateur...
Mercy: Cursed ;-;
Creativity: Cursed ;-;
Love: Amateur...