Tale as Old as Last Wednesday [Maid IC]

[Benson]

"Welll...."

He looked askance, the prince finally off-balance for a moment.

"Perhaps a bit...I mean, this place... I actually met an Antlion here; I was pretty badly hurt."

The woods around them thickened, and it seemed the way out was already lost.

"Ante! Hani! I deeply hope you're not here!"

He called out. What answered was a bird that sounded like a scream.

"Waah....!....what was that??" Merry asked after being taken by surprise by such an awful sounding noise. Her hand reflexively clutched Leon's furry arm tighter. "..Jeezebus..."

[Atreli]

" Who knows? Maybe even if there are...things living in the library maybe there is a chance we can make friends."

Lune said with a smile.

" Anyways, here we are!" She chirped gleefully as she pushed the doors to the library open.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki shrugs. "Well, I meant the castle in general. Though, do the other residents give you much trouble?" she asks, following Lune into the library.

[Deme]

Leon and Merry

"I hate the screaming birds. So much."

Leon said, brow furrowed. He patted her arm consolingly with his spare hand, and tried to sound unconcerned. He smiled at the extra contact.

"But they're harmless. They even make good alarms for when real trouble's coming...Just...So annoying. With the screaming. All the time, with the screaming. And sometimes they fly up near the palace at night."

He glared at the forest. The Screaming Bird screamed.
They were, at least, on some sort of clear path now. He tried calling for Hani and Ante again.

"We'll go as far as the chapel, I think."


---
Hani
She comes out in a deserted hallway, with a west and an east path; everything is dark and in disrepair...
And the door to the secret passage swings shut behind her.


----

Ante

She gets the coin. There's a tingly rush of joy inside her. There's a path of coins over some more pits and...Some sort of small, crab-walking mushroom-creature heading her way. On the other side of the room is a chest. Maybe it contains a key?

----

Library

The library was a grand room, with some of the bottom floor opening up to the top, allowing you to see books two stories high.

"We've got a lot of searching to do."

[Hawkflight]

Hani
She comes out in a deserted hallway, with a west and an east path; everything is dark and in disrepair...
And the door to the secret passage swings shut behind her.

Hani yelped and whimpered when the door slammed shut behind her, not sure if she could get out. After a moment, she pulled herself together and pressed on down the hallway to the left.

"H-Hello...?" she called out quietly.

[Trobby]

Ante considers what she has been through today, and decides to take an unconventional approach.

"Excuse me, mister mushroom person, do you happen to know where I am, or what is going on right now?"

Spoiler

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Affection: (1d6x2)[2]

[Benson]

Leon and Merry

"I hate the screaming birds. So much."

Leon said, brow furrowed. He patted her arm consolingly with his spare hand, and tried to sound unconcerned. He smiled at the extra contact.

"But they're harmless. They even make good alarms for when real trouble's coming...Just...So annoying. With the screaming. All the time, with the screaming. And sometimes they fly up near the palace at night."

She put on an awkward smile and looked away so he couldn't see it, he would though get a glimpse of a faint pink on her right cheek. "Yea....they're not winning me over as a fan right now, eh hehe...heh."

He glared at the forest. The Screaming Bird screamed.
They were, at least, on some sort of clear path now. He tried calling for Hani and Ante again. "We'll go as far as the chapel, I think."

Merry didn't feel the need to call out Hani and Ante's names, Leon was doing a good job on that alone, she did though keep her eyes peeled and looked around for any sign of them. "The chapel?" She questioned.

[Atreli]

Lune whirled around to face them, her deep blue ribbons catching flight for a single moment before dropping back down against her soft, pink hair.

" Shall we split up or stay together?" She looked over her shoulder at the immense room again and said.

" Although we could cover more ground splitting up, I vote staying together so we could protect each other in case this lovely house comes up with something not so lovely. "

[Lycan 01]

Yuki shrugs. "Staying together seems like a wiser tactical decision. Strength and safety both lie in numerical superiority," she muses.

[Deme]

"I think it is safe to divide within the saftey of the library...When one of us finds a way out, we'll call the other two,"

He offered, and began looking. But let's be honest -- that'd be too easy to let his big scores do it first out, so let's let the maids conduct their searches in their own way.

----

Leon and Merry

"Yes. It's an old chapel in these woods... It is said it was built by an old king who once had a beautiful mistress who left him...It was made for them to be married in if she ever returned..."

He sighed wistfully and shook his head. His voice took on a relaxed and dreamy quality it did not ordinarily have, neither his usual cheer nor his poorly-hidden sorrow.

"But it could almost certainly have never happened; his lover, the true bride of his heart, had left him so many decades before, and his life had not long left. That's what the facts I've read say. They say he built it in his madness, not realizing the passage of time. However... I think he knew full well that the odds were against him. Still, he built this chapel, and in his life ordered that its doors would not be opened until he and his true love could walk in there together, and be made man and wife.... Because he loved her, and love is worth any gamble, no matter how long the odds.

That's what I choose to believe when I see what he wrote over the chapel doors..."

----

Ante

When the goomba hits her...She turns into Lolita-Ante! You can pick how old she looks, but certainly not an adult. Her clothes are still servicable (not that it matters with Ante, I don't think), but are a very loose fit.

----

Hani
A screaming bird screams. Stupid Screaming Birds.

Anyway, as she heads West, she eventually reaches some sort of rounded room with a door...And some unstable floorboards. Roll Athletics, please.

[Hawkflight]

Hani
A screaming bird screams. Stupid Screaming Birds.

Anyway, as she heads West, she eventually reaches some sort of rounded room with a door...And some unstable floorboards. Roll Athletics, please.

Hani screamed and ran down the hallway in a blind panic, and right over the unstable floor boards to the door.

Spoiler

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Athletics: (1d6)[5]

[Benson]

Leon and Merry


Well that was a bittersweet story but Merry listened to him. Also at this point as they walked on she had finally let go of his furry arm and held her hands in front of her apron. "....What did he write over the chapel doors?" She asked with a curious expression.

[Deme]

Hani

They end up collapsing beneath her, sending her back down to the first floor and causing (1d6)[3] stress. She appears to be right to the east side of the tower that contains the kitchen and ballroom and dining room -- so not far from the hallway where her room is (and opposite where Ante is now).

----
Leon and Merry

Leon lifted his head and smiled softly, a certain radiance in his eyes. In that moment, he looked like some strange and radiant creature from some icy northern sky.

"'These doors shall only be opened at the odds of one billion to one.' ...I think, if I could find where to begin, I'd like to write a play for that story. Maybe with some music -- like a light opera, set to the tragedy and hope of that gamble."

He explained.

[Trobby]

Ante, who had already been a rather short adult demoness with a youthful look about her, suddenly shrank to nearly half her height, taking all of her hard-earned maturity with her as she regressed to the appearance of a 6-year old.

With a bit of the mindset of a 6-year old to boot, which meant much less patience for mushrooms that put her in this predicament in the first place.

"You just made a BIG mistake, mister." The tiny demoness says, pointing her finger at the mushroom as she summons the powers of hell around her.

[Hawkflight]

Hani

They end up collapsing beneath her, sending her back down to the first floor and causing [roll0] stress. She appears to be right to the east side of the tower that contains the kitchen and ballroom and dining room -- so not far from the hallway where her room is (and opposite where Ante is now).

Heedless of the fall, Hani continued to run (westerly as it turned out) until she saw or heard someone else.

[Benson]

Leon and Merry


She couldn't help but watch and stare at him as the light shone dramatically on him. Her own mouth curled into a small smile as she listened to the boy she knew so long ago speak with a...certain something, passionate theatricality? No...something else.

"I'd watch your play," She blurted out.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki begins to examine the rows and shelves of books, looking for a book or anything else that appears out of place, obviously artificial, or less dusty than it should be.

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Skill: (1d6x4)[4]

[Atreli]

Lune had decided it was best to stay close to Ms. Yuki if anything happens and that's exactly what she did.

Looking to shelves opposite of Ms. Yuki she begins to browse the shelves for anything out of place as well.

[Deme]

Ante x4
She burns up the goomba. She gets a feeling of points.

---
Hani

Hani runs into the west wing. The hall she finds isn't locked, so that's good. She ends up in the same room as Ante, which means...

Make an athletics check to not fall into the spike pit.

-----
Leon and Merry

"Then I simply must arrange a box seat for you, alright?"
He said, responding with a bright smile. The odd radiance had died down, and was just replaced with a happy energy...

But before things go too well...
Merry hits a tree root with her foot and stumbles. Roll an athletics check to get her balance back before she trips.

---

Yuki, Terran, and Lune
She finds an out-of-place book... But when she pulls it, it just reveals...A hidden fishtank? The sides are coverered...

"What didst thou find?"
Terran asks, having heard the sound of a bookshelf moving.

[Hawkflight]

Hani yelped as she fell forward, unable to stop herself from falling into the pit of spikes.

Athletics: (1d6)[4]

[Trobby]

Ante feels a sense of accomplishment, and pumps her fist against her chest in victory!

...Then feels her chest, and sighs in realization.

"Why, why of all things did this have to happen?" She says in an utterly miserable way.

Then she hears the door open behind her, and sees her little sister about to fall into the pit of spikes.

"HANI!" She shouts, and rushes over to try to catch the girl.

Spoiler

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Athletics: (1d6x2)[12]

[Lycan 01]

Yuki raises an eyebrow. "I do believe I found a fishtank. I shudder to think of what esoteric maritime entity may lurk within the glass chamber. Though it is likely a watery reliquary for whatever once lived there, due to it's forsaken location," she muses, before trying to move more books around to see what's actually in the fish tank.

Spoiler

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Luck for the lulz: (1d6)[6]

[Benson]

Leon and Merry

Merry was too busy trying to recover from her sudden blurting of words and Leon's response that she didn't notice the tree root and stumbled trying to grab the nearest thing to get her balance. "Waaah...!" She yelped.

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Merry shall wonderfully auto-fail here

[Deme]

Ante and Hani

Ante manages to grab Hani and pull her to the other side...But with their current relative sizes and momentums, results in Hani falling on top of Ante, creating person-pile.


--
The Fishtank

As she leans over to look inside...She finds some sort of small, tentacle-y creature. It doesn't appear to be an octopus or squid exactly.... But it certainly has simmilar qualities. It's maybe about the length of her forearm.

----
Leon and Merry
She falls. Her ankle hurts a good bit.

"Are you alright?"

[Benson]

She winced, falling onto her hands and knees, her apron getting dirty, the chains making a loud rattle.

"I-I'm...ow...ah..ow...f-fine...I just..gotta get up, I'll be fine...nnnngh..." Her pink hair still managing to defy gravity, though her side bangs did not. Oh woes. Anyways. There was a welling of tears in her eyes in her body reacting to the pain of the whole falling with hands in front. She was in particular annoyed by that.

[Trobby]

Ante hadn't quite accounted for her more diminutive size, and thus took a tumble back from a collision with her sister. Much to her relief, this damage did not cause her to change size AGAIN.

"Nngh...Hani, are you alright?" Ante says, looking up at her little sister, who at the moment isn't looking quite as little as she remembers, but she will worry about that after she assesses the condition of her sister.

[Atreli]

" What a cutie!!!"

Lune squeals as leans in for a closer look.

" I wonder if it's friendly..."

[Hawkflight]

Ante squeaked as Ante pulled her up, looking not quite as big as she remembered. After se righted herself, she gave a quick sniff then turned back into her humanoid form.

"Ante?" she queried.

[Lycan 01]

Yuki leans in closer, and narrows her eyes. "What is that?"

[Trobby]

"Yeah sis, it's me." Ante says, feeling even smaller with Hani in her biped form. True, she was still the clear bigger sister of the two, but the fact that they were so close in height made this fact hardly any comfort.

"How'd you get here? And why'd you run off like that? You know you're not 'sposta run off like that without me!"

Yes, Ante's scolding is a little more childlike. What did you expect?