Dancing Fox In XII: Dance If You Want To

[Deathkeeper]

Mist stays very close to Cleo to avoid being lost. Though as long as she's within line of sight, he might as well look to. He needs to find someone who might be knowledgeable like the store owner. That probably means someone weird.

[Recaiden]

"Yes, just stay here under my wings, Mist."

The first weird thing to be asked about coats is a cringing, nervous little fishman in a very big coat.
"Coats? I don't work with animal fur, if that's what you brought the little thing for. I got this one from, oh, musta been hundred-eighty years back..."

[Deathkeeper]

Mist nods, and finds someone else (Is Cleo being sarcastic? And she doesn't have wings!) and asks someone else, this time specifying the non-fur material.

[Recaiden]

Sarcastic? Of course she is.

Mist is told that all the best coats are imported from the Mesa, and he should head down to the Merchant's quarter at least.

[Deathkeeper]

"Well I guess the merchant quarter makes sense for finding something of value. What's the Mesa, Cleo?" Mist asks the dragon after thanking the fellow.

[Recaiden]

"It's another continent, sort of. Near the edge, where we run into adjacent dreamlands."
There's all sorts of terrible things there. Ponies and vampires and people who are cannons.
"So what do you think Mist? Looking through the city for your coat, or old places in the wild for the flute?"

[Deathkeeper]

"Well, if we get lucky we'll find out the two are close by, or better yet, the coat is here. I think we should get a lead before we go off all the way to the desert, and leave if we can't get one." suggests Mist, not really sure what their time restriction is.

[Recaiden]

"We have...a good bit of time, if we don't pay to much attention to things. A lot of time can go by in a dream, right?"
An investigation montage begins! Traveling to the merchant's quarter! Examining coats and scarves! Haggling with ponies! Finding foxes to ask! Escaping from a gang of ostrich mercenaries! It all leads them to this coat factory/warehouse that they're trying to sneak into in the dead of night.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist goes over in his normal shape and starts picking at the lock to the back door.
"So, do you know where we're going in here once I get this thing open? And any security?" Mist asks Cleo in a whisper.

[Recaiden]

"Pattern room at the center, just past the snake pit."
A now-also-human Cleo glances over her shoulder.

"Security guard's patrol should take them by this door in another three minutes. Try not to be destructive."

[Deathkeeper]

Mist nods as the lock goes click, and he heads inside, closing the door behind him and heading inside, checking around corners for guards as he heads towards the center, waving Cleo on as they go. Espionage is his thing, maybe for once as much as Cleo's.

[Recaiden]

Coats in boxes, coats on racks, coats in plastic sleeves, coats in pieces. All sorts of jacket-like items abound.
The occasional exit sign or blinking bit of electronics is just enough light to get around.

Cleo reaches up and does something to a simple timeout alarm over a door to keep it silent, and waves Mist through.
This is a big place. Probably bigger than it needs to be.

[Deathkeeper]

Door after door after door. Gods, this place is huge.
"You said something about a pit? Uh, warn me when we're getting close." he says to Cleo as they go.

[Recaiden]

"Two more doors."

And sure enough, when the second door is open, there's no floor. Just a black drop-off, faint hissing, and a huge two-blade fan slowly spinning overhead.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist looks at Cleo.
"Can your dragon shape fly or stick to the wall enough to get us to the other side of the pit? I can't jump that." he says, pointedly avoiding asking why the place has a snake pit. It's a dream. Duh.

[Recaiden]

"No, I can't. What are we going to- I know! I can hypnotize them. Then you can get across and get the coat."

Cleo sits on the edge of the pit and pulls out her set of pan pipes. As she plays, the hissing quiets down, but at the same time, more and more snakes are waking up.

[Deathkeeper]

"Cleo! I can't jump the pit, down or up. Don't you have any rope or something? And you're waking them up!" Mist hisses, though not in the way the snakes are hissing.

[Recaiden]

The song changes, getting slightly jumpier for a moment, and a rough rope slithers out of the ground and extends down and over the lip of the pit.
Then it's back to snake-charming.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist snatches up the rope, grabbing it in both hands, and attempts to throw the resulting loop out over a blade of the fan, which can hopefully catapult him across the pit, whereupon he can let go with one hand and land safely with the rope again.

[Recaiden]

Mist catches the loop on a fan blade, which bends slightly and then whisks him away, swinging about the snake pit to the other side.
His coat should be just ahead.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist gathers the rope with a cheerful smile, waving to Cleo, and advances into the next room. Fun! Well, not really, but success! There we go.

[Recaiden]

Aww, he's not having fun?

The room on the far side of the snake pit is full of coats, but one stands out. Both because it's Mist's coat, and because it's illuminated by a spotlight.

[Deathkeeper]

He is, but he's holding it in until they get out successfully. No celebrating until they do!

Mist goes over and caaaarefully examines the area around the coat. And what it's sitting on.
Where's the trap?
There has to be a trap.

[Recaiden]

The coat is on a coat stand, which is on a small pedestal. The pedestal has a weight-detecting mechanism in it. Who knows what it does?
And the coat's pockets are stuffed full of something.

[Deathkeeper]

Hrm? They ought to be stuffed with knives, like they always are. Mist probes the pockets, just to be safe.

[Recaiden]

With a careful probe, the coat is revealed to be full of various armed explosives. He can probably get them out safely with some time.

[Deathkeeper]

Uh, explosives? No thanks. Mist gets those out, laying them on the pressure plate to help with the weight.
When that is done, he'll get a coat from one of the other racks and use it to do an Indiana Jones switch.

[Recaiden]

Well, that's those traps dealt with. And no more make themselves obvious. The pedestal grumbles briefly during the Indie swap, but doesn't actually activate.

When Mist takes the coat into his possession, even without putting it on, he should suddenly feel both safe and at home, like he's wrapped in a blanket, and a sense of vertigo like he's falling into the snake pit or something.

[Deathkeeper]

Well, that's weird. But it is a dream. Mist slips his coat on, since he can't repeat his rope-swing truck while holding it. He will prepare to swing again if nothing happens....

[Recaiden]

Not too much happens. Mist probably feels good. He could take on the world in this coat. Everything is great!

And back in the snake pit, the music is still charming the snakes, if a bit tiredly, and the rope still lazily swings from the spinning fan.
Cleo brightens up on seeing him come back. He didn't explode, and she can stop this repetitive song soon.